Chapter 7.2 (1/2)
Chapter 7: Relic of Youtuer (Part 2)
[West of Aslan Empire – Surrounding waters of Rennes – Grave of the Souls]
Qi Ling is currently clambering on the steep black cliff, Cang Xue Zhi Ya beats its wings as it hovers in the air beside him, ready at all times to protect him.
And in position quite some distance from the top of Qi Ling’s head are Tianshu Youhua and Guishan Lianquan, standing on the back of An Chi. Tianshu Youhua’s gaze is full of envy, because from her location, the frost carving-like spear Qi Ling is gradually approaching has waves and waves of golden turbulence surrounding it, as if a hurricane is attacking the surrounding soul weapons, causing them to sway like tall gra.s.s, as if the spear is the eye of the storm, consistently spreading the golden thunderstorm. She hasn’t seen a soul weapon with such chaotic soul power her entire way here.
“Qi Ling, be careful, don’t get too close to the bottom.” Lianquan says above Qi Ling’s head, at the same time, she has released the Resurrection Chain from her body, the silver chain coils around her surroundings like an agile python, positioned for a lightning speed attack at any time. This is because Lianquan faintly feels that the location of the soul weapon is too close to the bottom of the abyss for comfort, before she entered the Grave of the Souls, Fenghun had told her over and over again to make sure to not be too close to the floor of the Grave of the Souls.
From her place on An Chi’s back, the restless dense fog is already swallowing Qi Ling. Occasionally; a portion of his body appears from the fog before being swallowed by the white waves again.
Qi Ling looks up from the spinning damp air, all he can hear is the roar of the wind, Lianquan’s voice dissipates with the wind above his head, in addition to the dense fog as a barrier, he cannot hear her at all.
He is currently climbing towards the knight’s spear with difficulty; Cang Xue Zhi Ya is being affected by the constant bursts of golden soul mist, barely maintaining its distance from Qi Ling. Qi Ling grasps a soul weapon that pierced out from the rocks tightly as he approaches the agitated spear. At the same time, the juice of the Sishya fruit is gradually losing its effect, the golden soul mist surrounding him are reverting to invisibility, leaving only the original appearance of the soul weapons. Hence, he can no longer differentiate between the turbulent airwaves, occasionally; a gush of wind will cause him to balance precariously on the rocks.
When Qi Ling finally wraps his hand around the arm of the spear, Cang Xu Zhi Ya let out a roar of joy, Qi Ling looks up and waves at Lianquan and Youhua, gestureing that he has gotten it.
Lianquan steers An Chi lower, preparing to pick Qi Ling up.
Qi Ling directs the soul powers to his palms before slamming them towards the position of the spear, in the same instant when the rocks shattered, the long jade handle of the long spear suddenly disappeared!
At this moment, Qi Ling’s entire body had been tugging on the spear, the sudden change causing him to fall backwards; he becomes swallowed by the thick fog in an instant, even his calls for help are scattered by the sound of the wind.
Youhua who has been standing on the back of An Chi is dumbstruck, before she realizes what has happened, the large An Chi is diving into the abyss. Lianquan’s entire body erupts with soul powers, countless silver chains pierce into the depths of the thick fog at lightning speed, the grand valley becomes filled with the clanging sound of metal rubbing against metal, she can sense all movements of soul powers at the end of the chain, yet she cannot feel any from Qi Ling.
When Tianshu Youhua regains her composure, she thinks before waving her hands, at the same time her dress flaps with the wind, a dozen large snow vultures appear in thin air, as if countless falling shooting stars, they call sharply as they dive towards the depths of the valley shrouded in fog before they all ascend together, countless large wings creating a typoon that blows all traces of the fog away.
“These snow vultures are all your soul beasts?” Lianquan looks at Yohua in confusion.
“Of course not, these are just snow vultures sealed by soul powers, normally I keep them in a bag where they exist as amulets.” Youhua shoots Lianquan a mocking glance, “Have you ever seen a person with a dozen soul beasts?”
Lianquan wants to argue with her no longer, she continues flying deeper, at the same time, Cang Xue Zhi Ya dives down, overtaking them in an instant, only then did they see Qi Ling hanging from the handle of a sword deep down in the valley, his body hanging midair, looking as if he will fall any moment.
“Hold on tight!” Lianquan howls at Qi Ling as she steers An Chi lower urgently.
Qi Ling holds tightly onto the handle of the sword that only has a small portion jutting from the rocks as he thinks about what a close call it was, yet when he remembers how the powerful soul weapon just disappeared, he also feels such a pity for it. He lifts his head and calls out to Lianquan: “I’m fine.” as he waits for Cang Xue Zhi Ya to fetch him.
And the calamity happens at this moment.
When Lianquan suddenly senses an unbelievable force moving beneath them, she suddenly sees it – in the fog-filled s.p.a.ce below Qi Ling, something that resembles a blood vessel has already reached Qi Ling and wrapped itself around his waist at an incredible speed, looking like a scarlet earthworm in peristalsis around his waist. Before Qi Ling can react, this red blood vessel-like being suddenly tightens and straightens out, using a strong pull to drag Qi Ling towards the abyss. Qi Ling’s legs fall from the rocks, only his hands are still grasping onto the handle tightly.
