Chapter 87 – I’ll just pick this in the middle!
Translated by: Shiroyukineko
Edited by: Brian, Sam and Rango
TLCed by: Shiroyukineko
“Come, let’s discuss our battle tactics…” Luo Hua City Mistress was a democratic person, so she didn’t mind discussing with others. It was a pity that she didn’t know Yue Yang was only interested in discussing about tactics in bed. As for true battle tactics, Yue Yang completely didn’t understand a single thing.
Furthermore, she was asking an otaku, who never really fought on a battlefield before, someone who never truly led an army before, to discuss battle tactics.
That was even more dangerous than having no tactics at all.
“Actually, I have read Sun Tzu’s Art of War before; isn’t the highest realm of tactics to break the enemy’s’ resistance without fighting? However, it seems like this is not a possible option. I have also read the Red Army’s guerrilla tactics, it’s a pity that we won’t be able to use guerilla tactics here either. We can’t use landmines or trenches…” Yue Yang thought again. Amongst the Thirty-Six Stratagems, which one was the most applicable to be used here? Even after thinking for a long time on ideas like ‘besieging Wèi to rescue Zhào’, ‘deceiving the heavens to cross the ocean’, ‘killing with a borrowed sword’, or ‘luring the tiger off its mountain lair’, they are all inapplicable to this situation. As for the ‘empty fort strategy’, ‘inflicting injury on oneself to win the enemy’s trust’ and ‘the beauty trap’, Yue Yang doubted that they would work on the Bloody Queen. After pondering for quite a while, Yue Yang felt that the last stratagem of the Thirty-Six Stratagems, “If all else fails, retreat”, was their best bet.
(Shiro: http://pages.ucsd.edu/~dkjordan/chin/Suentzyy/Suentzyy03.html, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_War, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Workers%27_and_Peasants%27_Red_Army, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty-Six_Stratagems)
Yue Yang had fought against a bronze-ranked level 7 Bone Dragon before. Its skull was extremely hard, and he wouldn’t have been able to penetrate it without his Innate Invisible Sword Qi.
Now there’s another bronze-ranked level 7 monster, the Blade Massacring Demoness. He reckoned that it was better not to irritate this monster as well. There was even a bronze-ranked level 6 ghostclaw rainbow-winged banshee who was helping from the air. It was still okay if it was just these two monsters, but, on top of all this, there was the gold-ranked level 5 Bloody Queen too.
What kind of existence was a gold-ranked beast like? Yue Yang could already imagine it from fighting the three-headed chimera in the Aries Temple.
Furthermore, this Bloody Queen was also a Gold King Beast.
However weak she was, she was still a queen.
Luo Hua City Mistress kept motivating Yue Yang on their way, advising him to think more about having a gold-ranked beast to show off to others, so that he wouldn’t give up so easily. The two of them passed through mountains and rivers, walking for more than two hours, before finally arriving near the domain of the Bloody Queen, the Flying Mountain.
Flying Mountain is a name for a type of island that floats in the sky.
They did not exist in the Soaring Dragon Continent but instead existed on every floor of Tong Tian Tower. At least one was located on every floor, even from places like the the surrounding walls of Blackstone Labyrinth of Star’s Domain, you could see that there were stones blocking your view of the sky, floating in the air. Of course, those are called floating stones. If a sky island was large enough and looked like a mountain, it would be called a ‘Flying Mountain’.
Still, a Flying Mountain-grade island in the sky wasn’t really a huge sky island; it actually belonged to the smaller type of sky islands. It was said that, not only could a city can be built on top of a huge sky island, even kingdoms were possible.
For example, Luo Hua City Mistress’s Waterfall City, is built on a sky island.
Under the Flying Mountain, there were two high cliffs linking to each other. There were also a lot of floating stones that took shape of a spiral ladder winding upstairs.
On the tall mountain’s summit, which almost reached the clouds, there was a beautiful pavilion. It was not known how many years it had taken the mother of the Bloody Queen to build that kind of pavilion, which unexpectedly looked similar to humanities’ architecture.
“If we can occupy this place, build a villa and let others come for a holiday, it seemed like a profitable business could be started,” Yue Yang started to fantasize. Didn’t Avatar simply just digitally create a few sky islands, find some actors to wear costumes, shoot a movie and suddenly become famous throughout the whole world? If he created a sky pavilion as a holiday resort, though it wouldn’t compare to the Avatar’s Holy Mountain, it would probably not be worse than the man-made coconut island of Dubai.
“Your idea is not bad, but I don’t think anyone would want to take such risks to go to the third floor of Tong Tian Tower for a holiday. That’s not going for a holiday, that’s going to your death!” Luo Hua City Mistress started laughing until her back was sore.
