Chapter 446: Path of Retreat

Translator: Atlas Studios  Editor: Atlas Studios

“Rumble…”

At some point, a storm had started in the area where the Heaven Suppressing City was.

Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled in the sky. Occasionally, terrifying lightning would land in the wilderness and turn the spot into a small lightning domain.

In essence, the environment on this huge planet was extremely harsh. Not only did all kinds of natural disasters come and go irregularly, but their strength far exceeded that on ordinary living planets.

The locations for the large cities here were basically chosen to be relatively safe. The top priority was to avoid the weak spots in space to prevent the space-travel distortion from erupting.

With the protection of the barrier and the protection of a powerful god, it could stand strong for a long time.

At this moment, as they listened to the dense sound of the rain outside, discussions in the teahouse continued. The customers seemed to have become more interested and discussed the next change in the situation in Heaven Suppression City.

Chen Yiming had originally intended to participate secretly, so the two of them quickly reached an agreement to discuss the details of the plan. It would be best if they could take advantage of both sides.

“In the south mountain range, these factions behind the source ore shops are still thinking of hiding and retreating in the face of the pressure from the Infinite Island Group. They have the intention to hide until the fight for the true dragon’s corpse ends,” Gao Shuai said in a low voice.

“Haven’t the factions behind the source ore shops realized that they are a fat prey waiting to be slaughtered?” Chen Yiming was puzzled.

Essence energy was not only useful for cultivation, but was also a consumable item for making powerful barriers and formations. It was equivalent to a strategic resource.

The factions that were qualified to participate in the fight for the true dragon’s corpse would not give up on it so easily since they needed it in order to increase their strength.

“After the incidents at the three source ore shops, none of the three top source ore experts from the abandoned world have stepped forward,” Gao Shuai said.

Chen Yiming nodded. That was true.

The top source ore experts represented the main pillar of the source ore shops. Since they had chosen to turn a blind eye to it, it was no wonder that the enemy factions wanted to tear off a piece of delicious meat from the source ore shops.

Logically speaking, tolerating it would only increase the chances of others targeting them. He did not know what the top source ore experts were thinking, but it was possible that they had given up on some of the factions involved with the source ore shops.

“In the current south mountain range, the city ruler is only taking advantage of the situation to be the first city to announce a heavy tax on the source ore shops. Almost all the other large cities will follow suit.”

“Of course, they won’t do it all at once. Instead, they’ll slowly force the source ore shops to give in, starting from Heaven Suppressing City.”

Gao Shuai communicated this important information through a spiritual voice transmission to prevent other customers from eavesdropping on them.

“The appearance of Li Tengfei with the twin pupils bloodline was something that no one had expected beforehand. He was born to Li Zhentian and the previous goddess of the South Palace Sect who had gone missing.”

Missing?

Was she secretly kidnapped? Or was she willingly hiding her identity?

The veins on Chen Yiming’s temples were bulging. Gao Shuai’s prophetic ability was too much. He could even see other people’s private lives.

If the city ruler found out about it, he would probably chase after Gao Shuai and destroy him.

At this thought, Chen Yiming felt that he had to think of a way to guard against it. He couldn’t let his secret be exposed.

Gao Shuai glanced at the rain outside and chuckled.

The thrill of relying on one’s prophecy ability to repeatedly stand on the edge of danger was something that others could not understand. It was even more exciting than Chen Yiming using his spatial ability to toy with his pursuers.

Not only that, but he had also figured out a lot of the secrets about the twin pupils bloodline. In the future, if the time was right, he did not mind tricking the Li family.

Chen Yiming also obtained some important information.

Since the operation against the source ore shops was not an all-out declaration of war, there were many opportunities for him, who had extremely strong combat strength and spatial abilities, to take advantage of the situation.

After all, as time passed and he collected more and more essence energy, when he reached the jade star realm, he would be able to take the initiative and obtain a large number of source ores to gather more essence energy.

…

At the Water Moon Source Ore Workshop, Chen Yiming and Gao Shuai were each wearing a bamboo hat and a raincoat and standing in the rain.

In front of them, a team of spirit beasts was preparing to set off.

The people presiding over the team were the young man Chen Yiming had met before and his two servants.

Chen Yiming had a strange expression on his face.

As expected, Gao Shuai was not really omniscient. The rare source ores in the Water Moon Source Ore Workshop had long become a pile of useless stones.

However, before the source ores were opened, they were still source ores. Their value was still there.

Moreover, as long as no faction snatched the rare source ores in front of them, one would only sigh at their bad luck and the truth would be buried forever.

