nyslfriends Chapter 1127 Scouts
Chapter 1127 Scouts
The clear, melodious sound of bells echoed in the airship, awakening the tens of thousands of cultivators who were meditating and adjusting their breathing in the cultivation rooms.
Green Mantis Clan, Dragonmen, and Human Clan cultivators flew out of the giant ship in an endless stream. Zhang Yanwei, Chu Weicai, Zhou Muyun, Fu Luohai, and others surrounded Chen Yuan in front of them, whose early Nascent Soul cultivation level looked particularly striking.
Despite the subtle, mocking, and questioning glances around him, Zhang Yanwei remained calm and composed.
Although his cultivation level was low, he was his master's personal disciple and could not afford to show the slightest weakness.
After exploring for a week, the airship arrived at the interior of this dark place and stopped at its edge.
Of course, it was impossible for all of the tens of thousands of cultivators to be used to set up the formation. Most of them were scattered to guard against the attack of the demon race, leaving only a little over a thousand to follow the command of the formation master.
More than thirty array masters accompanied the army on the expedition, half of whom were at the Nascent Soul stage and the other half at the Spirit Transformation stage. They all obeyed the orders of Wu Xuan, the array master.
Each of these array masters took away dozens of cultivators, took out array plates, spiritual materials, and array flags from their mustard seed rings, distributed them to the crowd, and dispersed to set up arrays, leaving Wu Xuan to oversee the overall situation.
Two cultivators from the Cleansing Heart Hall accompanied Wu Xuan, meticulously recording the progress of the formation.
Their duty is to supervise whether Wu Xuan is fulfilling his responsibilities in setting up formations and investigating spatial rifts. If a demon army attacks, they will record the battle situation as a basis for rewarding merits and punishing crimes.
High in the sky, Elder Yuan and Wei Wushang stood with their hands behind their backs, their combined aura spreading out without reservation, even calming the raging wind, rain, thunder and lightning.
Zhang Yanwei found it strange that his master was not listed alongside Elder Yuan and Senior Wei, but instead mingled in the crowd.
But how his master acted was not something he could comment on, and others dared not say more.
Zhang Yanwei could only suppress his doubts and follow his master respectfully, awaiting his instructions.
After the army dispersed, Chen Yuan suddenly spoke up: "Fellow Daoist Chu and Fellow Daoist Fu, each of you select one hundred people whose cultivation is between the Core Formation and Nascent Soul stages. Carefully explore this dark place, look for any traces of the demon army, and draw up a detailed map."
The two men were taken aback for a moment, then clasped their hands in response, but a hint of doubt flashed in their eyes simultaneously.
This dark place is not far from the main camp. How did the demon army end up here?
But Elder Chen had already given his order, so they had no choice but to obey and immediately turned around to carry it out themselves.
Chen Yuan then turned to Zhang Yanwei and said in a deep voice, "You also go and investigate the whereabouts of the demon army. Be careful in everything you do. If you encounter any accidents, turn back immediately and do not try to be brave."
Zhang Yanwei was somewhat surprised, but he clasped his hands in a fist and replied, "Disciple obeys."
This dark place, where spatial rifts frequently appear in the sky, may seem extremely dangerous to others, but to Zhang Yanwei, who grew up in the Burning Demon Realm, it is nothing.
Even the most dangerous spatial rifts are far less dangerous than ferocious and monstrous beasts.
Zhang Yanwei turned and left. Before long, a hundred green mantises and a hundred dragonmen broke away from the crowd and ventured deep into this vast, dark land.
After a short while, a hundred cultivators from Huayu Peak and the Wei family also quietly left the crowd and disappeared into the storm.
Chen Yuan watched silently as their figures were shrouded in wind and rain, and said in a deep voice: "You should go and patrol the surroundings, carefully guard the formation, and ensure its integrity without any mistakes."
"We will obey Elder Chen's orders!"
Zhou Muyun, Zhou Lang, Zhuang Buhui, and the others behind Chen Yuan immediately agreed and dispersed.
