<<Previous Chapter Index Next Chapter>>
Translator: Truth
Editor: Dhael Ligerkeys
Two days ago, Lu Yi Ye summoned the Vermillion Bird of the Four Sacred Beasts using an unknown technique and annihilated over two hundred cultivators in one strike. While the technique was powerful beyond measure, there was no way he had cast it without an unimaginable cost.
Later, he met up with Ju Jia and escaped into the inner depths of the Myriad Poison Forest, going further than any Spirit Creek Realm cultivator had ever gone without dying. They all thought that he would be poisoned to death at any moment.
However, it had been two days since Lu Ye went in, but the bastard was still alive. And how could they tell? His name was still present on the Scroll of Supremacy.
[How is he still alive?]
That was the question every Thousand Demon Ridge cultivator was asking themselves right now.
Even if he was a master of wards, and he was able to create a livable environment for himself, he was already poisoned the moment he entered the Myriad Poison Forest. He shouldn’t be able to hang on for so long.
[Maybe we’re overthinking this… maybe he’s going to die any moment now. Any moment now…]
It was that hope that kept them waiting at the edge of the Myriad Poison Forest.
They could not rest until Lu Yi Ye was well and truly dead. They weren’t going to leave until they saw his name disappearing from the Scroll of Supremacy with their own eyes.
Unfortunately, they received some bad news while waiting for Lu Yi Ye to perish. The Grand Sky Coalition was intercepting all Thousand Demon Ridge cultivators who were making their way to the Myriad Poison Forest, and already they had lost a lot of good people.
They had predicted this though. They had gone above and beyond to hunt down Lu Yi Ye. Of course the Grand Sky Coalition was going to dish out some payback. However, the Grand Sky Coalition could not attack the defense line because they were outnumbered, so they opted to intercept their reinforcements instead.
So, the Thousand Demon Ridge began warning everyone making their way over to the Myriad Poison Forest to be careful. At the same time, they also dispatched some squads to receive their allies.
About one hundred kilometers away from the Myriad Poison Forest, a battle—or rather, a one-sided massacre had just finished a while ago. A couple of Thousand Demon Ridge cultivators were lying dead on the ground. Beside the bodies was a quiet and demure woman calmly raising her hand to reveal her affiliation. She was Hua Ci of course.
Right now, Hua Ci was feeling quite exasperated with her now dead escorts. She was hoping that they would take her all the way to Myriad Poison Forest so she could find an opportunity to slip through and seek out Lu Ye, but these bastards were unfortunate enough to pass through an area that just happened to be hiding a squad of Grand Sky Coalition cultivators. Naturally, they were slaughtered without resistance.
Left with no choice, Hua Ci could only reveal her Battlefield Imprint.
The Grand Sky Coalition squad numbered eight people in total, and their leader was a Heaven Nine cultivator. His sword was three inches away from Hua Ci when he noticed the blue light on her hand and ceased his attack. He exclaimed in surprise, “Junior sister! Why are you with the Thousand Demon Ridge?”
Hua Ci explained, “I’m a medicine cultivator. They took me hostage while I was coming to the Core Circle.”
Everyone let out exclamations of realization. In the Spirit Creek Battlefield, it was quite common for medicine cultivators to be captured by the enemy. Generally speaking, the cultivators would not mistreat their prisoners too much unless they were exceptionally sadistic. Naturally, they had no idea that Hua Ci was one of theirs until she had revealed her Battlefield Imprint.
“This place isn’t very safe right now, junior sister. Would you like to travel with us?” The swordsman asked.
Although Hua Ci was just an ordinary Ninth-Order cultivator, she was qualified to explore the Core Circle. More importantly, she was a medicine cultivator. Cultivators got hurt all the time, and having a medicine cultivator in their squad would allow them to push themselves further.
When Hua Ci shook her head, the swordsman nodded. “You should leave as soon as possible. The Thousand Demon Ridge may visit this location very soon. Safe travels, junior sister.”
With that, they got on their flying Spirit Artifact and took off.
After seeing off the group of Grand Sky Coalition cultivators, Hua Ci glanced at the lifeless bodies beside her again and felt a wave of scorn toward them. They had acted like they were invincible when they ran into her, but in reality they were so weak that the Grand Sky Coalition cultivators had slaughtered them like helpless chicks.
The problem was that she was relying on them to take her into the Myriad Poison Forest, something her Grand Sky Coalition comrades couldn’t do no matter how helpful they were.
[One hundred kilometers… sigh.] She had no choice but to bring out her own flying Spirit Artifact and continue toward the Myriad Poison Forest.
Her Storage Bag was currently in her rescuer’s hands. They thought it had belonged to the Thousand Demon Ridge group, and she hadn’t mentioned it because there was nothing valuable in it anyway. The flying Spirit Artifact beneath her feet was literally her only possession right now.
Thankfully, her luck took a turn for the better after this interlude. She did not encounter any more Grand Sky Coalition or Thousand Demon Ridge cultivators until she reached the edge of the Myriad Poison Forest. It was there she saw large groups of Thousand Demon Ridge cultivators surrounding the forest.
From a bird’s eye view, it was easy to tell that the Thousand Demon Ridge had the place surrounded not just on the ground, but in the sky as well. Countless Thousand Demon Ridge cultivators were patrolling the area just in case Lu Ye decided to escape through the sky.
Unfortunately, they weren’t able to look into the forest despite their vantage point. Its thick, poisonous fog was obscuring the view.
Hua Ci did not descend to the ground. Instead, she floated in mid-air and stared at the poisonous forest before her for a moment.
