Chapter 264: Another Other

“Roar!’

Again, the entire place trembled in deferent response to the power that the roar demanded.

From within the rising cloud of black smoke, a pair of feral, crimson eyes stared, maddened with fear and rage.

There was a power stopping it from leaving the forest.

It had thought that the magical barrier would have weakened with age, but it seemed strong enough to hold the creature for now.

It roared again, thwarted. The dual resonance cultivator was just there, so close on the opposite side. And so puny. If it could just get through, it could swallow him in one gulp.

And with the power of dual resonances, it would surge through its current bottleneck in cultivation.

So close... yet so far. The arcane rune that hovered in the air held it firmly.

“Roar!”

It pawed the ground, monstrous claws grating against rock. But in the end, it was still fearful of challenging that power.

Or rather, the wielder of that power.

That was too strong a presence for it to deal with.

It had once seen that wielder, and it learned the taste of fear then, its survival instincts screaming while it trembled and hid.

Finally, it backed away, and soon even the black smoke dissipated as well.

It had retreated.

Accordingly, the protective rune in the air faded and winked out of sight as well. A corresponding flash of energy appeared on the peak of the mountain in the forest.

Everyone at the onyx lake breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Luckily, the spirit beast was still trapped by the principal. Otherwise, they would have had to abandon the lake and run.

Li Luo's sigh of relief was just a little deeper than the others. If the spirit beast had really broken out, he would’ve been in the hottest of soups. He was so sure that it had come for him.

A Heavenly Dipper General spirit beast—perhaps not even the Seven Astral Pillars could take it.

The strongest here was Jiang Qing'e, and she herself was only a Fiend Body, the intermediate Earth Fiend Stage. She was far from the beast's strength.

So luckily, all had ended well.

"If it had gotten out, there would've been a lake of blood to rival the onyx one," Tian Tian observed quietly.

Qiu Bai nodded. The spirit beast was as strong as a Heavenly Disaster Class Other... which should not appear at the periphery of the Umbra Cave.

Even the Four Star Hall squads would flee before one!

"The principal is super strong. Just one rune was enough to hold the spirit beast back," Li Luo marveled.

"That word holds a shred of the principal's will. Which means that it has some sentience... And a piece of a King is far beyond our ken. It's a great power indeed." Jiang Qing'e agreed.

She looked out at the mountain peak and bit her lip. "One day," she said so softly that only Li Luo could hear, "you and I will be there too."

"Eh? Me as well?" Li Luo teased. "Not everyone's a ninth-grade light resonance overachiever, you know."

"Oh? As if your dual resonances aren’t just as valuable." She smiled back. "I get the feeling your limits haven't even been tested yet."

Li Luo looked away so she wouldn't be able to see his eyes. Somehow, she was really sharp today. Indeed, two resonances was not all that he had...

When he reached the General Stage, he would be able to put a real fear even into Dukes.

Just dual resonances?

Behold a General with triple resonances! 

"Let's go. Our cultivation sidequest here is done. We'll aim to take down level two purification towers now," Jiang Qing'e said before turning away.

There was unspoken enthusiasm from the three newcomers, who were itching to test out their new strength.

Level two purification towers were much more difficult to clear than level one towers. White eroders were everywhere, and there were even considerable numbers of red eroders. And where the corruption was thickest, there might even be Disaster Class Others.

That was equivalent to General Stage cultivators. Those would have to be left to the Black Swan Squad.

Of course, the first years would give those a wide distance, but with their increased strength, they could polish off the white eroders with ease, and even the weaker red eroders could be taken down with good strategy.

Jiang Qing'e pointed at a few level two purification towers, indicating the route they would take.

And at the final stop...

The ominous red signal that indicated a level three purification tower.

If they could clear that, then their purging mission would come to a sweet close.

...

A towering mountain, shrouded in soot-black smoke.

The mist hung especially low and thick here, as if the humidity was higher. It was all an illusion, of course. Within the mist hung dry, parched branches, drooping like the dead arms of a scarecrow.

Chittering, whispering voices.

Occasionally, a shadow would flit through the black mist, only to be met with a powerful burst of evil energy. A scream, a crunch, and then it was gone.

In the abyssal cracks of the mountain, a heap of white bones lay.

On the heap was a chair of bone, padded with flesh. There was a long figure coiled up on the ghastly throne.

Its body was that of a centipede's, its limbs clicking and clattering restlessly, but its head was human.

The evil in its eyes was enough to inspire despair in weaker-willed humans. This was an Earthly Disaster Class Other!

It had six eyes, and all of them were fixed on the courtyard outside. Amidst the littering of bones, many Others were cannibalizing each other.

The human-centipede opened its mouth, wider and wider until it was half the size of its face.

It sprayed a lead-black mist that engulfed the Others and swept them all into its mouth, which bristled with razor-sharp teeth.

They were sucked into the gleaming maw, and suddenly there was only eerie silence in the courtyard.

It opened its mouth again to let out a shrill call. It would attract more Others here, to fight among themselves.

But this time around, no Others responded.

How dare these lesser beings ignore the command of the king of this domain!

The human-centipede gathered up its many legs and crawled to the entrance, ready to bring its anger down on its unruly subjects.

“Hee hee!”

As it started to crawl towards the entrance, it heard a gleeful chuckle that made it curl up defensively.

A sense of dread overwhelmed it.

It knew the feeling of dread well. It was the same feeling that its prey felt moments before it crunched down on them. All Others knew it well, locked in the fierce, desperate struggle for survival.

An even stronger Other!

The human-centipede lowered its head to see a freakish, grinning face form on the surface of the ground itself.

The grin was wide... and persistent. All resistance leached out of the human-centipede, and it unfurled its body and obediently crept into the grinning mouth.