Chapter 967: Infiltrating the Soltary Peak Heavenly Lake!

Lou Yi didn’t bother responding to Lou Zhe’s question. Instead, he held the whistle in his hand and stared at the other 5. He seemed to be asking if they were ready to take action.

Lou Zhe didn’t seem too affected after he was ignored by Lou Yi. He continued to stare at the bamboo whistle with a look of curiosity on his face. Light flashed in his eyes and no one knew what he was thinking about.

Raising the whistle to his lips, Lou Yi blew hard into it. A strange fluctuation emerged from the treasure but other than that, they didn’t hear any sound.

Shang Xia’s divine will tried to follow the fluctuation but he discovered that it was being exhausted at a rapid rate and quickly withdrew it.

At the same time, Fei Gu, Huang Yu, Shan Yunchao, and the others grunted heavily as their bodies swayed violently. They exchanged a glance before staying silent. Clearly, they tried to use their divine wills to follow the strange fluctuations and suffered greatly from it.

It was then that Shang Xia felt a gaze on him. He turned to stare at Lou Yi who was looking at him, but he noticed Lou Yi turning away before their eyes could meet.

The next second, a gentle breeze started to blow through the forest as the rustling of leaves resembling crying ghosts and soft howls of wolves filled the area.

Those in the forest finally realized that there was a giant formation hidden where they were. After feeling it out a bit more, they realized that all the formation in the forest did was to amplify the fluctuations created by the bamboo whistle by tens of times...

“This...” Huang Yu couldn’t help but mutter, but he was interrupted before he said much.

“I’m afraid this forest that seems to be born naturally from the world isn’t so easily built, right?” Fei Gu gasped in amazement.

Shan Yunchao glanced at Lou Yi who didn’t seem like he was going to stop blowing the whistle and seemed exhausted after using up a good portion of his dipper qi doing so and explained on his behalf, “There are some ancient trees in this forest that don’t seem any younger than a hundred years old...”

In other words, the Emptiness Drifting Mountain, or more accurately, True Immortal Chong Shan, started plotting against the Solitary Peak Heavenly Lake more than a hundred years ago!

One had to know that among the 9 great powers of the Spirit Abundance World, the Emptiness Drifting Mountain, Solitary Peak Heavenly Lake, and Azure Island were allies with extremely good relationships with each other.

There was no need to mention much as they were the ones who set up the trap for the Azure Origin World and Azure Spiritual World with the Manyu Continent! They caused the location of the 2 worlds to be revealed, and that wasn’t all. They formed a party to carry out the first expedition against them!

That was enough to prove the close friendship the 3 factions had with each other.

Actually, Huang Yu wasn’t exactly questioning the presence of the forest. He had been there several times back then and he even met with their spy. It was just that...

...

In one of the mountain peaks that was protected by the grand formation of the Solitary Peak Heavenly Lake dozens of miles away from the forest lay a small pavilion that sat along the lake. A decorative tree moved slightly in the wind as a formless fluctuation spread across the pavilion.

The next second, the pavilion seemed to turn a lot darker as a hand reached out from the void to soothe the plant that was swaying. At the same time, he got rid of the formless ripples that formed.

“Looks like this day really came...” A blurry voice rang through the air as a breeze blew past the surface of the lake. The arm disappeared from the pavilion and the tree no longer moved.

As the wind blowing across the lake eventually died down, the plant that stopped moving earlier seemed to be controlled by a formless arm as it was shaken thrice in succession.

...

In the forest, Lou Yi continued to blow on the bamboo whistle while burning his dipper qi without any regard for it. The strange sounds that were emitted from the forest stopped abruptly and no matter how much Lou Yi continued to blow his whistle, no other disturbance was created.

“This...” Shang Xia muttered out loud in shock.

Lowering the whistle in his hand, Lou Yi forced a smile and muttered, “Looks like our guy should know that we’re here!”

“What are we going to do next?” Lou Zhe asked.

Lou Yi didn’t answer him. Instead, he turned to look at Shan Yunchao beside him and asked, “Senior Brother Shan, do you still have the item from the Ancestor?”

Lightly taken aback, Shan Yunchao muttered, “I do, but the Ancestor didn’t personally give it to me. He bestowed it to my teacher back then and I received it when I received his inheritance...”

Lou Yi nodded slightly and stretched his hand out. “Yeah, that’s the one!”

Shan Yunchao hesitated slightly, but he eventually took a folding fan out from his sleeves and handed it to Lou Yi.

“Senior Brother Shan, rest assured I will return this to you after this is over!” Lou Yi smiled before opening the fan. He displayed it for everyone to see.

When they looked at the treasure, they discovered that there was a painting on one of its surfaces and it depicted the scene of a forest that was swaying softly in the wind.

