Chapter 166: Creating a diversion
Chapter 166: Creating a diversion
.
Zhu Rong had sensed all along that something was off, he simply didn’t want to enter the secret realm.
Even after he entered, that feeling never disappeared, and in fact the longer he stayed inside, the stronger it grew, until at a certain point he ended up following its traces and arrived at the cave where, by sheer coincidence, he had actually found the source of that unease, confirming that the secret realm was essentially a deadly trap for everyone.
If it had been just the cocoon, it would have been fine, but the secret realm itself was strange, starting from the fact that they were separated at the beginning, and consequently the way out was uncertain, especially with the presence of infected creatures and everything else.
It didn’t take a genius to figure out what was happening, it was clear that this place had been corrupted by that energy, and the cocoon in the mountains was proof of it.
He didnt know who had placed it there or how long it had been, but the absence of the Blood Pearl was enough to make him realize that the situation was extremely dire and that they needed to leave immediately.
Then he learned that the creature was already awake, and the guardian spirit, or at least the one disguised as it, was proof of that.
It wasn’t the spirit of the realm, but rather the manifestation of the creature’s power, which had decided to take the appearance of the first human emperor to lure cultivators from the outside world into a trap.
At first, it seemed unreasonable to him, after all, a creature that was probably already at an advanced stage of spirit realm, why would it need to play such tricks on them?
Why would it need to lure them into a trap?
He didn’t understand at first, but after examining the surrounding environment and noticing the first exchanges of attacks with the spirit, he finally came to a conclusion,
The being in the cocoon was sealed, or at least its power was largely restricted.
After all, why would such a powerful being remain in that form and use a spiritual manifestation to act when it could directly act on its own?
Not to mention the attacks he had already endured, sure, if it had hit him directly, he would have been seriously injured, but its strength, upon deeper analysis, did not exceed the mortal realm,
at most, it could be attributed to the power of a being at the peak of the mortal realm, just one step away from the spirit realm.
The only explanation he could find for all this was one, the creature, for some reason, was not able to fully release its power
He was initially stunned by this revelation, and although he was curious to know the reason, it didn’t matter at that moment.
What mattered was that he truly had a chance to escape this desperate situation, so he told Liang Yuexin to leave first, so that he could act more freely and escape in turn.
The thought of confronting the creature never crossed his mind, it wasn’t clear what was holding it back, and facing it directly could easily backfire, or even release the being entirely.
Essentially, his knowledge of the situation regarding that creature was too limited to confront it or even consider doing anything; all he could do was use this moment to flee.
Liang Yuexin was clearly torn, uncertain whether to listen or not, but the difficulty of their situation didn’t allow her to waste time on such thoughts.
She looked at him with a complicated expression, and in the end, she clenched her fists while releasing her cultivation.
Soon, her body was wrapped in a strong elemental spiritual energy.
Thin lightning bolts ran across her entire body, and her eyes, now glowing an intense violet, looked toward Zhu Rong with complicated and suppressed emotions, not even realizing when she had begun to see him in a completely new light.
She bit her lip slightly, as if to suppress useless thoughts, and said:
"You know, I don’t agree with the way you’re doing things. If you intend to make decisions for both of us, you can’t leave me out every single time. That said... this time I’ll trust you, so you better keep your word," she said, clearly angry.
Zhu Rong could only shake his head, saying nothing.
He certainly had no intention of getting himself killed here, at least not now; there were too many things he wanted to accomplish in this life, and not even a being of the spirit realm could stop him.
So he didn’t waste any time. Instead, he channeled all his energy into his feet while in his hand a translucent white sword began to appear.
Only a few seconds had passed since he had blocked the spirit’s last attack, and it certainly didn’t intend to stay idle while they acted. So, without losing a moment, Zhu Rong, with the condensed sword in his hand, launched forward at high speed, his target, the spirit itself.
This caught Liang Yuexin by surprise, she didn’t know what Zhu Rong intended to do, but she prepared herself to move as soon as she saw the right opportunity.
The spirit on the other side saw its opponent charging toward it. It didn’t hesitate and indeed faced him head on.
Dark red tendrils shot out from all directions, above, below, and even from the sides, and all of them lunged like spears toward Zhu Rong
The speed of both sides was high, and in an instant, they were already close to each other. As soon as that happened, Zhu Rong, who had condensed his spiritual Qi into the sword, wasted no time and swung it directly at the incoming spikes.
Although the strike was fast and fluid, the energy it released was anything but simple.
As soon as he finished the motion, a powerful strike of condensed elemental energy, white and blue, shot out, hitting the spikes dead-on.
The spirit saw the simple sword attack launched from the other side and didnt chaged expression, as if it didn’t even consider for a moment that the attack could really cause any damage. But its expression didn’t last long; in the next moment, it noticed something particular in the attack.
As soon as his attack collided with the tendrils, a small fluctuation of spiritual energy was released, and before the tendrils could advance any further, the strike, now in direct contact with them, exploded, freezing everything within a ten meter radius in an instant.
The explosion was so fast that everything froze in an instant, and Liang Yuexin, surprised by this, immediately snapped out of her daze and realized this was her chance to move. Without wasting a moment, she, already prepared, shot forward at full speed.
Her control over her lightning element had increased far beyond what she initially thought, to the point where she could effectively manifest herself as living lightning for a few seconds, and that was exactly what she did.
As soon as she moved, the distance separating her from the tunnel was covered in the blink of an eye.
She didn’t stop there, she had no intention of wasting the opportunity Zhu Rong had created. Without pausing, she shot into the tunnel and in an instant vanished from sight.