Chapter 30: First Battle in the Secret Realm
Xiao Hong felt like she had been tossed into a particularly violent washing machine - sometimes she felt like she was standing on her head and a split second later, she felt like she was convinced she'd transformed into a human mattress.
Gravity-chan went yandere on her, dumping several mountains on her head one second; then becoming moe the next second, uplifting her.
And right after, she felt she had been stretched into a noodle, then a pancake - even playdough would be exasperated at this rate of squashing and stretching, much less Xiao Hong!
Her Zhenqi circulated speedily trying to help her adapt, but wasn’t quick enough, leaving her worse for wear, until she decided to force her Zhenqi back into her Dantian.
***
Splat!
With a loud noise, she was slammed face-first into the muddy ground.
“Dammit! How dare you slam me into mud?!” Xiao Hong cursed the Demon Beast Haven Realm vehemently. She would be spitting on the ground if she didn’t have awesome self-control! “Don’t you know you should treat a Jade Beauty with great care?!”
She cursed as she got up.
Woom!
A small shock wave was generated from her, blasting away all the mud that had gotten on her.
Still cursing under her breath, she spread out her Divine Sense trying to take stock of her situation. Suddenly, she stopped cursing as though choked. She ‘saw’ a small hill of very, very smelly ‘mud’ not more than 10 metres away from her!
Swiftly, she changed the tone and thanked the Realm instead!
If she really fell into a pile of shit, she would really go off herself!
She then extended her Divine Sense further, trying to figure out where she was when she froze. Under the probing of her Divine Sense, she saw numerous ‘mud hills’ in the vicinity and just a few hundred metres away, on one of the taller-than-skyscraper trees, she saw a nearly 5-metre tall, white-furred Gorilla!
On the back of the Gorilla, its vertebrae stuck out through its skin like bone spurs. The ‘bone spurs’ had a sharp glint to them as though they were forged from steel rather than natural bone.
This was a Steel-backed Great Ape. Not only were they powerful individually, but they also lived in large communities - killing one meant earning the ire of the entire community! If she could kill it without alerting the Steel-backed Great Apes, it would still be fine, but the Heaven-damned random teleportation had tossed her smack in the middle of the Steel-backed Great Apes’ territory!
And this Steel-backed Great Ape was staring straight at her.
Steel-backed Great Ape: “...”
Xiao Hong: “...”
One Ape and one Jade Beauty stared at each other.
Xiao Hong: “... Brother Ape, I’m just pass-”
ROAR!!
Xiao Hong nearly jumped out of her skin, “Fuck!
“Can’t we talk like civilised people?! Do you have to fucking roar for your mates? Can’t we go one on one?! I’m just a harmless Jade Beauty who only knows how to act cute!” she cursed. “Where is your pride as a powerful Demon Beast?!”
Multiple distant roars responded to the Steel-backed Great Ape!
“Fucking-!” She vomited expletives so fluently that even the most foul-mouthed sailor would acknowledge his loss!
Even as she cursed, she did not hesitate for a second and directly activated her Earth Burrow and sunk into the ground as fast as possible! At the same time, her hatred for this Demon Beast Haven Realm reached its peak!
At first, she pitied the Secret Realm, because there was a very good chance it would be destroyed, with Gu Ran coming along. Now, though? She looked forward to it with all her heart! ‘Die! Collapse! Disintegrate! Shatter!’ she bitterly spat out curse after curse as she burrowed deep into the ground and fled with her tail between her legs.
‘Though, preferably collapse after I’ve left.’ she added after some thought. Then, she continued to curse fluently while escaping.
It was only after nearly an hour of continuously using Earth Burrow and exhausting nearly half of her Zhenqi that she dared to probe the surface with her Divine Sense. In fact, it was already amazing for normal disciples to use it for ten minutes without damaging their meridians. After using it for an entire hour, her minor meridians that corresponded to the metaphysical attribute of Earth had become sore, making her unable to use Earth Burrow for the next few hours. She had no choice; the Steel-backed Great Apes had a massive territory. She also did not want to be anywhere near the sights of one, since she was not a match for them.
A lush plain filtered through her Divine Sense.
She heaved a sigh of relief finding no one in a slightly more than three hundred metre radius. She popped out, breathing heavily. The intensive usage of her Zhenqi took quite the toll on her. Quickly stuffing several pills into her mouth, she warily looked around with her eyes.
“Fuck!” She immediately cursed upon noticing four disciples of the Mystic Sky Sect more than 500 metres in distance! Moreover, all of them were at 4th or 5th Disasters, plus there was another guy at the 6th Disaster!
