Chapter 1074: The Pond of Life Part 3
Qianye slashed the six-armed giant a couple more times, leaving negligibly small wounds each time. He felt rather helpless, but it dawned upon him that he had no other way to deal with this fellow.
He wasn’t entirely without options. For instance, he might be able to finish off the giant if he fired into the eye with Heartgrave. However, this would also subject him to a beast wave, even drawing out the marine creatures.
Qianye glanced at the boundless Pond of Life but couldn’t sense any other marine beasts hiding in the water. It was just that the water was rippling all this time—clearly, something out of the ordinary was happening. It would seem the waters of the pond could block perception.
At this moment, the six-armed giant had already gained the advantage and was beating the marine beast until it was roaring in agony. Three of its six stony claws had been broken, and its tail was getting weaker and weaker with each swing.
Seeing that things weren’t looking good, Qianye charged toward the pond decisively. The six-armed giant became anxious after noticing this. It roared furiously before chasing after him with a loud roar.
At this point, Qianye had already figured out that there was something strange here. The aquatic creature was able to damage and threaten the six-armed giant, meaning that its strength was far above Qianye’s own. Yet, the giant would rather give up on killing this enemy and chase after him instead. Perhaps there was a certain existence commanding him to do so, but then again, what kind of entity could control this six-armed giant?
Qianye made a beeline for the Pond of Life, leaving the beast horde behind in the blink of an eye. Thousands of meters stood between the pond and the gathered creatures. This strip of land was fairly quiet, empty, and devoid of all life. Even the beasts straying into this area would immediately leave.
Qianye had no time to pay attention to the peculiarity of this area. Even if there was danger here, it was a double-edged blade. To the fierce beasts in this area, the six-armed giant was a much more important target compared to Qianye—the aquatic creature just now had proven this. It never so much as glanced at Qianye during the entire fight.
In the blink of an eye, Qianye had shot through the wide-area and arrived within a thousand meters of the pond. As though he had crossed over an invisible border, a sudden explosion thundered in his head. His entire body was uncontrollably aboil, almost like he was on fire.
The impact was so intense that it was comparable to drinking white-fruit wine. Despite Qianye’s firm willpower, his vampire body wasn’t good at resisting primal urges. The sudden shock sent Qianye into an absent-minded daze. He woke up in mere moments but found that he had actually turned about and was running toward one of the female beasts in the horde.
He immediately turned about and rushed toward the water, but he was once again entranced after crossing the formless border and started running back toward the beasts again.
After several such attempts, Qianye had gotten a rough idea of the distribution of this boundary and was able to make preparations for his subsequent charge. Although he had been restrained momentarily each time, he could already sense that there was a strange vertical eye in the depths of the pond, and that the shock would happen immediately after its opening.
It would seem there were indeed secrets under the Pond of Life. After getting a feel of the boundary, Qianye started running around it. This made it so that the eye would appear but the impact wouldn’t. His attention went back to the six-armed giant behind him.
The giant suddenly staggered and almost fell to the ground. Its eyes lit up with a ferocious glint as it roared at the pond, waving its weapon all the while. Only two of its arms had weapons in them, though, which subtracted from the intended menace.
The pond began to surge, boil, and froth as an enormous body moved beneath the waters. Just from the waves on the surface, one could tell that the being underneath was several hundred meters in length. Such a creature was almost comparable to a void colossus, the only limitation of such a size being that it wouldn’t be able to come ashore.
The two giants—one in the water and one on land—seemed to have conversed via spiritual fluctuations. The six-armed giant roared a couple of times before continuing to chase after Qianye, but this time, it was clearly more restrained and didn’t attack the obstructing creatures.
Qianye had already run out of the flat land area and dived into the dense forest. The woods beside the Pond of Life was different—the giant trees here were over a hundred meters tall, covered in vines, thorns, and shrubs, with countless creatures moving about between their leaves.
A swarm of mosquitos rushed out of the shrubbery the moment Qianye stepped into the forest. These mosquitoes were like bees, with sharp mouths and stingers on their tails, but each the size of a fist. One could see at a glance that these terrifying beings weren’t going to be easy to deal with.
Following these insects were slithering sounds as ant-like creatures crawled out from the bushes. Their giant maws were glistening with a metallic sheen and accompanied by the bitter smell of poison.
