Chapter 699: Consecutive Blows

“Veluriyam Capital?” Jiang Chen received the Goldbiter Rats’ secret report almost immediately. The Goldbiter Rats race had undergone multiple bloodline evolutions, and some of them had even reached the human sage realm. The Goldbiter Rat King, in particular, was almost at the level of human earth sage realm. His cultivation speed was just as quick as Jiang Chen’s.

However, Jiang Chen didn’t feel envious of the Goldbiter Rats. 

They were a race of ancient saint beasts, and their bloodline was ludicrously powerful. In comparison, Jiang Chen held no advantages over them other than the fact that he possessed the memories from his past life. Moreover, the Goldbiter Rats were guaranteed to become powerful because their bloodline could evolve, and their inherited memories would awaken as they grew stronger. Unfortunately, the Goldbiter Rats were limited by the resources that they could scavenge, and the fact that they hadn’t evolved into a fierce form yet. But once the Goldbiter Rats completed their evolution, they would be an impressive trump card!

Even a couple hundred thousand or so Goldbiter Rats were enough to destroy countless experts. An almost unstoppable force of nature that was tens of millions strong. Even an emperor realm expert could only run on sight when faced with a crazy race like this one.

Of course, Jiang Chen wasn’t in a hurry. He had raised the Goldbiter Rats with the idea of long term investment in mind. When the time was right, the Goldbiter Rats would definitely become his ace! For now, they were more than qualified to act as his eyes and ears. Gong Wuji had summoned the Thunder Note Hall and the Great Roc Sect to the fringe of Regal Pill Palace territory. Jiang Chen had in turn heard of the news through the Goldbiter Rats. He was both shocked and angered.

What angered him was that Great Scarlet Mid Region had traded the people of the Regal Pill Palace like common goods. This was obviously slavery! What surprised him more was that he had read a little about Veluriyam Capital from the book ‘The Annals of Mountains and Rivers’. He knew that this mysterious force was very powerful among the Upper Eight Regions. This was an organization that not even Gong Wuji would dare to provoke. It might be far, far more difficult to save his people from Veluriyam Capital than from Great Scarlet Mid Region.

“Great Scarlet Mid Region!” Jiang Chen's fists were clenched tightly.

“Sir Jiang, Veluriyam Capital is quite far away from here. Even if we were to travel non-stop towards them, it would still take us a couple of months. If we wish to save your people, then it may be prudent to act as soon as possible.” Huang’er was also worried when she heard that Gouyu and the others had been sold to the Veluriyam Capital.

Jiang Chen nodded, “We should head out immediately, but Gong Wuji and the bastards of those two sects are still plotting against me. I need to teach them a lesson they won’t soon forget.”

He pondered for a moment, and a plan slowly formed in his mind. “Miss Huang’er, I’ll need your help again this time,” Jiang Chen’s smile was rather mysterious.

“Sure,” Huang’er didn’t even bother to ask how.

“Take Gong Qi with you and make some noise. It’d be best if you can make this kid scream. You’ll definitely be able to lure Gong Wuji and a couple of experts to you. I’ll then attack while they’re away and kill a couple of cultivators from the Thunder Note Hall and the Great Roc Sect. Let’s reap some more interest before we go.”

This was no problem at all for Huang’er. She possessed a number of powerful escape glyphs. Not even Gong Wuji could say with assurance that he could catch up to Huang’er. Even if he did, he wouldn’t need to worry for her safety since she had Gong Qi in hand.

“Let’s coordinate meeting spots once the matter is done. First day will be this location. If no one shows up, the second day’s location is here. If we run into trouble, day three’s location is…” Jiang Chen pointed at several locations on a spread map of Myriad Domain and made his arrangements patiently.

Huang’er was extremely smart. She understood Jiang Chen’s plan with a quick glance.

“Be careful, Sir Jiang. Your safety is of the utmost priority,” Huang’er gave him a rare reminder before she left.

“You too,” Jiang Chen replied gravely. After the duo parted ways, Jiang Chen waited until Huang’er had left and slowly counted. Then, without the slightest warning, he vanished into thin air.

At the borders of Regal Pill Palace territory, Gong Wuji and the two sect heads was almost done making their plans to ambush and kill Jiang Chen. It was obvious that they were determined to kill him this time. “Don’t worry, Master Gong. If your drugs work as intended, then we will definitely capture this Jiang Chen. When that happens… hehe,” The Thunder Note Hall’s sect head laughed sinisterly.

“Don’t underestimate our enemies. My drug is just one part of our plan. If the first plan doesn’t work, then we must immediately move on to the backup plan. Both of you must prepare all necessary arrangements by then.” Gong Wuji had prepared three plans in total, and if the first one didn’t work, he would immediately move onto the second plan. He would not brook any mistakes.

A bloodcurdling scream suddenly cut through the air as they went over the plan once more. The pitch of the scream clearly revealed its owner as a youth. It didn’t take long for the scream to register as belonging to Gong Qi. Gong Wuji’s face turned cold, “Was that Qi’er?”

The sect head of the Thunder Note Hall and the Great Roct Sect exchanged glances with each other. They had obviously realized that it was Gong Qi’s voice too. The atmosphere on the scene immediately turned oppressive and serious. Then——

Another bloodcurdling scream cut through the air, “Jiang Chen, you bastard, I swear, if you ever fall in my hands I’ll… Ah!!!”

This time, no one could mistake this voice for anyone else’s but Gong Qi’s. Everyone was stunned by this turn of events. Wasn’t Jiang Chen at the Regal Pill Palace? That was incredibly far from them, so how did Gong Qi’s voice transmit all the way to their meeting spot? It couldn’t be that their plans had been... exposed, could they? Had Jiang Chen brought Gong Qi out into the open as a show of strength? Gong Wuji couldn’t just sit by and do nothing. He charged out of the door, leaving behind a command, “Let’s go take a look.”

