Chapter 231
When confronting the enemies, Long Haochen had faced the most powerful of them. As a commander, he planned everything far ahead, causing the whole team to get out from a situation of certain death, without a single casualty. Be it in terms of strength, decision-making, intelligence or leadership, he already appeared in Luc Xi’s eyes like a true leader.
Under Long Haochen’s guidance, the 21st general grade Demon Hunt Squad’s fighting strength was brought out to the fullest, and they managed to save strength effectively. But how much contribution did their 4th soldier grade Demon Hunt Squad bring back? Long Haochen alone was enough to match their whole team.
At the same time, Luc Xi also realized how challenging it would be for a priest like himself to command a team. Although priests had a certain fighting strength, their most important role was to be devoted wholeheartedly to healing. They were far from comparable with a knight in the front lines to make decisions.
The reason as for why the knight was called a Demon Hunt Squad’s cornerstone was that he could effect the whole battlefield with his abilities.
Seeing Luc Xi’s sincerity, Long Haochen revealed a faint smile, declaring, “Brother Luc, you shouldn’t undervalue yourself either. There won’t be any change on anything we decided together. Everything we already promised will be done. Since we are going to receive the 70% of the reward, it is natural that we have to do more.”
“Captain Long…” Luc Xi still wanted to say something, but was stopped by Long Haochen’s hand.
Long Haochen’s expression became extremely serious, “Now is not the time to discuss these matters. I have only two things to say. First, I want to insist on this: in the battlefield, everyone must strictly comply with orders, because the mistake of a single person is likely to cause the annihilation of the whole team. It’s true that demons are our mortal enemies, and that we all have to do our utmost to kill demons. But on a long-term consideration, acting impetuously is just suicidal. If we want to kill even more demons to avenge our kin, the first thing we have to do is to keep ourselves alive. If anyone has a problem with my command, you may object it outside of the battlefield, and then, we’ll talk of it together. If I am not capable enough to lead the whole team, I will be sure to abdicate to let the worthy lead. But when we will get in battle again, I wish that the previous situation won’t ever happen again. If anyone causes trouble in times of battle, affecting the whole team’s survival, don’t blame me for expelling you of the team without qualms.”
“Yes!” The twelve agreed loudly, including the extremely grieved Dian Yan.
Long Haochen went on, “The second thing is about our following move.
As we have previously been hurrying to get away, I have been adjusting our path of return. We have already no way back, because the core part Nareiks Demon Province is right behind us. Since the demons from there dared robbing the entirety of the Yue Ye caravan’s goods, they will obviously want to silence everyone. Which is why we can only keep going forward, and now we have already entered over 200 km deep in the demon territory. Although the Nareiks Province’s territory is long and narrow, the area it covers is not so wide. After only three more hours, we will be able to reach this province’s frontier. But as long as we are inside of the demon territory, we will never be in complete safety; please be alert, everyone. Now, I will ask for everyone’s opinions. Should we keep aiming for the mission, or should we rather take a detour to return to the Alliance?
Having gone through the previous battle, Long Haochen had acquired without a doubt the unanimous approval. However, he couldn’t get ahead of himself and decide for the team’s future direction by himself. He had to let everyone give their own views. This bit caused Luc Xi to admire Long Haochen even more. He realized that under the same circumstances, he wouldn’t have thought of this point.
“Let’s keep advancing then. There is a very low probability to encounter something like the siege of a demon army, and as long as we don’t run into any demon exceeding the seventh step, there shouldn’t be any problem. Since we are only a dozen, it won’t be so easy to spot us. Although the demon territory is dangerous, risk and chance are the two sides of a single coin. A Demon Hunt Squad needs to go through hunting demons to grow.” Luc Xi voiced his own opinion.
His words had gotten the great majority’s approval.
Despite the terror they had from their previous battle in the Nareiks Province, these Demon Hunters belonged to the elite of their generation, and all went through the Alliance’s strict inspection, making sure of their fidelity to the Alliance as well as their determination in fighting against the demon threat and their resolution. More importantly, since under Long Haochen’s command, they managed to preserve their fighting strength, how could they shrink back at such a moment.
Seeing that everyone shared the same opinion, Long Haochen nodded, “All right. Since everything has just been decided, let’s immediately think of a solution to get out of our current predicament.” As he said, he swept a glance past the carriage at his side.
After these two hours rest, Yue Ye already regained consciousness. Though her face was still pale, her eyes were filled with some curiosity. After taking a few pills, she sat beside Leng Xiao on the vehicle, telling her something.
The hour of rest passed rapidly, and the Demon Hunters from the two Demon Hunt Squads as well as the few mages got into the car, but Leng
Xiao and Yue Ye were still seated in front of the horses, outside of the carriage.
Li Xin didn’t keep following Long Haochen forward, and got into the carriage. Long Haochen, only leading Cai’er, moved towards Yue Ye and Leng Xiao.
Seeing the two of them come over, Yue Ye revealed an indifferent smile, “I guess that you want to discuss with me right? But before this, may I ask for your name? Let me introduce first, my name is Yue Ye, and I am the current president of the Yue Ye Chamber of Commerce and she is Leng Xiao, my close friend.”
Long Haochen revealed a surprised look, but quickly came back to his senses, “Greetings, President Yue Ye. My name is Long Haochen.”
“Long Haochen.” Yue Ye seemed to mull over this name, and looking at Long Haochen’s handsome face, she asked with a smile, “I really want to know how old you are, would it be okay?”
Long Haochen shook his head, and replied, “Apologies, but I am afraid that I cannot reveal that information.”
Yue Ye sighed lightly before going on, “If my chamber of commerce had such an outstanding young powerhouse as you, we wouldn’t have such bad times. It’s a pity that you don’t belong to our chamber of commerce. In our chamber’s records, I don’t remember of the name Long Haochen at all, and I know we don’t have any knight possessing a Saint Spiritual Stove. Is there anything you would like to receive for the help you gave us?”
With a sigh, Long Haochen wrinkled his brows, “It will be quite hard to choose, President Yue Ye.” At this very moment, his eyes were filled with an indescriptible glint, carrying an ounce of killing intent.
“What are you planning to do?” Leng Xiao put herself in front of Yue Ye, protecting her from Long Haochen’s glance. After an hour’s rest, her body had already recovered for the most part.
Cai’er slowly took a step forward, instantly locking her murderous intent on Leng Xiao.
Just at this moment, an unthinkable scene happened before Long Haochen’s eyes.
Peng.
A white palm was swept at Leng Xiao’s back, and with a shiver, she glanced at Yue Ye with an uncomprehending look, before falling into her arms.
Yue Ye carried Leng Xiao’s body, letting her lean against the carriage, before raising her head to look at Long Haochen and Cai’er indifferently, “I think that now, it will be possible for us to have a good talk.”
Long Haochen held Cai’er’s hand, hinting her not to act impetuously, and revealed a calm smile, “You surely guessed what I would like to do, President Yue Ye, right?”
Yue Ye replied with a sigh, “The same as those bastards from the Nareiks Province: to silence everyone, right? Sir young Demon Hunt Squad captain.”
Long Haochen’s pupils shrank faintly, “President Yue Ye is indeed a smart person.”
Yue Ye smiled bitterly, “If I was really smart enough, I wouldn’t have caused the caravan to encounter such danger this time. Although I have only taken over the chamber of commerce recently, I have already taken this path dozens of times. Seeing young powerhouses such as you, I can only think of the Temple Alliance’s Demon Hunt Squads. If I guessed right, with a single signal from your side, all my subordinate in the carriage will be killed in an instant. What a shame, although I guessed right about your identity, I didn’t think that you would act so fast. Considering your two Demon Hunt Squads’ group strength, we are nowhere close to be a threat to you right?”
Long Haochen faintly smiled, and replied, “I see that you are smart enough to keep your trump cards hidden. If I didn’t guess wrong, President Yue Ye should have a military backing. And this military power of yours is quite formidable. ”
Yue Ye stared foolishly, but didn’t try to mask it at all, only giving a curious reply, “How did you guess it?”
Long Haochen replied, “President Yue Ye, although your personal strength is not so great in itself, to be able to take out the scroll of a forbidden spell of the ninth step causing the Moon Demon God’s descent, you should have quite a high position within the Moon Demon Clan. Considering the Moon Demon God’s status as the second most formidable existence among the seventy-two demon gods, since the demons from the Nareiks Province dared to offend you, I don’t believe you will leave it at that. Considering your position, the Yue Demon Clan’s powerhouses should arrive soon, am I right? And these powerhouses from the Yue Demon Clan shouldn’t be anything little Demon Hunt Squads like us are capable of contending against. Thus, to keep our identity secret, I have no choice but to act against you. Even if my guess was wrong, I cannot take the risk to let my comrades to encounter such danger.”
Yue Ye calmly looked at Long Haochen, and suddenly revealed a smile. It couldn’t be denied that she had an extremely beautiful appearance, a whole level above Cai’er’s, and her pair of purple eyes were filled with great charm and nobility, “You are the most outstanding knight I have ever met, and I have met a lot of knights. If I was an influential demon, and learned the existence of an outstanding and young knight such as you, I would definitely not spare any cost to kill you while I can still do it.
Otherwise, your future self will be likely to become an immense threat to demonkind.”
Long Haochen looked at her with some surprise, “Don’t tell me that you aren’t a demon? The color of your eyes has already betrayed you, young lady of the Moon Demon Clan.”
Chapter 232
Yue Ye lifted up her hands, waving her right hand’s fingernail and instantly streaking it against her left wrist. Immediately, a droplet of dark- red-colored blood gushed out, dripping from her pure white wrist’s skin.
Seeing the blood flowing out from her wrist, Long Haochen and Cai’er both had a great surprise.
High ranked demons were capable of taking an appearance very similar to humans’ but a few of their characteristics stayed different from humans’. And the only really important external difference between demons and humans lied in their blood.
No demon, regardless of whichever race they belonged to, would have red-colored blood. Some would have purple-colored, blue-colored, green- colored or black-colored blood, but none had red-colored blood.
Yue Ye used action to prove her identity. Since her blood was red, she couldn’t be a real demon.
After she wiped the wound on her right hand, blood stopped flowing down, and Yue Ye declared to Long Haochen, “More accurately, I am of mixed human and demon blood. My mother was a human, and outside of the heritage I gained from my father, I inherited from my mother’s human blood. Thus, I can be considered as human in a greater part, and I am not afraid of telling you that my father is precisely the current Moon Demon God. Only, because of my blood heritage, I didn’t gain the qualification to succeed him as the next Moon Demon God, which is why I became the president of the Yue Ye chamber of commerce.”
At this point, she suddenly revealed a gentle smile, but this coquettish smile carried a hint of sadness.
“I am a qualified freelance merchant, and deep inside, I don’t feel a sense of belonging for demons nor humans. Thus, I will not help humans to deal with demons, nor will I help demons to deal with humans. But you are different: if not for your prompt appearance, I would only be a corpse by now. Regardless of the goal you had when intervening, it doesn’t change the fact you are my lifesavers. For this reason, I want to tell you that leaving me alive will be of more use than killing me.”
Arrived to this point, Yue Ye stopped over and gazed at Long Haochen with a deep glance, “Captain Long, you are a very smart person. As the Moon Demon God’s daughter, princess of the Moon Demon Clan, even though I don’t have the right of inheritance to the position of demon god, my position within demons is still important. Killing me will not get you any contribution points, but sparing me will be of great help for the execution of your future missions against demons. You are my lifesavers, and I will remember this fact forever.
Of course, I know that it’s hard for you to believe empty promises. You are a Demon Hunt Squad, and in all likelihood, will have some restricting methods. Go ahead and use them against me before running away. Regardless of whether it is for the sake of preserving my own life or to repay the debt of gratitude I owe you, I can only let you do this. However, I want to request you not to harm Leng Xiao. She’s my friend, and doesn’t know anything of you. She only came to have some fun with me and that’s all. The reason why I knocked her out was that I hoped she wouldn’t learn of all of this, to be able to keep on living.
Looking at Yue Ye, Long Haochen suddenly felt a great terror. Regardless of whether what she said was true, this girl was just too clever. It could be said that she had perfectly figured out all of Long Haochen’s thoughts, as her choice of words just formed the perfect answer to dispel his hesitations.
Shutting his two eyes, Long Haochen asked in a serious tone, “If I keep you alive, of what help will you be to us?”
