Chapter 256: Before Leaving

Wood Planet was indeed a beautiful world, with 95% covered in forests, and the remaining 5% consisting of lakes and streams.
In the evening, instead of meditating as usual, Ye Feng chose a clean patch of grass and lay down, resting his head in his hands as he gazed at the starry sky.
The dazzling stars reminded Ye Feng of Earth in his childhood—back then, the sky was just as bright with stars. But later on, it seemed rare to see stars in the cities; even on clear nights, only a few scattered stars could be seen in the sky.
“Boss, what are you thinking about? You’re so lost in thought,” Bernard said, lying down on the grass beside Ye Feng. Turning his head, he saw Ye Feng staring at the sky and couldn’t help but ask.
“I’m thinking about my time on Earth…” A hint of melancholy flashed in Ye Feng’s eyes. He didn’t know how his brothers in the university dormitory were doing now, nor what had become of Brother Long, Pearl, Kelly, Long Yue, Zhuge Ling’er… and those three clowns, Qing Lang and the others…
Xiao Yu, standing atop a tree, heard Ye Feng say this. It lowered its head to look at him. Though it was small at that time, a Wild Beast was born with memory. It clearly remembered everything that had happened on Earth, including how Ye Feng had chosen it from that group of ten extraordinary magical beasts…
It also remembered Brother Long, the girls, and Qing Lang and the others… It had a clear image of Ye Feng’s friends in its mind.
“Boss, can you tell me about your hometown?” Bernard asked. Xiao Yu’s eyes were fixed on the sky, but its attention was on the conversation between Ye Feng and Bernard.
“Sure!” Ye Feng replied with a soft smile.
One man and two beasts, an awake night…
Early the next morning, Ye Feng’s communicator rang. It was Fat’s voice. “Is your training over? Why haven’t you returned? The treasure will be unlocked tomorrow! We’ve all gathered in the Death Star Region already.”
“Oh, I already know. Xiao Bei and Xiao Yu have told me!” Ye Feng nodded.
“You’ve finally woken up!” Fat said happily. “I thought you wouldn’t be able to make it!”
“No problem. I’ll be there early tomorrow morning. Just give me the coordinates,” Ye Feng said with a smile.
“Hearing that, that guy Dil still hasn’t shown up?” Upon hearing this, Fat immediately understood.

“Well, I don’t know what he’s planning, but he still hasn’t shown up!” Ye Feng was also a bit frustrated.
“He hasn’t gone yet. I guess if he does go, he’ll wait until you leave first!” Fat laughed.
“It’s useless even if he shows up, because I already know how to break the Death Substitute. And I also know he can’t kill me no matter what method he uses!” Ye Feng shook his head and smiled.
“Huh? How come there are butterflies here?” Ye Feng suddenly heard Fat speaking in surprise.
Then Ye Feng heard a sound of something bursting, followed by Lilith’s voice, “It’s not butterflies. They’re military listening devices from hell, disguised as butterflies. Everything you just said was eavesdropped on by that guy, Dil.”
“Well, now that he’s heard what I said, he definitely won’t come here.” Ye Feng wasn’t worried at all. “That’s even better. Have you made any progress over these days?”
“I have good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear first?” Fat played this trick.
“There’s good news too? Then tell me the good news first. I’m curious what it is.” Ye Feng really wanted to know what the good news was.
“Here’s the good news: Lilith and Kastdio have both reached the later stages of the Spirit Immortal cultivation.” This news was already within Ye Feng’s expectations, so it wasn’t particularly exciting.
“The bad news is that there’s still one key missing!” Fat’s news dropped Ye Feng’s spirits even further.
“Which one?” Ye Feng remained silent for a moment.
“The five-star one, the key belonging to that demon monk you killed.” This news made Ye Feng even more frustrated.
“What about the other one? Has anyone gotten the one stolen from the Alchemy Sect?” Ye Feng asked.
“That’s right. It was taken by those cultivators from the demon sect. They’ve already arrived here.” Fat nodded. “Now only the key in Dil’s hands and the one hidden by the demon monk are missing. Everyone else has arrived.”
“I see!” Ye Feng nodded. This situation was clearly tricky. It was unlikely for them to get the key hidden by the demon monk before the treasure appeared. And since Dil had already heard their conversation, he definitely wouldn’t join the competition for the treasure. In other words, two keys were still missing.

