Chapter 184 – Goat Head Mountain
“Why can’t I hear anything?!” The overwhelming pressure was about to drive some of the young martial artists crazy; one young martial artist, because he was too nervous, began blabbering to give himself courage.
“Be quiet!”
A Long Blade Martial School elder standing to the side said in a low voice and glared at him.
Silently, a cyan and red vine thrust out from the ground and immediately ripped the elder’s protective Zhen Qi apart, deeply piercing his body. The body of the arm-thick vine swelled from time to time, as if it was swallowing the elder’s flesh and blood quickly.
“No!!”
Watching his own body rapidly get drained, this elder could no longer remain calm, and he let out a despairing howl.
In the next moment, the battle formation formed by the Long Blade Martial School’s people fell into chaos.
“Vines are coming up from the ground!!”
“Damn it! They’re in my pants!”
“Help! Someone help me!!”
Waves of screams and howls spread out from the battle formation while despair flooded the minds of these people. Many of them instantly felt their limbs become numb, and they found it difficult to breathe.
The school Leader whose name was Li Yuan, clenched his fists and took a deep breath; he growled harshly, “Split up! Every ten people to a team and each team form a small battle formation! Hack every vine in your sight as hard as you can! Remember! Every time you chop down a vine, you have a better chance of living!”
In this short period of time, thirty more people had died, and among them, around thirty percent was due to martial artists mistakenly killing their own people. If this situation was allowed persist, everyone would break down and go crazy.
In front of the despair and fear, the school Leader’s orders were not too effective; only a few people had listened to him, while the majority entered a state of madness, where with their eyes reddened they hacked away at anything that neared them, without a thought.
The weakness of humankind was completely exposed at this very moment.
“I can’t take it anymore! I want to leave! I’m leaving this bloody shit hole!!”
“If this goes on, we’re all gonna die!!”
As increasingly more people were killed by the vines, a young martial artist finally lost his mind and desperately rushed out of the group, attempting to flee. As the first one make his move, more and more young martial artists followed suit. It was like a virus infection, too rapid to be stopped.
“Ah!!”
“No!!”
None of the young martial artists actually managed to get away; they were all sucked dry by the vines. Facing these monster like vines, their protective Qi were as fragile as Tofu, easily shattering with a slight stab.
“Leader! We’re all going to die soon if this keeps up! Let’s just run! At least some of us will survive if we run, It’s still better than total destruction!” At this moment, they had already lost two to three elders, thus the other elders couldn’t help but yell this out. All the Long Blade Martial School’s elders were Clasping Yuan Realm martial artists with great defensive Zhen Qi; however, attacks launched by the vines were far too swift and frequent, and those vines would always find the weakest spot in their defensive Zhen Qi to attack.
Li Yuan was a peak-level late Clasping Yuan Realm martial artist, and under the protection of his powerful defensive Zhen Qi, he had managed to chop off quite a number of vines. However, even he was beginning to feel like he was strong in will but weak in power as even more vines ceaselessly thrust out from the ground. Each time he chopped off a vine, more vines would immediately squeeze out from the ground and dart towards him, and he couldn’t stop fighting for even a single second.
With a dark expression and a slightly pale face, Li Yuan imbued his voice with Zhen Qi, projecting his orders out with a voice that resonated.
“Everybody, retreat! Don’t panic!”
Before his voice faded, another elder said in a trembling voice full of despair, “Leader, we can’t retreat, the vines are everywhere and we’re surrounded.”
‘Bloody hell! Is our Long Blade Martial School going to perish right here?’
They couldn’t help it but that was exactly what Li Yuan and all the other elders had been thinking of at that particular moment.
“They’re coming!! Mama!!”
Countless numbers of cyan and red vines resembling an enormous group of snakes swamped them; wherever it swept across, one after another martial artists would fall, their bodies completely drained and reduced to only skin and bones.
