Chapter 156: It’s You!
The powerful fluctuations were joined by faint rumbling sounds, as well as a flow of dharma force.
Xu Qing stopped moving and looked at the distant portal, numerous thoughts running through his head. The portal was active, and there were Seazombie Foundation Establishment cultivators coming through.
He could hear the sounds of fighting; obviously there were already Seven Blood Eyes disciples there fighting the invaders. Most disciples were on the surface carrying out missions. In the two months he had been down here, he hadn’t encountered very many other disciples. If he was correct, these were other disciples on the same mission as he was.
Xu Qing wasn't quick to take action. Staying hidden, he slowly approached. When he felt he was close enough, he squatted down and looked at his shadow.
The shadow had been with Xu Qing long enough to know his personality. What was more, after Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior had trifled with the shadow earlier, it had been working very hard to be impressive. It didn’t need any urging to stretch out toward the battlefield. The light in the underwater world came from the colorful coral, and though it provided illumination, it wasn’t very bright. Therefore, it was easy for the shadow to move around undetected. That was especially true considering how strong the mutagen was in the area. Therefore, it didn’t take much effort for the shadow to reach the battlefield.
After looking around, it came back to Xu Qing. There, it projected some vague information to him while simultaneously creating some images on the ground that only he could see. Xu Qing looked down at the images. Though he could control his shadow, he did not have the ability to look through its eyes. Based on the images the shadow had created, Xu Qing realized what he was dealing with.
“Three Seazombie Foundation Establishment cultivators,” Xu Qing murmured. “They’ve surrounded a Seven Blood Eyes Foundation Establishment disciple. And you can tell none of them have the profound radiance state.”
His shadow nodded its head, then danced back and forth in anticipation.
“Are you sure you didn’t miss anything, Little Shadow?” Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior said. “Like me, you should be taking our lord and master’s safety seriously. That should be your number one priority! Under absolutely no circumstances should you ever be careless!”
The patriarch felt very proud of his words. If the shadow performed well, then he could claim some of the credit with the Fiendish Xu. And if the shadow made a mistake, then the patriarch would still get credit with the Fiendish Xu. It was a win-win situation.
The shadow’s killing intent locked onto the black iron skewer, but Xu Qing ignored both of them as he crept forward. He currently had 28 dharma apertures open, and if his calculations were correct, then killing two or three more Seazombies might get him to the point of opening 30.
I can't let this opportunity pass me by!
He kept his cultivation base hidden as he got closer and closer to the powerful fluctuations ahead. Eventually, he caught sight of the teleportation portal. The place was covered with long seagrass that made it difficult to see the portal. However, it couldn’t block out the light the portal emitted.
There was one Seazombie Foundation Establishment cultivator on the portal, making adjustments to it. Apparently, he was preparing it to receive even more Seazombies via teleportation. This Seazombie had once been human. Other than his rotting skin and the zombie poison which surrounded him, he still looked almost completely like an ordinary human. In fact, he resembled a scholar, with a black daoist robe and powerful cultivation base fluctuations.
In addition, there was a young disciple from the Third Peak, clad in a dark yellow daoist robe, who was fighting with two Seazombies who were slightly weaker than him.
There were obviously other things to worry about in the area; when Xu Qing got close enough, his identity medallion lost its connection to the sect. Xu Qing ignored that and kept observing the battlefield.
The Third Peak disciple had a set of black gauntlets that emanated black mist as he fought. That mist spread out and took the indistinct shape of various grues. At the same time, on the disciple’s forehead was the image of what appeared to be a grue, facing away and struggling to turn around. However, it was restricted in place so that turning around would be completely impossible.
This Third Peak disciple couldn’t enter the profound radiance state. However, he was fighting two Seazombies at the same time, so it seemed likely he had about 20 dharma apertures open.
However, the Seazombies were attacking with materialized mutagen, and combined with their powerful fleshly bodies and zombie poison, plus the fact that they were teaming up two-against-one, the Third Peak disciple was obviously in great danger.
The image on the disciple’s forehead made Xu Qing think back to the Third Peak’s reputation in the sect.
The Third Peak magical techniques revolve around grues!
As Xu Qing was examining the combatants, they seemed to take notice of him.
The Third Peak disciple launched an attack, forcing the two Seazombies away. At the same time, he shouted to Xu Qing, “The Seazombies locked down all voice messages. Help me out, and I’ll pay you 10,000 spirit stones.”
This was how Seven Blood Eyes disciples usually did things. Despite being fellow disciples from the same sect, they had no obligation to help each other.
