novelraw Chapter 188 - 186: End (2)
Chapter 188 - 186: End (2)
High in the sky.
Hu Qi, in the form of a falcon, soared through the sky.
A pair of amber hawk eyes, their irises ringed in gold, scanned the ground below.
Suddenly, his gaze fell upon a dense forest below, and his pupils contracted to pinpricks.
"Hm? Found them!"
Seeing the two figures, he didn’t choose to land.
Instead, he changed into another, unfamiliar form and hid behind a dark, gloomy cloud.
With a flash of light, the Red Mirror Saber appeared in his hand.
"Crimson!"
As Hu Qi’s thought stirred,
Crimson characters materialized from the void, sketching themselves out line by line before his eyes.
Hu Qi’s gaze swept over the dense list of Skills.
He locked onto one particular line of text.
[Taiqing Immortal Slaying Sword Technique (Energy Storage: 15 days) △]
...
[Modification Points: 976 (31%)]
Hu Qi’s eyes fell upon the Taiqing Immortal Slaying Sword Technique.
With a mere thought,
Two hundred and fifty Modification Points were instantly consumed.
They transformed into a red light that flowed into the entry for the Taiqing Immortal Slaying Sword Technique.
————
[Taiqing Immortal Slaying Sword Technique (Energy Storage: 2515 days) △]
...
[Modification Points: 726 (31%)]
The crimson text on the panel changed.
days, which converted to 6 years and 325 days.
The instant this thought appeared in Hu Qi’s mind,
the text after the Taiqing Immortal Slaying Sword Technique immediately changed as well.
[Taiqing Immortal Slaying Sword Technique (Energy Storage: 6 years and 325 days) △]
Hu Qi’s eyes twitched at this development.
But he wasn’t particularly surprised. ’The crimson panel probably exists within my soul,’ he thought, ’or maybe it’s a part of it that has undergone a Mutation.’
It was perfectly normal for it to change according to his will.
On the panel, the Taiqing Immortal Slaying Sword Technique could still store more energy, but Hu Qi didn’t do it.
He felt it was already enough. If he charged it any more, the power would be too great, and he feared he might obliterate the two of them, leaving no corpse intact. That was not an outcome he desired.
At the same time.
A gleam of light appeared on the Red Mirror Saber Hu Qi was holding.
HUMMM!
The blade hummed softly as an aura of ultimate Sharpness brewed within it.
This power was contained within the scabbard.
Hu Qi looked down from above.
His gaze pierced through the clouds, landing directly on the two figures fleeing below.
The next moment.
His hand gripped the hilt of his saber!
CRACK!
A dense red light poured out from within the scabbard.
VMMMM!
...
Within a dense, tangled forest of rolling, dark green hills.
Ancient trees reached for the sky, their lush branches and leaves weaving together to form a verdant canopy.
Thick trunks stood like giant pillars, with vines cascading down like green waterfalls.
RUSTLE!
Suddenly, the branches in the forest trembled!
Startled birds took flight.
Two figures could be seen flitting across the branches like phantoms.
Their movements were agile. Every time they stepped on a branch, it was as light as a dragonfly skipping across water.
The tips of their toes would tap down, causing the leaves to tremble with a faint rustle, as their figures shot through the woods like arrows.
Although they were heavily injured, their speed was still extremely fast, far beyond what an ordinary person could achieve.
But because they were in a dense forest, they had to stop and briefly check their direction after traveling a certain distance.
An ordinary person would never have been able to remember the route.
But Qi Dao Grandmasters were clearly no ordinary people.
As for why they didn’t fly,
They didn’t dare. To do so would be to make themselves conspicuous targets.
Once discovered, death would be their only escape.
Neither of them spoke.
They just focused on pushing forward.
Both of them knew their earlier actions had already alarmed the Food Master of this place. If they remained in the Earth Core and waited for the Food Master to appear in person, only death would await them.
Wu Yu’s expression was grim and uncertain.
For him, this trip to the Earth Core had been an absolute disaster.
He hadn’t eliminated Helinta, he hadn’t obtained the Spirit Tea Tree, the Treasure Medicines he’d collected earlier were still waiting outside Black Stone City, and to top it all off, he was covered in injuries.
It felt as if a giant hand was manipulating everything from behind the scenes, giving him an uneasy feeling that something was wrong.
However, lacking any crucial clues, Wu Yu was unable to deduce the truth of the matter.
Just as he was lost in thought,
Changzhu, who was at his side, suddenly froze and looked up, her expression dazed.
"What is it?"
Wu Yu asked with a frown.
Suddenly, the space around them darkened.
Seeing this, Wu Yu’s heart skipped a beat.
His gaze followed hers upward.
Reflected in his pupils was a terrifying, crimson saber light, as vast as a toppling mountain, descending from the heavens.
The saber light was so fast and its area of effect so wide that there was simply no way to dodge.
The immense life-or-death crisis terrified them out of their wits.
In that split second, at the moment of life and death,
a ball of faint blue light surged from Wu Yu’s body, enveloping both him and Changzhu.
Then, within the blue light, the figure of a woman in blue robes appeared.
The woman’s hair fluttered.
The moment she appeared, her gaze was cold as she raised a hand and struck upward with her palm.
"Insolent! How dare you harm a Disciple of my Holy Rain Sect!"
As she spoke, she thrust her palm forward.
It gathered the Heaven and Earth Primordial Energy, forming a giant palm that met the saber light head-on.
However, the next instant,
The moment they made contact, the giant palm was sliced apart.
The crimson saber light struck the ground without pause.
First, the world went dark.
It was as if all light had been absorbed into it.
The entire world became as dark as ink and deathly silent.