Hearing the loud, ear-piercing laughter like noise, Li Yuan for the very first time felt helpless. Only one thought remained in his mind— kill. To kill as many as he could. A fierce blade Qi radiated out from the center of his body, and crushing countless vines, it shot towards the area where the vines were most concentrated to continue killing.
Ye Chen had stopped observing the Long Blade Martial School’s people, as he had been discovered by tens of vines as well. These vines had no eyes or nose and had only a mouth, but their perception seemed to be incredibly sharp; easily finding the weakest spot in Ye Chen’s defensive Zhen Qi.
In the unsheathing of the Dragon Spring Sword, three vines were cut off and red and green streams of liquid flew in all directions.
‘Fortunately, I’ve already reached the ninth-level of the Great Mystery Art, and the quantity and quality of my Zhen Qi is now much greater than when I was still cultivating low-ranked Earth Realm arts. Additionally, this low-ranked great light armour I’m wearing now, can improve my defensive power by around ten percent. My defensive power is now generally as high as a peak-level medium Clasping Yuan Realm martial artist’s. Ye Chen thought about how lucky he was as he moved swiftly around in cutting those vines.
Soon, the tens of vines were all cut down by Ye Chen while he remained perfectly unharmed.
However, Ye Chen’s eyebrows furrowed even further.
Perhaps because the vines perceived Ye Chen to be too great a treat, countless vines began gathering from all directions, gradually circling around him and leaving no gaps in between.
Ye Chen’s look remained unchanged. As a possessor of the sword intent, he would not be affected by any kind of negative emotions, instead, he would only be even more calm than usual when facing deadly dangers.
Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!
When launching their attacks, the vines did not make even the slightest sound. They were completely silent, and facing Ye Chen’s attacks, the attack speed of these vines reached a whole new level; rapidly launching themselves at Ye Chen with a speed that was almost as fast as lightning.
“[Clear the Sky]!”
Ye Chen swung the Dragon Spring Sword upwards, generating a huge arc of sword Qi that directly rose and stirred the air, creating a pale-blue tornado that enveloped Ye Chen’s body.
Following a series of puffing noises, all the vines that had been approaching Ye Chen, were crushed by the tornado; from time to time, large streams of sword Qi would dart out of the tornado and slash apart a large number of vines.
Pop!
Suddenly, a dark-red vine penetrated the tornado, shooting towards Ye Chen’s face.
‘This tornado contains my Zhen Qi, making it capable of crushing the hardest of metals when it’s spinning at a high speed. This dark-red vine must be far more solid than the other vines since it managed to penetrate through. The situation seems to be taking a turn for the worse.’ This thought quickly flashed through Ye Chen’s mind as he swung the sword down to cut the dark-red vine into two. With the support of the sword intent, Ye Chen could still easily cut the dark-red vine into pieces as it was not invulnerable.
In the next moment, however, Ye Chen discovered that a new section of vine was already rapidly growing from the broken end of the dark-red vine. At which its mouth was densely filled with sharp teeth.
“I’ve got to get out of here!”
Chopping off the dark-red vine once more, Ye Chen boosted his Great Mystery Zhen Qi as much as he could and injected it into the tornado; he then began moving deeper into the jungle.
The dark-red vine closely followed him–as if reluctant to part– while the others vines frantically moved ahead of the tornado, as if they were trying their best to stop Ye Chen from getting deeper into the jungle.
Struck by the tornado, countless vines were torn apart, and cyan and red fragments and liquid covered the ground in layers.
The further Ye Chen went into the jungle, the more the jungle seemed boundless; seeming to look like a dark and mysterious world.
……
“God damn it! What the hell is this!”
Qin Hao was now entirely surrounded by the cyan and red vines. Although his defensive Zhen Qi would still be able to keep him safe for now, his Zhen Qi was being consumed at an extremely high rate; In only half an hour, he had already taken three Zhen Qi replenishing pills.
Swoosh!
