Zhu Yao glanced at the dim surroundings. The place that they were currently in was extremely desolate, and sinister winds blew. Various terrifying and strange noises could be heard. Sometimes, they sounded sharp, while sometimes, they sounded low, and one's skin would crawl just by hearing them. She thought that she had once again returned to the Netherworld.
There was a green barrier surrounding them, and occasionally, there would be hazy shadows bumping into it, emitting out sharp noises.
"Master, this place is… the lower third floor?" The style changed too quickly, didn't it?
"No." Yu Yan shook his head, and his expression sank. "Upper first floor."
"What?" Zhu Yao was stunned for a moment. "Didn't we just exit the lower second floor?" Why were they in the upper first floor now? There were exactly eight floors between them!
"I am uncertain of the cause either." He frowned. He took out the jade tablet they received from the Amway Hall back then, and the words "Upper First Floor" were indeed written on it. "When we crossed floors back then, all of us fell into our heart demon tribulations. Your master was the first to awaken. Most likely, people who pass the heart demon tribulations would be randomly sent to other floors."
So they could actually skip levels! Zhu Yao looked around and saw that there were other Deities as well. Some were lying on the ground unmoving, while there were some who had already woken up and were hesitatingly and uneasily looking at those shadows outside. Though, without a single exception, everyone had a layer of translucent barrier surrounding each one of them. The colours, however, were different. Some were red, some were green, and some were yellow. There were still a row of words above each of their heads – Unknown Deity (Level 10).
Level 10! The hell! All of them are high-leveled players.
"Master, they…" Just as Zhu Yao was about to speak up, she raised her head and was stunned. A row of words were floating above her master's head as well. Yu Yan (Level 10).
Why was she able to see his now!? Was being too levelled the reason why she couldn't see it back then?
She hurriedly turned to look at Yue Ying. A string of words was also written above his head. Yue Ying (Level ??)
"…" What's with those two question marks?
"Dongfang girly, you're awake!" A surprised voice sounded. Nangong Cheng ran over with heavy steps. Next to him was Zhonggu Lu who had already completely recovered his muscular features.
"Hi, Little Huang, Little Teal." Zhu Yao waved her hand and greeted.
"Little…" The corner of Nangong Cheng's lips twitched. As though he had accepted his fate, he sighed. "Nevermind, Little Huang it is then! Dongfang girly, you two have taken too long to fight off your heart demon tribulations. It's been an entire month. You two worried us to death."
"Hoho, sorry for the trouble." Zhu Yao smiled. She turned to look at Yue Ying who was obediently sitting at the side, and did not explain much about it either. "Oh right, where did the two of you go?"
Nangong Cheng's expression turned stern. He took few steps forward and hinted them to sit, before he spoke in a serious tone. "I went to listen in some information. This place is indeed the upper first floor, but it's different from the upper floors from legends."
"What's different?" Zhu Yao asked.
Nangong Cheng and his good homosexual friend Zhonggu Lu exchanged glances, their expressions turned heavy. After a moment, he said. "Everyone believed that the Lightning Divine Tower is split between the lower ten floors and upper ten floors. However, from the situation that I managed to gather, it's different in actuality. The upper floors do not have ten floors."
"There aren't ten floors? What do you mean?"
"People that enter the upper ten floors are not able to return to the lower floors, and they will lose the opportunity to exit the tower as well. This is something that you all are aware of, right?"
Zhu Yao nodded.
"Actually, no one knows about the situation in the upper ten floors. The people in the lower ten floors basically aren't able to find out. Everyone thought that the upper floors would be similar to the lower floors and be split to ten floors. However, in actual fact, there's only a single floor in the upper layer."
Zhu Yao and her master were both stunned. After a moment, Yu Yan said. "You're saying that the God Realm is above this floor?"
"That's right!" Nangong Cheng nodded. He pointed far towards the horizon in front of him. "Do you see that light?"
After looking closely in the horizon, there was indeed a glowing vertical line that shot straight upwards towards the sky. It was as if it was splitting the sky into two halves. Because it was so faraway, all they could see from here was a thin line.
"That's the passageway to the God Realm." He continued. "From here, it's about several hundred kilometers away. As long as we reach that place, we can head straight towards the God Realm."
