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Translator: Fate
Translation Checker: Silavin
The hunting ground wasn’t very wide as it was only a few hundred thousand square kilometres. To cultivators with high cultivation levels, they could instantaneously surround the entire area with their divine sense and witness everything that was happening.
Standing on the pavilion with his hands behind his back, Gu Changge gaze afar through the windows with his deep eyes.
“Fascinating?” Yu Feiya was taken aback and baffled by Gu Changge’s words. As she was feeling perturbed, she seemed rather distraught.
Nonetheless, Gu Changge simply chuckled without giving her any explanation.
Before he came to the Great Yu Celestial Dynasty, he was informed that an unopened ancient world appeared at the border of the Dynasty. Though, the news was well contained by the Dynasty, it was hard for others to determine whether it was real.
Among this batch of prisoners that were captured from the border of the Great Yu Celestial Dynasty, Gu Changge detected an unusual aura. Precisely, an aura with completely different World Principles.
[If it’s simply a stain, the aura would have waned over time, but this doesn’t seem as simple as a stain. Rather, it seems like one that was shaped and grown in another world… Perhaps a native from another world? But why did she end up here and even become a prisoner?]
Gu Changge’s divine sense swept across and landed on the petite, feeble figure.
From her appearance, she seemed to be a teenager wearing a sackcloth garment. Dirtied and messy, her long hair was tied behind her head. As it was blemished by blood, it was stuck together, and some parts of it were entangled. One could hardly identify her gender. At the same time, her ankles were bound with a heavy shackle that clinked loudly, and it was arduous for her to even walk.
Despite the circumstances, she was still vigorously running in the barren forest. Her soiled face remained extraordinarily serene, carrying immense desperation and will to live. Regardless of her cultivation level and history, she was now a lowly prisoner. The only way for her to survive was to keep running to prevent her hunters from catching up to her.
Gu Changge scanned the rest of the prisoners with his divine sense, but he didn’t detect similar auras with different World Principles from their bodies.
All of a sudden, the young woman piqued his interest. [If she’s really from the ancient world which the Great Yu Celestial Dynasty is arduously concealing, perhaps I could gain some information from her.]
Now that Gu Changge’s Inner Universe was in the key moment of its evolution, and it was also the period where the Epoch Dao Fruit was about to mature, he was eager to look for the suitable World Source to devour..
Although the Upper Realm was surrounded by unlimited Lower Realm Worlds, they were too inferior for his needs. Even if he were to devour their World Source for his Inner Universe’s evolution, they wouldn’t provide significant contribution. Besides, he was planning to set up bait to draw all Forces of the Upper Realm, and the ancient world would make a befitting bait.
With that in mind, Gu Changge was no longer hasty. He continued to pay full attention to the young woman’s action with his divine sense.
The hunting ground took up a huge area, including a vast forest that knew no borders. Within, there were also a huge number of prisoners trying to run for their lives, as the hundreds of people were dashing in all directions.
Unfortunately, some of them were slaughtered by the princes or disciples on their mounts, being shot with arrows at their final, hopeless moment. Though, most of the prisoners were gnawed to death and became food to the vicious beasts on the hunting ground, while some accidentally entered hazardous spots and triggered dangerous arrays before exploding into mists of blood.
[There’s a deep pond about a thousand kilometres ahead. There lies a venomous salamander. If she were to continue heading that way, she might get herself killed.] Gu Changge furrowed his brows. He was going to observe, to see if this young woman could survive, but judging by the circumstances, she was about to walk into a life-threatening situation.
With her cultivation sealed and her arms and legs being constricted, there was no way she could survive a venomous salamander of the Sacred Realm. If she were to die now, Gu Changge would have a hard time searching for clues about the ancient world.
“Well, I’ve got nothing to do anyway. Ah Da, come with me.” Although Gu Changge was initially uninterested in the hunting game, he changed his mind afterwards, ordering Ah Da to pick up the bow and arrows from the side as he got up.
Yu Feiya was taken back by his unexpected spontaneity, but she refrained from asking any questions. In her perspective, Gu Changge might be feeling bored staying here with her, so he might as well join the hunting game.
“Young Master Changge, since you’re joining the game, why don’t I accompany you—” Yu Feiya said after a moment of thought.
However, before she could finish her sentence, Gu Changge smilingly refused, “I shan’t bother you, Princess Feiya. I’ll just have Ah Da follow me.”
Naturally, he wouldn’t allow Yu Feiya to follow him in this venture, given that the young woman must be carrying some sort of secret within her body as she didn’t seem to be an ordinary prisoner.
“Very well, then.” Yu Feiya didn’t expect Gu Changge to reject her so swiftly, so she felt somewhat embarrassed. Though, as the well-educated Eldest Princess, she didn’t feign any odd emotions. She understood that the ‘Ah Da’ Gu Changge mentioned was his subordinate of the Quasi-Nirvana Realm, who possessed terrifying strength. He even once displayed a menacing aura back in Dark Kun City.
Without saying more, Gu Changge left the pavilion with Ah Da for the dense woods.
There, a thin layer of fog wafted around the thriving trees that covered the sky, casting a huge shadow on the land.
