Book 4, Chapter 129: Direction

When the artifact’s light filled the sky, Qi Qianyang was in a treehouse built high in the crown of a tree, so he was among the first to see it. He walked out of the treehouse and stood on the balcony outside to stare at the sky. Surprised, he raised an eyebrow. “It appeared again, huh?”

That was rare.

His plan was to let the two sides whittle each other down before he swooped in for the harvest.

He was even thinking about helping the Great Shun Republic a bit to give them an upper hand. After all, the Union and the Linacrox Union had a lot more powerful martial artists. If he could cut down some of them in advance, it would make his life easier.

But the situation now disrupted his plans.

Qi Qianyang turned his gaze to the source of the light. He was sure that everyone headed toward the light the moment it appeared. If there were no hiccups, the Union and the Linacrox Union were bound to get it.

This forced him to interfere ahead of his plans.

That was fine, though.

If possible, he would rather watch the others fight and cut each other down, but it wasn’t as if he wasn’t prepared for the circumstances to change.

He took a few steps forward and jumped more than fifty meters down. He landed with a loud thud, and his feet sank into the ground a bit.

The man with the side part ran out from the tree hole behind him and looked at him respectfully. Qi Qianyang turned his head to him. With a cold look in his eyes, he said, “Get ready, Lao Lao.”

Lao Lao nodded and ran into the treehouse with slight nervousness to take something resembling a rolled-up carpet out. Then, he spread it on the ground. It had a complicated ritual array. Lao Lao took out four incense burners and put them on the four corners of the carpet before lighting them up.

“Please sit in the center, Instructor Qi.” He wiped his sweat.

“How long do you think I’ll need, Lao Lao?” Qi Qianyang asked once he got in position.

Lao Lao was carefully setting a square-shaped box in front of Qi Qianyang when he heard the question. After a brief pause, he said tentatively, “You will need to go through the ritual for the exact amount of time you need the extension for, Instructor Qi.”

“I know, but it looks like I’ll need quite a bit of time.” Qi Qianyang gestured at the box with his chin. “Open it.”

Lao Lao removed the lock with two clicks and carefully opened the lid a tiny bit. In the beginning, he didn’t feel anything, but after a while, the box started shaking violently, and a misty light floated out.

The box started jolting about, as if it wanted to break free of his grasp. It struggled so violently that Lao Lao’s body started jerking around. He held onto it tightly while crying out anxiously, “It’s about to come out, Instructor Qi!”

Qi Qianyang exhaled long and hard before grabbing the box and bringing it to himself. As he faced the fluttering mist, he sucked in a deep breath.

His master had invented this method. By using a ritual from the fusion faction and capturing an existence from the other side, he could place its body into his own body. Then, for a certain period of time, his power would be doubled.

The effects would last as long as he could fight against the existence while absorbing its power.

As he inhaled, the misty light was dragged over to him. Qi Qianyang drew his body back to suck the entire thing inside. In an instant, it surged into him through his nose and mouth, and he took a few steps back.

His face and body turned ghostly pale, as if he was exposed to the frigid cold. After a while, his temperature climbed to a feverish degree. This happened a few more times as he fought against the existence with the Submission Force.

The fight lasted a little over three hours before the existence’s power began weakening. Then, Qi Qianyang absorbed its power. He grew more than a head taller, and his muscles became more balanced. After some adjustments, he got used to his new body.

Those were just additional changes that came with absorbing the power from the entity. The true strength was hidden in his body and hadn’t been activated yet. He would only use it when he truly needed it.

Lao Lao watched Qi Qianyang with eyes shining with respect as he stepped off the carpet and said, “I’m going to retrieve something and kill those people, Lao Lao. Remember to send a signal later to gather all of our scattered members.”

Lao Lao nodded and felt a powerful gust of wind. The dirt in front of him was dragged up and flew at his face. When he lowered his arms, Qi Qianyang was already gone.

