Chapter 171 Inside Heavy Fog
Startled, Lyu Liang directly used his Field Domain to defend himself against the Sword Qi attacking from behind. Anyway, what he heard was only repeated shouts instead of a real attack.
Soon after, he found out who the attacker was. Tracing the Sword Qi, Lyu Liang saw a long-haired man in a black robe drawing out his sword and stabbing toward him in great anger. It was exactly Lu Tianwu!
While dealing with Lu Tianwu, Lyu Liang tried to clarify. “Is it you that has drawn me here? What happened in the outside space was a misunderstanding! There is an ill-intentioned Man of Sacrifice in our group, and we are trying to ferret him out!”
However, Lu Tianwu seemed to show no interest in Lyu Liang’s explanation. He again drew out a bronze mirror, from which thousands of golden light reflected, and attacked down toward Lyu Liang!
While defending himself, Lyu Liang pondered how to destroy the formation. Obviously, this formation could strengthen the power of Lu Tianwu’s move. If he failed to destroy it as soon as possible, he himself would be in great peril!
“Hey, I got the Formation Key! It is just in front of you and a bit to the right, behind the small hill where that blood shadow has disappeared. There is a tiny stone column there, so destroy it!” The urgent voice of Black arose.
Lyu Liang understood him immediately. After avoiding a round of mixed attacks of Sword Qi and golden light, Lyu Liang suddenly darted ahead to that small hill.
Lu Tianwu suddenly noticed it, revealing a look of disbelief, and then he gnashed his teeth, tracing Lyu Liang immediately while attacking him fiercely with golden light and Sword Qi.
Darting ahead, Lyu Liang was collecting the black sunlight to fight against the attack while noticing Lu Tianwu, who was just behind him, with his peripheral vision. Under the help of the formation, Lu Tianwu moved much faster than Lyu Liang and caught up with him in a flash.
Instead of feeling nervous, Lyu Liang began to grin. Then a blood dragon about 26 meters long unexpectedly ran out from Lyu Liang’s back and gushed out a mouthful of scarlet fog toward Lu Tianwu, who was tracking him.
The whole process was too quick for Lu Tianwu to react. He never expected that Lyu Liang, who was defending and escaping all the time, could produce such an unexpected attack! So he had no way out but to be totally hit by the blood fog!
“Ah!!!” Lu Tianwu screeched, his sword falling down and bronze mirror disappearing. He hastened back with his two hands covering his face.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Lyu Liang passed over the small hill and chopped down the slender stone column over three inches high with the Kunwu Sword. Along with the thundering, the blood fog gradually vanished, and thus the formation was destroyed.
Lyu Liang didn’t know where Lu Tianwu was now, but judging from his screeching, he thought Lu Tianwu must have been badly injured. The woman once secretly transmitted a voice to him, saying that she and the blood dragon were free from being restricted by the suppression power here, and the blood dragon could come out to help him at any time.
Of course, Lyu Liang felt delighted by her words, but he refrained from showing this trump card too quickly. He waited and only allowed the blood dragon to come out at the most necessary moment, which could really knock the enemy cold.
Now that Lyu Liang could not find his enemy now, the first thing he did was to hide the blood dragon because the blood dragon was the only trump card he could rely on now! On this occasion that the enemy was in the dark and he was out in the open, what he should do was to hide his weapon as secretly as possible.
Just at this moment, Lyu Liang faintly felt that there were shouts coming from behind. Judging from the sound, he thought it might be Zhu Yan and Liu Jiahao, so he immediately turned back because he was also eager to know what had happened in their cave residences.
As expected, it was Zhu Yan and Liu Jiahao who were running after him. They both looked at him with eager faces, obviously wanting to know what had happened here.
Therefore, Lyu Liang briefly explained how he ran after the blood shadow and was attacked by Lu Tianwu, and then he asked about the situation in the cave residences.
With furrowed brows, Liu Jiahao said in a low voice, “The screech came from the direction of the cave residence of Zhao Yucheng. Zhu Yan first reached there, just to find that the tall man had died in the cave residence of Zhao Yucheng! There was a round hole in his head, and his Divine Soul was smashed. He directly died from that!”
Lyu Liang was stupefied. He was confused and asked subconsciously, “How about Zhao Yucheng? Why did the tall man go to his cave residence?”
Zhu Yan sighed. “When I reached there, I only saw the dead body of the tall man, and judging from the aura, he had newly died. From that moment on, I haven’t seen Zhao Yucheng.”
After their conversation, the three went back together to the cave residences. Anyway, this place was not safe for them to stay long, and furthermore, Lyu Liang also wanted to find some clues from the dead body of the tall man.
