Chapter 9: Warcraft
A bright moon hung high in the sky. I was in Xuan’s arms, and we were still walking through the forest.
This afternoon, almost everyone from all walks of life in Changbai Mountain gathered at the edge of the Moon Lake. Everyone drew their own sphere of influence. Whoever’s sword appeared or was found within their sphere of influence had the right to seize it first. If it wasn’t seized within two hours, the rest had the right to go up and seize it. At night, people from all sides sent people into the water to search for the Nine Dragon Sword.
“Sister Xuan, where are we going?“ I asked, yawning.
”We’re going to find a cave and see what secrets it holds.“
”Is it the cave from which the Nine Dragon Sword flew out?“
”Yes, but there’s a problem. As far as I know, the cave is full of monsters, so why is there a legend that a sword flew out of it?“
”Are they all monsters? Will it be dangerous?”
“Don’t be afraid. Before I left the mountain, I often practiced in this cave. Although there are many powerful monsters, they generally don’t easily harm people.”
I’m not afraid. Throw a flame shield at me, and I don’t believe anyone can hurt me. ‘With Sister Xuan here, I’m not afraid. You will protect me. Besides, I also have a protective magic weapon.’ I took out my invisible divine needle again.
“The monsters here are strong, even if you hit their hearts, they won’t die immediately. If you don’t hit the vital spot, they simply won’t care. You can’t protect yourself with this,“ Sister Xuan shook her head.
”Heh heh heh,” I let out a two-part evil laugh, ”but these needles are made with special medicine. If you hit the vital spot, they’ll be effective within three seconds, and you can finish them off in a minute.”
“Is the needle coated with poison?“ Seeing me nod with satisfaction, Sister Xuan added, ‘Some monsters are poisonous themselves, and they are not afraid of extreme poison.’
I was almost dumbfounded when I heard this. There are also things that are not afraid of poison. Hmph, I took out my bag and started looking inside. I took out a plastic cylinder from it, and inside was a colorless liquid.
”I don’t believe they are afraid of this,” I said, showing off the spray bottle to Sister Xuan.
“What’s this?” Sister Xuan asked curiously.
I rolled my eyes and said, ‘This is a kind of magic water developed by my black-clothed uncle. It’s too strong for anything living.’ (Actually, it’s just aqua regia.)
I took out a Photon Ray (which I can’t mass-produce yet, so I have to make them all by hand). ”This is a magic weapon that can cast a light magic spell once, with about the power of a seventh-level spell, and it doesn’t cost mana.”
Xuan was shocked. She had never heard of any magical artifact that could cast a seventh-level spell without expending mana.
“This is an amulet my uncle in black clothes made specially for me. Just say ‘open’ and it can gather earth energy, allowing me to easily cast the sixth-level protective spell ‘Boundary of the Earth’.”
“This is…” Xuan looked at me in disbelief as I pulled out one strange thing after another.
“Okay,“ finally Sister Xuan woke up from her shock and stopped me, ‘don’t take any more, just take something practical.’
An hour later, we arrived at the side of a mountain. ‘That’s the cave,’ Sister Xuan pointed at a large cave and said to me, ‘let’s rest for a while and then go in.’
”Won’t these monsters come out?”
“There is a Buddhist barrier at the entrance, so these monsters can’t get out. There are three floors in this cave, and each floor has two or three spatial doors to the beast world, which open at irregular times and points. The space here is extremely unstable, so no one uses spatial magic, unless they want to die.“
”Are the monsters here very powerful?”
“You can easily handle the ones on the first floor, but the ones on the third floor are a bit more difficult. However, they won’t provoke people. Somehow, the monsters on each floor are clearly divided, and they cannot move freely between the floors.” Sister Xuan’s face showed a thoughtful expression, ‘Okay, let’s rest, and we’ll go in a little later.’
Half an hour later, I was lying on Sister Xuan’s back, holding a lighting stone as we entered the Cave of the Beasts.
As soon as we entered, we encountered three gargoyles. “Fire,” said Sister Xuan, and a fireball flew over, hitting one gargoyle and causing the other two to scream and pounce on us. Sister Xuan’s long sword extended forward, creating seven sword shadows, cutting one in the air in half, while the other flashed diagonally to the right, casting a petrifying spell. A flash of yellow light surrounded us, and a shield of earth appeared in front of us. An ice needle was added to freeze the gargoyle, and it was beheaded with one swing.