……
The array for exploring the spatial rifts was extremely complex, requiring thousands of array flags and hundreds of spiritual materials. There were dozens of array plates alone, and it took seven days to set up the array.
After inspecting the area and confirming that everything was in order, Wu Xuan raised his hand and made a hand seal, sending hundreds of beams of spiritual light into the array plate to activate the array.
In an instant, the array flags fluttered, the array plates flickered, and a hazy spiritual light enveloped the array, but then there was no further movement.
The sole purpose of this grand formation is to emit an extremely subtle spatial fluctuation, carefully scanning every inch of space in the dimly lit area to search for spatial fragments that are still in their nascent stage.
Chen Yuan had heard Wu Xuan explain the reason: the Spirit Realm was able to detect the signs of the spatial rift's birth hundreds of years in advance by observing the changes in the spatial barrier of Tyrant Turtle Island.
However, this change involving the power of laws is extremely subtle, and it will be a long time before the spatial rift is truly born.
Originally, the spirit realm did not possess this ability. The Tyrant Turtle Island involves the secret techniques of immortals, making it extremely difficult for outsiders to discern its mysteries.
However, after dozens of spatial rifts were created, the spirit world gradually discovered the pattern and was able to predict the creation of spatial rifts in advance.
Over the next few hundred years, the changes in the power of the laws became more and more drastic, and the spirit world's exploration of spatial fragments became more and more refined, eventually locking onto a range of millions of miles in radius, which was also the limit of simply exploring spatial barriers.
The spatial rift was ultimately destined to be born on Turtle Island, and its traces had to be found on Turtle Island. This is how this extremely complex and intricate array came about.
Because the formation of spatial rifts involves the power of laws, and all armies need to have the ability to detect, this great formation was designed in this way.
The advantage is that the spiritual materials used are relatively common. Only the array plate in Wu Xuan's hand uses top-grade spiritual materials, and it can be reused.
The downside is that setting up the formation is extremely complicated and requires a large number of cultivators.
However, if not, a large number of extremely rare and top-grade spiritual materials would be needed to set up the array, which even Mahayana sects would find difficult to afford.
After the grand formation was set up, subtle spatial fluctuations emanated from a place undetected by the crowd, spreading slowly outwards like ripples.
Chen Yuan's mastery of spatial laws far surpasses that of ordinary Nascent Soul cultivators, and he sensed this subtle spatial fluctuation.
He focused his attention and discovered that it contained a trace of extremely profound law power, which was perfectly integrated with this world.
Over the next few days, the formation remained unresponsive. Scouts sent out reported back, presenting maps of the dimly lit area, but no trace of the demon army or scouts was found.
Before finding the spatial rift or before the demon army attacked, Chen Yuan had nothing to do, but he couldn't return to the airship to meditate in case of an accident.
Under the watchful eyes of the two Nascent Soul cultivators and Elder Chen Yuan of the Tai Xuan Sect, no one dared to slack off. They patrolled and guarded the area, all displaying a busy demeanor.
If it were an army of mortals, they would need to rest and recuperate, but cultivators do not have this problem. They do not need to fly away, and they do not consume much true essence, so they can recover in a short time.
Moreover, the space in the dimly lit place is chaotic, and divine sense is blocked. As a cultivator at the Refinement stage, Chen Yuan can only cover a few dozen miles around him. Lower-level cultivators are more severely affected and must be on high alert.
More than a month passed, and all the cultivators Chen Yuan and his two companions had sent to explore the dark land returned, having drawn a detailed map, but no one had discovered any trace of the demon race.
Chen Yuan flew into the sky and stood side by side with Elder Yuan and Wei Wushang.
The array operated continuously for over a month, always shrouded in a hazy spiritual light, but there were no other reactions, and no spatial rifts were detected.
A few days later, Wu Xuan finally shut down the great formation, put away the formation plate, and came to Chen Yuan and the other two. He clasped his hands and bowed: "Reporting to Elder Chen, Elder Yuan, and Senior Wei, this dark place has been thoroughly searched, but no trace of spatial fragments has been found."
