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Chapter 4: The Qi Xi’s Change
>>Part 3<<
Ma Lian felt the way Huang Zongru rammed here and there was rather amusing. She couldn’t help but laugh, “Shortie, weird people sure have weird methods! This big shield is actually pretty useful. Hurry, charge!”
Huang Zongru smiled, a little embarrassed. However, he also seemed a bit proud as he hoisted the shield and started slowly pushing it forward again.
At this moment, an outer qi shot out from Qi Ya’s dagger towards the wolf monster. The wolf monster easily dodged by jumping to the side. The qi xi missed and hit some dead leaves on the ground, scattering them. The wolf monster’s line of sight shifted towards the two in the air and it issued a low roar.
“Shortie walks so slowly!” Ma Lian watched for a few moments as Huang Zongru slowly stepped forward before losing her patience. Slashing the falchion, she pounced forward again. This time, the wolf monster seemed to have learned his lesson as he held his ground and waited till Ma Lian got close. Then, it suddenly pounced and met the thick falchion with its front claw where it had collected its monster qi. They stiffly collided and an explosive sound rang out. Ma Lian naturally wasn’t a fitting opponent and was sent forcefully flying away. As they clashed head on this time around, she was only able to stabilize herself with great difficulty after flying several meters away. In a split second, Ma Lian’s face had turned deathly pale.
“Ma Lian!” Qi Ya cried out.
The wolf monster immediately pounced at Ma Lian after it sent her flying. Ma Lian concentrated her energy and lifted her falchion, but Lai Yixin had already appeared in front of the wolf monster and pierced his spear straight at the wolf monster’s forehead.
The wolf monster naturally wouldn’t allow Lai Yixin to successfully strike. However, no matter how it twisted its head and swiped its claws, Lai Yixin’s spear continued to pierce in and out, straight at the center areas in both its eyes where its monster qi was concentrated. The wolf monster attempted to dodge several times to no avail. At the same time, Ye Weishan and Qi Ya’s outer qi attacks repeated struck it. It gave a roar and retreated a couple steps, stepping out of Lai Yixin’s attack range and dodging two qi arrows. Then it glanced at the two girls in the air again.
“It seemed like this type of monster could fly in the film,” Lai Yixin said. “Weishan and Qi Ya, just come down if you guys are in danger. I’ll protect you guys.”
This time, Huang Zongru approached again. The wolf monster’s gaze shifted but it remained rooted to the ground as it waited for Huang Zongru to charge over.
Huang Zongru’s brows slightly furrowed. Just as the shield was about to ram into the wolf monster, Huang Zongru suddenly turned. However, the wolf monster abruptly slashed forward with its claw and monster qi burst forth, sending Huang Zongru tumbling back along with his shield.
It seems Huang Zongru couldn’t collide with the wolf monster head on after all. If the opponent rammed over, he could borrow the opponent’s momentum to slip past at the last second. However, if he was charging over himself, because he couldn’t be sure when the wolf monster would change directions, he could only change directions first himself. At that time, the wolf monster was nurturing its strength and just happened to catch the gap in Huang Zongru’s defenses, that was why Huang Zongru was sent tumbling by the slash.
Before the wolf monster had the chance to pursue him though, Lai Yixin’s spear approached once again. This was the part that troubled the wolf monster the most. This thing’s direction was hard to ascertain and its strength was not weak either. Not to mention, it was always piercing towards its vital points. Although the wolf monster’s strength was much greater than Lai Yixin’s, it had no way to approach and could only continue to retreat.
Shortly afterwards, Ma Lian gritted her teeth and rushed up again. Lai Yixin noticed and continued to brandish his spear as he cooperated with her to attack the wolf monster from both sides. The wolf monster found it hard to deal with the attacks from two different directions and retreated another few steps. It seemed to sense that this group of people were really hard to defeat as it suddenly turned away and quickly left.
It’s fleeing? Everyone was stunned. This was their first time encountering a monster that would run off halfway into the battle. For a moment, they all stood there, dazed.
“Fuck, do we pursue?” Ma Lian blurted out as she leaned her falchion on her shoulder.
Qi Ya shook her head as she descended.
“Even if we catch up to it, victory isn’t certain. We can’t seem to injure it,” Ye Weishan said. “Let’s go back and ask Sect Leader for instructions.”
“Is this wolf monster the one in He Sect’s video?” Lai Yixin asked.