Even as the Third Peak disciple called out, the Seazombie in the black scholar robe stopped working with the spell formation, rose, and rushed toward Xu Qing. As he closed in, his hands flashed in a double-handed incantation gesture, causing the field of interference to sweep wider and completely contain Xu Qing. Apparently, he felt that he had trapped this new disciple, preventing him from retreating. And he also felt confident in being able to kill him. Despite not being able to enter the profound radiance state, he had 29 dharma apertures open.
Couple that with the Seazombie’s naturally superior fleshly body and regenerative powers, plus the strong mutagen near the sea floor, and he was completely confident that he could defeat virtually anyone in the same cultivation level as himself. And that wasn’t even to mention that this new opponent was only a human. He had killed his fair share of Foundation Establishment humans.
However, as his dharma apertures rumbled with power, a look of surprise appeared in his eyes, as this Seven Blood Eyes disciple didn’t retreat as expected. Instead, he charged forward.
“You have so much confidence in your cultivation base and battle prowess that, instead of retreating, you’re fighting? That’s not how you Seven Blood Eyes cultivators usually operate. In that case, let’s see if my fleshly body is stronger than yours!”
Laughing coldly, the Seazombie accelerated, obviously intent on crushing Xu Qing into a bloody pulp.
Some distance away, the Third Peak disciple looked over. A violet robe? He's from the Seventh Peak. How could someone from the Seventh Peak be that stupid?
However, he wasn’t in any position to do anything other than speculate. He couldn’t extricate himself from the fighting, and was struggling just to defend himself. A moment later, the Third Peak disciple’s eyes narrowed.
Xu Qing and the Seazombie raced toward each other, and when they were only about thirty meters apart, both of them suddenly accelerated dramatically.
Xu Qing had pulled out the feather-shaped magical device, while the Seazombie scholar was using a black fan. However, almost as soon as the Seazombie accelerated, he shifted in a different direction. Xu Qing also veered to the side.
As it turned out, Xu Qing’s real target wasn’t the scholar. Instead, it was one of the two Seazombies the Third Peak disciple was fighting.
Xu Qing preferred taking out the weak targets first. Things usually went smoothly when he fought in that way. And thanks to the feather-shaped magical device, he was so quick that, after changing directions, he almost immediately arrived next to the two Seazombies that were fighting the Third Peak disciple.
As for the Seazombie scholar, he hadn’t been targeting Xu Qing at all. And his previous talk about battle prowess and fleshly body had been a ruse. His true target was the Third Peak disciple.
And thus, in the time it takes a spark to fly off of a piece of flint, both of them streaked toward the spot where the Third Peak disciple was fighting the two Seazombie cultivators. A huge boom rang out.
The Third Peak disciple coughed up a huge mouthful of blood and staggered back in shock. However, in that moment of crisis, a black tattoo appeared on his neck. It depicted a lotus, and it quickly spread out to cover his head, blocking what would have been a mortal blow from the scholarly Seazombie.
Off to the side, Xu Qing was wreathed in black balefire, and his iron skewer flew next to him at incredible speed. In the blink of an eye, one of the weaker Seazombies was pierced through the forehead, while the other’s throat was slashed with a dagger. The one pierced through the forehead grunted and staggered back, his hands flying into an incantation gesture that summoned a huge six-armed statue of a god. Roaring, the god statue blocked the iron skewer, preventing it from making any further attacks.
As for the Seazombie whose throat Xu Qing had slashed, he wasn’t as lucky. The black dagger turned into flames that engulfed him. And then Xu Qing’s left hand closed into a fist, which smashed into the Seazombie's chest and crushed his heart. At the same time, black balefire erupted from all of Xu Qing’s 28 dharma apertures!
The Seazombie let loose a bloodcurdling scream as he burst into flames. However, that was when Xu Qing’s shadow wrapped around him and started absorbing his mutagen. Almost immediately, the Seazombie withered up by half. Then, as he screamed and burned, his soul was sucked away.
As for the shadow, its Seazombie aura grew stronger, though it immediately tried to suppress it.
All of this takes a bit of time to describe, but as a matter of fact, it happened in an instant. After the slaughter, Xu Qing looked up at the Seazombie with the black scholar’s robe. He seemed surprised that the Seazombie had used the exact same tactic as he had.
The Seazombie scholar looked equally surprised. Ignoring the Third Peak disciple who had just barely escaped death, he glared at Xu Qing.
That was when the teleportation portal suddenly emitted powerful fluctuations, as a new teleportation began. However, the aura that accompanied it wasn’t very strong, as if it were only interested in probing the area.
Then it seemed to catch sight of Xu Qing, and the portal surged as a howl came out from the other side.
“It’s you! You just wait, I’m going to kill you!”
The fluctuations of the profound radiance state erupted from the portal. This was the very same Seazombie cultivator that Xu Qing had already twice prevented from teleporting in. After detecting Xu Qing, it was with a heart full of rage that he fully activated the teleportation portal!