Chapter 273: Arrival
We escaped as fast as we could from the incoming disaster. There was no hesitation in any of the group, they knew for a fact that slowing down or making any unnecessary movements besides speeding forward would mean instant death.
Their pods were fast, fast enough to out-speed the incoming scorpion, but that only applied in open terrain. The area we were in was a slightly wide valley but it had a lot of curves and turns to it.
And far above in the skies were great crows that would definitely find it enjoyable to feast on cultivators who tried to escape by going above the valley.
The crows were fast, and agile, even if they weren"t as fast as the pods, if they notice any of us coming up, they"ll intercept, they won"t bother the scorpion in his domain but once we go to theirs, it will be even harder to flee.
We curved to the right, I was the first to manage this sharp drift without cras.h.i.+ng against the wall. Yu Liang slowed down first, and she noticed that one of her fellow cultivators wasn"t decreasing his speed as he tried to mimic my feat.
"NO! SLOW DOWN!" she shouted.
But the cultivator wasn"t too keen on listening to her, no with the great scorpion following after us.
So he tried to drift the same only to make it slightly short, he grazed the side of his pod against a rock.
Usually that wouldn"t have damaged the pod enough to cause any problem, but at the speed he was going with, it was enough to destabilize his pod and it went haywire clas.h.i.+ng against a wall. His life ended before he knew it.
Yu Liang cursed and I could hear her, as she pivoted and followed after me speeding through the valley.
The rest of her group, eight of the cultivators were desperately running away from the creature, they knew they shouldn"t increase their speed in the upcoming turn. If they were too fast they"ll die, if they were too slow they will die.
"Consider this a favor," I said to her then added. "X, slow it down," I mumbled.
The puppet that was making a steady flight next to me flew up and went back towards the turn, just as the cultivators were slowing down for the curve, and the ma.s.sive scorpion was about to pounce on them.
X stopped in mid air, pointed both arms forward where the hands dropped down, revealing his wrists.
Inside his wrists were two rounds. One in each arm, they pointed towards the scorpion and shot forward with enough explosiveness that X himself was rattled back from it.
The rounds on his hands weren"t simple. They weren"t explosive rounds, poisonous or even incendiary.
They were two rounds made from meteorite steel, the same steel I used to make Y"s swords.
Inside these rounds were a High Grade Spirite Stone each, though they would have been far better and more powerful if I had used a Top Grade spirit stone, but when I made those rounds I didn"t have top Grade Spirit Stones.
Still, they"re more than enough, because I didn"t need to kill the scorpion.
The rounds shot forward at blazing speed.
The scorpion, realizing that it was about to be attacked covered its face with its two ma.s.sive pincers.
The two rounds made a deafening contact sound against the Scorpion"s pincers, enough to stagger it back for a moment.
The moment was more than precious for the cultivators to take, as they sped up and went by the curve. Escaping as fast as they could from the now wrathful scorpion.
The two rounds were not much in destructive damage, they however had a secondary function.
X flew back towards me, and I pulled him into the Lord of Lords paG.o.da for him to restock. I didn"t need him anymore. Because he already achieved his objective.
"Thank you for your help, but I don"t think things have been solved," she said.
Apparently, the cultivators following Yu Liang weren"t too proficient in using the pod, they didn"t manage it as exelently as Yu Liang did.
It was also a part of the test, the pods were fast, but were only fast if one could drive them well. For people with low proficiency it was still hard to guide them properly not to mention being able to fully use their power.
"Don"t worry about that, something interesting will happen now," I said then I snapped my fingers enabling the second part of the rounds"s purpose.
The rounds in themselves were not powerful, they only had a very sharp "head".
This head was made from meteorite steel, and it was shaped slightly differently than a normal bullet"s head.
It had the head of a drill, and once the snap of my fingers sounded, it released the second function of the drill rounds.
The High Grade Spirit Stone shone bright, giving their full power to the rounds, the mechanic within the round activated, fueling the meteorite steel with Qi making it heavier and st.u.r.dier.
Then it began. A slow but steady grind, a spin, then a full blasting swirl of the round"s head, causing the two bullets that were stuck against the pincers to dig in deep.
Black blood spewed out from the scorpion"s pincers as it staggered forward, screeching in agonized pain.
Blood splattered and splashed from the pincers, causing the scorpion to rattle in place as it smashed at the walls of the great valley. Pain blinded the scorpion, as it started to literally bury itself alive from pain.
The rocks from the valley continued falling down at the scorpion as it caused an earthquake.
It didn"t take much time for it"s rattling to subside, and for the scorpion to stop moving.
I knew for a fact that it isn"t dead. The rounds were killer rounds, but they would work wonderfully against great beings, the pain they can cause was enough to fry any creature"s nervous system.
I should also add a poison function to those rounds. I can"t make many since I don"t have a lot of Meteorite steel left. But I should probably procure more just for this fact. The debut of the Drill Round was a perfect success.
I continued moving up and ahead, before I heard her speak.
"Shen Bao, can you stop for a moment," she said.
I did as asked, and we stopped.
The rest of her group followed suit, and they all stopped.
They had an antagonistic view of me when we first met, but now that I saved their lives it was different.
I also don"t suppose they"ll be mentioning the fact that I took that guy"s top grade spirit stones. It was my right.
"Here," she said as she handed me the Saint Qi crystal back.
"I hereby swear to not reveal the presence of such treasure. If I break this promise may heavens punish me," she spoke an oath.
The rest of the cultivators understood what she meant and they all swore the same oath.
"You should take care of your treasures. Anyway, I can"t thank you enough for your help. If it weren"t for you, we"d still be stuck there, or maybe if we risked our lives we might have died."
"No need for thanks," I said.
Before I was about to add to my sentence, she pulled something from her bag, and said.
"Here, you mentioned you wanted a map. This is to repay this kindness," she said.
"This turned out better than expected."
"Thank you, this will be helpful, then, you wouldn"t mind if I were to head out first," I said once I inspected the contents of the map.
"Yes," she politely nodded.
I stepped back into my pod, now with a map of all the secret paths and shortcuts, I should be able to shorten the distance between me and the top rankers.
I slowly increased my speed, and just as I was far enough, I shoved another Top Grade Spirit stone, and blasted my engine to maximum input.
I didn"t really need to bother with overworking my pod now, after all the next city is a checkpoint that we needed to stay in.
It marks the halfway of the race and almost all cultivators will have to stay there for a day.
It was an interesting city, it was like a pit-stop, only it would record everyone"s arrival time and release them the next day in same period of arrival.
So, people who arrived for example at the breaking of dawn will be able to rest move at the next morning at the same time period.
So, it was imperative to arrive fast to leave even faster.