Chapter 263: Chapter 54 Unexpected Person_1

“So does that mean if we want to return to East Saint’s base, the only way is to take the same route back?”

In the valley, Wang Ba asked with a solemn expression.

The person he asked was none other than Hua Meng and two other Tianmen Cult cultivators who were fortunate enough to have survived, saved by Wang Ba.

Hearing Wang Ba’s inquiry, the three of them quickly nodded. Hua Meng also spoke with a grave expression:

“When we came over, we sneaked in from the control area of the Incense Fire Dao as well. However, now that they are aware of us, there will surely be many cultivators guarding the route, both on land and in the sky.”

“So it’s going to be difficult if we want to leave now.”

“Can’t we detour from the southwest?”

Wang Ba asked persistently.

The south would certainly be heavily guarded, the southeast was where the Mountain Sea Sect located.

Whereas to the east and northeast, they would still be in the area controlled by Incense Fire Dao.

The only option that seemed promising was to head southwest.

“To the southwest there is another leader of this group of incense-burning Dao wizards, Zheng Yuanhua, who was responsible for inflicting severe injuries on Yan Yun of the Sword Demon Dao …”

A thin and sallow Tianmen Cultivator suddenly spoke up.

Hearing the name of Zheng Yuanhua, Wang Ba’s face tightened.

He was well aware of this man as well.

It was said that he was a man of the same class as Li Canghai.

And now, without the jade pendant gifted by Zhao Feng, Wang Ba had no way to threaten him anymore.

With this thought in mind, Wang Ba shook his head quickly and put forward his suggestion, “Or else, why don’t we go to Qianyu Lake?”

“Qianyu Lake?”

Hua Meng and the others exchanged glances after hearing this, “That’s a place for Rogue Cultivators….”

“Whether they are rogue cultivators or not doesn’t matter. Our top priority is to avoid being purged by the monks of Incense Fire Dao.”

Wang Ba’s thoughts were clear; as he was quite uncomfortable with the words of Zong’er. Staying in the territory controlled by Incense Fire Dao, he wasn’t feeling safe.

Though the rogue cultivators’ territory might not be entirely safe either, at least no one is watching him there.

Meanwhile, the thin and sallow cultivator responded promptly, “The senior is right! We needn’t care about many things; we should first get through the urgent situation as of now!”

He analyzed seriously:

“Going to Qianyu Lake is truly a feasible option. Here many rogue cultivators have been forced to migrate due to the changing situation of Chen State and the strong growth of Incense Fire Dao during the past decade or so. It’s a mixed place and the most suitable destination for us!”

“Moreover, many of our fellow disciples from the Tianmen Cult who still couldn’t return to their bases as their return routes had been cut off by Incense Fire Dao are also in the vicinity. After joining them, there might be a chance for us to go back.”

“Most importantly, we are not far away from here. If we decide to leave, it would take just a day at maximum based on the senior’s flying speed.” Hearing this, Wang Ba promptly took out a map from his Storage Bag.

“Let’s see which way we should take?”

The three discussed immediately. As veterans who had been on the outside for years, they were familiar with the routes. Thus, they soon figured out a route. Perhaps sensing that the other two cultivators were striving to compete with him for position, Hua Meng enthusiastically suggested:

“Senior, starting from our location here, considering the need to minimize confrontations with Incense Fire Dao and the goal to reach Qianyu Lake as soon as possible, we proposed to travel in the order of Hangu City, Banqiao River, and Dingzhai…”

“You decide the route, just be quick!”

Wang Ba didn’t join the discussion. Firstly, he wasn’t familiar with the outside world and secondly, he trusted that these three would rack their brains to come up with the safest route in order to survive.

The trust bestowed by Wang Ba filled the three cultivators with a sense of admiration.

As it were, they owed their lives to Wang Ba. Even though the cultivators of the sect were indifferent in general, it was difficult to completely ignore such kindness.

Soon, the three of them worked out and finalized the entire route on the map.

Meanwhile, Hua Meng explained the situation to Wang Ba:

“According to our previous understanding of Incense Fire Dao’s defenses, we will definitely encounter three groups of cultivators blocking us. The first two groups shouldn’t be much trouble, but the last group guarding the periphery of Qianyu Lake would be the most problematic, as their cultivation bases are very high. Our Brother disciples who were at Qianyu Lake have tried many times but have failed to return successfully to their bases.”

“Let’s proceed and see.”

Without saying much, Wang Ba led the three men to fly closely to the ground following the designated route.

As expected, after flying for more than 2 hours, they ended up encountering the first batch of Incense Fire Dao cultivators.

They were not specifically waiting for Wang Ba, but this was an important route; Wang Ba had to pass through it leading to an inevitable encounter.

Facing the three cultivators in the early stages of foundation establishment, Wang Ba did not hold back at all; he released most of his mana, cast more than ten spells in a single breath, and reduced the three of them to dust instantaneously.

Even the residence where the three cultivators were staying was leveled to the ground.

The three cultivators who were following Wang Ba were completely taken aback by Wang Ba’s extraordinary spell reserve.

Good grief!

Deploying more than ten attack spells, and none of them were repeated!

Isn’t Elder Wang a superhuman?!

After all, everyone knows how time-consuming it is to study spells!

A regular cultivator usually takes the time to develop a handful, three or four mastered spells at best, and then maybe learn some other practical minor spells.

As for someone like Wang Ba, at least with their limited knowledge, they had never encountered someone of his like.

