Chapter 13: Radical Changes in the Demon Ruins
Editor: GemVoo
"The value of a mutated Mantis Demon is very high. Usually, a hundred Mantis Demons can be exchanged with one Feather Spirit Pellet, while a mutated Mantis Demon can be converted into a hundred Feather Spirit Pellets!"
Ting Lanyue was very envious of him, she said, "Furthermore, the bones of the mutated Mantis Demons are composed of high-purity darksteel, far superior to those of the ordinary Mantis Demons. They are best used as the crafting materials of soul weapons! A thousand kilograms of darksteel can be used to craft over tens of high-quality soul weapons!"
Zhong Yue was moved, his heart palpitated in excitement, a hundred Feather Spirit Pellets, it's a fortune to him right now, and it would come in handy just in time!
The soul weapons also sounded very attractive as they could significantly boost his combat prowess.
The bones of this Mantis Demon could be crafted into tens of soul weapons. One could tell how valuable this was!
"There are quite a number of soul weapons within the upper house disciples, but most of them are inferior soul weapons, crafted by normal gold and ferric metals. They could barely control it. Besides, the darksteel within wasn't pure at all."
Ting Lanyue closed her eyes and started visualizing. Suddenly there were immense flames burning around the corpse of the mutated Mantis Demon. She was visualizing an art of the fire style, she said, "Even if it's only an inferior soul weapon, it's power should not be underestimated, once a soul controls it, it can fly at fast speeds like a lightning bolt to catch its enemies unawares. While the high-quality soul weapons are devoid of impurities, only a few of the upper house disciples possess such strong soul weapons—typically the core members that come from the top ten clans of Great Wilderness have it!"
The blazing fire burned vigorously. A few moments later and the corpse was reduced to ashes, leaving behind only a lustrous Mantis Demon skeleton composed of darksteel.
Ting Lanyue once again closed her eyes and visualized, her psyche turned and actualized into a heavy rain cooling down the burning hot darksteel skeleton, she said, "The crafting of the soul weapons is not something the disciples like us can do. Only a Qi Practitioner would have such means to craft it. Whether or not junior martial brother wants to sell this Mantis Demon skeleton or wants to commission someone to craft it into a suitable weapon for yourself, I have contacts that can help you do either. Although the Da Ting Clan isn't one of the top ten clans, we have our own strength. There are still Qi Practitioners of the Da Ting Clan in the Swords Gate!"
Steam billowed out as the rain was poured onto the darksteel skeleton, cooling it down.
Zhong Yue nodded, it was true that he lacked connections in the Swords Gate. The Zhong Shan Clan was weak, and there weren't any Qi Practitioners of the clan in the Swords Gate. Furthermore, even though he knew Zuo Xiangsheng, their relationship wasn't really that close.
If Ting Lanyue had some contacts, selling the darksteel skeleton off to the Da Ting Clan wasn't too bad either.
Ting Lanyue continued saying, "Junior martial brother, I have cleaned the corpse for you, you can now carry it on your back, we will continue searching for the other martial siblings. The Swords Gate Demon Ruins is now extremely dangerous, if we go separate ways, we will probably not end up well when met with the large demon lairs!"
"Alright!"
Zhong Yue was quite in awe of her ability to summon fire and water at will, "Senior martial sister, you are proficient in so many arts, I really admire it."
"Actualization of water and fire are merely small tricks that one would need to travel far ... nothing to be amazed about. But they are indeed useful. Traveling far away from home without these little abilities and you'd be left susceptible to a lot of tedious inconveniences." Ting Lanyue laughed.
Zhong Yue visualized the [Jiao Dragon Winding Body Totem Art], his psyche turned into a Jiao Dragon, and it held the Mantis Demon in its mouth while he followed behind Ting Lanyue empty-handed.
As Ting Lanyue was witnessing this spectacle, she quietly praised in her heart, The psyche of Junior Martial Brother Zhong is really strong, the skeleton of the Mantis Demon weighs a thousand kilograms, but his psyche-formed Jiao Dragon can just pick it up easily as if it were lifting a feather. No wonder he was able to kill the mutated Mantis Demon, it wasn't merely luck at all.
