Chapter 99: Counterattack of the Dao Food Society?

Lu Yan did not act rashly.

A Martial Marquis had five tiers of cultivation, and he could not determine the exact level of this Zheng clan Martial Marquis, but at the very least, the man was at the peak of the first tier, his bone strength full and profound.

Although he had not used his full power just now, who knew how much effort the other party had exerted?

"Your strength is truly impressive."

The Zheng clan Martial Marquis let out a tone of admiration as well, saying, "If you are willing to travel with us, I swear on the honor of a Martial Marquis that we will not harm your life. Moreover, once the matter is accomplished, five thousand taels of silver will be offered as your reward."

"Five thousand taels."

Lu Yan pretended his eyes lit up, showing a trace of greed, and said, "It's not impossible for me to travel with you, but the five thousand taels must be paid in advance."

"Paid in advance? I am away from home and did not bring that much silver with me."

The Zheng clan Martial Marquis frowned.

"You can pool your resources."

Lu Yan said.

The Zheng clan members had no choice but to comply. Though anger smoldered in their hearts, they still depended on Lu Yan's abilities to save their lives at a critical moment, so they could only agree.

Dozens of martial artists pooled their money together and scraped up five thousand taels' worth of silver notes.

"Here you are, the banknotes."

The Zheng clan Martial Marquis held out a stack of silver notes to Lu Yan.

Lu Yan stepped closer to the Zheng clan Martial Marquis, took the notes, and stuffed them into his robes.

"Careful!"

At that very moment, Lu Yan's expression changed drastically. He suddenly leaped, springing toward the right.

Seeing Lu Yan's face shift, the Zheng clan Martial Marquis knew something was wrong. He reacted with incredible speed and, in that instant, followed Lu Yan in a leap.

But Lu Yan, still midair, twisted his waist violently and forcibly halted his forward momentum, dropping downward.

The Zheng clan Martial Marquis, however, had not been prepared. His leap had been too explosive, and there was no time to arrest his own motion.

He knew he had been fooled.

"You dare—!"

The Zheng clan Martial Marquis roared in fury. In the instant their bodies crossed paths, he lashed out with a claw toward Lu Yan, intending to use Lu Yan's weight to steady himself.

Lu Yan was already prepared. He threw a punch, meeting the man's claw.

With a bang, Lu Yan borrowed the force to drift backward, landing back in his original position, while the Zheng clan Martial Marquis accelerated forward and fell toward an empty patch of ground.

Just as his body was about to touch the ground, dense patterns of Wish Power surfaced across the earth.

The Zheng clan Martial Marquis' scalp went numb, every hair on his body standing on end. Facing a life-or-death moment, he unleashed unprecedented potential. His body twisted sharply, his left hand slammed a palm strike toward the ground, and powerful bone force poured out along his left arm.

With a thunderous boom, the ground shook, but the Zheng clan Martial Marquis' left arm exploded within the Wish Power patterns. Yet, borrowing the force of that strike, his body flew backward more than ten meters and landed on a safe patch of open ground.

Off to the side, Lu Yan punched a burly man blocking his path clean in two, burst through the encirclement, and charged deeper into Linchuan Cliff.

He darted left and right, each step evading the Wish Power patterns and landing on safe ground. In the blink of an eye, he had covered several hundred meters and disappeared behind a cluster of rocky bluffs.

"Ah—you treacherous dog! I will slaughter you—!"

The Zheng clan Martial Marquis let out a furious roar, his eyes bloodshot and his face twisted in rage.

His left arm had exploded, injuring his vital essence and ruining his foundation. From now on, his cultivation would never advance another step.

It would already be fortunate if he could keep his current realm from regressing.

Although there were figures in the history of the Great Chu Dynasty who had lost an arm yet still advanced with fierce determination, ultimately becoming mighty experts who shook the world, those were rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns—precious few indeed, and every one of them possessed extraordinary talent.

He knew himself well enough to know he had nowhere near that kind of talent.

And so, his hatred for Lu Yan burned into the marrow of his bones.

