Chapter 322: Great Harvest, Great Crisis
The salvage operation was in full swing, but they still hadn’t found the missing section of the spear.
Er Feng, flying in mid-air on patrol, smelled a strong exotic fragrance. Its eyes darted around and spotted a glowing river on the blood-colored swamp in the distance.
Moreover, the river channel was moving rapidly.
It suddenly dove down to report to Li Weiyi.
Li Weiyi gazed in the direction Er Feng indicated. That area belonged to the deeper part of the swamp, harboring unknown dangers. So he called Tuoba Butuo and Qi Xiao back to the ship and explained the situation.
“Brother Weiyi, you make the decision! Fortune favors the bold. I fully support you anyway,” Tuoba Butuo said.
Qi Xiao nodded.
“In that case, let’s go take a look at that river and see what’s going on. But nearly a day has passed. Sikong Jingyuan and Sikong Yanlun might find us at any moment. The enemy is in the dark, I am in the light. We need to deploy some defenses in advance.”
Li Weiyi transmitted sound to the two, whispering secretly.
The jade boat sped along, passing through the area covered by the massive hole overhead and entering deeper into the swamp.
Heaven and earth darkened.
Sure enough, underwater there was a glowing water area several li long, and it could move, like a wandering river.
On the surface of the glowing area, flowers of meditation bloomed, both white and blue.
Tuoba Butuo and Qi Xiao were both excited and shocked. They immediately used their movement techniques to catch up to the light river and carefully picked them.
The six Phoenix Wing Moth Emperors also made discoveries. Each one eagerly excited, plop plop, all dove into the water like six fish eagles fishing.
Li Weiyi keenly sensed a dangerous aura. His eyes narrowed slightly, feeling as if someone was watching him.
“As expected, someone is hiding in the dark. They must have suddenly seen so many flowers of meditation, causing the hider’s state of mind to fluctuate, which is why I sensed it.”
The yin wind grew even more biting.
Li Weiyi wanted very much to open the Heavenly Eye, to peer into the darkness and investigate. But he held back, because unusual fluctuations came from underwater as well. So he slowly sat down on the ship, deliberately pretending to relax his vigilance.
The instant he sat down, there was a “splash” beside him.
A figure leaped out from underwater.
Sikong Yanlun formed claw seals with both hands. Magic energy surged out from Zu Tian first, turning into a purple-black energy lock that wrapped around Li Weiyi on the ship.
Caught off guard, Li Weiyi was completely restrained, panic showing on his face.
“Haha!”
Sikong Yanlun boarded the jade boat, his claws reaching for Li Weiyi’s neck.
However, in his eyes, the one he was grappling was not Li Weiyi, but Qi Xiao. After all, Li Weiyi was a spirit mind master with keen perception, hard to approach for a sneak attack.
Grappling Qi Xiao and Tuoba Butuo would be much safer.
With hostages in hand, they could first rescue Sikong Ce, then join forces to deal with Li Weiyi later.
“You… you’re not Qi Xiao…”
Sikong Yanlun let out a miserable scream as one arm was severed by “Qi Xiao,” blood splattering on the spot. Like seeing a ghost, he rapidly retreated.
The “Qi Xiao” on the ship changed face to become Li Weiyi.
Li Weiyi’s disguise art was so powerful that fooling Sikong Yanlun and Sikong Jingyuan was effortless.
As for Qi Xiao, he wore Li Weiyi’s clothes outside, but an invisibility cloak inside, which could mask his aura. Even if the disguise art was a bit rough, it could still deceive opponents from a distance.
Li Weiyi did not pursue Sikong Yanlun. Instead, he steered the jade boat toward Tuoba Butuo and Qi Xiao.
Because almost at the same time, Sikong Jingyuan burst out from the water and heavily injured Tuoba Butuo with one palm.
In this situation, Tuoba Butuo couldn’t activate the ghost flag at all and might be killed in a few moves.
“Brother Jingyuan, do you recognize this?”
Li Weiyi wrapped Sikong Yanlun’s severed arm with magic energy, using it as a hidden weapon, and hurled it at Sikong Jingyuan.
Sikong Jingyuan struck out the second palm. Several bone-cracking sounds rang out from Tuoba Butuo’s body. Just as he was about to strike the third palm to kill him completely and prevent him from activating the ghost flag, a sharp wind-breaking sound came from behind.
