Chapter 58: Blood Shadow Definite Kill
Chapter 58: Blood Shadow Definite Kill
Qin Yu blinked and looked at Qing Yun curiously. He didn’t really understand why Qing Yun would help him; they had fought brutally at Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain. When his gaze met Qing Yun’s, his eyes glinted; yet, Qing Yun had a clear stare that suggested she was unfazed by his threatening aura. Unlike others who would go red in the eyes with bloodlust, Qing Yun had a stronger will. In comparison, traces of Dugu Feiyan and Li Yijian’s bloodthirstiness could be seen in their eyes; their wills were not strong enough. The strength of one’s discipline could tell a lot about one’s future path of cultivation. Those who were disciplined ventured far on their path, while those with weaker wills would stagnate even if they had outstanding talent in their early days.
“You have ten breaths of time left. After that, the second floor will close,” decreed the man who guarded the entrance of the second floor, reminding the remaining four of them. The small group paused. Dugu Feiyan looked toward Qing Yun. Qing Yun was at the Middle Stage of the Immersion Realm and held an extraordinary Qing Feng Sword. Ending a fight with her within ten breaths would be impossible. With no alternatives, Dugu Feiyan could only give up.
“Count yourself lucky. Let’s go.” Dugu Feiyan’s silhouette flashed as she leapt through the entrance of the second floor.
Li Yijian smiled at Qing Yun. “Miss, we’ll meet upstairs.” With that, he quickly followed Dugu Feiyan and leapt up the stairs as well.
“You must be careful,” Qing Yun warned Qin Yu before she vanished on the spot and entered the second floor. Qin Yu nodded with a smile, and he proceeded forward as well. However, he didn’t enter immediately and stopped in front of the guard.
The guard noticed Qin Yu before him, and his gaze turned icy. “Hehe! Hello, Official!” Qin Yu smiled like a fluffy Pekingese Dog.
Seeing Qin Yu’s simpering smile, the coldness of the guard’s gaze scattered a little. Nonetheless, he still questioned Qin Yu in frigid tones. “You have a problem?”
“Official, there’s a question I’d like to ask you: You’ve just eaten so many energy fireflies; would you care to share some with me? Hehe...”
“What did you say?!” The expression of the guard changed immediately, and he released a murderous aura.
“Blood Shadow Definite Kill! Die!” Qin Yu attacked first. As he attacked with the extremely strong move, a blood-red light bloomed, resembling the resplendent glory of a setting sun. In a blinding beam, two crossing blade lights tore apart the illusory blood curtain and slashed the body of the guard. Blood Shadow Definite Kill was the tenth move of the Red Blood Knife technique. Previously, Qin Yu only had the ability to use the ninth move, the Blood of a Thousand Shadows. But, since he was in the Immersion Realm now, he could force out this killer move.
The guard had underestimated Qin Yu’s guts and ability. Never would he have imagined that someone would dare to kill the guard of the tower within the pagoda itself. Qin Yu didn’t care whether this man was the guard or not. Before the guard even fell, the young cultivator’s palm struck the dantian position of the guard and sucked forcefully. Immediately, a dense group of energy fireflies rushed out with flickering red and green lights. The entire swarm of fireflies was comprised of hundreds, and more than half were red. Even the weakest ones were still green! After all, the competitors who had died here were the top of the top; none of them would have had weak internal power. Qin Yu had struck gold!
Qin Yu suppressed the mad happiness within him, yet his brow twitched. With a loud growl, the shadow of a ferocious tiger pounced out from his forehead. Opening it’s huge maw, the cat swallowed all of the fireflies in a few gulps. After absorbing all the fireflies, Qin Yu flinched and rushed through the gate of the second floor. From right behind him came a huge boom, and the entrance closed.
Once he entered the second floor, Qin Yu couldn’t help but be slightly stunned at what he saw before him. The second floor was empty; but, surprisingly, there were no people. However, a few dead bodies were gradually sinking into the ground. Bloodstains were all over the place, and all of the treasures were taken. Qin Yu could guess definitively that there had been a round of devastating slaughter and looting, which confirmed that the spoils of the higher floors were much more precious compared to those on the first.
Once Qin Yu had looked around the empty second floor, his gaze shifted to the entrance of the third floor. There was no door, and the entrance was wide open with no guard. This confused him; didn’t they say that three tokens were needed to pass the third floor? With no one on guard, it would be easy for anybody to enter. But, since it was so easy, Qin Yu was in no hurry to leave. Anyway, because he was the last to pass through, even if he hurried, there would be nothing left to grab. All of the treasures had clearly been taken. Qin Yu’s goal was the treasure on the top floor.
Based on his current abilities, Qin Yu might not be able to get the treasure on the top floor; thus, it would be useless for him to hurry onward. First, he had to increase his strength. Now was a perfect opportunity to use up the fireflies he had recently claimed. Without hesitation, Qin Yu chose a rather secluded corner in which to meditate and prepared to use the energy of the fireflies. In Qin Yu’s sea of consciousness, the Earth Spirit Pearl spun madly, and a tumultuous black mist roared, drawing in the red and green fireflies; in this brutal way, the fiery bugs were refined.
