After the Immortal Disappeared

Chapter 404: Chapter 403: Blind Box Competition

He could only gather his True Power and bellow, ”Danger, the Wind Demon is coming! If you don’t want to die, get near the stone carvings, now!”

The wind carried his words down, and the people below looked up, stunned. ’Who is this guy? Can we trust him?’

The quick-witted ones decided it was better to be safe than sorry. At his words, they looked around and started searching the fields for the stone carvings. After all, what was there to lose?

But many others remained skeptical, exchanging uncertain glances.

Hee Lingchuan yelled a second time, ”The Wind Demon is here! If you don’t want to be flayed alive by the Gang Wind, find the Barriers around the stone carvings! Hurry, hurry, hurry!”

After that shout, Hee Lingchuan had to find cover for himself. He urged the Rock Sheep to leap back into the Wind Master Rock Cave and quickly spun around.

’Huh? The cave is completely empty.’

’Where’s Shi the Second? Where did he run off to?’

Just as the Rock Sheep steadied its footing, the Wind Demon in the sky accelerated its descent toward the old Piaomiao Sect ruins, streaking down like a meteor.

It was aimed directly at the massive fissure in the mountainside!

Hee Lingchuan cautiously retreated behind the Wind Lion Lord’s Barrier, and then he heard a tremendous ROAR.

It was not the cry of a living creature, but the furious roar of wind erupting from the fissure. Like a rising tide, it swelled, growing ever more immense.

The root ball dropped until it was about ten feet above the fissure, where it stopped, whirling in place.

The powerful updraft from below easily held it aloft.

A moment later, a violent gale erupted from the fissure with a sound like a thunderclap.

Heeding Hee Lingchuan’s two warnings, about forty people in the area had ducked inside a Wind Lion Lord’s Barrier, but four or five others had dawdled. By the time the gale descended, it was too late for them to rush in.

The wind instantly drowned out their screams.

The gale tore at their bodies, a death by a thousand cuts.

Hee Lingchuan watched, wide-eyed, as their skin, muscles, and sinew were flayed away, piece by piece. Even the last drop of blood was scoured from their bones, leaving them spotlessly, unnaturally white.

This was the true meaning of Wind Blades and Frost Swords—a bloodless kill.

The skeletons, frozen in a posture of shielding their faces, held together for less than three seconds before the hurricane blew them apart, scattering them to the winds.

The people inside the Barrier were frozen in horror at the sight.

After spinning half a circle, the hurricane from the fissure eagerly plunged into the root ball, merging with the Wind Demon.

Seeing this, Hee Lingchuan knew his guess about the storm’s origin was correct:

The Meridian Divine Wind.

Every day, during the noon and midnight double-hours, the strongest Gang Wind from deep underground would erupt from this spot, soaring into the sky to circle Wind Demon Mountain.

It had just turned noon.

The Wind Demon had rushed here with the root ball to recharge itself with the Meridian Divine Wind.

At that moment, the Guard Team leader finally completed the incantation for the Technique, reciting it perfectly from start to finish without a single error.

The root ball contracted rapidly, sealing the Wind Demon off from the outside world in an attempt to suppress it completely.

Wind is just moving air. If the space inside the root ball was perfectly still, how much trouble could the Wind Demon possibly stir up?

The numerous root balls suppressed beneath the King of Treasure Tree’s own body were proof that this method worked.

However, they were much too far from the mighty Demon King. And worse, the Wind Demon had just devoured the Meridian Divine Wind, its power and size exploding.

The King of Treasure Tree’s Demon Power was profound and its Demon Techniques formidable, but how could they compare to the awesome power of nature itself?

The root ball began to CREAK AND GROAN as the gaps between its roots were stretched wider and wider.

Even then, the Treasure Tree Spirit Seed tried to hold on.

But alas, fate was not on its side.

The Wind Demon turned a fiery red. After pulsing twice, it suddenly expanded—

With a loud SNAP, the root ball burst apart, shattering into countless fragments.

