Chương 317: Leaving the nest

Long Feng slowly stood up and stretched his arms with a faint smile lighting up his face.

"Let's see how much my strength has increased." He slowly released the energy within his spirit cyclone. The frozen cyclone began to rotate slowly once again, releasing a flood of extremely powerful energy into Long Feng's body. This energy was stronger than before and it's purity had actually increased slightly as well. The density had reached another level entirely. It was still just spirit energy, but Long Feng felt as though he was having Imperial energy gushing through his veins.

Not just the density of his energy. Now when the power of his spirit energy was absolutely comparable to the Imperial realm. All that was lacking was for him to breakthrough to the Imperial realm. A grin appeared on Long Feng's face.

"Heh. After the suffering I went through, it'd be a pity if I didn't gain even this much." He laughed and released his aura. Several small rocks around him were lifted into the air and crushed by the powerful air current generated as he released his aura.

"Peak spirit realm, finally!" He smiled once again, unable to mask his excitement.

"Although the earth dwellers had absorbed ninety percent of the Imperial energy to keep him alive, the remaining ten percent was enough to push him to rank eight spirit realm. As for the strand of essence, it pushed his spirit cyclone to it's limit and forced another breakthrough.

"Although my bad luck comes in pairs, it's worth it for two breakthroughs. And the essence actually did make my energy slightly denser. If I go all out, I believe I can fight a rank eight Imperial realm master on equal ground. Using the firmament sword art, I can defeat them." As for peak Imperials, he still didn't he that confidence. He circulated his energy several times until he was fully accustomed to this stronger energy before he withdrew his aura and waited patiently.

It was about time to leave, but he had one last thing to do before he left. Half a day passed and faint noises filled the cave. They slowly grew louder until the earth dwellers flew out of the tunnels like endless black smoke. Long Feng watched them calmly, waiting till they were all out of the tunnels and began to leave in their usual direction before he flew after them without dispelling his concealment. He followed at a leisure pace, isolating their noises with his energy.

Until now, he was still basking in the newfound strength he had. Their journey took a few hours before the earth dwellers suddenly quietened down. Over ten thousand earth dwellers fell silent in a single breath, causing Long Feng to feel startled. The sudden change from extreme noise to extreme silence was unreal. He slowed his pace and followed cautiously while withdrawing his soul power to just a few meters around him. Without knowing what was ahead, spreading his soul power far was a foolish decision.

Something stronger than he was could sense it and track him using it. The earth dwellers flew for a while longer before they paused midair in silence. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. Long Feng watched this from behind in surprise, then he looked around. His eyes instantly widened. He thought these earth dwellers were all there was, but clearly, he was mistaken. They were just from the direction he found himself.

Right now, he couldn't even count how many earth dwellers were gathered from each direction of the cave. Some of them were as large as humans, even larger, and their auras and ferociousness let Long Feng know that he wasn't their opponent at all. Heaven knew what they had absorbed to become that strong. He predicted that they should be equal to mid or high stage deities. This alone proved that this cave was beyond the current him. Logic told him to leave instantly, but curiosity held him back.

His curiosity won and he inched closer while reinforcing his concealment formation to the best of his abilities. What gave him the courage to approach was the fact that earth dwellers seemed to have extremely weak souls and perception. A normal deity, even a peak Imperial would've sensed his presence. After all, he hadn't yet reached the soul transformation layer where his soul power would be equal to the deity realm.

His reason told him to leave, but since when has his reason and logic ever won against his recklessness and curiosity? He kept moving closer till he was able to see what the earth dwellers were gathering around. His hairs instantly rose. A massive dark creature laid in the center of the numerous earth dwellers. It appeared to be an earth dweller as well, but it's size was huge. A small mountain wouldn't reach half it's size. It was so large that it's head was touching the ceiling rocks.

The mouth of the huge earth dweller was like an abyss, pitch black and terrifying, a free one way ticket leading straight into death. As he stared at it, two blood red eyes opened on the face of the earth dweller. They were filled with nothing but savage insanity, appearing like it would instantly destroy the world if it could move. It let out a terrifying roar that shook the cave and caused Long Feng's blood and energy to tumble. His concealment formation nearly broke apart on it's own merely due to the sound.

