48 The Hidden Island

Chapter 48- The Hidden Island

"Hmm. It's a good thing I travelled along with the Red Cloud Sect, otherwise, opening this Defensive Array would've been very difficult."

Standing on the far end of the ship, Su Mu looked at Ding Jia Zi and Huo Xiang Lan, the Supreme Elders of the Red Cloud Sect, as the two ferociously poured their True Qi into the turtle shell without any hesitation.

This turtle shell looked ordinary. And in reality, no matter how the others tested it, they could never feel anything exceptional from it. However, the moment Ding Jia Zi and Huo Xiang Lan poured their True Qi into it, they were surprised to find how the turtle shell turned into a bottomless pit that crazily devoured their True Qi.

In just a short time, the two Supreme Elders started to shake; their complexions becoming pale as time went on.

"Not good!" Ding Jia Zi exclaimed. He hollered at the Red Cloud Sect's disciples. "What are you standing there for, hurry up and help me!"

Once the Red Cloud Sect's disciples heard the command, they quickly headed over and poured their own True Qi and Yuan Qi into the turtle shell.  

With the help of these people, Ding Jia Zi and Huo Xiang Lan's conditions stabilized. In a short while, the bland turtle shell suddenly burst out with a ray of rainbows. The turtle shell seemed to sound out a whisper and the road map engraved above came to life, flowing non-stop.

One after another, the disciples were drained of their entire bodies' strength. They were exhausted to the point where they were forced to continuously withdraw.

Only after more than twenty disciples left, did the turtle shell shoot out a magnificent rainbow.

This sudden occurrence made Ding Jia Zi and Huo Xiang Lan startlingly exclaim at the same time. A bunch of dense lights from the turtle shell burst out, so they had to retreat.

That turtle shell turned into a bolt, charging straight into the sky.

"Thankfully, they did all the work for me." Su Mu smiled, looking at the pale faces of Ding Jia Zi and Huo Xiang Lan.

Even if Su Mu's fighting capabilities far exceeded his Realm, there were things he couldn't do. Even if he could fight an Immortal Ascension Realm Cultivator, that was because of his mastery over Qi and his fighting experience, but the amount of Qi he possessed was indeed limited.

Another example would be that defeating a True Element Realm Cultivator was as simple as taking a walk in the garden, but Su Mu couldn't fly using his Yuan Qi like any True Element Realm Cultivator could with their True Qi.

Alas, even he had no way to cheat the Heavenly Way to that extent.

"Oh, the path is revealing itself."

Everyone looked up and saw the turtle shell fly out several hundred meters to fall on the mirage. A road of rainbow lights shot out, but this magnificent mirage slowly collapsed and disintegrated.

With the disappearance of the mirage, it was as if the intangible barrier blocking everyone's visions had shattered.

"The Hidden Island!"

On board, the ship, the Red Cloud Sect's disciples, after a moment of silence, suddenly cheered out. They started shouting to vent the excitement in their hearts. The purpose of their trip was to find the hidden island, but they did not expect things to go so smoothly. Although they had also experienced a lot of crises on the way, the excitement doesn't come without danger.

Ignoring the commotion, Su Mu watched as the originally calm sea suddenly gave birth to waves and the ship was trapped in a sea of water bubbles. The sea's surface looked like it was boiling.

"A 6th Order Monster Beast that's comparable to a Transcendent." Su Mu looked into the sea with Divine Eyes, and he frowned.

If that was the case, it was fortunate that he didn't come here alone, or things might've turned out for the worst.

"It'll be best to leave." Knowing what was going to happen to the ship, Su Mu looked at the Hidden Island, which was around five kilometres away from the ship. "I won't be able to make it with the First Step, as it takes time to build up my speed with it, and the Second Step's reach is only 500 meters with my current cultivation, and even then, I can't use it repeatedly."

"How bothersome."

Su Mu watched as the left side of the ship rushed into a wave and various tentacle-like things suddenly emerged from the sea. The tentacles were extremely large, each being more than thirty meters long, and contained a thunderbolt-like force that directly hit the deck of the ship.

Several of the ordinary people and weaker disciples that couldn't dodge were smashed like clay on the spot.

Accompanied by a loud noise, the deck shattered into pieces that flew in all directions.

"Hmm, let's go." Assembling his Yuan Qi into his legs, Su Mu jumped towards the tentacle, successfully landing on it, before concentrating even more Yuan Qi into his legs, he waited until the tentacle pushed him towards the island. And the moment that happened, he finally pushed the Yaun Qi, throwing himself towards the Hidden Island, covering almost four kilometres in a single jump.

