by Tinalynge
In spite of finding these well cared for houses, Hui Yue and his friends found nothing living. No humans nor animals. What worried the group was not only was it devoid of living creatures, not even one corpse was seen, making them extra vigilant and they had made the decision to leave the forest instantly.
Unfortunately, it was not as easy as they hoped, and after turning around when following the road they constantly ended up at the ruins which they were walking away from.
After realizing that they were unable to return back the way they had came, Hui Yue and Xu Piao decided to walk forwards. They quickly found that following the road did not guarantee them any success in leaving the forest so instead they decided to walk east, using the sun as a guide.
It was at this point that Hui Yue and Xu Piao found that even if they used the sun as a guide, it was still impossible for them to break through whatever it was which kept them from leaving the forest.
Hui Yue sighed deeply as he sat down on a large boulder and closed his eyes for a moment to think. The area where they were constantly being led back to was a small clearing with a small stream of what seemed to be fresh water running through the forest floor, tempting them to drink it.
None of them were silly enough to try drinking the water, neither were they harvesting any kind of food from within the forest, even the wood used to set up a fireplace came from their provisions.
“So what do we do now?” Deng Wu asked as he leaned against the boulder which Hui Yue were seated upon, making the younger man open one of his eyes slightly to look at the black-haired handsome young man.
“We have a few options,” Hui Yue said with a sigh. “Firstly I can try using the Qi Fan and bring all of us above the trees. Hopefully we can get out that way,”
“Another option is that we can try walking different ways we have not tried before and see where it brings us,”
“The next option is to simply try and destroy the forest, hoping that it will let us go if we start a dangerous fire.”
“The last option is to just stay here,” Hui Yue finished as both his eyes once again closed and he returned to cultivating, trying to restore his Qi spiral to its peak condition before they went on to the next part of whatever plan they chose.
“What is this Qi Fan?” Xu Piao asked, as he was not as keen on any of the other ideas that Hui Yue came up with.
“It’s a martial art skill,” Deng Wu explained, “It creates a fan made from Qi and allows for us to ride it in the air.”
Hearing that it was possible to fly in the sky, Xu Piao stared agape at Hui Yue. Flying was something they wished for within the caves for such a long time, but to find a way of flight was incredibly rare. As far as he was aware, only one or two cultivators within the entire cave system was capable of flight. To hear that Hui Yue had such a skill, in fact something as weak as a martial art skill was already making Xu Piao even more astonished than had been before.
It seemed that Hui Yue still had lots of secrets which Xu Piao was unable to see through and this thought caused a sly smile appear on his face. He had, after all, not shown Hui Yue all of his abilities either.
“With our current situation, I suggest we try the Qi Fans out,” Xu Piao said with a smile. It was the best idea he thought and he also could not help but truly want to try and fly in the air.
Hearing Xu Piao’s words, Hui Yue nodded his head in approval, but his eyes did not open even once. Everyone guessed what Hui Yue was doing and as though they all were one entity everyone sat down and started cultivating as well.
Chapter 146 - Unending Forest
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Chapter 146: Unending Forest
”Okay. Since we have this many people, I will not be able to carry everyone very far, however, we should be able to get out soon this way.” Hui Yue said as he created six similar looking Qi fans, all lined up.
“Let’s go,” Hui Yue said as he stood on top of the one in the middle, the rest standing on their own Qi fan. All had solemn expressions on their faces as they hoped that this, their best solution, actually manage to get them out of the forest.
Hui Yue did not wait long before he rotated his Qi swirl and with but a thought took to the air, followed by his friends.
The Qi fans were all reliable and Hui Yue knew that he could hold out for around an hour, maybe two, with this amount of fans he needed constantly replenish his Qi.
Flying into the air Hui Yue held two Qi swords in his hands as he forcefully chopped down vegetation in their way, and after few minutes they managed to break through the trees, flying above the unending forest.
As soon as they flew above the forest cheers could be heard as they saw the edges of the forest in front of them, and Hui Yue instantly pointed the Qi Fans in that direction rushing as fast as he could.
Having flown for an hour the edge was closer to them than ever before, but at the same time Hui Yue’s Qi swirl was growing increasingly smaller having almost no qi left, forcing the six cultivators down to the ground.
Descending to the ground was done in the utmost silence as everyone feared that they would end up within the same clearing that they had left, but as soon as they managed to get through the thick vegetation they were at a different clearing. This caused Deng Wu to grip his fist and exclaimed out loud, “YES!”
Although Deng Wu was the only one who spoke out, everyone shared his emotions and relieved expressions were visible on all their faces.
“Let’s camp here for the night,” Hui Yue said with a tired voice as he entered meditation, his Qi swirl completely depleted of Qi, which rendered him somewhat useless right now.
