Chapter 653: Multiple Factions
"My sincerest apologies, Senior Chi Rong. Silver Fox made an appearance in the Black Mountain Immortal Region, and we were delayed in our attempt to capture him," Gongshu Tian informed.
"Did you catch him?" the man by the name of Chi Rong asked.
"Unfortunately, Silver Fox was able to escape with the help of a man from the Devil Race..."
"Useless trash!" Chi Rong denounced before Gongshu Tian had a chance to finish.
The expressions of Gongshu Tian's trio changed slightly upon hearing this, and a hint of fury flashed through their eyes, but then quickly faded.
"Forget it. We're already way behind schedule, and the True Mantra Sect ruins will only be around for a short time, so we have to make haste. I'll deal with this matter at some later date, but for now, we need to set off right away," Chi Rong said in a cold voice.
Gongshu Tian's trio was quite relieved to hear this, and the three of them gave a collective affirmative response.
Chi Rong swept a sleeve through the air to release a wave of fire, which swept through the air in front of him before transforming into an enormous spirit boat in the visage of a fiery dragon.
The spirit boat sped forward as a streak of red light with the four men onboard, plunging straight into the illusory smoke.
Mere minutes following their departure, several streaks of light flew onto the scene from Illusory Smoke City, then descended onto the edge of the swamp.
The streaks of light then faded to reveal four figures, three male and one female.
They were led by a middle-aged man who was close to one and a half times the height of an average grown man, and his skin was bronze in color. His facial features were very angular, and he was wearing a suit of golden armor, outside of which was a purple and golden cloak. The man was none other than Su Liu of Jade Gathering City.
"It seems these insolent fools have no respect for me, even when they're only my territory," Su Liu harrumphed in disdain.
Standing behind him was a man in a scholarly white robe, and he said in a casual manner, "They're also part of the Heavenly Court like we are, but we've never interfered with each other's work, and I'll agree that they've overstepped their boundaries by coming here without even notifying us first. Having said that, why are you so angry about this? With our four allied immortal regions joining forces, there's no way that treasure could fall into anyone else's hands."
"Fellow Daoist Zhao Zhen is right. The Illusory Smoke Swamp is our territory, and they're just a bunch of outsiders stumbling into it completely blind. There's no way they'll actually be able to accomplish anything in there," a seductive woman in a purple palace dress chimed in.
She was the current city lord of Illusory Smoke City and also the dao partner of the Black Soil Immortal Palace's palace master. She was only at the late-Golden Immortal Stage, but she had quite a lofty status in the four allied immortal regions.
Zhao Zhen was the name of the scholarly-robed man, and he was the immortal envoy stationed in Abyssal Lake City of the Concealed Lake Immortal Region.
The final person to round out their group was a short and slightly hunched over elderly man, and he was peering into the swamp with his hands clasped behind his back, taking no part in the ongoing conversation.
"Senior Lu, we've all tried to enter the True Mantra Sect ruins on our own at some point, but none of us have found success. Now that we've chosen to join forces, I think you have an obligation to be open and candid with us. Are you really confident in your ability to find a spatial node?" Zhao Zhen asked as he turned to the short elderly man.
He was none other than Wu Liang, the current palace master of the Origin Contention Immortal Palace.
"Rest assured, I wouldn't have said anything if I didn't have absolute confidence. All of you are aware of how to open the spatial node, just make sure you don't hold back too much," the elderly man replied in a coarse voice.
"I'm certainly feeling much more reassured now," the seductive woman said with a faint smile.
"Alright, that's enough chit-chat, let's set off as well," Su Liu declared, and with that, he sped into the Illusory Smoke Swamp as an arc of five-colored lightning, while the other three quickly followed along.
......
Meanwhile.
Hovering in mid-air above a section of the swamp countless kilometers away was a giant stone staircase with several hundred steps.
At this moment, there were several men and women dressed in blue cloaks making their way up the staircase.
They were led by a tall and gorgeous woman with light blue skin and curly green hair, wearing a suit of light scale armor. She walked in an elegant and seductive fashion, moving like a beautiful snake that one couldn't look away from.
Trailing along behind her was an imposing man who was built like a stone wall with a giant sword on his back, and a thin and wizened elderly man who looked as if he were suffering from tuberculosis.
The imposing man was looking straight ahead with a solemn and slightly anxious look on his face, while the elderly man was looking much more relaxed, with his gaze blatantly roaming over the blue-skinned woman's body in a lustful fashion.
All of a sudden, the blue-skinned woman drew to a halt before turning around.