The two of them continued to chat and laugh together as they followed along the mountain cove. All the while, they were preparing to find a concealed place to climb up the mountain secretly. Suddenly, Luo Hua City Mistress saw that the pagoda on top of the mountain was letting out black smoke. She immediately became furious as she hurriedly ran up, saying, “Little thief, come quickly. Someone is stealing our target. I tell you, you shouldn’t be soft-hearted. Kill anyone that you see. As long as it is something that I want, nobody can take it away from me.”
“What if it is not demons from the Demon Abyss, but humans instead?” Yue Yang felt that since this territory was still within the human’s domain, it could be human warriors that were stealing the monster.
“Nonsense. In my eyes, there’s only one type of enemy, and that is someone who’s against me.” Luo Hua City Mistress tapped Yue Yang with her fragrant hands before adding in a heavy tone, “No matter who they are, as long as they refuse to leave, chop their arms and legs off for me. I will take responsibility for whatever happens.”
“…” Yue Yang had initially thought that Luo Hua City Mistress was someone who was reasonable. Who would knew that she was even more violent than a Celestial Crab, a tyrant beyond compare?
Yue Yang immediately took out the crescent blade from his back. Bloody Queen was a summon beast that he had already put his name on, so naturally he would kill anyone who dared to snatch it from him.
Anyway, the Luo Hua City Mistress had said that she would take responsibility. Why not kill without repercussions?
There were some places in the spiral floating-stone staircase where the floating stone had been destroyed, creating a big, terrifying pitfall on the path. Some floating stones were covered with blood and bird feathers, broken limbs and broken blades were scattered all over the ground. While Yue Yang and Luo Hua City Mistress were busy making their way to the top, they could see Harpy corpses from time to time. There were also some abandoned bodies of level 3 monsters that was shot by the Harpy’s feathers. A lot of the corpses were lying in a pool of blood, still moving. It was clear that they had not died yet.
A spider’s huge corpse was strewn all over the place in a hideous mess, some parts were still even on fire.
The smell of burnt flesh and blood filled the air, stinging noses and making you want to vomit.
It was obvious that this wasn’t a human’s attack but a large scale, demon-led attack.
Reaching the Flying Mountain’s last Floating Stone step, Yue Yang and Luo Hua City Mistress found a level 4 Demon Giant’s corpse. It’s head was already cut off by a terrifying strength, it’s way of dying was simply bloody and horrifying.
“This time, there would definitely be a Demon General, or even a Demon Commander leading the army.” Luo Hua City Mistress further indicated for Yue Yang to be more careful.
“Ai?”
When they reached the Flying Mountain, they passed through a narrow mountain path and climbed halfway up to the mountain. There, they saw over a hundred monsters from the Demon Abyss surrounding the Harpies, who had already been whittled down in numbers. There were at least three Demon Generals who were taking turns to attack, mounting a sneak attack on a blade-wielding giant, whose body was already covered in blood in this deathly battle. This blade-wielding giant looked a bit like a female Ox-head monster, but it was much taller. Waving its giant blade that looked like a guillotine, it charged up against the demons, slaughtering dozens of low-levelled demons, its strength was undefendable.
Other than the few attacks from the Demon Generals that could cause injury to it, no other demons could stop this blade-wielding giant’s charge.
Even the level 3 Longhorned Demons were killed with just one swing of this blade-wielding giant, their corpses splitting into two.
On the other side of the battlefield, there was a Bright-winged Banshee that was much bigger than the size of a normal person. It was twined by countless spider threads, and was unable to flap its wings to fly into the air. There were two Demon Generals holding large, sharp axes in their hands, violently attacking the Banshee. Although they couldn’t kill the Bright-winged banshee that easily, the banshee’s body became filled with injuries under the storm-like rain of attacks.
The Bright-winged Banshee let out a miserable cry, using all its might to struggle free from the spider silk; yet its wish couldn’t hope to be fulfilled.
It was clear that it had already been completely restrained by its opponent.
Yue Yang reckoned that the Demon Generals had summoned a Tarantula or Trawlnet in order to fight against the Bright-winged Banshee, a flying-type beast. It seemed that the strategy had been to bind the agile Banshee, who’s flying speed was ultrasonic, with their spider’s thread. Then, when the Banshee fell to the ground and with its battle power greatly reduced, that was when they started to kill it… In Luo Hua City’s Mistress’s eyes, she would probably be able to make a much stronger deducement with her experience. For example, she could guess that the blade-wielding giant must surely be suffering from the effects of the Weakening Demonic Moth, Bone Sucking Maggot and Manic Red Ant. Otherwise, as a bronze-ranked level 7 monster, it would not be injured so easily by the three Demon Generals. It was even more unlikely to have lost its sense of reason or be fighting disorderly instead.
“Ayayaya…”
An ear-piercing scream suddenly rang out through the air, almost causing a shockwave of sound.
No matter if it was a normal monster or a Demon General, after hearing the extremely sharp, high-pitched and ear-piercing scream, everyone fainted and fell to the ground one by one, like harvested wheats cut down to the ground.