With hundreds of high level fireflies being converted, waves of wild and overwhelming energy swept through the young cultivator’s meridians. His body shook and trembled uncontrollably. He seemed incapable of bearing the rampant energy as his muscles and tendons grew sore and painful. Qin Yu gritted his teeth. Even if his whole body was on fire, his facial expressions would remain the same. He only cared about absorbing the energy flooding in and gathering it into his dantian. In his dantian, the energy was transformed into Qin Yu’s internal wellspring and distributed to different muscles and tendons. As the cycle of energy conversion continued, his aura strengthened level by level.
As Xie Di in his past life, he’d had an incomparable advantage. His cultivation almost never encountered a bottleneck when grasping concepts. As long as he had sufficient energy, Xie Di could continuously increase his cultivation realms. However, the way in which he cultivated differed from others and was immensely powerful. The energy such cultivation consumed was also terrifyingly huge. For even a small increase, the energy Xie Di required was equal to, or even more than, what others needed for a breakthrough to a greater realm. Moving on to higher realms, the consumption only increased manifold. Of course, Xie Di’s power in that realm would be multiplied.
After an hour, Qin Yu’s body gradually stopped trembling and eventually relaxed. “Huff!” With a deep breath, he raised a hand to wipe the sweat on his brow and stood up slowly. His gaze had become sharper, and his aura was stronger. The Middle Stage of the Immersion Realm. The combined energy of more than a hundred elites could only increase Qin Yu’s cultivation by a small step. If others knew, the extent of their shock would be unpredictable. If someone else were to do the same thing, all the energy wouldn’t be completely depleted even if they leveled up to the peak of the Immersion Realm! Now Qin Yu could proceed. If he had the chance, he would absorb more fireflies.
Before he went any farther, Qin Yu made use of the “Hidden Aura” technique and continued to project his cultivation level at the peak of the Origin Realm. With this deceptive aura, enemies would underestimate him in battle, and he could ambush them. If Qin Yu was lucky, he could attack unexpectedly and kill his opponent in one strike, like how he’d killed the guard. Once everything was prepared, Qin Yu looked toward the entrance of the third floor and leapt upward with great force. Just when he was about to reach the entrance, he suddenly cried out.
Qin Yu had no place to steady himself in midair, and so he could only strike at the space with his palm. The space buzzed, and ripples formed. A force double his own radiated from the space and pushed back at him. Bam! With a muffled sound, Qin Yu rebounded about a meter before landing on the floor. “Boundary waves?” Looking at the entrance within the space, Qin Yu finally understood why the threshold was wide open and no one guarded it. A boundary array had been set. The one who had set up the Illusory Battlefield was indeed a powerful Array Builder.
Standing below and staring up at the entrance, Qin Yu soon found a solution. He took out three tokens from his Space Ring. With a clean whoosh, he flung out the three tokens, and they struck the boundary in the space. A ripple formed in the air, but there was no counter force; and, Qin Yu was directly sucked through the space.
Upon successfully entering the third floor, Qin Yu saw that it was empty as well without even corpses to be found. However, the traces of blood were even more glaring compared to those on the second floor, and the smell was thicker. Without a doubt, an even more tragic battle had taken place. The bodies had merely vanished. Since there was nothing on the third floor, there was no reason for Qin Yu to remain there. Four tokens were taken out, and he rushed toward the fourth floor. With only four tokens, this was as high as Qin Yu could go. To go up another floor, he would have to steal more tokens.
However, there was no one at the fourth floor either. Qin Yu could find no one with tokens. Eyeing the entrance of the fifth floor, Qin Yu’s face took on a slight gloominess. If he’d known, he would have snatched a few more tokens on the first floor. Just as he was feeling depressed, a tragic “argh” came from above. Qin Yu’s gaze snapped up in astonishment. Reflected in his irises, a green figure fell from the gate above.
“Qing Yun!” With one glance, Qin Yu recognized the one falling as the Qing Family’s Qing Yun. In that moment, he didn’t hesitate and jumped up swiftly. He caught the girl and safely held her as he landed on the ground lightly.
“Ugh!” Qing Yun suddenly opened her mouth and spat up a mouthful of blood, staining Qin Yu completely.
Qin Yu was a little stunned. “Miss Qing, are you okay?” Who could hurt her this badly?
Qing Yun lifted her head slowly. Her delicate face was pale, and her gaze flickered a few times. “It’s you, Qin Yu,” she said slowly.
“Erm, it’s me. Are you okay? Who hurt you?” Qin Yu asked with worry. This woman had just helped him, and she was an extremely beautiful lady; he had to show concern at the very least.
“I’m... I’m fine,” Qing Yun panted as she recovered an ounce of strength. “I was harmed by the man and woman who we met on the first floor. They stole my token and my Qing Feng Sword. Cough...” While she spoke, Qing Yun coughed violently again, and blood flowed out of her mouth.
“Dugu Feiyan? Li Yijian?” Qin Yu’s expression hardened, and a sharp light shone from his eyes suffused with a murderous aura.