Chapter 1104: Entrance
Translator: CKtalon Editor: – –
Yi Yun felt his eyes blur slightly when he traveled through the teleportation array. When his vision was clear once more, he discovered that he had emerged into a tiny oasis in the massive Sun Burial Sandsea.
Due to the thick pure Yang gases in Sun Burial Sandsea, natural oases were incredibly rare. However, those places where an oasis did appear were augmented by arrays, allowing them to be maintained.
The oasis did not cover a large area. Here and there a few warriors loitered around, not immediately leaving after being teleported to the oasis.
When Yi Yun appeared in the array, he immediately felt a number of gazes and perceptions focused on him.
These perceptions were not weak. And when he swept his surroundings, he could sense several powerful auras. Those who came here were definitely planning to venture into the deeper depths of Sun Burial Sandsea, so it was only natural for them to have some strength.
When these gazes and perceptions realized that Yi Yun was someone unfamiliar, they pulled back.
“They are all people from sects.” Yi Yun glanced around and found that the warriors were in tiny groups. They were dressed in clothes of various sects. There were very few itinerant warriors like him, so he did not attract much attention.
At that moment, he suddenly saw his portrait on a boulder outside the teleportation array.
Yi Yun walked over and realized that it was a wanted poster for him. And the group that asked for his head was the Seven Star Dao Palace.
“Seven Star Dao Palace…” Yi Yun stood in front of the boulder and finished reading the wanted poster with a deadpan expression. It could be said that his feud with the Seven Star Dao Palace was irreconcilable. After all, the reason for this feud was that Yi Yun had an immense talent that struck fear into the Seven Star Dao Palace. It was afraid that Yi Yun would seek revenge once he had fully developed his powers. Which was exactly what Yi Yun intended to do.
“Dude, don’t look at it. The person on the portrait is not someone you can mess with.”
A voice that sounded like it had experienced the vicissitudes of life suddenly sounded from behind. Yi Yun turned his head and saw an elderly man dressed in clothes woven with coarse cloth. He was slightly wrinkled and his skin looked like it had been baked red and rough from weathering. He held a smoke pipe in his hand which he sucked from, emitting billows of smoke. His smoke pipe also had a bag of smoke leaves hanging off of it.
Upon taking in this person’s appearance, Yi Yun was somewhat stunned. Throughout his years of traveling the Ten Thousand Fey Empyrean Heaven and Yang God Empyrean Heaven, the elders he had seen had esteemed bearings, like they were immortals. If not that, then they looked ill or odd, hinting at an unorthodox background. But he had never seen a person of this stature.
If not for the strange energy fluctuating from the old man, Yi Yun would have thought the fellow was an old farmer from the backwater mountainside.
“Eh?” The old farmer glanced at Yi Yun and shook his head. “You…are quite interesting.”
The old farmer muttered to himself. Yi Yun reeled when he heard that. Quite interesting?
“Haha, don’t worry. I don’t mean any harm. However, I’ll urge you not to think too much of the treasure in the Sun Burial Sandsea.” As the old farmer shook his head, he pointed at the teleportation array behind Yi Yun. “There are already people that are planning to return after only a few days.”
Over the past few days, there had been many warriors who had entered the Sun Burial Sandsea’s inner depths. However, the phenomenon was so massive in scale that no one knew where the treasure truly was.
Many warriors were like headless flies in Sun Burial Sandsea. They would search randomly to no avail.
There were actually some minor treasures appearing in Sun Burial Sandsea, but over the past few days, with more treasure seekers, the increase in demand resulted in a drastic decrease in returns. Even the most normal natural treasures were becoming scarce, let alone the treasure that triggered the phenomenon.
Many people had failed to benefit and were even killed by other larcenous warriors. This caused many to consider leaving.
“Senior, thank you for your warning.” Yi Yun cupped his hands. “I’m not bent on finding any treasures. I believe this journey will also help me to widen my horizons.”
“Ha, it’s up to you.”
The old man said before he left while puffing on the smoke pipe.
“That old man is truly strange…”
Yi Yun frowned slightly. His intuition told him that the elder was not a simple person, but he knew nothing of the old man’s circumstances.
Yi Yun appeared to leave the oasis without much thought. When he found a spot away from prying eyes, he used the Purple Crystal’s energy vision to ensure that there was no one around. Then, he extended his hand and wiped it across the interspatial ring. An ancient and simple compass disk appeared in his palm immediately.
