Chapter 111: Erase Marks

A day later, Lou Mu Yan opened her eyes. The injures within her body had been healed by the Energy Nourishing Pill, and her Elemental Energy and physical strength had also been restored to the peak.

The people in the Ten Distinguished Clans, except the Xin Clan, got up one after the other, looking towards the end of the forest, preparing to leave under the command of the middle-aged man.

“You all also get ready. We’ll set off in a quarter of an hour with the nine Distinguished Clans.” Lan Si leapt off a big tree, casually arranged his clothes, said to the students of Yan’zhou Kingdom.

“Teacher, are we going to cooperate with the people from the nine Distinguished Clans?” After experiencing some incidents in the Glacial Mountain Range, Ji Han Xu no longer had the silly smiles he had before entering the Glacial Mountain Range and talked a lot less as well.

Lan Si chuckled lightly: “No. After arriving at the birthplace of the Heavenly Frost Golden Crystal, every ally is an enemy. We’re just travelling together for now.”

Ji Han Xu nodded and didn’t say anymore. Although deep down in his heart he longed to obtain the Heavenly Frost Golden Crystal, but he was aware that he didn’t have the ability to obtain it.

“The nine Distinguished Clans and the pupils of Yan’zhou Kingdom, listen.” The middle-aged man, the leader of the Ten Distinguished Clans, clapped his hands and gathered everyone, then said: “We will travel together now. After we find the Heavenly Frost Golden Crystal you will all separate. This includes all the alliances made within the Ten Distinguished Clans, end it when we arrive, and we each listen to fate.”

Previously, the Ten Distinguished Clans unanimously agreed to make an alliance because they wanted to seal the news. After arriving at the place the Heavenly Frost Golden Crystal was to be born, who would still obey that alliance. Naturally it was who snatched it would it belong to who.

“Yes!” Everyone replied in unison.

“Go!” The middle-aged man waved his hand and all the elite pupils quickly headed towards the depths of the forest.

Lou Mu Yan scanned the people in the nine Distinguished Clans and she found that all the Sword Monarch powerhouses that appeared before were not in this team at this time. They probably all went ahead long ago to prepare for battle.

This time, the main reason the Ten Distinguished Clans sent elite pupils to contend for the Heavenly Frost Golden Crystal was probably to help them gain experience.

Judging from the appearance of the two Sword Sovereigns, the other Sword Sovereigns from the other Clans must’ve also reached the Glacial Mountain Range already, and there must be even more Sword Monarch powerhouses.

Lou Mu Yan curled her lips. She wondered whether the Imperial Teacher succeeded in inviting the two Sword Sovereign powerhouses of Yan’zhou Kingdom. She had absolutely no fear at the arrival of so many powerhouses, and instead, felt that it should only be natural.

The stronger they were, the more interesting it was to compete for it, wasn’t it? Although she didn’t like using sinister crafty plots and means, but she did like to take advantage of chaos.

The group of people rushed non-stop, and it was also inconvenient for Ye Qing Han and Ye Qing Le to leave the Ye Clan’s team, so they would only communicate with their gazes with Lou Mu Yan.

Ling Fei Hao also stuffed an emerald jade into Lou Mu Yan’s hand, telling her that when she was in danger, she should crush the emerald jade and the strongest Sword Monarch of the Ling Clan would sense it.

All the way, it was abnormally quiet. There weren’t any movements from any Demonic Beasts. Everyone was constantly wary and alert while Le Xiang would cast complicated gazes towards Lou Mu Yan from time to time.

Ji Han Xu, who was not far beside her, noticed Le Xiang’s strangeness and remembering the bit of news he had accidentally received, he fell silent for a bit, then finally gritted his teeth and slowed down slightly. When he approached Lou Mu Yan, he called after her.

“Lou Mu Yan.”

Lou Mu Yan glanced at Ji Han Xu who usually didn’t have much interaction with her, and it could even be said that they had conflicts with each other because of what happened before with Yun Ge. She couldn’t guess what his purpose of calling out to her was, “What is it?”

“Be careful of Le Xiang!”

When the two passed by each other, Ji Han Xu whispered exceptionally softly into Lou Mu Yan’s ear as if he didn’t say anything, then he said no more and pulled their distance apart again. He kept up in speed and continued to follow the team, but didn’t look at her anymore, nor spoke.

