Chapter 1423: Rogue
Although Lu Yin’s mechanical arm was able to attack a large area, it was still weaker than Xia Taili’s power vessel that looked like an aquatic plant or Wen Diyi"s fan. Each of their attacks only strengthened one or two of the creatures, while each of Lu Yin’s attacks reinforced four or five of the withered creatures.
There was a bang, and Wen Diyi evaded. Where he had just stood, a ma.s.sive withered creature roared. Its strength had already reached the level of an Enlighter.
Wen Diyi raised his hand and swept out with his fan. The bone-eroding wind blew forward and dissipated the creature"s flesh and blood.
"Brother Long Qi, don"t use that weapon. If we need to, we’ll fight them one at a time, as at least that way we won’t be strengthening them," Wen Diyi loudly suggested. As he spoke, he swept his fan towards the sky to prevent the bats from approaching.
Lu Yin put away the ma.s.sive mechanical arm and instead started attacking with a Vacuum Palm. This method was much slower, but he would not strengthen many of the desiccated creatures.
After half a day, all three were exhausted, yet there were still many of the dry creatures still around. Overhead, the bats had moved close together, and it almost looked like they were fused together to form a ma.s.sive bat that attacked the youths from above.
Wen Diyi was startled, and he raised a hand. Golden colored ancient characters took the form or a Literary Prison to trap the bat. After that, another layer of characters appeared, followed by a third, a fourth, and finally a seventh layer.
"Seventh-fold Literary Prison?" Xia Taili was surprised. "You actually managed to reach the seventh level of mastery?"
Lu Yin was caught off guard; there was actually this much more to Literary Prison?
Wen Diyi looked exhausted, and he was breathing heavily. "I’ve pushed too far, so you’ll have to take over for a bit."
Xia Taili was confused.
Wen Diyi explained, "Keep us safe with defense artifacts for now, or else these endless creatures will overwhelm us with their numbers. We can’t kill all of them."
Xia Taili thought that this seemed to be the right strategy, and her strange power vessel wrapped around her body with what looked like aquatic plants. She then smiled at Wen Diyi. "Thanks for the reminder. I have to say, the people from Virtue Archives are certainly smart."
Seeing Xia Taili"s smile, Lu Yin had a premonition of something bad.
Wen Diyi was stunned. "What about us?"
Xia Taili shrugged. "Good luck to you both! After all, we’re in the Dominion Realm, and we’re all on competing teams to begin with.”
Her smile grew even brighter. “You couldn’t have been thinking that I would actually help you."
After speaking, she turned to look at Lu Yin and smiled at him. "Brother-in-law, you should bring out that energy you showed when you thrust that spear at me. These monsters should be enough for you to play with for a while."
Lu Yin rolled his eyes; thrust? This was a very awkward way of phrasing things.
He looked over at Wen Diyi, who was also looking at Lu Yin, clearly feeling rather helpless.
"Later brothers." Xia Taili smiled and waved. She was protected by her power vessel, and she intended to use its strength to break out of the encirclement. She would likely be fine, as long as she did not stumble upon any creature that was too powerful.
Wen Diyi spoke up, "Princess Taili, speaking on behalf of the Virtue Archives, we are willing to accept people from the Xia family to study at the academy. I wonder if this might be enough to trade for protection with your power vessel?"
Xia Taili turned to look at Wen Diyi with bright eyes, and the aquatic plants surrounding her shifted open a bit. "Come on in! You must be joking; why would we need to make a trade to keep each other safe? By the way, how many people are we talking about?"
Wen Diyi sighed. "Given my position, I can offer three places."
"Five." Xia Taili opened a hand.
Wen Diyi thought about it, but then agreed.
Just as he was about to enter the protection of the aquatic plants, Lu Yin charged in first, though Xia Taili did not even respond for a moment. Lu Yin had moved extremely fast, though that did not concern Xia Taili at all. She stared at Lu Yin blankly before becoming angry. "Who let you in? Get out!"
Lu Yin responded in a serious manner, "You call me brother-in-law, so I should protect you. The Dominion Realm is too dangerous to travel alone."
