Wayfarer

Chapter 83: Mistakenly Entering the Chasm

As Xiao Nanfeng finished preparing dozens of dishes, a dull thump emerged from behind the copper doors, releasing a great wave of energy. Xiao Nanfeng and Croak hurriedly rushed back within.

Warble was still surrounded with golden light; the tremendous wave of energy had come from the Lady Arclight.

"There's no problem. I just recovered to Spiritsong," the Lady Arclight told them.

"You're just in time, Elder. I just finished cooking. Have a taste!" Xiao Nanfeng brought the dishes over.

The Lady Arclight looked at the dishes that Xiao Nanfeng toiled over with a complicated expression on her face.

"I'm not hungry at the moment, and I'll have a taste later. You should set off now!" she instructed.

"Now?" Xiao Nanfeng hesitated.

"The more quickly you find them, the less danger they'll be in. Don't push yourself too hard—be cautious, and stay safe!" the Lady Arclight advised.

"Got it!" Xiao Nanfeng nodded.

"See if you can take that snowball with yin frost gathered all around it with you. It might prove handy in case you encounter a strong foe."

Xiao Nanfeng nodded again.

"I await your return. Now, go!" the Lady Arclight urged.

"Take care, Elder! I'll come back to find you when you're ready!"

"You won't be able to find me. I'll find you instead," the Lady Arclight replied, smiling. As she smiled, it felt like a field of flowers had bloomed around her in captivating beauty, enthralling Xiao Nanfeng.

"What are you looking at? Go, go!" The Lady Arclight blushed.

"Yes, Elder!" Only then did Xiao Nanfeng step out through the copper doors.

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"Croak, I'll leave the elder's safety to you. Please don't run off during this period of time," Xiao Nanfeng told the toad spirit.

"Don't worry! The Lady Arclight is here, and so is my wife Warble. I won't be going anywhere," Croak promised.

Xiao Nanfeng grabbed the snowball, now about three meters wide in diameter, and stowed it in his storage ring. Every second counted; who knew if his fellow disciples might be in danger?

"Crow spirit, you've rested enough, haven't you? Let's get going!" Xiao Nanfeng looked at the crow spirit curled up in the corner of the cavern.

The crow spirit didn't dare refuse. It began flying through the tunnel, Xiao Nanfeng rushing along with it.

After Xiao Nanfeng left, Croak suddenly turned to the Lady Arclight.

"Lady Arclight, you aren't hungry, are you? I can finish these dishes if you aren't interested," Croak suggested, glancing at the Lady Arclight pleadingly.

"Who said I wasn't hungry?" The Lady Arclight immediately refused the offer.

"Didn't you just tell Nanfeng that you weren't hungry?" Croak glanced at the Lady Arclight with a confused expression on its face.

"I wasn't hungry then, but I'm hungry now! This is all mine—don't dream of stealing it. Don't you have that roast bear meat over there?" The Lady Arclight frowned.

Croak glanced at the fire pit outside. Because the fire had been too weak, Croak had used some of its qi to augment the fire, but it had burned the bear spirit to a crisp! It was charred all over, and Croak was losing its appetite just looking at it. How was it supposed to consume that burned husk?

By the time Xiao Nanfeng and the crow spirit left the cavern, it was already dark outside. He didn't want to tarry any longer, and commanded the crow spirit to ferry him through the air.

There were many spirits roaming the forest at night, but only a rare few could fly in the air. In the dark, the man and crow flew quickly toward the eastern quadrant of the spirits' domain, encountering few obstacles along their way.

The crow spirit was tired after a long night of flight. They rested in a hidden valley. Xiao Nanfeng fed the crow spirit some Ascension-realm meat to keep up its energy.

"Don't worry. As long as you bring me to the other Immortal Cicada, I'll let you go. Take an hour to rest, and then we'll be on our way again," Xiao Nanfeng promised.

He needed to give the crow spirit hope for its freedom in order to make it work harder.

Just then, Xiao Nanfeng took out the giant snowball. He thought for a moment. His most important treasure at the moment was the superior yin pearl, which he was only barely able to control at the moment. Even so, it had brought him tremendous gains. However, if he were to keep withdrawing yin frost from the superior yin pearl, would it slowly lose its effect?

He wanted to preserve the condition of the superior yin pearl before he gained full mastery over it—so if he consumed its yin frost, he should put some back. Wouldn't the yin frost contained within the snowball be sufficient?

He transferred the snowball's yin frost straight to the superior yin pearl, quickly melting all the snow and leaving the original black orb behind, pristine as it had once been.

The orb was only the size of a fingertip. It was pitch black, with three lines of text engraved on it.

The first line, "Array-Breaking Pearl", the second line, "Absorbs frost", and the third line, "You Shi".

"This is a treasure that You Shi made himself, the array-breaking pearl? It's used solely to absorb frost?" Xiao Nanfeng wondered to himself.

As he infused spiritual power into it, the array-breaking pearl trembled, and a wisp of golden light was emitted from it. Subsequently, it generated a suction that absorbed all the frost aura in the vicinity before settling down again.