The two traveled at great speed, Ting Lanyue climbed up a tall mountain and she started visualizing the fire, a 200 feet large 'Pu' character made of fiery flames could be seen burning in the skies.
Not long after, around ten disciples including He Chengchuan rushed to the mountain to join the two. They were shocked when they saw the Mantis Demon skeleton that was in the mouth of the Jiao Dragon behind Zhong Yue.
"Junior Martial Brother Zhong, you killed the mutated Mantis Demon?" He Chengchuan shouted out involuntarily.
Zhong Yue shook his head and answered with a smile, "I am ashamed, I was lost in panic and was running around blindly. I suddenly tripped and fell, when I got up, I found this Mantis Demon skeleton, it must have belonged to a mutated Mantis Demon that had perished a long time ago, I simply ran into it by chance."
He Chengchuan and the others were really envious of him, they said, "Junior Martial Brother Zhong is really fortunate, why don't I have such heaven-defying luck?"
The other disciples of Elder Pu did not venture out too far, they could see the fiery 'Pu' character, and they immediately converged toward them. After half an hour, they had all finally reunited.
All of them saw the Mantis Demon skeleton behind Zhong Yue, shock and curiosity inundated their thoughts. He Chengchuan quickly explained to them and much like himself, they all felt indescribable envy toward Zhong Yue.
Ting Lanyue made a forced cough and said, "Junior martial brothers, we have lost two junior martial brothers on this training trip, this place is no longer safe, we should leave now. There must be something strange brewing here; otherwise, it would be impossible for such a small demon lair to give birth to a mutated Mantis Demon! We must report this matter back to the Swords Gate and have them run a round of investigations!"
The others nodded in agreement.
A mutated Mantis Demon would only be found in a large demon lair that sheltered at least ten million of them—how could such a small demon lair of 200 demons manage to produce such a terribly strong creature?
There must be something going on behind the scenes….
Just when they were about to leave, a din could be heard coming from afar. Dark clouds could be seen deep in the land of Demon Ruins. The dark clouds were getting more prominent as it drifted closer to them, while at the front of the clouds were dozens of Swords Gate disciple running for their lives!
"They are… disciples of Junior Martial Uncle Jin Hong!"
He Chengchuan was an all-rounder. Instantly, he could recognize the disciples that were running, perplexedly he asked, "What are they running away from?"
"The Hawk Demons!"
Their faces changed drastically, one of the female disciples cried out involuntarily, "So many of them!"
It wasn't the clouds in the skies. It was a huge scene of thousands of giant hawks with their wings thoroughly spreading out!
Zhong Yue gazed carefully at it. The Hawk Demons were creatures with human heads and avian bodies, giant wings with huge talons, their mouths packed with razor-sharp teeth. The Hawk Demons pounced on the disciples one after another like the crashing waves of sea currents!
Suddenly, one of the upper house disciples was clawed into the sky, a number of Hawk Demons flew to him, and in seconds he was lacerated to pieces. His blood and flesh splattered out, but none of it managed to touch the ground. It was all cleaned up by the Hawk Demons in mid-air!
"Lin Shuping died!"
He Chengchuan watched as the upper house disciple was torn to death, his eyes widened, and he inhaled a breath of cold air. He mumbled absent-mindedly, "The disciple of Junior Martial Uncle Jin Hong, Lin Shuping, a member of the Yu Lin Clan, he was acknowledged as one of the top ten disciples of upper house, only half a step away from the Qi Practitioner. How could he die so easily in the claws of the Hawk Demons?"
"It's the mutated Hawk Demon!"
Ting Lanyue's face turned pale-white as she spoke, she decisively shouted, "Quickly, get off the mountain and leave the Demon Ruins! Mutated Hawk Demons appear only in a small lair of a thousand Hawk Demons. There is certainly something wrong about the Swords Gate Demon Ruins!"
