Chapter 80: Preparing for Battle (Part Two)
Chapter 80: Preparing for Battle (Part Two)
Several thousand li away from where Gong Chenying and the others were hidden in the forest, on a vast open grassland, Li Changting, dressed in red, waved her fair hand, and a dense cloud of insects flew toward a pack of over a thousand Azure Wind Wolves.
Behind her stood four young men, each waving their palms as well. Dense swarms of insects, some small, some long, some round, some plump surged forth, blanketing the sky as they flew out.
Li Changting clapped her hands with a delighted laugh.
“Fall, fall, fall!!”
Moments ago, the thousands of Azure Wind Wolves had been fierce and imposing. Now, they tucked their tails between their legs and fled in panic. Yet even in their retreat, piteous howls rang through the air as many wolves collapsed one after another.
Some clawed frantically at their furry faces, trying to dislodge the colorful insects that had swollen their heads grotesquely.
The insects burrowed into any opening they could find eyes, mouths, noses or simply bit through fur and flesh to force their way inside. The only sound that filled the heavens and earth was the chorus of howls, while the four young men behind Li Changting watched the scene with amused smiles.
Not far behind them, however, a fierce battle between a single human and a smaller group of wolves was still raging. A slender white figure darted through the fray, jarringly different from Li Changting’s insect-based techniques.
This figure was a young girl with a long ponytail, wielding a three-foot sword. The sword wasn’t forged from metal but radiated an intense cold. Its blade was blue, semi-transparent, and shimmered with light in all directions.
Each time she thrust, a mist of frost formed around the blade. Any wolf struck would instantly be coated in frost, its movements slowing drastically.
Dozens of Azure Wind Wolves already lay on the ground, and with only a dozen or so remaining, the girl quickly sheathed her sword. With a sharp shout, she leapt into the air.
While still mid-air, she bent one knee and slammed it into the jaws of a lunging Azure Wind Wolf.
The wolf opened its maw wide, exposing gleaming white fangs as it lunged toward her thigh. But the girl showed no trace of fear on her face.
A flash of magical light surged from her body as her upward momentum increased. Her clothes whistled through the air with a piercing whoosh, and her knee struck the beast's gaping mouth with a violent burst of wind.
Crack!
With a sharp sound, the wolf's jaws flew open, and it flipped belly-up in the air before crashing to the ground in an arc.
Several bloody teeth shot from its mouth, trailing crimson through the air.
The wolf never even got the chance to yelp. In the next moment, it smashed into the earth with a heavy thud, sending up a cloud of dust and moved no more.
Still mid-air, the girl suddenly sensed the air around her stir. From the sides and rear came the howling sound of wind. Several spinning blades of azure light shot out from the mouths of nearby wolves, slicing toward her at high speed.
She exhaled mid-air, curling her abdomen inward, and with a swift motion, slapped her pale hand behind her, striking one of the spinning blades. Using the momentum from the impact, she twisted her body and narrowly avoided the rest of the attacks.
In a flash, she reached the side of a massive wolf that had just launched its Wind Blades, driving her elbow hard into its ribs. With a crisp crack, the beast let out a pained howl and crashed heavily to the ground.
Using the force of that strike, she shifted direction again and shot toward another wolf. Forming her fingers into a beak-like shape, she drove her hand at the base of its ear with the sound of slicing wind…
Her rapid movements showcased her powerful core strength and the devastating force of her strikes. In the eyes of others, she fought like a brutal physical cultivator.
A dozen breaths later, surveying the field of dead wolves, the ponytailed girl leapt back to rejoin Li Changting and the others.
From the once ferocious horde of thousands, only a few hundred wolves remained, still writhing desperately in the insect storm. The girl landed silently, saying nothing.
Li Changting watched her approach, gazing at her jade-sculpted face with a warm, graceful curve. She smiled and said:
“Junior Sister Min, since we’re from Boundless Peak, why resort to such brutish body cultivation methods? You’ve become just like Junior Sister Gong. If you’d just used gu insects from the start, everything would’ve been resolved neatly. Girls should behave like girls, there’s no need to be so violent.”
The girl in white was Zhao Min. She stared calmly at the cloud of insects ahead and replied coldly:
“Senior Sister Li, if all we wanted was to refine our gu, we could just kill our way straight through.”
