Chapter 29. A Familiar Way To Greet Each Other
After stealing the Azure Flute
Running from the Sacrificial Rite Palace, Ren Qingchen still had cold sweat every time he remembered that massive pressure he felt.
'Holy shiet, how come someone at that level exists? Just how much of a monster someone must be to achieve that level in this low leveled world.'
Also, when Ren Qingchen just ran away, he remembered seeing the vague shadow of someone wearing an imperial robe walking calmly from the source of that pressure.
'Is it that incompetent emperor? How could a delay of mere one or two months result in the birth of such a monster.'
After running for a half a day, Ren Qingchen started to remove his stealth skill to conserve some blood energy. Afterall, he still needed to run toward the Martial Spirit Sect for a long time.
When night almost arrived, Ren Qingchen found a village and entered it to rest. Unbeknownst to him, after he stopped activating his stealth skill, the many Martial Grandmaster and Martial Saints under General Shi that has been dispersed in search for the Azure Flute finally detected a vague feeling about its location using the skill left by Azure Emperor and rushed toward Ren Qingchen's current location.
When he woke up the next day, Ren Qingchen felt incredibly uneasy. Trusting his feelings, he quickly collected his items and ran outside.
Two weeks passed and he finally reached the Martial Spirit city. Resting for the night in the city, Ren Qingchen woke up in the middle of the night because of a warning from his instinct.
Circulating his blood energy to activate the skill used to detect presence nearby him. Ren Qingchen frowned as he could sense many Martial Grandmaster and Martial Saints quickly gathering toward the inn he is currently in.
Stopping the activation of his sensing skill, he prepared himself to immediately escape the inn.
'Whether those guys are chasing me or it is merely a coincidence and they just targeted one of the patrons in this inn, leaving immediately is the right option.'
Running into the window, Ren Qingchen activated his stealth and prepared to jump. But before he could open the window and jump out, one of the Martial Saints arrived at his location.
The Martial Saint expert kicked the door to Ren Qingchen's room and without saying any nonsense, he immediately slashed the sword on his hand toward Ren Qingchen while roaring.
"Thief! Return the Azure Flute!"
Hearing that roar, Ren Qingchen could only feel helpless. He previously has sensed that the Azure Flute Probably have a special means imbued into it which make it possible for people to sense his location which is the reason he immediately left Great Azure Empire's territory upon stealing it.
But he never thought the means placed within is incredibly powerful that it could detect the Azure Flute even after such a long distance.
Glancing at the scenery outside the window, He could see more and more people at the Martial Grandmaster stage and above gathering in the street.
Using an explosive he kept, Ren Qingchen ignited five of them at once.
Throwing one of them to the Martial Saint, he continued to throw the other four in the road under him.
*Boom*
With the explosion as his mark, Ren Qingchen immediately jumped through the window to the nearest building's roof where there is no martial artist standing guard.
Activating his stealth skill until it covered the azure flute, Ren Qingchen jumped through many roofs before hiding in one of the alleys.
Stealthily walking toward the direction of Martial Spirit city's Southern Gate, he could see many people wearing the same uniform as the one chasing him standing guard there.
Standing on his hiding spot, Ren Qingchen made his brain move quickly to think of a way to escape.
While looking at a group of Martial Grandmasters guarding that place, he saw one of them going somewhere alone.
'That is it!'
Ren Qingchen ran toward the lone Martial Grandmaster's location and immediately knocked him out. Ren Qingchen took the uniform that Martial Grandmaster wore and started to prepare his hand.
'Alright. It's been so long since I did this. I hope my skills haven't rusted yet.'
Taking the dagger in his pocket, he started to slash the neck of that Grandmaster so he would never wake up anymore and pulled his corpse somewhere hidden.
Using bone changing skills to change his body shape into one similar to the now dead guard. Ren Qingchen pulled a mirror and a set of face powder.
In just 5 minutes, his face has turned into the same face as that of the dead Martial Grandmaster.
Closing his make-up sets, Ren Qinchen twitched his nose.
'hmmm. I smell something weird.'
Looking at the wet underpants of that Martial Grandmaster, he decided to kill someone after they answered the call of nature from now on.
Walking calmly to the gate, Ren Qingquan started to act like the other martial artists here. According to his observations, the martial artists standing guard here don't seem to know each other, which is why he dared to imitate the guard.
From what he heard at those people's conversations, they are from General Shi's army and the person at highest rank in this group, a major general, has talked to the city lord of Martial Spirit City which allowed them to search for him until morning.
Ren Qingchen actually wanted to wait until these martial artists left. But the dead Grandmaster he stole the identity of will definitely be found before this group could leave. Which is why he decided to take the first step and escape immediately.
Slowly creeping toward the outer wall, he immediately ran toward the Endless Mountain. Because the city is located in a plain, even if he walked stealthily, there is nothing that could hide him from others visions and he will get detected at once.
"There is someone running from the city!"
Just when he ran for five minutes, one of the martial artists guarding the southern gate saw him and screamed.
From his current position, Ren Qingchen could sense ten people led by 3 Martial Saints separated from the group and chased after him using a war horse at high speed.
When the distance separating them had decreased by half, Ren Qingchen finally arrived at Endless Mountain.
Just when he ran in the direction of Martial Spirit Sect for safety, A group of ferocious beasts consisting of a dozen Martial Grandmasters and hundreds of lower ranked beasts ran in panic and blocked his path to Martial Spirit Sect.
