Chapter 325: Intoxicated
Translator: Radiant Translations Editor: Radiant Translations
The two patrolling mountain beasts were standing in mid-air within the Mirage, staring at a vigilant Xue Ying as he held his spear close.
He wondered if he could hold his own against two patrolling mountain beasts. His combat power had risen considerably, and he was fighting within the Mirage. It was a good opportunity for him to train his spear techniques.
Hu. Hu.
The two beasts transformed into two gusts of wind, once more revealing their terrifying speed as they charged straight toward Xue Ying.
Even inside the Mirage and under the heavy suppression of the Gravity Domain, the two patrolling mountain beasts could still reach a speed of 650 to 700 kilometers per second. The beasts remained faster than Xue Ying, but it was not as bad as with the previous speed of 1000 kilometers per second which was very taxing on his reaction times.
Weng, weng, weng~
Xue Ying did not face them head-on, opting to dodge the initial charge instead. Flexibility was among the few weaknesses of the patrolling mountain beasts. Chen Jiu had been able to barely take on the previous attacks precisely by accurately targeting their weaknesses.
The spear revolved time after time, piercing out with the destructive aura wrought by the Star Meteor Annihilation. Each spear struck either against the abdomen or the claws of those beasts.
Both sides kept on trying to defeat each other.
The patrolling mountain beasts had relatively good teamwork as they flew together. Their tails would also lash out unpredictably. Xue Ying was doing his utmost to hold on by relying on the fine capabilities of his spear techniques, which were becoming more and more ferocious by the moment. The Star Meteor Annihilation secret skill was gradually improving during this fight, getting closer and closer to perfection.
The fight continued for the time it took to brew a cup of tea.
One of the two patrolling mountain beasts in the air was suddenly reduced to dust. The other continued fighting Xue Ying for a dozen bouts before similarly dissipating into nothingness.
"Truly exciting." Xue Ying left the Mirage.
"You won?" Chen Jiu asked.
"The fight was still rather taxing on my abilities." Xue Ying laughed. "It’s quite fortunate that the patrolling mountain beasts aren’t true life-forms, so they naturally dissipated after being inflicted a certain amount of damage."
The patrolling mountain beasts, beings condensed into form by the arrays, were trials set by the master of Crimson Rock Mountain.
It was quite similar to how the arrays inside the Black Wind Deity Palace would form black-armored protectors!
The patrolling mountain beasts would form similarly, albeit much stronger!
"How is it? Do you still plan on fighting four of them?" Chen Jiu asked.
"Within the Mirage, it was quite hard for me to defeat even two beasts. I should barely be able to deal with three, but four is impossible," Xue Ying said. "In the real world—that is, without the suppression of the Mirage—the patrolling mountain beasts are stronger. I’d find it quite hard to fight even two of such beasts."
"With the aid of your Gravity Domain, I could easily face two beasts, even three," Chen Jiu said. "With the two of us teaming up, we should be able to deal with four of them, but ten would simply be impossible."
"Mn." Xue Ying nodded.
"That means we can’t linger for more than a month inside the Great Canyon," Chen Jiu said. "We’ve already been here for more than a day. Let’s go take a look at some other places. There are other scars left behind by the many seniors from the Deity world."
Since they knew that they would not be able to stick around for more than a month, Xue Ying and Chen Jiu were both keeping strict track of time.
...
Meanwhile, Lord You Lan was in a similar position; with the True Meaning of Time Deceleration, he could easily defeat a patrolling mountain beast. With the help of Deity-grade scrolls, he would likely be able to deal with two beasts! But five would certainly be impossible for him, so he had to get through the Great Canyon before a month passed.
He was also cultivating and working on his comprehension in different places, slowly making his way forward.
******
On the eighth day in the Great Canyon.
"Meishan Clan Master, where are your comrades?" Xue Ying and Chen Jiu had stumbled upon the Meishan Clan Master again.
Sitting cross-legged on a big rock, the Meishan Clan Master shook his head and replied, "Shan Xuan and Yan Qing have both broken their talismans and left this place. I initially thought I’d be able to defend them from the three patrolling mountain beasts. The beasts proved to be simply too fast, however, and their tails were truly too unpredictable. Once I could no longer protect them, they had to break their talismans to escape."
