Chapter 128: Commotion at the Teleportation Altar (Part 3)

Making his way through the crowd, searching for his target, Mo Fan came across Shepor Dunt, his close friend, and Lou Emilia, a Core disciple of the same sect, well known for her skill in taming spirit beasts.

Dunt sat on the ground, holding what was now an empty left shoulder, while Emilia helped apply healing ointment, trying to close his constantly reopening wounds as fast as possible.

Stumbling onto them entirely by chance, seeing for the first time the state Dunt was in since they'd last parted ways, Mo Fan faltered for a moment, but quickly composed himself and walked closer. "Brother Shepor! You have no idea how relieved I am you're alive!"

Walking up and dropping to one knee beside him, Mo Fan started studying his wounds. "When we left the caves and couldn't find you, we thought you'd left us behind, same as Sister Ru..."

Shepor Dunt stared into his black eyes for a long moment, as if trying to find something there, and opened his mouth as though about to speak, but in the end just let out a deep breath and turned away from Mo Fan.

Seeing this strange behavior, Mo Fan frowned. "Brother Shepor? What's wrong with you? Are you alright?"

"Mo Fan. He's exhausted. He still hasn't recovered from his last battle... Better not to bother him. Let him rest."

Lifting his head, Mo Fan found Lou Emilia standing over him. Looking into her eyes, all he saw was coldness and disappointment. Even during their last meeting, when Lu Shen had issued his challenge, he couldn't remember her ever radiating such strange hostility.

'What the hell is going on?' Black lines forming across his forehead, Mo Fan stood and straightened up, throwing one more look at both of them. "In that case, I won't bother you further... Get well soon." Turning, he walked on, continuing his search for his real target.

'How dare you look at me like that? And you! Ungrateful cripple!! Everything I did for you, and this is what I get? Hmph!' Trying to swallow down the rage building inside him, he kept searching. 'I'll show all of you... every one of you will be crawling on your knees, begging for my forgiveness! But by then, it'll be too late! Too late!'

.

.

Having gone through every survivor without finding the one he was looking for, he returned to his group, disappointed.

Seeing the look on his face, a heavy silence fell over the whole group.

"Hey, how are you all holding up? Junior Brother Mo, Junior Sister Hua?" Suddenly, a soft woman's voice broke the silence.

Looking up, they all saw Lua Mou, Vice-Leader of Dragon's Breath Peak and an elder at the Golden Core realm, descending from the sky.

Lin Xue and Hill Shtern pressed their hands together in a gesture of respect and bowed deeply.

"Elder Lua Mou!"

"Elder Lua Mou."

Greeting her in unison, they both took a few steps back, giving her room.

"Elder Sister Lua!" Spotting her own elder sister, Hua Zhen immediately broke into a smile.

Seeing who it was, Mo Fan pulled himself together and tried to appear calm. "Elder Sister Lua, what exactly is happening? Why is the Leader of Hope Peak here, of all people?"

Landing on the ground, Lua Mou swept her cold gaze across every disciple around them.

Feeling her eyes on them, the disciples bowed and, taking a few steps back, turned away.

Turning to Hua Zhen and Mo Fan, she smiled, and after looking them both over and confirming they were unharmed, let out a breath. "It's good you're both unhurt and made it back safely!"

Looking up at the sky, she sighed. "One of the disciples who was with you inside turned out to be a spy, carrying critical information. The Sect Leader gave the order to Leader Sia Moy to capture the spy and bring him back."

Lowering her gaze and noticing the strange looks Mo Fan and the rest of his group were exchanging, she couldn't hold back. "Hm? What is it?"

"Um, Elder Sister Lua... I don't think this is about a spy..." Sighing, Mo Fan laid out everything: Ru Meng's murder, and her killer. He even had to admit the killer had broken through to the Foundation Establishment realm, though he himself still refused to believe it, still refusing to accept it in any form, pinning it instead on some artifact or something similar.

"What?! Are you saying that quiet alchemist broke through to the next realm and did all this damage inside the Sacred Land?" Without waiting for an answer, Lua Mou turned toward the edge of the altar, where Li Deng hovered in the air.

….

