Phoenix's Requiem

Chapter 392: The Backer Behind the Pi Family

Li Mo, Feng Bo, and Feng Yicheng flew in the direction in which Master Shade had departed with Zhuo Yifeng and Yun Ruoyan.

“I didn’t rush off once I was freed,” Feng Yicheng explained. “Instead, I saw Master Shade bring Yun Ruoyan and Zhuo Yifeng toward the east. On the other hand, the other Pi swordsmen left in the opposite direction.”

“More people means more targets. They’re trying to split up to make it harder for us to give chase,” Feng Bo stated. “It’s dark at night, and the city gates are closed. Master Shade and the others have no choice but to leave via swordflight. Too large a group would arouse undue suspicion, so the Pi swordsmen won’t leave the city tonight. Instead, they’ll wait until Pi Yan, Pi Batian, and Master Shade are safely out first.”

“Feng Bo, Brother Feng, look!” Li Mo directed their attention at a roaring blaze on the southern side of the Feng city.

“That must be a distraction caused by the Pi swordsmen,” Feng Yicheng guessed.

The three of them stopped in mid-air. Feng Bo turned to Feng Yicheng. “Yicheng, return to the city and help put out the fire. Make sure all the Pi swordsmen are captured. I’ll chase Pi Batian and Pi Yan with Li Mo.”

Feng Yicheng was still only a ninth-rank blademaster, and his presence wouldn’t be of much help. Nodding, he obeyed Feng Bo’s command and began flying off toward the flames.

“Feng Bo, can you guess where the Pis might try to leave the Feng city?” Li Mo asked.

The Feng city wasn’t guarded as extravagantly as the Pi city, but after having lived here for a period of time, Li Mo could tell that the Feng city employed a strategy of allowing easy access into the city, but not easy passage out.

“Except for the gates by the north, south, east and west, there are no fewer than ten sentries situated around the perimeter of the city,” Feng Bo replied. “As long as there’s anyone trying to leave the city at night, the sentries will spot them and send a flare into the skies.”

A purple flare blossomed in the night sky as Feng Bo spoke.

“We’d better hurry,” Li Mo shouted, and both of them whizzed off in the direction of the flare. By the time they arrived, the sentries’ outpost had been obliterated and the three sentries were lying on the ground, badly injured.

“Where are they?” Feng Bo asked one of the sentries who still seemed to be conscious, and he arduously pointed outside the wall.

“We couldn’t stop them, and they managed to escape.”

Feng Bo and Li Mo continued to give chase for an entire day and night. Only when they arrived by the Pi city did they finally notice Pi Yan, Pi Batian, Master Shade, and Yun Ruoyan, but they were still more than two miles away and wouldn’t be able to catch up by the time the group entered the Pi city.

Feng Bo stopped outside the city grounds.

“We didn’t catch up to them in time,” Feng Bo murmured. Beside him, Li Mo continued flying toward the Pi city on his own.

“No, you can’t!” Feng Bo hurriedly shouted, then gave chase. Feng Bo’s maximum speed was far higher than Li Mo’s, so he quickly caught up to him.

“Move aside! I need to save Yan’er!” Li Mo had clearly seen Yun Ruoyan’s figure behind Master Shade. To have his loved one be captured by the enemy made him feel as though a dagger was piercing his heart.

“If we’d caught up to them outside the city, we would naturally have given chase, because there would still be hope of saving them then. Now, however, you have no hope of saving Yun Ruoyan on your own, and you might even be captured as a result.”

“Feng Bo, don’t you think we can save one or two people from the Pis given our current level of strength?”

Feng Bo was the strongest cultivator Li Mo had seen upon entering the Mingyuan continent, and his own cultivation wasn’t too shabby either. Combined, they would be a force to contend with.

“You might not know, but behind the Pi family lies a powerful backer, one that neither of us will be able to resist,” Feng Bo sighed

“What power?”

“Except for the Pis, no one knows,” Feng Bo replied. “I’ve only been able to identify that this power comes from the high-grade Jiyuan continent. Do you remember how all you cultivators were trapped by a mirror upon entering the Mingyuan continent?”

“Of course I remember.” The cultivators who had experienced that event would likely be unable to forget it for the rest of their lives.

“And do you remember the mirror artifact that was the source of the barriers?”

