Chapter 56
The smooth surface coming from a bird's feather gently caresses her face. The fluttering of her eyes lid seems to indicate that her consciousness has returned. Qin Lou found herself lying on top of a soft and huggable thing at it heaves up and down following a breathing pattern, while on her side she saw Susu Ling lying with her eyes closed. The black thing they are resting on is Lemy who is also still unconscious.
Qin Lou is trying to recall what had happened to them at that time when the fog suddenly rose up. But all she can recollect is her feeling sleepy all of a sudden and then passing out.
"Ugh… What happened?" a voice suddenly interrupted her train of thoughts.
She then noticed that Susu Ling is starting to blink her eyes. It seems that this girl really loves to talk as she would speak first before doing anything else.
"Susu, are you feeling okay? Do you feel any pain?" Qin Lou suddenly sat down and checked Susu Ling's situation with some worry in her eyes.
Then Qin Lou suddenly noticed that in their vicinity there are some stone houses in different sizes, this familiar place seems to be a small village. Then in front of her is a building in curious craftsmanship, and upon looking at it she realized that the building in front of her is the facility that Shin Jiao has built.
"Why are we in the small world of Lemy?" Qin Lou thought with confusion.
Then she looks at Lemy who is sleeping like a log while his whole body is sprawled on the ground and his big cushion-like belly heaves gently. It seems that Lemy had sent them inside his tiny world, but Qin Lou is still confused as to why and how? Then she looks at Susu Ling who is a still a little groggy which seems to be suffering from the aftereffect of some drugs or poison. She noticed that Shin Jiao is not with them which suddenly made her feel uncomfortable. Qin Lou immediately decided to wake the two up so that they can figure out what had happened.
After the two woke up, the trio entered the facility and freshen up. The three of them sat in a room with Lemy turning himself into his human form which is still a little boy, and then he explained to the two girls what happened and what he did.
"What! You mean Shin Jiao was left out there?" Susu Ling blurted out after hearing Lemy's explanation.
"I'm sorry, at that time it was already too late for me to realize that the fog was a Dream Haze, so I don't have time to save brother Shin Jiao. I wanted to save him but I too was affected by that fog. I know that you both are worried about brother Shin. But you two don't have to think too deeply on it, you know that his physique is robust so I know that he's going to be okay." Lemy said with an apologetic tone.
"Dream Haze is a very powerful anesthetic gas coming from a plant growing in swamps. But this Dream Haze that we encountered seems to be more potent and has traces spiritual Qi." Lemy continued.
"Yeah, I think what little Lemy did is right. We don't have to worry too much about this senior sister Qin. I also think that guy will be okay." Susu Ling said as she sat near Qin Lou while putting her arms on Qin Lou's shoulder trying to comfort her.
Although Susu Ling said that, but anxiety can nevertheless be seen in her face as she bit her lips. Qin Lou didn't react, she just looks out of the window thinking about something while in her eyes worry is evident.
Meanwhile, inside a dungeon…
After she freezes the hole where Shin Jiao crashed into, Ebeth thought that she had already won the fight. But then she discovered that there is no life form inside that hole. This discovery suddenly made her turn vigilant as she slowly backs away while checking her surroundings. All of a sudden she heard a loud thud and felt a familiar aura from behind her.
Although Shin Jiao did not emit any auras as a mortal, only when he starts to use a large amount of energy in his sphere will his aura spill out. This made Ebeth recognized him as a cultivator with a unique cultivation style.
When Ebeth turns her head, she saw that the head of the dragon-shaped plant was already decapitated by Shin Jiao. Seeing that her creation was killed, Ebeth became furious. Although she knows that she would soon revert back to her old form yet she didn't mind and moved as quickly as possible just to end the battle immediately.
Ebeth didn't want to waste any more time so she immediately sent multiple strikes at Shin Jiao over and over. Upon seeing the relentless blurring shadows of attacks from large snake woman, Shin Jiao immediately used his evading technique but he didn't just dodge as he also countered each of her strikes by using his sword. After some exchanges, Shin Jiao is still unharmed while a lot of Ebeth's scales were already removed or damaged.