As his blood energy has reached a critical point due to running while activating stealth to hide the means used to sense Azure Flute, Ren Qingchen decided to take a detour to reach the Martial Spirit Sect.
As he continued to run and evade groups of ferocious beasts he detected using his sensing skill, Ren Qingchen realized something was wrong.
'Is a beast tide currently happening? This has never happened before?! Sigh... Everything has truly changed from my previous life. Damn it, I just need to reach a safe place and breakthrough to Martial Saint and I could finally use this Azure Flute to break the void and enter the Immortal Cultivation World. '
And so, he ran along for half an hour before sensing a lone Grandmaster human chasing after his trail. Thinking this person is one of the Martial Grandmasters chasing after him. In frustration, Ren Qingchen decided to take his anger out on this person and assassinate them.
Activating his stealth skill, he ran toward the place that Martial Grandmaster needed to pass. Hiding behind a group of trees while circulating his blood energy and preparing an ambush, Ren Qingchen immediately slashed his sword toward the target upon hearing a stepping sound and the rustling sound from bushes.
*Ding*
The sound of metal collision could be heard when Ren Qingchen slashed his sword. After finishing this whole motion, Ren Qingchen is filled with a feeling of deja vu.
Looking at his target, she is a girl wearing white full body armor with several blue runes like things engraved on it. She seems to have been running for her life which could be seen from her flushed face and messy pale blue hair.
"Third Princess?"
"Ren Qingchen?!"
That is right, the person he met is exactly the Third Princess. After some shock, both of them asked at the same time.
""What are you doing here?""
After asking that subconsciously, the Third Princess seems to realize something and continues to run.
"Sorry, there is no time. I need to get away from here."
Due to the path they take is currently the same, Ren Qingchen soon followed after her while chatting.
"Are you also being chased by someone?"
"Yeah. When I returned home during vacation, the Imperial Father got another brain cramp and tried to overthrow another tradition. This time he targeted the rule forbidding intermarriage of royal bloodline within 3 generations. He said marrying your sibling might be the secret to create stronger descendants and already imprisoned one of my elder brothers. As all of my sisters either have married or are too young, I, who has reached a suitable age for marriage and haven't chosen any partner, entered the Imperial father's eye to be married with my eldest brother. Luckily, although my mother the empress left to met with her parents, some of her guard stayed in the palace which allowed me to escape."
After releasing the pent up feeling she kept, the Third Princess paused and realized something.
"Wait. Also? Are you chased by someone too right now? "
"Hehehe. Yep, but my story is not as colorful as yours. I just stole something quite important and right now several people are chasing after me to retrieve it. "
After hearing that word, both of them fell silent and continued to run for several minutes until the Third Princess broke the silence.
"Ren Qingchen, do you have any destination in mind?"
"Actually, I am going to enter the Martial Spirit Sect so I can safely break through before leaving once again."
Hearing his answer, the Third Princess told her destination in exchange.
"When I was young, I loved to read my family's records. From one of them I found a secret location at Meteor Island suspected to contain means to reach a higher world. Right now, I have that place as my destination."
Listening to the Third Princess's words, Ren Qingchen is confused.
"Why are you telling me this?"
"Since long ago, I have thought about leaving home and running far away from my crazy father. Although my mother, the empress, is quite nice, she is busy managing the harem most of the time and rarely cares about me. So, when I found a record of another world, I have always kept it in mind. I said all this to you, because my intuition told me you will be of extreme importance if I want to leave."
Third Princess's words made Ren Qingchen fall into a dilemma. At first he only thought of looking for a safe place and breaking through to Martial Lord realm before entering Endless Mountain's core and detonating the spirit weapon Azure Flute and breaking the void to reach the bridge to Immortal Cultivation World.
But hearing about the means to reach higher world Third Princess mentioned, he is almost certain she is talking about a teleportation formation. Afterall, Meteor Island once piqued his interests and he has done some investigation through the records stored in the Martial Spirit Sect.
From those records, he is almost 100% sure Meteor Island comes from the Immortal Cultivation World and was once a part of a certain strong sect's main territory.
Right now, should he bet about the condition of that teleportation formation which he could possibly repair as long as it hasn't been destroyed too badly. Or follow the path in his previous life and enter Endless Mountain's core area.
If he chooses the teleportation formation, that means he wouldn't need to sacrifice Azure Flute. Having a spirit weapon upon arriving at the Immortal Cultivation World will be an extremely good start.
Just when Ren Qingchen is in a daze from thinking, a group of wolves led by an early Martial Lord wolf blocked their path.
'Oh shiet!'
Looking at that wolf, Ren Qingchen quickly pulled the Azure Flute.
Due to activating his stealth skill for an extremely long time. Currently, Ren Qingchen couldn't do a protracted battle against it. Glancing at Third Princess's current realm, he could only sigh and brace himself.
'I don't want to do this, but in my current condition I can't fight against a Martial Lord.'
Eating another blood energy pill, he blows into the flute while sending almost all of his remaining blood energy. With the melodious sound of his flute, a massive blue colored tornado is created and quickly swallows the group of wolves before arriving at the Martial Lord wolf and tearing it into meat paste.
While the Third Princess looked at his feat in shock, a loud howling voice could be heard from the South. With it, a giant silver wolf at Martial Emperor realm led a huge group of wolves.
Looking at the Martial Lord wolf that has just turned into meat paste. That giant wolf stared at Ren Qingchen with red eyes.