"Several hundred kilometers." Zhu Yao's heart shook. They were going straight for the peak of the tower over here. "That's not far either." If they were to fly on their swords, they wouldn't even need an hour.
"It's not far!" Nangong Cheng's eyes opened wide, his face looked strange. As though he had thought of something, he turned to look at Yu Yan and said. "Didn't you tell her?"
Yu Yan shook his head. "Not yet."
"What do you mean?" What kind of secret are you guys keeping?
"Dongfang girly, haven't you tried sensing the divine energy in your body?"
"Sensing div… the hell!" Zhu Yao tried sensing, and then she began to feel uncomfortable all over. Her cultivation and divine energy were still present, but… she couldn't use them!
Nangong Cheng had a bitter look. "From here to where that Light of Guidance is, we aren't able to use any mystic arts in the area. That's why… we have no choice but to walk there."
"…" Are we going back to the stone age now? This entire floor is a mystic arts restricted zone!
No wait!
"If we can't use mystic arts, then what about these barriers?" She pointed at the green translucent barriers that were surrounding her and the rest of the people.
"Nascent Divided Pearls." Yu Yan took over. "When we came up, the Nascent Divided Pearls that we gathered before automatically opened up barriers. Every Nascent Divided Pearl can sustain the barrier for about half a day. If the barrier is destroyed…"
Before he could even finish, a scream suddenly sounded from the side. A Level 10 Deity not far away was currently rolling on the ground, covered in fresh blood. Surrounding him were a bunch of shadows, which constantly crashed into him. With every shadow slicing through, a piece of his meat would be torn off. Though he was resisting against them with all his might, he could not block the horde of shadows that could already cover the sky itself.
The blood on-site made it look like a very terrifying zombie film. A living Deity was dismembered right in front of them just like that. Zhu Yao could not help but take a step forward, but was stopped by Yu Yan. "It's too late!"
Yu Yan then pulled her over, covered her ears with his two hands, and sank her in his embrace. As expected, the noises from over there disappeared a short while later.
Zhu Yao felt that her heart was suffocating.
"Haah… This is already the third one." Nangong Cheng sighed. "The moment the barrier disappears, we will be attacked by the surrounding shadows. We don't even know what those shadows are. We can only hope that the barrier can block them."
"How many more Nascent Divided Pearls do we have?" Yu Yan asked.
When they were in the lower third floor back then, in order to prevent the scenario where they had to gather even more quest items, they intentionally gathered a little more.
"About a dozen." Nangong Cheng said. "When everyone fell into their own heart demons, we had used up more than half of them. The remaining ones can only sustain us for five more days or so. However, from this place to that Light of Guidance, ten days of travel is required."
"In other words, we will be attacked by those shadows if we simply sit here. However, the moment we get out, if we don't reach our destination within five days, we will be in danger?"
"Mn!" Nangong Cheng nodded with an anxious look. "I don't know we should approach this either, and thus wanted to discuss with you people about it."
Zhu Yao sank into silence for a moment. They were truly caught in a dilemma now. She turned to look at the person at the side who hadn't spoke all this while. "Yue Ying, what do you think?"
Yue Ying was startled, as though he never thought that Zhu Yao would ask for his opinion and was dumbfounded. Looking at the surrounding eyes that were sweeping towards him, he lowered his head a little anxiously. After a moment, he said. "Head… Heading out, will provide us the opportunity to live. Also, I have a feeling that… there must be a reason behind the appearances of these shadows. If we can figure it out, we might be fine after that."
"I have the same thoughts as well!" Nangong Cheng happily slapped his thighs and said. "Rather than waiting here for our deaths, why don't we take a gamble and head out? What do you guys think?"
"I don't have any objections!" Zhonggu Lu said nonchalantly.
Yu Yan nodded as well.
"Then let us be off! In order to save our Nascent Divided Pearls, it's best we move together." Zhu Yao immediately stood up. She turned around and glanced at the person who was still sitting on the ground. "Let's go, Yue Ying."
Stunned for a moment, he then hurriedly nodded his head and stood up. In those pair of deep eyes, a slightly different luster shone.
