Chapter 571: Hidden Intentions Being Revealed
Su Lin from the Heaven Palace Sect had been paying close attention to even the most subtle changes on the other island.
Instead of cowering behind the major defensive spell formation they had set up, she stood on the seashore and gazed off into the distance.
The other island, which she knew was crawling with outsiders, seemed rather indistinct in her view. Her current cultivation base didn’t allow her to have a clear view of everything happening on that island.
However, as the outsiders fled the island, due to their sense of urgency, they left the island in different directions.
Some of them happened to evacuate the island from the area Su Lin was observing. Only after flying a short while in Su Lin’s direction did they get ahold of their bearings and change directions.
That was why Su Lin was able to see the fleeing outsiders.
After a moment of pondering, she realized that, considering that the outsiders seemed to be rushing away from that island with great urgency, it must be because that island was no longer safe for them.
Since she didn’t see a single human Qi warrior leaving the island, the only explanation would be that the human Qi warriors had prevailed.
Upon hearing her exclamation, all the chosen ones who had chosen to stay there rushed over to her. Their expressions flickered drastically as they stared off into the distance.
Yang Kan, Lu Jian, Yu Yang, Liao Yan, and the others followed Su Lin’s pointing hand, and saw a few Stonemen flying towards the depths of the black sea on their dilapidated teleportation portal.
Lu Jian, who had mocked Dong Li and the others for going earlier, was too shocked to finish his sentence, his face completely frozen. “What’s...”
Eyebrows furrowed, Yang Kan and the other chosen ones wracked their minds for an explanation. However, there only seemed to be one rational explanation, which was that Dong Li and the others had driven those outsiders off of that island.
“They won?! How is that possible!?” Zhang Jiu exclaimed. Then, with a grim look in his eyes, he pondered in silence for some time before saying, “Ah… I got it.”
Everyone laid their eyes on him.
He took a while to sort through his thoughts, and then said, “Even though Nie Tian is exceptionally powerful, he’s only at the middle Greater Heaven stage. He was able to take out outsiders one by one before more outsiders came to surround him. Doesn’t this suggest that those outsiders aren’t as hard to deal with as we expected?
“This is the only explanation as to why he was able to kill them without effort.
“And the outsiders would only join up to kill him if they weren’t strong enough on their own. Thus, when those from the Yin Sect, the Yang Sect, the Ice Pavilion Sect, and the Realm of a Hundred Battles rushed to Nie Tian’s aid, they easily gained the upper hand.
“Perhaps any of us can single-handedly deal with two to three outsiders.
“I think this is the only reasonable explanation.”
The reason why he reached such a conclusion was that he had never battled outsiders personally. In fact, none of them had.
The disciples of the Yin Sect and the Yang Sect had been the first to discover and fight the Stonemen. Later, the people from the Ice Pavilion Sect had joined the fight.
None of the people who had stayed on this island had ever faced a single outsider, so their understanding of the outsiders’ strength was very limited and inaccurate.
Lu Jian from the Spirit God Sect looked enlightened by his words, and thus chimed in, “That’s very possible! It seems that we overestimated the outsiders’ strength. Numbers alone can’t determine the result of a battle. Only that can explain why Nie Tian managed to kill so many of them by himself, and why those outsiders fled the island as soon as the others arrived.”
Then, after a moment of silence, Yang Kan joined the conversation. “We’ve explored this island for a long time now. There aren’t any secret fortunes to find here anymore. If we continue to hold fast here, we won’t be getting any more valuables. However, we still don’t know much about that island. For all we know, there still might be all sorts of precious materials waiting to be gathered there.”
Upon hearing these words, everyone’s eyes instantly lit up.
With a vicious expression, Yu Yang chimed in, “Those guys just had a battle with the outsiders. They must have suffered losses as well. It might be a good chance for us to go there now. Also, as long as our collective strength is stronger than that of whatever’s left of them, we’ll be able to force Nie Tian to return what he took from us!”
Yang Kan was the first to second his proposal. With a cold tone, he said, “Those six crimson stone columns were my most precious spiritual tools. I’ve got to get them back!”
“That Fiend’s heart was also of great value,” Liao Yan said. “My heart bled when I had to give it to that guy.”
That was when everyone’s gazes landed on Su Lin, as if they were waiting for her to make the decision for everyone.
Su Lin also felt heartache as she thought of the Golden Chariot she had given to Nie Tian. After a moment of pondering, she felt that the others had made good points, and thus nodded slightly and said, “I agree that we should go and check out the situation on that other island, and then act accordingly.”
“What are we waiting for then? Let’s move out!” Liao Yan urged.
Even though none of these chosen ones had had the courage to scout out the island, now that they were convinced that fortunes were waiting to be gathered on that island, they summoned their air-transportation spiritual tools without the slightest delay.
Under their control, air-transportation spiritual tools of a variety of shapes rapidly rose into the air and left the seashore one after another.
Close to the seashore on the other island...
Qin Yan from the Water Moon Chamber of Commerce stared down at a number of purple spirit plants that were growing by a small pond. After a brief examination, her eyes lit up as she exclaimed, “Purpleblooms! These are sixth level Premium grade spiritual materials, and the main material to make Purplebloom Pills! One Purplebloom alone is worth thirty thousand spirit stones in the Domain of the Falling Stars. And there are at least six dozen of them here!
