Eternal Swordmaster
Chapter 624 - 619: Courage 5

Chapter 624: Chapter 619: Courage 5

After Feng Huai went to sleep, a female cultivator in the team quietly got up and walked over to Lin Xin’s side.

"Brother Lin."

Lin Xin turned his head to glance at her.

"What is it?"

The female cultivator gave a bitter smile, revealing a terrible gash on the right side of her comely face. Clearly a wound from an earlier battle, in this place devoid of spell methods, where even their potions had run out, she was left in such a sorry state.

"I know it’s presumptuous to ask, but there’s something I’d like to request of you, brother."

The female cultivator lifted a letter she was holding in her hand.

"If I die during this mission, could you please help pass a message to my family... I wonder."

Lin Xin looked at the Third Rank female cultivator, his expression unchanged. After a moment, he spoke softly.

"Wouldn’t it be better for you to return and deliver the message yourself?"

"I fear I may not live long enough..." the female cultivator shook her head. "My father, Zhao Xuanzhen, is the family head of the Zhao Family in the Chongyang Realm. I earnestly request, brother..."

Her eyes carried a hint of pleading.

Lin Xin looked up and noticed, unknowingly, several other cultivators from the team had also gathered, each clutching their own letters, all looking hopefully at him.

"Leave it to me," he said, sighing softly.

If anyone could survive this mission, the odds were greatest for him.

Thus, everyone pinned their hopes on him.

They were just ordinary cultivators from Green Lake Mountain; though each of them might be a prodigy outside, within their sect, they were no more than common members.

Feng Huai, lying on his side asleep facing away from everyone, also sighed softly.

He too had received some letters from the team members and naturally understood Lin Xinҳ feelings.

Hearing team members walk up one by one to hand over their letters to Lin Xin, he felt uncomfortable. No one had expected what they thought would be an easy task to suddenly be suppressed by a storm, disrupting their spell methods and reducing his Fifth Rank power to about that of Fourth Rank, with many items sealed away in spatial equipment and inaccessible.

Their mission had resulted in such heavy casualties and injuries.

"Four Seas Fairy Mountains...!" Thinking back to the bones of team members who had died in the snow along the way, Feng Huai’s heart tightened slightly, and his eyes grew fierce.

Having cultivated for only two hundred years, he had yet to see through life and death, love and hatred.

*******************

Heavy snow fell gently like feathers.

A broken building, its upper half slanted down, rested on the roof of a shorter building next to it, creating a shadowed area resembling a sunshade.

Lin Yaoyang sat alone in the shadow, a little white light constantly flickering on and off in his hand.

"The Purifying Force must be very strong; it’s just that I haven’t found the method to harness it." He tried to suppress the memory of the previous scene, calming his mind to continue practicing control of the Purifying Force.

"Yaoyang!"

Suddenly, from the campfire nearby, Song Danhao stood up and called out to him.

"There’s a new discovery."

Lin Yaoyang hurriedly stood up and walked over, approaching the campfire. Xu Ling was preparing some nauseating ointment nearby.

Gongshang Baiyu was slowly drinking from a strangely-smelling bottle.

Song Danhao was alone, stirring the fire.

"Yaoyang, I think I roughly know where the thing we’re looking for is," he said solemnly, completely serious.

"The thing we’re looking for?" Lin Yaoyang was puzzled.

"Yes, we must find a way to leave this place, but since a while back, I’ve vaguely felt as though some force is watching us, guiding us to move deeper into these ruins."

Song Danhao explained.

"Deep in my bloodline, there is a voice that has always been calling to me. At first, I feared it was something malevolent, so I ignored it, but now, we have no other choice."

"Four Seas Fairy Mountains, Illusory Sea, Green Lake Mountain, and even other weaker sects have arrived. What is considered weak compared to these three major sects can also cause us significant trouble.

So indeed, we have no other choice."

Xu Ling’s face was tightly furrowed as she endeavored to pour the thick, bizarre ointment into an empty bottle.

This was something she had just concocted, an improvised ointment made from materials found on site, which might become life-saving medicine at any moment in situations where no spell methods were available.

"What exactly is here? They all came not just to capture us, did they?" Gongshang Baiyu said weakly.

"Of course not." Song Danhao’s eyes flashed with grim determination, "The Eastern Sea of the Four Seas Fairy Mountains, the Four-Eared Immortal, Du Qijun, personally led a team earlier and even deliberately held back to let us escape. The intention is quite clear."

"The Snowman King’s Tears or the Snowman King’s Courage?" Xu Ling suddenly understood.

"It’s probably both." Song Danhao shook his head, "I’ve also heard my master mention the Four-Eared Immortal Du Qijun from the Eastern Sea, one of the famed mighty figures of the sea. Normally, these Fifth Rankers wouldn’t venture into the Void Outer Regions and suffer without cause.

Why forsake thousands of years of lifespan in the Mortal Realm to come to the Void where they might be killed by demon spirits in mere years or decades? Isn’t that absurd?"

"Du Qijun.... The Four-Eared Immortal? I seem to also have heard that he has opened a chain of heavy sea teahouses across many islands in the Eastern Sea, said to be wealthier than entire nations, and is the second husband of the Eastern Sea Dragon Palace."

Gongshang Baiyu, whose family was near the seaside, was somewhat more informed in this regard.