None of the three were surprised. This dimly lit area was only a thousand miles in circumference and was the first place where the army had stopped. How could they possibly have discovered spatial rifts?
Chen Yuan immediately ordered Wu Xuan to properly store the items used for setting up the formation, and Wu Xuan accepted the order and left.
The cultivators of the Cleansing Heart Hall recorded the results of their exploration of this dark place. Subsequently, more than a thousand cultivators, under the command of the array masters, collected the array flags, array plates, and spatial spiritual materials.
Chen Yuan and the other two then ordered their respective cultivators to board the airships and fly towards the next dark place.
……
In the dark red sky, the pitch-black clouds slowly rotated, with occasional flashes of lightning in the depths of the clouds, as if an ancient god who had been sleeping for thousands of years had suddenly opened his eyes.
A muffled rumble of thunder came from the far distance. Suddenly, a huge gray-white spatial rift appeared in the sky, swallowing up a large patch of dark clouds before vanishing abruptly, leaving a large, eerie void. However, it was quickly filled with dark clouds that surged in from other places.
Mu Feng gently flapped the four pairs of transparent wings on his back, skimming close to the barren land, cautiously observing his surroundings with a look of vigilance in his eyes.
All around was deathly silent. In this chaotic and dimly lit space, there was almost no life to be seen, except for a few extremely tenacious plants scattered sparsely on the desolate ground, which resembled the Gobi Desert.
Mu Feng arrived at an unremarkable spot on the ground, slowed down, and looked around more warily, his eyes faintly glowing green as he slowly scanned the area.
This is his innate supernatural ability, which allows him to see hundreds of miles away. It is usually of little use, but it has a miraculous effect in this dim place where divine sense can be blocked.
Having confirmed that there were no traces of human cultivators, Mu Feng finally dissipated his escape light, bent down, reached out and grabbed an inconspicuous stone on the ground, lifted it up, and the ground within a radius of about ten feet was lifted up.
It was a thick stone slab, over ten feet in diameter, hollowed out to reveal a set of stone steps. Mu Feng released the stone, then supported the slab, stepped onto the steps, and entered the underground cave. He slowly lowered the slab, making it fit seamlessly into the ground, so that it appeared perfectly intact from the outside.
The long stone steps seemed to lead to the underground, and there was not a ray of light along the way, but Mu Feng's spiritual eyes were enough to see everything clearly.
He moved with incredible speed, and after turning several corners, he finally arrived at a stone door. The door was shimmering with a pale green spiritual light and was shrouded in a layer of array.
Mu Feng took out an array plate, raised his hand and made a hand seal. The array plate flashed once, and the array on the door quietly dissipated.
Mu Feng put away the array plate, pushed open the stone door, and found a hidden world behind it.
This is a rather spacious cave dwelling. A luminous pearl is embedded in the wall, the four walls are covered with a layer of wood, and a layer of fine, moist soil is scattered on the ground, where flowers, grasses and trees are planted, emitting a faint fragrance.
The heavy stone door slowly closed behind Mu Feng, the formation was reactivated, and the vigilance in his eyes finally completely disappeared.
Mu Feng, dragging his weary body, sat down on a chair carved from wood. He took out a wine pouch sewn from the skin of a demon general from his mustard seed ring, took a long gulp of the sap from the ten-thousand-year-old spirit locust tree, and breathed a sigh of relief.
Only when he returned to his cave could he truly relax.
Mu Feng is a mid-level demon general in Luo Du Holy City. However, unlike most demon generals in the Burning Demon Realm, he was born in Luo Du Holy City and was carefully nurtured by the Holy City. He safely passed the tribulation of transformation and transformed into human form. He has never left Ba Gui Island.
As one of the thirty-seven demon holy cities on Tyrant Turtle Island, Luo Du Holy City naturally has no shortage of demon generals.
The Sacred Domain of Luo Du is home to countless low-level demonic beasts and countless demonic generals who fight for the Great Sage Luo Du.
However, it is extremely rare for a Wood Cicada Demon General like Mu Feng, who is naturally endowed with the supernatural power of pupil magic.
