A Flawless Face
After using her ultimate move, she will inevitably be in her weakest state and may not be able to keep up with the others. But sacrificing one person is better than everyone falling here.
A glint flashed in Hu Jixian. He didn't speak, but he made a decision.
"I disagree!" Nie Wanzhi said stubbornly.
"This is the president's order, and you must obey! I am the president, and it is my responsibility to protect your safety!"
Ke Chajing said firmly, while secretly gathering her True Qi, intending to take immediate action.
"You don't need to argue anymore, let me do it." It was Chen Shimi who spoke. He stopped controlling his flying sword and sighed, "This day has finally come. The power of the Eternal Barrier has weakened, the curse has been activated... This is the fate of exorcists."
Hao Shuai, who was at the forefront, suddenly felt the offensive intensify and couldn't help but say, "What kind of time is this? You're still spouting nonsense like this. Look at the occasion!"
Unmoved, Chen Shimi slowly unwrapped the bandages from his left hand, revealing his arm covered in dark patterns. When he uttered a phrase in a language no one could understand, the patterns glowed and emitted a powerful Devil Qi.
Then, his left hand underwent a strange transformation. His five fingers became long and thin, with nails as sharp as blades, resembling the claws of a ferocious bird. His arm grew thicker and larger, and dense scales grew on his skin. Soon, his left hand transformed into a claw resembling that of a dragon.
"Heavenly Devil Destroys the Dao, Dragon Claw Form, Rend the Universe!"
Chen Shimi charged forward, unleashing his Devil Essence. With a flick of his arm, he unleashed a long, thin blade of light, carrying an overwhelming aura of slaughter.
In an instant, the space in front of them seemed to turn into a piece of paper, cut in two by the blade's edge, creating a subtle misalignment.
When the space was restored, all the monsters were cut in half at the waist, and their corpses littered the ground.
Chapter 472 Flawless Face
Based on her memory, Yu Shuying drew a three-dimensional diagram on the ground. Then, looking around, she quickly made a judgment based on the environment. "Go to the left. According to the structure of the nest, that's where the monster's core is located."
Murong Qing nodded, took the lead, and charged to the left with the Moon God's Tear in hand. Her sword flashed, and she killed all the monsters she encountered along the way with One Sword strike.
Unlike Mantou's group who ran away at the sight of monsters, and unlike Ke Chajing's group who were cornered by monsters, Murong Qing's group was unstoppable, going wherever they wanted and treating monsters as nothing. After a brief discussion, they even decided to capture the leader of the monsters and rush towards their vital points to resolve the anomaly.
The group pressed on, advancing with unstoppable momentum. After passing through a long corridor, they entered a new lair. This lair was much larger than the previous ones, with a height exceeding a hundred feet. Vines hanging from the top adorned the lair, making it resemble Youming illusion, filled with a mysterious atmosphere.
However, Murong Qing and the others had no time to appreciate the strange scenery. The moment they stepped in, the corpse monsters that had been lying on the ground like decorations suddenly reacted. Their eyes flashed red, and they all stood up. Thousands upon thousands of them silently charged forward.
"Thousand Directions Afterimages!"
Murong Qing activated his inner energy, wielding his sword horizontally. Frosty sword Sword Qi poured down like a torrential rain, each Sword Qi corresponding to a corpse monster. Once hit, the monster would freeze in place, no longer able to move.
This was a method Murong Qing devised after the previous battles. These corpse monsters had no obvious weaknesses; they were pieced together from the corpses of animals and plants and had no hearts. Unless their heads were blown off or half of their bodies were cut off, they could continue to move. Therefore, it was fine to deal with individual fragments, but when encountering a large group, it was better to use cold air to seal their movements than to waste energy damaging their bodies, since these corpse monsters had no Primal Qi to resist.
After Murong Qing took control of the situation, Hongdou immediately gathered her inner energy and pushed forward with both hands. A torrent of Yuan Power poured out, causing the air to vibrate and whistle.
The method of use remains crude, but the underlying attributes are completely different from before. If she used "push" on the ring, she is now using "smash".
Under the impact of the Primal Qi Torrent, the frozen corpse monsters exploded one after another, utterly powerless to resist, and a large area was cleared away in the blink of an eye. Murong Qing and Hongdou used the same method five times in a row, finally completing the clearing and eliminating all the corpse monsters in the nest, turning them into scattered parts on the ground.
