Swallowed Star
chapter-565

To confirm Luo Feng’s death, the most important thing was to see the remains of the cloud contact vine, along with the red identification tag.

“If I enter the ice forest and get surrounded by those beasts, I’ll definitely be killed. Much less him.”

“But I have to confirm his identity.”

Sector lord Wu Qi stood at the intersection of the 817 caves, nervous and restless.

What should he do?

Both ways were just as difficult!

“I’ll first enter the virtual universe network to check with the others.” Wu Qi sent a thread of his consciousness into the network swiftly.

Different from Blood River world, the 9 star ocean was an area controlled by the Virtual Universe company. Sector lords and undyings were frequently visiting back from exploring the universe, hence they had stuff such as the virtual universe network along with universe ships etc.

Virtual universe, in an ancient house.

“Bayan, Bayan.”

Sector lord Wuqi sat in the chair, and a screen appeared before him. Very quickly, another black horned man appeared in it, it was the strongest one of the 6 from the 1000 star sect group, sector lord level 9 Bayan.

“Wuqi, why are you looking for me?” Bayan asked on the screen.

“I think I’ve found the target.” Wu Qi’s eyes were burning like flames.

“Ah?” Bayan revealed an expression of glee. This mission was simply like a hot coal in hands, they were very clear that the background of their target wasn’t simple, however they had no choice about it. If Wu Qi had killed the target, naturally Bayan would be extremely happy, he quickly asked, “Have you confirmed?”

“There is no way to.” Wu Qi shook his head.

“Why?” Bayan was suspicious.

“It’s this way, I discovered a universe level 9 before.” Sector lord Wu Qi began to explain the entire story .

Bayan was silent for awhile.

“You are wrong!” Bayan said.

“Wrong, where have I been wrong? Even I almost died, hence that universe level 9 would definitely have died. And to have been able to escape from me…he definitely isn’t from 9 star ocean.” Wu Qi was very confident.

“Yes, indeed it’s very likely he isn’t from 9 star ocean.” Bayan said. “However Wu Qi, you’ve forgotten one point. This demon mountain would very frequently have high valued beings from the Virtual Universe company. These beings, are all universe level 9s, all with many of their own methods. You’ve indeed met one out of the ordinary, however, it may not necessarily be the target. It might very likely have been another of these beings.”

“Ah…” Wu Qi was stunned.

Yes.

Bayan was right, there were many high status universe level 9s that explored demon mountain, not just one.

“Then what should I do?” Wu Qi frowned. “Should I wait at the cave entrance for a chance or continue searching.”

“This way, you stay there and guard first.” Bayan said. “After awhile, you can sneak back into the cave…get close to the ice forest, carefully hide your energy and you shouldn’t be discovered. Check carefully whether there’s a cloud contact vine remains. I think those stupid beasts shouldn’t have destroyed the remains.”

Wu Qi pondered for awhile before nodding.

Within the vast pathway.

The huge lizard beast, after discovering the human sector lord had vanished and chased for 100s of thousands of km to no avail, stopped.

Sou! Sou! Sou! Sou!

After awhile, the 3 sector lord beasts behind slowed down too and stopped behind the lizard beast.

“Howl…” The lizard beast raised its head and howled, causing the entire pathway to tremble.

“Howl…” The other 4 sector lord beasts raised their heads and howled too.

After which the lizard beast turned and started to return, the other 4 sector lord beast followed suit. When they were chasing the human before they were extremely fast, however they casually ran back, using only one third of their speed before.

“What’s going on?”

“Returning?”

One member of the vast army, that 8m tall cute ice bear looked around. It saw that all the beast stopped running, there were many types of them, and they all followed the leading lizard beast and returned.

Even though the lizard beast and the other sector lord beasts were returning, the over thousand other beasts weren’t completely uniform.

Most of them started to return.

Only a small group of them continued to walk about slowly, with about 10 of them continuing down the pathway, heading towards where the sector lord had fled to.

Their thought process was extremely simple.

Just like a group of little chickens running amok, most of them would run together but some would still leave the group.

“No wonder I met a single one earlier.” The ice bear Luo Feng pondered, carefully observing the happenings about. “The beasts enjoy being in a group and community. However there would occasionally be some dumb enough to leave the group.”

“Who knows whether the sector lord has died or not!”

“If he’s dead I can leave this path. If he hasn’t died, he probably would have left far away, I would still be able to leave the same way.”

The ice bear slowly followed the 10 or so other beast and headed in the direction of where the sector lord fled.

The ice bear would occasionally run and then stroll.

