Chapter 48
A young man is standing tall with his robe fluttering in the air and his impeccable aura of a warrior shows his resolve while holding a weird metallic object in his hand. His posture shows that he is an expert in using the weapon he is wielding with extreme precision. In front of him is an angered man in red skin holding two short spears, but the other spear in his hand is already broken in two with the other half embedded in the body of a small boy lying on the ground that seems to have already fainted.
This is Shin Jiao facing off against Mok Dong atop the volcanic mountain.
When Shin Jiao found where the villagers are he ran as fast as he could to catch up to them, but along the way, he discovered some anomalies in his body. Because of the sudden great leap of his body's level of strength, his control became lacking. In normal movements he can fully control his body, but when it comes to instantaneous movements. He can only control up to 20% of his body, which means that walking or normal movement is okay but running and rapid movement is a problem. So he needs to adapt to his current body power first and adjust his mental control so that he could freely move.
After some time he is able to control up to 60% and that's the time that he reached the top of the mountain. To his surprise it's a volcano, then he saw Lemy but he is already skewered by the poisonous short spear that Mok Dong is holding. Without second thought Shin Jiao pull out the gun from his ring and shot the spear. Because of his panic, he wasn't able to control the energy he added in the bullet plus the core, making it shatters the spear.
"Shin Jiao!"
Hearing the two lovely voice Shin Jiao felt elated as a smile bloomed on his face seeing his two friends unharmed. When his eyes caught once more the sight of Lemy on the ground anger suddenly erupted within him. And without a word he shot Mok Dong in the heart who has still had a confused expression on his face, making the later tumble on the ground and stopped moving.
"Are you both okay?" Shin Jiao asked with concern as he walks to the two girls.
"Were okay… But the little boy, we need to help him." Qin Lou worriedly said.
Shin Jiao walked toward Lemy who is still breathing but the skin in his stomach is already slowly turning green. Shin Jiao shook his head with a disheartened look. He knows how toxic the poison is as he already had the first-hand experience with it. If he only has the time then he can make an antidote for the poison using the green gem in his dantian. But now it's too late, so he just held the boy in his arms trying to comfort him.
When Lemy suddenly feels some warmth enveloping his body he slowly opened his eyes and saw that someone is gently lifting him up. Although his vision is a little blurry due to the poison slowly spreading, he is still able to smile when he saw Shin Jiao's blurry face.
"Shin… Shin… Jiao… a… alive… I... ha… happy." Lemy said as he forces himself to say those words as he already felt his spiritual control in his body almost gone.
"Yeah… I'm here. Thank you for saving my friends… Friend." Shin Jiao said with a sad smile.
Lemy slowly closed his eyes with the smile still plastered on his face. Shin Jiao wanted to put the boy down when he felt that something is wrong with his hand. A warm but painful feeling is gushing through it, and then he realized his hand is touching Lemy's blood.
"This… this is purification. I can purify his blood, but how is this happening?" Shin Jiao said in confusion.
Then he looks inside his dantian and saw the greedy orb hungrily sucks the poison from Lemy's blood through his hand. Then Shin Jiao now have an idea on how to help Lemy survive this ordeal. But before he could put that plan into fruition he heard Susu Ling shout.
"Shin Jiao! He's still alive!"
Shin Jiao quickly opened his eyes and saw Mok Dong standing up from the ground while staggering. He felt a little confused at how could this person be alive after taking a hit to his heart. But no matter what he is still going to kill him as a revenge for the boy. A glint of killing intent appears in Shin Jiao's eyes as he looks at the figure of Mok Dong. Then Shin Jiao decided to quickly pull out the broken spear from Lemy's body and immediately crushes a rapid hemostatic pill on the wound which rapidly closes themselves. Although the poison is still in Lemy's system with Shin Jiao's experience with the poison he calculates that he still has time to finish Mok Dong and then purify Lemy's blood.
Shin Jiao walks towards Qin Lou and gave her the boy. As they are helpless in this battle he wanted them to look after the boy first.
"You and Susu go and hide somewhere. Take care of him for me. I'll finish this as quickly as I could." Shin Jiao said to Qin Lou who just nodded in response.