“If we take them back to the Domain of the Falling Stars, we can sell them for at least two million spirit stones!”
As a core member of the Water Moon Chamber of Commerce, she had an accurate knowledge regarding all sorts of spirit plants. Not only was she able to tell the plants’ name at first sight, but she also managed to determine their value right away.
Feng Ying almost skipped with joy. “We made a very wise decision by coming here!” With a bright smile, she added, “It seems that as long as we stick with Big Brother Nie, we can expect plenty of fortunes! If we had stayed on that other island with those from the Heaven Palace Sect and the other sects, we never would have seen these Purpleblooms.”
Qin Yan was also full of smiles as she nodded gently and said, “That guy truly is a star of fortune. If it weren’t for him, how would Li have possibly obtained a Fruit of Life from the Realm of Unbounded Desolation? Ever since she entered a close relationship with him, she’s made consecutive breakthroughs in her cultivation, not to mention that she recently refined that eighth grade black phoenix’s corpse. So it seems that Nie Tian always brings great luck to himself and others around him.”
Another member of the Water Moon Chamber of Commerce chimed in, “Otherwise, why would the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace happen to choose him to be their successor?”
Qin Yan nodded, her bright eyes glittering. “Good point. From now on, we’ll stick with this star of fortune. Perhaps other good fortunes will fall upon us too.”
The other members of the Water Moon Chamber of Commerce nodded in assent one after another.
Feng Ying suddenly sensed an anomaly, and thus exclaimed, “Senior martial sister! Look! Those guys are here!”
Everyone followed her hand, and discovered that a number of air-transportation spiritual tools were sailing across the black sea and rapidly approaching the part of the island where they were standing.
Moments later, all of the young Qi warriors from the other island landed in the area Dong Li had allocated to the Water Moon Chamber of Commerce. They quickly put away their air-transportation spiritual tools and marched over to Qin Yan.
With a single glance at the spirit plants by the pond, Su Lin said, her eyes wide, “Purpleblooms! Sixth level Premium grade spirit plants! They are very hard to find in the Domain of the Falling Stars!”
Even though many of the other Qi warriors with her didn’t recognize Purpleblooms, they must have heard about them. Their eyes all shone with greedy light.
“What are you doing here?” Qin Yan asked coldly.
Zhang Jiu from the Poison Sect let out a cold snort and said with a disdainful look on his face, “You can come here. Why can’t we? Now that the outsiders are gone, this island has become unclaimed territory. Anyone has the right to explore it. We went to great lengths and suffered great losses to come to all this way to this place from the Domain of the Falling Stars. We did all that to gather precious materials in this place, didn’t we?”
“But Sister Dong Li has already allocated this area to the Water Moon Chamber of Commerce!” Feng Ying suddenly exclaimed.
“Dong Li?” Yang Kan grinned viciously. “Who put her in charge? She says this area is yours, and we’ll have to live by it? What happened to Nie Tian? Did he die at the hands of the outsiders?”
Liu Jian sneered. “He was surrounded and attacked by dozens of outsiders for quite some time. Even if those outsiders were fairly weak, he should have suffered severe injuries, if he hasn’t died yet.”
“It’s about time we got those things we asked him to keep for us back,” Liao Yan said with an insidious expression.
Panting with exasperation, Feng Ying exclaimed, “Those things were the remuneration you paid for Nie Tian to go on a dangerous mission that none of you dared to! How can you dare to call them things you asked him to keep for you?! How shameless are you!?”
Liao Yan fixed her with a murderous gaze. “They are what I say they are. I don’t want to repeat myself.” Then, he turned to Su Lin and asked in a low voice, “Miss Su, what do you think we should do? I say we take out the Water Moon Chamber of Commerce first, and then cleanse this island one group at a time. After that, we’ll have this whole island to ourselves.”
Upon hearing these words, Qin Yan’s expression flickered drastically as she instantly shouted out an order, “Leave those Purpleblooms! We need to get out of here now!”
The other members of the Water Moon Chamber of Commerce were also rattled upon hearing Liao Yan’s proposal. The moment they heard Qin Yan’s order, they tore their longing gazes from the Purpleblooms and sped off towards the heart of the island without the slightest hesitation.
Su Lin frowned as she watched them run, and said, “Let’s find out about the situation first. At least, we need to know if Nie Tian is still alive, and if he is, how badly injured he is.”
However, before she could finish, Yang Kan, who didn’t seem to have heard her at all, shouted, “They’ve split up to explore their allocated regions. That means this is the perfect opportunity for us to take them out one group at a time! Now that the outsiders are out of the picture, we’re the only ones on this island. Conflicts are going to break out anyways! Since there are Purpleblooms on the coast, there must be more precious spirit plants inland. If we want any of them, we’ll need to strike first to gain the advantage!”
With these words, he sped off after the fleeing members of the Water Moon Chamber of Commerce.
Before Su Lin could object, the members of the Poison Sect, the Thunder Mountain Sect, and the Heaven Expanse Sect rushed out after him.