*Crek…* Huge, dried leaves were stepped on by hasty steps into bottomless pits of mud. This area comprised a pond and exuberant thorny plants. As it was surrounded by miasma, bugs could be seen crawling all over the place. There were even skulls half-buried in the soil, and there was no telling how long the owners of these bones had been dead.
At that moment, the young woman was still in her unkempt appearance. She wore severely damaged sackcloth garments that revealed the dirt and blood on her skin.
Dragging along the weighty chains with her, she arrived at the area. When she turned around to take a glimpse, she saw no pursuers beside her, so she subconsciously heaved a long sigh of relief as she leaned against an old tree and started panting. As she was panting, she seemed to have accidentally pressed on her wound.
She tensed her brows as her face blanched. Luckily, her face was covered in dirt, making it hardly discernible.
After a brief rest, she speedily got up without excessively dwelling in the state of calm as she chose to continue running. Although the prisoners were given a full three day’s time to escape, she was very well aware that her pursuers possessed cultivation, so it would be easy for them to locate her. Therefore, she had to grasp the opportunity and run somewhere deeper, in hopes that she could survive for the following three days.
[I have to live! I can’t die here! There are still so many things I have yet to fulfil!] Her eyes were exceptionally weighty and calm. In this instant, her body was filled with wounds as her ankles were bound to chains. Ever since she was captured and her cultivation was sealed, she had never gotten to consume any food nor drink water.
Despite having been a formidable cultivator in the past, she almost passed out under such a circumstance. Furthermore, she was now no different from an ordinary mortal, and she had no advantages except for her sturdy flesh. To the vicious beasts hiding in the surroundings, she would certainly make a fine meal.
“Father went to fight off the Otherworldly Sky Demons and went missing, and Mother is still waiting for me to return. I can’t die here! I have to return home!” The young woman clenched her fists, grasping a completely ordinary dagger that was smaller than her palm. It was her sole weapon, her sole way to defend herself now.
As it turned out, she was not of this world, or more precisely, she was not of the Upper Realm, but an ancient world wherein cultivators intensively cultivated the Sword Dao.
Her father was one of the most powerful beings in that world and one of the few Earth Sword Immortals remaining. Though, as he tended to shy away from fame and battles, he had lived discreetly in the wilderness.
Ever since she was a child, she possessed stunning Talents, and she received her father’s legacy early on. At a young age, she defeated numerous young prodigies from different lands, and the people of her world referred to her, along with a few other young prodigies, as the Four Quasi-Sword Immortals who possessed bright, limitless futures.
Alas, everything that seemed so perfect was destroyed half a year ago.
One day, a frightening rift that was 50,000 kilometres huge occurred in the sky, as though the sky was grievously wounded. Even the people infinitely far away could vividly perceive the terrifying scene, trembling in immense fear. From time to time, a spine-chilling gust and chaotic turbulence would blow towards them, as if the anomalies were charging towards a terrorising world.
Even the powerful beings referred to as Earth Sword Immortals dared not to step upon the area, worried that they might be absorbed into it and be disintegrated.
In their world, Earth Sword Immortals’ could live up to hundred thousands of years, and their strengths could only be described as ‘devastating,’ as reshaping terrains and picking stars would merely be mundane tasks to them. Yet, they were nothing but helpless in the face of the gargantuan rift.
Followingly, something even scarier happened. The following days, countless living beings with petrifying powers appeared from the rift.
The elderly claimed that, according to the archives, those beings were the Otherworldly Sky Demons who came from a boundless otherworld. They could have possibly been dwelling in the starry skies, waiting for the barriers of space to shatter before they commenced their invasion.
These beings held menacing weapons, and their appearances were even more fearsome and intimidating. In the beginning, they initiated their massacre in that world in an attempt to conquer the ancient world. As if there was no end to these relentless beings, the residents fended off a wave of the invaders, only to have even stronger beings charge towards them.
In the end, even those regarded as unparalleled Earth Sword Immortals were gravely injured by the most vicious ones among the Otherworldly Sky Demons and almost died. Although they eventually managed to drive off the Otherworldly Sky Demons, the battle resulted in their critical injuries.
Moreover, they were aware that the next Otherworldly Sky Demons that were to come would be even more terrifying, and they would stand no chance against them.
Thus, the prominent great forces, including the Shu Sect, Sword Cliff, and Kong Mountain, began to gather the Sword Immortals and discussed tactics against the Otherworldly Sky Demons.
Ultimately, the solution they came to was that, since they were unable to seal off the rift, they should send men towards the source of the rift and obliterate the enemies to put an end to the disaster. Ever since the former Sword Immortal of Shu Sect perished while trying to breakthrough, there was no longer anyone in their world that was able to rip space apart, so entering the rift was their only way.
As for the young woman’s father, he was among the Earth Sword Immortals who were assigned to annihilate the Otherworldly Sky Demons. He promised her and her mother that he would return after he fulfilled his mission.
Sadly, months later, there was no news of him, as if the Earth Sword Immortals who went to destroy the source of the Demons had vanished into thin air.
Despite that, she was reluctant to believe that her almighty father would be defeated, so she disregarded her mother’s opposition and determinedly stepped into the giant rift.
Poor girl