Chapter 313: Skirmishes
Time passed quickly and before he knew it, Yu Nianzhen had spent eight days on the soul raising tree.
In that time, he climbed higher and discovered there were more nine-turn soul herbs than he initially thought.
Other than the herbs, he also collected a lot of leaves and cut a lot of branches of the soul raising tree.
When he was not collecting resources, Yu Nianzhen took time to observe the soul beasts.
Unfortunately, he had yet to figure out a way to leave the abyss.
"Why can they leave but I couldn’t take a step outside?" He wondered and a frown creased his brow.
A moment later, a determined look hardened his eyes and he coated his body with soul power before jumping off the tree.
"I will follow one soul beast and see what happens."
With a plan in mind, Yu Nianzhen chose a soul beast and followed it towards the edge of the abyss.
When they arrived at the edge of the abyss, Yu Nianzhen felt a subtle ripple and the soul beast walked out.
"What was that ripple?"
"Why didn’t I feel it last time?"
"Was I careless and somehow missed it?"
With a thousand questions in mind, Yu Nianzhen approached a few more beasts and observed as they left the abyss.
"There is no doubt. There is a faint ripple when a soul beast leaves the abyss." He muttered and took a step forward.
However, his situation was the same as before.
His outstretched leg somehow fell short and his foot landed at the edge of the abyss.
At a loss, Yu Nianzhen fell into thought and didn’t stir for a long time.
When he came to, a new light had entered his eyes and he looked at the soul beast closest to him.
The beast was at the fourth level and its size was relatively large compared to lower-level soul beasts.
However, its appearance was still that of a rabbit and Yu Nianzhen was a little hesitant.
"No one will ever know." He reassured himself and stretched his arms to catch the beast.
Unfortunately, his arms caught nothing and passed right through the beast.
"Why can’t I catch it?" He wondered with a frustrated look on his face.
Yu Nianzhen had already lowered himself and planned to ride a rabbit out of the abyss.
Now that he couldn’t catch it, his emotions swayed between relief and disappointment.
After a moment of reluctance, he coated his hands with more soul power and once again tried to catch a soul beast.
However, the result was the same.
Not only did he not catch the soul beast, the creature didn’t even acknowledge his presence.
"Seems like this is not the way." He sighed and continued to observe his surroundings.
After some time, he returned to the soul raising tree and settled on a low branch.
’It’s almost the agreed time.’ He thought and felt a little depressed.
When the group separated, they agreed to meet after six months.
Yu Nianzhen didn’t want to miss the appointment and he focused all his mind on finding a way out of the abyss.
’I don’t seem to have tried throwing something out.’ He suddenly thought.
Immediately after, he removed an empty jade card from his storage ring.
He coated the card with soul power and used all his strength to throw it out.
However, the result was disappointing.
Although he could throw things into the abyss, throwing them out was impossible.
When the jade card reached the edge of the abyss, it hovered for a while before falling into the abyss.
"Things have become quite troublesome." He muttered and then stood up.
In the next while, he harvested many soul-raising tree leaves, as if balding the tree was a kind of vengeance.
When he calmed down, an idea entered his mind and he looked at the tree.
Soon after, he walked to the edge of the abyss and took a deep breath.
"I hope this works." He said and removed a leaf from his storage ring.
After that, he took a long step and this time, something different happened.
.....
While Yu Nianzhen and his party were peacefully cultivating in the soul-beast forest, the rest of the Nine Treasures secret realm wasn’t peaceful.
Before they entered the secret realm, everyone knew there would be a war between the Death Flower Ascension Front and other cultivators.
However, the actions of the blood-refining sect had stirred the murky waters of the Cangxing world.
This caused a crack in the fragile alliance between righteous cultivators and evil cultivators.
As a result, many skirmishes between the two sides had broken out in several places in the Nine Treasures secret realm.
One of those places was a valley filled with flowers.
When Meng Zihua entered the secret realm, she immediately went to the valley to find the queen of flowers.
This search took half a year but she eventually found the queen of flowers.
After finding the queen, her group from the BlueStar Treasure pavilion set up a camp and Bei Chengling arranged a protective formation.
The presence of a formation should have been enough to keep out other cultivators.
However, the queen of flowers was too attractive to some cultivators.
In less than a year, the formation was attacked more than a dozen times.
Fortunately, Bei Chengling was a competent master and the formation held.
However, it was impossible to defend against thieves all the time.
Just when Meng Zihua reached a critical point in her cultivation, a group appeared outside the formation.
When Bei Chengling saw the group, his face paled and his body trembled.
"This..." A cultivator from the BlueStar Treasure pavilion started but didn’t know how to continue.
"How is the young pavilion master?" Bei Chengling asked.
His voice was grave and he subconsciously looked at the two women leading the enemy group.
"She is at the critical point of refining the queen of flowers. Things will go wrong if she is disturbed."
Bei Chengling turned solemn when he heard that.
However, he didn’t panic.
In the absence of Meng Zihua, he was the young leader of the BlueStar Treasure pavilion.
At this point, his first duty was to make sure the enemy wouldn’t break the formation.
"We are going to add three more layers of formations." He instructed.
While his subordinates went to arrange the materials needed, Bei Chengling observed the opponent.
"Shen Ru, you actually teamed up with the Heavenly Flower Cult to deal with our young lady? Have you finally acknowledged you are inferior?" He mocked.
"Do you dare to come out and repeat those words?" Shen Ru barked.
Her voice was filled with anger and her eyes burned with hatred as she looked at Bei Chengling.
Originally, she was an ordinary cultivator with average talent.
Her lack of talent forced her to be inferior to others and she especially hated the dazzling young leader of the BlueStar treasure pavilion.
At that time, she was approached by the Death Flower Ascension Front and agreed to join because she didn’t want to be ordinary.
However, things didn’t turn out as expected.
Although she got the foundation of a genius, she still couldn’t deal with Meng Zihua.
This caused an imbalance in her heart and her recent cultivation was a little hindered.
It was because of this that she decided to ally with the Heavenly Flower cult to deal with Meng Zihua.
"Do you think I am stupid? Why should I come out?" Bei Chengling sneered and then looked at the leader of the Heavenly Flower Cult.
"Taoist Lin, the Heavenly Flower Cult is an evil sect but it should still have a bottom line. Allying yourself with the Death Flower Ascension Front, have you decided to betray my Cangxing world?"
"Taoist Bei is exaggerating. If the BlueStar Treasure Pavilion hands over the queen of flowers, my Heavenly Flowers Cult will immediately ally with you to deal with the Death Flower Ascension Front."
When he heard that, Bei Chengling sneered and looked at the woman in disdain before speaking.
"My BlueStar Treasures Pavilion can’t afford this alliance."
"Taoist Lin, do you want to become an enemy of the entire Cangxing world?" A member of the BlueStar Treasures Pavilion asked.
"I am simply fighting for a resource." The leader of the Heavenly Flower Cult replied.
"Taoist Lin, they are trying to delay time. We shouldn’t waste time talking to them." Shen Ru reminded.
"I will help you break the formation and deal with the BlueStar Treasures pavilion. Everything we get will be divided equally but the queen of flowers is mine."
"Taoist Lin doesn’t need to worry. My cultivation doesn’t require it so the queen of flowers naturally belongs to you." Shen Ru assured and the other woman nodded.
After that, she removed a formation compass from her storage ring and walked towards the formation.
’This is not good.’ Bei Chengling thought and his eyes hardened.
’Even if it costs my life, I mustn’t let them disturb the young lady’s cultivation.’
