The Ethereal Domains

Chapter 1433: Erhuo Made a Move

Erhuo Made a Move

"They dispersed venomous fog over the sea every night, a perilous mist potent enough to affect Dream Origin Stage cultivators. Even those at the Dao Origin Stage could only remain unharmed for a limited duration. The intricacy of this scheme is truly astounding," remarked Jun Yinglian, her amazement palpable. "Consider the time and effort invested in this endeavor over the years. What motivates them to release this toxic fog consistently? Is it solely to maintain their cover in the Big Dream Mountain? It's baffling. While the mountain covers a substantial expanse, I can't fathom why they'd continue emitting the noxious fog."

Cha-Eun Xiao pondered the situation and meticulously examined the poisonous mist. "There is the possibility that the individuals from the Demon Soul Dao are cultivating a martial art with poisonous attributes. When they absorb the surrounding spiritual qi, it converts into this poisonous fog, causing the poison to permeate it. I sense a malevolent energy within this fog, albeit not overwhelmingly strong."

Yue Shuang and Yue Han concurred, emphasizing, "Our brother is correct. The ordinary poisonous fog typically engenders death and devastation, but the fog before us harbors madness and bewilderment. It transcends the norm."

Cha-Eun Xiao affirmed, "That's our reality now. Once the battle commences, we must show no mercy and exterminate the enemy promptly. This will be a definitive resolution."

As the night progressed, more comrades arrived at their location. These individuals had traveled with exceptional haste, as if compelled by a higher force. Normally, the journey from the union base of the sects to their current position took at least five days to complete. Remarkably, these individuals had arrived within just two days. Despite their collective status as Dao Origin Stage cultivators, many appeared utterly exhausted, some nearly at the point of collapse.

At present, there were roughly two thousand individuals in their group. Nevertheless, except for those beyond the seventh level of Dao Origin Stage, all of them bore signs of fatigue. Cha-Eun Xiao understood the dire circumstances, prompting him to distribute dan beads, with each person receiving one.

"Understand that these dan beads are not meant for rejuvenating your vitality due to exhaustion. Keep them for the battle. When you feel fatigued during combat and believe you are on the brink of defeat, consume the dan bead. This is when it will yield the most significant benefits."

Amidst a chorus of astonishment, everyone closely examined the dan bead in their hands, captivated by the ethereal dan fog enveloping it. The magnitude of their disbelief was evident, and their words resonated with incredulity and gratitude.

"This dan bead... It's... It's the legendary dan bead with dan fog! I've heard tales of its extraordinary value!"

"It's a treasure from folklore!"

"Why would Lord Monarch bestow these upon us so generously?"

"The fact that everyone has one... Is this not an extravagant expenditure?"

Cha-Eun Xiao interjected before their fervor could subside. "During our journey across the sea and the subsequent march towards the enemy's stronghold, ensure that you maintain your bodies slightly above the water. We cannot afford to alert the demonic entities. Our success in this raid is precarious, so vigilance is paramount."

"Yes, Lord Monarch!"

"Upon reaching the Big Dream Mountain, we should refrain from immediate engagement. Instead, our initial priority is concealment," Cha-Eun Xiao advised with solemnity. "The vanguard will venture ahead to pinpoint the precise location of their training base. Once identified, we will launch a surprise attack, effectively dismantling their base once and for all."

Xuan Bing expressed a semblance of dissent, murmuring softly, "Must we adopt such a convoluted approach? Why can't we simply storm the entire Big Dream Mountain together and systematically overturn every stone? We will likely uncover their training base more swiftly through such a method."

Cha-Eun Xiao playfully responded, "My dear Bing'er... When did you become so belligerent? Whom did you learn such aggressiveness from? I certainly hope it wasn't Lian Lian, as she is far from aggressive. Or perhaps it was Uncle Song? He's the most belligerent one among those close to you, isn't he?"

In response to Cha-Eun Xiao's jest, Song Jue defensively retorted, "I have nothing to do with this! Why are you implicating me? When have I ever exhibited aggression?"

Xuan Bing wore a thoughtful expression, admitting, "You know, I'm not sure what's gotten into me today. Why couldn't I deduce such a straightforward fact? It's evident that a secret base of such importance to the organization is equipped with an immensely formidable protective array. Otherwise, those who cultivate within would have obliterated the entire mountain ages ago."

Jun Yinglian, observing their interaction, couldn't help but feel a sense of awkwardness. Each time she witnessed Cha-Eun Xiao patting, teasing, or addressing Xuan Bing as a naive girl, a peculiar sensation gnawed at her heart. It wasn't resentment or anger; rather, she felt a perplexing discomfort. She remained silent, allowing the exchange to continue.

While Xuan Bing didn't take offense at Cha-Eun Xiao's playful remarks, she playfully shrugged. "What's wrong with me today? How could I overlook such an obvious detail? A secret base of this magnitude surely possesses a potent protective array, one that's unimaginably formidable. It's just common sense."

