Toad Faced Toad

A mountain a thousand zhang high was towering in the mortal world, but in the Immortal Realm it was no more than a hill. Xiao Hua had long since spotted a deep cave halfway up the mountain, facing a vast marsh.

Standing before the cave, Xiao Hua looked curiously at the rocks covering the mountain. He had not noticed it before, but only upon drawing close did he see that the rocks seemed to have solidified from lava, their surfaces bearing traces of liquid flow. In particular, the streaked marks were dotted with fist-sized spots, as though rain had fallen upon them. Just as Xiao Hua wanted to inspect them more closely, Yuanzi impatiently said, "Why aren't you going in yet?"

Though the voice was soft, it sounded in Xiao Hua's ears like a sharp thorn stabbing deep into his mind.

"Alas, no wonder Chu Yu wanted to go to Tai Ming Yu Wan Heaven. That fellow must have been bullied miserably!" Xiao Hua sighed and urged his body into the deep cave.

The moment he stepped inside, a pungent stench rushed at him. Immediately afterward, a shuddering terror rose from the depths of his heart. Layer upon layer of wrinkles actually appeared across the surface of Xiao Hua's Nascent Soul Body.

Xiao Hua looked in surprise at the darkness within, sensing a pair of furious eyes staring at him.

"Brother Toad..." Xiao Hua took out the Soul Suppressing Bell and activated it as he silently muttered, "Although I once beat a toad to death, that toad surely had nothing to do with you even if one stretched eight poles to make the connection. So there is no grudge or enmity between us. I came today only to invite you outside to bask in the sun, with no other intentions. If someone disturbed you before, please look carefully—it wasn't me..."

The Soul Suppressing Bell chimed continuously as it flew down to hang around Xiao Hua's neck. Several rings of black ripples seeped into his head.

Xiao Hua took out a crystal bottle, then retrieved several jade shards from his space. He poured several drops of blood laced with black threads onto the jade shards. The blood transformed into strange butterfly-shaped forms, then began to sizzle. Once the butterfly-shaped marks formed, a stench so foul it nearly knocked Xiao Hua unconscious surged forth like crashing waves.

Caught off guard, Xiao Hua inhaled a mouthful, and his Nascent Soul Body swayed violently.

"Huh? That's not right!" At that moment, Xiao Hua suddenly came to a realization. "I don't have internal organs, so why do I need to breathe? And after smelling this scent, I..."

Xiao Hua wanted to think further, but the odor was truly unbearable. He abandoned the thought and hurriedly urged his body deeper inside, flying cautiously as he murmured, "Brother Toad, your taste... cough, cough... really is unique. I came to bring you..."

"Croak..." Xiao Hua's prayers seemed to have worked. He had flown barely a thousand zhang into the deep cave when a frog's croak rang out from the depths of the darkness. Xiao Hua's vision blurred, while the Soul Suppressing Bell around his neck chimed lightly.

"So powerful..." Xiao Hua hesitated, considering whether to advance or retreat.

"Whoosh..." At that moment, a gale howled from the depths of the darkness. Like dragons riding the clouds and tigers following the wind, golden ripples surged out with the roar of wind like a flood. A gigantic toad phantom twisted through the ripples as it came striding toward him!

"Greetings, Brother Toad..." Xiao Hua tossed the jade shards in his hand into the air, then clutched his head and fled!

"Whoosh..." A blood-red tongue shadow thrust out from the gold with the force of mountains toppling and seas overturning, transforming into a tongue several zhang long before the jade shards. The instant it touched them, the shards had already turned to powder. A drop of Mie Die Blood landed on the tongue. Strangely enough, though the Mie Die Blood could corrode jade, a thumb-sized golden rune emerged upon the blood-red tongue and caught the drop. With a bang, the rune exploded, carrying the Mie Die Blood into the tongue, where it vanished into the crimson flesh in mere moments!

"Croak..." The toad within the phantom cried out excitedly, shaking the entire cave. As it called, the phantom flared brilliantly and caught up to Xiao Hua's back within several breaths.

"Jing Sheng truly harbored no good intentions!" Xiao Hua sighed. He hurriedly hurled the entire bottle of Mie Die Blood against the stone wall beside him, then pointed with his left index finger. With a pop, the Mie Die Blood flowed down the wall.

"Croak, croak..." The toad screamed madly, and the Soul Suppressing Bell around Xiao Hua's neck rang wildly. Xiao Hua felt as though a giant hand were shaking his brain. How could he not know that he was in mortal danger? He drove his Immortal Power without regard for the cost and fled outward with all his strength!

"Crack..." Just as the light at the cave entrance came into view, the Soul Suppressing Bell finally shattered. Xiao Hua immediately felt the world spin around him.

No, I must find some treasure similar to the Soul Suppressing Bell! Xiao Hua escaped the deep cave in an utterly bedraggled state. His body stopped in midair, yet he still felt as though he were drunk. Otherwise, even if I have the means to ambush and kill this Toad Faced Toad, I would still be no match for it! The Immortal Realm truly is complicated!

Seeing Xiao Hua emerge, Jing Sheng was somewhat surprised. However, he merely glanced at Xiao Hua's black robe without saying anything, his gaze shifting toward the deep cave.

Before the cave, golden flames were already spilling out as light phantoms flooded the air. Yuanzi had also flown forward with grave caution, and he was actually holding a Peachwood Sword in his left hand!

"Croak..." A frog's cry shook the earth and mountains. Xiao Hua's face immediately turned pale, and he retreated swiftly. Under the fiery yellow sunlight, he clearly saw the waterlike ripples sweeping through the sky toward Yuanzi. How could he dare linger nearby? This was exactly the kind of disaster where the city gate caught fire and the fish in the moat suffered!

