Chapter 1541: Main Culprit
Yi Tu’s gaze turned to Poison Spirit as he also paused and spoke, “Yi Fan, follow me and return… to the Saint Spirit Domain!”
Poison Spirit’s entire body shook; Yi Tu’s meaning was very clear. As long as Poison Spirit was willing to follow him back, Yi Tu would help Poison Spirit regain his status as a member of the Phantom Race and Poison Spirit was to be given an important position. Yi Tu had said this because he evidently regarded Poison Spirit’s realization of the Divine Spirit Thrust very highly. Of course… Yi Tu was also giving Jiang Yi face.
“Many thanks, Lord Yi Tu!”
Poison Spirit thought for a while as he gritted his teeth, cupped his hands, and said, “You guys can go ahead first. I want to wait a while longer; Young Lord is not someone who would die so easily.”
Qi Qingchen looked over and nodded in agreement, indicating that she would wait a while longer as well. Mo Lingqiu and Yi Tu could do nothing else as they activated the Teleportation Formation and returned to the Demon-Buster Valley.
Swish!
After the Teleportation Formation was activated and the group left, Qi Qingchen and Poison Spirit acted at the same time as they became two shadows and sped to the south. The duo was not going to give up so easily; they decided to head to the Divine Tree and take a look. They were determined to either see Jiang Yi in the flesh if he was alive or his body if he was dead!
The Divine Tree wasn’t that far from the Teleportation Formation; based on the duo’s speed and strength, they could reach the Divine Tree in at most ten hours. Although the Purgatory Mystic Realm was very dangerous—given the two’s level of attainment and strength, they could easily withstand half a day or even one full day.
Bang, bang, bang!
After the two had flown for a short distance, the ground beneath exploded as countless Lunar Beasts shot upwards. A red, flexible sword appeared in Qi Qingchen’s hands as she shouted, “Poison Spirit, go ahead first; I will take care of these!”
Poison Spirit did not hesitate; he was much weaker than Qi Qingchen, and he also had not come to the Purgatory Mystic Realm before. He was very unfamiliar with this place while Qi Qingchen had come here once before to train. However, she had only lasted for half a day before she retreated.
“Clean-Sweeping Hurricane!”
Qi Qingchen’s flexible sword danced as all the clouds and wind in the vicinity were channeled into wind dragons as they soundlessly soared forward and easily slammed the incoming Lunar Beasts away. Qi Qingchen did not linger to fight with the Lunar Beasts as she consecutively released a few Clean-Sweeping Hurricane attacks to beat back the pursuing Lunar Beasts. She then sped to the south immediately.
“Sword Emanations Race beings!”
The two had flown for only five minutes when they saw that the ground was filled with the destroyed bodies of the Sword Emanations Race beings. The two were overjoyed for a second. Jiang Yi had indeed headed towards the Divine Tree; they could now follow the Sword Emanations Race beings’ bodies to track him down.
Along the way, they triggered many Lunar Beasts. After observing Qi Qingchen battling a few waves of Lunar Beasts, Poison Spirit soon learned how to coordinate with her. He did not attack but released a few hundred clones that fled in all directions. As his clones were identical to his real self, he easily lured the Lunar Beasts away.
“Alright!”
Qi Qingchen’s eyes lit up. With Poison Spirit’s help, it became much easier for her to deal with the Lunar Beasts. The two did not linger to battle the Lunar Beasts as they flew southwards at their fastest speeds.
Gong!
A low sound traveled from underground as the duo’s hearts immediately felt pain; it felt as if their soul spirits were under attack. Qi Qingchen’s soul spirit was very strong; she did not suffer much injury. However, it was Poison Spirit’s first time here and now that he had been suddenly attacked, his face instantly became very pale. His heart also sank. This Purgatory Mystic Realm was so terrifying; could Jiang Yi really have survived?
Poison Spirit’s soul spirit was considerably strong; at least it was a few times stronger than Jiang Yi’s. Although the Demonic Repellent started to subtly affect the two of them, they were not in serious trouble in the short-term.
