Free Web NovelChapter 250: Chapter 248: Clue!
Given the strength of Qin Li and Shangguan Shiyu, it was impossible for the group ahead to discover they were being followed. The pair trailed them from a distance, and seeing that the group was heading out of the city, they deduced they were planning to leave.
Qin Li and Shangguan Shiyu exchanged a glance. Shangguan Shiyu whispered, "These people don’t seem like Martial Artists from the Mortal Realm. The Primordial Power fluctuations from them aren’t strong, but they must be deliberately suppressing them."
Qin Li nodded in agreement. While his Innate Purple Qi was formidable, allowing him to sense others’ fluctuations more clearly than other Martial Artists, it wasn’t foolproof. It was generally impossible to gauge the true depth of some powerful Martial Artists before they fought. After all, no one wears a sign declaring their strength.
Even Qin Li, with his Innate Purple Qi, wouldn’t dare claim he could completely gauge their strength, let alone anyone else.
Qin Li nodded slightly and whispered, "That said, while there are quite a few Mysterious Lands on the Celestial Essence Continent, they aren’t everywhere. Let’s stick with this group and see if they’re from one!"
Shangguan Shiyu nodded gently. Her initial feelings of listlessness and dejection began to subside.
The group didn’t walk quickly, and they frequently checked to see if they were being followed. However, with their level of strength, discovering two Celestial Integration Realm Martial Artists like Qin Li and Shangguan Shiyu was clearly impossible.
And so, on New Year’s Day, the pair followed the six people for about six hours, eventually entering a vast mountain range.
The Great Qi Kingdom was mountainous; a range hundreds of miles wide and over a thousand miles long was nothing special. But to humans, even a range of this size was immense, and they were but specks within it—like scattered splashes of seafoam on a vast ocean. Once they entered the mountains, they quickly vanished into the dense forest.
After several more hours of tracking, it was late at night. The group finally stopped, lit a bonfire, and sat circled around it. The firelight flickered across their faces, casting them in and out of shadow.
Qin Li and Shangguan Shiyu stopped as well, taking cover behind a large tree just tens of meters away. The group felt nothing amiss.
"First Senior Brother, do you think we’ll be punished if we return to the Sect empty-handed like this?" the young man who had tried to hit on Shangguan Shiyu asked, looking glumly at the man who appeared to be in his mid-thirties.
The man addressed as First Senior Brother hesitated for a moment before letting out a soft sigh and shaking his head. "It’s hard to say. The Spiritual Medicines we came out for this time are crucial to the Sect, but we failed to get them. I suppose I was too arrogant. A frog at the bottom of a well doesn’t know how vast the heavens are. Sigh... I used to look down on the so-called forbidden lands of the Mortal Realm."
"First Senior Brother, you don’t need to blame yourself. If you ask me, it’s all Seventh Elder’s fault. It’s just one woman, isn’t it? How many years has it been? It’s absurd. She’s clearly an enemy, yet he insists on saving her. I mean, what kind of outstanding women aren’t there in our Sect? Why did he have to fall for someone from a rival Sect!"
The young woman pouted, her face a mask of discontent. "Just because he’s the Sect Leader’s personal disciple, he doesn’t give a damn about our lives!"
The young man who had spoken before added, his voice tinged with resentment, "Exactly. I heard that if Seventh Elder hadn’t protected her during that battle back then, she would’ve been killed for sure! What good is being beautiful? Now she can’t see or speak. She’s practically a vegetable!"
The First Senior Brother gave a bitter smile. "Seventh Elder had a major falling out with the Grand Elder over this. I heard the battle back then started over a single Spirit Grass. The Grand Elder killed the male disciple from the Songfeng Sect in a flash, then captured the woman. When he saw no one was around, he was about to violate her but was stopped by Seventh Elder. To this day, the two of them still don’t speak to each other."
The woman who looked to be in her late twenties spoke up. "Let’s just drop it. We shouldn’t be discussing the Sect’s internal affairs. We need to figure out how we’re going to face Seventh Elder when we get back. To be honest, that woman’s story is quite pitiful. She’s been in a coma for so many years. If Seventh Elder hadn’t been using Spiritual Medicine to keep her alive, she would have died long ago."
"Speaking of which, the Grand Elder is truly shameless," the younger woman added, seemingly well-informed. She curled her lip in disdain. "Have you guys heard? Last year, he tried to take advantage of Seventh Elder’s absence to sneak into that woman’s room and have his way with her. Luckily, Seventh Elder got back in time. They had a huge fight over it. They told everyone it was just a sparring session, but who are they kidding? Everyone knows what really happened."
"That’s enough. We’re out in the open; let’s not gossip about these things. What happens within the Sect is not for us to decide," the woman in her late twenties said softly.
Listening to their conversation, Shangguan Shiyu, who was leaning against Qin Li, clutched his clothes tightly, her body trembling slightly. freēwēbnovel.com
Although they hadn’t mentioned anyone by name, the more she listened, the more it sounded as if they were talking about her parents.