"Hmph, useless thing..." Yuanzi noticed Xiao Hua's movement and snorted coldly. A string of bells flew down before Xiao Hua as he said, "For drawing this beast out, I shall grant you this Soul Suppressing Bell."

The bells rang crisply, and Xiao Hua found the sound exceptionally pleasant. He hurriedly caught them and, beneath Jing Sheng's intensely jealous gaze, bowed and said, "Thank you, Senior!"

Yuanzi no longer had the leisure to concern himself with Xiao Hua or Jing Sheng. Behind the golden flames, a golden-yellow toad nearly a hundred zhang in size flew out of the cave. Its body was covered in coin-like spots of varying sizes. Beneath the fiery yellow sunlight, those spots glimmered with flames several feet long. Rather than scattering outward, the flames gathered beneath the toad's jaw, where a mark resembling a woman's face stood out with particular clarity.

"Croak..." The Toad Faced Toad did not pause in midair at all. Having flown out of the deep cave, it croaked loudly again and lunged at Yuanzi. Its arrowlike tongue shot through the air toward Yuanzi's head.

Yuanzi smiled faintly and raised his right hand. A flash of grass-green radiance flickered, and a transparent shield nearly a hundred zhang wide appeared out of nowhere. Green light flashed over its surface, and all manner of vegetation swayed and sprouted within that radiance!

"Pff..." The Toad Faced Toad's long tongue struck the green shield. With a series of cracks, the green light within several zhang of the impact vanished, along with the vegetation phantoms. A gray, withered hue rapidly spread across the cracked surface of the green shield.

"This fiend truly has some skills!" Yuanzi smiled faintly and flicked his right middle finger. A green point of light entered the shield. With a hum, the green shield blazed brightly, and hundreds of vines burst forth, wildly winding around the Toad Faced Toad's tongue.

The Toad Faced Toad was not to be outdone. Its tongue curled, and faint blood-colored flashes flickered through the surrounding space, severing more than a dozen green vines before it. Yet at the instant the vines were cut, the severed vines swelled against the wind with a whoosh, pouncing upon the Toad Faced Toad like pythons.

The Toad Faced Toad was startled. It hurriedly retracted its blood-red tongue, then suddenly opened its mouth wide. With a croak like a thunderclap, visible sound waves rushed toward the vines and green shield. Every vine snapped inch by inch beneath the sound waves, while the green shield was shredded into sparkling fragments. This single frog cry truly swept away all that remained like wind scattering the last clouds.

Nor was that all. The sound waves swallowed the green radiance without losing momentum and were already rushing toward Yuanzi!

"I've been waiting for this move!" Yuanzi smiled faintly without the slightest panic. With a flick of his hand, he threw an emerald-green Immortal Talisman into the air. The moment it emerged, winds roared. Xiao Hua saw the surrounding Immortal Spiritual Energy rushing into it madly. Amid a rumbling boom, four spherical clouds formed. Then, with a series of cracks, four bolts of azure lightning thundered down, sealing off the entire space around the Toad Faced Toad.

"Wood lightning?" After hearing the thunder, Xiao Hua found that the frog cry that had chilled him to the bone had vanished, leaving the surroundings as still as death. His brows rose as he thought to himself, The Immortal Realm truly is the Immortal Realm. Yuanzi's talisman can actually summon wood lightning so easily, and it leaves no trace of smoke or dust when used. It is truly exquisite! More importantly, the space of the Immortal Realm seems different from that of the mortal world. I cannot sense my own domain, yet these four wood lightning bolts can seal an entire space. How strange...

Just as the thought arose, Xiao Hua saw the Toad Faced Toad within the azure seal suddenly turn yellow all over. Its body swelled, and its once-furious eyes became a sheet of blood-red.

Could it be that Brother Toad can break through the spatial seal? Xiao Hua was startled.

Sure enough, the Toad Faced Toad opened its mouth, and silent waves of fire surged toward the azure lightning seal before it.

Seeing the azure lightning shake violently as cracks appeared, Xiao Hua could not help glancing at Jing Sheng in the distance. Though Jing Sheng's face was hidden within his black robe, merely looking at his somewhat rigid body, Xiao Hua could almost picture the dumbstruck expression on that fellow's face.

Xiao Hua did not know whether Jing Sheng could escape the Toad Faced Toad's croak and fire waves, but he knew that Chu Yu absolutely could not.

Yet contrary to Xiao Hua's expectations, Yuanzi did not activate any Immortal Arts. Instead, he watched the fire waves within the seal with great interest, as though he did not care in the least.

With a tremendous boom, the lightning seal shattered, and the fire waves surged forth like a rising tide.

"Fine fiend..." Yuanzi laughed, pointing at the Immortal Talisman that had reverted amid the mournful cries of the four lightning clusters. "You can actually break this old man's Thunder Screen Talisman. You have truly exceeded this old man's expectations. Since that is so, let this old man see your true abilities!"

As he spoke, Yuanzi raised his hand, scattering dozens of gleaming motes. The motes fell through the air and transformed into dozens of slender greenwood branches. These branches appeared utterly ordinary, yet as the surrounding Immortal Spiritual Energy rushed into them madly, they transformed into humanoid forms in the blink of an eye. Not only that, the Green Wood Humanoids wore armor and carried weapons, looking imposing and majestic!

The Green Wood Humanoids had only just taken shape when fire waves more than ten zhang high had already crashed toward them.

"Whoosh, whoosh..." Dozens of Green Wood Humanoids opened their mouths at once. The seemingly raging fire waves were swallowed into their mouths in a single gulp. Not only was Xiao Hua dumbfounded, even the Toad Faced Toad opened and closed its mouth like a mute, unable to make a sound.

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