Chapter 130 - The Only Obstacle
Yu Xuanji and Hu Qimei kept coughing blood out of their mouth due to the heavy injuries they suffered that paralyzed their movements. The two monsters looked at each other only to see the frustration and shock in each others’ eyes. As when they left Gu Xia City with Zhong Yue, their cultivation base was almost the same, with Yu Xuanji and Hu Qimei being even slightly stronger.
But now, with his incredible improvements, Zhong Yue was now already strong enough to compete with King Teng!
“King Teng is the second strongest Rebirth level Qi Practitioner in the entire Xian Kong Saint City. He is almost unkillable, there was once a Qi Practitioner that beheaded him only for it to immediately grow back and in the end. King Teng eventually went on to kill his opponent. Armed with a seemingly immortal body, he would be impervious to any damage that those stronger than him would inflict, forcing his opponents into a battle of attrition until they ultimately lost to him.”
Yu Xuanji said with a serious expression, “Brother Long Yue has to be extra careful when fighting King Teng as no one has been able to discover his weakness even until now!”
Hu Qimei nodded and said, “He is incredibly strong and also had the fortune of inheriting a mysterious heritage. He once had a conflict with an Awakening level Qi Practitioner who achieved the Five Wheel Cycle and King Teng charged into his house and killed his entire family! The entire place became a forest of strange vines that slaughtered the hostile monsters and Qi Practitioners! The Awakening level Qi Practitioner could not do anything at all and he even tried to burn those vines with fire but nothing happened. In the end, the Qi Practitioner’s was completely besmirched and he was exiled from the city to avoid King Teng! Brother Long Yue, the two of us have no more hope in becoming the closed door disciple of Saint City Lord, it’s all up to you now!”
With their heavy injuries, they couldn't even guarantee to return alive. Only Zhong Yue had managed to maintain his peak state, therefore, the closed door disciple would be either Zhong Yue or King Teng.
If Zhong Yue won, then there will be hope for Yu Xuanji’s and Hu Qimei’s survival as there was some modicum of friendship among them. However, if King Teng were to win, it was unequivocal that he would kill them all in order to secure his place as the closed door disciple of Saint City Lord!
Therefore, both Yu Xuanji and Hu Qimei could only hope that Zhong Yue would come out as the victor!
“King Teng is only the second strongest? Who is the strongest then?” said the surprised Zhong Yue.
“Heaven Monster Li Jun.”
Hu Qimei replied, “The title of strongest Rebirth level Qi Practitioner was personally granted to him by the Saint City Lord. He is here this time but he did not show up at all so he must have been killed in the black forest, which would make King Teng the strongest Rebirth level Qi Practitioner now.”
“Heaven Monster Li Jun?”
“Compared to King Teng, how strong is this Heaven Monster Li Jun?”
“They’ve never fought each other before. But if even Saint City Lord said that Heaven Monster Li Jun is the strongest, then he must be better than King Teng in some way.”
Yu Xuanji then replied, “I guess the weakness of King Teng must be on his feet. His feet are his roots in his true form! If the root of the vine dies, the vine itself would surely follow not long after. You must cut off his legs when you fight him, not the head, or you will fall for his trap!”
Zhong Yue frowned and said, “What if his weakness is none of the above? I would not be able to do anything about him, so where could his weakness be?”
Yu Xuanji and Hu Qimei sympathized as they too felt that the situation was very difficult. In most cases, most monsters that became Qi Practitioner were usually beasts instead of plants. As such, their weaknesses were often their heads and their hearts. But when a vine became a monster, they were simply helpless as to what its weakness could be.
After quite some time, after getting familiar and understanding the changes of totem carvings on the array chapters of the 【 Monster God Ming King Art】 on the wall, Zhong Yue got up and said, “Stay here and treat your wounds, I’ll be back shortly.”