'The people on the ship most likely noticed me, but it doesn't matter.' Su Mu watched as he approached the surface of the water at a high speed, and the moment his feet touched the water, he activated the Second Step of the Seven Divine Steps, disappearing from his position and reappearing on the edge of the Hidden Island in an instant.

"Haah... I used a third of my Yuan Qi in an instant to jump 1000 meters with the Second Step, but it's better than slowly floating towards the island for a few hours while holding my breath." Exhaling, Su Mu stood at the edge of the Hidden Island, looking at the Red Cloud Sect's disciples running for their lives at a distance.

By this time, Ding Jia Zi and Huo Xiang Lan, the Immortal Ascension Realm Cultivators of the Red Cloud Sect, were both dead.

"Only a handful of them will survive, but even then, it'll take them a few hours to reach the island, much less explore it."

That was enough for him to check the places marked on the map he received from Madame Jiang.

After watching the bloodbath occur for a few more minutes, Su Mu started walking towards the centre of the Island, following the map he remembered.

As he travelled further, going deeper and deeper into the island, Su Mu was surrounded by towering old trees, swaying endlessly in the wind, with crackling sounds coming from all around.

From the looks of it, the island was several times bigger than the Red Cloud Sect's Island.

"Hm?" Su Mu suddenly stopped in his tracks, and then, he looked towards a certain direction.

He could hear a buzzing sound coming from all around him.  It sounded like the buzzing of bees, but it was too noisy for a swarm to create.

The buzzing was quickly closing in, not only that but there was also a rumbling coming from under his feet, with numerous cracks quickly forming on the ground.

"From the sound of it, it should be a swarm of Insect Monster Beasts quickly tunnelling towards me, and they're coming from all directions, too." Su Mu muttered.

Kicking off the ground, Su Mu landed on the top of a tree, looking down at the place he was a second ago, but soon, he looked around, realising that the area around him was slowly enveloping in a cage of purple mist, creating a giant circle, and he saw countless insects gathering from all directions.

"These Monster Beasts are pretty weak, but with those numbers, it'll be troublesome. Not to mention, that poisonous mist, which most likely erodes a person's flesh." Su Mu raised an eyebrow.

Escaping would be difficult, yes, but not impossible. The insects were weak, but the problem was the poisonous mist.

What surprised him was the fact that insects were coordinating with each other, setting up large-scale traps, almost as if they were being ordered by someone, which confirmed that these insects had a leader, similar to normal bees.

"It will be annoying to deal with them throughout the time I am on this island, so let's find and kill their leader. Wasting my Qi on this bunch wouldn't be worth it."

Su Mu watched as a horde of insects came towards him, his right hand going towards his sword before he stopped.

'They're not attacking me? I see, so they're trying to capture me.'

Su Mu watched as a dozen insects came towards him, and soon, started taking him in a specific direction.

'At least I won't need to take the trouble of looking for the leader myself.' After all, the insects were guiding him towards their leader.

Su Mu watched the scene of being surrounded by tens of thousands of insects, wondering how his women would've reacted to it.

He could imagine Hu Mei'er and Xia Ning Chang running away, while Hu Jiao'er would charge forward to fight the insects.

As for Su Yan, she would freeze all of the insects in sight.

That'd certainly be entertaining to watch.

Not long after the insects started guiding him, a pit appeared in front of him, followed by a dark cave.

Knowing that this was the place, Su Mu directly jumped into the cave, followed by the insects.

"What a foul smell." Su Mu commented, looking at the nine paths and eighteen bends in front of him, soon walking into a random path that the insects lead him into.

In the corridor, from time to time he could see many insects scurrying about, and these insects weren't just bowl-sized.

There seemed to be many types of insects, some were nearly as big as a person, while some were the size of a teenager, and others were the size of a child.

After walking for a good while, Su Mu arrived at a spacious room, which was filled with a mountain of bones and corpses.

'From the looks of it, the Insect King drained their vitality.' Su Mu narrowed his eyes.

Just as he was wondering where the king was, a golden light rushed out from behind the mountain of corpses, charging towards Su Mu.

'For the king, it's rather small, but this speed is good. But killing it would be simple enough.'

Just as the golden light was about to reach him, Su Mu disappeared, reappearing on the other side of the room.

The golden light seemed confused for a second, but soon, it chased after Su Mu again.

After doing this for a few minutes, Su Mu raised his hand toward the Insect King, wanting to see its reaction.

Just as the golden light touched Su Mu's skin, he felt a sharp pain in his hand, but his expression showed no pain, but a slight interest.

Su Mu looked at his hand, and there was now a small bloody hole in his hand, and under his skin was a slight bulge, drilling into his flesh, quickly disappearing.

"It's devouring my Yuan Qi. Ah, so it's a Heaven Devouring Insect." Su Mu remembered what this insect was.

