CH 404

“Fifth Grandpa!” 

Shang Ke nearly jumped in fright when he heard the familiar voice.

“There’s no need to get too excited! It’s me, Shang Xia!” Shang Xia expected his Grandpa Ke’s reaction when he spoke. As such, he quickly followed up with another voice transmission.

Shang Ke also started to calm down as he realized that he wasn’t hallucinating.

He couldn’t help but realize his mistake after thinking about his actions when he heard Shang Xia’s voice earlier. If he made any unnecessary movements or lost control of his emotions, he would probably be discovered by the two other Martial Extermination Realm experts.

Heaving a sigh of relief, he suddenly realized something else. Earlier, he was afraid that the members of his Shang Clan would be discovered when they arrived. Now, he wouldn’t have to worry any longer. Shang Xia had arrived, and even he couldn’t locate the kid! Their advantage over the other two parties became even larger!

He couldn’t help but rejoice silently. Luckily for him, the person who came was Shang Xia. With the kid’s ability to hide himself from Martial Extermination Realm experts, Shang Xia was already a step ahead of cultivators in the same realm. Moreover, Shang Ke felt that he was pretty familiar with the kid’s strength. He would be a huge asset in the upcoming battle.

However, he couldn’t help but wonder about Shang Xia’s concealment art. He was truly curious about how Shang Xia did it.

It didn’t take long for Shang Xia’s voice to ring in Shang Ke’s mind again. “Grandpa Ke, what’s our plan?” 

Shang Ke tried to locate the source of the voice transmission and his gaze eventually landed on a thick Redwood Tree nearly twenty feet behind him. 

“We can’t make any rash moves. There are three Martial Extermination Realm experts in the forest at the moment. Other than me, there’s Qi Yunxiu from the Changbai Holy Land and someone I suspect is from the four great races of the Liao Continent. All of us called for backup and you’re the second to arrive. The first to come was a disciple of the Changbai Holy Land. The third disciple isn’t here yet and we’ll act after they make their move.” Shang Ke explained and sent a voice transmission towards Shang Xia who purposefully revealed his location to Shang Ke.

After a short pause, Shang Xia’s voice came again. “Grandpa Ke, I’ll go look for the other two Martial Extermination Realm experts. I’ll let you know when I find them.” 

Shang Ke was about to say something else but he quickly swallowed his words. After all, he wasn’t able to discover Shang Xia when he entered the Redwood Forest previously. Thinking about it for a second, he left Shang Xia with a warning before allowing him to do as he wished. “Be careful. If you run into any trouble, yell and I’ll rush over as quickly as I can.” 

“Grandpa Ke, relax. I know what to do. They won’t be able to do anything to me anyway.” Shang Xia’s voice rang in Shang Ke’s mind.

Even so, Shang Ke couldn’t help but leave another reminder. “You cannot be careless!” 

By the time he completed his sentence, he discovered that Shang Xia’s aura had disappeared again. He lost track of the kid.

It didn’t take long before Shang Ke felt the presence of another Martial Intent Realm cultivator approaching the forest. Shang Ke quickly recalled that the location where the cultivator was headed to was where he noticed the transmission talisman being used.

Holding his breath, he paid a little more attention to the newcomer while pushing his senses to the maximum in hopes of discovering any changes in the Redwood Forest. 

Indeed. The moment the Martial Intent Realm disciple entered the forest, he yelled impatiently, “Uncle Qingyun, I’m here! Where are you?!” 

Shang Ke’s heart trembled slightly. His fears were realized as he recognized the name. The disciple was calling out to Lang Qingyun, a member of the four great races of the Liao Continent.

Lang Qingyun was Lang Jingyun’s brother, and he hastily broke through after the war that decimated the Four Spiritual Peak. Due to his forced improvement, he was only at the first layer of the Martial Extermination Realm, and in the war that just passed, he fought with Yun Yichen on the side of the Tongyou Institution. Yun Yichen was also an expert who just broke through and the two of them were unable to gain the upper hand over the other.

After the war ended, the experts on both sides shared information about their opponents and that was how they learned about the relative strength of their enemies.

At that moment, Shang Ke and Shang Xia learned the identities of the other two Martial Extermination Realm experts hiding in the Redwood Forest.

However, the disciple of the Lang Race acted the same way as the disciple from the Changbai Holy Land. When he didn’t receive a reply from Lang Qingyun, he became alert and started to hide his aura. When he was done, he started to change his position.

It was too bad he didn’t know that his tracks were as clear as day in front of the other Martial Extermination Realm experts and Shang Xia. His careful actions were seen right through as he hid himself to observe his surroundings.

A dull whistling filled the air and the disciple of the Lang Race discovered a red shadow that was the size of a chicken egg flying at him. When he finally sensed the danger, he swung a spade-like weapon at the red shadow.

“Not good!” 

Lang Qingyun’s voice rang through the air, but it was too late.

When his weapon slammed into the red shadow, a huge sea of lightning and flames emerged, swallowing the disciple’s arm completely.

“Ah!” Retracting his arm as quickly as possible, he released his weapon and it clattered to the ground. At the same time, his arm was charred black.

Luckily, the thing that flew at him was a rank two Lightning Fire Jujube. With his quick reactions, he sealed off the fiery poison that wanted to seep into his body in order to stabilize his condition immediately. As long as he took some time to recover, his arm should be as good as new.

Lang Qingyun, who had been hiding somewhere nearby, flew into a fit of rage as he roared, “Qi Yunxiu, your Changbai Holy Land went too far!” 

