Nine Astra Skies

"There's no need. It's better if Little Wingsy doesn't change to your original body too casually." Ye Chen shook his head. Previously, he only let Little Winsy change to his original body because there was no other choice. Letting a three hundred meter Winged Serpent fly above Emerald Cloud Mountain? That would be too shocking.

How would there only be the Emerald Cloud Sect in the Emerald Cloud Mountain? There might be some mysterious hermits living here, so they would be in trouble if they had unnecessarily attracted strong enemies.

Ye Chen was cautious. He did not have a thorough understanding of this world yet. He did not know how many masters there were in the world and where those masters were.

"Oh." Little Wingsy nodded. He was still very obedient to Ye Chen.

Ye Chen used his Astral Body to search while opening Sikou Fengyan's Heaven-Earth Pouch. There were only some ordinary items like Chi-amassing Pills and Chi Deposition Pills, two Earth Quintessence Pills, and three Gold Arcanite Pills. In the past, Ye Chen would have been excited to death by these medicinal pills, but now that he had already seen the Purple-gold Divine Pill, these medicinal pills were not attractive to Ye Chen at all.

After rummaging through all the Heaven-Earth Pouches, Ye Chen found a strange item in one of them.

"What is this?" Ye Chen took out an item that looked like a stone. It was azure in color and around the size of a washbasin. When he took it out of the Heaven-Earth Pouch, he could feel his body sink. This small stone weighed at least several hundred kilograms.

Little Tanuki and Little Wingsy looked curiously at the large stone that Ye Chen was holding. The large stone was oval and there was a faint luster glowing in it.

"It looks like an ore!" Ye Chen probed it with his Astral Body. The texture of the rock was quite fine, so its metal composition should not be low.

Ye Chen put the large stone on a raised rock and fished out a Tier One spirit artifact longsword from the Heaven-Earth Pouch and swung it down with Celestial Chi. A "ding" sounded out but Ye Chen saw that it was the longsword that had broken. There were no scratches on the large stone at all. It was just an ore but it was even tougher than a Spirit Artifact Rank weapon. It was an extremely rare item!

Ye Chen only dared to test the ore's toughness with a less valuable Tier One spirit artifact and did not dare to use the Hell Rupture Sword. If the Hell Rupture Sword broke, he would cry himself to death. Perhaps only Ye Chen had pockets deep enough to be able to take out a Tier One Spirit Artifact Rank sword just to test the toughness of an ore. If the Three Major Sects or Li Xu and the others knew that a Tier One Spirit Artifact Rank longsword was destroyed just like this, they would feel sorry to the point of tears.

Little Tanuki and Little Wingsy watched the ore with bright eyes.

"Brother Ye Chen, let me try!" Little Wingsy was eager to try and pulled up the sleeve of his right arm, revealing a chubby arm.

"Okay." Ye Chen nodded and took a few steps back with Little Tanuki.

Little Wingsy shook his fist and punched the large ore with one blow. The sound of an explosion rang out and the rock under the ore was shattered. However, there were no dents on the surface of the ore itself.

Ye Chen knew how powerful Little Wingsy's fist was.

"It's really tough!" Little Wingsy's hand was slightly swollen.

Even a Daemon King Rank's physical strength could not compete against this ore? Ye Chen raised his eyebrows and said, "This is such a large piece of ore, so it might be able to be crafted into two or three weapons. The question is if there are any such talented craftsmen in this world?"

Ye Chen kept the ore. If there was a chance, he would have to find a good craftsman. He could make a weapon for himself as well as a shortsword for Little Wingsy. As for Little Tanuki, she should be unable to use weapons until she has transformed. However, it was a problem for the future.

Ye Chen was quite excited at having gotten such a mysterious ore.

Ye Chen, Little Tanuki, and Little Wingsy continued to move forward, walking through the valley. Ye Chen continuously scouted ahead with his Astral Body. Suddenly, he discovered a white shadow flashing several miles away. It was a three-tailed tanuki!

"Little Tanuki, I found another tanuki but its presence is different from the one from before. Should we follow it?" Ye Chen asked Little Tanuki.

Little Tanuki felt somewhat complicated.

"Anyway, let's just take a look. It's fine if they're not your clansmen, but maybe they know what happened to your clansmen. Perhaps some others survived." Ye Chen thought for a moment.

Hearing Ye Chen's words, Little Tanuki's eyes suddenly flashed with vigor and nodded its head.

"Little Wingsy, keep up," Ye Chen said and followed after the three-tailed tanuki.

Little Wingsy stuck closely behind Ye Chen.

The sky gradually darkened but with the Astral Body's night vision, this darkness was nothing to Ye Chen.

Following behind the three-tailed tanuki, they had passed through several valleys. In the valleys deep in the distance, there were even farmhouses and plowing fields, and some lights could be seen flickering faintly.

"There are houses here?" Ye Chen thought excitedly. He wondered if they could stay here for a night.

Ye Chen's Astral Body extended toward the mountain village and immediately felt concentrated Psyches. There were at least several thousand of them. Three Psyches were stronger than the others being Mystique Adept Rank, and there were seven to eight Heavenly Adept Rank. There were also quite a number of Earthly Adept Rank and Tenth Level ones.

