Chapter 1 – Landing
As he was falling, Xue Ying could see that past the black, fierce wind were several black silhouettes. Some were enormous, while others appeared in the shape of an ordinary human… that unseen suppressive force likewise alternated between strong and weak as well. The strong suppressive force was so strong that Xue Ying sensed it could kill him with a simple gaze. The weak force had the minimum strength of a Transcendent. All these sensations caused a tightening in Xue Ying’s heart.
At the beginning when he started falling, he had promised he would definitely return from the abyss, both to give his brother hope and to fight for his own survival! Yet right now, he understood that living through this disaster would be extremely challenging.
“Whatever, I’ll do it step by step.” Xue Ying’s resolve was firm, “Firstly, I’ll need to think of a way to survive the fall.”
Both his hands held onto the enormous scaled wing’s bone, stretching the wing apart.
The wind streaming past his body was both fierce and volatile. Xue Ying had to do his utmost to ensure the scaled wings would provide him with the greatest resistance to reduce his speed even further.
“But it is still too fast, too fast.” Xue Ying’s speed of descent was still increasing, “At this speed, I’ll likely get splattered to death!”
“En?”
Xue Ying’s expression changed.
This was because he could clearly see the surface below!
“I’m nearly there!” Xue Ying’s heart was completely lifted up. Regardless of how dangerous this Black-Wind Abyss was, if he did not survive the first fall, then any chance of further struggle would be gone.
“Hong–”
Suddenly, before reaching the rock-bottom ground of about 100 meters square, the fierce wind disappeared.
Xue Ying felt the absence of any strong winds at about 100 meters above rock-bottom! As for the air space above that 100-meters layer… it was the start of a layer of the tempestuous, fierce wind blotting out the skies!
Xue Ying tore through the air towards the ground, creating a sonic boom. After entering the 100-meters zone… with the condition of no-wind, the enormous wings held by both his hands increased the air resistance tremendously! He even felt the explosive wrenching force pulling on his shoulders. Due to his strong, fleshly body, he continued to withstand such forces and ensured that he still exerted his full control at critical moments.
At a distance of 100 meters, Xue Ying’s speed rapidly decelerated.
But the distance of 100 meters was too short, and his initial falling speed was too fast. Within the blink of an eye, he smashed right into the mountain’s surface with a ‘hong’ sound. Even though his speed had cut down by half, it was still faster than the speed of sound, blasting a big crater in the mountain face below.
“Hong–” Both his legs reached the ground, before his entire body smashed into it.
The mountain rocks seemed to be as soft as water.
Or to speak simply, with Xue Ying’s powerful, fleshly body, the mountain’s surface was simply too weak. For Xue Ying, smashing onto the rocky mountain top was like an ordinary man jumping into water, but — once his speed reached a certain high velocity, and at a certain height, even if a man were to jump into water, he would still splattered to his death.
“Hu.” Xue Ying lost consciousness for a moment after hitting the bottom. The huge impact broke his bones with a sound and fresh blood spewed out from his mouth.
“I’m injured. The bone of my left arm is fractured and three bones broken in my sternum. But most troublesome of all is the injury to my viscera.” Xue Ying had a very fine understanding of his body. He still rejoiced over the fact that he was able to reduce his speed by half during the last 100 meters! This enabled him to reduce the impact by 70-80 percent. Otherwise, he would still been splattered to death even with using the scaled wings.
“Now, my injuries are quite heavy, with my viscera being impacted. I won’t be able to endure fights that are too strenuous.” Xue Ying immediately understood, “I’ve got to quickly find a place to recover. With my recovery rate, only 3 hours will be needed for full recovery.”
The outer flesh would recover the fastest, followed by the bones and lastly, the viscera.
Xue Ying was still joyous over the fact that he had survived the fall.
……
Following his landing and injury analysis, Xue Ying hastily dashed to higher ground. With both his arms held out for balance, he gazed into the distance. He first saw the scattered remains of the four-hooved, black-scaled beast. With this fall, the creature’s entire body had already splattered into many pieces, with several parts missing. At the same time, at a certain distance, he could see a black-scaled soldier dashing towards him at a speed so fast that after-images could be seen.
“Not good. I was discovered.” Xue Ying did not hesitate in escaping.
Sou sou sou.
