Chapter 151: Visible Tianma
Translated by: La0o9
Edited by: VindiFan#1
Leng Tian Xing looked ahead, muttering: “What is that?”
Gu Qing Shan on the other hand, became extremely tense, gritting his teeth and tightened his expression.
There was a black shadow floating in the middle of the abandoned camp.
On the littered, broken white bones on the ground, occasionally appeared a long black “string” made of light, something seems to be writhing inside those “strings”.
Then the black strings flew up, sucked into the body of the shadow.
At a glance, the black shadow even looks like a person.
But if you examine carefully, it looks like innumerable people flattened to the thickness of paper, layered on top of each other.
The black shadow then let out a human-sounding voice, its tone was extremely joyful.
『So many…』
『More!』
『WE WANT MORE!』
The voice sounded like over hundreds of thousands of people, men and women, old and young speaking at the same time.
Hearing such a voice, Leng Tian Xing felt gooseb.u.mps all over.
“I can’t believe it would appear now…” Gu Qing Shan silently muttered.
Then he pulled Leng Tian Xing back, retreating very slowly.
Leng Tian Xing looked back at him, seeing Gu Qing Shan’s tense expression, together with the layer of cold sweat on his forehead.
With how experienced Leng Tian Xing is, he’s able to immediately judge the situation from Gu Qing Shan’s reaction.
———–Gu Qing Shan seems to know about this strange demonic thing, and from his heavy expression, it’s an extremely strong demon!
Recognizing that, Leng Tian Xing also slowly retreated backwards with Gu Qing Shan.
After they retreated around 5 feet, Gu Qing Shan suddenly let out a thunderous roar.
“USE ———EVERY———-THING!”
Gu Qing Shan had already started to swing the Earth sword before he finished speaking.
The Earth sword was covered in a dense layer of lightning arcs, then covered again with a blinding layer of sword phantoms.
The Secret Art was [Crescent Slash], but he is using 120% of his power, turning it into a blinding sun instead!
In the darkness, countless sword phantoms broke up, illuminating the entire camp area like it was daytime.
The Earth sword drew a fierce arc, striking behind the two of them.
Not too early, not too late, as soon as the black shadow appeared behind the two of them, it was immediately slashed by the sword arc.
Using his Lightning spirit energy, Gu Qing Shan activated [Seven Shackles]!
The shadow immediately got suspended in mid-air.
A second later, millions of voices screeched in pain from the black shadow.
The sound was like an invisible giant sledge hammer, knocking both Gu Qing Shan and Leng Tian Xing backwards, coughing blood.
The shadow took it very badly.
Not only did Gu Qing Shan use a full power Secret Art, he also added the power of [Seven Shackles] into it.
Lightning naturally has a Smiting Evil property, so it does 30% more damage to demons.
Although it’s hard to tell if the strike heavily wounded the shadow or not, but it’s definitely in intense pain and discomfort.
Leng Tian Xing who endured the writhing pain from his soul vessel, barely completed his hand seals.
As soon as Gu Qing Shan shouted, he also knew the situation has changed, requiring both their maximum efforts.
So he instantly began casting his spell.
He trusts Gu Qing Shan to buy him enough time to cast this Elemental Secret Art.
During their escape from Shen Wu world, fighting through the sea of demons together, they’ve already gotten a sense of coordination.
Sure enough, when the shadow wanted to attack, Gu Qing Shan had already taken the initiative, very briefly stunning it in place.
Leng Tian Xing shouted loudly: “Die!”
He pointed his hand seals at the shadow and triggered it at full power.
Elemental Secret Art, [All Things Fade]!
This is a technique that can only be unleashed after reaching the peak of 3rd stage of Water Element, and it’s being unleashed by Leng Tian Xing through straining himself to the limit.
A transparent giant sphere of white permafrost formed in mid-air, trapping the black shadow inside.
From the time that Gu Qing Shan attacked, to when he attacked only took a total of 2 seconds.
It was this level of coordination and reaction that saved their lives.
In the first second, Gu Qing Shan struck the shadow that suddenly appeared.
After one second, it escaped from the Lightning [Seven Shackles], screeched at the same time that Leng Tian Xing unleashed his spell.
The screeching sound of the shadow stopped.
It was frozen solid inside the giant sphere of permafrost, unable to move.
As time pa.s.sed, a layer of frost started to appear on the shadow as its entire body turned white.
Leng Tian Xing nodded satisfyingly at his masterpiece, about to say something, only to hear Gu Qing Shan shout again.
“Run!”
As soon as Gu Qing Shan shouted that, he ran.
Leng Tian Xing was still confused, but got pulled away by Gu Qing Shan, the two of them turned into streaks of light flying back where they came from.
This time he’s a bit annoyed.
——-–I just used an Elemental Secret Art that’s above my level you know? With this spell, any Golden Core cultivators that gets. .h.i.t will die without a doubt you know? Do you have such little faith in me?
Leng Tian Xing was just about to explain how strong this spell was, when he heard a small cracking sound behind him.
Cr-crack!
The sphere of permafrost already had a crack as thin as a piece of string.
And then, more and more cracks appeared, spreading at a rapid speed.
Leng Tian Xing felt a chill on his back, it was only now that he understood how frightening this demon is.
Although they’re both called demons, the type that’s met more often are actually demon beasts.
Actual demons are very rare, and each species has a different type of incomprehensible power.
And this demon is very much out of his range of knowledge.
Leng Tian Xing doesn’t complain anymore and used all his power to run, even pa.s.sing Gu Qing Shan.
As the two of them ran for their lives, after only a few dozen feet, a loud explosion rang from behind them.
So quick!
Leng Tian Xing’s expression changed.
