Free Web NovelChapter 2208: Chapter 243: A Person’s Fame, Like a Tree’s Shadow
Her brows were tightly furrowed; if Ding Fan didn’t make a move, Skull Island would really be finished this time, and all the Skeleton Sect disciples, including the Wu Family, would definitely be slaughtered.
She didn’t know whether Ding Fan could turn the situation around once he left the Baisheng Underground Palace, but instinctively she felt that as long as Ding Fan went out, he could reverse the situation.
The problem was that Ding Fan couldn’t wake up now; no matter how Wu Qingxia shouted at him, there was no response.
Wu Qingxia waited for a while, then went out to fetch a ladle of water and splashed it over Ding Fan’s head, but the result was the same—Ding Fan still didn’t move at all, like an old man sitting there.
Wu Qingxia didn’t dare to move; she could only anxiously guard Ding Fan at her side, waiting for him to wake up, or for news to come that everyone on Skull Island had been killed.
"Oh~~"
Ding Fan sighed in his heart; he could hear Wu Qingxia’s voice and could feel the water splashed on him, but he couldn’t control his body, not even open his eyelids...
"This time it might really be over!"
Once Skull Island was destroyed, they’d probably soon find their way to Baisheng Island, right?
Ding Fan couldn’t move at all; he couldn’t even enter the other world. If he couldn’t wake up, he would eventually be killed as well.
"No, I have to wake up! I must wake up! Let me wake up!"
From the depths of his Soul, Ding Fan erupted with a fierce unwillingness. He couldn’t die so inexplicably; his Soul could not be occupied by the Sirius shadow. He wanted to control his own Soul; even if his body was shattered, he could not let the Demon control it!
He roared over and over again in his mind, forcing himself to wake up. A quarter of an hour later, unexpectedly, his eyelids slowly opened.
"Awooo~~"
When Ding Fan realized he had regained control of his body, he couldn’t help but leap up and let out a heaven-shaking howl, roaring as his voice faintly caused the entire palace to tremble.
"Ah!"
Wu Qingxia was so frightened by the deafening roar that she fell to the ground, a section of her white thighs exposed, her eardrums aching.
No matter what was exposed or what she heard, she immediately cried out in ecstatic joy, "Island Master, you finally woke up. Hurry to Skull Island, if you don’t go, everyone will die."
Ding Fan didn’t leave, instead he sat there, feeling out the state of his Soul.
He was worried this situation would happen again; if he couldn’t control his body, he would die in battle.
His Soul was actually completely silent, no longer shining, with no fluctuations. Ding Fan probed his Soul within his body, and what he sensed shook him to the core.
A wolf shadow had actually appeared in his Soul Pool—a patch of green Sirius markings, identical to the mark on his back, just much smaller. Although this was only his perception and he didn’t truly see it, he still felt fear.
There was a Sirius mark in his Soul?
Ding Fan had never heard of such a bizarre thing. Everyone’s Soul was the same, the difference lay only in size, yet there was a terrifying wolf pattern in his Soul—this was truly terrifying.
He looked inward at other parts of his body and discovered his dantian had already changed. The True Yuan inside his dantian seemed to have been infused with some strange Energy, making his True Yuan Power unusually condensed.
This was normal; this was the transformation everyone underwent upon breaking through the Third Level of the Divine Realm—the True Yuan would become purer and stronger. The reason cultivators could reach this Realm was precisely the metamorphosis of their True Yuan Power.
Aside from that, there was no problem!
After a round of exploration, Ding Fan opened his eyes and reached out to grasp the strange Beast Bone Pendant at his neck, wanting to see what had happened to it, only to find the chain empty—the Beast Bone Pendant had vanished into thin air.
He immediately stood up, looked around, then turned to Wu Qingxia and asked, "Did you see my Beast Bone Pendant?"
"I didn’t see it."
Wu Qingxia looked around doubtfully and shook her head, saying to him, "Ding Fan, don’t look for that Beast Bone first, go to Skull Island right away. If you don’t go soon, everyone will die."
