Chapter 367: Critical Moment
Translator: 3heryl Editor: Hitesh_
Boom!
The whole boat had been smashed into pieces, and a lot of Clasping Yuan Realm warriors were bleeding. They were obviously heavily wounded by the fall.
"What is this place?"
Everyone lifted up their heads and looked around, only to find that they were in the middle of ruins which were completely dark. They could not see beyond fifty meters. Fortunately, their soul power was not limited, and they could still scan for about ten miles.
"Perhaps we are at the bottom of the lake now?" Liu Mei looked towards Ye Chen and Grand elder Chen in surprise.
The latter answered in a deep voice, "The star region lake is too deep to estimate. Perhaps, we are a hundred thousand miles away from the surface or just dozens of miles. Grand elder Ye, what do you think?"
"I have no idea right now. However, it is always good to be careful." Ye Chen suddenly felt very oppressed. It was like something bad was about to happen, and his breath was also getting heavier and heavier.
Ye Chen's tone had caught the attention of Liu Mei and Grand elder Chen as well, since he was the most powerful one amongst them which gave him the most power to make decisions.
"What should we do now?"
Liu Mei asked.
Ye Chen said, "Let's figure this place out first."
Grand elder Chen nodded and yelled, "Everyone, follow us."
"Let's follow up quickly."
"Under the leadership of three Grand elders, we will be much safer."
The boat was huge, and there were thirty Astral Reaching Realm warriors in total, along with hundreds of Clasping Yuan Realm warriors. All of who heard Grand elder Chen's voice could not help but feel better. With the protection of the three, as long as there weren't any rank 9 beasts, they should be very safe.
Hundreds of them had been separated into three different classifications. The first one was made up of Ye Chen and the other two grand elders, the second one being the thirty Astral Reaching Realm warriors, while the third group were made up of the rest of the hundreds of Clasping Yuan Realm warriors. Under Ye Chen's orders, the Clasping Yuan Realm warriors were separated into ten different groups, with about twenty people in each group. They all moved forward peacefully.
There was nothing around in the ruins, white steam rising out of the ground as if there were a huge volcano under the ground.
"There is a stone forest ahead, where each rock looks like a mountain… a very steep one." Grand elder Chen was shocked after seeing those four-hundred-meters wide and thousands of meters high rocks eight miles ahead of them through his soul power. They all had a light grey halo, as if it rose from their bodies, making it look even more spectacular.
Ye Chen's soul power could cover an area a few times larger than grand elder Chen's, so he had noticed it a while ago. However, he sensed that it was very dangerous, extremely dangerous actually, which was why he did not say anything.
"Should we take a look inside?" Liu Mei and grand elder Chen looked over at Ye Chen. After giving it some thought, Ye Chen replied, "It looks quite complicated. I think it is best for us to not go inside for now. Let's inspect other areas first."
"Alright, let's walk around it then."
The group walked towards the left altogether.
The stone forest was just way too huge, and no one could tell how many miles it expanded out for. After a couple of hours, Ye Chen realized that it seemed to be almost endless, and it was almost impossible to go around it for some reason.
Wuaaaaaaa!!!
Right then, a wave of baby cries echoed out of the forest. With the grey-looking surroundings as a backdrop, it seemed extra creepy. People could feel the hair standing up on the arms.
"It gave me a scare… It is just the Foggy Beast!" Grand elder Chen was shocked first, but then revealed a smile. Although the beast was quite powerful, it was only powerful for warriors that were below Extreme Astral Reaching Realm. With the three of them there, they could take care of more than two of them each at the same time. It was especially true for Ye Chen, who had the greatest attacking power, and could take on three to four beasts at the same time without a problem. So, why should they be afraid?
However, the next second, he froze on seeing what was in front of him.
Countless more baby cries were heard without any pattern, and it did not seem that they would stop any time soon. Judging roughly, there were dozens, and perhaps even hundreds of them roaring at the same time.
"So many foggy beasts! Not good, let's run." Ye Chen reacted first. The sound was wrapped by the zhen yuan and poured into everyone's ears.
"Run!"
Without thinking, everyone flew away desperately.
If there were ten or twelve foggy beasts, Ye Chen and the other three would be able to handle them. All they would need to do was to leave them hanging. If there were twenty of them, then they would have to most likely run. But now, there seemed to be more than a hundred of them, and even the most casual wave of attack could have all of them killed in a flash.
Shoo! Shoo! Shoo!
Ye Chen and the other two were moving the fastest. Within a blink of an eye, they were both miles away already, leaving everyone else behind, wishing they had an extra leg.
On the edge of the stone forest, countless huge half-cow beasts jumped up into the sky. Between the two stone mountains, a seemingly vast tide of beasts appeared. With one look, it did not seem to have a visible end. There were more than five hundred of them, amongst which were even five foggy beasts with steam surging around them; they were obviously more powerful than the normal ones.
"Who!" "Who!" "Who!" "Who!"
With that sharp exploding sound, five hundred foggy beasts with their blood red eyes chased after Ye Chen and the group with extreme speed.
After couple of seconds, the beast were less than three miles away.
The beasts leading the pack slightly slowed down a bit as their mouths swelled up. In the next second, countless bright light columns shot out and sliced through the sky.
"Ah!"
A huge wave of attacks struck out!
Hundreds of Clasping Yuan Ream warriors were all killed on the spot, while thirty Astral Reaching Realm warriors also took a big hit. Only a couple of them, who had the fastest reflexes and had been running in the front, made it out.
