Chapter 47: Failure
In the other valley, the Three-Legged Fire Crow was soaring in the air, spewing flame, which was as pure as coloured glaze, towards the gigantic horned serpent. The great heat of the flame melted the mountains that laid aside and burned pieces of the jungle into ashes.
The horned serpent was currently coiled on the ground，emitting a blue light from its horn and fending against the Fire Crow’s flame. In the meanwhile, gusts of dark-blue, cold wind blew out from the horned serpent’s mouth, attacking the Fire Crow from every direction.
The Fire Crow quietly floated in the air with a looming red light emerging from its black feathers. On the edges of every single feather, a few spell symbols flashed and splashed fire sparks, then disappeared quickly. Only with the heat emitted from those feathers, was the Fire Crow able to disperse all of those cold winds.
“Haha!”
Ji Zhuo laughed out loud. He was holding an oddly-shaped shield, made of a beast’s skull, in his left hand and a huge bone cane in his right hand. His body was wrapped in blazing flame, which made him look like a fiery god; every single move of his produced a monstrous flame.
“Black Water Gui, haha, you’re one of my old friends. Do you remember your Abba and uncle? It was me who killed them!” Ji Zhuo waved his bone cane and cast streams of flames randomly, while provoking his enemy.
The deathly pale face of Black Water Gui had almost turned blue. In his hands, was a black, short bone cane; and on his skin numerous snake tattoos wriggled as if they were alive. A huge gust of wind blew out from his body, soon after which, a large cloud of dark-blue ice crystals quickly emerged from the air and immediately condensed into several ice walls in front of him.
Usually, Black Water Gui’s ice walls were incomparably firm; even tens of ordinary Senior Magi with their combined power couldn’t harm even a little bit of his ice walls.
However, Ji Zhuo was way too powerful. With only a slight hit, Ji Zhuo shattered several tens-of-feet-thick ice walls. Every moment, Black Water Gui released hundreds of ice walls and shielded himself in every direction, however, Ji Zhuo waved his bone cane for a thousand times within the same moment.
Ice walls were continuously shattering. Ji Zhuo was excited, even starting to roar and curse. Lava-like thick flames started circulating through his body, emitting an eye-piercing light and producing an even greater heat. He was stimulated by the fight and released all of his power, even his sturdy body swelled bigger.
Followed by a muffled bang, the huge bone cane broke through tens of ice walls and directly hit Black Water Gui’s chest.
Instantly, Gui let out a howl. His scrawny body was sent flying and his chest was hollowed. His pale skin quickly turned red, and wisps of lava gushed out from every one of his pores.
“Hah, Black Water, you…” Ji Zhuo raised the bone cane and laughed proudly. But in the next moment, his laughter suddenly stopped and his expression changed; his body intensely shook and he staggered a few steps back.
With a tiny swishing sound, a black, jade knife, which was only as thick as a bean and as long as a finger, rapidly rose high into the air, transforming into a beam of black light, and flew back to Black Water Gui’s hand. Just now, the jade knife had pierced the Ji Zhuo’s left ankle. A black line rose from his left ankle towards his thigh; where it passed, the flame wrapping Ji Zhuo’s body quickly subsided; a thick layer of ice appeared on his left leg, replacing the flame.
“This again!” Ji Zhuo mumbled annoyingly. “You never launched a frontal attack, you bastard! I hate you vile bugs! One day, I’ll destroy you all!”
Black Water Gui grinned wanly, grabbed the jade knife, and let out a sharp roar. Following his voice, the horned serpent, which was fighting against the Fire Crow, turned around and dashed up to Gui, carrying him on its head and fleeing towards the deep jungle at its highest speed.
The Three-Legged Fire Crow cawed sharply, attempting to chase them. Ji Zhuo sat down on the ground, gasping, and said feebly,“Don’t bother… That old bastard was injured quite seriously. He won’t be able to come out and make trouble for quite a while... My old friend, haven’t you realised that I too am badly hurt?”
Ji Zhuo patted his frozen thigh and said with a weird smile on his face, “I’m badly injured and can’t make it back to the Gold Black Mountain. The nearest Fire Crow Clan territory is the Cold Stream Valley; I’m going there to take a rest!”
