Chapter 278: Half a Month of Soaring Cultivation

Chapter 278: Chapter 278: Half a Month of Soaring Cultivation

"That Chu Fan is far too arrogant. The Crown Prince’s original intention was for him to protect you, Your Highness. Not only did he disregard you at a critical moment, but now he’s just up and left on his own."

After Chu Fan left, Guo Zi complained indignantly beside Long Yinwen.

"Exactly! That dense swarm of Flying Beasts before... the Little Duke’s arrangements were all for Your Highness’s safety, yet Chu Fan refused to follow orders. Then he went off to play the hero all by himself. Your Highness, you must give a man like that a stern warning when this is over," a young man next to Guo Zi chimed in.

Long Yinwen just smiled upon hearing their words.

Last night, the Crown Prince had summoned him and spoken with him at length.

Truth be told, he never had much of a favorable impression of Chu Fan. After hearing the Crown Prince’s plan, he knew Chu Fan wouldn’t live much longer.

Whatever Chu Fan’s fate might be, he wasn’t going to bicker with a dead man walking. Besides, this dead man walking was going to help him—the nominal Imperial Grandson—before he died.

As for Guo Zi and the others sowing discord, Long Yinwen could naturally see it, but he was happy to let it happen.

"Alright, that’s enough. Perhaps Chu Fan has his own private matters to attend to. Since he was able to earn my father’s admiration, he must have some extraordinary qualities. I trust him."

’Damning with faint praise!’

He had lived in the Eastern Palace for so many years as the Crown Prince’s legitimate son. Through constant exposure, he had naturally learned many of the Crown Prince’s methods.

His status was undoubtedly the noblest among these three hundred and sixty people. To curry favor with him, Guo Zi and his cronies would naturally do their utmost to trample on Chu Fan.

The more he praised Chu Fan, the greater the enmity Guo Zi and the others would feel toward him deep down.

"Since the Crown Prince trusts him, I won’t say any more. Your Highness, the mountain range is just ahead. From now on, we will go wherever you say. We will guard you until we leave this Secret Realm." A murderous glint flashed through Guo Zi’s eyes.

Of course, this killing intent was definitely aimed at Chu Fan.

"I have never been to this Secret Realm before, so I’m as unfamiliar with it as you are. Let’s just wander around. Since we’re looking for opportunities, they aren’t something we can find simply by searching," Long Yinwen said.

While they were talking, on the other side of the group, a man named Lu Yanfei, the descendant of a meritorious official, was berating Yan Ying, Wei Mian, and their companion.

"You all seem to be with Chu Fan, right? He’s already gone, so why haven’t you left? His Highness the Grand Prince has us Guards, and that’s more than enough. You’re not needed here."

Yan Ying certainly wasn’t going to tolerate the petty behavior of someone so arrogant, who sucked up to the powerful while trampling on the weak. She was a Princess of the Hua Xu Empire. Though her identity was a secret, she had never been berated like this in her entire life.

"If you want to be a dog, no one is stopping you. Just please stop your pathetic whining and barking in front of me."

"You—what did you say? Do you have any idea who I am?" Lu Yanfei roared in fury upon hearing her words.

His voice naturally drew the attention of the others.

Guo Zi hurried over. "What’s wrong? What are you all doing?"

Yan Ying couldn’t be bothered with him and looked directly at Long Yinwen. "Long Yinwen, control your dog!"

"How audacious! How dare you address His Highness by his name?" Guo Zi snapped.

"What? He hasn’t said anything himself. Are you, the dog, going to bite people on your master’s behalf?" Yan Ying said with contempt.

"You..." Enraged by her words, Guo Zi was about to strike Yan Ying.

Long Yinwen hurried over. "Stop!"

Although Long Yinwen didn’t know that Yan Ying was the Crown Prince’s eldest legitimate daughter, the Crown Prince had instructed him the previous night to show her the utmost respect. After all, she was the Direct Disciple of the Celestial Dao Palace’s Palace Master.

If Guo Zi hit Yan Ying because of him, he would likely be punished once they left the Secret Realm and Yan Ying reported it to the Crown Prince.

