Chapter 17 – Provoking the Irrational

  There was a reason why the Zhengyi clan had such high faith in Diyuan.

  When doing the last preparations for the Carcass Grotto, an emulation test was done on how Diyuan would operate within the miasma’s visibility problem. Unlike other teams who had scouts that may have methods to pierce through the miasma, Diyuan had no such thing. His movements needed to happen in such a way that those outside his visual perception would also not see him.

  As it turned out, that problem wasn’t a problem. Diyuan could see through the miasma created by the emulation.

  The illusionary array created the miasma and accurately represented what it would do. Plenty of research was done on how to make pills to counteract the miasma, by researching spiritual herbs from the Carcass Grotto and the cultivators who had their levels reduced. All that led to an illusionary array that could mimic the miasma, convincing the cultivator within that their levels were truly dropping. Of course, once the illusion broke, they would instantly recover their lost cultivation.

  So it came as quite the surprise that Diyuan’s Pungent Poison Purifier arte, which rendered him immune to the miasma’s effects, also allowed him to see through the miasma. No one had expected that since everyone viewed the miasma as a fog-like substance. Even Old Man Yifan didn’t predict this fortunate turn of events. It did mean the miasma was strangely unique in a way that others didn’t understand, and perhaps they never would understand.

  The Carcass Grotto looked eerie. Even though Diyuan could see through most of the miasma, everything was tinted a dark green, and the further he saw the darker it became, disabling his vision entirely. The entire pocket world was supposedly one giant cavern, though he couldn’t see the top of it.

  It was currently “night” within the grotto, which would only last for four hours. Day and night were determined by the miasma’s thickness, which flowed at a consistent pace. It was like the grotto breathed in and out every four hours.

  Considering his location, his immediate dangers were the two nearby locations. In one direction was the Blood Sap Pool. In the other direction was the Skeletal Cloud Bone Cliffs. The closer one walked to the cliffs, the more bones they would see. The cliff itself wasn’t a real cliff, but the fossilized remains of a titanic creature and other bones. It also had a collection of spirit artifacts in its nest, collected over the centuries.

  The Netherwind Crane, who was called the King of the Carcass Grotto by cultivators, would collect spirit artifacts and brought them back to its bone nest. If it had killed cultivators in the process, then those spirit artifacts would be ripe for the taking. Diyuan hadn’t heard of anyone stealing any; he was strictly warned to stay away when he gave the idea of going there himself. But if the demonic beast wasn’t home, couldn’t he just warp up and collect some goodies for his storage ring? Fortunately for Diyuan, there were some nice people who were willing to volunteer and lure out that demonic beast for him.

  To think that they would be willing to risk their lives. He’d tell his future children about their good deeds.

  Diyuan reached the rendezvous point of one of the Honglie teams. Specifically, Xie Yanshuang’s team. His ability to peek into other people’s private sound transmission played a significant role in his decision-making process. He still kept that little ability a secret, even from his own family.

  Before the portal rift opened, Diyuan listened in on some of the private plans the groups would make. He learned some secrets as to how they thought to kill him. He also learned who had what spirit artifacts or special pills. Xie Yanshuang’s group kept a bit of information to themselves, since it seemed like it was pre-discussed elsewhere. Selling a pocket world spot gave him the information he needed, as they had to deliver the necessary information to the new guy right then. Poor Duan Chenshi. He was probably regretting his life decision at the bottom of the Blood Sap Pool.

  The rendezvous spot was a natural crumbled tower. Diyuan stood within and looked about. The walls weren’t fully enclosed and the second floor was the highest it went, with the open air to act as its ceiling. It was still enough of a covering for the ground floor to hide when the Netherwind Crane flew about.

  It wouldn’t be too long until Xie Yanshuang’s team showed up. Diyuan looked through one of the large openings in the wall and saw part of the miasma swirling in the distance. It was a soft whirlpool, gentle enough that Diyuan wasn’t sure if others would be able to see it if they didn’t have his vision. At the base of it was a Honglie cultivator with partial dark fur patches around their body, and a tail that glowed at the end. They were somewhat making their way towards the tower. Their inability to see deeply into the miasma meant they had to guess and redirect themselves every now and then.

