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Translator: Raikov
Editor: Dhael Ligerkeys
Moreover, the name, Fox Immortal Valley, also gave Lu Ye a few thoughts.
He took out the 10-point map and checked his current position, but there was nothing special marked there. In other words, the existence of this valley was not recorded on the 10-point map.
In that case, the name of Fox Immortal Valley was known only to the cultivators here.
He guessed previously that the mistress of this place was a Mutant Beast, but as for what exact race she was, that was hard to say unless she revealed her true form.
However, the name of Fox Immortal Valley did give him a very good idea.
Was she a Fox Mutant?
That would make sense as it was said that Fox Mutants tended to be handsome men or enchanting women when they took on human forms, which matched her description.
However, the fact that the mistress could use a Divine Soul Secret Technique that could control a person despite only being in the Cloud River Realm was evident that she was no ordinary Fox mutant. There was a high possibility that she possessed a special bloodline.
Take Amber for example, there were countless tiger-like Spirit Beasts in this world, but other than Amber, he had never heard of any such Spirit Beast with a Ghost Spirit.
Amber had the bloodline of the Four Sacred Beasts’ White Tiger, allowing it to possess such an innate ability.
Regardless, that mistress wasn’t going to be an easy opponent to deal with. After ending up in Fox Immortal Valley, Lu Ye was not affected by the mistress’s Secret Technique since he had the Tree of Glyphs to support him, but Li Baxian had been controlled and gained an undying loyalty towards her, so it was impossible for Lu Ye to bring him out from here.
To be able to decisively let go of Feng Yuechan, whom he had lived with for so many years, it could be seen just how powerful this Divine Soul Secret Technique was. If Lu Ye had forcefully taken Li Baxian away, it would have only exposed the fact that he was not under control, and as a result, the cultivators from the entire Fox Immortal Valley would likely hunt him down.
Powerful cultivators were as common here as clouds in the sky, with Eighth or Ninth Order Cloud River Realm cultivators abound. It was hard to predict just what would happen if he truly took that step.
He secretly rejoiced that Ju Jia had been injured and Feng Yuechan stayed behind to take care of him. If they had come together, they would have surely been caught.
At least now, Feng Yuechan and Ju Jia were still at Arcane Glade, which gave Lu Ye a backup plan that he could still use so that he wouldn’t have to deal with this all on his own.
Fox Immortal Valley was a place within the Cloud River Battlefield that had never been discovered before. Firstly, it was located deep within Grand Wilds Peak, which was difficult for ordinary cultivators to reach. Secondly, there were the rules of Fox Immortal Valley. Anyone who entered the valley had to sever any ties to their past. Under the influence of the Divine Soul Secret Technique, no one would spread any information about this place.
As a result, even if a cultivator had gone missing for a long time and couldn’t be contacted, their Sects and even their family and friends wouldn’t have been able to find them. At most, they could only determine whether they were dead or alive based on the condition of their Battle Imprint.
It was necessary for the Divine Soul Secret Technique to be dispelled if Lu Ye wanted to take Li Baxian away from here. Otherwise, there was no way that Li Baxian would leave obediently. However, the Secret Technique was tied upon one’s Divine Soul, and how could Lu Ye hope to deal with it as a mere cultivator in the Cloud River Realm?
Unless the mistress was to undo the Secret Technique herself, this was clearly impossible.
That was unless they killed her!
Between the two, killing her seemed to be the only plausible way.
No matter how powerful she was, it was still within the confines of the Cloud River Realm. And, from what he saw of her today, she was not an elite-level existence. In other words, her power was at most equivalent to one at the peak of the Cloud River Realm. So, no matter how hard it would be to kill her, it wouldn’t be impossible.
The difficult thing was trying to deal with the cultivators in the valley.
Lu Ye wasn’t sure just how many cultivators were gathered here, but since meeting Zhou Yuntian, he had seen over thirty cultivators, and that was only those he had seen. There had to be more that he had yet to come across.
What was the Fox Mutant gathering so many cultivators for?
After thinking for a while, Lu Ye had a vague guess in mind. Regardless, it wouldn’t be wrong of him to first figure out the force of Fox Immortal Valley. Only when he figured out everything about this place could he effectively deal with the situation at hand.
First, he had to contact Feng Yuechan and Ju Jia.
He and Li Baxian had been pursuing Xia Liang and Tan Sheng, and there had been no news from them for such a long time. Feng Yuechan and the others must be getting anxious by now.
Since it was impossible for Li Baxian to send a reply, he would have to contact her himself.
Moreover, when he had feigned unconsciousness earlier, there had already been some messages coming through, but he hadn’t been able to check them at the time. If his guesses were right, then the messages should come from Feng Yeuchan.
Raising his hand, he tapped on the Battle Imprint and calmly looked through it. As expected, the messages were from Feng Yuechan, and there were quite a few of them, all inquiring about the situation he and Li Baxian were in.
“Senior Sister Feng.”
There was a response from Feng Yuechan almost as soon as the message was sent out. Clearly, she had been waiting on standby this whole time.
“Junior Brother Lu, you finally responded! What’s the situation on your side? Are you hurt? What about my Senior Brother? Why isn’t he responding to me?”
Feng Yuechan could ascertain that both Lu Ye and Li Baxian were still alive through the Battle Imprints, but she couldn’t help but make an unnerving conjecture about their condition when she failed to get a response all this while.
“Both Senior Brother and I are safe, so you need not worry. However, we’ve encountered a bit of a situation and won’t be able to return to the Arcane Glade any time soon.”
“Where are you? I’ll come and look for you two.”
“No, you mustn’t!” Lu Ye quickly stopped her. Then, he detailed the experiences that he and Li Baxian went through to her, and informed her of the current situation that they were in.