Yue Ye revealed an humble smile. She knew that she had already persuaded Long Haochen, “No one is more proficient than freelance merchants to help humans penetrate into the demon territory. I know that none of you is willing to wait for my reinforcements from the Moon Demon Clan to arrive, but I have special items to help you to change your appearance, letting you acquire the appearance of demon aristocrats, in addition to many other indispensable items contained in this carriage. The only thing you will need to do is to reach the nearest town, and then, you will get to penetrate into the demon territory and reach your destination effortlessly…”
Long Haochen felt hesitant. In such a situation, the best solution to infiltrate the demon territory covertly would be without a doubt to silence Yue Ye and her group. But he couldn’t help but worry about Yue Ye’s ability. Who knew what kind of magical scrolls or weapons she still had left? Even Cai’er and himself didn’t have the assurance to be able to deal with her and to retreat indemn.
More importantly, Yue Ye wasn’t a mere barbaric demon. Sparing her would be extremely advantageous for the future development of their Demon Hunt Squad. These benefits made Long Haochen feel extremely hesitant.
“Haochen, I want to speak to her on my own.” Cai’er, who had been seated by Long Haochen’s side all along, suddenly spoke.
Although Long Haochen was surprised, he still nodded in response,
“Okay.”
Cai’er waved her hand to Yue Ye, “Follow me.”
Seeing Cai’er’s limpid and unsentimental eyes, Yue Ye suddenly felt a crack in her original extreme self-confidence. She suddenly felt that this girl standing by Long Haochen’s side and carrying a veil was a lot more dangerous than him.
Although Long Haochen was powerful and extremely intelligent, she could still convince him, but Cai’er just stood there was just like a cold and
expressionless blade, that might stab her at any time.
Yue Ye glanced at Long Haochen, and seeing no reaction from him, felt inwardly dejected about it, but still followed Cai’er.
Cai’er led her to a nearby place, roughly twenty steps away, before stopping and turning, looking at Yue Ye face to face.
“Seeing that you possess some human blood heritage, we were lenient towards you, but trying to pull off any tricks will be of no use, aside from bringing your life to an end.”
As she said so, Cai’er’s left hand suddenly moved, directly shooting up at Yue Ye’s chest.
Yue Ye was startled and unconsciously tried to dodge this ‘attack’, but Cai’er suddenly became illusory, and immediately, Yue Ye felt as though everything that surrounded her body disappeared, only letting place to inexhaustible desolation.
What’s that power? Yue Ye felt greatly alarmed, to the extent that the integrality of her bones felt as cold as ice, the surroundings turning grey. , a little ice-cold hand left a mark on her chest.
Feeling a sharp presence against her chest, Yue Ye screamed miserably, and in a flash, her whole body fell down.
After arriving rapidly, this murderous intent also disappeared rapidly. Right after this grey scene vanished, Cai’er appeared once again in front of her, as if nothing had happened at all.
Yue Ye felt dull as she looked at that black-clad girl, only wondering whether she would have been able to avoid that blow just now at her peak state.
The answer was not certain. Perhaps could she have a chance in a long- distance battle, but in such a distance, even if her strength was even greater, she would still have been unable to avoid this attack. What a strong
assassin! It’s actually no wonder that she managed to wound that Golden Birdy Demon. She’s actually not the least weaker than this Long Haochen! Staring with great attention and feeling the changes on her own body, Yue Ye turned pale with fright, because she discovered with shock that a sort of needle had really been left near to her heart. It was a small, entirely grey- colored, and sparkling penetrative needle. A very little split was left in front of her heart; this was clearly a little needle formed of condensed spiritual energy. Outside of the coldness that occasionally came through, it didn’t seem to be of any harm to her body.
But this feeling clearly only existed on the surface. How could such a thing placed on her heart be really totally harmless?
Yue Ye’s expression became uglier. She could only be said to be extremely intelligent: having seen through Long Haochen’s benevolent character, she had suggested Long Haochen to restrict her own body, and felt quite lucky to be confronting him. But now, this feeling of luckiness clearly didn’t exist anymore.
Cai’er indifferently declared, “Let me give you an advice: don’t try to remove the restriction I left in your body. I am the only one able to remove it in this world. Even the Demon God Emperor cannot possibly get rid of it, and having him try out his luck will only leave a corpse behind.”
From how Yue Ye heard it, this wasn’t a threat, as Cai’er’s voice was very calm, but a mere description of the real facts. In addition, she was quite knowledgeable and experienced, and this sort of restriction wasn’t something she had never seen before.
Cai’er turned around and advanced, returning to Long Haochen’s side. Yue Ye stood up from the ground, placing her right hand on her left chest, gasping for breath as her look directed to Cai’er was filled with terror.
Cai’er nodded to Long Haochen, telling him a few words, and Long Haochen nodded in response before looking at Yue Ye, “We accept your proposal. Please give us these things that could be of help to us now. I will spare your life and Leng Xiao’s”
Yue Ye’s face was pale, “Then, how can this restriction be removed?”
Cai’er gave a calm reply, “As long as you can meet me once a year, and that I stay safe and sound, this restriction will never break out. If you want this restriction to be completely removed, it will only be possible after demonkind’s total annihilation.”
“You…” Yue Ye finally broke out in anger.
Cai’er coldly swept a glance, “Are you qualified to have any objection?”
Yue Ye took a deep breath, calming her rage down. She didn’t want to die, and it was only natural. In this world, anyone would treasure his own life.
“I understand.” As she said this, the ruby-colored ring in Yue Ye’s finger glinted, and a thing after another was set free from it, and she explained their uses to Long Haochen and Cai’er.
A minute later, Long Haochen recovered these goods Yue Ye gave them.
“Thanks a lot for your assistance. If one day, you feel inclined to join humanity’s side, I believe that it will be a very good thing to us. Don’t worry about this restriction placed on your body; if one day, you let us see your loyalty towards humanity, we will remove it for you. This place isn’t safe, you should leave as soon as possible.”
Yue Ye nodded in silence, looking at Long Haochen before looking at Cai’er. The brilliance in her eyes rose and fell, as a distressed expression was formed by her brows, giving her a lovely yet pitiful look.
“Can you help me on some matter before you leave, please?” Yue Ye pleaded in a low voice.
Chapter 233
Looking at her, Long Haochen felt shaken. He after all still had a young and naive side: after Cai’er left such a restriction in Yue Ye’s body, he felt remorseful deep inside. To him, the fact that Yue Ye already took out so many things after such a short span of time was an ample proof of her sincerity, showing that she wasn’t filled with bad intent.
“I am listening.” Long Haochen’s voice clearly sounded a lot gentler.
Yue Ye said, “Please knock out my subordinates: I have a spell to erase their memory. They must have these memories wiped out, this will be the safest option for you.”
“All right.” Long Haochen gave his agreement without the slightest hesitation, pointing his finger in the direction of the carriage. Immediately, repeated slamming sounds were heard from inside the carriage.
Yue Ye’s remaining subordinates were all mages. Facing such ruthless close quarter warriors, how could they have the ability to contend?
The members of the two Demon Hunt Squads walked up in a line, coming to Long Haochen’s side.
Long Haochen gave Yue Ye an apologetic glance, “We still have a long road, and will need to borrow some of your Unwavering Manes. Ten should be enough, the rest will be left to you. Please leave this place as soon as possible too, this area is still within the scope of the Nareiks Province. It’s not a safe place.”
“Got it.” Yue Ye had completely changed from her previous extremely intelligent display, replying obediently, just like a servant seeing off her master.
Cai’er wrinkled her brows, and for some reason, discovered that she found this girl more and more unlikable as time passed.
With a dim twinkle, Long Haochen’s eyes lit up with the display of an ice-cold expression, “Get on, it’s time to set off.”
Everyone received the Unwavering Manes, and other than Long Haochen, Li Xin and Cai’er who didn’t need it, everyone else chose one, and got on it. Under Long Haochen’s lead, they galloped at full speed.
Following their departing figures with her eyes, Yue Ye’s look gradually turned colder. Unconsciously placing her right hand on her left chest, she touched a soft spot.
“No matter how terrible you are, you still have a big weak spot. As long as Long Haochen asks for it, you will surely dispel this restriction on me. Long Haochen, I will succeed in my goals no matter what.”
At this point, Yue Ye revealed a noble and proud expression. She hadn’t lied to Long Haochen, and was really the princess of the Moon Demon Clan, and didn’t mind supporting Long Haochen’s two Demon Hunt Squads. The only reason for this was because of Long Haochen.
Except for returning the favor to her savior, she had another reason to do this.
Although Yue Ye possessed human blood, making her unable to succeed the Moon Demon God, as the holder of the title of ‘new moon’ within the Moon Demon Clan, her innate talent was extremely high, and her wisdom surpassed her clasmen’s by far. Even the Moon Demon God relied heavily on her on this side, and she could be said to be the greatest genius of the Moon Demon Clan.
Thus, Yue Ye had always been filled with extreme pride since very young. Because of her excellence, many of the high ranked demon gods expressed the desire of connecting their successors to the Moon Demon God by marriage, but Yue Ye refused all these proposal without any hesitation. When she rejected them, she only had a single explanation for this: that among her peers, she would only consider one whose strength and intelligence surpassed hers as someone qualified to take her as his wife.
With certainty, no one outside of the Demon God Emperor’s successor had ever managed to achieve this condition. But the Demon God Emperor would never let him connect to an outsider by marriage: to preserve the purity of their bloodline, men of their clan could only marry girls of their own clan.
Yue Ye, who was turning 22 this year, finally met someone who pleased her, a man who convinced her absolutely, and although the counterpart was a human, he gave her a feeling she had never experienced before.
It wasn’t like she had fallen for Long Haochen, but rather that he made a competitive spirit rise in her. At the same time, she felt that this man would be able to deserve her.
Yue Ye’s previous words came from the deepest part of her heart. She never regarded herself as a demon, neither did she regard herself as a human. To either of the two sides, she didn’t feel a great attachment nor an extreme repulsion. What she followed was the ideal that only the strong deserved respect.
With a flash of light, a scroll appeared in Yue Ye’s hand. She unhurriedly strolled to the front of the carriage, opening up the scroll, and from it, an intense flame was immediately ignited. In passing, she tossed the scroll in the carriage, before shutting the door closed.
A few seconds later, a loud explosion rang and these heavy carriages shot up together with it.
But these carriages were indeed durable, as they didn’t explode even in such circumstances.
On the driver seat, Leng Xiao was sent flying up, and the Unwavering Manes thought of running away in total panic, but the carriage was too heavy, and without Floating Techniques being launched, even if they wanted, they couldn’t start running.
“Only a dead person will be able to keep a secret with the best certainty.” Yue Ye’s expression was calm, as if she was taking care of unimportant matters.
After being thrown down, Leng Xiao came back to her senses.
“What’s going on? What’s happening?” Crawling from the ground, Leng Xiao looked at Yue Ye, and her last look was extremely sincere.
Yue Ye’s pair of purple eyes seemed to be filled with intense regret, only gazing at her silently, and Leng Xiao’s eyes gradually shut down, entering in a deep slumber.
That’s right, Yue Ye had an ability to erase memory, but unfortunately, this ability came with a huge consumption, so she couldn’t use it on many people. She could kill these subordinates of hers to silence them, but couldn’t do the same with Leng Xiao.
After leaving the carriage, Long Haochen and his group didn’t know of what happened. They had been hurrying in their way, and at dawn, they had already covered close to 100 km, and picked a remote place to rest.
If it was before, his comrades would definitely have questioned Long Haochen’s choice to spare Yue Ye and her group. However, this time, they were extremely calm, in particular for the six people of the 4th Demon Hunt Squad, who didn’t have any inquiry at all.
It wasn’t out of fear, but out of trust, because they had close to an absolute trust towards Long Haochen, and were already almost willing to follow him blindly. Ever since he left the Temple Alliance, Long Haochen had never made any mistake in his decisions, using his own ability to prove his outstanding capacity as a commander to everyone.
This time, everyone carried the water and food supply for three months of travel, so there would be any problem to eat and drink to their fill. After replenishing themselves, Long Haochen didn’t lead them to depart urgently, but unfolded his map while taking out the things he received from Yue Ye.
“Please change your clothes, everyone, and use these ones.”
These were thin crystals, rippling with magical fluctuation, of which Long Haochen demonstrated the use.
A short time later, the thirteen of them had completely changed appearances, because of these clothes.
All were clad in purple gown, about the same. These gowns were overly long, and bent up. With the corrections done from the few girls in the group, it finally fit them perfectly.
At the same time, the colors of their eyes changed, and everyone appeared to have purple pupils.