But no one dared to give chase. Lu Yan could avoid the Wish Power patterns; they could not.

"You—go out and report to Third Uncle and the others. Seal off the outside and make sure that bastard doesn't escape."

Zheng Zhongtian ordered.

A young man withdrew to report the situation.

Lu Yan continued deeper into Linchuan Cliff without stopping, relying on the Dao Book's constant warnings to evade those dangerous zones.

His primary target was the Dao Food.

Because the Dao Book had reacted intensely, and the direction it indicated lay deep within Linchuan Cliff.

Of course, whenever he spotted a few shellfish along the way and confirmed there was no danger, he would casually pick them up and toss them into the bamboo basket on his back.

Linchuan Cliff was vast in scope, shaped like a long strip—at least twenty li in length and six or seven li in width.

After venturing deeper for a while, Lu Yan began to slow his pace.

The further in he went, the denser the Wish Power patterns became, likely because the towering cliff faces blocked the sea breeze, slowing the erosion of the stone.

Even with the Dao Book's warnings, Lu Yan had to tread with extra caution.

Two hours later, Lu Yan finally reached the deepest part of Linchuan Cliff—and the place the Dao Book had indicated.

In his bamboo basket already lay five jin of shellfish.

Lu Yan's gaze fell upon a stone pillar ahead.

The pillar stood about five meters tall with a diameter of roughly one meter. Carved upon it was an image of a strange creature, so lifelike it seemed to breathe.

This creature had the upper body of a human, but its lower half was a serpent's tail. From its back grew a pair of fleshy wings. It had the form of a woman, with delicate features and a face of breathtaking beauty.

"This is the Dao Food?"

Lu Yan was speechless.

Because the target the Dao Book had pointed to was this very stone pillar.

But Lu Yan dared not rush in, for the Dao Book had also issued a warning: the area around this pillar was covered in Wish Power patterns.

"How am I supposed to get to it?"

Lu Yan looked around, his head aching.

The ground was covered in Wish Power patterns everywhere, and he was no Shen Yinuo, able to find a path of life amid the patterns.

But at that moment, in his sea of consciousness, the Dao Book trembled slightly. The hunger it felt was unprecedentedly intense. Whoosh—the Dao Book actually flew straight out of Lu Yan's sea of consciousness and shot toward the stone pillar.

The Dao Book rapidly grew in size, and a vortex appeared upon its surface, like a gaping maw, swallowing toward the stone pillar.

But at the same time, the stone pillar underwent a violent transformation.

The pillar, which had seemed utterly ordinary, suddenly blazed with light. As the radiance swirled, the snake-tailed statue seemed to come alive. Its serpent tail slithered, coiling up the pillar, then it leaped, crashing into the Dao Book.

With a bang, the Dao Book recoiled slightly, while the snake-tailed statue was knocked back, landing atop the pillar.

The pillar's light blazed even brighter. Energy surged and condensed, forming a figure—one identical to the statue.

Whoosh!

The Dao Book pounced again, flat as a brick, and slammed down upon that figure.

Boom!

The figure retreated once more.

Then came another slam, and the figure fell back again.

The Dao Book was clearly gaining the upper hand. After a few moments, it enveloped the snake-tailed figure and "swallowed" it into its pages.

Next, the Dao Book approached the pillar. A vortex appeared on its pages, and streams of energy could be seen being drawn out from the pillar, flowing into the Dao Book.

This process lasted about two hours, until no energy remained within the pillar. Only then did the Dao Book fly back, "content and satisfied," plunging into Lu Yan's brow and resuming its place in his sea of consciousness.

But unlike before, a layer of light—a protective barrier—now surrounded the Dao Book, encasing it entirely.

And the martial arts clone remained completely still.

"No way. It absorbed all that energy and won't share a bit with the martial arts clone?"

Lu Yan tried his utmost to communicate with the Dao Book, but found it utterly unmoving, as if it had fallen into... slumber.

"What's going on? Is it going on strike?"

Lu Yan was frustrated.

He thought it over carefully, and a few guesses formed in his mind.

Perhaps the Dao Book was damaged, which was why it kept absorbing the energy of Martial Food—to repair itself.

