Chapter 345
Chapter 345
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: [Unknown]
Chapter Title: Slaughter of the Shen-Beasts and Herdsman
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Chen Shi's heart burned with unrelenting fury.
This world was never peaceful to begin with. The thirteen great clans of the mortal realm wrought havoc, ruling over humanity, colluding with powerful families to prey on the common folk. Countless people met tragic ends in the human world, and after death, denied entry to the Immortal Capital, they could only become lonely wild ghosts.
But even those who died unjustly were treated like fodder by the ghost gods of the underworld, fed to their livestock! He'd seen plenty of bullying in his time, but nothing this outrageous!
Heavy hoofbeats echoed from within the mist as scarlet tongues lashed out with whooshes, coiling toward Chen Shi and Peng Ju.
Chen Shi dodged to the side and seized one scarlet tongue in his grip. He circulated the Blood Lake True Scripture, and in an instant, the qi and blood within that tongue surged along his fingers into his body!
In moments, the tongue shriveled at a rapid pace, like a stick of sun-dried firewood, turning brittle. With a snap, it broke apart and shattered into more than a dozen segments upon hitting the ground.
Chen Shi felt that qi and blood circulate once through his body. This qilin form of his actually gained a faint sense of the flesh—some touch, it seemed. The soles of his feet could now feel the roughness of the ground and the sandy flow of the mist.
Moreover, the blood pool behind his head had unknowingly expanded somewhat, and the circulation speed of the Blood Lake True Scripture had quickened considerably.
Chen Shi was slightly stunned.
When cultivating the Blood Lake True Scripture, he had comprehended every aspect of the technique. This was clearly a legitimate cultivation method centered on soul refinement, forming a Blood Lake Hell behind the head to nourish the primal soul. There was not the slightest trace of anything sinister in it.
This demonic art, during cultivation, drew in the stray mystical energies of heaven and earth, forming a vertical blood pool behind the head.
As cultivation advanced, the blood pool gradually transformed into a blood pond, then evolved into a blood lake, and from blood lake to blood sea. Once the Blood Lake Hell was complete, the soul would be immensely powerful.
Yet for some reason, when he circulated the Blood Lake True Scripture, it could seize the qi and blood of other living beings!
This was a demonic art! Absolutely a technique of the demonic path!
The thought had just crossed his mind when a colossal beast burst from the mist—a ghost-headed, beast-bodied monstrosity like a mobile mountain of flesh barreling toward him.
It was the very monster whose tongue he'd just severed.
Without a second thought, Chen Shi planted both hands against the creature's forehead. The impact nearly shattered every bone in his body, his legs buckling as he was shoved sliding backward.
Peng Ju had intended to spread his wings and take to the air to evade the charge, but seeing Chen Shi unsteady on his feet, he instinctively thrust out his own hands to brace as well.
These monsters were called shen-beasts, creatures of the underworld. They were nothing but meat from head to toe, with savage temperaments. They devoured clouds and exhaled mist, feasting on souls and flesh alike, their bodies packed with sinewy muscle and endowed with boundless strength.
Wild shen-beasts in the wilderness were elusive and deadly, even ambushing ghost gods. With the slightest carelessness, even mighty ghost gods could become their prey, dragged into the fog and devoured.
When hunting, they spewed thick mists that could blanket dozens of mu.
Travelers in the underworld often encountered clusters of fog in the wilds—more often than not, a shen-beast lurked inside.
Once domesticated, shen-beasts provided meat for ghost gods, their flesh extending yin lifespan. Yin lifespan, of course, referred to the longevity of the soul. Thus, shen-beast blood and meat were relished by ghost gods.
Chen Shi and Peng Ju couldn't hold back this shen-beast's charge and were sent sliding backward.
At the same instant, eerie giggles came from both sides as two more shen-beasts charged in, slamming into the central one with two thuds—one from the left, one from the right—sending it tumbling in disarray, unable to continue its assault on Chen Shi and Peng Ju.
The two newcomers cackled strangely and extended their sharp claws toward the pair!