We almost stepped on blood and corpses as we advanced. I finally couldn’t hold back any longer and said, “Sister Xuan, can’t you capture two alive?”
“What’s the point of capturing them alive?” Sister Xuan asked in puzzlement.
“Make a contract with the monsters, we can use them to clear a path for us.“
”That’s Western magic, I don’t know how to do that.“
This silly sister, how can she be smart sometimes and stupid at other times. ‘Xuan sister, I know how to do it.’
”You do? But a contract with a monster requires a lot of mana and spiritual power, can you do it?” Xuan sister’s eyes showed a look of doubt: ”Don’t even say you can do it, I’ve tested your mana, it’s simply not enough.”
Oh no, I almost blew my cover. “Sister Xuan, my spiritual power is huge. Even Uncle Black Clothes praised me, not to mention that I also have crystals (to amplify spiritual power) and mana (to provide spiritual power), so it’s no problem at all. I have this—the Stone of Magic (to provide mana).” I pulled out several crystals and the Stone of Magic at once.
“You have everything on you.”
“My uncle, who is a half-orc, gave them to me. They have plenty.” I casually told a lie.
“The monsters on the first floor are weak, so let’s go to the next floor.“
”It’s fine, we can get a lot of them anyway. If we really can’t make it, we can just abandon a few first-floor monsters.”
Along the way, I captured 12 gargoyles, 8 dwarves, 7 strength wolves, and 4 hunting tigers alive. Except for one wolf and one dwarf who refused to surrender and were barbecued by me, the rest were all recruited as my subordinates. I ordered the gargoyles to scout the area from the air (they now carry the lighting stones, of course, one on each of them), the strength wolves to lead the way, the hunting tigers to follow, and the eight dwarves to guard the rear. Xuan and I supported them with our magic in the middle. The battle was really easy, and we arrived at the intersection of the third level without any problems.
Now my army has grown again, with twenty gargoyles, ten strength wolves, six hunting tigers, four dwarf monsters, and of course most of them are no longer the monsters from the first floor. In addition, I have seven iron bulls, eight fangs of demons, three vampire bats, three four-handed monsters, and twenty other miscellaneous monsters. For convenience, I will call them the twenty monsters.
The most powerful of these monsters are of course the Iron Bull, the Demon Fang, the Bloodsucking Bat, and the Four-Armed Monster. The Four-Armed Monster is the most powerful, with one of its four arms holding a shield, one axe, and the other two holding bows and arrows. Since the power of bows and arrows is too great in this kind of place, at first they were all killed by Sister Xuan using the Golden Pellet Breaking spell or by lightning striking them. Later, I set set up a few traps and dug a few pits. There was plenty of manpower anyway, so I sent out a group of death squads, led by Tie Niu and the blood-sucking bat, to lure the four-handed monsters to the traps. Then we used magic to force them into the pits. In this way, we managed to subdue three of them. As a result, there were originally more than a dozen Tie Niu, but now there are only seven left, and the blood-sucking bat is even worse, with only three left.
There were too many monsters, so I only left behind twenty monsters, four dwarves, and ten gargoyles, and sent the rest back to the Monster World. There is an unwritten rule in the Monster World: as long as a monster is owned by someone, no one will attack it, and of course it cannot attack other monsters either. It is said that in ancient times, a magical beast signed a contract with a magical dragon. However, for some reason, the magical beast was killed by another magical beast. The angry magical dragon gathered ten of its brothers and killed their way into the magical beast world, leaving rivers of blood in its wake. The whole area within a thousand li became a wasteland. It was truly pitiful and lamentable. Later, the rule of not killing the magical beast of the contract holder was passed down in the magical beast world.
“Okay, the third level is up ahead.“ Looking at my army of monsters, Sister Xuan shook her head, ‘You’d better collect these monsters, or else they’ll be misunderstood by the monsters below. Not to mention that your monsters are useless against them.’
”I just want to collect them,” I said gleefully, ”If they attack us, we’ll have an excuse.”
“Stop messing around, all you know is fighting and killing. Those monsters down there are not that easy to deal with. Besides, if they don’t come looking for trouble, why would we provoke them? Put them away.“
”Fine, fine,” I reluctantly put them away and turned to look at the third level, and I was shocked.
