Chapter 279.2: The Second Monster Spirit King (1/2)

“Someone’s coming, let’s finish this!” A piercing dragon howl escaped Aoxue’s mouth, and the crimson light around her increased in intensity, almost turning Beigong Yu’s Water Kingdom red. The struggling Donglin Shaohui was quickly restrained, and a maddened Beigong Yu stopped pulling his punches. His body split into both a giant kun and enormous peng, slamming into Donglin Shaohui in a concerted attack that doubled their power.

Synergy of kun and peng!

Donglin Shaohui paled when he felt the splintering of the spirit he’d attached to the replica.

“I’ll never forgive you for this, Lu Yun!!” he shrieked. The kun and peng attack had greatly damaged his deteriorating nascent spirit.

“How dare you?!” A tremendous presence descended from the sky as an enormous blade of sword light coalesced and almost cut the city in half. The specter of death loomed over everyone.

“Dao immortal!” Color drained from Aoxue’s face; Beigong Yu had lost his mobility after using that taboo technique. They could only watch helplessly as the sword came for them. The figure of an old man appeared at the same time. When he fired off the slash, he also extended a hand to grab Donglin Shaohui’s prone body.

Roar!

The tolling of a bell rushed out of the city. Blaring like tiger roars, a tiger shadow formed by soundwaves burst out of the city and shattered the sword light.

“The Qing Clan’s Arcane Golden Bell!” The old man tensed. “It is Lu Yun!”

Everyone knew that Lu Yun had acquired the bell and in the process, thoroughly humiliated the Qing Clan. Its sudden attacks now alarmed the Donglin dao immortal. This was a dao immortal treasure with mysterious powers that no ordinary supreme treasure could rival; even the immortal sword in his hand was starting to crack.

According to those Qing dao immortals, Lu Yun arrived in the North Sea thanks to the protection of Wellspring from the Skandha Range. Lu Yun must’ve given the treasure to the old monster!

But Wellspring’s not a Qing, so how is he able to use the hereditary Qing treasure? Or is it that the Qing dao immortals are here, too, and this is their plot against House Donglin?

Dong!

A bell toll interrupted his train of thought, and heat burst in his chest before he threw up a mouthful of blood. The old man spared no thought for the hapless Donglin Shaohui, fleeing in helter-skelter terror when he saw a soundwave tiger lunging at him. He was just an aether dao immortal who’d plucked his first dao fruit, and couldn’t possibly defy the golden bell’s strength!

“Lu Yun!! The wrath of House Donglin will descend upon you!” came his fleeting voice while he made his getaway.

“It’s Lu Yun! He’s really come to the island!” Many immortals had taken note of the roared threat.

“He handed a great loss to the Donglin dao immortal as soon as he set foot on the island… that man really is House Donglin’s bane!”

“Their previous patriarch died in Dusk Province, and Donglin Shaochen, the genius who could slay golden immortals as a cultivator, died at Lu Yun’s hands back in Xiankan.”

Their chatter didn’t escape the Donglin dao immortal’s hearing, but he regretted nothing. House Donglin had failed too many times when it came to Lu Yun. One more failure was nothing. No one cared about an extra louse when there was already a colony of them. He’d exposed Lu Yun’s tracks, so now the North Sea Court would deal with the young governor.

……

Back in the Monster God’s palace, Qing Han’s face was slightly pale. Over time, the poison in his body had grown increasingly potent. Not even the Fusang Purewood could keep it fully in check anymore.

Every time he channeled the cosmic power of his starstones to grant the strength of dao immortals to the Tiger and Dragon Prince, the poison in his body grew a little more virulent. Of course, he hadn’t told anyone about this. Not even Empress Myrtlestar knew about his condition.

“We’ve finally obtained the Embittered Bamboo!” Qing Han broke into a joyous smile.

Aoxue and Beigong Yu returned to human form and brought Donglin Shaohui’s body to Lu Yun and Qing Han.

Although Beigong Yu had shattered the Donglin scion’s spirit, the latter’s consciousness remained on his replica. He glared at Lu Yun venomously, wanting to imprint his enemy’s visage in his mind.

“What are you looking at me like that for? If you have even one ball, you’d face me in person.” Lu Yun walked up to him and crushed the strand of consciousness with a hellfire-imbued palm-strike.

Hum.

Surreal green radiance blossomed forth with great vitality as an emerald bamboo stick slowly materialized in front of them. Roughly three meters tall, it was as thick as a wrist and studded with spots of light that sparkled like the stars. Its emergence was accompanied by a marvelous spiritual energy that soothed the mind and calmed the heart.

“This is the Embittered Bamboo!” The little fox’s eyes shone avidly. Embittered Bamboo ranked seventh among the ten connate spirit roots; many coveted it, but never had the chance to lay their hands on it. And here it was, floating quietly before them.

“What a shame.” Empress Myrtlestar sighed from within the Scroll of Shepherding Immortals. “This bamboo had a chance of becoming a monster spirit and rising to great power, but someone killed its consciousness and refined it into a replica not long after its birth. What a great waste of a natural resource.”

“See if you can refine it into your own duplicate, Lu Yun!” Qing Han said eagerly.

“That won’t be necessary.” Lu Yun shook his head. “The bamboo brims with life essence that’ll greatly benefit you. Fusang Purewood ranks third among the ten connate spirit roots, so the Embittered Bamboo isn’t its match, but it’s still a powerful spirit root that can help suppress your poison.”

Qing Han started, and even the little fox was shocked. She didn’t understand how Lu Yun could give the seventh greatest spirit root away without even batting an eye.

“Is big sister Mo Yi right? That Lu Yun likes men?” she muttered. “But I’m a hundred times more beautiful as a man than that ugly Qing Han. Why has he never spared me a glance? Does he only like ugly things?”

The little fox wanted the bamboo as well, but couldn’t stake her claim. After all, it’d been Lu Yun’s two followers who’d risked their lives to fetch it.

“There’s… actually another way to cleanse your poison,” Lu Yun said suddenly.

“What is it?” Qing Han blurted out.