Chapter 669: Floating Island on the Celestial River
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
The Black-robed Monster King’s wings expanded to more than three meters long. Every piece of feather stuck up like a blade. With a flutter, he drew himself closer, and with another flutter, he came within attacking range from his prey.
He was not even flying—his speed was amazing!
“I might need to practice my Void-stamping Footwork to the peak level of the Exterior to be that fast!” Meng Qi was stunned. He had just regained some strength. Not to mention the Dharmakaya skill, he could not even utilize the normal Exterior power. Yet here it was, the monster arrived quickly!
Meng Qi originally thought that despite how loud they had been, it would take a while for the monster to arrive, and he could recover his strength during that period. However, the monster seemed to be naturally fast. Ignoring the fact that it had just reached the grandmaster level, it “swept” so fast!
Throughout the entire “Journey to the West”, Meng Qi could think of only one monster, the Great Golden-Winged Roc Bird from the Lion Camel Ridge!
“Could it be its descendant?”
The one who had come bore no good intentions. Meng Qi tried hard to recover, while Ruan Yushu took out an antique bronze mirror and shone the dirty green mirror at the roc Monster King.
The Monster King possessed a horrible breath at a grandmaster level. After “losing” their first string, Meng Qi, it would be unwise to hide any secret weapon. Ruan Yushu, therefore, took the opportunity to use the Demon-revealing Mirror!
The winged Monster King’s figure appeared in the bronze mirror, it suddenly stopped as if it were frozen on the spot.
An opportunity! The calm and plain-looking Jiang Zhiwei wielded her long sword. Brilliant sword lights shot out in different directions until it surrounded the Black-robed Monster King. Every sword light was pure, sharp, and merciless.
After learning “Preach to the Universe”, she had integrated the knowledge into “Merciless Tai Shang”. Thus, she could use the move without triggering the Qi movement or increasing the momentum first.
Pfft! The Monster King’s body was dotted with bleeding holes. His eyes were broken and nose crooked. His mid-brows were scarred, and blood gushed out of his skin.
“Aargh!”
He screamed but still survived due to his strong, grandmaster-level body. Moreover, he seemed to be getting rid of the influence of the Demon-revealing Mirror!
At the same time, Qi Zhengyan brandished his long saber. A purple river of stars poured from the sky and then stars swarmed into the Monster King’s wounds, eroding his internal organs.
The Milky Way descending from Ninth Heaven!
Zhao Heng raised his sword and stormed toward the roc bird. He stabbed the bird’s existing wounds, trying to tear it apart.
“Aargh!”
The Black-robed Monster King screamed again. He spread his wounded wings and flapped. In a flash, he was dozens of meters away and out of Jiang Zhiwei’s reach.
He was wounded so badly that he was both blind and deaf, and could hardly keep the Shape Transformation. The bird was desperate to flee.
“If my ancestor was not trapped in Holy Mountain, if I had inherited his magical artifact, I wouldn’t have suffered like this!” He grumbled in his heart. “I didn’t even get to use my Precious Weapon!”
Meng Qi had just slightly recovered and was about to pursue the Black-robed Monster King with the Void-stamping Footwork in order to kill it on the spot.
The ongoing mission was not a Death Task. Apart from Heavenly Soldiers that randomly appeared, there would at most be two monsters at the grandmaster level. If they killed the one here, the other one would be easy!
At this moment, Meng Qi was seized by waves of emotion. His heart skipped a beat and, subconsciously, he stared into the distance. Above the debris of palaces, clouds that signaled evil things crowded. Judging from the look of it, those evils things must be at peak level, and only one had reached grandmaster level. However, the breaths emitted by them were menacing. Despite the weirdness inside the shard of Celestial Court, they stormed in Meng Qi’s direction, attracted by the noise.
“Go!” Meng Qi did not hesitate for a second. He rushed toward the long bridge on the Celestial River.
At his speed, Meng Qi could capture and kill the roc Monster King before the other monsters caught up, but he would be held up and overtaken by those monsters. Moreover, he had regained only part of his power, and Jiang Zhiwei and Ruan Yushu were greatly injured. The Demon-revealing Mirror could only be used one last time. In fact, if they were besieged by those monsters, he would not even be able to exercise a divine weapon. The only movement he could do was the Nature-involving Knack.
However, the available pills like Bhaisajyaguru Relieve Pill could not offset countercharges of the movement. The movement would be useless within the following time span. Afterward, if monsters at peak level arrived, they would be forced to return.
Repressing his greed and hunger for blood, Meng Qi turned away in order to escape and recover. Once he got back on his feet, he would return to counterattack. First, he would get rid of the grandmaster monsters, and then he could handle the rest with some average Kung Fu.
Jiang Zhiwei and Qi Zhengyan knew the pros and cons. They picked up their damaged weapons in silence and turned toward the long bridge hidden in clouds, intending to cross the Celestial River first.
Jiang Zhiwei led the way, while Ruan Yushu, Qi Zhengyan, and Zhao Heng were in the middle, and Meng Qi brought up the rear. They stormed across the bridge, ignoring the glistening lake on either side and the bright stars up in the sky.
The Celestial River was so wide that they could not see the other end. It was said that a Nine Apertured Master needed one day to cross the river, and legend had it that a day in heaven was equivalent to a year on earth!
Fortunately, Meng Qi and the others were not ordinary people. They used the flying skill in their footwork, in a non-flying posture. Moreover, Meng Qi deliberately slowed down to cover the retreat.