Yu Xuanji coughed out some blood and he laughed bitterly, “Brother Long Yue, if King Teng returns instead of you, I’m afraid that we would be going to either hell or heaven with you.”
Hu Qimei barely got up herself and she added, “King Teng is a brutal man. If he comes back, he will definitely kill us and with our current state, we wouldn’t be able to last for even minutes. Brother Long Yue, please be careful!”
Zhong Yue nodded and when he got up the pontoon bridge, he said casually, “Don’t worry, I will be the one walking out of this palace alive!”
On the pontoon bridge, the totem carvings automatically emerged and initiated the operation of the array formation while Zhong Yue started visualizing the 【 Monster God Ming King Art】 that he acquired by himself. An eight-handed figure appeared behind his back, wielding a total of sixteen types of weapons in his hands. These weapons then formed into two Ba Ji Slaughtering Arrays and clashed with the totem carvings on the pontoon bridge.
At the same time, more and more totem carvings emerged from the pontoon bridge which then also formed into Ba Ji Slaughtering Arrays, whose patterns were perennially transforming and mutating. Zhong Yue and his Yuan Shen also did the same thing, forming patternless Ba Ji Slaughtering Array that kept changing patterns. Shockingly, the transformations of the patterns of Zhong Yue’s Yuan Shen and the ones on the pontoon seemed to mirror each other – changing in the same way, at the same time, with the same pattern, and in the same order!
If Zhong Yue made a mistake in changing his Ba Ji Slaughtering Array’s pattern, he would be dragged into the Ba Ji Slaughtering Array formed by the totem carvings on the pontoon bridge. That was how Yu Xuanji and Hu Qimei suffered such heavy injuries!
Suddenly, Zhong Yue’s shoulder trembled and the flow in his operation of the Ba Ji Slaughtering Arrays suddenly stiffened. After all, he didn’t have much knowledge in the field of array formations, with it being limited to an incomplete sword cocoon sword silk sword array, not to mention the Ba Ji Slaughtering Array from the 【 Monster God Ming King Art】 belonging to one of the most intricate family of arrays. Therefore, although Zhong Yue managed to learn the changes of the array formation, there were still some parts that he could not use easily!
One step behind and every step behind. Zhong Yue immediately fell into a disadvantage and his Ba Ji Slaughtering Array became distorted. With his Ba Ji Slaughtering Array interrupted, the slaughtering array of the pontoon bridge immediately breached his defense, as they began to riddle Zhong Yue’s body with injuries!
Boom——-
The totem carvings shifted form into a huge hammer and smashed into his chest. Two hook swords then slashed towards his neck while scimitar and sword sliced onto his body, splattering blood everywhere!
Zhong Yue let out a groan and backed off while he brandished his eight hands to fend off the attacks. He then refocused on channeling the Ba Ji Slaughtering Array to return it to normal operation. As his Ba Ji Slaughtering Array stabilized, the totem carvings on the pontoon bridge became calm again and soon enough, started to mirror Zhong Yue’s Ba Ji Slaughtering Array once again.
Yu Xuanji and Hu Qimei’s heart thumped quickly as they saw that scene and they almost let out a shout. They were so worried as their lives depended on Zhong Yue. If were to suffer suffered any heavy injuries, their own fate wouldn’t end up looking much better either.
Therefore, their hearts slightly relaxed in relief upon seeing Zhong Yue recovering from the stagger.
Zhong Yue continued his advancement and Yu Xuanji tensed up again. He then whispered to Hu Qimei, “Soon, Ming King’s divine eye will enter the array formation. Back then, I messed up and almost had myself killed because I was avoiding the attacks of the divine eye totem carvings. I wonder Brother Long Yue could pass this stage….”
Hu Qimei’s heart was also palpitating in nervous trepidation as he watched Zhong Yue continue walking.
Suddenly, the Ming King’s divine eye totem carvings on the pontoon bridge erupted and a laser shot towards Zhong Yue, accurately landing on Zhong Yue’s forehead!