And the energy of Dao Food was undoubtedly the most suitable.

Just now, it seemed the Dao Book had absorbed enough Dao Food energy and had entered a slumber to restore itself.

"Then when the Dao Book wakes up, will there be some kind of transformation?"

A hint of anticipation welled up in Lu Yan's heart.

But then a terrifying thought struck him: with the Dao Book "asleep" and no warnings, how was he supposed to get out?

Fortunately, when he tried, he found that even though the Dao Book was "asleep," it could still issue warnings. Lu Yan breathed a sigh of relief.

Afterward, he began examining the area around the stone pillar.

Suddenly, his eyes lit up.

The stone pillar stood close to the cliff wall, and the cliff was at least a hundred meters tall—steep and perilous, blocking the sea breeze.

On one section of the cliff face, shellfish covered it densely.

A whole nest of shellfish.

Lu Yan walked to the right of the pillar, circled around the area covered in Wish Power patterns, and arrived at the base of the cliff. He began picking the shellfish.

The shellfish were only the size of clams, shaped like abalone, with flesh of a vivid, fine red. They were soft to the touch, and when brought to the nose, they gave off a faint, pleasant fragrance.

But they were heavy.

A piece this small probably weighed about an liang.

Ten pieces made one jin.

And here, there were at least several hundred pieces.

Lu Yan's hands moved with lightning speed. With a pinch and a flick, each shellfish arced through the air and flew into the bamboo basket.

In no time at all, several hundred shellfish had been swept up clean.

Lu Yan picked up the basket and weighed it in his hand. Roughly thirty jin.

A fine harvest.

Only a few hours in, and already thirty jin. Not bad at all.

Lu Yan continued searching beneath the cliff wall.

By now, the members of the great clans were still at the outer area, yet to venture deep into the cliffs. This was his chance.

But stumbling upon a nest of thirty jin of shellfish was, of course, a rare stroke of luck. Lu Yan searched along the cliff base for several more hours and found another twenty jin, but those were all in small, scattered clusters.

"Finding over a hundred jin all by myself is too difficult—let alone finishing in the top two."

Lu Yan shook his head silently.

The Grandmaster-level clans had sent in dozens of people. Even without the Dao Book's warnings, their efficiency would certainly surpass his.

At this rate, he was bound to lose.

"Zheng clan, I'm counting on you."

Lu Yan's eyes gleamed. He retreated to the position of the stone pillar, then headed back toward the outer area.

Before long, he heard voices.

He quietly concealed himself behind a massive boulder and peered ahead.

A group of seven or eight people surrounded a huge rock shaped like a sharp sword. At its base, some shellfish could be seen clinging to the stone.

Lu Yan glanced at them—all unfamiliar faces, none from the Zheng clan. They must belong to a Marquis-level clan.

These people did not dare rush in to pick the shellfish. Instead, they first dripped blood to confirm there were no Wish Power patterns nearby, and only then did they step forward to collect the shellfish.

In short order, dozens of shellfish were picked clean.

They were about to leave when someone blocked their path.

Over a dozen people barred their way.

"The Zheng clan has finally appeared."

From behind the boulder, Lu Yan continued to watch the show.

"The Zheng clan!"

Seeing the ones blocking the road, the faces of the earlier group changed.

"Hand over all your shellfish, and you may leave unharmed."

A burly Zheng clansman said coldly.

"You're robbing us."

The earlier group wore ugly expressions.

"In this world, it has always been the strong devouring the weak. Why struggle pointlessly? Hand over the shellfish—or die."

The burly Zheng clansman's face was cold, killing intent surfacing.

Though their numbers only exceeded the other group by a few, they were confident they had the advantage.

The clansmen of Grandmaster-level clans practiced, without question, first-rate martial arts.

Even some trusted retainers were trained in first-rate martial arts.

But for Marquis-level clans, only clan members—and exceptionally gifted ones at that—were qualified to practice first-rate martial arts.

So although the Zheng clan only had a few more people, in a real fight, they could crush the opposition.

(End of chapter)