Secular Immortal of the Nine Realms - Chapter 198

Chapter 198: Returning to Coldreturn Hill

“Young master Fang, are you out of your mind? You know what’s lurking in there, but you still want to head in there to court your own death?!” Li Daoye exclaimed.

Zhao Yan and Xu Ge were curious to know what was in the cavern to terrify Li Daoye so much. The latter had always put on a fearless front, albeit trembling a little whenever the Blood Spirit Cult was mentioned.

“Wait, are you the real young master Fang?” Li Daoye suddenly realized something. “If you are the real young master Fang, then the person who went in with us was…”

It didn’t make sense that Fang Chen could escape from that place faster than them, considering how they had left as soon as the restriction art was lifted.

“Pluck a weed from its roots.” Fang Chen patted Li Daoye’s shoulders. “Wait here. Don’t hesitate to run if you sense any anomaly.”

With that, Fang Chen headed toward the cavern and opened the passageway with the dragon head seal. Then, he turned around and beckoned Ji Congyun, “Elder Ji, you’ll be coming in with me to do me a favor.”

“Me?” Ji Congyun was taken aback. He looked at Fang Chen with a helpless smile and said, “I’m a mere martial artist. I don’t think I’ll be of any help to you inside.”

“I won’t be at ease if you remain outside. If you refuse to enter with me, I’ll make no choice but to take other actions,” Fang Chen said with a sigh.

“All right, I’ll accompany you on this trip, young master Fang.”

Knowing he had no choice, Ji Congyun followed Fang Chen into the cavern.

Xu Ge patted Li Daoye’s shoulder and asked, “Daoye, what’s in there? Why is the Ji Clan’s patriarch so afraid?”

“What’s in there? Hah, a lot of powerful faes,” Li Daoye proudly replied. “I would have never been able to return alive if not for my divine means. A martial artist like you would have died many times over inside.”

“Is it that scary?” Xu Ge was surprised.

Zhao Yan glanced at the nearby Nightmare Knights and saw their looks of agreement. That added credence to Li Daoye’s words, so he asked out of curiosity, “What about me?”

“You?” Li Daoye thought hard about it before replying, “You should be able to survive, but that’s hard to say. If you encounter that bat fae, it could stall you until you run out of energy.”

Longevity Ki martial artists were comparable to eighth stage Ki Refinement martial artists; the only difference was that former exerted inner ki, whereas the latter exerted spirit ki.

Li Daoye figured that Zhao Yan was unlikely to be able to slay any of the beasts as they were protected by spirit ki, but again, an expert of his caliber wouldn’t go down that easily either. He stood a better chance at surviving than Xu Ge.

“Since that’s the case, I shall go in and aid the young master,” Zhao Yan said.

Li Daoye quickly stopped him. “Don’t be a burden. I said that you should be able to survive, but that doesn’t mean that you’d be useful. You won’t be able to subdue any of the faes in there. That’s the fundamental difference between inner ki and spirit ki, and it can’t be bridged by any means.”

“But…” Zhao Yan was hesitant.

“But what? Shouldn’t you know your young master well? I thought that he died there and nearly shed tears for him, but what happened in the end?” Li Daoye harrumphed. “In any case, he probably has a plan in mind. Let’s just wait here lest these people block the exit again.”

He glared at the nearby Nightmare Knights.

Xu Ge nodded in agreement. “Daoye is right. Our young master wouldn’t have returned to the cavern if he wasn’t confident. Let’s just patiently wait here.”

“All right.” Zhao Yan nodded.

…

The stone fae and the bat fae appeared to have already left. The entrance was peaceful.

Ji Congyun hesitated for a moment before saying, “Young master Fang, we have to wait at least ten days before we can leave this place. Can you tell what’s your goal here so that I can prepare myself for it?”

Even Immortal Zuo dared to return here anymore after coming here once. Similarly, Ji Congyun had only been here once because he knew of the threats lurking here.

He couldn’t help but feel nervous now that he was trapped inside for ten days. He might be a Longevity Ki martial artist, but he was still a mortal in the face of death.

“You won’t be of any help to me,” Fang Chen replied.

“Fuck this!” Even Ji Congyun, who had been brought up in a cultured environment, couldn’t help but spew a curse. He brought me in despite not needing me at all? Does he want me to die in this godforsaken place?!

“However… I guess you do have some value, after all. I’ll be counting on you to lure the faes away,” Fang Chen replied. “Meet me here ten days from now. There are some plants here that are useless to cultivators but highly beneficial to martial artists like you. If I succeed, I’ll be able to scrape everything of value from this place in a single go.”

Ji Congyun was taken aback. He stared at Fang Chen in disbelief as he asked, “Young master Fang, do you mean it?”

“Of course. I’ll need the aid of your people then. As for the split, let’s go with 1:9. You take 1, I take 9,” Fang Chen said.

“1:9? That’s a bit…” Ji Congyun was tempted to haggle.

“You should be content to get a tenth of it. You probably didn’t get anything good here from worshiping your cultivator either, else you wouldn’t have been stuck at Longevity Ki for so long,” Fang Chen replied.

He had noticed many herbs and fruits while traveling to and fro the Coldreturn Hill.

These herbs and fruits contained very little spirit ki and were nowhere on par with the Scarlet Fruits and the Blood Ginseng, but they were great for raising a martial artist’s martial cultivation! If they could scrape this place clean, it would be a piece of cake for them to nurture a hundred Earth Profound realm martial artists!

“Are there resources here that can help me advance to Heaven Profound realm?!” Ji Congyun was shaken up.

“There might be,” Fang Chen replied with a smile. “Now, you should get working.”

The bat fae whizzed across the sky from the horizon.

Fang Chen unhesitatingly rushed toward Coldreturn Hill, leaving behind a dazed Ji Congyun. The bat fae alternated its gaze between the moving Fang Chen and the stationary Ji Congyun, and it decided to swoop down on the latter.

Ji Congyun finally snapped out of his daze. His heart beat furiously when he caught sight of the bat fae. With a furious roar, he exerted his inner ki out to form a palm print.

Boom!

The bat fae was knocked ten meters away, but it was unharmed. Ji Congyun’s inner ki was neutralized by the spirit ki cloaking it. Nevertheless, it was angry that a measly mortal actually dared to attack it.

“That was 80% of my strength, but I only knocked it ten meters away…” Ji Congyun’s face turned pale. He clenched his teeth and fled.

I just need to survive ten days.

Fang Chen’s words echoed in his mind. If I can get a tenth of what’s in here, the Ji Clan will be able to rise above Chillwater’s imperial family…

Days later, an unkempt Fang Chen finally arrived at Coldreturn Hill. The stone fae and a few other beasts eyed him with hostility from the foot of the hill, but they dared not to take a single step into the hill.

“Interesting. I thought you would go into hiding after making a fool out of me, but who could have thought that you would personally deliver yourself to me.”

Not too far away, Enlightenment Heaven Supreme stood loftily with his hands behind his back. He looked down on Fang Chen with a sinister smile.