Chapter 370 - Miasma Mountain Range

It was getting dark outside and the wind was still ushering in the cold. Fine, frigid rain drifted in. The mood inside the temple turned strange out of the blue, prompting everyone to shiver. One of them lowered his voice and cautiously said, “Honestly, if Xiao Chen defects to the Devil’s Practice, the throne that the Orthodox side has occupied for several thousands of years will get a new owner in just ten years.”

Another exhaled. “He’s locked up in the Demon Repressing Tower. I don’t think he’ll get out alive.”

“Well… I think I heard that Xiao Chen escaped a few days ago?”

The one who spoke earlier shook his hand. “False news, I fear! It’s impossible! The Demon Repressing Tower was built upon the collective powers of the Golden Monks thousands of years ago. A Golden Monk is on par with an Immortal King, you know. Do you think Xiao Chen would be able to leave once he’s inside?”

The twenty or so people inside the temple finally relaxed. Suddenly, the stranger in the woven raincoat in the corner stood up and walked out of the temple. When he arrived at the door, the man with the coiled beard said, “Brother, it’s getting dark and the tavern in town is full. If you leave now, someone will occupy your space when you return.”

As if he didn’t hear him, the man in the raincoat left the temple. Raindrops the size of soybeans pelted him, making loud sounds as they hit his conical bamboo hat. His raincoat was soon drenched. The ground was so muddy that every step could make him slip.

The streets were deserted as everyone took cover under roofs. The man walked over to one of the buildings. There wasn’t a tavern in town before, but people decided to turn empty buildings into makeshift taverns to accommodate the onslaught of visitors in recent months and made a hefty sum in the process.

This place was called the Robust Spirit Town, but what was robust wasn’t the spirit of humans. In fact, vicious beasts would emerge from the Miasma Mountain Range and injure humans and livestock. This prompted any youngster with an ambition to make a name for themselves in the prosperous cities of the East Continent. Those who remained were mostly elderly people whose families had been here for generations or good-for-nothing hooligans that lived every day meaninglessly.

The man in the woven raincoat walked inside one of the makeshift taverns and found it packed with heated people making a fuss. The air was permeated with the stifling stench of alcohol.

“One room please.” The man walked up to the reception counter and placed a silver ingot on it. Right at the same time, someone stepped inside the tavern and said, “Madam, one good room please.”

The one who entered after the man was a red-robed man with straight brows and clear eyes. He was handsome and distinguished, but he exuded an intense murderous aura. He held a folding fan with bones for frame and iron sheets for folds. He walked up to the reception counter and placed a silver ingot on it as well.

The proprietress of the tavern was a married woman of less than forty years old. As a businesswoman, she would tend to her guests whether they were from the Orthodox Path or the Devil’s Practice. However, she was now in quite a dilemma. Her two guests were clearly extraordinary people, but there was only one room available. If these two started fighting, the entire tavern and restaurant would be leveled in an instant.

Tension spread across the tavern. The red-robed man turned to look at the man in the woven raincoat and the latter returned the favor. Their gazes met for a split second. A hush fell over the lounge as if the air was frozen.

The two men looked at each other for a long time, their gazes as sharp and unstoppable as blades. No one breathed a word in such an atmosphere, feeling suffocated. In the southeast corner of the lounge, a man with a coiled beard dared not to put down the wine cup in his hand. It remained frozen midair. In the northwest corner, a fair-faced young man also stopped his hand mid-way toward reaching for the wine jar. In the southwest corner, a man in black wanted to leave but he couldn’t get his legs to listen to him and stand up. The proprietress at the reception counter forced a smile but couldn’t bring herself to say a word.

The moment these two start fighting, the victims would undoubtedly be those in the lounge. This atmosphere continued for a moment until a waiter shouted from the second floor, “Madam, a guest wants to check out.”

