Chapter 255: The Escape
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
Cliff Region.
This region was beside the Victorious East Region. The terrain was undulating and resembled a desert.
Because of the harsh environmental conditions, the people here were slightly more uncivilised and brave. Therefore, a culture of 'swordsman' was born, which was a different culture from the Dragon and Tiger Ranks in the Victorious East Region.
At this point in time, in the desert, two swordsmen were fighting.
As they were swordsmen, they wore bamboo hats and wielded swords. Their swordsmanship was superb and every strike was a deadly one.
"Long Xuanfeng, give up the treasured sword and I'll let you survive!"
A swordsman clad in white robes looked fierce with a long scar on his face. He was being surrounded by 10 other swordsmen.
Hearing the calls for him the surrender, he smiled as something glittered by his waist.
"Clang clang!"
As the swords sliced against each other, there was a distinct sound. Under the moonlight, many swords were broken into half, revealing the swordsmen's shocked faces.
Within seconds, there was a slit on each and every one of their necks as blood spurted out.
Killing 12 people in a single stroke!
After executing the secret technique, Long Xuanfeng took in a deep breath and looked at his treasured sword with joy. "Haha... with the help of Cold Moon, I can perfect the extreme sword technique and become the most powerful in Cliff Region!"
"Whoooo!"
As a strong wind blew across, there were two black dots on the horizon.
The black dots were extremely quick and slowly, they became the silhouettes of two people.
"Mmm? Who's seeking death?"
As he was lost in his thoughts, Long Xuanfeng looked in the direction of the two silhouettes.
"Get lost, and don't be in the way!"
There was an impatient voice as a humongous force was felt. Without control, Long Xuanfeng fell backwards and the Cold Moon slipped out of his hands.
"Ahh... My treasured sword!"
As he exclaimed, he crawled to where the sword was. However, as he saw the Cold Moon stuck into the ground, there were 5 holes on it, allowing him to see through it.
...
"Lin Qianye, you're really persistent!"
Such a small distraction was unable to pique Fang Yuan's interest. As he looked at Lin Qianye who was giving chase, there was a look of fear on his face.
Previously, he had used Ruan Ming's life to threaten Lin Qianye for while.
After 2 hours, Lin Qianye began to catch up to him again.
Fortunately for him, he had cultivated in both spiritual technique and martial arts. Although he could not match up against Lin Qianye, he could still defend himself. Along the way, he had tried escaping and fighting back, and they had now entered the Cliff Region.
By now, he had figured out how Lin Qianye could track him down.
"He should be tracking me down based on my spiritual aura... Is this his increased sensitivity since he is about to condense the Divine Body?"
He had tried to lose him multiple times but Lin Qianye had managed to catch up every single time. There was a menacing look in Fang Yuan's eyes.
In his actualised dream world, the Freezing Pearl had been fully absorbed and the Water Sword was halfway formed. There were also changes in his stats:
"Name: Fang Yuan
Essence: 36
Spirit: 30
Magic: 33
Profession: Dream Soldier Master
Cultivation: Illusionary Divine (1st Tier), Wu Zong (3rd Meridian)
Technique: [Giant Eagle Metal Body Technique (Grade 4) (1%)], [Hundred Poison Golden Body (1st Refining)], [8 Gates Sword Array (2nd Sword) (30%)]
Skill: [Medicine (Level 3)], [Botany (Level 5)]"
'I can try using the water-type sword essence now!'
Fang Yuan seemed determined.
"You have violated the rules of our sect. We will hunt you down no matter where you go! Do you think you can be smug just because you're a dream master? I have killed dream masters before!"
The cold voice of Lin Qian Ye was heard. To him, it was a surprise that this dream master had such a strong endurance.
The stronger his opponent was, the more determined he was to kill him!
This person had no backing and was not from the 5 powerful organisations. However, he was still strong and if left to survive, would bring them trouble in the future!
"Whoosh!"
As they continued the chase, son after, they could hear the sound of water gushing through a river. Just across a cliff, there was a huge river which was connected to the ocean.
"We're here!"
Fang Yuan approached the cliff and leapt forward.
"Don't think of running away! Thousand Leaves Palm!"
Behind, Lin Qianye gave chase as multiple shadows of his palms appeared and covered the sky.
As Fang Yuan struck his palm downwards, water splashed out from the river and rained down like raindrops. "Watch out!"
As the water evaporated, a blue sword appeared and struck towards Lin Qianye.
"Eh?"
Lin Qianye had been fighting against the fire sword for quite a while. Now that the cold water-type sword appeared, there was a layer of frost on his hands and he panicked a little.
Of course, this was only because he was caught by surprise. As the spiritual inscriptions on his body glowed, the frost melted.
"Fire Sword!"
Fang Yuan could not let this opportunity slip by.
He had chosen this place to strike in order to make use of the water from the river to strengthen his Water Sword. Quickly, he struck his Fire Sword out as well.
As the red sword combined with the blue sword, there was the force of an explosion. "Water-Fire Dual Sword Array! Explode!"
Of course, this was not the complete array. This was because the Water Sword had not been completely formed and was extremely unstable. However, Fang Yuan was leveraging on the instability of the Water Sword to result in the strongest possible explosion.
"Rumble!"
In mid-air, Lin Qianye could not dodge the sword and hand to counter it with his brute force.
"Whoosh!"
After the explosion, the red and blue sword essence dissipated, leaving the cliff with many holes.
