The moment that squad of Sea Race Dao Foundation pursuers passed where Longying was hidden, the ground beneath them erupted in a violent explosion, blowing the lead pursuers to pieces in an instant.
Even though he was only being chased by Dao Foundation cultivators, Wei Yuan had no intention of turning back to fight. If he wiped out this entire squad, wouldn't that simply be telling the Sea Race to send a dharma idol expert after him?
At such a critical juncture, with a Sea Race Scenery Command powerhouse rushing over at breakneck speed, it was far better to leave prime resources like dharma idols to Zhao Fusheng.
The secret realm suddenly turned humid. Tiny trickles of water bubbled up continuously from the ground as the power of water surged, swiftly suppressing the other four elements. The moisture in the air grew exceedingly viscous. Sprinting through it felt like wading through glue, and Wei Yuan's speed abruptly dropped by more than half.
*Not good,* Wei Yuan thought grimly. That Sea Race powerhouse was already striking across the distance. At this rate, there was no chance he would escape the secret realm before it arrived.
Right then, blades of green grass sprouted from the ground, rapidly shooting up and bursting into carpets of tiny flowers in the blink of an eye. Wei Yuan felt more than half of the binding pressure lift from his body. Clearly, another Bao family powerhouse had intervened.
Patches of grass and pools of water alternated across the ground as the two mighty experts clashed fiercely, contesting control of the secret realm and striving to expel each other's mindscape world. But judging from the lingering viscosity in the air, the Bao family expert was distinctly at a disadvantage.
In this thick, heavy air, the Sea Race's speed didn't decrease; it actually increased. That squad of Dao Foundation pursuers was almost fast enough to catch up to Wei Yuan.
Wei Yuan knew this couldn't go on. His best bet was to wait until the Bao family's other True Monarchs were alerted and joined the fray. He immediately veered off, darting into a small side cave, and sprinted along the winding subterranean passage while quietly dropping several explosive powder cylinders behind him.
Wei Yuan planned to detonate the cave once his pursuers drew close, cutting off anyone following behind. Then he would lead this squad of Dao Foundation Sea Race at a leisurely pace back toward the human domain. By the time the Sea Race powerhouses realized what had happened, he would likely already be safely back in human territory.
Just ahead, however, a cross-tunnel suddenly appeared. A tall figure covered in blood and filth charged out from it—and slammed straight into Wei Yuan!
The impact was like Mount Heng colliding with Mount Tai. Wei Yuan's internal organs felt completely displaced, and gold stars danced before his eyes. The person opposite him clearly didn't fare any better, stumbling back several steps and nearly falling flat on his backside.
Wei Yuan shook his head hard. As his vision cleared, he saw a stark-naked body with a fried dough twist dangling between the legs.
It suddenly dawned on Wei Yuan that Zhao Fusheng had more than just a few Sea Race chasing him!
The moment he realized, he shot forward toward the continuing tunnel. Zhao Fusheng had the exact same idea, and the two slammed together again, bouncing hard off opposite walls and collapsing a whole section of rock.
Having tied in both collisions, both men abandoned their absolute confidence in their physical bodies. On the third attempt, neither tried to hog the escape route, running shoulder to shoulder in unspoken understanding.
Sensing several terrifying auras closing in from behind, Wei Yuan inwardly cursed Zhao Fusheng. As Zhao Fusheng ran, he kept glancing at Wei Yuan, finding the face entirely unfamiliar—someone he had surely never seen before. But what was a Dao Foundation cultivator doing inside this secret realm? Wasn't he just courting death?
...Dao Foundation???
"It's you!" Fire instantly erupted in Zhao Fusheng's eyes.
"It's not me!" Wei Yuan pushed off harder, trying to leave Zhao Fusheng behind for the pursuers.
At this point, his Wolongs and young phoenixes offered counsel: all he had to do was run faster than Zhao Fusheng.
Yet Zhao Fusheng accelerated at the same moment, and the two remained neck and neck.
Right now, the Sea Race powerhouse's mindscape world held the upper hand and was slowly manifesting. Both of their Dao arts were suppressed, leaving them reliant solely on physical power. But their physical cultivation was evenly matched, and their speeds were virtually identical.