Zhong Yue knew that things were taking a turn for the worse. First, a small Mantis Demon lair gave birth to a mutated Mantis Demon, which could still be explained as an unfortunate event, but now, even a tiny Hawk Demon lair happened to have mutated Hawk Demons too, there was definitely something suspicious about the situation!
The disciples rushed down the mountain with Ting Lanyue ran adjacent to Zhong Yue. "Junior Martial Brother Zhong, if there is anything dangerous happening, please lend us a hand…" she said.
He Chengchuan heard the conversation, and he was perplexed in his heart, Why did Senior Martial Sister Ting utter such words?
Little did he know that Ting Lanyue had witnessed the true strength of Zhong Yue. She knew that Zhong Yue was stronger than she was; hence, she was requesting for his help.
"May senior martial sister be at ease, even though I am not a disciple of Elder Pu, we are now in the same boat. Naturally, we will work together as one!"
Just as he finished his sentence, smoke suddenly billowed up from far on the other side; over hundreds of giant spiders in dark-black were rushing over to their position while in pursuit of the dozens of upper house disciples!
The giant spiders crawled at high speed with their eight legs. Every spider was six feet tall with a diameter of ten feet. Atop their backs were attached the torsos of male and female humans—they were the Spider Demons of the Demon Ruins!
The Spider Demon that crawled toward the forefront was the scariest. It spurted out glistening spiderwebs, shua! The spiderwebs enveloped an upper house disciple, and with a strong pull, the unlucky disciple was propelled into the air. They then fell back into the crows of Spider Demons, and he could only release a final blood-curdling scream before the Spider Demons swallowed him. The only traces that remained of his existence was a few specks of blood; not a single bone was visible!
"Mutated Spider Demon!"
The faces of Ting Lanyue, He Chengchuan, and the other disciples turned pale-white, much like the countenance of a person slowly getting strangled to death. Immediately, they turned around and picked a road to run for their lives.
"That is the disciple of Junior Martial Uncle Cang Song. They are also in danger after encountering the mutated Spider Demon!"
It was only a few miles before they were met with another wave of unfortunate disciples, chased by a hundred demons of Demon Ruins, running for their lives!
"The Demon Ruins, something big and terrible is happening!"
"We are stuck here in the Demon Ruins. If we wait until the Qi Practitioners of Swords Gate become aware of the situation here, I'm afraid we would all be dead by then!"
"What is happening? Why is there suddenly such an influx of mutated demons?"
...
Zhong Yue and the others ran tirelessly, but an ever-increasing number of demons came out of their nests. Under the leadership of the mutated demons, the devilish creatures encircled the upper house disciples within a radius of a hundred miles.
"Hehe, the humans bullied us demons for so long, kept us in captivity in this godforsaken place, and raised us like cattle all so that we can become targets for their brats' training. Today is the day of their reckoning."
Outside of the encirclement, one mutated demon after another appeared, the atmosphere became heavy with a savage and violent air. They were the leaders of the large demon lairs of ten million demons. Some of the mutated demons had even consummated their demonic spirit, fusing their soul and the demonic spirit of Demon Ruins into one, becoming Qi Practitioners of the demon race!
"We, denizens of the countless demon lairs, have worked so hard to reproduce for so many years. We worshipped this forsaken land in secret, and finally, our strenuous efforts have borne fruit to give birth to the demonic spirits within this world of Demon Ruins!"
The leader of the demon Qi Practitioners was covered in a black robe. The robe fluttered as the strong gale blew over, with a loud laugh the leader said, "Today, we will take these human descendants as livestock, offer them to the ancient ancestors of our race. We will awaken the great ancestor so that we can break free from the Demon Ruins. We will reclaim the Great Wilderness that is rightfully ours! I want the blood of these humans to nourish the spirit of the ancient ancestors!"
Behind his back, one demon Qi Practitioner after another flew up and shouted in a shrill voice, "My children, listen to the order, don't consume them, only capture them!"
"Let them keep their petty lives, for now. They will eventually be sacrificed to the spirits of the ancient ancestors!"
-- Gift
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