At the back of the purple gowns appeared the design of a bent moon.
The thin and elaborate transparent slice was exactly the same kind of magical eyes Leng Xiao and Yue Ye wore previously, the only difference being that Yue Ye gave Long Haochen’s group purple colored ones.
With this entire change of attire plus the change of color of their eye, Long Haochen’s group completely took the appearance of the Moon Clan members. Of course, it wouldn’t be enough if it was only about their external appearances, so everyone also had an insignia justifying their lineage to the Moon Demon Clan. Although these insignias weren’t magical equipment, it carried the aura belonging to the Moon Clan’s bloodline, and weren’t so easy to make. When carrying them, Long Haochen’s group naturally released the specific cold, charming and dignified aura of high ranked demons.
“Captain, what should we do next? Should we really blatantly enter a demon city, just like that Yue Ye said?” Sima Xian asked.
Long Haochen shook his head, replying, “No, we are after all no demons. Although this is enough to hide our true identities, we are after all completely different from demons, be it in terms of living customs or physical specs. In case we enter a demon town, such a great number of high ranked demons is bound to attract attention, and possibly be exposed. In addition, since we are supposed to be high ranked demons, we are not supposed to be riding such low magical beasts as these Unwavering Manes. We’ll have to abandon these magical beast before we enter in a town. For this reason, I previously looked over our route, and since our supply is sufficient, I determined that we should stick to our original plan and hurry to the Desolate Hissing Cavern to complete our mission in the fastest time possible.”
Long Haochen was undoubtedly extremely prudent, and didn’t fully trust Yue Ye at all.
Everyone nodded in succession, expressing their approval.
Long Haochen declared to the side of his teammates of the 21st Demon Hunt Squad, “Let’s consult each other later before distributing the contribution points.” Although they were equitable, they wouldn’t be inflexible and didn’t propose an equitable sharing of contribution points to the 4th soldier grade Demon Hunt Squad. After all, a difference in strength existed between the two Demon Hunt Squads and their contributions to the whole group weren’t the same. Long Haochen also wanted to consider his own teammates’ opinions.
His teammates naturally didn’t have any objection to this suggestion.
Indeed, after entering in the demon territory, they immediately met some big trouble, but their bounty of contribution points was equally plentiful.
On the side of the 4th soldier grade Demon Hunt Squad, an important amount of contribution points had already been gathered, as each Berserk Demons gave four contribution points and the Birdy Demons gave six. The other types of demons also gave a lot more than Dual Bladed Demons.
The earnings on Long Haochen’s side were even greater. The Scarlet Blooded Berserk Demon died by Long Haochen’s hand, whereas the Golden Birdy Demon died by Cai’er’s hand, and these evolved demons’ values already exceeded a thousand. It was already enough for Long Haochen’s group to have an abundance of points. More importantly, Long Haochen had just slain a huge amount of Grand Birdy Demons, whose corpses had entirely been recovered by Lin Xin. The values of the corpses in addition to the magical crystals were considerable, to the extent that the happiest of the whole team was Lin Xin.
With such a quantity of material, I’ll get to make quite a lot of pills! Lin Xin’s pills could not only be sold anywhere; even in the Demon Hunt Squads’ Transaction Center, many would be willing to buy them.
Chapter 234
It could be said that the previous battle’s earnings already surpassed the total profit they made during the three previous months. But of course, this was after omitting the gain of the Light Elemental Spiritual Stove.
The time of break was short, and under Long Haochen’s lead, they continued their journey, heading out of the Nareiks Province .
Bad luck hadn’t been accompanying them forever, and making use of the map, they passed through desolate areas as much as possible. A few days later, at the time the sunlight started to illuminate the sky, they finally made it out of the Nareiks Province.
And at this time, Long Haochen finally couldn’t persevere anymore.
Such a battle caused an enormous consumption on Long Haochen, who could be said to be totally exhausted both mentally and physically. As for the remaining injuries on his body, they were mostly from using Sacrifice, in addition to the overuse of his spiritual energy. During this period of continuous hurried travel, along with the burden he had from taking responsibility for leading the whole team, Luc Xi’s healing could only treat the symptoms but not the root cause, and as they finally arrived at a safe place, Long Haochen finally fell in Cai’er’s arms.
During the period Long Haochen was unconscious, the two Demon Hunt Squads discussed exhaustively before deciding to settle here to get some rest.
They were located in desolate hills. Ever since the largest part of Shengmo Dalu’s territory had been occupied by the demons, infertile land had become more and more numerous, and without manned power to plow it, weeds broke out everywhere from the original fertile land.
In a zone of hills, they found an unnoticeable area to reside in for the time being. So as to keep their identity as humans secret, they didn’t dare set up a tent, and just stayed in a rather hard to notice area in high altitude. They chose to reside in a cavern that could accommodate everyone to rest and reorganize tranquilly.
The reason for the decision to stay here and rest was simple: they reached a consensus, that the team needed Long Haochen to guide them, that without him, the whole team would be unable to bring out enough strength. Rushing impatiently would only produce the opposite of the desired result, and thus, it would be better to have some rest, letting everyone recover while cultivating to transform the arousal of their potential of the past battle into strength.
This time of rest lasted for a period of three entire days.
In these remote hills they chose to settle down, the terrain, entirely filled with grass and shrubs, was perfectly suitable to feed the Ironed Manes.
Actually, the injuries and overdraft brought upon Long Haochen’s body by his use of Sacrifice recovered after a single day, but he still decided to stay for two more days.
To any of the existing vocation, the moment after a big battle was also the most ideal chance to rise in power. Their goal was not only to complete their demon hunt mission, but also to improve their personal strength as much as possible. They didn’t need to rush blindly.
After his internal spiritual energy broke through the realm of the 3000s, Long Haochen discovered that his cultivation speed had increased clearly. It wasn’t only related to the presence of the Light Elemental Fairy Yating, but his own perception of the light essence contained in the external world had also increased greatly. In particular, Long Haochen discovered that three
days after this battle, his own internal spiritual energy had increased by a total of more than a hundred.
In fact, he achieved the realm of the totally liquid spiritual energy, which caused an increase that could only be described as terrifying in his advancing speed.
But on the fourth day, his speed of advancement distinctly slowed down, sign that the effects of arousal of his potential caused by the previous battle vanished gradually. But after paying careful attention, Long Haochen noticed that if he put all his energy in cultivation, his internal spiritual energy would increase by at least twenty units on a daily basis.
Twenty, this was a terrifying number. According to this cultivation speed, after at most two months, he would reach the realm of the sixth step: Radiant Knight.
Of course, Long Haochen didn’t tell the others about this change, as he didn’t want to raise their hopes inadvertently. But he secretly took the decision that after the completion of this mission and returning to Holy City, he would train behind closed doors, striving to reach the level of Radiant Knight. If he really managed to raise his strength to the sixth step, they would be able to aim for even more challenging missions.
The Unwavering Manes set off again, heading into the depths of the demon territory.
Although they only needed to cover a distance of 2,000 km from the Temple Alliance to their present destination, in practice, they couldn’t possibly take a straight line continuously. After no less than seven days travel, they finally reached the central demon province, and drew closer and closer to their destination.
However, they had no choice but to reduce their speed in the end. This was because the nearer they were to the central province, the more demons they would run into, and they even occasionally met humans. However, these humans were almost all working in farms.
The attires belonging to the Moon Clan had an enormous utility, regardless of which demon tribes they ran across, all these demons would rapidly avoid their group. Unfortunately, after seeing the first looks of the other demons, they had no choice but to abandon these Ironed Manes that would easily arise suspicion, instead going on foot.
Long Haochen transmitted an order, that without his authorization, no one was to act against demons. Killing demons would raise their amount of contribution points, but would also increase their risk of getting exposed.
Examining the map and meticulously scouting the terrain, Long Haochen even made occasionally use of Han Yu’s Demonic Eye, to fly in high altitude for scouting or asked for the help of Li Xin’s Rose Unicorn to take him in the air, but the reason why he didn’t only ask for Li Xin’s help was naturally that a Rose Unicorn was excessively eye-catching.
They couldn’t go ask other demons, and could only rely on their own judgement and their map to determine the location, but this was undoubtedly a difficult task.
After ten days of extremely cautious travel, they could be said to be even more exhausted than after the previous battle.
“If we weren’t mistaken on the previous route, after crossing these mountain, we should arrive at the destination.” Long Haochen took a deep breath. Even with his cultivation as an Earth Knight, he couldn’t help but feel extremely exhausted.
Li Xin waved her hands with strength, “So we are finally about to arrive? That’s great. As long as we can complete the exploration of the cavern, our mission will be considered as a success.”
Lin Xin said in reaction, “There’s no time to lose. How about reaching the Desolate Hissing Caverns before getting some rest? We’ll pass this hurdle in a spurt of energy.”
Long Haochen replied after pondering for a little, “If no one has a problem with it, let’s start to climb the mountain.”
Just as they were preparing to start this operation, a distant group of people hurried in their direction. Everyone immediately stopped on their tracks as they didn’t believe that they would possibly meet friendly forces so deeply in the demon territory.
This was a cavalry, whose appearance surprised everyone. Each of these soldiers were Grand Fiends of the Fiend Clan that could be considered to be a central existence for all demons. They weren’t the most numerous neither were they the most powerful clan, but they had the most balanced population.
In terms of quantity, the Fiend Clan was only second to the Dual Bladed Demons, but the Fiend Clan wasn’t only formed of Little Fiends only capable to serve as cannon fodder. They were spread from the rank of the Little Fiends to the rank of Devil King, and the monarch of the Fiend Clan, the fourth ranked of the seventy-two demon gods, the Death Lord Samigina.
For this reason, although the fiend clansmen were very numerous, their level of strength was extremely disparate, from the weakest Little Fiends to the fourth demon god. Their force as a whole entity was also considerable, second only to the Devil Dragons’ tribe. It went to the extent that the clans of the two other demon gods above him in the ranking were far inferior to the Fiend Clan. The Death Lord Saminaga, known to his kins as Demon Ruler, was the only one whom all his clansmen listened to.
The Fiend Clan’s greatest characteris lied in its capability to evolve. It was simply the most expert demon race in evolving: even the weakest Little Fiend had the chance to advance to the level of Devil King with sufficient luck.
The fiend corps before them was constituted of Grand Fiends of the fourth step, numbering fifty. Their mounts were Nightmare Devil Horses.
Nightmare Devil Horses were entirely deep black, their body covered in deep red stripes and just like the fiends, they had on their fronthead a pair of horns, giving them appearances of terrible four-legged beasts. These Nightmare Devil Horses were, just like their masters, at the fourth step.
Reportedly, the most powerful Nightmare Devil Horses could go as far as to reach the ninth step, becoming formidable Nightmare Kings.
The members of the two Demon Hunt Squads looked at the same time at Long Haochen. In a battle of twelve against fifty, considering that the fifty fiends were accompanied by fifty mounts, they didn’t have the slightest chance for victory. That was to say nothing of the fact that they already penetrated deep into the demon Central Province, where letting a single enemy go would result in big complications.
Long Haochen did a hand gesture, hinting his teammates to keep themselves calm. Walking to the front, his two hands behind his back, he wore a haughty expression on his face, swiftly approaching the fiend cavalry.
The team of Grand Fiends quickly got close. They were headed by a particularly tall fiend, whose Nightmare Devil Horse also looked a lot more imposing than the others. With a flash of flame, the Nightmare Devil horses arrived at twenty meters distance from Long Haochen before stopping. Then, the Grand Fiend riding it dismounted from it and walked towards Long Haochen’s direction.
This Grand Fiend Commander had a pair of spiral-shaped horns, bat-like wings, had an imposing build and a particularly immense claw, a fierce- looking appearance. His body carried an intense fishy stench, letting off a thin green vapor.
In the Fiend Clan, Grand Fiends belonged to the faction of absolute strength, and were expert in close-range battles, fearing magic, especially fire-type magic.
The fact he was able to grow wings testified that this Grand Fiend already possessed a cultivation at the level of the sixth step, possessing the ability of flight. At this level, he could be called a Fiend Commander.
“Enough, stand there. Don’t get closer with your filthy body.” Long Haochen ordered coldly.
Against the expectations, the fiend really listened and stopped over, but bellowed in response, “Even if you are a noble of the Moon Clan, you do not have the right to insult me, the Fiend Commander. Give me your name, moon demon.”