30 minutes later, the three of them arrived back at the cave residence. By then, the other five people were all there at the entrance of the cave, all wearing serious looks.
Lyu Liang darted ahead and looked around, only finding some traces of blood and a hint of aura of the dead tall man. He couldn’t see the dead body at all, so he burst out in haste, “Where is the dead body?”
Liu Jiawen approached and answered him with the eyebrows furrowed. “When I arrived, I didn’t see the dead body either, and then the other four arrived successively. We have been waiting here for you to come back.”
Lyu Liang was completely dumbfounded now. How could a corpse disappear in such a short time?
Then Lyu Liang turned back and fixed his eyes on Zhu Yan and Liu Jiahao, seemingly waiting for an answer.
Zhu Yan helplessly spread out his hands and said, “My cave residence and your cave residence were the closest ones to this place. When I saw the dead body of the tall man, I felt you would be in danger and decided to go for help. Just at this moment, Liu Jiahao arrived and we both decided to run after you.”
Liu Jiahao also muttered with one of his hands against his cheek, “I was probably the third one that reached that place, and when I arrived, brother Zhu Yan was also there. I also saw the dead body, and then was called to come to your direction. I remember, when we left, we heard the voice of my younger sister and Sister Xuan.”
“But when Sister Xuan and I arrived, we saw nothing different from what we see now, even a hair could not be found! It was just several seconds! Did the dead body revive and run away?” Liu Jiawen said bitterly, somewhat at a loss.
Pondering for just several seconds, Lyu Liang revealed his plan. “It will be daybreak in about two hours. Now we’ll all go to the cave residence of Yang Ying and the other two. The three of them remain inside their cave residences and the others stay outside their cave residence. We’d better not fight alone. We will continue looking for the dead body after the suppression power vanishes at daybreak.” Everyone agreed with him. Anyway, under such a situation, it would be too dangerous for them to stay and act alone.
During these two hours, Lyu Liang also explained what had happened to him just now, and the others began to air their own views.
The first thing they could confirm was that Lu Tianwu was just around them. No matter if Lu Tianwu had been purposefully tracking them or had just coincidentally met them, they were sure that Lu Tianwu was resolved to find a chance to settle old scores.
The second thing they could confirm was the blood shadow. The speed of its movement and the power of its attack were all devastatingly strong. It seemed that the blood shadow was not suppressed by the suppression power at all. If it had its power after being suppressed, and if they met it in the daytime, it would be very troublesome.
That blood shadow had to be a person! The reason why he was intangible might be that he had some magic treasures or secret methods.
As to whether Lu Tianwu was the blood shadow, their answer was: No! Lyu Liang once fought with Lu Tianwu, and judging from Lu Tianwu’s body techniques and movement, he thought Lu Tianwu was quite inferior to the blood shadow. However, there was another possibility, which was that they were partners. However, they had no idea about how those two became partners.
Compared with what they had already clarified, there were many more things that they were still confused about. For example, was the tall man killed by the blood shadow? Although it was in all probability true judging from the clues they had gotten, the disappearance of the corpse added a bit of doubt to the answer.
Furthermore, where had Zhao Yucheng gone? The tall man died in his cave residence, but he himself was missing!
Those weird body techniques of the blood shadow were also a big question. When the blood shadow attacked Lyu Liang previously, instead of using various body techniques, he just hit Lyu Liang with a hard blow. But the blow was extremely powerful. If not for the firmness of Lyu Liang, he would not have had the power to run after the blood shadow.
In this dull, bewildering, and terrifying atmosphere, it was daybreak again, but their number was reduced from 10 to eight.
From the woman, they knew that the blood fog gushed out by the little blood dragon was something similar to the blood rain that was spurted out by the giant blood dragon at the level of Forbidden Lord. Although the power of the blood fog was much weaker than the blood rain, it was still powerful enough to deal with an Almighty Immortal at the peak level.
The Power of Law contained in the blood fog could destroy one’s Divine Soul. Lu Tianwu was fully hit by the fog but could still run away, so it proved that his Divine Soul was also powerful enough. However, although he had run away, he probably would not show up any time soon.
Lyu Liang’s analysis has inspired the others. Why not focus on looking for Lu Tianwu first, and then ask him about the trace of the blood shadow? Now that they were partners, they had to have ways to connect to each other, and in this way, they could find more clues.
As for exploring the Relic, they had no mood to do it now. Since there was such a big puzzle for them to solve, how could they have the mood to explore the Relic?
