Chapter 776: The Sea of Insects
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The following day, at the break of dawn, the rays of the sun shone upon the earth. The spiritual energy of the heavens and earth indistinctly rose up.
The Ridge was extremely noisy, as it was filled with people. They were like locusts, covering Dragon-Phoenix Old Town. In just one night, everyone had received news that the Dragon-Phoenix Rift would be opened this day.
Mu Chen and Cai Xiao stood on the top of a tower. As Mu Chen saw the sea of people, he let out a sigh. The Dragon-Phoenix Rift had attracted a lot of people. Almost all of the younger generation in the North Territory had gathered, and the scale was extremely large.
As the rays of the morning sun shone down from above, everyone looked excitedly at the Ridge. There seemed to be a wave that was surging in the space, with a vast amount of air spreading out and filling the sky. That was the exact place, where the opening of Dragon-Phoenix Rift would be.
When the sun was hanging high up in the sky, the number of people present had increased tremendously. There were lots of spiritual energy fluctuations and space warps in the sky.
Buzz.
Suddenly, the spiritual energy within the heavens and the earth started to surge crazily. Boundless spiritual energy gathered on top of the ancient mountain. Indistinctly, one could see the boundless spiritual energy turning into waves, as it covered the heavens and the earth.
The space warps had been caused by the surge of the spiritual energy. Many people were filled with anticipation and excitement, and theirs hearts raced crazily.
When the space warps were at their optimum stages, a huge beam of light appeared. It then tore the space apart.
Endless rays of light shone forth. At that moment, it seemed as though the cries of the dragon and the sounds of the phoenix had traveled far, from old, and now echoed in the heavens and the earth.
Mu Chen had never heard such dragon cries before. The cries were filled with much authority, which made one shiver.
"The Dragon-Phoenix Rift has opened up!" Someone shouted out excitedly, which immediately stirred up the fiery atmosphere.
Swoosh! Swoosh!
The eyes of many people turned red. In the next instant, spiritual energy rushed up, and lights tore through the heavens and the earth. Sharp noises blasted out, as the participants flooded into the space like grasshoppers, causing a great commotion.
Mu Chen sighed, upon seeing the scene. He looked at Cai Xiao and said, "Let's get going."
Cai Xiao gently nodded.
The two of them turned into light and shot out, joining the rest of the people and entering into the space, where the cries of the dragon and voice of the phoenix had been heard.
As they were entering into the Dragon-Phoenix Rift, Cai Xiao suddenly grasped Mu Chen's hand in hers. Mu Chen was stunned, as her hand was icy cold. Before he could speak, there was a turbulence around him, denoting that the space warp was getting stronger.
Thankfully, the feeling of uncertainty that came along with this quickly disappeared. Mu Chen felt that he had landed on solid ground, and the surroundings rapidly became clear.
He opened his eyes to a stunning scene, as what lay before him had completely changed. The mountain had disappeared, and a crimson prairie now spread out before his eyes.
He and Cai Xiao were on a hill of the prairie. The wind blew gently, causing the grass to sway. It was like a sea of blood, which looked terrifying.
Buzz! Buzz!
The space above the prairie fluctuated constantly, and the people started to appear. They had to travel through the spatial crack in order to enter into the Dragon-Phoenix Rift.
As they were traveling through the spatial crack, there were spatial fluctuations. Cai Xiao had held Mu Chen's hand earlier, to prevent them from being separated from each other.
As the people started to appear, the crimson prairie lost its peace. Many of the people looked around curiously at the strange place. Some of them even wasted no time in dashing out.
Mu Chen frowned, feeling uneasy as he looked at the crimson prairie.
Buzz! Buzz!
At this instant, the grasses in the prairie flew up. Once they were in the air, they turned into crimson fog, and carried away those who had just dashed out.
Boom!
Those top powers, who had dashed out, were quick to react. They immediately released their spiritual energy, trying to disperse the crimson fog. However, as the spiritual energy and the crimson fog hit against each other, the majestic spiritual energy was unable to block it. As the crimson fog swept past, the top powers turned into skeletons, falling to the ground even before they realized what was happening.
