Chapter 29: Encounter
Deep in the night.
Qin Lie walked at the front as he led the Ling Family members towards the depths of the Arctic Mountain Range. He periodically paused from time to time to retrieve a map from his chest pocket. Using the moonlight, he would look at the map and then reorient their direction.
Most of the time, he didn’t lead the Ling Family members in a straight path. Whenever he thought there might be a pack of spirit beasts in front of them, he would make a detour to avoid any unnecessary spirit beast encounters.
Because they frequently traveled in a winding manner instead of in a straight line, their travel speed towards the Arctic Mountain Range wasn’t very fast.
However, during their travels, they managed to avoid encountering any fierce spirit beasts. They would occasionally meet one or two, but they would only be low level ones that couldn’t harm them at all.
After Qin Lie had discovered Gao Yuan’s body, he had already planned and prepared for this in secret. He had already thoroughly studied their escape route long ago, and even personally examined it himself. Due to his grandfather’s map, he had a clear picture of all the common spots spirit beasts would gather at nearby and was thus able to safely guide the Ling Family members.
Only, a portion of the Ling Family members didn’t quite trust him…
“We’re making another detour?” Ling Xin was currently standing still upon a steep slope, his face full of annoyance as he complained, “How many detours have we taken so far? If we hadn’t detoured so many times, we would have already exited the dense forest and have entered this Frost Mist Mountain you were talking about long ago! Spirit beast this, spirit beast that, we haven’t even seen any traces of powerful spirit beasts so far! If we keep detouring like this, sooner or later they’ll catch up to us!”
“Anyone who doesn’t want to take these detours can go straight ahead. After all, whether you live or die doesn’t matter to me.” Qin Lie didn’t even bat an eye, continuing upon the path that he himself had determined was correct.
“Brat! You really think you’re something, don’t you?” angrily snorted Ling Xin as he glared at Qin Lie.
“Shut your mouth!” exclaimed Ling Yushi. “If not for Qin Lie’s intelligence, we probably would have already died long ago at the hands of Shattered Ice Manor’s people. What are you still complaining about?”
“First Miss, I only believe that there are no spirit beasts nearby, so we don’t need to be this cautious. After all, the Feng Family and Shattered Ice Manor’s people should already be on our tail. If we keep detouring like this, they will catch up to us in no time,” complained Ling Xin.
“That’s enough. Everyone, follow Qin Lie and let’s quickly move out of this dense forest,” said Ling Feng.
Only a few people were agitated like Ling Xin. The rest of them were rather trusting towards Ling Yushi and Ling Feng and thus were rather well behaved.
Once Ling Yushi, Ling Feng, and Ling Ying all began to rush after Qin Lie, Ling Xin and the rest had no other choice but to also follow behind them.
The night quickly passed, and even after the crack of dawn, they didn’t stop and continued rushing through the forest.
During this time, Qin Lie led everyone through more detours, avoiding other potential hotspots that could be infested with packs of spirit beasts, and once again delayed their progress. Although Ling Xin and a few others were still discontented, after being scolded by Ling Yushi and Ling Feng, they had no choice but to silently follow.
Noon.
Qin Lie and all the Ling Family members gathered beside a stream within the dense forest, and their frantic breathing gradually calmed down.
From the middle of last night until noon today, everyone had been frantically rushing along, consuming a great amount of spirit energy. Their bodies were tired, and adding on the fact that they hadn’t eaten anything, they were pretty much ready to collapse at any moment. Thus, they had to stop to rest so they could eat and recover.
Everyone gathered beside the stream, gulped down mouthful after mouthful of the slightly sweet spring water and ate the dry meat that they had brought with them. They sat down and attuned their breathing and recovered their spirit energy.
They were all extremely tired. Knowing just how precious this moment of rest was, they didn’t bother speaking to each other and simply recovered in silence.
Qin Lie drank some water and ate some of the meat that Ling Yushi gave him. Narrowing his eyes slightly, he took out a Spirit Recovering Pill to recover.
“What level is your cultivation at? After traveling all this time, everyone is almost tired to the point of collapsing, even First Miss has sweat all over her. But you seem like you’re still pretty energetic…” Ling Ying sat down next to him, her exquisite body also drenched in fragrant sweat as it dripped down along her curves. Her eyes lit up, and she asked, “You have truly hidden yourself quite well. I guess your level of cultivation definitely isn’t low!”
Out of everyone here, Qin Lie and Ling Ying were the youngest. In the past, she had never bothered to pay any attention to him and had even said a few things which were unpleasant to hear.
However, after witnessing Qin Lie’s sudden transformation, her interest towards him had gradually begun to increase, almost eclipsing her interest towards Ling Feng.
The Ling Family didn’t have many outstanding youths. As Du Heng and Du Fei didn’t count, the only person she paid attention to within the Ling Family was Ling Feng. Thus, in the past, she had always stuck around Ling Feng and held a great amount of interest towards him.
However, Qin Lie’s recent transformation had managed to light up her eyes as well, causing her to feel a sense of surprise as if she had discovered some new foreign land.
Adding Qin Lie’s mysterious origins and his many hidden secrets, she had become increasingly curious. Thus, her sense of attraction continuously grew stronger, resulting in her paying more and more attention to Qin Lie lately.
“You brats know how to act quite well!” exclaimed Ling Xin as he looked over, secretly swearing to himself, “I can’t beat Ling Feng, but could it be that I can’t even beat Qin Lie? Little Ying, why must you be so close to him?”
“Stop disturbing him and use this time to properly cultivate like you should be!”
Upon seeing Ling Ying sitting down next to Qin Lie and talking to him, Ling Yushi, who wasn’t far away, suddenly felt some discomfort within her heart. Snorting, she snapped at Ling Ying.
