Chapter 163: You Rascal!
With Bai Yunfei’s right leg intertwined with the scorpion’s tail, both human and beast tumbled to the ground with one another.
Even as the wind coursing through his ears, Bai Yunfei tried his best to kick at the stinger with his left leg in annoyance. When there was no change, he cried out, “For fucks sakes, get your ha–wait–get your tail off me!”
His kicks did nothing to the scorpion however. The more he kicked, the closer the ground was coming up to the two of them. An annoyed glare crept up into Bai Yunfei’s eyes before a crimson-red light burst forth from his entire body before concentrating around his right arm. There was a slight tearing sound when a burst of fire ripped through his clothes and materialized as a two meter long blade around his very person.
The Flame Winged Blade!
“If you don’t let go, I’ll cut off your tail!” Bai Yunfei declared.
The Flame Winged Blade swelled yet another half meter as if to responding to Bai Yunfei’s declaration. The mist that was previously around the two combatants evaporated almost instantly, forming a clear open space.
“Skree!”
Following the screeching sound of the scorpion, its tail immediately relinquished its hold on Bai Yunfei’s right hand and decreased in length size. It seemed truly afraid of Bai Yunfei’s threat to cut off its tail.
“How obedient you are!”
Bai Yunfei was overjoyed. Waving his right arm, the blade of fire dissipated away into thin air. With another shake of his hand, the Compliant Rope flew out and coiled around a protruding cliffstone overhead.
He slammed against the cliff wall, as courtesy to the physics that caused the sudden stop in his descent. Massaging the aching right shoulder of his, Bai Yunfei then looked down to where the scorpion was and sighed in relief from what he saw.
The valley below was without a doubt a very deep one, but Bai Yunfei didn’t doubt that the scorpion would survive such a fall. A Fifth-tier soulbeast would not die so easily to something like falling. He knew that this soulbeast in particular was slightly weaker than he thought, but it wasn’t a thought he was too inclined to think about. He only just wanted some time so that he’d be able to take the treasure in the cave.
Bai Yunfei circulated the soulforce in him so that the rope shortened in length and allow him to fly upwards. As he traveled up, Bai Yunfei smiled gleefully at the prospects of the treasure that’d be waiting for him.
“Has to be something strong, or maybe a high-grade primal stone. Or maybe a millennial spirit fruit? Or maybe its…”
“Bzzzz.”
The sudden droning sound from down below caused Bai Yunfei to look down instinctively. But the sight that greeted his eyes had nearly been shocking enough for him to release his grip on the rope!
“Wha–what the fuck! You rascal! What kind of scorpion can fly? Do you identify as a dragonfly or something!?”
The half-second loss of composure had led to Bai Yunfei crying out loud in a flustered voice.
Just several hundred meters beneath him, the scorpion that Bai Yunfei thought was plummeting downwards was already on its way back up. On its back were a pair of transparent wings that beat so rapidly that it created the buzzing sounds from earlier. All three of its beady little eyes stared at Bai Yunfei as if to say, “Amazed? I can fly!”
Not once did Bai Yunfei ever notice the hidden pair of wings on its back during their fight!
Moreover, there was a slight azure halo around it that pulsated with the power of the elemental wind.
“A duality of wind and earth!”
Bai Yunfei blurted out.
It was no wonder that he felt that this scorpion leaned towards the weaker side of the power spectrum. It wasn’t an ardent practitioner of the elemental earth, it also practiced the elemental wind! On one hand, this meant that the scorpion wouldn’t be able to fight an Early-stage Soul Ancestor to a stalemate, but it could fight equally well on both land and air!
For example, this scorpion was flying rapidly towards Bai Yunfei right now while he could only hang pitifully on the cliff wall.
From the screeching sound of the scorpion, Bai Yunfei could tell that it was both angry and pleased. The humiliation and pain that it had suffered at the hands of this hateful human; he would return the favor twofold! “Let’s see how you’ll fight now in midair!” It was practically shouting.
There was a burst of azure light before three blades of wind materialized from the air and shot straight for Bai Yunfei.
Cursing himself for his lack of wings, Bai Yunfei kicked off from the cliff wall so that he’d swing upwards. Combined with the Compliant Rope that was helping him climb upwards, Bai Yunfei managed to just barely dodge the three blades of wind. If he could just get back into the cave, Bai Yunfei wouldn’t need to fear the scorpion any longer.
Following another blade of wind, the scorpion’s wings began to beat even faster so that it could fly straight for the Compliant Rope.
“There’s no time!”
It would only take fifty meters and another chance with the Compliant Rope for Bai Yunfei to reach the cave, but there was no time for that anymore. As loathe as he was to consider it, Bai Yunfei gave up the original plan. With all things considered, the scorpion stood a mere ten meters beneath him with a screeching sound that sounded a little too….ecstatic.
“Fuck! Can you please at least try not to be so crass?”
Consternated, Bai Yunfei tried to hide his anger and kicked off the cliff wall. This time, instead of escaping upwards, he instead kicked out to fly towards the valley itself!
This kick-off had been so strong that he flew practically twenty meters away from the cliff and past the scorpion. But then the gravity of the world soon forced him to fall back down to the earth shortly afterwards.
The scorpion hadn’t expected this course of action, after all. Leaping away from the cliff only meant there was no longer any foothold to grab hold onto. With his body in the air and unable to fly, how could Bai Yunfei possibly do anything else?
By the time the scorpion fully registered what Bai Yunfei had done, he had already fallen ten meters to the valley. A schadenfreudic light had appeared on the scorpion’s eyes as if gleefully expecting the death of the human. But as it was considering just when Bai Yunfei would fall to his death, a golden rope appeared out of nowhere and flew past its head to grab onto its tail. One end was wrapped painfully around its stinger, and the other end was held tightly in the hands of the blasted human it was looking at!
“Hehe, caught you!” Bai Yunfei roared in happiness. Pulling with his right arm with all his might, the scorpion’s position in the air was immediately destabilized. Its entire body shook violently as the beast tried to stabilize itself. In its panic however, the scorpion suddenly realized that all of a sudden, its back became heavier.
And then there was a eerily happy laughter.
Whilst the scorpion was trying to stabilize itself, Bai Yunfei took advantage of the distraction to swing onto the scorpion’s back. With another tug of the rope, the Compliant Rope then coiled around the two pincers of the beast with a powerful tightening force.
“Skree!”
A frantic screech came forth from the scorpion’s mouth. With both its tail and pincer tightly bound together by the golden rope, it had no way of escape from Bai Yunfei now!
Shaking left and right in an attempt to throw Bai Yunfei off, the scorpion tried its best to get away from the human. But, would Bai Yunfei really let the beast do as it pleased? Holding onto the rope ever so tightly, Bai Yunfei stuck to the scorpion’s back and forced the scorpion from doing anything more.
For this one moment, Bai Yunfei was akin to a knight riding his horse. But while the scorpion flew through the air, neither of the two had realized that they were flying for the forests away from the valley. There was an abrupt “pop” sound, and then the two of them began to careen down towards it.
“Pow!”
Crashing through layers and layers of the trees, the scorpion soon came to a rest in a scorpion-shaped crater on the ground below. In the very last second, Bai Yunfei managed to jump away from the scorpion and evade the most of the damages he would have otherwise sustained. He was in a sorry state, but a pleased smile was still on his face.
With the combined efforts of his brick and fist, the mighty Fifth-tier Soulbeast scorpion was knocked out and left in its sorry state right afterwards.
Several minutes were required before Bai Yunfei managed to then climb back up to the ravaged cave again. Expectantly, he walked into the cave.
Just what treasures would be held in this here cave?