The noise in the prairie quieted down. Many of the top powers turned pale.
"What is that?" someone asked in shock.
As Mu Chen was staring at the crimson fog, he suddenly squinted his eyes. He realized that the crimson fog was not a fog. Instead, it was made up of countless, strange crimson insects.
The strange insects were about the size of one's thumb, and there was a large number of them. They would devour all of the spiritual energy that crossed their paths.
A thought suddenly crossed Mu Chen's mind, and he waved his sleeve. His spiritual energy swept toward the crimson prairie. As his spiritual energy passed through the prairie, lots of crimson grass flew up, turning instantly into the red insects' fog.
Mu Chen was stunned when he saw it. It was not a prairie! This so-called prairie was formed by a sea of insects!
"Let's get out of this place, quickly!"
Mu Chen grabbed Cai Xiao's arm and flew up. He had not expected the Dragon-Phoenix Rift to be so dangerous. One could turn into a heap of bones, if he was not careful.
As Mu Chen shot up to the sky, many young top powers followed his lead, having also realized that they had been sent into a land of the dead.
Buzz! Buzz!
The movements of the people had alarmed the strange insects. The entire crimson prairie seemed to have come alive, and tornadoes started to form. The tornadoes charged toward those who were trying to escape.
Buzz!
One of the tornadoes swept toward Mu Chen, and he quickly released his majestic spiritual energy.
Bang!
His spiritual energy hit against the tornado, but much of it had been devoured by the crimson strange insects. However, after they had devoured the spiritual energy, many of the insects caught fire, revealing a purple flame flickering in their wakes.
When Mu Chen saw this, he was shocked.
"There is a flame inside your spiritual energy. Use it. Although they are able to devour spiritual energy, they are afraid of fire," Cai Xiao told him.
Mu Chen nodded, activating the purple flame in his body. It formed a fire overcover, which covered him and Cai Xiao completely.
Swoosh!
Under the protection of the undying flame, Mu Chen dashed into the sea of insects. As the purple flame went past those strange insects, they were turned into ashes. Screeching sounds kept ringing out.
Mu Chen dashed through the insects with full speed. He could hear the cries of many young top powers as he went. They had turned into skeletons, and had fallen onto the ground.
However, Mu Chen was unable to save them. Although he had been protected by the undying flame, if he were to be surrounded and attacked by the sea of insects, he would soon die of exhaustion.
Whoosh.
After about 10 minutes, Mu Chen flew out of the crimson prairie and landed on a bare rock hill. He turned and saw red smoke rising up from the crimson prairie. It looked like a catastrophe.
Other than Mu Chen and Cai Xiao, some other participants had escaped as well. The spiritual energy of these people contained fire, which had saved them from the attack.
"Many people have died."
Mu Chen looked grave. There were about 1,000 people earlier, but now, less than 100 people had managed to escape. The death rate was alarming. Mu Chen had not expected the Dragon-Phoenix Rift to be so dangerous.
He shook his head, trying to calm himself down. He then flicked his finger, and a map was formed with his spiritual energy. This map was the one that had been shown to them at the Dragon-Phoenix Pavilion.
However, the map was blurred. Hence, he and Cai Xiao took quite a while to find their exact location.
"We should be here."
Cai Xiao pointed at the lower left portion of the map. She gradually shifted up, bringing her pointer finger to rest at a bright dot that was nearest to them. "A Dragon-Phoenix Pool should be here. We shall go to this pool first."
As long as they could locate a Dragon-Phoenix Pool, Cai Xiao would be able to use it to locate other pools.
Mu Chen nodded, and without hesitation, waved his sleeve and kept the map. He looked toward the south-west direction, and took a deep breath. This was his first time in the Dragon-Phoenix Rift.
He could not imagine how terrifying it would be around a Dragon-Phoenix Pool. It would be even more frightening and dangerous. However, these dangers would not stop him from moving forward.
"Let's go," Mu Chen said softly. He flew toward the direction of the Dragon-Phoenix Pool, with Cai Xiao following closely behind.
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