  A second Honglie cultivator was further out, but still making their way. Small hills obscured some vision

  Muffled battle sounds could be heard in the opposite direction. Diyuan turned to look and some saw flashing lights beyond the dark green miasma wall. The miasma whirlpool above that location turned even faster. Whoever was fighting would be losing their cultivation quicker than they’d like. The thickness of the miasma blocked some of the sound.

  Diyuan would need to begin working before he gave himself away. He had two new storage rings that went into his collection, one that had belonged to Duan Chenshi and the other belonged to the headless Honglie birdie, who died outside to his bait. Most of the contents within would be hidden inside a lockbox, something Diyuan wouldn’t be able to force open without the clan’s assistance; a standard practice once someone reached the Dharma realm, he'd learned. But there were still plenty of items outside the lockbox, such as the mid-grade talismans, which should sell well enough.

  Diyuan couldn’t use any, as he wasn’t at the Spiritweave realm, but they were interesting strategic items. The headless Honglie’s talismans were mostly two things: an armor breaking lightning and a talisman that created an earth stalagmite, which could pierce through defenses. Both were meant to be used as a combo, probably acting as a hunting trap for demonic beasts.

  As for Duan Chenshi’s storage ring, it had a spirit artifact within. Based on what he could sense within, it was a necklace with a special crimson jewel attached to the pendant. According to what Duan Chenshi had said outside when he was brought into the team, this artifact would act as an early detection for poisonous threats and act as an antidote if something went wrong. It was apparently going to be useful once they needed to enter the central castle. It was of no use for Diyuan, since he already had his own anti-poison arte.

  Diyuan dug up a spot in the dirt by the corner where the wall and stairs met. Once he took out the spirit artifact, he wouldn’t be able to put it back into any storage ring as it wasn’t his blood that bound the item. Hopefully it was a decent enough item to attract the Netherwind Crane. Only time would tell.

  Once he was done, he patted the dirt mound and left. He made sure to walk in such a way that the hills would obscure any sight that someone might have in the grotto’s night. He found a crevice in a small hill in the ground that was covered by yellow foliage. A quick check confirmed it wasn’t one of the life-threatening plants. It looked to be a man-made gap. It was still close enough to the crumbled tower that whoever originally made this spot was probably spying on an unsuspecting group. Diyuan gave them his silent thanks.

  As time passed, several Honglie members found their way to the tower. He listened in on their sound transmission conversation. One of them had encountered the Giant Tongue Toad and was forced to fight back. His cultivation had already dropped from level 3 Dharma to level 1 Dharma after using several big moves in succession. He was happy to get the toad’s eyes, so it was apparently a worthwhile trade.

  Diyuan kept in mind to keep using his stealth pills. With the miasma blocking some sensory capabilities, combined with his lower cultivation and the stealth pill, it was unlikely they could sense him with spiritual sense. In any case, none of the Honglie teams had any additional tracking concerns he wasn’t already aware of.

  Diyuan watched as one of them set up talisman traps around their location. It was probably similar to the armor piercing earth stalagmite talisman he had himself now. Eventually, Xie Yanshuang arrived, uniquely identified by her eyepatch.

  [Where is Duan Chenshi and Pan Mumo?] Xie Yanshuang asked.

  [Pan Mumo arrived after me, he went out to check if the Malice Monarch Trees migrated to this side of the Blood Sap Pool. Duan Chenshi hasn’t arrived yet.]

  [Day breaks in an hour. We’ll leave then. If Duan Chenshi hasn’t showed up, we’ll cut him from our pay. Chuqing, why is your cultivation at level 1 Dharma?]

  [Giant Tongue Toad.]

  [And you lost two levels after a single fight?] Xie Yanshuang ensured to add her tone of annoyance.