High ranked demons could all speak human tongue, and among them, the Moon Clan demons were the most fond of it. This was also the reason why Long Haochen spoke in a natural way to this Grand Fiend. But in comparison, the Grand Fiend’s human tongue was clearly a lot rougher and shakier.
Long Haochen snorted coldly, and he nimbly threw an insignia to this Grand Fiend.
The Fiend Commander made haste to catch it in his broad palm. Then, his dark green eyes violently shrank, and the insignia in his hand almost fell down. Suddenly stepping forward, he unexpectedly kneeled down before Long Haochen.
“Esteemed Moon Clan’s Viscount, I ask your forgiveness for my previous impulsive behaviour.” This Fiend Commander had immediately become a lot more refined. He still carried this insignia in his hands, but didn’t dare get closer.
With a white glow, the insignia returned in Long Haochen’s hand, precisely from the Saint Spiritual Stove’s attractive force. The Saint Spiritual Stove used a particular energy, and didn’t really have light properties, so Long Haochen didn’t fear to be found out because of it. The most important was not to let the opponent approach. They were after all humans, and thus, they would be easily be found out by demons with good sense of smell like fiends if he didn’t have this protective insignia.
“Stand up, stinky fellow. Tell me, where are you heading to?” Long Haochen said with a domineering expression, fitting his handsome appearance while giving off an impression of spoilt child. Nonetheless, this was the first time he took such a behaviour, which appeared clearly unnatural and shaky from him.
The Fiend Commander respectfully declared, “Honorable Moon Clan’s Viscont, we are reinforcements sent for the exploration of the Desolate Hissing Cavern by our clansmen.”
“The Desolate Hissing Cavern?” Long Haochen was extremely surprised, “What kind of place is that? How is it that I have never heard of it before?”
The Fiend Commander replied, “This is a cavern our Fiend Clan discovered. The grand Fiend Sovereign Samigina already reported its existence to our ultimate ruler, the Demon God Emperor. According to our Fiend Clan’s observations, it seems that this Desolate Hissing Cavern is a quite an uncommon place. Some of our troops were exploring it, when we received some signal requiring help and set out as reinforcements.”
Although he clearly felt terrified of Long Haochen’s status, he avoided approaching the subject of the Desolate Hissing Cavern, emphasising the fact that the Demon God Emperor already knew of this cavern’s situation.
Long Haochen snorted coldly, “If I’m not guessing wrong, this Desolate Hissing Cavern you are talking of should be on the other side of the hill, right?”
A great change appeared on the expression of the Fiend Commander’s face, unconsciously asking in reaction, “You… How do you know about it?”
Long Haochen replied proudly, “In this world, do you think there exists anyone surpassing my Moon Clan in wisdom? Be at ease, such a little cavern wasn’t enough to attract our clan’s attention. You may go accomplish your role as reinforcements. Get lost!”
At the same time these words came out of his mouth, he did a fast gesture with his right hand at his back, directed at his teammates.
This place was under mountains, in a plain location. Before these Major Fiend Troops appeared, it could be said that there wasn’t any living
creatures there.
As if begging for forgiveness, the Grand Fiend Commander bowed to Long Haochen once again, before going back to sit on his Nightmare Horse’s back. With a wave of his hand, he led the cavalry of fifty Grand Fiends forward, to a relatively flat location. Considering the Nightmare Horses’ ability, they could manage to traverse it pretty effortlessly.
Since they were headed to the same direction, they made the trip together with Long Haochen’s group. Just when a third of the Grand Fiend Cavalry passed it, Long Haochen suddenly shouted, “Start!”
A massive figure appeared in front of him. Immediately, a dozen glints appeared on the members of the two Demon hunt Squads, and two beams formed of terrifying energy burst forth.
Long Haochen’s previous gesture had two meanings: to prepare for battle and to leave no one alive.
Chapter 235
“Start!” Long Haochen suddenly shouted from the previously noiseless ground.
Haoyue’s massive figure appeared in an instant, and Essence of Disorder immediately burst forth. By absorbing the power released in his surroundings, he made it so that his allies wouldn’t be affected.
At the time this Grand Fiend Cavalry had appeared, Long Haochen had already made his preparations for battle. After the last battle with the Yue Ye Merchant Group, Haoyue told Long Haochen that because of his evolution, Essence of Disorder would now consume roughly 80% of his spiritual energy, instead of depleting it entirely at once.
When Long Haochen’s group entered in the demon territory, left with no choice but to abandon the Unwavering Manes, Haoyue chose to go live on his own. After all, he would stand out too much by staying at Long Haochen’s side. Besides, with the existence of an instantaneous link between the two of them like their blood contract, Long Haochen didn’t worry about his safety.
At the instant he saw the Grand Fiend Cavalry, Long Haochen had Haoyue start preparing his Essence of Disorder. At that time, he was still not sure of whether to battle these Grand Fiends or not, but wanted to be ready just in case. The consumption on Haoyue would admittedly be great, but after consuming spiritual energy, at most one or two hours would be needed to recover it back. But in case the battle really started, the effects of the Essence of Disorder would really be extremely great.
Back then, if not for Haoyue’s assistance, at the time that dozen of Grand Birdy Demons appeared, Long Haochen and Leng Xiao wouldn’t have managed to resist them.
Nonetheless, making a spell instantly break forth upon summoning wasn’t something anyone could do. A blood contract could be summoned with an instant summoning, but at the same time, Haoyue could preserve his own magic without interrupting it as he was summoned because of his special body. This was something the mages’ summoning array never managed to accomplish before.
The three light beams from Essence of Disorder spread, extending in fifty meters diameter around and wrapping the Grand Fiend Cavalry of fifty inside.
It could immediately be seen that regardless of whether it was the Grand Fiends or their Nightmare Devil Horses, a dense black fog was emitted from all their bodies. With screaming sounds, the cavalry immediately descended into disorder.
The Grand Fiends mainly used their physical body for battle, but the overwhelming majority of these formidable demons were able to act in coordination, as if they were a single entity. Just like it was the case for the Moon Clan, for the Devil Dragon Clan, it was the case for the Fiend Clan.
Any fiend’s energy would contain darkness-type spiritual energy. They had the ability to absorb the darkness essence in the air and use it to increase their cultivation power by digesting it, gradually attaining the state of evolution.
Thus, in times of battle, any of the Grand Fiends’ attacks would be supplemented with darkness attribute, filled with extreme power. But in the same fashion, their bodies would have darkness-type properties.
Even pure darkness combatants would suffer the violent influence of Essence of Disorder, let alone these Grand Fiend that were originally of darkness attribute.
A black mist suddenly broke out, revealing the sight of the darkness essence in the three of them breaking forth. Not only that, the Essence of Disorder formed a magical cloud gathering the most powerful parts of all magic into a magic cloud. All the different types of magic essences reinforced this Essence of Disorder. The greater the elemental disorder was, the more powerful did the magic’s effects become.
All the three elements Haoyue released contained a portion of light element, whose effects was a lot greater than fire or water against darkness. In the dark fog instantly released by the fiends, a series of explosion resounded.
At least a third of the Grand Fiends fell from their horses’ back, and although these Nightmare Devil Horses’ defensive power was great, cracks could be seen to appear on their back, and from it, pitch-black blood was sprayed all around.
Haoyue was naturally not the only one to act: as soon as they saw Long Haochen’s signal, the other members of the Demon Hunters squad had immediately made their battle preparations. The instant Essence of Disorder burst forth, Cai’er disappeared from behind Long Haochen’s back, and the others’ attacks erupted from all directions.
They had to settle this as fast as possible, which implied going all out from the beginning. This was the demon territory’s Central Province, which implied they were likely to come across demons, and had to take care of this battle without wasting a second.
The Gigantic Divine Soul Shield in Wang Yuanyuan’s hand carried a silvery radiance. On it, three gems had been inserted firmly.
Space Splitting Revolving Shield!
All the Grand Fiends of this cavalry were equipped with spears, and under the attack of the Essence of Disorder, they could barely resist the power with their lances. In a state of frantic struggle, the Nightmare Devil Horses they rode were not of any help.
Repeated explosions rang, as five of the Grand Fiend of the cavalry that hadn’t fallen to the ground because of the Essence of Disorder were smashed one after another by the Space Splitting Revolving Shield attack.
Even Long Haochen didn’t dare to meet head on with this Divine Soul Shield’s tremendous power, let alone these Grand Fiends of the fourth step that Wang Yuanyuan’s physical strength in itself was enough to crush to death.
Five corpses were sent flying, falling on the ground like dust.
Sima Xian also took care of five other Grand Fiends. In his hands, five bullets of light of the size of human heads had been shot, carrying an overwhelming light essence, bombarding the chests of five Grand Fiends fiercely.
Sacred Bullet Array!
This was one of the new skills Sima Xian learned. This time, he finally had a bit resemblance to a regular priest. In fact, although he was a priest using brutal force, his body’s concentration in light essence was even greater than Luc Xi. One mustn’t forget that after becoming Long Haochen’s retainer knight, this bald priest’s innate internal spiritual energy had broken through the terrifying realm of the eighties. When fully used, one could imagine the terrifying power of his light attacks.
The offensive power of Sacred Bullet Array was great, as it contained almost a third of Sima Xian’s spiritual energy. Light restrained darkness naturally, let alone these Grand Fiends whose darkness power had been stripped off previously. With only a last layer of darkness protection covering their corroded bodies, how could they bear the formidable power of these sacred bullets?
Although it didn’t have the same terror as Wang Yuanyuan who directly beheaded them, the five Grand Fiends were still sent flying from their horses, suffering serious damage.
Blue Rain, Hibiscus of Light and the Holy Spirit Sword appeared in Long Haochen’s hands at the same time as he charged at full speed.
Pure-White Edge, Thorny Charge, Lightning Thrust, Heavenly Battle Array, Shining Solar Strike, Instant Blast Cross Cut, Light Thorn; these numerous Retribution Knight abilities were released naturally and in succession from Long Haochen’s hands, and the terrifying power of the liquid spiritual energy imbued in his heavy swords colored them in golden. Every attack he launched would at least leave the corpse of a Grand Fiend or a Nightmare Devil Horse behind.
The Light Elemental Fairy Yating floated at Long Haochen’s back, chanting without interruption, and light elemental spells were launched one after another on Long Haochen.
After Yating became Long Haochen’s spiritual stove, they could be said to have reached a perfect level of coordination. With the assistance from his physique as the Scion of Light, Yating had already completed two evolutions. Although her consumption after the previous battle above the caravan was great, she already recovered to her peak after only two days. Together with Long Haochen, her compatability with light element grew several folds. With her by his side, Long Haochen who was originally several-folds faster than ordinary people to recover his internal spiritual energy, could now do the same with a layer of Holy Fire surrounding his body.
At the time they started attacking, in the middle of these Grand Fiends’ formation, the thirteen youths broke out with their strongest attacks at the same time, and only a few seconds later, the Grand Fiend Cavalry was already struck in terror.
Including the Fiend Commander, only seven or eight of the Grand Fiends who suffered the Essence of Disorder’s attack, barely managed rush out of the scope of the magic.
“Cai’er!”
After Long Haochen cut down two of the Nightmare Horses, Long Haochen shouted loudly.
A fantastic scene happened. Three meters above the ground, a black silhouette suddenly appeared baselessly, and immediately, a white glow erupted from Long Haochen’s chest. Meanwhile, Little Green launched the Floating spell on him, and with the help of the white glowing Pull, Long Haochen flew like a bolt of lightning towards Cai’er’s direction.
The remaining enemies that were still in the scope of effect of the Essence of Disorder were already no problem, as the two Demon Hunt Squads were already sufficient to handle them, but they couldn’t let the Fiend Commander get away. The Saint Spiritual Stove’s Pull ability produced a perfect match with the tacit understanding existing between the two of them.
When the Fiend Commander noticed something wrong, he already had heavy wounds from the Essence of Disorder. Regardless of their race, when suffering such a surprise attack, the first thing any demon would do would be to try to save his life, before looking for an explanation.
Thus, after his Nightmare Horse carried him out of the scope of the Essence of Disorder, the Fiend Commander immediately turned around to look at the situation, while the Grand Fiends that had rushed out with him did the same motion.
What they saw was a chaotic scene, the desperate scene of massacre of their Grand Fiend Cavalry
Just at this time, Long Haochen and Cai’er already caught up to them.
Having caught up with Cai’er, Long Haochen immediately held her soft and tender body in his arms, suddenly spinning in midair and throwing her at full force.