"Eastern Sea Dragon Palace?" Lin Yaoyang’s mood slightly sank, "Then it’s likely he carries a Dragon Talisman..."

"Dragon Talisman? What’s that?"

Xu Ling and the others had never heard of this thing before.

"A treasure made from golden dragon scales, only those from the Dragon Palace possess it. My father once had the fortune to see it—it can summon the Void Shadow of a Sixth Rank real dragon twice. Extremely terrifying!" Lin Yaoyang spoke with a grave expression.

"Sixth Rank...!!"

Instantly, the group sucked in a cold breath.

"And this Du Qijun, his cultivation practice isn’t ordinary either. It’s the Furious Ocean Decree, filled with extremely dense spiritual energy, nearly doubling his depth of cultivation compared to other cultivators of the same rank. He’s quite a notable figure even among the Four Seas Fairy Mountains," Gongshang Baiyu added.

"The others are still manageable, but this Four-Eared Immortal, Du Qijun... he definitely let us go on purpose, this guy..." Song Danhao’s pupils flared with traces of black flame.

"Let’s rest for a bit and then move on, the sooner we get there, the sooner we’ll be free."

"Okay." Everyone nodded and sat down to warm themselves by the campfire.

After resting for a while, Gongshang Baiyu suddenly spread his arms wide, and a layer of light spread out, covering the four of them.

Hum!

In an instant, the four were enveloped by a hemispherical silver light screen and disappeared.

Bang!

In a dark floor nearby, a group of people dressed in black were silently hiding in the shadows.

The leader, a white-haired woman, was indeed the same woman who had encountered the Four-Eared Immortal once before in the team from the Illusory Sea.

Seeing the four flee, the woman was startled, but a vicious light soon flashed in her eyes.

"Spread out and chase! They won’t get far!"

Behind her, five black-clad individuals bowed silently and quickly vanished into the darkness.

Their presence was extremely faint; they wouldn’t provoke attacks from snowmen along the way, allowing them to safely look for Song Danhao and the others.

But they hadn’t expected these few to suddenly pull this move, breaking through with an emergency transmission.

"Big Sister, Du Qijun has also arrived,"

said one of the watchers in hiding.

"He has always been around; he definitely planted something on those people. Du Qijun... hmph! If he hadn’t shown up, then fine, but if he makes a move, then don’t blame this palace for being ruthless," the woman said as she reached into her robe, touching the item she had brought with her this time, feeling increasingly composed. She turned and walked towards the dark.

"We’re very close to the center now; we absolutely can’t let him get there first! Let’s go."

"Yes!"

The group of black-clad individuals quickly followed the woman, soon disappearing completely into the shadows.

The cultivators born in the Ice Extreme region of the Illusory Sea, no one is better at dealing with ice monsters like snowmen than they are.

*******************

On a rooftop terrace in the distance.

Four-Eared Immortal, Du Qijun, stood high and looked down at where Song Danhao and the others had disappeared.

His face was calm, even carrying a slight smile.

"Jun Brother, that kid really took people in," his deputy Dong Shengping whispered as he approached from behind.

"What about the people from the other sects?" Du Qijun asked indifferently.

"They’ve already reached the outskirts, probably taking several days to catch up to us," Dong Shengping replied, looking up at Du Qijun with a trace of admiration and respect.

Since childhood, he had always stood behind him, the two of them learning martial arts, cultivating, and worshipping together – everything was done together.

Now, after over five hundred years, he had watched this brother, whom he once admired the most, gradually climb to his current lofty position from a minor troublemaker in Jianghu.

No one knew better than him the price and effort the Four-Eared Immortal, Du Qijun, had paid to reach this position.

As a Fifth Rank powerhouse, Du Qijun also held another identity as the founder of a smaller sect.

Beyond this, his network of influence extended across the entire Eastern Sea. With time, even this old follower who had always been close to Du Qijun no longer knew how much power and how many backers he had behind him.

Son-in-law of the Dragon Palace was just one of his many identities.

"What’s the matter? Why are you looking at me like that?" Du Qijun, sensing his friend’s gaze, turned around and spoke gently.

"It’s nothing," Dong Shengping snapped back to reality. Regardless, he was his only close friend and big brother for these hundreds of years.

"Jun Brother, what exactly is this Courage of the Snowman King? Why has it attracted so many fighting for it?"

Du Qijun smiled slightly.

"The tears of the Snowman King are celestial materials and earthly treasures used to enhance soul power. And naturally, the Courage of the Snowman King is also related to the soul.

That object can awaken memories of past lives and also has the effect of rejuvenating the body and marrow,"

"Awaken memories of past lives?" Dong Shengping was taken aback, "Isn’t it said to be a powerful magical artifact?"

"Of course not," Du Qijun shook his head. "Alright, those four should have entered the Void Palace by now, let’s follow."

"Yes!"

With a wave of his hand, a circle of colored beads jumped out in front of Du Qijun - red, orange, yellow, green, black, blue, purple – seven colors condensed into seven beads, slowly linking together to form a ring.

The palm-sized ring suddenly hissed, expanded, and transformed into a human-sized colorful vortex.

Du Qijun was the first to step into the vortex, followed by Dong Shengping who waved his hand back, immediately gathering over a dozen cultivators dressed in platinum from the corners of the rooftop.

"Split half the people to go inside, the others stay outside to guard the entrance,"

Dong Shengping instructed, then he quickly followed suit, stepping into the vortex and disappearing from sight.