Chapter 38: Monster
Molei and Yueshitu rode on the backs of elk. The moon-attribute elk, its body glowing white, raised its head as if signaling its owner to quickly refuse what was about to happen.
In truth, Yueshitu wanted to do just that, but under the gazes of Su Xiao, Wude, and Zuiyasi, as well as Molei's little fists, Yueshitu had no choice but to comply. From this, it was clear that Molei had a better grasp of the bigger picture than Yueshitu. At this point, there were only two options: lure the enemy or face them head-on.
Su Xiao had initially planned to go lure the enemy, but Wude, Zuiyasi, and Lilim unanimously opposed it. Their stance was clear: "If you go lure the enemy, what's the point of fighting afterward?"
It was worth noting that Zuiyasi also had the idea of going to lure the enemy, but Su Xiao, Wude, and Lilim unanimously opposed it, politely indicating that if he insisted on going, they would eliminate him on the spot. Zuiyasi immediately gave up, choosing to follow the majority.
This scene of unity and camaraderie gave Molei and Yueshitu a headache. What made their heads buzz even more was that they, too, were "honored" to be temporarily part of this small team.
"Let's go. We'll return in triumph."
"Hurry up, stop being so chuunibyou."
Molei urged Yueshitu. She had long noticed that Yueshitu was not only extremely reclusive—able to hole up somewhere for a long time—but also a bit chuunibyou. Just last night, Yueshitu had dreamed she was a Sailor Moon-style warrior all night, and her sleep-talking nearly made Molei laugh herself into shock.
On the elk's back, Molei tightly gripped a scroll. This was a life-saving item Yueshitu carried with her, and it was precisely because of this item that they dared to lure the blood-qi monster.
According to Su Xiao's estimation, after the blood-qi monster gained a physical body, even if it couldn't perform unlimited spatial movement, it could still execute continuous spatial movement.
Molei and Yueshitu went to lure it. The moon-attribute elk they rode was among the fastest in the eighth rank, but aside from speed, the elk had no other specialties.
Under high-frequency spatial movement, even speed would be caught. The scroll Yueshitu carried for self-defense played a key role at this moment.
Yueshitu's original words were that it was precisely because Su Xiao had traumatized her in the Canglong World that she had acquired this item at a high price. It was a defensive measure specifically targeting Su Xiao. That it was effective against the blood-qi monster was only natural.
The effect of this Immortal-rank scroll was simple: after using it, for 10 minutes, space-attribute enemies could not break through spatial movement within 100 meters of Yueshitu. The effect was extremely strong against enemies of the same rank. Even if the enemy was one rank higher than the user, the scroll's effect was not to be underestimated.
This was specifically targeting Su Xiao's spatial penetration ability, Dragon Shadow Flash. Clearly, she had been scared badly.
...
Five hours later, Molei and Yueshitu rode the elk at full speed. Ahead, they saw a massive sand crater, about 300 meters in diameter, as if it had been blasted out. The sand inside was compacted.
Molei and Yueshitu lightly leaped off the elk's back, silently crouching down, transforming into two "crouching demons" as they began crawling toward the edge of the massive sand crater.
This was not the site of Su Xiao and Luo Xi's previous battle. At the center of the sand crater's bottom, a figure stood. On the ground to its left and right, a longsword and a war scythe were embedded. Its long black hair drifted slowly, and the black cloak on its back was like tattered strips of cloth, seemingly worn out but actually filled with hidden blades. This not only provided defense but, once the cloak shattered, the scattered blades would cover a wide area.
Threads of black-red blood-qi drifted from the blood-qi monster. It stood motionless with its head lowered, its heart even ceasing to beat.
Two mounds of sand rose beside the crater as Molei and Yueshitu slowly poked their heads out. If survival skills were ranked, these two were both "Survival Grandmasters Lv.70."
"Is this the world of the strong?"
Yueshitu, now a walking meme, muttered softly. The Insight Eye behind them recorded everything, and the arena audience was losing it. In the void, there were indeed no girls as silly as Molei and Yueshitu. One was already a comedic relief; with the two together, it was chaos.
"That monster looks like it's asleep. Should we steal its weapons? Ease the pressure on the interception team."
"Good idea. You go."
"I was joking."
"(￣ω￣)"
After a preliminary observation, Molei and Yueshitu decided to play it safe: aggro from a distance, then flee. But before that, they needed to wait.
The first to arrive here wasn't Molei or Yueshitu, but Bubu Wang.
Bubu Wang, as the scout, had discovered this place first. After that, Su Xiao chose a suitable distance to set up a trap. Only after the trap was laid did Molei and Yueshitu make their entrance.
A few minutes later, 500 meters east of the sand crater, Molei activated the explosive in her hand and threw it toward the distant crater. After doing this, she mounted the elk.
The elk, an intelligent species, immediately sprinted at full speed. An explosion sounded from behind.
