Chapter 1709: A First Blood?
As soon as we meet, you want to have little sparrow babies together? You're way too forward!
It's barely been three minutes since we met, right?
Yangque was also startled, shyly blushing, stealing a glance at Xia Yangque, her heart beating even faster!
(ૢ⁼̴ɞ⁼̴)”Huh? Have little sparrow babies? This… isn't this way too fast? And I don't even know you!”
Xia Yangque wore a look of righteousness:
(๑ಠɞಠ)”What’s fast about it? This isn't just for love and affection, it's for the continuation of our race!”
“Our race is so rare, if we don't have a few more babies, we'll go extinct. You're the first pretty sparrow I've ever met!”
“It's our duty as every sparrow to help expand our race! I can't shirk that responsibility!”
“Besides, what's there to fear about not knowing me? We can take our time getting to know each other from the inside out afterward!”
As she spoke, a mischievous grin spread across Xia Yangque's face!
(Oಡɞಡ)ﾟ:･☆
Yangque was terribly shy—how could she handle that?
That's right, it's for the sake of racial continuation, not at all because this handsome sparrow is good-looking that I want to have babies with him!
Her heart pounding, Yangque no longer hesitated. Since she couldn't fly without feathers, she ran over on her two legs, scurrying along!
With a leap, she landed on a branch, right in front of Xia Yangque!
Xia Yangque's heart soared. Hook, line, and sinker!
She stretched out her wing, pulled Yangque close, and sang with deep emotion:
(๑͡°ɞ͡°)”Your beauty is like a flame～Burning my heart with desire!”
“I've long fallen for you～Do you even know?”
Yangque was completely overwhelmed by Xia Yangque's assault, her face dazed and dreamy.
Just as she was about to say something, she froze, looking down at Xia Yangque's claw!
(•︠ʚ•︡)”Mmm～Why does your claw look so strange?”
There, on the middle toe of Xia Yangque's left claw, stood an upright golden middle claw, extremely conspicuous!
╭∧╮…
Xia Yangque broke out in a cold sweat, then smiled gently, raising her middle claw:
(٥◔ɞ◔ิ)”You wouldn't know this, but this is a token of true love!”
“Like mandarin ducks flying wing to wing, a sparrow loves only one for life!”
“I've prepared it for you long ago. Come! Let me put it on you!”
With that, she pulled a Paralysis Ring from her feathers!
Yangque's heart melted:
(ʃƪ˘ɞ˘)”Wow～How romantic!”
So she obediently stretched her claw out to Xia Yangque!
At that moment, Xia Yangque's heart was in her throat. She slipped the Paralysis Ring right onto Yangque's claw!
Sure enough, the moment the ring was on, one middle claw stood straight up!
(|||͡⚆ɞ͡⚆)”So when do we sta… ahh!”
Before Yangque could finish, Xia Yangque jabbed her own middle claw straight into Yangque's body!
She even pressed Yangque's own middle claw into Yangque herself!
Both claws at once, and Yangque's whole body went numb, paralyzed and immobile!
Yangque was horrified and tried to unleash her Yang Flame!
But how could Xia Yao give her that chance?
“Extreme Day Cloud Vortex!”
The Extreme Day Cloud Sea instantly bloomed, compressing to three meters in size, sealing Yangque's techniques right then and there!
None of her three talent techniques could be used!
Xia Yao locked her arm around Yangque's neck in a tight chokehold!
=͟͟͞͞(ŐʚŐ๑)”Xuexue! Hurry! Stab her! Awooo~”
A little wolf cub's whimper came out. Fearing the Paralysis Ring wasn't enough, she even used her wolf howl!
But Xia Yao didn't need to say anything—Zhong Yingxue was already moving!
They had hidden their things under the tree roots. She pulled out a pupil-steel dagger, hard enough to break through a Dao Heaven's defense!
With flames pushing furiously forward, she gained enough momentum!
Coupled with the Deadly Green Club's triple physical critical hit, she managed to pierce straight through Yangque's heart!
Yangque's eyes widened, but this combo was just too vicious!
Her body was paralyzed, her skills sealed—she was completely helpless!
Right through the heart!
She had fallen straight into a trap!
Zhong Yingxue quickly grabbed a small jar and began collecting the blood flowing from Yangque's body!
“D-did we really do it? A Dao Heaven? We killed a Dao Heaven beast? One of the Four Fiends? That's incredible!”
And they barely broke a sweat—they'd tricked her to death!
Xia Yao giggled:
(๑ಡωಡ)”Impressive, right? Don't worship me too much, okay~”
Zhong Yingxue sighed:
(◞‸◟)”Sigh～Why do I feel a little guilty inside? We're so bad! Luring an innocent Yangque like that!”
Xia Yao: (︶.̫︶๑)”Lust is a knife at the head, you know! See? She got stabbed, right?”
“Jungle law, survival of the fittest. Totally normal!”
Xuexue was still too kind. Maybe because she actually has a conscience?
Zhong Yingxue frowned, looking at the jar in her hand. Only half a jar of Yangque blood had been collected.
(๑•̌～•̑)ˀ̣ˀ̣”This isn't enough for Xiao Nan, is it? Let's feed her some Vitality Ginseng, make her bleed more before taking the spirit bead. Otherwise, it'd be a waste!”