Seeing the exhausted expression on Hui Yue’s face everyone quickly agreed as they watched his pale looking face with closed eyes deep in meditation.
This evening the mood is much better than it has been the last couple of days as they finally saw a way to exit this weird forest.
“It’s so weird,” Deng Wu suddenly said as he was seated at the bonfire chewing through a slice of dried food, “We’ve seen the houses that are in ruin, not to mention we were following one of the most trafficked roads in the entire cave, yet somehow we have not seen the shadow of any life.”
Looking at the tall trees in front of him, an eerie silence filled the atmosphere and the only sounds which could be heard came from the bonfire. Not even singing birds nor other forest animals could be heard. Thinking back, they had not been able to hear anything at all from the very start. It was as if the only ones alive within this odd forest were them.
The eerie silence was like a heavy blanket which kept the atmosphere anything but cheerful, and they were all on constant alert ready to step up to fight should something arrive.
Today was the first day they had even the slightest bit of hope of getting out of this horrible forest and this was making them all excited and cheerful. Despite this their eyes were still vigilantly watching their surroundings, no one daring to lower their guard even a little.
The night passed swiftly as everyone was busy doing their thing, all of them seated around Hui Yue to give him the most protection. Everyone relied on Hui Yue’s Qi Fan to bring them out of the forest after a few days, which made Hui Yue’s cultivation the priority.
After cultivating for half a day, Hui Yue once more managed to replenish his Qi swirl making it possible for them to leave.
Although it was possible to leave, the sun was currently setting in the evening sky and the moon had risen. Thus Hui Yue decide to sleep the rest of the night and give himself a break before they took off.
The morning broke with the sun rising from the east of the cave, and just as expected no birds were heard singing in the sky, and no slithering snakes were seen on the ground. No matter how much one strained their ears, nothing could be heard; nothing apart from the sounds made by Hui Yue and his friends.
Quickly creating six Qi Fans, Hui Yue and his friends rushed onto the fans. Their things were neatly packed in the memory stones and with a beckoning from Hu
i Yue, all of them flew into the sky cutting their way through the treetops.
Their excited expressions quickly turned sour as they managed to get above the trees and they could see that they were in the exact same place as they had been when they set off the day before. They had not moved locations even the slightest and despair surrounded the group as they wondered which other options they had,
“We can always try and see if we end up in another location after flying,” Hui Yue said with a sigh, feeling exhausted already as he saw how they had gone backwards during the night.
“Yes,” Xu Piao nodded, but his face was showing doubt which Hui Yue quickly noticed. Since Xu Piao was not ready to speak up, Hui Yue did not press him, instead, he started to move towards the edge of the forest which was visible in the distance.
Travelling today no one said a word as everyone felt listless after seeing that their trip had backfired on them; their strategy failed and they could not leave the forest once again.
The only thing that could be heard was the wind against his clothes as Hui Yue pushed himself to the limits, travelling as quickly as he could above the dense forest. He was rushing towards the edge of the forest, hoping it was possible for him to leave.
Pushing his limits, Hui Yue’s face became more and more pale, his skin started getting a gray shine and his breathing became erratic as his eyes blurred. After flying for almost three hours, Hui Yue was completely incapable of going further although the edge was just in front of them.
Hui Yue gritted his teeth in disappointment and slowly guided the six Qi Fans down to the ground. Annoyance was evident in his eyes as he saw that the clearing they landed in was the same one they had been in earlier that day. The exact same location.
As they landed on the ground, Hui Yue stumbled on his feet sweat pouring from his body as he leaned against a large sturdy tree. This damnable forest was making it hard for him to stay positive.
As the others once again started setting up camp, nobody dared go talk to Hui Yue as they had nothing they could say to cheer him up. Gasping for air, Hui Yue banged his head hard against the wooden tree only to wince slightly from the pain in the back of his head. The forest seemed as though it was against any action he took.
Sighing deeply, Hui Yue stood up and went towards the small stream. Although he did not dare drink the water, he still felt as though he needed to wash up, and the running water was perfect for that.
Seeing Hui Yue move, Xu Piao was hesitated for a moment before he followed suit. “I think I know what this is,” He said with a quiet voice, so quiet that even Hui Yue had trouble hearing it.
“This is an illusion.” Xu Piao said with his low voice, “There is one group of mercenaries who usually take on tasks like assassination. They haven’t been around for quite some time so I assumed that they had died on their last mission.”
Hearing this, Hui Yue furrowed his brows as he kept washing himself feeling refreshed by the cold water which kept running over his body.
“Mercenaries huh?” Hui Yue mumbled as he looked around. The forest he was in was almost too real to be an illusion, but every time he thought about how they were trapped within the forest he could not help but feel that Xu Piao was probably right. At the very least this was not a normal forest.