But Lyu Liang still had one doubt: was the Man of Sacrifice in his group still alive? It would be fine if the Man of Sacrifice was Zhao Yucheng or the tall man, but if not, it would be quite troublesome!
At this moment, he had confirmed that somebody wanted to kill him, and this man seemed to know him, yet there was still something he didn’t know. For example, the blood shadow knew that Lyu Liang moved extremely fast, but he failed to know that the body and Divine Soul of Lyu Liang were so powerful.
In fact, if it were three months ago, Lyu Liang probably couldn’t have stood up after being hit by such a heavy blow. Even if he were not badly injured, he would still have been sightly injured. The blood shadow was stupefied to some extent after giving the blow. Of course he should be stupefied, but the truth hidden behind his reaction needed their attention.
He didn’t run away at that moment. Did he want to hit him again to kill him, or was he overwhelmed by the scene?
In the end, Lyu Liang decided that the blood shadow wanted to kill him, which was similar to the style of that Man of Sacrifice. They never gave up until they successfully killed the enemy! And they shared the same characteristic, which was that if they failed to kill their enemy in one attack, they would hide themselves, leaving little trace for their enemy.
White and Zhu Yan both felt strange by the Man of Sacrifice, just like they felt strange by the water column that had enraged the giant blood dragon. But the Man of Sacrifice just gave up at the moment, showing nothing strange anymore. It seemed that the Man of Sacrifice totally resigned himself to his fate. That was most troublesome.
He was not an ordinary Man of Sacrifice, instead, he was a smart, careful, and intelligent lurker who believed that “the end justifies the means”.
However, since Zhao Yucheng and the tall man had disappeared, Lyu Liang could narrow the scope of men he was suspicious of if something abnormal happened again. And the man in dark green naturally became the most suspected one.
Even if in the heated discussion just now, this guy in dark green also remained blank and silent. It seemed that nothing could draw his attention. Lyu Liang once privately asked those participants in the qualification contest about the performance of the tall man and that man in dark green.
Yet he got nothing. These participants were too confident in themselves to notice the performance of the others. Therefore, they did not have the faintest idea of the two men.
Therefore, before looking for Lu Tianwu, they first found a place that could hold them all. After locating their place, they began to look for Lu Tianwu in two groups.
Lyu Liang, Zhu Yan, Yang Ying, and Liu Jiawen were one group; and Liu Jiahao, the man in dark green, Zheng Xuan, and Feng Xiu were the other group. They went looking for Lu Tianwu in opposite directions. Members were not allowed to leave each other’s view and should return before nightfall.
It would be easier for them to find a suitable cave to stay together than to find a cave that had a restriction formation, so they could easily find a qualified cave. Therefore, in the following days, they looked for suitable caves as well as the tall man in the daytime and took a rest together at night. Groups of at least two would stay inside the caves, and the distance between their caves was not far.
However, in the following ten days, neither of the two groups found anything. So at night, they stayed in peace with each other.
One night, at the invitation of the three girls, Lyu Liang went to their cave residence, yet they spent most of their time analyzing the case.
It was quite rare for the three girls to experience such a weird thing, and in addition, they were too confident in their own ability, so they were more excited than anxious, and seemed to analyze the case clearly and logically, each showing their different opinions.
In the beginning, Lyu Liang was interested in their analysis, but later on, he felt that something was wrong. Gradually, their unbridled divergent way of thinking was revealed, and hence, the identity of the Man of Sacrifice and the blood shadow that the girls guessed became more and more unreliable.
Even Liu Jiawen began to doubt if the Man of Sacrifice had disguised himself as Liu Jiahao. Therefore, Lyu Liang had no choice but to run away.
It was completely dark at this moment. Lyu Liang looked up at the dark sky, sighing heavily. He had never expected that their journey of exploring the Relic would be like this. And he thought that even the founding father of the Sword Character would never have anticipated such a complex situation.
Lyu Liang was just about to go in the direction of the cave residence where he and Zhu Yan stayed when White, who had kept silent previously, secretly transmitted a voice to him: “Hey guy, no hurry, but a big gift has been waiting for you for a whole day!”
Lyu Liang was stunned and then smiled bitterly. “Senior, stop playing jokes on me. We only have a big enemy here, no big gift…”
“Little Lyu, do you think it’s a big gift if I become the divine beast of the contract of your life?” A soft and immature child’s voice came from behind Lyu Liang.
The expression on Lyu Liang’s face changed dramatically, and he almost burst into cheers. However, his sense told him that he had to keep the secret!
So Lyu Liang just clenched his fists with excitement and his eyes shining, and he shouted in his heart, “Man of Sacrifice or blood shadow, I will force you to come out, and kill you!”