Her black figure flew in the air just like a black meteorite headed at the Fiend Commander. With the help of the Floating Technique’s effects, Long Haochen didn’t stop at that and once again used the pulling ability of his
Saint Spiritual Stove, following the thrown Cai’er to chase after the Fiend Commander.
A myriad of white glows burst forth from her body, and two of the Grand Fiends as well as their mount turned into naught. They were still at the fourth step, and the difference they had between Dark Green Dual Bladed Demons was not negligible.
The Fiend Cavalry’s speciality was intense attack and not intense defense; although they had tough and durable bodies, there were many demons more adept in using their carapace for defense than them.
In the next instant, Long Haochen also arrived, swinging his two heavy sword and wielding them with a pair of Shining Solar Strikes striking against the Fiend Commander at the same time.
The Fiend Commander could be said to be both scared and terrified at the same time. Even if he was even more foolish, when seeing the sun-like golden spiritual energy bursting out from Long Haochen’s body, he guessed that he was fundamentally not a demon. Carrying the spear in his hand, he blocked Long Haochen’s two swords with a loud bang, but the Nightmare Horse under him tumbled a few steps back.
Chapter 236
In Shengmo Dalu, challenging powerhouses of higher rank was an extremely challenging feat, because a qualitative gap existed between every step. However, this was already not the first time Long Haochen challenged an opponent of higher step, and he had many assets ordinary people wouldn’t have.
In normal circumstances, defeating this cavalry wouldn’t be an easy feat. Without Haoyue’s assistance, they were bound to have a hard battle, and even if they won, it would be in a miserable state.
However, the Fiend Commander had just suffered the effects of the attack from Essence of Disorder. He was at the sixth step of cultivation, but still far from the peak of the sixth step. Thus, he had to bear the effects of the spell, and the elemental power on his body was greatly depleted by it, as his body suffered serious damage. Challenging him was doable only because he had already been greatly weakened.
More importantly, Long Haochen was now acting as a Retribution Knight, expert in instant burst attacks.
The powerful backlash caused Long Haochen to be sent flying in the air, but in the next instant, his body was already spinning at great speed.
Condemning Revolving Sword!
The Light Elemental Fairy Yating flew to a fairly distant place from him, chanting her incantation without pause. When Long Haochen’s first strike collided against the Fiend Commander’s spear, a strong explosion of holy
light occurred, and with his full strength blocking, a large dent appeared in his spear. Below, the Nightmare Devil Horse’s four limbs were already stiff, having left deep marks on the ground.
Holy Sword! Yating gave Long Haochen’s first blow the formidable power of Holy Sword.
But at this moment, the Nightmare Devil Horses’ fighting strength was displayed at its fullest.
A faint black radiance rush forth from its body, entering the Fiend Commander’s body. At the same time, the latter opened up his mouth, seemingly wanting to spit some words. For quite a long time, he kept whining aloud, surrounded by black fog and showing quite an unsightly appearance…
Grand Fiends’ specialty was close quarters combat, but Nightmare Devil Horses were more inclined to use elemental abilities. They could run at an extreme speed, and were experts at using darkness magical attacks.
For this precise reason, their losses were even greater than the Grand Fiends’ when suffering the effects of the Essence of Disorder. As for this Nightmare Devil Horse of the fifth step, whose elemental power had been already greatly depleted, it only managed to barely provide some assistance to the Fiend Commander, but was unable to use darkness offensive magic directly against Long Haochen.
Bang–
The thirteenth blow of the Condemning Revolving Sword carried once again the terrifying power of Holy Sword, causing the spear in the Fiend Commander’s hand to snap.
Nonetheless, this Fiend Commander was indeed tough. Unceasingly wielding his pair of large claws, he unexpectedly relied on his tough body to block Long Haochen’s Condemning Revolving Swords. Every time his claw entered in contact with the Condemning Revolving Swords, black smoke would be unleashed: it was the corroding effect light had against
darkness. But the most astonishing was that only marks were left on his claws.
Unfortunately, using this method to block the Revolving Condemning Sword, which had a power that increased over time, was easier said than done.
The Fiend Commander was finally unable to keep going.
Plop. The middle phalanx of his right claw was cut off, and the Fiend Commander finally let out a miserable scream. At the same time, he thought of withdrawing from the right side.
In fact, it hadn’t been cut down accidentally, but he was the one that took the initiative of letting it be cut down.
The Condemning Revolving Sword naturally followed along, but at the time the Fiend Commander seemed to be about to fall to the ground, he pulled the Nightmare Devil Horse, instantly leaning to the side and going as far as to use it to block the blows aimed at him.
The Nightmare Devil Horse previously spared no effort to assist him, but its strength wasn’t sufficient, to say nothing of the fact that it had been weakened by the previous Essence of Disorder. When being forcefully used as a shield with the betrayal of its master, how could it possibly stand a chance against Long Haochen’s blow?
With an ear-splitting shattering sound, this enormous Nightmare Devil Horse was instantly lacerated by the Condemning Revolving Swords, and its flesh and blood was spread around.
The Fiend Commander didn’t take advantage of this chance to attack Long Haochen, but instead, he quickly escaped to the opposite direction. Using his pair of wide paws to run at great speed, he was already over ten meters away with a few steps.
Long Haochen took a deep breath and Blue Rain, Hibiscus of Light shone brightly. A blue and golden dual-colored radiance formed a dazzling
rainbow in the air, chasing after the Fiend Commander. It was the Thrusting Hibiscus attack.
The penetrative attack formed of overwhelming rays of light was launched.
Obviously feeling the danger at his back, the Fiend Commander suddenly turned around, using his claws to block, intense black instantly going forth from his chest and turning into a black brilliant lump.
Duu–
The Fiend Commander’s enormous body was struck by the Thrusting Hibiscus’ terrible offensive power and pierced, his two arms shattering into pieces. However, the most astonishing was that he still didn’t die, unexpectedly getting up once again and running away madly after falling to the ground, attempting to escape. Meanwhile, a black radiance rocketed from above his body.
What a strong vitality! Long Haochen was astonished. He didn’t think that even his Thrusting Hibiscus of Rain and Light would still not be enough to end his opponent’s life. At this moment, his consumption was already tremendous, and even with Yating’s assistance, he wouldn’t be able to chase after the opponent.
At this precise moment, a red brilliance formed a red cloud in the air, intercepting the black ray launched against them. At the same time, a red figure crashed like a meteor, smashing fiercely the Fiend Commander that had lost both of his arms.
Burning fiercely, a five meters long massive flame blade struck the Fiend Commander’s crippled body.
With a miserable scream, this Fiend Commander finally fell to the ground, unable to even crawl any longer.
The flames vanished, and Li Xin’s figure appeared, riding the Rose Unicorn and giving Long Haochen an apologetic glance.
Demon Hunt Squads’ contribution points were obtained when killing the demons. That was to say that the contribution points for this Fiend Commander’s death were ripped by Li Xin.
Long Haochen surveyed the battlefield: the battle had already been thoroughly finished. Under the great assistance of Haoyue’s Essence of Disorder, this battle concluded even more easily than expected.
The assault of Grand Fiends was truly threatening in the battlefield, and when matching with the Nightmare Devil Horses, they even held the upper hands against the Brilliant Angel Knight Regiment, who could just barely contend against them. Of course, this was on the premise that the number of Grand Fiends on the other side was at least three times the number of Angel Knights.
Unfortunately, the opponent they met today was too crafty. With a sudden sneak attack, matched with the terror of the Essence of Disorder, the lives of these Grand Fiends and their Nightmare had come to an end.
Having suffered the attack of the Essence of Disorder, the Nightmare Devil Horses had even lost the power to stand against the enemy. That was to say nothing of the two Demon Hunt Squads’ sudden bursting attacks: be it in terms of offensive power or in restrictive ability, they were extremely tough. The remaining Grand Fiends tried to escape with their mounts, but were finished by Cai’er’s attacks.
Li Xin dragged the Fiend Commander’s corpse in front of Long Haochen, apologetically declaring to him, “I’m sorry Haochen. It wasn’t on purpose that I snatched your contribution points. I’ll give you back some of the contribution points for this Fiend Commander’s death later.”
Long Haochen wrinkled his brows, “Sis, when have you started to treat me like an outsider? More importantly, it was precisely because of your intervention that we prevented this fiend from spreading the information of our presence. You deserved these contribution points, you know!”
“But…” Li Xin seemed to want to add something else before being softly held by Long Haochen’s arms, “Sis, regardless of my strength or
anything, I am your little brother for life. In my heart, you will be my dear elder sister forever.”
He had felt some recent changes on Li Xin’s state of mind, because Long Haochen’s strength was just becoming greater and greater, and his brilliance was increasingly dazzling. Li Xin felt like she was becoming more and more distant with this non blood-related little brother of hers, and could even feel heroic vibes from the younger Long Haochen. Because of their new relationship, she started to speak to Long Haochen a lot lesser, for fear of affecting him badly or being a disturbance to him.
At this very moment, Long Haochen’s hug and words caused Li Xin to be unable to contain her dear feelings of brothership, tightly hugging him and sobbing soundly.
Cai’er came to Long Haochen side, silently staying there, blinking repeatedly at this scene, though no feeling of jealousy arose in her.
As the owner of the Spiritual Stove of Samsara, her senses were even above Long Haochen’s, and she could clearly feel that the feelings Li Xin held towards Long Haochen were entirely different from the ones she had towards him.
But contrarily to expectations, when Li Xin saw Cai’er, she hastened to let go of Long Haochen’s embrace, immediately explaining, “Cai’er, don’t misunderstand this! I…”
Cai’er unexpectedly revealed a rare smile, “Why would I misunderstand this?”
Long Haochen grabbed Cai’er’s small hand and looked at her face to face. Feeling the complete trust existing between the two of them, he couldn’t help but feel comfortably warm.
“Sis, now is not the time to talk, we should clean the battlefield at once, before leaving.”
Everyone was obviously busy sweeping through the battlefield, and as a matter of fact, the busiest one among them was a certain scrooge among the group.
Lin Xin’s conduct was indeed something no one could help but smile upon watching. This guy’s spatial ring was already heavily loaded and completely filled up. Nonetheless, he had his own other methods: the corpses of a bunch of Berserk Demons and Birdy Demons were tossed out, and some of the Grand Fiend and Nightmare Devil Horses’ corpses were instead taken in. On his face, he had now an expression of pain and helplessness.
The members of the 4th Demon Hunt Squads also imitated him, and took some of the corpses in their own spatial rings. Nonetheless, these Grand Fiends and Nightmare Devil Horses’ corpses took up too much space, and none of them had a spatial ring with the same monstrous capacity as Lin Xin’s. In the end, they only managed to transport about the half of these spoils of war.
Li Xin received the contribution points for this Fiend Commander, and resolutely renounced to the other spoils of war coming from this Fiend Commander’s corpse, including his magical crystal. Of course, Lin Xin wouldn’t let go off such a high ranked corpse, and even recovered the massive and fragmented corpse of that Nightmare Devil Horse of the fifth step.
Li Xin couldn’t help but say in a low voice to Long Haochen, “This guy doesn’t have fighting ability, but isn’t he quite insatiable!”
Chapter 237
Long Haochen revealed a smile and replied, “Sis, don’t be biased against him! In our team, everyone has an important role, and no one is dispensable. The same goes for Lin Xin.”
Li Xin was swayed, and suddenly thought of something, making haste to say in a low voice, “Oh, I’m sorry Little Brother! I wasn’t trying to drive a wedge between your team’s relationships.”
Long Haochen shook his head and replied, “Sis, I am just speaking about truth. You’ll see later, if a real situation of danger arises in the Desolate Hissing Cavern, Lin Xin’s utility will be exhibited to its fullest.”
At the present time, aside from Long Haochen who took a Great Restoration Pill, the others had yet to put the pills they received from Lin Xin to use. Chen Ying’er also only used a single magical crystal, which was used for the hidden trump they had kept during their battle on the side of the Yue Ye Caravan. She would only put such precious resources to use only when it is absolutely necessary.
“Boss, should we destroy the corpses we cannot take with us?” Sima Xian asked loudly to Long Haochen’s side.
Long Haochen thought for a bit, before replying, “No need, extract all the crystals and pile up the corpses. I’ll have Haoyue setting them on fire later.”
Lin Xin had a burst of creativity, before tossing the corpses of some Birdy Demons and Berserk Demons. In the Nareiks Province, the surprise
attack against the Yue Ye Caravan was really shameless, so this little operation wouldn’t cause them to feel guilty. As for the fact of setting the corpses of fire, it was naturally to conceal the traces of the battlefield. The traces of the battle of the Demon Hunters against the Birdy Demon, the Berserk Demon were all different. When they would be set on fire together, who would be possibly able to tell out what happened?
