Lu Yun refrained from pursuing the black unicorn—several strong presences had drawn close to the group at some unknown point in time. This was very possibly a trap to lure him away as many of these presences were locked onto Qing Ting!
Since she’d activated her bloodline, she possessed the power of the azure dragon. If the arcane beasts ate her, they could potentially evolve into a dragon themselves.
Thankfully, there was nothing for Lu Yun to worry about since Qing Ting was strong. But if the arcane beast hidden in the shadows came again, the five hundred under Lu Yun’s protection would be dead without a doubt. There wouldn’t be anything left of them since they’d be devoured down to the bone.
That was the last thing he wanted to happen.
Kaleidoscopic light shimmered over the rainbow bridge, providing cover for the arcane beasts. They weren’t purposefully concealing their movement, so Qing Ting could easily pinpoint where they were.
“They want to eat you,” Lu Yun said half jokingly to her.
“And I want to eat them! The meat of half step king arcane beasts must taste super good!” Qing Ting responded seriously.
“Ah, eh, want me to hunt down a few to eat?” Lu Yun sheepishly looked at the ashes covering the ground. His three strokes hadn’t been well controlled and he’d just annihilated all one thousand beasts.
“I’ll do it.” Qing Ting’s Azuresky blossomed with cutting sword light and she vanished on the spot. Moving through the air as if she was on the ground, she flashed through the void, striking out every time she materialized somewhere and sending an arcane beast crashing to the ground.
She reappeared three hundred and sixty-five times in the air, stabbing out each time and decapitating an arcane beast.
Plop!
Plop!
Plop!
They landed on the ground at almost the same time and Qing Ting returned to her original position less than half a breath later.
Shocked gasps rose and fell in the crowd of five hundred cultivators. They’d witnessed Lu Yun’s strength earlier and found him incredible at killing a thousand beasts with three strokes. Now the little princess decapitated three hundred and sixty-five of them in less than a breath?
They didn’t know how to describe the… gap? Could it even be called a gap? between them.
“What are you waiting for? Hurry up and roast these beasts!” Qing Ting sheathed her sword with a grand flourish and roared out in gallant style.
“Right, let’s hurry up and skin these beasts!” The half step kings busied themselves with processing the corpses while the remaining arcane beasts in the surroundings scattered, looking for other targets.
Lu Yun and Qing Ting didn’t run after them. Protecting five hundred on the bridge was already going above and beyond. The other twenty-five hundred striking out on their own would face defeat and death—and many of them would die.
But that was out of Lu Yun and Qing Ting’s hands—they weren’t saints.
His comment of aftermarket service had been a joke; his primary focus was on Dragon Butterfly. She couldn’t be allowed to do anything here, no matter what.
……
The fragrance of roasting meat quickly wafted through the air as the arcane beasts that Qing Ting had killed turned on spits. Such was the nature of the relationship between cultivators and arcane beasts.
Arcane beasts ate cultivators, and cultivators hunted arcane beasts. Cultivators consumed their meat or used their hide and blood in refining supplemental treasures. Titled kings also hunted arcane beast kings to use their crystal cores in pills and treasures. As long as they didn’t hunt too many at a given time, the high level arcane beast kings turned a blind eye to such actions.
It was a certain kind of equilibrium of life.
Lu Yun and Qing Ting only ate a few pieces, whereas Dragon Butterfly befriended all of the cultivators. She’d fished out some flasks of fine wine and were sharing them with the crowd.
“Do you think we can challenge kings now?” Qing Ting murmured. “Ghost kings and titled dukes aren’t much of a test anymore. Only titled kings of the cultivators and arcane beast kings can give us any pressure.”
Ghost kings lacked combat arts and while titled dukes possessed the strength of a king, they hadn’t mastered a king’s forcefield. The current Lu Yun and Qing Ting could defeat a second step ghost king by themselves now, but they weren’t so confident in facing a human king. Just the forcefield alone could rob them of their mobility.
The ghostly qi of a ghost king enabled them to ignore the forcefields of kings, but titled dukes couldn’t do the same. When Lu Yun faced the third step king of the Li Clan, he would’ve been crushed by a finger if he hadn’t been prepared with formations and talismans against the forcefield.
As Lu Yun and Qing Ting had never truly faced a real king, they weren’t certain how they’d fare against a forcefield either. If one wanted to defeat a king in face-to-face combat, one had to destroy the king’s forcefield. Those who’d comprehended the second level of “influence” would be even more difficult to deal with.
“Rice needs to be eaten one mouthful at a time. It’s quite an accomplishment that we’ve reached our current heights, given how long we’ve cultivated.” Lu Yun remained optimistic. “Let’s find a few kings to practice with once we get back and familiarize ourselves with forcefields. We should be able to defeat real kings then!”
“There are many kings in Coiling Dragon City and the Trueriver Sect, they should be happy to spar with us, right?” Qing Ting broke out in a broad smile.
……
“Those two children haven’t lost themselves?” The kings up on the rainbow cloud could clearly eavesdrop on the conversation; shock crept across their faces to hear this kind of conversation.
If it was them and they’d possessed this level of strength as a half step king, they’d probably immediately lose sight of what was important and consider themselves the greatest in the Hongmeng.
At that level, killing kings was as easy as breathing, and first and second step kings weren’t worthy of consideration.
“Hmph,” snorted the Dragonfeather King. “Only base-born cultivators become cocky and arrogant after gaining a little bit of strength. Those are the type to put on airs and lose the respect they should have for titled kings.
“I don’t know about the Champion Duke, but Qing Ting has trained with my brother since young. She is well aware of the might of a titled king and conducts herself accordingly.”
“Hmph!” harrumphed the Crippled Dragon King.
When Qing Di emerged from closed door cultivation, they’d declared to the outside world that he’d killed a second step king. It’d actually been a second step ghost king, so Dragonfeather’s words were a slap at Azure Dragon City.
However, Crippled Dragon wanted nothing more than to find a hole to burrow into. His city lord’s son had become the Champion Duke and Qing Ting’s sidekick! If it wasn’t for Qing Ting jeering at him, he’d probably still be following by their side.
“The Champion Duke is being humble,” chuckled Miao. “It wouldn’t be hard for him to break through the defense of a second step king. The edge of the Stellar Sword would rip right through a second step king’s forcefield or influence.”
“That’s just relying on external objects,” Azure Scaled-Dragon refuted. “It goes against the original intent of the Dragonling Assembly for him to be here with a treasure like the Stellar Sword.”
