This time, the peach wasn’t aimed at anyone. It seemed to fly aimlessly through the air, as fast as a shooting star. Qin Yi jumped up and caught it in his hand.
It felt soft and smelled like a peach, and it really looked like a real peach. But Qin Yi knew very well that this was definitely not a peach. How could there be a peach that he couldn’t smash with a single hit? The skin wasn’t even broken! It couldn’t be a heavenly peach either!
“This is a transformation by witchcraft,” Liu Su said. “It’s actually a refined soul-capturing metal, which is a very hard material for making weapons, just made to look like a peach.”
“It doesn’t feel like an illusion,” Qin Yi replied.
“Who told you it was an illusion? It’s just transformed into this shape. Witchcraft is good at these tricks, turning people into frogs and such. It’s not that impressive,” Liu Su said with a hint of disdain. “Fairy magic is the real deal with countless transformations. It can change people, change oneself, weave clouds into clothes, and ride winds as horses. You can at least write a Journey to the West; are you surprised by such a small change?”
Qin Yi felt a rush of excitement.
But right now, he didn’t have time to dream about the future. The priority was to solve the problem in the pond and save Ye Ling.
“The blood dragon in the pond was so close to the peach but wasn’t affected by the soul-capturing effect. It’s not because it has high cultivation to resist it, but because it was raised by the same person, so it has natural resistance,” Liu Su explained. “But this kind of resistance definitely can’t stop it from eating the peach!”
Qin Yi understood and focused intently while holding the peach.
Ye Ling knew he was standing by the pond and would definitely try to bring the blood dragon up, hoping he could help.
That was the opportunity!
Sure enough, not long after, there was a loud splash, and Ye Ling burst out of the blood surface again, with the dragon’s head closely following, almost biting her tail.
“Eat the peach!” Qin Yi shouted, throwing the peach right into the dragon's mouth.
The dragon seemed to pause, and the air felt still for a moment.
Ye Ling fell to the edge of the pond, her snake body in terrible shape, covered in wounds and mixed with the blood from the pond, looking like a blood snake. Even her wings couldn’t open anymore, and she lay on the ground, barely alive.
The actual battle didn’t last long. From when she picked the lotus, to when Qin Yi changed the formation, to the fight at the pond bottom, and then the peach flying in, it was only about ten breaths. In fact, Qin Yi waiting for the peach took a bit longer…
Her level was much lower than the blood dragon’s. She could only survive because her snake body wasn’t affected by the pond’s blood, slipping away easily. On the other hand, the dragon was too big, and in the pond, it couldn’t fully unleash its power, which helped it avoid many deadly attacks.
If Ye Ling came out of the pond this time and Qin Yi couldn’t save her, she would really become a dead snake.
The peach’s soul-capturing effect also affected Ye Ling. She felt her thoughts slowing down, filled with violent urges and a desire to tear everything apart. She wanted to bite someone…
But she was too tired… maybe it was better to sleep…
Ye Ling fainted, her last consciousness entering a warm embrace.
It felt like Qin Yi’s aura…
Qin Yi held Ye Ling in his arms and immediately turned to run. The blood dragon had gone mad!
A massive dragon, dozens of feet long and wider than a house, suddenly shot up into the sky from the blood pond, roaring loudly. Blood rained down everywhere, and each drop hit the ground with such force that it created deep craters, turning the entire area around the pond into a wasteland.
It was furious…
A peak transformation blood dragon was still enraged; only a fool would fight it. Qin Yi ran wildly again toward the huge tree with the formation core.
The blood dragon roared fiercely, charging straight at Qin Yi. The huge dragon body contrasted sharply with Qin Yi’s figure below, like a mouse running under a passenger plane.
“Boom!” The dragon pounced down heavily, and Qin Yi rolled away just in time, narrowly avoiding the attack. The ground where he had been hit had already formed a massive crater, and many creatures that had been rolling and howling there were smashed into pulp.
With the power of this blood dragon, even the formation’s damage to it wouldn’t be significant. It would just be in pain but wouldn’t lose its fighting strength.
Qin Yi remained calm. He rolled on the ground and immediately lunged toward the giant tree, reaching for the formation core.
The raised veins and patterns on the ground slowly sank back down, as if merging with the earth.
The chaotic cries of countless creatures quickly stopped, and many demons stood up, their eyes fixed on the blood dragon's belly.
There was still that “peach” inside, which they could never digest, still affecting their thoughts.
The crazed demons, having lost their minds, charged toward the blood dragon. That was a dragon-shaped peach!
