Volume Three: Rising Fame Chapter Thirty-Eight: The White Fox’s Whereabouts

Atop the mountain, everything was buried beneath a vast expanse of snow-white.

Yet the white foxes Li Yu most wanted to find were nowhere in sight.

With a sharp hiss, he pierced a sixth-rank exotic beast through the body with a single finger. His expression remained cold, and his outwardly released spiritual power kept not a single drop of blood from splashing onto him.

"I can only pick a direction at random."

Li Yu murmured softly to himself. It was the worst possible choice.

As Ying Tianhe had said, this secret realm truly resembled a world of its own. Its inner space was vast beyond measure. If he chose the wrong direction, and it happened to lead away from the White Fox Clan’s location, he might never get another chance to confirm it.

He tapped lightly off the ground and dropped down a sheer cliff at the side. Just before reaching the bottom, he used a few shifts of force to break his fall and land on the ground, then headed off at random in one direction.

Elsewhere.

A trio had gathered together and were studying the traces on the ground with lowered heads.

"Is it really them?" the woman asked, somewhat suspicious.

"Yes. It matches the records exactly," the other man said, a greed he could not hide flashing in his eyes.

This secret realm had remained hidden from the world for a very long time. It was entirely possible that it contained creatures long extinct in the outside world. If they truly managed to obtain one...

"What are you looking at?"

A man’s voice came from the side. Then a young man parted the low shrubs and walked out. Looking at the three of them, he frowned slightly.

"Your Highness, we found traces of the Azure Clan!" Shan Zhizhuan said, bowing deeply. His lowered head quietly signaled to the two beside him, and only then did he look up again. "By my judgment, Azure Abyss must have passed this way."

He spoke with complete confidence, not at all afraid of being exposed as a liar.

Because he had indeed been tracking Azure Abyss’s trail. Only in the process had he unexpectedly discovered other traces. An improvised falsehood like this was the least likely to be noticed.

As expected, the prince before him did not doubt him.

"No need to look for him. He is at fifth rank, and he is a member of the Azure Clan. We’ll wait until everyone is gathered before making our move." The Ninth Prince, Ying Yongge, waved a hand, motioning for the three to follow him, then said bitterly, "The Azure Clan is so arrogant. This time they’re bound to bleed for it."

In the imperial family of Great Ming, only the first three princes were blood descendants of the reigning emperor, Ying Tianhe. The other princes were mostly selected from within the clan, with many of them backed by separate powers.

Ying Yongge was the same. His bloodline talent was not weak, and four clans had placed their bets on him, raising him all the way to the position of Ninth Prince. In the future, he would also have a chance to contend for the throne.

For this journey into the secret realm of the Hundred Clans Assembly, besides the clans supporting him, he had also tried to invite two members of the Azure Clan. The response from Azure Abyss had been decent enough, merely a polite refusal. But on Li Yu’s side, he had not even been granted an audience.

If it had been like this with everyone, that would have been one thing. But his "dear elder brother," the Second Prince, had actually been granted a meeting.

That was another reason he harbored such deep dissatisfaction toward the Azure Clan.

In another place, the surrounding mountains and forests had been devastated, clearly showing that a fierce battle had just broken out there.

"We admit defeat! Take the points!" the man on the ground said coldly. "I never thought you’d get the better of us by taking advantage of the fact that we had just fought a battle and were vulnerable!"

"Blame your bad luck, then." The effeminate man looked down at him from above. As he watched the points on the token rise from two to seven, a flash of icy light passed through his eyes. Then he lifted the bloodstained weapon in his hand high.

A moment later.

"Why did you go for the kill just now?"

The effeminate man washed the blood off his weapon by a stream. Faced with the question, he did not turn around, only said indifferently:

"I don’t have any obligation to explain myself to you, but I’m in a good mood, so I’ll be generous and tell you."

"Inside the secret realm, if we let them live, they’ll bear a grudge. After their injuries heal, they’ll definitely come after us. Why not settle it once and for all?"

"And if we’re talking about the outside world, their territory is right next to ours. Our relationship after the secret realm will be affected by what we do here. Since we made a move, we might as well make sure they can never talk back. If nobody knows, then it won’t be us who did it, understand?"

The woman who had asked snorted coldly, but said nothing more. She accepted the effeminate man’s reasoning.

"Dead men tell no tales..." The effeminate man stood up. "This secret realm is going to be brutal."

He was right.

The secret realm was unimaginably vast. Although it scattered the members of the clans, they were still dispersed within the same general region, greatly increasing the chances of encountering one another.

Many clans that had no alliance and no conflict of interests nevertheless chose to strike at each other in order to improve their ranking in the Hundred Clans Assembly.

And once they did, they struck to kill.

There were even those who, before entering the secret realm, turned their blades on lone companions within the very same alliance.

Li Yu remained completely unaware of all this. Because he had fixed on one direction and rushed ahead at full speed, he rarely encountered anyone from the clans.

Even when he did, with his speed he would leave anyone trying to pursue him far behind in an instant, forcing even those with ill intent to give up.

Along the way there were broad rivers, deserts, and even marshes with no visible end.

Some exotic beasts disturbed by Li Yu tried to give chase, but they, too, could only follow for a short distance before being left far behind and forced to abandon the pursuit.

"Still nothing."

Li Yu pressed his lips together, a trace of helplessness rising in his heart.

This world was far too large. If he searched like this, who knew how long it would take?

He could even sense several exotic beast lairs with fifth-rank fluctuations of power. Those places he could only avoid from a distance. As for dry terrain like deserts, he steered clear of those as well.

"Should I ask someone?"

Li Yu considered this.

If he asked the clan members he encountered about the places they had seen along the way, he could cut down on some unnecessary detours. But if he did that, he would have to bring forward his conflict with the other contestants.

"It looks like I can only take things one step at a time."

Li Yu landed atop the canopy of a huge tree. Just as he was about to survey the surroundings, a sudden rustling tremor rose beneath his feet.

Several vines shot out from the dense green leaves and wrapped around his ankles. Not only that, they were continuing to climb and bind his body.

"A plant-type exotic beast?"

Li Yu was somewhat surprised. If this tree had not regarded him as prey and tried to devour him, he really would not have noticed anything unusual.

When he had leaped onto the canopy, the tree had shown no sign of movement at all.

In the blink of an eye, the vines had already crept up to his waist.

Li Yu did not think further. Thunder spiritual power burst outward from his whole body. In a single instant, a faint crimson glow appeared within the vines, and they lost all vitality completely, slumping to the ground.

If someone were to pry one open, they would find that it had already been burned to charcoal.

"Behave yourself!"

Li Yu barked a low command.

He had not expected that this demonic tree, which had been trying to swallow him, would actually stop its branches.

Not only that, the tree gave off a strange ripple. When it fell upon Li Yu, an ancient voice sounded in his mind.

"Human, why do you trespass into my territory without permission? Have you forgotten our agreement?"

An exotic beast that could speak?

Li Yu’s thoughts shifted, and he asked, "I want to ask you something. Is there a white fox nearby?"

"No."

Before Li Yu could even sink into disappointment, the demonic tree’s voice continued.

"You must go west. The White Fox Clan has migrated there."