Chapter 80: Self-Sacrifice (1/2)
Qi Shenghui had sprung into action too abruptly for anyone to anticipate his moves and stop him in time. Exhilarated laughs braying from his mouth, the eunuch covered a three-hundred-meter radius with brilliant flashes of his sword, continuing the carnage of ghouls. The air reeked of blood and gore.
“Yuying!” Lu Yun signaled at his envoy, no longer paying attention to the eunuch.
With tacit understanding, Yuying compressed the Emerald Mistfire in her hand into a tiny flame blazing above her palm. The smaller it became, the stronger its power grew, until it unleashed a daunting aura that slowed the approaching monstrous tide.
“Feinie!” Lu Yun turned his attention to his other envoy, who’d already begun inscribing a formation on the ground even without prompting. Seeing her focused on her task, Lu Yun turned to Qin Xianhuo. “Take out all of the formation stones on you or we all die here!”
Recognizing the severity of the situation, the old formation master itched to throttle Qi Shenghui with his bare hands. You damn half-man! You’re nothing but trouble! How dare you just hack and kill in the abyss? The thick stench of blood would attract a legion of monsters!
Now was not the time to cling to worldly possessions. He dumped out everything that could be of use to Feinie. The woman was a formidable master of formations, that much he could tell. Even a grandmaster like him paled in comparison.
Boom—
The ground shook. In the darkness, a behemoth stirred and approached, step by step.
Qi Shenghui stopped cold, his killing frenzy abruptly sated. He beat a hasty retreat and hid behind the others, but no one paid him any heed.
“Don’t use yours, use mine!” Seeing Feinie ready to call upon her Formation Orb, Diexi hastily interrupted her, handing over the Yin Formation Orb. The formations in the yang counterpart were as domineering and tyrannical as the sun. Its harsh energy flared as majestically as the grand dome of the sky. Such a power would sear the depths and send all of the abyss boiling over.
Although Diexi owned the Yin Formation Orb, she wasn’t proficient with formations herself. Only someone like Feinie could deploy the treasure’s full power.
“The Formation Orb!” Qi Shenghui’s line of sight zeroed in on the item that was now in Feinie’s hands. It was, after all, the very goal of their journey. Hidden behind the crowd, his expression betrayed none of the thoughts racing in his mind.
Boom—
The ground trembled again as an oddly-shaped foot suddenly landed from above. It was inconceivably enormous and rather resembled the hoof of a bull. Just the foot alone spanned more than dozens of meters, and it had golden fur covering its back.
“What the hell is that! Hurry and stop it!” Lu Yun shouted anxiously when he saw the foot rise and hover above them, about to slam down.
Diexi took in a deep breath, her body bursting with intense crimson as she aimed a hand at the foot.
Bang—
The hoof stamped down, instantly shattering the light, but it was also slowed in return.
“Get lost—” Yuying shouted furiously. Jumping in her palm, the Emerald Mistfire billowed into an inferno that belched fire at the approaching hoof.
A bull’s roar rang out like a clap of thunder and the foot withdrew, then fell back. An enormous, scarlet eye, filled with spite and bloodlust, glowered at them from the dark.
“It’s a kui! Those divine beasts were supposed to have been wiped out a hundred thousand years ago! What’s it doing here?!” Qin Xianhuo looked on incredulously.
“It really is a kui!” Mo Yi could recognize the beast as well.
According to records unearthed from ancient tombs, kui were divine beasts that resembled cows with one leg and one eye. A variant of the dragon race that had dragon blood in its veins, their roars mimicked thunder and they possessed extraordinary strength.
Their numbers were extraordinarily low to begin with, but they were also zealously hunted for their hide and fur. Those two made for prime ingredients in forging treasure and weapons, especially since they could attract the power of thunder and lightning.
By the time the great war of immortals had erupted, the kui were already extinct. Yet here was one right in front of them.
Crackle—
Bolts of black lightning, each as thick as a thumb, gathered around the creature, then abruptly converged to strike at Yuying.
“How dare you flaunt mere yin lightning in front of me?” White robes fluttering about her, Yuying shot into the air. Jets of blue and yellow fire rose like a pair of scorching, bicolored wings unfurling behind her back. Black energy gathered in her hand, distorting the air around her.
At long last, she was displaying the true strength of an Envoy of Samsara.
She pushed out with both hands, combining the Emerald Mistfire, Daevic Skyfire, and Lucent Voidfire into one. A teeming sea of flames resulted from the integrated fires, then ruthlessly roiled toward the yin lightning.
Boom!
The impact of fire and lightning discharged a blinding explosion of light that flooded the entire area, melting countless monsters. But, roused by the commotion, even more of them surged out of the darkness.
With a blood-curdling shriek, the kui ricocheted away like a leather ball. As for Yuying, her face was wan and blood seeped out from every pore of her hands.
“Hold on for another ten breaths!” Feinie suddenly called out. “I can finish my formation then!” The incense formation from earlier had cost half of her strength; she, too, was fighting through her pain.