  [Couldn’t seem ‘em. And you know how night time sucks up cultivation faster.]

  [Then you best hope that when day breaks you’re still at the Dharma realm. We haven’t even started yet and we’ll struggle against the other teams. Remember, as long as we disable them, we’ll get a free ride to the five million bounty.]

  Some more time passed and Pan Mumo arrived back at their base. He informed them that the Malice Monarch Trees weren’t in the area so they didn’t have to worry. There was about half an hour left until night ended. When that happened, all of their cultivations would drop by one level, and there was a chance that those at the threshold of a great realm might drop to the lower great realm.

  Why wasn’t the spirit artifact drawing any attention? Diyuan had been warned in such a way that his people made him think bringing out his own spirit artifact, even for a second, was the same thing as asking for death. He peeked out of his hiding spot, pushing the yellow foliage a bit, to look in the direction of the Skeletal Cloud Bone Cliffs.

  His heart about stopped when he saw the flying demonic beast in the distance.

  The Netherwind Crane was half flesh and half bone. It was a giant creature; the head was flesh-like, and had the appearance of a crane—though its eye socks were empty. The top of its body was also flesh, but everything below was simply bones. What appeared to be living green energy wrapped around the bones, giving it a glowing look. There were no internal organs. Or even a demonic beast core, but Diyuan didn’t think too hard on it.

  It was still a distance away, flying about.

  Looking for the spirit artifact? Diyuan figured that maybe it could sense it, but it wasn’t able to pinpoint its location. At this rate, it would never find the Honglie camp.

  At least, not unless Diyuan helped it out.

  This was a gambit that he wouldn’t recommend anyone to make.

  Diyuan climbed out of his hiding spot as silently as he could. He made his Wind’s Edge appear and kept an eye on the Netherwind Crane. Every quick tilt of its head was sporadic, so he wasn’t sure if it was sensing his spirit artifact. The last thing he would need was if the angle was wrong and the demonic beast came flying to him but not through the tower.

  After waiting a few minutes, Diyuan realized it was still not coming their way. Which meant to he had to get bolder. And since Pan Mumo was there, a small chance existed where he might pop the Clearlit Sight Pill and see through the miasma. But Diyuan wasn’t going to get a better chance than this to have a demonic beast attack a group. He stealthily moved forward, around the tower and closer towards the demonic beast. He would have to trust that the night’s thickness blocked any sound he was making from the Dharma cultivators.

  The Netherwind Crane was flying back and forth. Maybe it was waiting for daytime? Could it be that the night’s miasma blocked its senses? But from what Diyuan learned, the demonic beasts should still be able to sense spirit artifacts.

  Time to force the Honglie group to act out.

  For safety, he popped one of his self-made fortitude pills. He could sense it dissolve inside, releasing spiritual energy that coated his body within. For a short period, his body would gain a higher level of defense. It wouldn’t do anything against direct Dharma attacks, but every little bit should help.

  With the Wind’s Edge in his hand, and a decent hill to hide behind, Diyuan took aim. A large chunk of the tower’s walls was broken, so he could easily see several members inside. They didn’t seem to care about outside visibility. The person he was aiming at was the one who was named Chuqing, who had dropped two cultivation levels after fighting the Giant Tongue Toad. He was sitting with his back to Diyuan. After double checking the distance, Diyuan threw his spirit artifact.

  The second his weapon hit the back of Chuqin’s neck, it flipped and returned back to Diyuan. Xie Yanshuang snapped her neck at the sudden attack. Chuqin scratched below his head.

  [I think a bug bit me,] Chuqin said.

  [Imbecile, that was a dagger,] Xie Yanshuang said. She turned and looked directly at Diyuan. Or rather, it was towards his direction. She had tracked the way his weapon flew back. [There’s a cultivator here. And the attack was weak enough that I suppose whoever did it wanted us to think a Foundation cultivator did it.]

