Chapter 314: Illusory Paradise (I)
If not for the fact that twenty rays of light instantly scattered in all the directions, Long Haochen would have believed himself to be still in the Illusory Forest.
The surrounding green light slowly disappeared, transforming into a mild green colored ball of light floating over his shoulder. Ling Xiao had told him before that if he wanted to return from the Illusory Shrine, he would need to pour at least 5,000 units of spiritual energy into this ball of light. Only after this would he be able to go through the last trial of the Illusory Paradise, and after passing, he would be able to return smoothly. But if instead, he used the Illusory Gem, he would however be able to return immediately.
High in the sky, the twenty scattering lights immediately attracted Long Haochen’s attention. Of course, he knew what these were. Ling Xiao had warned them carefully that these colored lights were the spiritual stoves that had appeared in the sky as soon as they entered the Illusory Paradise, before scattering all over the Illusory Paradise.
However, Long Haochen didn’t immediately get into motion, but only watched attentively. After memorizing the rough location of these lights, he stirred the internal spiritual energy in his chest.
Honestly speaking, Long Haochen was enormously nervous at that time. He was uncertain on whether he would be able to connect with the Tower of Eternity. After all, this was a place controlled by the goddess of nature, and the Tower of Eternity was made by a necromancer. Even if it went as he expected, the Tower of Eternity in itself was a weapon, and as such it was certainly incompatible with the power of the goddess of nature. Under these circumstances, it was hard to predict whether they would be able to connect with the Tower of Eternity. In case he failed, all their previous plans would have been for naught.
This was also the reason why Long Haochen and Cai’er entered together, and the important reason why Long Haochen didn’t tell Cai’er to concede in the competition. Cai’er entered the Illusory Paradise together with him, so even if he didn’t manage to connect with the Tower of Eternity, there would at least be two people from their team able to fight for a few spiritual stoves. If conversely, it was only him, he would certainly not be able to grab more than one. After all, Ling Xiao had informed them already about the severity of the last trial.
With a faint twinkle of brilliant light, Long Haochen’s eyes wore an ice-cold expression, and a golden brilliance started to be released from the area around his chest, precisely from the Eternal Melody.
This Illusory Paradise was rich of the four main elements, light, water, earth, and the rare and unseen wood element, exclusive to the nature! This made a great variety of elements.
The wood element was especially powerful in places with a great amount of vegetation, but would become greatly weakened in places without it. Because of its tight connection with nature, it also got called the energy of life.
The spiritual stoves that had just spread into the air were for the greater part related to these four elements.
As he was currently immersed in connecting with the Eternal Melody, a dense light essence surged out from Long Haochen’s chest, causing the burning feeling coming from within to become increasingly intense, and all the surroundings to blur.
Long Haochen sensed every little change on his body despite, or perhaps rather because, he was inside of the Illusory Paradise. This time, against all expectations, he felt against the destructive process of the spatial laws of the universe. From the Eternal Melody a dense light essence was released from which a gate emerged without a sound. In the process of the gate’s opening, everything was completely under the control of the fluctuating light essence inside the Illusory Paradise, giving the impression that this gate was part of the Illusory Paradise itself.
The spatial gate opened slowly, but Long Haochen’s spiritual energy was also consumed at a monstrous speed. In fact, he didn’t need to consume any spiritual energy to open the Tower of Eternity in the past, but this time, in just an instant, half of his spiritual energy was exhausted, and the consumption still continued.
Under a sensation of having lost all control, Long Haochen’s forehead was already starting to drip with sweat. The situation he was the most unwilling to see was in fact, to have the entirety of his spiritual energy depleted without even managing to connect with the Tower of Eternity.
But by chance, he had considerable luck this time. Right when he had only about a thousand units of spiritual energy left, his figure suddenly started to distort, and disappeared with a flash of golden light.
Following next, a familiar death energy filled the air, crowding around his body, and the Eternal Melody started to absorb the light element exclusive to the Tower of Eternity to help him regain his spiritual energy.
Success!
Greatly overjoyed, Long Haochen rushed in the Tower of Eternity. His comrades had entered the tower at their top condition, but after waiting for him for a long time in this place filled with death energy, each of them was itching to go out. Seeing Long Haochen appear there, they were immediately excited.
“Boss, did it work?” Sima Xian asked in a hurry.
Long Haochen nodded in response, “There shouldn’t be any problems. It’s just that in the process of transporting myself here, I spent quite an amount of spiritual energy. Bringing you back there with me will very possibly even increase this consumption, so I will first cultivate to recover, and then, we’ll immediately leave.”
Time wouldn’t stop for them, thus in all likelihood, those in the Illusory Palace surely had already started to move. If they didn’t hurry back, the benefits would likely fall into others’ hands. After all, there were only that many spiritual stoves, and no one would be satisfied with just one.