While fighting Shin Jiao is actually feeling elated because he gained two skills by far, the first one is that the upgrade of the green gem in his dantian as it has absorbed enough anesthetic gas that its poison resistance was improved one level. The second is that he had gained an inkling of knowledge on elemental compression, although he is not yet clear how to use it still if he can just deduce how it works then Shin Jiao can now at least upgrade the intensity of his elemental spells.
After receiving a lot of damages from the exchange of blows, the eyes of Ebeth are now showing despair and panic, so she immediately decided to follow her innate instinct and would finally use venom. She knows that it would be her win once she bit Shin Jiao, though she would not be able to preserve him as her poison would surely erode his body, however her life is more precious.
Ebeth promptly opens her large jaws showing the glimmering flash of her two sharp fangs and directly darted towards Shin Jiao. Seeing the snake largemouth coming towards him, Shin Jiao couldn't help himself but feel shivers running down his spine. Although he is already used to seeing this scene it still causes him to feel uncomfortable. He could not imagine himself being chewed and swallowed by a truly huge mouth of a beast.
So he quickly moved sideways evading that quick strike. But then all of a sudden Ebeth also turns sideways and her head following Shin Jiao's movements.
"Oh, Crap!..." Shin Jiao blurted out as he knows that he just made a fatal mistake of underestimating the fierceness of Ebeth's innate sense.
Shin Jiao suddenly felt a pang of pain in his thigh and saw that Ebeth has already caught him. The razor-sharp fang of Ebeth slowly enters Shin Jiao's left thigh as it was caught on her mouth. Ebeth is already rejoicing for having caught Shin Jiao. Now that one of her fangs is inserted in his thigh, he would surely be dead in a couple of seconds.
But before she could dig deeper Shin Jiao pointed his gun on one of her eyes. When she saw him pointing the scary artifact towards her eye it made her suddenly feel stiff and scared. Although she wasn't able to penetrate that deep, still, she knows that her venom is already enough to kill him. So with reluctance, she immediately let go of his thigh and dashed towards his body wanting to slam him to the wall. With a quick reaction, Shin Jiao was able to release 2 shots which tore a hole on her eyelid and burst one of her eyes into a pulp, before he was slammed into a wall.
Arrgghhh!
GROWWLLL!!!
Ebeth cried in pain as blood gushes out from one of her blinded eyes. The pain she is feeling right now is too much for her to bear, it is the most painful experienced she had in her entire life. The pain in her eye was too severe that not fainting is already taking a large toll on her mental will. But she held on and quickly shot a hateful glare at Shin Jiao's location. She could not accept that her eye was blinded by a human ant.
But to her surprise she could not see Shin Jiao or even feel his aura, she could have sworn that she threw him in that direction and clearly saw him fall on the ground.
Then she never expected that Shin Jiao would suddenly appear on top of her head. A dreadful feeling overcame her mind but since her reflex is very fast, she was able to save her big head. Unluckily for her, Shin Jiao foresaw this and swiftly threw a small dark blue fire which started to spread burning a large area of her neck.
This blue fire is a test of what he had learned so far as he is fighting against Ebeth. Shin Jiao right now is treating this as a part of training in cultivation arts.
"You!... How can you be okay? Hiss…" Ebeth shouted in anger after seeing that Shin Jiao is not affected by her poison and her neck being scorched black by a dark blue flame.
She quickly uses an ice skill to freeze the flame which is slowly spreading and remove it on her body.
Although she was successful in removing it as it is just Shin Jiao's initial trial. But still, the wounds she received are already heavy and added to that she is now slowly reverting back to her true form. Without a choice, Ebeth decided to bet everything she had just to destroy the annoying human in front of her.
"Hiss... I will make you pay for this…"
When Ebeth completely reverted back into her half-snake form and fell on the ground. She stealthily threw a blue pill which suddenly comes out of her hand straight into the dragon-shaped plant.
While this is happening, Shin Jiao suddenly fell on the ground on one knee. The green venom on his leg is now spreading wildly inside his body. Not long after that, he immediately feels the burning suction from his dantian which leads the venom inside his body.
Shin Jiao immediately noticed the green gem circulating the flow of Qi and hungrily absorbed the deadly venom. Seeing this made Shin Jiao thankful to his opponent for giving him another chance to upgrade the green gem in his dantian.