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Diyuan moved behind his hill. Part of him thought about sprinting and running away entirely. He took a look at the Netherwind Crane to keep track of its location.

  [Should I use my pill now?] Pan Mumo asked.

  Xie Yanshaung shook her head. [Another group can probably see us and wants to have us burn our resources. Everyone is responsible for themselves. The next attack will likely be stronger to get a response from us, since they’ll learn we see through their plot.]

  Well, that wasn’t having the intended effect. It seemed like they were thinking it was impossible for Diyuan to be the one to attack them. Should he up the stakes?

  Diyuan repositioned himself to get a better view of Pan Mumo. There wasn’t a hill for him to hide behind, but it was more important to get a good angle for what he was about to do next.

  “Hey, you wit-bereft clods!” Diyuan shouted. “Thanks for the two hundred thousand spirit stones! Next time you invite someone to your group, you should know they might betray you if you insult them with names!”

  The party inside the tower slowly turned to his direction. But their eyes looked to Xie Yanshuang.

  [That sounded like Yuhan Diyuan,] one said.

  [Because it was.] Xie Yanshuang seemed to be contemplating what to do, but then made her decision. [Pan Mumo, use your Clearlit Sight Pill.]

  Diyuan had his Wind’s Edge ready. Pan Mumo made a pill appear in his hand. Just as he was lifting it to his mouth, Diyuan’s dagger flew into the tower and hit it. The pill was knocked out of his hand and dropped to the ground. Diyuan recalled his dagger, hand out to catch it—

  Xie Yanshuang caught the dagger midflight as it turned to return back. Her eyes looked at the direction where it was going. It landed where he was at.

  Diyuan ran, leaving behind his spirit artifact. The other cultivators there started throwing out pressure areas to force him down. Each gravity field missed him.

  [Don’t bother with the gravity wells. You know he’s immune. I’ll take care of this,] Xie Yanshuang said.

  He was suddenly reminded that she was a level 4 Dharma cultivator. He didn’t bother to worry about any potential sound they could hear. He ran towards the direction of his original hiding spot, away from the hill and away from the Netherwind Crane.

  Energy started to form around Xie Yanshuang. Unlike the other Honglie members, she didn’t have any animalistic transformation take place on her body directly. A giant transparent demonic beast started to form. It was a color of black mixed with purple—not the normal golden Dharma characteristics that would appear with a human Dharmic body. Two horns appeared above the beast’s ears, pointing forward. A mane of hair went from its head to its back, much like a horse. Its front legs were significantly more muscular than its hindlegs.

  “Come, Ancient Onyx Behemoth,” Xie Yanshuang said aloud.

  Diyuan could see the miasma swirl wildly above her. The Netherwind Crane’s neck finally turned to their direction. It looked like the plan worked. A battle was to take place here soon and Diyuan had no intention of staying around to see it play out. He suspected the Honglie group would still try to use a lower leveled arte to maintain a low profile as to not attract too much attention.

  But they didn’t know how close the Netherwind Crane was from the start.

  The transparent Ancient Onyx Behemoth stood on its skinnier hindlegs. The creature was vast, where its bent knee was still higher then the second floor of the tower. One foot was inside the tower and the other was outside, breaking parts of the structure to stand. It was transparent, but it made the tower crumble further, as if the structure was made of sand. Xie Yanshuang was inside the transparent Ancient Onyx Behemoth. She floated in the air inside its body, without any runic wings out. She was located at the heart of the demonic beast.

  “Ecliptic Meteor Rain,” Xie Yanshuang said. She stretched out a hand up to where the head of the behemoth was. A swirl of power and mass began to collect between the tips of the horns. The miasma swirl spun even faster, collecting from both Xie Yanshuang and the arte she was using. When the arte finished, she pointed her hand to where she originally predicted him to be.

  Diyuan ran all the faster. The ball of power, this meteor, was wrapped in a fiery glow. It launched forward. He debated if he made a mistake or not.

