Chapter 702: Trapped
Xiao Qi is a class seven soulbeast. Fitted with the Wind and Lightning Feathers to accentuate his dual affinity for wind and lightning, Xiao Qi could fly faster than what Bai Yunfei could possibly hope to achieve even in his ‘coil’ form. Even as Xiao Qi flew, the wind pressure caused by his flight was tearing up the walls with blades like wind and leaving behind heavy scratches. Even Bai Yunfei had to bring up his arms to protect himself as Xiao Qi flew past him. As he brought his arms down, Bai Yunfei could see Xiao Qi was already nearly upon the tentacle holding onto the young girl.
“Be careful not to hurt the kid!”
Bai Yunfei communicated with Xiao Qi through their soulbond almost hastily.
“Got it.”
Xiao Qi responded as he came to a stop over the little girl. With his back practically touching the tunnel roof, Xiao Qi’s entire body lit up with green light as it prepared to sever the tentacles with a blade of wind.
But somehow, the soulbeast had a seemingly infinite amount of tentacles. The surrounding tunnels trembled for a moment before three more tentacles shout out from the tunnels to strike down Xiao Qi.
“Chirp!”
Xiao Qi chirped once in response to this attack. Because of the size of the tunnel, Xiao Qi was the size of a small crane almost. Whipping his wings back and forth, the bird conjured several dozen blades of wind and scattered them everywhere.
“Pcht pcht pcht pcht….”
None of the tentacles were even able to come within half a meter of the bird before they came apart in a gory mess of blood and flesh all around Xiao Qi.
None of the blades of wind touched upon the tentacle holding onto the young girl despite how chaotically they scattered around the place. But even despite his controlled actions, this didn’t mean Xiao Qi wasn’t ready to let down on his assault on the beast. Just as the tentacle holding onto the young girl was about to get any farther away, Xiao Qi’s entire body lit up soulforce before sending a special blade of energy towards the tentacle.
The Spatial Edge.
This blade of nothingness wasn’t meant to go directly after the tentacle. Instead, it was going at a forty-five degree downwards to sever the tentacle connecting from the main body with the tip holding onto the little girl.
The Spatial Edge came into contact with the tentacle without much trouble or noise. Without pausing after it phased through the tentacle, the Spatial Edge collided into the ground and left behind a dreadful lunar-shaped hole after it.
“Wuuuu…….”
A moment after the tentacle was severed, the tunnels all around Bai Yunfei started to tremble with sound. Even with the many tunnels there, Bai Yunfei could distinctly hear the echoing sounds of pain and anger coming from somewhere. Loose stone and dirt fell from the roof of the tunnels, making it seem like the place was ready to come apart.
Blood sprayed out from the bisected section of the tentacle in greater amounts than from when the other tentacles were hurt before. Image wise, it was as if this was a giant pipe that had burst, sending red liquid all over the place. Soon, blood covered the vast majority of the tunnel and filled the already stale air with its stench.
This tentacle was probably the manifestation of a large amount of energy from the soulbeast and was more particular than the other tentacles.
The tunnels shook for a moment before the earlier part of the tentacle disappeared into the darkness of the tunnels. The other half dropped down to the ground and squirmed a bit as if trying to drill into the ground to try to form another tunnel.
“Trying to run away?”
Bai Yunfei’s cold voice called out to it as he approached. Swinging his right hand, a red line flew out from his robes to wrap around the tentacle with a clattering sound.
“Clank…..” The red whip-like object coiled twice around the tentacle with the movement of a snake. Tightening after coiling twice, it went still long enough to be seen—links of metal as thick as one’s arms were held steadfast around the tentacle!
It was the Devouring Chains!
As if something about these chains were influencing it somehow, the tentacles began to trash around even more violently. But a dark red light was emanating through the chains and sending a large amount of energy back into Bai Yunfei’s body.
“There’s a large amount of soulforce for just one small segment of a tentacle.” Bai Yunfei remarked in surprise. Clenching his hand, he tightened the chains enough so that they would constrict even more around the tentacle.
“Bang!”
The wet sound of something being torn apart could be heard as the chains tore apart the tentacle. Since it had no bone, the tentacles looked as if it was being pushed inwards before it reached its limit and was torn apart.
This one small section of the tentacles had yet again been split into two sections.
It was near the tip of the tentacles Bai Yunfei was going for. Located not too far away from where the young girl was, the tentacle was ripped apart by the chains so it couldn’t try to dig its way away. Without something to coil around, the chains loosened up and retreated back into Bai Yunfei’s sleeves. Putting the weapon away, Bai Yunfei took the unconscious child into his arms.
“Time to go!”
Now that his goal was accomplished, Bai Yunfei knew what he had to do next. He didn’t care to find out just what kind of soulbeast this was, he just wanted to leave this place. Even without careful observation, Bai Yunfei could tell the young girl’s aura was extremely weak as if she was on the verge of losing her breath any second now. What Bai Yunfei wanted to do was to get to a safe spot where he could see what was wrong with her.
“Wuu…..wuuuuu…..”
An even louder wail of pain echoed through the tunnels again, accompanied by several heavy quakes. Almost as if a colossus of some kind was starting to stir from the earth, Bai Yunfei felt the entire area tremble violently. The bit of the tentacle trying to dig into the earth had already collapsed lifelessly onto the ground, but Bai Yunfei could sense the amount of elemental earth in the area start to churn violently.
“Boom!”
The ‘main’ tunnel Bai Yunfei was in finally started to collapse, bringing several large chunks of stone and dirt down into the middle of the tunnel!
“Damn! We’re going to have to charge our way out.”
Bai Yunfei cursed to himself. There wasn’t the time to go back the way he came. Looking up with the plan to break through the earth above him, Bai Yunfei leapt up.
The Cataclysmic Seal erected a barrier of around two meters wide around Bai Yunfei and the little girl to protect them from any loose stone or dirt. Xiao Qi was already back to its normal pigeon size on Bai Yunfei’s shoulder, since he was at a disadvantage if any falling stone were to hit him if he was large still.
Bai Yunfei’s left arm held onto the little girl and his right hand was now free of the Devouring Chains. Looking up, he lifted his free right hand and shot out a large fireball. There was a loud explosion as the fireball tore through a good chunk of the earth around it. But moments later, the hole closed up as if healing from the damage.
“Let me try.”
Xiao Qi flew above Bai Yunfei’s head in a flash and sent a blade of powerful elemental wind up to open a passageway.
But already the earth was seemingly starting to melt together with the stone. Growing thick and mucous, the tunnel felt more like a swamp of earth so when Xiao Qi’s blade of wind went through it, the roof didn’t crack at all. It swallowed the blade and then covered up the hole left behind by it.
“What’s going on here?” Xiao Qi chirped in surprise.
Bai Yunfei stared hard at the roof and the ‘liquid’ seemingly moving around them with a suspicious and startled expression.
“We’re….sinking.”