After speaking their minds, Zhu Yao felt that Yue Ying was slowly becoming different. The eyes he had when looking at others now carried a degree of sincerity. He was no longer someone with bottomless and incomprehensible thoughts, where she couldn't figure out what he was thinking like before. The reason why he had such deep obsession for her was most likely because of the influence of his memories of his past life as Shao Bai. When she picked him up for the first time back then, he must already possessed a few of his memory fragments, and thus wanted to stick to her no matter what. After that, when he became a Devil, most likely, he had completely remembered it all at that time. However, what struck him the most in his memories, was actually the matter where she forcefully sent him into the World Crossing Door. That was why he was so mindful that she would throw him aside.
And it was exactly because of this, that no matter how much she tried to reason with him, and no matter how much she spoke to him, he basically did not take them to heart at all. He, who turned into a Devil because of his obsession, had always lived in the memories of his past life.
Zhu Yao felt that the current Yue Ying was off to a great start. At the very least, he was willing to present his true self, and was sincerely willing to listen to her words. He was learning to become a good child, and not ignore everything in his surroundings. With how he was able to walk out on his own now, Zhu Yao felt that as long as he interact more with others, everything would be better. After all, be it shutting himself in or his obsession, the root of everything was his lack of interaction with others.
However, interaction seemed to be… a little difficult for Yue Ying.
"I say, Daoist Ximen…" Nangong Cheng said passionately. "You don't speak very often, so I never expected that your thoughts would be similar to mine! The more I look at you, the more intimate I feel! Oh right, so your real name is actually Yue Ying!"
"…" Yue Ying was expressionless.
"You guys are really too much, to even go to the extent of using fake names."
"…"
"The three of you are all from Lightning Divine Palace, right? Why do the two of them have 'Yu' as their Daoist title, while you're called Yue Ying?"
"…"
"Dongfang girly calls Daoist Beichen master. Looking at your age, you can't possibly be Daoist Beichen's grand disciple, right?"
"…"
"Eh? Daoist Yue, why are you walking so quickly? There's nothing much going on right now anyway, so why don't we chat about Dongfang girly?"
"…"
"Oh right! Are you married? Do you have a partner? Mingling with the two of them everyday must be really hard, right? I understand!"
"…"
"But don't you worry, there might be many Goddesses waiting for us in the God Realm, you know! We can't give up! You think so too, right?"
"…"
"I wonder what Daoist Yue's preference is? Let me tell you a secret. Even though my true form is a mammal, I like those with wings."
"…"
"Let me tell you this! Every winged female beast…"
Yue Ying's feet stopped abruptly. As though he had truly been annoyed by his questions, he sent him a cold glance and in an instant, killing intent filled the surroundings. "Scram!"
"…" Nangong Cheng was stunned. What happened to him now?
Zhu Yao had no choice but to smooth things over and nudge the person who was driven crazy by the questions. "Yue Ying, talk nicely."
Yue Ying's killing intent sizzled, and he immediately changed to another manner of speaking. "Shut up!"
"You can't be that fierce. Try again."
"How do you want to die?"
"… A little more politely."
"Please go and die!"
"… A little more tactful."
"You lowly beast, don't speak to me. Given my race's esteemed status and bloodline, I am not someone you can afford to speak to. If you dare to utter even a single word more, if you have two legs, I will break your two legs, and if you have four, I will break all four of them. Do you understand?"
Zhu Yao: "…"
Yu Yan: "…"
Little Teal: "…"
Nangong Cheng: "…" His heart suddenly began to ache painfully! Dongfang girly, are you certain you're not here to make things worse?
Chapter 375: This Sure is FateProbably because Yue Ying had released the knot in his heart, student Nangong Huang recently seemed to especially like sticking with Yue Ying. Though, he would always be abused by Yue Ying's words and be shamed for his actions. Furthermore, whenever she wasn't looking, he would be quietly be beaten up.
Nangong Huang however still continued to press forward and seek abuse. If not because she wasn't aware how perverse the suppression of a God race's bloodline was, Zhu Yao would have thought that he was trying to make Yue Ying gay. Though Yue Ying looked like he was becoming more and more irritated, his expressions seemed to have grown livelier, harbouring more human-like characteristics. Seeing that the two of them were tearing each other through their words, Zhu Yao was not in the position to step in either. Because whenever she tried to interrupt, Nangong Huang's treatment would instead become even more intense. After a long while, she then grew lazy and no longer bothered them. Though, the true homosexual friend of student Nangong grew dissatisfied. Occasionally, he would send her resentful and complaining eyes.