  The ground beneath the meteor cracked and tore as it flew above. A massive pressure hit Diyuan, forcing him to the ground and knocking the air out of him despite being so far away. He quickly applied his barrier to resist the pressure and got back up. He couldn’t run now, so he walked as quickly as he could.

  Once the meteor hit, he should be fine since its target was a bit away from him. He should be out of its blast radius by now.

  He was wrong.

  The impact of Ecliptic Meteor Rain was both deafening and visceral. Diyuan’s ears alone felt like they were going to explode by the thunderous sound. His body lifted into the air. Both Bonegrit Dreadflesh began working overtime, spreading the sudden insistent scorching heat that tried to crush him. Then a tidal wave of pure force struck him from behind, snapping his neck backwards. The ground beneath him was eviscerated. His vision went white as the feeling of a sledgehammer smashed into his back.

  Limitless Bonegrit Dreadflesh broke. It went into a three-day exhaustion period. The heat he was feeling suddenly amplified the moment half of his defenses stopped working. Diyuan heard something snap inside him. And again. And again.

  His vision was still white when he felt a blunt force meet his body. The ground. He tumbled forward, still being blown away by the prevailing tempest.

  He finally came to a stop. His ears rang, blocking any other sound that might be out there. His vision swam, slowly forming coherent images for his mind to interpret. He blinked, his eyelids removing any dust from his eyeballs.

  His mind was spinning. None of his thoughts made sense, like it was tumbling about still. But once his vision returned, he began to understand what had happened. Xie Yanshuang. That wasn’t a Spiritweave attack. She had used a Dharma arte. Why would she use a Dharma attack on him? Diyuan was told that Dharma artes wouldn’t be used unless in dire situations, especially since it would attract both demonic beasts and the miasma at a high degree.

  But the Honglie weren’t exactly known to act rationally.

  Diyuan didn’t feel any pain. He continued to blink some more as the ringing in his ears continued. He looked around. The ground was tilted and broken into chunks. Diyuan strained his neck to look; at the center was an impact crater, which had shattered the ground. The tower that was there had been partially destroyed even further, though some was still fine as the Ancient Onyx Behemoth’s body seemed to have blocked most of the power.

  What really got Diyuan’s attention, however, was the second meteor that was forming at the tips of the behemoth’s horns.

  Diyuan tried to get up and move, but his body wouldn’t obey. He looked down and saw how twisted it had become. He still didn’t feel the pain of it, but his body’s condition was essentially broken. He had a mind to activate limitless Benediction Balm to begin the healing process.

  He looked around. He couldn’t physically move, but he could warp and teleport. He began carving a tunnel up and out of the crater. He warped partially up and quickly teleported again to less destructive ground. Whether that was far enough or not he would soon find out. He strained his neck again to look.

  Xie Yanshuang had a face of glee. She couldn’t see into the miasma’s wall and her cultivation was being drained significantly faster, but the use of her power had given her a thrill. Below her, Pan Mumo clutched a pill in his hand. He had picked it up and consumed it. Pan Mumo blinked as he gained visual clarity, but his eyes quickly went wide as he saw something. He pointed, not at Diyuan, but at something else and shouted.

  Diyuan’s ears were still ringing. The second meteor was still forming.

  A large creature came into the scene. The giant Netherwind Crane’s long skeletal legs found the thick shoulders of the Ancient Onyx Behemoth. Its body was about half the size of the behemoth, but it didn’t seem to care about the size difference. Its beak opened and screeched at the mass of meteor energy. The arte exploded right then and there. The area transformed into a bright white light again. A tempest roared once more, lifting Diyuan off the ground and throwing him into the distance again. The tower had been completely obliterated. The other Honglie members were thrown back by the force.

  The power that hit Diyuan wasn’t as severe this time around. He tumbled about again and came to a stop on the ground. He still didn’t feel any pain, but he wanted to close his eyes and rest. He forced himself not to. If he slept, his active limitless healing would stop; worse yet, his active Pungent Poison Purifier would also stop working. If he fell unconscious, he wouldn’t be protected from the miasma’s draining force.

