Chapter 380 - 379: Monster
Hearing this, no one doubted him, and they all produced their Sword Artifacts.
Of the forty-six people present, only thirty-three possessed longswords. The other three must have been hidden elsewhere in the maze, yet to be discovered. Upon seeing this, the corners of Xu Zhenhong’s mouth curled up slightly, and he said, "Heh, those of you who didn’t get a Sword Artifact, don’t be discouraged. I’ll give you a chance now. You can challenge those who possess a Sword Artifact. If you win, it’s yours!"
"And one more thing: the outcome, be it life or death, doesn’t matter."
After he finished speaking, Xu Zhenhong’s enormous face gradually dissipated.
As soon as he said this, turmoil surged in everyone’s hearts, their minds reeling.
He was telling them to slaughter one another.
The Martial Artists who possessed the Sword Artifacts immediately put the longswords away, their auras erupting as they gripped their own weapons, alert and on guard. As for the Martial Artists who hadn’t obtained a Sword Artifact, their eyes lit up, and they stared at the possessors like a pack of hungry wolves.
Only then did Qin Ya understand why there were only thirty-six Sword Artifacts, yet more than forty people had arrived in this space. It was Xu Zhenhong, pulling strings from the shadows. His goal was to make them slaughter one another and select only the most exceptional Martial Artists.
"Heh heh, Qin Ya, you know what?"
"My luck wasn’t so good. I wandered the maze for days, killed several people, and still didn’t get a Sword Artifact. But coming here... it seems my fortune has turned."
"Qin Ya, I’m challenging you!"
Xuer Kong let out a low, sinister laugh, and his eyes turned crimson as he roared at Qin Ya!
"Are you prepared to die?"
Qin Ya laughed softly, leveling his white longspear at Xuer Kong. His tone was as cold as if it had come from the Nine Netherworld Hell, chilling all who heard it to the core.
"Heh heh, it’s not yet certain who will live and who will die."
"You’ve been wanting to know what happened to that town you saw, haven’t you? Very well, I’ll tell you just how those people died!"
"Haha..."
Amid his wild laughter, Xuer Kong dismissed his Blood-Colored Dharma Aspect. As he raised his hands, two clouds of bloody mist materialized. The mist writhed, emitting waves of roars and a brutally bizarre aura that unsettled everyone. Two chains, each about as thick as a thumb, extended from the mist, and Xuer Kong gripped them tightly.
At the sight, everyone’s hearts hammered in their chests. Forgetting all about the fight for the Sword Artifacts, they instantly shot backward, watching from two hundred zhang away. Gazing at the two clouds of bloody mist, their scalps tingled as an involuntary chill crept through their bodies.
This was especially true for Qin Ya. His body trembled slightly, his killing intent surging even more intensely.
The aura emanating from the blood mist was unmistakably the same one Qin Ya had sensed in the town that day—identically brutal and bizarre. ’What on earth is it?!’
The bloody mist gradually dispersed, revealing two humanoid figures.
GASP! Once they got a clear look at the two figures, everyone sucked in a sharp, cold breath.
The humanoid figures had powerful limbs and stood over two zhang tall. Their long, blood-red hair looked as if it had been drenched in blood, and their bodies were covered in dense, blood-colored scales. Vicious bone spurs jutted out from their shoulder blades and spines. Behind each of them grew a tail over ten meters long, its tip as sharp as a sword’s point!
The creatures’ faces were even more savage and horrifying. They had no noses, and their crimson eyes looked like pools of blood plasma. A mouth filled with sharp teeth took up most of each face, and a bloody mist billowed out with their every breath. Around each of their necks was a spiked collar, from which extended the chains that Xuer Kong held in his hands.
The creatures’ brutal and sinister auras, combined with their appearance, sent a chill creeping up from the soles of the onlookers’ feet, engulfing their entire bodies.
"Heavens, what are those monsters!"
"I’ve never seen anything like them. Are they Fierce Beasts? They don’t really look like it."
"What a terrifying aura! It’s enough to make your blood run cold!"
"To think that Xuer Kong has things like these."
