Chapter 111 - Riverside Crisis
“My Ru’er….”
Anger and sadness flooded his body All of a sudden, he bellowed a furious roar, and the surface of the river erupted. His monstrous Qi incited a raging tsunami on the river water as huge tidal waves slammed into the buildings on the riverbanks!
Zhong Yue stood still on the riverbank, the water flooded over and sent the monsters flying away, but when the wall-like huge tides reached to him, it was as if a magical axe had cleaved down on the huge tides, splitting them into halves before him. Not a single drop of water fell onto his body.
Yan Lisan stood amid the thick and vicious monstrous Qi, his eyes glowed a crimson red as he gravely stared at Zhong Yue.
“Long Yue, my love—Mistress Ru, had only eaten a hundred of your livestock, and yet, you’ve devastated my Purple Cloud Summit, and slew my Mistress Ru. The hatreds between us can only be washed away by blood. You and I will never be able to live under the same sky!”
The other two Qi Practitioners who stood beside Yan Lisan nodded their heads vehemently, “Junior Martial Brother Long Yue, you are too reckless. Livestock is in the end, livestock; what need is there for you to kill Mistress Ru for only a few livestock?”
“Livestock?”
Zhong Yue laughed out loud while he shook his head, “Senior Martial Brother Yan, those humans were the keys to worshipping my atman, and when your dear madam ate them, she was looking for trouble with me. I’m just doing you a favor in teaching her proper etiquette. I’ve killed her lest she provokes any other formidable cultivators that even you can’t fight off, you should thank me!”
The two monster Qi Practitioners were enraged, “You simply refuse to heed reason do you. The petty lives of livestock, how can they be comparable to Mistress Ru?”
“Madam has eaten some of your livestock, at most she can return back some to you, but how can you kill her?”
“Today you come and eat my livestock, tomorrow he comes and eats my livestock, a few more days like this and I will be left with nothing. To be honest with you gentlemen, I’m new here to the land of monsters. Thus, I realize that I have to establish my name and prestige here to be acknowledged.”
Zhong Yue’s aura then deluged with a palpable killing intent and his face became overcome with malice, “Mistress Ru didn’t provoke the others and instead, chose me. I was just worrying that I don’t have a target I can use to establish my name, but now ... surely I won’t let her get away with this. To be frank, I’m here to build my name and prestige, I want the whole of Gu Xia City to know, that my territory, other than me myself, no other can ever lay a finger on it! Otherwise, they can die without mercy!”
His true purpose was to avenge his fellow humans who were callously eaten by the monsters, doing so in the pretense of establishing his name and prestige. The monster race abided by the principle of jungle law, the strong prey on the weak, and the weak look up to the strong. Thus, killing Mistress Ru ostensibly for establishing his name and prestige would not raise any suspicion and antipathies from the monsters.
On the other hand, if he were to say that he was here to avenge the humans, that would raise the suspicions of the monster race against him, seeing as humanity was perceived as no different from cows and sheep.
“DIE!”
Yan Lisan growled, a pair of dark-gold wings flared out abruptly on his back —Zheng zheng!— the wings fluttered and trembled the air. Huge tidal waves covered the sky, and the next second, Yan Lisan was already a dozen feet away from Zhong Yue!
Hua!
Yan Lisan pushed his hands forward, and huge tidal waves emerged before him as he hurled the waves towards Zhong Yue and Zhong Yue raised up his hands as well. Then, although there were huge tidal waves in between them, their strengths clashed fiercely together in the waves as their strengths traveled in the waves!
The huge tidal wave bursts into bits and pieces as they were unable to withstand the immense power of the two combatants lost amidst a curtain of water swords thrusting to the sides. —Chi chi chi— the water swords plowed two thin and deep ravines in the riverbanks!
“Ahhhh——”
Yan Lisan roared wildly, strengths burst out from his feet and he slammed into Zhong Yue’s hands. Right when the tidal wave has erupted into a water curtain, rays of dark-gold blasted through the water curtain. sounds of metallic clanking could be heard as they slashed right for Zhong Yue!
His wings thrust forward, its feathers like swords; his wings were not merely a manifestation of his psyche, rather, they were wings of his own flesh and blood. His true form was that of a mutated swan goose — a metal swan that had cultivated into a monster. He consumes metallic items all year round, accumulating all the metallic compounds in the body and storing them within his bones and feathers. Over time, the feathers evolved to become a weapon!
Yan Lisan had taken the character ‘Yan’ as his surname to show that he would never forget his origin.
