Chapter 76: Surrender
Lingyuan Marsh.
Zhou Juanjia and Tang Ming stood side by side on the deck of the “Longwind” and were gazing off into the distance.
Off in the distance, a ma.s.sive whirlpool was constantly stirring as if there was something beneath the surface trying to swallow up everything.
“Look, that’s the Devilish Whirlpool. The Devilish Crocodile must be nearby!” a pirate yelled as he pointed at the whirpool, unable to conceal the slight tremble of fear in his voice.
In his view, the Devilish Crocodile was the most frightening existence within the whole marsh. Many pirates tried their hardest to avoid it without much success, but his bosses weren’t content with the spoils they had earned and just had to go and chase after the most frighteningly powerful Demonic Beast in the whole marsh. They had to be tired of living1.
He could silently curse and disagree as much as he wanted, but the old sea dog still helplessly brought them here in the end.
The vortex in front of him slowly spun, a large amount of water pouring into the middle. A ma.s.sive crocodile surfaced on the water.
This beast was truly ma.s.sive. It looked just like a small mountain and could flip the whole boat over with just a raise of its head. Its cold, emotionless eyes stared at them like the gaze of the G.o.d of death.
The old pirate yelled fearfully when he saw the crocodile’s ma.s.sive, fierce head breach the water, “It’s come out. You shouldn’t have come here! If you surprise it, no one will be able to run!”
“No one was planning on running in the first place,” Tang Ming laughed.
“Don’t be crazy! You can’t possibly defeat it, it’s a mid-tier Demonic Beast! Mid-tier! Even the Jade Mountain Army would retreat if they ran into it!”
“Mid-tier Demonic Beast!” Jiang Hanfeng whistled. “The Jade Mountain Army would retreat? That sounds pretty impressive to me. What do you think, Senior Sister Juanjia? Can you handle it?”
Zhou Juanjia smiled sweetly. “It’ll be a little difficult, but aren’t you guys here? Set up the formation!”
“Set up the formation!” Wu Xiao yelled in affirmation.
Jiang Hanfeng, Wei Yang, Ma Xuan, and Yan Ling simultaneously moved. Each one of them held an Origin Formation Disk in their hands. The four Origin Disks simultaneously began to glow, as did the deck of the “Longwind”. The four Origin Formation Disks combined to form a ma.s.sive Origin Formation.
Zhou Juanjia stood in the center of the formation, her long hair flowing in the wind and her eyes beginning to glow radiantly.
At this moment, her consciousness power began to furiously expand.
As her consciousness power continued to grow, Zhou Juanjia raised her hands. A formless ripple of energy surged forward from them, slamming into the Devilish Crocodile’s head.
“ROARRRR!”
The Devilish Crocodile let out a low, infuriated howl.
It could sense that there was a will attempting to control it.
Demonic Beasts were different from Vicious Beasts. They possessed intelligence and had the ability to think things over, so it was immediately able to identify that someone was trying to control it.
“ROARRR!”
A ferocious wave of consciousness swept back in Zhou Juanjia’s direction.
“Ah!” Zhou Juanjia cried out, and blood trickled down the corner of her mouth.
However, she did not give up; in fact, a delighted smile appeared on her face. “Is that all you got?”
She focused her will and continued to invade the Devilish Crocodile’s mind.
Unlike Jin Ling’er, Zhou Juanjia’s control of Vicious Beasts was even more direct and explosive.
The Bewitching b.u.t.terfly relied on charm to control the opponent, while Zhou Juanjia’s technique relied on brute force to enslave the target. As such, every time she wanted to control something, she needed to engage in a battle of wills with it first.
The greatest drawback of this kind of method was that exerting control over something was generally quite difficult and could even result in a backlash. After failing, a person would experience a rebound.
But if she succeeded, she would have expended a lot less energy.
When Jin Ling’er controlled a Vicious Beast, she had to focus most of her consciousness energy on it, making it difficult to cultivate. Zhou Juanjia, however, had no such problems. As long as she controlled a Vicious Beast, she could keep it near her side as a bodyguard, which was much more convenient than Jin Ling’er.
Since she had come to Lingyuan Marsh this time, finding a local water-type Demonic Beast became her first choice.
Mid-tier Demonic Beasts weren’t existences she could control yet, but Origin Formations greatly increased her consciousness power, resulting in a ma.s.sive increase in her strength.
Her ferocious will slammed into the Devilish Crocodile like ocean waves. On the invisible consciousness level, a ruthless slaughter had already commenced.
If she relied entirely on her will to fight, Zhou Juanjia wasn’t confident that she could win against the Devilish Crocodile even with the support of the Origin Formation.
