Chapter 793, Zui Shan

Translator: Jon

Translation Checker: Silavin

 

After Xu Wang was gone, Yuan Xiang stood there with an embarrassed expression.

 

Following a moment of hesitation, she suddenly bent her back and apologised to Lu Ye with sincerity. “I’m sorry, Senior Brother Lu. You saved my life, but I lied to you.”

 

She had been deep in self-blame while on their way back, but she had to do it for the safety of the base. It had something to do with her upbringing over the years.

 

If they easily brought back strangers without looking into their backgrounds first, the base couldn’t have stayed safe for over ten years.

 

Before Lu Ye could speak, Ying Wuji suddenly said in a weird tone, “An apology with only words is not sincere at all.”

 

“Sincerity…” Yuan Xiang seemed to understand his intention, so she rose to her feet. “Please give me a minute, Senior Brothers.”

 

With that, she turned around and ran out of the room. It wasn’t certain what she was going to do.

 

As only Ying Wuji and Lu Ye were left, the atmosphere was awkward.

 

When they were travelling together, there was always something they had to do. Now that they were left alone in the room, Ying Wuji felt uncomfortable as he was the weaker one. After all, they were enemies at the end of the day.

 

He regretted spouting nonsense to the young woman earlier. With someone else around, the atmosphere would’ve been less awkward.

 

Suddenly, he coughed and came up with a random topic. “Lu Yi Ye, do you think we should ask them about where the Hidden Realms are?”

 

Lu Ye understood that if they wanted to solve the predicament in this world, they had to start with the Hidden Realms. Ying Wuji wasn’t a fool, so he could think of that as well. Although Yuan Xiang had said the Hidden Realms couldn’t be easily found, they would be able to do that as long as they knew the approximate locations.

 

Unfortunately, Lu Ye didn’t seem to have any intention of responding to him. He only glanced impassively at him.

 

After they stared at each other for three breaths of time, Ying Wuji looked away.

 

He felt immensely pressured and wondered why he had even asked that question.

 

He turned his head and saw a tiny head sticking out from the wall. His eyes were full of curiosity.

 

It was a boy that was roughly seven or eight years old. He was at a stage where he was curious about everything. He had been living in this base since birth, so he had never seen the Sunlight outside before, let alone people who were not from the base.

 

The arrival of Lu Ye and Ying Wuji had undoubtedly piqued his interest.

 

The boy was cautious as he only watched them from outside without the intention of entering the room.

 

As if seeing a saviour, Ying Wuji beckoned to the boy. “Come over here!”

 

Shocked, the boy quickly retracted his head.

 

A moment later, he couldn’t help but stick out his head again, and he couldn’t move his eyes away.

 

There was now a red fruit in Ying Wuji’s hand, and an aroma permeated the entire stone room.

 

“Come over here!” Ying Wuji beckoned to the young boy again, trying his best to appear harmless.

 

The boy looked at him and the Spirit Fruit in his hand. Unable to resist the temptation, he meekly entered the room.

 

He stood obediently in front of Ying Wuji and looked up at him. Just as Ying Wuji was ready to ruffle his hair, the boy quickly extended his hand and took the fruit before turning around to run.

 

“You brat!” Ying Wuji was torn between laughter and fury.

 

He was a Ninth-Order Cloud River Realm Master. Regardless of how unsuspecting he was, it was impossible for the young boy to snatch something from him. He had let the boy do that.

 

Following the interruption, the pressure he felt coming from Lu Ye dissipated.

 

“Did nobody tell you wealth should not be flaunted?” Lu Ye suddenly said.

 

Ying Wuji snorted. “Well, it’s just a fruit…”

 

Before he could finish his words, he felt his eyelids twitching. There were several tiny figures at the door. They had come to this place upon seeing that Ying Wuji had fruits.

 

They only looked longingly at the man in silence.

 

Ying Wuji suddenly came to the realisation that such common fruits, which he usually ate to quench his thirst, were precious in the Peerless Continent.

 

He wanted to tell them off, but he couldn’t bring himself to do that as he looked at their pleading eyes. Helplessly, he sighed and produced several fruits out of nowhere before beckoning to those kids.

 

“Wow!” exclaimed the kids as they rushed into the room. After respectively taking the fruits from the man, they ran out of the place.

 

When they arrived at the door, they crashed into Yuan Xiang, who happened to return just then.

 

“Stop running around. Why are you even here? Don’t disturb our guests!” Yuan Xiang spoke and helped them up. Just as she was ready to chastise them, she caught sight of the fruits in their hands. The aroma she had never smelled before made her crave such fruits as well.

 

While she was distracted, the kids ran away.

 

Yuan Xiang came to her senses and quickly hid the thing behind her back.

 

She was holding a dried fruit which she had treated like a treasure for years.

 

The gift of apology looked pathetic compared with those Spirit Fruits, so she could never give it to the two of them.

 

“Those Spirit Fruits…” Xu Wang appeared suddenly. When he saw the kids leaving with the fruits, he was surprised.