The air behind Tianshu Youhua suddenly explodes, the silver bow pierces out from her flesh on her right shoulder and takes shape in the air, she quickly attracts a few gushes of water vapour before directing three huge arrows of ice towards the depths of the abyss beneath Qi Ling at lightning speed. Yet, the three arrows disappear among the clouds of fog with no sound, as if entering a bottomless ocean and were swallowed instantly. Before Tianshu Youhua can react, the three arrows rebounded from the darkness even quicker than before, with three dull and blurred smacks, Tianshu Youhua’s two shoulders and abdomen has been pierced through, leaving behind three blooded holes the size of fists. The light disappears from her eyes before she collapses straight down onto the snow-white back of An Chi, the blood gurgling from her wounds wetting a large patch of the white feathers.
Guishan Lianquan has no time to care for Youhua, the fear in her heart seemingly enveloping her entire being like a cape of death. She stares at the scarlet blood vessels tightening themselves around Qi Ling and turns to look at Youhua who has collapsed before her before she starts s.h.i.+vering violently.
“Leave quickly, forget about me!” Qi Ling looks down at the monstrosity in the fog beneath his feet as he calls out to Lianquan.
Guishan Lianquan clenches her teeth before pus.h.i.+ng her arms forward, two chains clanging as they shoot themselves towards Qi Ling, wrapping around his waist as well, the two forces both tug at Qi Ling, the concentration of soul powers causing rocks to erupt into a spray of dust.
“Qi Ling, let Cang Xue Zhi Ya use its claws to cut the red vessels imprisoning you and then grab onto the chains, I’ll fly you up!”
“Then this c.r.a.ppy sword is my soul weapon?” Qi ling says as he suddenly c.o.c.ks his head to the side.
“Foolish boy, your life is more important. Quick!”
“Okay,” Qi Ling lifts his head, after saying that, he smashes his fist against the rocks, a dust-storm bursts out instantly Qi Ling falls as he loses his support, causing the weight on Lianquan’s chain to multiply, this large downward pull causes An Chi to be dragged down by the tentacles of the red monster as well towards the depths of the valley.
At present, Cang Xue Zhi Ya is already bawling angrily as the white fur covering his body stands vertically, his size multiplying many times under the surge of the soul powers, the gigantic winged white lion swoops down, a sudden burst of electric light from his sharp front claws turns them into countless elongated blades, they slash towards the thick red blood vessels in the fog at lightning speed. The moment the steel blade-like claws pierce into the blood vessel, countless artillery-like thin red threads extend from the pierced location of the thick vessel, tangling themselves onto Cang Xue Zhi Ya’s claws, like countless boston ivy suckling to the claws, a sharp shatter as if a mirror being broken sounds, Cang Xue Zhi Ya’s claws break into countless metal shards instantly, with a sorrowful bellow, fresh blood sprays from its furry front paws. It rains a sky of red.
“Cang Xue!” Qi Ling roars angrily. His hand continuously injects soul powers into the large sword he had just retrieved, when he realizes that there is only half of the sword, that the sword is a broken sword, it is already too late to turn back. Qi Ling clenches his teeth and slashes it down onto the red blood vessel, the blood vessel snaps crisply.
The crash of chains can be heard as Lianquan tightens her hold on the chains as she tugs Qi Ling up.
Just as Qi Ling crawls onto An Chi’s broad back, before he can even stand properly, a series of snaps emits from the white feathers he is standing on, a dozen of thick blood vessels penetrate An Chi’s body and steers towards the sky. Almost immediately, these python-like scarlet vines of meat change their course and turn down, forming a web of blood that encloses in on them from all sides.
Lianquan can only withdraw An Chi into her body due to the heavy wounds, with a loud bang, An Chi morphs into white smoke and returns to Lianquan’s body, without anything to hold them up, the three falls into the turbulent thick sea of smog instantly.
The three cras.h.i.+ng down suddenly lands on a soft but firm back, opening their eyes, Cang Xue Zhi Ya has already soared down and caught the three of them steadily on its back.
Qi Ling opens his eyes, what appears before him is like a scene from h.e.l.l, the fear immobalising his body, he turns his head stiffly and sees that Lianquan and Youhua’s expressions are even more horrifying, their cadaverous expressions look as if the G.o.d of Death has wrapped his fingers around their necks.
They have already penetrated the layer of fog, startled, they realize that what’s beneath the thick white fog is not the imagined bottomless abyss or a ravine of strange rocks. What’s underneath the thick fog is a sea of fresh blood. In the distant bottom of the valley, countless ginormous earthworm-like tentacles intertwines with each other, the scarlet concentration rolls, on every single tentacle are countless circular suction plates, each looking like a human face. The endless pit of the valley is completely stoppled with tens of thousands of this terrifying red blood vessel, they squirm in slime and stench, looking like a large pond of blood filled with countless wriggling tapeworms……
“What are they? Why are there so much?” Qi Ling sputters.
“It’s not ‘them’….. it’s ‘it’……” Lianquan’s voice is full of fear.
“it? You mean, these tens of thousands of wriggling things is one single being?!” Tianshu Youhua grasps tightly onto Qi Ling’s clothes, her face pale as she squeezes the words out.