This was the exact same thing he had said when the two of them had first fallen onto the branch. At that time, Xia Taili had wanted to get rid of Long Qing, as she had a map to guide her, but Lu Yin had seen through her intentions and had made sure to keep her close. Now, he was doing the same thing again.
Xia Taili was upset, her face flushed from anger. "You b.a.s.t.a.r.d! Get out! Get away from me!"
Lu Yin remained stoic. "I won"t leave you alone."
"If you don"t get back out, I"ll attack!" Xia Taili screamed.
Lu Yin silently took out the ring-shaped power vessel as well as the mechanical arm. "Don"t worry. I won"t leave you alone."
Xia Taili was completely speechless. How could a person have such thick-skin? She felt certain she could beat this person. After all, she was one of the two top powerhouses of Shenwu’s Sky’s Taizi generation. Still, Long Qi had the qualifications to travel to the Dominion Realm, and attacking him might risk damaging the protection of her power vessels. This person seemed to have quite a few items of his own, and Xia Taili had her own limits of what she was willing to do.
At this moment, Wen Diyi silently entered into the protection of the power vessel, and merely glanced over at Long Qi. How had Wen Diyi not noticed how thick-skinned this person was?
Wen Diyi let out a sigh for the five places in the Virtue Archives that he had just traded, feeling as though he had taken a loss.
"Can you be any more shameless?" Xia Taili glared at Lu Yin. They were still surrounded by an endless number of desiccated creatures that were frantically attacking the three youths while also letting out roars of frustration. The power vessel that looked like aquatic plants blocked all of the incoming attacks.
Lu Yin"s expression remained as solemn as ever. "Sister Taili, don"t worry, since you call me brother-in-law, your brother-in-law will never leave you."
Xia Taili was feeling terrible regret at this moment; why had she ever called this guy brother-in-law? She had only randomly said it when she had gone to White Dragon Mountain to deliver some gifts. She had clearly been speaking sarcastically, but this b.a.s.t.a.r.d heard whatever he wanted.
Besides that. Long Qi had actually been rude to her at that time! She felt like she finally understood just what it meant to be truly shameless. Inexplicably, she thought of her older brother, Xia Shenfei. If the two ever spoke to each other, it would be nothing but spouting off nonsense the entire time.
"A person like you is truly unworthy of Sister Long Xi. Everyone else would be willing to die in a righteous manner and would pave a road of blood with their very lives. But what about you? You’re just shameless?" Xia Taili sneered, still not willing to give up. She was hoping to wake up some sort of legendary bravery within this young man.
However, Lu Yin was someone who completely lacked dignity, and he just stared off into the distance in a very serious manner. "Don"t worry, brother-in-law will protect you."
Wen Diyi wanted to give the two a moment.
Xia Taili finally gave up. She controlled her power vessel to slowly move the three of them away from the horde of desiccated creatures. Xia Taili really wanted to try to get something out of this. "I can take you, what can you give?"
Lu Yin did not even look over. "Don"t worry, your brother-in-law will protect you."
"You, b.a.s.t.a.r.d!" Xia Taili was finally unable to put up with him, and she cursed before looking away from Long qi.
Wen Diyi glanced at Xia Taili with sympathy, but then he was suddenly drawn to to look at a black spot off in the distance. Was that Crown Prince Gui Qian?
Wen Diyi was not the only one to notice the distant person, Lu Yin had noticed the man a long time ago, which had also been why he had continued to stare in that direction. However, the longer Lu Yin looked, the more solemn he became. A strong surprise rose in the depths of his eyes.
Crown Prince Gui Qian was off In the distance, shrouded in a black mist. There were bones spread across the ground, and they transformed into weapons that looked like spider legs. These weapons were frantically slaughtering the withered creatures all around. Occasionally, the black mist would also wrap around the bones of these creatures and consume their energy. He never stopped killing and replenishing his energy, he was like a killing machine.