Her gorgeous features had completely frozen over, and she turned to the elderly man with a pair of piercing golden eyes that were brimming with killing intent.
"Take your filthy eyes off me, or I'll kill you right here and now!" the blue-skinned woman spat through gritted teeth.
The elderly man was instantly rooted to the spot, feeling as if a bucket of ice water had just been dumped over his head. The fear that he was feeling wasn't in response to the threat being directed at him. Instead, it stemmed from the peculiar light within the woman's golden pupils.
"Y-yes, Celestial Maiden, Bi She, I'll k-keep my eyes to myself," the elderly man stuttered in response.
"Celestial Maiden Bi She, hasn't it always been customary for members of our Robe Change Order to carry out missions in pairs? Why are we traveling as a group of three this time?" the imposing man asked.
The blue-skinned woman's expression immediately warmed up upon hearing this, and a seductive smile appeared on her face as she replied, "If it isn't because that old pervert can set up spatial arrays, you'd have me all to yourself for this mission again."
The imposing man's expression became even more anxious upon hearing this, and he hurriedly said, "Please don't make such jokes, Celestial Maiden Bi She."
The blue-skinned woman seemed to be quite amused by this, and her smile became even more seductive, while the elderly man could only look on with a dejected expression.
......
At the entrance of the True Mantra Sect ruins, Han Li's group was busy at work, setting up a collection of array tools and a small pile of silver crystals.
At this moment, Shi Chuankong was engraving a silver array into the ground, and as he did so, he was instructing Han Li and the others to install all of the array tools and silver crystals into the array.
With all four of them working at once, progress was rapid, and it didn't take long before a complex and resplendent silver array was completed.
"Step back a little," Shi Chuankong said to Han Li's trio as he made his way into the silver array.
The three of them did as they were told, and Shi Chuankong made a hand seal before pointing a finger at the silver array, upon which all of the spirit patterns on its surface instantly lit up.
The entire array began to radiate dazzling silver light, and boundless world's origin qi surged toward it in a frenzy from all directions, making the array glow brighter and brighter.
All of the silver light then converged to form a silver cloud that was several hundred feet in size, and there were countless silver runes surging within it, giving off formidable spatial fluctuations.
Shi Chuankong rose up into the air, standing above the silver cloud, and his entire body was enshrouded within a layer of radiant silver light, giving him a deity-like appearance.
He began to chant an incantation, and a silver badge appeared in his grasp. The badge was shimmering with silver light, and it was also giving off bursts of spatial fluctuations.
Shi Chuankong tossed the badge forward, and it landed beneath the silver cloud.
At the same time, he began to chant an incantation, and the silver cloud immediately surged into the badge in a frenzy.
The badge instantly swelled rapidly to several dozen feet in size, and it began to radiate dazzling silver light, while the spatial fluctuations that it was releasing became significantly more powerful.
Han Li and the others were also doing their part, channeling their immortal spiritual power in preparation to attack.
Shi Chuankong continued to chant his incantation as he gestured toward the silver badge with his hand, and five streaks of silver light shot out of his fingertips before vanishing into the badge.
A sharp screeching sound rang out as a silver crescent moon that was several dozen feet in size flew out of the badge, then struck the white light barrier while rotating rapidly.
However, there was no earth-shattering boom as anticipated, and the silver crescent moon fused straight into the white light barrier upon contact.
A dull explosion rang out from within the white light barrier, and it shuddered violently as a layer of silver light appeared over its surface, giving off formidable spatial fluctuations.
The layer of silver light was flickering erratically, but it then quickly stabilized itself.
The layer of silver light was the spatial restriction within the white light barrier, and its emergence indicated that Shi Chuankong's attack had been effective.
An elated look appeared on Shi Chuankong's face upon seeing this, and he began to make a rapid string of hand seals, upon which more silver crescent moons shot out of the badge in a frenzy, with all of them striking the layer of silver light.
A burst of dull rumbling rang out as the layer of silver light flickered erratically while becoming dimmer and dimmer.
However, using the silver badge seemed to be extremely taxing on Shi Chuankong, and his complexion was quickly becoming paler and paler. Thankfully, the silver cloud that was surging out of the silver array was constantly injecting itself into the badge to support it.
After a round of ferocious attacks, the layer of silver light was finally shattered, and it distintegrated into specks of spiritual light.
As a result, the white light barrier was also left looking much more vulnerable than before.
"Hurry! I've only temporarily broken the spatial restriction, but it'll be back very soon!" Shi Chuankong yelled in an urgent voice.
The sourc𝗲 of this content is free(w)𝒆bnov(𝒆)l