Because the Grand Fiends didn’t get to transmit the message, they could clean the battlefield calmly. Having Han Yu’s Demonic Eye scout through the surroundings, in addition to Luc Xi’s Eyes of Truth that could be used in a smaller range, they didn’t worry about being sneak attacked.
Half an hour later, everything was set in flames, and Long Haochen led his mates to start over their journey, climbing the mountain firsthand.
This time, Long Haochen didn’t have Haoyue leave yet, since they were about to reach the Desolate Hissing Cavern, and having him by his side would be of great utility to Long Haochen. Haoyue wasn’t only able to use a formidable ability like Essence of Disorder: the most important was his mutual understanding with Long Haochen, which originated directly from their blood connection, which was something even Cai’er would be unable to compare to.
Climbing the mountain was done with some unconcealed excitement: because of the utility the Essence of Disorder had, that battle against the Grand Fiends Cavalry wasn’t too challenging, but came with generous reaps of war. Even the fourth soldier grade Demon Hunt Squad obtained a lot of magical crystals, and even though they couldn’t use them personally, they could still exchange these for contribution points.
Although the Grand Fiend Cavalry and their Nightmare Devil Horses were at the fourth step, forming tandems matching perfectly, and were even stronger than Dark Green Dual Bladed Demons. Thus, killing a single Grand Fiend Knight and his Nightmare Horse was rewarded with 15 contribution points. With the addition of the Fiend Commander of the sixth step and his mount, this battle brought the two teams a total of more than 1,000 contribution points.
Furthermore, along with the experience of this battle, the two Demon Hunt Squads could be said to have progressed in their strength as a whole, be it in terms of individual progress or matching as teams.
Almost all the Temple Alliance’s higher-ups had gone through a Demon Hunt Squad’s training, which was because Demon Hunt Squads were the easiest way for them to grow. Of course, the number of casualties in Demon Hunt Squads were also enormous: out of ten Demon Hunt Squads, most of the time, at most three of them would remain twenty years later. When a Demon Hunt Squad would get disbanded, the Alliance would arrange other posts for its members.
The sky was becoming dimmer, and the hazy weather seemed to persist all along.
This mountain the two Demon Hunt Squads climbed could be considered very high, with a height of roughly seven or eight hundred meters. Everyone was still dressed as aristocracy of the Moon Clan.
After approximately half an hour, they already reached the summit.
Surveying the scene from the summit, they could see a mountain range from afar, which corresponded perfectly to the map’s information. This mountain range was connected with a vast area of hills: even the mountains weren’t so high, which was because the demon territory wasn’t very exposed to the sunshine. In both mountains and hills, vegetation was rarely seen, and in times of winter like now, the terrain seemed even more empty, giving off a feeling of melancholy.
Long Haochen unfolded the map once again, comparing it to the terrain itself. At the time they accepted the missions, they received two maps: one indicated the rough location of the cavern, and the second one was a detailed map of the mountain range. In this map was a red mark, which was naturally the location of the cavern.
The others all surrounded Long Haochen, helping to block the mountain gust arriving at him, so as to let him watch the map more conveniently.
“The Desolate Cavern this Fiend Commander previously referred to, was precisely the Desolate Hissing Cavern we have set as our destination for this mission. We have cut off the demon side’s reinforcements, and didn’t let them give out any message. No further reinforcement should come during the upcoming days. Based on the assisting army’s strength as well as the request for help they had in the Desolate Hissing Cavern, the remaining demons should be nothing to worry about. The greatest existing menace should lie in the danger of the cavern in itself.”
If not for the fact that this Grand Fiend Cavalry’s destination was the Desolate Hissing Cavern, Long Haochen wouldn’t have let his teammates take so many risks in acting to dispose of us. But having gotten the confirmation that the counterparts were reinforcements headed to the cavern’s side, he passed the battle command without hesitation. This was a decision done resolutely, because in case this Grand Fiend Cavalry arrived at destination to the Desolate Hissing Cavern and they still kept following, they were bound to arise the counterpart’s suspicions and wouldn’t be able to catch them off guard with a surprise attack at this time. Furthermore, if the two demon forces linked up, the battle’s difficulty would increase tremendously, so the best choice was to dispose of the reinforcements first.
“Should be there.” Long Haochen raised a finger, pointing at a little waist of mountain on the other side, because a cavity was on it, “It cannot be seen very clearly, but according to the map’s informations, the cavern should be at this direction.”
Just at that time, a hiss echoed loudly and suddenly.
“Huu.”
The ear-shrinking hissing sound reverberated in the whole mountains, echoing a time after another and causing everyone to feel chills on their whole body.
The violent hiss didn’t stop at that, but a loud hiss echoed after another, carrying increasingly distinct excitement. Together with the increase of the sound, it seemed that the mountain range trembled from the hisses. The
violent sound waves even caused some rocks to shatter, launching horrifying colliding sounds.
Everyone unawarely covered their own ears: the palpitation everyone had from these sounds caused an intense fear from the depths of their heart. In particular, a few girls’ faces were already pale.
The violent hisses lasted for no less than a quarter of an hour, before gradually stopping. Although it had no wounding power, it produced a terrifying effect in these wide mountains.
“It should be coming from the Desolate Hissing Cavern. If the sounds coming from the cavern are so loud, I’m afraid that we are about to turn deaf inside of it” Luc Xi spoke with an ugly complexion.
The spatial mage from the fourth soldier grade Demon Hunt Squad, Yi Jun, declared, “This is quite a problem. My spatial magic can cut off the sound to some extent, but this will use up my spiritual energy over time, so I’m afraid I cannot last long. I should be able to cut it off for a duration of five minutes and that’s it. If we consider that I don’t battle and do it to my limit, I should be able to last for ten minutes.”
Long Haochen nodded, and asked, “Who else would be able to block the sound from coming in our way?”
They looked at each other in succession, and in the end, the one who spoke was Chen Ying’er.
“I have two magical crystals of spatial attribute, that should be able to cause McDull to transform into a spatial magical beast of the sixth step. He should be able to defend us for some time with it. Only, I estimate that I will only be able to last for five minutes. If I match with Yi Jun, we would be able to last for fifteen minutes. The problem is that I have only two of these.
Long Haochen nodded, and declared, “Let’s go then! We should find the cavern first, and speak of it again then. If we are unable to deal with the
problem of these violent hissing sounds inside, we will have to give up on its exploration and leave.”
Going down the mountain was naturally a lot faster than to climb it, and half an hour later, they finally reached the other side of the mountain.
However, they were still unable to spot the existence of the mountain’s peak.
Just when they started looking for the Desolate Hissing Cavern, the violent hisses sounded once again.
Due to the short distance, at the time the hissing sounds echoed again, everyone felt dizzy and hurried to gather, making use of their respective spiritual energy to protect themselves from the sound, isolating themselves from these sound waves as far as possible.
However, this hissing sounds clearly turned out to be not so easy to handle. The extremely powerful sound waves didn’t only pass through their ears, invading them, but also caused their bodies to shake intensely. From the shaking, the spiritual energy in their bodies was also consumed.
The sound waves clearly increased in power, but it was still not as if they were totally unable to bear it. After all, this clamor’s greatest part came from the mountains’ echo.
At this precise time, a few figures suddenly drilled up at a distance of fifty meters from them.
Covering their ears with energy, they tried their best to resist the noise.
“Fiends?”
Drilling out first was shockingly a Grand Fiend, followed by two slim Fiend Mages carrying black staves. Behind them were five or six more Little Fiends.
These Little Fiends had miserable appearances, their mouth, nose and the corners of their eyes leaking out black blood, clearly caused from the fact
they were unable to bear the terrible sound waves transmitted from the insides of the Hissing Cavern.
Long Haochen waved his hand forward, and the assassin of the fourth Demon Hunt Squad, Han Daosi, suddenly dashed forward while causing silver ripples to appear in the air.
These fiends were clearly in a weak state, and Long Haochen didn’t hope to obtain any sort of information from their mouths, preferring rather to dispose of them the fastest possible.
Luc Xi mumbled a few incantations aloud, holding his hand’s staff high and golden undulating radiances spread, covering everyone inside. Immediately, the twitchy feeling they had from the hisses was reduced. This was a priest’s meditative stance.
The hisses still continued for a quarter of an hour before stopping and the thirteen members of the two Demon Hunt Squads immediately felt as if relieved from a great burden. After they got closer, the hisses also increased in power. Nonetheless, they relied on their own spiritual energy to block it, and could bear it at long last though it was with difficulty.
Chapter 238
Searching around the area where those Fiend Demons appeared from, Long Haochen and his teammates finally found their destination, the Desolate Hissing Cavern.
Rather than saying this was a cavern, one should say that it was a crevice.
The crevice was three meters broad, six or seven meters high and the interior was pitch-dark. With an unknown depth, countless cracks covered the cave’s wall, clearly made from the terrifying sound waves.
Using his spiritual energy in an attempt to inspect the hardness of the rock, he figured that it was even harder than granite.
After observing this place, everyone looked at Long Haochen and Lin Xin unhappily complained, “This mission the Alliance bestowed us is really quite something. They didn’t make it clear to us that the Desolate Hissing Cavern was such a terrifying place. We haven’t come prepared at all.”
After pondering for a moment, Long Haochen said in response, “From my estimate, the demon forces won’t dispatch reinforcement over the upcoming three days. How about this: everyone will head to the side of the mountain and have a rest there while I will be trying to figure out the intensity of the hissing sound coming from inside of the cavern and to estimate how long we would be able to last using our own ability.”
“Captain, you are the whole team’s leader, how can we let you face such danger by yourself? I should be the one to do this: if I can bear it, it
shouldn’t be a problem for any one of us.”
Long Haochen shook his head, reacting immediately, “It won’t do: no one knows what or who is inside of this cavern, and you don’t have any defensive power. If you meet another Grand Fiend, what will you do? I will be the one going in the cave, it’s the best option. I won’t penetrate too deeply; in case I sense any danger, I will immediately retreat and that will be it. Lin Xin, prepare some countermeasures against these bursts of sounds. We have to find a way to isolate ourselves from this sound, or else, we’ll be hindered by it.”
“Okay.”
What was a true leader? A true leader was the one who would assume the most dangerous roles during a mission. This was the main reason why Long Haochen had gotten everyone else’s approval.
Long Haochen pinched Cai’er’s hand, hinting to her that he would be all right, and headed into the cavern with large strides.
The cavern was very dusky, but it wasn’t any problem to Long Haochen. The Light Elemental Fairy Yating flew in front of him, and the thin golden light released from her delicate body immediately illuminated the surroundings.
After he entered only a dozen or so meters deep into the cavern, two Little Fiends’ corpses appeared before Long Haochen’s eyes. Disregarding them, Long Haochen proceeded with his venture into the cavern.
Of course, he wouldn’t plan on penetrating too deeply into the cavern, where the hissing sound that he would have to endure would be far louder, and the same goes for its intensity.
A dense stream of air flowed within the cavern: this place was a lot colder than the outside world, and the air was also clearly muddier. Long Haochen advanced slowly, carefully observing the surrounding rock walls as he did so.
He noticed that there was no trace of the rock walls having been tampered, that they seemed to have been formed naturally and that these rock walls had something in common with the rest of the cavern: there were many cracks on it, coming from the hissing sounds’ intense vibrations.
There was no pathway before him, only a rugged floor, making it increasingly harder to advance. There was no lighting of any type in the cavern, located in an irregular crack in the maintains and only illuminated by the light essence naturally released from Yating’s body. Long Haochen could thus only see his surroundings at a range of ten meters away.
As Long Haochen advanced, he silently counted the total distance separating from the entrance.
Suddenly, an immense crevice appeared in front of him, after he had walked for an approximate distance of two hundred meters. This crevice looked extremely deep, to the extent that one couldn’t see its bottom.
Waving the Holy Spirit Sword forward and aiming a Light Thorn in the crack, Long Haochen observed the situation a few dozens meters deep in the crevice, with the help of the light emitted from it.
Letting out a breath, surprise immediately appeared on Long Haochen’s handsome face.
Within the crevice were multiple serrated snaps, and in fact, there were several locations he could use to go down inside, but more importantly, he was unable to determine how deep it was. Furthermore, he could distinctly feel that dull spiritual energy fluctuations fluttered around this crevice.
