Chapter 400 - 256: There’s an Ambusher

Chapter 400: Chapter 256: There’s an Ambusher

A man without foresight will have immediate worries.

As for Yu Fei, he hoped that the world would remain in order, at least until he became a Martial Saint.

His various talents had already reached a respectable level and were still improving steadily.

His martial arts cultivation was hitting its stride, developing on all fronts toward the level of a monstrous prodigy.

If he could just hold out until he became a Martial Saint, then no matter how chaotic things became, he could at least protect his own corner of the world.

The thoughts flashed through his mind and were gone, leaving a sense of urgency in their wake. But he had to take things one step at a time. For now, the most important thing was to collect more of the Crimson Sunlit Streams.

It was a matter concerning the advancement of the Yang Fire within his body and the subsequent cultivation of his Melt Gold Jade Body Skill—his most pressing priority.

If he missed this year’s opening of the Red Sun Realm, Yu Fei would have to wait an entire year, and his Iron Body Skill cultivation would stagnate.

This was an outcome he was unwilling to accept.

Once his Yang Fire advanced, Yu Fei would focus all his efforts on refining his Qi Sea and breaking through to the Inner Qi Realm.

His perception Secret Technique was now complete, and the prodigies of his generation were already advancing. He had been much slower before, but now he was determined not to fall behind.

Seeing another stream of light descend from the heavens, Yu Fei immediately rushed toward it.

However, this particular stream of light was quite far away. He estimated that he might not make it in time, even if he used Burning Void Escape twice in a row.

He could only use this Speed Burst Secret Skill three times in short succession, and he had already used it once. Relying on frequent bursts wasn’t a sustainable strategy.

In the end, Yu Fei could only watch with regret as the contest for the stream of light concluded while he was still a great distance away.

For the rest of the day, Yu Fei chased after the descending Crimson Sunlit Streams, but he had little to show for it, having caught only one.

Most of his time was spent simply traveling. The Thousand Mountain Craters region was vast, and while everyone could see the Crimson Sunlit Streams high in the sky, their landing spots were unpredictable when they fell. They descended with extreme initial speed, only gradually slowing down.

The entire descent took only about ten minutes. From the moment you spotted a falling stream, whether you could get to it in time was purely a matter of luck.

Yu Fei had managed to obtain two in total for the day. While this was an excellent result for other Martial Artists, he still felt it was far too inefficient.

’I need to find a better way!’

He stopped his chase. ’If I could just figure out which of the Crimson Sunlit Streams are about to fall,’ he thought, ’I could get there ahead of time...’

Several hundred Crimson Sunlit Streams dotted the sky like stars. Although their landing points weren’t precise, one in the west would generally fall in the west; it wouldn’t drift all the way to the east...

He decided to simply lie down and gaze at the points of light in the sky, pushing his Pupil Skill to its absolute limit.

This Pupil Skill, which Ye Shuping had given him to cultivate, made his eyes glow with an intensely oppressive golden light when activated. Ye Shuping had never told him its name, and Yu Fei had never asked.

And so, he stared intently at the sky. He watched for a long, long time—a full two days.

Finally, he discovered the flaw in his approach.

With his Pupil Skill, he could observe changes in energy up to a distance of about thirty kilometers. Beyond that, he could only see its general direction and concentration.

But the distance from the ground to the sky was far greater than a mere thirty kilometers.

The Red Sun Realm wasn’t a planet. Its sky was more like some kind of special dimension whose borders not even a Martial Saint could reach.

Yu Fei’s entire approach had been wrong. The idea of using his Pupil Skill to determine when a Crimson Sunlit Stream would fall was completely unfeasible.

He had observed for over a day like this with nothing to show for it.

Later, feeling fatigued, Yu Fei deactivated his Pupil Skill and simply stared blankly at the sky with his naked eye. Unexpectedly, without the interference of the skill, he noticed a few tiny changes.

Before a Crimson Sunlit Stream began to fall, its light would dim slightly for about an hour. And as the light faded, faint ripples would spread out from it.

Yu Fei could only perceive this thanks to the enhanced long-range vision and vibration sense granted by his Illusory Cicada Star Pupil.

When his Pupil Skill was active, he had been so focused on the changes in energy that he couldn’t see the forest for the trees, completely overlooking these subtle details.

The changes in the Crimson Sunlit Streams were almost imperceptible; they were impossible for the naked eye of an ordinary person to discern. Only Yu Fei, with his unique talent, could notice them.

’Actually,’ Yu Fei mused, ’if someone set up a large astronomical telescope here, they could monitor this information too.’

Unfortunately, the Martial Artists in this realm start their cultivation so early that most become obsessed with combat, valuing only a warrior’s methods. They would never even think of using such tools.

In the world of martial arts, anyone with sufficient talent focused their energy on their own cultivation realm—unless they were a specialized technical researcher. After all, the martial path was orthodox, while technology was seen as a heretical path.

The few Martial Artists who majored in auxiliary disciplines mostly ended up as employees in martial-tech corporations after graduation. Lacking personal strength, they were merely users of tools, not innovators.

In the entire martial world, Tianwen University was the only place that truly valued technology and sought to integrate it with martial arts. But their numbers were too few. Compounded by the martial world’s deliberate suppression of such ideas, the mindset of most people remained quite primitive.

It reminded him of all the people who registered as assassins for the Night Owl Mansion online, thinking they were being secretive, only to have their identities unknowingly exposed. Ignorance truly was the greatest obstacle.

Yu Fei slowly rose to his feet. After discovering this phenomenon, he spent a long time verifying it, confirming that his observations were accurate. Only then did he prepare to act.

’The middle of the northwestern region, is it?’ ℯℯ𝘭.

He made a final confirmation in his mind. If his calculations were correct, a Crimson Sunlit Stream was about to fall in that direction. An hour was more than enough time for him to get there.