“You are kidding me.” Jia Ying stared with bewilderment as she pulled Se Lang up to make him confirm that she was not hallucinating. They were surrounded by Deep Ones once more and Se Lang deduced that the Fishmen somehow managed to pull the spherical ice barrier to an island of theirs.
What Se Lang could not predict was that the person they wished to rescue was locked in a hanging prison cage at the top of a cliff of the island. Speaking about the island, even Se Lang could not believe his eyes when he got out of the ice barrier. It was a horror of another level. Never mind about the Deep Ones, they were not a concern compared to the island they were stranded on.
The Island of Halloween Candies.
Yes, the entire island was made out of candies. The sand they were stepping on seemed to be refined pink sugar. The palm trees were growing enlarged gummy balls and the grass looked ravishing to savour. Even the cliff that Shi Hui was hanging over from looked like it was made out of dark chocolate. (Later Shi Hui confirmed, it was indeed dark chocolate. She tasted it when she was bored of waiting for them.)
“Se Lang!!!!! Jia Ying!!!!!” Shi Hui was in a beautifully coloured candy cage hanging by the edge of the mountain cliff as she screamed their names. “Save me!!!!” She continued to scream.
“Do you really think she needs to be saved?” Jia Ying gave a look of resignation as she pointed at Shi Hui.
“Well… She is indeed kept in a cage.” Se Lang did not know how to respond either.
“Yes, in a candy cage, licking a lollipop and swinging her legs happily at us.” Jia Ying placed her palm on her face and shook her head. “If it was up to me, I would leave her to rot for a long while in there.”
“I doubt she would get hungry. She can probably chew her way out of the cage. Although maybe her teeth will rot from all that candy.” Se Lang laughed as he said that.
“Hmm, but I think we should take care of ourselves first.” Jia Ying swung her waxwood spear and prepared her stance to battle against the Deep Ones. Se Lang deactivated his barrier and took out his blood explosion inscribed scythe. He also figured that Icesteel weapon would be a bad idea against the Fishmen.
“Woah woah woah. Violence! Violence! That is uncalled for!” A voice was heard coming from the thick forest of candies that was right beside the pinkish sugar shore. There appeared a figure, wearing a formal coat who had a pumpkin on its head. The pumpkin figure came nearer and revealed that it did not have any eyes, instead it was lit up with fire from within.
Not only that, he was holding a large box of sweet and cheese popcorn, munching away as he walked towards Se Lang and Jia Ying. Apparently, the two of them did not let their guard down since Shi Hui was still hanging at the top of a cliff.
“Welcome! Welcome to the Island of Halloween Candies! Would you like some popcorn?” The pumpkin figure extended its box of popcorn towards them and surprise! Surprise! Those popcorn automatically flew into the mouths of the Deep Ones, making them pumped up with adrenaline the moment they swallowed it.
Not only that, their scales slowly transformed into a spectrum of different colours and the dark greenish colour that they once had became a mirage of colours. “This is more like it. Bright and cheerful, maybe sweet too. See you guys later! Tata! Play nice with each other!” The Pumpkin figure turned his back and Se Lang noticed that his name was sewn onto his formal coat.
It was none other than Pyro Jack or as the folktales called it, the Jack O Lantern. The flame wielding pumpkin ghost.
The Rainbow Deep Ones now eager to try out their new found strength pounced towards Se Lang and Jia Ying. Fortunately, the cultivators were one step ahead of them. “Intermediate Scythe Art! Moon Divide of the Wacky Wolf!” Se Lang stepped in in front of Jia Ying and activated his weapon art before her. Se Lang’s scythe glowed brightly like the moon as he performed his mid range chi enhanced slash, causing the first wave of Rainbow Deep Ones to be cleanly cut into two by his attack.
Jia Ying took the opportunity to step on Se Lang, seeing how he bent his body forward, to execute her weapon art in mid air. “Intermediate Spear Art! Thunderous Storming Stampede of the Sanguine Stag!” Such a long name but its effect was equally amazing. This particular technique was not the same nor an improvement of the basic weapon art, the Stampede of the Sanguine Stag, that she used in previous dungeon instances.
Jia Ying’s weapon art enabled her spear to act similar to Jin’s manipulation of Bam and Boo. Instead of bamboo spikes coming out of the ground, Jia Ying’s weapon art caused spears to appear randomly out of the ground. But that effect activated only after she threw her spear deeply into one of the Rainbow Deep Ones and the spear continued to spiral into the ground.
The difference was that Jin was able to control his Bam and Boo with precision but Jia Ying could not. She could only hope that the weapon art was able to hit most of the Rainbow Deep Ones.
In a way, her weapon art was more of an area denial technique rather than an area of effect weapon strike. Still, it managed to kill quite a few Rainbow Deep Ones. However Se Lang was doing a better job than her in defeating the colourful Fishmen. It was because this was, after all, his specialty rather than hers.
A large open area with multiple enemies was the perfect setting for a Scythe user to shine, unlike the spear cultivator. Jia Ying was better suited to battle against single opponents instead of many hence her recent weapon art was trained in that direction. By preventing herself to be surrounded with the area denial technique and systematically take down each and every enemy.
In the meantime, Se Lang mowed through the Rainbow Deep Ones, and after a few kills, his Blood Explosion inscription worked wonders against this horde of monsters. Perhaps the rush of adrenaline made it easier for the blood explosion inscription to activate, or he was just purely lucky in getting a number of inscription activations in one fight.
Separately, Shi Hui took out a pair of opera glasses from her storage ring and watched her boyfriend ‘perform’ in action. “So beautiful. It’s as if he was dancing with the Fishmen.” Shi Hui saw Se Lang dodge an incoming attack, unpaired his scythe into two and slashed at the Fishmen in front of him while he used the pole stick to stagger the Deep One that tried to ambush him from the back. Jia Ying did not idle seeing how skilful Se Lang was. “I cannot let him beat me!” She thought to herself as she focused on one enemy at a time.
Before long, Se Lang managed to mop up almost every single Rainbow Deep Ones as he leaned on a gummy palm tree to recover his breath. He then heard another scream coming from the cliff. “Wooo hoooo!!! Brilliant fight!!!!” Shi Hui clapped her hands happily to congratulate her boyfriend.
Suddenly, the thick candy forest revealed a path to the two of them. Even a sign appeared stating the following. “Walk through the yellow candy path! It will lead you to your beloved friend!”
“Is this some sort of taunt…by that Pumpkin guy?” Jia Ying placed her finger in the seawater to have a taste of it. It was sweet with a bit of savoury seaweed flavour added to it.
“Ahahah, even the sea became sweet water.” Jia Ying could not help but also try the pinkish sugar-like substance on the shore before Se Lang beckoned her to follow him into the candy forest.
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