Market Entrance Blocked

The giant blade descended from the sky, cleaving towards them.

A powerful spiritual energy fluctuation was felt from afar, attacking them.

The two immediately stopped, completely surprised that ant-like fellows would launch an attack on them first.

Seeing the formidable offense, both showed serious expressions, ready for battle.

They each conjured defenses in front of them, intending to block the incoming attack first.

But before the Ghost Head Saber could reach them, a dazzling light flashed in the air.

Instantly, their eyes couldn't open. They had expected the Ghost Head Saber to strike, so they had been intently watching its trajectory, fearing any oversight.

Unexpectedly, the explosion was like a flashbang, blinding them completely.

Sensing the situation, they immediately understood: they had fallen into a trap!

With their vision gone, the immense shockwave from the explosion above forced them to retract their divine senses. They dared not release them, fearing injury from the blast.

Now, like blind men, their eyes useless and their divine senses suppressed, they were completely unaware of their surroundings.

They could only manage to erect a defensive spirit shield around themselves, but in their haste, it lacked significant defensive power.

This situation was precisely within Lu Wanyuan's calculations; he had been waiting for this moment.

The Ghost Head Saber's true purpose wasn't to attack, but to distract them, causing them to lose their awareness of their surroundings, effectively disabling their early warning system, thus allowing his follow-up plan to achieve its strategic intent.

The outcome was as expected. The Ghost Head Saber, through a preemptive strike, immediately captured the attention of both opponents.

Especially with the Ghost Head Saber's grand display, their attention was fully focused, completely missing the two Sky Thunder Seeds that followed.

They also failed to notice the Sky Thunder Seeds behind them crackling ominously.

Once the Ghost Head Saber exploded, and their warning systems were paralyzed, the two Sky Thunder Seeds arrived moments later, right before their eyes.

Two mushroom clouds, over ten meters high, erupted, sending hurricane-like shockwaves outwards. Immediately after, a blood rain began to fall!

Everything was bathed in red as it rained down.

Lu Wanyuan's face was covered in it. Seeing this, he was ecstatic.

He had succeeded in eliminating these two high-level cultivators.

However, he noticed the light screen covering him had vanished, and he immediately understood it must have been destroyed, rendering his concealment useless.

He hadn't expected this light screen to be breakable. It was likely shattered long ago by the collapsing wall.

Seeing this, he finally understood why these two had spotted him so easily. He had been exposed for a while, but he hadn't realized it.

Although he had killed two unknown individuals, the problem was that he was still in the shanty town, and the danger had not been resolved.

Secondly, the massive explosion here would likely attract other cultivators.

Another issue was that he was severely injured, with broken ribs.

Given these reasons, he felt it was necessary to escape this place. Otherwise, if other cultivators arrived next time, he certainly wouldn't be so lucky, nor would he have any other means of attack.

Of course, the first thing to do was to go invisible. Then, enduring the pain, he pushed aside the rubble wall pressing down on him and used the "Concealment 2 Hours" skill to become invisible. He knew the effect had taken hold when he saw the familiar light screen cover his entire body.

What a pity. He had originally possessed three "Concealment 2 Hours" skills, and now all of them were used up. If he couldn't reach the market on time this time, he would be in extreme danger, as he would have no more such skills.

With this thought, he got up and carefully walked towards the market.

He cautiously surveyed his surroundings, determined not to make any loud noises like he had recently, which could alert other cultivators nearby.

Before he had walked a hundred meters, he spotted a blood-stained grey storage bag ahead.

He immediately understood that this storage bag must have belonged to one of the two individuals. He had initially thought that such a powerful explosion would have destroyed the storage bag.

To his surprise, one had fallen right in front of him. He immediately walked over and collected the storage bag.

Then, he thought that since this storage bag wasn't destroyed, perhaps the other person's storage bag was also intact. He decided to search for it.

But just as he was about to search, he sensed several powerful spiritual energy fluctuations rapidly approaching his location not far away.

He was startled. If he were discovered this time, even an immortal couldn't save him.

At this moment, he didn't care about anything else; his life was more important. He quickly fled towards the market, away from the area.

The cultivators who arrived later were immediately drawn to the two massive sky pits before them, utterly shocked by the destructive power. These were two deep pits, about 5 meters deep. Seeing the pools of bloodstains around them, they immediately concluded that the fighting cultivators must have perished in a mutual destruction.

An hour later, he saw the market entrance not far away.

However, he noticed a large number of cultivators gathered near the market entrance.

His heart sank. After all, the market entrance was usually bustling with people, not blocked like this, preventing entry.

He quietly approached and saw that the entire market was currently covered by a light screen, resembling an inverted funnel.

Cultivators at the entrance were constantly complaining. It turned out that these people were all trying to fish in troubled waters outside.

