Archfiend Core
“Why didn’t you say so sooner?”
“Wouldn’t she just run off with it?”
Given Secular World Sect’s influence, Mu Yu wouldn’t fight Qiao Xue for the core. Xiaoshuai, on the other hand, would never accept somebody stealing his food.
“If you eat the core, the eight sects won’t stop until they kill you. I don’t want any part in that.”
“You make it sound as if we’ve never been chased before. We escaped Floating Celestial Island in the end, didn’t we?”
“Where did you get the ‘we’ from? I fought on my own. Plus, Gramps isn’t around to bring up the rear this time.”
“Fine, if I can’t have it, it can rot here. Everyone has their own approach, right?”
Xiaoshuai couldn’t technically be indicted. At the end of the day, humanity’s issue with the fiends wasn’t his issue.
“The elemental demons give me enough grief as it is. I don’t want to have to deal with fiends, too. You can’t talk your way out of everything in life. If I don’t have a roof over my head and food on the table, I have no business boasting about changing the world.” Mu Yu inwardly rationalised. He then said, “All right, have it your way. Do you know where the exit is, then? We can’t waste too much time here.”
“Well, if I can eat the core, I might have the energy to get out.”
Mu Yu drawled, “Oh, you little…”
Qiao Xue, standing by the throne, performed a hand seal that looked awkward and foreign to cultivators. By the time Mu Yu started questioning why the hand seal looked familiar, a fluctuating white glow came to her eyes. Similarly to thousands of streak s of white light, the underground palace lit up. From his observation, Xiaoshuai commented, “It’s really similar to the smell of honey peas I smelt.”
“This is a treasure my shifu left in my care. From what I know, it’s a shred of vital essence taken from the leader of the fiend kinds, the azure dragon fiend king. We should be able to locate the white ape fiend king’s core using it.
“Why didn’t you use it sooner?”
“It’s precious and difficult to wield. I didn’t want to resort to it due to the risk of destruction it carries.”
The fiend statues split and shattered on the ground. The statues on the staircase exploded and whisked off. Streaks of light gathered at the vacant throne and fused into a sphere. A violent gale began to blew from above, forcing Mu Yu to grip a rock.
“Found it!”
Qiao Xue directed the lights away from the ceiling and toward her, where she then collected it. The white core was wrapped in light. It was the core of a king all right.
“She found it!” Xiaoshuai tugged Mu Yu’s hair vigorously. “Snatch it!”
Qiao Xue glided over to the pill and gently flicked spiritual energy at the pill. The pill absorbed her spiritual energy effortlessly. Mu Yu went to her side and consulted, “How do you plan on taking it back?”
Performing a hand seal, Qiao Xue generated a red beam. She littered droplets of the red light around the pill, dissipating the patterns protecting the core. The core was in the shape of an ape, albeit in phantasmal form. The core was the ape’s heart.
Qiao Xue poked the ape’s face and held her hand over the core. Whatever she recited led to the ape belting as if announcing its decree. As the core began to tremble, so did the underground palace. The cave began to crack and crumble, revealing grey mist circulating in the gaps of the wall. As the grey mist circulated, it hampered their vision. Mu Yu quickly lost sight of Qiao Xue. He tensed up upon seeing the white core find its way out of the phantasmal ape’s mouth and sneak into the grey mist.
“You’re not getting away!”
Xiaoshuai zipped after the core, while Mu Yu went to search for Qiao Xue. Nevertheless, she wasn’t where he imagined her to be.
Whoosh! Mu Yu unsheathed Shadow Splitter and guarded his back. By the time he looked over his shoulder, the assailant had returned to hiding in the grey mist. He turned back and spotted a sharp tail thrusting toward his heart. Therefore, he shifted his sword in front of him and charged forward. His attacker was a fiend sporting a lizard form!
“Where the devil did this fiend come from?”
Mu Yu slashed forth a green blade, amputating the sharp tail. The sword qi reduced it to smithereens. Surprisingly, there was no blood. Without even so much as flinch, the lizard mounted another attack. Mu Yu effortlessly impaled the fiend through the chest. He finally realised it wasn’t an actual fiend but one of the statues he saw before.
“Statues coming to life now? What else don’t I know?!”
Mu Yu reduced the statue to dust, only for more statues to initiate a charge toward him. They didn’t cultivate, but they were able to unleash their full combat prowess. The grey mist didn’t show any signs of slowing them down. They used their sharp tales to stop Mu Yu producing spiritual energy, thereby forcing him to rely on his sword.
“Xiaoshuai, where are you?”
“Mu Yu, the big honey pea is over here. I need a hand. It’s too fast!”
Mu Yu turned back and chased down Xiaobai’s voice before it was gone. Xiaoshuai was amidst trying to ensnare the core within a spiritual qi cage. The plan didn’t bode well as the core just crashed into the walls.
Qiao Xe appeared in the mist and extended her blue ribbon toward the core. The core aggressively sucked in the grey mist. As the mist clear, the core extended arms, a head, a torso and leg from the core. In no time at all, a complete white ape had emerged. It thumped its chest and landed a heavy punch on Qiao Xue.
“Don’t tell me the core can come back to life,” Mu Yu griped.
“It’s just a self-defence mechanism the fiend race installed in the core. The ape won’t last long. We need to capture it!”
Qiao Xue flung her blue ribbon along to intercept the white ape. Unfortunately, the statues refused to remain statues. They weren’t dangerous, but they successfully stalled Mu Yu.
The white ape charged straight out of Qiao Xue’s trap and, with a spiritual qi parting punch, put its weight between a straight cross. She managed to step back out of its reach, but the gale generated blew her back. Safe to say, the white ape fiend king was as strong as a Body Severing Realm cultivator.
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