Then he turns around and looks at Mok Dong who's wound is already heald and is now standing calmly. A smug look can be seen in his face as if he didn't see Shin Jiao as a threat to him.
"Haha! It seems that I underestimated you boy!" Mok Dong shouted in Shin Jiao's mind.
"Who would have thought that you're a mortal with the power of a cultivator. And that curious artifact in your hand is really powerful. Haha! If I can get that, I'll be undefeatable. I'll take that as my prize for defeating a unique opponent! Come! Let's battle… mortal." Mok Dong taunted as he lifted the only remaining half-spear holding it with both hands.
Qin Lou and Susu Ling quickly hid on a faraway boulder near the entrance in the mouth of the volcano.
"Senior sister, do you think he can win this?" Susu Ling with a worried look in her eyes asked Qin Lou.
"I believe him. Let's just watch okay." Qin Lou replied calmly as she carefully cuddled the little body of Lemy in her arms.
The two women peek at the two warriors facing each other. Shin Jiao seeing that his opponent seems to be impervious to bullet need not waste any more bullets as he hid his gun in his ring and pull out the dark wakizashi sword.
"Okay let's dance then." Shin Jiao muttered under his breath.
"Gasp! Spatial ring! He... he has a spatial ring?" Susu Ling gasped in disbelief.
She didn't expect that Shin Jiao has a spatial tool. Although she is carrying a spatial bag still spatial rings are different as they are more secure and have larger space. In their merchant clan, only those at the top has spatial rings like her father and 2 uncles. And every time their leadership would change the spatial ring will be passed down to the next leaders, which signifies how rare this spatial tool is.
Mok Dong seeing that his opponent change his weapon sneered. He didn't know how powerful the youth in front of him, but he knows that his strength, which is now in the first stage of the infant soul realm after he retracts his energy connection to the volcano, is nothing to laugh at.
The two faces each other as they move into their own fighting stance. Shin Jiao's stance is preparation for a quick draw slash while Mok Dong just stood there holding the two spears in his hand.
Then Mok Dong suddenly moved, dashing towards Shin Jiao wanting to thrust his spear, but before he could take two steps the two spears he is holding is already in half. He didn't even see Shin Jiao moved, all he saw was a silver flash and that's it, his weapons became useless.
"How!... Grrrrahh!" Mok Dong felt confused but shouted and still charged towards Shin Jiao as he quickly draws another two spears from his back.
Shin Jiao shifted his stance sideways, he didn't want to end the battle right away as he discovers something. So he wanted to test his control over his attacks more. He noticed that on his first strike he missed his mark at around 5 inches almost cutting Mok Dong's fingers, which is far off from his target as his goal was to cut 6 inches above Mok Dong's thumbs while he is holding the spears.
Then with another quick draw slash, a silver glint appears and this time, Shin Jiao cut the rest of the short spears from Mok Dong's back. This time his control was perfect and he was able to cut them precisely, that it looks like there are no more spears on Mok Dong's back.
"Hmm… now I'm around 70% able to control this kind of speed and strength." Shin Jiao said to himself.
But then suddenly he remembers that Lemy is in an urgent situation and that he needs to purify his blood. Shin Jiao felt a little guilty as sometimes he could not control himself especially when he discovers something his mind would immediately become single-minded and forget some things.
Upon remembering his purpose, this time he decided to finish Mok Dong once and for all. So he once more moved into his stance, which when Mok Dong saw this he suddenly felt a little afraid. With those three attacks, he is able to gauge that he is not Shin Jiao's opponent when it comes to speed and strength. So he decided to use his cultivation ability and technique instead of brute force as it is clear that he won't be a match for Shin Jiao that way.
"Qi field! Flame spear!" shouted Mok Dong in his mind as he summoned two magic spells.
A glowing sphere surrounding his body suddenly flickered, this is the Qi field of an infant soul realm and this would protect his body. Then the two short spears he is holding began to glow as fire Qi envelops the spears.
"Let's see how you fare with this… mortal!" Mok Dong shouted in Shin Jao's mind which made Shin Jiao a little annoyed.