***

Xu Chan saw the light as well and walked out of his hiding place. He stared at the sky with a grim expression.

He didn’t know why this happened, but everyone was going to head to the light, so all his planning and traps were rendered useless.

His teammates were the most likely people to find the artifact, so he needed to change his stalling plan a little.

But he wasn’t in a hurry to move. At this moment, he needed to think calmly instead of moving impulsively.

After some time, he took out a syringe from his pocket. The World Ring Defense System had given him this new medicine developed by the Great Shun Republic’s government on the basis of the powerful healing abilities of Third Limit martial artists. It could bring out the martial artists’ full combat abilities. As long as they didn’t die, they could keep fighting at full power.

However, if they stayed in this state for too long, they were going to die.

Xu Chan didn’t take the medicine. He thought of something and checked the map. His eyes landed on a certain spot.

A moment later, he put the map away, checked all his items, observed the sky, and headed out.

***

Chen Chuan was currently running in the undeveloped area. Even if he was spending the same amount of energy as before, he was moving faster than in the past two days.

Due to the eggshell helping him recover, the gaps he could open with the Frost King Saber were much grander than before. The one he opened yesterday was wide enough that a person could have walked through it with ease.

When he used Awakening Clarity in front of it, he absorbed more quintessence and gained more nutrients for his mind. He was getting significantly stronger every day.

As his mind got stronger, he could balance the distribution of power in his body better and use it more efficiently. The mental energy he released could also chase away all the creatures blocking his way or make them freeze so that they wouldn’t get in his way.

After running for a few hours, he sensed something and looked at the sky. A dazzling, colorful light gushed out and stained the sky in a multitude of colors.

One glance was enough for him to know that the light belonged to an artifact.

Did another one show up?

After taking a closer look, he noticed that the light was practically the same as the one he saw in the information he got. It was the same artifact as before, though for some reason, it had released its radiance a second time.

Chen Chuan immediately thought of something. All the people in the undeveloped area, regardless of which party they belonged to, were sure to head over.

He cast a glance at the light again. It seemed quite far away, but it gave him a clear direction.

It’s time to speed up a little more, then.

He put his backpack down and took out a jade mask from it. Once he put it on, he called out to Dawncall. The Bird Reptile flew down and clutched his overcoat.

Chen Chuan patted the red scarf. It fluttered behind him for a bit before wrapping Dawncall up.

Chen Chuan tightened his grip around the Frost King Saber and overlapped with his second self. Then, he leaned forward, and a loud explosion tore through the air. As the trees collapsed and broken branches as well as leaves danced, a long line that seemed intent on splitting the forest in two started stretching forward rapidly.

***

Beneath the beautiful light painting the sky in multiple colors was a horned black creature looking like a cross between a goat and a horse. The light was coming out of it.

Captain Hai’s team surrounded it and raised their hands to block the light from shining directly on their faces as they grimly stared at the creature’s carcass.

With the help from the guides, they had found the creature. After eating the artifact, it had gone through some kind of mutation and become really aggressive, but it didn’t transform into a higher entity.

All creatures instinctively knew that artifacts were good for them, but they couldn’t be used immediately. There were still plenty of artifacts whose effects hadn’t been discovered in various parts of the world.

Only a handful gave whatever swallowed them benefits.

With great effort, the team killed the creature, but the moment they cut open its stomach, a brilliant light shot out. It was so bright that they stepped back.

Once Captain Hai got used to it, he didn’t stay dazed. He grabbed a box from Captain Hu’s hands, lunged forward, reached into the creature’s stomach, and seized the artifact without even checking what it looked like. Then, he slammed it into the box and shut the lid.

This didn’t have the effect he hoped for. The box only dimmed the light slightly. Most of it still charged into the sky.

Captain Hai turned to Captain Hu and Captain Lu. Right now, all of them had a pressing question. The light was going to bring everyone to them, so what should they do?

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