Chapter 248 Rampaging Lolita
Chu Xun howled with agony, desperately trying to resist as his body shone. Yet, nothing he did could stop his blood from being forcibly drawn out through the pores all over him that he was completely wet with his own blood from top to bottom.
The blood coagulated and flowed up his arms, his shoulders, and floated to the air like weightless droplets rising higher until they were absorbed by the gigantic skeletal hand.
Chu Xun screamed and screamed maniacally, yet there was nothing he could do, for the force of the monstrous hand was too powerful.
“My Lord...”
“His Lordship...”
Yan Chong and the others caught up to the fleeing warriors, stopped them, and finally discovered what was happening.
Without any hesitation, they raced up the slopes and when they arrived, what they saw stunned them beyond words.
Frost formed on Jiu You’s fair little face. Brandishing her silver spear, she lunged towards Chu Xun, hoping to save him.
Yan Chong and the others followed close behind, each of them producing their Sacred Relics on the ready.
“Stop them,” the deep voice rumbled from inside the cave.
The hooded men, who had been cowering aside, stormed towards Jiu You and the others to intercept them.
“Begone,” Jiu You’s babyish voice thundered with rage.
The silver spear turned into an arcing blur. With just a simple sweep, she swatted a hooded cultist into the air.
Interrupted by the hooded men, Yan Chong and the others unsheathed their weapons—saber, sword breaker, and set of Purple-gold Armor.
Thirteen hooded men remained; two of their original number had been killed by Chu Xun earlier.
With great difficulty, they managed to keep Jiu You occupied that the latter could not come to Chu Xun’s aid.
Despite having Sacred Relics which could have bolstered their powers, the hooded men were all Human Kings and they have the superiority of numbers.
Surrounded by foes outnumbering them three to one, the four who came to help found themselves assailed from all sides instead.
Being a demonic beast in essence, Jiu You, armed with her silver spear, could still hold her own even against three hooded Human Kings.
But the same could not be said for Yan Chong and the others—many a time they teetered on the edge of being wounded or even killed.
Bang!
Then came a golden burst of light and Winsome Widow crashed to the ground after being struck by one of the hooded men. Fortunately, with the sturdiness of the Purple-gold Armor, she was hardly injured and she could quickly spring back up to defend herself.
“KILL THEM ALL!”
Jiu You shrieked, her lithe little frame glowing radiantly as her jumps and twirls, coupled with the swinging and thrusts of her silver spear, evolved into a deadly dance of steel.
Boom!
One of the hooded men got himself hit by her spear and lost half of his shoulder.
But before she could deal the final blow, another leaped in to stop her, desperately defending his comrade.
Clang! Clang!
Then came three successive explosions and Yan Chong was seen crashing 100 meters away. He looked up, his lips bleeding. Luckily, he had managed to use the blade of his saber as a shield to take the three blows launched at him by his enemy, otherwise he would have been dead.
Malice swirled in the bloodshot eyes of his three foes and they threw themselves at him, eager to not give him any respite.
With a powerful blow, Jiu You struck the ground, causing an explosion on the ground so great that dust and earth were kicked up into the air, obscuring the sights of the assailant for a brief moment.
She spun on her heels and charged, turning into a silvery bolt of lightning with her spear.
Puff!
She speared through the back of the head of one of the hooded men coming at Yan Chong, smashing the entirety of the man’s head down to his throat, decimating what remained of it into a blood-red mist with a dull bang.
The sudden death of their comrade left the other two numbed and immobile with fear. Then they ignored Yan Chong, choosing to attack Jiu You instead. With the other three Jiu You was formerly dealing with, all five of them surrounded Jiu You in a ring of steel.
They finally understood Jiu You was the strongest of the four, with powers far outstripping the other three. She was a little monster in her own right; a rampaging lolita with deadliness worthy of the name.
“You want to die? So be it, then,” Jiu You’s innocent voice belied her sinister intent. Stern and cold the visage on her face, she boldly fought against the five Human Kings.
Nevertheless, she was but only a First-Grade Human King. Even with the help of Sacred Relics, the onslaught rained on her by five Human Kings were enough to force her to a dangerous defensive.
“You sniveling bastards, here I am, the great Yan Chong!” Yan Chong hastily wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. Waving his saber, the broad of its blade gleaming coldly, he charged at the Human Kings to help Jiu You.
“Don’t worry about me!” Jiu You shouted to him instead, “Go help Chu Xun!”
But in his hesitation, Yan Chong heard Chu Xun calling, “NO! GET OUT OF HERE! GO! THIS IS MY ORDER!”