It was a village of celestial beast tanuki!

Ye Chen was quite apprehensive. Suddenly finding so many celestial beasts had caused Ye Chen's heart considerable shock.

"Little Tanuki, there's a village belonging to a tanuki clan ahead. Shall we go and have a look?" Ye Chen asked Little Tanuki by his side.

Little Tanuki nodded. Her eyes sparkled as if thinking about something.

After a moment, Ye Chen brought Little Tanuki and Little Wingsy into a peach forest. The mountain and fields around the village ahead were full of peach forests. It was not the season for peach trees to blossom but these peach trees had blooming flowers.

It was night now. Although Ye Chen's Astral Body could see in the dark, the scenery always looked different than during the day. He could only imagine how wonderful the scene would look in daylight!

Walking around the peach forest and feeling the fragrance of peach blossoms in the air gave them a feeling of relaxation.

Half an hour, one hour...

Ye Chen gradually discovered something odd. The village was very close at hand but it seemed like they could never reach it after walking forever. They had been walking for an hour but they were still wandering in the peach forest. He immediately came to his senses. This was an illusion array!

"Little Tanuki, does the tanuki clan know how to arrange illusion arrays?" Ye Chen asked.

Little Tanuki nodded and said a few words in beast language.

"Big Sister Little Tanuki said that there are illusion arrays passed down in the tanuki clan, but only tanuki above Mystique Adept Rank can arrange them. Even among the Lianyun Mountain tanuki clan, the strongest is only a Heavenly Adept Rank. No one could arrange illusion arrays," Little Wingsy translated for Little Tanuki.

Ye Chen nodded. The tanuki clan in this Emerald Cloud Mountain should be regarded as a relatively large branch. They even had three Mystique Adept Rank, which proved their strength was much stronger than Little Tanuki's clan.

At this time, Ye Chen had sensed a presence heading directly toward them. It belonged to a Heavenly Adept Rank.

They had discovered that outsiders had entered the illusion array!

Since they were coming, Ye Chen also stopped moving and waited on the spot. He was slightly fearful toward a Heavenly Adept Rank mystical beast. In terms of strength, Ye Chen would not be able to go up against a Mystique Adept Rank opponent. He could only rely on disguising himself as a Daemon King to deter them. If he was seen through, it would be troublesome.

"Little Tanuki, Little Wingsy, they've sent some people over. Let's see what they say," Ye Chen said and waited patiently.

After a moment, an old woman with a walking stick emerged deep in the peach forest. She looked doddering and senile, and if an ordinary person saw her, they would think that the old woman was an elderly who could not even walk. However, Ye Chen knew that this old woman was a Heavenly Adept Rank celestial beast with profound cultivation.

The old woman paced slowly on the walking stick and looked at Ye Chen and Little Wingsy before her gaze fell on Little Tanuki with surprise. She coughed twice and said hoarsely, "You must be acquaintances. I shall bring you to the Chief. Please follow me."

The old woman turned around and walked to the depths of the peach forest. Ye Chen, along with Little Tanuki and Little Wingsy, followed behind her.

The old woman was polite most likely because she had seen Little Tanuki.

"How long has Granny lived here?" Ye Chen thought for a while and found a topic, wanting to test the waters.

The tanuki which had transformed into the old woman glanced at Ye Chen with some suspicion. Her Psyche unexpectedly could not probe Ye Chen's strength. She had only sensed a fearful aura from his body.

Little Tanuki was a six-tailed tanuki and she was so close to Ye Chen, which led the old woman to believe that Ye Chen held no hostility to the tanuki clan, so she dared to bring Ye Chen into the village. Three Mystique Adept Rank Elders were overseeing the village, so there was nothing to worry about. If the intruder was a Daemon King, then the illusion array would not be able to stop him.

"I've lived here since I was born around five to six hundred years ago," she said casually. Although she could not see Ye Chen and Little Tanuki's true bodies, she was quite confident that they were not ordinary humans.

"If ordinary people broke into the illusion array, how would Granny deal with them?" Ye Chen asked as he walked.

"We'll persuade them to leave." With the walking stick, she climbed the mountain as easily as walking on flat ground, very different from her previously quivering figure.

Ye Chen nodded. This tanuki clan was unlike most ferocious mystical and celestial beasts. It seemed like they were quite kind to humans.

Ye Chen asked some questions from time to time and the old woman would selectively answer them. She remained silent about the situation of the clan.

"What's your name?" the old woman glanced at Little Tanuki on Ye Chen's shoulder and asked.

Little Tanuki did not seem to like the old woman very much. It turned its head and did not answer.

Seeing Little Tanuki like this, Ye Chen was somewhat puzzled. The old woman was very kind. Why did Little Tanuki adopt such an attitude? He answered on behalf of Little Tanuki, "Her name is Little Tanuki."

"Which branch is she from?"

"Little Tanuki's home is in the Lianyun Mountain," Ye Chen said. Little Tanuki's attitude was a little unfathomable.

"Lianyun Mountain?" The old woman's eyes dilated slightly as she fell silent.

That was strange. Why did the old woman stop talking after Lianyun Mountain was mentioned? Were there any past incidents between the Lianyun Mountain tanuki clan and the Emerald Cloud Mountain tanuki clan?