Luckily, she also had helpers.
Just as Zhou Juanjia and the Devilish Crocodile were trading consciousness blows, Tang Ming raised his hands. A torrent of water shot into the air from the surface of the water, taking on the form of a dragon and charging at the Devilish Crocodile.
Under normal circ.u.mstances, this water dragon wouldn’t be of much danger to the Devilish Crocodile at all. The might of a mid-tier Demonic Beast wasn’t something a Blood Boiling Realm cultivator could carelessly provoke, even if they were an elite amongst all Blood Boiling Realm cultivators.
However, the Devilish Crocodile, who was currently fighting off Zhou Juanjia’s will, had no energy to spare to deal with this attack, so it could only forcefully endure it.
The ma.s.sive water dragon roared past the Devilish Crocodile, turning into a razor-sharp blade edge and carving out a number of fine wounds on its hard back.
Even though these wounds automatically closed afterward, the pain brought on by the attack still affected the resilience of the Devilish Crocodile’s will.
A moment later, a ma.s.sive red figure appeared from behind Zhou Juanjia. The upper half of the body was human, and the lower half was a six-legged spider. This was Zhou Juanjia’s bloodline, the Stonetable Spider Demon. It was a powerful Demonic King Bloodline that gave a person heightened control over one’s will.
When the Stonetable Spider Demon appeared, it opened its maw wide and began to make soundless screeching. The powerful aura of a Demonic King emanated, causing everyone to feel a wave of fear wash over them. Everyone present trembled, not daring to move rashly. Only Tang Ming, who had the Demonic Emperor Bloodline, remained unmoved.
This was the power of the Stonetable Spider Demon. It was a Demonic Beast with an innately powerful consciousness that could control a person’s fear, spreading it like an epidemic. Any beings weaker than it would automatically feel subservient to it.
The Devilish Crocodile evidently felt the increase in the strength of will. It was still attempting to resist, and the surface of the water roiled and frothed as a wave of shocking size surged toward the boat.
“How bold!” Tang Ming harrumphed, a strange glow emitting from his eyes.
A unique fog appeared behind him. Upon closer inspection, this fog seemed to have a nose and eyes. From a distance, it really did look like a lifeform made completely out of fog.
Sea-Imprisoned Magic Cloud Beast!
After reaching the Blood Boiling Realm, Tang Ming could actually bring out the strength of his bloodline. When the bloodline afterimage appeared behind him, the Sea-Imprisoned Magic Cloud Beast opened its mouth wide and howled at the oncoming wave.
“AWOO!”
No actual roar was made, but every person seemed to hear a howl in their heart that was filled with the dignity and fury of an emperor.
When a Demonic Emperor is enraged, everyone gets out of the way!
The ma.s.sive wave actually stopped in its tracks, as if it had slammed into a ma.s.sive wall; afterward, it began to wash backward and dissipate.
Rivers retreat with a single howl!
“Hiss!” The Devilish Crocodile let out an enraged hiss. Evidently, it had sensed the aura of this extremely powerful existence.
If it weren’t for the fact that this aura was very weak, meaning that it clearly wasn’t from a real Demonic Emperor but rather something like a Demonic Emperor Puppet, perhaps the Devilish Crocodile would have surrendered from just that howl.
At this moment, however, the mid-tier Demonic Beast Devilish Crocodile didn’t want to give up its freedom just like that.
It still wanted to struggle. A ma.s.sive wave once again began to build all while its strong willpower resisted the consciousness attacks of the Stonetable Spider Demon.
At this moment, even Zhou Juanjia felt a bit strained.
“Mid-tier Demonic Beasts really aren’t easy to deal with, are they? Even with the support of a Demonic Emperor Bloodline and an Origin Formation, I still can’t completely suppress it. If that’s the case, we can only fight a war of attrition,” Zhou Juanjia sighed.
For a Blood Boiling Realm cultivator to want to fight a war of attrition with a mid-tier Demonic Beast was somewhat inconceivable.
However, no one seemed to think that this was a problem.
A moment later, Zhou Juanjia pulled out a vial of medicine.
Spirit-Sobering Medicine.
Before Su Chen left, he had given her a number of vials. They were necessities to increase her strength and a gift between friends. Even more so, it was a repayment for them coming from so far away to help him.
Upon drinking the medicine, the consciousness energy Zhou Juanjia had expended was boosted quite a bit. With renewed vigor, she laughed loudly, “Let’s keep going and see who will last longer! I’m going to take you over today no matter what!”
1. The literal translation boils down to something like “old people eating a.r.s.enic”.