Chapter 401: Before the Great Battle

Wei Yuan, who was sprinting while his concealment ability was active, suddenly shuddered as he sensed a deep, intense resentment bearing down on him. Right after that, a violent fluctuation of mystic energy erupted behind him. The fact that he could sense it from such a great distance was a testament to the ferocity of the battle raging between the two sides.

Wei Yuan ran as swiftly as lightning, but moved as crookedly as a snake. Whenever he reached a location that was likely to attract attention—such as a spirit vein, an area that was frequented by ferocious beasts, or a place where spirit creatures dwelled—Wei Yuan would put down a Shadowless Flying Ferret. These ferrets remained largely still with barely perceptible auras.

Just then, several projections vanished simultaneously from Wei Yuan’s perception, and he could no longer watch the great battle between the monk and the young island lord. It would appear that the stones he had left behind to monitor the area had been destroyed by the aftereffects of their clash.

However, Wei Yuan had already gathered enough information, so the mortals in the Great Realm set to work once more. With these brand new materials at hand, the number of crouching dragons and phoenix chicks began appearing in large numbers again.

By now, more and more mortals were joining the research effort. Having received an abundant amount of worldly rewards, the immortal plants began driving their followers to work, no longer willing to listen to their useless prayers.

Wei Yuan felt the same way. He was annoyed by the hundreds of idlers gathered before his immortal statue, and even more so by those gathered before the jade toad statue. He felt that instead of wasting time on that, they would be better off devising more solutions. Perhaps one of these people could be a hidden dragon or phoenix chick. Besides their so-called prayers were either pleas for personal favors or snitching on their fellows. In fact, the closer their relationship appeared on the surface, the more viciously they slandered each other behind the scenes.

Aside from the large group of research-oriented mortals, around ten thousand or so people were clearing land and farming—though Wei Yuan had no idea what was even the point of their action.

Finally, there was a small group of mavericks who had been studying the cultivation materials Wei Yuan had given them all this time. In fact, they had already begun to practice. However, Wei Yuan could tell at a glance that their cultivation aptitude wasn’t all that great; none of the truly gifted ones were among this group.

Wei Yuan fell into thought. It seemed that even if the slow bird took flight first, it might not net it the worm.

On another note, he had obtained a fair amount of otherworldly fortune from the Avatars he killed once more. If he borrowed some more from the shadow in the moon, he should be able to have Yin Yang intervene once. But unless absolutely necessary, Wei Yuan had no intention of calling upon her aid.

The problem with Yin Yang was that her methods were far too deadly. No one had ever survived her attack. It was one thing if the target was an independent cultivator or a guest warrior, but he would land himself in deep, deep shit if he allowed her to kill the likes of Mahamayuri or Zhao Fusheng. After all, this battle of the secret realm had not yet reached the point of life or death. Losing some independent cultivators and guest warriors were fine, but losing a key figure was completely out of the question.

This time, Wei Yuan was able to offer up a significant amount of Avatars. Thanks to this, he finally calculated that it would take roughly four ordinary Avatars to fuel Yin Yang to take action one time.

But even without deploying Yin Yang, Wei Yuan still had other cards to play—he simply didn’t need to use them just yet. At present, the mortals had unexpectedly played a massive role. In his view, their contribution was practically equivalent to having a second Dragonhawk.

Although Mahamayuri and Zhao Fusheng undoubtedly had their own hidden cards, Wei Yuan was not afraid.

For now, the more chaotic the situation became, the better it was for him. Therefore, Wei Yuan pressed deeper into the Hlai territory, intending to drag the race into the fray as well. Even if the Hlai boasted numerous powerful warriors, he wasn’t afraid of them. After all, he had two top-tier Avatars behind his back.

Even if a World Ruler of the Hlai were to appear, the Bao Clan’s True Lords would naturally step up to stop them. That was why Wei Yuan wasn’t particularly worried about that. Besides, an ordinary True Lord would find that it wasn’t easy to kill him in one strike.

As Wei Yuan pressed deeper, his surroundings grew increasingly damp, and the faint, fishy smell of seawater grew stronger. The slime left behind by the Hlai’s activities were also visible everywhere.

Suddenly, Wei Yuan flickered and vanished into a small cave nearby, sealing the entrance shut with a rock.

Two members of Hlai appeared at a crossroads. They both had a serpentine body that allowed them to slither around like a snake. They also had a human’s upper body, though one of them had a pair of arms, while the other had four. The Hlai’s second pair of arms were much smaller.