"I’ve lived for most of my life, and I’ve never seen anything like them."
The crowd burst into discussion, none of them having any memory of such creatures. Even the Half-Step King, the one with the highest Cultivation and the longest life among them, had never heard of anything like it.
’Ting Xiao.’
"Don’t ask me. I don’t know what these things are either. Their auras are a bit like that of a Blood Dragon, but a true dragon is far beyond comparison to these things."
Hearing this, a flicker of surprise crossed Qin Ya’s eyes. ’Even Ting Xiao doesn’t recognize these two monsters,’ he thought. ’They must be a new species that has appeared in the last ten thousand years.’
"Were these two monsters the ones that killed the people in the town?"
Hearing the question, Xuer Kong yanked hard on the chains. The two monsters let out a pained howl and fell to one knee, their sharp claws tearing at the collars on their necks. Their talons dug deep into their own flesh, yet they seemed to feel no pain.
"Heh heh, that’s right."
"I bet you don’t recognize these things, do you? They’re called Blood Slaves!"
"They have huge appetites, you see. I’d starved them for a long time, so they accidentally overate a bit. Tsk, tsk. The way they eat... it’s not a pretty sight."
Xuer Kong seemed to recall something, and a look of disgust crossed his face.
Then, he sneered, "Today, I’ll be feeding you to them."
As his words fell, one of the Blood Slaves let out a roar. A powerful shockwave of sound blasted out like a cannonball, causing the onlookers to frown and instinctively block off their hearing.
The Blood Slave crouched slightly. BOOM! A sonic boom erupted. It moved so fast that it actually sent ripples through the empty space!
Qin Ya’s brow twitched. ’That speed... it’s already comparable to my peak speed when my Mysterious Speed was at the First Heaven. It’s practically on par with a King!’
In an instant, the Blood Slave roared and lunged, its claws stabbing forward. Its sharp nails shone with a ghostly, blood-red light, and a single glance was enough to tell that their sharpness could rival that of High-Level Profound Soldiers.
It wouldn’t have been difficult for Qin Ya to dodge with his current speed, that of the Mysterious Speed Second Layer Heaven. But he didn’t. Instead, he had a mind to test this Blood Slave’s strength.
Spear in hand, Qin Ya’s Thunder-Fire Energy erupted, gathering on the weapon. He then lashed out with the spear, and with a thunderous crash, the spearhead met the Blood Slave’s claws head-on!
Qin Ya felt an immense force surge up the shaft of his longspear. His physical body, which had been tempered several times by Demonic Qi until it was comparable to a Beast King’s, couldn’t help but go numb from the impact.
Then, with a BOOM, Qin Ya was blasted back several dozen zhang.
’Its physical body is much stronger than an ordinary Beast King’s.’
Qin Ya snorted coldly as he watched the unharmed Blood Slave roar and charge him once more. His figure blurred, and in the blink of an eye, he dodged the attack. But immediately after, a blood-red tail sliced through the air, whipping viciously toward his back.
’Troublesome.’
With a cold grunt, Qin Ya’s figure flickered again as he dodged the tail. It slammed into the mountain wall, blasting a huge crater into the rock!
’Its Attack Power is comparable to the Celestial Human Perfection realm... no, it’s even stronger!’
Qin Ya’s figure blurred into motion. Spear in hand, he ignored the first Blood Slave and charged toward the nearby Xuer Kong. But Xuer Kong only sneered. In the blink of an eye, the second Blood Slave appeared before Qin Ya. Baring its fangs and brandishing its claws, it unleashed countless blood-red blades that materialized out of thin air, swarming Qin Ya from all directions!
The longspear became a blur, a dense storm of afterimages erupting outward. Amidst a series of CLANGS, the countless blood-red blades were shattered. Qin Ya’s brow furrowed as he muttered to himself, "Not only is its physical body formidable, but it also possesses ranged attacks. Its observational skills and instincts are astonishing. Though it’s not as fast as I am, it’s able to predict my attack trajectory ahead of time!"
"These are two monsters comparable to Half-Step Kings."