His words shattered the ice-cold mood and time seemed to flow again. The man with the coiled beard put down the wine cup in his hand. The young man picked up the wine jar. The man who wanted to leave decided to stay. The proprietress at the reception counter said with a bright smile, “Very well! Please wait for a moment!” She took out a key attached with a room plate and handed it to the man in the woven raincoat. Then, she turned to the red-robed man. “Please wait for a moment. I’ll get the room ready for you immediately.”

The man in the woven raincoat didn’t linger after getting the key and made a beeline for the second floor. When he reached the head of the stairs, he heard the red-robed man asking, “Madam, I’d like to ask about someone.”

“Very well. Please do.”

“She’s about this tall, looks like a fairy, has a vermillion tear-shaped birthmark under her right eye, dressed in purple clothes, and has a purple jade reed in her hands…”

The man in the woven raincoat paused imperceptibly but soon recovered and continued walking up to the second floor. The proprietress’ laughter drifted from behind him. “We have quite a few guests lately but I don’t think the one you’re describing is one of them.”

…

The man in the woven raincoat entered the guest room on the second floor and took off his conical bamboo hat, revealing an attractive and intelligent-looking face. On the corners of his mouth were shadows of a mustache. It was Xiao Chen. He had arrived in a nearby village on his flying sword in the evening. When a torrential rain worse than those in the seventh or eighth month poured, he bought a woven raincoat and conical bamboo hat and walked into the town.

The curtain of night slowly descended upon the town. Xiao Chen walked to the window and stared southward, where dark clouds had gathered. That was where the Miasma Mountain Range was. The sky was a sea of dark clouds, looking like a terrifying giant monster on the verge of swallowing the Human World.

The sky soon darkened completely, shrouding the room in darkness. A flurry of steps on the floor resounded until it stopped in front of his door. A young waiter asked, “Sir, I’m here with your dinner.”

Xiao Chen opened the door. When the waiter saw how dark the room was, he smiled. “Sir, why aren’t you lightning the lamp when it’s dark? Allow me to help you.”

Xiao Chen took the tray of food from the waiter’s hands. “It’s alright. I have flintstones with me.”

“Then please enjoy your food, Sir. Let me know if you need anything. I’ll excuse myself.”

Once the waiter was gone, Xiao Chen shut the door and put the tray on the table. He didn’t immediately light the lamp. Perhaps, he had gotten used to the dark after staying in the Demon Repressing Tower for so long. It didn’t matter to him whether there was a lamp or not.

He didn’t touch the food either. He was still thinking about the red-robed man he met downstairs. That man, with his intense murderous aura, was surely no ordinary person. Moreover, when their eyes met earlier, they weren’t feuding over an empty room. His main goal in visiting the Miasma Mountain Range was the rumored extraordinary treasure. Secondly, he wanted to watch the cultivators of the Orthodox Path and Devil’s Practice battle it out. The third reason was the Corpse Refinery Sect. The red-robed man, on the other hand, he had no idea what he was thinking.

An hour later, Xiao Chen put the woven raincoat in the wardrobe and climbed onto the bed to rest. Then, at midnight, he was awakened by the panicked barking of a dog and then the clanging of swords meeting, shouting, and sounds of murder.

Many had come to this desolate town in recent days, both from the Orthodox Path and Devil’s Practice, and bloody incidents were frequent. Some nobodies from both sides must be fighting right now. He closed his eyes and continued to sleep, ignoring what was going on outside.

The torrential rain that had persisted for three to four days finally ceased early the next morning. The air after was particularly refreshing and the crystal dewdrops on the leaves sparkled under the sunlight.

Most visitors had left the town by now, nearly all of them heading for the Miasma Mountain Range some 15 kilometers away. Xiao Chen put on the woven raincoat and made his way over with the conical bamboo hat in his hand. After traveling for some ten kilometers, the clear skies gradually became overcast with dark clouds. It wasn’t the weather suddenly changing for the worse. Rather, he had gotten closer to the Miasma Mountain Range. Like the Changyin Mountain Range, this place was shrouded in dark clouds year-round.

