114 Panther nest. (2/2)
”And you say that my words are macabre? That's the pot calling the kettle black. But alright, I'll play along. What does the winner get?”
Fang Ying's lips curled into a mixture of a smirk and a smile when Li Yang accepted her proposal. She cast a sideways glance around the hall and then gave a slight wave of her hand and caused a poisonous fog to appear around a group that was currently being attacked by three panthers, buying them a bit of time to rebuild their formation and defend themselves. After saving the group, she turned her eyes back onto Li Yang.
”Same as usual good enough for you?”
Li Yang's lips curled up slightly and he nodded his head, the usual reward for their competitions were very simple, the winner could make any one request of the loser. With the deal put in place, they both swept their eyes around the hall, Fang Ying's smirk growing wider as she made her first move.
She gave a slight flick of her wrist, droplets of blood gathering in the air of the entire hall, turning into a drizzling rain that covered everything in blood. In this rain of blood, even the panthers were unable to truly hide from everyone's eyes. The blood that hit them would simply vanish, so while they weren't stained by it, they became glaring voids in the rain of blood, their positions easily visible while also revealing their full numbers, 33 panthers if one did not count the dead ones. Fang Ying tipped her head in Li Yang's direction, smiling brilliantly at him.
”Well then, I'll be going on ahead.”
Fang Ying vanished right after speaking, only leaving behind a faint ripple in space before she appeared at the side of a panther. She swung her red-veined sword, causing all the bloody rain around the panther to turn into thin chains that prevented it from moving, allowing her to easily decapitate it. At the same time, space around another panther rippled, invisibly thin blades of compressed space appearing all around it and stabbing into it without giving it the time to escape. Li Yang looked at the scene, clicking his tongue slightly.
”Tch, she got me.”
If both of them had to search for the panthers, Li Yang was somewhat confident in his ability to keep up with Fang Ying. But if both of them constantly knew where the panthers were? Not only was Fang Ying's cultivation much higher than Li Yang's, but she also had the law of space at her disposal, she could move far faster than him. There was only one way to explain it, the game had been rigged from the start.
Fang Ying's first move had immediately robbed the panthers of their main advantage, all they had left now were their strong bodies and quick movement. But when 31 panthers were faced with nearly 150 cultivators, things like that would only take them so far.
After only another half an hour, the remaining 31 panthers had been killed, only a further five cultivators dying in the process. The competition between Li Yang and Fang Ying ended in her resounding success, she had killed 16 panthers while Li Yang had only been able to kill another seven before the other cultivators killed the rest. Fang Ying waved her hand and caused the blood that was now drenching the hall to vanish, undoing her fusion with Langshen and walking over to Li Yang with a smirk, causing him to once again click his tongue.
”Tch, just you wait, I'll prepare something real special for the next competition. But a loss is a loss, name your wish.”
Fang Ying let out a little giggle when she heard Li Yang's reply, casting a sideways glance at the other cultivators in the hall before responding.
”I'll tell you when we're in a less crowded place. And go ahead, prepare whatever you want, I'll still beat you nice and cleanly, make up for all those loses I had in the past.”
Fang Ying did, after all, have her own pride, losing so many competitions in the past would sting a little. Now that she had such a good chance to take advantage of Li Yang's currently lower cultivation, there was no way she wouldn't take it. Li Yang rolled his eyes again, his gaze landing on the large panther corpse lying in front of the mound of earth.
”We should pick up that skeleton and that mound of earth, they might be useful eventually. We'll also need a bit more blood if we wish to draw up the array around this city, the blood of these panthers isn't enough. Oh, right, I'll make the robes later on, once we're done in this palace.”
The hide of the panthers had a rather extraordinary ability, it would redirect any light or Qi that was beneath a certain level of strength that touched it, resulting in the invisibility of the panthers. If they made robes out of their hide, they would be able to emulate this invisibility, making it much easier for them to sneak around and remain undetected. For this reason, both Li Yang and Fang Ying aimed for the next when they killed the panthers, trying to keep as much of the fur intact.
Fang Ying nodded her head and returned her focus from the competition back to their current situation. Some of the other groups in the room were starting to look at the large skeleton, so before anyone could make a move for it, Fang Ying dashed over and stored it into her interspatial ring. A few of the groups looked unsatisfied with her taking the entire skeleton and the mound of earth, but as she was the strongest one currently there, they could only accept it for now.
The corpses of the panthers were quickly taken apart and divided by the groups that had killed them, the eyes of everyone landing on the doors located at the back of the hall. With the throne room being here, the treasury shouldn't be far away. Li Yang and Fang Ying matched gazes for a quick second, Li Yang whispering quietly.
”None of these small panthers should have eaten the Demon Crystal of that skeleton, we also haven't seen the skeleton of this panther's likely mate. There might be more beasts hiding in this palace, we need to be careful.”
Fang Ying nodded her head, even Langshen was sweeping the area with narrowed eyes and sniffing at the air. He was a Divine beast, his instincts were far better than most humans, and he still sensed danger from this palace. The three of them cast their eyes onto the other groups, trailing behind them as they headed for the various doors at the end of the hall.