“It’s much smaller, so it probably isn’t?” Ma Lian replied.
“Um… um…” Huang Zongru mumbled, wanting to say something.
“What is it now?” Ma Lian glared.
Huang Zongru avoided Ma Lian’s gaze and took a deep breath. He calmed down before saying, “Monsters with enormous mass… can also make their bodies smaller. It’s also a phenomenon that appears when there’s not enough dao xi like the phenomenon when they swallow other monsters.”
“Really?” Ma Lian looked at everyone’s expressions and became convinced. Scratching her head, she gave a cough and said, “I don’t like reading that much.”
“Let’s go together to find the Sect Leader?” Ye Weishan asked.
“En,” Qi Ya nodded. “Our car is parked on the other side.”
Ye Weishan nodded as well. “Let’s meet up at Yonghe sect field. I’ll contact Sect Leader beforehand in the car.”
“Alright.” Qi Ya immediately turned around and floated in the other direction.
“Wait for me ah! Qi Ya!” Ma Lian laughed ‘haha’ and soared off. She dashed in front of Qi Ya and ran into the forest.
Ye Weishan turned back to look at Chen Luonian who was walking out of the forest and said, “Luonian, we’ll send you back to Banqiao before heading to Yonghe.”
They had to discuss things with their sect, so it was naturally inconvenient for him to tag along. Chen Luonian immediately nodded and said, “Thanks.”
“Why isn’t Luonian going? If we do it like this, we’d have to take a trip back to Banqiao first.” Lai Yixin turned around to look at Chen Luonian as he continued, “You definitely noticed something different from us, right? You were probably able to see things more clearly than us.”
It’s not that Ye Weishan didn’t understand this logic but that she had always treated Chen Luonian like a guest so she couldn’t bring herself to casually order him about. At this time, she slightly hesitated and paused for a few seconds before she said, “If Luonian is willing to go, then…”
“Weishan is alienating him too much. Why are you treating Luonian as an outsider?” Lai Yixin interrupted with a smile. “Let’s go together. Hurry, otherwise we’ll end up making Qi Ya and the others wait for us.”
Ye Weishan glanced at Chen Luonian. Upon seeing that he didn’t really have any expression on and seemed ok with it, Ye Weishan felt that she had been too meddlesome. She gave a small bitter smile and shook her head. She pulled out the satellite positioning device and started it. Then she said, “Follow me, the car is this way,” and led them out of the area.
◇◇◇◇
The four of them got on the car. As Lai Yixin drove down the mountain, his movements were even more violent than when he was heading up. As Chen Luonian was jostled continuously in the back seat, he couldn’t help but ask, “Aren’t you afraid of falling off the mountain driving this way?”
“You got that right.” Huang Zongru who was also tightly grabbing the body of the car gave a wry smile. “He’s not afraid of falling off the mountain.”
Ye Weishan turned around with a slight smile and said, “If something really happens. I’ll stabilize the car a little.”
Chen Luonian started a little. It was ridiculous yet funny. What Huang Zongru said wasn’t wrong either, since even if they did fall down the mountain, they’d probably still be fine.
“We won’t ah!” Lai Yixin said with a smile, “I’m already driving really carefully.”
Carefully? It’s sure hard to tell ah. Chen Luonian sighed and stopped speaking.
“Luonian, do you have any insights regarding that monster?” Ye Weishan turned around to ask. “How is it compared to regular small monsters?”
“Nothing special,” Chen Luonian shook his head as he replied. “It’s just that its monster qi is significantly stronger.”
Ye Weishan gave an ‘en’ and turned back around. Sitting up straight, she started thinking over the events.
“However, there is one thing that was pretty strange,” Chen Luonian suddenly said. “The inner qi Yixin concentrates in his spear tip seems a bit different from that of the others? That wolf also seemed to be particularly wary of Yixin’s spear.”
Ye Weishan slightly started. As she recalled the situation earlier, she nodded. “That’s right. The wolf monster wasn’t afraid of Ma Lian’s blade, yet it kept avoiding Yixin’s spear… Yixin, what did you do? Stop snickering, hurry and tell us!” Ye Weishan saw a strangely embarrassed smile on Lai Yixin’s face and couldn’t help but rapidly press him for answers.
“Haha…” Lai Yixin laughed as he said, “Don’t get angry after finding out.”