Looking up, Shin Jiao suddenly noticed that Ebeth is looking at him with a sneer on her face. He knows that she is thinking about the poison he received and that it was enough to kill him. She just didn't know that she actually helped him a lot.
With a smirk on his face, Shin Jiao suddenly stood up and watched as the smug look on Ebeth's face changed drastically. The confident look was changed into confusion and then fear. Now Ebeth knows that if she didn't do anything to escape right now, she would surely die in this place. But she is a little reluctant as she just threw the blue pill of evolution to her creation. This pill would change the plant's structure turning it into a rampaging monster if she escaped.
A feeling of reluctance overcame her as the whole dungeon which she painstakingly created would soon be turned into ruins if her presence and connection with the plant are lost.
Ebeth's hatred filled eyes turn to Shin Jiao as she cannot forgive this human who is the instrument in ruining her home. Although a little hesitant yet she must do it or else she would die here.
"Goodbye! Human…" Ebeth said as she immediately crushed a crystal ball.
Shin Jiao saw that when Ebeth crushed the crystal ball she suddenly disappears from where she sat. Shin Jiao was surprised and wanted to rush over but then the ground began shaking.
"Damn it! I didn't expect her to have something that kind of a lifesaver."
He then noticed that the vines all over the place are alternating from red and green. While this is happening Shin Jiao suddenly noticed the half part of the plant near the root which is oozing in green goo suddenly moved. Then a huge mouth was formed from it inlaid with razor-sharp teeth. It's now slowly turning into a form of a Land Devouring worm.
As the plant continues to transform all the vines from the ground slowly retracts towards the transforming plant. This transformation is making the ground shake violently as debris begins to fall.
Looking at this Shin Jiao decided to do everything he could to stop the transformation or else everything would really be turned into ruins and him being buried underground. He suddenly remembers the ice skill of Ebeth, though he can't cast ice skills yet however he has his ways.
He immediately takes out multiple explosives from his ring.
"My only option is to freeze that thing and blow it to smithereens." Shin Jiao thought.
With that decision in mind, he quickly tosses dozens of ice bombs into the still-forming mouth of the plant. Then Shin Jiao also throw a firebomb into a door blocking the room which blasted it open. Seeing the opening he quickly ran with all his might. Shin Jiao already experienced the might of his ice bomb. Unless he wanted to be turned into a popsicle Shin Jiao ran with all his might.
But then in a corner, he noticed the guard leader hiding in fear. Shin Jiao eyes immediately shone and a smile bloomed on his face. He now has a way out.
After multiple twists and turns, Shin Jiao suddenly saw a small light not too far ahead. Seeing this made Shin Jiao happy, but then all of a sudden he noticed some people ahead slowly walking towards that light which seems to be the exit. He quickly put down the guard leader and walked towards the people ahead of them.
"Hey, why are you all still here?" Shin Jiao asked when he got near them.
"Oh, Senior! It's you!... We… we can't move that fast because a lot of us are still weak and lacks nourishment. When we were inside those cages they didn't feed us so most of us are really weak right now." An old man replied with a hint of anxiety in his eyes.
Shin Jiao noticed that these people are all the mortals that were imprisoned with the cultivators. He realized that the mortals are truly treated poorly; the cultivators may have already left this place a long time ago.
"Sigh… I don't want to say this but… You have to hurry or else…" Shin Jiao said but then he suddenly stopped.
BOOM!!! CRACK!!! CRACK!!!
Shin Jiao heard the explosion of the ice bombs, which is clearly coming near them.
Inside the room, the transforming plant beast is now completely frozen as its transformation was immediately stopped. But what Shin Jiao didn't expect to happen is the chain reaction which is going on inside the dungeon. The pet plant of Ebeth is actually already had its whole vines all over the swamp, which is the reason why it could make the fog surround the whole swamp area. From the size of the swamp alone which is a couple of hundreds of kilometers if Shin Jiao hadn't stop it from transforming it would really turn into a monstrous existence inside the Daemon forest.
"Damn it! Damn it!" Shin Jiao curses as now he is torn between his conscience and survival. He didn't know if he should save them of just let them freeze in this dungeon.