He could target Chu Fan, but he couldn’t target Yan Ying.

Others might not know the truth about his status as the Imperial Grandson, but he himself did.

"Your Highness, this person is so rude! She dared to address you by your name," Guo Zi said.

Long Yinwen waved his hand. Though indignant, he didn’t show it. "It’s fine. Yan Ying is the sole Direct Disciple of the Celestial Dao Palace’s Palace Master. My father instructed me that after entering the Secret Realm, I am to treat her with the courtesy due an elder sister."

"If she’s the Direct Disciple of the Palace Master of the Celestial Dao Palace, she should understand her place and the proper etiquette between a sovereign and a subject all the more," Guo Zi said.

"That’s enough. It’s not easy for the Secret Realm to open. Let’s get a move on!" Long Yinwen rebuked.

Due to Crown Prince Long Jingyao’s deliberate actions, Yan Ying felt no affection for this half-brother. After all, they had rarely interacted.

Logically, sharing the same bloodline, she shouldn’t have felt like he was a stranger, even with their limited contact. But she had tried many times and simply couldn’t bring herself to feel close to him.

In fact, she felt slightly closer to the Crown Prince’s other, illegitimate children than to this brother.

Of course, the most fundamental reason for this was that they were not siblings at all; he was not the Crown Prince’s son.

This was something Yan Ying did not know.

If Yan Ying didn’t know that Long Yinwen also suffered from an illness and that she needed to find Celestial Wave Valley and pick the Cloud Flower with Chu Fan to help cure him, she would have parted ways with them after the recent conflict.

The group headed toward the mountain range, outwardly harmonious but inwardly divided.

At this moment, Chu Fan was locked in a desperate struggle with the pack of Tiger Beasts. Weaving and fighting among them, he had spent over a quarter of an hour and had only managed to slay three.

At this rate, it would take him at least seven or eight hours to eliminate all several hundred of the Tiger Beasts.

After fighting for a while, he had become familiar with the Tiger Beasts’ power. They were agile, with Combat Power somewhere between the Divinity Separation Realm Peak and Integration Realm Tier One.

The reason it took him more than a quarter of an hour to kill just three was that the pack of Tiger Beasts had formed a pact for offense and defense, coordinating with each other with incredible tacit understanding.

If not for his Celestial Dragon Armor, he would have likely suffered considerable injuries by now and might not have even been able to continue fighting.

Facing such a group of opponents, it had to be said, was of immense benefit to improving Chu Fan’s combat abilities.

The Sword Techniques he executed with the Juntian Sword in his hand were also becoming increasingly proficient.

In terms of Combat Power, Chu Fan’s Cultivation was at Integration Realm Tier Two. He wouldn’t even flinch when facing an opponent two tiers higher than him. Yet, against this perfectly coordinated pack of Tiger Beasts, whose individual Combat Power didn’t even reach Integration Realm Tier One, he found himself locked in a difficult battle.

One could only imagine how astonishing the combined Combat Power of this pack of Tiger Beasts was.

In many cases, one plus one is indeed greater than two.

As Chu Fan had predicted, the battle took him a full nine hours before he finally slew the last Tiger Beast.

Although he grew more adept toward the end as he became familiar with the Tiger Beasts’ strategy, it had to be said that this was the most exhausting battle Chu Fan had ever fought in his life.

After finishing off the Tiger Beasts, he didn’t linger. He leaped into the air and followed the White Fox’s guidance toward the next gathering place of beasts.

More than half an hour later, they arrived at a canyon. The cliffs on both sides were several thousand feet high. Inside the canyon, there was nothing but gravel—not a single tree or blade of grass.

After venturing a couple of miles into the canyon, a dense swarm of wolf-like beasts with silver fur appeared ahead. Not only that, but a massive, dark flock of bat-like beasts, each a hundred times larger than a normal bat, descended from the sky.

"If I kill all of these, how much will my power increase?" Chu Fan asked the White Fox.

"It will be enough for you to advance to Tier Four. However, they are several times more difficult to deal with than the Tiger Beasts. You’d better conceal your Battle Armor. Otherwise, it could be severely damaged by the end of the fight," the White Fox replied after a moment of thought.