Free once more, the Wind Demon let out a triumphant cry in mid-air. It circled with abandon twice, then turned to trouble the Guard Team on the opposite cliff.

Hee Lingchuan, however, was prone at the mouth of the cave, his eyes glued to the fragments dancing in the air.

’What an opportunity! I absolutely cannot let this pass!’

As soon as the Wind Demon left, the winds here immediately subsided, no longer strong enough to cause harm.

Hee Lingchuan immediately spurred his Big Horned Sheep to leap toward the mountainside.

He was chasing the fragments of the root ball that the Wind Demon had shattered.

The Spirit Seed that the Divine Bone Necklace wanted had to be in one of those fragments.

Hee Lingchuan grabbed his necklace. ”It’s up to you now!”

The Divine Bone Necklace immediately glowed red and seared his skin.

It was just as eager as he was.

Just then, a figure shot out from a nearby cave. He snatched up a piece of the root ball and crushed it to bits with his bare hands.

Nothing. He moved on to the next one.

He had the same goal as Hee Lingchuan and was doing the exact same thing—

searching for the Spirit Seed.

Hee Lingchuan’s pupils contracted. It was Fushan Yue.

After abducting the Chiyan Kingdom Envoy, he hadn’t left. Instead, he had snuck back to the Piaomiao Sect ruins, hoping to score another prize.

’This just proves he’s a true opportunist. He already accomplished his main goal for this trip, but he still has his eyes on the Spirit Seed, hoping to snag it on his way out.’

Fushan Yue had, of course, seen Hee Lingchuan as well, but he only kept an eye on him from the corner of his vision as he sped off toward the next fragment.

After the root ball had exploded, the strong wind had scattered its fragments everywhere.

The two rivals each claimed an area, forming a strange, unspoken agreement.

Neither was willing to make a move until all the fragments were collected or the Spirit Seed was found.

From his sheep’s back, Hee Lingchuan made a show of breaking open a few random fragments before following the Divine Bone Necklace’s guidance straight toward his target.

Yes, even under these conditions, the Divine Bone Necklace could still pinpoint treasure. The closer Hee Lingchuan got to the Spirit Seed, the colder the necklace grew.

Soon, he caught up to three fragments dancing in the wind.

The three pieces were tangled together, connected by fibrous threads.

The moment he grabbed one of them, an intense, icy cold flared on his chest, making him shiver.

’Looks like the necklace was afraid I’d get it wrong,’ he thought. ’It stopped hinting and just gave me a direct signal. A little too direct, maybe.’

What great luck; the Spirit Seed had been right there. Without even breaking it open to check, Hee Lingchuan immediately stored it in his Storage Ring.

This action made Fushan Yue, who had been watching him, freeze for a second.

’If he doesn’t check it, how does he know if the Spirit Seed is inside?’

’And if he doesn’t check, how does he know whether to keep searching?’

But then Hee Lingchuan was off again, chasing other fragments. It looked as if he planned to collect them all first, like someone hoarding blind boxes to open all at once.

’Fine, I guess that’s one way to do it,’ Fushan Yue thought, silently cursing him for being a fucking idiot.

The two continued their collection in silence, the atmosphere growing tense.

The number of root ball fragments on the mountainside was dwindling.

Just then, Shi the Second suddenly appeared in a stone cave, waving at Hee Lingchuan.

”Brother Hee, Brother Hee! Over here!”

He was clearly oblivious to the strange, heavy tension in the air.

Hee Lingchuan rode his sheep over and hoisted the bruised and swollen Shi the Second onto its back. ”Where did you run off to? I couldn’t find you earlier!”

He silently swore that he had indeed glanced at the spot where Shi the Second had been hiding earlier, but it had been empty. He’d assumed Shi the Second had gone down the mountain on his own, never expecting the man to pop out from another cave lower on the mountainside.

Shi the Second opened his mouth to speak, but when he looked up and saw Fushan Yue across the way glaring at them like a tiger watching its prey, he swallowed his words. ”It’s a long story.”

