Chapter 192 – The Stone Door
Not long after, Meng Xing Yuan and Yu Ao Qing suddenly heard a burst of intense fighting coming from outside, and a moment later, the two Red Cloud Sect disciples who had chased Yang Kai out stumbled back.
“What happened?” Meng Xing Yuan asked.
“Elder Meng, there are a lot of insects coming!” One of them hurriedly replied, his expression dark.
Not needing him to finish, the loud buzzing that reached Meng Xing Yuan’s ear had already giving him the answer. The next moment, he saw a large, dark, cloud-like mass come towards them.
This dark cloud was composed entirely of fist-sized, black winged insects, and from the looks of it, these insects fully occupied the corridor, an almost endless number.
Yu Ao Qing cried out, “Uncle Meng, these are the insects which caught us.”
Meng Xing Yuan face became serious, shouting, “Get behind me!”
Stepping forward, he arrived in front of the Red Cloud disciples, launching a large palm strike, a ferocious blast of True Yuan Qi burst forth.
The insects who were hit by Meng Xing Yuan strike, like fat dumplings, fell to the ground; suddenly creating a void in front.
“Elder Meng is so strong!” One of the Red Cloud Sect disciples shouted, unable to hold back his praise.
“We’re breaking out, fight!” Meng Xing Yuan roared loudly, taking the lead, he began attacking fiercely, the two Red Cloud disciples guarding Yu Ao Qing in the middle, following close behind Meng Xing Yuan.
Advancing step by step, Meng Xing Yuan’s every attack would kill several tens of insects, but the number of these insects was too great. Unable to kill them all at once, he attacked dozens of times, quickly beginning to lose his breath, pausing briefly, he took a deep breath, calming his rioting pulse, and once again casting his vicious moves.
As they fought their way out, the ground became full of dead insects, like a thick layer of pavement.
After escaping about five hundred feet or so, Meng Xing Yuan suddenly stopped, his face showing a sharp change.
From the depths of the cave came a burst of cracking sounds. There was also dirt falling on top of his head, immediately followed by a deep rumbling sound. The whole cave shaking violently.
“Not good!” Meng Xing Yuan yelled, “The cave is collapsing, run!”
Behind him, the three Red Cloud disciples became pale, hurrying to keep up with him.
But in front of them were countless insects blocking their path. Desperate to move faster, Meng Xing Yuan did not reserve his strength, but he still could not force the insects back, some rushing past him and attacking the three Red Cloud disciples behind, almost sending them into a panic.
After running about three hundred feet, the corridor in front of them suddenly collapsed, completely blocking the way.
Meng Xing Yuan and the three Red Cloud disciple’s faces sunk, Yu Ao Qing was especially depressed. She did not expect that just as a ray of hope had found her, she would again fall into despair.
While listening to the endless rumblings sounds, Yang Kai had been racing towards the cave’s entrance. Just as he exited the cave, a huge plot of land beneath him suddenly sank down.
Not daring to stay, Yang Kai flew forward.
When he was attacked by the two Red Cloud disciples, Yang Kai had ordered those insects to destroy the cave. He knew that if he were to face a True Element Boundary master he would certainly suffer; so now that he could command this insect swarm, naturally he took advantage of them.
These insects were expert diggers, destroying their own lair was easy.
As the landslides and fissures continued, Yang Kai had already flown out several miles. When he stopped and looked back, all he could see where the insect cave had been was a several mile radius pit, like something had hollowed out the earth.
The entire insect cave had completely collapsed.
But Yang Kai still was not relieved, he did not know if such a collapse would be able to take a True Element Boundary master’s life, his mind raced, ordering the insects to search underground for signs of the Red Cloud Sect cultivators, so he could solve this problem once and for all!
Quietly waiting for a cup of tea’s worth of time, Yang Kai suddenly heard a loud and anguished scream come from the ground.
It was Meng Xing Yuan’s voice. The insects must have found him, and were currently fighting.
Gradually, his voice became weak until finally it could not be heard, eventually disappearing altogether.
Meng Xing Yuan, a True Element Boundary master was dead, those far weaker Red Cloud Sect disciples naturally could not survive, possibly having been buried the moment insect cave had collapsed.
“Unfortunately, a beautiful, jade-like girl has died.” Old Demon sighed, Yu Ao Qing is absolutely a rare beauty, but this woman was wicked, a vicious cunning snake, someone truly deserving of death.
Old Demon just felt it was a waste.
Yang Kai remained silent, completely indifferent, just quietly standing in place.
Not long after, from the surrounding few miles, countless insects crawled out from the ground, quickly surrounding him, waiting for the orders.
These insects would be a great help to Yang Kai in surviving and exploring the island.
Since he had mixed in with the Red Cloud Sect, Yang Kai had to remain cautious, always walking on thin ice until now. He was finally free of the Red Cloud Sect cultivators, giving birth to a sense of relaxation and freedom.
It was time to prepare for any future battles.
These insects could fly, and their speed was not slow, Yang Kai did not have to worry about them keeping up.
Leading the insects to the edge of the fog bank, Yang Kai issued a command to open a path.