Ye Feng felt somewhat frustrated. It was uncertain when the treasure would appear next time. He still had two chances to use the privilege to purchase items beyond his current level, which should be enough to buy two keys. However, he didn’t know how many points those keys would cost in terms of second-tier domain value. His current second-tier domain value was only 5.5 billion points, so the keys surely wouldn’t be cheap.

But he didn’t plan to use this method until the last moment.

“Hey, are you still there?” Fat’s somewhat noisy voice rang in Ye Feng’s ears again.

“What else?” Ye Feng, who was about to hang up, froze mid-air with his finger on the switch.

“The participants this time include you, me, Kastdio, Lilith, Meng Shan, Gu Nan, and two little guys—that’s eight people already. Since the rule allows ten people to enter, I recruited two more,” Fat said, his tone sounding a bit strange.

“One ten-thousand middle-grade spirit crystal per person—two beautiful ladies!” Fat laughed.

“Beautiful ladies?” Ye Feng found it somewhat unusual, but thinking of the powerful beings at the Spirit Immortal level, two figures flashed through his mind. “You’re not referring to the two leaders of the Flower Between Sect, are you?”

“You’re quite sharp! It’s indeed the sect master and the holy maiden of the Flower Between Sect!” Fat’s laughter sounded lecherous. “You reacted so quickly—could it be you have a secret crush on those two ladies?”

“Come on, in the entire cultivation world, among those at the Spirit Immortal level or above, there are only those two well-known women. It’s obvious that they would rank at the top among the women capable of competing for this treasure,” Ye Feng retorted.

“Alright, I’m not joking anymore. Those two ladies are waiting for me to chat. You’d better hurry over! Even if we can’t open the treasure in the end, we can at least get something!” With that, Fat hung up.

“That guy!” Ye Feng cursed with a smile. “Those two women are no pushovers.”

After hanging up, Ye Feng shook his head helplessly. Whether the treasure could be opened was uncertain, yet Fat had already sold two spots—right away—and to the two leaders of the Flower Between Sect.

He still felt wary of these two women. The Flower Between Sect had been established not long ago, just a few hundred years ago. It was the youngest among the top 100 sects in the cultivation world. To grow into the second-largest sect in such a short time required more than just ordinary management.

Moreover, these two extremely powerful women had never been heard of by anyone before the establishment of the Flower Between Schools, as if they had appeared out of thin air. Ye Feng had also tried to gather information about them, but everything related to them prior to the founding of the Flower Between Schools remained a mystery.

Of course, Ye Feng wasn’t the only one who doubted them. In fact, many major sects had investigated their backgrounds and came to the same conclusion as him.

Besides these two, Ye Feng was also wary of those powerful demon race members, each of whom undoubtedly possessed strength above the Lingxian level. Having fought one of them, Ye Feng knew that those demon race warriors hadn’t fully exerted their strength that time—they didn’t even need to transform into beast forms to have exceptional combat abilities. Ye Feng was well aware that their strength would increase several times when they transformed into beast forms.

However, the involvement of the demon race indeed made Ye Feng look forward to this exploration. After all, the demon race consisted of powerful individuals who didn’t need the weapons used by ordinary cultivators in the realm of cultivation. So their presence here surely wasn’t just for fun; they must have some other purpose. It was likely they knew exactly what they wanted inside. Those guys wouldn’t travel such a long distance just to enjoy the scenery.

Ye Feng also had some knowledge of the Sky Sword Sect and the Beast Taming Sect. He had met the grand elders of both sects. Zong Ao was a Six Calamities Scattered Immortal who specialized in sword cultivation, his strength far surpassing that of others at the same level. He was also hailed as the greatest figure in the realm of cultivation, though this wasn’t entirely true. As for the grand elder of the Beast Taming Sect, Makas, he had spoken with Ye Feng several times on his own. Although his true strength wasn’t as great as Zong Ao’s, he seemed capable of summoning creatures at the Lingbeast level. If the rumors were true, his overall strength was undoubtedly remarkable.

As for Fat, one could say they became acquainted through conflict. Although he appeared to be a profit-driven merchant on the surface, he was actually a real man with deep emotions. He trusted his subordinates and friends wholeheartedly. What really made Ye Feng understand Fat was the incident involving the people from the Heavenly Realm some time ago. To protect his adopted children from harm, he endured slander and quietly left, hiding in a corner to heal his wounds…

Ye Feng summarized all the factions that currently held the keys, preparing himself for future actions…