“Isn’t this... Isn’t this where we are?” Lou Zhe was the first to speak and he said what everyone was thinking of.

As soon as the words left his lips, Lou Yi slashed a wound on his finger and dripped a drop of blood onto the folding fan. As the blood landed on the treasure, it slowly stained the painting on its surface.

The scene started to change, and Lou Zhe couldn’t help but exclaim in shock. “Hey, it’s moving, it’s moving!” However, he quickly realized what was going on and he hastily suppressed his voice.

“Everyone, please follow me.” Lou Yi started to walk in a certain direction after he spoke as he no longer cared about the rest. Everyone could only follow behind him obediently.

All 6 of them were Martial Dipper Realm experts and they moved extremely quickly. Even if they didn’t fly through the air, the distance of dozens of miles wouldn’t take them much time at all to cross.

Throughout their journey, Lou Yi would send another drop of blood into the fan at fixed intervals and the painting on it would change to guide them in the right direction.

All of a sudden, Fei Gu suddenly muttered, “All of us should have entered the sea of clouds produced by their grand formation to hide the mountain, right?”

All of them stopped suddenly and stared at their surroundings. Their expressions started to change rapidly. Actually, Shang Xia didn’t need Fei Gu’s reminder to understand that they had already entered the secret region that was hidden by the sea of clouds.

The secret region they were in greatly suppressed and twisted their divine will such that they wouldn’t be able to see far ahead. As such, all of them didn’t know where they were headed. They couldn’t even tell what exactly was transforming beneath them as they traveled forward.

However, Shang Xia was able to get a sense of what was going on as his dipper qi protection barrier was resonating with the protection formation surrounding them.

He might not be able to discover what was happening far ahead, but he was at the very least aware of what was changing beneath his feet.

The reason why he didn’t say anything to the others was because he discovered that even though no one knew where they were going, he could feel that they were getting higher and higher. Even the gradient of the ground they were stepping on was getting steeper. Everything indicated that they were climbing up the mountain and Lou Yi was most likely leading them in the right direction.

Lou Yi seemed to have discovered their shock as he waved the fan in his hand and muttered, “The Ancestor’s treasure will never make a mistake!”

“Since we have already come so far, it makes no sense to go back now. Moreover, without Young Master Yi’s fan to point the way, we’ll be walking around completely blind.” Huang Yu added.

“Brother Huang, do we need you to point that out? Since we have gotten so far, how can we not understand what’s going on? However, our senses are obscured right now and our divine wills are restricted. Even if we’re going in the right direction, we won’t be able to react in time if anyone carries out a sneak attack!” Fei Gu chuckled.

He pointed out what everyone was afraid of in the first place. The fan in Lou Yi’s hand might be able to point them in the right direction, but that didn’t mean that they would be able to avoid the ambush from the experts of the Solitary Peak Heavenly Lake if they were discovered!

After all, they couldn’t blindly believe that the Solitary Peak Heavenly Lake would recall all their experts because they sealed their mountain. What if there were experts stationed around to protect the sect?

All of a sudden, Shang Xia gave his input. “Why... Why don’t you let me give this a shot?”

Before anyone else could say anything. Lou Yi stared at Shang Xia with interest and asked, “Oh? Brother Shang, what do you plan to do?”

Shang Xia raised his hand and gestured for everyone to remain calm. He silently circulated his Five Element Origin and after intentionally making some concealments, his dipper qi turned into a streak of gray light that surrounded him. It swept across his surroundings and the mist became a lot thinner. Everything around them that had been hidden by the mist was revealed and all of them discovered that their divine will returned to normal.

Before they could rejoice, the effects stopped after getting rid of the mist 500 feet away from them. The next moment, the powerful mist overpowered whatever Shang Xia was doing and swallowed everything back up.

Shang Xia started to pant as though he exhausted a good deal of his inner qi.

“Mister Shang’s skills are truly exceptional.” Lou Zhe praised before adding, “It’s a pity, such a pity...”

Everyone clearly understood what he meant by that...

Shan Yunchao sighed, “Let’s just keep pushing forward. Mister Shang, you cannot do whatever you just did however you like. The closer we get to the mountain peak, the more likely it would be for them to discover us.”

Lou Yi nodded in agreement. He wanted to continue, but Lou Zhe stepped up and volunteered, “Third Brother, why don’t I give it a shot? This way, you won’t have to exhaust yourself too much and affect your combat abilities.”

“It’s fine. I know my limits.” Lou Yi smiled and sent another drop of blood onto the fan. He continued to walk forward as everyone followed closely behind.

After traveling for some time, The painting seemed to return to normal, and from the looks of it, the treasure no longer seemed to be absorbing any more of Lou Yi’s blood.

Looking at the dense mist in front of him, Lou Yi sent another drop of blood but it slid down the side of the fan and dropped onto the ground below.