"Peng Ju, Blood Lake True Scripture!"
Chen Shi shouted. He circulated the Blood Lake True Scripture once more, sending a streak of blood-red sword qi toward the left shen-beast. With a swipe, the blood-red sword light sheared through its scaly claw.
Strangely, after severing the scaly claw, the blood-red sword light showed no loss of power—in fact, it grew stronger than before! The severed claw hit the ground and rapidly withered, without a drop of blood spilling out.
No blood flowed from the stump where the shen-beast's forelimb had been cut either. The limb resembled a sun-dried branch—once thick and sturdy, now shrunken and thin.
Chen Shi had no time for further thought. His sword momentum flowed seamlessly into Cloud Sword Form, the blood light whirling rapidly around the shen-beast's neck in a full circle.
The shen-beast let out an earth-shaking roar of fury, but it only half-emerged before its massive ghost head lolled downward. All blood had drained from its brain, every drop siphoned from its muscles. Its brains resembled dried raisins, its facial skin shriveled tight against the bones.
Its torso's heart shriveled in an instant, contracting into a lump with all blood drained away—like a sun-dried shen-beast carcass. It collapsed with a boom!
"Shing—"
The blood-red sword light flew back, merging into Chen Shi's body. In a flash, blood light coursed through his entire form, tempering his qilin body like carved red jade, the glow circulating endlessly. Excess blood light flowed to the blood pool behind his head, rapidly expanding it.
"Such an eerie technique!"
Chen Shi was marveling at it when Peng Ju's cry of alarm rang out. The shen-beast that had been battered earlier was now teaming up with another to besiege Peng Ju.
Peng Ju circulated the Blood Lake True Scripture, but he'd never cultivated any arts before and had no idea how to direct the power. He could only rely on his peng-bird bloodline, fighting on instinct.
He could have spread his wings and fled, but he'd stayed to share the pressure with Chen Shi, lest his friend face a full围攻.
One shen-beast's tongue coiled around him, dragging him despite his frantic wingbeats toward its gaping maw!
Its mouth was lined with razor fangs, clashing open and shut.
Peng Ju braced with hands and feet against the beast's upper and lower jaws, straining to hold them apart and prevent the bite. But the tongue tightened around his waist, yanking downward and nearly snapping him in half!
The other shen-beast swung its forelimb, reaching into its fellow's mouth to pluck out Peng Ju and claim him for itself.
"Peng Ju, Blood Lake True Scripture!"
Chen Shi rushed over, directing his sword finger. A blood light sword qi severed the reaching forelimb.
"Channel the blood qi into your wings! Slash!"
Peng Ju struggled desperately in the shen-beast's mouth. Hearing this, he circulated the Blood Lake True Scripture recklessly, attempting to draw the blood light from the pool behind his head into his wings.
His blood pool was small, the blood light scant—it barely covered the tips of his wing feathers.
Peng Ju spread his wings wide, a wingspan of twenty-four chi. With a whoosh, blood light flashed across. The shen-beast's tough scales, sharp teeth, resilient tongue, and thick skull all split open under the wings!
This massive shen-beast was sliced into three chunks by his wings. The halves on either side toppled left and right with twin booms, while the central piece stood a moment longer before collapsing.
All the shen-beast's blood qi flowed into his wings, quickly staining them blood-red.
Chen Shi's qilin body had only faint sensations, but Peng Ju's was flesh and blood. He felt streams of warm currents circulating within, tempering his form. In that brief time, his strength surged!
He even felt his raw power had increased four or fivefold from before!
Excess blood qi flowed to the pool behind his head, enlarging it considerably.
Meanwhile, Chen Shi slew the other shen-beast. Blood qi suffused his body, strengthening it a touch more. His blood pool grew substantially larger, inching toward a full pond.
"What an eerie technique!" Chen Shi's heart stirred.
"This art is definitely demonic! And yet, it can enhance the soul's power!
We used the Blood Lake True Scripture to kill these two shen-beasts and absorbed their blood qi—our soul power has risen substantially."
