85 Crystal droplet. (1/2)
Teng Shinsu fully activated the array with a quick thought, a thick mist spewing out from the maws of the four white bulls that sealed up Li Yang. She watched as the white mist completely encased Li Yang, hoping to see him dissolve under its corrosive properties.
But while she was watching with bated breath, the mountain wall next to her suddenly burst forth with golden flames, forcing her to jump away so as to not become completely swallowed by the flames. She was still connected to the array, so even while jumping away and doing her best to pat out the flames that had landed on her shoulder, she was still able to tell that Li Yang vanished from within the array.
Both his escape paths had been blocked by the array, which she had made sure to reinforce twice. So for him to suddenly disappear, there was only one explanation, the array had finished its job, dissolving Li Yang.
She would have preferred to watch him dissolve, but this was also fine, as long as he was dead. Teng Shinsu wanted to laugh, but tears started to stream down from her eyes as she got choked up. Her sister was dead, but she had at least managed to get revenge for her. Teng Shinsu raised her head slightly, continuing to pat out the flames on her shoulder as a low mutter escaped her lips.
”I couldn't save you, Ying'er, but at least he too will no-!”
Before Teng Shinsu got to finish her mutter, a cold hand landed on her neck, tightly grasping it and lifting her short body up from the ground. An icy cold stream of energy entered her body via the hand, her organs and blood freezing solid, reaping her life.
Cultivation wasn't her strong point, she had just barely reached the Ascending Heaven realm, she focused on arrays and gathering information. Because of that, she wasn't even able to react in time, not even having the chance to turn her head so that she could find out who had killed her.
The person who was grasping her neck and holding her in the air was Li Yang, who was now clad in a simple golden robe and had a somewhat pale face, his breathing shallow. Li Yang tossed Teng Shinsu's body to the side, swiping his interspatial ring and taking out a short iron sword. He removed Teng Shinsu's head with a quick cut, putting it into his interspatial ring.
After removing her head, Li Yang let out a deep breath, wiping away some sweat from his forehead, Shenlong and Jinwu flying out from his body, prodding at Teng Shinsu's body. Li Yang had, of course, gathered up as much information as possible about Teng Shinsu while hunting her, as it would make the battle much easier if he knew what she was capable of.
Knowing that she specialized in arrays, Li Yang was very clear on the fact that there would likely be quite a few traps in whatever location they ended up meeting for their final confrontation. Because of that, before he entered the cave, he had left behind a small spark of Jinwu's flames outside the cave.
This spark could explode into plumes of flame at a moment's notice, making it possible for Li Yang to use his Flame Step skill, disintegrating his entire body and turning it to pure heat that he connected with the golden flames outside the cave, using them to rebuild his body. The downside to this was that it not only cost a massive amount of Qi, which was why he made sure to keep some Qi-restoring pills ready in his mouth as he entered the cave, but it also ruined his clothes and forced him to use fire to create new ones.
Li Yang took another deep breath, taking out another pill from his interspatial ring and swallowing it. He had to move quite a bit of distance as pure heat, so it took more energy than he originally anticipated. Had he not carved two new runes before he left the Yuan clan, he would be in an even weaker state right now. After calming his breathing somewhat, Li Yang's eyes landed on Jinwu and Shenlong.
”You can eat her body, but the interspatial ring is mine.”
Both Jinwu and Shenlong let out a quick sound of joy, Jinwu pecking off Teng Shinsu's finger and handing it to Li Yang, allowing him to take the interspatial ring. While he was going through the contents of the ring, Shenlong brought out Huanglong, and the three Demonic beasts divided up Teng Shinsu's body between them.
Some people didn't let their Demonic beast companions eat human corpses, but Li Yang had no such qualms. Jinwu and Shenlong were Demonic beasts, it was in their nature to eat other Demonic beasts and humans, he had no intention of denying them something that was natural for them. He also saw no harm in letting them eat the corpses of his enemies, as they would just lay around and rot otherwise.
Teng Shinsu's interspatial ring was surprisingly well stocked, containing various ingredients that could be used for either cultivation or for making arrays. From the looks of it, it seemed like she would have prepared even more arrays if Li Yang had spent more time getting here.
Li Yang put away the ring and looked at Jinwu and the others, who had already finished devouring Teng Shinsu's body, not even leaving behind any bones. Seeing that Li Yang had finished checking the ring, Jinwu let out a few caws, nodding at the cave. Li Yang's eyes landed on the cave, a sliver of surprise flashing past them.
”There's something in the cave you want me to check out?”
Jinwu himself wasn't quite sure what it was, only that there seemed to be something very beneficial to him inside the cave, so he wasn't able to give Li Yang a clear image of what exactly it was. Shenlong and Huanglong fused into one again, he and Jinwu taking up their normal positions on Li Yang's body. Li Yang fondled his chin, inspecting the cave with a thoughtful gaze.
This was the Frozen God's Tomb, and even though they were still in the outskirts, who knew what sort of dangerous things might lurk here. But he wasn't really willing to just flat out deny Jinwu the chance to acquire something that would be beneficial to him, especially since he didn't know if there really was any danger here. In the end, he decided to nod his head.
”Alright, we'll check out what it is. But we'll proceed with caution, and if things look too dangerous, we'll retreat immediately.”
Li Yang had learned from his foray into the Cursed Realm, the realm set up by Zhao Feng and the others. Back then, he had been too arrogant, too confident because of his past status, so he thought nothing of entering the Cursed Realm. But had it not been for some precautions set up by Zhao Feng, Li Yang would have died right after entering the hidden realm, forever unable to meet up with Fang Ying again. That was the last thing he wanted, so ever since then, he had made sure to act with more caution.