<"Elder Sister Li. Sia Moy isn't here to catch a spy."> Hearing Lua Mou's voice inside her head, Li Deng immediately picked her out of the crowd and met her eyes. <"What did you find out?">

<"Do you remember the alchemist disciple with Master status?"> Seeing Li Deng nod, Lua Mou continued. <"Inside the Sacred Land, this alchemist first broke through to the Foundation Establishment realm, and then killed Ru Meng.">

Hearing this explanation, Li Deng asked. <"Ru Meng? One of that vile pervert's disciples?">

Then her eyes suddenly went wide, finally grasping the real weight of the information. <"Wait! A breakthrough to the next realm? But how? The Qi inside the Sacred Land is far too contaminated. Even demonic-path disciples have to be careful, only replenishing their dantian's Qi reserves without ever attempting a breakthrough, since that could bring catastrophic consequences!">

<"Exactly!! Now it makes sense why Sia Moy came here! If this disciple managed to break through in an environment like that, it means he has a unique physiology! Or some kind of secret worth the sect's attention!"> Eyes burning with curiosity, Lua Mou looked around again, scanning the faces of every disciple present.

<"Not just that... you're not seeing the full picture. First, while still at Qi Condensation, he achieved Alchemy Master status with no one backing him. Second, he broke through to the next realm without any help from the sect. I'm certain he had neither Foundation Establishment pills nor any information on how to break through… that kind of information is guarded even more closely than the pills themselves, which haven't left clan hands in centuries..."> Her face serious, Li Deng began working through it.

<"Wait, are you trying to say-?"> Finally understanding what Li Deng was getting at, Lua Mou's face went slightly pale.

<"Exactly. This alchemist broke through with no outside help at all… purely through his own strength."> Li Deng let out a deep breath, understanding the real reason Sect Leader Gu Bai had given the order to capture this kid.

Frowning slightly, Lua Mou still couldn't quite bring herself to believe it. <"His talent for alchemy, and his luck. Which means... the Sect Leader's decided to brand him? I thought that practice was long behind us...">

Li Deng just shook her head. <"This kid has no clan, no family. Came from slavery... no one's going to object.">

Thinking it over, Lua Mou suddenly remembered something. <"Wait, what about Elder Sen Tuo? Wasn't he one of the ones opposed to that practice? Thanks to his persistence, our sect stopped branding these so-called free geniuses.">

Li Deng answered at once. <"That's exactly what's bothering me too. Maybe... maybe Elder Sen Tuo doesn't even know about this.">

….

Hovering at the edge of the altar, Shoa Ediso suddenly sensed a familiar aura.

"Master!" Stepping out of the crowd and walking closer, a girl bowed to him.

"Hmm. Xia Ji, my disciple, I'm glad to see you safe and unharmed." Seeing his disciple, Shoa Ediso smiled and, scanning her with his Qi, suddenly looked surprised. "Your condition? You actually found a way to cure it?!"

Bowing her head even lower. "Yes, Master! I managed to find third-rank Rough Rhubarb and third-rank White Pear roots! And thanks to them, I was able to fully restore my body, clearing out every last bit of residue left behind from my own inexperience with pills!"

Remembering all the hardships she'd gone through to get her hands on those spirit plants, her body started trembling slightly.

The moment she'd teleported in, she'd kept her distance from the others, but always stayed close enough not to become one of the random casualties dragged off by clever spirit beasts whenever most of the disciples stopped to rest.

At some point, Xia Ji had made up her mind and left the massive group behind entirely, relying on artifacts she'd prepared in advance to stay hidden from the beasts the whole time. And in the end, she'd managed to find exactly what she was looking for.

"I'm glad, I'm truly glad. You earned yourself a second chance with your own two hands. Not many manage that... You need to stay on the right path now. One misstep, and you'll end up right back where you started! Be smarter. Learn from your own mistakes, and from others'!" Landing on the ground, Shoa Ediso rested a hand on her shoulder and began guiding her, the way a proper Master should.

"Yes, Master, this disciple takes your guidance to heart!" Resolve in her eyes, she wasn't just agreeing with her Master, she was making a vow to herself.

….

Whooosh!

Feeling the Qi around him suddenly shift, An's entire body tensed at once. 'Something's wrong!!'

"Activate! NOW!!"

Before he could even open his eyes, he felt something ignite beneath his feet in an instant, the temperature around him spiking to several hundred degrees.

BOOOM!

The center of the explosion was right beneath his feet. A massive wave lifted him off the ground, and an instant later he slammed into a barrier hanging in the sky, only a few dozen meters up.

"Gh-AAH!" The energy that had thrown him off the ground kept pressing him against the barrier, driving up the density and heat around him, trying to crush and roast him at the same time.

"AGH!" The upper half of his clothes burned away instantly, and his skin blackened and cracked.

