Volume Three: Rising Fame Chapter Sixty-Three: Speculation

Li Yu had no way of knowing what had happened behind them. He dragged Shen Yishuang along and ran dozens of miles without stopping for breath. It was not a good time to reveal themselves, so the two of them traveled on the ground.

By the time the sun had set, they had already been resting for quite some time in a secluded mountain cave.

After meditating for a long while, Li Yu raised his head and glanced at the bright moon, his thoughts heavy.

Shen Yishuang, on the other hand, had not suffered much exhaustion. After being seized by the black-robed young man outside the wind wall, she had been knocked unconscious before she could struggle or escape, and knew little of what happened afterward.

It was only when Li Yu began fighting the black-robed young man that the power of thunder stirred the temporary thunder acupoint within her body and accidentally broke through the seal, allowing her to awaken in a daze.

Had she not seen the fierce thunder beside her and recognized it as identical to the power of the lightning seed within her body, she would have fled long ago.

“People from the same hometown meeting in a foreign land, tears welling in both their eyes… It’s all a lie!”

Li Yu muttered somewhat dolefully.

How difficult it was to encounter someone from one’s own world in another realm. And yet, when the two of them met, their first thought had actually been to beat each other senseless.

The tears in their eyes were not entirely false, either… They had simply been caused by the beating, not by emotion.

Shen Yishuang was also surprised that Li Yu had come to rescue her. After they exchanged a few words, she mentioned several matters that immediately caught his interest.

“You mean you had already fallen into their hands at the very beginning, and then escaped?”

Li Yu clicked his tongue in astonishment.

He had seen the injuries on Shen Yishuang’s body when they first met. At the time, he had assumed she had been wounded by some native creature. He had never expected that these people had been responsible.

In other words, these people from Blue Star had entered the secret realm earlier than they had?

Li Yu tapped his finger lightly, then thought of another point.

“You said you found them extremely repulsive. Do you mean you felt disgust the moment you saw them?”

“Yes.” Shen Yishuang nodded. “I get irritated just looking at them.”

His finger paused, then resumed its rhythmic tapping.

Li Yu furrowed his brows tightly. “Now that I think about it, I also felt strangely irritated when I met that fellow from my world. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have chosen to fight him head-on.”

Only after everything was over did Li Yu suddenly realize how many peculiar details he had overlooked.

He had clearly known that the other man’s techniques were far superior to his own. At the time, he had still possessed a way out: he could have simply taken Shen Yishuang into the air and fled. Why, then, had he insisted on staking everything on a single throw?

The thunderball contained too many uncontrollable factors. The fact that he had never used it before was proof enough that Li Yu disliked techniques he could not fully control.

Yet when he faced the black-robed young man, he had used it without hesitation.

There had also been that strange, invisible attack. Although his heightened senses could detect it to a certain extent, when faced with such a dangerous and unknown technique, the wisest choice would have been to avoid a direct confrontation. Why had he insisted on meeting it head-on?

“Demon?”

Li Yu’s expression grew solemn as a particular word suddenly came to mind.

The realization sent a chill through him.

When the black-robed young man had flown over on his sword, he had clearly not been using metal-element spiritual energy. What did that imply?

The black-robed young man had seemed afraid of exposing something. His limbs had never remained outside the robe for long. Could that mean that when fighting Li Yu, he had actually been holding back, unable to attack with his full strength?

“Hah!”

Li Yu forcefully exhaled a breath of stale air, his heart filled with lingering fear.

Fortunately, he had used the thunderball. If he had forced the other man to attack with all his strength, he would probably already be dead.

Then Li Yu recalled that before entering the secret realm, Qingyang De had described demons as giving off a “foul” sensation, while Shen Yishuang had said that facing the black-robed young man made her feel “disgust.” Both sensations seemed to be negative.

Li Yu then remembered what he had received from his first system sign-in: access to this otherworldly realm. When he had asked the system about it, the description had mentioned the “will of the world.”

He felt that he was beginning to understand.

He had come to this world through the system. In other words, the will of the world acknowledged his arrival. It was like entering someone else’s home as a guest, so there was nothing improper about it.

The black-robed young man, however, had likely entered through some unknown method. He was essentially a thief sneaking into someone’s house. Naturally, the owner would not welcome him. That was why the people of this world felt an instinctive hostility toward such intruders.

Once he understood this, Li Yu was suddenly enlightened.

No wonder there seemed to be a mysterious organization above the martial artists on Blue Star. It was probably made up of those people from Blue Star who were capable of cultivation.

“Perhaps I’m also from Blue Star, so the will of the world affects me less than it affects the natives?” Li Yu fell into thought. “No… That black robe must be important too. Has he protected it all this time because it can conceal him?”

Li Yu felt as if he had discovered too many things at once, overturning everything he had previously believed. Yet the moment he tried to examine the matter in detail, he seemed to sink into an endless tangle, unable to determine where to begin.

