Chapter 674: Change in Mission
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
His breath betrayed his intention to kill. Meng Qi subconsciously took a step and blocked General Yin with his slanted sword. Meanwhile, Ruan Yushu took out the ancient Demon-revealing Mirror.
Jiang Zhiwei, Qi Zhengyan, and Zhao Heng stood together, ready to fight at any given moment.
If he were to face General Yin alone, Meng Qi was not confident he could win even if he were to use a main ingredient of the divine weapons. Strong as he was, it would be useless if he could not hit his enemy. Without the others pinning him down, it was possible for the enemy to evade, albeit at a certain cost, as they had the strength and realm of a grandmaster. That was unless the Evil Spirit of Zhen Wu and the Oracle of the Covenant had things that must be contested for. Thus, Meng Qi must use his Kung Fu to create an opportunity to kill or use a main ingredient of the divine weapons to create a chance to escape.
Fortunately, he was not alone now. He had the Demon-revealing Mirror and help from his friends. Dealing with General Yin would not be a problem as long as he did not have a special magical artifact from the Journey to the West.
The only thing they had to consider was the mysterious “man” in a black robe. His breath was much colder and more horrible than General Yin’s. Meng Qi felt great danger even with five of them facing that man.
Snake Dang coldly looked over, revealing two red awns in the dark under his black robe.
His cold eyes immediately gave rise to a chill in the depths of Meng Qi’s heart—so cold that it nearly froze his blood lineage, muscles, and bones. His Vital Spirit shuddered.
“What terrifying strength!”
Snake Dang suddenly looked up and screeched. His breath that was carried by the sound broke out into the clouds. Even in the shard of Celestial Court, his breath discolored the wind and solidified the sputum. It was as if he was the Dominator and the core of this world!
“The peak of the Exterior, close to the Half-step to Dharmakaya…” The breath was elusive. As it was difficult to ponder, Meng Qi did not dare to rush and just remained guarded.
“It turns out there’s an enemy of this level. Isn’t this mission too difficult?”
Meng Qi could still vividly remember how Progenitor Doumu had killed the Peerless Master Pro “Emperor of the Netherworld” with just a slap!
This Death Task was no different!
The frightened General Yin stayed in place, feeling rather fortunate that he had not gone against Snake Dang.
Strong as Snake Dang was, though, he had failed to protect the Silver Python King!
The screech faded and Snake Dang turned his head, regarding Meng Qi and the others as if they were nothing. He stepped forward to the palace which was the sole building standing.
“Ah…” Meng Qi was evidently taken aback.
After demonstrating its strength, the black-robed monster surprisingly did not kill all its enemies so it could look for the treasure in peace.
Was its action earlier a warning that it would not be hostile if they did not covet the treasure?
Were there good-hearted monsters like this?
Jiang Zhiwei and the others had not expected this. They exchanged looks with one another and General Yin. It was deathly quiet in front of the palace.
General Yin thought hard and still did not know what to do.
“Kill the human tribe here first?
“No, Snake Xiong and the others screamed and disappeared while these human beings were safe and sound. They must have something backing them up!”
Thinking again about the miserable roc, General Yin suddenly became timid.
Even if he encountered an enemy equipped with powerful magical artifacts while he was alone, he was confident that he could escape due to his realm. The exception was if those artifacts were not the same ones that the Monster Kings had used when Monk Tang traveled west to fetch scriptures. However, this team of five had gathered before him. The girl in the yellow dress could fight him and the young man with the sword and saber seemed even stronger. The roc’s failure was an example of the outcome of a battle with such a team!
Without a second thought, General Yin sharply turned and ran to catch up with Snake Dang.
“If Snake Dang eats meat, I can at least get some meat soup!”
Unable to understand the black-robed monster’s thoughts, Meng Qi did not hurl his sword at General Yin’s back. He watched as they pushed open the front gate of the palace and disappeared into the darkness.
“What an inexplicable task…” Meng Qi exhaled.
Jiang Zhiwei frowned. “The breath of the black-robed monster seems familiar.”
Her words reminded Meng Qi of something. “It really is familiar. Where have we came across it?”
Zhao Heng shook his head. “I didn’t find him familiar.”
They thought hard about every surviving demon that they had encountered, but there was no clue.
“I can’t remember.” Meng Qi gave up and gazed at the open gate of the palace. “Since we have our Karma points, we don’t have to worry about the deduction. It’s not worth it to fight a monster close to the Half-step to Dharmakaya realm. Let’s look around and take some pieces to make up for the loss of Karma points instead. ”
Given the chance to retreat, few people would engage in a life and death fight.
“Okay.” As much as she liked fighting and improving her sword art, Jiang Zhiwei was not brainless. She could not even deal with a grandmaster, what more a monster close to the Half-step to Dharmakaya realm?
Meng Qi looked around and saw the Celestial River at their back and the palace in front. The palace was cut off by the Chaos in the middle. There were two gardens with large, lush trees on each side.
“The black-robed monster made it clear for us not to compete with him. In other words, we better not enter the palace.” Qi Zhengyan reminded his friends.
Based on the layout, one could guess that the core of the shard of Celestial Court would most likely be in the palace.
The same thought occurred to Meng Qi. “Based on the Tiger Monster’s reaction, the black-robed monster seems to have come uninvited. It can’t figure out the details either. Is it possible that it learned of some news and came here just to search for the core of the shard?”