Both Hlai were at the Dao Foundation stage. Wei Yuan waited for them to pass by the small cave he was hiding, then leaped down and casually knocked them unconscious. He then dragged them to a secluded spot to begin interrogation.

In the teachings at the Palace of Absolute Beginning, the languages and scripts of the major non-human races were key focuses of instruction. Not only did the scripts of different races differ in shape and meaning, the mystic energy they contained were different, and the principles by which language carried power were entirely different as well. To master a new language was equivalent to mastering an entirely new system of power.

Due to their living environment, the Hlai were naturally proficient in Wood and Water-element spells and excelled at controlling water.

Wei Yuan roused the two Hlai members and asked in the Hlai language, “Where is your camp? How many people are there in total, and how many are experts?”

The entire interrogation was unfolding in full view across the Great Realm. Several individuals with exceptional linguistic aptitude had spent the past few days urgently studying the Hlai language. Wei Yuan had also projected a strand of his perception to translate the interrogation into the human language.

The Hlai tribes with an extra pair of smaller arms refused to acknowledge Wei Yuan and even spat in his direction. Wei Yuan dodged it.

At that moment, the crouching dragons and phoenix chicks offered a suggestion: The Hlai hold themselves in high regard; arrogant and conceited. Reasoning with them would take too long—it would be better to cut them open like a fish salad[1].”

Wei Yuan readily accepted the advice and manifested a flying sword. He first scraped off a patch of scales from the Hlai’s serpentine body. Then, studying the grain of the flesh, he sliced horizontally with a single stroke.

The Hlai member was shocked, his eyes betraying panic and fear. The other Hlai member, whose cultivation level was weaker, had their pupils dilated and their dorsal fins fully folded—a sign of extreme terror.

The Hlai had delicious meat. The higher their cultivation level, the sweeter and more succulent their meat became. Those with serpentine lower bodies, in particular, were considered a high-grade delicacy.

Generally speaking, there was an unwritten rule in the human cultivation world that one does not eat intelligent beings.

However, rules are rigid, while people are flexible. From ancient times to the present, there had never been a shortage of people who were unwilling to follow the rules. Some even took pride in breaking the rules, using it to flaunt their uniqueness. Because of this, at the secret banquets of high cultivators and wealthy merchants of the State of Wu, a variety of Hlai ingredients had never been in short supply. The capture of Hlai had even evolved into a massive industry that supported the livelihoods of countless cultivators.

The Hlai had waged countless wars over this, each time resulting in mutual devastation. Wu, the Eastern Sea Island, and the Hlai had signed dozens, if not hundreds, of treaties prohibiting the consumption of sea creatures, but each one became as worthless as scrap paper in just a matter of years.

Many members of the upper class of Wu not only consumed these Hlai ingredients themselves, but also sold them to other states, where they were widely acclaimed. Some cultivators, priding themselves on their sense of justice, were unwilling to taint themselves with the sin of killing. Thus, another industry had emerged in the State of Wu: contract killing.

Those involved in contract killing were all cultivators from the lowest ranks. Some were even ordinary mortals. Their job was simply to deliver the final blow to the Hlai and bear the resulting karmic sin. As a single strike was all it took to earn them one or two immortal silver, countless flocked to the trade as a matter of course.

The technique Wei Yuan was using to cut the Hlai member was the standard method for filleting fish. Naturally, the two Hlai members recognized it immediately and, realizing their fate, trembled uncontrollably.

At the true upper-class secret banquets, contract killers weren’t used in order to preserve the freshness and natural flavor of the ingredients. Instead, they were kept alive using spells until they were cut and served immediately to the table. For the most refined secret banquets, the time from the moment the knife was applied to the moment the food was eaten must not exceed three breaths.

In the eyes of the two Hlai members, Wei Yuan was, at the moment, harvesting their body parts as ingredients while they were still alive.

Unable to suppress their fear, they finally broke down and confessed everything they knew. Upon receiving their answers, Wei Yuan fired two mystic bolts and shattered their sea of consciousness.

The feud between the human race and the Hlai had lasted at least several hundred thousand years. Setting aside the ancient times, in the past century alone, the Hlai had conquered three major islands in the Eastern Sea and slaughtered nearly 10 million humans to the last. They had also unleashed several tsunamis that submerged the coastal regions of Wu, each time claiming millions of lives.