Uh… Student Little Teal, why are you looking at me? This doesn't concern me at all, flips table! Yue Ying is the one who stepped in between the two of you, and even without him, with how one of you being a flower demon and him being a demonic beast, there's no future for you two with different races, alright?
Eh, why did she feel something was strange here?
"Have you truly decided to forgive him?" Her hand warmed, as long and slender fingers slowly interlocked with hers.
Turning her head around, Zhu Yao looked at her master and nodded. "Mn. After actually thinking about it, I too hold responsibility for Yue Ying turning out that way. When I picked him up back then, I didn't know he was Shao Bai. Also, given his identity back then, he would have gotten trouble with Celestial Indus Sect. I thought that by leaving him in Ancient Hill Sect, I would be giving him a home. Also, I believed that with Little Radish's sincere care, it was the best arrangement for him. I never expected that it instead drove him to becoming a Devil."
"Life is unpredictable." Yu Yan solemnly said. "You hold too many mysteries, and your methods have always been extremely dangerous. If you had decided to leave him by your side back then, he might have died long ago. How then could he have the chance to become a Devil?"
"But…"
"Yu Yao." He reached out to hold onto her waist and stroke her head. With a long sigh, he said. "You can't possibly do everything perfectly. In regards to the things that you do, I believe that even when it comes to your master… you wouldn't be willing to bring me along, right?"
Zhu Yao stiffened.
"You're afraid, aren't you?" Yu Yan continued. "You're not afraid of your constant deaths and resurrections, but you're afraid of any harm that comes our way. You're worried that we might… encounter misfortune, and then unable to resurrect like you, right?"
"Master…"
"Your master doesn't blame you." Yu Yan sighed, and then hugged her a little tighter. "You've already done really well. With the responsibility of saving lives resting on one's shoulders, who else would have the confidence of doing better? That's why even though I've always been furious at you acting on your own… I've never ever blamed you."
Zhu Yao was silent as she tightened her arms around the person in front of her. Breathing in the slightly cold air emitted from his body, she raised her head a moment later. With a slightly trembling voice, she said. "That's why, master. Nothing must ever happen to you. Nothing. Otherwise… I don't know what I will do?"
Yu Yan lowered his head and pecked her forehead. With a gentle voice, he said. "Mn, your master will accompany you always."
"Hey! That's enough from the both of you." Zhonggu Lu rolled his eyes with scorn. The two of them suddenly hugged each other while walking. Did they forget that was still a spectator here?
"The both of them are about to fight again. Are you sure you're not going to stop them?" He pointed at the two people in front.
Zhu Yao turned to look, and saw that Yue Ying's face had already turned as dark as the bottom of a pot. He was taking steps forward with a furious face. Student Nangong was currently hugging his thigh tightly. As he was dragged on the ground, he cried out. "Don't! Daoist Yue, why are you so violent? You must treat me a little gentler, ah… it hurts!"
Spectators: "…"
Just how the hell did he spout out such yaoi-like lines? Don't think because you're Nangong Huang, you can act so raunchy, hey! Yue Ying is still a child!
"Yue Ying, come back." Zhu Yao hurriedly waved him over, preventing him from being led astray.
Yue Ying's irritation instantly dissipated quite a bit as he obediently walked back. Before that, he did not forget to give Nangong Huang on the ground a kick, along with a chilling glare.
Nangong Huang did not feel hurt or displeased, clearly, he had already gotten used to it. Patting off the dirt on his clothes, he then began to pick up the morals that he dropped on the ground.
"And what happened to the two of you?" Zhu Yao pulled Yue Ying to the back and questioned him sternly.
Yue Ying's face was still dark as he desperately glared at Nangong Cheng at the side. His eyes were filled with: I will kill you, I will you kill you, I will kill you.
"Dongfang girly, this time it's not my fault." Nangong Cheng said with a bitter look. "Daoist Yue wanted to hold onto a Nascent Divided Pearl no matter what and head out alone to scout the way forward. This place is too dangerous, so I decided to stop him."