"Alright! Let’s go!"
Ding Fan glanced around again, confirmed that the Beast Bone Pendant was gone, then walked out in confusion. As he stepped outside, he shouted, "Sirius, time for us to move!"
"Swish!"
From one of the rooms, Sirius shot out, a red Garnet held in its mouth. This was something Sirius had dug up from beneath the island; the one the Second Elder bought back hadn’t arrived yet.
Sirius swallowed the Garnet in a few bites and burrowed into Ding Fan’s sleeve. Ding Fan said to Wu Qingxia, "Wait here, I’ll go alone."
"Alright!"
Wu Qingxia wasn’t strong enough; going with him would just be sending herself to death. She looked nervously at Ding Fan before her and said, "Can you handle those people, Island Master?"
"No problem!"
Ding Fan tossed out this casual line, then dashed out of the palace, shouldering the Heaven Measuring Ruler as he rushed out of Baisheng Island. Baisheng Island was close to Skull Island; from here he could even see those warships anchored outside Skull Island.
"Perfect!"
Just then, a small warship was sailing in this direction; it was originally one of the outer patrol ships. Ding Fan slipped into the water and swam toward that small warship. As the ship approached, he shot out of the water like a giant shark, droplets flying from the Heaven Measuring Ruler onto the deck as he hacked savagely at the two Martial Artists on the ship.
There were five people on board, all at the Second Level of the Divine Realm. How could they possibly be a match for Ding Fan? The two men were struck in the head, unable even to react, and fell to the ground as bloody pulp.
"Swish!"
The three men rushed out of the cabin, drew their Swords and attacked Ding Fan. Ding Fan flickered past them, the deck filled with afterimages, scaring the three so much they didn’t dare stop hacking, thinking a whole bunch of people had come up.
"Dang~"
Two people’s weapons were chopped off, their heads smashed. Ding Fan’s eyes burned like fire; there was one thing he could be sure of.
He had already achieved a complete breakthrough to the Third Level of the Divine Realm, because he felt his senses had become so powerful. These people’s attack speed seemed to be slowed four or five times, even more. It was very easy to judge their attack trajectories and thus break their moves.
"Don’t move, or you’ll die too!" Ding Fan halted, the Heaven Measuring Ruler pressed against the last man’s neck. The afterimages on the deck faded one after another, but Ding Fan did not look at the Divine Realm Second Level Scout Cavalry in front of him. His eyes were staring into the distance, feeling more and more that the world was crystal clear. The Third Level of the Divine Realm truly was marvelous.
"I’m Ding Fan!"
Ding Fan shifted his gaze to the terrified pirate and said, "I’m the Island Master who owns this island you attacked. I’ve killed many Divine Realm Third Level Experts. Killing you is no different from pinching an ant to death, so if you want to live, do exactly as I say."
"Yes, Island Master Ding, as long as you don’t kill me, whatever you want is fine!" The pirate had been scared witless by Ding Fan. Ding Fan’s ferocious reputation was well known; how would he dare disobey?
"Set sail, get close to Skull Island!"
Ding Fan said to him coldly, then followed this man into the cabin to control the Warship, rapidly steering it toward Skull Island. Ding Fan’s Heaven Measuring Ruler was locked onto this man; if there was any change, he would kill him immediately.
"How many people did you bring this time? Who’s the leader? What Realm? How many experts?"
Ding Fan’s eyes swept outside from time to time as he questioned him about the battlefield situation. The pirate quickly told him what he wanted to know. He didn’t know about Xu Haibo and Xu Jianqiang, only spoke of Ru Mingwei and the others’ situation.
"Not bad! You’re very obedient."
Ding Fan was relieved. He wasn’t afraid of a single Divine Realm Fourth Level Expert; what he feared was several Divine Realm Fourth Level Experts besieging him. In that case, even with Sirius’s help, he might still die.
The small Warship soon docked. There were many Warships on the shore, each guarded by several people. Ding Fan took a glance and didn’t spot any experts; those experts seemed to all be on the island.