Subsequently, the group discovered that crossing the sea was a far more extensive endeavor than initially anticipated, much like when a distant mountain appears deceptively close. Cha-Eun Xiao, having chosen the base furthest from their starting point and fraught with a complex environment, found himself enduring the most challenging leg of the mission. Although they managed to traverse the sea, the journey consumed an unexpectedly extended duration.

A lot of things surprised them again and again. They had spent a long time going across the sea, but they were surprised that they actually didn't encounter any trouble. They flew over the water like seagulls, going through the rolling waves but didn't get impacted at all. Apart from spending a long time crossing the sea, nothing else went wrong.

In a dark night like this, they moved through the waves like that, and they actually did it without being noticed.

The Big Dream Mountain which had been far away, surrounded by fog and clouds finally showed itself before everybody's eyes when dawn was about to approach!

The Big Dream Mountain!

The mountain had two peaks.

Both peaks were surrounded by clouds and mist under a shining light. On each of the peak, six words kept rolling and rolling in the air. The words shined like fire. It was blurry but recognizable.

It was giving the people some pretty weird feelings.

Cha-Eun Xiao stared at the scene, frowned and took a deep breath.

"The story is true!"

Xuan Bing, Jun Yinglian, and the others all saw the words, so they had the same thought as Cha-Eun Xiao did.

The glowing clouds were rolling on the left peak. There were six words—life is like a big dream!

On the right peak, the same situation. There were also six words—so much to be live with!

The two sets of words were shining at the same time. They made an antithetical couplet hanging in the sky, formed by the clouds and fog. They had been there for tens of thousands of years, and nobody could ever erase any of the words!

It was not done by some random god, but by a god that was beyond all other gods!

"Life is like a big dream; so much to be live with…" Cha-Eun Xiao took a deep breath and said, "Living in a dream and not being awake. Time passes, and a lot has happened outside the dream…

"What is this kind of level of thought?

"Was it the legendary hero from the Undying Realm? Only the undying hero can say words like these… But… Why would such a hero come to this mountain and sleep for years?"

Cha-Eun Xiao was alarmed all of a sudden. He sensed a fierce qi coming from the clouds around the mountain.

It was something hostile.

The fierce qi made him feel a chill on his back even though he knew it was pretty far away.

Before the Big Dream Mountain, the huge sea waves rolled up and looked like piles of snow.

Cha-Eun Xiao and his people landed ashore at this pathless place.

Cha-Eun Xiao waved one of his hand and everybody stayed low on the ground. They tried to hide somewhere covert.

They were all experienced cultivators in the martial world, who were skillful in hiding their traces. They moved carefully like the experts they were. The biggest movement they made was to shake some bushes. Everything went back to being silent after a while.

Cha-Eun Xiao was satisfied, and he nodded. It was good to bring some skillful men with him.

Most of the people who followed Cha-Eun Xiao were itinerant cultivators. At this moment, these cultivators had proved to everybody that they were good at adjusting to a special environment. Once they made a move, they would definitely do it better than any superior cultivators from the Sky Ice Palace.

They were trained in countless life-or-death encounters. Training in a safe place would never bring such experience and skill.

Cha-Eun Xiao spread his spiritual mind for a second and drew it back immediately. Everybody knew what he was going to do next.

Cha-Eun Xiao suddenly turned himself into a phantom which was like a part of the air in the foggy sky. He was just gone and disappeared!

"Intangible Shadow!"

Xuan Bing's eyes lit up when she saw that.

The technique Cha-Eun Xiao just did was an incredible technique that only top-level Dao Origin Stage cultivators could do. He made his body blend into the surrounding atmosphere, in the dense fog, and in the air.

That incredible move was even more wonderful than Wu Fa turning into a cloud of dark fog.

The special technique would make the cultivator invisible to others. When the surroundings were white, he would become white; when it was black, he would turn black. He was invisible.

Wu Fa and Xuan Bing could also turn into a shadow, but they weren't intangible!

Xuan Bing was surprised that Cha-Eun Xiao actually improved so much within just a few days!

"Xiao Xiao has reached such a wonderful level. If he improves one more step, he will enter the Golden Stage in which he will be one tiny step away into becoming a god in the upper realm. He is so close to breaking the limit of the Qing-Yun Realm now…"

She was happy for Cha-Eun Xiao but also anxious about it.

"I… I have to catch up to him… I have to stay with him, so we could travel the world and enjoy the views together."

She took a deep breath and started to operate her shadow movement technique. She couldn't make an Intangible Shadow as Cha-Eun Xiao did, but she was already close to being invisible. She was quite sure that nobody would notice if she followed Cha-Eun Xiao, even though she couldn't do it as well as Cha-Eun Xiao. However, unexpectedly, when she operated the movement technique, she realized that whatever had stopped her from becoming intangible inside her body was already gone. She had no idea how and why, but it was gone.

