Eighteen Drops of Blood
On Ning Fan"s side, out of the five blood wolves, almost all of them had already died. Even though the last one had ignited its blood, there was no way it could endure under the continuous barrage of attacks from the black dragon and the puppet. Gradually, the damage it took got more serious and was eventually defeated. That large wolf corpse was then brutally swallowed by the black puppet along with its skin and bones.
The remaining eight star wolves were eliminated one after one under the joint attacks from the women and the Honorable Demon Generals.
Ning Fan guarded the entrance of the snowy valley. Whenever a wolf approaches, he would wield his sword and slash them.
Piles of wolf carca.s.ses were stacked beside his legs, yet none of them could get through his defense.
At the moment the eight star wolves all finally died, Ning Fan took a step forward and leaped onto the golden flame chariot, intending to go ahead of the others. When all the experts of his group had boarded the chariot, it rushed into the valley of snow, leaving Lu Jiefen and the others behind.
"It"s bad! The key is going to fall into Lu Bei"s hands!"
When Lu Jiefen, Qu Shun and the two old men saw Ning Fan had already made a move to rush into the snow valley first, their expressions immediately turned grim and they no longer reserved their strength.
Even though they were still surrounded by large groups of wolf demons, all the star wolves and blood wolves had already been killed, so they only left behind quite a number of Nascent Soul Realm and Divine Transformation Realm cultivators there to slaughter the wolves. Lu Jiefen and the other three experts no longer dawdled. At once, they turned into four light beams and trailed behind the golden flame chariot.
"d.a.m.n it…"
Lin Su"s eyes were filled with jealousy.
His strength was not strong enough for him to kill his way out of the enormous packs of wolves. What he could only do was to watch those Half-Step Void Refinement experts compete for the key of the Star Palace.
At first, the path of the snow valley was at least ten zhang* (1 zhang = 3.33m) wide. But as they reached the deepest part of the valley, it was only three zhang* (1 zhang = 3.33m) wide. That width was rather hard for the golden flame chariot to pa.s.s through.
Sometimes, the chariot would collide against the walls of the mountains, leaving some scratches on its body. That just showed how hard and solid those star mountains were.
After travelling for a few hours, the end of the valley of snow was only half a zhang* (1 zhang = 3.33m) wide. The surroundings were completely blocked by the star mountains, making their view of the sky became as thin as a line. Doubtlessly, the golden flame chariot was unable to pa.s.s through it. The width of the path only allowed a single person to enter one at a time.
After pa.s.sing through that narrow path, their scope of vision widened. A huge ice basin which was covered in snow appeared. The surroundings suddenly became bright.
At the centre of the basin stood a silver iceberg. It was nearly ten thousand zhang* tall (1 zhang = 3.33m).
However, if one takes a closer look, they will find out that it isn"t a silver iceberg at all. but a ten thousand zhang* (1 zhang = 3.33m) large giant egg which was condensed from ice instead.
The sh.e.l.l of the egg was formed from frozen ice. Within the ice crystal, a huge body of a wolf demon which was at least five thousand zhang* (1 zhang = 3.33m) was sealed. Apparently, it seemed to be in the middle of sleeping. Even though it was separated from them by the iceberg, it emitted a steady but powerful breath.
"The iceberg must be the "Slumbering Demon Egg"! Perhaps that monster sealed inside it is the slumbering Wolf King?" Xi Ran exclaimed with her little mouth covered.
Even though she was a member of the demon race, she did not have much experience in life. In fact, it was her first time seeing the place where the experts of the demon race slumbered.
Moreover, Xi Ran got so excited that she even wanted to try flying to the top of the iceberg and take a good look at the posture of the sleeping Wolf King.
"Shhh! Silly little girl, lower down your voice…If we wake the Wolf King up, I"m afraid that you will immediately be eaten by him with his Void Refinement Realm cultivation!" Seeing Xi Ran who was curious, Wu Yan quickly held her back and stopped her with a smile.
Well, Xi Ran could not be blamed for being so excited. After all, the "Demon Egg of Slumber" was the sealing technique which only the members of the ancient demon race knew. It was a technique to seal themselves. As long as the demon egg is st.u.r.dy enough, it was possible to enclose an expert inside the demon egg and allow him to slumber for billions of years without peris.h.i.+ng.
Lu Wu, Lu Daochen and the others were all members of the ancient demon race. As a matter of fact, they had lived for over 150 million years without dying inside the demon egg.
The greatest advantage of slumbering inside a demon egg was that it could isolate one from the erosion of time and thus, let those ancient creatures survive to be part of future generations.
But the biggest drawback of it was that the slumbering cultivator would not be able to cultivate. Besides, it had no guarantee of safety and it was impossible for one to precisely control the time for them to wake up.
Tan Lang"s slumbering process was a little special. He was not completely in deep sleep. Thus, he could not isolate himself from the erosion of time. He only used the demon egg as a means to condense his demon power. Therefore, he would age. He would die. But he could also cultivate while slumbering inside the demon egg.
However, regardless of anything, Tan Lang was still sleeping. Without being woken up by those blood wolves outside, it would be extremely hard for him to wake up by himself!
"So this is, the "Demon Egg of Slumber"?!"
Ning Fan"s eyes flashed with surprise. It was also his first time seeing how a demon race expert slumbered, just like Xi Ran.
However, an egg was still just an egg after all.
When Ning Fan was a still mortal kid, he had heard a lot of myths and legends which were widely spread around in the mortal world.
