บท 45: Azure Water
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
Three heavy rocks slammed into the side of the Blood Alligator's head in quick succession. Although the rocks had no chance to even come close to penetrating its heavy armour, the sheer momentum and size of the projectiles rattled the beast's brain and caused it to be stunned for a few moments.
Using the small window of opportunity, the Panterran dived in at such incredible speed that it was a merely a blur of colour to the eyes of any onlookers. Focusing all of her power into the front claws and powerful jaws, Ning'Er raked her forearms in the sliver of underside the alligator revealed as it stumbled to the side from the impact of the rocks, whilst biting down hard on the inner part of the beast's right leg as she flashed past.
The demon beast roared in pain as fresh blood began to flow from its right chest, where Ning'Er caught a glimpse of a rib under the shredded flesh. She had slashed through right through to its bones but it was clearly not a fatal blow. At the same time, the beast tucked its injured right foreleg in, and maneuvered on three legs because of the damage to a key ligament in its limb.
The four friends cheered in their hearts as they saw that they were inflicting some actual damage onto the dangerous creature. The Blood Alligator peered at them in fury but with a wily glint in its eyes, it suddenly burrowed into the ground beneath the large patch of spirit herbs. This was another ability of Blood Alligators which allowed them to easily travel under the soil and launch surprise attacks from below. Any attacks from above would naturally not be able to break through its formidable armoured skin, making it difficult for them to approach the spirit herbs.
The Panterran growled and signaled for everyone to meet back at the entrance of the hall they had come in from. Ning'Er transformed back into human form and her friends followed suit.
"I think the beast is going to be more careful and not attack us unless we threaten the precious spirit herbs that it seems intent on protecting. At this point, we're at an impasse. We can barely damage it even with our combined attacks but the moment we draw close, it can kill us if we make one wrong move. It's only disadvantage is that its mobility is not at a high level and if we're careful, we can avoid it and escape easily." She summarised the situation for them.
Linjian asked in understanding, "So we're giving up on the spirit herbs then?"
Ning'Er nodded. "Uhn, they weren't the primary reason why I came in the first place. Let's head over to that large platform on the other side of the hall from the spirit herbs. That seems to be the most likely location that Li Tie did his work. At the same time, the floor is build with slabs of rock which make it highly unlikely that the Blood Alligator will burrow in that direction."
As they approached the platform, Du Ze held his shoulder and grimaced in pain, "What work did this...Li Tie do? I have half a mind to go back and get some revenge on that beast!"
While Ziyun passed him a high quality pill of recovery, Ning'Er responded, "Li Tie was the most talented alchemist of his era...and he knew it too! He gave himself a self-proclaimed title, the Alchemy God, and this is where he built his secret lab to conduct all his experiments and concoctions for his elixirs!"
As the others looked at her in amazement, she continued, "This is where Nie Li found many of the priceless recipes which would help Glory City make incredible progress and strengthen every family's warriors!"
With fresh excitement, they now understood why Ning'Er embarked on this expedition and even risked their lives against the Blood Alligator just now. If they could come back with the recipes, it was conceivable that Glory City would be completely transformed over time and be able to defend itself better!
They found some old tomes on the shelves which Ning'Er looked through to contain many alchemical formulas but they weren't the ones she was looking for. She put them into her interspatial ring and asked everyone to keep looking for more scrolls and books. Finally, below a stone cabinet, they found a hidden trapdoor. Carefully breaking the lock on it, they lifted it to find a shallow compartment only one foot deep.
Within this compartment, there was an ancient tome, beautifully lined with gold lettering and patterns. As Ning'Er looked through, her heart was racing because the recipes that she could see while flicking through the pages included Soul Nurturing Pills, Soul Concentrating Pills, Soul Tempering Pills, the Scarlet Body Enhancing Pills, as well as Nine Transformation Pills. These were the top tier elixirs which would enable Glory City to develop Legend Ranked fighters and demon spiritualists!
"This is it!!" she excitedly told her friends. They had achieved what they had come all the way here to do and even if they did not obtain the precious spirit herbs protected by the terrifying Blood Alligator, what they had in their hands was worth far more.
As they walked back to the corridor to exit the base, Du Ze turned to look back in indignation, whispering, "When I'm strong enough, if I ever come back to this region, you better watch out, demon beast!" His eyes glowed with a cold, murderous resolution as he felt the throbbing pain that remained deep in his shoulder. He had grown up, never backing down from any challenge, and had an obsessive tendency to treat every wall in front of him as an obstacle to overcome. It had allowed him to progress at an incredible speed even with his lowly starting position as a commoner without resources.
They exited the base to find that the sun was beginning to set. They decided to make their way back to the city ruins because none of them likes the idea of staying overnight at a graveyard, especially with a Blood Alligator in the vicinity! Arriving back at the border of the ruins, they set up camp in an overgrown grassy field, which had once been a military training ground.
Still on edge from the battle with the alligator, they sat around the fire they had built, resting from the exertions of that day.
"Ning'Er, what if we didn't fight the Sage Emperor? I'm not saying we shouldn't, but it's a question worth asking." Ziyun asked her friend.