The mirror had shone with a strange, white light, one that seemed to be material or immaterial according to its bearer’s will. That day, however, faced with peril the likes of which he had never encountered before, Li Mo had focused most of his attention on the seven families rather than the mirror entrapping them. That being said, he did remember the mirror quite clearly.

“Does the mirror have some other power beyond creating barriers?” Li Mo asked.

“It also provides a means of communication between the Mingyuan and Jiyuan continents,” Feng Bo replied. “The Pi family has powerful backing, which is why they’ve monopolized power on the Mingyuan continent for so long.”

Li Mo knew far more than most people about this mysterious high-rank continent and the highlanders that populated it. He wasn’t too surprised that the mirror artifact was able to allow communication between the Mingyuan and Jiyuan continents—after all, back on the Chenyuan continent, the first elder had used the all-seeing mirror to communicate in the same way. The fact that cultivators were being sent from the Chenyuan to the Mingyuan continent was by the will of some highlanders, and they also controlled the quantity of cultivators from lower realms to be sent.

Empress Xue Tong had informed Li Mo that the highlanders that were pulling the strings on the Mingyuan and Chenyuan continents were the silver dragon clan elders. There were seven elders in the silver dragon clan, and the committee formed by these seven elders controlled the clan’s power.

A longstanding agreement that had lasted for millennia prevented the silver dragon clan from directly interfering in the middle and lower realms, and even the first elder of the silver dragon clan didn’t dare break this commandment. Only under truly unusual circumstances would the elders head toward the lower realms with their true bodies.

Instead, they preferred to interfere indirectly. The reason that Li Mo and the other lower-realm cultivators had arrived on the Mingyuan continent was due to their interference, but Li Mo didn’t understand why they would set up such an elaborate scheme for advancing lower-realm cultivators.

“As far as I’m aware, highlanders aren’t allowed to interact one-on-one with cultivators from the middle and lower realms, let alone offer support of any sort,” Li Mo replied.

“You know this too?” Feng Bo was a little shocked by the breadth of Li Mo’s knowledge.

“I learned of it from my master, one of the highest-ranked cultivators on the lower realm from which I came. Through an artifact known as the all-seeing mirror, he was able to communicate with highlanders.”

“No wonder,” Feng Bo exclaimed. “More than twenty years ago, there used to be a mirror that served the same function within the seven cities, but one day, out of nowhere, it shattered. Ever since then, the seven cities lost contact with the highlanders. Not long later, the Pi family revealed that they had possession of a different mirror artifact, the same one that was used on you. Many of the smaller families on the Mingyuan continent had been attacked by that very artifact, one of the reasons why the Pis are so feared today. Luckily, the Pis don’t dare use that mirror to do whatever they want, but we absolutely can’t attack the Pi city. If we anger the Pi family’s backer, both you and I, as well as the Feng city, will be implicated.”

Given Feng Bo’s words of caution, Li Mo had no choice but to give up on rushing into the Pi city.

“Pi Yan knows who I am, so he certainly won’t let matters go with the Feng family so easily,” Feng Bo continued. “He’s been searching for an opportunity to fight with the Feng family, and this is it. I have to return to the Feng city and prepare countermeasures with Lord Feng.”

“In that case, I’ll stay here, infiltrate the Pi city, and try to find a way to rescue Yun Ruoyan and Zhuo Yifeng,” Li Mo replied.

“It seems like we don’t have any other choice,” Feng Bo murmured, a note of worry in his voice. “Don’t be rash.”

“Thank you for the reminder, but I’m well aware.”

“Tian’er, Tian’er? How are you?” The moment they entered the Pi city, Pi Yan stopped to inspect Pi Batian’s body.

Because they were being chased by Li Mo and Feng Bo, Pi Yan and Master Shade had flown at full speed without adequately tending to Pi Batian’s wound. Although Pi Batian had stanched the wound and consumed a spiritual pill to stop the bleeding in his stump of an arm, his face was still deathly pale due to his loss of blood.

“Father, I...” Before Pi Batian could finish, his willpower gave out and he fainted.

“Tian’er, Tian’er!” Even Pi Yan seemed to be at a loss as to what to do.

“Lord Pi,” Master Shade suddenly jumped in. “Bring the young master to the silver dragon clan elder. I’m sure he’ll be able to revive him.”

Pi Yan nodded and immediately flew toward the Pi manor, his son’s comatose body in his hands...