For example, a giant who had slumbered inside an egg for several years eventually broke free from the sh.e.l.l of his egg, creating the heavens and earth and forming a chiliocosm.
Another one was a fairy who once used pebbles to repair the heavens. However, in the end, one of the pebbles she used was left on an island in the mortal world which in turn gave birth to an expert from the ape race.
When he was still a mortal, he did not believe in these myths at all. Whenever he heard of them, he would just treat them as a joke.
However, as his cultivation level improved, he began to see more and more strange and unusual things.
So it turns out that the "Demon Egg of Slumber"… really exists!
"Almost all of the blood wolves have been killed. The nine blood wolves and eighteen star wolves should have received the Power of Bestowal from this Wolf King. It"s why all of them are much stronger compared to other normal wolf demons. At the same time, they also possess the ability to wake up the Wolf King…Unfortunately, those blood wolves and star wolves are all gone now. Hence, no matter how much we attack the giant egg, the Wolf King will never wake up…This is the risk that the demon race faces when slumbering! Some outstanding beings of the ancient demon race who were unable to dominate the world in the past chose to seal themselves off in their eggs with the hope that they could succeed in Dao Inquiry in the future…However, no one knows how many of them were secretly a.s.sa.s.sinated during their slumber..."
Lu Daochen let out a few sighs continuously. Before entering the Third World, other than him and Ning Fan, no one knew that Lu Wu was already dead.
The other eight Honorable Demon Generals who entered the Third World carried the same intention as Lu Jiefen. In fact, they did not harbor any kind intentions like awakening Lu Wu from his slumber. Instead, they were here, plotting and scheming to a.s.sa.s.sinate Lu Wu.
This was the sorrow that every member of the demon race would face after getting into slumber…
This was the price that they had to pay for isolating themselves from being eroded by time!
"What are you all waiting for? Smash the iceberg and kill the Wolf King!"
The Wind General and Thunder General"s faces were filled with exhilaration.
To any belligerent demon generals, being able to kill a Void Refinement Realm ferocious beast like the Wolf King was indeed an honor for them.
However, just as the two of them stepped forward, there were another four rays of travelling light flas.h.i.+ng past the narrow sky and catching up with them. Upon arrival, they transformed into four human shadows. They were none other than Lu Jiefen, Qu Shun and the rest of the Half-Step Void Refinement experts.
Among the group of Half-Step Void Refinement Realm, Qu Shun was an exception as he was just a Peak Divine Transformation cultivator. However, he had once beaten a Half-Step Void Refinement to the point of being crippled. His strength was beyond all doubt. He too was indeed a monstrously talented person. Of course, he was just not as talented as Ning Fan.
"Hehe, General Bei"s Golden Flame Chariot was really fast. All of us almost could not catch up with you."
The reason why Lu Jiefen and the others rushed here in a hurry was naturally because they wanted to share a part of the benefits from the upcoming mission.
Once the Greedy Wolf was killed, they definitely would compete for it without any hesitation.
The condition, however, was that Tan Lang must have the key to the Star Palace.
"They came just in time! Why don"t we deal with the four of them first before we kill the Wolf King!" Yue Lingkong was slightly displeased. She hated sharing the fruits of victory with others the most.
Her words immediately caused Lu Jiefen and the other four experts" expressions to change drastically. The atmosphere became tense as if each of them was going to draw their swords and prepare for a showdown. Especially Lu Jiefen, he looked at Yue Lingkong and felt startled deep inside his heart.
This little girl who looks rather ordinary actually has such courage to start an internal fight right before the Wolf King… This girl can"t really be judged just from her appearance. It"s beyond my expectations that she would be such a cruel person…
Upon hearing Yue Lingkong"s suggestion, Ning Fan waved his hand disapprovingly, rejecting her idea. At the same time, he held this violent little girl back.
"Silly little Yue Er…"
"You say that I am silly!? I"m just trying to help you seize the key, okay? Also, let go of me! Am I that close with you? Pay attention to how you address me and politeness!"
Yue Lingkong struggled to move her body with dissatisfaction, trying to break her wrist free from Ning Fan"s evil grip.
However, after Ning Fan"s power had skyrocketed, his strength had also improved a lot. Thus, with the current body that Yue Lingkong was in, she was unable to break from Ning Fan"s grip. What she could only do was to let her little hand be touched by Ning Fan and be taken advantage of.
"Silly girl. In order to kill the Wolf King, this ice egg has to be broken first. Only then could we harm the Wolf King. However, this ice egg is not easy to shatter. We will still need to work together and only then will we be able to succeed… No matter if you want to fight or kill them, let"s talk about it only after Tan Lang is killed!"
Ning Fan"s words had calmed the tense atmosphere.
One of the reasons why he stopped the fight was because he had already known that Tan Lang did not have the key with him. It was completely meaningless for him to engage in any fights.
As for the other reason, it was because the four experts including Lu Jiefen gave him a rather heavy threatening feeling.
Lu Jiefen and Qu Shun are not simple to deal with. As for the other two elderly men, however, they had already been set up by me. They could be killed whenever I want.
Ning Fan harbored the intention to kill Tan Lang not because he wanted to get the key but because he wanted to open up the path to the central domain of the Heaven Hall.
He wanted to leave this place as soon as possible. Therefore, when facing Lu Jiefen and Qu Shun, he did not have the intention to end their lives.
Translated by Tommy, edited by Roel
G-TOM_MOND_ROEL"s notes:
Hey guys, the 5 out of 7 of the week! (Guys, I owe 16 releases to you all in Jan and Feb in total. We will try making up for it by this month ends.)
Happy reading!
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