Feng Yuechan was clearly quite shocked to hear the news. “You and Senior Brother have been mind-controlled by a Fox Mutant?”
“Her being a Fox Mutant is just my guess. As for whether that’s true or not, I dare not confirm it as I’ve never seen her true form before. However, it’s true that she has the power to manipulate the minds of others. Right now, Senior Brother seems no different than usual. The only difference is his obeisance to the Fox Mutant due to the effect of that Divine Soul Secret Technique, so I have no way of forcibly taking him away from here.”
“Abominable beast!” Feng Yuechan cursed. Though she was curious why Lu Ye was unaffected by the Secret Technique, she didn’t bring it up with him.
After all, if Lu Ye really was affected, he wouldn’t be talking to her about this.
“The Fox Mutant has set a rule that once one enters Fox Immortal Valley, they must cut off all contact with the outside. So, Senior Sister Feng, even if you send a message to Senior Brother, he won’t answer. However, so that we can keep this under wraps, I’ll have to trouble you to act as if you don’t know the truth and continue trying to get in contact with him.”
“I understand,” Feng Yuechan responded. Soon after, he received another message that read, “Hearing that from you reminds me of something. Several years ago, a Cloud River Realm disciple from the Devoted Ones disappeared in the Grand Wilds Peak. Even though they could confirm that he was alive through his Battle Imprint, nobody could get any response from him no matter who in the Sect tried to contact him. So, they assumed that he must have encountered some sort of accident, and though many men were sent into the Grand Wilds Peak to search for him, they never did get any results in the end. Based on what we know now, it seems that he too, may have ended up in that Fox Immortal Valley.”
“What is that man called?” Lu Ye asked urgently. If that were true, then that person must still be in the valley today.
“He has already passed away. His Battle Imprint was gone a year after his disappearance.”
A chill went down Lu Ye’s heart. This further confirmed that Fox Immortal Valley was not a peaceful place.
Moreover, judging from the situation in the valley, it wasn’t only the cultivators from the Devoted Ones that had gone missing. However, as the missing cultivators couldn’t be contacted, the situation in Fox Immortal Valley remained unexposed all this while.
Lu Ye didn’t know how many cultivators were caught here in Fox Immortal Valley, but the number definitely wouldn’t be small.
And, with only a hundred pavilions available for residence, even if each person resided in each one, it could only accommodate a little over a hundred people. Where had all those cultivators gone?
There must be some dangers here that he had yet to discover.
“Junior Brother Lu, be extremely careful over there and take care of your senior brother. If anything unusual happens, make sure to contact me.”
“I understand, so don’t worry, Senior Sister Feng. By the way, how is Ju Jia doing?”
“Junior Brother Ju Jia has a strong physique and his injuries aren’t severe. It looks scary, but he is out of danger.”
“That’s good.”
After exchanging a few more words with Feng Yuechan, they ended their communication.
Sitting on the bed, Lu Ye’s gaze flickered.
If he was going to kill the Fox Mutant, then his strength alone wouldn’t be enough. Perhaps he could have Feng Yuechan contact some reinforcements and have them stationed in the Arcane Glade?
However, Lu Ye quickly dismissed that idea.
There were a considerable number of cultivators in Fox Immortal Valley, and if he were to call for assistance, he didn’t know how many he needed before it was enough.
Furthermore, there was still the wolf pack in the Arcane Glade. Once the opportunity was right, all he needed was for Feng Yuechan and Ju Jia to bring out the Wolf Mutants. There was no need to go through the trouble of finding additional help.
As for himself, all he had to do was to integrate himself into Fox Immortal Valley as much as possible, gather information about the strength of their forces, especially the power of the Fox Mutant. If he wanted to kill her, the least he needed was a clear understanding of her abilities.
After making up his mind, Lu Ye stood up and began tidying his room. There were many remnants left behind by the previous owner, all of which had to be cleaned up.
After quickly tidying everything, Lu Ye walked out of the small building and set up some simple Wards outside. He also went to Li Baxian’s residence nearby to set up some Wards for him.
The night passed without words, spent peacefully in cultivation.
At dawn the next day, while Lu Ye was in the midst of cultivation, he heard Li Baxian and Zhou Yuntian conversing in the adjacent building.
Zhou Yuntian had come to deliver gifts. When they had met the Fox Mutant yesterday, the Fox Mutant had shown great interest in Li Baxian’s talent, so she specifically instructed Zhou Yuntian to bestow him with some cultivation resources. Zhou Yuntian naturally did not dare to disobey the Fox Mutant’s command.
Lu Ye didn’t know exactly what he had brought, but since they were cultivation resources, it was likely to be either Spirit Stones or Spirit Pills.
A short while later, Zhou Yuntian walked out from Li Baxian’s place and came straight to Lu Ye’s residence, calling out, “Cultivator Lu, are you there?”
Lu Ye got up, opened the door, and stepped out before cupping his fists. “Cultivator Zhou.”
Zhou Yuntian chuckled and asked with concern, “How are you doing? Are you adapting well to life here?”
Lu Ye replied, “It’s quiet and secluded, just to my liking.”
“That’s good.” Zhou Yuntian nodded. Without beating around the bush, he said, “Yesterday, you mentioned that you had some proficiency in the Way of Wards, correct?”
“Yes, but what kind of Wards need to be set up?”
“None, actually. It’s just that though there are quite a few cultivators here, only one is a practitioner in the Way of Wards, and that is Cultivator Xie. So, all the Wards in the valley are his responsibility. Since Cultivator Lu has some proficiency in the Way of Wards, the mistress hopes you can assist Cultivator Xie in maintaining the Wards.”
Lu Ye naturally wouldn’t refuse such a request. It was a perfect opportunity to familiarize himself with the situation in Fox Immortal Valley. He nodded, “I can do that.”
