Chapter 365: Chapter 181: 12 Manghuang Races (Part 2)
A chill ran down Zhao Rui’s spine.
His gaze involuntarily drifted back to Mo Ling’Er, who was following far behind him.
’She’s a bit of a handful, a little willful, and might even try to trip me up.’
’But...’
’Well, she’s a woman, and a pretty one at that.’
"You..."
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
With her incredibly sharp senses, Mo Ling’Er immediately noticed Zhao Rui’s mischievous gaze.
She suddenly felt a chill and couldn’t help but pull her clothes tighter around herself.
"So you do get scared sometimes!"
Zhao Rui was momentarily speechless, then burst out laughing.
"Hmph!"
Mo Ling’Er realized he was teasing her again and turned her head away in a huff. But a moment later, her eyes darted around, and she turned back with a smile. "Do you want to know what’s edible here and what isn’t?"
"Nope!"
Zhao Rui didn’t believe for a second that a woman who didn’t even know how to catch and cook a bird would recognize these wild beasts of Manghuang.
"Hmph!"
Seeing that Zhao Rui still refused to back down, Mo Ling’Er began to search her mind for any knowledge she might have picked up in her tribe.
Unfortunately, she had been practicing the Witchcraft Dao in her tribe since she was a child. How could she have ever been exposed to the life of an ordinary Witch?
She could only recognize some fruits and beast meat that had already been cut and placed before her.
Just as she was racking her brain, Zhao Rui had already flown off toward another part of the island.
This vast, desolate island was fraught with danger; he didn’t dare stay in one place for long.
It was a good thing he had now advanced to the Dharma Grandmaster Realm and learned the Soaring Skill. Otherwise, trying to find a way out of this dense, towering primeval forest with just his regular Lightweight Skill...
...would be like finding a needle in a haystack.
After a painstaking search, Zhao Rui found no traces of artificial construction on the island.
Clearly, this place was as wild and untamed as it could possibly be.
He reckoned that even the Gui Xu people wouldn’t want to come here.
The sky above was clear, but Zhao Rui couldn’t see any sign of a sun. It was as if the sun was hidden behind clouds, and all this brightness was just the light that had managed to escape.
’Is there no sun here?’
Zhao Rui was filled with doubt. At least a few hours had passed since he arrived, but the brightness of the sky hadn’t changed at all.
He couldn’t just sit around and wait to die. The greatest virtue of the Huaxia people was that wherever they went, their first thought was how to make a life for themselves.
And to live, you needed a house, fields to plant crops and vegetables, and livestock to raise.
’I’m getting ahead of myself.’
For now, the primary goal was to find a place to rest, sheltered from the wind and rain.
He wasn’t a Cultivator, after all. He didn’t have the ability to survive by eating rosy clouds and drinking morning dew.
All his skills relied on his own True Essence and the external Spiritual Qi; his level of existence was still that of a mortal flesh-and-blood body.
Just as he was thinking about shelter, a sunshower suddenly began. The rain started as a light drizzle, then quickly grew heavier.
Seeing this, Zhao Rui casually waved his hand, and several streaks of Sword Qi shot out, carving a square-shaped hole directly into a massive, towering tree ahead.
The hole wasn’t small; when Zhao Rui crawled inside, it was just big enough for him to lie down.
While he was at it, he whittled the piece of wood he had cut out into a fitting door and placed it right at the entrance of the tree hollow.
A simple, rain-proof shelter was now complete.
Watching Zhao Rui’s actions, the pursuing Mo Ling’Er copied him, carving out her own tree-hollow shelter right next to his.
Bored, she even added a second-story loft inside, positioning it exactly one level higher than Zhao Rui’s.
"HISSS!"
A strange hissing sound came from the distance, followed by a chorus of roars and calls from various beasts, rising and falling.
Zhao Rui grew vigilant. He quickly held his breath, concealed his aura, and quietly peeked out from the entrance of his treehouse.
"HISSS!"
The sound continued for a short while, and then the distinct sensation of the ground shaking reached him.
’This is a big one!’
Zhao Rui didn’t dare move, waiting quietly for the creature to pass.
A few seconds later, a massive creature—part python, part earthworm—slithered through the grove of trees in the distance.
The creature was a full ten meters thick, and its raised head was as tall as the giant trees he and Mo Ling’Er were hiding in.
"That’s an Abdominal Viper. Its hide is very thick and can be made into soft armor!"
