Chapter 78: All Talk! Next Second I’ll Really Hit You!

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“Ga-ga~”

“Gu-ga-ne~”

In the distance, a trembling, ethereal yet hoarse and unpleasant voice echoed through the Stone Forest, the sound traveling wave after wave from far to near.

For a moment the Pincer Scorpion demon beasts densely packed throughout the Stone Forest once again stalled briefly.

This time, however, what they suffered was not suppression; it was more as if they had heard some incomprehensible, bizarre tune.

It was precisely this series of strange tunes that made Meng Yu’s brows twitch wildly.

Her fingers jerked, and the lightning talisman that should have struck Yun Li accidentally veered off course, slashing instead into the Pincer Scorpion demon beasts beside her.

This strike set the previously dazed and motionless Pincer Scorpions moving again, their assault becoming even more ferocious.

Yet strangely, the Pincer Scorpions’ attacks were not all aimed at Yun Li and the others.

For some unknown reason, they seemed to have gone mad and began tearing at one another’s bodies.

The pressure on Yun Li and the other two instantly lessened.

Now only a small portion of the Pincer Scorpions still regarded them with hostility and continued to pounce and bite relentlessly, yet compared to the earlier situation of dozens attacking at once, it was now easy to handle.

“What’s going on? Why have the Pincer Scorpions suddenly started slaughtering each other?” Meng Yu was full of doubt and instinctively cried out.

She attempted to cast a spell to drive them again, but when she linked to these demon beasts’ consciousnesses she could only feel their agitation.

They seemed to be trying to dispel that agitation by attacking one another.

Why the agitation? Because of that sound just now?

Qi Yan closed her eyes, her lips moving as if silently reciting something.

When she opened them again, her gaze remained clear.

“It’s a Howler Bird. It can amplify a living being’s emotions.

You should have been guiding the Pincer Scorpions to strengthen their desire to attack, and the Howler Bird further magnified that desire, so now they only know to attack whatever living thing is beside them.”

“So don’t try to drive those demon beasts anymore. It’s meaningless.”

She turned her head toward the girl beside her, just about to say something more, when she heard Meng Yu let out a cold laugh.

“Since when is it your turn to give orders? You say it’s meaningless and that makes it meaningless?”

“We’ve been in the secret realm for so long and I’ve been the one doing everything. Besides flapping your lips, what have you actually done?”

Qi Yan frowned and directly raised her hand to slap the girl.

The sound was crisp.

Meng Yu’s expression changed and she instantly flew into a rage, her arm already raised high to strike back, but Qi Yan seized her wrist in one grip.

She struggled for a moment, yet the strength in her hand could not match Qi Yan, who was a sword cultivator.

“Qi Yan, what the hell do you mean?!” Meng Yu shouted angrily.

“Idiot. Silently recite the Calming Heart Mantra. You suffered backlash just now when you linked to the demon beasts while casting,” Qi Yan said in a cold voice.

Meng Yu froze, forcibly swallowed her anger, tightly furrowed her brows, and her chest heaved violently.

She gave a cold snort, closed her eyes, and silently recited for a while; her expression grew somewhat more normal.

“Alright, let go of my hand,” she said unhappily.

“Can you still control those demon beasts?” Qi Yan released her and immediately asked.

“I’m afraid not. The backlash came too fast. Why did you hit me?” Meng Yu snorted.

She was still minding the slap she had just taken.

“I wanted to see whether you’d be slapped awake directly,” Qi Yan answered.

“You—” Meng Yu was so angry she could not speak, when she suddenly felt an extremely powerful fluctuation of spiritual power rushing toward her.

The two of them looked up at the same time.

In the distance where the sound had come from earlier, a pillar of light that shot straight toward the heavens suddenly burst forth and smashed directly toward their side.

“Dodge!” Qi Yan said.

She decisively grabbed Meng Yu, flashed off the stone pillar, and flew to the other side.

That pillar-like sword light fell and boomed into the Pincer Scorpion demon beasts, instantly splitting the already battered creatures in two.

Scattered remnants of limbs dropped onto the ground.

The two had barely steadied themselves when they saw, not far away, a stunningly beautiful woman with a cold, clear face.

Her left hand dangled a strange bird; her right held a long sword that emitted a luminous blue luster as she slowly flew toward them.