Bloodied to his heels, Chu Xun looked as if he had lost half his weight. More than half of his blood has been bled dry by the giant skeletal hand and if he could not do anything to defend himself, Yan Chong and the others would only be more fodder rather than help.
“GO!” Chu Xun yelled again, sounding harsh and severe.
Yan Chong’s eyes welled with tears, his gritted teeth gnashing furiously that they crackled. Then he howled and wheeled around, charging at the hooded men besieging Jiu You.
Boom!
Lei Bao careened off somewhere with a trail of blood escaping his mouth. But before he collapsed, he had managed to destroy the arm of one of his assailants with his sword breaker.
“Try to kill me, eh?” Lei Bao bellowed with a burst of maniacal laughter when he got back up, “You have to be prepared to pay the price! Hahahaha!” Lightning crackled around him and he looked undeterred, terrible and belligerent as ever, eyeing the hooded men whose arm he had destroyed.
“Fall if I may, but rest assured that I’m going down with you!” Winsome Widow shrieked, challenging her foes defiantly, “Come! COME!” Her breath reeked of malice and with the Purple-gold Armor’s defense, she did not need to dodge nor evade, as she unleashed her fire-based magic one after another with frenzied madness.
Outside the gash in the magical barrier, a few Human Kings watched idly at the battle raging inside.
“Do you think we should go and help, Brother Su?” asked Wan Ziyun of the Qiankun Sect.
“The battle has been lost.” Su Qun’s eyes shone briefly before he sighed. “I’m afraid today is the day Chu the Devil would fall. Us going in there will only add up to the casualty.”
“I won’t object to that. We can hardly do anything to help. Might as well just retreat and repay Chu the Devil’s help by building him a cenotaph later. That’s the most we could do.”
The rest nodded as well in agreement.
Such were the Human Kings who had just not long ago, pledged to fight alongside Chu Xun. At the first sign of adversity, they turned tail and fled.
Lei Bao spied them leaving. His aura shot up with rage and he yelled as he maintained his attacks, “You ungrateful bastards! I’ll remember this! I’ll have your heads for this treachery and see if it’s all chaff inside!”
Yan Chong, Winsome Widow, and Jiu You were all resentful themselves. They had heard from other fleeing warriors how Chu Xun had saved them.
Bang!
Winsome Widow took a hit and was sent reeling away.
But before she crashed to the ground, she felt instead into the arms of a stranger.
“You?!” Winsome Widow gasped with surprise.
It was Yu Cheng, the Lord of Healing, with whom they had fought together before during their journey to Longcheng City.
The Lord of Healing neared almost two hundred years of age. But as Lord of Healing and Human King, he hardly looked old, frail, nor weak. If anything, his wrinkled fair face rather looked as if he was still in his forties.
“I was just coming to see if you needed any help,” he muttered, putting down Winsome Widow. He flipped a hand and a large apothecary pestle, as clear and hard as diamond and as long as a staff, materialized in his grasp. With malice, he charged, swinging down his giant pestle on one of the hooded men.
Winsome Widow stood there, momentarily stunned with admiration, before she gathered herself and charged after him.
The hooded man ignored the attack at first, then he smote at Yu Cheng’s pestle with two palms. Magical aura churned in between as he struggled to stop the falling pestle.
Yu Cheng pulled by his pestle suddenly, his other hand flailing upwards, scattering a fistful of white powder. Surprised, the hooded man sent forth a magical blow, creating a burst of wind that blew the powder away, although he had ingested a considerable amount of it.
“A-A-Ah... choo...!”
The hooded man sneezed loudly and so awfully that he could have sworn his eye popping out.
“A-a-achoo!”
He never stopped. Again and again, he sneezed so incessantly that his eyes turned bloodshot with thick, red veins and he looked weak and sickly.
“How’s the taste of my specially-concocted sneezing powder?” Yu Cheng blared loudly, grinning mischievously through narrowed eyes.
Puff!
Without looking back, Jiu You thrust her spear to her rear and plunged its tip through the back of an enemy. Shaking it hard, she ripped his heart to shreds.
“KILL THEM ALL!”
Jiu You screamed triumphantly, her murderous aura rising spiking in tandem with her emotions. The silver spear looked like a serpentine dragon in her hands, gleaming brightly whenever she used it in battle.
Thankfully, Yu Cheng entering the fray had given them much room for breathing.
The Lord of Healing leaped and pounced, swinging his giant pestle hither and thither furiously. For one second, he attacked one of the hooded men who was surrounding Winsome Widow, on the next, he reappeared to attack one of the men fighting Yan Chong.
