Chapter 397: An Impromptu Trip
Translator: TYZ Editor: TYZ, KLKL
Everyone’s interest had been piqued and they began to look for other materials, hoping to discover something unique.
After searching the whole night, no one found any unique materials like the bitterstone seeds. However, the bamboo cart was still filled with various unknown stones, timbers, plants and animal bones. Ai Hui intended to study them when they reached Peace City, or after they had arrived at the Wilderness.
When the sun rose, everyone was so tired that they sat on the ground motionlessly.
Even someone like Ai Hui, who had a physically strong body, felt fatigued. Their elemental energy depleted faster in this place than when they were in the Avalon of Five Elements. Similarly, the physical energy also depleted at a faster rate too.
Ai Hui had mentally noted down that he must find a solution to this problem before he came to Old Territory again in the future. There was certainly a solution to this problem, otherwise, how would it be possible for the three central divisions to station themselves here long-term?
As Ai Hui thought about the three central divisions, he felt something was amiss. The three central divisions were widely regarded as the three most powerful divisions, and they were the ones that led the Thirteen Divisions. Logically speaking, they should be stationed in vital, central areas, but why were they stationed in Old Territory?
It would be complete bullshit to say that Elders Guild valued Old Territory.
Ai Hui intended to ask Iron Lady or Bangwan about this when he went back. Both of them should know the reason behind it.
Even though it was painful for his wallet, Ai Hui still took out his essence elemental beans and asked everyone to come over, "We can only absorb the elemental energy from these essence elemental beans for the time being."
Essence elemental beans were extremely expensive. Using these to regain elemental energy would indeed hurt one’s wallet. Currently, Heaven Merit Points were the most approved form of currency. As long as Elders Guild did not collapse, Heaven Merit Points would still be a powerful currency. Similarly, essence elemental beans were used as a form of currency as well. If Elders Guild collapsed, elemental energy beans would continue to exist in this world. No matter what happened, everyone still needed elemental energy to survive.
Basically, Heavenly Merit Points were used in a few, high-end markets while essence elemental beans could be used everywhere.
Now was too late for regret. Old Territory’s impact on their elemental energy had exceeded Ai Hui’s expectations. It was not a bad thing to experience it for himself. Ai Hui said these words to console himself. Other than this minor issue, they weren’t met with any serious troubles. This trip to Old Territory could be considered as setting out in advance to make the necessary arrangements. This could prevent the main party from being ill-prepared when they came here in the future.
Just as Ai Hui thought that there wasn’t any serious problems, an unforeseen situation happened.
"There are only this many wood essence elemental beans?"
Qing Feng counted the essence elemental beans and looked at Ai Hui.
Ai Hui had two hundred plus essence elemental beans, but most of them were metal elemental and water elemental. There were only twenty-six wood essence elemental beans. This implied that Qing Feng and Zhao Boan would each get thirteen wood essence elemental beans.
Ai Hui began to reflect on himself. He was really ill-prepared for the operation this time around.
After muttering irresolutely to himself for a while, Ai Hui made a decision, "You will take all the wood essence elemental beans since your elemental energy usage is higher than Boan’s. We will cancel the original plan of staying here. Right now, we fly straight to Asakusa City at full speed. Are twenty-six wood essence elemental beans enough?"
After pondering for a moment, Qing Feng shook his head and replied, "It’s hard to determine now. If we encounter any situation along the way, then this amount is definitely not enough."
Upon hearing these words, Ai Hui continued, "We will fly towards Palette Cloud Village then. It’s much nearer this way. We will fly along the Lava River. If we run out of essence elemental beans, we will fly across Lava River and enter Palette Cloud Village."
He did not choose to backtrack. They had already entered the Old Territory and it would be a waste of time and resources if they didn’t explore it.
No one had any objections and Ai Hui began to distribute the essence elemental beans.
Since all the wood essence elemental energy beans were given to Qing Feng for him to drive the Three Leaves Bamboo Cart, Zhao Boan had no choice but to endure the lack of elemental energy in his body.