Chen Shi had consumed vast quantities of soul-return lotuses, refining his soul to a solidity like real flesh. After that, more lotuses had done nothing. Yet now, his soul power advanced again!
At this moment, the mist began to thin as the rumble of cart wheels approached.
Forty or fifty shen-beasts the size of small hills entered their view. These ghost-headed, four-limbed monsters lumbered forward, fangs gnashing viciously as they eyed the pair and closed in slowly.
A ghost god with flesh grown onto cart wheels drove toward them, standing five or six zhang tall, whip in one hand to herd the beasts. Suddenly, the ghost god halted, glancing at Chen Shi and Peng Ju, then at the shen-beast corpses on the ground. In a grim voice, it said:
"You two did this?"
On the nearby locust tree, the village's peng-birds peered out, watching the spectacle. At this sight, they all hopped to the rooftops' edges, craning their necks.
Peng Ju sidled up to Chen Shi and whispered:
"That's a Herdsman Ghost—herds livestock for the great ghost gods. It's a whole race unto itself. Though few in number, they're born far stronger than us peng-birds. We get bullied by them all the time. See his chest? There's a basket there."
Chen Shi's gaze fell to the Herdsman Ghost's chest, where several bones had grown outward from his body, forming a bony basket.
A little yaksha sat inside, holding incense aloft—two sticks in all.
The fragrant smoke wafted upward steadily, inhaled by the Herdsman Ghost through his nostrils.
"Little yaks has are specially assigned to offer him incense," Peng Ju murmured.
"If a Herdsman Ghost's basket has no little ghosts offering incense, he holds no official post. With one, he does. This one's backed by a ghost god of Great Pool Nation! We killed his herd—trouble's brewing..."
"Then we'll kill him too!"
Chen Shi formed a sword mudra and thrust. Sword qi became a streak of blood light that whistled through the air. One shen-beast too slow to dodge had its head pierced!
Chen Shi charged forward, activating the Second Lightning Talisman. Electric light flashed beneath his feet, his form nearly teleporting atop that shen-beast's head. His feet landed as his body flipped.
In the instant his body somersaulted in midair, a sword qi over a zhang long burst from the shen-beast's hindbrain, claiming all its blood qi to forge that blood-red sword light.
As Chen Shi flipped down, the descending sword light cleaved open the head of the shen-beast behind him.
The moment Chen Shi landed, his sword finger flicked lightly. That blood-red sword qi split into two, piercing the bodies of shen-beasts to his left and right.
He strode onward, forming sword mudras with both hands. Two blood-red sword qis erupted from his body, dancing with his mudras. The blood sword lights stretched over a zhang, whistling as they wove back and forth. In an instant, severed limbs flew in all directions.
The blood-red sword qi divided into four, four into eight, eight into sixteen, sixteen into thirty-two. By the time Chen Shi burst from the shen-beast pack, sixty-four sword qis blazed—a web of crisscrossing blood-red sword lights in intricate patterns, dazzling the eyes as they bore straight for the Herdsman Ghost!
From plunging into the herd to slaying most of them, it was but an instant—from one sword qi to sixty-four!
The Herdsman Ghost gripped his long whip, which elongated rapidly, spinning and lashing like a dragon with clangs as it blocked and deflected the sword lights!
Wheels whirring beneath him, he charged at Chen Shi.
Suddenly, lightning flashed. Chen Shi appeared at his left side, seizing a blood-red sword light to slash at his neck.
Chen Shi's qilin body was small and a soul form, incredibly agile. The Herdsman Ghost's body was massive; though his wheels were nimble, they paled against the Second Lightning Talisman's speed, unable to evade the strike.
Strange patterns emerged on the Herdsman Ghost's sturdy flesh—like divine diagrams from talismans or ghostly script, crawling up his arm to meet Chen Shi's blood-red sword light!
"Boom!"