The mountain road was treacherous and filled with mud, so Xiao Chen decided to walk through the air instead. Within moments, he landed outside an expanse of mountain forest which marked the boundary of the Miasma Mountain Range. He found an entrance hidden by the foliage and entered through it. The moment he disappeared, a rustling noise rang, It seemed that in the place he passed by earlier, a living object seemed to have drilled into the ground.

It was one thing to stand outside the boundary, but the moment he crossed it, Xiao Chen felt as if he had come to an entirely different world. Everywhere he looked, he saw towering trees tall and overlapping branches that obscured the sky above. Countless venomous insects and ferocious ants hid on the tree trunks and inside bushes. One bite out of folks walking by carelessly would result in their gruesome death.

Of course, Xiao Chen had no reason to fear. He protected himself with a layer of True Energy and leaped from branch to branch. He saw quite a few corpses on the ground along the way. Some were dried bones whose flesh had been gnawed clean. Some were buried in the soil. Some still had color on their cheeks, having just died.

Xiao Chen couldn’t tell from their clothes where these people came from. He continued for another fifteen minutes until he heard sounds of a battle up ahead. He looked up and saw the occasional fire soaring into the sky and flight of Sword Qi. Xiao Chen returned to the ground and slowly walked over with the foliage for cover.

When he came closer, he saw two groups clashing at close quarters. There were thirty or so bodies on the ground. One group, clad in black and holding strange bladed weapons, was at a disadvantage. Most of the dead were their people. The other group was dressed in red clothes embroidered with the symbol of fire. A cold glint flashed in Xiao Chen’s eyes. He recognized these people in red immediately: disciples of the Order of the Divine Fire.

The battle was so heated that no one noticed a man in a woven raincoat a hundred feet away. Only when an ice-cold aura hit them that they shivered and realized that they could no longer move.

Ten or so remaining people in the battle finally saw a man in a woven raincoat striding toward them. Every step the man took seemed like a step on their hearts, capable of determining their life and death. A disciple of the Order of the Divine Fire asked, “Are you from the Orthodox Path or the Devil’s Practice?”

This was what everyone wanted to know. The man’s identity wasn’t important, only his allegiance. Xiao Chen slowly said, “Neither the Orthodox Path, nor the Devil’s Practice…”

Those from the Order of the Divine Fire sighed in relief. But before they could follow up with the second intake of breath, they heard the man’s cold voice again. “But I have a grudge against the Order of the Divine Fire…” Before the disciple who questioned him could digest his words, he was pulled through the air toward him.

“It’s my turn to ask questions now.” Xiao Chen’s voice carried not even the slightest hint of emotion. The disciple couldn’t stop trembling. “P-Please ask.” His fellow disciples all turned a frightening shade of white.

“How many of you have come this time? How many are in the Nascent Soul Realm and above?”

“O-One hundred or so. Three are three Elders in the Nascent Soul Realm and one Elder in the Nirvana Realm about to enter the Apotheosis Realm.”

Xiao Chen frowned. To think the Order of the Divine Fire would dispatch so many men this time. Were they that determined to get the extraordinary treasure? He increased his strength and asked coldly, “Who’s the one in the Nirvana Realm? Where are they now?”

The captured disciple thought his words would strike some fear in the man. Little did he expect that the man’s murderous aura would remain just as strong. His voice trembled as he said, “First Elder Danyang. As to where they are, I, I don’t know. We got separated… Wh-Who are you?”

Xiao Chen narrowed his eyes. Danyang Zi, First Elder of the Order of the Divine Fire. He learned from Qingluan’s intel that this man possessed a great authority over the Order and had a cultivation that far surpassed that of Qi Heng and the rest. If he were to destroy the Order in the future, this man must die first!

“You don’t need to know who I am.” Xiao Chen tightened his hold. The disciple’s neck creaked noisily and he met instant death. This shocked the rest of the disciples of the Order of the Divine Fire as well as the Devil’s Practice followers in black. It was stunning how decisive this man was when it came to killing.

Xiao Chen tossed the disciple’s corpse aside and turned around to look at a large tree he walked past on his way here. He said coldly, “You’ve followed me all the way here. Won’t you show yourself?”