What was worse was that they had noticed her long before she had them - by the time she had noticed them, they were already rushing over! The next moment, the four disciples had completely surrounded her!
She could not even use her escape technique since it was on cooldown, and would take several hours before she could use it again without damaging her meridians.
So, Xiao Hong had no chance of escaping and could only fight. This was the cost of inexperience. Had she not overused the Earth Burrow, she would have been able to escape without a problem!
“Haha~, look at this Senior Brother Ning. It’s that little beauty that Senior Brother Yuan Feng had his eye on!” A disciple of the Mystic Sky Sect leered at Xiao Hong, his gaze fixating on her chest without even being discreet about it.
The 6th Disaster disciple surnamed Ning also looked at her, his gaze roaming all over her body. And the other disciples were not much better either - they were already thinking about every position they’d try out!
They weren’t worried at all - it was a mere initial-stage Divine Sea cultivator. Moreover, she was an Alchemist who had no experience - it was obvious from how she didn’t look around properly from under the ground. If it were them, they would stay underground and carefully check everything in the radius of a mile before popping out.
Xiao Hong’s nose wrinkled in disgust as she felt those gazes undressing her layer by layer. If it weren’t for her Cultivation Base, she felt she might have thrown up.
The disciple surnamed Ning activated his Cultivation Base and forced his Spiritual Aura on her, causing Xiao Hong’s knees to buckle under the suffocating pressure. A lecherous smirk stretched his mouth, “Say, beautiful, accompany each of us for a few days and we’ll consider letting you go?
“Since there are four of us… How about eight weeks? 2 for each of us?”
“Hahahaha, Senior Brother, a strong man like you will break this girl in two days, let alone 2 weeks!”
“You idiot, Senior Brother will let her heal before he gives her to us!”
“Ah! I see, I see!”
The face of the disciple surnamed Ning lifted as he looked at the beauty’s body trembling in fear, drawing short, raspy breaths. The abject terror in her eyes intensified as he strolled closer to her, while she tried to clumsily crawl away. A rush of heat spread from his loins as he watched her tear up, “N-No please…”
Just as he brought out a binding treasure while imagining all sorts of things he’d do to her, he saw her expression shift from fear to a sharp Killing Intent! The 6th Disaster Disciple immediately felt a terrifying sense of danger wash over him out of nowhere! A flash of purple lightning shot out from her wide sleeves, directly assaulting him!
SHWING! BOOM!
The 6th Disaster cultivator barely had time to prop up his Zhenqi in a rudimentary curved barrier before the bolt of lightning slammed into his shield blowing him away!
Crack!
The Zhenqi shield cracked under the immense duress, but its curved form allowed it to offset the Leiying Sword’s path just enough so that it didn’t go through his heart and instead lopped off his left arm. This was the importance of battle experience Xiao Hong sorely lacked! If the disciple did not have experience he’d have died from that attack!
“Aaaargh!” The disciple surnamed Ning screamed in pain. While the other Disaster Realm disciples stared at her, too shocked to make a move. They could not imagine this weak little prey was actually so strong! Their inaction gave Xiao Hong enough time to make 18 very strange and complex-looking hand seals.
Spirit Transformation Art level 2!
Woom! Her aura exploded, soaring to three times the norm, cracking the ground around her!
In fact, the Spirit Transformation Art allows one to achieve any level of amplification between 2 to 8 after reaching Novice. The higher proficiency only decreases the pressure it has on one’s body.
If it were a few months back, her major meridians could not bear such a tremendous load. But, after having advanced to the 5-star Ancient Godling, the stress she could bear had increased vastly.
“Dammit, you nitwits! Why didn’t you attack her?!” The 6th Disaster had already collected his chopped-off arm, swallowed a few Poison Suppressant Pills and returned to battle by the time Xiao Hong had finished making hand seals; only to find his idiotic Sectmates staring at her like fools instead of attacking her!
Xiao Hong would not allow them time to gather their thoughts.
She immediately made even more hand signs while stepping through on the ground. In a burst of starlight, she disappeared from their vision, only to reappear a second later just above a 5th Disaster Disciple and leave a small ball of black flames right above him.
The 5th Disaster Disciple had just heaved a sigh of relief, thinking it was a weak fire-attribute spell, when a chill went down his spine causing him to immediately execute his Movement Art!
It was too late, however.
BOOOOOM!
The Dark Flame Serpent exploded with such a tremendous force that the 4th Disaster Disciples were forced back while the 6th Disaster Disciple was forced to close his eyes and depend on his Divine Sense!
Xiao Hong once again reappeared several feet away from one of the 4th Disaster Disciples and made a hand sign causing the Leiying Sword she’d retrieved to shoot towards him with a shrill sword cry!