All of this happened in less than a second, and in those brief moments, An focused on gathering Qi, specifically, converting it into a particular element or combination, trying to break apart this incomprehensible, dense wave that kept pressing down on him, one he had no way of fighting head-on.

CRACK!

Finally approaching the problem from a different angle. Tuning to a vibration frequency capable of creating space between the Qi particles themselves, so he could quickly infect the wave with his own Qi and destroy it from the inside.

Feeling the pressure ease, he broke free of the attack fast and dropped like a stone toward the ground.

Lying face down on the ground, he scanned everything around him and found four cultivators, all of them at Foundation Establishment.

"Don't let him recover!! ATTACK!!"

Hearing the same voice he'd heard right before the first attack, without lifting his head, An sensed the nearest cultivator draw back, holding something that looked like a net.

"HA!"

Barely five meters from where An lay, the cultivator swung both arms back, compressing the net into a sphere with his Qi, and just as he prepared to attack, he suddenly heard a strange crunch beneath his own feet.

"Shit!!" Unleashing his attack randomly at An, who'd already started rising off the ground, afraid of taking a backlash, the cultivator shifted his center of gravity and threw himself backward with everything he had, but it was already too late.

Looking down, he saw a spear made of pure Qi burst up out of the ground.

"A-AGH!!" Feeling the spear pass within a millimeter of his body, its energy alone tearing away his skin along with small pieces of flesh, dragging them off with it, he watched those pieces melt into a black mass. The cultivator couldn't hold back a scream of fear and pain.

Having barely dodged the spear, the cultivator lowered his gaze, and a suffocating sense of death gripped him.

Just centimeters from his own face, he saw An's burned face, his green eyes staring at him like he was nothing but prey.

SWOOSH!

Instantly, dozens of massive swords tore in from behind the cultivator, blocking An just in time and knocking him aside.

"Pull yourself together, Brother Salamuno!! You nearly said goodbye to tomorrow's breeze! Hahaha!" A woman appeared beside him at once, white hair braided, tattoos running from her cheeks down to her arms, gripping two crude swords.

"Sister Thirst's right! That rush of yours is going to be the death of you one of these days!!" On his other shoulder stood a cultivator with a bandana wrapped around his head, spear in hand.

Just as Salamuno opened his mouth to speak, he saw the bandana cultivator push off the ground, stretching his hand out toward him.

Seeing the panic in his brother's eyes, Salamuno realized too late what was happening, and couldn't dodge in time as thousands of tiny Qi Blades tore up out of the ground, right beneath him again, at a speed many times faster than the previous attack.

"N-NO! B-BROTHER!" Crying out in terror and despair, Salamuno felt the blades sink into his body without any resistance at all, simply because he'd underestimated his enemy and failed to activate his defenses in time.

SQUELCH!

In an instant, his body turned into a cloud of flesh and blood, torn apart by the blades detonating inside him.

"No! NO! Salamuno! A-AH! Light-Bearing Swords!" Screaming, the woman hurled both her swords straight at An.

"Use your defenses, you idiots!! Don't get careless!!" Behind them, another cultivator appeared, one who looked remarkably like a pirate, standing behind the woman and the bandana-wearing man. Pain and fury in his voice, he screamed at the top of his lungs. "Idiots! I have to do everything myself, again!!"

….

Watching the two swords fly straight at him, An ran through several options in his head, immediately ruling out going underground, he wouldn't have enough time to sink in, and the formation surrounding this whole space had a limit underground too.

Throwing a quick glance around, he realized the remaining three had positioned themselves so that if he dodged the swords now, the bandana cultivator would seize the opening and attack.

Settling on a plan, in a fraction of a second, An activated and channeled a massive amount of his Qi into both hands, wrapping them completely. But at that exact instant, he felt the energy inside the incoming swords shift.

'Shit!!' Redirecting the energy into his palms and concentrating it into two points, he clapped his hands together in one sharp motion, and in that same instant, the two swords flying at him split apart and multiplied into a hundred.

The moment the swords were only centimeters from An, their energy already starting to tear through the top layer of his skin, he tore his palms apart with a scream, releasing a black sphere that expanded at lightning speed and met the swords head-on.

Every sword, the instant it touched the sphere, began to melt, but thanks to the sheer speed and energy carried behind them, even half-melted, they still punched through the sphere and slammed into An's body at tremendous speed.

Dust and dirt rose into the air, and all that could be heard was the clash of metal and screams coming from the epicenter of it all.