Sitting cross-legged, Long Haochen let his mental force loose, rapidly recovering his spiritual energy. However, even given his cultivation rate, he would need no less than half an hour to regain his previously consumed spiritual energy without Yating’s help.
“Lin Xin, give me some Great Recovery Pills. I still don’t know how much spiritual energy will be necessary to transport you back.”
After receiving the Great Recovery Pills from Lin Xin, Long Haochen led his comrades outside of the Tower of Eternity, immediately launching the teleportation.
As he justly expected, transporting them back was very challenging and came with an immense consumption. Only after taking six Great Recovery Pills consecutively and with almost nothing left of the spiritual energy in his body, they were finally transported surrounded by a golden glow.
With a radiant flash, a rich and fresh air immediately assaulted their faces, giving everyone a great shock.
“Is this the Illusory Paradise? It’s really beautiful!” Chen Ying’er said in high praise.
Long Haochen replied, “Follow me closely. We have to immediately look for the spiritual stoves. We are already quite late, so let’s hope that we’ll have good look. Let’s go!” Saying that, he didn’t even take the time to recover his spiritual energy, immediately leading his comrades by giving them directives about the directions. Meanwhile, he also called out the Light Element Fairy Yating to help him recover his spiritual energy.
In an environment such as the Illusory Paradise, his recovery of spiritual energy was a lot faster than in the Tower of Eternity. With the overactivity of both the Eternal Melody and Yating, and the further addition of his spiritual cavities, he didn’t have to rest. After all, he only had consumed spiritual energy, and was mentally completely unfaced.
The direction Long Haochen decided on was meticulously chosen, because he hadn’t been able to instantly memorize the attributes of so many spiritual stoves in such a short time. However, he remembered the general directions in which the spiritual stoves had been flying, and thus chose the direction with the highest density of spiritual stoves. In addition, it wasn’t so far from their location either, which gave them the most optimal setup to find the most spiritual stoves possible.
Long Haochen discovered that after his comrades followed him there, every one of them had a green ball of light hovering beside them. Very clearly, it would be impossible to use the Tower of Eternity to leave after getting spiritual stoves here.
Ling Xiao had told him that he could, in times of danger, rely on the Illusory Gem, but after getting any spiritual stoves here, the gem would lose all effectiveness. This was because getting a spiritual stove would be equivalent to achieving a connection with the Illusory Shrine, which would make the trial of the Illusory Shrine necessary to leave this place.
This was a matter Long Haochen had thought deeply about before: if in the end, everyone obtained a spiritual stove and passed through the trial, he would then transport them back to the Tower of Eternity right before leaving the Illusory Shrine. Given that the demons would be under the watch of the powerhouses from the Alliance, they wouldn’t dare to approach the Illusory Shrine rashly either. According to everything Ling Xiao had said, this Illusory Shrine was very strict regarding the limitation of spiritual energy being fixed at ten thousand units. Long ago, a powerhouse of the ninth step had almost died here, but luckily had retreated in time.
Although Cai’er wasn’t present, the six of them still maintained their habitual battle formation. In the front was Long Haochen, Sima Xian and Wang Yuanyuan covered the two flanks and Lin Xian as well as Chen Ying’er were in the middle, with Han Yu protecting the back.
The Illusory Paradise could be really called a heavenly paradise. Everywhere they passed, various rare and precious plants could be seen, and Lin Xin frequently told everyone to stop to pick up some of the precious plants he recognized. Seeing his eyes beam with smiles, anyone could tell out that they had a considerable value.
Long Haochen didn’t press him. Regarding his comrades, the most important thing during this trip for him would be their safe return. Under these circumstances, the major premise was to find a way to accomplish that while getting some benefits. These herbal treasures could directly be harvested, and would thus be naturally given priority. As for the spiritual stoves, it would require them to test their luck.
Everyone walked and stopped successively like that. Since they were following a precise direction anyway, they just kept advancing forward.
It was indeed impossible to fly in the Illusory Paradise. Even Yating who fit into this environment perfectly, could at most fly around five meters high before being drawn to the ground.
However, having her around was a great help to Long Haochen. After their arrival here, Yating’s ability seemed to have strengthened to a great extent Her Condensing Spiritual Halo was nearly twice as effective as in the past. In no more than a quarter of an hour, Long Haochen’s consumption of spiritual energy was completely replenished.
And through Yating, Long Haochen’s senses seemed to have grown sharper. He could now perceive the undulation of spiritual energy within the scope of a thousand meters.
Around them were many fantastic precious plants, and a very clear stream flowed through the forest, from which occasionally a faint fog arose, that would give a feeling of hazy beauty to everyone. But that fog wasn’t a mixture of dirt and condensed water, but formed from pure liquid elements. The faintly golden colored light element, the faintly green colored wood element, the faintly blue colored water element, and the faintly yellow colored earth element. Occasionally, the colors corresponding to the other elements could also be seen. This scene was exceptionally beautiful, just like in a dream.
