42 Deathkeep (1/2)

Jufeng sat down with his back to the wall of the tunnel, smiling bitterly. He had seen a premonition of a death and he was certain that it was his. Yet, here he was, still breathing. Maybe, the heavens didn't want a soul to enter reincarnation on this day or death was simply too busy to bother.

Either way, he knew he had by-passed a disastrous outcome.

Jufeng stared at his raw and dirty hands. Oh, how fast and hard he had dug in order to escape the many deadly claws. It was good that his body was strong from birth and that he grew up stronger. The energy from the magical pills and beasts that his mother had took when she was pregnant was showing on his body. Moreso, he had fortified his body with chi energy. How else could he have managed to do this?

He looked at the hole he had dug through the base of the tunnel but there was no hole there. It had disappeared.

”Uh?”

No way was that an illusion. He had dug meters long hole. Alright, it was a collapsed hole and that he had the sharpness runic sword. Still, he had spent long time digging the collapsed hole and his hands would testify to this.

He placed his hand on the spotbtgat the hole should be and his hand actually passed through the space.

Though, it was only big enough for him to crawl through, the orginal hole wouldn't have only allowed more than a fully grown man to squeeze through.

After cleaning up his hand as much as he could, he decided to check his body for further sustained injuries. He was doing that, when he felt a lump through his robe. He opened his robe and dug out the lump casually. When he saw what the lump was, he sprang up in utter shock and joy.

”The Star-Tide!”

The broad smile on his face could dampen the brightness of the sun. He had thought he had lost it the moment he jumped up from his lotus position. Fate was definitely on his side here.

A luminous treasure! Even if it had no value to him at the moment or in the nearest future, it was still an extremely precious luminous treasure. He wrapped the bead in a parchment before keeping it in his spatial sac.

As he was putting away the bead, suddenly, he remembered the talisman he bought at the market. The Mountain Bark. He should have used this since arriving at the Aculum Divinis. Maybe he would have suffered less than he was recently. He didn't even know if the talisman was working. Nevertheless, he put it on himself. Any little form of diffense was important in this place.

To regain expended strength, he took out some turtle meat and a jar of preserved goat milk as he revelled in the moment. As he relaxed and waited, Jufeng could still hear the banging sound of battle that was still on-going, on the other side of the tunnel.

After waiting for several minutes, he decided to check the tunnel he was in. He kept in mind, not to venture deep but to only check his immediate vicinity. Heavens knows what other dangers were there in the tunnels.

This area was totally different from the area he was in before.

He continued walking slowly forward until, suddenly, a thick stone wall sprang up in the passage behind him, cutting him off from the hole.

Heavens' tears! A tunnel trap?

He must have triggered an unseen hatch or.... .

Jufeng was still examining the wall, when large areas of the two sides of the passage walls, suddenly sank. Two large passages were revealed to Jufeng, from where he heard low screeching sounds approaching from the other end of the three passages.

”Shifting tunnel.”

He had tried his best to check out for tunnel traps, yet, he was caught in a more dangerous one. Jufeng could vaguely see the bodies of the creatures in the darkness of the passages as the got nearer.

Critters.

Smaller than nephilia critters. They should be mountain critters. He switched to his spiritual sight and was temporarily relieved when he saw their aura was also not as strong as their giant neighbours. Nevertheless, he was dismayed to discover a large number of them coming from the three passages. No matter how it looked, he knew trouble was coming.

From the spot he was standing, he would be at a disadvantage when fighting. He decided to shift forward, thereby, narrowing it down to two smaller directions.

He tried to test out the White-Flare, the first stage of the sword technique he had learned, the Skylight. But with the sword he was holding, he could only manifest a faint white light. Not that it could do much anyways, it wasn't really an attack move. It might be useful against Nether plane entities but it had no use against other entities.

Although, the silver-grey sword had no core, it still possessed a sharpness rune. He would have to do with that and tried not to die. He circled vast amount of Chi energy through his meridians and into his body.

Feeling his body stronger and lighter, Jufeng went on the attack before they could totally back him to the wall.

The critters were fast, but with his flashsteps, he was faster than them. And the blade? It was truly a thing of beauty. It was cutting into the critters like threads. This was why soul-forgers were revered in the cultivation world.

Albeit taking some minor injuries, he kept on cutting them down as they kept on coming. It was actually a good way for him to practice and improve his martial arts. He was beginning to enjoy the killing also. The strange sensation. So, this is how a continous killing felt like. No wonder many demons had so much karmic sins since they couldn't stop. Or wouldn't? When their minds were already corrupt.

He remembered the words of his grandfather. To defend one's life and others, killing would be justified if it couldn't be avoided. And would surely be justified if it concerned creatures with no awareness or sentience. Creatures like these critters.

The battle continued until the nephilia critters appeared with fury and the mountain critters withdrew back into the large pasages. The good thing? Only one could occupy the smaller passage at a time. One stayed at the front ready to confront Jufeng while the second one stayed at the back, screeching.

The nephilia critter was much more faster than their mountain counterparts and more or less faster than Jufeng. How could it be so fast? It must be a magical beast.

More Chi energy into his body.

With the nephilia critter, he was on equal footing. The longsword was not doing much damage to it due to its strange carapace that was acting like a defensive armor. Its claws are extremely sharp too. it was attacking with so much rage that Jufeng had to be in defensive stances most of the time. Although, he suffered minor cuts, he managed to avoid any mortal injury.

Those cuts should have resulted in serious wounds, yet, he couldn't even feel them much. Maybe, the talisman was really working, and together with his Chi fortified body? Maybe, he actually had a chance.

He continued to block and backtracked until he found the opening he was looking for. The critter was expecting the same routine. It would slash with its claws while Jufeng would block. But when Jufeng saw the opening, he stepped into the beast's left and rolled under its left hand. He swung the longsword in a low blow, slicing the softer under-arm of the critter.

The critter, instinctively, swiped the back of its claws at Jufeng. The force of the impact, sent Jufeng flying further back into the tunnel where he was sprawling on the ground. It was as if he was hit by a titan's hammer. He thought he was fortunate it wasn't the razor ends of the claws. Those would have been fatal to him, talisman or not,.

He quickly staggered upright as he regulated his laboured breathing. He looked at the place his sword had made contact on the critters' body. He had managed to inflict one cut on the critter.

Yes, his sword had drawn blood. How did that felt, critter?

But the trickling of the blood, further infuriated the critter and its claws began to glow in a sizzling hunter green color. The death and rotten aura coming from it was exceedingly overpowering.

Organic poison.

A form of necrosis. There are some creatures that were created with some portions of the elements in their organs. These nephilia critters and spiders, were created with poison glands in their bodies. They could harnessed these various poisons into their claws. This made them extremely dangerous.