The other 10 beasts too would occasionally use their huge ice bodies to nudge the ice bear.

…

Moving with the 10 beasts, the ice bear ran for awhile, leaving them behind.

Only then did it began to accelerate towards the cave entrance.

After awhile…

“Luo Feng, I’ve scanned world energy ripples! It’s that sector lord from before.”

The running ice bear naturally slowed down, deliberately using its body to knock into the ice walls beside, after proceeding forward a little more, he turned and headed back instead.

…

“There are beasts?” The black horned skinny man at the intersection of the 817 caves frowned, after which he let out a sigh of relief, “A universe level 3 beast.”

“So stupid, using its body to knock into the ice walls?”

“Seems stupid.”

He was too lazy to go kill a beast.

And Wu Qi was still afraid from before, he was afraid that the commotion caused from killing this beast would attract even more.

“Hm, it’s returning.”

“That’s right, return to your nest.” Sector lord Wu Qi smiled, that beast had already turned and left his world energy area.

…

Within the ice pathways, the ice bear slowly walked and as it left the world energy area.

“Luo Feng, we’ve already left the world energy area.”

“Phew.”

The ice bear’s eyes had a hint of vigor, “I didn’t expect the sector lord to stick around.”

“I was 10,003km away from the 817 cave intersection. According to the distance, I deduce that the sector lord could very likely be hiding at the intersection. This is just an assumption.” Babata communicated via consciousness. “That area is very safe, the moment he discovers any beast that tried to follow him, he can immediately head into another cave. I think the beasts too wouldn’t be able to guess which cave he headed into. However he hasn’t left, making me suspect…”

“Suspect what?” Luo Feng asked.

“The beasts are terrifying, that sector lord is very clear on that. Him staying at the intersection, even though it’s safe, there would still be the chance of beasts chasing out! The safest way is to leave far away. But he hasn’t done that!”

“He’s not collecting tags in demon mountain but standing guard there.”

“Plus, he tried so hard to kill you before, I have to suspect…that his true aim is you Luo Feng.” Babata said.

“It’s me?”

Luo Feng frowned, remembering all that happened earlier.

Indeed, this sector lord was on high alert at the cave entrance, not daring to relax. If it weren’t for killing him, there was no need for him to be on such high alert there.

“Why would he want to kill me?” Luo Feng frowned.

For the aboriginals to join the Virtual Universe company, one way was to stay in demon mountain for a month, and the other way was to collect 1,000 black tags or 1 red tag. However with a sector lord level 9’s strength, collecting 1,000 black tags or staying 1 month there was very simple. There was no need to stand guard at the cave at all.

“Even if he suspects you are the one from the Virtual Universe company, there’s no need for him to kill you. Because, killing you wouldn’t do good for him in the Virtual Universe company in the future. Also, he has no need to.”

“I deduce that…”

“Someone wants you dead or wants one of the other two from the company dead!” Babata said.

“Wants me dead?” Luo Feng’s expression changed.

According to the information.

There were a total of 3 core members that had entered demon mountain.

“His target should be one of you 3.” Babata was very sure. “And it’s hard to say whether the other 2 entered demon note mountain. Hence, the chances of his true target being you should reach up to 50%.”

“50%? Who would want to kill me? Who have I offended?” Luo Feng frowned.

“At times, some people you don’t even know may want to kill you. At other times, you don’t even know when you’ve offended others.” Babata said. “I’ve followed your teacher for over 60 million years, I’ve seen too many mutual deceptions. I advise you to be very careful. This demon mountain exploration isn’t that simple.

“Understood.” The ice bear let out a low roar and began to return to the ice forest.

…

As the ice walls of the pathway were simply too thick, even though the surface layer could be split and broken, the several km thick rock layer behind couldn’t be broken through.

Even a sector lord warrior had to flee with all his might, with no way to break through. It meant one thing…that this majestic mountain’s black rock was extremely sturdy.

After a while.

The ice bear slowly returned to the ice forest. Within the vast forest, the beasts all lived quietly, and the ice bear Luo Feng didn’t arouse any suspicion from the rest at all.

Howl…

A 600m long domain lord level 9 flying beast lay on the ice layer, it casually flapped its ice wings and it knocked the ice bear that was just walking past to fall and roll about. Only then did the ice bear stupidly stand back up again.

In this ice forest beast nest, the ice bear passed through many of the beasts, continuing forward.

“There’s actually no way to head out from here, I can only see if there’s another exit in this forest.” Luo Feng thought.

The ice bear slowly progressed, occasionally letting out a low roar.