Chapter 60: The Spirits' Domain
Xiao Nanfeng sensed that he was being followed not long after he began running. He continued to run, pretending not to have noticed a thing, as he sent out his spiritual power. When he realized that there were only two Immanence-realm cultivators, he calmed down.
As Xiao Nanfeng observed the two scouts, so did they observe him.
"From his speed, it looks like he's at Immanence, too."
"He still hasn't discovered us—he's just fleeing! I imagine he's not very strong."
"Let me test him, then!"
As the two scouts conversed, one of them picked up a rock, infused it with qi, then tossed it toward Xiao Nanfeng.
Xiao Nanfeng had been paying close attention to the figures behind him. When he realized that one had tossed a rock over, he infused qi into his right elbow and struck it.
The rock shattered. Xiao Nanfeng pretended to stumble and to be injured.
The two Immanence-realm cultivators, realizing how 'weak' Xiao Nanfeng was, chased quickly after him. One leapt to his front and barred his way, while the other blocked his retreat. The two figures held long swords. One was tall, and the other short.
"Who are you?" Xiao Nanfeng feigned anger.
"Are you from the Great Qi Empire?" the tall one asked.
Xiao Nanfeng showed no sign of his confusion. He wasn't aware of any such empire; was it from this hidden realm?
"No, his clothes don't look like ours. They're more like the outsider's, the one we caught beforehand," the shorter scout suddenly said.
Xiao Nanfneg's face fell. "An outsider? You've caught others dressed like I am?"
He had since changed into Taiqing robes. Anyone who dressed like him had to be Taiqing disciples themselves!
"Haha! We were the first to discover this outsider. If we catch him, he'll be our slave!" The two scouts ignored Xiao Nanfeng's question and taunted him instead.
Xiao Nanfeng's face turned cold. Slave?
"He's an Immanence-realm cultivator, too. Let me have a go at him!" The tall scout rushed toward Xiao Nanfeng and punched forward with a fist.
Xiao Nanfeng met his fist with one of his own. Both cultivators were forced back a single step.
"A mid-Immanence cultivator? Again!" The tall scout attacked once more.
Xiao Nanfeng was surprised. He was only at the first stage of Immanence! When had he advanced to the middle stages? No, it had to have been because of the divine capillaries he had unblocked! They had augmented his strength beyond his current cultivation.
"Hmph!" Xiao Nanfeng charged forward as well.
The two fists clashed once and again. The two cultivators exchanged ten blows, neither giving in. Just then, Xiao Nanfeng activated Hegemon's Fist. Four punches headed straight for the taller scout.
"What?!" The enemy cultivator, flustered, failed to respond to the attack. He was struck in the nose and sent flying. Xiao Nanfeng chased after him, then kicked him with a foot.
"No!" the tall scout screamed.
However, it was too late. Xiao Nanfeng struck him in the chest, dealing him a grievous injury and causing him to spit out blood.
Just then, the shorter scout launched a sneak attack at Xiao Nanfeng from the back.
He hadn't merely been watching; rather, he had arranged things beforehand with the taller scout to make Xiao Nanfeng drop his guard. Once Xiao Nanfeng was invested in the match, he would launch a sneak attack from behind.
Unfortunately, his opponent was Xiao Nanfeng. This sort of low-level combo attack would do nothing against him. Xiao Nanfeng's Immortal Cicada was lying in wait. When the shorter scout suddenly struck, the Immortal Cicada shot toward his back. He thought that Xiao Nanfeng had dropped his guard, but in reality, Xiao Nanfeng was waiting for him to drop his guard instead.
With a clean snick, the Immortal Cicada pierced through the shorter scout's back and out his front with a fountain of blood.
"A flying sword? You had a flying sword?!" The shorter scout pointed at Xiao Nanfeng in shock as he fell to the ground, having gasped his last.
Xiao Nanfeng eyed him coldly before turning to the taller scout. His Immortal Cicada hovered right by the fallen scout's neck.
"Do-Don't kill me!" the taller scout shrieked.
"Where is this place?" Xiao Nanfeng asked.
"This..." The taller scout hesitated, trying to buy time for himself.
The Immortal Cicada stabbed into his shoulder and out his back in a spurt of blood.
"Argh!" the taller scout cried out, clutching his wounded shoulder.
"If you hesitate any longer, I'll keep cutting you. Let's see how long you can last like this, shall we?" Xiao Nanfeng called out imperiously.
"We're in the spirits' domain, and I'm from the Empire of Great Yan!" the taller scout cried out.
"The spirits' domain? What is it? Tell me everything in one go—or do you want me to force you to speak?" Xiao Nanfeng's flying sword hummed.
"No, I'll tell you everything, everything! Our land is divided into three domains, for humans, spirits, and the divine. This is the spirits' domain. We come from the Great Yan Empire of the humans' domain. The other empire in the humans' domain is the Great Qi Empire," the taller scout explained.
"Empire?" Xiao Nanfeng asked for clarification.