A few years back then, long before this, his wings and feathers were already refined into soul weapons, every piece of feather was engraved with the totem carvings. Using feathers as swords, this was the forte and expertise of his species!
While although the bones in his body could not be engraved with totem carvings, through constant refinement, his bones had also grown very sturdy and robust, not much inferior to ordinary soul weapons. These factors emboldened him with the confidence to daringly lunge straight at Zhong Yue to engage in close quarters combat!
With respect to close quarters combat, he was renowned as one of the experts in Gu Xia City. Once, he had fought with a monster Qi Practitioner, and in one move, he was able to lacerate his opponent’s skin and flesh off to the point of revealing the shiny white bones beneath!
Zhong Yue lifted his leg and stomped down heavily, power erupted out from his palms, —Krong!— the water curtain was blasted apart and Yan Lisan immediately felt a surge of great force striking over, suppressing his strength and hammering him as he reeled backward.
Then, Zhong Yue’s hands flickered, four rays of Sword Qi danced in between his fingers, —Zheng zheng zheng— clashing and warding off Yan Lisan’s feathers, causing a series of fire sparks!
Four Sword Qi, fending off innumerable sword feathers!
Yan Lisan staggered back and as he recovered, he immediately lunged out like a whirlwind once again. At the same time, his main wife came from the side and released a fearsome cry as she hurled down two Yanling Sabers down at Zhong Yue!
“My wife, turn back! Don’t intervene!”
Yan Lisan’s face changed drastically, but it was too late. The two Yanling Sabers were soul weapons refined from Yan Lisan’s feathers – soul weapons that were tempered thousands of times. But as Zhong Yue’s fingers flickered imperceptibly quickly to launch out the Sword Qi to the sabers, the two Yanling Sabers instantly crumbled into pieces!
Zhong Yue slapped over with the back of his hand, and the fragments of the broken Yanling Sabers were shot backward with a velocity even faster than when it was shot towards himself —Chi chi chi— the main wife’s frail body shuddered. Her body was then immediately made into a sieve by the innumerable Yanling Sabers fragments that penetrated through her. Even her forehead had a few holes in it; she plummeted down onto the ground soundlessly.
“Mistress Ru was just killed, and now even the main wife was also slain by Long Yue!” the two monster Qi practitioners were planning to help Yan Sanli kill Zhong Yue. But they shuddered with cold sweat as they saw how events just played out, and their originally fiery thirst for blood was instantly doused in cold water.
“You’ve killed two of my lovers, I will devour you raw!”
Yan Lisan was truly enraged this time, he released a resounding bellow in anger and dashed over maniacally. His wings fluttered ceaselessly as they slashed through the air. At the same time, his hands slammed, clawed, punched, and hooked, frenziedly attacking Zhong Yue.
With a shift of thought, Zhong Yue dispersed the Gold Sword Qi and turned them into the Xuan Wu Gold Spirit Shields. The shields revolved around him, blocking the onslaught of the wing feather swords. Meanwhile, the Xiang Dragon Sword Qi morphed into a forty feet long Xiang Dragon that assaulted Yan Lisan from behind!
And in between Zhong Yue’s fingers was shuttling the Coral Sword Qi As for below, the Wood Sword Qi came slashing right at Yan Lisan’s feet!
Krong——
The two of them plowed through the buildings on the riverbank, which caused the buildings to crumble right away as the Sword Qi pulverized them into dust!
“Yan Lisan is no match for Long Yue.”
On the river, a small wherry rowed over. On the deck, a few young monster Qi Practitioners sat down on their knees atop bamboo mats. Watching the battle on the riverbank, one of them glanced a few eyes, smiled and said, “Yan Lisan is definitely losing.”
The other Qi Practitioners also looked young. They heard him and asked, “Brother Xuanji, how so? Yan Lisan is a cultivation expert, he is nearly undefeatable in the level of Rebirth in the Gu Xia City. I suppose he can be listed as one of the most preeminent Rebirth Qi Practitioners even in your Xian Kong City. Why would Brother Xuanji claim that he is no match for Long Yue?”
“That’s true. Yan Lisan hasn’t used his cloud spirit Yuan Shen – his cloud spirit Yuan Shen is very mutable, and he has cultivated it to the peak. He is on the brink of advancing into the level of Awakening. As long as his Yuan Shen makes an appearance, Long Yue will definitely be defeated!”