Murong Qing a deep breath and adjusted her internal energy. Unlike Hongdou, she didn't have inexhaustible True Qi. Fortunately, she had the Moon God's Tear in hand, from which she could draw upon the cold-attribute Spiritual Qi she had stored in advance.
"The one in front must be the real culprit."
Murong Qing looked up and saw a huge cocoon sleeping in the center of the nest. It was about the size of a small castle. Silk threads extended from the cocoon and connected to the inner walls of the surrounding area. She could vaguely feel energy emanating from the inside of the cocoon and being transported out through the silk threads.
"No matter what, let's destroy it first, Nine Luminaries Saint..."
Murong Qing raised the Moon God's Tear, gathered her True Essence, and was about to swing her sword to slash at the giant cocoon.
"Wait a minute, something seems off."
A fourth voice suddenly rang out, startling the three people present. They turned to look and saw it was Liu Qingqing.
Murong Qing was already somewhat used to this and didn't find it strange. She withdrew her ultimate move and said, "Qingqing, you're here. I thought you were with Senior Sister Ke and the others."
Liu Qingqing said, "I've been following behind you the whole time."
Hongdou said happily, "It's so good that you're alright. You're still the same as before, always showing up unexpectedly."
Yu Shuying had always remained on the outside of the circle and hadn't had much contact with it. She couldn't help but wonder what kind of Cultivation Method this was. Even with her Mind-Reading Technique, she hadn't noticed that there were four people present.
Ultimately, business was more important, so Yu Shuying didn't think for long before asking, "What did you discover?"
"This cocoon is empty inside. Although there's no evidence, my intuition tells me it's a trap."
Yu Shuying did not refute the other party's theory of intuition. For martial artists, intuition is sometimes more effective than actual evidence seen or touched.
Hongdou clapped her hands, looking like she'd found a kindred spirit. "So that's how it is! I also felt something was off before, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. I just had a vague feeling that the spatial arrangement of this nest was a bit off."
"Traps, spatial awareness..."
Yu Shuying pieced together the clues, thought quickly, and then her eyes lit up. "I understand. The enemy's true form is right beneath our feet. This place is just bait. When we rushed through that hundreds-of-meters-long passage, our horizontal position actually rose several meters without us noticing, but because the slope was too gentle, we didn't feel it. Moreover, this nest was deliberately made to be extremely large to divert our attention. If I'm not mistaken, the space where the enemy's true form is hidden is actually closed, not connected to any other nest. The interconnected structure inside the cocoon is also meant to mislead our judgment."
Murong Qing her sword with all her might, unleashing a Sword Qi that slashed at the earth, but it only plowed out a crack thirty centimeters deep, which healed in the blink of an eye.
The inner walls of the demonic cocoon would regenerate on their own, a fact that had already been verified, so no one found it strange. However, judging from the effect of this One Sword, the thickness of the floor was beyond imagination, and it would probably not be easy to break through to the next level.
"Fortunately, I listened to Si Ming's advice and brought the Moon God's Tear with me, otherwise I would really be at a loss."
Murong Qing leaped into the air, fully activating the Glacier Divine Art. A chilling aura emanated from her, and the Moon God's Tear's Tear, was covered with a thick layer of ice, transforming into a cone with a base diameter of half a meter. She then turned upside down, her body spinning rapidly, like an ice diamond plunging fiercely into the earth.
The Moon God's Tear's Tear was incredibly sharp, easily piercing the inner wall of the demonic cocoon. The icy spiral and the chilling Sword Qi cut through it, instantly widening the crack and tearing open a huge gap in the blink of an eye.
After drilling to a depth of three meters, Murong Qing finally broke through the floor and descended to the lower level. Yu Shuying and the others quickly followed, passing through the gap before the inner wall was restored.
The lower nest wasn't large, only about half the size of a football field. In the center was a cocoon identical to the one in the upper nest, with countless silk threads extending outwards. Compared to the quietness of the upper cocoon, this one vibrated slightly like a heart, emitting a red glow. However, it wasn't supplying blood outwards; instead, it absorbed energy. Each vibration released a chaotic aura, so intense it was suffocating.
Yu Shuying frowned and said, "What an evil aura! It's unlike any other kind of Primal Qi I've ever seen before. It's like Devil Qi energy, yet also like Yao Qi energy. Is this guy Demon Race or Devil Race?"