But they were only barely holding out. Only two of them had reached the Cave Heaven Realm; the rest were in the Blood Moving Realm.
When their attacks struck the huge creature, they produced nothing but the ringing clash of metal.
The ferocious beast blocked every one of their densely packed, flashy attacks. None could break through its defenses.
The group stood back-to-back, multicolored light radiating from their bodies as they all held their Treasure Artifacts across their fronts.
They formed a circle, some defending with Treasure Artifacts while others attacked, so the huge creature could not finish them off for the moment.
Shi Qingyun paid no attention to whether they lived or died. He was hardly overflowing with kindness and naturally had no interest in helping them, especially people with whom he had a grudge.
The fact that Shi Qingyun had not stabbed them in the back while they were under attack already counted as an act of great mercy.
Shi Qingyun simply watched from high above as they struggled to withstand one attack after another in the Death Swamp.
After listening from above for so long, Shi Qingyun had pieced together the whole story.
It turned out that the fellow called Yin Tianzong had brought a treasure bestowed by his family to search for treasures in the Death Swamp.
The person who had been cursing like a shrew earlier was none other than Yin Tianzong.
But while dispersing the miasma, someone in their group had accidentally sent an attack into the Death Swamp, waking the monster sleeping at its bottom.
The monster had trapped them firmly in the Death Swamp, leaving them unable to escape. Judging by its appearance, Shi Qingyun guessed it was a Nine-Handed Yin Beast that had mutated after living here for so long.
While Shi Qingyun felt that they were reaping the bitter fruit they had sown, he also felt a wave of relief. Fortunately, when he had passed through that area, he had immediately used the Eight Directions Step to cross it swiftly.
Had he disturbed the huge creature before him, he would not be the one watching the show now. He might even have been devoured by the Nine-Handed Yin Beast already.
Judging by the pressure emanating from the huge creature below, it showed faint signs of breaking through to the Spirit Transformation Realm.
While Shi Qingyun was still thinking this over, the battle below suddenly intensified.
The huge creature seemed deeply displeased that it still had not dealt with the insects disturbing its pleasant dreams-or perhaps it had simply tired of playing. Its attacks abruptly grew fiercer.
It drew back all its tentacles, and in an instant, the lines branded onto each one lit up.
Crimson runes surged from those glowing lines, covering every tentacle. Wrapped in blood-red light, the tentacles now radiated a sharpness that could pierce metal and split stone.
Waves of terrifying danger radiated from those wildly flailing tentacles. The threat of death sent Yin Tianzong's heart pounding madly.
He knew that if this continued, they would have ten chances to die and none to live. While Yin Tianzong was still considering how to break out of their predicament, tentacles shot into their midst like arrows loosed from a bow.
Yin Tianzong could only watch as a tentacle with a red-glowing tip tore through someone's protective Treasure Artifact as effortlessly as puncturing paper, crushing all resistance before piercing straight through him.
The sight instantly terrified Yin Tianzong to his very core. No longer caring about anything else, he fled desperately.
His flight immediately triggered a chain reaction. Seeing their leader run, the others abandoned everything else and followed in a wild dash.
They all gave up resisting and hurriedly unleashed their divine power, scrambling to escape. But it was nothing more than a fool's dream.
As the monster swung its tentacles, those appendages, hard as metal, pierced the fleeing people with the precision of thrown javelins.
Chapter 34: Taking Action
Shi Qingyun stared in some shock at the horrifying scene before him. Just moments earlier, these had all been living, breathing people.
In the blink of an eye, writhing tentacles had impaled them firmly in the Death Swamp, their blood streaming down those appendages.
The temperature in the Death Swamp seemed to plunge to freezing in an instant, and the flowing blood gave off wisps of steam within the swamp.
Strands of white mist intertwined, glaringly conspicuous against the black swamp, their pale haze seemingly about to obscure Shi Qingyun's vision.
Though warm, bright sunlight shone directly onto Shi Qingyun, he could scarcely feel its warmth now. A chill coiled within his heart.
At that moment, Shi Qingyun felt the fragility of life with startling clarity. He had long anticipated their deaths, and he had easily ended two lives himself earlier.
But seeing living people pierced through and pinned to the ground like this, in such bloody brutality, still made his heart jolt.
Shi Qingyun saw that before the blood could even reach the ground, the red light emanating from the tentacles had sucked it all away.
Hovering in the air, Shi Qingyun narrowed his eyes at the swallowing sounds coming from those red-glowing tentacles.
In the next instant, every corpse rapidly shriveled. Flesh that had been brimming with vital energy and shining with precious light withered within moments, while their once-black hair swiftly turned white.
Their eye sockets sank in within an instant, and the flesh beneath their skin seemed to vanish into thin air.
Only dry hides remained stretched over the corpses, the outlines of their bones showing with stark clarity.
As though they had eaten and drunk their fill, the tentacles withdrew in a flash.
Deprived of support, the corpses impaled on the tentacles drifted down lightly, striking the ground and exposing their stark white bones.
But those bones had already lost all their luster, and the faint rune markings that should have remained upon them had long since dissipated.
Just as Shi Qingyun thought the Nine-Handed Yin Beast had killed everyone here-
He vaguely caught a figure out of the corner of his eye and immediately extended his perception.
Before long, the auras of two living people appeared within Shi Qingyun's perception.
Shi Qingyun turned to look, surprised that these two had survived. They were weaving between the terrifying tentacles.
They were the only two Cave Heaven Realm cultivators in the earlier group.
Whenever a tentacle was about to touch them, they narrowly evaded it.
Even when they accidentally made contact, the transparent membranes flickering over their bodies repelled the attacking tentacles.