Inside her dantian, it wasn't a chaotic cloud anymore. In the dantian, there was a fast-spinning vortex. In the middle of the vortex, something was growing and forming.

"What is this?" Xuan Bing was shocked. She thought she knew her own cultivation condition the best. Besides, since she always moved like a cloud of dark fog, she paid most attention to her own shadow movement technique. She always knew that something inside had been stopping her from turning intangible, no matter how well she could do the shadow movement. No matter what it was, it troubled her for many years.

Even after what luckily happened to her in the Land of Han-Yang, even after her Ling Xiao Ice Art had improved to a peerless level, she still couldn't break to the intangible level of the shadow movement technique. It truly was a pain in her heart.

What had happened at the moment that made her suddenly broke through? She hadn't cultivated these past days. There must be a reason for such a great improvement!

She couldn't figure out the reason, and she just couldn't believe what was happening. However, one thought came up in her mind. She blushed and murmured to herself. "No… Why are you thinking about that thing… No matter how surprising this is, it has nothing to do with that thing…"

She didn't continue talking to herself. She didn't say what that thing exactly was. Her blushed face had told a lot about that thing.

At that moment, she looked attractive and adorable.

Jun Yinglian was lost in the scene of such a beauty. What a beautiful woman!

When Xuan Bing thought about something she didn't want to admit, what filled up her mind was how she and Cha-Eun Xiao had made love and got the impurity inside her body removed because of the lovemaking they did…

Other than that, she got her cultivation improved greatly as well.

There was nothing else that could make her improve so much!

During recent days, she had been with him making love all the time…

Perhaps, making love with Cha-Eun Xiao was exactly the reason why she had improved a lot this time…

As she deeply thought about it, she blushed even more. However, she bashfully cursed, "What an indecent guy…"

Cha-Eun Xiao had arrived at the top of the mountain.

He moved just like a blow of wind.

As he was moving up to the mountain's top, something surprised him. The entire Big Dream Mountain was full of restraint traps!

The Demon Soul Dao really had spent a lot here! First, it was the poisonous fog, and now restraint traps were everywhere!

The restraint traps outside were complicated and hard to notice. Cha-Eun Xiao was sure that any of the traps could trigger an alarm!

Once the alarm was triggered, things could go really nasty.

Cha-Eun Xiao's people had been hiding in full effort. If the enemy paid more attention to finding somebody, it would be easy to find these hidden men. After all, it would be close to impossible to finish the raid once the enemy was alerted. Therefore, what Cha-Eun Xiao should do was to remove the restraint traps before proceeding with their big plan!

Cha-Eun Xiao kept moving up to the top of the mountain while staying invisible in the air. Watching the Big Dream Mountain with all those restraint traps, he helplessly frowned.

The mountain must be inside the demon's hands for a long time. How many traps were set around the mountain?

Cha-Eun Xiao couldn't figure it out.

It was more than difficult to break the restraint traps without alerting the enemies, not to mention entering the central area and figuring out the exact location of the training base afterward!

Cha-Eun Xiao frowned and got lost in his thoughts in the fog.

The Big Dream Mountain was silent, like a land of death.

Cha-Eun Xiao knew that there must be some kind of energy restraint blocking the sound from getting out.

If the restraint was removed, the sound from the secret base would shake his ears.

Cha-Eun Xiao was lost in his thoughts for a while; his eyes then suddenly lit up.

…

After a while, a small white shadow boldly rushed into the dense fog and ran wildly around the mountain.

"Meow…"

Erhuo officially took its turn.

For Cha-Eun Xiao, the mountain was full of restraints that he couldn't touch. However, this place was only a wonderland for Erhuo.

Who would care if a small cat triggered the traps? Nobody!

Erhuo kept running around the mountain, knocking down the restraint traps one by one. The traps broke as it scratched the energy screens. After that, it ran into another trap… Scratched and ran… Again and again…

Suddenly, somewhere convert in the valley of the Big Dream Mountain, the alarms were ringing!

The sharp and shrill sound of the alarms kept ringing everywhere.

There was an incense burner somewhere making yellow smoke all of a sudden.

"What? Is that a large-scale invasion?"

In a silent room, a black-clothed man sitting in meditation suddenly stood up. His eyes looked like they were shining with bolts of lightning. "Go and check it outside!"

Outside the room.

Several men in black clothes flew out in each of the rooms of this place. Everyone hovered around over their rooms and then left in a hurry.

They were like a lot of goshawks suddenly flying up.

However, some of the men in black clothes didn't fly out. They started to figure out their enemies location. Within just a few seconds, these people were ready to fight. They had even set up some traps to defend the base from the invasion.

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