This kind of insect can swallow anything, it especially likes to devour a variety of energy and vitality of cultivators.

After thinking about it for a second, Su Mu guessed that after the Insect King was done with his Yuan Qi, it'd go for his Sword Qi, followed by his Vitality and then finally, it'll devour his Soul.

"To think it's this kind of weak insect that inspired Devourer to create the Heaven Devouring Battle Law, one of the most profound Secret Arts in existence." Su Mu couldn't help but let out a light laugh.

"But..." After a while, the smile on his face disappeared. "That's all this insect is worth. When compared to Heaven Devouring Battle Law, this insect's abilities pale in comparison."

When he was done inspecting the Insect King, Su Mu directed some of his Sword Qi towards his arm where the Insect King was, and naturally, it devoured it as well.

But after a few seconds, the corpse of the Insect King came out of Su Mu's hand, falling to the ground with a bit of his blood.

Su Mu stopped the bleeding by focusing his Yuan Qi on his hand, turning back towards the Insect King.

"If it was the Heaven Devouring Battle Law, it could've devoured my Sword Qi, but as expected, this insect couldn't."

Depending on a Cultivator's comprehension of the Sword Dao, Sword Qi can gain different properties, ranging from being able to attack Souls, or Small Universes, Monster Cores, and Divine Spirit Sources, to having the power to heal its user, and naturally, Su Mu's Sword Qi had properties of its own, making it unique.

For anyone other than himself, his Sword Qi was extremely corrosive, damaging anyone who is injected with it, regardless of who it was.

Of course, those stronger than him could still avoid it by wrapping his Sword Qi in their own Qi, pushing it outside their bodies, but alas, this Heaven-Devouring Insect wasn't one of them. Not to mention, it wasn't injected by Su Mu's Sword Qi, but it directly absorbed it.

"But since it was a Heaven Devouring insect, it should've left me with a trace of the Heavenly Law Energy, and even if the Skill itself is useless, it should be possible that it'll allow me to take control of these insects."

After thinking about it for a few seconds, Su Mu sat cross-legged, closing his eyes

Feeling the traces of the Heavenly Law Energy within his shoulders, Su Mu started refining it.

When he had successfully refined that trace of Heavenly Law Energy, his shoulder blades had both felt a surge of heat.

With that, Su Mu pushed his Yuan Qi towards his shoulders, increasing the output.

Woosh!*

Suddenly, there was a burst of light and sound, filling the cave with brilliant radiance, causing Su Mu to get up and open his eyes.

On his back, two wings composed completely of his own True Yang Yuan Qi had sprouted.  These wings were not large, only about 2 meters long, and their shape and form made from True Yang Yuan Qi appeared very stable, as it was most likely linked to Su Mu's mental state and mood.

"It's the Heaven Soaring Force, huh." Su Mu recognised the power, but he didn't seem all that interested.

As a former Open Heaven Realm Cultivator, Su Mu had already formed a Small Universe inside his body once, and after his promotion to the 7th Rank, his Small Universe had evolved into a True Universe with complete World Principles, so he was well-versed in things like this.

He knew that the Heaven Soaring Force from a Small World like this wouldn't make it that far, and it already pales in comparison to his Seven Divine Steps.

On the bright side, Su Mu knew the moment he refined the Heavenly Law Energy that he could control these insects outside.

Su Mu focused for a second, and soon, outside the cave, a large number of insects had gathered, some big, some small, but all of them stopped just outside the chamber, making it feel like this cave was some kind of forbidden area.

"Third, Fourth, Fifth Order Monster Beasts." Su Mu looked at the insects.

With his work here done, Su Mu retreated his Wings from his back.

Walking towards the exit, he left the king's cave and those large and small insects quickly parted, opening up a path for him.

"Capture any humans that you come across, kill them if they resist too much, while a bunch of you will be coming with me, especially the ones responsible for the poisonous mist." Looking at the insects, Su Mu issued his commands, making all the insects disperse with only a few giant ones remaining.

After reaching the deep wall of mist, Su Mu watched as the giant insects flew forward, swallowing the poisonous mist.

Right before his eyes, this tens-of-miles blockade soon had a gap gnawed open.

With that, Su Mu finally moved towards his final destination.

Running for a few minutes, Su Mu arrived at the centre of the island, which had a solitary peak, only about a thousand feet tall. From the rocky rugged terrain and the beautiful landscape, Su Mu knew that this was the end goal described on the map he had obtained from Madame Jiang.

This was the place that held this Hidden Island's greatest treasure, and if the Soul Warming Lotus was on this island, it would be here.

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A/N-

Idk I tried 2200 words but somehow ended up with 2800. Can't just end the chapter midway, as an evil part of me wants it to at least be a little cliffhanger, or a complete ending of a chapter.