"What a treasure!" Xiao Nanfeng's eyes lit up as he carefully stored it in his storage ring.

After half an hour, when the crow spirit had replenished its stamina, it continued carrying Xiao Nanfeng due east.

Along the way, whenever they encountered any Ascension-realm avian spirits, they would hide from them; if they encountered Immanence-realm ones, Xiao Nanfeng would kill them from afar with his Immortal Cicada. They flew in this manner for three days and nights, until a few crow spirits appeared in the distance.

When those crow spirits saw a blue-armored cultivator riding on their companion, they all came to see what was going on. When they saw that Xiao Nanfeng was the rider, they squawked. Some of the crow spirits ran off immediately, while others began to communicate with the crow that Xiao Nanfeng was riding.

"You won't be able to run!" Xiao Nanfeng's eyes turned cold as the Immortal Cicada gave chase

and killed all the other crow spirits.

"You'd better not try to play any tricks on me. If you bring me to the other Immortal Cicada, I'll guarantee your safety, but I won't go easy on you if I find that you're planning something," Xiao Nanfeng threatened.

The crow spirit nodded immediately. However, it began to travel in a slightly different direction than before.

"Why have you shifted directions?" Xiao Nanfeng asked coldly.

The crow spirit began to gesture as it tried to inform Xiao Nanfeng that the other crow spirits had given it updated directions.

Xiao Nanfeng, vaguely understanding what it was trying to communicate, settled back down, but he grew even more wary than before.

That evening, the crow spirit brought Xiao Nanfeng to the mouth of a huge chasm, motioning for Xiao Nanfeng to enter.

"The other Immortal Cicada is down here?" Xiao Nanfeng frowned at the crow spirit. The chasm was pitch-black even in the fading sunlight, and it looked particularly eerie. What was Yu'er doing down here?

The crow spirit nodded fervently, beckoning at Xiao Nanfeng.

"Fly down with me!" Xiao Nanfeng commanded.

The crow spirit, panicking, refused.

"Well? Could a trap be waiting for me down there? Is that why you're refusing?" Xiao Nanfeng asked.

In panic, the crow spirit began to squawk, as though calling out to its comrades nearby.

"You were lying to me, then? There's an ambush here, isn't there?!" Xiao Nanfeng grabbed the crow spirit's neck with a palm.

"Loose!" a shout came from the forest nearby. A rain of arrows shot down toward Xiao Nanfeng and the crow spirit.

"Were you intending to die alongside me?" Xiao Nanfeng cried out in anger.

He batted away as many of the arrows as he could with a blade. Simultaneously, he activated his qi barrier, his skin glowing golden. His spiritual power was far above average, allowing him to deflect the majority of the arrows. Even so, he was flying in mid-air, and he wasn't able to dodge them all. A few shot toward his body, striking his qi barrier with the sound of metal against rock. He felt a few pinpricks of pain, but ultimately wasn't injured.

The crow spirit, on the other hand, suffered greatly. It was struck by a large number of the arrows and cried out in pain as it fell toward the chasm deep below.

Its comrades had told it to lure Xiao Nanfeng over to this location, that there would be a large group of crow spirits here to rescue it, but where were they? It couldn't help but regret what it had done. It should have brought Xiao Nanfeng toward the other Immortal Cicada! Unfortunately, it wasn't about to be given a second chance.

Xiao Nanfeng, riding the crow spirit, likewise began to plummet into the abyss. As he did so, he saw a group of red-armored warriors shooting at him. They looked toward Xiao Nanfeng with visible confusion.

"Red-armored cultivators? Could they be from the Empire of Great Qi? Why are so many of them guarding this abyss? There has to be something here!" Xiao Nanfeng thought to himself as he fell.

The chasm was deep, but falling from this height wasn't sufficient to injure Xiao Nanfeng. He crashed into the ground, causing huge plumes of dust to mushroom around him.

He unsheathed his blade and glanced alertly around him, prepared for incipient danger. He could hear a large amount of scurrying. He spread out his spiritual power, sensing a group of lifeforms surrounding him.

The dust slowly settled. Through the weak light filtering from high above, he could see the source of the sound.

Centipedes—this chasm was filled with countless centipedes. A group of centipedes was already biting and tearing madly at the crow spirit's carcass. The abyssal chasm was like a huge well. Centipede after centipede began poking their heads out from the tiny, dense cracks in the mountain walls that rose up all around him.

The smallest were about as long as his arm, and the larger ones could approach the size of a human. They swarmed around Xiao Nanfeng, their eyes shining with black light. They couldn't wait to swarm over him.

However, as though commanded otherwise by a third party, they stayed far away, not daring to approach. From a cave to their back crawled out a golden centipede three meters long. As it did so, the other centipedes scurried aside to make way.

With the golden centipede around, the other centipede spirits all quieted down. The golden centipede coiled its body up as it stared at Xiao Nanfeng from above, exuding killing intent.

"Are you from the Empire of Great Yan?" the golden centipede suddenly asked.

"You can talk in human speech? You're a Spiritsong-realm spirit?" Xiao Nanfeng blanched.

He secretly took out a dragon-quelling spike, prepared to defend himself.