novelraw Chapter 128: Don’t Want Family Reunion
Chapter 128: Don’t Want Family Reunion
Ye Jun had accumulated quite a few Mysterious Techniques, but many were simply useless to him. Some because of low ranks, others simply because he didn’t have Dao Affinity of them.
Naturally, he could have collected them but he was still afraid of the changes the contradictions they might bring, so unless he found a solution, he preferred to not mess around.
Because of that, he had a small increase in the Mysterious Techniques he used. Even among them, Ranged ones were rare as most Cultivators didn’t pick them in early realms like Qi Condensation Realm.
Because in those realms, they neither had enough Qi reserves to waste nor enough Qi Control to actually control their attacks past a certain range.
Once the attacks passed that range, they would simply crumble away and assimilate with the Heaven and Earth.
That was why he only had two ranged attacks, but he held an advantage over most Cultivators. His Qi Control had reached high level after practicing in Gale Pressure Chamber and Cultivating Grand Genesis Foundation Sutra. Same went for his Qi reserves.
So, even though he didn’t have many Mysterious Techniques, he could spam the one he knew.
"Fire Arrow!"
One after another, he released them until the Hundred Eyed Burial Crows got annoyed to decide on direct attacks. Fortunately, they didn’t have any ranged attacks either.
’But they are still very powerful. Especially in a group.’
The first crow dove at him with talons extended, its hundred eyes blazing with a sickly violet light.
Ye Jun kicked off the branch and dropped two body-lengths before catching himself on a lower branch, letting the beast tear through empty air.
’You’re fast but very predictable.’
The second one came from behind, he felt it through Tracking Sense before he saw it. Without any hesitation, he twisted mid-crouch and drove his palm forward.
"Crushing Mountain Fist!"
Qi surged through his meridians and condensed at his knuckles. The blow caught the crow square in its underbelly, and the impact sent it tumbling sideways with a shriek that rattled his eardrums.
It’s feathers scattered, falling on the ground like black snow.
But the damned thing didn’t go down. It corrected itself mid-air, wings snapping open, and every single eye on those wings pulsed once in unison.
Then something changed around him.
Ye Jun felt it before he understood it, a sudden heaviness pressing against his Qi circulation, as if invisible hands were squeezing his meridians shut.
His next Fire Arrow that was forming fizzled out at his fingertips, the flames scattering into sparks of embers.
’What the hell?’
He looked up.
Both crows had spread their wings wide, hovering in place, and all two hundred eyes across both beasts were glowing that same violet. The air between them shimmered like a heat haze as if he was in a desert.
’Qi Suppression Field,’ he realised, his jaw tightening. ’Their eyes don’t just read patterns, they can interfere with them. When two or more work together, they create a resonance that disrupts Qi flow in a localised area. Goddamn they’re basically a walking Array Formation.’
He tried forming another Fire Arrow. The Qi gathered sluggishly, making him feel like pouring water through mud. The arrow that formed was barely the size of his thumb before it collapsed.
’So that’s why they called for backup. Bastards wants to use their ability to full potential. As if I’m letting that happen.’
The first crow screeched and dove again. Without his attacks working properly, he was stuck in close combat against two Middle-Grade Tier 2 beasts that could fly.
’Fine. You want close range? I’ll give you close range.’
He activated Ashen Phantom Steps at full output, his figure blurring as he launched himself upward from branch to branch.
’Just as I expected.’ he smiled.
The suppression field weakened the further he moved from the centre point between the two crows as he could feel his circulation loosening with each leap already.
’The field has a radius. If I separate them, it breaks.’
He changed direction sharply, angling himself toward the crow on the left. His next target. It reacted instantly, all its eyes tracking him, but Ye Jun was already mid-strike.
"Coiled Tendon Strike!"
His arm whipped forward in a spiralling motion, Qi winding through his muscles like a compressed spring releasing. The strike connected with the crow’s wing joint, and he heard something crack.
