Chapter 99: Alive? Dead?

Chapter 99.1: Alive? Dead?

An eighth level spirit beast’s core crystal was indeed extraordinary. Just holding it in one’s hand and one is able to feel the pulse of the spirit power within.

Qing Yu kept the core crystal away and saw the handsome featured countenance of the youth who had been watching her from not too far away seemed to relax in relief.

Curling up the ends of her lips, she walked over to him. “How? I did not disappoint you did I?”

“Of course Mistress is as powerful as she always has been.” Zang Mai said with his eyes turning into two smiling arcs. “I had thought that Mistress would need to expend quite a bit of effort against that eighth level spirit beast.”

Qing Yu shrugged her shoulders in helplessness. [Who asked her to have so many Divine Artifacts cheats on her?]

“Where are those two?” She then came to realize that Yan Xi Rou and Yan Xi Wu were not there and she asked quizzically.

“Oh, over there!” The youth pointed casually with a finger.

Qing Yu followed the direction of the finger and saw the two young ladies lying side by side beside a boulder, their eyes tightly closed.

“I was afraid that they were too timid and it would scare them to death to see you become so brutal, so I simply knocked them out.” Zang Mai explained lazily.

“Mm. Good job.” Qing Yu nodded.

In fact, it really wasn’t suitable for them to witness such a scene as there would be too many things that would be hard to explain.

She crouched down and reached her hand out feel Little Bei’s pulse at his neck. She then opened his clothes at the shoulder to check the wound. Fortunately she had acted quickly to control the poison and the wound had not spread to become too large, but the corroded wound still looked rather grisly.

To see that the youth’s smooth skin had such an ugly wound, it was really quite an eyesore.

Qing Yu knitted up her brows. Although it would be rather painful…..

Her long slender fair skinned fingers summoned up fiery flame, and she brushed it lightly over the wound on the shoulder.

“Ugh…..”

The intense searing pain jolted Qing Bei out of unconsciousness.

Elixir Fire has cleansing and detoxifying effects and although the process was rather tormenting, but it was the best method to use at that moment.

The youth’s eyes that had been rather dazed turned clear in an instant, his body unable to move at all. His senses had become exceptionally sensitive and pronounced and the only thing he was feeling at that moment was only that extremely excruciating pain.

Besides gritting his teeth tightly together to endure it, there was nothing else he could do. He knew that Qing Yu was helping him dispel the poison.

Shortly after, the burning agony was finally gone. Qing Yu looked at the wound that was already beginning to congeal and scab and she breathed out a soft sigh in relief. She then took out a bottle of skin rejuvenating salve and applied it over the wound. With that, it should heal up in less than two days.

Qing Bei’s body was also slowly starting to be able feel, and he was able to move.

He sat up from the ground and said in a grim voice. “Sis, I can’t help having a feeling that this place is not just ordinarily dangerous.”

Logically, people who have come to Hades’ Canyon for rigorous training in the past had not come to encounter such a powerful and unusual spirit beast, and the entire place was just oozing with strange peculiarity with dangers way above the middle average level, already perilous enough to be placed among the continent’s Three Most Deadly Places.

Hearing him say that, Qing Yu nodded her head in agreement and said: “I had felt that something isn’t right about this place as well. Compared to what people who have come here before have said, the kind of spirit beasts and the environment we have seen so far is a completely different place entirely.”

“I feel that we should leave this place as soon as possible.” Qing Bei said with a serious expression. “We have retrieved quite a number of spirit beast core crystals throughout the trip and although we have not reached the ten days dateline, leaving this place prematurely is purely for the sake of our safety before we encounter a situation that we’ll not be able to defend ourselves against. Moreover, we have two deadweights with us…..”

Chapter 99.2: Alive? Dead?

Qing Bei said without any expression on his face as he cast his glance to look at the two people knocked unconscious just a short distance away from them.

It seemed as if these two people had mostly been in an unconscious state throughout the mission. Tagging along with Qing Yu for the training had been too blissful for them that had them being so well protected. If it was up to him to say, he would have dumped them behind so they would not be such a hindrance.

Qing Yu smiled helplessly without a word and then said: “Calculating the amount of time, about six or seven days should have passed. Let’s just wait till the Mou hour today and then leave!”

After Yan Xi Rou and Yan Xi Wu were awakened, the few of them then left the highly dangerous place at great speed, leaving the massive and highly striking set of spirit beast’s skeletal remains behind them.

Not long after they left, the ground suddenly began to shake violently and the flat plains that had been filled with dense cracks then began to rise. With a particularly intense shiver, all the rocks and boulders in all kinds of various shapes and sizes then slid downwards, like they had all fallen down into a deep canyon, without kicking up even a cloud of dust.

A moment after, that cracked and parched soil then continued to slide off, to slowly reveal a kind of smooth hide. That seemingly boundless plains, was actually the back of a gargantuan beast!

It was a beast that was bigger and wider than the enormous Demonic Centipede by several hundred times!

It was as if it had laid dormant deep underground, suddenly awakened from its long deep sleep, and the many living things that had come to grow upon its back was now all falling and detaching off its body.

It had a toweringly tall and massive body, four elegantly long and strong limbs, the head of a dragon and body of a tiger, a strange and unusual form. Right in the middle of its forehead, was a thick and sharp horn, seemingly highly powerful, its pair of bright and expressive eyes shining with intelligence. Warm gusts of air snorted out from its nose and the corners of its mouth actually split into a highly human like smile, that would sent chills running through people.