The friends sat in silence for awhile as they contemplated on the implications of a different path. Ning'Er understood that Ziyun's gentle nature would be more inclined towards the immediate needs of Glory City, prioritising the protection of friends and family instead of setting a goal of taking on the most powerful existence in the known universe.
Ning'Er's eyes stared upwards at the stars in the night sky, as she remembered all her past battles and suffering that ended with the tragic defeat at the hands of the Sage Emperor. "I know that it's unfair for me to impose on all of you and assume that everyone will take on this goal with me. It's true that we would have better lives if we didn't go down this path."
She glanced at Linjian. "We can ensure the protection of Glory City from the Dark Guild once we reach a certain level. We can gain enough strength to resist the advances of any demon beast horde. And we could build happy families...with each other."
Sighing, she continued, "It would be a happy life. But...this is a road my cultivator's heart cannot accept. While there is a chance to grow stronger and surmount mountains, while there is a chance to stop the Sage Emperor before he complete refines the realms he has targeted, I would live and die a thousand times over before accepting that fate lying down!"
Her eyes glowed with a white fire as she envisioned the final battle with the Sage Emperor. When she finally lowered her gaze from the skies to look into the faces of her friends, she saw all of them looking at her with firm and reassuring expressions. She took a deep breath in relief as she knew, without words, that they would stand alongside her through life or death.
These were the friends and camaraderie she remembered from her past life, and they hadn't even had their spirit and character tempered by the devastation that the future would bring yet.
"Ning'Er, tell us more about your experiences in the Draconic Ruins Realms!" Du Ze's eyes gleamed in excitement about the thought of exploring new continents and realms, and growing stronger every step of the way. His past worldview had been confined to Glory City, where no one of this era had even come back with stories outside of the St. Ancestral Mountain Range. Now, his paradigm had completely blown open, and he relished the day that he would be strong enough to travel alongside this powerful and enigmatic girl, who had made it all possible!
She told them stories for most of the night as their imaginations went wild trying to visualise the different worlds, races and powers she spoke about. In the week-long journey back to Glory City, it was rather uneventful since they did not encounter any demon beasts above Silver Rank,
.....
The first thing she did when she got back was to head to her home village to check on the condition of her grandfather. She was glad to see that he had woken up but he was still bedridden and extremely weak. For now, he had control over the poison in his body with the Black Gold ranked soul force still present in his dantian but his external body was constantly deteriorating. His blood vessels, meridians and organs were on the verge of shutting down from how the lightning poison had ravaged it over the years, as well as the exertions of the last battle.
As she observed his condition, she took out all her containers of Azure water. She had a lot but she suspected that his treatment would need to be long-term and slow because of how weak his physical body was. Taking out some spirit herbs of a gentle nature she had purchased, she began boiling a concoction which would dilute the Azure Water further to ensure that the energy consumed would be of the most gentle effect.
When the elixir cooled, she carefully fed it to her grandfather, slowly monitoring his the responses of his pulse, skin colour, breathing and blood flow. She breathed a sigh of relief as she saw his condition growing better within a few short moments. His ragged breathing became smoother and more relaxed, his skin became more flushed with fresh blood flowing, and she could even sense that the potent lightning poison was being slightly diluted by the Azure Water elixir! It truly had a miraculous purifying nature, as well as being incredibly gentle on the body, and she wondered once again at her luck in obtaining it.
She had thought about imparting the ancient Purifying Art of Sacred Lightning to her grandfather but she had remembered how straining it was to the internal body. She was able to withstand it due to the vitality of youth but pushing the purifying lightning force through her grandfather's body would completely burst his blood vessels and rupture his meridians! He would have no chance of surviving the process, not to mention that it would take considerable practice and learning to be able to carry out this miraculous technique.
"Ning'Er..." Her grandfather's raspy voice spoke in between laboured breaths. "What's that elixir you just fed me? I can feel it help me in battling this poison..."
His eyes widened upon hearing that it was Azure Water. "That's...that's what sits in the home of the Winged Lightning Dragon! There's a whole pond of it that has accumulated there over centuries and that creature had told me that if I were able to raise up a family member that was strong enough, that person could obtain the antidote to my poison."
He coughed in bitterness, "In its own twisted, arrogant way, I guess that dragon wanted to put a desperation in me to build the family's strength...this family that had been named after our powerful benefactor. But who knew the Sacred Family would begin its schemes to weaken our family. I gave up when your father's generation was unable to even reach Black Gold Rank...then you came along..."
"Grandpa Xiao...I have a lot of Azure Water. I'll prepare many elixirs which dilute its effects to make it more gentle for you to consume. Once you are stronger, you can begin consuming it directly. If it's not enough, I'll soon be strong enough to confront that stupid dragon that put this suffering on you!" Ning'Er exclaimed with resolve in her voice.
"And...once you recover, we'll take revenge on whoever killed grandma, together!!"
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AerynSun
AerynSun I'm losing motivation from this fan-fic. It's got low engagement with readers and my interest is fading.
It's too bad because I had hoped to reach the Draconic Ruins Realm arc before it got too tedious to keep going.
I'll complete up till the 'second season' of 48 chapters, then take a month break to reassess whether I still want to do this.
Thanks for reading all the way to this point for those still around... :)
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