“Hurry and tell us,” Ye Weishan said with her brows creased.
“I tried… adjusting the inner qi a little,” Lai Yixin said.
“What?” Ye Weishan and Huang Zongru cried out at the same time. Following that, Ye Weishan said, “Didn’t the Sect Leader tell us before that we can’t do that?”
“That’s right. But I kept thinking about it and I feel like it would probably help,” said Lai Yixin. “Last time, you guys almost got hurt. I would rather be punished than to make the same mistake again.”
Ye Weishan was stunned for a moment. Then she recalled the incident from three months ago and her mood also sank. She couldn’t help but glance at Chen Luonian as she said quietly, “It was my fault that time. I forgot to fly up.”
“That’s not it,” Lai Yixin said as he shook his head. “What if the monster also knows how to fly? Wouldn’t you guys be done for? I still have to be capable of holding it off.”
Ye Weishan said anxiously, “But you still can’t use this method… what if…”
“It’s fine, it’s fine,” Lai Yixin said with a smile.
Huang Zongru saw that Chen Luonian was completely confused so he drew closer and explained, “The Sect Leader told us that inner qi and outer qi were also a type of monster qi. Thus, we can only use it naturally and take advantage of it to support us rather than intentionally adjusting its nature. Otherwise, our bodies might also transform into that of monsters.”
Would they transform into monsters? Chen Luonian furrowed his brows tightly and couldn’t help but say, “That’s probably impossible.”
Huang Zongru asked, a bit surprised, “How so?” Even Ye Weishan turned around to look towards Chen Luonian.
“What’s the difference between monster and humans?” Chen Luonian asked.
Huang Zongru naturally couldn’t respond to a sudden question like this. Ye Weishan thought for a moment, before saying, “Rationality, intellect? That’s not right. It’s said that there’s quite a lot of monsters that are even more intelligent than humans. Could it be monster essence? Luonian, what do you think?”
This was actually a question Huai Zhen had once asked Chen Luonian. He didn’t know the correct answer either. However, he had once considered this question for a period of time due to his own circumstances. Now, he said, “This is what I think… There are low level monsters that have no intelligence and there’s also high level monster that do possess intelligence. In reality, they’re the same as normal living creatures. The only difference is probably that they have a special constitution and knows how to use monster qi… Since qi xi is also just a type of monster qi…”
“What you mean is that we, who have gone through Bian Ti and can attract qi, are already monsters?” Huang Zongru said, shocked.
“Is there anything bad about monsters?” Chen Luonian asked. “As long as they aren’t hostile towards humans, they’re just another lifeform.”
“It indeed sounds like something your sect would say,” Ye Weishan said with a slight smile. “A couple days ago, Sect Leader told me that of the martial dao school factions in the legends, your sect was most intimate with the monsters.”
Really? Chen Luonian didn’t know. After all, this sect was something Huai Zhen had randomly cooked up…
“Is this related to not turning into monsters?” Lai Yixin had already driven out of the mountain area and was rushing into the urban district street.
“What I mean is that there’s nothing much to turn into,” Chen Luonian said. “If we look at it based on my definition, everyone’s already monsters. If you say you’ll lose your intellect, that still has nothing to do with whether you’re a monster or not.”
“Nicely put! Since I’m already a monster, there’s no need to worry about turning into one. Hahaha…” Lai Yixin laughed.
“You’re still laughing!?” Ye Weishan bit her lips as she said, “I don’t know how Sect Leader will punish you.”
“It’s fine,” Lai Yixin said with a smile. “Actually, I feel like it’s really useful.”
“Yixin, what was going on?” Huang Zongru asked curiously.
“Do you want to know?” Lai Yixin’s eyes lit up as he said, “I also really wanted to tell you guys as well. After deliberating in detail, I found a few places where the qi xi changed, but I’m still not very clear…”
“Yixin, enough!” Ye Weishan stopped Lai Yixin, then said, “Don’t make it so that Zongru also starts messing around.”
“But it’s really useful ah,” Lai Yixin said with a smile.
“Your personality!” Ye Weishan sighed, then said, “Let’s ask Sect Leader before we discuss it more.”
“Alright, alright——” Lai Yixin stopped elaborating and concentrated on driving the car. It rushed from Tucheng towards the direction of Yonghe.
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Credits: Translated by Chiyomira, Proofread by Sigil
[Chiyomira’s Corner]
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