A ray of extermination origin shot into the skies and turned into a phantom of a giant wolf before it charged in the direction where the Lightning Fire Jujube came from.

Lang Qingyun, the last of the three to arrive, only knew that Qi Yunxiu was present due to the arrival of the disciple of the Changbai Holy Land. Because of Shang Xia’s ungodly ability to hide himself and his tracks, Lang Qingyun didn’t know that there was another Martial Extermination Realm expert present. 

At the moment, Lang Qingyun’s divine sense was also locked onto the Martial Intent Realm disciple of the Changbai Holy Land. However, he leaped in the direction where the Lightning Fire Jujube came from since it was most likely where Qi Yunxiu would be. The moment he moved, he unknowingly fell into Shang Xia’s trap.

…

After informing Shang Ke of his presence, Shang Xia started to move around the area however he liked. He started looking for the location of the other two Martial Extermination Realm experts while hidden and when the disciple of the Lang Race arrived, Shang Xia managed to locate Qi Yunxiu. The distance separating himself and the Martial Extermination Realm elder of the Changbai Holy Land wasn’t too far away and he decisively tossed a rank two Lightning Fire Jujube at the member of the Lang Race.

The moment he threw it out, he ran for cover, away from Qi Yunxiu.

The moment the Lightning Fire Jujube exploded, Lang Qingyun exploded with fury and took action.

Since Lang Qingyun’s phantom wolf was unable to ascertain Shang Xia’s location and Qi Yunxiu was in range of the attack, it was enough to shock the old expert.

Qi Yunxiu was no fool. From the time the Lightning Fire Jujube appeared, he knew that someone was messing with them. However, the next thing he knew, Lang Qingyun’s figure approached where he was hiding. As Shang Xia’s location wasn’t too near his position earlier, Lang Qingyun didn’t see him immediately. He knew that as long as he made a move at that moment, he could easily heavily injure Lang Qingyun. 

When that happened, there would be one less person to fight with him for the treasure!

Due to the war that just passed, the Changbai Holy Land and the four great races of the Liao Continent seemed to have reached some sort of disagreement. No one would blame him if he injured Lang Qingyun at the moment. Moreover, Lang Qingyun was yelling for him to die earlier when he unleashed the attack and didn’t bother hiding his killing intent. 

“If I slightly injure him, he will have to leave the forest. Well, as long as I don’t kill him, no one will be able to say a word. Hmph. He started it by trying to fight me for the treasure anyway!” Quickly justifying his action, Qi Yunxiu released his extermination origin. He slapped a whisk in the air as silver whiskers swiped at Lang Qingyun’s back.

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Luckily, the whisk he was using this time was his own. It wasn’t the divine weapon that caused Ji Wenlong to risk breaking the fabric of space to enter the battlefield between the two worlds. 

Well, even if it wasn’t the divine weapon, the sudden appearance of his weapon caught Lang Qingyun off guard. More than a third of his energy contained in the phantom wolf he summoned was destroyed in an instant. Even though it didn’t cause him severe injuries, it greatly wasted his inner qi. His battle capabilities decreased by close to 40 percent and there was no way he could fight other cultivators at the same level anymore.” 

“Lang Qingyun, there’s still a third person in the area. You better be careful of traps!” Qi Yunxiu gave Lang Qingyun a warning eventually but he held back in his actions. In order to prevent himself from humiliating Lang Qingyun completely, he provided a reason to shift the man’s focus.

Without Qi Yunxiu explaining further, Lang Qingyun also realized that something was off after seeing Qi Yunxiu popping out from behind him. He was afraid that he had already fallen into a trap.

Of course, being schemed against by someone else was one matter, being injured by Qi Yunxiu was another. Lang Qingyun raged silently about how Qi Yunxiu sneak attacked him earlier but due to his injury, he wasn’t in any position to anger the elder from the Changbai Holy Land.

Whether he liked it or not, he had to swallow his anger at the moment. With Qi Yunxiu’s warning, it seemed flushing out the third expert was what they had to do. Despite Qi Yunxiu’s sneak attack, the hidden expert was the true perpetrator behind the entire matter. If he needed an avenue to vent his frustrations, it would be better to do it on the sneaky bastard.

Shang Xia was no fool. He wouldn't let them work things out before taking action. When the two of them were still speaking to each other, another Lightning Fire Jujube the size of a chicken egg flew towards them.

This time, there were golden lines all over the fruit. It wasn’t a rank two Lightning Fire Jujube like before. This time, Shang Xia lobbed a rank four Lightning Fire Jujube over!

At the end of the day, Qi Yunxiu and Lang Qingyun were experienced cultivators. They felt the threat coming from the fruit and their faces changed instantly.

Unfortunately for them, the Lightning Fire Jujube came at a bad time. The two of them were too close to dodge. 

With a heaven-shaking explosion, they were swallowed by a sea of fire and lightning. The trees in the surroundings that had stood tall for hundreds of years turned into ash instantly. 

Qi Yunxiu and Lang Qingyun released a miserable cry each before fighting their way out of the sea of lightning and fire.  Ripples appeared around Qi Yunxiu’s body as he forcefully cut out a path to make his escape. 

On the other hand, Lang Qingyun clearly didn't possess the same abilities. With the injuries he suffered earlier inhibiting his fighting abilities, he could only use his extermination origin to push the lightning and fire away.

When the two of them left the sea of lightning and fire, they were in an extremely disheveled state. But before they could do anything, an explosion rang like a thunderclap beside their ears. Countless rays of spear light fell from all directions on their weary body.