When everyone completed absorbing the elemental energy from the essence elemental beans, the Three Leaves Bamboo Cart rose into the air and flew towards Palette Cloud Village.
…..
Several days had passed. A plump and short figure appeared beside the Lava River and there was a surprised look on his face.
Qing Feng actually hid in Old Territory?
After having second thoughts, his facial expression returned to normal. Other than Old Territory, where else could Qing Feng escape to? As long as he was in the Avalon of Five Elements, he would be tracked down by them. Qing Feng clearly knew about this. Escaping to Old Territory was his only option.
However, could he survive if he escaped to Old Territory?
There was no way for him to replenish his elemental energy here. This place was like a dead end for him. Qing Feng only had himself to blame.
Not only did he fail to obtain the ancient treasure, the fall of the Ling Residence also caused Deep Sea Enterprise to suffer a huge loss and sharply reduced its influential power over the Avalon of Five Elements.
The worst thing was that the few families who used to keep in contact with their enterprise refused to do so nowadays. These families were mainly the ones that provided Deep Sea Enterprise with intelligence on Elders Guild. Right now, the intelligence gathering ability of Deep Sea Enterprise had decreased significantly.
Deep Sea Enterprise had stringent rules and regulations and was fair in giving out rewards and punishments. Failing such an important mission would result in absolute death for Qing Feng. If Qing Feng still had family members, they would be implicated as well.
The plump and short fellow turned around to return to the enterprise to report his findings.
…..
A rarely seen Three Leaves Bamboo Cart was flying through the air in the desolate Old Territory. The whirring sound produced by the flapping of the three leaves on the bamboo cart alarmed the wild beasts in the forest and caused them to run in all directions in panic.
There were more and more timbers and stones piled onto the bamboo cart, all of which were collected by everyone along the way. Every piece of stone or timber had been marked with the location of where it was found. If they were to discover anything unique about a particular material in the future, they would know where it was from and this made the gathering process easier.
Since there was a lack of earth elemental energy in Old Territory, Ai Hi could not use his sand compass. All the materials they gathered had to be put on the Three Leaves Bamboo Cart.
Even though the trip to Old Territory this time around was done in haste, Ai Hui had learned a lot of new things. He had worked as a laborer in Wilderness for three years and spent nearly a year as a student in Induction Ground. After the blood catastrophe broke out, he left Central Pine City and stayed in Peace City under a disguised identity for three years. Now, another half a year had passed.
It was almost eight years since he’d left Old Territory.
Eight years was not a short period of time to anyone.
When Ai Hui was in the Avalon of Five Elements, other than reminiscing about the times he’d spent in swordsman school, he seldom thought of Old Territory. Before he arrived at the swordsman school, he wandered about Old Territory in a desperate plight. He did not have a home and he was poverty-stricken. He did not know when that kind of life started for him. It appeared that he had been leading this kind of life since the day he was born.
He did not have any family members in Old Territory. As such, there was nobody and nothing for him to reminisce about.
All kinds of situations had happened on this impromptu trip to Old Territory and most of them got to do with the low concentration level of elemental energy in the surroundings. However, to Ai Hui’s surprise, unlike the desolate cities in Old Territory, the wilderness of Old Territory was full of vitality.
The concentration level of elemental energy in surroundings was very low but plants continued to grow and wild beasts continued to breed.
Sometimes, Ai Hui felt that this place was not a vassal state of the Avalon of Five Elements, but rather, a completely different world of its own.
Having a lack of elemental energy, Ai Hui could not carry out his usual trainings or enter the Grass Hall. There was no way for him to use the message tree as well. How did the three central divisions convey messages to Elders Guild? If one needed to differentiate directions, he or she had to use the traditional compass.
Ai Hui meticulously noted down these questions. If they really were to come to Old Territory in the future, the answers to these questions would be very important.
However, Ai Hui discovered something unique. In Old Territory, the speed at which fusion elemental energy was depleting was much slower than elemental energy’s. Amidst his surprise, Ai Hui was thinking about whether or not it was due to the five elemental cycle in fusion elemental energy. The five elemental cycle grew and multiplied without an end. To a certain degree, this could prevent the fusion elemental energy from escaping one’s body. If this was the case, a killing machine that possessed the five elemental cycle like God-subduing Peak would be very suitable for Old Territory.