"What!?" Zhonggu Lu became anxious when he heard it as well, and he said with a furious look. "That's simply too preposterous. We have limited amount of Nascent Divided Pearls in the first place. We have only walked for two days, and we don't have a surplus of them to waste. Rejected!"
Yu Yan slightly frowned as well. Indeed! They were not lost right now either, so there was no need to waste Nascent Divided Pearls to head out for an investigation. Even if Yue Ying was irritated with Nangong Cheng's pestering, bringing such a request up was indeed too much.
In an instant, everyone faintly carried criticizing eyes.
Yue Ying did not refute and simply lowered his head. His expression was unclear, but he was tightly clenching his hands. The emotions that he had been beginning to gain in these few days, were slowly beginning to turn back into a deathly calm.
Zhu Yao's heart sank and immediately pulled up Yue Ying's hands. "Yue Ying, tell us. Just what happened earlier?"
Before he could speak, Zhonggu Lu furiously said. "Didn't Nangong say it earlier? He wanted to steal…"
"Shut up!" Zhu Yao glared at him. "I'm asking Yue Ying, not you. Why is a single puppy trying to interrupt?"
"Uh…" Why did he feel as though his knee was shot with an arrow?
"Yue Ying, tell me. What happened just now? What were you thinking?" Zhu Yao continued to ask.
Yue Ying stiffened, the hands which were held by hers were trembling a little. After a moment, he slowly raised his head. However, he no longer carried that furious expression. His brows were slightly furrowed, his lips curved downwards, and even his tone changed. "Big sis…"
He lightly called out, as though he was being heavily wronged. She had never seen him like this, and for some reason, her heart began to melt.
"Take your time."
His expression only maintained for a second, and immediately after, it reverted back to his former blank look. Even his tone had reverted back to being monotonous. "I realized that I can sense the surrounding back figures, and they might not have any influence on me. Also, as we moved forward, the shadows had actually been decreasing. I feel that in two days at the very most, they will completely disappear. I just wanted to ascertain just how far we have to go in order to shake off those shadows, and so I wanted to first head out to investigate."
"You're saying that these shadows aren't found everywhere?" Zhonggu Lu was stunned. "Great! In that case, we can arrive at a safe place before our Nascent Divided Pearls run out."
"Daoist Yue, why didn't you say so earlier!" Nangong Cheng came squeezing in. "Since you can sense those shadows, we have some form of hope now."
Zhu Yao pulled Yue Ying back, and activated her debt-settling mode. "Who was the one that said he was being nonsensical and preposterous earlier?"
The Yellow and Teal group stiffened, and they carried embarrassed faces. "Haah. It's my fault, I'm sorry, Daoist Yue." Nangong Cheng was rather magnanimous, as he scratched his head and showed an apologetic look.
"I'm sorry." Zhonggu Lu immediately followed up. "I was too anxious earlier, and though… Haah, it's all Little Huang's fault for speaking nonsense!"
"Eh?" Nangong Cheng was shot twice consecutively. Why was he taking full responsibility for this now? Even for his good homosexual friend, he shouldn't shoot like that! Also, who's Little Huang?
Zhu Yao turned to glance at Yue Ying. Seeing that he was carrying his usual expression and cold eyes, looking as if he disliked jokes and conversations, Zhu Yao heaved a sigh of relief. The current Yue Ying was like a child who was overly sensitive. She was truly afraid that because of this matter, he would lose the courage to interact with others.
However the fact that these terrifying shadows had a limited activity range had ignited the confidence of the squad. Just as Nangong Cheng planned on restarting a discussion how they should move forward from here, a sharp scream suddenly interrupted him.
The noise came from nearby, and it belonged to a woman as well. In these silent and dark space, it was especially horrifying. A bad feeling suddenly surged within Zhu Yao. The scream came so suddenly, so it definitely was ominous. Just as they were planning to make a detour…
A stream of hurried sprinting noises could be heard from in front of them. In the next moment, a few dishevelled figures was running over to them. There were a total of four people, and they each was running, limping with a messy pace. They seemed to be composed of three men and one woman.
They initially had panicky and fatigued looks, but when they saw Zhu Yao's group, the instantly came charging over filled with excitement. They stopped outside their barrier and desperately knocked on it. "Save us, save us! I beg you all, save me!"
