Chapter 107 - Xiao Chuqing, Slain
A golden Sword Qi flew out under the legs of Zhong Yue, flying close to the ground and merging together with the three sword silks at the front, forming the【Fourth Sword Style】.
Immediately, blood splashed everywhere and the half-borned head of Xiao Chuqing immediately got cut off!
“Tian Gou, the devourer of the moon!”
However, the other head of Xiao Chuqing managed to grow out fully and it appeared to be the head of a Pan Ao!
The word “Pan” referred to the movement of when a dragon coils up. Therefore, the word “Pan” is often associated with dragons. In legend, there was an ancient god named Pan Gu, he split the skies and earth apart with his axe and he was the ancestor of the Sui Sovereign. With that, the word “Pan” had a simple yet mysterious meaning, which suggested that Pan Gu was a dragon god.
Whereas for the Pan Ao, it was actually a dog that had the blood of the dragon. Thus, the new head of Xiao Chuqing had the looks of a dragon with draconic fangs and horns but it took the shape of a dog, appearing extremely intimidating!
The Pan Ao opened its jaws and swallowed the Starry Moon Jade Toad then along with the head of Xiao Chuqing, they shouted together angrily, “How dare you! How dare you behead me!”
One of them sounded like a wild beast and the other one sounded like an alluring lady. When they spoke at the same time, the superposition of their wildly disparate voices created a discordant resonance that evoked an eerie feeling in those who heard it. Other than that, after devouring the Starry Moon Jade Toad, the Pan Ao’s power increased tremendously to a terrifying state.
So what Junior Martial Sister Jin’er was talking about was this abnormal energy flowing in the body of Xiao Chuqing? Thought Zhong Yue.
“Tian Gou devouring the moon, so she is from a celestial race!”
In Zhong Yue’s psyche ocean, Xing Huo said surprisingly, “I was curious about what race this Xiao Mang Celestial Race belonged to, so they are the descendants of the Tian Gou! Given the fact that they like to devour the moon’s core, no wonder the core and the spirit in the moon is gone. Brat Yue, be careful, the moon spirit she possesses is the Tian Gou, not something you can easily deal with. With her current state of [Spirit-Soul as One] and after devouring the moon spirit, her strength must have reached incredible heights now!”
“That is if she has the chance to unleash her full strength!”
Zhong Yue shouted and he let out a loud thunderous voice while he quickly approached Xiao Chuqing. At the same time, he unleashed the full power of the【Fourth Sword Style】sword array and the four sword silks danced around Xiao Chuqing. In a blink of an eye, blood spilled everywhere and Xiao Chuqing’s body was littered with grievous wounds!
The power of the 【Fourth Sword Style】was even stronger than the【Third Sword Style】due to the four Sword Qi had undergone thousands of rounds of refinement by Zhong Yue. Among them, the Xiang Dragon Sword Qi was the strongest as it was constantly replenished by the beast god essence from the beast god inner core, making it the strongest of the four Sword Qi!
But as Zhong Yue turned the Xiang Dragon Sword Qi into the form of sword silk, it was only natural for some of its power to be lost in the process. However, the strength of the Xiang Dragon Sword Qi never relied on its sharpness, nor was its sharpness ever comparable to that of the gold Sword Qi in the first place. This Sword Qi performed best when it adopted the form of a Xiang Dragon during battles, thus, using it on the sword cocoon thread array would be a little bit of a waste.
Whereas for the Gold Sword Qi, Zhong Yue created it by siphoning the gold qi from dozens of soul weapons. Unlike the Xiang Dragon Sword Qi, due to the sheer sharpness of the Gold Sword Qi, it is a more suitable Sword Qi for the【Fourth Sword Style】sword array.
However, Zhong Yue could still feel a huge obstruction from the【Fourth Sword Style】due to the power unleashed by both heads of Xiao Chuqing. Along with the Pan Ao head, Xiao Chuqing’s visualizing power and speed increased drastically and unleashed an onslaught of powerful attacks one after another. Clashing with the four Sword Qi from the 【Fourth Sword Style】 and continually eroding the power of the sword array.
At the same time, the power of the Pan Ao head of Xiao Chuqing continued to raise tremendously after devouring the Starry Moon Jade Toad!
“【Heavenly Star Disintegration】!”
Xiao Chuqing roared and the air became engraved with innumerable totem carvings that then merged into an array. As soon as the array was completed, the earth shook and sank, creating a strong pressure that slowed the momentum of the sword silks to a crawl.
