Chapter 162- Protective artifact

Chapter 162

A few hours later, Long Feng and Hua Liuli had entered deeper into the Yin ghost forest. The beasts the encountered became increasingly stronger and more ferocious, each of them overflowing with ghost energy.

He could also sense that the ghost yin energy which pervaded the air was slowly thickening. At this depths, an ordinary yin level cultivator would be consumed by this thick ghost energy.

As they walked, he used this opportunity to study the foundation sword art and even used the beasts they encountered to hone his understanding of it and deepen his insights. He could feel that his idea of using the foundation sword art as the basis of all his sword techniques was possible. He was naturally relieved to know that.

At this moment, they had just slaughtered a swamp beast when Long Feng spread out his soul power and instantly frowned. He had sensed a minute fluctuating of energy just now. Unsure if it was just his imagination, he spread out his soul power again but didn't sense anything.

He turned to Hua Liuli. "Did you sense something?"

Hua Liuli groaned with a sad face. "The only thing I can sense is that I'm dying of hunger."

Long Feng sighed, remembering that Hua Liuli had been nothing but a side audience and even a burden to him. These few hours, she hadn't lifted a finger to do anything even when beasts were attacking.

"Of course you wouldn't sense anything. Let's go"

He walked cautiously in the direction where he sensed this energy fluctuation with utmost vigilance.

He even laid a concealment formation around both himself and Hua Liuli for further safety.

Although he wasn't particularly strong currently, he could boast that with his peak heaven layered soul power, he could lay a formation which even spirit level masters would have a hard time seeing through. As for the yin ghosts who's weakness was particularly their weak soul and weak defense, probably even peak spirit level yin ghosts wouldn't be able to see through his soul formation without focusing completely.

They walked for two incense sticks worth of time in the direction before his soul power finally picked up some faint auras in the distance. But to him, these auras were like fireflies in a dark night.

"Pour your soul power into the formation!" He lowered his voice and said as he withdrew his spread out soul power. It would be unfortunate of the enemies were to sense his soul power and use it to track him down.

Hua Liuli grumbled but still did as he said, pouring her own peak heaven layered soul power into the concealment formation around then, further reinforcing it.

They both proceeded cautiously for another half an incense before they finally found the source of the auras they had felt.

Looking at the flat land with rough building structures and dozens of yin ghosts occasionally moving around, Long Feng felt the sides of his eyes twitching.

A yin ghost territory!

The question was now if there was a yin soldier overseeing this land, which was a great possibility.

Come to think of it, even if there was no yin soldier, just the spirit level yin ghosts were more than enough to vaporize the duo.

"This is the first territory we've ran into since we began our search. Yan jian and Li Yue'er could be here, but they might also be somewhere else entirely. In that case, all this would be a wild goose chase.

"There is also a possibility that big sister Li Yue'er also managed to escape like us and is hiding somewhere. Or she might have not been captured at all in the first place" Hua Liuli said, even though she herself felt that this was very unlikely.

"No matter what, we have to find a way to verify if they are here or not."

Beside him, Hua Liuli hesitated before she traced her void ring and took out a small Jade token.

The moment it appeared, the token released an oppressive energy wave which almost broke through the concealment formation and leak out.

Long Feng was secretly relieved that the concealment formation held on. Luckily, he had asked Hua Liuli to reinforce the formation earlier on with her spirit power.

His attention was soon drawn to the Jade token. It was only palm sized with a 'Hua' character written on one side of the token while the other side had a 'Yi' character.

Judging from the aura it released, this token was obviously a special artifact from the Yihua clan.

"What is that?" Long Feng asked.

Hua Liuli bit her lower lip. "This is a protective token given to the most talented direct descendants of the Yihua clan as a means of protection. They are created by the imperial level grand elders of the clans and only three of these are created and given out each generation due to their preciousness. I didn't think I would have to use it here."

Long Feng was amazed. "Created by an imperial level senior? How powerful is it? What does it do? And why do you have one?" He paused and looked at her, "don't tell me you stole it from the clan?"

Hua Liuli blushed slightly. "Does brother Long Feng thinks Liuli is so bad as to steal something so precious?"

"Sounds good enough" he also knew that it was impossible for her to steal it. The only explanation was that she was among the most talented descendants of the clan.

"It can only be used once. It is infused with the inner energy of an imperial level elder and I can either use this energy to flee or release a single attack. As for how strong, it is able to instantly kill a peak spirit level master if the person in question is caught off guard, and severely injure the person even if he is prepared, though it still falls short compared to a true imperial level master of even the lowest tier. That is just the one time attack. As for the escape usage, I can use the energy to flee with the speed of a rank one imperial level master for ten breaths of time. By then, the energy will be exhausted completely and the token will lose it's value" Hua Liuli slowly explained.

"No wonder you weren't nearly as bothered as the others were back when I met you in the Yin soldier's territory prison. You had such a treasure to rely on" Long Feng nodded understandingly and he gave her a deep glance.

"What? I'm using up my life saving treasure here, yet you can't even get me something to eat. Hmph!" Hua Liuli snorted playfully and looked away.

"With this protective artifact of yours, we can rush in and out within ten breaths if a yin soldier is not present here. But what if Yan jian and Miss Li are also not here? Wouldn't we have wasted this treasure for nothing? We aren't even sure if there is a Yin soldier here or not" Long Feng rubbed his temples with a sigh.

"We don't know. That means we can only take the risk." Hua Liuli yawned.

Long Feng nodded. "Here's the plan" he whispered softly to her and she kept nodding her head as she listened.

"The plan is quite dangerous," hua Liuli began with a frown, then a wide grin lit up her face, "I love it. Let's begin."

Right before they dispersed the concealment formation, Hua Liuli called,

"Brother Long Feng…"

"Hm?"

"I just wanted to let you know that if we die… it was all your fault!"

Long Feng's face twitched visibly on hearing that, but he didn't say anything and dispersed the concealment formation with a wave of his arm.

After doing that, both of them faintly released their auras as they retreated.

Immediately the concealment formation vanished, a couple of powerful auras swept over them before locking on to them.

Long Feng immediately wore a panicked expression on his face as he shouted, "Run Liuli!"

Both of them bolted away at their fastest speeds in the opposite direction of the yin ghosts territory.

But it was all futile. Dozens of powerful auras locked on to their positions as the owners of the auras approached at astonishing speed.

Eleven breaths later, Long Feng could already sense three peak spirit level auras just behind them.

In the blink of an eye, the three auras overtook the both of them while three powerful energies pressured them to a standstill.

The duo put on desperate expressions as they struggled to free themselves from the suppression, but this slight delay gave the other pursuers enough time to completely surround the duo.

"Hehehehe! What a surprise. Two fairly strong humans actually delivered themselves to our doorstep!" A cold chilly voice sounded. Looking forward, it was a pale smoke like you ghost who spoke. His aura was very powerful, symbolising the peak spirit level.

Looking around, the duo were completely surrounded with no path of escape.

Long Feng and Hua Liuli finally 'gave up' resisting with hopeless expressions on their faces.

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Final chapter for today. Thanks for reading, see ya tomorrow. Sweet dreams…