dmims 698. Interception en route
698. Interception en route
Under Xiao Yan's protection, the journey through the space tunnel proceeded without any incidents.
Finally, at the end of the tunnel ahead, a faint light gradually expanded, eventually turning into a dazzling ball of light—the exit had arrived! The ship shuddered slightly, as if it had passed through some invisible barrier.
The next moment, everything suddenly opened up before me!
Just as Xiao Yan's inner defenses had relaxed considerably, they arrived at the final point of this spatial jump—Sand City.
"We've finally arrived." Yan Chao stood up, supporting himself on the ship's railing, a relieved smile appearing on his weathered face.
As soon as he landed, Xiao Yan tensed up again for a simple reason: he sensed the Soul Palace's presence once more.
Xiao Yan activated his soul perception and easily learned the current situation outside the spatial tunnel. The Soul Clan members were actually conducting a search right there; three of them were at the Dou Zun level.
One two-star Dou Zun, one three-star Dou Zun, and a peak Dou Zun a little further away!
The two Dou Zun were not troublesome to deal with, but the last peak Dou Zun was quite troublesome. Although Xiao Yan's own strength had made a great leap in the past three years, it was absolutely impossible to kill that person silently. Moreover, he also had to protect the three members of the Yan Clan, and once a fierce battle broke out, it would be difficult to achieve a good result.
"Then we can only..."
Before the Soul Palace's attention was focused on his spaceship, Xiao Yan immediately sat down cross-legged.
Without any hesitation, the Dou Qi within his body instantly began to circulate. However, Xiao Yan wasn't intending to use any powerful Dou Qi techniques; all the Dou Qi underwent subtle changes after entering his body. Vast Dou Qi surged forth along a completely different path from the usual flow of Dou Qi within his body!
After passing through more than ten wondrous circulation routes, Xiao Yan's fighting spirit rapidly dissipated and eventually disappeared. In contrast, his soul power began to increase dramatically.
All of this happened in the blink of an eye, but under Xiao Yan's abnormal control, it appeared to be perfectly orderly.
Soul Transfer Technique!
A soul pressure far exceeding that of an ordinary early-stage Heaven Realm cultivator, like an invisible net, quietly enveloped Xiao Yan. This pressure wasn't specifically targeted at anyone; it was simply an inherent aspect of Xiao Yan's current state. Unless one possessed the keen senses of someone who had stepped into the Heaven Realm, it would be almost impossible to detect.
Almost at the same moment Xiao Yan activated his secret technique, Yan Chao, sitting not far opposite him, suddenly frowned, his weathered face hardening: "They've already tracked us all the way here?"
Yan Chao sensed the auras of the two peak Dou Zun experts, and his expression turned extremely ugly. The fact that the Soul Palace had tracked them down here meant that the information they had obtained was likely far beyond his imagination.
Not to mention that he himself didn't dare to use his Dou Qi because of the issue of his aura. The opponent was three Dou Zun, one of whom was at the peak of Dou Zun. Even if he and Xiao Yan joined forces, the final result wouldn't be good. This hurdle was definitely not easy to overcome.
"Young friend Xiao Yan?"
He was just about to discuss a plan with Xiao Yan when he saw Xiao Yan sitting cross-legged.
"What is Xiao Yan doing? With this kind of situation in front of him, how exactly does he plan to deal with it?"
Yan Chao couldn't sit down as calmly as Xiao Yan, and was also preparing to make a move. Xiao Yan's Three Thousand Thunder Illusion Body appeared beside Yan Chao like a ghost, just in time to stop him from making the slight movement of gathering his fighting spirit.
This energy avatar, formed from soul power, had the exact same face and figure as Xiao Yan's original body. Lei Huan raised his hand, gesturing for Yan Chao to calm down, his voice deep yet exceptionally steady, clearly penetrating Yan Chao's ears: "Elder Yan Chao, don't be anxious, don't act rashly. You can get through this, trust me!"
Yan Chao froze instantly. He naturally knew that this was Xiao Yan's clone, but looking into Lei Huanshen's calm and profound eyes, which were just as deep as Xiao Yan's, he ultimately chose to believe it.
But when he turned his gaze to Xiao Yan's true form, he saw that he was still sitting cross-legged, his eyes slightly closed, his breath long and deep, as if he had completely entered a state of meditation.
Yan Chao forcibly suppressed all his restlessness and regained some of the composure befitting an elder. However, a faint trace of battle qi began to circulate within his body extremely slowly, ready to intervene at any moment should a fight break out.
He had already taken measures to conceal his appearance, so as long as he did not take the initiative to release the unique aura of the Yan Clan, there was no danger of being discovered.
On the vast teleportation plaza, over a dozen spaceships of varying sizes were densely packed together. Under the oppressive aura of the three elders, powerful enough to guard a branch of the Soul Palace, the atmosphere on the plaza was extremely tense. The people inside each spaceship, whether leaders or ordinary merchants, wore expressions of fear that dared not be spoken. The name of the Soul Palace had already been proven by the bloodshed and carnage of the Central Plains.
The low-ranking Soul Palace protectors now resembled ferocious hunting hounds, searching ship by ship. They held black jade plates shimmering with strange runes, emanating invisible fluctuations that seemed to detect the presence of those inside the spaceships. Each person or caravan being inspected had to stand before the jade plate for a while, letting the cold beams of battle aura sweep over their bodies, until a protector nodded expressionlessly in approval before they dared to hastily leave.
The inspection was carried out quite quickly. Occasionally, a powerful figure who valued his status would show dissatisfaction or open his mouth to question it, but as soon as he felt the glances from the three Dou Zun, all his dissatisfaction vanished. No one was willing to challenge the Soul Palace at this time.
Yan Chao even saw a large spaceship that clearly belonged to the Flower Sect and was branded with the Flower Sect's logo. When the Soul Palace Protector signaled for it to stop for inspection, the middle-aged woman who appeared to be the leader on the ship could only nod with a dark face and swallow her anger.
Faced with such absolute power, everyone had no choice but to accept the Soul Palace's extremely blatant and impolite act.
Even now, Xiao Yan remained seated cross-legged, while Yan Chao's palms were already covered in cold sweat when he saw the Soul Palace protector so close to him.
He didn't know what Xiao Yan's trump card was. If Xiao Yan was planning to force his way in, now was the best time. After all, their advantage was only that—the initial attack that the Soul Palace hadn't prepared for.
He was also secretly accumulating strength so that when Xiao Yan prepared his thunderous attack, he could keep up without falling behind.
To Yan Chao's surprise once again, Xiao Yan still showed no intention of getting up even after the previous spaceship had been inspected.
"What happened?"
Yan Chao couldn't understand Xiao Yan's thoughts at all. Did he hope to escape this calamity by disguising himself? Their identities were so tense, and the Soul Palace had obviously made preparations in advance. It was absolutely impossible to get away with it by pretending!