His palm unleashed a deep thunderous tone. The blood-red sword light shattered beneath his palm patterns. Chen Shi felt an unmatched divine might assail him, the Herdsman Ghost's palm force slamming him to the ground and sending him flying. With a colossal thud, he smashed into that massive locust tree!
The tree's bird-nest homes swayed wildly. The peng-bird villagers, who had been perched on the edges watching, hopped to the other side, claws gripping the eaves to avoid falling, necks craned as they peered to see if Chen Shi had been smashed to bits.
Peng Ju charged over with all his might. He'd planned to help Chen Shi against the shen-beasts, but in an instant most were dead. He'd just finished two charging at him when Chen Shi was struck flying by the Herdsman Ghost.
A Herdsman Ghost was a lowly ghost god, but still a ghost god. How terrifying was a ghost god's power?
This blow had surely pulverized Chen Shi!
Peng Ju's heart sank. Though they'd only known each other a few days, he'd already regarded Chen Shi as a dear friend. To think he'd fall here...
Suddenly, streaks of blood-red sword light whistled with whooshes, vanishing into the tree hollow.
Chen Shi lay embedded in the locust tree like a spread-eagled imprint, deep within the trunk. His bones were riddled with cracks, nearly shattered. But as streaks of blood-red sword light merged into them, his bones healed rapidly, cracks vanishing:
These dozens of sword qis contained the blood qi of numerous shen-beasts. Circulating via the Blood Lake True Scripture, they nourished his bones and bolstered his primal soul. In mere moments, he recovered to his peak—and advanced substantially!
Chen Shi leaped out from the tree hollow. He unleashed the Second Lightning Talisman; the electric light had turned crimson. In a blink, he was before the Herdsman Ghost, gathering sword qi into a slash!
The Herdsman Ghost's wheels spun, retreating dozens of zhang in a flash before halting abruptly. Patterns flared on his arms, divine power surging as he raised a hand to meet the sword!
This time, he failed to send Chen Shi flying!
Blood-red thunder flashed as Chen Shi appeared behind him, sword light stabbing at his hindbrain.
The Herdsman Ghost's wheels spun forward, covering dozens of chi in an instant. Chen Shi pursued relentlessly, never letting him shake free.
The Herdsman Ghost discarded his long whip—it was too slow for Chen Shi's onslaught. His other hand summoned those strange patterns to block the strike.
Chen Shi flickered unpredictably amid blood-red thunder lights, appearing now before, now behind, now left, now right around the ghost god's body. Sword lights assailed him from every direction!
The Herdsman Ghost roared like thunder, wheels blurring in frantic spins and rotations, blocking strike after strike. Suddenly, he failed to parry one—Chen Shi's sword pierced his throat!
The Herdsman Ghost bellowed. Lights flickered at his neck, gorgeous patterns emerging in radiant glory, blocking the sword.
He reached to grab Chen Shi, but thunder boomed and the form vanished. The next instant, another sword thrust at his throat!
The Herdsman Ghost tensed his throat and grabbed again—another miss.
One blood-red sword qi after another stabbed relentlessly at the Herdsman Ghost's throat. The immense force within battered him backward step by step.
He grabbed repeatedly, but always at empty air.
Suddenly, blood light flashed. The gorgeous patterns at his neck were finally pierced by the sword light!
Chen Shi's small qilin form thrust forward with all his might. The blood-red sword qi impaled the Herdsman Ghost's thick neck!
Chen Shi withdrew his sword, drawing out the supremely dense sword qi. The Herdsman Ghost's colossal body instantly drained of fresh blood, shriveling to a withered husk before crashing down!
The little yaksha seated at his chest, holding three sticks of incense, hurriedly leaped from the bone basket, dropping the incense sticks and wailing over the Herdsman Ghost's corpse.
Chen Shi dispersed his sword qi.
"I won't kill you. Go find other work."
The little yaksha gave him a teary glance, gathered its belongings, picked up a human leg bone from the ground, slung a small bundle over its shoulder, wiped its tears, and scampered off.
From then on, Great Pool Nation had one more little yaksha wandering in search of odd jobs.