บท 109: Huang Dong's scheming.

Liang Chen and Yan Ling continued to make their way towards the Fiend King's Tomb, leaving the stone forest after half a day of moving. Yan Ling said that they were getting closer to the Fiend King's Tomb, but it would still take them about a week to get there, that was how large this Myriad Convergence was.

After leaving the stone forest they stepped onto a plain made from crystal clear ice, a few frozen Demonic beasts visible deep within the ice. As they traversed the plain, parts of the ice rose up and revealed themselves as Demonic beasts that were made from pure ice and nothing else. Just like Yan Ling had suggested, they ignored these Demonic beasts and simply ran away from them and left the ice plain.

The place they arrived after leaving the plain of ice was a place somewhat similar to the stone forest, but rather than large and strange boulders, there were glimmering crystals rising up all over the place. Each of these crystals was charged with potent lightning energy, each of them almost reaching the level of a Lightning Quartz.

These crystals were perfect for Liang Chen, so he started to store several of them into his interspatial ring. He didn't even bother cutting them into smaller pieces, he simply stored them whole into his interspatial ring, even those that were several meters high. These actions seemed to provoke the ire of the Demonic beasts that lived here, as Liang Chen and Yan Ling swiftly found themselves chased by a wide variety of lightning type Demonic beasts.

If it were just one or two, they would be able to deal with them, but the horde that was chasing them consisted of several tens of Demonic beasts ranging from the early stage of the Heaven's Gate realm to the late stage of the Heaven's Gate realm, fighting them was suicidal. As they ran at full speed, they quickly realized that Yan Ling would not be able to outrun these Demonic beasts that could use the lightning to increase their speed.

As such, the only choice they had was for Liang Chen to pick her up and carry her. Liang Chen wanted to just throw her onto his back, but she turned extremely defiant and adamant, only relenting when Liang Chen agreed to carry her in a princess carry. After receiving his promise, Yan Ling jumped up and allowed Liang Chen to carry her as he ran at full speed.

It was a bit hard to run while carrying Yan Ling in a princess carry, but Liang Chen decided to quietly endure it, mostly because it felt nice to hold her so close, her sweet scent tickling his nose. Of course, he had no intention of telling her this, as it would become something she could hold over his head. Hence, he complained the entire time they were running, making it seem like running while carrying her like this was incredibly strenuous.

After an entire day of running, the two of them finally managed to leave the crystal forest, the Demonic beasts choosing to not chase after them into the plain dotted with valleys that they entered. Liang Chen put down Yan Ling and the two took a quick break to eat some food and for Yan Ling to get a bit of sleep while Liang Chen kept watch over their surroundings.

After Yan Ling got some sleep, the two resumed their journey, making sure to walk around the various valleys so that they didn't provoke any of the Demonic beasts that nested in the valleys. Two days later, they left the plain and entered a hilly area that was covered in a dense forest filled with somewhat bent and twisted trees, the needle-like leaves on the trees so deep-green that they were almost black.

This forest was the last of the areas they had to traverse before reaching the Fiend King's Tomb, it was also one of the larger areas within the Myriad Convergence, so large that it would take them three days to get through it. Upon entering the forest, the two of them also slowed down somewhat, as it was a place popular with both the Demonic beasts that lived in the Myriad Convergence as well as the various disciples that came to take part in the competition.

Liang Chen and Yan Ling walked shoulder to shoulder, both keeping an eye on the area around them as they moved. There was no telling what they might encounter here, so they had to make sure to keep a more vigilant watch than ever before. As they walked, Liang Chen's eyes suddenly shot open, his body moving on instinct as he called out.

"Watch out!"

He stretched out with his arm and grabbed onto Yan Ling, pulling her along as he jumped backward, a horrible sense of danger flooding his entire body. Shortly after he jumped back, space a short distance ahead of where they had just been shattered and cracked open, a spatial rift forming. The spatial rift sucked in everything around it, but since Liang Chen had pulled Yan Ling back already, neither of them were affected by it. Yan Ling looked at the newly formed spatial rift, letting out a breath and wiping her forehead before giving Liang Chen a thumbs up.

"Really, I knew that your freakishly sharp instincts would prove to be useful."

Liang Chen had no idea what was going to happen, his instincts simply warned him that he was about to die so he took swift action to avoid whatever his instincts warned him about. As Liang Chen looked at the spatial rift, he once again felt a faint trembling coming from inside his interspatial ring. He quickly sank his mind into it, but the trembling once again stopped as soon as it had started.

This wasn't the first time something within his interspatial ring had trembled ever since he entered the Myriad Convergence, this was already the fifth time. The first time was as Liang Chen and Yan Ling were climbing the strange hill which was half-covered in snow, and the next three happened as the two of them continued to travel. Looking at the situation now, he started to wonder if something in his interspatial ring was reacting to the spatial rifts that were spread throughout this Myriad Convergence.

As the two looked at the large spatial rift, something slowly started to drift out from within it. Before long, a piece of land that looked like it was made from charcoal was spat out from within the spatial rift. The piece of land was almost three kilometers in width and one kilometer in length, surprisingly large considering it came out from a spatial rift that was nowhere near that large.