However, it was only a single round of attacks.
"That's too frightening! Is this how we are going to die?"
The Astral Reaching Realm warrior running in the front looked very pale as his lips shook.
Ye Chen had been paying attention to the situation in the back. Seeing the actual quantity of the beasts which had exceeded his expectation, he could not help but force a laugh. Five hundred beasts!? Not to mention him, even the most powerful Astral Reaching Realm warriors would be turned into ashes by this force.
Although grand elder Chen and Liu Mei's sensing range was not as far as Ye Chen's. They thought that there would be one hundred of them or so, but that was frightening enough already. At some level, there was not much difference between five hundred beasts and one hundred beasts, because with one round of attacks, they would all be dead nevertheless.
"Luckily, the beasts are not as fast as us."
Liu Mei said with a sigh.
"Ah!"
After a couple of yells, except Ye Chen and the other two, the others were all killed.
"Hurry up, let's lose the beasts."
Ye Chen performed his Shadow Body Separating Flying Art, and his body started to flash.
"Yes, if we don't lose them, then we will be running like this forever."
Grand Elder nodded as zhen yuan shot out of his body, the silver light shooting out as well from his back. Liu Mei's speed was a bit faster than grand elder Chen. Her body flashed repeatedly, looking like seven or eight figures flying in the air: she was not that slower than Ye Chen.
After a few moments, Ye Chen could not sense the beasts anymore.
"So dangerous! This place seems to be the nest of the beasts." Grand elder Chen breathed loudly as sweat appeared on his forehead.
"We cannot stop now. The beasts are only forty and fifty miles away."
Ye Chen said.
"Okay, let's keep moving!"
The three of them kept up their speed, looking like three weak light beams above the ground.
Woooo! Woooo! Woooo!
Without a break, the beasts' groans appeared in the front. Although there were not as many beasts as the one in the back, but there were dozens of them still.
With both the front and back covered by the beasts, the three were stuck in a very critical situation.
"Let's run through!"
Ye Chen yelled as the Blue Wood Sword appeared in his hand.
"As long as we don't get hit by five attacks at the same time, we will have a chance to live. Run!"
Grant elder Chen and Liu Mei both took out their weapons; they were both full of killing vibe.
The dozen miles would only take them a few seconds.
The three of them were only miles away from ten beasts.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The burning hot white light columns shot out of their mouths.
Crack!
Dozens of light beams crossed together, fast as lightning. No matter how fast Ye Chen's flying art was, he would not be able to avoid all of the attacks. The protective zhen yuan layer was already full of holes, lowering his speed drastically. Liu Mei was not as fast as Ye Chen, and she was also hit by three attacks, while grand elder Chen was hit by four attacks, blood spilling out of the corner of his mouth.
"I will go limit their movements. You guys try to create a path!" Ye Chen lifted up his Blue Wood Sword into the air, waving out the seventh movement of his Green Lotus Sword Art - Green Lotus Sky. The sky was frozen as countless green lotuses appeared and spread out. They all turned into a sword qi and landed on the foggy beasts' body.
Shoo! shoo! …
The sword qi contained some of the horrifying sword intent as it cut through the beasts' defensive layers. However, this level of wounds was not enough to take them down. The only thing that pissed them off was that their movements became slow within the coverage of the sword attack.
"Mountain Attack!"
Grand elder Chen held his weapon and threw out an attack, blowing away the two beasts in front of him.
"Wind Whip Spell!"
After a couple of popping sounds, a long black narrow shadow flashed past, with at least five or six beasts sucked away. Judging by the effect, it was way better than grand elder Chen's attacks. But of course, the attacking power was a bit weaker, since Liu Mei's attack was designed to blow the opponents away instead of actually killing them.
"Green Lotus Mountain!"
Between the two, a hundred-meters-long sword light appeared and reached down, slicing through the air while leaving a long black mark. It landed in the middle of the beasts and killed a lot of them.
Swoosh!
A beast had been decapitated while a couple of more beasts were badly wounded. More of them were blown away by the blasting wave of the sword light.
"Let's go!"
Ye Chen yelled.
Right then, the three pushed their speed to their limit, running across the empty area in the middle of the beast group, it looked like they were almost about to make it out alive.
WUAAA!
At this moment, an even louder roar was heard. Behind the beasts, right in front of the three, a humongous beast with fog surrounding him appeared out of nowhere. It opened its mouth and a bright white and purple light column shot out, covering the three within.
"There is no way out! Green Lotus Light!"
Ye Chen lifted up his sword, trying to block out the attack as countless green lotus flowers appeared on the tip of his blade. He did not dare to expand the flowers, because their defense power would be lowered, which might not help him escape from this attack.
Booom!
The air shook, and the light column seemed to have stopped the time, including the three.
Pooh! Pooh!
Both grand elder Chen and Liu Mei puked out a huge chunk of blood as they backed out. They were all the way back where the beasts were now, and Ye Chen followed. Meanwhile, he kept his sword in front of him.
"Not good! This beast is way more powerful than the other normal beasts. I am afraid only the Astral Reaching Realm paragons would have a chance to fight against it." Grand elder Chen forced a smile.
The green lotuses had been shattered, but Ye Chen was not wounded at all. However, the situation in front of them was definitely not in their favor. With the five hundred beasts chasing after them, without a doubt, they would be dead the second they arrived. Ye Chen had never expected that there would be so many beasts under the forbidden area.