Yu Xuanji and Hu Qimei let out a scream and they no longer dared to look at Zhong Yue. After a moment, Hu Qimei slowly opened her eyes and saw Zhong Yue standing on the pontoon bridge unflinchingly while the totem carvings turned into an actual divine eye about the size of a pot that continued to incessantly shoot rays towards Zhong Yue’s forehead!
Zhong Yue on the other hand, was still channeling the Ba Ji Slaughtering Array and he ignored the lasers that shot towards his forehead.
“Brother Long Yue, are you still alive?” asked Yu Xuanji with a shaken voice.
Nothing could be seen from their point of view as they were facing Zhong Yue’s back, making it impossible to observe the situation at his front.
“I’m fine.”
Zhong Yue’s voice could be heard and the divine eye began to shrink before the divine eye totem carvings eventually disappeared, with the eye itself also vanishing along with it.
So close, I was so close to cultivating out the Fu Xi divine third eye. But it’s fine, after another ten or so days, I will be able to cultivate the divine eye by absorbing the essence of the beast god inner pearl.
Zhong Yue lamented and he walked up towards the sixth stage. He looked around and saw the wall, that supposedly stood beside the stage, destroyed by a mysterious force. A huge footprint was also left behind by some kind of creature.
This footprint is exactly the same as the one in the Black Mountain Cave. Seems like I was right, that big guy really did come here!
Zhong Yue walked towards the front of the palace and saw tens of collapsed pillars and shattered battle puppets strewn all over the palace. It looked like the Monster God Ming King created some battle puppets in order to protect his corpse, but they appeared to have been destroyed by the big guy.
There was also an empty blood pool somewhere not far away from the stage. There was also a stone tablet in the pool with King Teng standing in front of it.
“The writing on the tablet talks about how the Monster God Ming King extracted his own divine blood out from his body into the pool to make sure that his blood would not evaporate even after a few million years, so that the later generations of the monsters could inherit his legacy.”
King Teng suddenly said and he continued talking, “But the divine blood was drunk by the creature that intruded this palace. That would explain why it was able to kill the previous Saint city Lord.”
Zhong Yue walked up and closely inspected the stone tablet. The writing on the tablet expounded on how the Monster God Ming King was ordered to stand guard here in order to safeguard the treasures here until the time has come for the treasures to be taken back by their owner. Once this inheritor got to this place and drank his blood, that person will then have the power to move his corpse away and enter the chamber to replace the Monster God Ming King in safeguarding the treasures.
“So where is the body of Monster God Ming King?” said the confused and stunned Zhong Yue.
Then, he saw the body of Monster God Ming King, an eight-handed monster god with only its skin left, its flesh seemingly plundered away!
Other than that, the skin was also littered with tiny holes as if it was being bitten by thousands of ants. The divine energy was all gone.
“The body of the Monster God Ming King was eaten by that creature.”
King Teng lamented as he said in regret, “Seems like we are unable to obtain the complete【 Monster God Ming King Art】 anymore. Other than that, that bloody creature even placed additional seals onto the treasures protected by the Monster God Ming King.”
As he spoke, vines danced around in the air just like slithering snakes and they lifted the ground where the corpse of Ming King lied. Two doors could then be seen and there were strange pictures on the walls. In the middle of the doors was a monster insect with five types of poison in its body and five poison totem carvings with some parts missing.
A thought struck Zhong Yue and he immediately recalled the token he obtained from Zhu Xianer. There were similar pictures on the token, except, for the five poisons were on the outside while the mother insect was in the middle.
But then the five poisons totem carvings precisely coincided with the missing totem carvings on the doors. It could complement the existing totem carvings on the door to complete it.!
The key to the doors is right in my hands!
Zhong Yue inhaled a long breath and thought, So inside the door must be the treasures that Ming King was beseeched to protect! And the only obstacle between me and the treasures is this King Teng!