Chapter 2349 - Greenhill Yushan Clan
"Lin Feng, what was that?" Lin Hongchen asked and moved in front of Tianming to stop him, sword ki pulsing from his eyes.
"What does it have to do with you? First come first serve. I got it, so it's mine. Don't worry. If this object can take us out of this ancestral world, I'll bring you with me," Tianming said.
"Take it out!" Lin Hongchen pointed his Frostshower Crimson Sun at him.
"Looks like you're still unconvinced of my worthiness." Tianming couldn't help chuckling, though Lin Hongchen's reaction wasn't abnormal. This world was fraught with dangers, and the rules of survival were poorly understood. If that mini star was what they needed to survive, who wouldn't fight for it?
"Grandpa Ku? Why’re you here?" Tianming said, looking behind Lin Hongchen with shock.
"Grandfather?" Lin Hongchen turned back and saw nothing, only to realize that Tianming had duped him. Tianming already started speeding downward when he turned back around, not wasting any of their precious time. "Lin Feng!"
Lin Hongchen used his frozen space order to lock Tianming down again. "Dammit, does he really want to make me beat him up?!"
He was quite annoyed with Lin Hongchen after having offered him a ride here. Though he had decided to teach him a lesson, he quickly changed his mind when he saw two figures descending from above. They were approaching at insane speeds, having been not too far behind Tianming and Lin Hongchen the whole time.
"Halt! What’d you just take?" came a coarse, booming voice that caused their ears to ring.
Hearing that, Tianming knew that they didn't really manage to see it clearly. However, they did have a rough guess that Tianming had taken something that caused the six-sided gravity to vanish. Tianming had relied on his own unique capabilities while Lin Hongchen had his spatial order, which allowed him a much quicker descent. The fact that those two had to be really powerful to be able to remain so close behind the two Lins meant they were undoubtedly among the elite disciples in Ebonia.
Lin Hongchen looked back and his expression immediately changed. "One of them's ranked fifth! Run!" He immediately switched sides back to Tianming's.
"Had it not been for you, I would've slipped away long ago," Tianming said, glaring at him. He glanced at the newcomers' disciple cards and saw that they were ranked fifth and thirteenth respectively, both of which were higher than Lin Hongchen. Apart from the ebons, they were probably the strongest among the other participants.
"The first, third, and fourth ranks are all ebons. Yi Taoyao is second, so the fifth ranker has to be the second strongest non-ebon in here," Lin Hongchen said with clenched teeth.
Tianming knew how powerful they were, considering they were ranked higher than Guchi Xiaoyin. Not to mention, the thirteenth ranker alone was already some ten ranks above Lin Hongchen. Had there only been one of them, Tianming wouldn't have been too worried, but two of them at once would be quite a threat. He continued plunging downward with Lin Hongchen.
"You may not leave!" came another booming roar from above. Then a terrifying order field was deployed that stopped the two of them.
"Gravity?!" Tianming gasped with shock. He’d thought that the gravity of the hole had returned, but noticed the next moment that it was actually coming from an order field. The two pursuers had mixed their order fields together to stop Tianming and Lin Hongchen. One of them even charged below them to block their path. They summoned all their lifebound beasts to lock the two down.
"Hand over what you took just now and we'll let you go. Otherwise, we'll turn you into meat paste first, then take it," the burly man beneath them said. His voice was so loud that it echoed through the entire hole. They probably knew that, without what Tianming had taken, continuing their way down would be pointless.
"Looks like we have to fight," Tianming said, troubled. With him still not having an order field, he would always be at a disadvantage. Had Feiling been here, however, he wouldn't have had to fear them at all, thanks to Perpetia.
Despite the width of the hole, the two enemies managed to block it off entirely with their lifebound beasts. "Are you confident?" Lin Hongchen asked.
"No, but we have to try. I heard that your swordbeasts make you a good match against those from the Greenhill Yushan Clan, so I'll leave that thirteenth-ranked beauty to you. Just hold her back and stop them from ganging up on us."
Lin Hongchen was ranked twenty-sixth, and he had to go up against the thirteenth ranker! While they were both third-level orderans, there would still be a huge disparity in power.
"No problem," Lin Hongchen agreed. He would rather let Tianming have the mini star than allow the enemies to take it.
That made things much easier for Tianming. He recalled the information he had read about these two. They were both from Infinitum Regal Clans. The green-clad girl above them was from the Greenhill Yushan Clan. Clans that were considered regal in Ebonia had unique characteristics that made them stand out, such as the ebons being infinite beastmasters, Swordgod Lin Clan having swordbeasts, and the Central Shuntian Clan having albusbeasts.
The unique talent that the Greenhill Yushan Clan boasted was their lifebound beasts, the greenhill fiendfoxes. Unlike other lifebound beasts, they were born with unique fiend vitae, which allowed them to charm other lifebound beasts. The way they achieved it was through sound, smell, and soul, and they could even confuse other beasts to cause them to rampage.
Many beastmasters in Ebonia feared fighting the Greenhill Yushan Clan because of how unpredictable their beasts would be when going up against those foxes. There was basically no good defense against the foxes' fiend vitae. Even if beasts could somehow endure having their souls influenced, they could still lose their reason through the smell and sound. There was an old legend in Ebonia that said the slightest whiff of a greenhill fiendfox's odor could even cause death.
Tianming also heard that the foxes were expert mimics and shapeshifters, with some even able to compress their body to take the form of their beastmasters and use battle arts! While that would limit their physical strength and abilities, it had great potential to confuse and mislead opponents, which could be fatal in combat.