A leg-thick vine suddenly shot over.
Crack!
A gigantic palm silhouette smashed the vine, but very quickly, the vine recovered back to normal.
“This won’t do! I need to get out of here! This bloody forest is way too dangerous! My Zhen Qi is being consumed much faster than it is being replenished. I’ll die sooner or later if I stay in here.”
Qin Hao was extremely annoyed. He had only just managed to escape the Lunar Wind Wolf’s pursuit, and now, once more he had strangely walked into these cyan and red vines’ encirclement. Ever since he entered this Hundred Thousand Mountain range, nothing good has happened. Fortunately, he was not too far away from the entrance of the jungle, and should be able to get out easily.
Another gigantic Zhen Qi palm silhouette burst out, clearing a path for Qin Hao it allowed him to dash towards the entrance of the jungle.
At this moment, a large tree nearby was suddenly struck down in the center, and an enormous silhouette leapt out from behind it. As would be expected, it could be nothing else but the Lunar Wind Wolf.
Qin Hao and the wolf stared at each other, but neither of them had noticed that a stream of purple miasma was descending from overhead; this gas was like a living creature, twisting and wriggling as if alive, and incredibly vivid in colour.
Puff!
A large hole appeared in Qin Hao’s defensive Zhen Qi shield, and the flesh that was exposed where this large hole opened, quickly turned to ash. While the Lunar Wind Wolf opposite him suffered no less than he did. This purple miasma was the Bone-corroding miasma that floated above the jungle. A moment ago, when the wolf broke the towering tree, it caused the miasma, which was heavier than air, to sink down and spread out near the ground.
“I can’t die like this!! I can’t–”
Qin Hao roared out but before he could finish his last words, his entire body turned into a puff of ash.
The Lunar Wind Wolf was an amazingly fierce and powerful beast, and even the miasma failed to kill it immediately. The wolf let out waves of howls as it rushed towards the entrance whence it came in from; soon, however, its body began shortening and turning into ash bit by bit. These ashes were blown away and thus dissipated into the wind, leaving not even a trace of Qin Hao or the wolf. The miasma was even more terrifying than the vines.
Not much purple miasma had descended from the air, and after covered a certain area, it stopped spreading; meanwhile, the surrounding trees began absorbing the miasma and releasing it back into the air through its leaves. In this way, the miasma and the tree achieved a magical equal and stable balance.
……
In the middle of the jungle, Ye Chen raised his head to look at the mountain in front of him that was over a thousand meters tall. A part of the mountaintop was raised and looked like an animal’s mouth, while the sides of the mountain weirdly extended towards the sky, resembling the horns of a goat.
“The mountain shaped like a goat’s head! It’s here!”
Behind him, the vines never slowed down, only god knew exactly how much and how long these vines were. While continuously crushing the vines with his tornado, Ye Chen quickly moved towards the mountain top.
Closer to the mountain, Ye Chen found a large dark cave which opened wide like the mouth of the goat; seeming especially dark and deep.
“You can never gain benefits without taking equal risks, I should just get in there and take a look.”
Dispersing the tornado, Ye Chen swiftly darted into the cave. Following right behind him, the vines entered like a tide gushing in.
With his powerful soul power, Ye Chen could clearly see the inner space of the cave, thus, he easily evaded and avoided the surrounding obstacles, reaching the deepest part of the cave unhindered.
“There are stairs here, it looks like this cave is indeed man-made.”
Towards the left, he had discovered a hidden flight of stairs that was arced in shape that led upwards. At first glance, the stairs were very narrow. Ye Chen threw an instant Zhen Qi replenishing pill into his mouth, then boosted his Zhen Qi up and rushed up the stairs.
At this moment, those vines which had been chasing Ye Chen all the way, seemed to hesitate, then paused in front of the stairs.
Along with a series of slight swishing sounds, the vines slowly retreated, seeming to have given up on hunting Ye Chen.