It was the child part of the Heaven Secrets Compass. Back when Ji Shuiyan gave it to him, she instructed him on how to use it.
While many people were like headless flies in the Sun Burial Sandsea, Yi Yun had such a treasure in hand.
Yi Yun spoke a few incantations that powered up the Heaven Secrets Compass. Immediately, it emitted a faint glow.
“There’s a reaction…but it’s very weak…”
Yi Yun held the Heaven Secrets Compass and began orientating himself.
The encounter with the elder had alerted Yi Yun. From the looks of it, there were quite a number of experts that had come to the Sun Burial Sandsea on an expedition. He had to be extremely careful.
The Heaven Secrets Compass was a treasure passed down by the Heaven Secrets Chapter from ancient times. The mother-child pair of the Heaven Secrets Compass were connected to one another via their geomantic features. Such a connection was not easily severed.
However, at that moment in time, Yi Yun realized that even with the child part in hand, the location of the mother part was somewhat fuzzy. He searched for several hours only to slightly intensify the Heaven Secrets Compass’s glow.
“There must be some power obstructing it…”
Yi Yun frowned as he muttered to himself. Although the connection of the mother-child pair was not easily severed, it could turn chaotic if there was an array or space-time power in between. He needed to be sufficiently close to the mother part of the Heaven Secrets Compass before he could find its location.
However, Yi Yun was not in a hurry. It was already extremely difficult for him to find the location even with the compass in hand, much less the other warriors who had nothing.
With the Heaven Secrets Compass in hand, Yi Yun slowly searched for the correct direction. As the distance shrunk, he also sensed a stronger Yang force. Ordinary warriors would have had their innards completely burned if they were here.
The sand had also turned soft and loose. With every step he took, his feet sunk down to his ankles. If not for him wrapping his feet in Yuan Qi, his feet would ignite just from a simple step.
Suddenly, the Heaven Secrets Compass bursted resplendently. However, when Yi Yun looked around he only saw emptiness. He could not see anything special.
“Oh?” Yi Yun suddenly looked at the boiling hot and loose sand at his feet.
There was nothing around him, but the child part of the Heaven Secrets Compass had sensed the mother part…
“Open up!” Yi Yun drew out his sword and slashed down at the desert in front of him.
Immediately, yellow sand stirred as a deep ravine opened up.
After a few more slashes, Yi Yun’s eyes lit up.
A dark cave entrance had appeared underground.
The hole was glowing red from the heat and there were flickering red flames in it. It looked like the entrance to hell.
With the Heaven Secrets Compass in hand, Yi Yun flew inside without any hesitation.
Sand instantly began pouring down and, in the blink of an eye, the cave entrance was covered up once more. It returned to its original empty desert state.
With everything restored and the heat from before disappearing, it was as if the cave was just an illusion.
If not for the child part of the Heaven Secrets Compass, it would be impossible to tell that there was a secret lurking underneath the desert.
As Yi Yun entered the hidden cave, in another desert five hundred kilometers away, a group of people slowly proceeded forward.
If Yi Yun were there, he would have recognized these people immediately.
The group wore seven-starred robes. The leader was none other than the Seven Star Dao Palace’s Deputy Palatial Lord, Liu Ruyi. And behind her was the Heaven Secrets Chapter’s Master Tianxiao.
At that moment, Master Tianxiao was holding onto a heavy compass disk, trying his best to divine a path. His forehead was covered in sweat, and after two hours of divination under the blistering sun, he finally lowered his compass sulkily.
“Master Tianxiao, have you not managed to divine the location?” asked Liu Ruyi with furrowed brows. They had been there for a few days but had failed to make much progress.
Master Tianxiao replied, “The Yuan Qi from the phenomenon is chaotic and it has gathered into a natural formation. Attempting to use my geomancy techniques to divine the natural formations is equivalent to cracking the secrets of heaven. How can it be simple? However, please be at ease. Although I’m slightly slow, I predict it will take ten days at most to find the location of the treasure!”
“Currently, I’m the only one in the Sun Burial Sandsea that has the ability. No one else can find it,” said Master Tianxiao in a rather confident manner.
“It will still take so long?”
Liu Ruyi was somewhat displeased but she could not do anything else either.