This time, however, the disciple was ready and executed his movement art and dodged the Flying Sword before attacking with his own.
Screech! A flash of green sword qi sliced through the air towards Xiao Hong.
At the same time, a Mud Dragon flew out of the ground and attacked her from under, while another torrential barrage of fireballs assaulted her from another direction, completely cutting off her remaining paths of retreat and pincering her! The remaining two disciples had attacked - they would not allow her to cause even more damage to their team!
Xiao Hong knew it was too late to use Star Shifting Steps, so, she quickly weaved hand signs causing her Zhenqi to rush through her already sore minor meridians causing her to clench her jaw in tremendous pain. Her meridians hadn’t healed yet, plus the stronger and more violent Zhenqi from the Spirit Transformation Art further exacerbated her condition. If it weren’t for her extraordinarily strong Physique, her meridians would’ve been crippled.
The Zhenqi quickly rushed out of her body and formed a small, but extremely dense Earth Shell around her.
BOOM! SLAM! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
The tremendous power of the attack from the two 4th Disaster and one 6th Disaster did not manage to break the hyper-condensed Earth.
However, inside the Earth Shell Xiao Hong felt the attenuated shock transfer to her body causing her to spit out a mouthful of blood! She felt as though she was being run over by a truck - crushing her bones and mashing her flesh. Her head felt like someone had clubbed her over the head.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
More attacks hit her Earth Shell.
“Phwag!” Blood spurted out of her mouth again, with multiple chunks of her flesh. She groaned. Her eyes teared up as she tried her best not to scream in agony as her muscles were torn apart and bones further broken.
Her Zhenqi circulated violently, trying to mend her injuries. The tiny points of starlight dimmed, releasing great amounts of energy further healing her wounds and bolstering her body.
If she didn’t have the Ancient God’s Physique Scripture, she would probably be left dead.
Wiping the blood and tears away, she bore another brief burst of pain and shot out of her Earth Shell using Earth Burrow. Condensing another Dark Flame Serpent which she sent towards a 4th Disaster Disciple, she closed her eyes and used the Spell: Great Flash.
An incredibly bright flash of light forced the remaining two disciples to close their eyes and use their Divine Sense instead!
Just as Disciple Ning was wondering why she did something so futile when they had Divine Sense, he ‘saw’ through his Divine Sense the remaining 4th Disaster Disciples both freeze in place! Then-
BOOOM!
Shwing!
They died.
“What?! How?!” The disciple surnamed Ning was utterly shocked! He turned to look at Xiao Hong who now looked like some ghostly spirit, bleeding from her eyes, nose, ears and mouth. Her eyes were completely bloodshot!
‘A… Divine Sense injury??’ Ning wondered, ‘Wait, did she use her Divine Sense to attack their Divine Sense?? Is she fucking mad?!’ It was common sense that attacking a stronger cultivator with Divine Sense was utter madness! It was dealing 10 damage to the enemy while dealing 100 damage to themselves! ‘Also to be able to attack at such a distance, she must have a Spiritual Technique!’
Then he saw her disappear once again in a burst of starlight. ‘Dammit! I’m the only one left!’ He honestly regretted ever attacking or even having thoughts about this maniacal woman. She fought like she would take them down no matter what; even if she lost her life she would take them down with her! It was utter insanity!
A Divine Sense injury was extraordinarily hard to heal. And leaving it damaged would result in a stagnated in cultivation!
He immediately retracted his Divine Sense and concentrated it behind himself so she couldn’t sneak attack from behind. This would also disallow her from using her Divine Sense to attack him since he would immediately sense it if she spread her Divine Sense towards him.
However, retracting his Divine Sense was a mistake, because he could not detect her appearing right in front of him in time! Usually, there was no point in ordinary cultivators coming in close quarters since their physique was usually much weaker.
And if they came with a sword to stab or slash, their opponent would be able to see it and thus react in time.
But… Xiao Hong, whose Body Cultivation was far stronger than her Essence Cultivation was an exception.
Ning could not even react when Xiao Hong’s fist punched straight towards him at a speed he could not comprehend.
Xiao Hong felt Ning’s chest deform under her fist, caving inwards, crushing his ribcage with a sickening crunch. Her fist continued forward, pushing the broken pieces of his ribs into his heart, punched through it and out of his back!
“You’re… a Body-” he tried to say something through his agony.
Xiao Hong’s eyes flickered with a ruthless determination as she pumped fire-attributed Zhenqi into his body, burning it to a crisp and killing him without even letting him properly convey his shock.
Gulping down the bile that threatened to rise up, she floated down.