In this cave, an unknown Buddhist monk has set up a dragon-restraining realm. According to the records of the imperial secret scriptures, this dragon-restraining realm belongs to the legendary enchanted realm, and no one has ever seen it before. For a monster to pass through this realm in person, two conditions must be met: first, the beast bone in its brain must be turned into a human bone; second, it must become a Buddha (or attain enlightenment, or become a god in the West). However, it is not necessary to enter the Mahayana realm, as long as one can enter the Hinayana realm. I now understand why the monsters on the third level do not attack on their own initiative. Of course, they themselves do not care to attack, but more importantly, the Dragon Suppression Realm can suppress the killing instinct in all kinds of monsters (although it cannot completely eliminate it). And in the Dragon Suppression Realm, all living things can be enlightened by the Dharma and cultivate the roots of Buddhahood. However, the Dragon Suppression Realm is only set up at the entrance to the cave here. It seems that the high monk is unable to cover the entire cave, and I think so too. If he could cover the entire cave, he would have already reached the Mahayana realm.
“What are you looking at?“ Sister Xuan asked me curiously.
”I’m just wondering why the monsters on the third level can’t enter the second level?“ I carefully observed the Volong Realm, wedging my spiritual power into the barrier and analyzing its composition. It would be a real shame to miss this kind of marvelous barrier.
”Okay, stop looking, let’s go in?” Sister Xuan urged me.
I had just finished analyzing the barrier and stored the information in my super brain, so it was up to me to see if I could use it. I followed her contentedly as she walked further in.
Suddenly, two large axes came from nowhere. “Shield,” a shield of earth appeared over my head, and a sword immediately extended, splitting into two bows and shadows. The sword mysteriously landed on the enemy’s chest and stomach. “Oh,” the enemy revealed its form, two minotaurs (level 6), two meters and four centimeters tall. The sword that should have landed on the chest and stomach fell on the thighs. The large axe split open the earth shield and paused for a moment before splitting downwards.
“Sigh,” my invisible divine needle finally made its move, piercing through the minotaur’s right eye. The minotaur let out a crazed scream, dropped the axe, turned around, and ran back. Just after taking a dozen steps, it collapsed to the ground.
“Break the fire and go,” a small fireball suddenly knocked the burly bull demon flying. ‘Po’ a strange sound rang out on the body of the knocked-up bull demon. Sister Xuan’s face changed drastically, and she quickly flashed with me. Three sparks suddenly appeared on the surrounding walls, and three consecutive sounds of ‘zi, zi, zi’ rang out, and the sound of the bow and arrow breaking through the air finally arrived.
I quickly threw away the lighting stone. I didn’t want to be the target. Fortunately, I had practiced the “Seeing and Hearing the Heavens and Earth” technique to perfection, and with the faint light from the falling lighting stone, I could still see the surrounding scene. I shot seven needles in a row with my hands, pinning the four ice snakes that were surging up from the right, but the remaining ice snakes still spit out ice gas and attacked us. The most terrifying thing was still the arrows fired in secret. It may be the Four-Armed Demon (an upgrade of the Four-Armed Monster). It doesn’t care about its teammates at all, just shoots long arrows at the place where the fighting sounds come from. The powerful arrows can pierce heavy armor from 100 to 50 paces away, and their speed is even faster than the speed of sound. Therefore, Sister Xuan can only lead me to keep dodging. I also panicked. This arrow is no joke. If I really get hit, I will lose half of my life.
The sound of wind and thunder on the sword suddenly disappeared, and a strange shadow of the sword flashed. The ice energy was blocked outside the yellow light. The body of the ice snake suddenly broke into two pieces without a sound. Sister Xuan’s left sleeve flapped, and a loud sound of waves arose. the four horrible monsters with curved horns rushing from the left were blown away by the wind and flew back suddenly. This time, Sister Xuan charged at the four-handed monster, not retreating but advancing. She lowered her body, split her sword rainbow and then reunited it, rushing along the ground, causing chaos among the monsters.
I casually threw a photon mine behind me. A blinding flash of light appeared, and within fifteen paces behind me, it suddenly became a no-man’s land. The dazzling light also forced the monsters in front of us to close their eyes, and even the four-handed monster’s arrows became fewer.
To deal with the biggest threat, at the moment the bright light came on, Xuan Xue suddenly charged into the front of the four-handed monster. Her body, which was moving quickly on the ground, appeared on the heads of the three four-handed monsters the next moment. They flew up in anger, with their three heads separated.
Ice bombs, fireballs, and electric grids on the ground flew up and shot into the air, but a hemispherical yellow light blocked them underneath us. This was the Earth Defense.