 

Those Spirit Fruits were ordinary in peaceful times, but in the current environment, cultivators could hardly find these high-quality fruits again.

 

Xu Wang wondered where these two men came from. They easily gave fruits of such quality to the kids.

 

He was now certain that these two men had no ill intentions against their base. People of their calibre were naturally not interested in a poor base like theirs.

 

“Elder Xu.” Yuan Xiang looked at Xu Wang with a reddened face before saluting the towering man beside him. “Senior Zui Shan.”

 

Zui Shan nodded and ordered, “Go and prepare some tea.”

 

A relieved Yuan Xiang hurriedly left the place.

 

After she was gone, Zui Shan adjusted his old clothes and stepped into the stone room. He swept a glance over the two of them and cupped his fists. “Greetings. I’m sorry for not welcoming you in earlier.”

 

Lu Ye rose to his feet and saluted him back, followed by Ying Wuji.

 

Seeing that Lu Ye had no intention of speaking, Ying Wuji could only do that for him. “There’s no reason for you to apologise, Fellow Cultivator. We should be the ones saying sorry for coming without an invitation.”

 

Zui Shan slightly set his mind at ease. He had heard from Xu Wang about the two of them and realised that they came from an extraordinary background, which was why he came to see them.

 

He happened to see Ying Wuji distributing the fruits to the kids, and upon hearing his words, he instantly felt that the two of them didn’t have any malicious intentions.

 

He especially had a good impression of Ying Wuji. A man who was amiable to the kids wouldn’t be a bad person.

 

“Have a seat, please.” Zui Shan extended his hand, and they were all seated.

 

After some small talk, Zui Shan cut to the chase. “I heard that the two of you had saved Yuan Xiang. All of us owe you a favour. If there’s anything you need, just tell me straight away. I won’t turn you down as long as I’m able to fulfil it.”

 

As the leader of the base, Zui Shan had to find out their intentions. Although they came across Yuan Xiang and rescued her, they then escorted her back to the base. It was apparent that it was more than just fulfilling Yu Zhen’s last wish. They must have their own goal.

 

He didn’t give them a promise, though. His words suggested that if their demand was outrageous, he couldn’t agree to it.

 

Ying Wuji turned to look at Lu Ye. “Why don’t you talk to him, Senior Brother?”

 

Although he had an idea in mind, he didn’t dare make a decision. He’d better let Lu Ye deal with this matter.

 

Zui Shan turned to look at Lu Ye in shock. It wasn’t until this moment that he realised, of the two people, Lu Ye was the one who could make the call.

 

“I want the locations of the three Hidden Realms,” Lu Ye replied succinctly.

 

Zui Shan was surprised. “Do you want to join one of the Hidden Realms?”

 

He was astounded that the two of them didn’t come from a Hidden Realm. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have come all the way here to ask them for the locations. They probably had been living in a small base and knew nothing about the outside world. That was why they even came up with such a demand.

 

Zui Shan shook his head. “I’m afraid I can’t help you with that. The locations of the three Hidden Realms are not permanent. They’ve been wandering around the Void. They might be in one place today, but they’ll be in another place the next day. If we don’t know the extrapolation method, we’ll never find them.”

 

If the locations of the Hidden Realms were permanent, they couldn’t have stayed safe for such a long time. The Corpse Race members would’ve stormed into them.

 

Even the cultivators who left the Hidden Realms had to go back at a specific time and to a specific location with the help of a specific Spirit Artifact to open the doors.

 

There were regular patterns as to how the Hidden Realms would move around, but just like what Zui Shan had said, they couldn’t find them without knowing the extrapolation method.

 

Lu Ye and Ying Wuji were shocked upon hearing that, not expecting the three Hidden Realms to be so well-hidden.

 

Yuan Xiang had never told them about it before. Perhaps she wasn’t even aware of that.

 

Before the Divine Transformation, the locations of the Hidden Realms were fixed. They were the properties of the top Sects, and their names were the identities of the owners.

 

For example, the Hidden Realms of Mount Sumeru and Purple Star Palace were the properties of the Sects of the same names.

 

However, after the Divine Transformation, the powerful cultivators of the top Sects realised that they were in a perilous situation. As such, they activated a Secret Technique and made the three Hidden Realms start wandering around.

 

The cultivators of the other Sects didn’t have such a capability, so their Hidden Realms stayed in the same spots, and they were occupied by the Corpse Race members later.

 

The only Hidden Realm with a permanent location was the Muddy Sky Temple controlled by the Corpse Race which had been renamed the Corpse King Temple by the Golden Corpse King Shi Sha.

 

Lu Ye had wanted to ask the people in the base about the locations of the Hidden Realms so that he and Ying Wuji could go looking for those places.

 

He didn’t only want to make use of the Hidden Realms to solve the crisis in this world but also meet up with the others.

 

It wasn’t certain where the people from Jiu Zhou were now, but as long as they had a rough understanding of the current situation in the Peerless Continent, they would go looking for the Hidden Realms.