For some unknown reason, the Bayberry Market had activated its formation and was preventing everyone from entering.

"Damn it, I've never seen this happen before. Why is the formation activated now?"

A later-arriving cultivator asked in confusion.

"Don't you get it yet? Look at the shanty towns around the market. So many places have been destroyed, not many shanty towns are left intact. The people from the Qingyun Sect must be angry this time!"

"Yeah, since so many people wanted to fish in troubled waters, let them fish. Let's see who ends up being fished in the end!"

"With so many people locked out of the market now, it goes without saying that there will be big problems!"

"Isn't this exactly the effect they wanted?"

"Don't worry, activating this grand formation consumes a lot of spirit stones, especially a Tier 2 Grand Formation like this!"

"That's true, but who knows when it will end and the market's grand formation can be deactivated!"

"..."

A cacophony of voices erupted.

Lu Wanyuan, who was nearby and overheard them, grew more worried the more he listened.

He finally understood. The Qingyun Sect people saw the severe damage to the shanty towns around the market, which must have cut into their profits, so it was no wonder they were angry.

They immediately activated the formation to lock out all those who were trying to fish in troubled waters, letting them fight amongst themselves.

Another issue was that he didn't know when this grand formation would be deactivated, which bothered him greatly because his concealment had a time limit. If he were exposed here, it would make him look even more suspicious.

After all, with such effective concealment, no one had noticed him hiding nearby. If that were the case, he would be unable to explain himself.

Not to mention, the outside now looked like the Land of Chaos, and it was certain that major trouble would erupt eventually.

Another thing was that his injuries had not yet been treated, and he was alone and without help. If other cultivators saw him, he would surely be the first target.

He had originally planned to wait here for the grand formation to be activated, but given these circumstances, he felt he should leave now, as far away as possible, and do it quickly.

Otherwise, the more people gathered here, the higher his risk factor would become.

He decided to act immediately and chose a direction with sparse population.

An hour and a half later, he had no idea how far he had traveled when he found himself on a hillside. The surrounding hillsides were dark red. The further he walked, the hotter the ground beneath his feet felt, and waves of heat seemed to wash over him.

It felt like he had entered a Volcanic Zone, but after checking his surroundings, he found no obvious volcanic vents.

However, he could feel the light screen covering him becoming thinner and thinner.

He immediately understood that the concealment effect was about to disappear.

This made him nervous because he needed to accomplish something before it wore off, otherwise, he would be in danger tonight.

He immediately began to scout the surrounding area.

Then, he quickly moved to a mountain hollow. Since the surrounding hillsides were of similar height, he decided to choose a hollow. This way, if there were cultivators nearby, they wouldn't notice this hollow, as there were many such hollows in the area.

After he entered a mountain hollow, he took out his Spirit Hoe and began to dig on a gentle slope.

Yes, in the wild, one must guard not only against cultivators but also against Demonic Beasts.

And a temporary cave would allow him to hide better.

But before he could dig for long, he discovered that the deeper he dug, the hotter the cave became.

However, he didn't have time to find another place to dig.

After all, the Concealment effect was about to disappear, and he had no time to dig elsewhere. Moreover, if it was the same even if he dug deeper, it would be a loss that outweighed the gain, because he was still injured and didn't have the strength to dig elsewhere.

Now that he had entered the cave, he certainly couldn't leave, at least not until his injuries recovered.

After a quick thought, he immediately continued digging inside the cave.

Fortunately, he was used to farm work, otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to dig this cave so quickly.

A cave, half a person's height, over two zhang deep, and about two meters wide, was thus formed.

Of course, he had almost sealed the entrance with stones to prevent outsiders from seeing the cave at a glance, and had disguised it.

Inside, apart from being a bit hot, everything else was fine.

He then took out his Tinder and lit the Lighting Lamp, not having time to admire his work.

Instead, he checked his wounds. After digging the cave, his injuries had worsened.

Thinking that he hadn't prepared any Healing Pills in his Storage Bag, Lu Wanyuan immediately regretted leaving the Market without proper preparation.

At the time, he had only thought of going out for a trip and coming back, never expecting such a result. He had initially thought too perfectly, believing that the Concealment attribute was a perfect means.

But now it seemed that even with such an attribute, one had to be cautious.

Otherwise, he wouldn't know how he died in the future. It seemed this was a good thing after all; at least through this incident, he had learned many lessons and gained insights.

He sat down cross-legged and was about to activate the 'Minor Five Elements Art', but before he could even start, he felt an unbearable pain all over his body. It seemed he still needed to heal his injuries.

So he stopped and then remembered. He took out a blood-stained Storage Bag from his embrace.

This was something he had picked up on the road not long ago. He hoped this Storage Bag contained Healing Pills, otherwise, he would be in trouble this time.

With a hopeful heart, he sent his divine sense into the Storage Bag!