Sikong Jingyuan’s face changed drastically. He abruptly turned, unleashing ice palm force with full power. With a “bang,” he shattered Sikong Yanlun’s arm into ice crystals.
In the distance, Sikong Yanlun’s heart-wrenching roar rang out: “Big brother, that’s my arm… It’s over… All over…”
Sikong Jingyuan froze, looking at the rapidly approaching Li Weiyi. How could he not understand what happened.
The opponent had swapped an inferior horse for a superior one.
After just one clash, their side went from four arms to three, with combat power greatly diminished.
“Splash!”
Li Weiyi leaped up, swinging his sword down.
Sword qi instantly fell toward Sikong Jingyuan’s head.
Sikong Jingyuan grunted, shattering the sword qi with bare hands. Then he turned to grapple the heavily injured Tuoba Butuo, only to find Tuoba Butuo had already escaped underwater.
Qi Xiao stood on the back of the scaled lion giant beast’s light shadow, one hand holding a blade, the other a shield, charging right in front of him.
Sikong Jingyuan’s palm collided with the claw seal swung by the scaled lion light shadow. Waves surged underfoot, and sword cry sounded behind him. Li Weiyi was already close.
Extremely unwilling, Sikong Jingyuan had to admit the sneak attack failed. He used his movement technique, stepping on blooming ice lotuses, treading the void to flee and dodge, pulling far away from Li Weiyi.
“Splash!”
A large amount of black mist erupted from underwater. The fifty-zhang-tall yin ghost commander manifested in the mist, armored and wielding a war halberd, with a ferocious sheep head.
Tuoba Butuo returned to the surface, blood flowing from his mouth and nose, gritting his teeth and holding on bitterly.
Li Weiyi and Qi Xiao brought him onto the ship and asked about his injuries.
“Temporarily fine, I can hold on… cough cough…” Blood surged from Tuoba Butuo’s mouth. He immediately sat down, unable to stand.
Li Weiyi had Qi Xiao look after and protect him, then turned to gaze at Sikong Jingyuan and Sikong Yanlun who had regrouped.
At this moment, the jade boat was floating right on the glowing water surface.
Flowers of meditation bloomed profusely, petals crystalline, fragrance swirling.
Sikong Yanlun was quite capable. In an extremely short time, he refined the sword qi from the Yellow Dragon Sword and stopped the bleeding at his severed arm. Then, he quickly summoned a seventh rank Hundred Character Artifact-level silver wheel and activated it together with Sikong Jingyuan.
The silver wheel was also an imitation artifact. Above their heads, it turned into a huge ring about a zhang in diameter, with over seven hundred scriptures wrapping their bodies. Its overwhelming might stirred up layers of massive waves on the water surface.
Li Weiyi activated the blood handprint demonic armor and called out, “Still fighting? If we continue, I’m afraid your other arm won’t be safe either.”
Hearing this, Sikong Yanlun turned purple with rage, his body twitching.
Sikong Jingyuan looked at the pale-faced Tuoba Butuo and sneered, “Brother Tuoba probably won’t last much longer. Once he falls, without the yin ghost commander, do you think you have a chance of winning?”
Li Weiyi didn’t want to fight; he just wanted to pick the flowers of meditation.
If the glowing river drifted away, it might not be findable again.
But without fighting, after Sikong Jingyuan and Sikong Yanlun had suffered major losses one after another, how could they possibly retreat?
“Splash!”
Li Weiyi steered the jade boat, charging over at high speed.
Sikong Jingyuan and Sikong Yanlun jointly unleashed the silver wheel. Instantly, silver radiance surged, wind force like knives, scriptures like rain, smashing onto the jade boat.
Light blazed on the jade boat, condensing a light shield with scriptures floating within.
The silver wheel smashed onto the light shield.
“Boom!”
The jade boat and the surrounding water surface sank rapidly, then rose quickly again, shaking the silver wheel away.
This was a governor’s jade boat, not only fast but with formidable defense, unbreakable by them. Li Weiyi relied on it to dare remain in the Nether Flower Black Swamp.
As for other escape treasures, they naturally couldn’t be used.
