Chapter 891: Escape Plan
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
Since the end of the Primordial Age, the Grand Celestial World had been separated into two parts and humans one world while demons resided in the other. The human world was named the Divine Lands while the demon land was called the Barren Expanses.
Even though ‘Barren’ was part of its name, the place itself was not all that barren. The reason for the name was that the flow of spiritual energy in the Greater world was completely unsuitable for human cultivators and were optimal for demons.
For immortal soul stage cultivators, heaven and earth were one and switching around spiritual energies was not too difficult. However, for cultivators that were not yet in the immortal soul stage, activity in the Barren Expanses would prove to be restrained and slightly difficult.
The degree of restraint was not too great. The only difference was that these cultivators would have to take a longer time to assimilate the spiritual energy of the Barren Expanses than otherwise. It would not be too challenging in typical days, but it could be the deciding factor between victory and defeat in the heat of battle.
On the other hand, demons faced similar problems when they were inside the Divine Lands. They were only able to gradually overcome the disproportionate nature of the spiritual energies if they were able to stay inside the Divine Lands for a prolonged period of time.
Lin Feng, Wang Lin and Shi Tianhao were not too affected by the change in environment inside the Barren Expanses. Tun Tun was excited and became active like a fish that just returned into water, but Yang Qing, Li Yuanfang and Luo Qingwu could feel the acute difference in comfort in the channeling of their mana.
The gap was small, but it was distinct.
"The three of you have never been to the Barren Expanses, so it will be a good experience and a form of training and exposure," Lin Feng smiled as he said, and Yang Qing and the two others nodded their heads in response.
Shi Tianhao chuckled and said, "There is not that much of a difference. It will all be fine after you adapt to it."
He had been inside the Barren Expanses more times than anybody else inside the Celestial Sect of Wonders. He was so familiar with this place that he even had a small reputation in the Barren Expanses from his last few expeditions. The active demons around the inter-world passage between the two worlds reacted with fear and apprehension at the news of his arrival.
This fellow was far too fierce and cruel. Not only did he kill demons, he even ate them. Furthermore, he was not too picky or particular about the way his meals were ‘served’, and this petrified the small demons to the point where they were unsure who was the real demon.
Wang Lin’s reputation was the fiercest amongst Lin Feng’s other disciples inside the Divine Lands. Since his first entry into the Void Battleground when he was still in the aurous core advanced stage, he had continuously defeated and killed nascent soul stage cultivators and eventually blinded Shi Tianyi in one eye. In the subsequent years, whenever he engaged in battle, his opponents and adversaries mostly ended up dead; Shi Tianyi was one of the rare few that survived after battling Wang Lin.
The last time he was inside the Void Battleground, his hands were once again stained with the blood of his opponents – whoever that possessed hostile intentions towards him or launched attacks against him all wound up dead. Wang Lin was known by many to be the number one butcher under the seat of the leader of the Celestial Sect of Wonders.
However, over in the Barren Expanses, Shi Tianhao’s notoriety and infamy was undeniable and unmatchable.
If one were to count seriously, the number of demons that he had killed and eaten to satiate his own desires probably be greater than the number of humans that died in the hands of Wang Lin.
Shi Tianhao surveyed the vast world before him, took a deep breath and stretched his back as his eyes sparkled.
Tun Tun had a similar reaction. The pair were as excited as they could be, and immediately began to search their surroundings with their consciousness at the same time. This spectacle made Wang Lin and the others a little speechless.
Lin Feng laughed as he tapped them on the heads. "We will finish what’s important first, then you guys can enjoy yourselves."
Tun Tun swallowed a ball of saliva and said, "Based on the geographical characteristics of the land near us, we are in the land of the Golden Rocs. However, we are still quite a distance away from their ancestral grounds. If we can find a stray Golden Roc, even if can only stare at it, I will already find it tasty."
They took the path of the Void Battleground and broke space-time to enter the Barren Expanses instead of the usual inter-world passage from the Divine Lands – this was the reason why they found themselves inside the hinterlands of the Barren Expanses.
The current leader of the Golden Roc Tribe was named Lei Yuan, and he was also the same Golden Roc Grand Sage who assimilated the Hades’ Dark Mantra back in the Cloud Forest World.
A thought flickered in his head as Lin Feng said softly, "Follow me." He swayed his sleeves and too everyone along into the void as he travelled through boundless layers of space with just a few steps.