Hee Lingchuan snatched two more fragments, which put him right next to the path leading down the mountain. Before Fushan Yue could react, the Big-horned Rock Sheep turned its head, swung its rump, and darted onto the path, disappearing from view after just two leaps.

Startled, Fushan Yue rushed to the edge, but Hee Lingchuan’s retreating figure was already nearing the stone ridge.

Now he was faced with a dilemma:

’Chase him, or not?’

’If I chase him, what about the remaining fragments here? What if the Spirit Seed is still among them, and that sheep-rider just gave up?’

’But if I don’t chase, what if that kid already has the Spirit Seed?’

After wrestling with the choice for a few moments, Fushan Yue decided to keep collecting fragments.

Staying here would at least yield a definite result; chasing after him was a complete unknown.

He didn’t know that Hee Lingchuan was inwardly sneering:

’I watched the whole show from the sidelines, released one Evil Ghost to do the dirty work, and walked away with the treasure. I’ve already won this round completely. Why would I stick around to fight you?’

...

As Hee Lingchuan left Wind Demon Mountain, he glanced down. The Treasure Tree Kingdom’s Guard Team was down to about a hundred men. It was clear the Wind Demon, powered up by its Meridian Divine Wind refill, had grown even stronger. Now that its opponents had lost the Spirit Seed, they had no good way to deal with it.

The Guard Team leader sent a few riders ahead as bait to try and lure the Wind Demon away, but it wouldn’t take the hook.

It clearly wasn’t falling for the trap.

In the end, the Guard Team leader had to grit his teeth and mount the sturdiest Bo Beast himself. He relentlessly fired arrows to provoke the Wind Demon, finally getting it to turn and chase him.

With its intelligence, it could of course tell who the leader was and who had caused it the most harm.

Wind is normally faster than any land creature, but the Wind Demon had to keep its vortex tight to maintain its power; it couldn’t be too dispersed. This meant the tornado’s actual forward speed was only slightly faster than a galloping horse. Unfortunately for the leader, after this mountain pass, the road ahead was relatively straight, not twisted like the mountain trails before.

The Wind Demon, chasing in a towering rage, widened its vortex in an attempt to affect their mounts. One of the riders was indeed swept off and sent tumbling down the mountainside, but the captain kept galloping furiously onward.

While it was distracted, the rest of the Guard Team rushed ahead, forced to abandon their supplies and baggage.

Another mile ahead, a fork in the road led down the mountain. It was their chance to escape the Wind Demon.

As this chase played out on the Official Road, Shi the Second, sitting on the Rock Sheep’s back, spoke to Hee Lingchuan.

”I was trying to head down the mountain, but I slipped and fell into another cave. Nearly broke my neck.” He added, ”The wind at noon was so strong, I couldn’t keep my footing.”

”But there was a fissure in that cave leading down, and I heard this whimpering sound coming up from it. At first, I thought it was just the wind, but when I listened closely, it sounded like a person. So I climbed down to take a look. And hey, there really was a guy in there! His legs looked broken; he was just lying paralyzed on the ground.” Shi the Second said, ”Guess who I saw?”

’Someone was hidden in a fissure in a cave, with broken legs?’

Hee Lingchuan didn’t have to think twice. ”The Chiyan Kingdom Envoy?”

”...” Shi the Second was speechless for a moment, then looked at him in disbelief. ”Brother Hee, you’re incredible! How did you guess?”

Throughout their journey, Hee Lingchuan’s stature had grown in his eyes, but today, it was as if he were bathed in a divine light.

Hee Lingchuan just smiled without saying a word. When the Chiyan Envoy was abducted from the Guard Team, Shi the Second had been hiding inside the mountain, completely oblivious to what had happened on the path outside.

Shi the Second continued, ”The prisoner saw me, too. He kept begging me for help, but then I heard that huge RUMBLE from outside, and, well... I came back up.”