By now, the entanglements between the two sides had long since become impossible to untangle, and Wei Yuan had never been a man of mercy. Entering this secret realm, Wei Yuan knew from the get go that one of his primary missions was to eliminate the Hlai in this region because it was a crucial step in winning over the elders of the Bao Clan.

As for whether Mahamayuri or Zhao Fusheng would follow him, Wei Yuan wasn’t the least bit worried. They had to follow him unless Mahamayuri found the real Shadowless Flying Ferret.

However, the Shadowless Flying Ferret hadn’t eaten the Langya Divine Tree’s aura for nothing. It was as if it had enhanced its own fortune. On top of that, Wei Yuan had secretly imbued it with a few wisps of blue fortune. Although it was a bit weird to apply human fortune onto a spirit creature, the result was a dramatic surge in the ferret’s fortune.

Mahamayuri had clearly inherited his Dharma from his predecessors and was bound by karmic destiny. Although people like him could often transcend the Five Phases and become immune to the mortal coil, the consequence was that their fortune could not be improved.

Over the past few centuries, fortune all over the world had skyrocketed, and countless sects and schools had benefited from this great change. For example, the Palace of Absolute Beginning and the Four Sages Academies had seized this opportunity to soar to new heights. On the other hand, the Exquisite Blossom Pure Land had begun to show signs of decline.

Therefore, even if Mahamayuri managed to catch the Shadowless Flying Ferret, there was a high chance it would simply slip through his fingers and escape.

Meanwhile, Mahamayuri did spot a Shadowless Flying Ferret, but it was perched beside a ferocious beast, its aura completely overshadowed by the creature’s own.

Looking at the giant python, over 100 zhang in length, Mahamayuri couldn’t help but frown.

Snakes were notoriously vengeful. Eliminating this ferocious beast would not be an easy task.

He then shifted his gaze and glanced at a small ferret crawling slowly at the far end of his field of vision. Its clumsy movements were identical to that of the one beside the giant python.

The monk couldn’t help but sigh. Along the way, he had already spotted no fewer than ten fake ferrets. They were so obviously fake that it didn’t take a brain to tell them apart.

Mahamayuri shook his head. Although he didn’t know Wei Yuan’s true identity, it didn’t stop his opinion of him from dropping by another third. Needless to say, these fake ferrets had to be the work of that guy. He had even gone so far as to imbue each fake ferret with a trace of the real ferret’s aura. It seemed that the real Shadowless Flying Ferret had already fallen into his hands; otherwise, he could not have gotten his hands on the real aura.

After Mahamayuri left, the small ferret wriggling clumsily beside the python suddenly raised its head and glanced in the direction the monk had vanished. Then, it vanished in a flash[2].

On another path, Zhao Fusheng was enveloped in a layer of black qi that covered up his body.

He had brought only a few simple personal items into the secret realm this time. However, his storage artifact had unfortunately been destroyed by a flying sword, causing everything inside to vanish into the void. Now, aside from his Avatar and the giant axe in his hand, he possessed nothing. That was why he could only use his mystic energy to cover himself.

Naturally, Zhao Fusheng harbored a deep-seated hatred for the petty thief who had caused all this, which was why he had pursued him all the way.

Just as he emerged from a path, he furrowed his brows, sensing the thief’s aura. He swept his perception across the area and immediately pinpointed the source. Stimulated by his perception, the image stored within the stone was released, and Zhao Fusheng saw himself.

The image did not show Zhao Fusheng in his normal state, but rather the moment he had just stepped onto the flying-sword mine and been baptized by countless flying swords—a Zhao Fusheng who was as smooth and lustrous and clean as jade. Moreover, the image was frozen at the very moment he first laid eyes on Mahamayuri, just as the rush of blood had flushed his face, and his hands hadn’t yet had time to shield his private part.

Zhao Fusheng’s vision went black, and he nearly fainted from sheer fury!

This was one of the new Thirty-Six Stratagems Wei Yuan’s hidden dragons and phoenix chicks had presented to him after studying Xu Wenwu’s materials: Before a great battle, first mess with the opponent’s heads.

1. Yusheng, yee sang or yuu sahng (Chinese: 魚生; pinyin: yúshēng; Jyutping: jyu4saang1), or Prosperity Toss, also known as lo sahng (Cantonese for 撈生) is a Chinese raw fish salad that is popular among the Chinese communities of Malaysia and Singapore. But there’s an equivalent that I believe most of you are much more familiar with: sashimi. ☜

2. Heh. Outwitted by a ferret. ☜