When they regained their footing, they found themselves before a giant swamp. Shi Tianhao took one look and shook his head immediately, "I’ve never been to this region before."
Tun Tun inspected her surroundings meticulously and tilted her head as she tried to bring something up from her memory. She hesitated before she attempted a guess, "I think this placed is called the Great Jingyun Swamp. When I was younger, before my physical body was destroyed, my father and I walked past this place before. My father warned me not to get too close, as this was the home of the Nine Infants."
Lin Feng had heard of the legend of a nine-headed strange serpent that had the power to spit both fire and water from its head, and made sounds that highly resembled the high-pitched wailing of an infant – hence the reason for its name. It was an extremely active great demon thousands of years ago, and participated in the most recent war between the worlds.
This demon had no kinsmen and was a lone wolf. However, he was already at the third-level undying demon soul stage all those years ago. He survived the war and retreated into reclusion and rarely showed himself to the outside world.
When news that the Heavenly Charms Grand Sage and the Golden Roc Grand Sage had obtained the Hades Dark Mantra spread, this powerful demon resurfaced in the Barren Expanses.
The Nine Infants Grand Sage was not ranked amongst the Ten Demonic Saints. However, the reason was because he cultivated alone and lived like a hermit and rarely roamed the world. If one were to pick the Ten Demonic Saints based on power and mastery, the Nine Infants Grand Sage was superior to almost all ten of them.
The Ten Demonic Saints was typically used to refer to the ten most active powerful demons in the Barren Expanses, and was not representative of the ten most powerful ones.
Similarly, before Lin Feng’s rise to power and the stirring of the Divine Lands, if one were to create a list called the ‘Ten Human Saints’ by the same method, people like the Tai Yi Holy Man, Yan Nanlai and Xin Longsheng would not be selected. The powerful cultivators that were relatively more active would be people like Emperor Shi Yu, Emperor Liang Pan, Shi Tianfang of the Samsara Sect and Mo Xiuluo, the Royal House Lord and the others; not a single person from the Great Void Sect would have been chosen either.
The Ten Demonic Saints comprised the Heavenly Charms Grand Sage, the Golden Roc Grand Sage, the Purple Sea Dragon King, the Golden Crow Grand Sage, the Taotie Grand Sage, the Qiong Qi Grand Sage, the Tao Wu Grand Sage, the Nine-tailed Heavenly Fox Grand Sage, the Xuanming Grand Sage and the Lu Yuan Grand Sage.
Nine of them had their own kinsmen and tribesmen. The only exception was the Lu Yuan Grand Sage – he was a powerful Lu Yuan with a tiger’s head and primate’s body. His eyes could see through the Sun and Moon and he roamed the world alone.
The Lu Yuan Grand Sage was also the most upsetting and problematic one off them all. He was wild and untamable, and was violent and belligerent by nature. He obtained satisfaction and contentment from battling other great demons and he craved improving his own masteries through combat. At the same time, he was smart about picking his opponents as he chose those who were slightly stronger than he was yet not too much, and was the reason for his infamy and notoriety in the Barren Expanses.
His power was still formidable, however. Back in the day, before the Golden Roc Grand Sage had obtained the Hades’ Dark Mantra, the Lu Yuan Grand Sage challenged both him and the Purple Sea Dragon King and both battles ended up in a draw.
The reputation of the Ten Demonic Saints was in a state of decadence. The Golden Crow Grand Sage ventured into the Divine Lands a long time ago and ended up being imprisoned by Lin Feng. The Qiong Qi Grand Sage joined under the wing of the Golden Roc Grand Sage, and the hated and despised Lu Yuan Grand Sage had been missing for many years.
However, the Heavenly Charms Grand Sage and the Golden Roc Grand Sage reappeared in the world packing a more powerful punch and started turning the heads of all the demons in the Barren Expanses. Even though the Purple Sea Dragon King, who was ranked on the same level as them, was relatively more low-profile, nobody in the Barren Expanses or the Divine Lands dared to underestimate him – the Purple Sea Dragon King had the Immemorial Celestial Dragons behind him.
The dragons inhabited in the Black Sea, which was one of the Grand Celestial Seven Seas. Many powerful dragons lived like hermits inside the Black Sea and seldom came out; the Purple Sea Dragon King was their representative to deal with certain issues inside the Barren Expanses.