The bloodline of the Wood Cicada Clan is unremarkable in the Burning Demon Realm. It is extremely rare, not to mention compared to royal bloodlines, even among demon generals.
The Wood Cicada Clan's innate supernatural abilities are unremarkable, and their strength is only at a mid-to-low level among demon clans of the same rank. Their only supernatural ability is the Spiritual Eye, which is quite mysterious and allows them to see thirty miles away.
When other level-one demon beasts have limited spiritual sense range, the Wood Cicada Clan can use this to avoid battles, cultivate in peace, and most of them can be promoted to level-two demon beasts and reproduce.
As one's strength increases, the distance that this supernatural ability of spiritual vision can see only increases slowly.
Even a demon general with such cultivation can only see a hundred miles away, similar to divine sense, and its usefulness is diminishing.
However, in the dimly lit area of Tyrant Turtle Island, this supernatural ability of spiritual vision proved remarkably effective. The Wood Cicada Demon General could see over a hundred miles away, surpassing even the divine sense of the Demon King and Demon Saint, making it extremely suitable for investigating the surrounding situation.
The Woodcutter Clan thus became natural scouts, and their presence could be found in all thirty-seven holy cities, specifically for scouting out situations in the dark places.
Limited by their mediocre bloodline, the Mu Chan clan finds it extremely difficult to overcome the tribulation of transformation. The major holy cities even provide spiritual items to help them pass the tribulation, and Mu Feng is one of the beneficiaries.
Three years ago, he received an order to delve into the area controlled by the Spirit Realm, explore the dark lands within a radius of 100,000 miles, and keep an eye out for the traces of the Spirit Realm's army of cultivators.
This order is strange. The dark place is extremely dangerous and prone to spatial turbulence or even spatial storms. Both humans and demons avoid it like the plague. Why would they voluntarily enter it?
But Mu Feng, being a scout, was already used to obeying orders, so he buried his doubts deep in his heart and accepted the order to leave the city.
He chose this small, dark place to build his cave. Over the past three years, he would periodically leave the cave to roughly explore the six dark places within a radius of 100,000 li before returning to the cave to meditate and regulate his breathing.
Mu Feng has faced many life-or-death crises and is extremely cautious every time he goes out to explore. Only in this cave he has carefully built can he truly relax.
After two months of recuperation, Mu Feng left the cave again and began his thirteenth patrol in three years.
He habitually activated his spiritual vision, his eyes faintly glowing green, and he turned his head from time to time to take in the scenery within a hundred miles around him.
Mu Feng had just flown more than a hundred miles when he suddenly stopped, his expression becoming extremely solemn.
A hundred miles to the left, a human cultivator at the Core Formation stage was flying towards them, only ten feet above the ground. His eyes were full of vigilance as he looked around cautiously.
A sense of familiarity arose spontaneously; Mu Feng saw his own reflection in this person—a human scout!
Mu Feng descended, activated the secret technique taught by Luo Du Holy City, concealed his aura, stared at the Core Formation cultivator for a while, and found that the cultivator had not noticed him.
Not everyone possesses the spiritual eye ability of the Wood Cicada Clan. Reassured, Mu Feng turned around, avoided the Core Formation cultivator, and flew back in the direction he had come from.
Mu Feng did not take action against this person to avoid alerting him.
He was a hundred times more careful than usual, flying close to the ground, and using his spiritual vision and breath-concealing techniques at full power.
Mu Feng encountered more human cultivators, as well as several alien races resembling mantises, and an alien with dragon scales on its body and an aura quite similar to that of the Jiaolong Sacred Race. Their cultivation levels were all at the Core Formation or Nascent Soul stages.
With his supernatural ability of spiritual vision, Mu Feng managed to avoid these human cultivators and alien races early on, without revealing his whereabouts.
However, when he encountered a mantis alien in the Core Formation stage, he took out a magical artifact that resembled an insect egg, about the size of a fist, with a small hole at the top, which was plugged by a piece of jade.
Mu Feng took out a purplish-black incense stick, lit it, pulled out the jade stopper, and shook the incense stick at the small hole.