Only then did Zhu Yao have a good look of their faces. It sure was a coincidence. It was actually Mary Sue Mei Xue who fooled Nangong Cheng and Zhonggu Lu on the second floor. This sure was fate!
"It's you!" Nangong Cheng naturally recognized her as well, and angrily charged forward.
"You…" Mei Xue was stunned as well, and only then did she recognize Nangong Cheng. In an instant, her face was filled with a pleasant surprise. "Daoist Nangong, it's you! That's great! Those shadows are closing in, Daoist Nangong please open the barrier and save us."
Nangong Cheng coldly laughed. "You lot schemed us before, and we have yet to settle the score for that. Yet you still dare to show your face in front of us!"
Mei Xue was stunned as something flashed within her eyes. Immediately after, she recovered herself and tears instantly flowed out. There was no cooldown to her acting skills at all. "Daoist Nangong, could you possibly have a misunderstanding? I can explain! Did something happen after we split up? After we split up, we were really worried of you two as well, and we even returned to search for you two, but… but we simply couldn't find you. Mei Xue understands that we have let you two down, and in these few days, I have also found it hard to swallow down my food because of that incident. Now that we're in a crisis, if you don't let us in, we will immediately lose our lives here."
From the nonsense that she was spouting, most likely, she was still unaware that they had already figured out the secret behind the Extermination Formation. Nangong Cheng's face had already turned green from anger, as he turned back to look at the rest.
Zhu Yao shrugged. "This doesn't concern me. This is your issue, decide on your own."
After saying that, she pulled her master and Yue Ying. They then took a few steps back and turned around.
She looked as if she did not want to step in at all, but she could not help but speak with a suppressed voice. "Yue Ying, there's something I want to ask you."
Chapter 376: Don't Pull Aggro Off Tanks"Daoist Nangong, are you really willing to stand idly by and watch us die?" Mei Xue was still pleading with tears and cries. She had considerably good looks in the first place, and adding that her cries were accompanied with a degree of gentleness and frailness, a feeling of pity could not help but well up within people's hearts.
However, Nangong Cheng suffered some losses because of her before. This time, no matter how much sadder she was going to cry, not even the slightest hint of pity would well up within him. "Don't think I'm unaware that you've tempered with the Extermination Formation. Since we're alive right now, it proves that we've long known about the truth. There's no longer a need for you to act in front of us."
Mei Xue's expression stiffened, showing a terrible face that looked as if her secret had been exposed.
Nangong Cheng coldly snorted. No longer having the thought of caring about such lowly people, he called out to the rest to continue on their way. The surrounding sharp screams grew even louder, and ominous winds wildly blew. It was as if something terrifying was hurrying in their direction.
The faces in Mei Xue's group instantly turned miserably pale. She couldn't be bothered with anything else any longer and immediately block their path. "Daoist Nangong, it's all my fault back then! That's right! I made use of you people. But that's an idea that I came up with alone, and it's unrelated to the rest. You can watch me die, but please save my three companions." SHe pointed at the three men next to her. "As long as you're willing to let them into the barrier and have them stay inside till those crowd of shadows move away, Mei Xue is willing to die to pay for her sins."
When her words fell, the few men next to her were not the only ones that were stunned, even Zhu Yao herself could not believe her ears. This was illogical! Mary Sue had actually learnt how to sacrifice herself to save others!?
"Mei Xue, you can't! Even if we die, what regrets would we have?" One of the men in green robes refuted.
"That's right!" Man Number Two replied as well. "As long as we can be with you, so what if we die right now?"
"Even if we die, we have to die together." The other man immediately expressed his intentions as well.
Everything became sensational in an instant. Mei Xue however heavily shook her head, sprinkling the tears that had yet to dry. The scene could only be described as mournful. "No! I can't pull you all down. It's all my fault, so let me bear this burden alone! Daoist Nangong, please save them."
"…" Nangong Cheng was stunned, and grew a little hesitant in an instant, as though he never expected that Mei Xue would die for the sake of others.
"Mei Xue!" The three men was still planning to stop her, when suddenly, Mei Xue forcefully pushed them away. She then pulled out a long sword out of nowhere, and with determined eyes, she looked at Nangong Cheng. "Daoist Nangong, please keep to your words."