Knowing that both were in the Cave Heaven Realm, Shi Qingyun was not surprised that they could evade the attacks repeatedly. Besides, one of them seemed to possess some extraordinary status.
Still, he thought that if these two had not abandoned everyone during the Nine-Handed Yin Beast's final attack, there might have been a chance of survival, however small. Yet Shi Qingyun offered no judgment on their choice.
Had he traded places with them, he might have done the same. After all, when faced with the danger of death, few people would choose to die meaninglessly like that.
Thus, he did not judge the two for abandoning their companions and fleeing alone. Those people might not even have been their companions; perhaps they had merely cooperated for mutual benefit.
Shi Qingyun paid them no mind. He only intended to leave once the huge creature calmed down. He was not in such a hurry anyway.
Since these people had still been able to come here to search for treasures, there ought to be time left. Surely they would not be foolish enough to disregard their lives for some elusive treasure.
Watching those two fleeing figures in their sorry state, Shi Qingyun dismissed his final trace of doubt.
Shi Qingyun ignored the two, but the pair in the Death Swamp apparently had other ideas.
Shi Qingyun glanced at the direction they were fleeing. Weren't they coming straight toward him?
Shi Qingyun moved elsewhere. He did not want to fight the Nine-Handed Yin Beast. Although he would certainly win, there was no point.
He might as well wait until both sides had nearly finished fighting, then go down and reap the spoils.
But the two seemed to have fixed their sights on Shi Qingyun and kept fleeing toward him.
As Yin Tianzong fled between the monster's crisscrossing tentacles, he dodged them while keeping track of Shi Qingyun's position.
He was in a truly wretched state. His clothes were in tatters, and with his hair crown knocked off, his disheveled hair made him look even more miserable.
He was a genius of his clan, accustomed to having clothes brought to his hands and food brought to his mouth. When had he ever endured such suffering? Had he not needed to keep everyone calm, he would have killed the idiot who attacked the swamp right at the start.
Yin Tianzong cursed the fellow who had awakened the monster inwardly as he fled for his life, but the monster behind him pursued relentlessly.
Just as he thought he could not escape his fate, the mutated Nine-Handed Yin Beast blew away the miasma overhead, revealing Shi Qingyun floating in the sky.
Seeing Shi Qingyun hovering there like a heavenly god descended to earth, Yin Tianzong assumed he must be some powerful expert.
Convinced that Shi Qingyun could save his life, he ignored the wailing people around him and fled in Shi Qingyun's direction.
Naturally, Shi Qingyun had no way of knowing what that fellow was thinking. He merely wondered what he wanted and why he kept chasing after him.
While Shi Qingyun was still puzzling over this, Yin Tianzong's anxious voice reached his ears.
"Senior, please save my life! I will remember your kindness until my dying day."
Seeing that Shi Qingyun remained unmoved, Yin Tianzong threw caution aside and raised his offer.
"Senior, as long as you save my life, I'll agree to anything you want."
The other person fleeing nearby also noticed Shi Qingyun in the sky and hurriedly called out to him:
"I am a prodigy of the Thick Mountain clan! If you save me, my clan will reward you handsomely. You will be a friend of the Thick Mountain clan!"
Meanwhile, the tentacles swiftly lashed toward them again. But Shi Qingyun merely watched coldly, and they immediately realized he had made up his mind not to help.
A ruthless look appeared on both their faces. In the next instant, they threw back their heads and roared.
Their blood essence burned furiously, and their speed surged.
They charged straight toward Shi Qingyun.
Chapter 35: An Instant Kill in One Move
Seeing their actions, Shi Qingyun thought, Are they trying to drag me into this?
Shi Qingyun shifted his gaze away from the pair. He no longer changed positions and remained where he was.
His increasingly indifferent gaze swept over the beast and the two people. Yin Tianzong and the other man below remained oblivious as Shi Qingyun murmured in a somewhat icy voice:
"You truly have no idea when to stop courting death. In that case, you'll get your wish!"
Two enormous cave heavens, distinctly black and white, manifested behind Shi Qingyun. They hung there in plain sight, radiating a terrifying pressure.
But Yin Tianzong and his companion, still fleeing beneath the mutated Nine-Handed Yin Beast, did not sense the pressure emanating from Shi Qingyun.
They simply kept moving toward him, intent on dragging the lofty Shi Qingyun into their predicament.
Looking up, they saw the two cave heavens Shi Qingyun had manifested outside his body. Yet the sight brought only anger and despair to their hearts.
They had thought they could make Shi Qingyun hold off the huge creature and use that chance to escape.
They had never expected Shi Qingyun to be merely a boy in the Cave Heaven Realm. Though his strange cave heavens puzzled them somewhat, they no longer believed he was some mighty expert.
At most, they regarded Shi Qingyun as a prodigy like themselves.
The explosive cracks of the Nine-Handed Yin Beast's tentacles slicing through the air rang out. Despair surged toward the pair like a rising tide, surrounding them completely.
The despair brought by the Nine-Handed Yin Beast weighed upon Yin Tianzong and his companion like a mountain, making their breathing grow ragged.
They could only struggle to evade the dense mass of tentacles reaching toward them. The blood essence burning within them flickered unsteadily, as did the Treasure Artifacts they maintained over their bodies.
Waves of fear of death arose within them.
Utter despair brought boundless rage. They glared viciously at Shi Qingyun as though they wanted to swallow him alive and flay him whole.
Watching Shi Qingyun fiddle with something in the sky, Yin Tianzong thought, This fellow has watched us suffer all this from the very beginning, while he just looks down on us from high above.
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