There was no sound, no light, like the moment before an atomic bomb undergoes fission and explodes.
—BOOM!
Following that, a heaven-shaking explosion erupted, powerful enough to pierce one’s eardrums.
For ten thousand meters in all directions, countless tons of sand, soil, and trees were blasted into a gray curtain that shot toward the sky.
Looking down from above,
the dark green earth looked like a water-soaked oil painting, its lines twisted beyond recognition.
A few breaths later, the colossal commotion subsided.
A massive, bottomless chasm, like a great Gorge, had appeared on the land.
"Cough, cough..."
Suddenly, a sound came from beneath a pile of rocks.
Then, a rock weighing several hundred pounds was pushed aside, and a petite figure, covered in blood, climbed out, using a Giant Sword in one hand to barely support herself.
Beneath her matted hair was Changzhu’s deathly pale face.
Thinking of that saber strike, she couldn’t help but tremble all over.
’Who on earth was that? Could it be the Food Master from this place?’
If it weren’t for the technique from the Refining God Venerable on Wu Yu taking effect,
she would have been blown to pieces by now.
"Wu Yu!"
she called out.
The surroundings were silent; there was no response. Seeing this, she didn’t linger and prepared to leave the area first.
However, just as she was about to turn, a figure suddenly appeared in her peripheral vision, standing right behind her.
At this realization, Changzhu’s expression changed drastically.
But her movements remained normal, as if she hadn’t noticed a thing.
Yet, just as she secretly circulated and squeezed out the last of her True Essence, preparing to swing her sword and create distance from her opponent,
her arm froze mid-motion.
A straight line of blood had suddenly appeared on her face, stretching from her left eyebrow down to the right corner of her mouth.
Her once pretty and cute girlish face was now shattered, like a broken mirror.
"You were right about one thing. My saber is indeed very fast!"
Just as Changzhu’s consciousness was about to fade,
an indifferent voice entered her ears.
Changzhu naturally recognized that voice. Her pupils widened.
She wanted to say something.
But her entire head slid off, and a spray of red and white matter gushed out.
Her consciousness plunged into eternal darkness.
Even for a Qi Dao Grandmaster, the head was still a fatal weak point.
Unless one reached Refining God.
Modification Points +76 (31%)
With a flash of red light, Changzhu’s body vanished without a trace, and a line of text appeared before his eyes.
Along with it came a flood of Changzhu’s memories.
Hu Qi didn’t dwell on them, instead turning his gaze to a certain spot.
A cold smile appeared on his face.
’He’s hiding well,’ he thought. ’But unfortunately for him, the powerful perception granted by my Three-Eyed Primordial Snake Bloodline allows me to sense his presence easily.’
...
Dozens of meters underground.
Wu Yu’s body was curled into a ball.
A soft light enveloped his body.
Outside of that, he was encased in a layer of black rock.
It sealed his aura within, not letting the slightest trace escape.
Sensing that Changzhu’s aura had vanished,
Wu Yu, curled up inside the rock, suppressed his aura even further.
He was terrified of being discovered by that person.
He didn’t believe he could fight a being capable of unleashing such a saber strike.
Suddenly, an aura of death washed over him.
Wu Yu’s expression changed drastically.
"Damn it, how is this possible?"
He didn’t understand how the other party had found him.
But he had no time to worry about that now.
With a move, he burst through the ground and shot into the sky, trying to escape.
However, the moment he broke through the surface, he was met with a rapidly enlarging fist.
In that split second, Wu Yu had no time to think.
He frantically squeezed out his True Essence, a savage look flashing across his handsome face.
He thrust out both hands in a grasping motion.
"Cloud Pinching Hand!"
BANG!
The instant the fist and palms collided,
an unimaginable force struck him. Wu Yu’s arms twisted instantly, his bones nearly shattering, and his body was sent crashing into the ground like a torn sack.
After a loud crash,
Wu Yu lay sprawled on the vitrified ground, the upper half of his body sunk deep into it.
"You... you..."
Wu Yu opened his mouth, trying to say something.
A large amount of blood streamed from the corners of his mouth.
At the same time, the light in his eyes rapidly dimmed.
He was dead.
The Three-Eyed Primordial Snake Spirit Devouring Map that Hu Qi cultivated had fused with multiple Inheritance Secret Martial Arts. Combined with his Cultivation being far superior to his opponent’s, the various stacked Traits of a single punch had been enough to kill Wu Yu on the spot.
Although Wu Yu’s previous heavy injuries were a contributing factor, the feat was still horrifying.
After finishing him off,
Hu Qi didn’t linger and quickly left the area.
...
No sooner had Hu Qi left, barely two or three minutes later,
a black-robed figure abruptly appeared above the massive fissure.
"Hm? Such power!"
The bloody light in his eyes contracted, and a trace of fear flashed through them.
He could clearly feel the sharp aura lingering in the air, an aura that felt as if it could slice through anything.
’This level of power... Unless a Refining God Venerable came in person, this kind of might should be impossible.’
Thinking of this,
his original plan to catch those "little bugs" was extinguished.
Below the level of Refining God, when Secret Martial Artists fought Black Blood Species, the Black Blood Species generally had the upper hand.
But once one reached the Refining God realm,
that advantage of the Black Blood Species would no longer exist.
He wasn’t sure how strong that Refining God Venerable was.
’If this was a deliberate act by those surface-dwelling Secret Martial Artists, a plan to lure the snake from its hole and target me...’
’...then if I continue to give chase, I might be met with a siege by several Refining God Venerables.’
Thinking of this,
he paused.
Then he immediately turned and left.
Losing a group of Middle Black Blood Species pained him, but it was just a matter of spending some time to cultivate a new batch.
Compared to his own life, what did that matter?