Li Changting batted her beautiful eyes, gazing affectionately at Zhao Min’s androgynously elegant face as she spoke:
“When fighting enemies, the faster you can resolve things the better, why waste energy? But, Junior Sister Min, with your demeanor… I almost want to keep you for myself… hehehe…”
She laughed like tinkling silver bells.
Zhao Min merely gave her a glance.
“Senior Sister Li, there you go again. If you’re really so capable, why don’t you win over Senior Brother Wuyi? And what about Senior Sister Miao?”
“That brat Li Wuyi? You think he can escape my grasp? As for Miao Wangqing, I don’t mind being the elder sister-wife and letting her be the younger. We’ll both serve that boy together, two jade-like beauties, lucky him… hehehe…”
Another burst of laughter. Zhao Min’s cheeks flushed pink, and she turned away with a soft hmph.
The four young men behind them had heard every word and were now sweating profusely, hurriedly turning their gazes elsewhere. To them, this Senior Sister was as fearsome as a venomous scorpion.
Originally, they had been part of their own proper team. Who would’ve thought that in these vast mountains, where even tens of thousands might not cross paths, they would just happen to run into this Senior Sister and her companion?
She had insisted they join her team, and not one of them dared object. Still, being able to see Junior Sister Zhao Min every day was a perk they gladly accepted.
Li Changting saw Zhao Min turn away and rolled her eyes playfully.
“Junior Sister, when I came out of the mission hall last time, I happened to see you descending the mountain with that Junior Brother Li from Little Bamboo Peak. What were you two doing at the back of the mountain?”
Zhao Min paused. She did recall walking down the mountain with Li Yan once. They hadn’t spoken much, simply walked side by side.
She had truly enjoyed that peaceful feeling, calm and untroubled with no other thoughts. Unconsciously, they had walked all the way to the bamboo courtyard before she flew away.
She hadn’t realized this scene had been witnessed by her Senior Sister.
She appeared calm on the surface and spoke in a steady voice.
“It’s nothing. Just happened to run into him and exchanged a few words. Senior Sister, I suppose you weren’t heading to the Mission Hall, were you?”
But what she didn’t realize was that although she thought her voice was calm, to others it already carried a subtle tremor. This caused the four young cultivators behind her to glance at one another. Two among them had a glint of hostility in their eyes, but they said nothing.
However, the phrase “Junior Brother Li from Little Bamboo Peak” was already etched in their minds. Although Li Yan rarely made public appearances, Little Bamboo Peak had so few disciples that it wouldn’t take much asking to find out who he was.
Li Changting was just about to continue speaking when she suddenly turned to look ahead. At this moment, only the buzzing of insects and the hair-raising crunching sounds of gnawing remained. The agonized howls of the wolves had long ceased. She sighed softly.
“These little gluttons again… Looks like collecting fur, bones, or demon cores will be tough this time. They’ve basically eaten everything.”
She then turned to glance behind her, her smile blooming like a flower.
“Good thing you were there, Junior Sister, there’s still dozens of trophies left on your side!”
Elsewhere, in the boundless forested mountains, beside a stream, Wei Chituo spread his arms wide and tore a feral crocodile in half by the head and tail in one swift motion. The crocodile’s mouth still twitched, revealing rows of sharp teeth.
Beside him, Miao Wangqing looked pale. She and three other disciples from the Spirit Insect Peak, along with their spirit beasts, were struggling to hunt the remaining four crocodiles.
In another dense forest, a figure darted through the undergrowth, closely pursued by a golden-horned demon beast, its furious roars shaking the air. The figure glanced back, revealing a pale face.
Though drenched in sweat, the young man wore an eerie smile and let out a low chuckle.
“Junior Brother, you’re not the only one who knows how to set traps. It’s the poisonous ones that are the most fun!”
Moments later, startled birds scattered in all directions as angry roars rang out in the woods then everything fell silent again, returning to stillness.
Atop a cliff within the vast forest, five young men and women in Wraith Sect’s dark green robes were commanding a green snake, a centipede, a Thunder Bear, a Blackwood Scorpion, and a Divine Fire Crow in fierce battle against over a dozen circling Thunder Roc birds.
