Chapter 289: The Summit of Tens of Thousands of Feet Peak
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Mo Tiange was rather flabbergasted. Could it be that her previous conjecture about Jing Xingzhi’s intentions was wrong? He was actually willing to work with them and didn’t mind that her cultivation was too low?
But on second thought, the situation had changed now. Aside from them, Jing Xingzhi didn’t have any other choice of partners he could choose to cooperate with. Although her cultivation level was rather low, the three of them could still charge their way up.
There was neither delight nor anger on Qin Xi’s face. He only asked, “Fellow Daoist Jing, haven’t you just escaped with your life? Why do you still want to go up?”
Jing Xingzhi stroked his nose, saying, “I was alone before, so I couldn’t do anything. Since I ran into you guys, of course I have to go back and see if I can get any easy benefits. After all, it’s not easy to go up to Immortal’s Ruins.”
“…”
Qin Xi didn’t say anything. Judging from his expression, he wasn’t at all unhappy, but he also didn’t agree right away.
As Mo Tiange looked at Jing Xingzhi, she suddenly found something very familiar about this. Right… Qin Xi also made this kind of move before. Speaking of which, although the two people’s characters weren’t really compatible, they gave off a sense of familiarity when they talked to each other… But what kind of close relationship could they possibly have? They had completely opposite characters, and they both also disagreed with the way the other dealt with things.
“I’m saying this in advance—when we’re up there, our destination is just one nook of Immortal’s Ruins. If you want to go to other areas, we definitely won’t accompany you.”
Jing Xingzhi looked like he couldn’t care less and said, “As you wish.”
“Alright then, I guess we’re partnering up.” After Qin Xi calmly said that, Jing Xingzhi simply grinned. The two of them didn’t shake hands, nor did they do anything signifying that they reached a deal. They just proceeded to do their own thing.
This time, the earthquake went on for one whole day. By the time the mountain stabilized, the three of them were already weary beyond measure.
All of them had been using their best methods of defense. Furthermore, they’d been on guard, ready to attack. Although they managed to make it through this terrifying experience safe and sound, they consumed an enormous amount of spiritual aura. In addition, there was also floating devil aura midway which also forced them to expend a lot of spiritual aura.
The three of them rested in the small cave for one day. They waited until their spiritual auras were full before they proceeded to fly up.
With Jing Xingzhi, their journey became much easier. They had Qin Xi’s Three Yang Real Fire Sword, Mo Tiange’s White Silk Handkerchief, and Jing Xingzhi’s protective sword light… They originally thought it’d take them more than a day to reach the summit, but they actually made it in just a day. If it wasn’t because the restrictions on the summit crumbled and released a huge amount of devil aura, thus hindering them from coming closer, they might’ve reached the summit even faster.
When they reached the summit, Mo Tiange was dumbfounded. “This is… Immortal’s Ruins?”
Rocks were everywhere. Spiritual and devil aura intermingled. This was just a wild, godforsaken place—which part of it was worthy of being called “immortal”?
Qin Xi said, “The so-called Immortal’s Ruins is just the name bestowed upon it by the people of later generations. Demonic Mountain has been a battlefield ever since ancient times. It’s said to be the burial place for immortals but in fact, it’s just a place where many immortals lost their lives.”
Mo Tiange sighed. Before the immortals and devils were separate entities, the ones who died here were real immortals who attained success—a state they might not even hope to reach in their entire lives. Nevertheless, those real immortals still died in this kind of situation in the end.
Jing Xingzhi grinned and said, “You shouldn’t underestimate this place. Although so many years have passed, this area still has countless treasures that belonged to those immortals; it’s just that you have to depend on getting a fated chance to obtain them.”
“Really?” Mo Tiange squinted, trying her best to look as far ahead as she could, but she still couldn’t see any special areas. However, there was one spot with the strongest spiritual aura here. A transparent spiritual aura layer floated above it, and that spiritual aura was much purer than any spiritual aura she’d ever seen. Devil aura could only float around outside the area enshrouded by this spiritual aura layer without penetrating it.
