Chapter 423: The Appearance of the Sand Bug and Sun Palace
Translator: 3heryl Editor: Hitesh_
The three colored light cover had not broken yet, but the cutting power that came with the Sky Thunder Cut had made Ghost Moon Spirit Warrior keep backing out, drawing a long, three colored line in the air.
"Damn! The spell of Yin... Kill!"
So many different expressions displayed on his face right then as Ghost Moon used this opportunity to increase the distance between them and formed a spell with only one of his hand. He then continued to perform his profound sense martial art, the Spell of Yin, shooting out one light mark after another.
"Spirit direction!"
Ye Chen used his sword step while his body flew around the gap of the Spell of Yin. The sharp sword qi formed into a vague, sharp attack, thrusting toward his opponent.
The Ghost Moon Spirit Warrior had a similar attacking power as Ye Chen's, but he was not as powerful as the latter in terms of battle skills. In fact, if it were another Sea of Souls Realm warrior, even he or she might not be able to beat Ye Chen in battle skills. The sword step Ye Chen had learned from the top three sword arts was extremely different but powerful. He had used his own body as the sword and performed the sword art, which was something that most people had never heard of before in their lives. If one wanted to separate the sword step into rankings, then it would be more powerful than the top rank Earth Realm step arts, about fifty percent of a profound step art.
Shoo! Shoo! Shoo!
Taking one step to the east and one to the west, Ye Chen's sword step was like his sword art; unpredictable and full of imagination. It had pushed the Ghost Moon Spirit Warrior to back out continuously, sweat dripping down his forehead.
"No, this guy is too complicated. If I continue to battle with him like this, then I will ruin my reputation forever." Ghost Moon was still thinking straight. He knew that no matter what happened today, he would have embarrassed himself already, but there would still be a level of it. If he continued to battle like this, then it would mean damaging his reputation more and more. So, he knew that no matter how furious he was right now, he would have to step out.
With that thought in his mind, he pushed his Zhen Yuan, jumping out and reappearing ten miles away.
"Little brat, I will let you live today. When I see you again, I will make you bleed within five moves."
After leaving that threat, the warrior exploded his Zhen Yuan and grabbed Duan Lingyun, shooting out into the distance. After dozen blinks, they both had disappeared completely.
Shoo!
Waiting after Ghost Moon had left, Ye Chen let out a huge impure breath. It was his first time taking on a Sea of Souls Realm warrior, so it would be weird if he was not nervous about it. But of course, he was more excited at the fact that he could use all of his power, and potentially reach beyond his limit. For him, the normal limit of an Astral Reaching Realm warrior and Extreme warrior was still too weak, which could not inspire his interest.
"I learned a lot from this battle. I finally learned about my power level."
The Ghost Moon Spirit Warrior was at Early Sea of Souls Realm, his top rank Earth Realm martial arts had not been trained to its completion, and he possessed two top rank great weapons, one for attacking and the other for protection. His profound sense martial art had been learned by about thirty percent. In general, he was at middle but slightly upper class in the whole Sea of Souls Realm. He was neither too powerful, nor too weak.
Ye Chen knew that he would have a better view of the Seas of Souls Realm warriors after meeting another one, and use him or her to compare to the Ghost Moon Spirit Warrior.
"Mister Ye has broadened my horizon. This is my first time seeing an Astral Reaching Realm warrior competing with a Seas of Souls Realm warrior. The whole time, you were competing with him as an equal, and even gaining an edge at times." Wang Tong had regained his normal condition as he flew over while his clothes ruffled in the air.
Putting his sword back into the scabbard, Ye Chen said "I am flattered. If it were some other Sea of Souls Realm warrior, it would be great if I managed to even stay alive."
Wang Tong laughed, "You are being humble. Besides the other ones, there are only a handful of martial geniuses who can take on Seas of Souls Realm warriors. In other words, Mister Ye, you are definitely one of the top ten warriors in the whole South region."
"Yeah, Mister Wang has gotten it right. Speaking of which, I think the reason that the whole competition atmosphere was brought up is Ye Chen." Murong Qingchen nodded and agreed.
...
The Chaoyang Mountain…
Right then at that place, a lot of explorers could be seen there.
When the auction finished, there happened to be more people than expected who had known about the map of the immortals. A lot of them had paid good money trying to buy a replica of the map, since it would not be that hard to do so. This resulted in that three hundred maps turning into more than a thousand, and the number was still growing at this moment. Therefore, the explorers were also more than a thousand of them here.
With Wang Tong being the guide, Ye Chen and Murong Qingcheng soon found the mountain where the rank 11 beast king, Blue Light Chicken had stayed in.
The mountain had already been burned to crystals, but they all stayed the same, without rotting after all these years.
"The Blue Light Chicken was a rank 11 beast. Although the warrior spirit that had been left has already disappeared, the mountain that had been soaked in the beast yuan still stayed behind. Even Astral Reaching Realm warriors do not seem to have the power to destroy it, and I don't think the Sea of Souls Realm warriors would be willing to damage such a valuable mountain." Wang Tong was introducing the mountains as he walked into the deep parts. Soon, the three arrived in an area where no one was around.