Lou Mu Yan was a little surprised about why Ji Han Xu would caution her. She only thought that perhaps Le Xiang was suspicious but didn’t take it to heart. Now, because of Ji Han Xu’s caution, she was a little more concerned.

In the Immortal Cultivation World where the weak became meat for the strong, she broke through to the Body Fusion Stage, and could even almost advance to the Great Ascension Stage. Throughout, she had always known one true principle.

Never underestimate anyone who appeared to be inferior to your cultivation base or strength. The details decided one’s success or failure. Sometimes what ruined things were precisely those inconspicuous people or events.

She spread her Spiritual Sense and also discovered that Le Xiang cast frequent strange gazes towards her, and even left black stones on the ground or black scratches on large trees every now and then.

Lou Mu Yan’s eyes darkened slightly—this Le Xiang wasn’t very strong, but there was always a sense of disharmony about her.

Le Xiang’s actions of tossing stones and scratching trees were obviously leaving marks for people and it seemed that someone was preparing to be the oriole behind the mantis that stalked the cicada1.

“Mo Yan, do you think there’s a problem with the woman who was fighting with me before?” Lou Mu Yan asked Mo Yan using Mental Energy as she rushed.

Mo Yan’s deep and serene black eyes rolled in thought. He didn’t turn his head and replied with certainty: “Naturally there’s a problem. There’s a power sealed in her body, the same as the power that could instantly raise one’s strength used by the woman that you last faced off with during the Academy’s Grand Competition.”

A hint of confusion crossed Lou Mu Yan’s eyes and then a small, calculative curve rose on her lips, “Mo Yan.”

“What do you want to do again?” The flame-like fur on Mo Yan’s head moved. As long as this woman displayed such an expression, it was definitely to calculate against someone, and she’d definitely want him to act.

“You can erase all the secret signals she left on the way right?” Lou Mu Yan obscurely looked at the stones Le Xiang dropped again.

Mo Yan closed his eyes—he, a dignified King of a portion of the Demonic Realm, to think would meet with misfortune and fall to this sort of unfavourable situation where he was ordered by a woman to do these boring things, “You think if you erased their secret signals, those people won’t be able to find where the Heavenly Frost Golden Crystal is?”

“Those people can naturally find it, but they wouldn’t have time to prepare and ambush. When they arrive, it’d be perfect for them to mess up the situation, and then we can take advantage of the chaos.” Lou Mu Yan’s lustrous and bright eyes that were like glass carried a smile.

Mo Yan twitched the corners of his mouth. This woman was indeed not some righteous person, but it was just to his appetite. As long as she wasn’t some insidious, conniving, and heartless person, then such a temperament was more suitable for the path of the strong.

From forming a contract with Lou Mu Yan until now, he discovered that Lou Mu Yan wasn’t a good person, but her personality wasn’t bad; she didn’t abhor evil as if her deadly foe, but definitely would never let go of people who calculated against her; she treated people with some distance and was sometimes very cunning and good at calculations, but she would treat all those that she acknowledged with sincerity and generosity.

All in all, Lou Mu Yan’s temperament changed greatly, but she was able to let those that interacted with her recognise her from their hearts. There was simply an invisible magical power that she carried, making people want to be closer to her and give their trust.

After sighing, Mo Yan realised that the more he interacted with this black-bellied little woman, the less he was like that cold-hearted and indifferent person he was before—but he unexpectedly didn’t dislike such changes.

He closed his eyes and a trace of Demonic Sense that no one noticed came out of his body, rolled up all the black stones from behind and piled them under a tree that Le Xiang had left traces on.

Aside from that tree, the black marks on all the trees in front were all erased by a powerful Demonic Consciousness that had been strengthened and solidified.

Along the way, nothing occurred, and half a day later, when everyone arrived at the end of the forest, the earth trembled and mountains shook suddenly. Not far away, the sky was filled with five-coloured clouds that gathered. Numerous birds flew across the sky and a beam of dazzling golden light shot straight up towards the horizon.

“The Heavenly Frost Golden Crystal’s about to be born, hurry!” The leading middle-aged man shouted, then immediately turned into a stream of light, disappearing at the end of the forest.

1‘the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind’ classic idiom many might’ve heard. To be careless, coveting the gains before it but neglecting the larger danger behind. Whoever Le Xiang words for wants to be that oriole.