  As he lay there, the ringing in his ears began to lessen. He calmed his breath. How long would it take him to get use of his limbs again? What was the extent of his damage?

  His focus on his healing was interrupted when he saw some furred feet come into view. A monkey looking demonic beast peered over him. Its fur was a shade of dark green and brown. It stood upright, like a person, though still shorter than Diyuan. It’s eyes glowed yellow, and it had no ears—only two tails swishing about where the ears should have been, creating an electric current at the tips of it.

  The Stormfur Demon Monkey took one of Diyuan’s arms and lifted him up effortlessly. It sniffed once, then dropped him like a rock. It screeched out something intelligible, then got on all fours as it ran towards the direction of Xie Yanshuang. Diyuan could see several more of the demonic monkeys running, a pack of them.

  Seemed like it was true that the Foundation cultivators were seen as bones without meat in the Carcass Grotto.

  The sound of battle started to reach Diyuan’s ears as the ringing finally dropped to a low hum. The ground would tremble every now and then. He sensed static electricity enter the air, but then dull off after a thunderstrike was heard.

  “Attack the monkeys, you fools!” Xie Yanshuang shouted with an amplified omnipresent voice.

  Small skeletal feet landed by Diyuan’s legs. He looked down and saw something akin to the Netherwind Crane. But this creature had no flesh attached to its bones at all, which also glowed its green color. And it wasn’t a crane, but a full skeletal eagle. Its length would go up to Diyuan’s waist if he was standing. It sniffed at his legs, or it looked like it was sniffing, then it sharply pierced into the leg with its beak, cutting through it like Diyuan didn’t have a cultivator’s body at all.

  For the first time, Diyuan felt a searing pain. The beak came out of his flesh, the glowing bones now partially red from his blood. Diyuan’s healing focused on stopping the blood from flowing from the new wound. It seemed to be satisfied with something, because it trotted over and took his shoulders into its claws. It lifted him up with a strength that denied its smaller stature. The eagle’s bone wings spread out wide and it flew up with him gripped tightly beneath it.

  Diyuan was able to see the battlefield as he was lifted high. The Ancient Onyx Behemoth’s body was locked in mortal combat against the Netherwind Crane. They had moved a bit away from the original location. The ground no longer looked anything remotely the same as it had been. Craters, fissures, and new ravines suddenly existed that weren’t there before. About a dozen demonic monkeys were attacking the other Honglie cultivators. Lightning currents filled the field where the demonic monkeys worked together to trap the cultivators inside. Some Honglie members had already brought out their wings to fly, but the one who had fought the Giant Tongue Toad earlier, Chuqing or something, was now a level 4 Spiritweave cultivator, dropped all the way from his original Dharma cultivation. He couldn’t use runic wings anymore and was trying to find a way to break free of the entrapment.

  The Netherwind Crane released some purple shadow attack from its bone wings. It wasn’t aimed at Xie Yanshuang and instead cut at another teammate of theirs, severing a limb. The monkeys were on him in a second.

  Pan Mumo, flying in the air with his runic wings, saw Diyuan. He pointed and the other flying cultivators looked his way. Pan Mumo and one other left the group and flew towards him, leaving the rest to fend against demonic monkeys on their own.

  Diyuan didn’t know who he should root for: the skeletal eagle who had pierced a hole into his leg, or the Honglie cultivators that looked like they just got five million spirit stones. The skeletal eagle wasn’t slow at all and flew straight into the Skeletal Cloud Bone Cliffs. There was more than one cliff, where some were a combination of fossilized bones of smaller creatures. Interestingly, none of the bones were human-like in nature, unless it belonged to those demonic monkeys.

  The cliff that Diyuan was brought to was the main nest from what he could tell. At its flat top, a nest made of bones had a bunch of haphazard items at the center. Trinkets, an unwieldy sword, clothing items, and other things.

  Spirit artifacts.