Shin Jiao promised himself that when he learned some cultivation skills and technique he would learn this spiritual transmission as it is one of the best ways to annoy an opponent to death.
"Sister Qin Lou, he… he is able to use cultivation technique in this place!" Susu Ling exclaimed looking at Qin Lou.
Qin Lou squint her eyes inside the mask as she observed in silence. She was already amazed and gained a deeper understanding of the skill that Shin Jiao had taught her, plus the enlightenment she had using the eye cover in her mask. She felt really happy to have learned these things. Now she is curious how does this Mok Dong person able to use the chaotic spiritual Qi in this place.
"Grraaahhh!" Mok Dong shouted as he once again hurled himself to attack Shin Jiao who just stood in the place unmoving.
But before Mok Dong could hit him, Shin Jiao once again shifted with ease which made Mok Dong missed the thrust from his spear. Mok Dong didn't give up and followed it up with a slash to the side using the other spear in his hand. With these two attacks, Mok Dong was confident he would be able to hit Shin Jiao. But to his surprise, Shin Jiao effortlessly was able to block the flaming spear and it seems that the short sword he is holding is unaffected by the flame.
"Impossible!" Mok Dong shouted in his mind as an unbelieving expression is clearly plastered on his face.
But he didn't stop attacking, he then quickly twisted his body to do multiple cross slashes towards Shin Jiao's position. Caught a little off guard by Mok Dong's counter, Shin Jiao was pushed back as he defended his body from the two burning spears onslaught.
By the time Mok Dong ended his technique Shin Jiao has already disappeared from the place he was pushed back by Mok Dong. And before Mok Dong could react, a flash of sword slash suddenly appears before his eyes directly towards his head. He wanted to evade but the sword already reached him, luckily his Qi field was activated deflecting Shin Jiao's attack.
Seeing this Shin Jiao actually has already anticipated this result as he also saw the Qi surrounding Mok Dong's body. But still he needs to end this as quickly as possible now, so he immediately changed stance and did a downward slash this time with all his strength.
BOOM!
The sharp black metal short sword versus the Qi field, as these two collides sparks of energy flew everywhere and a cloud of dust rose in the area surrounding the two. With his monstrous strength, rivaling that of a nascent realm cultivator, Shin Jiao was able to put forth everything into the short wakizashi sword. Because it is made of the black stone material which is the strongest material Shin Jiao have seen so far, it was able to handle that monstrous strength and impact. And because of this the Qi field protecting Mok Dong immediately crumble and shatter like glass throwing the later back with a deep gash from his face towards his stomach. Even his two hands were cut off along with his two spears.
"Grrryaaahhh" Mok Dog bloodcurdling shout can be heard as he flew.
The direction where Mok Dong's body is heading is towards the mouth of the volcano which would send him directly to his death. No matter how his body could regenerate the fire in the volcano would disintegrate his body into nothing. With that thought, Shin Jiao just watch Mok Dong without expression in his face as he falls to his death.
Seeing that Mok Dong is already inside the mouth of the volcano, Shin Jiao heave a sigh of relief and then turns his direction towards the hiding place of Qin Lou and Susu Ling and immediately rushed over.
"Are you okay, Shin?" Qin Lou asked immediately with a look of worry.
Although she knows that he is fine and was stronger than his opponent, she just can't help herself to worry.
"I'm fine… Give me the child; I need to cure the poison in his body." Shin Jiao replied as he carefully took Lemy away from Qin Lou.
Then he made a small incision in Lemy's stomach where the poison is clearly abundant and touches the blood with his finger. Shin Jiao immediately feel the hungry sucking force in his dantian as the orb sucks the poison from Lemy's blood purifying them. Not long later, he was able to absorb all the poison, but still, they left substantial damage in Lemy's body.
But Shin Jiao noticed that the rapid hemostatic pill's effect is still in Lemy's body as they slowly repair the damaged blood vessels and organs.
This made Shin Jiao relax a bit as he knows that Lemy's life is not in danger anymore. But before he could smile, the ground began to shake.
"This... is the volcano going to erupt?" Shin Jiao thought.