“Do you see the young man directing the operation?”

Gao Shuai’s small eyes were revealed from under the bamboo hat. He extended his hand and pointed forward.

Chen Yiming pretended not to know anything and looked in the direction he pointed out.

Wasn’t he just trying to curry favor with him by offering up rare source ores? To be precise, what the young man was preparing to give him was all useless stones.

I’ll let him be arrogant for a while. When he knows the outcome, he’ll cry.

“That young man is the son of the master of the Water Moon Group, Zhao Mingfei.”

Gao Shuai smiled and continued, “I’ve already seen the scene of the various source ore shops in Heaven Suppressing City hurriedly retreating in the prophecy. There’s no mistake.”

“Furthermore, I obtained information from Zhao Mingfei about the location of their final gathering point, the floating canyon, after the remaining four source ore shops left.”

Floating Canyon?

So they had no intention of returning to the factions’ headquarters.

This was easy to understand. Although the headquarters of the factions were well-guarded, they must have been targeted long ago.

If they sent out too many forces to provide support, the base would be in danger. Without enough forces to provide support, it was undoubtedly a fool’s dream to return back safely from Heaven Suppressing City.

Furthermore, the Water Moon Group had source ore shops in many large cities. After the news of what happened in Heaven Suppressing City spread, they would secretly have prepared to retreat at any time.

Under such circumstances, there would not be much power that could be mobilized.

Gao Shuai continued, “The floating canyon is a dangerous place. There are many gaps in the space-travel distortion. It’s extremely dangerous for others, but for you and me, it’s not much different from walking on flat ground.”

“In fact, the teams from the source ore shops gathered in the floating canyon are not only from the remaining four source ore shops in Heaven Suppressing City. It might be a temporary stop that all the factions behind source ore shops had secretly decided on.”

Hearing this, Chen Yiming’s eyes lit up.

No wonder Gao Shuai had come to Heaven Suppressing City. If he really wanted to turn against the remaining four teams from the four source ore shops, it was not worth exposing himself.

It had to be known that Gao Shuai’s current image in the outside world was that he had contacted many factions from the source ore shops to fight against the factions from the Infinite Island Group.

How could he ruin his previous efforts just for this small profit?

At this thought, Chen Yiming said, “In that case, while we take advantage of the situation to snatch the source ores, we should try our best to kill the pursuers and let the teams from the source ore shops reach the floating canyon successfully.”

Gao Shuai nodded and said, “That’s right. This is my general plan. There’s a high chance that the four teams from the source ore shops in Heaven Suppressing City will be the first to go to the floating canyon.”

“As long as they can settle down in the floating canyon, there will definitely be more teams from the source ore shops heading there next. It’s also good to get to know them better in advance.”

Chen Yiming understood what he meant.

Just as Gao Shuai had said, the advantages of gathering more teams from source ore shops in the floating canyon far outweighed the disadvantages.

On the other hand, they could take advantage of the situation to obtain some source ores along the way, and still had a chance to make a big move at the end. As long as Gao Shuai did not intend to trick him, he would naturally not lose out.

As they spoke, “Giddyup!”

“Giddyup!”

The team from the Water Moon Source Ore Workshop had all their source ores and luggage packed up. They exited the courtyard of the source ore shop and left along the street.

The cries of the spirit beasts could not be heard for long due to the heavy rain.

The young man in the lead held his head high and puffed out his chest, displaying a confident expression. Beside him, the two servants followed half a stride behind him.

Chen Yiming had naturally noticed this. He guessed that he had been tricked by Gao Shuai and really thought that this fellow was helping the source ore shops.

Soon, the two of them discussed their respective targets.

The four teams were from the Jade Void Source Ore Workshop, the Purple Cloud Source Ore Workshop, the Water Moon Source Ore Workshop, and the Seven Star Source Ore Workshop. Chen Yiming was in charge of two of them, and Gao Shuai was in charge of the other two two.

Among them, since the young man from the Water Moon Source Ore Workshop had already contacted Gao Shuai, he was assigned to them. Chen Yiming didn’t object to it. After all, the team was only carrying useless stones.

For the remaining three teams from the source ore shops,

Chen Yiming randomly chose the Jade Void Source Ore Workshop and the Seven Star Source Ore Workshop.

Before separating, Gao Shuai instructed, “There are already people above the jade star realm watching the ruler of the Heaven Suppressing City. They don’t want it to immediately turn into an all-out war. Those at that level won’t personally take part yet. The troublesome one among the pursuers is the one with the twin pupils.”

Twin pupils?