  The two Honglie cultivators didn’t gain any distance throughout the entire flight. The skeletal eagle dropped Diyuan on top of the pile of spirit artifacts and stood on the nest looking at the two intruders coming its way.

  The skeletal eagle screeched once. The nest of bones began to shake. A green energy started to appear around the nest’s edge, causing the bones to lift up and attach to each other. Other skeletal creatures took form. A smaller Netherwind Crane. Another skeletal eagle. Some other avian creatures that Diyuan couldn’t recognize. Soon, the nest of bones became empty of bones altogether as each creature flew up into the air and went towards Pan Mumo and his partner.

  Diyuan was left alone, his body still limp.

  He began to suspect that he may have made a poor decision.

  He looked around at the spirit artifacts he was on top of. His hand was touching a black metal choker. He poured his energy into it to get a sense of what it did. It created sounds, disorientating the one who wore it; powerful enough to subdue a demonic beast it seemed. Another item, a brooch. If it pricked someone and drew blood, it was supposed to do something with it, but the information stopped there. He looked and saw that the brooch had been cracked.

  Other items touched his other hand. A sash which could drain an element, giving the wearer resistance to it. But it too was frayed to the point where he could sense that it would break completely if anyone tried to use it.

  The sound of battle was heard. Screeching came from the skeletal avian creatures as they attacked the two Honglie cultivators. Diyuan assumed the Honglie cultivator’s goal was simply to retrieve him and leave, but they must not have been expecting such a defensive resistance.

  A glint caught Diyuan’s eye. It was a large, unwieldy sword. Strange, it was also blunt to the point where it might act as a hammer rather than a sword. It had a single large crack through it. Diyuan, gaining the slight use of his arm, struggled to lift his hand and move it towards the sword. He finally managed to touch it, though he felt the sweat and exhaustion hit him in a new wave after that exertion.

  He sensed into it. Soaring Sword was its name. It wasn’t an attack weapon like his now missing Wind’s Edge. Nor was it a protective item. It was something better.

  A flying spirit artifact.

  The battle outside the nest intensified. A debris of bones flew and cluttered around Diyuan. The remains of a defeated skeletal creature. Diyuan wasn’t going to waste any more time. He needed blood to bind the flying sword to him. He strained himself to get his leg towards the sword, the very same that was wounded by the skeletal eagle. It wasn’t freely flowing blood, as his healing arte took care of that, but there was still some there. Once it was atop the sword, Diyuan waited a moment before seeing a single drop hit the artifact.

  It was now attuned to him.

  The sword hovered up per his instructions. There were other artifacts around it, so it struggled a bit to get free, but it didn’t take long to do so. Diyuan could sense several things with it. First, it couldn’t travel very far from him, especially since he was only in the Foundation realm. Second, the crack it had caused serious damage to the sword. It looked like it would break at any moment. But Diyuan just needed it to get him out of this situation.

  The control of the flying sword was wobbly. Diyuan angled it in such a way that he could roll on top of it, gripping the handle with his hand. He slowly let it float him up in the air. Funny how he could barely move his body, but he now had more freedom than he ever had. The sword turned on his command, giving him slight visibility to the battle beyond. The two Honglie cultivators had been pushed back. The birdies apparently created a living formation; their glowing bones created a thin green line between the other skeletal avian creatures. Their powers had amplified or did something else, because the Honglie members kept getting pushed back.

  Diyuan looked down at the spirit artifacts below him. Most appeared to look damaged, but who’s to say if there wasn’t real treasure among them? He held out his storage ring hand and collected all of them. He peeked up at the battle, to see if the skeletal creatures noticed anything, then smiled when nothing changed in the battle dynamics. Once he collected everything—a theft that even Uncle Xunran would approve of—Diyuan flew off in the opposite direction. He stayed low and used the terrain to keep cover. The sword wobbled, groaning at the cracks, but held on.

  He would look over his shoulder to see if anyone was chasing after him.

  Nothing.

  The flying continued. He had successfully completed his great escape.