After charging nearly 10 kilometers, Molei and Yueshitu on the elk's back realized something was wrong: the enemy wasn't chasing them.
"Ladies and gentlemen, that monster isn't chasing us. That's very bad."
Molei hadn't forgotten her livestreaming career—or rather, she was using it to distract herself from her tension and fear. Just seeing that blood-qi monster had made her legs go weak.
"Yueshitu, sense it."
"Already sensing. The area around the monster is blurry. I can only confirm it's still in the crater."
"Still in the crater? Could it be..."
Molei thought of a possibility, feeling three parts excitement and seven parts worry. After a brief discussion with Yueshitu, the two rode the elk back toward the crater. If they couldn't lure the blood-qi monster, everything else was useless.
As the elk trotted slowly, Molei felt a sense of déjà vu. When she was a child, unlike other girls, she loved playing with fireworks and firecrackers. When she was a ten-year-old brat, she once threw a lit firecracker into a roadside iron pipe about 10 centimeters thick and a meter tall. Then, covering her ears, she waited for it to explode. But after waiting a long time, it didn't.
Still a brat, Molei went to check, and then the firecracker inside exploded. Molei cried.
Thinking of this childhood trauma, Molei signaled the elk to stop. She leaned forward to peer into the sand crater and saw a pair of pitch-black eyes staring back at her. For less than 0.5 seconds, Molei's blood nearly froze, her throat went dry, and her feet went numb.
At that moment, Molei envied Yueshitu. Yueshitu's close-combat ability was so poor that at this distance, she couldn't sense how terrifying the enemy was. Ignorance was sometimes bliss.
"It wasn't my firecracker."
"Run! Aisili!"
Hearing Yueshitu's shout, the elk Aisili turned and fled. The next instant, a blood-colored slash shot toward Aisili's neck.
Buzz~
A distorted energy wave spread. Molei pressed forward with one hand, stopping the incoming slash. She swung her hand to the side, deflecting the slash away from Aisili's neck.
Nearly a third of the neck was severed. Aisili's vision filled with stars. As a super-being moon elk, it shouldn't have been so vulnerable, but being wounded by this blood-colored slash caused a massive amount of blood to be drained from it. The blood, once leaving its body, turned into blood-qi.
Molei's hand pressed against Aisili's back, causing her face to pale slightly. Aisili, as if on drugs, had its muscle lines bulge slightly, and it turned to flee.
Boom!
A shockwave spread from Yueshitu as the center. Scroll fragments shattered in her hand. The incoming blood-qi monster, unable to penetrate space, froze a hundred meters away.
With a metallic clang, the longsword and war scythe flew back, caught by the blood-qi monster. It crouched low, the sand beneath its feet blasted outward by the impact, and it vanished in an instant.
Clang! Clang! Clang, clang, clang!
Blood-colored slashes lightly tore through space, leaving black marks in the air. The blood-qi monster flicked its left hand, sending the war scythe flying. A chain as thick as a finger connected to the scythe's tail, extending as the scythe flew away.
With a jingle, the chain went taut, just a meter short of hooking Molei's neck.
The chase began. Molei and Yueshitu fled on the elk ahead, with the blood-qi monster chasing behind. Each time it closed the distance, either Molei or Yueshitu used a carried item.
From the consumption along the way, Molei was no less wealthy than Yueshitu. This wasn't just because Molei was a miner herself, but also because of her good reputation. Many miners were willing to cooperate with her without fear of robbery.
That wasn't all. The main reason for Molei's wealth was that in a resource world certified by Apocalypse Paradise, she owned an underground mining area. This was a reward from Apocalypse Paradise after she conquered that world. Only professional miners could enter resource worlds, and to mine in Molei's underground area, they had to give her 80% of the net profit. This girl really had a mine at home.
High above, under the scorching sun, Baha watched Molei with amazement. It had never noticed before that Molei was so rich. If they didn't rob her, how would she learn the dangers of the world?
Below, on the elk's back, Molei and Yueshitu appeared calm but were panicking inside. They still had some distance to the designated location, and because the blood-qi monster behind was so strong, their items were being consumed faster than expected.
"We're going to take a huge loss."
"Even if we lose, we have to endure it. Do you want to have a real man's fight with that monster?"
Hearing Molei's words, Yueshitu immediately pulled three scrolls from her chest, expressing with actions that she did not want to fight the blood-qi monster.
"As long as we get out of this desert, we can go find the 'Heart.' Surviving is winning."
Molei lowered her voice as she crushed the scroll in her hand. In truth, she and Yueshitu weren't here to compete for the World of Paintings. If they were, Apocalypse Paradise wouldn't have sent just the two of them. They were here to find something else: a rare item called the "Beast Heart."
Clang!
A slash passed just above Molei's head. She flinched, a few pink strands of hair falling. Seeing this, Yueshitu felt that sometimes being short was really not a bad thing.
"It's catching up! Aisili, split horns! Molei, hold on tight. I've got your back this time."
"Okay."