With the slowing down of the sword silks, Xiao Chuqing immediately let out a loud shout and jumped out from the encirclement of sword silks, accompanied by ever more injuries.
However, after a sudden gleam of sword light and a shrill shriek let out by Xiao Chuqing, the Pan Ao head detached from her body and flew up to the sky as soon as she jumped out of the sword array!
“One step ahead and every step ahead, this Zhong Shan Clan is indeed very strong. I can’t turn the tables anymore after he gained the upper hand first!”
Xiao Chuqing crouched on the ground with her four limbs planted firmly on the ground. She then immediately catapulted herself into the air. While in the air, her four limbs became covered in fur and they grew long and muscular while she ran away riding on the clouds that formed under her limbs.
Clearly, she had also achieved the level of subconscious and unconscious visualization as every step of her hooves onto the air would be accompanied by a billowing cloud beneath her. It provided a constant lift to her and granted her extreme speed that breached the sound barrier in but a few steps!
There are only four ways to fly. The first of which would be through the visualization of wings. Following after that are the flying techniques of the Martial Master that allow them to walk in the air as if they were walking on a flat ground. The third way is by using specialized soul weapons like the airships, floating clouds or flying swords, riding on them to fly. The final method would be through the use of flying mounts.
The flying technique employed by Xiao Chuqing was a hybrid of second and third methods; the clouds that formed under her legs were the actualization of her psyche visualization and her running in the air corresponded to the flying techniques employed by the Martial Masters.
Besides, as she hailed from the celestial race, her body was naturally stronger than that of ordinary Qi Practitioners. Now, the full strength of her fleshly body was now on full display as she returned to the original form of the Xiao Mang Celestial Race, enabling her to easily use the techniques of the Martial Masters.
Zhong Yue dared not guarantee that his 【Fourth Sword Style】 could challenge any Awakening level Qi Practitioner. But he was certain that the number of Rebirth Qi Practitioners who could withstand the same were few and far between. The fact that she was able to withstand such an attack was a testament to the strength of the Xiao Mang Celestial Race.
Boom————
In just a few steps, a loud sound could be heard at Xiao Chuqing’s back as she broke through the sound barrier, causing a shockwave that propagated through the air that was accompanied by a raucous thunder.
She indeed lived up to her status as one from the celestial race as her speed was incredibly fast, capable of breaching the sound barrier within seventy feet!
Up until now, she no longer had any intention to engage with Zhong Yue in combat. Back then, she had already lost the initiative the moment Zhong Yue had succeeded in launching his sneak attack. With that, she was stymied at a disadvantageous position where she was helpless to do anything besides passively accepting the relentless attacks of Zhong Yue, incapable of delivering even a single attack in retaliation.
Just like how the saying went, a step wrong and everything is lost!
That was the cruel reality of the battlefield, she had committed a grave miscalculation –failing to look at Zhong Yue’s footsteps – that ultimately allowed him to launch a surprise attack on her. Shifting forms did not provide her much help and she became even more helpless as her two heads were beheaded.
Whereas for Zhong Yue, this battle was completely different from the battle with Tan Zhen and the others in the Swords Gate. The battle with Tan Zhen and the others was just a friendly match and even though everyone had accused him of being ruthless against his friends but instead, he was in actuality already holding back.
Unlike the battles in the Swords Gate, his battle against Xiao Chuqing was a true battle with life and death hanging in the balance. Therefore, it was very crucial for him to launch a surprise attack in order to gain the upper hand. Once he gained the upper hand, he had pulled out whatever cards he still held in reserve to launch a series of rapid strikes, leaving no time for his opponent to react, constantly seeking for a lethal strike!
Therefore, the only aim Xiao Chuqing had now was to escape from her deadly plight to somewhere far away that could deny Zhong Yue any chances of killing her.
If I manage to escape, I could still report this to the Celestial Temple and receive a rich reward from the Celestial Temple. By that time, I could even become the envoy of god, let alone the recovery of my cultivation base and injuries!
With this line of thought, the now complacent Xiao Chuqing continued thinking, All I have to do is just report to the God Temple and the existence of hundreds and thousands of this Zhong Shan Clan’s would be wiped clean from the world! Hoho, luckily, this one from the Zhong Shan Clan is lacking in flying techniques. Although he could use the flying techniques of the Martial Masters, which have quite decent speed, his endurance would be weaker than mine. He will not be able to catch up with me….