Hence, their attitude towards Wang Ba became increasingly respectful.

Consequently, Wang Ba successfully obtained the storage bags of the three cultivators.

He then led the three of them straight to Qianyu Lake, while at the same time, breaking the seal on the four storage bags he held in his hand.

One of them belonged to the Incense-burning Dao Cultivator who had previously attacked Hua Meng and the others.

Soon, he was pleasantly surprised to find Divine Dew in all four storage bags. Each bag only contained five to six dewdrops, but when added up, they ended up being comparable to those in the hands of the square-faced Cultivator.

What pleased Wang Ba the most was that in one of the storage bags, he found several black jars nurturing Yin Ghosts.

After investigating, he discovered that one of the Yin Ghosts had actually reached Class I top grade.

Wang Ba directly converted these Yin Ghosts into soul seeds using the Withered Soul method.

The process was not complicated, and Wang Ba was able to complete it while in flight.

After that, he collected these soul seeds along with the ones he previously obtained from the square-faced Cultivator, and put them into a black jar.

According to the record of the Withered Soul method, once soul seeds are in contact with other soul seeds, they will naturally begin to consume each other, until a single strongest soul seed, possessing all the powers of the previous soul seeds, emerges.

This process was swift. Before long, all the soul seeds in the black jar had disappeared, leaving only a Class II lower grade soul seed.

Upon seeing this, Wang Ba couldn’t help but feel a little regretful.

A Class II lower grade soul seed held little significance to him.

After all, his Spirit Beasts, his main source of power, had basically reached Class II upper grade.

A Class II lower grade soul seed could only enhance a Class II lower grade Spirit Beast to Class II middle grade.

Not long after, they encountered another group of Incense-burning Dao Cultivators.

This group of Cultivators were noticeably stronger than the previous group, and Wang Ba even had to call on Jia 16 for assistance.

Thanks to Jia 16’s several sneak attacks, Wang Ba was able to successfully obtain four more storage bags.

This time, however, there were no nurtured Yin Ghosts or soul seeds. Instead, he collected some gold paper rubbings carrying Soul Spells, as well as some Spirit Stones, talismans, and the like.

Without looking into it in detail, Wang Ba collected all of it.

“Elder, that’s Qianyu Lake. This lake was formed gradually in recent years due to flooding that covered the mountains. It has many seemingly islands, over a thousand in fact, hence the name Qianyu Lake.”

“See that highest mountain by the lake? That’s called ‘Vantage Peak’. It offers the perfect view of the lake and mountains; the scenery is absolutely wonderful!”

Hua Meng, pointing towards the vast lake in the distance and perhaps gaining confidence in Wang Ba, was surprisingly not nervous at all and provided a detailed explanation as though he was discussing a household treasure.

Wang Ba suddenly realized why he hadn’t seen this on his map. His map was bought ten years ago at a bookstore in the market of the East Saint Sect. Naturally, it wouldn’t denote the location of Qianyu Lake as it came into formation only in recent years.

“Why haven’t we seen any Incense-burning Dao Cultivator coming over?”

Upon looking around, Wang Ba realized that their arrival hadn’t resulted in the foreseen battle.

Hua Meng and his companions were also confused, but for them, it was more of good news.

Of course, Wang Ba wouldn’t delve into the reason for it. Instead, he immediately led the three of them swiftly towards Qianyu Lake.

However, not long into their flight, Wang Ba sensed some commotion ahead.

But his view was blocked by the towering Vantage Peak, and he couldn’t see what was going on.

After a while, the noise suddenly grew louder.

“Boom!”

“Crackle!”

“Swoosh!”

A series of ear-shattering sounds!

The unmistakable sounds of Spells intertwining!

Cautiously, Wang Ba skirted around the waist of the hill from the side.

Immediately, he saw several Class 11 Incense-burning Dao Cultivators suppressing a group of Cultivators with a variety of attire styles, freely casting a myriad of Spells .

There were only a few people, yet they gave the impression that they had surrounded hundreds of other Cultivators.

“It’s the Rogue Cultivators!”

Hua Meng exclaimed in surprise.

Wang Ba instantly understood why no one had come to stop them – these people were busy massacring the Rogue Cultivators!

Most of these Rogue Cultivators, who were primarily at the Qi Refining stage, were struggling to dodge the attacks of the Class II Incense-burning Dao Cultivators.

Had they not formed a defensive formation, they would probably have been completely slaughtered by these Incense-burning Dao Cultivators.

Even so, there were constantly some Cultivators with low Cultivation Bases or belated reactions being hit by Class II Spells or Magic Tools, instantly turning them into mush.

“Retreat! Retreat! Retreat first!”

Someone in the crowd couldn’t help but shout.

The originally relatively well-organized Formation began to falter.

This immediately incited more aggressive attacks.

Seeing this situation, Wang Ba couldn’t help but feel a lament welling up in his heart.

In the presence of Cultivators of a higher stage, the measures of lower-grade Cultivators, no matter how many, appeared extremely brittle.

In the vast majority of the cases, only by having an advantage in terms of realm, one could stand on an invincible ground.

Thereafter, it was mainly about fully utilizing the advantage that realm brought.

With a light shake of his head, Wang Ba didn’t intend to meddle. With his Mana spiraling, he was just about to rush into Qianyu Lake with Hua Meng and the others.

However, when his gaze inadvertently fell on one of the disheveled Cultivators, who was emitting the aura of an early-stage Foundation Establishment phase ’ and leading the group, he suddenly froze.

“Why is he here?”