"You were still thinking of protecting them despite facing three patrolling mountain beasts? Truly admirable," Chen Jiu teased. "In any case, excluding Dong Bo and I, only you, Jian Huang, and Lord You Lan are still within Crimson Rock Mountain."
"Mn." The Meishan Clan Master nodded. "Wu Ma Hai alone died in the first vine leaf world, while everyone else survived it. Still, the first and second vine leaf worlds exist to nurture all of our Transcendent potential, so they’re actually not that dangerous. It’s only once we reach the third vine leaf world that the danger level will actually reach a terrifying height."
Xue Ying was sighing inwardly.
The number of people still within Crimson Rock Mountain was rapidly decreasing.
Only five of them remained; in addition, he and Chen Jiu were planning to get rid of You Lan! Once they succeeded, there would be four left.
The third vine leaf world was next, followed by the fourth and fifth… By the time someone reached the fifth vine leaf world, how many of them would still be around? How many could possibly get through the entire Sky-Reaching Vine to reach the higher-leveled space?
Or, rather, would even a single one of them manage to do so?
"Let’s go." Xue Ying and Chen Jiu continued on.
...
Whenever either of them saw a cliff that could benefit them, both would stop for a while before moving on. It was only for the cliffs that both of them were interested in that they would stop for a longer period of time.
On the eleventh day at the Great Canyon.
"This, this is…"
Xue Ying and Chen Jiu were both startled by what they saw.
Above the cliff was a region of pure white and, below it, an area of pitch-black darkness.
In the center, there were traces left behind by the strikes of a blade!
"This is too…" Upon seeing the enormous horizontal blade scar left behind at the center of the cliff, Xue Ying could imagine a scene from long ago, one of an unfathomable existence casually unsheathing their blade and slashing out in a horizontal movement. With such a blade scar to have been left behind on the cliff…even the cliff itself had naturally transformed.
Extreme Piercing? This scar alone contains every single law I can imagine—a single blade encompassing all the power of the Myriad Existences focused into a single extreme point.
Star? With the rise of a blade, the birth of the heaven and earth may occur. Next to the heaven and earth, even the Star remains as small as ever.
Mirage? How could the Mirage even compare to this complete world of heaven and earth?
Xue Ying was completely astounded.
In his eyes, the feeling he got from looking at the traces left behind by this blade were comparable to the sensation of watching the record of Creation of Heaven and Earth. Naturally, because he had viewed the record in its entirety, that feeling had been more intense. This was, after all, merely a residual blade scar.
Chen Jiu had become engrossed by the sight at the same time. It was truly unfathomable. Such blade techniques were simply too hard to come by.
The two of them unhesitantly entered the region with the fastest time acceleration closest by. It was a total of 15 times faster than the normal time flow. Chen Jiu sat on the grass, and Xue Ying stood beside it. He could not help but take out his Stellar Fire Cloud Spear to occasionally test out hypotheses. The two of them were entirely intoxicated. From what they could tell, the traces left behind by the blade were superior to all of the other imprints on the cliffs by a huge margin.
******
In the second vine leaf world, there was a continuous range of mountains.
At the highest point of the mountain range…
There was a white-haired elder who still had a rather young aura. His body was relatively thin, and his white hair was fluttering about. The skin on his face was more flushed than even a toddler’s. His eyes were bright, and as he kept watch on the land below, he caught a glimpse of Xue Ying and Chen Jiu in their intoxicated states. Chen Jiu was sitting cross-legged, mumbling out words unknowingly. Meanwhile, Xue Ying was applying his ideas through his spear techniques. He was essentially putting them on display.
"These two…" The white-haired old man with a childlike aura shook his head. "Just seeing that blade techniques was enough to make them this happy."
"That scar was been left behind by Hui Ming, right? It’s such a pity that she was overly zealous in spreading her religion, which, in the end, brought about some restrictions on herself. Such a pity, such a pity."
"Crimson Rock Mountain used to be so crowded."
"And now, it’s empty…"
"Every single one of them has disappeared."
The old man sat alone at the peak of the mountain. He drank a mouthful of wine out of the green flask in his hand, all while looking into distance as if daydreaming.