"Once every century, divine envoys are sent out from the divine domain, inviting all Spiritsong-realm spirits and humans to the divine domain to compete for tremendous opportunities, so during this period of time, the strongest spirits in the spirits' domain will only be at Ascension-realm. As a result, the Great Yan and Great Qi Empires send out groups of cultivators into the spirits' domain during this time to harvest natural treasures and capture all manner of spirits. We're one such group, and our targets are the rainbow lotus and the toad spirit," the taller scout cried out, still trembling.
"There aren't any Spiritsong-realm spirits in the spirits' domain at the moment?" Xiao Nanfeng's eyes lit up. This information came as a huge relief. The spirits' domain was already incredibly dangerous as is. If he were to come across a Spiritsong-realm spirit, too—he wouldn't be able to do anything about it!
"Our group has a hundred cultivators. Among them, Lord Wei and Lord Huo are at Ascension-realm, while the rest of us are at Immanence. I and the scout you just killed are among the weakest of the bunch, so we could only serve as scouts." The taller scout, afraid that Xiao Nanfeng would kill him outright, gave away whatever information he possessed.
"Keep talking. Why do you call me an outsider?" Xiao Nanfeng asked.
"Five days ago, we caught a cultivator whom we thought to be a spy from the Great Qi Empire. After some interrogation, we learned that he was actually from the so-called Taiqing Immortal Sect. Lord Wei mentioned that he was an outsider from beyond our world," the taller scout replied anxiously.
"Why did you have to summon this Lord Wei with fireworks? Why wasn't he participating in your operation?" Xiao Nanfeng narrowed his eyes.
"He..." The taller scout visibly hesitated.
The Immortal Cicada sliced through his shoulder once again.
"No, please! The outsider was close to death. Lord Wei wanted to figure out his cultivation technique, so he's interrogating him right now. That's why he wasn't participating in the hunt!"
"What?! If you don't want to die, bring me to where he is immediately!" Xiao Nanfeng cried out.
Not long after, the two cultivators arrived at a hidden valley.
There were still a few figures in the valley. The tall scout's eyes brightened. He was right about to call out for help when Xiao Nanfeng's Immortal Cicada pierced through his head and killed him instantly.
Xiao Nanfeng skulked around the hidden valley. After careful observation, he found that it was guarded by just two Immanence-realm cultivators. Clearly, this Lord Wei had already been summoned by the flare to help out against the toads.
On a torture rack not too far away, Xiao Nanfeng saw the face of a familiar senior disciple, bruised and bleeding all over, at death's door.
"You haven't finished talking about your spiritual cultivation technique—keep going! Are you going to pretend to faint? I'll pull out another one of your fingernails to help wake you up, then!"
"He really doesn't look like he can take much more..." his companion murmured.
The two cultivators were deep in discussion with each other when they suddenly felt a sense of impending danger.
One of them had no time to think or react before his head exploded. The Immortal Cicada pierced through the center of his forehead, then looped around toward the other target.
"A flying sword?!" the other cultivator shrieked.
With a roll, he avoided the Immortal Cicada, which crushed a rock before him. The cultivator was so scared that he ran off without a second thought, but what awaited him was a fist to the face.
Xiao Nanfeng punched forward in outrage, straight at his nose. The person was sent flying into the trajectory of the Immortal Cicada.
"No!" the cultivator screamed.
The flying sword pierced through his head. He breathed his last amidst a pool of blood.
Xiao Nanfeng didn't bother searching the two cultivators' bodies. He ran straight to the rack and cut apart the chains holding him in place.
"Senior Brother? Senior Brother! Wake up, it's me, Nanfeng!"
Xiao Nanfeng recognized the senior disciple immediately. Although they hadn't conversed much, Xiao Nanfeng knew that he was carefree and outgoing, with a penchant for jokes. Back in the city of Taiwu, when rumors about him and Yu'er had been flying left and right, he had made fun of them as well. Xiao Nanfeng knew that, although his tone was joking, his eyes were filled with kindhearted cheer and a sincere blessing.
At this moment, however, this senior disciple's fingernails and toenails had all been stripped off, his tendons and muscles cut apart, brand marks blistering his skin, and whip scars criss-crossing his body. Even opening his eyes was a struggle.
Upon hearing Xiao Nanfeng's voice, however, he blearily opened his eyes, then smiled painfully.
"Nanfeng? Tell the division leader that I didn't give up any of the sect's techniques. What information I revealed was all fake!" Having said all that, he spat out a mouthful of blood.
"Senior Brother, I'll help tend to your wounds!" Xiao Nanfeng prepared to infuse qi of pure yang into his body.
"It's useless. They made me swallow a poisonous insect, and it's about to tear its way out of my body. It's too late..." The senior disciple weakly gasped his last as his chest was torn apart from the inside out. A speckled, rainbow centipede crawled out from his chest cavity.
The senior disciple spat out a final mouthful of blood, looked at the world for the last time, and died.
"Senior Brother!"
Xiao Nanfeng killed the centipede with his Immortal Cicada. He infused his qi into the senior disciple's body again and again, hoping against hope that it would be enough to resuscitate him. It wasn't, and the senior disciple perished with vacant eyes wide open
Xiao Nanfeng's anger manifested as killing intent that radiated around him.
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