Some Thousand Demon Ridge cultivators noticed her presence but paid her no heed. At most, they stared at her a second or two longer because she was beautiful.
After all, no one thought that a Grand Sky Coalition cultivator—a medicine cultivator no less—would be bold or crazy enough to reveal herself before them, much less float in the mid-air as if she was afraid they wouldn’t notice her.
Excluding familiar faces, it was impossible to tell if a stranger belonged to the Grand Sky Coalition or the Thousand Demon Ridge unless they revealed it themselves by willing their Battlefield Imprint to glow. However, who would check her affiliation when she had so brazenly showed herself to her supposed enemies?
It was a classic case of human error.
“Is there anyone here who’s a medicine cultivator! We need a medicine cultivator!” Suddenly, she heard a cry from nearby. Hua Ci turned her head and saw a young man hollering on top of his lungs. She was going to ignore him when his next words changed her mind immediately.
“We’re looking to enter the forest to search for Lu Yi Ye! Will any medicine cultivator lend us their assistance?”
“I am a medicine cultivator,” She said while landing in front of the young man.
The young man examined her for a moment. While she was certainly easy on the eye, good looks weren’t what he was looking for right now. “Your cultivation level is a little too low…”
He wanted a medicine cultivator who had switched to a Heaven-Grade cultivation technique because his party would be safer assuming they were planning to venture deeper into the forest.
Hua Ci added, “I am well versed in the art of poison removal.”
The young man shot her a suspicious look. He then walked up to a man with a thin face and sharp chin and whispered a little something. The man let out a chuckle and took out a pink-colored Spirit Pill from his Storage Bag.
The young man took the Spirit Pill and handed it to Hua Ci. He then asked, “Assuming that someone was afflicted with this poison, can you cure it?”
Hua Ci grabbed the pill and, without even bothering to check what pill it was, tossed it into her mouth immediately.
Everyone around her was stunned by this. The young man who gave her the pill could barely keep his jaw off the floor!
He was just going to test her claim. He did not expect her to eat the Spirit Pill like it was candy!
The owner of the Spirit Pill—the man with a thin face and sharp chin—could not help but step closer and look Hua Ci up and down for a reaction. A long time later, he finally uttered in disbelief, “You’re… fine?”
The Spirit Pill wasn’t a deadly poison, but it was something most women greatly abhorred. It was because it was an extremely powerful aphrodisiac that could stoke even the lust of a female cultivator who had switched to a cultivation technique. For obvious reasons, the pill was usually consumed behind closed doors. They had never seen someone bold enough to eat it in public. If the user didn’t know what they were doing, there was a one hundred percent chance they were going to engrave themselves into the history of Jiu Zhou in the most embarrassing fashion possible.
“Do you have more?” Hua Ci actually asked with a wishful expression, causing the pill owner’s eyes to twitch once. This was the first time he had ever encountered such a strange woman!
“Your poison removal skills are truly remarkable, junior sister!” The young man beside her let out a hearty laugh. “Alright then. We will be in your care!”
Hua Ci smiled kindly. “Do not worry! I will take good care of your lives!”
Her response sounded a little strange, but the young man did not think much about it. He made a wave and said, “Alright, we have everyone we need. Let’s go!”
At his command, over twenty cultivators gathered around the young man before heading into the forest with him.
Although the Thousand Demon Ridge was sure that Lu Ye was going to die very soon, they made sure to venture into the forest from time to time just in case he tried something tricky. If they were lucky, they would find him skulking about the trees. If not, they were putting pressure on the young man at least. They could not allow him to sneak back to the outer edge and potentially recover from whatever poison was afflicting him right now.
The dangers of the Myriad Poison Forest did not consist of the poisonous fog alone. There were countless poisonous creatures living in the area as well. The only reason the Thousand Demon Ridge was fine was because they had more or less cleared out all the poisonous creatures living at the edge of the forest.
The group of twenty did not spread out too far after they entered the Myriad Poison Forest. Lu Yi Ye had taught many of their comrades a fatal lesson at the Misty Mountains, and they weren’t about to make the same mistake.
Hua Ci was at the center of the group because she was their only medicine cultivator, not to mention that she hadn’t switched to a Heaven-Grade cultivation technique yet. It would be horrible to lose her in this deadly poisonous forest.
“Why aren’t you shielding yourself with your Spiritual Power, junior sister? I know you’re great at poison removal, but still…” the leader of the group warned in a hurry when he noticed that Hua Ci wasn’t shielding herself at all.
“Sure thing,” Hua Ci replied carelessly before covering herself in a layer of protective Spiritual Power. It was only then the young man relaxed and returned his attention to their surroundings.
They traveled a few kilometers in the forest until the poison in the air became almost unbearable. Despite having consumed a couple of Antidote Pills beforehand, the poison was starting to affect their health.
The leader of the group decided to retreat then. This wasn’t their first search attempt, and it wouldn’t be their last. They hadn’t found even the shadow of Lu Yi Ye so far, but in this case failure was actually good news. It meant that Lu Ye was still stuck within the inner depths of the Myriad Poison Forest.
The young man was just about to give the order when suddenly, he heard a soft thump. Immediately after that, someone cried, “Shit! Junior Brother Wang has collapsed!”
As if on cue, a couple more thumps happened all around them.
One of them yelled right before he fell unconscious, “Run! The poison is too—”
He fell silent before he could even finish his sentence.
This sudden turn of events scared the rest of the group because they had never experienced this during their previous searches. It wasn’t like this was the first time they were at this depth either. They did not understand why it was happening now.
In just the blink of an eye, only a few people were still standing. However, even they were feeling faint and wobbly on their feet.