At the other end of the Celestial River, Tiger Monster General Yan arrived with other monsters, only to see the roc Monster King rus.h.i.+ng back pathetically. The roc Monster King used to overwhelm the Monster Kings of the Six Caves. Now, he could not even compare to a normal monster. The only advantage he had was his incredible speed!
“What happened?” asked the old monster General Yin, who lived on looting other monsters and people to collect their elixir.
“To h.e.l.l with those Human tribes, they all had horrifying magical artifacts!” The roc Monster King grumbled using Secret-voice Sending. He turned away to avoid the Monster Kings in front of him.
General Yan opened his mouth and an evil wind dragged the roc Monster King toward him.
“I might need a grandmaster ghost servant!” General Yin laughed.
The two monsters had always been held in high regard by the other Monster Kings from the Seven Caves of the Five Pillars Mountain, but the two had always been in conflict. Today might be a great opportunity to settle things between them.
Actually, according to General Yan’s usual practice, he would try to take the roc as his valuable ghost servant even if they had been complete strangers.
“You cat! How dare you touch me! Aren’t you afraid of my ancestor?” The roc Monster King was both shocked and angry.
The remaining Monster Kings had long been dissatisfied with his pride, so they just stood back with sympathy.
The roc Monster King carried few treasures and was powerless to utilize any of them. Now, about to be swallowed by General Yan, he felt hopeless and seemed to see his unfulfilled ambitions.
Suddenly, someone raised a palm to s.h.i.+eld the roc Monster King against the swirling evil wind.
It was a grey palm on which grew dark nails. The palm stunk and showed signs of decay.
“You!” General Yan glared at the Silver Python King’s Ancestor, Snake Dang, who had gone out of his way to help the roc.
“His ancestor was my acquaintance, let him go.” Snake Dang’s voice was hoa.r.s.e.
As General Yan was about to rage at Snake Dang, he caught a glimpse of his glowing eyes under the hood. The eyes were seriously cold like a snake, crawling into General Yan’s heart.
Even at a grandmaster level of the Human tribe, General Yin’s teeth clattered.
“How horrible!” He choked back the chill and replied with great respect. “Yes! I will.”
Snake Dang withdrew his gaze and fell silent again. General Yan collected himself and then pointedly avoided looking at Snake Dang.
“Is he the big monster in the legend? Or something next to the big monster?
“But why didn’t he just subdue us? Is he physically unfit to perform his best?”
The long-lived and experienced General Yin started to sense the weirdness.
The roc Monster King thanked Snake Dang and did not dare to stay. He hurriedly fled to the debris of palaces and decided to leave the shard of Celestial Court to recover in the mountains.
After the incident, by the time they reached the long bridge across the Celestial River, Meng Qi and the others were nowhere to be seen. Their figures were covered by the fog in the distance.
“Aargh!”
A scream suddenly rang from the distance, it was the voice of the roc Monster King. Then, the scream stopped abruptly as if someone had broken his neck.
Snake Dang turned back and emitted a red light from its eyes like a hissing snake, looking in the direction of the voice.
“What happened to him?” Bear Shan blurted out.
“He’s been killed…” Snake Dang retracted his red light. His tone was deep and emotionless.
General Yin could not believe it. “Any other Monster King here?”
“And then it happened to run into the injured roc Monster King and kill it?” General Yan gasped in his heart.
Snake Dang shook his head. “I don’t see any other creature.”
“Then how did the roc die?” General Yan asked.
Snake Dang was silent. “There’s no corpse, only its remaining breath.”
Snake Dang’s words struck all of the Monster Kings with a chill in their hearts.“Apart from the Human tribe, are there other things in the shard of Celestial Court?”
“Don’t worry. A coward who can only carry out sneak attacks is not worthy of our attention.” Snake Dang said in a low voice. Then he strode toward the long bridge.
“The ancestor is right! A coward who can only harm the injured roc, what’s there to be afraid of?” Silver Python King followed Snake Dang.
The other Monster Kings exchanged glances and comforted each other. They fought the fear and marched forward.
“How can we leave the shard of Celestial Court without any elixir and miraculous drug?” They thought to themselves.
…
After hours of walking, Meng Qi breathed in and out the Vital Qi of Nature and regained most of his strength. Just then, in front of the bridge, on the surface of the surreal river, emerged an island. The river past the island still stretched far to the other side.
Looking like a checkpoint, it made Meng Qi and the others slow down subconsciously.
“Barracks…” Zhao Heng frowned and whispered.
“The Buildings are like barracks!” They all noticed.
Meng Qi gasped at the sight. “Are they barracks of the Celestial River guards?”
Meng Qi thought of the Heavenly Soldier who had guarded the bridge, expecting that there may be thousands of them on the island. “They must have all been Top Cla.s.s Master Pros, even Heavenly Officials.” The thought made his flesh creep.
“If there’s a Heavenly Army and they wake up…” Ruan Yushu had thought of the same thing.
Jiang Zhiwei exhaled. “Be careful. If there’s anything suspicious we’ll return immediately!”
If they encountered thousands of Heavenly Army soldiers, Meng Qi and the others would have to retreat since they were not yet Dharmakaya!
Seeing as the Monster Kings had not caught up, Meng Qi pa.s.sed Ruan Yushu and the others to lead the way in front.
Before they got close to the island, Meng Qi saw that there were indeed Heavenly Soldiers in the barracks!
There were more than a hundred at the moment!
Some of the Silver-armored Heavenly Soldiers were seated, drinking water, others stood, talking with their soldier companions. They were all frozen in their postures like statues. The static scene looked like a vivid picture and was extremely eerie!
Then, Meng Qi glanced and found a broken boundary marker lying in the clouds. It read:
“Marshal Canopy!”