All these were Ai Hui’s conjectures. Since he could not verify them now, he noted them down as well.
Not having enough essence elemental beans would put Ai Hui and his counterparts in a precarious situation. Especially Qing Feng, whose body was formed of elemental materials, had a high usage of elemental energy. In Old Territory, a place where the concentration level of elemental energy was low, Qing Feng was like a fish that had left the water. An intense feeling of suffocation engulfed him incessantly.
Not needing Ai Hui’s supervision, Qing Feng drove the Three Leaves Bamboo Cart, day and night, like a madman.
Sometimes, they would pass by some of Old Territory’s cities. Most of these cities were very small in size and they were widely scattered. A city like Silver City was rarely seen. In Old Territory, flying was considered a very powerful ability. Very few people possessed the ability to fly. As such, the structures in Old Territory were very short and there were very few tall buildings. Occasionally, one could see a few pagodas. These pagodas were from the Cultivation Era and they were covered with traces of age and time.
There were a lot of ruins in Old Territory. Even now, the ruins of grotto-heavens were found occasionally. For the past two years, the prices of artifact remnants had been rising continuously. Elders Guild was not the only one who was buying them, the Blood of God was doing so as well.
A quick glance and a hasty passing-by was enough to wake the countless memories of Old Territory in Ai Hui.
The Three Leaves Cart flew across the sky of Old Territory.
They flew at top speed for a few days and nights. When everyone saw the bright-red Lava River in the distance before the wood essence elemental beans ran out, they heaved a sigh of relief. There many people around the Lava River. They were the citizens from Old Territory and all of them were waiting for a chance to steal across the border to Avalon of Five Elements. From the sky, the people below them looked like ants. When the Old Territory’s citizens saw their Three Leaves Bamboo Cart, a commotion broke out. Some people were waving their arms frantically while some were screaming at the top of their voices. All of them looked extremely agitated.
The citizens of Old Territory viewed the Avalon of Five Elements as the shore they had to get onto, while the citizens of the Avalon of Five Elements placed their hope on Wilderness.
Which one would be the shore they reached then? Who knew?
The Three Leaves Bamboo Cart did not stop and flew across the Lava River. It flew away from the fervent gazes and anxious shouts of the onlookers. After they flew across the Lava River, everyone was energized by the vigorous elemental energy from their surroundings. Their dried-up bodies were being nourished by the elemental energy in the air. Qing Feng quickly found a flat piece of land to land on.
Everyone jumped down from the bamboo cart and began to carry out Circulatory Cycle Revolution.
Ai Hui used his Sword-style Breathing Technique. The hissing sound of wind from his Dragonspine was remarkably striking. Elemental energy flowed in from all directions and entered Ai Hui’s body through his sword. The elemental energy formed numerous huge sword pills that whirled around within his body. Traces of elemental energy seeped into his muscles and nourished them. If an elementalist that specialized in body-tempering spent too much time in Old Territory, and his muscles lacked the nourishment of elemental energy, the tempered muscles would degenerate.
Not too long later, a few Three Leaves Bamboo Carts flew over. These bamboo carts were for conducting illegal immigration businesses. When they saw Ai Hui’s Three Leaves Bamboo Cart, they thought Ai Hui and his counterparts were of the same trade. However, when they realized Ai Hui’s base level was a lot higher than theirs, they quickly came over to greet him.
Those who ran illegal immigration business were usually elementalists that possessed Three Leaves Bamboo Carts. Their strength was average and most of them used to do transportation businesses in the past. Since the trade routes nowadays were broken, they could not carry on with transportation businesses. Since they were not powerful either, they did not dare to head to Wilderness as well. They could only rack their brains to find a new lease on life.
In times of chaos, strength was everything.
They stood respectfully at one side while waiting for Ai Hui and his counterparts to complete their Circulatory Cycle Revolutions.