“So if it is them,” Hui Yue said with furrowed brows, “Do you know how we will be able to get out of this illusion?”
Hearing the question a wry smile appeared on Xu Piao’s face as he shook his head. “So far, I have not heard of anyone capable of escaping. As soon as we take a break we will be forced to start all over. Unless we can get to the outside in one go, then I am afraid we’ll be stuck in here for a long time.”
“With my current cultivation, I am not capable of getting us out,” Hui Yue said with a sigh. Being quiet for a short while to contemplating his options. Suddenly, Hui Yue opened his eyes and a smile spread on his face as he picked up a memory stone, the stone he had previously had used to store the Divine Flower in that he obtained from the tunnels between Demon Dwelling Cave and Cave’s End.
Looking at the flower, Hui Yue whistled and everyone gathered by his side.
“We need to exit the forest in one go,” Hui Yue said with a sigh, “But my current cultivation is not enough to deal with this flight,”
“There is, however, still a chance for us to get through, but it requires me to absorb this divine flower, and even after consuming it I cannot guarantee that I will be strong enough for us to exit the forest.”
Hearing that, the others looked at each other, all of them showing hope in their eyes again, none having any greed towards the flower. Quickly all of them nodded their heads, smiles on their faces.
Hui Yue remembered last time he consumed a divine flower, it allowed for his cultivation to rise by leaps and bounds, but this divine flower was different.
The previous flower had been much older, which meant that what it refined was Wu Wei. It had mainly used spiritual energy to refine the golden energy which Hui Yue was incapable of using, yet this flower in his hand was refining spiritual energy. So much energy that drops of spiritual energy was overflowing onto the stem of the flower every other moment, allowing for a beautiful silvery light to be seen around the flower.
Looking at the flower, Hui Yue felt as if he was in a trance and he swallowed a few times before he finally placed the flower within his mouth, noticing how the flower slowly turned into liquid that gently dripped down his throat.
As soon as the liquid touched his throat it slowly dissipated and started to rush through his body, through every vein and vessel, every meridian and dantian.
As the silvery energy started rolling through Hui Yue’s body a silvery light started gushing out from the young man who was seated in meditation, his eyes closed and his brows furrowed as he focused on the new energy.
As soon as he had located some specs of energy he rotated his cultivation base using his own spiritual energy to round up the wayward energies which had entered through the mouth, originating from the divine flower.
Chapter 147 - Taking Flight
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Chapter 147: Taking Flight
The previous divine flower was nothing like the one Hui Yue had just consumed. Although the the one he previously took was older and more refined, the energy it refined was Wu Wei, and it had managed to refine so much golden energy that even jumping several stars as a King was possible.
To Hui Yue, however, such a jump did not occur as he had been unable to refine and hold the majority of the Wu Wei and the spiritual energy within his body, however Lan Feng had absorbed as much of it as he was able to.
Now, Hui Yue once more had the possibility of advancing in ranks due to a divine flower, but this time he was capable of using every single drop of silvery liquid, not to mention the strands of Qi.
Increasing one’s Qi swirl when the middle dantian was already opened is a very hard task because all the Qi is used to refine spiritual energy, but Hui Yue was gambling that the extra Qi would last long enough so he could refine it.
A silvery hue shone from his body as Hui Yue rotated his cultivation base to its limits, rushing his spiritual energy and Qi threads throughout his body to capture and return this new energy to his dantian cave and spiritual energy sea.
As the spiritual energy and the Qi flooded the two dantians, Hui Yue could feel wave after wave merge with his sea, the foreign spiritual energy turning into Hui Yue’s own causing his cultivation base to surge upward.
As the silvery light shone out from Hui Yue, the young man opened his eyes and silvery light also shone from within.
This hue was different from the one which Sha Yun had, this was sheer energy, as his entire body was filled to the brim with spiritual energy and Qi.
Without saying anything, Hui Yue quickly created six Qi Fans. Hui Yue’s entire body was now steaming. This flower was indeed younger and less powerful than the previous flower, but for Hui Yue it was the most beneficial flower which
he could get right now. While controlling the Qi Fans he was also constantly leading more and more Qi and spiritual energy into his two dantian caves, as silvery steam kept rising from his skin and beads of sweat were trickling down his face.
Seeing that energy was literally steaming out of Hui Yue, everyone rushed on top of a Qi fan and they took to the skies. Flying at a speed much faster than last time. This was not a matter of reserving Qi, but a race against time. He was trying to leave the forest before his newly gained Qi was refined into spiritual energy.
Flying just above the treetops, they arrived to a scenery which was the exact same as the day before, and the day before that one. This time, though, they had real hope of actually being able to escape this illusion.