Chapter 500: Thorns Protrude
Nine Poison Sect disciples marched by the foot of the trees that were hundreds of meters tall, with Zhang Jiu at their head.
Countless tiny bugs of various colors filled the area around them like floating raindrops.
They used them to detect signs of life, hoping to track down Pei Qiqi and Nie Tian with them.
They also unleashed their psychic awarenesses and used them to scan their surroundings.
It wasn’t long before they discovered a dead body. It turned out to be He Xu, who had been pierced through by multiple blades of spatial energy and died.
“Just as I expected, He Xu was killed,” Zhang Jiu said with furrowed eyebrows. Without paying much attention to the corpse, they kept marching forward.
After some time, the multicolored spirit vermin flying in the front suddenly let out ear-piercing shrieks.
The nine of them dashed forward at full speed.
Moments later, they came to discover that Pei Qiqi was cornered by their swarming spirit vermin.
Behind her lay Wu Cui and Luo Ting’s corpses.
“Junior Martial Sister Wu! Junior Martial Sister Luo!” The seven newcomer Poison Sect disciples burst into fury after seeing Wu Cui and Luo Ting’s corpses.
The late Greater Heaven stage Jin Lin seemed especially furious.
Jin Lin had had an eye for Luo Ting, and everyone knew about his years of affection for her. When he saw Luo Ting’s cold body lying in a pool of blood, his eyes seemed to be instantly painted red with blood.
Eyes extremely wide, he thundered, “Bitch!”
Then, he immediately commanded his spirit vermin to swoop towards Pei Qiqi.
Standing in place, Pei Qiqi was still expressionless, her four Ethereal Swords hovering around her. The tips of the swords shone with dazzling light, which seemed to be inducing changes to the space around her.
Meanwhile, numerous blades of spatial energy loomed behind the hovering Ethereal Swords, as if they were traveling back and forth between different spaces.
As Jin Lin’s spirit vermin swarmed towards her with ear-piercing shrieks, a mysterious, glowing light started to interweave within her pupils.
BZZZ! BZZZ! BZZZ!
Electric arcs rapidly rose and connected the glowing blades of spatial energy, forming a tight, glowing net around her, which sealed her off from the outside world.
As soon as Jin Lin’s spirit vermin made contact with the tight, glowing net, they split into pieces and fell to the ground.
“Pei Qiqi, is it?” Zhang Jiu asked, wearing a warm smile. “Didn’t think we’d return so quickly, did you? Where’s the guy that was with you? Why don’t you tell him to show himself.”
Pei Qiqi stood unwavering, her expression not changing a bit. “I already told him to leave while I keep you occupied.”
“He left?!” Surprised, Zhang Jiu scanned the vicinity with his psychic awareness. As Pei Qiqi said, he indeed couldn’t find any other signs of life in the vicinity.
“No way!” Sha Cheng shouted.
Earlier, Nie Tian had chased him to the edge of the floating continent, but upon seeing Sun Xuan, he had immediately retreated to the heart of the forest.
Later, more powerful experts from the Poison Sect had rushed over and surrounded this floating continent.
Not a single one of them had ever noticed anyone leaving.
That meant Nie Tian was still on this mysterious continent.
“Forget about that guy. Let’s kill this bitch first, and then we can take our time looking for him.” With a cold snort, Jin Lin unleashed his life-spirit vermin.
It was a large, cyan gecko that was about half a meter long.
Its skin gave off a misty, cyan aura as it shot directly towards Pei Qiqi, baring its teeth.
Upon seeing the cyan gecko, the other spirit vermin seemed to see their leader. They spread out and started squeezing their way into the spaces between the interwoven spatial blades.
At that moment, Pei Qiqi gestured with her index and middle fingers, forming a sword and making a slashing motion in the air.
As she did, the spatial blades hovering around her suddenly unwove and united into one sizable blade that exuded frosty spatial energy.
As it shot straight ahead with great force, ripples of spatial energy spread out from within it.
FIZZ! FIZZ!
It was as if the space before Pei Qiqi was even ripped open temporarily.
Seeing the large, glowing spatial blade shooting towards it, Jin Lin’s life-spirit vermin trembled slightly and moved about to dodge it, as if it felt the horrifying might of the blade.
BANG! BANG!
As the spatial blade traveled through the air ethereally, ripples of spatial energy spread out. Wherever the rippled spread, countless flying spirit vermin dropped dead.
The spatial blade seemed to have locked in on the cyan gecko, following it closely wherever it went, as if it had intelligence.