Xia Yao: Pfft～ꉂꉂ(˃᷄ε˂᷅๑)
Guess I was overthinking. So where did that guilt of yours just go?
Yangque: (*꒦ິɞ꒦ີ)
Can't you even give a clean death? You two aren't even human, are you?
Never again will I flirt with a handsome sparrow in my next life!
Don't ask how I died!
Ask—I died of love!
Fifteen minutes later, Yangque was indeed tricked to death, dying in the most aggrieved way possible, never having used a single one of her abilities!
As for Yangque's blood, they collected over a dozen jars, all prepared for Jiangnan!
Yangque's Dao Heaven bead also fell into Zhong Yingxue's hands.
But Zhong Yingxue hesitated: “Yao Yao, should we keep this spirit bead for Grandpa Xiao? He's about to reach Transcendent!”
“With a Dao Heaven-level Yangque bead, it'll definitely give him wings!”
Xia Yao smiled: “Grandpa Xiao has incredible abilities. Do we really need to worry about him? He might not even think it's worth it. Let him hunt a powerful spirit beast himself for a bead when he reaches Transcendent!”
“You should use this one. Didn't you want to turn your flames into plasma fire?”
“Besides, we're in the Rainforest Maze now, and we'll probably have to guard those dao nails later. Who knows what dangers we'll face?”
“Better to boost our strength as much as possible to handle emergencies. Don't let Xiao Nan shoulder everything alone.”
Zhong Yingxue took a deep breath and nodded firmly. She'd absorb it herself!
She sat down cross-legged and began absorbing the spirit bead. As long as it wasn't the eighty-thousand-li-a-day skill, either of the other two would do!
A gamble!
Meanwhile, Xia Yao sat on the ground, staring at her own upright middle toe, her mouth twitching.
(｡˘•～•˘)╭∩╮
This isn't great for walking, is it? If she hadn't turned into a handsome sparrow and couldn't put it on her wing, she'd never wear it on her foot even if it killed her!
And once the chicken biscuit's effect wore off, she'd probably start crowing and laying eggs.
Thinking about that, Xia Yao grew more and more troubled.
Does laying eggs hurt?
With a boom, the surrounding spiritual energy surged wildly toward Zhong Yingxue!
Clearly, she had successfully broken through to Star Glory rank with this bead!
Xia Yao looked over excitedly: “What? What technique?”
Zhong Yingxue smiled gently: “Blazing Sun!”
…
Meanwhile, in a Gobi spirit ruin, on a black altar, a large group of mercenaries and muscular beasts had gathered.
The leader was none other than Solomon!
And at the center of the array, a blood-red dao nail was embedded in the core, extremely conspicuous!
Solomon grinned: “Tsk tsk tsk～I didn't expect me to find it. Lucky break!”
While everyone else was busy searching for dao nails, Solomon, wandering aimlessly through the maze, had stumbled into a spirit ruin that had never appeared before!
He'd found a dao nail!
But he didn't destroy it immediately—he was thinking.
If Jiangnan and the others were looking for these dao nails, should he sit here and wait for them to come to him?
Wait for his prey, or…
After a moment's thought, Solomon made his decision without hesitation. He stepped forward, destroyed the spell array, pulled out the dao nail, and crushed it into dust!
A cruel grin spread across his face.
“Compared to waiting for prey, I prefer the thrill of the hunt. Let's go!”
With that, he led his men to the next spirit ruin!
No one knew that of the three remaining dao nails, Bear Two had pulled one, and Solomon had pulled another.
Now the one Mountain Cat and the others were guarding was the last one…
…
During this time, perhaps the people in the Rainforest Maze didn't notice much, but those on Blue Star could feel it more or less.
The spiritual energy was thicker than before!
As the deployment commander, Yang Jian was constantly monitoring the global spiritual energy concentration changes.
What lay before him now was an urgent report!
Compared to before, the spiritual energy concentration had experienced two major spikes!
And the time interval between these two spikes was extremely short, each corresponding to the moment a dao nail was removed!
Before entering the maze, Yang Jian had mentioned the three dao nails to Jiangnan!
Yang Jian had already guessed that Jiangnan's operations in the maze might not be going smoothly.
Perhaps two nails had already been pulled.
But he didn't know the specifics, and he couldn't contact Jiangnan now.
“What about the latest movements of the Holy Star?”
Nightingale hugged a folder and shook her head: “Nothing big. They've been lying low ever since attacking the Pioneer Academy.”
“But the situation with the Dao Heaven rankers from various countries hasn't improved much.”
After all, the Dao-Slashing Operation was still fresh in everyone's minds. No one wanted to be the next one slashed, so they all stayed safe inside their spell arrays.
Yang Jian rubbed his temples: “Nothing big… that's the biggest move. The calm before the storm, huh?”
“A storm is brewing!”
Originally, the rise in spiritual energy was a good thing for humanity, but Yang Jian couldn't shake a feeling of inexplicable unease.
Nightingale bit her lower lip: “What should we do? Send troops into the maze to support?”
Yang Jian shook his head: “No matter how many people we throw in there, it'll be useless. They'll just get tied up, and if something happens back home in the meantime, we'll be stuck between a rock and a hard place.”
“All we can do is be fully prepared.”
Back in the maze, things were equally unsettled. The group guarding the dao nail—Mountain Cat and the others—had also run into trouble.