A dark shadow fell silently from the cave ceiling, and one hand pressed against Sister Xuan’s back (my body was too small to block her back). The cold energy exploded like a volcano onto Sister Xuan’s back. I suddenly realized that something was wrong, my face changed, and I turned my hand and shot ten consecutive Shadowless Divine Needles. In the meantime, in a panic, I used two Stone Shields (second rank) to protect me and Sister Xuan. Seeing me move my left hand back, the black shadow also immediately formed a golden shield with his left hand, while his right hand pierced through the stone shield and firmly pressed against the back of Xuan Xue Jie.
The black shadow obviously underestimated the power of my Shadowless Divine Needles. Ten needles hit the golden shield, and the last three pierced through and into the black shadow. The black shadow was shocked, his robes bulging suddenly, but the three needles still did not penetrate the black shadow’s left arm.
The moment before the strike, Sister Xuan’s body was filled with a bright yellow light. The mysterious Taoist heart method, one of the ten great Taoist feats, “Entering the World to Experience Tribulations” protected her back. “Whoa,” Sister Xuan vomited twice and her body fell rapidly. In the rush, she could only use three layers of her power, which was not enough to resist the opponent’s strange power.
I felt great pain in my heart, and I threw ten more needles backward. Then, I used the Cloud-Walking technique, channeling the fire energy of the Samadhi into it, creating a sea of fire below (first rank). A blue-green flame flashed below, and countless monsters struggled to run out of the sea of fire. Within nine seconds, those who couldn’t escape were immediately burned to death. “The flames recede and avoid,” the mysterious fire-repelling incantation of the mysterious school of black magic was cast, protecting me as I fell to the ground, while at the same time a hail of ice appeared out of thin air beneath me, lowering the high temperature on the ground, and we landed safely.
“Kill,” a flash of lightning shot at us, a fiery dragon appeared overhead, and the black shadow’s right hand came down like a weight on my head. Hmph, ‘Ring of Quiet Water’ and ”Umbrella of Focus.”
The lightning bolt shot at the still water ring around me, but disappeared. At the same time, electricity was attached to the water ring. When the fire dragon hit the “mind-calming umbrella”, it only caused sparks to fly in the sky. The large hand in the air had already turned green in color as it approached, clearly using a wood-based technique. His palm pierced through the “Calming Umbrella” and struck my “Ring of Still Water”. Electricity is formed from water and earth, so it can attach to my “Ring of Still Water”. Water gives birth to wood, and wood subdues earth, so the black shadow used yin wood power.
I sneered. Your young master is useless at attacking, but no one can break his defense. The “Ring of Still Water” recessed inward at the palm of the opponent’s hand when it was about to be hit, while the surrounding water shield directed itself towards the opponent’s arm. The black shadow did not hesitate for a moment and struck down directly.
“En,” the black shadow cried out in pain, leaping backwards, casting a levitation spell and floating in the air, shaking his right hand non-stop. His right hand was almost doomed. Water magic is a terrifying kind of magic (worse than ice magic). Once hit, water molecules will immediately mutate, and cell tissue and organs will be destroyed immediately, making recovery extremely difficult, because any recovery magic requires the use of water molecules. Just now, the black shadow was unable to break through my “Ring of Still Water” and immediately suffered the backlash of the water energy, with its entire right hand surrounded by the water energy.
The black shadow, which was floating in the air, suddenly shook and fell crookedly from the air, landing in an area without fire.
It finally had a toxic reaction, I thought to myself, but I was secretly alarmed. This guy had been shot with a few needles, but he was still able to attack me, and his power was full.
A group of pterodactyls (which can fly) rushed from the distance, pouncing directly at the black shadow, while the horned monster also killed towards the black shadow without hesitation. A “Frozen Ring” (6th rank) appeared around the black shadow, instantly freezing the approaching horned monster, while those that were farther away could only slowly approach, and those nearby were frozen in place unable to move, while one was simply frozen and cracked. A “Gale Whirl” (sixth rank) appeared above the black shadow’s head, causing a flurry of chaotic air currents. The pterodactyls were tossed about by the air currents, and some were even swept into the flames (I had gathered too much fire energy, which was enough to last for ten minutes). However, the gunman and the minotaur in the distance charged up again. The black shadow was secretly anxious, and all of his internal strength was used suppressing the toxins, and could only use half of his inner strength to cast spells. Looking at the fire, the black shadow once again used levitation, and like me, a pile of hail appeared beneath him. However, without the fire-avoidance spell, unless he could last for ten minutes, it was only a matter of time before he landed on the ground and was roasted like a pig (the Samadhi True Fire was no ordinary spell).