The piece of land shot into the distance right after it was spat out from the spatial rift, vanishing from sight as it flew away to become another piece of this Myriad Convergence. After the charcoal-like land was shot into the distance, the spatial rift started to shrink, Liang Chen once again feeling a short trembling from his interspatial ring as the spatial rift closed.

Liang Chen and Yan Ling locked eyes for a short second, Yan Ling's eyes sparkling with excitement. It wasn't everyday one got to see a spatial rift open and spit out an entire piece of land, so how could she not be a bit excited after seeing something like that?

After making sure that the spatial rift was gone and there was no more danger, the two continued to travel through the forest, getting closer and closer to the Fiend King's Tomb.

Two days after entering the forest, Yan Ling suddenly stopped in her tracks, placing her arm in front of Liang Chen and stopping him from moving further. She narrowed her eyes and looked into the distance, at a rather large hill that was so steep it resembled a small mountain. There were quite a few trees covering the hill, so it was hard to see anything on it. Yan Ling pointed at the hill, her lips curling up into a faint sneer.

"There is someone hiding on that hill, about six people. I can't quite tell from here, but they seem to be from the Moon Dragon sect, and looking at where they are placed, they seem to be planning on ambushing whoever walks past that hill."

Liang Chen couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at her assessment. The hill was too far away for Liang Chen to scan it for living beings using his law of lightning, so he was rather surprised that she was able to accurately tell that there were not only people hiding there, but also how many and from which sect. Seeing his raised eyebrow and guessing what he was thinking, Yan Ling let out a light laugh and gave him a quick explanation.

"Nihihi, you better not underestimate my skills when it comes to discovering other living beings. I might not be able to sense the electricity within their bodies, but as long as they are in contact with either air or moisture within a 10-kilometer circle around me, they cannot hide from my sight."

Using the laws of wind and water, Yan Ling was able to tell if there were people around her based on how the air moved around them or based on how the moisture in the air touched them. Focusing on the places where the air or moisture was disturbed would allow her to get a better picture of the area, almost using the moisture or wind as her own eyes. When it came to things like tracking and surveying areas, she was far better than Liang Chen.

This was the first time Liang Chen had gotten a proper description of the tracking technique Yan Ling used, and he had to admit that it was better than his. He now also understood how she was able to notice the sloth-like Demonic beast that was hiding behind the fishtail-shaped boulder back in the stone forest, despite it seemingly using a type of technique to hide. Yan Ling returned her gaze back to the hill, her lips changing from a smirk into a sly smile.

"It hardly seems like a coincidence that someone from the Moon Dragon sect would wait here to ambush someone, they might have come here especially for us. The only ones who know that he would be taking this path are the disciples of our sect, so there might be a spy among the disciples that joined us. Say, since they wish to ambush us, how about we go and ambush them?"

Her words were quite reasonable and logical, looking at the path they used when they split up with the other disciples, this would be the best path for them to take to get to the Fiend King's Tomb. For someone to wait in ambush in this exact location, it was truly a bit hard to pass it off as a coincidence. Her idea of ambushing the ambushers also seemed sound, so Liang Chen nodded his head and the two went about setting the plan in motion.

They backtracked a bit, moving far enough back that they would be out of sight from someone waiting at the top of the hill. They then started to slowly make their way around the hill, walking in a wide circle around it. Yan Ling used her control over the law of wind to divert the wind around them in a natural manner, just in case the ambushers were using the wind to locate them. Liang Chen did something similar, using his law of lightning to cover up and distort the electrical impulses that ran through their bodies, making them similar to the electrical impulses that were present in the bodies of smaller animals and some large insects.

Like this, the two of them slowly started to approach the hill from the opposite side, the side where the ambushers were waiting. As they got closer, Liang Chen also managed to discover the six people, Yan Ling's guess turning out to be right on the mark. Six people, clad in the silver robes of the Moon Dragon sect, were hiding amongst the tops of the dense trees that covered the hill.

Looking at their cultivations, which were all at the middle-stage of the Heaven's Gate realm, as well as how they were hidden, it seemed like they were a group that specialized in ambushes and assassinations. Liang Chen was confident that he and Yan Ling would be able to deal with them in a frontal fight, but if they got ambushed, things would be far harder. Luckily, there were very few people who knew that the two of them had tracking and surveying abilities, so the spies who had most likely told the Moon Dragon sect about their path wouldn't be able to warn them.

After they got within four kilometers of the six people, Liang Chen gave a light wave of his hand and crouched down, using a thick tree as a cover. Yan Ling crouched down next to him, so he whispered her the plan he had come up with.

"Leave them to me, I have a poison that is perfect for this."

Yan Ling nodded her head and entrusted the task to Liang Chen, fully confident that he would be able to handle it. Liang Chen raised his right arm and opened his hand, a brown stream of poison starting to gather in his palm. This brown stream of energy was a poison he had infused with his Anima Essence, the soul equivalent of Qi. He also inserted a bit of his law of time into it, increasing the speed at which the poison would take effect.