It looked at the skeletal remains of the Demonic Centipede and though there was no more life in them, it could still sense the lingering terror and regret.

The gargantuan beast then seemed to snort rather mockingly with a rumble in its throat before it raised a paw to smash the Demonic Centipede’s remains into dust, that was then dispersed into the wind.

Its eyes gazed forward, the meaning in them unclear.

—–

The way forward had been a whole lot safer for the group and they did not come across anymore strange encounters.

They had been rather lucky to have captured two very low leveled Heaven Scuttling Bunnies along the way as well.

The reason for that name was because they were a species of rabbits that could fly and burrow, most highly skilled escapists. But unfortunately they had been met with Qing Yu who used her golden needles to pin them to the ground to immobilise them, where they then just looked up pitifully at her.

Qing Yu completely ignored those eyes. At such a low level, they didn’t even possess core crystals. If not to be caught and roasted for food, what other great accomplishments were they hoping to achieve?

Besides being just a bit bigger in size than regular rabbits, the Heaven Scuttling Bunnies were rather normal. But when she saw Qing Yu skillfully gut and skin the rabbits to roast them over the fire, Yan Xi Rou just could not take her eyes off her. It must be known that after the last time she ate the meat of the Great Spiked Hog, she had completely lost her appetite for a few good days, and she was really looking forward to having some meat today.

But seeing Qing Yu prepare the rabbits in front of her after Qing Bei set up a simple roasting rack, Yan Xi Rou could not help but feel a little puzzled. “Why do the two of you….. seem so well practiced in things like this? Both of you have not come out for wilderness training before.”

In her impression, Qing Bei was a weak and frail cripple who dragged his handicapped body that had nothing but an intelligent mind around, and Qing Yu was a weak and timid know nothing, a decorative vase that did not dare to retaliate even when bullied.

Chapter 99.3: Alive? Dead?

But….. the changes that had come over these two people, were as if they were two completely different people. If she was not looking at them straight in their faces, she might have thought that they were both imposters!

Qing Yu glanced at her looking rather amused. “If you don’t do it the first time, you will then never be able to do it. You have to depend on yourself when you come out here and not anyone else. Look over there…..”

Yan Xi Rou followed the direction of her gaze and she saw that Yan Xi Wu had already walked a distance away and was bent over to gather some twigs and branches. Her face immediately grew a little ashamed.

All of the others were doing something but here she was just waiting for food. It did not seem very nice and she did not even dare to raise up her eyes to look at Qing Yu but just went ahead to help Yan Xi Wu gather firewood. Compared to the unwilling reluctance the first time, she took the initiative on her own this time.

Qing Yu lowered her eyes and smiled to herself as she continued to prepare the rabbits she held in her hands. After she stuffed the spices inside the rabbits, she then poked sharp branches through them and placed them over the fire to roast after the rabbits were ready. All that was left to do was to wait for them to cook.

On the other side, Yan Xi Wu was carrying a pile of tree branches and was about to come back when something suddenly caught her foot which caused her to trip, almost making her fall.

She quickly steadied herself and looked down. But as the sky was just too dark she could not see clearly so she crouched down and felt about with her hand. It was something warm and soft to the touch and when she felt what seemed to be several long and slender fingers, her entire person froze.

Yan Xi Wu had always been steady and restrained from young and she was not as timid as most other girls. Hence, when she realized what she was touching was a hand, she did not scream out in fright.

Coincidentally at that moment, the clouds in the sky were blown further away from that area and Yan Xi Wu came to see the deathly pale face of a man under the moonlight. Her heart was greatly shook and she fell back a few steps before she said with a slightly trembling voice: “All….. All of you come over here quick!”

Yan Xi Rou was not too far away from her and when she came over, she went straight into a ear piercing scream. “EEEEK! A dead body! A dead body!”

“…..”

Was it really that unusual to see a dead body in a place like this….. Should it be something for anyone to freak out at?

Qing Yu and Qing Bei went walking over when they heard the scream.

Because she possessed good night vision she saw it clearer than any of the others.

A better half of the man’s body was buried in the ground and only his head and two hands were exposed outside. His face was terrifyingly white but his countenance was elegant and suave, refined and handsome looking.

Although he was buried in the ground, but why did the posture….. seem so unbelievably strange?

He was lying comfortably flat on his back, his arms seemingly widely spread out leisurely. His face did not seem to show any fear or pain, and if not for that ghastly looking pallor of his face, anyone would have thought that he was just moonbathing there.

A twitch tugged at the end of Qing Yu’s brow. This was probably the only human they had encountered ever since they came here into Hades’ Canyon. It just seemed so very strange. Why had this man suddenly appeared here?

She crouched down and stretched her hand out to check under the man’s nose. When she reached her hand out and came to touch the man, her long upslanted phoenix like eyes flared wide. [He’s still breathing? And flesh still warm? !]

Just as she was crouched there with her face in shock, the deathly pale man suddenly wiggled his nose slightly, and after Yan Xi Rou let out a terrified scream, he opened his eyes. “That smells good.”

The good looking pair of ink jade like black eyes turned, and his body then rose up, leaping right out of the ground, to sprint straight in one direction…..