Crown Prince Gui Qian had also seen Lu Yin and the other two. More bones stood up from the ground, and then suddenly jumped up and shot through the sky before smashing down violently in front of Lu Yin and the others.
When Crown Prince Gui Qian appeared, the black and white mist in Lu Yin"s heart started roiling, and he immediately dropped his head to hide the shock he felt. The black energy that this Crown Prince Gui Qian was using was death energy. This person was a member of the Specter Clan!
The Specter Clan also had members in the Perennial World? Also, he had clearly just used the same battle technique that Xie Xiaoxian had one used that created an armor from bones and had reinforced the bones with death energy.
In the Fifth Mainland, the Xies had practically destroyed the Specter Clan, and they had been left with no choice but to turn to the Neohuman Alliance. Since this Crown Prince Gui Qian was able to use the Xie clan’s technique, it seemed he was a member of the Xie clan. However, that clan did not use death energy. Xie Xiaoxian had once used the bones of a member of the Specter Clan, but had not been able to use death energy. This Crown Prince Gui Qian was able to use both death energy and the Xie clan’s technique. The only possibility was that Crown Prince Gui Qian was a member of the Specter Clan, and that the Xie clan had suffered an unfortunate fate in the Perennial World.
"Take me with you," Prince Gui Qian demanded in a low voice.
Xia Taili became upset. "Why? You’re that important?"
Crown Prince Gui Qian stared at Xia Taili, then, without saying a word, the bones behind him suddenly attacked.
Xia Taili quickly blocked the attack with her power vessel, and she shouted angrily, "You’re crazy! Why are you attacking us?"
Crown Prince Gui Qian’s eyes grew red. "If you don"t take me with you, we’ll all die here together."
As he spoke, he took a dark bone out from his cosmic ring and he forced it into his body. The dark mist roiled, darkening the entire surroundings. "Choose, or you can just kill me before leaving."
"You’re nuts!" Xia Taili was furious, and she turned to look at Wen Diyi. "Attack!"
Wen Diyi felt helpless. "It’s not easy for someone to qualify to come to the Dominion Realm, and it’s not worth fighting him."
Xia Taili grew furious. "Are you saying that you feel threatened by him?"
Lu Yin spoke up, "It’s better than dying here."
"Shut up! You don"t have the right to speak, b.a.s.t.a.r.d!" Xia Taili scolded Lu Yin. She then glared at Crown Prince Gui Qian and told him in a surly manner, "Get in."
Crown Prince Gui Qian moved into the protection of the power vessel without any hesitation. He then only spoke two words: "Thank you."
Xia Taili was very unhappy at this moment. It was her power vessel, and she had been the one to seize the initiative to escape, so how had things turned out like this?
Wen Diyi was once again left at a loss; why did neither of the other two have to pay any price to enter the protection of the power vessel? He was still too naive.
The four youths continued on within the protection of the power vessel that looked like an aquatic plant. They moved very slowly, as they were surrounded by countless creatures, and the power vessel had to push its way forward. Wen Diyi and Crown Prince Gui Qian took turns cleaning up the creatures.
After a day of travel, the surrounding horde seemed to have decreased a bit.
"We’re finally out," Lu Yin said emotionally.
Xia Taili shot him a sharp look. "Useless man! Three big men with me, and yet all of them expected to be protected by a woman! You’re all useless! Just useless!"
Lu Yin pretended not to hear anything.
Wen Diyi felt helpless. "I paid for your help."
"So that makes you useful?" Xia Taili was rude, as she was upset with everyone.
Wen Diyi no longer spoke.
Before long, they were able to see the outlines of buildings off in the distance. Xia Taili"s eyes lit up. "What’s that?"
Wen Diyi looked at the buildings and replied in a solemn tone, "That should be the Voidsoul Palace."
Xia Taili was surprised. "The Voidsoul Palace? Where Progenitor Ku used to live?"
Wen Diyi nodded. "There are rumors that this Voidsoul Palace holds an inheritance from the Progenitor, but the historical records claim that he died suddenly and had no time to leave an inheritance, so the truth is that no one knows what’s in there."
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