As she thought of this, a bright white sword gleam suddenly overtook her vision and she saw it continuing to fly onwards from where her neck was.
Xiao Chuqing’s head immediately detached from her neck and a fountain of blood gushed up into the air. Before her consciousness completely slipped away, she saw Zhong Yue with a pair of wings behind his back and a sword grasped in his hands.
The pair of wings shined with a dazzling radiance, its feathers were covered a myriad of totem carvings and suffused a golden luminescence. Every flap of its wings would seemingly release a blazing fire as Zhong Yue would streak across the sky like a fiery meteor.
I thought he had no flying techniques?
As her consciousness began to fade and the darkness slowly overtook her, she thought, Tian Myriad Mother, Lang Qingyun, you lied to me….
And after that, her eyes finally closed, her face to forever be contorted with regret.
Lang Qingyun, the envoy of the gods from the monster race told her that judging from the trails left behind by the battle in the Savanna Wasteland, the man who rescued Jun Sixie knew nothing about flying techniques. On the other hand, Tian Myriad Mother also told her that Zhong Yue knew nothing about the flying techniques.
Apart from that, Xiao Chuqing also failed to identify any traces of flying techniques acquired by Zhong Yue during his battle with Tan Zhen. However, it was this misinformation that had cost her her life today!
The aureate wings behind Zhong Yue were the wings of the Three Legged Golden Crow. The totem carvings of the Golden Crow were all over the two feathery wings and these totem carvings were the flying techniques of the second form of the Great Sun Golden Crow spirit.
This was his first time using the Golden Crow wings, he moved rapidly from the back of Xiao Chuqing and as he spread out the wings, it enabled him to ride on the windy and fiery thunder light, his speed catapulted to unprecedented heights!
Xiao Chuqing managed to breach the sound barrier within seventy feet but Zhong Yue's Golden Crow wing was able to do the same before sixty feet. This speed was almost as fast as the that of the Xiang Dragon!
The Xiang Dragon was originally notorious for their incredible speed, but now, its speed was equally matched by the Golden Crow wings. This discovery naturally made Zhong Yue very surprised and happy!
Thus, it was very normal that he could behead Xiao Chuqing as her speed was not as fast as him.
I've killed her?
Zhong Yue was stunned and he murmured, I really killed a celestial race… Hmmm, I should destroy this corpse and not leave any trails behind or it would be troublesome if the Xiao Mang Celestial Race were to ever find out about this!
As soon as he thought of this, Xin Huo suddenly said, “Kiddo Yue, quick, quick! Go through the psyche ocean of that Pan Ao’s head, the moon spirit he devoured just now should still not have been completely digested, this is your only chance to obtain the moon spirit!”
Zhong Yue immediately flapped his wings and he turned back towards the Pan Ao’s head. He then replied, “Xin Huo, Xiao Chuqing is dead and I could actually rob her spirit? I thought the spirits dispersed with the death of its owner?”
“The soul of the Qi Practitioner will disperse quickly when a Qi Practitioner dies but the spirits disperse slightly slower. Besides, if someone worshipped these spirits, they would be even harder to disperse.”
Xin Huo then continued saying, “If the spirit is still there, then there is still some chance for you to pilfer it! I originally wanted you to obtain the sun and moon spirit to cultivate your soul, granting you the ability of blending of fire and water – yin and yang. Unfortunately, the moon spirit was stolen by the gods of Xiao Mang Celestial Race! Now, with the moon spirit of this little heifer from the Xiao Mang Celestial Race, you could still cultivate the sun and moon spirit!”
Zhong Yue pulled back his wings and his body turned into a burning conflagration, landing straight in front of the Pan Ao head of Xiao Chuqing. He galvanized his psyche and pierced into the Pan Ao’s head, only to find a crumbling psyche ocean with a moon and the spirit of a three-headed Tian Gou, slowly evanescing into nothingness.
The three-headed Tian Gou was the real spirit of Xiao Chuqing, when she swallowed down the moon spirit into her psyche ocean, she intended for the three-headed Tian Gou to absorb the power of the moon spirit in order to increase its power!
However, with the death of Xiao Chuqing, these two spirits began to disperse.
Zhong Yue immediately sensed the moon spirits and said, “Xin Huo, can Qi Practitioners actually acquire two spirits at a time?”