Below, green gas, multicolored ice spikes, and purple lightning surged skyward to meet the Thunder Rocs. In the air, the Divine Fire Crow spat red flames, clashing with the oncoming birds.
The Thunder Rocs, riding gusts of wind and thunder, dove down with lethal force. The sky burst with dazzling lights and peals of thunder.
After the time it takes to brew a cup of tea, the Thunder Rocs lay scattered across the ground. A young man with a pale, effeminate face looked at the others.
“Such a large flock of second-rank Thunder Rocs, yet they were no real threat. This time, we brothers and sisters are sure to be among the top forty-nine. As for me, Wang Tian, I will claim a spot in the top ten.”
The other four nodded solemnly. The golden snakes embroidered on their sleeves looked almost alive.
At the foot of another mountain, a burly young cultivator sat cross-legged at a cave entrance. With thick brows and large eyes, he waved his sleeves rhythmically, summoning a spectral beast’s mouth to appear and spit a cauldron into the air.
As he raised his hand, a pale mist drifted into the cave. Moments later, the dull thud of bodies hitting the ground could be heard inside.
The young man stood up expressionlessly and strode into the cave without hesitation.
Inside, three berserk apes lay motionless, foaming at the mouth. He stared at them and muttered to himself:
“The top forty-nine… just how hard could that be?”
Then he bent down and began to dissect the corpses.
By a stream, seven massive jade-horned serpents raised their heads high, hissing and slithering in confusion. No matter how they moved, they couldn’t pass beyond five zhang from the water’s edge. They grew increasingly frantic, their hissing more intense.
Within a few laps, their flesh began to rot and peel. Still unaware, they continued their desperate slithering, scales and skin scraping against the rocks, leaving behind a trail of blood and entrails.
Only when nothing remained but bones and the glowing white horns on their heads did they finally collapse in silence.
Throughout it all, the stream's waters had flowed on, quiet and undisturbed.
A ripple of distortion swept through the air, the stream vanished, the grassy banks and stones disappeared, revealing a plain of yellow gravel.
Not far off, a young maiden sat cross-legged. Her eyes opened slowly, glimmering with mischief as she looked at the seven skeletal serpent corpses and smiled.
Then she glanced back toward the direction of the sect and grinned like peach blossoms in March.
“The sect tournament, huh? I suppose I’ll join in the fun. I bet the senior brothers and sisters still enjoy my formations.”
Rising to her feet, she sashayed gracefully toward the gravel plain.
Scenes like these unfolded continuously across the vast mountain forest, whether alone or in groups, thousands of Foundation Establishment cultivators were scattered like grains of sand in the sea.
And far away, at the extreme north of the Wraith Sect’s domain, billions of li away, on another continent’s northern edge lay a land of eternal ice and snow, where countless towering snowy peaks rose skyward in a jagged forest of mountains.
The ground was riddled with immense crevasses, and snowflakes the size of fists fell without end. Among them, massive red lightning arcs occasionally streaked through the air, crackling across the snow-covered land. Within the snowdrifts and ice blocks, red arcs flickered like ghostly flames.
In one icy valley wedged between two towering peaks, a ravine plummeted tens of thousands of zhang deep. Blizzards and lightning stormed downward, bombarding the chasm.
Halfway down the sheer cliffs, a small cave nestled in the rock. Most of the blizzards and lightning bolts swept past it and plunged deeper into the abyss.
At the cave’s entrance stood an old man in a grey robe, staring absentmindedly at the approaching snow and lightning.
As the blizzards and bolts touched the cave’s edge, dazzling flashes burst out before they weakened and dropped harmlessly into the abyss, blocked by a transparent barrier.
The old man gazed at the brilliant lights for a long moment, then let out a heavy sigh.
“It’s been hundreds of thousands of years… This place truly is perilous beyond measure. I should be nearing the end of this region by now.
I wonder how that brat Li Yan is doing. Maybe he escaped safely. Whether we meet again… will depend on fate. Even if I make it through here, I don’t know when I could return to search for him…”
After a while, he raised his hand. A black light flashed at the cave entrance, and immediately a storm of snow and thick, red lightning bolts shot in.
The old man charged out into them without hesitation...
(Chapter End)