As she said that, she had already pushed her sword towards her neck. Just as the tip of the sword was about to reach her neck…
"Hey, hey, what are doing!?" The hell, he hadn't even agreed to it yet! Nangong Cheng was stunned, and out of reflex, he reached out his hand attempting to stop her action.
Zhu Yao's heart sank. "Wait, Nangong Huang!"
Unfortunately, she was a step too late. His hand had already reached out of the barrier, and the barrier opened up right at that moment. Almost at the same time, the plot changed drastically. The three people that Mei Xue pushed away restrained Nangong Cheng in an instant, while the sword that Mei Xue planned on stabbing her own neck with was now held against Nangong Cheng's neck. The barrier immediately disappeared.
The hell!
"Hahahaha…" Mei Xue who was still incomparably gentle and frail earlier, had already changed her expression. Her laughter was filled with extreme arrogance and impudicity. "I've never expected that such a stupid person like you would actually be tricked so easily. You lot deserve to die here."
"You venomous woman, let go of me." Nangong Cheng trembled in anger. However, this floor was a divine energy restricted zone in the first place, and with him being restrained by three people, he was basically unable to move at all.
"Let go of you? I finally managed to capture you, how could I possibly let go of you so easily?" Mei Xue kicked him, and then looked at the rest. "None of you move, otherwise, I will kill him right here and now!" The sword in her hand moved, instantly drawing out a slit of his blood.
"Nangong!" Zhonggu Lu trembled in fury. "What can you show by threatening others? If you have the guts, then fight me one-on-one."
Mei Xue coldly laughed and ignored him.
Zhu Yao frowned and took a step forward. "Mei Xue, just what are you trying to do?"
"What I'm trying to do? What else can I do in this upper floor?" Mei Xue coldly snorted, her face was filled with scorn. She sent a glance to the man at the side, and he immediately received her intentions. He began to search Nangong Cheng's body, and in a few short moments, he found a bag that was filled with Nascent Divided Pearls.
"He still has five of them."
Mei Xue then nodded satisfyingly. Right from the start, her goal was to steal their Nascent Divided Pearls. Her pleads earlier were all just an act.
As they held onto Nangong Cheng, the four of them retreated to a safe distance, and then she coldly laughed. "Then, I hope you all enjoy your final moments."
She suddenly moved away her sword and then ruthlessly stabbed Nangong Cheng in the back, piercing straight through his chest. Pulling her sword out, she then pushed him towards them. "Let's go!" They then turned around and fled towards the front.
"Nangong!" Zhonggu Lu hurriedly caught the injured Nangong Cheng.
Mei Xue and her gang had already disappeared without a trace, but that stab of hers was truly ruthless, as Nangong Cheng's chest was already completely dyed red. Such injuries wouldn't amount to anything if things were like before, but they were unable to use mystic arts here. Even with his divine physique, he wouldn't be able to hold on if his blood continued to flow like this.
Zhu Yao squatted down and cupped his wrist. As expected, his loss of blood was severe.
"Dongfang girly…" Nangong Cheng wished that he could smash his head into the wall right now. "It's all my fault! I got tricked by that bitch's scheme again! Even the Nascent Divided Pearls are…"
"Nevermind, what use is there to bring it up now?" Zhu Yao was a little irritated. Nangong Cheng's earlier action was all pure instinct, who would have thought that Mei Xue was here to steal their Nascent Divided Pearls in the first place? Her stupidity was to blame as well. Mei Xue was a ruthless character in the first place, how could she possibly plead to them? She should have realized it earlier.
Initially, Mei Xue had five men next to her, while there was now only three of them left. Clearly, something must have happened. For a woman who would even use her own people, what else wouldn't she do?
"Dongfang girly is right, this isn't the time to pursue responsibility." Zhonggu Lu was incredibly anxious as well. Seeing blood endlessly flowing out of his chest, even his hands were beginning to tremble. "Let's think of a way to stop your blood from flowing out for now! If things go on like this, you will be in trouble!"
"There isn't only one trouble right now!" Yu Yan suddenly spoke out coldly.
With a wave of his hand, his Life Artifact had already appeared in his hand. Raising his head, he looked to the near distance and solemnly said. "They're here!"
The moment his words fell, a wave of sharp screams rang deep into their ears, and they could not help but feel an immense chill in their hearts. The human-devouring shadows were here.