Jin Lin’s expression flickered as he exclaimed, “This woman has some weird means of attack!”
Zhang Jiu let out a cold snort and said, “Would I have ended up covered in wounds if she didn’t?”
With these words, he pointed at Sha Cheng and the other Poison Sect disciples, and yelled angrily, “What the hell are you waiting for?!”
Zhang Jiu had barely escaped from Pei Qiqi and ended up in very sore straits. Therefore, he knew Pei Qiqi’s terrifying battle prowess better than any of the others on his team.
However, since he had already sustained rather serious injuries, he didn’t wish to personally get into combat against Pei Qiqi again, and so instead urged others to do it.
No one dared to disobey his order, including Sha Cheng.
Hence, upon hearing his words, everyone except him summoned their spirit vermin with their minds and commanded them to attack Pei Qiqi.
In the blink of an eye, sky-filling, multicolored spirit vermin swarmed towards Pei Qiqi like a storm of bugs.
Meanwhile, they each unleashed their life-spirit vermin, which were significantly larger than the regular spirit vermin. With mad, blood-curdling shrieks, they rapidly approached Pei Qiqi.
Facing the spirit vermin swarm that would engulf her in the next moment, Pei Qiqi frowned slightly as her jade-like hands wove in the air, forming exquisite hand seals.
Multiple visible ripples of spatial energy that resembled water ripples spread out from within her.
Even though she stood in place, graceful and unwavering, through the spreading ripples, it looked as if she had suddenly split into dozens of clones.
In the eyes of the Poison Sect disciples, it seemed as if dozens of Pei Qiqi’s were standing in separate spaces, and there was no way to identity which was real and which wasn’t.
Confused and disoriented, the spirit vermin shrieked as they searched madly for her between the spaces.
After observing her with a frown for some time, Zhang Jiu’s expression grew grim as he blurted, “She’s nothing like her master! The spatial magics she practices aren’t just limited to building teleportation portals and teleportation magics. She’s actually more skilled in combat spatial magics, the most powerful kind!”
Those who practiced spatial magics usually had their own areas of focus. Some focused on building spell formations and teleportation portals, like Zhen Huilan. These people were usually skilled in building all sorts of teleportation portals, even inter-realm teleportation portals.
Meanwhile, there were others who focused on applying spatial magics to strengthen their battle prowess.
These people were usually less skilled in building spell formations or teleportation portals, but their battle prowess was usually shockingly high.
Zhao Shanling, who had run amuck in the Realm of Unbounded Desolation, belonged to the latter kind. That was why his battle prowess had been unmatched by others at the same cultivation realm as him.
Pei Qiqi’s focus of cultivation was clearly different from that of her master’s. Like Zhao Shanling, Pei Qiqi also focused on enhancing her battle prowess with all sorts of spatial magics.
PHOOH!
As soon as Zhang Jiu uttered those words, a dark-green toad was cut in half from head to tail by the long, glowing spatial blade.
The toad was the life-spirit vermin of a middle Greater Heaven stage Poison Sect disciple. The moment it was killed, the man let out a muffled groan, blood spilling from his mouth.
The strong backlash caused him to stagger back a few steps before resuming a firm foothold.
As he staggered back to the foot of a sky-reaching tree, a streak of green aura suddenly shot into his back. Startled, the man exclaimed and turned around, but failed to see any anomalies.
However, as soon as the streak of wood power entered his body, it started to take root and grow inside of him like a germinating seed.
Meanwhile, the streak of wood power also started to absorb his flesh power. Within a very short time, the streak of wood power grew into a small, emerald-green tree in the man’s chest.
As it continued to absorb the man’s flesh power, its sharp branches pierced through his heart and stuck out of his chest.
It glowed with sparkling, green light as it did.
Only when the branches punctured the man’s heart did he come to his senses. With his last breath, he let out a miserable scream. “Someone attacked me from the dark!”
Zhang Jiu jerked his head back and saw emerald-green lights sticking out of the man’s chest.
The lights were in the shape of tree branches, and as sharp as blades.
BOOM!
With a loud crash, the man collapsed to the ground, and his heart stopped forever.
Zhang Jiu went blank for a few seconds before snapping back to reality and yelling, “Watch out, everyone! That guy is hiding in the dark and looking for opportunities to attack us!”
All of the Poison Sect disciples that were converging on Pei Qiqi looked deeply shocked. They no longer dared to go all-out to attack Pei Qiqi, and instantly grew vigilant.