While Gu Qing Shan had already jumped high into the air, he turned around while holding the Night Rain.
Swish-Swish-Swis.h.!.+
Three black streaks of shadow flew, then disappeared in the blink of an eye.
They were the 3 remaining Demon Slaying Arrows he had!
[Sharpshooter]!
[Rapid Fire]!
[Riding Wind]!
[Bombardment]!
He used all his available Skills on those three shots.
Gu Qing Shan fell down, rolled on the ground, tried his best to stand up but couldn’t.
Using [Bombardment] even once was already going above his level, and yet he used it three times in a row. Not to mention he just used a Secret Art and his Lightning thaumaturgy a few seconds ago, overexerting himself like that made him temporarily unable to move.
Seeing that, Leng Tian Xing quickly hoisted him up, carried on his back and ran for their lives.
When the 3 Demon Slaying Arrows were about to hit it, the shadow had only just broken out of the ice sphere, even the frost on its body has not fully receded.
And all 3 arrows. .h.i.t their mark!
Countless screams of horror and anger was raised once more.
As the Demon Slaying Arrows burrowed into the shadow’s chest, its terrifying speed was suddenly lost.
Wails of death and pain were heard from the shadow.
As the Demon Slaying Arrows burrowed a little deeper a bit at a time, numerous human-shaped shadows appeared and dissipated.
The 3 Demon Slaying Arrows created a stalemate with the shadow.
About a dozen breath later, all 3 Demon Slaying Arrows turned to dust, blown away by the wind.
The shadow had also become much thinner, staggering as if it’s about to collapse.
Countless crying voices of different ages and gender spread around, becoming louder and louder.
The shadow slowly moved forward, like it was looking for the enemy.
But after only a bit, it seems to stop searching and began to let out incoherent noises.
It seems to be communicating with something else somewhere.
On the other side.
Gu Qing Shan was still on Leng Tian Xing’s back, took out a pill and swallowed it.
“Ask whatever you want” seeing Leng Tian Xing’s face that wanted to ask something but still hesitant, he said.
“Just now” Leng Tian Xing was still flying at full speed, asked while breathing heavily, “I saw you shot 3 Demon Slaying Arrows, but still couldn’t kill it?”
“I couldn’t” Gu Qing Shan answered: “It’s true body is made up of countless souls, there’s at least 10,000 in there. You and I can’t possibly kill it right now”
“It doesn’t seem to be chasing us” Leng Tian Xing commented.
“Because it’s body isn’t suitable for long distance pursuit, and it doesn’t need to” Gu Qing Shan answered.
“Why is that?”
“Because it can control the demon army to pursue us instead”
Gu Qing Shan sighed, then continued: “This is what it means to be a real demon, unlike those demon beasts whose minds are barely sentient”
Saying so, Gu Qing Shan went silent, beginning to circulate his spirit energy to absorb the pill’s power.
Things are becoming more and more like what he was afraid of.
But this demon appearing at this point in time was a bit unexpected.
Tianma are divided into invisible and visible Tianma. (1)
Invisible Tianma needs to consume human souls to grow, while visible Tianma only trap the souls and use them as its source of life force.
That thing just now was a newly born visible Tianma.
From its state just now, he guesses that it has only entrapped about 10,000 souls, and was still in the process of collecting more.
Because if a visible Tianma entraps 100,000 souls, it’ll evolve into a visible King Tianma.
And if it does, there’s no way that Gu Qing Shan and Leng Tian Xing would be able to get away.
From his experience in the past life, the only thing that counters the Tianma’s characteristics is the Dalani of Buddhists.
Using any other type of spells and techniques would take a lot more effort for much lesser results.
Because they are sentient, they can read the memories of every soul they trap and thus knows about humanity’s war arrangements like the back of their hand.
The fact that visible Tianma has entered the battlefield means that the demon army has already made its preparations
Preparations for a decisive battle.
This is completely incomprehensible.
Clearly, humans are the ones that started to prepare for the counter attack first, the one that was supposed to take the initiative in the decisive battle, but it turns out demons have also done the same.
Didn’t they already turn their attention to invading Reality?
So where did their main force for this invasion come from?
The most important thing is, all they were doing is scouting out a few abandoned camps, why did they just happen to run into it now?
Gu Qing Shan’s mind moved quickly back and forth, then finally arrived at that frightening possibility that he didn’t want to admit the most.
“What do we do now?” Leng Tian Xing was still breathing heavily.
“You’re a Zhao Wu Chaplain, you can decide for yourself you know, no need to ask permission from a Xiao Qi Chaplain like me” Gu Qing Shan was busy thinking so he just replied.
“It’s like I don’t know how to command when I’m going with you” Leng Tian Xing seriously thought about it, then answered.
“Then we should stop first” Gu Qing Shan said.
Leng Tian Xing stopped his feet.
“I have something I need to get done” Gu Qing Shan said.
Leng Tian Xing understood what he meant and asked: “Alone?”
“That’s right, so your role right now is very heavy, you have to go by yourself to finish the mission” Gu Qing Shan answered.
“That’s not really that heavy, the mission itself is quite simple” Leng Tian Xing answered.
“And also” Gu Qing Shan thought for a bit, then said: “Your spirit beast, can I borrow it for a bit?”
“That’s no problem as well, you and I are sworn comrades, back in Shen Wu world, if it weren’t for you, I would’ve already died”
Leng Tian Xing took off the spirit beast on his back and gave it to Gu Qing Shan.
Note:
(1) The “ma” in Tianma means demon. It could also mean “mystic”, thus the reason why it was said several chapters ago that a beast can be a spirit beast or a demon beast depending on their will.