In the mess, Lin Qianye got up to his feet and appeared extremely pale. As he clutched on to his chest, two open wounds started to bleed profusely.
"The spiritual aura is broken..."
As he took in a deep breath and glanced at the flowing river, there was a reverse in the flow of energy in his body as he spat out a mouthful of blood.
...
"Thousand Year Mountain... Lin Qianye?"
After three days, Fang Yuan had swum down the river and emerged from an underwater ice block. With an explosion, his body was revealed.
"I will take this revenge for I'm a gentleman!"
Looking in the upstream direction, he snickered and left.
With such a distance between the spiritual auras, Lin Qianye could no longer locate him.
At this point in time, his array was still incomplete. If he wanted to go against him head to head, he would still lose. Therefore, it would be wiser to take his revenge later.
"Now that the Thousand Year Mountain is investigating me, I should not return to Sand Region to bring trouble to the Qin Siblings..."
"Fortunately that is just one person, we'll see as the time goes..."
As he looked around, he realised that the place was very foreign.
After a long escape and swim through the river, he no longer knew the place.
"I should look for a place to settle down for the night before trying to train my martial arts and strengthened my sword array..."
Looking at the sun, he chose a direction and started to make his way. "Fortunately, I can access the Dream Realm anywhere in Da Qian, so it wouldn't make a difference wherever I go!"
Since he knew that he was still being chased after by Thousand Year Mountain and might have even caught the attention of the Imperial Court, he quickly changed his appearance and died his hair, adopting the look of a middle-aged man. Following the direction of the river, he arrived at a small town.
After casually looking for an inn to stay and finding out where this place was, he realised that the town was called Fengxiang, under the jurisdiction of the Ming Region.
Fang Yuan's fortune was all in the Mountain River Pearl. After another half a month's journey, he found a town and used his elemental crystals to purchase a small mansion.
Da Qian had quite a lot of control over the happenings in the whole empire. Regardless if it was buying a mansion or doing other stuff, if one did not have an identity, they would be noticed.
However, Fang Yuan's method was simple.
He looked for an average family and used his dream-accessing technique to alter their memories, allowing him to be recognised as a long-distance relative. Using elemental crystals and his relations with the people, he would be able to do anything and since he had no criminal records, the officials would not care that much as well.
The middle-aged man which Fang Yuan had transformed into had no criminal records and could therefore successfully purchase the mansion for him to take cover.
"Da Qian is different from other places. As long as I have elemental crystals, I can buy spiritual rice, spiritual vegetables and even spiritual water. They would even deliver it to my doorstep..."
After taking a look at the kitchen, Fang Yuan was extremely satisfied.
He would have hired a few servants, but he had too many secrets. Since this place was only a temporary holding place for him, he saw it as unnecessary trouble.
"To think about it... I have seen in the Dream Realm that the most suitable rice for dream masters would be Yellow Grain Rice, as in 'Yellow Grain in every dream'. Unfortunately, this type of spiritual rice would surely be at least a Mystery Grade and is rather rare. If I have a plot of spiritual land in the future, I could buy some from the Dream Realm to plant?!"
In the small town, the highest grade of rice that they would sell would only be of Yellow Grade, which was still sufficient for him to replenish his energy.
After a full meal, Fang Yuan entered the Dream Realm.
On the streets, there was a flash and Fang Yuan appeared.
"Victorious East Region, Thousand Year Mountain!"
As he arrived at the rock tablet, he paid a few contribution points and obtained some basic information.
"Thousand Year Mountain is an influential sect in the Victorious East Region. The sect head is Venerable Longhu who had cultivated in the 'Dragon Tiger Hell Guarding Formula'. It has the potential to open up to 8 spiritual meridians and form the Dragon Tiger Divine Body. That is its True Divine, and he is ranked 13th in the Dragon Ranks!"
"The Vice Sect Head is Lin Qianye and has a cultivation level of an 8th Meridian Wu Zong. He is trained in the Kurong Mysterious Technique and the Thousand Leaves Palm... he is ranked 5th in the Tiger Ranks!"
...
"With a True Divine leading the sect, it is indeed rather troublesome... If I were to hire a dream master of comparable capabilities, I might not be able to afford it."
As he thought about it, he contacted Feng Xinzi and briefly described the situation.
"Oh? Brother, you have angered the Thousand Year Mountain?"
This was a reaction he had expected. Feng Xinzi sounded calm, as though it was not a big deal.
After all, Da Qian was too huge and dream masters were able to travel everywhere. Who would be able to control the dream masters?
Needless to say, Feng Xinzi's backing was much stronger compared to Thousand Year Mountain.
"In fact, the Thousand Year Mountain is nothing much, except for Venerable Longhu. After all, he is a True Divine... Only 7th Tier Illusionary Divine dream masters would be able to deal with him!"
Feng Xinzi sighed.
The 7th Tier of Illusionary Divine was similar to the 7th spiritual meridian of Wu Zong and the 7th spiritual point of spiritual knights. However, the power of a 7th Tier Illusionary Divine dream master was much greater than the rest.
Fang Yuan was stunned. Even Feng Xinzi himself was only around the 3rd to 4th Tier in the Illusionary Divine stage. After all, doing alchemy to produce a spiritual pill was different from creating a conscious mind.
Spiritual pills were just a physical entity like a spiritual sword, unique in nature. However, a lifeform would be able to reproduce by itself and the difference between these two concepts was immeasurable.