A few giant insects flew forward, straight into the fog and began swallowing.
Right before his eyes, this tens of miles blockade soon had a gap gnawed open. Yang Kai’s suddenly understood, this fog could be considered an extremely lethal skill, but only the giant insects could employ it, the fist-sized insects did not have this ability.
The next few days, Yang Kai did not rush to explore in the island, but first found a secluded place to familiarize himself with his Flaming Yang Wings.
A few days later, Yang Kai was floating high above Hidden Island, overlooking the whole island.
From the air, he could observe everything about this mysterious island.
Recalling the map he had received a few months ago from Madam Jiang, Yang Kai quickly identified his position, and began searching for the correct path forward.
After flying a short distance, Yang Kai dropped to the ground and used his movement skill.
The speed of his Flaming Yang Wings was much faster, but the consumption of Yuan Qi was proportionally larger. On this mysterious Hidden Island, Yang Kai did not dare to waste the Yang Liquid in his dantian.
Also, flying made it easier to expose himself. It was likely that a flying Monster Beast or a Red Cloud Sect master would spot him.
Even though using his movement skill was a lot slower, it was still much safer.
For the next few days, Yang Kai rushed about, if he encountered any precious treasure, he quickly consumed it, refining it into energy for his Unyielding Golden Body.
Hidden Island was indeed filled with danger, strong Monster Beasts were everywhere, if Yang Kai had not been careful, he would have been involved in many desperate fights.
These days he did not find any traces of the Red Cloud Sect cultivators, leading Yang Kai to suspect that they had possibly all died.
But when he arrived at his final destination, Yang Kai finally found some traces of human activity.
He quickly increased his vigilance.
The center of the island had a solitary peak, only about a thousand feet tall. From the rocky rugged terrain and the solitary beautiful landscape, Yang Kai could confirm that this was the end goal described on the map he had obtained from Madam Jiang.
Unfortunately, it seemed like the Red Cloud Sect had also targeted this place. The only question was how many people were gathered and what kind of strength did they possess?
Arriving at the solitary peak, Yang Kai hesitated for a long time before finally gritting his teeth and climbing up.
Calming his heartbeat and holding his breath, Yang Kai had climbed halfway up the mountain when a burst of violent noise came from the peak, the entire solitary peak was trembling as well.
Surprised, not knowing what kind of changes had occurred above, Yang Kai increased his pace.
After an incense stick worth of time had passed, Yang Kai came to the summit. Quietly lurking to the side, he stealthily looked toward the direction of the sound.
Approximately a hundred feet away, several Red Cloud Sect cultivators were bombarding a stone gate.
Observing for a while, Yang Kai could not help but be relieved! Among the people gathered, there was no sign of the Red Cloud Sect Grand Elder Huo Xiang Lan. Their leader was Yu Xiu Ping, the few remaining people were mostly True Element Boundary masters.
But at the moment, these people looked quite embarrassed. Along the way they had probably experienced a lot of hardship; many people had been injured and were covered with blood stains.
Fortunately, they had been reduced to this state, or else Yang Kai estimated that he would never have gotten this close without being found out.
These people were all wielding their weapons and were casting their martial skills, again and again bombarding the stone door in front of them. Every attack would cause the stone door to shake violently, then from the stone gate a bright radiance would be emitted, neutralizing their attacks and leaving the door unscathed.
“Senior Brother Yu…” One of the cultivators asked while panting, “What should we do now?”
Yu Xiu Ping looked bleak, and unwilling, “What else can we do? Continue attacking, we must break open this damn stone door! My Red Cloud Sect has suffered such heavy losses, even the two Grand Elders have fallen, if we gain nothing after all this, what face would we have to return? “
Hearing this, Yang Kai couldn’t help but celebrate.
So Huo Xiang Lan had died! The only question was how that Immortal Ascension Boundary old woman had met her end; but this news undoubtedly let Yang Kai relax a lot, no longer needing to constantly worry.
Yu Xiu Ping rushed forward, unreservedly mobilizing his True Qi, again and again bombarding the stone door, loudly roaring, “The two Grand Elders have fallen, our disciples have taken heavy casualties, my daughter is also missing! All of these sacrifices were to bring us here, if I cannot break open this door, then I will kill myself here, why should I bother living on in this world!
Yu Xiu Ping’s crazy words let the others gathered become depressed; this expedition to explore Hidden Island was undoubtedly a wrong decision.
If they had known this trip would be so dangerous, how could they have left the Red Cloud Sect? Apparently, the Red Cloud Sect’s strength was not enough to qualify them to explore this place.
But Yu Xiu Ping’s words obviously also aroused their fighting spirit, those who were not busy restoring themselves, all became silent, gathering their strength and again attacking the stone door.
This stone door must have had a barrier erected on it long ago, and although it was extremely strong, it was by no means unbreakable. The True Element Boundary masters constantly released an onslaught of attacks towards it, filling the solitary peak with crashing noises, and then, after less than an hour of effort later, the stone door finally started showing some small cracks.
Finally seeing hope, the Red Cloud Sect cultivators’ attacks became more and more brutal.