Chapter 217: Fiends of Fire and Ice
As the Captain and Xu Qing charged forth, the Seastar chieftain’s words rang out and he took a step forward. The moment his foot touched the ground, his entire body superimposed upon himself, as if two resentful souls had stepped out, one moving to the left, the other to the right. In the blink of an eye, the Seastar chieftain became two versions of himself, one of which headed to the Captain, and the other to Xu Qing. Closing in on Xu Qing, he extended his right index finger toward Xu Qing’s forehead.
He sneered as the finger unleashed an explosion of force. It was the power of Gold Core, and it caused a tremor to pass through Xu Qing, so violent his life flames flickered on the verge of being extinguished.
At the same time, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior sent the black iron skewer out to block the force. However, the Seastar chieftain simply reached out and flicked the skewer. It was sent spinning off to the side, cracks spreading out on its surface.
Before it could land, the Seastar chieftain lifted his foot and then stomped it back down onto the ground. Everything trembled as the shadow beneath his feet collapsed.
“That’s all?” he said, shaking his head, sending his finger once again toward Xu Qing’s forehead. Just when it seemed like it would stab into Xu Qing, the golden crow appeared and inhaled viciously.
The Seastar chieftain shivered and suddenly turned slightly blurry. However, his finger continued on its path toward Xu Qing’s forehead. Just before he completed the movement, flames erupted from the golden crow.
At the same time, madness flickered in Xu Qing’s eyes as, instead of dodging, he head-butted the finger. A boom rang out. The golden crow seemed to sag listlessly, but did manage to absorb a strand of energy and blood. As for Xu Qing, his forehead smashed into the Seastar chieftain’s finger, resulting in a cracking sound. A curious gleam then appeared in the chieftain’s eyes as his finger was crushed.
A massive force sent Xu Qing hurling backward. However, the pendant around his neck prevented him from being injured. Even still, his energy and blood vibrated chaotically. As soon as he skidded to a stop, he looked up and glared at the astonished Seastar chieftain.
Off to the side, the Captain was facing the Seastar chieftain’s other version, which was also reaching toward his forehead with a finger strike. The Captain’s method of dealing with the attack was similar to Xu Qing’s, but at the same time, different. The magical sealing symbols in his eyes flickered out, and his energy suddenly surged. Just like Xu Qing, he didn’t attempt to dodge the attack or fall back. But what was different was that he didn’t head-butt the finger. Instead he opened his mouth and, eyes flickering with a crazy light, viciously bit down on the finger!
It takes some time to describe these two things, but they actually happened at exactly the same moment. The Seastar chieftain’s two versions of himself clashed with Xu Qing and the Captain simultaneously.
The Captain chomped down on the chieftain’s finger, and though he didn’t manage to bite it off, he did pierce the skin, causing blood to ooze out. He also broke a few of his teeth in the process. He released the finger, though the crazy look never left his eyes; his hands flashed in a double-handed incantation gesture, creating a shield to block the Gold Core power that sent him flying backward.
“How amusing.” The two versions of the Seastar chieftain both looked down at their fingers, then merged back into a unified version. The finger immediately healed. Then he unleashed the power of his Gold Core cultivation base. Xu Qing’s eyes stung as though the sun were attacking them, yet the killing intent never left them.
It was the same with the Captain. He was missing a few teeth, yet that just made it easier for him to lick his lips. He even seemed in high enough spirits to flash Xu Qing a pleased grin.
The Seastar chieftain snorted coldly, then started walking toward the Captain. However, before he could even take three steps, his face fell.
His healed finger was now black, as though it were poisoned. And the effect was spreading to the rest of his body. If anyone present was able to look inside his body, they would see it full of countless black beetles. They were madly devouring the chieftain’s insides, while at the same time were unleashing massive amounts of mutagen and other poisons.
This was what happened when Xu Qing and the Captain worked together.
Xu Qing knew how the Captain operated. He had been there when the Captain took a bite out of the Seazombie ancestor statue. And the Captain had done the same thing with that Gold Core octopus. Therefore, Xu Qing had put some black beetles in the apple the Captain had been eating.
The Captain knew, but didn’t mind, and had allowed the beetles to remain between his teeth. When he sank his teeth into the chieftain’s flesh moments before, it gave the beetles just the opportunity they needed to enter his flesh.
As the chieftain reacted with shock, the Captain laughed viciously and rushed forward. Xu Qing also charged forth in attack.