“It should be. But the black-robed monster hesitated before choosing the left side after entering. Seems like it didn’t know where the core is,” Zhao Heng said, explaining his meticulous observation.
However, all these information were not useful. Meng Qi took a deep breath and pointed. “Let’s not enter the palace. We will go to the garden to look for some immortal herbs. If we can harvest an immortal peach, it would be more rewarding than completing ten missions!”
“Immortal peaches…” Ruan Yushu’s eyes suddenly brightened.
The immortal peaches, one of the Celestial Court’s most prized treasures, would surely be in the core area of the Ninth Heaven instead of the outskirts close to the Southern Heavenly Door. Ruan Yushu knew Meng Qi was only trying to comfort them, but she still felt revitalized as she imagined the taste of the peaches!
“Where to?” Jiang Zhiwei asked, smiling.
She had accepted the fact that they had failed their task.
Meng Qi said thoughtfully, “Something is strange in the shard of the Celestial Court, considering the deaths of the monsters. We mustn’t separate. As for the direction, I am used to going left.”
“Then let’s go.” Jiang Zhiwei and the others did not have relevant information, so they let Meng Qi choose.
With Meng Qi leading the way, they quickly neared the left garden while cautiously guarding against danger.
Once they were close to the garden, Meng Qi, who was operating Jade Virtual Divination, suddenly turned around to look at the palace gate. He saw the flash of a strange, b.l.o.o.d.y shadow as it disappeared into the darkness behind the gate!
“What’s wrong?” Qi Zhengyan asked in a low voice.
Meng Qi frowned. “I saw a blood shadow, but it is not coming for us. Don’t worry.”
“If the strange shadow in the shard of the Celestial Court kills General Yin and the black-robed monster, wouldn’t that mean we have completed the task?”
“This is a surprise worth antic.i.p.ating!”
Meng Qi dropped the thought and checked the ban. Once again, he used all the methods including the avatar but found nothing abnormal. While the Jade Virtual Divination and Jiang Zhiwei’s “Cicada Feels the Arrival of Autumn Without Autumn Wind Moving” skill did not “detect” any danger either.
Stepping into the garden, they first felt the vicissitudes of the Time Sword. When Meng Qi looked around, he snorted.
The avatar could only observe a limited range of areas, unlike Meng Qi who could sense a much larger radius. He found this place to be even stranger now that he was looking at it with his own eyes.
The whole garden was bare except for a large tree in the center. The tree was tall, green, and incredibly leafy. Its branches looked like an umbrella. Looking at it from afar, one would think that there were many trees here.
The leaves swayed gently, but they could not hide the silence, vicissitudes of life, stagnation, and lack of vitality!
“This tree is a little weird…” Meng Qi slowly moved closer. The idea of chopping the tree into pieces for easy transport came to his mind.
Qi Zhengyan frowned as if thinking about something. He trailed behind Ruan Yushu and Zhao Heng, while Jiang Zhiwei brought up the rear.
Meng Qi moved forward as he looked around. He did not find any curses or traps.
Suddenly, his s.p.a.ce Ring throbbed as if something was waking up inside, moving up and down and waiting to be fed.
“What’s with this…” Meng Qi’s heart jumped. He cautiously opened the s.p.a.ce Ring.
“It is the tree!”
The “Supreme-wisdom Tree,” which had not reacted to any previous provocation, was now glowing and hovering!
Was it because of this slender green tree?
Meng Qi reflected on this. He then stowed the Flowing Fire, took out the Supreme-wisdom Tree, and reached out to the only creature in the garden—a straight and slender tree!
“Pa!”
The Supreme-wisdom Tree first touched a palm before touching the big tree!
Meng Qi looked on in astonishment, not noticing that Qi Zhengyan was standing beside him trying to touch the tree.
“This…” Qi Zhengyan was a bit slow. He looked down at the Supreme-wisdom Tree. In his eyes, shock gave way to horror.
“Whoo!”
Following the strange sound, several observable but untouchable breaths in the color of the Chaos emerged from the big tree and flowed to the little green tree in Meng Qi’s hand.
The big tree shrank and withered within a short moment. Its branches began to rot. On the other hand, the little green tree glowed and the lights immediately condensed. Then, a part of the trunk swelled as if it was about to grow a new branch!
The voice of the Dominator of Samsara in Six Realms suddenly interrupted Meng Qi’s thoughts.
“The mission has changed as the core has been absorbed. Please escape from Snake Dang and General Yin who will try to kill you, and stop them from taking the Supreme-wisdom Tree!”
“Holy c.r.a.p!” Meng Qi never imagined this big tree or its “vitality” was actually the core!
At this moment, a horrible breath rushed from the palace as a snake as thick as a pond emerged. Wings protruded from its back and pus flowed from its rotting muscles.
“I let you go. Why did you take my chance?” The snake’s giant eyes turned scarlet as it roared. There was an image of a white-haired zombie in one of its eyes, and the images of Meng Qi and the team in the other eye!
“Old Luo?” Meng Qi was stunned.
It turned out that Snake Dang was the snake zombie that had previously hunted Luo Shengyi!
“Why did it become like this? How did it get out of the Holy Mountain?”
The giant snake bowed its head. Meng Qi and the others were all rigid. They decided to abort the mission now and return.
“You may return after escaping from this battle.”
The cold and merciless voice of the Dominator of Samsara in Six Realms reverberated in their minds.