Rapidly retreating, only after a while did Xue Ying have some apprehension decide to stop and hide behind a large chunk of rock about one kilometer away from his landing spot. Stealthily looking at the black-scaled soldier, Xue Ying saw that the soldier had reached – the large crater at the contact point.
“En?” Xue Ying’s vision was quite keen. With just a glance, he saw that beneath the black scales, the soldier’s body was formed by some black mist. The soldier’s eyes on his mask glowed with a faint red light.
“Not a human nor a beast. Somehow… it’s like it is not alive?” Xue Ying speculated with some uncertainty, “I originally thought that it had discovered me and wants to chase after me. According to what I know of the abilities of ordinary Legend ranks, at this distance, it should be able to see me! Yet it does not come after me and instead, it investigates that crater I made accompanied by a loud bang.”
“It seems that its vision is quite ordinary, or maybe, it did not depend on its eyesight?” Xue Ying had many speculations.
Regardless, concluding from the fact it had speed that formed after-images…
Just solely on this, the black-scaled soldier would have surpassed Xiang Pang Yun completely!
“First, find a place to recover.” Xue Ying observed the surroundings. Soon, he spied a small cave beside the mountain. Only after the black-scaled soldier turned around to further investigate did he quietly leap across the 50 meters of distance to enter this small cave.
Using the energy from the world to probe for any organisms in this cave, he found none within.
Standing at the edge of this cave, he carefully peeked at the black-scaled soldier.
Standing at a high position, he could thus see further.
“That is–”
Xue Ying felt shocked.
At a distance of about 25-30 kilometers away, there was actually a cavern palace glowing with an azure light. Many black-scaled soldiers patrolled outside the cavern palace. They appeared to not know the meaning of exhaustion, and constantly marched about. Other than the black-scaled soldiers, there were also a small number of black organisms that gave him the feeling of pressure when he looked at them.
“Regardless of whether it was that thousand meters long, black dragon-like organism entrenched in the mountain high up, or the other black-coloured organisms, including the black-scaled soldiers,” Xue Ying nodded lightly, “It seems they are all protecting that cavern palace.”
“If I were to get closer, I’m afraid I would get easily killed” Xue Ying murmured.
“Forget it. Recovery come first.”
Xue Ying retreated into the small cave, sat down cross-legged, took out a piece of big meaty bone, and started roasting it with his flame.
This meaty bone was actually food found within Xiang Pang Yun’s storage treasure. Whether it was Xiang Pang Yun or that Demonic Emissary, their storage treasures did contain a large amount of food and water. This led to Xue Ying murmured to himself that maybe, all Legend rankers carried with them food and water? As to the smell of roast meat, Xue Ying was not worried. He could utilise the energy of the world to prevent the smell from escaping out of the cave.
“En, this is so fragrant. Seems like this Xiang Pang Yun really did know how to enjoy himself with good food.” Xue Ying ate it with big bites. Under his control, the fractured bones in his body naturally rectified themselves, and his visceras, too, gradually began recovering.
*****
The night was long.
Zong Ling and Tong San were able to control their emotions, but Qing Shi was completely devastated.
“My brother will certainly come back. He will. I’ll not move. I’m not going to move. I’ll wait for him below the Black-Wind Cliff. I’ll wait for him here.” Qing Shi was not willing to move, yet after Zong Ling’s words of persuasion, “Qing Shi, this Black-Wind Abyss is so big. Xue Ying might even come out from another side of the Black-Wind Cliff. Regardless, the first place he would visit would be the Snowrock Castle. If you were to wait for him here at the foot of the mountains… I’m afraid you might miss out on him.”
Qing Shi was convinced by this, and thus, went back to Snowrock Castle on the Black-moon Centipede.
“Hu!”
At this time, a team of cavalry rushed towards Snowrock Castle under the late night, with the Dragon Mountain Manor Lord Si An heading it.
How frightening was the news of the great battle between Xiang Pang Yun and Xue Ying? The spies arranged by Dragon Mountain Manor went back to inform their manor lord of Water Rites Town Dragon Mountain Manor at the fastest speed. Lord Si An was so shocked that he did not care about sleeping. He arrived immediately.
Hong Long Long —
The draw-bridge was brought down, and the gates opened.
“Lord Si An.” Zong Ling came out personally to welcome him.
“How was it? Where’re Dong Bo Xue Ying? And Xiang Pang Yun?” Lord Si An asked.