Everyone noticed how the fan was no longer working and Fei Gu frowned. “Are we at the end of the mist? Could the entrance to the Solitary Peak Heavenly Lake be right in front of us?”

“Won’t we know if we take another step forward?” Lou Zhe muttered.

Right before he could take another step, Lou Yi grabbed him.

Fei Gu continued, “Young Master Zhe, if the fan truly lost its effects, you might be sent straight down to the foot of the mountain if you take a step in a random direction.

At that moment, Shan Yunchao glanced at Shang Xia who was behind all of them and the others seemed to realize his meaning. They turned to Shang Xia in unison.

With so many people staring at him, Shang Xia revealed an anxious expression as he muttered, “Why don’t I get rid of the mist...”

Gathering his dipper qi, a ray of gray light emerged from his body again. However, it didn’t sweep in all directions like he did earlier. Instead, it shot straight for the most concentrated part of the mist.

As the streak of gray light shot through the mist, everything in the surroundings was revealed.

After 300 or so feet, the mist disappeared and a protection barrier was revealed. A figure could be seen standing behind the barrier.

“That’s the grand formation of the Solitary Peak Heavenly Lake! Don’t touch it!” Fei Gu yelled in fright.

Even without his reminder, Shang Xia had already severed the energy he supplied to the ray of gray light. However, it continued on its way and slammed into the barrier before starting to corrode it.

Naturally, his actions would raise the suspicions of the Solitary Peak Heavenly Lake and they would soon be discovered.

“Quick, hurry up and get over there!” Lou Yi yelled as the mist started to return.

Silently infiltrating the Solitary Peak Heavenly Lake was naturally impossible. However, retreating was out of the question. They could only go all out and barge in with brute force.

When they rushed at the barrier, the figure behind it seemed to have gotten closer.

“Be careful...” Huang Yu wanted to warn the rest.

However, Lou Yi quickly interrupted, “That’s our guy in the Solitary Peak Heavenly Lake!”

Heaving a sigh of relief, they wanted to take a look past the barrier to see who it was. However, they quickly discovered that they couldn’t see his true appearance no matter how hard they tried.

The barrier wasn’t the only thing obscuring his appearance. It seemed as though he was actively hiding his features from the rest to prevent his identity from being revealed.

All of them turned to Lou Yi as they wondered what to do next.

It was a shame... Lou Yi didn’t know what to do either! He seemed to not know how to establish contact with the person through the barrier and everyone knew that with the commotion they caused, the experts of the Solitary Peak Heavenly Lake would soon arrive to inspect the barrier.

All of a sudden, Shang Xia discovered the figure behind the barrier speeding up as it charged at them.

“Be careful!” Shan Yunchao’s voice rang through the air instead as Shang Xia remained silent.

From the looks of it, the person behind the barrier didn’t seem to be charging straight at them.

A soft pop was heard the next moment as a spike-like weapon pierced through the translucent protection barrier. The weapon was quickly retrieved as the blurry figure behind the barrier started to retreat at a rapid pace. A tiny pin-sized hole appeared on the barrier as the dipper qi that was left behind prevented it from being restored instantly.

“Hurry!” Lou Yi rushed towards the small hole in the barrier and yelled at Shang Xia. At the same time, he tried to look at the figure to figure out who he was. However, he was too late as the figure had already disappeared.

Shang Xia quickly arrived before the tiny hole. Even though the dipper qi was holding out, it would eventually run out. The hole was already starting to close even though it was at an extremely slow pace... He couldn’t care less about blocking Lou Yi’s line of sight as he slammed his palm into the tiny hole. His Five Element Dipper Qi continued to pour out in a stream of gray light and corroded the protection barrier through the hole. He had to make an opening big enough for them to pass through!

“What now?!” Lou Zhe yelled at Shang Xia, and he couldn’t help but remind, “We need to pass through the protection barrier before the experts of the Solitary Peak Heavenly Lake arrive, otherwise...”

“Shut up!” Lou Yi finally snapped as he stared at Shang Xia’s palm that was pressed firmly on the protection barrier.

“Hurry and look...” Fei Gu yelped in shock.

He didn’t need to say much as everyone saw what was happening. An opening appeared where Shang Xia’s palm was and it eventually reached the size of his palm.

“Brother Shang won’t be able to sustain it for much longer...” Huang Yu stared at Shang Xia’s trembling hands and the strained look on his face. He couldn’t help but worry.

He understood that Shang Xia was definitely holding back, but that was the grand formation of a powerful Elysium! Even if there was a weakness, how could they create an opening so easily?!

Moreover, Huang Yu didn’t want Shang Xia to exhaust himself too much either. Additionally, he wanted to see if Lou Yi and the others had any other tricks up their sleeves.