Zhu Yao immediately pulled out that red "patch" weapon as well. Fortunately, it was her Life Artifact, and was already considered a part of her body, so there was no need for the circulation of divine energy to pull it out. Though, the effects of the sword would be greatly limited, and it could no longer be considered as a divine artifact, but a normal weapon.
"But Nangong, he…" Zhonggu Lu grew even more flustered.
Zhu Yao clenched her fists, and then turned to look at the person behind her. "Yue Ying, can you help stop his blood from flowing out?"
Yue Ying did not hesitate and simply stepped forward. With a wave of his sleeves across Nangong Cheng, the blood from his chest immediately stopped flowing.
"This is…" Zhonggu Lu was completely dumbfounded, as he looked at Yue Ying with a face that seemed as if he was looking at a ghost. "You… Could it be that your mystic arts aren't sealed?"
"There's no time to explain, those shadows are coming." Zhu Yao turned towards the front. Holding onto the sword in her hand tightly, she stood next to her master.
Zhonggu Lu understood that this wasn't the time to ask questions. He stood up and made preparations for battle as well. Even Nangong Cheng took a deep breath and struggled to stand up on his feet.
A moment later.
Ding dong. Something fell in front of them, and then it rolled for a short while on the ground before shattering resoundingly. That was actually a completely used up Nascent Divided Pearl. Zhu Yao instantly understood why Mei Xue actually had the time to come up with such a long act even though they were clearly being chased by those shadows.
This Nascent Divided Pearl seemed to have been placed here by them preemptively, in order to block those shadows that were roaming everywhere and buy them time for their act. Zhu Yao and her group had most likely unknowingly walked into this barrier. This Nascent Divided Pearl could not last for long in the first place, and it had already reached its limit.
The instant the Nascent Divided Pearls shattered, immense number of shadows crazily pounced towards them. Piercing screams rang painfully in their ears. The place was filled with flying shadows, and occasionally, those shadows would flash their human faces that grew even more sinister and terrifying as more of them did. Even the shadows that flew past them carried a bone-piercing chill, as though they could injure them with frostbites.
Those shadows seemed to have specific goals in their minds. Some charged towards her master, some charged towards Nangong Cheng, some charged towards Zhonggu Lu, and even more of them charged towards Yue Ying, except her!
"…"
Zhu Yao was a little dumbfounded. Looking at the waves after waves of shadows, they split towards the people at the side and were completely avoiding her. Not a single one of them turned around and give her a glance. Not a single one!
Just what was going on? Did Realmspirit give her a cheat again? However, ever since she entered the tower, she wasn't given any sort of preferential treatment. Even her World Favourable Impression passive seemed to have been completely ineffective right from the beginning.
"Master…" She looked at the people next to her with strange eyes.
"Mn?" Yu Yan swung away the several shadows with his sword, and then turned to look at her.
Zhu Yao did not have time to explain when the next shadow took the opportunity to attack Yu Yan's back. "Master, watch out!" Zhu Yao immediately slashed at it and that shadow instantly dissipated, turning into a mass of black smoke. However, the smoke did not scatter off, and instead began to gather together once more. In just a few moments, it once again formed a complete figure, and a human face instantly surfaced. That was a face of an old man. He had a long beard and white hair, looking extremely kind. He even looked a little familiar.
In a blink of an eye, it turned into a sinister look, and with a sharp scream, it came pouncing towards her. Zhu Yao swung her sword and once again scattered it.
As expected, in less than ten minutes, that shadow once again changed back, and Zhu Yao seemed to have accidentally caught its attention. This shadow began to change its target and launch attacks at her.
Zhu Yao was not a physical practitioner. Her sword techniques were not as strong as her divine arts, and could only be considered average. However, it was more than enough to deal with a single one. However, if this went on, nothing would change. These things could reform themselves limitlessly and could not be killed at all. They had to find a plan.
Zhu Yao inspected her surroundings, but was shocked by the person behind her.
"Yue Ying!" He was actually staring blankly in the air while standing in the center of a large number of shadows!
Without even thinking, Zhu Yao charged over. With a few slashes, she cut away several shadows that were surrounding Yue Ying, instantly pulling a large number of aggro.
In an instant, large number of shadows came flying towards her.
Uh… She seemed to have become an off-tank.