Both men sprinted at full tilt, wary of each other and holding off on attacking for now. But as Zhao Fusheng scrutinized Wei Yuan, he began piecing various clues together, and murderous intent crept into his eyes.
Wei Yuan knew things were turning south. Fortunately, wherever people gathered, new Wolongs and young phoenixes were bound to emerge. Right then, someone proposed a scheme that made Wei Yuan's eyes light up.
Wei Yuan suddenly turned his head, glanced pointedly toward Zhao Fusheng's vitals, and said deadpan, "A bit on the small side."
Zhao Fusheng's blood boiled instantly. Instinctively, he moved a hand to cover his privates. That single superfluous motion allowed Wei Yuan to shoot ahead by several zhang with a sharp swoosh. Given their identical physical power and nearly equal speed, bridging a gap of several zhang would not be easy.
Wei Yuan felt immensely satisfied. That scheme might have seemed simple, but it actually factored in an enormous number of variables: the environment, the tactical situation, Zhao Fusheng's previously displayed temperament, male psychology, and much more. It was truly the crystallized wisdom of an entire team.
The danger of this secret realm far exceeded Wei Yuan's expectations, and he had relied on his Wolongs and young phoenixes to defuse several crises already. Inside the Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains, the mortals had also sensed the apocalyptic threat and fully mobilized.
Some of them prayed to Wei Yuan, but he ignored them.
Another group prayed to the Yin-Yang Maiden and received a response.
They were immediately assigned various tasks and provided the data necessary to complete them. Once finished, their separate reports were combined into a final plan and fed back to Wei Yuan. Even that line—"A bit on the small side"—had been scripted directly for him, requiring no thought on his part.
Leaving Zhao Fusheng in the dust, Wei Yuan maintained his lead no matter how hard Zhao Fusheng tried to catch up. After sprinting more than ten li, Wei Yuan finally burst out of the cave onto a terrace protruding from a sheer cliff.
The platform was huge, but it hung isolated over a ten-thousand-zhang abyss, with the nearest cliff on the opposite side over a thousand zhang away. Below, the chasm was pitch black, its depths impossible to see, yet it filled Wei Yuan with a creeping dread.
Something was lurking down there, making no attempt to conceal its presence, warning little bugs not to disturb it.
Wei Yuan reined in his momentum, barely screeching to a halt at the platform's edge. Zhao Fusheng burst out immediately behind him, a savage grin spreading across his face the moment he saw Wei Yuan. But before he could utter a single threat, his expression warped. A swarm of Sea Race burst from the cave, surrounding the two of them on this dead-end terrace.
Wei Yuan looked around, appearing panicked—and in truth, he was a little unnerved. Even as he looked, however, he was updating the terrain data, transmitting every detail simultaneously into the Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains.
Zhao Fusheng had initially looked fierce, but when a third Sea Maiden crawled out of the cave, his expression finally cracked. Compared to ordinary Sea Li warriors, Sea Maidens were extremely troublesome; every single one possessed unique, bizarre divine abilities that were difficult to guard against. Just two Sea Maidens had already pushed Zhao Fusheng to his limits. If a third joined in...
Zhao Fusheng suddenly glanced at Wei Yuan, thinking the kid seemed reasonably capable and ought to be able to handle one Sea Maiden. If that were the case, he himself might be able to hold out against two Sea Maidens and a mob of Sea Race warriors.
Emerging into view, the third Sea Maiden wasted no words on the two humans. She let out a piercing shriek so dense it was visible to the naked eye, blasting violently toward Zhao Fusheng!
At that exact moment, Wei Yuan curled into a ball as if terrified, his aura plummeting until he looked like nothing more than a mid-stage Dao Foundation ant.
A bad feeling instantly flared in Zhao Fusheng's heart, and he opened his mouth to unleash a torrent of curses. Just then, a Sea Race warrior fired a Water Dragon Cannon at Wei Yuan. Wei Yuan made no attempt to dodge, looking utterly paralyzed with fear.