Sikong Jingyuan and Sikong Yanlun never imagined that the jade boat Li Weiyi casually pulled out was also a treasure. They immediately used movement techniques to dodge, avoiding collision with the jade boat.
The yin ghost commander following behind the jade boat swung out the war halberd, chopping toward Sikong Yanlun.
Sikong Yanlun met it with one arm and was sent flying, immediately realizing the yin ghost commander’s power and no longer daring to clash head-on.
The two brothers withdrew the silver wheel and exchanged a glance. Both opened their Zu Tian, releasing hundred ghosts and Dao Heart External Manifestation, turning the entire water surface into a bone-chilling ghost domain.
Li Weiyi knew it would be hard to achieve a quick victory. He steered the jade boat in pursuit of the glowing river.
Er Feng’s excited mind power voice chattered nonstop into his ears.
“Splash!”
It burst out of the water with wings spread, six claws tightly clutching a glowing crystal mass.
The light was too dazzling, illuminating the entire water surface like a star.
It was a walnut-sized piece of Spirit Platform Blazing Star Stone.
Li Weiyi’s eyes widened, scalp nearly exploding. Such a large piece could definitely be divided into many slices, priceless.
“Splash!”
A figure wearing an invisibility cloak, hidden in the dark, skimmed across the water surface at extreme speed, charging toward Er Feng.
“Not good!”
Li Weiyi’s pupils contracted. He turned into a trail of green smoke, body virtualizing, intercepting head-on.
“Bang bang!”
Three moves in succession.
Li Weiyi went all out, directly mobilizing liquid magic power and mind power, successively using Ember Extinguishing Finger Technique and Burning Karma Grinding Wheel. Then, he activated the Six Jia Secret Incantation on the Yellow Dragon Sword, slashing out Grand Unity Opens the Sea.
The two exploded backward, pulling apart dozens of zhang.
The water area between them boiled and churned.
Li Weiyi’s sword-holding hand trembled nonstop, fingers aching to split. He tried hard to stay calm, staring deathly at the opposite figure: “Thousand Guard General, Yi Zhouxue!”
Yi Zhouxue wore armor, facing Li Weiyi across the glowing river. Lightning patterns flowed on the armor, a numbing sensation coming from his skin.
That previous sword had drawn lightning, with formidable sword momentum. If not for the armor, he would likely have been injured.
Yi Zhouxue’s eyes were sharp as a hawk’s, observing Li Weiyi’s facial expression. Earlier, he had struck Li Weiyi with a palm, shaken by the blood handprint demonic armor’s recoil, his palm aching. He wasn’t sure if he had heavily injured Li Weiyi.
Nine months had passed, and this youth’s combat power had improved too much, able to clash three strikes with him.
Magic power circulated in Li Weiyi’s body, the pain in his hand gradually fading. But the palm he had taken to the chest and abdomen still made him extremely uncomfortable. He forcibly held back from spitting blood, not daring to expose his weakened, seriously injured state.
Otherwise, the waiting Sikong Jingyuan and Sikong Yanlun would pounce like mad dogs.
On the contrary, at this moment, the two were suppressed. Who would have thought Li Weiyi’s true strength had reached the level where he could stand toe-to-toe with Yi Zhouxue?
Fortunately, with the earlier interception, Er Feng had already carried the Spirit Platform Blazing Star Stone back to the jade boat.
The problem was, five Phoenix Wing Moth Emperors flew out from underwater, jointly lifting a humanoid black medicinal herb.
It was a thousand-year earth spirit cub!
Much larger than the previous one, the earth spirit cub’s humanoid body was more refined, with hands, feet, and head grown out. The hands and feet struggled, its belly flashing with light, as if containing something.
The glowing river below dimmed.
“Got it, got it. It’s the one making trouble underwater, running so fast.”
“I caught it!”
“Clearly me. One claw pinned it down. It tried to fight back, and I zapped it with lightning.”
“I caught it first, you second.”
“In its belly, it feels like someone’s reciting scriptures, chanted just like Hall Master An, giving me a headache.”
…
The various mind power voices of the five Phoenix Wing Moth Emperors continued nonstop in Li Weiyi’s ears, arguing endlessly, completely unaware of the dangerous situation.
Li Weiyi inwardly groaned, nerves taut, attention fully focused on Yi Zhouxue, Sikong Jingyuan, and Sikong Yanlun.