After concentrating the poison a bit more, he pointed his palm at the six people, who were still hiding amongst the trees and keeping an eye on the path that Liang Chen and Yan Ling were supposed to take. He let out a light breath, the brown poison vanishing into the air. He then proceeded to quietly wait with Yan Ling, the poison finally taking effect after two minutes.

The six people suddenly stiffened and fell out from the trees, crashing into the ground with dull thuds. But after they crashed into the ground, they stood up and started walking towards Liang Chen and Yan Ling with stiff movements, their eyes and expressions completely blank. Yan Ling tensed up slightly when she saw this, but Liang Chen calmed her down with a wave of his hand and stood up, calling out an order to the six people that were walking towards him.

"Tell me who sent you here and how you knew that we would move through here."

The six people stopped a short distance in front of Liang Chen, dropping into a kneeling position with lowered heads. Yan Ling also stepped out from behind the tree, looking at the six people with a mixture of curiosity and amazement. Just how had the Little Freak managed to do this to them?

This was the effect of the Fragile Heart Mushroom that Liang Chen had purchased after Yan Ling told him the story of her past. As it was a mushroom that contained a somewhat weak poison that would turn weaker people and Demonic beasts into puppets, it was well-suited for a situation like this. Mixing the poison with his Anima Essence and his law of time, Liang Chen was able to have the poison directly attack the soul of his enemies, quickly taking control over them and turning them into his puppets. The six people all spoke up at once, doing their best to respond to the order given by their master.

"We were sent here by Huang Dong to kill Liang Chen and to capture Yan Ling and bring her back to him. We knew that Liang Chen and Yan Ling would move through here because Huang Dong had already received a report from one of his spies. Huang Dong never told us the name of this spy, so we don't know just who it was that gave the report."

The words of the six people were a bit stiff at first, but they got smoother as they continued to talk, as if they were relearning the skills they possessed before becoming mindless puppets. Both Liang Chen and Yan Ling's expression sank slightly after hearing the response, both of them clicking their tongues.

There really was a spy amongst the disciples that had entered the competition this time, this meant that Yan Ying and the others might be in danger. Liang Chen's eyes were a bit narrowed, continuing to question the six.

"So it really was Huang Dong. Really, what a scummy person. Where is Huang Dong now?"

There was no way for those on the outside to see what was going on in here, so there was no telling what Huang Dong might have done to Yan Ling if he got his hands on here. Would Liang Chen allow such a threat to live, someone who might harm the person he loved? The answer was obviously no, Huang Dong had to die before he could harm Yan Ling. Never again would Liang Chen allow anyone to harm those that he loved, never again would he allow himself to lose another person dear to him.

Of course, Liang Chen wasn't so stupid that he would charge at Huang Dong now, he was only trying to figure out where Huang Dong was so that they could avoid him until he and Yan Ling grew strong enough to kill him. The six people quickly answered, unable to resist the insidiousness of Liang Chen's poison.

"Huang Dong has entered the Fiend King's Tomb using the northern entrance, he is looking for something called a Gravity Well."

Liang Chen and Yan Ling looked at each other after receiving the reply, their eyebrows furrowing slightly. Huang Dong had entered the same area that they were heading to, the Fiend King's Tomb? Luckily, he had entered from the northern entrance while they were planning on entering from the western entrance, there was quite a bit of distance between the two entrances.

Liang Chen and Yan Ling exchanged deep glances, both of them able to understand the thoughts of the other. A mere Huang Dong was not enough to scare the two of them away from a place they sought to go. Their ambitions were set far higher than a mere Huang Dong, so if they were to let him scare them now, how would they ever face the enemies they had decided to kill in the future? They sent each other a fearless smile, nodding their heads and chuckling.

"Alright then, let's see if we have the luck of running into Huang Dong while exploring the Fiend King's Tomb, maybe we'll even be so lucky that we'll get to kill him right there and then."

After they spoke, Liang Chen waved his hand, the six kneeling people falling over dead, their souls so poisoned that the dissipated. His poison wasn't strong enough to take permanent control over them, he could only control them within a 10-kilometer area around him. Because of this, they were useless as spies, and since they had tried to kill him and harm Yan Ling, he did not give them an ounce of mercy.

After removing the interspatial rings of the six people and putting away their bodies for Yumao, Liang Chen and Yan Ling continued heading for the Fiend King's Tomb, reaching the outskirts of it after another day of traveling.

The Fiend King's Tomb was located at the center of this hilly forest area, and it resembled a large scar in the land. It was a pitch black valley that dug deep into the ground, stretching on for as long as the eye could see. There were both small and large mountains standing within the valley, countless caves dug into the mountains and the valley walls themselves.

The bottom of the valley seemed arid, but Liang Chen and Yan Ling knew that the valley was home to a wide variety of environments, The Qi within the valley was also especially rich and harmonious, the various elements in perfect balance. This allowed herbs of various elements to bloom in environments that shouldn't normally host them, like a Fire Plum tree growing on a patch of glacial ice. Liang Chen and Yan Ling locked eyes once more, nodding their heads with fearless smiles and starting their descent into the valley.