The beast screeched and veered sideways, its flight turning erratic.
The moment it pulled away from its partner, the suppression field wavered at first before disappearing completely.
Ye Jun felt his Qi surge back to full flow like a dam breaking open.
’Here we go.’
He didn’t waste the opening. Spinning on the branch, he faced the second crow that was already diving at him and raised both hands.
"Volley of Fire Arrows!"
This time, the arrows came out dense and vicious, three per second, each one trailing crimson light through the canopy.
The crow’s eyes analysed each one, dodging left, right, rolling mid-air but without its partner reinforcing the suppression field, it was back to pure evasion.
And Ye Jun had already proven that pure evasion wasn’t enough.
He predicted its dodge pattern after the fifth arrow as Killer Instincts pulsing at the back of his mind like a second heartbeat and sent the sixth one not where the crow was, but where it would be.
The arrow punched through the crow’s left wing. Flames erupted across the feathers, and the beast screamed, spiralling downward.
Dozens of eyes blinked frantically as it tried to extinguish the fire with it’s Qi, but Ye Jun’s mastery over the Dao of Fire meant his flames weren’t so easily dismissed.
’Burn properly, you creepy bastard.’ he spat on it.
Then, he turned to the injured one. It was trying to gain altitude with its damaged wing, but it listed badly to one side.
Ye Jun dropped from his perch, using Ashen Phantom Steps to ricochet off two trunks and close the distance in an instant.
The crow saw him coming. Its eyes flared violet, trying to activate the suppression field all alone. The pressure hit him again, but it was weak, barely a nuisance compared to the dual resonance from before.
’Nice try, chicken.’
He punched through the resistance and drove his fist into the beast’s skull.
"Crushing Mountain Fist!"
The impact cratered the crow’s head inward with a wet crunch. It dropped like a stone, crashing through branches before hitting the forest floor with a heavy thud. The violet glow in its eyes flickered once and died.
’One down.’ he thought.
He turned to find the second crow still burning on the ground, thrashing and shrieking. Ye Jun landed nearby, formed one final Fire Arrow, and sent it through the beast’s neck.
Silence.
He exhaled slowly and sat down on a root, wiping sweat from his forehead with his sleeve.
’Qi Suppression Field from the eyes working in tandem. That’s nasty as fuck. If there had been four or five of them, I’d have been their meal.’
He checked his Qi reserves and found about sixty percent remaining. It wasn’t terrible, but he’d burned through more than he liked.
’I’ll need to be more efficient. Can’t afford drawn-out fights if I want to advance before reaching the village.’
He stood up and walked toward the corpses. The system had shown him many attribute bubbles so he simply used his Pseudo Soul Sense to collect them all.
But what caught his attention were the eyes embedded in the wings. Even in death, they held a faint residual glow as he could sense the Qi Fluctuations from it.
’Hundred Eyed Burial Crow eyes are materials for formation arrays and tracking artefacts. I remember reading that somewhere.’
He did read quite a few of those books just for situation like these.
Shaking his head, he crouched and began carefully extracting them, one by one.
’I’ll be damned if I waste them. Wenxin would skin me alive if she knew I left good materials rotting in the dirt.’
The woman had strange affection with these stuff, after all.
Somewhere deeper in the forest, another screech echoed. It was distant, but unmistakable.
Ye Jun threw the eyes in his space ring, stood, and activated Ashen Phantom Steps without a sound. It was moments like these which made him very grateful to Song Liangxue for giving him this space ring.
’Time to move on. Their relatives are on the way, and I’d rather not host a family reunion.’
Ye Jun grinned and left the area in search of another Spiritual Beast.
For the next half an hour, he wandered around the vicinity, finding quite a few monsters and Spirtual Beasts. But they were too weak to pose him any threats.
Just as he wondering if he should enter a cave or not, his instincts flared up as he leapt off his feet and turned to his left, the deeper parts of the Black Wind Wildlands.
’What the hell happened?’