He immediately retreated slightly but still didn't leave yet. The giant earth dweller then opened it's mouth wide. A terrifying devouring force erupted from the abyss like mouth, latching onto the hundreds of thousands of earth dwellers in the sky. The earth dwellers didn't resist as they were pulled into the mouth of the giant. In a single gulp, they were all devoured cleanly. The giant then closed it's mouth and remained silent for a few minutes before it opened wide again.

This time, hundreds of thousands of strange smoky orbs flew out of it's mouth and hovered in the sky. The scene was strange to say the least. Within each orb, Long Feng could faintly see tiny earth dwellers. He watched this in intrigue while making some predictions in his mid.

"This must be their queen, similar to every nest. They go out, eat enough energy and return to be devoured by their queen as meal. Afterwards, it creates new earth dwellers to begin the circle again, creating a loop. How interesting. Could this queen of theirs be unable to move?" He waited silently, not daring to make too much movements. If his guesses were right, then this giant was at least as strong as a human Dao realm master.

Even if it's soul was innately weak, it would be able to see through his paltry concealment if he so much as breathed heavily. A day passed, then another. Several hours into the second day, the orbs began to shatter, similar to eggs and the normal sized weak earth dwellers which usually attacked the cave appeared before Long Feng, their numbers blotting out the sky.

The giant earth dweller then let out a roar and all of the earth dwellers began to fly away in different directions, obviously going to continue their eternal loop.

"Oh well. There was nothing here actually. Time to go." Long Feng shrugged. He had expected to at least gain something, maybe a treasure from here. But if there ever was anything of value here, then this chubby giant must've devoured them all. He turned around and began to fly away slowly. As he flew away ahead of the earth dwellers, he began to plan what he would do once he left.

"The mission should have ended if my calculations aren't wrong. I'll have to find whoever threw me down here myself-" he felt ice cold all of a sudden. Looking back, the blood red eyes of the chubby earth dweller giant was fixed right on him. Long Feng blinked and moved aside, hoping it was a coincidence. But the gaze followed, fixated on him. Sweat immediately broke out on his forehead.

"Shit. Oh, Long Feng… I'm going to get myself killed one of these days…" he sighed and turned around to flee. The concealment formation was pretty much useless now. Waiting for the giant to act was a stupid decision. He hoped his guess was correct and the chubby giant couldn't move. The giant only seemed to realize what he was after he raised his speed and fled. It's red eyes became savage as it let out a terrifying roar that shook the cave. Long Feng's ears shook as well and he groaned helplessly.

"What exactly brought me here again?" He should've just left earlier. The chubby giant roared again but didn't move from it's spot. Long Feng smiled and began to rejoice as he fled.

"That's right. You're so fat, how exactly do you expect to chase me?" That might be the reason it didn't go to find food for itself, instead relying on these weaklings. Perhaps there were other reasons why it couldn't move or maybe it simply didn't want to. Either way, it suited Long Feng. The chubby giant roared a third time, filled with rage. The hundreds of thousands of earth dwellers that were leaving all paused, then turned around and faced Long Feng's direction. Long Feng suddenly felt chilled.

He didn't know why but he had a feeling that each an everyone of them was seeing him right now. But his concealment formation was still active! As if to confirm his thoughts, hundreds of thousands of earth dwellers shrieked and rushed towards him. They were like a vast cloud of smoke enveloping the sky. His scalp went numb instantly as he pushed his speed to the limit and flew away. The earth dwellers had several disadvantages, but speed wasn't one of them. Even at his full speed, he couldn't outrun them.

Their nearly weightless bodies gave them extremely fast speed when they went all out. With their queen giving them an order, they would naturally go all out to get it done. Long Feng felt exasperated. He wasn't satisfied with his peace. He just had to go out and get some new trouble to himself. But he honestly didn't expect this. He was merely curious to know where the earth dwellers came from. The earth dwellers drew increasingly closer.

Long Feng had no choice but to throw out hundreds of Imperial crystals as well as two essence stones before he was finally able to stop the entire horde from chasing him. Their innate instincts were to find and devour evergy. Anything else was absolute bullshit to them. Long Feng built a new concealment formation and fled, taking a shorter time to locate the tunnel he fell from. Before he flew through it, he paused and looked around at the hundreds and even thousands of other tunnels.

"I doubt that they all lead to the Supreme Heaven Sect. Many of them should lead to other places. I wonder what outside the supreme heaven sect is like, the true Mainland." He smiled and flew through the tunnel, heading back to the mining cave above.