Mo Ling’Er’s voice slowly sounded in Zhao Rui’s ear. Clearly, the woman had finally found a chance to show off.
She was trying to make her presence known.
"Mm."
Zhao Rui gave an encouraging "mm" in response.
"Hmph. I may not know where this is, but if we join forces, we can use the Phoenix Hairpin to transform and escape far away."
"The vast sea is endless. I prefer land; it’s safer."
"Hmph! You don’t appreciate my good intentions."
Although Zhao Rui was anxious himself, he remained patient, trying to maintain control of the situation.
’With this woman, the less you yield to her, the more likely she is to actually help.’
The rain came abruptly, and it left just as quickly.
In the blink of an eye, the sky was clear and bright again.
Zhao Rui sat cross-legged, silently sensing the changes in the surrounding Spiritual Qi.
The density of Spiritual Qi here was even greater than on Blue Star after the Spiritual Qi Revival.
’Where does all this Spiritual Qi come from?’
’Does it exist in the universe?’
’Is this Gui Xu an alien planet or an Exotic Realm?’
’Or is it simply a virtual world of the Divine Soul?’
Zhao Rui couldn’t tell.
He could only rely on his instincts to strengthen himself and find a way out.
Having just learned Mo Ling’Er’s Phoenix Hairpin Witchcraft, in addition to previously copying the Soul-Chasing Seal, he now had two Witchcraft Cultivation Techniques.
Zhao Rui discovered that this Witchcraft was somewhat similar to the Daoist School’s Thunder-Attracting Skill.
It seemed to communicate with a special magnetic field or energy field, or perhaps with some mysterious entity.
This granted one a strange power, a power that could give the caster protection and Divine Power.
This Divine Power was an existence similar to Divine Soul Power; it could be attached, inscribed, and even used to derive new effects.
As for the techniques and cultivation methods, they were fundamentally no different from the Martial Arts of the Martial Dao.
After all, the human body is a microcosm of the Dao. Limited by the physical form, only a Technique that secretly aligns with the will of the Celestial Dao can be considered perfect.
And perfection meant reaching the absolute limit.
Great Daos are simple; all paths lead to the same destination.
While Zhao Rui was busy organizing his insights on Witchcraft and his recent bottlenecks in Martial Arts...
...Mo Ling’Er began to use Witchcraft to communicate with heaven and earth, trying to find a way out and determine their location.
In certain aspects, especially the more mystical ones, Witchcraft was indeed far superior to the Martial Dao.
After she performed the spell for about fifteen minutes, a rune suddenly materialized out of thin air, then turned to ash and was blown away by a gust of wind, disappearing before her eyes.
"Lu Ling Island! Near the Twelve Barbaric Tribes of Manghuang!"
Mo Ling’Er’s expression turned grim.
"How could we be near the Twelve Barbaric Tribes? What rotten luck."
These Twelve Barbaric Tribes were all savages—true savages, completely uncivilized.
They ate raw meat, drank blood, and lived by hunting Exotic Beasts.
They hadn’t formed a large tribal culture and didn’t get along with any of the other Gui Xu people.
They were just like wild animals.
In fact, they were the true natives of Gui Xu.
As for the other races and powers... according to the information passed down through generations of prophets in her own tribe, at least...
...her ancestors were people from a small vassal state during the Shang Dynasty.
But due to a spatiotemporal disturbance, these people were swept into the Land of Return.
As for the other tribes and factions, they all had their own unique origins.
"What do we do? We have to get past the blockade of the Twelve Barbaric Tribes. If they find intruders like us, they’ll never let us go."
Mo Ling’Er was getting emotional.
Just as she was filled with worry, wondering whether or not to reveal some of this to Zhao Rui...
...a violent and erratic wave of aura suddenly emanated from the tree hollow where Zhao Rui was.
"This aura? It’s the Phoenix Hairpin Technique! Damn it, that brat..."
Mo Ling’Er felt her Divine Soul tighten, and an inexplicable urge to kneel before Zhao Rui washed over her.
This level of suppression was simply too bizarre.
"He... he actually knows about its hidden function."
Feeling the strange sensation in her body, Mo Ling’Er tensed up as a possibility occurred to her.
’Don’t tell me he’s using it right after learning it?’
"This..."
Mo Ling’Er’s pretty face flushed crimson, and her body began to react involuntarily in a strange way.
"Stop! I give up!"
Mo Ling’Er had shot herself in the foot. At that moment, she truly felt like she could die from hating herself.
’How could I have thought of a method with such a potential side effect?’