Chen Yiming wanted to use the person with the twin pupils to obtain more source ores.

There was a saying on the blue planet: The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.

With the vision provided by the space anchor, the space-manipulation ability brought about by the space anchor, and his invincible combat strength when compared to those of the same level, it was not difficult for him to be an oriole.

…

At night, there was a heavy downpour.

From the weather forecast, it might rain until dawn. Even if it did not rain until dawn, it would not stop for the time being.

At the level of gods, the interference from natural disasters was minimal, but there were still some effects that interfered with their judgment of the traces left behind.

For the four teams that were evacuating from Heaven Suppressing City, such weather was the best. It also indirectly increased their confidence.

The team from the Seven Stars Source Ore Workshop quickly moved through the wilderness. Other than the people from the shop, there were also a few young geniuses who had been defeated at the city ruler’s banquet.

“Thank you for being willing to escort the team away even though you know that the city ruler’s faction won’t let us off easily.”

A white-haired old man sighed.

At this moment, the helplessness in his heart could only be deeply felt by being in such a situation.

It had to be known that not long ago, no matter where the source ore shops went, they would be received as VIPs.

Back then, in Heaven Suppressing City, other than the city ruler, he was another person who could cause a commotion with just a stomp of his feet.

They did not expect that they would need to use up precious teleportation talismans to form a teleportation array to escape from Heaven Suppressing City.

“Elder Huang, you’re treating us like outsiders. Our Nine Rivers Sect has been on good terms with the Seven Stars Group for generations. If the nest is destroyed, no eggs will remain intact. If we abandon our allies today, the Nine Rivers Sect will fall into the same situation tomorrow,”

a man in tight-fitting clothes said as he cupped his fists.

The Nine Rivers Sect was a large human sect in the south mountain range. Its base was located at the intersection point of nine large rivers.

Looking back at its history, it was not a faction born and raised in the abandoned world. Instead, it came from another planet that cultivated martial arts in the Hidden Dragon Galaxy.

Many years ago, the sect master, who had already become a god, crossed the vast space and brought the entire sect to the abandoned world. After that, it gradually developed to its current size.

In the south mountain range, it was not comparable to a large city on the outskirts of a restricted area like Heaven Suppressing City, which not only had a city ruler above the jade star realm presiding over it, but also had factions with complicated backgrounds.

It was a huge faction that was far away from the restricted area. Generally, the descendants of independent cultivators had to go through a strict assessment to enter the sect. Every year, countless young people would return in disappointment because they did not meet the requirements.

“Elder Huang, don’t worry. Although our silver-winged clan isn’t human, the clan has already instructed us that no matter the outcome of the city ruler’s banquet, the silver-winged clan will advance and retreat together with the Seven Stars Group,”

the silver-winged woman continued.

The young geniuses accompanying the team from the Seven Stars Source Ore Workshop expressed their stances, and the team’s confidence was boosted.

In reality, many of the geniuses who had attended the city ruler’s banquet, as well as those who had not participated but had come to Heaven Suppressing City, were from factions that had formed secret alliances with the factions behind the source ore shops.

As the source ore shops retreated from Heaven Suppressing City, they naturally followed suit. This was to express their stance and also for their own safety.

Everyone knew that they had yet to completely fall out with each other on the surface. The more they stayed in the Heaven Suppressing City in secret, the more risk they would have to take.

After Chen Yiming left Heaven Suppressing City, he soon lost track of the two teams from the source ore shops.

Although the range of the teleportation formation formed by the teleportation talismans was unknown, it was not a problem for him, a spatial ability user, to determine the location of the two teams.

At this moment, he was standing at the top of a desolate mountain that pierced through the clouds.

“In the Heaven Suppressing City, other than the city ruler’s faction that has secretly set off, there are dozens of other secondary first-level factions that have come out in full force. Their target is the four teams from the source ore shops.”

To be honest, even without the involvement of someone at the level of the city ruler, he did not think that the teams from the source ore shops would be able to escape successfully.

In short, no one had expected the sudden attack from the city ruler. He had the absolute initiative. As for the teams from the source ore shops, they would definitely retreat passively and be severely under-prepared.

In fact, Li Tengfei who had the twin pupils bloodline was an existence that the teams could not deal with at all. Once they were pursued by him, they could only use the random teleportation formation to escape.

However, in a situation where the enemy was stronger than them, they could escape once, but how many times could they continue to escape successfully?

This was especially true for hiding their tracks. The speed of the teams from the source ore shops was like that of a snail compared to the level of a god. How many times could they use the random teleportation talismans?