In the blink of an eye, Qianye was surrounded by countless insects. To outsiders, this dense forest was simply a land of death. Ordinary beasts were no match for these bug swarms, but to Qianye, they were merely nuisances in his way.
Sanguine flames flickered on his body as the blaze swept through all the swarms within ten meters of him. In the blink of an eye, all the ants and mosquitoes scattered after catching the scent of dark golden blood energy. Only some of the ants on the ground were burned, but the bugs in the air weren’t so lucky. The flames didn’t quite char their entire bodies, but their delicate wings were burnt away, causing them to fall into the ant army below.
The two insects immediately started fighting. The flightless mosquitoes retaliated fiercely with their stingers, but the ants were far greater in number and their jaws could easily snap their opponents into half. In the blink of an eye, nothing remained of the fallen mosquitoes.
Qianye was in no mood to find out who among them was the victor. He simply hastened his steps into the depths of the forest.
The six-armed giant arrived before the forest and, for the first time, seemed rather hesitant about stepping in.
The moment his first foot landed in the thicket, a mass of dark insects emerged from every direction and started stinging his leg. The giant’s thick green skin actually started to darken!
Just the sight of that thick cloud of mosquitoes was enough to make one’s scalp go numb. Soon, several large palms descended amidst loud whistles and slapped the legs, each strike leaving a large patch of insect mush on the skin. There was no telling how many tens of thousands of mosquitoes had died there.
A series of slapping sounds rang out as four of the giant’s large hands swung down hundreds of times, killing most of the insects on his legs. He then rubbed his legs, scraping off the layers of insect mush which fell down like raindrops.
When the faint green skin was revealed once more, there were countless small holes on the surface. These mosquitoes were so powerful that they could actually punch holes through the giant’s skin. It was just that the giant’s hide was so thick and hard that they were far from drilling through after a good deal of effort.
Only a few sparse clouds remained of that seemingly-omnipresent insect swarm. One of them flew about the six-armed giant like a cloud of black mist and actually shot toward its face. Even a being as strong as the six-armed giant would be weak in the eyes, nose, and mouth. However, the giant inhaled deeply and sucked the entire cloud of insects into his mouth, and then swallowed them.
This intimidated the last surviving group of insects, which eventually dispersed. As for the countless venomous creatures inside the forest, they were intelligent enough to avoid a direct confrontation.
The giant continued his hunt for Qianye after freeing himself of these restraints, crashing into a giant tree in his way.
This big tree was over a hundred meters tall and several meters in girth, with foliage that could blot out the skies. It was indeed a majestic tree. The collision actually snapped the ancient tree in half, which went to prove just how powerful the giant was. However, the giant was also dazed from the impact and almost stumbled to the ground, swaying a couple of times before stabilizing itself.
The six-armed giant still remembered its greatest target. It gazed at Qianye from afar and continued chasing after him in large strides.
Yet another loud rumble was heard as a different ancient tree collapsed, then another, and another. The entire forest was in a state of chaos and commotion.
The six-armed giant’s body was now covered in injuries, and the wounds from the insect bites were dripping black blood. The ancient trees in this forest had stood here for countless years, each of them as hard as steel. The thousands of branches were akin to sharp blades in the air, and even the six-armed giant’s thick skin had been lacerated in many places. Bulldozing through these trees also came with a steep price—one of its arms could be seen hanging limply to the side.
The six-armed giant could sense Qianye moving away at a constant, swift pace. The monster roared furiously and lifted a giant tree by its roots, and then swung it around at full force. This demolished a large patch of the forest, yet that wasn’t enough to vent its anger.
The Pond of Life rippled at this point as a giant spout appeared on the surface, blowing a tall pillar of water into the air. Following a loud scream, extremely powerful spiritual waves descended upon the six-armed giant.
The giant roared in response, finally throwing down the tree in his hand and giving up on destroying the forest. It glanced one last time in Qianye’s direction but ultimately turned away and gave up on hunting him down.
In the depths of the forest, Qianye watched the massive receding figure from the top of an ancient tree. He heaved a sigh of relief, but his expression became solemn again after looking at his surroundings.
This forest was extremely vast, but one could still see its borders. These woods covered an area several hundred kilometers in radius—on one side of it was the Pond of Life, while on the other was a boundless grassland. Qianye would be in a dire situation if the six-armed giant were to hunt him down on those plains.
As expected, the six-armed monstrosity didn’t leave very far. It took its stand on the grassland as though it was waiting for something.