The young monster Qi Practitioner, Yu Xuanji, shook his head as he heard the words, but before he could explain anything, a clear and insipid voice sounded out into the ears of the young Qi Practitioners, “Yan Lisan’s Yuan Shen is strong enough, but sadly, his opponent’s Yuan Shen is stronger. If Long Yue’s Yuan Shen is not strong, he could not have cultivated his sword skill to such an extent.”
Yu Xuanji followed the voice and gazed over, another wherry could be seen floating on the river. A lady was sitting in front of the window lattice with her arms wrapped around a lute. Her eyes were also focused on the battle.
“Hu Qimei!” Yu Xuanji’s heart skipped a beat, his eyes narrowly squinted.
The lady had a pair of furry fox ears, she heard the calling and with the lute in her arms, she slightly rose out of her seat and greeted, “Brother Xuanji.”
“Qimei, do you want to come over?”
Yu Xuanji stood up, smiled and said, “You must have heard of the news, and rushed back over from the outland?”
Hu Qimei stood up, flew over the wherries and landed in front of Yu Xuanji, her little fox ears flickered and she said, “That’s right. The Lord of Xian Kong City is finding a closed door disciple, and will stop accepting any more disciples from then on. Such a big event, how can I possibly miss out?”
“There is only one vacancy for the closed door disciple, I wonder which Qi Practitioner will be the lucky one?”
Rays flashed in Yu Xuanji’s eyes, he gazed at the battle on the riverside and nonchalantly said, “Qimei, don’t you worry, we have yet to return back to Xian Kong City, I will not assault you before that. When we’ve arrived at Xian Kong City, I will defeat you fair and square, let me extinguish your foolish thoughts.”
Hu Qimei chortled coquettishly, “Brother Xuanji is so good at making jokes. When you and I battle, this little sister will help you tidy up your remains, I’ll make sure you will keep the same smile on your face.”
Yu Xuanji coldly sneered in his heart, he said, “This Long Yue, he didn’t come any earlier nor any later, coming back to Gu Xia City with this kind of timing ... he probably also has his eyes on the closed door discipleship of the Xian Kong City Lord.”
Hu Qimei’s ears flickered, “Even until now, Yan Lisan still hasn’t broken through to the level of Awakening. Does he not also have eyes on the closed door discipleship under the Xian Kong City Lord? The City Lord’s secret manual, the Monster God Ming King Scripture, is the strongest cultivation technique in the East Barren, one that holds the same reputation as Swords Gate’s Great Boundless Sword Qi. Who doesn’t want to learn it? The Monster God Ming King Scripture is also very attractive to the dragon race … Yan Lisan is using his Yuan Shen, I’d like to know, what kind of Yuan Shen this Long Yue has!”
Before she finished her sentence, a fierce whistling could be heard that grew ever more shrill. A Yuan Shen like hawk emerged behind Yan Sanli, it had an eagle’s ferocious head, but it looked like a vulture at the same time and it was at least forty feet tall, with feathers of black and white interweaving into two pairs of wings. The wings spanned an area of half a mu in radius.
At the same time, Yan Sanli’s wings on his back fluttered, wings like swords and sabers flitted out, and the whole sky was filled with Sword Qi. The dense and immense Sword Qi rained down upon Zhong Yue from all directions!
The hawk Yuan Shen was even more ferocious. Through it, Yan Lisan manipulated the sky flooding Sword Qi while the hawk Yuan Shen spread its wings and rose up before plunging down for swift dive down towards Zhong Yue with its claw aiming at his head, intending to claw out his ears and eyes!
Suddenly, behind Zhong Yue, a fiery conflagration was suddenly set ablaze, out of which flew out a Great Sun Golden Crow. The three-legged celestial bird was only a foot tall, its wings spanned about only four feet long. In stark contrast to Yan Lisan’s grandiloquent hawk Yuan Shen, it was just like a dwarf!
And this was the best result Zhong Yue has achieved after cultivating hard for the past few months, in addition to the refinements under the【Sun Moon Prodigious Emanation Art】; the Golden Sun Great Crow has only managed to grow to a foot tall, formerly being only an inch high.
“Spirit of the sun, Great Sun Golden Crow!”
Hu Qimei and Yu Xuanji stood up in shock, disbelief filled their eyes, “The dragon race is indeed strong, the depths of their strengths are deep and resounding, such that they were able to allow this Long Yue to consummate the spirit of the Great Sun Golden Crow!”
Translator note:
Yan (雁) - wild-goose
Hu (狐) - Fox