“Leave quickly while you still can, Yu Cheng, if you value your life,” warned one of the hooded men. The name of the Lord of Healing was nevertheless quite a formidable one, if not his sneezing powder.
What was more infuriating was his fighting style which was as unpredictable as the most capricious weather. Hurtling back and forth amidst the chaos in a disorderly manner, striking at anyone he chose whenever he could, the hooded men could find no solution to subdue him.
Yu Cheng snorted coldly. “Is that a threat? There might be people afraid of you, the Broken Souls Cult. But I am not one of them.”
As soon as he finished, he hurled himself at the hooded men attacking Yan Chong, only to whisk closer to Yan Chong and slipped him a pill.
Yan Chong caught it and deposited it quickly into his mouth.
The Lord of Healing darted towards Lei Bao, and tossed him a pill as well.
“Thank you!”
Yan Chong and Lei Bao yelped their thanks in unison, swallowing the pill and feeling their wounds being healed at a remarkable rate.
Suddenly, several figures appeared as one at the gash outside the barrier of dark light.
“Greetings, our friends of the Broken Soul Cult, we of the Sifang Sword Sect are here to assist you.”
“Thank you so much. The Cult shall remember this gesture of goodwill and shall hope to repay this favor in the future,” responded one of the hooded men loudly.
“It’s fine. Chu the Devil has killed one of us, and for that barbarity, he must pay. People like him do not deserve to live.”
As soon as he finished, he was joined by more newcomers.
They were all Human Kings. Jiu You and her comrades who were just beginning to feel their loads lighter, if not safer, realized that the odds were once again against their favor.
“I swear! If I get out of this today,” Chu Xun, his body now as shriveled as a dried corpse, roared with spite, “I will slaughter every one of the Sifang Sword Sect!”
“Puny ant,” the deep voice resounded in response, “Worry about yourself instead. Your life’s in my hands now. Die.” And the force draining his life grew fiercer.
“ARGGHH!” Chu Xun cried in agony, throwing his head back. He would undoubtedly fall today if this continued.
With great difficulty, he looked over his shoulders and saw You Jiu, Yan Chong, and Lei Bao—all of them were bloodied and wounded. It would not be long before they were defeated.
“No... This cannot be...” Chu Xun went mad, his hair flying away behind him in a complete mess that he really looked like a demon from Hell.
“You’re resentful? But can you help it, if I will it so?” said the voice from inside the cave, smug and disdainful.
Chu Xun’s bloodshot eyes darted back and forth as if they were going to burst. There was not much blood left in him and his skin was cracking while his hair turned dried-yellow like a withering plant. Inside him, his True Energy thrashed and rioted defiantly, resisting the force that began draining it away.
Rattle!
Just then, a huge noise echoed—the sound of metal chains shaking wildly, and it was coming from inside Chu Xun.
The Firmament Chain inside him! It was rattling violently as if in a storm. Although as fine as a maiden’s hair, it burst forth with a flooding golden radiance and pierced through every piece of bone in his four limbs. The golden deluge of light grew thicker, engulfing everything in its path gradually and steadily, and froze his True Energy, preventing it from being drained away from the gigantic skeletal hand overhead.
“Huh?”
The voice inside the cave gasped with disbelief.
The blood-red glow shrouding the giant hand grew and the monster increased the force, determined to drain Chu Xun’s True Energy.
Rattle!
The blinding glow of the Firmament Chain inside Chu Xun hardly wavered. Instead, it swelled—oozing out his pores like liquid gold. The golden light poured out every orifice of his body, congealing slowly into a form: a golden suit of armor. No matter how hard the huge boney hand tried to drain Chu Xun’s blood and True Energy, he could not. Not anymore.
Chu Xun threw up a furious look at the gigantic hand, the Firmament Chain creeping out of his skin, coiling up his arm and into the air like a golden serpent. It wound itself around the gigantic hand with unbelievable speed, crawling up its forearm.
The Firmament Chain let loose another burst of golden brilliance, a deluge of light both effulgent and majestic. The light devoured the gigantic hand whole, and Chu Xun began feeling his blood returning to him, flowing down every link of the Firmament Chain and back into him.
“WHAT DEVILRY IS THIS!?” the voice in the cave bellowed furiously.
At a rate visible to the naked eye, Chu Xun’s body recovered quickly. His skin shone once more with its original luster, and his aura once again mighty and vast. His gaze looked as distant as the vast skies overhead, with stars revolving inside.
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