“What’s that? Why have I never seen such unusual spiritual aura?”
“That’s immortal aura,” Qin Xi said, “Too many immortals died here. After they died, their bodies didn’t remain—they all turned into immortal aura.”
“… I see.”
“Alright. If you two have something to say, you can slowly chat later. We have work to do now.” Jing Xingzhi waved, causing the flying sword on his back to unsheathe on its own. He braced himself then took the lead to proceed forward.
Qin Xi also nodded at her. “Let’s go.”
Although there was no devil aura, immortal aura was equally awful. They were just cultivators, not yet real immortals. Immortal aura embodied a very formidable force—it wasn’t something they could withstand. In case their bodies were invaded by immortal aura, they’d certainly die because their bodies would explode.
The three of them employed their respective defensive mechanisms and cautiously entered the rocky area.
Before they arrived at Tens of Thousands of Feet Peak, they could still see some areas with skeletons on occasion. On Tens of Thousands of Feet Peak, however, it was completely bare of any remains. This was because after real immortals died, even their bones wouldn’t remain. Rather, they’d directly turn into immortal aura.
Traces of spells could be found all around. Even after millions of years, these traces could still be clearly seen. Because immortals had the ability to move the mountains and drain the seas, the power of their spells was too tremendous, so the traces left behind by their spells were naturally spectacular.
Tens of Thousands of Feet Peak, for example, was originally linked to other peaks, but it was cut off after being hacked by some kind of immortal tool, thus turning it into a solitary peak. For them, even picking up a piece of rock on Tens of Thousands of Feet Peak was difficult, but those immortals were able to slice this peak apart effortlessly.
In addition, there was a huge lake on this peak. After examining it carefully, they discovered it was actually a vestige of a water spell. Millions of years had passed, yet it was actually still here.
And then there were also huge craters and rubble. They were all vestiges of spells.
Although there were no immortals’ remains to be seen, Mo Tiange could really imagine the great war that took place millions of years ago. This brought about a wonderful feeling inside her. It was as if she personally experienced that war and watched the spells flying all around and immortal tools criss-crossing each other.
Qin Xi walked very slowly on purpose. It was as if he was deliberately allowing her to absorb this kind of feeling. As for Jing Xingzhi, he had a rarely-seen solemn expression and watched the scene before him in silence.
However, their leisurely pace was disrupted by a sudden attack.
Jing Xingzhi was walking at the front. Right after his last step, they suddenly heard a “crack,” and a burst of light mist was emitted.
Jing Xingzhi reacted very quickly. His flying sword flew quickly, and in an instant, he was already in midair, barely dodging a strike of lightning.
Mo Tiange and Qin Xi also flew. Qin Xi immediately struck back with his Three Yang Real Fire Sword, while Mo Tiange made a wave, causing the White Silk Handkerchief to turn into a layer of fog which wound around them. At the same time, she held a magic weapon, readying herself to attack at any moment.
Immediately afterward, however, the three of them were dumbfounded.
Because there was neither demonic beast nor restriction. It was just… a mass of mist?
Jing Xingzhi’s sword light had already shot forward, and Qin Xi’s Three Yang Real Fire Sword also emitted a fiery radiance in an instant. However, although that mass of mist scattered from their attacks, it soon converged again.
“What is this?” Jing Xingzhi said with astonishment. He then looked at Qin Xi and asked, “Did you see this last time?”
Qin Xi shook his head. “I don’t know.”
Mo Tiange was naturally even more oblivious.
Right after he asked those questions, the mist slowly started to spread towards them.
The three of them didn’t dare to be careless; all of them moved back. Mo Tiange, whose speed was rather slow, suddenly felt an ache radiating from her arm. When she looked down, she discovered that part of the White Silk Handkerchief’ fog barrier, which came into contact with the floating mist, was corroded, and part of her sleeve was also scorched.
Qin Xi stepped forward to pull her back. Once they’d retreated some distance, he pulled up her sleeve, only to see a charred black part on her originally clean, white arm.
Qin Xi’s expression changed. “Does it hurt?”