All the remaining Sea Race warriors and the two other Sea Maidens lunged at Zhao Fusheng.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!!" Endless curses surged through Zhao Fusheng's mind, ultimately coalescing into a single repeated obscenity—nothing else could vent the indignation in his chest.
This was the emergency countermeasure the mortals had devised in the face of doomsday: feign weakness to the enemy.
The water dragon slammed squarely into Wei Yuan, blasting him off the platform. Male Sea Li warriors were far weaker than Sea Maidens, and slightly inferior even to human dharma idol cultivators. The water dragon left Wei Yuan feeling somewhat sore, but it served to knock him free of the encirclement.
A propulsion cylinder appeared beneath each of Wei Yuan's armpits, kicking him into sudden acceleration as though a giant had booted him from behind. In an instant, he shot across the thousand-zhang abyss and landed safely on the opposing rock face.
A foul wind abruptly billowed from the bottomless chasm as a pointed beak a hundred zhang long snapped shut with tremendous force, missing Wei Yuan by a hairsbreadth. Had he been even a fraction slower, he would have ended up in its belly.
Despair finally welled in Zhao Fusheng's heart. He gave a bitter smile, knowing his flying speed could never outrun that behemoth's bite.
Just then, aqua-blue light beamed from a Sea Maiden's eyes, illuminating a cloaked figure: a monk flying sluggishly toward the opposite cliff.
The abyss below stirred violently. The giant beak struck like lightning toward the monk. Where the monk hovered, a colossal peacock instantly materialized, spewing a mouthful of five-colored radiance onto the beak.
The beak slowed by a barely perceptible fraction, yet it still snapped shut, shattering the peacock dharma idol in one bite.
The monk flashed back onto the platform, coughing up a mouthful of blood as his aura plummeted. Casting his injuries aside, he immediately engaged one of the Sea Maidens and several warriors. At this point, his only hope was to stand shoulder to shoulder with Zhao Fusheng; otherwise, both of them would perish here.
Right at that moment, several propulsion cylinders dropped from above, landing right at their feet.
***
In the ancestral grounds of the Bao family.
Bao Manshan was playing weiqi with an elderly man, locked in a stalemate. Bao Yun walked into the pavilion, indifferent to whether she was interrupting their game, and said directly, "Great-Grandfathers, I want to know what terms Qiongshan Immortal Island offered that would prompt you to sell off the clan's most outstanding junior. Has our Bao family fallen so low that we must sell our sons and daughters?"
Bao Manshan remained expressionless, while the old man grew irritated, snapping in a heavy voice, "Where are your manners?!"
Bao Yun showed no fear. "A house that sells its sons and daughters has no manners to speak of."
The old man glanced toward Bao Manshan. Still showing no emotion, Bao Manshan placed a stone, setting off to hunt down the old man's dragon.
A wave of irritation washed over the old man, and he frowned. "Do you still believe you are the most gifted of the younger generation? You insulted an Immortal Monarch, damaging your karmic luck. Then you lost an arm, lowering your physical grade accordingly. After that, you gave away two fruits from your freshly formed Dao Foundation to an outsider, weakening two extremely useful miraculous abilities.
"Adding all of this together, never mind fifty years into the future—even looking at just the past twenty years and the next twenty, you are no longer number one. Today, even staying in the top three is uncertain. If you refuse to contribute to the family, do you think your current standing still entitles you to be an exception?"
Bao Yun replied calmly, "There is no need for Great-Grandfather to remind me; I know my own standing. All I want to know is what price that Young Island Master offered to be allowed to run rampant in our ancestral grounds."
Looking at Bao Yun's stubborn expression, the old man suddenly sighed. "The dragon has nine sons. If one can comprehend the Floating World Dragon Diagram and use it for dual cultivation, completing the art guarantees nine sons will be born. Each will have distinct talents, but all will possess the potential to ascend to immortality. When the time comes, of those nine sons, we take five and he takes four. Our Bao family picks first."
Taking advantage of the old man's distraction, Bao Manshan placed another stone, cleanly slaughtering his entire dragon.
Chapter 403