Ye Chen let out his soul power without others noticing, trying to detect the surroundings. Soon, he had found a wall painting on the edge of the mountain he was at.
Walking in front of the painting, Murong Qingcheng said, "It looks like the first pattern of the map was indeed this mountain inside the Yangface mountain range."
In their sight was an evil-looking and bright chicken-shaped beast carved on the wall. There was a cave under the beast's foot, inside which were shouting white skulls, and it was indeed the second pattern on the map. There was also a sun above the chicken in the painting, with small dots around it, looking like it was a desert.
Ye Chen suddenly had a thought. He took out his map and realized after opening it that those three objects on the wall painting were exactly the same as the ones on the map. The starting point would be the chicken pattern, then the skull on the right lower position to the chicken. After reaching the fifth pattern, it seemed to reach higher and higher until the twelfth sun pattern was exactly on the right upper place to the chicken drawing.
"I see."
Ye Chen continued to be submerged in his thoughts, then took out some papers and a pen and drew those objects onto the paper in a smaller scale.
There was no end line on the map, but there should be a way to create a much more detailed map by reading the carving or something else, since that map he had only served the purpose of guidance.
After leaving the Yangface mountain, the three walked toward the second pattern on the map.
According to Wang Tong's guess, the second pattern represented three different places, one being the white bone mountain, the other being the bone burying place, while the last was the skull cave. But, according to the wall painting, the skull should be inside the caves. Therefore, the skull pattern representing the skull cave was very likely.
Without any surprises, the three had found another wall painting in a discreet corner of the skull cave. It looked like it had been through a long history, as it was all blurred out. But luckily, Ye Chen was able to use his soul power to sense what was on that wall painting.
After the skull cave was the Frog Lake, with a secret path under the river. Inside that path, where no water or fire could get in, was another ancient looking wall painting that had lasted until now.
As for the fourth pattern, the difficulty had increased again. With two circles and one square, it formed a weird looking pattern which had made Wang Tong think for a long time before relating it to the Two Side Mountain in the middle of the Extreme Yin Place. Luckily, the three hit the jackpot, as the Two Side Mountain was indeed the location the pattern was trying to guide them to.
The fifth pattern!
The sixth pattern!
The seventh pattern!
...
The eleventh pattern!
Within half a month, the three had continued to find eleven wall paintings, and soon reached their twelfth destination, the gold desert.
"There are quite a lot of people here!"
Ye Chen looked over and saw around forty or fifty people there, with dozens of them being Sea of Souls Realm warriors. There was even one in a black robe, from whom Ye Chen could sense an extremely horrifying qi, which should belong to a Seas of Souls Realm master. It was not Ye Chen's first time seeing this guy, as it was indeed the man Murong Qingcheng, Duan Lingyun, and he had encountered on that grassland briefly.
The man in black robe looked around, revealing a slight smile, "It looks like selling the map was a smart move. After only half a month, there are already so many people who have found this place. After giving them some more time, they might be able to lead me to places that I haven't found before."
The man in the black robe was indeed from the Yin Demon Martial School. Ever since the tenth pattern was solved, he had been observing the other people, because they must have been full of historical knowledge and could probably solve them all.
Boom!
Right at that moment, the surface of the sand started to shake slightly. Quite a bit of the sand shot out into the sky, covering the sky and sunshine. It was quite a scary looking scene.
"Ahh!"
Cries broke out as three Astral Reaching Realm warriors seemed to be swallowed by something, disappearing into the deeper part of the desert.
The fear had spread out in the area. Besides the powerful Sea of Souls Realm warriors, no one was not afraid.
Boom!
Another wave of sand jumped up into the sky as a huge mouth appeared on the ground. There were sharp teeth in the middle of the swirl, as if it was a blender that could shatter everything. It was connected with a soft wall of flesh. Ye Chen, Murong Qingcheng, and Wang Tong just happened to be on top of it.
"Sky Demon Catch!"
Murong Qingcheng did not wait for Ye Chen to do something as she drew a circle with both of her hands in the air, forming an invisible power field, tearing apart the huge mouth by force. During this whole process, Wang Tong could not help but gasp at how huge that thing was. It was more than two thousand meters long, and three hundred meters wide at the widest part. Even the thinnest part would still be hundred meters wide. It was a super sand bug, big enough to swallow a whole street.
The sand bug used all of its power to struggle in the power field as it tried to escape from its control. But, Murong Qingcheng was not a normal Astral Reaching Realm warrior. She twisted her right hand and twisted off half of the bug's body. A green fluid shot out everywhere, soaking up the surface of the sand.
Perhaps it was only a coincidence, but right after the sand bug had been killed, the sky started to brighten up and a beam of sunshine spilled down. Suddenly, some broken buildings appeared out of nowhere in the eyes of the crowd.