As Xu Qing moved, his shadow stretched out, and the lightning symbols on the iron skewer flickered to life. A piercing shriek rang out from the golden crow as it superimposed over Xu Qing.
His life flames ignited, and his life lamp shone. Combined with all the power of his fleshly body, Xu Qing closed in on the Seastar chieftain with a fist strike! He backed the fist with everything he had. All of his life flame and life lamp power, combined with the strength of the golden crow. He added the explosive power of his more than 60 dharma apertures. Tempest winds screamed, and a sea of flames erupted out! It was the fire of the golden crow, the fire of his life lamp, and the dharma force fire of his life flames, fueled by his rage!
The Captain also exploded into action. More magical symbols in his eyes opened, causing the temperature around him to drop dramatically. As a result, the ground froze, and snowflakes appeared everywhere. They pulsed with a shockingly frigid coldness, something that surpassed most grues. In fact, it was so cold it didn’t just freeze the ground, it could freeze one’s will.
The dome of heaven itself seemed to change as the boundless frigid energy from the captain contrasted with the scorching heat from Xu Qing.
Fire and ice rushed from two different directions toward the Seastar chieftain.
In the blink of an eye, the crazy look in the Captain’s eye grew so intense that, unexpectedly, the hand of a grue stretched out from his chest! It was a blue, icy hand that didn’t look human at all. It had long claws of bone, and within the palm of the hand, astonishingly, there was a face! It was the face of the Captain himself, though its eyes were closed as if in sleep.
When the hand appeared, the Seastar chieftain’s eyes widened, and he tried to dodge out of the way. However, the black beetles chose that moment to erupt with madness, causing countless detonations of mutagen and poison within him. As the chieftain twitched, the hand sticking out of the Captain’s chest clamped onto his head.
A thump could be heard as boundless coldness swept into the chieftain, as well as cracking sounds as parts of him froze solid. In the blink of an eye, Xu Qing followed up with his own attack, causing an endless sea of flames to sweep over him. He also chose that same moment to take out the patriarch’s calligraphy scroll.
“Flame!” he growled. The scroll read Nose With Living Flame, and in response to Xu Qing’s words, the ‘flame’ character turned into green fire and swept toward the chieftain.
Killing intent burned in Xu Qing’s eyes as all of the fire he had summoned converged on his fist, which he aimed at the frozen Seastar chieftain. When the fist landed, cracks spread out over the chieftain. Fire engulfed him, especially the fire from the patriarch’s scroll.
As the fire burned, and the chieftain’s flesh melted, his eyes didn’t show any fear. Strangely, he just seemed a bit surprised.
“I can’t believe you have calligraphy from such an almighty being!”
The chieftain suddenly exploded, whereupon a tentacle snaked out from the gore, lashing out toward Xu Qing and the Captain. The power of the blow caused the air to shatter, and seemed strong enough to wither one’s soul. Xu Qing and the Captain were hurled spinning backward.
In that critical moment, Xu Qing pulled the Captain over to him so he could benefit from the protection of Master Sixth’s pendant. As the pendant blocked the violent attack, the two of them skidded to a stop 300 meters away, coughing up blood and their internal organs aching. Looking up in the direction of the tentacle, they saw... dust settling, and a figure striding out of it.
Numerous silver tentacles swayed back and forth within the clouds of dust. It quickly became clear that they weren’t tentacles. Instead, they were a host of huge threadworms, all of them bearing vicious fangs as they howled at Xu Qing and the Captain!
Then the figure within the dust became clear.
It was a nonhuman, fully three meters in height, pure silver in color, with a triangular head and eyes with double pupils. It had a long tongue, and its whole body was covered with threadworms.
Both Xu Qing and the Captain were completely shocked by the sight of it. But even more shocking were the explosive fluctuations coming out of it that distorted everything around it. This wasn’t a Gold Core nonhuman. It was in the Nascent Soul level! As winds screamed and wild colors flashed, Xu Qing and the Captain backed up.
“I really didn’t think I would run into two runts like you in a backwater place like this. One of you has a stage-four grue sealed in you, and the other has an imperial-class divine ability and the calligraphy of an almighty being. Sadly, the second of you doesn’t have a grue sealed inside.”
Hearing this, Xu Qing’s pupils constricted, but at the same time, he breathed a sigh of relief. His life lamp remained a secret, as did his shadow and the violet crystal.
Off to the side, the Captain also breathed a sigh of relief. Apparently, he was thinking something similar to Xu Qing....
As they exchanged a glance , the two of them realized they were both thinking the same thing.