It was not until midnight, when the moon was bright and the stars were sparse, that Li Yu rolled his neck. The confusion in his eyes had vanished completely.

If he could not figure it out, then there was no need to think about it.

What did the hidden cultivators on Blue Star have to do with him? Blue Star had no spiritual energy now. Those people were probably struggling to survive in some hidden corner, and they had neither family ties nor any connection with him. They would likely never cross paths in the future. Why should he worry over them?

Li Yu lowered his head and looked at the token.

He had no idea what material it was made from, yet it had remained completely undamaged even after being struck by the thunder.

What surprised him even more was that the number on the token had changed again.

“Twenty-three?”

Could it have been damaged during the battle? What was going on with this number? Why had it increased by so much?

After a while, Li Yu finally thought of Ying Yongge’s token.

Since Ying Yongge had died and his token had fallen into the hands of the black-robed young man, perhaps during the battle, the points in that token had been transferred to his own.

This battle had not been a loss after all.

Ying Yongge had gathered a group of people. Although they had spent most of the journey tracking Qing Yuan and later turned to tracking Li Yu, they had casually eliminated quite a few isolated clan members along the way. Most of those points had been stored in Ying Yongge’s token.

Who would have thought they would ultimately benefit Li Yu?

Li Yu weighed the token in his hand and smiled. Then he put it away and looked at Shen Yishuang.

“When you fell into their hands earlier, how many of them were there? What were their cultivation levels?”

Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated.

Although Li Yu had decided not to investigate the matter too deeply, he still wanted to learn more, lest something unexpected happen later.

…

…

Several clan members leapt from tree to tree. When they encountered one another, they were clearly not from the same group, yet none of them attacked. Instead, they spread out slightly and hurried in the same direction.

Along their path, within a radius of five kilometers, every clan member was moving toward the same destination.

“We can’t return to the base for now…”

The black-robed young man sat cross-legged atop the canopy, worry filling his eyes.

He could feel a malicious gaze watching him. It was no illusion. That vast, ancient pressure weighed upon his heart so heavily that he could barely breathe.

It was the will of the world.

After the black robe had been torn apart, its concealing effect had vanished completely. He was now like a naked man being watched by countless eyes. He could even sense several auras approaching.

The will of the world had no ability to act directly here. Besides, if a few insects entered one’s home, would the owner really need to crush them personally?

Those approaching auras belonged to the clan members who were rushing toward him under the influence of the world’s will.

“Boom!”

Driven by the will of the world, the nearest clan member could no longer restrain himself. He suddenly attacked, striking toward the black-robed young man.

“Whoosh!”

An invisible attack struck the clan member, who was only at the mid-seventh rank. His flesh burst apart, and he died on the spot.

“Barbarian.”

Such a person posed no threat to him at all. The black-robed young man snorted coldly and hurriedly resumed meditating.

But only a few minutes later, another clan member arrived.

The thin man stepped directly into the pool of blood. Without even sparing a glance at the corpse whose upper and lower halves had been separated, he raised his blade and swung it at the black-robed young man with a look of disgust.

One clan member after another was drawn here by the influence of the world’s will. Even from three or four kilometers away, they could locate the black-robed young man with perfect accuracy.

By the time he faced the final few attackers, the black-robed young man’s expression had darkened. In an effort to conserve his strength, he had already begun fighting with nothing but his fists and feet.

“Finally finished…”

The black-robed young man withdrew his hand from the chest of a burly man and looked over the corpses scattered across the ground. Before he could even breathe a sigh of relief, his expression abruptly changed.

He sensed a group of people suddenly appearing nearby—more than ten of them, including two fifth-rank cultivators.

“Heaven itself wants me dead!”

The black-robed young man threw back his head and let out a furious howl.

According to his past experience, once he was exposed, everyone within a five-kilometer radius would be affected and driven toward him.

That was why he had deliberately chosen this location. There were not many people in this direction, which meant fewer enemies to deal with. After his battle with Li Yu, he had suffered serious injuries, and this place was also suitable for recuperating.

Unfortunately, no one could outwit fate.

By coincidence, two members of this group had entered the affected area. Once influenced, they had charged toward him, howling like wild beasts.

The others had no idea what had driven their companions mad and hurried after them. The moment they entered the affected area, they too were influenced and attacked the black-robed young man.

…

…

The night passed without incident.

When Li Yu awoke early the next morning, he discovered that Shen Yishuang was still sleeping soundly on the ground.

“Even spirit treasures need sleep?”

Li Yu curled his lips. After tidying himself up, he woke her, and the two of them set off in the direction indicated by the token.

Come to think of it, there had been no sign of anyone from the Xiong clan until now. They had at least shared several meals together, and since he had finished dealing with his own affairs, Li Yu felt that he ought to look for Xiong Xiuer, both out of sentiment and reason.