As they continued flying, they kept on finding Sword Emanations Race beings’ bodies along the way. When they grew closer to the Divine Tree, Qi Qingchen’s eyes lit up as well. The last time she and the Wintry Sovereign had gone to the Divine Tree, they had discovered how mystical that Divine Tree was. If Jiang Yi had successfully reached the Divine Tree, his chances of survival would definitely have been much higher.
…
Swish!
A few hours later, the two finally reached beneath the Divine Tree. They saw that the ground around the Divine Tree was filled with the Sword Emanations Race beings’ corpses as well as countless Lunar Beasts corpses, and their expressions grew very serious. From the bodies and corpses around, they could imagine how intense the battle here must have been and how many waves of ferocious attacks Jiang Yi had encountered.
“Sigh…”
Standing beneath the Divine Tree, Qi Qingchen’s gaze swept about. She sighed deeply and then closed her eyes, her face full of agony and pain. Poison Spirit’s divine senses swept the surroundings as his eyes also grew dark as if he had lost his soul.
The two did not find any traces of Jiang Yi underneath the Divine Tree!
The Wintry Sovereign had said before that the Divine Tree was the safest place in this mystic realm and that Jiang Yi would only be able to survive longer by staying underneath it. However, they could not find any traces of Jiang Yi at this moment. That meant that Jiang Yi had probably already died; he had been torn apart and swallowed by the Lunar Beasts.
Swish!
Poison Spirit was still not willing to give up as he circled the vicinity once. He soon reached his own conclusion: there weren’t any signs of Jiang Yi leaving this area; Jiang Yi’s final destination had been underneath this Divine Tree.
“He’s not… he’s not here?”
Qi Qingchen waited for Poison Spirit to return as she asked, her voice quivering. Seeing Poison Spirit’s disappointed look, Qi Qingchen gestured feebly and said, “Let’s go; let’s return home. We have to reach the Teleportation Formation before the red light appears and the Lunar Beasts go berserk.”
Swish!
The two once again stared around the Divine Tree intently. Finally, they could only fly away helplessly; they soon disappeared into the night sky.
…
Buzz!
After Qi Qingchen and Poison Spirit left, the Divine Tree’s trunk flashed with light as that pretty lady’s face once again appeared. Her face revealed a sly look as the branches on the tree suddenly glowed, and underneath the tree, a person sitting cross-legged appeared. If Qi Qingchen and Poison Spirit were still around, they would definitely exclaim loudly at what they saw: the person sitting cross-legged and cultivating was none other than Jiang Yi.
Jiang Yi seemed to be in deep seclusion and seemed to have forgotten about time and everything else; he did not seem to know that three days had already passed, and it was time for him to return. He also did not know that Qi Qingchen and Poison Spirit had risked their lives to come and look for him here and that his physical body had suddenly disappeared right before the duo had reached this Divine Tree.
In reality…!
Such a strange thing had happened all because of this eccentric Divine Tree. Even as Jiang Yi was in deep seclusion, he would normally be startled awake by the vibrations underneath every fifteen minutes. Even if he managed to ignore these sounds—whenever the Lunar Beasts went berserk every twenty hours, he would also be awoken by the impending danger.
However—
After that pretty lady’s face appeared on the Divine Tree trunk, everything had changed. The low, vibrating sound that rang out every fifteen minutes ceased. Every twenty hours—when the Lunar Beasts went on berserk, this pretty lady’s face would appear. The Divine Tree branches would shine with light, and Jiang Yi’s physical body would disappear on the spot just as before. As the Lunar Beasts did not sense any humans nearby, they naturally did not come attacking this place.
Time elapsed quickly during cultivation; even a hundred years could pass by!
Jiang Yi was deep in seclusion and did not know how long had passed. He kept on waiting for the low vibrations underground to ring; however, they didn’t ring at all. Hence, Jiang Yi kept on assuming that not even fifteen minutes had passed and that he had only been realizing for a short while. In fact, more than two days had actually passed by.
If nothing out of the ordinary happened, Jiang Yi would probably continue his state of seclusion and would only wake up on his own volition when he realized quintessence!
That pretty lady’s face—the main culprit this time—actually didn’t know that her actions had made countless people think that Jiang Yi had died, that many people were hurt and grieving bitterly. She blinked her beautiful pair of eyes, looked at Jiang Yi a few times, and then disappeared in the Divine Tree once again.