Some low-levelled monsters even died immediately, their heads exploding like busted watermelons. Blobs of brains and flesh were strewn all over the place.
Even the strong blade-wielding giant and the bronze-ranked level 7 Blade Massacring Demoness dropped to the ground painfully, clutching onto its head.
When Yue Yang heard it, he also felt a little dizzy.
His vision turned black for a whole two to three seconds, as if someone had just knocked him from behind.
However, the Innate Qi in his body immediately responded to the ear-piercing sound in reflex, covering his whole body, and finally forming into something like a cyclone to protect his head, slowly revolving. The dizziness in his brain slowly dissipated, replaced by a refreshing feeling that could not be described with words. The refreshing feeling filled his whole head; not only had his condition improved, his head felt like it was a hundred times clearer than usual.
This Innate Qi’s reflexive reaction made Yue Yang very happy.
Could it be that this is the second level of Innate Invisible Sword Qi, “Five Insights Back To One”?
He had cultivated the second level of Innate Invisible Sword Qi for so long, but there were a lot of mysteries that he couldn’t understand. Yue Yang always felt that he understood it somewhat, but at the same time, was somewhat clueless about it too. Under the Ten Thousand Year Old Oak Tree, Yue Yang had a revelation about Nature’s Heart that increased his mental realm by a big step. At the same time, he had also understood the method to go to the third level. Right now, after receiving the terrifying scream attack, due to his Innate Qi’s reflex movement to protect him, he suddenly understood the eyes, ears, mouth, nose and tongue, the “Five Insights Back To One”. He had hugely increased the abilities of his five senses.
Compared to him, Luo Hua City Mistress couldn’t remove the effects as fast. She covered her forehead with her hands as she moaned painfully, “This… this is the Bloody Queen’s Banshee Scream. Looks like she had met a powerful opponent. I need one minute to fully recover back to my optimal condition…If you can move, then quickly take advantage while the stun effect of the Banshee Scream is still in effect, and kill those Demon Generals… Wait, don’t go, there are some people in the air… Careful, this fellow is called Ma Li Ang, he’s one of the three prominent Demon Generals. He’s a Flying Dragon Demon Knight, his abilities might even be on par with mine so… This battle might be extremely hard to fight. You must remember what I said before, in whatever situation you are facing, you must first prioritise saving your own life.”
In the air, a dark figure suddenly descended on the ground with a thunderous sound.
Thudding heavily onto the ground, the figure caused a burst of ashes and broken stones to disperse upon its impact.
Yue Yang composed himself as he saw a demon knight riding on a black-coloured flying dragon’s back, wearing a full suit of armor. He and his dragon had fallen to the ground together.
The black flying dragon’s eyes had immediately turned white as it fainted to the ground. Dark blood oozed out of its mouth, eyes and ears. As for the Demon Knight on its back, he was clasping his head as he looked up to the sky and screamed painfully, as if someone had punctured an iron nail into his head. He looked like he was suffering terribly.
Towards such a result, Yue yang didn’t feel that it was weird at all.
Separated by such a short distance, even he, who had reached the innate realm, felt like someone had knocked the back of his head with a hammer after hearing that ear-piercing cry. This fellow had received a direct attack from the cry at a short distance. It was already impressive enough that his head hadn’t exploded and turned into mush. Seems like this fellow was that Ma Li Ang; so he was one of the three prominent Demon Commanders?
Three Prominent?
Sounds like they were powerful beings.
In the sky, there was also another gold-winged girl tumbling in the air. Her body was covered with blood, staining her snow white breasts and the the rest of her body, which was equipped with a demoness armor.
Something that appeared to be a dagger was embedded deep into her chest area.
Fresh blood flowed endlessly, dyeing her whole body red.
She hovered in the air with great difficulty, shuddering and trembling as she flew. She looked as if she wanted to escape from the battle. However, it seemed like she didn’t even have energy to even flap her wings. In the end, she flew even lower and lower to the ground, and finally dropped to the ground in front of Yue Yang with a loud thudding sound… It looked like it was struggling to crawl up, but just as it was about to get up, it violently vomitted a whole mouthful of blood and fainted to the ground in pain.
Were both sides heavily injured?
Had this Bloody Queen and Demon Commander both fought until they were so heavily injured?
Yue Yang felt his heart thumping, he was so excited that his heartbeat had increased three times the normal rate. Doesn’t this show that the heavens had sent him a Bloody Queen on a silver platter? If he still rejected this gift, he would probably receive divine punishment.
“You two can fight it out slowly, and I’ll just pick this in the middle…” He immediately flew towards the Bloody Queen that had fainted, and was preparing to use Phantom Shadow to seize her body.
Suddenly, a fleeting breeze blew by.
A figure had appeared at his back at some point in time. The figure was wielding a Demon Blade that was weirdly shaped and shining with a bright golden light, and was preparing to swing it towards the back of Yue Yang’s head…