"This..."
The elder from before pondered for a moment, then finally nodded. "What you said isn’t unreasonable, however..."
"However what? Since it makes sense, what’s everyone still waiting for? Roll up your sleeves and get moving!"
As that burly man spoke, he actually tore open the upper part of his robe, revealing a body packed with solid, corded muscles.
In the next instant, he pulled out a Giant Sword taller than a man, and started smashing it wildly against the Barrier with a series of loud clangs.
Some Martial Artists nearby were infected by his fervor, grabbed their Weapons, and each one went all out attacking the Barrier.
Humans are herd creatures by nature; once one does it, two will follow. As the first and second started acting, more and more Martial Artists joined in, all frenziedly attacking the Barrier.
The Treasures in the valley had already driven them half mad.
Wait?
How could they possibly just sit here and wait!
"Brother Ling, I’m going too!"
Xuanyuan Yu clapped his hands, drew his Sword, and was about to rush up to attack the Barrier, but Ling Feng pressed him down.
"Brother Ling, what do you mean by this?"
Xuanyuan Yu froze for a moment. "Don’t tell me you’re not planning to attack the Barrier?"
Ling Feng shook his head with a smile, pointed at the burly man who’d been the first to incite everyone to attack the Barrier, and said with a grin, "Take a look at how he’s moving."
"What about it?" Xuanyuan Yu glanced at that burly man, blinked, and said in a deep voice, "He’s really going at it!"
"Really going at it?"
Ling Feng’s lips curled into a grin. "That guy looks like he’s using every last ounce of Strength, but when he strikes, he’s not even using ten percent! He really puts on the face of a simple, honest brute, but in truth he’s sly as hell! He’s deliberately riling everyone up to go all out on the Barrier, while secretly conserving his own Strength. Hmph, his goal couldn’t be more obvious, could it?"
If it were an ordinary person, they really wouldn’t notice the burly man’s little tricks. But Ling Feng’s Eye Power was razor sharp.
What’s more, his biggest gain in Evil Valley had been grasping the changes in Power Attribute.
That burly man looked like the rough, savage type with nothing but Brute Force, a total Barbarian, yet his scheming was this deep!
Hmph, sure enough, it proves the saying: you can’t judge a man by his looks!
"Damn it!"
Xuanyuan Yu clenched his Fist, gritting his teeth. "No, I’m going to expose this bastard!"
"Hey!"
Ling Feng shook his head. "Brother Xuanyuan, you’re way too straight-laced. If you expose him, then who’s left to do the hard labor for us?"
The corner of Ling Feng’s mouth lifted in a crafty smile. "See through it, but don’t speak of it. We’ll just sit back and enjoy the fruits!"
With that, Ling Feng even took out a Taishi Chair from his Spirit Storage Ring, lounged back on it in great leisure, looking exactly like some overseer!
"This..."
The corner of Xuanyuan Yu’s mouth twitched a few times. How had he never realized before that Ling Feng was this devious!
"You’re even more treacherous than that guy."
Yeu Junyao’s Fong Mu knit together as she shot Ling Feng a glare, but after spending so long with him, she already knew him inside out.
This guy will swallow anything—except a loss!
...
A short half-day later.
After Yeu Junyao and the others had been standing for quite some time, Ling Feng took out a few more chairs, letting Yeu Junyao and the rest sit as well. The group lined up in a neat row, comfortably seated off to the side, looking less like they’d come to seek fortune and more like they were here on vacation.
For a while, quite a few people were grinding their teeth in hatred. They were all straining themselves attacking the Barrier, while these few were fine—forget about helping, they were actually over there "enjoying themselves"!
For a while, plenty of people’s eyes brimmed with killing intent. This brat was being a bit too arrogant!
The burly man who’d stirred everyone to action was also grinding his teeth. His original plan had been to drain everyone else’s Elemental Power, but thanks to Ling Feng’s group acting like this, the others’ enthusiasm had been drastically dampened.
Think about it carefully: with so many people already swinging with all they’ve got, missing a few more arms doesn’t really matter!
One person thinks that way, then two do as well. At this rate, everyone would "go on strike", and his little scheme would fall flat!
"Hey, you brats over there, hurry up and get over here to help! Otherwise, once the Barrier opens, don’t expect to get inside!"
The burly man glared viciously at Ling Feng, and immediately, a good number of Martial Artists around them stared straight at Ling Feng, eyes flashing with cold killing intent.
"Oh my, that senior just said it himself—we only need to wait and we’ll be able to get in. Why waste the Strength?"
Ling Feng shrugged, smiling with narrowed eyes. "You’re the ones in a hurry. I’m not. So why would I stupidly waste my Strength for nothing? I’m not some idiot."
"You!"
The burly man glared daggers at Ling Feng. The next moment, he suddenly sprang up, cursing, "Brat, who are you calling an idiot!"
"Whoever answers to it is the idiot."
Ling Feng shrugged and turned his gaze elsewhere, really looking like he’d just come to admire the scenery, not even sparing the burly man a glance!
"Damn it!"
The burly man ground his teeth, Fist tightening as he prepared to make a move, when a sudden shout rang out from behind.
"It’s... it’s cracking! The Barrier is cracking!"
In an instant, the crowd boiled over. Almost every Martial Artist shot forward at once, rushing toward the valley.
"You damn well wait for me!"
The burly man glared fiercely at Ling Feng again, but he couldn’t resist the temptation of the Treasures inside. He abandoned Ling Feng and rushed straight into the valley.
"Idiot."
Ling Feng curled his lips, rose to his feet, glanced at his companions, and said coolly, "Let’s go, we’ll head out too."
Most Martial Artists, in order to speed up the Barrier’s Shattering, had gone all out attacking it, but there were also a few with their own little schemes. Each performed very convincingly, looking like they were using all their Strength, while in fact they’d conserved a large amount of Elemental Power.
It’s just that Ling Feng was the type who disdained putting on an act, which was why he drew so much hate.
Soon, Ling Feng and the others entered the valley, only to see that the Martial Artists who’d rushed in first all had pitch-black faces.
They had been eyeing those luscious, dew-drenched spirit flowers and herbs in the courtyard, but once they charged in, they didn’t get a single hair!
Because that whole patch of grass that had looked so lush and green had withered in the instant they rushed over!
And all the spirit flowers and herbs blooming across the grass had turned to dust, becoming Nihility.
The reason was simple: that Barrier from before had, to a certain extent, kept the Spiritual Energy inside from dissipating, and all those Spirit Plants had been just illusions. With the Barrier collapsing, the illusions sustained by Spiritual Energy naturally returned to dust and to Earth.
So all those spirit flowers and herbs covering the ground had been nothing but a mirage!
Ling Feng, armed with the Emperor’s Eye, had long seen through the situation inside, so he wasn’t the slightest bit tempted by the spirit flowers and herbs filling the courtyard.
Otherwise, given his fanaticism for the Alchemy Dao, if he’d really run into such precious "Immortal Herbs", he’d have charged to the front in a blazing hurry, unable to hold himself back.
Since the spirit flowers and herbs in the outer courtyard were all illusions, the Martial Artists had no choice but to give up. While they hadn’t gotten any benefit, at least everyone was equally empty-handed, so their hearts were still somewhat balanced.
In that case, they might as well go check out that ruined grand hall.
Ling Feng and his group were among the last to enter. Up ahead, that grand hall had been split cleanly in two down the middle, and the crack was wide enough for several people to walk side by side.
And within that fissure, a terrifying Sword Qi was still surging, making one’s heart tremble!

Comments

Loading...