A moment later, a tiny insect, about the size of a mosquito or fly, flew out of the egg. It resembled a bee, had two exceptionally bright eyes, and flew slowly, chasing after the incense stick.
Mu Feng raised his hand and pinched the small insect, while looking at the mantis alien race, he injected his divine sense containing this intention into the small insect's body.
The little insect suddenly stiffened, its body slowly crystallizing. After Mu Feng finished transmitting his divine sense, it completely transformed into a jade insect.
Mu Feng took out a box and put the jade worm inside. When he encountered a strange person with dragon scales on their body, he did the same and put a second jade worm into the box.
This is a unique insect found only in the Holy City of Luodu, called the "Shadow Insect," which can record images seen by the eyes.
However, this shadow insect has limited vitality and can only carry images for a short time, about thirty breaths.
There are also shadow insects that can carry more images, but those are beyond the reach of demon generals and scouts.
Mu Feng arrived at the outermost edge of this dark place without any major incidents and finally stopped.
Less than a hundred miles ahead lies the edge of the dark land.
A colossal ship, hundreds of feet long, hovered in the air. Within a radius of dozens of miles, patrolling human cultivators and two alien races that Mu Feng had never seen before were present.
Mu Feng recognized it at a glance; it was a unique military treasure of the human race—the Sky-Crossing Boat!
Beneath the airship, there was a large array covering several miles, emitting a hazy spiritual light. Thousands of cultivators and alien races stood guard, protecting the giant ship and the array.
Above the airship, two figures stood suspended in mid-air, exuding a chilling aura; they were clearly two Nascent Soul cultivators.
Mu Feng quickly descended and hid behind a large rock. He activated the concealment technique passed down from Luo Du Holy City, and the green light in his eyes intensified as he carefully scanned the cultivators and alien races flying out of the giant ship.
Suddenly, he blinked and stared at one of them, observing him closely.
This person mingled among the human cultivators, surrounded by them like stars around the moon. Although he wasn't as high and mighty as the two Nascent Soul cultivators, his status was clearly not low either.
This person looked very young, with an extremely handsome appearance, dressed in white like snow. What impressed Mu Feng the most was that he had an otherworldly air about him, which made people feel inferior involuntarily.
Mu Feng immediately recalled a bounty notice he had seen before his departure: several demon saints from the Tianhai Continent were offering a reward for the life of a human Nascent Soul cultivator.
The Demon Realm and the Spirit Realm have been at war for hundreds of thousands of years. Countless demons have formed deep-seated hatreds with cultivators of the Spirit Realm, and some of them issue bounty orders.
Scouts like Mu Feng would specifically collect bounty posters, keeping an eye out while gathering information. If they found anything, even just a video clip, they could exchange it for some cultivation resources.
However, Mu Feng's cultivation level was limited, and most of the bounty orders he could access were related to Nascent Soul and Deity Transformation cultivators. Bounty orders targeting Void Refinement cultivators and Integration cultivators were beyond Mu Feng's knowledge.
Most of these bounty notices were issued by demon generals and commanders out of resentment, and the treasures they offered were mediocre. Moreover, most of them quickly disappeared without a trace.
Even the Demon King on Turtle Island wouldn't dare say he could escape unscathed, let alone a mere Demon General or Demon Commander.
They died at the hands of human cultivators, so the bounty was naturally nullified.
Therefore, Mu Feng usually forgot about most bounty posters after reading them, but this one left a deep impression on him.
This bounty was issued jointly by several demon saints, but it was only aimed at a Nascent Soul cultivator. Moreover, the bounty was extremely generous, including more than one second-grade spiritual treasure or divine weapon, and two bottles of 30,000-year-old body-tempering elixirs. Even a demon king would go crazy for it!
The person Mu Feng saw at this moment was none other than the Nascent Soul cultivator mentioned in the bounty notice.
Mu Feng took a deep breath, retrieved the insect egg-shaped magic item from the mustard seed ring, lit the incense stick, pulled out the jade stopper, and with a slight tremor in his right hand, held the incense stick to the small hole. A small insect slowly flew out. (End of Chapter)