"You can go!"
Ding Fan was a man of his word and did not kill the guide bandit. Now, to him, sparing one more life didn’t matter. He charged toward the other Warships.
"Bang!"
When a man hiding in a concealed spot was killed, the Martial Artists on the ship immediately received the alarm. One of them shouted, "Enemy attack~"
Before he finished speaking, that man was crushed to death. However, quite a few Martial Artists flew out of the cabin at the same time, charging toward Ding Fan.
Ding Fan activated the Shadowless Body Technique, conjuring one phantom after another. A group of pirates looked like idiots. Among these garrison Martial Artists there were no experts above the Divine Realm Third Level. Killing them was like stepping on ants. With a casual sweep of his ruler, someone would fall.
It took just over ten seconds—only a dozen seconds—and dozens of garrison soldiers were killed by Ding Fan. Corpses were everywhere, many of them heavily mangled by Ding Fan’s Heaven Measuring Ruler.
"Swoosh!"
Without the slightest pause, Ding Fan rushed toward the interior of Skull Island, leaving only the pirate he had taken as a hostage. The pirate was terrified by Ding Fan’s killing methods and forgot to escape. Luckily, Ding Fan did not kill him.
"His name really matches his shadow."
The pirate said in his heart. Ding Fan’s name was resounding throughout the Tianmu Sea. His deeds were known in great detail even to these low-level pirates.
Originally, many people thought Ding Fan had become famous by luck. Now this pirate understood: anyone who could carve out such a big name was never relying on luck. Without strength, even reaching the sky would be useless.
"Go!"
The small-time pirate thought it over and decided to take the Warship and flee this area. He had a vague feeling that very few of the pirates who had come this time would escape. They would probably all be buried on Skull Island.
...
The enemies in the direction where Ding Fan landed were not Ru Mingwei’s group but the Tiger Shark Pirate Group. He ran along the Lake Heart Island legion’s route. It was a mess, clear traces of battle everywhere. Many trees had been felled and some mechanisms and Prohibitions had been destroyed.
Skull Island wasn’t very big. If there were no mechanisms and Prohibitions from here on, with Ding Fan’s speed, it would take him very little time to pass through. He did not use the Sirius inheritance. After reaching the Divine Realm Third Level his speed had greatly increased, and he believed he would reach the battlefield soon.
"Boom!"
Very quickly, the sound of explosions came from ahead. Even from far away he could hear the sounds made by those pirate experts’ True Essence Release blasting the ground.
"Sirius inheritance!"
Ding Fan roared and activated the Sirius inheritance. First, he wanted to test if he could still use the Sirius inheritance. Second, he wanted to see whether the duration of the Sirius inheritance had increased.
Only when he awakened his own Sirius inheritance: originally it lasted only a dozen hours, after breaking through the Divine Realm Second Level it increased to half an hour. Normally speaking, now that he had entered the Divine Realm Third Level, it should extend further.
The Sirius mark on his body flashed, his flesh quickly strengthening. All his bones and muscles were filled with Power. His eyes flickered with silver light, as if he had transformed into a giant wolf in human form.
"Excellent!"
Using the Sirius inherited skill, Ding Fan let out a small sigh of relief. When he冲击ed the Divine Realm Third Level, some changes had occurred: more wolf patterns appeared in his Soul, and the Beast Bone Pendant had disappeared. But at least he could still use the Sirius inherited skill; his combat strength still existed, and there were no other physical problems. This reassured him greatly.
He rushed to the edge of a small grove and called Sirius out to find the way. This grove had been filled with many mechanisms and Prohibitions by Mu Gaosou; at the time even he hadn’t known how many there were.
Sirius happily trotted in front, and Ding Fan followed closely behind like a snake, charging toward the center of the battlefield.
The center of the battlefield was on the mountain ahead. When Ding Fan glanced out of the forest, the place was packed with people—at least a thousand pirates—while Skull Island had only a few hundred men. Two Divine Realm Second Level Experts, together with several Tigertooth Apes, were desperately resisting.