These traces of spiritual energy were mild, but carried a fierce aura, as if it belonged to a man-eating monster. Aside from the two Little Fiends of the entrance, Long Haochen hadn’t seen any other corpse of demon. It was quite probable that the Fiend Clan had already penetrated deeply into this cavern, so he didn’t advance any further. What’s up with this crevice in the end?
This crevice was broad, but every place inside was covered in sharp rocks. Thinking that if he was to meet with a powerful enemy in this kind of terrain, he wouldn’t even have the chance to display the slightest part of his strength, he couldn’t help but wrinkle his brows.
The route forward contained no bifurcation, which was to say that the only way to go forward was to penetrate deeply into the crevice before his eye. It was also precisely from this direction that the terribly hissing sound busting out from the cavern came from.
Not taking the risk to enter more deeply inside, Long Haochen took a few steps back, looking at a section of wall that he could use to lean on it and found a relatively smooth spot to sit, taking a calm stance as he gathered his thoughts.
Since the Desolate Hissing Caverns was a place full of unknown danger, the safest method would be to avoid as far as possible to stay in the range of dangerous spots.
This time of pause didn’t last for long, and at the time the third series of terrible hissing sounds started, Long Haochen’s first reaction was to loosen his breath. The reason why he loosened it was not a reduction of its level of danger, but because of the matter of time.
Each of the three series of hissing sounds seemed to have happened with exactly the same interval of time from the previous one. Under such circumstances, they needed to have at least an ample time of preparation. If they weren’t certain of themselves at the time the hissing sounds started, the level of trouble would be far greater.
However, it was only for a very short time that Long Haochen loosened his breath. As he expected it, the level of danger was a lot greater after entering inside of the cavern.
Ear-piercing sharp sounds made the whole cavern tremble violently, and Yating immediately made her way back into Long Haochen’s body.
Holy Mantle was the ability Long Haochen immediately released, doing his utmost to block the mournful sound. While defending himself with particular attention, he dispersed the liquid spiritual energy in his whole body, resisting the sonor invasion with all his strength.
Aside from the fact these sounds sounded even more mournful than when they were outside, Long Haochen felt some distinct differences inside of the cavern.
Regarding these mournful sounds, the reason for these important differences compared to the outside was that in the cavern, the hissing sounds would be even more concentrated. The power their movement produced was enormous, and these violent vibrations seemed to be completely tearing Long Haochen to shreds. The terrible seismic waves that were produced went as far as to cause cracks to appear rapidly in the Holy Mantle, leading to its collapse.
The sound waves’ spreading speed was indeed extremely fast. When Long Haochen felt the formation of the gaps through his mental connection with the Holy Mantle, he immediately released a Divine Light Mantle to reinforce it.
Staying completely motionless and doing his utmost to operate his spiritual energy to stay in the most stable state possible, he released a second Holy Mantle around him.
An insight would often only appear for a short time. The reason why Long Haochen tried hard to maintain his body’s state was to not let the burst of insight he suddenly had slip away.
A short time later, the second Holy Mantle ruptured as well.
Although the hissing sounds inside of the cavern were terrible, Long Haochen was still and after all a powerhouse of the fifth step. Since Grand Fiend could barely resist these hissing sounds, how could he not do the same? With the help of this mysterious surge of insight, Long Haochen didn’t have the slightest twitchy sensation. Instead, the radiance in his golden eyes lit up increasingly and became more and more brilliant.
Holy Mantle was nothing but a Guardian Knight ability of the third step. With Long Haochen’s current spiritual energy cultivation, it wasn’t difficult to spread it at a hundred meters diameter, to say nothing of the fact he had the help of the Light Elemental Fairy Yating.
Until this Holy Mantle shattered once again, Long Haochen stayed totally motionless, and didn’t attempt anything, only trying to get hold of this burst of insight, not letting it go away, and feeling it through his senses in silence.
Deep in his innerside, he felt an intense joy: as this sensation became more and more distinct, the feeling of joy also strengthened without limit.
His internal spiritual energy having reached the 99th level, Long Haochen could be called the most talented knight that had ever existed in the whole continent. Taking this fact in consideration together with his exceptional innate mental capacity, it could be said that outside from Cai’er, no one could possibly match him in the aspects of perception and understanding.
Prepared people will always be the ones to grab the opportunities. With this burst of understanding, Long Haochen gradually revealed a smile on his face.
At the time the hissing sounds disappeared, Long Haochen felt disappointed instead of the opposite, but this burst of insight would never be able to run off from him anymore, because it already became an entire part of Long Haochen’s understanding.
A light purple radiance appeared in Long Haochen’s forefront, and in the next instant, he disappeared without basis from the depths of the cavern.
With a flash of purple light, Long Haochen appeared by Haoyue’s side. At this time, the two Demon Hunt Squads were working together in building a simple rock cavern to cut off the sound.
Long Haochen’s sudden appearance caused everyone to have a fright, almost taking out their weapons aggressively.
“It’s me.” Long Haochen hurried to say.
Seeing him, everyone couldn’t help but open their eyes wide, and even Cai’er wasn’t an exception. It was because the method he used to appear so suddenly was too unusual. He was after all a knight, and not an expert in camouflage like an assassin.
Long Haochen revealed a smile, “Since we all belong to the same side, I don’t need to conceal it from you, but I share a blood contract with Haoyue, and thus, through the connection between our blood vessels, we are able to teleport at each other’s side. For this reason, I can say that no matter what kind of danger I am confronting, as long as Haoyue is outside, I have the assurance to be able to get away.”
The members of the 21st general grade Demon Hunt Squad were still better off, but outside from Li Xin, everyone of the 4th soldier grade Demon Hunt Squads felt as if they were confronted with a total freak.
They even felt disappointed that they weren’t part of the same Demon Hunt Squad as Long Haochen.
Long Haochen declared, “As we anticipated it, the hissing sounds will be even more powerful inside the cavern, and carry violent sound waves and vibrations, efficient in clashing against spiritual energy.
However, I did a test back then: when confronting the last round of hissing sound, I was approximately depleted of 20% of my spiritual energy. Since there are differences in everyone’s strength, I estimate that it will at most consume 40% of your spiritual energies.”
Chapter 239
“If we match with each other, making use of defensive abilities with area effects, we should only consume about a tenth of our individual resources every time. At the edge of the cavern, the level of trouble isn’t high, but I discovered a crevice deep inside. It was so deep that I could not see its bottom, and is precisely the place from where the hissing sounds came. None of us know what there is inside, but I could sense spiritual energy fluctuations filled with evil intent down below. It is highly possible that a magical beast or an unknown danger resides in it. Since everyone saw my self-preserving ability, you should understand why, but I am planning to make this exploration by myself. This time, I will properly make use of the gem to record everything.”
“How about letting me come along?” Cai’er asked Long Haochen.
Long Haochen shook his head, “I’d better go alone. With Haoyue being here, I will be able to teleport back at any time.”
Cai’er nodded silently. In reality, with Long Haochen’s current strength, as long as he didn’t end up being ambushed and defeated instantly by a powerful enemy, there was no need to worry for his safety.
But could it be so easy to defeat him instantly? In fact, one shouldn’t forget that he had the Spirit Sharing Shackles, connecting him spiritually with his six other teammates. Even a powerhouse of the eighth step would not necessarily manage this.
Since even Cai’er agreed, the others had no reason to disapprove. That Long Haochen expressed he would use the Recording Gem to record his
exploration was already proof that he didn’t have any selfish motives. Even if he discovered some great treasures, this would be recorded down by the Recording Gem. The blood contract coming with instant teleportation as a benefit was simply perfect for this kind of exploration mission. This was also one of the reason why, even though Long Haochen knew that this mission would be relatively difficult to complete, he still decided to accept it.
After a moment of resting and reorganizing, Long Haochen entered the Desolate Hissing Cavern a second time.
Due to the experience he had from his previous exploration, he walked the route easily, up to the location of the crevice. However, at this point, he didn’t keep moving forward with undue haste, but halted at the place he sat previously.
At the time the hissing sounds started for the fourth time, Long Haochen revealed a smile of satisfaction. As he spread his Holy Mantle a second time, a fantastic scene happened.
At the surface, there seemed to be no change on Long Haochen’s Holy Mantle, but upon looking carefully, one would notice that the gold colored mantle had a hazier appearance.
The use of vibrations, was the explanation of this phenomenon. The Holy Mantle was vibrating at the same frequency as the hissing sound waves. This was the result of the insight Long Haochen had, which he called Ripples of Light.
The burst of insight he had previously was precisely related to the trajectory and the patterns the hissing sound waves’ vibrations followed, as well as the energy contained in the sound waves themselves. At this moment, he used the same kind of operating method and copied its trajectory with his own spiritual energy.
He still found it hard to comprehend, but Holy Mantle’s duration increased by twofold, before ending up smashed to pieces by the sound waves.
Revealing a hard to conceal joy, Long Haochen used Holy Mantle for a second time. The previous time he came here, he gained some understanding, but this time, he planned on testing and training.
By the means of his understanding and perception far exceeding ordinary people, at the time he completed five Holy Mantles, it already reached a level of perfection close to the sound waves’. Just as it blended completely with the waves, not only did it completely block the sound from entering, it also isolated him completely from the attacks coming along.
The Holy Spirit Sword appeared once again in Long Haochen’s right hand, instantly filled with spiritual energy, and releasing a dazzling golden brilliance. This portion of golden light shared the Ripples of Light’s fast frequency. Long Haochen came to understand clearly that using spiritual energy in combination with Ripples of Light would come with twice the energy consumption he ordinarily would have, but the Holy Mantles’ defensive power didn’t only increase by two folds: it had even reached a level close to that of Light Elemental Shields.
When Holy Mantle was released together with Ripples of Light, the most important advantages were the surprising nature of the results and its spiritual energy cost-efficiency ratio.
Although the consumption of spiritual energy would be doubled in this case, it became comparable with spells of the fifth step. More importantly, it still had the same very short recast time of a Holy Mantle.
Waving the Holy Spirit Sword calmly, Long Haochen immediately felt that supplementary series of buzzing sounds were being released from his sword. It wasn’t a loud sound, but carried the same frequency as the hissing sounds outside.
With the Holy Mantle’s defense, the hissing sounds already had no effect at all. Taking a step forward, he approached the stone wall, directly using the Holy Spirit Sword in his hand to pierce it.
A scene that even astonished Long Haochen happened.
The Holy Spirit Sword, a mere magical weapon, unexpectedly managed to pierce the stone walls like it was butter, and without too much friction.
Long Haochen had a clear understanding of his own strength as well as his Holy Spirit Sword’s capabilities, and for this precise reason, he was even more shaken by the feat he had just accomplished. He had clearly felt that under the high frequency vibrations of spiritual energy carried by his Holy Spirit Sword, the stone walls had just been dissolved. It gave him a strange feeling, and could be described as saying that with the existence of Ripples of Light, the formidable power of a single Holy Spirit Sword was at least increased by tenfold compared to before. And this was without making use of his terrifying state of Sacrifice.
This amplification already outstripped everything Long Haochen knew of by far. If he used Sacrifice, Ripples of Light’s amplification would not be anything like this, but enough to break past a difference of offensive power of a whole step without problem.
Just think! Would a Holy Sword of the sixth step and a Holy Sword of the fifth step be the same? Under normal circumstances, abilities at the sixth step would consume three to five times more spiritual energy than at the fifth step. But Ripples of Light only required Long Haochen to consume twice more spiritual energy! Furthermore, it was a fifth step ability that could have the power of a sixth step ability, in addition to a surprise aspect, and the preparation time of an ability of the fifth step and nothing more.
This was Long Haochen’s first self-created technique, and without the slightest doubt, it had a great help in unleashing his potential.
The Light Elemental Fairy Yating flew out from Long Haochen’s chest, looking at him with a smile and letting out a bizarre noise from her mouth. In her capacity as Long Haochen’s contracted fairy, she could also learn any of the abilities Long Haochen could use. And clearly, she also felt the great utility of this ability named Ripples of Light.
Releasing a Spiritual Gathering Halo to help Long Haochen recover from his consumption of spiritual energy, Yating danced in the air, circling around Long Haochen: having such a master caused her to feel extremely
fortunate. To Elemental Fairies, the greatest desire wasn’t to evolve, but to increase their strength continuously. After getting a human master, their evolution would be intimately related to the increase in their master’s strength. If Yating’s cultivation could one day reach a certain level, letting her evolve to the level of Fairy Queen, she would even be able to produce her own physical body. At that time, the lineage of the higher-ranked fairies, which had gone extinct close to ten thousand years ago, would be reborn.