Ji Zhuo then let out a caw-like shout and hopped onto the Fire Crow’s head. The Fire Crow flapped its enormous wings and rushed high into the air, leaving a beam of fiery light behind it. It then hovered around, diving towards Cold Stream Valley.
In the Cold Stream Valley, Toao threw a punch toward Ji Hao’s spear, which was about to pierce Di Luo’s back. The spear shook intensely, and nearly broke from the great power hidden in Toao’s punch. Ji Hao’s arms quivered, and he quickly retreated in large strides.
With his current power, Ji Hao couldn’t hold off the strength of a Senior Magi yet. A slight punch from Toao nearly ruptured his internal organs. A stream of blood gushed out from his throat, and he couldn’t help but to spit out a wisp of blood.
In his lower belly, the multicoloured flame was quietly blazing. Part of the Senior Magi blood released from Ji Kui’s magic-seal while Ji Hao was in a coma, was now quickly turning into beams of multicoloured light and being absorbed by Ji Hao’s body.
Soon, Ji Hao’s internal wounds were healed by the multicoloured light. He took a deep breath, stretching his neck and cracking his bone joints. His strength had just improved ‘ten thousand stones’ after being nourished by the Senior Magi Blood.
“Break!” Ji Hao didn’t risk fighting against Toba and Toao closely. He hid in the dense fog and locked his hands together; he gathered natural power and sent it towards them.
At this moment, Ji Xia was surrounded by Di Luo, Toba and Toao, in addition to Black Water Jiao and his serpent. The four of them launched their attacks towards Ji Xia simultaneously. Punches, daggers, wind-knifes, poisoned gas, and cold air; all kinds of attacks were thrown at Ji Xia, hitting his body like drops in a rainstorm. Within the span of a few breaths, Ji Xia was beaten black and blue.
However, a sphere of white-cyan light slowly rose from Ji Xia’s head. Within the light, the Mu Sheng Pearl, Qing Fu’s inherited Magus Treasure, appeared and quickly released a large amount of life force energy, which was then absorbed by Ji Xia’s body and started to heal him. With the energy released by the Mu Sheng Pearl and the strong life force of a powerful Senior Magus, Ji Xia’s wounds quickly healed. All of the attacks casted by the four people and horned serpent seemed to have failed to cause any harm to Ji Xia.
Once Ji Xia was healed, Ji Hao rushed over, along with the vast power of the ‘Mantra Dan with Nine Secret Words.’ Followed by the rumbling of thunder, tens of fist-thick lightning bolts abruptly fell on the four people’s heads.
Besiegement from the four people was interrupted by the lightning. Di Luo fled backward, frightened; but once he turned around, he noticed a skeleton monster standing right in front of him. The skeleton gave a horrible grin and pressed Di Luo on the ground with its huge bone paw.
Under the skeleton’s paw, all of Di Luo’s bones started creaking. He was then sent flying by the skeleton and hit a large tree nearly a mile away, falling unconscious.
Toba and Toao instantly stopped attacking Ji Xia, turned around, and rushed toward Di Luo.
Black Water Jiao showed hesitation, and took a few steps back subconsciously. By then, he was the only one left to deal with Ji Xia.
A sharp caw came from the jungle farther away. Black Water Jiao’s face suddenly turned deathly pale when he heard the caw. “Did Granddaddy lose? To whom? Whom!? Retreat! Retreat! This is a trap! Damn Ji Mu! How dare you lie to me!” yelled Black Water Jiao.
Black Water Jiao then jumped onto the serpent’s head and tried to flee; however, before he could make it into the jungle, three black ‘thorns of life and death’ flashed across the dense fog,and pierced through the bodies of Black Water Jiao and his horned serpent. Black Water Jiao let out a great howl, and his face turned dark immediately.
“Re..re..retreat!” He screamed out of panic, and then ran into the jungle with the hundreds of remaining Black Water Serpent warriors.
By now, a well-planned ambush had failed completely. Ji Hao shouted, chasing into the jungle under the cover of Mr.Crow.