Ling Ying pouted with her little mouth, letting out a tender hmph. Her face was full of discontent as she secretly thought: What are you getting mad over? You two are only engaged. It’s not like you two are married, do you need to shield him like this?
While the Ling Family’s people were resting, Shattered Ice Manor and the Feng Family’s people were chasing down and killing the Gao Family’s people and Liu Yan within the dense forest.
As none of these sides were familiar with the dense forest, they frequently encountered packs of spirit beasts as they rushed in from the canyon. It wasn’t a very smooth ride for them.
When the Gao Family and Liu Yan tried to escape, their luck wasn’t good considering that they encountered a Rank Two Golden Crag Beast blocking their path. Golden Crag Beasts had extremely violent natures, and thus, it had attacked them crazily. Liu Yan and Gao Yu had no choice but to work together to kill the Golden Crag Beast, which delayed them.
As Shattered Ice Manor and the Feng Family’s people gave chase, they intruded into the territory of the Rank Two Dragonhorn Rhinoceros and encountered two frenzied Dragonhorn Rhinoceros. Several people were trampled to death before Shattered Ice Manor’s experts arrived and quickly killed them.
The three sides moved through the dense forest. Because they didn’t know the distribution of spirit beasts, they didn’t bother taking detours. While their speed was much greater than Qin Lie and his group, they would time and time again encounter spirit beasts, thus suffering successive casualties.
Although Shattered Ice Manor constantly suffered some casualties, because they had quite a few experts, their path could be said to be fairly smooth.
“There are fresh tracks over here. They don’t seem like the Gao Family’s and should be of the Ling Family who escaped first,” deduced an old man of Shattered Ice Manor. This man’s cultivation wasn’t very high, but he was very good at tracking. He crouched at the clearing for a while, then pointed in a direction and concluded, “From their tracks, they shouldn’t be too far away from us. Elder Yan, we can split off a group to go kill them.”
As soon as the leader of Shattered Ice Manor’s group, Yan Dewu, heard this, he immediately prepared to arrange a group to chase after them. However, at this time, Feng Yi suddenly volunteered, saying, “Elder Yan, the Ling Family is the weakest. Just my Feng Family is enough to get rid of them. Meanwhile, Gao Yu and Liu Yan are much more important. After all, Liu Yan is at the Natal Opening Realm. You must not take him lightly. The Ling Family… why don’t you let my family chase and kill them. I guarantee that we can definitely kill them all!”
“Are you sure?” asked Yan Dewu with a dark expression.
“Mn, there will not be a problem,” guaranteed Feng Yi with a smile.
Yan Dewu nodded, coldly laughed, and said, “Then your Feng Family can go chase them down. If there is a problem, then come find us again and I will arrange for people to go and support you.”
“Many thanks, Elder Yan!” After thanking Yan Dewu, Feng Yi left with his family members, chasing in the direction of the fleeing Ling Family.
“Elder Yan, can his Feng Family truly get rid of the Ling Family?” asked the martial practitioner of Shattered Ice Manor that was proficient in tracking.
“That little bastard of the Feng Family has thoughts towards the two girls of the Ling Family, so I might as well let them go. After all, that youngster knows what to do. I assume he will go about the job attentively, and if they suffer losses, oh well. With our speed and strength, if we go and kill Liu Yan’s group before killing the Ling Family, we will only be delayed for at most a day,” said Yan Dewu indifferently.
“Elder’s words are indeed wise,” complimented everyone.
……
“The Ling Family left long before us, but are actually not too far from us. From the looks of it, their speed must have been rather slow. So strange,” Feng Lun commented perplexedly after leaving Shattered Ice Manor’s group.
“If you were bringing along a fool as you rushed along a path, you wouldn’t be much faster! Furthermore, the road so far has been infested with spirit beasts. Even though we traveled with Shattered Ice Manor, Feng Jie and a few others are still injured, and Shattered Ice Manor even lost seven practitioners. Do you think the Ling Family would be spared from this problem?” Feng Yi casually explained, not the slightest bit surprised.
“Indeed.” Feng Lun nodded and then immediately laughed, “Hehe, I have stared at that cute little Ling Ying’s skin for so long, it’s just so hot and sexy! When we encounter them in a while, brother, please stay your hand, you must not accidentally kill her!”
“Be at ease Brother Lun, this younger brother is also interested. After we capture them, you can go first, but you must let us younger brothers also have a taste,” laughed Feng Jie.
“You’re all injured, but your obscene nature doesn’t change! Okay, if she doesn’t die when I play with her, I will leave her for you to have fun with!” laughingly scolded Feng Lun.
“I shall capture Ling Yushi and bring her home,” said Feng Yi, furrowing his brows. Turning his head, he said, “When we attack, you all must be careful. Don’t injure her.”
“Hehe, young master is indeed different from us, a true flower lover. Be at ease, we will definitely not injure her,” quickly declared Feng Jie.
“Remember, we cannot let a single one of them escape. This is a matter which affects the safety of the Feng Family, we must be ruthless!” sternly said Feng Yi.
The Feng Family members all replied in understanding.
An hour passed.
The Feng Family’s group quietly approached the stream that Qin Lie, Ling Yushi, and the others were resting at. From amongst the cluster of trees in the distance, Feng Yi and the rest could see the shadows of Ling Family members. An excited look emerged on their faces as killing intent gradually coalesced within their eyes.
Under Feng Yi’s signals, the Feng Family practitioners silently scattered, forming a semi-closed circular formation as they inched closer towards Qin Lie and the others.
“We have caught up to them.”
Seeing the formation completed, Feng Yi slightly smiled. Not the slightest bit afraid, he loudly shouted, revealing himself along with the other Feng Family members as they walked out in front of Qin Lie and the others.
……