As the woman drew nearer and nearer, Qi Yan’s eyes suddenly widened and she grabbed Meng Yu, intending to leave at once.

Yet the moment they made a move, the woman raised her hand and slashed out several more sword glows.

Sword qi flowed like a river, its speed astonishingly fast, and it struck a stone pillar directly in front of the two of them.

Several deep furrows appeared at once, then with a boom the pillar collapsed and blocked their path.

Qi Yan dared not act rashly.

She was afraid that if this woman grew unhappy and swung the sword in her hand again, the sword qi would no longer be aimed at a stone pillar.

Without external aid, the two of them at Golden Core simply could not contend with a Nascent Soul.

Although challenging across realms was something only geniuses could accomplish, and although they themselves counted as geniuses, was the woman opposite them not one as well?

“Senior Sister! Senior Sister, we’re over here!”

Yun Li was unusually excited.

The remaining demon beasts in front of her were stunned by that sword strike; she and Chu Yao seized the chance to finish them off and could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

She now looked just as ragged as Shen Zhi and Chu Yao.

Once she clearly saw her own senior sister walking toward them, she could not help raising a hand and waving at her.

Su Zhan landed, looked at the bloodstains on Yun Li, and slightly furrowed her brows.

She asked softly, “Are you injured?”

Yun Li shook her head.

“No. The two senior sisters protected me very well. I only look dirty.”

Su Zhan looked the girl up and down and nodded.

Before she left she had given all the pills on her person to Yun Li and the other two; so long as it was not a fatal external wound, there should be no major problem.

“Senior Sister Su, you’re finally back! You have to stand up for Junior Sister Yun!” Chu Yao crowded over and called out.

“Stand up for her?” Su Zhan raised a brow.

“Senior Sister, look… those two over there are from Zuo Lan Sect.

They went too far.

Just now, while you were gone, they said they were going to cripple Junior Sister Yun and use her as a hostage to threaten you!”

Chu Yao’s tone was indignant as she launched into her complaint at high speed, focusing on how they had been bullied just now and how they now had to get even.

It had to be said that this feeling of relying on someone else’s power to bully others was extremely satisfying.

No wonder Meng Yu always swaggered so much whenever she had a few Golden Core demon beasts backing her.

But now the offense and defense had switched; Chu Yao could also borrow the prestige of Nascent Soul Su Zhan for a turn.

“I’m sorry, Senior Sister Su. I held us back just now and caused the three of us to be surrounded, which in turn made Junior Sister Yun suffer,” Shen Zhi pressed her lips together and apologized in a small voice.

She was clearly the one among them with the highest cultivation besides Su Zhan, yet she still had to be protected by her junior sisters.

She felt very uncomfortable about it.

Su Zhan gave no response.

She merely fell silent and let her gaze settle on Qi Yan and Meng Yu in the distance.

The luminous blue flowing light pulsing along the sword in her hand grew several degrees more intense.

“Prepare defense talismans and swift-travel talismans,” Qi Yan said in a deep voice to Meng Yu.

The astonishing killing intent contained in that single sword strike was enough to make one’s heart palpitate and one’s courage fail.

“You don’t need to tell me. I already know,” Meng Yu swallowed.

She liked to trash-talk, but that did not mean she was stupid.

A Nascent Soul cultivator was not someone she could afford to provoke no matter what.

Although she had been so arrogant earlier, the sword Su Zhan had just slashed already explained everything.

She and Qi Yan’s original plan had been to use the swarm of demon beasts to keep Su Zhan too busy to split her attention, then control that Yun Li.

That way, even if Su Zhan quickly cleared out the swarm, with Yun Li as a threat they would have something to rely on and nothing to fear.

But now… the demon beasts could not be driven at all, and they had not even laid a finger on Yun Li and the others…

This was completely different from their plan.

Damn it, how could Su Zhan be so coincidentally holding a Howler Bird in her hand?

No… that wasn’t right.

It was Chu Yao and the others who had told Su Zhan…

They had failed to account for that point!

Chu Yao… damn it, if only they had known back then and…

Before Meng Yu could finish regretting, she heard Qi Yan’s voice.

“It’s coming! Release them now!”

The next instant, a sky-rending sword qi shot upward as if tearing the heavens in two.

Flowing light overflowed and descended from the sky, slashing toward them.