The sect head of the Great Roc Sect cast a glance at the sect head of Thunder Note Hall and said, “Let’s go.”

Although both sect heads felt that this whole thing might just be a ruse, they didn’t dare not show their support since Gong Wuji himself had gone. If they didn’t go after him and seek out the source of the voice, then Gong Wuji would be even more irate when he returned later. However, the two sect heads were very cautious and warned their subordinates, “Keep your heads about you just in case this is a trick to lure us away!”

The elders of both sects chuckled and said, “Don’t worry, sect head. If that kid dares to show his face here, we’ll make sure that he never returns!”

The elites of both sects had all been gathered at this place. Considering how numerous their experts were, they weren’t afraid of just one Jiang Chen. In their view, the reason Jiang Chen had even managed to capture Gong Qi was because he’d relied on dirty tricks and sneak attacks. They thought that Jiang Chen would have to be insane to attack their elite team head on. Unless he was suicidal! 

Although that was what the elders told their respective sect heads, they didn’t dare to neglect their defenses either. All of the elders stood up and personally patrolled the grounds, yelling, “Stay on high alert, everyone. If that Jiang Chen is stupid enough to charge into this place, then it’ll be the perfect opportunity for us to score some merits!”

“Hehe, I’m only afraid that he wouldn’t come!”

“It’ll be perfect if he shows up. We can capture him ourselves!”

“No way! There’s no way he has the guts to show his face around here!”

“Yeah, that kid ambushed senior brother Ding Rong and captured young master Gong only because he was using a couple of dirty tricks. But how powerful could he possibly be in true face to face combat?” There were plenty of people who didn’t see Jiang Chen as their equal or superior. Although Jiang Chen was a fourth rank sect disciple just like them, they’d always had this feeling of superiority that a fourth rank sect in the Great Scarlet Mid Region was far better than a corresponding sect in the Myriad Domain.

Jiang Chen was just a fourth rank sect genius in the Myriad Domain. He may have been in the limelight for the past few days, but that certainly didn’t put him on their level. Cultivators of both sects were frustrated with the amount of attention he’d been getting recently, and were only too eager to receive an opportunity to teach him a lesson. A sudden burst of laughter rang out in midair as they happily trash talked. An indifferent voice entered everyone’s ears, “Oh? Then, guess what? Here I am!”

Countless rampaging vines burst out of the ground before the voice’s echo had even dispersed. Lotuses started to bloom, and they whipped towards the crowd, maws gaping.

“Calm down, don’t panic!”

“Hold your ground. He’s just one person! Don’t be afraid!”

“Yeah, don’t be afraid. He’s only one person! What could he do even if he has three heads and six arms?”

Words were comforting in their own right, but the carnage that several hundred berserk vines can create is more than enough to make the most persuasive of arguments seem hollow. Some low realm cultivators even immediately fled from the scene. But there were also plenty of sage realm experts who leaped headlong into battle, unsheathing their blades as they hacked at the vines.

One slash, two slashes...

Swords and blades danced everywhere as hundreds of people defended themselves against the vines at the same time. They might not be able to cut down the vines in one cut, but they weren’t alone. The successive attacks of both swords and blades hacked apart countless vines. However, the vines themselves were rather flexible. As soon as the cultivators started to feel like they were about to gain the upper hand, all of the vines dived deep back underground. In a blink of an eye, they’d vanished.

“Eh? What’s going on?”

“Did he leave?”

“Don’t fall into his trap. This is a harassment tactic!”

“Yeah, we shouldn’t lose our own footing.” The unpredictable attack had vanished as quickly as it came. The two sects waited for the next wave to arrive with great suspicion, but it never did show up. It really seemed to just be a harassment tactic. Its only objective was to annoy them. However, a couple of origin realm cultivators started to collapse to the ground. Before long, more and more started to fall to their knees, clutching at their chests.

“Oh no! Poison!”

“I can’t move my body at all!”

“Ah! I’m poisoned too!” A dozen or so people standing near the edge of the battlefield cried out.

A couple of elders hastily yelled orders with ashen faces, “Leave this place now! Quickly!”

“Hold your breaths and don’t use your consciousness! We must evacuate this place quickly!” These elders had come to the realization that this attack wasn’t a probe or harassment at all. It was an absolutely lethal attack under the cover of a diversion. The vines were simply the delivery mechanism for the fatal poison. Chaos once engulfed the scene. The cultivators who showed the first signs of poison were all origin realm cultivators, but it didn’t take long for sage realm experts to begin to show symptoms too. The elites of both sects totaled several thousand people. Within minutes, the number of poisoned people reached eighty, and it only looked like it would increase from there.

The group quickly evacuated the scene under their elders’ commands. Suddenly, a volley of arrows sped through the air, aimed at their flank. Approximately thirty arrows, the elders flew up to deflect the arrows away, stopping a large majority from hitting their people. These elders were all sky sage realm cultivators. Some of them were even half step emperor realm. Naturally, these non-lethal arrows were nowhere near powerful enough to be a threat to their defenses. However, they immediately noticed that the arrows were just a trap. As the arrows landed harmlessly in the ground, they each discharged a burst of poison powder into the air.

“This is bad!”

“Retreat, retreat!”

“Don’t stay in one place, keep moving!” Every second they stayed inside the poison cloud meant an increase in casualties. At this moment, everyone of them felt a sudden sense of apprehensive fear. They’d originally thought that the Regal Pill Palace would be easy pickings, with the promise of a fat reward for little effort. But now, gloom and regret were the only emotions that filled their minds.