Many ants can take down an elephant.
And it wasn’t just a small difference like ants and elephants. Here, the lowest were fully formed spiritual beings, and the higher ones were early to mid-transformation demons. They might have been tortured by the formation to the brink of death. Individually, they wouldn’t stand a chance against the blood dragon, but what about thousands of them?
Qin Yi had said before, Ming He couldn’t do anything… and if Ming He couldn’t, then the blood dragon obviously couldn’t either.
The scene was filled with the sounds of roaring and explosions of energy, creating total chaos. Qin Yi held Ye Ling and rolled behind the giant tree, catching his breath.
He never expected that while the first challenge with the sea of skeletons was so easy, this second challenge could be life-threatening, all because someone wanted to refine a snake.
Whether this luck was good or bad, he happened to arrive when the local master initiated the blood sacrifice of countless demons, making the situation extremely complicated. But it seemed a bit better than facing him directly?
But then, what was that person doing now? The place had been turned upside down, the blood lotus had been picked, the blood pond was half destroyed, and the blood dragon was mad, yet he still hadn’t shown up?
Qin Yi thought about this, not stopping his hands as he quickly stuffed a pill into Ye Ling’s mouth, who was on the verge of death.
Only after he did so did he realize that the blood lotus had been quietly lying in Ye Ling’s mouth.
No wonder she hadn’t said a word.
But this also meant she couldn’t use her heavenly fire or bite. At the pond bottom, she was purely hiding, not even putting up a bit of resistance…
Qin Yi felt pain as he took out the blood lotus, tearing a piece of his clothing to bandage her wounds.
Almost every part of her body was injured. Her snake body was a mess, and some wounds even showed bone… With such a small snake body, if she got hurt any worse, she could be split in two.
“It was my carelessness… I shouldn’t have let her go for the blood lotus…”
Liu Su said, “She wanted to take revenge on the local master herself. Picking the lotus and leaving was the best way. You don’t need to feel sorry for her; this time, she gained much more than she got hurt.”
“Are you talking about the blood lotus? Is it beneficial for her?”
“Of course, it’s very useful. But we can talk about that later. This isn’t the time to think about it. The local master hasn’t shown up yet, which means he’s probably dealing with something important. Once he’s done, we’ll definitely be doomed.”
“Any suggestions?”
“Go to the other colored areas marked on the map and hide at the edges. Those dangerous areas, this half-baked witch definitely wouldn’t dare to go.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t be stuck in this desolate place,” Liu Su pondered for a moment and then continued, “Actually, I think this person’s true strength might not be much higher than the blood dragon he raised. At least he doesn’t have the strength to wipe out so many demons alone, which is why he resorts to schemes.
Once you find a safe place to digest what you’ve gained and you and Ye Ling make progress, maybe you can plan to take him down.”
Qin Yi felt this made sense. He wrapped up Ye Ling’s wounds and immediately wanted to leave.
Just then, a figure rolled down the hillside.
A person? Since Ye Ling said one couldn’t transform here, does this mean it’s the local master?
Qin Yi immediately raised his wolf-toothed club.
But upon closer inspection, he was stunned.
Rolling down the slope was a woman.
Just being a woman was fine, but the key point was that Qin Yi didn’t sense any magical power from her, not even any martial arts cultivation… she was just an ordinary person!
He was so stunned that the woman had already rolled to his side, stopped by a tree trunk, and lay there unconscious, clearly having fainted.
She was a well-built woman, but her clothing was very conservative, wrapped up tightly. The style of her clothes and hairpin was a bit strange, reminding Qin Yi of some ethnic minority attire. At this moment, her clothes were torn and tattered from rolling down the hill, looking very messy.
Her face was marked with blood from scratches by rocks, and she was covered in dirt, making it hard to see her features.
“... Bang Bang, can you sense her magical power?”
Liu Su’s voice sounded confused too, “She really has no cultivation.”
“What about demonic energy?” Qin Yi knew Liu Su could sense demonic energy now. Its soul-nurturing effect had worked well recently, and it had been able to help in these battles, unlike before when it had no strength at all.
“There’s no demonic energy either…” Liu Su hesitated, sounding unsure. “My soul power is still a bit weak, so if she’s hiding it well…”
Before it could finish, it denied itself: “But she’s hurt so badly that she fainted; there’s no way she could hide from me…”
Qin Yi stared blankly at it.
If that’s the case, could she really be an ordinary person with no cultivation at all?
(End of Chapter)