Molei lay on Yueshitu's back. The running elk Aisili emitted a faint glow, and its two antlers turned into particles of light, merging into Yueshitu's body. Yueshitu's figure rapidly grew taller, eventually towering a head above Molei.
Antlers sprouted from Yueshitu's head, with small white flowers blooming on them. The next second, Aisili completely dissolved into light particles, merging into Yueshitu.
With her transformed form, Yueshitu stepped onto the ground. Under Baha's bewildered gaze from above, Yueshitu shot forward like a blur, carrying Molei on her back.
Behind them, no longer hindered by various item attacks, the blood-qi monster's speed suddenly increased significantly. Although it couldn't perform spatial movement within a hundred meters of Yueshitu, its speed was now faster than Yueshitu's.
If the blood-qi monster slashed now, its speed would decrease, but at this rate, it would catch up to Yueshitu and Molei soon. Once it got within a certain range, they would have little chance of survival.
Under the constant tracking of the Insight Eye, Yueshitu ran faster than she ever had in her life. Both she and Molei stared ahead, knowing that once they passed the sandy area ahead, their mission would be complete.
"Ahhh!"
Yueshitu used every ounce of strength, charging past the designated spot. At that moment, their expressions could have been turned into memes.
In a hilariously absurd scene, as soon as Yueshitu and Molei crossed the designated point, they dove straight into the fine sand like swimmers, disappearing instantly.
The blood-qi monster leaped over ten meters, landing on one foot on the sand. An alchemical formation instantly spread across the sand beneath its feet.
With a rumble, pillars of sand rose around the blood-qi monster, forming a circle. A heavy pressure descended from above, and chaotic spatial fluctuations spread, preventing the monster from escaping via spatial abilities.
"Roar!!"
The blood-qi monster let out a roar. The soundwave spread, shattering the dozen or so sand pillars around it. But in an instant, the sand formed into ropes, wrapping around the monster's entire body, maximizing the sand's properties.
A piercing sound came from above. An alchemical formation had appeared in the sky, expanded to an exaggerated size, like a concave mirror gathering sunlight into a single point before shooting it downward.
Zzzt!
A beam of blazing sun nearly eight meters in diameter fell from above, engulfing the blood-qi monster. The smell of burning spread.
Terrifying high temperatures radiated outward. Within the beam, a figure that had been reduced to nearly a skeleton charged out. Its skull was charred black, yet even so, flesh buds grew around its eye sockets. It seemed only a matter of time before it returned to its peak state.
"Contract, established."
Wude had somehow appeared diagonally behind the blood-qi monster, holding a dripping contract parchment.
"Roar!!!"
The blood-qi monster let out a furious roar. The parchment in Wude's hand exploded with a bang, and the blood on it surged back toward Wude, corroding his entire body. This was backlash.
The monster's flesh rapidly regenerated. At that moment, black tentacles emerged from the sand beneath it, wrapping around it. Its bones and flesh buds aged rapidly—this was one of Zuiyasi's hidden trump cards: aging the enemy.
The longsword in the blood-qi monster's hand just emitted a metallic ring when a sound of breaking air came.
Bang!
Su Xiao delivered a side kick, sending the monster's right arm flying. They had to take advantage of the monster's weakened state to finish the job. Despite all these heavy attacks, the monster's health remained above 70%, and its recovery speed was absurdly fast.
Su Xiao clenched a crystal spike in his right hand and hurled it.
With a bang, the crystal spike pierced through layers of air, heading straight for the monster's brow. White dots appeared in the monster's pitch-black eyes as the spike approaching its brow began to crack, seemingly about to shatter.
At this critical moment, black tentacles sprouted from the monster's entire body, causing it to lose control.
With a crack, the crystal spike pierced the monster's brow, splitting its skull. At this point, Zuiyasi could no longer restrain the monster. The tentacles wrapped around it flew back.
The crystal spike in the monster's brow shattered. Without Zuiyasi's suppression, its flesh regenerated at an incredible speed, returning to its previous state in an instant.
Su Xiao leaped backward repeatedly. Was all this in vain? Of course not. The crystal spike he had thrown wasn't the trump card; what was inside it was—a small segment of tree root, the root of the Frenzied Bloom.
The blood-qi monster was incredibly powerful, almost unreasonably so. But its existence didn't conform to the characteristics of the material world. In other words, it was unique to this desert.
Facing such an enemy, going head-on was a last resort. Letting it experience the Frenzied Bloom was a better choice.
The blood-qi monster stared at Su Xiao. Among everyone present, it prioritized killing him above all else. It hadn't yet noticed the segment of Frenzied Bloom root inside its own head.
The monster took a step forward, then froze. Its claws reached for its face but stopped mid-air. Not only that, but its skull cracked with a snap. It split open.
PS: (Two chapters today, one 4000 words, one 4700 words. Splitting into three chapters would be fine, but it wouldn't read smoothly, so I decided to combine them into two chapters.)