’No, it can’t be... They have to be alive. They must both be alive!’
"Do you think if the Songfeng Sect found out about this, they’d come demanding her back?" the young man asked.
The First Senior Brother shook his head. "How could they find out? They must have assumed their disciples died long ago. After all, a place like Black Mountain is hardly safer than the forbidden lands of the Mortal Realm. It’s teeming with powerful Spirit Beasts. In any case, we just need to make sure this information never gets out."
Qin Li held Shangguan Shiyu tightly, afraid she might do something drastic. Even he had deduced from their conversation that the woman they spoke of—the one who had been in a coma for years—was, in all likelihood, Shiyu’s mother, Lin Yunlan.
’And Shiyu’s father must have met his end back then. As for why his own sect never found out... the other party must have cleaned up the evidence.’
’Of course, it’s not certain they’re talking about Shiyu’s parents. It could be someone else. But based on my knowledge of Mysterious Lands, they usually aren’t that large. Take the one where the Paradise Celestial Palace is located—it only contains that single Sect.’
’There can’t be many Mysterious Lands as vast as Profound Island, which spans thousands or even tens of thousands of miles. Most are probably like the one housing the Paradise Celestial Palace, around two or three thousand miles in area.’
’An area of two or three thousand miles isn’t small by any means, but on the scale of the immeasurably vast Celestial Essence Continent, it’s just a drop in the ocean.’
Typically, a Mysterious Land like that wouldn’t contain too many sects or families. The only hope Qin Li and Shangguan Shiyu clung to was that this Mysterious Land, the home of these young disciples’ sect, was not the same one her parents, Shangguan Jian and his wife, had entered.
In any case, they believed that by following these young people, they would eventually get to the bottom of it all.
They waited until the early morning of the next day. As the sky began to lighten, the young people, having rested for a while, stood up. They extinguished the bonfire, carefully erased all traces of their camp, and then continued deeper into the forest.
Qin Li and Shangguan Shiyu followed them to the base of a cliff hundreds of meters high. The cliff face was sheer, as if sliced by a knife. A few tenacious trees clung to its surface, and from a distance, it exuded an overwhelming, oppressive aura.
The group of young people walked to a specific spot at the base of the cliff. After scouting the area, they waited for a long time. It wasn’t until the first ray of sunlight broke through that the First Senior Brother suddenly unleashed his aura.
Qin Li’s eyes narrowed slightly. ’He’s actually a Celestial Shattering Realm Martial Artist!’ He casually sent out a wisp of his Divine Sense to mark the man. As long as he stayed within a radius of several miles, Qin Li would be able to locate him.
As the ray of sunlight hit and the aura erupted from the man in his mid-thirties, a section of the cliff face above them suddenly blurred and distorted. An energy gate, about ten meters wide and thirty meters high, materialized out of thin air.
It hovered more than seventy meters above the ground.
The young disciples, one after another, began to climb the cliff with great agility, using both hands and feet. Their bodies gradually disappeared into the energy gate.
Last was the First Senior Brother. With a tap of his toes, he shot more than twenty meters into the air. In three such leaps, using protruding rocks as footholds, he swiftly vanished into the energy gate.
Once everyone had disappeared inside, the energy gate slowly faded away, bit by bit.
The cliff face returned to normal. The air filled with the songs of birds and the fragrance of flowers, a fresh scent wafting from the mountains. Had they not seen it with their own eyes, it would be impossible to believe that this seemingly ordinary cliff concealed a Mysterious Land.
"Let’s go!"
Qin Li took Shangguan Shiyu’s hand and led her to the base of the cliff. He released his powerful Divine Sense and, just as he expected, felt a trace of residual energy where the energy gate had been.
Qin Li slowly gathered his aura and then unleashed it. All at once, he felt his Innate Purple Qi merge with the sunlight, and with a WHOOSH, it shot toward the spot on the cliff!
’So that’s why,’ Qin Li realized. ’They had to wait for sunrise. The gate to this Mysterious Land requires the power of sunlight to open!’
’If Shiyu’s parents really did enter this place, how did they stumble upon it? Could it have been an accident during their fight down here?’
With this question in mind, Qin Li wrapped his arm around Shangguan Shiyu’s slender waist and, without a moment’s hesitation, leaped up and into the energy gate.
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A recommendation for a book from a friend of Xiaodao.
The peerless Sword God, Feng Ziyue, achieved the Dao through the sword and was unrivaled in the world. Yet, his life was one of tragedy and loss, leaving him with endless regrets despite his invincibility. By a stroke of fate, he is reborn thirty years in the past with a chance to mend all that was broken. Now, he can once again challenge the Supreme Realm of the Sword Dao and break through to new heights! — Sword Pride Rebirth (To be continued. To read what happens next, please support the author and the official release!)