In fact, although in the whole continent, Elemental Fairies were rare and few, they still existed. However, since ten thousand years ago, none had ever been able to evolve to the level of higher ranked fairy.
And Yating currently placed these hopes on Long Haochen, clearly believing in this possibility.
The violent hissing sounds weakened with Long Haochen’s influence, before disappearing again. With his understanding of the Ripples of Light, Long Haochen gained a huge boost in his self-confidence. He retreated back to the entrance of the cave, opening the Recording Gem and entering again in the cave, without stopping this time, but directly jumping in the crevice, while releasing Blue Rain, Hibiscus of Light from his body.
Long Haochen had already chosen since a long time which place he would jump to. Going down, he turned to the direction of a rock wall at a distance of ten meters. Then, gathering his spiritual energy to make his body as light as possible, Long Haochen landed lightly on rock edges, on his tiptoes. After getting rid of the impulse force, he aimed a Light Thorn downward, so as to illuminate the path, and followed it.
Yating circled in the air at Long Haochen’s side, helping him by illuminating the surroundings as she kept chanting the incantation for the Spiritual Gathering Halo, helping Long Haochen to recover his spiritual energy.
What amazed Long Haochen was that inside of this Desolate Hissing Cavern, Yating was actually valiant. With his physique of Scion of Light plus the two precious evolution she had, her appearance became a lot less
pitiful. Doing all of this at once would normally have been impossible to her, but fortunately, his consumption wasn’t so great and furthermore, nurtured by the Saint Spiritual Stove’s effects, she managed to make progress by making use of his own spiritual energy.
Long Haochen was very careful on the route downwards. Not only paying attention to possible other individuals, he also looked carefully at the surroundings.
The more they went down, the more intense this evil spiritual energy aura was growing. In this evil intent existed also a deathly stillness. It was different from Cai’er’s killing intent as it seemed to be a pure deathly aura that spread to him, and the fierce aspect of this spiritual energy was something Long Haochen had never felt before.
This crevice was incredibly deep, and with Long Haochen’s slow advancing speed, no less than half an hour passed. At the time of the next round of hissing sounds, he still couldn’t see an end to this abyss.
Surrounded in pitch-black, Long Haochen, who had total light attribute, began to feel extremely unwell from the dense deathly aura. If not for the Light Elemental Fairy Yating’s illumination in addition to his occasional Light Thorn, the surroundings would be nothing more than a pitch-black scene.
In the middle of falling down, Long Haochen saw even more Grand Fiends’ corpses, hanging on some rocks. Very clearly, these Grand Fiends had died from the influence of the hissing sounds during their exploration.
Even Long Haochen, who was at the fifth step and had gained the understanding of the Ripples of Light, was feeling strained, let alone these Grand Fiends of the fifth step. Even the team of Grand Fiends they had gotten rid of before would probably not have made it so far.
His spiritual energy’s recovery speed was already far from being able to catch up with his consumption, and in the middle of these hissing sounds, Long Haochen had no choice but to look for a rock edge, the smoother possible, to sit and rest.
Chapter 240
At the same time, he concentrated on sensing the link between Haoyue and himself. That, was the most crucial. Only if the blood contract was not inhibited could he keep exploring without worrying about anything.
Based on Long Haochen’s estimate, he had already covered over 2,000 meters in the past two hours. Arriving at a completely different altitude from the height of the mountain from before, he could finally be considered to be thoroughly underground. And he discovered that the more he advanced downwards, the wider the crevice would become. On this aspect, this dark cave was just like a bottomless pit.
The hissing sounds were clearly becoming stronger and stronger, and likewise its intensity.
Because of his comprehension of the mysteries of the Ripples of Light, Long Haochen discovered upon careful observation that the sound waves’ vibration would also speed up as the violent hissing sounds gained in power,. Attempting to raise the frequency of the vibration of his own Holy Mantle’s spiritual energy, he immediately felt that not only would his spiritual energy’s consumption increase substantially, but also, increasing the frequency would become harder and harder as it raised. This was due to his cultivation being insufficient.
Even if Long Haochen didn’t test it, he was certain that the faster the frequency became, the stronger the offensive power of the Ripples of Light would be. That was to say that this ability would strengthen along with his own cultivation.
He was currently very satisfied: during this trip inside of the demon territory, the squad already gained quite a lot. Even if they didn’t manage to complete the mission in the end, there wouldn’t be any loss from the attempt. In case he discovered a danger the two Demon Hunt Squads would be unable to contend against, they would just withdraw and that would be it. Safety was their top priority! Furthermore, as long as he could save an image on their gem, it would serve as proof in convincing his teammates of the danger.
As he tried to deepen his understanding of the Ripples of Light further, Long Haochen resisted the threat brought by these hissing sounds. His own spiritual energy nearly depleted by a half, he was completely certain that arriving at his current point would be impossible without a cultivation level at the fifth step or higher, much less to keep advancing. At best, someone with a cultivation at the sixth step would be able to block the aerial danger by relying on his own spiritual energy, and decrease the falling speed by a great extent. At the same time, the opening of the spiritual orifices at the sixth step would make it a lot easier to recover his spiritual energy.
The hissing sounds rang once again, and Long Haochen confirmed his own safety by sending Haoyue a message. Acting cautiously, he sat down, putting great efforts into recovering his spiritual energy in this place that was almost devoid of light essence.
In this dangerous cave of an unknown degree of danger, it was naturally better to be more careful. Long Haochen also discovered that precisely because of the surrounding light essence was thin, the Saint Spiritual Stove inside of him was revolving at a much slower speed, as if trying to adapt to this environment…
In Long Haochen’s capacity as the Scion of Light, as long as light essence was present in the external world, no matter how he cultivated, the light essence would still remain inexhaustible. This time was the first time he ever cultivated in a place so poor in light essence, and yet, his body’s spiritual energy was still continuously spinning, with the Saint Spiritual Stove as its center. If Long Haochen’s cultivation level was sufficient, this process would gradually give him comprehension of the subtle mysteries of the spiritual cavities, but unfortunately, his current cultivation was clearly
far from enough. However, an indistinct change was produced in his Saint Spiritual Stove’s rotations and it came a step closer to acquiring a new ability.
Spiritual energy passed through it, just as if entering a physical entity, flowing through it as it grew larger. This was the only method Long Haochen currently had to replenish his spiritual energy.
Unable to absorb any light essence from the external world, Yating’s current use was to help Long Haochen by accurately controlling the rotations of the light essence inside of his body. With her presence, Long Haochen didn’t have to worry about losing control as he only needed a thought to attain an exquisite control. Gradually, Long Haochen entered a state of meditation despite the kind of place he was in. The fact that he managed to stay focused enough to accomplish this without distraction showed how pure his heart was.
The original Saint Spiritual Stove was just like a vessel, discreetly helping Long Haochen produce liquid spiritual energy, but now, it performed an uninterrupted role of operator, switching from its previous role as the vessel to gain a more crucial one. From its previous state as merely a small three-legged cauldron that just helped him in gaining knowledge of the spiritual energy, it started to take on an essential role.
The liquid spiritual energy pulled in by this spiritual stove revolved around it, gradually shrinking in size until attaining a liquid state and even giving Long Haochen a palpating feeling.
Long Haochen was currently doing his utmost to stay in a steady state of mind while concentrating his thoughts on the Saint Spiritual Stove and sensing the Saint Spiritual Stove in his state of meditation in this peculiar place, in which he was unable to absorb light essence.
This was clearly a very intelligent method, reproducing the process of the time when the Saint Spiritual Stove had produced liquid spiritual energy in him for the first time.
With his powerful mental capacity, he was able to sense the majority of the changes within his Saint Spiritual Stove, and discovered that the liquid spiritual energy in it was unexpectedly being compressed.
Simply said, it was as if each drip of the liquid spiritual energy in the spiritual stove was forcibly split into two before slowly expanding by absorbing the energy coming from the outside world. Although Long Haochen was only recovering his body’s spiritual energy, it was still by the same process of absorbing the external light essence as usual, so where could the current changes on the Saint Spiritual Stove come from? For what reason could it make new advances in handling the light essence?
Some chances were only meant to be found by those who could perceive it, and being such a person, Long Haochen quickly started solving this mystery. This peculiar state his spiritual energy was in was unexpectedly came from the other types of energies present in this dark cavern.
This… This is…
Long Haochen felt his heart tremble violently as some words his father told him instantly came to mind.
“To any vocation starting from the fifth step onwards, each step will represent an immense watershed. The difference between the fourth step and the fifth step is the liquid spiritual energy, whereas the difference from the fifth step and the sixth step lies in the spiritual cavities. Only when someone forms their spiritual cavities can he be called a real powerhouse. That’s because the spiritual cavities will raise his fighting and surviving capability more than ever before.”
To Long Haochen, the two people who influenced him the most starting from the moment he started cultivating were Long Xingyu and Ye Hua. Before reaching the fifth step, if we put the fact Long Xingyu gave him a Saint Spiritual Stove aside, Ye Hua had been in fact more helpful to Long Haochen than his own father.
Because of his lack of innate talent, Ye Hua put all of his efforts into researching the lower levels of cultivation, giving Long Haochen a more
optimal path to follow. This was the reason why Long Haochen managed to progress so quickly and gain an understanding of lower ranked techniques as well as the strategic aspects of the battlefield that far exceeded the norm. However, in the end, Ye Hua’s research was limited: he was, after all, limited by his rank of Earth Knight. Only after being shared Long Haochen’s innate talent did he manage to break through to the level of a Radiant Knight. How could he compare to a Divine Knight such as Long Xingyu on this aspect?
What Long Xingyu passed on Long Haochen was his former experience. It wasn’t as detailed as Ye Hua’s lessons, but it gave Long Haochen an overall guideline of the cultivation from the lower to the higher steps.
“Spiritual cavities have two uses. The first one is to reinforce the speed of recovery of the spiritual energy. As long as you have them, you won’t need to meditate painstakingly. Even simply breathing will gradually restore the spiritual energy in your body. The major reason why powerhouses can last so long in the battlefield is precisely the essential utility of these spiritual cavities. However, you shouldn’t neglect the other use they have, which is the ability of transforming any type of energies, situated in any kind of environment, into the same energy you use. These two uses will enable any combatant to maintain his fighting strength in whichever type of environment they are in while greatly increasing their survivability on the battlefield.”
Long Xingyu’s words were something Long Haochen remembered perfectly.
And the current situation was just as he was told: in such a dark place, the Saint Spiritual Stove had surprisingly temporarily acquired the second utility of the spiritual cavities. Although this second ability was quite inferior to the first one, it was what Long Haochen needed the most in the current situation.
Long Haochen concentrated his attention completely on gradually recovering his spiritual energy. This situation was rare to come by: he clearly understood that the difficulty of condensing spiritual cavities far surpassed the difficulty of reaching the level of producing liquid spiritual
energy. It was very fortunate that the Saint Spiritual Stove gave him this chance, helping him deepen his comprehension at such a time. In the near future when he really have to condense his spiritual cavities, the time he will need to break through the bottleneck will be greatly reduced. Furthermore, the current changes in the Saint Spiritual Stove seemed like the start of its second evolution.
Fundamental changes were often bound to happen in succession, and Long Haochen had another reason to remain fully concentrated. It was the fact that the current state the Saint Spiritual Stove was beneficial to both Blue Rain, Hibiscus of Light and the Light Elemental Fairy Yating.
In one’s lifetime, this sort of occasion was truly hard to come by, rare to the extent that Long Haochen sat there for two whole hours.
Experiencing the series of hissing sounds consecutively before restoring his spiritual energy, he didn’t need to provide more spiritual energy to his Holy Mantle and stayed in a focused meditative state. At the time the Saint Spiritual Stove managed to revolve without constraints, he finally awoke from this state.
Standing up with reluctance, Long Haochen immediately passed a message of his safety to Haoyue. If he was alone, he would even be willing to stay seated a lot longer, using various methods to consume his spiritual energy. To anyone else, such a rare chance in cultivation would truly be something that takes courage to abandon, but to Long Haochen, that would be out of the question as he still had his teammates waiting for him outside. The demon territory was far from safe, so he couldn’t stay there for too long.
The first day Ye Hua passed his knowledge as a Guardian Knight onto him, he stressed these words to him, “Responsibility is the eleventh standard for a Guardian Knight.”