I didn’t care about him. Right now, we were safe in the fire, unless a monster that could survive the depths of the earth’s flames appeared.
“Xuan Xue, are you okay? It’s all my fault,” I cried out in panic, my voice breaking into a sob. After spending all these days with Xuan Xue, I had truly grown to like her.
“I’m fine, just a little injured internally. I’ll need a few days to rest,” Xuan Xue hung her head, but two mouthfuls of blood spilled out.
I desperately searched in my bag for my great recovery talisman. Ah, here it is. I pulled a talisman out of the bag and said, “O omnipresent power of water in the atmosphere, please use this talisman as a guide to form a merciful hand.” The jade talisman emitted a blue light, then turned into a pile of water, which quickly formed into the shape of a hand. I placed the hand on Xuan’s chest, and the water immediately seeped into her body. Her whole body suddenly turned blue and hissed. I took out another green talisman, “Wood becomes fire, protect your mind and spirit.” This is a heart amulet that protects the primordial spirit and the heart. I placed my left hand against Xuan’s chest, “Where the Buddha’s heart is, evil dissipates.” I used the power of Yin to prevent the Yin energy in Xuan’s body from continuing to penetrate her body. The “Ring of Still Water” continued to appear around me.
Every few seconds, the black shadow would cast an ice spell (derived from a water spell) to lower the temperature of the ground.
“How is Sister Xuan? Is she doing okay?”
“She’s fine. What spell did you use? My injuries have improved a lot.”
I didn’t answer, and took another pill from my bosom and gave it to Xuan Xiang Jie. “Xuan Xiang Jie, who is that guy, and why did he sneak attack you?”
“I don’t know who he is either. If I’m not mistaken, he should be someone from the crown prince’s entourage. The crown prince has three shadow warriors by his side, from the island country of Fusang in the Wind Continent. Each one is a master, and this person might be him.” After her injuries stabilized for the time being, Xuan Xiang Jie calmly said,
“What are you going to do with him, burn him to death?”
“Ask his opinion?“
”Save me, I’ll surrender to you.“ The shadow figure spoke in a pleasant young girl’s voice. It turned out to be a woman, and I froze for a moment.
”How can I trust you?“
”Unbind the contract of the shadow companion on me, and I can re-enter into a contract with you.“
”What will happen if I can’t?“ I asked tightly.
”Then you won’t be able to enter into a contract, but if you can kill my former master, you can also re-enter into a contract with me,” the young girl said.
“You’re quite good at taking advantage of the situation. No matter what happens, you’ll be the one to benefit.”
Another spell of ‘Frostbite.’ ‘Save me, and I can promise you that I won’t be your enemy in the future.’
The effect of the ‘Investigate the Microcosm’ spiritual technique, combined with my spiritual power, tells me that this young girl is sincere. This young girl is extremely powerful. She hid at the top of the cave and didn’t let Xuan discover her, and she successfully attacked. If she can be subdued, she will indeed be a great help to me.
“What do you think, Xuan?“ I thought I should still ask Xuan’s opinion.
”Just take her,” said Xuan, who could still sense the sincerity of the other party thanks to the mysterious ‘Entering the Mortal Realm’ technique. As for whether she could be tamed, Xuan’s face broke into a smile. This little brat, what she just displayed in her magic was probably even more formidable than her own.
“The flames retreat and avoid.“ The flames around the woman suddenly swirled around her, no longer attacking her, but protecting her.
”This is the antidote, you can use it.” I gave her four pills, ‘one for internal use and three for external use.’
As I watched the woman take the antidote, I asked, ”Can you tell me why you are not afraid of the poison in my needle? You should have collapsed within a minute after the needle was inserted?”
“Why not? We from the Land of Density have been taking poison since childhood and have strong resistance to all kinds of poisons. Your poison, however, made me use my full strength to suppress it using the secret methods of our clan.“
”If you really want to submit to me, take this.” I handed her a pill. Just in case, it’s better to have a bit of protection. Seeing that she is so afraid of death, threatening her with this is probably not a bad idea.
The woman took the pill and looked at it carefully: “Is this poison? It tastes a bit strange.” Of course it wasn’t poison, it was a pill, something from another world that I had made in my spare time.
“Take it quickly, or don’t blame me…” I grinned evilly. The young girl gritted her teeth and took the pill.
“You have to take the pill every four months in the future, don’t forget.”
“Yes, master.”