Despite their low profile, ever since the Hades Beast Tribe completely vanished without a trace, the dragons had become the most powerful race in the Barren Expanses, and possessed influence and power superior to that of even the alliance of the Phoenixes and the Divine Parasol Trees.
In recent years, it was not just the Divine Lands that had been stirred up by the Celestial Sect of Wonders. The Barren Expanses had their share of disharmony and conflict as the dragons started to develop ambitions and they wanted to come out of their seclusion.
At the same time, other great demons like the Nine Infants Grand Sage were becoming more and more active.
The circumstances inside the Barren Expanses were changing rapidly as well, as they did inside the Divine Lands and nobody dared to blink.
However, with Lin Feng’s current level of mastery, he was not too concerned about the Nine Infants Grand Sage – unless, the latter had managed to become the Infants Emperor, who had the power to dominate the entire Barren Expanses. Then, Lin Feng would have to be careful.
The void flickered in front of them as a tall human figure walked out from within. The figure had white-colored scales but his physical features and characteristics were exactly the same as Lin Feng’s. The only difference was that the scaled human had two white horns on his head – dragon horns.
It was Lin Feng’s Thunder Dragon Avatar, and its eyes flashed with lightning of four different colors and shook the eight barrens.
When the Spirit Sea returned to the Greater World, the Thunder Dragon Avatar moved towards the Barren Expanses at once and Lin Feng’s original body dealt with the issues inside the Divine Lands.
Lin Feng used to leave marks on the souls of the relatively more outstanding disciples in the Celestial Sect of Wonders, but that was a long time ago. Xiao Yan, Zhu Yi and the others were in the immortal soul stage now, and this task was naturally passed down to them and Lin Feng no longer needed to bother himself.
The Thunder Dragon Avatar had followed the marks into the Great Jingyun Swamp. He was not too hasty to act as Zhou Yuncong’s light was still burning bright and displayed no signs of weakening or extinguishment. All he did was monitor, and laid in wait for the original body to show up before they rained hell upon the enemy together.
Lin Feng’s original body exchanged looks with the Thunder Dragon Avatar and nodded in silent unison before the Thunder Dragon Avatar vanished into thin air and Lin Feng’s original body immediately descended into the Great Jingyun Swamp.
The lake water separated naturally and did not obstruct Lin Feng’s advance at all.
He continued forward and reached the bottom of the lake in no time, and it was at this moment that a certain being in the murky depths of the lakebed jerked awake – in the next moment, it was already staring at Lin Feng who had arrived before it in no time with a rather astonished look.
It was a strange serpent with nine necks growing from its torso, and the mouths of the snake heads were overflowing with Yin Water and Yin Fire. The Yin Water tainted the swamp a pitch-black color, but what was more insidious was the fact that the Yin Fire was unaffected by the water as it raged in the middle of everything.
The nine mouths of the serpent made shrill sounds that resembled the wailing sounds of infants – it was the Nine Infants Grand Sage.
Even though he had been living like a hermit inside the Barren Expanses, he still recognized Lin Feng with just one look.
He wasted no words as the nine serpent heads howled in unison and a colossal magic formation glimmered beneath him; countless mystical and ancient runes shimmered into vision.
Lin Feng’s eyes sparkled a little and his gaze effortlessly saw through the light layer formed by the mystical runes.
He immediately realized that the Nine Infants Grand Sage wanted to send away the tiny world beneath his feet to somewhere else, along with himself.
This third-level undying demon soul grand sage seemed to be a guardian for this world of consciousness.
Lin Feng swept the area with his psychic senses as his facial expression grew a little strange. "Heh, nice escape plan."
Zhou Yuncong was not inside the small world, but Lin Feng discovered something else that caught his attention.
The Golden Cicada Master had discovered the mark that Lin Feng had left on Zhou Yuncong’s soul some time ago, and used his own esoteric methods to remove the marking.
Even though the Golden Cicada Master tried his best to overestimate Lin Feng’s abilities, he never expected that Lin Feng’s abhijnas were equally unique – the soul mark that had been removed was transferred onto something else that the Golden Cicada Master held dear. Due to the effects of the Golden Cicada Master’s execution of his own spell, the transfer was far too obscure and discreet and the Golden Cicada Master was unable to detect.
The outcome was that Lin Feng’s expedition to search for his sect’s disciples turned up nothing, and he ended up blockading the Nine Infants Grand Sage and that special treasure.