Mo Tiange wrinkled her brows then said, “Don’t worry about this now—what should we do about this mist?”
Jing Xingzhi once again put on that half-smile of his. He cast them a glance then said, “Flying sword can’t cut it, and magic art can’t burn it—what other method do we have? We can only run!”
The moment he finished speaking, he rode on his flying sword, making a mad dash from the place.
Qin Xi only shook his head in response, but in the next second, he flung his sleeve to summon his flying cloud. He then pulled Mo Tiange onto it, and they also fled away.
That mass of mist chased after them. It wasn’t slow, but both Jing Xingzhi’s flying cloud and Qin Xi’s flying cloud were extremely fast, so before long, the mist stopped chasing after them.
The three of them finally stopped; all sighed in relief.
“What kind of strange thing was that?” Jing Xingzhi muttered.
No one answered him because Qin Xi was pulling Mo Tiange’s sleeve open. A frown emerged on his brows when he saw the skin corroded by the mist, and he said, “Wrong, this thing…”
Originally, Mo Tiange only felt a bit hurt, but now, it had turned into a scorching pain. Furthermore, the pain grew more and more intense. She could still endure it at first, but in the end, she could no longer endure it and grabbed Qin Xi’s sleeve as she was covered in a cold sweat. “It really hurts.”
Qin Xi knew her temper; if she wasn’t really hurt, she wouldn’t have cried out. He immediately took out a medicinal pill from inside his Qiankun Bag then said to her, “Take it.”
Mo Tiange swallowed it, following his instructions, and soon felt a bit better.
Qin Xi pressed her arm, slowly emitting his spiritual aura, cautiously examining her bit by bit, starting from her wounded area.
“What? Is there anything wrong with that thing?” Jing Xingzhi asked upon seeing how the two of them were behaving.
Qin Xi didn’t say anything. Quite some time later, he suddenly made a hand seal, emitting Real Fire from his palm and sticking it on to the charred black part on Mo Tiange’s arm.
Mo Tiange cowered a little. His Real Fire wasn’t common cultivator’s Real Fire. He originally practiced a fire element cultivation technique, and his body also possessed pure Yang spiritual aura. Under the heat of his Real Fire, she felt another kind of pain on her arm in addition to the original tingling pain.
Qin Xi seemed to sense this. He stopped for a moment then used his Yang spiritual aura to shroud his Real Fire before he slowly continued to burn her arm.
The pain she felt eased up. Mo Tiange felt Yang spiritual aura slowly entering her body. Without her personally controlling it, the Yin spiritual aura inside her body surged to welcome the Yang spiritual aura, and the two kinds of spiritual aura began to flow together. Qin Xi’s Real Fire was shrouded by the two spiritual auras and slowly burned into her arm. After quite a while, the charred black bits finally started to shrink.
By the time the charred black color completely disappeared from Mo Tiange’s arm, the two of them had actually used up more than half their spiritual aura.
Jing Xingzhi couldn’t understand what was going on, but when he saw them stopping, he finally asked, “What’s going on? Your Real Fire burned it up, but why didn’t it work earlier?”
Qin Xi said, “This is Extreme Yang Real Fire, which I learned when I tried to form my Nascent Soul. It’s not the same as the Real Fire on the Three Yang Real Fire Sword.”
“Then why didn’t you use it back then?”
This question made Qin Xi let out a light “hmph.” He then said, “That’s easy for you to say. It’s extremely troublesome to mobilize this Real Fire. That mist was too fast; there simply wasn’t enough time.”
“Oh, I see…” Jing Xingzhi nodded. “I’m relieved—at least you can heal us.”
“Don’t feel happy so soon.” Qin Xi cast him a cold glance. “I can’t do anything if you get injured.”
“Huh?”
Instead of answering, Qin Xi simply shook his head. He then said to Mo Tiange, “We should rest for a while and recover our spiritual aura.”
His Extreme Yang Real Fire was very tyrannical. If it wasn’t because his and Mo Tiange’s Yin and Yang spiritual auras acted as a buffer, Mo Tiange’s arm might’ve already been burned by him before he could burn up that mass of black aura.