Chapter 16-5
WangXia was quick to bring his mind back to reality. He grabbed a hold of Xuan at once, whose hair had turned silver and the skin on his face wrinkled to that of a sixty years old. The moment the ground Xuan was standing on collapsed, he came out from the activation of the Lambda Driver and fell unconscious. There was no response from Xuan no matter how much WangXia called.
On the other side, Heng was also drained of energy and stamina. YinKong grabbed the back of his collar during the collapse. It was quite an embarrassing moment to get carried by a little girl but not like he had the energy to over think at this time. Luck didn’t seem to side with Heng when he was hanging on YinKong’s hand like a cat. A scattered rock bumped into his head, which didn’t knock him out but the feeling induced by the pain and bleeding along with the lack of energy was not much different.
WangXia was still falling with Xuan in his arm. The piece of land they were standing on had completely broken apart. Rocks were falling into a sheet of redness flowing beneath them, or perhaps he should call it a lava sea. It resided in the Earth’s mantel with a temperature and pressure unbearable to normal humans. The enclosure established by the Cultivators sealed off this heat and pressure when the land was still in whole. However, this seal disappeared as the land collapsed.
WangXia was totally stunned until he noticed YinKong jumping up through the falling rocks. They were somehow falling much faster than the rocks, at the normal acceleration rate of gravity. It seemed like the rocks were still affected by an unknown force which slowed their fall. The four people had fallen into the middle of all the rocks at this point, further down and they would be away from all the objects that they could step on. Jumping up to delay the fall was the only way to save themselves for the while. And then they could only pray that Imhotep would arrive in time.
WangXia realized what he had to do. Yet, he was nowhere near YinKong in physical competence to make such agile jumps. Still, he found a method that was limited to him. Demon Energy transformed into bat like existences. WangXia then stepped onto these bats and jumped. Each bat could only sustain a tiny amount of force so he had to materialize a new one with each jump. By the time he arrived at a rock, he was nearly out of Demon Energy.
The fall continued for the four people. Suddenly, an enormous object that shrouded the sky was coming down from directly above. A section of the flesh that was split up had only just fallen from the highest floating fragment of the split land. Despite being one of many pieces of the flesh, it’s size still spanned a hundred meters from one end to the other. There was no way for them to dodge with nothing to step on in the air. The future of the flesh crashing them into the lava was becoming vivid. Death was inevitable at that point no matter how fast Imhotep could fly.
YinKong was at a higher point than WangXia with Heng in one hand and Excalibur in the other. She thrust herself upward at the flesh. However, the moment she approached the flesh, she crashed into an invisible wall with a thump. The collision knocked her back down. Thankfully, WangXia materialized a bat in her path just in time. She jumped from the bat and landed on a rock not far away.
Both YinKong and WangXia were appalled. The prototype god’s Light of the Soul disappeared for a time after its crystal core was destroyed and it started to grow. That was the reason the four people managed to hold off the flesh for so long. Only a very select few in team China had the power to break through this Light. Neither of them belonged in this category.
(What should I do? Am I going to die? This despair… I feel like I had experienced it once before. The feeling of despair when faced with the Light of the Soul. When was it? Who was it from? I feel like I can remember the me…)
YinKong’s pupils froze as though she had fallen unconscious or was lost. WangXia cried in terror seeing her fall into this condition at such a critical time. However, he could faintly hear a giggle at the next second, like the laughter of a little girl. He couldn’t be certain of himself because YinKong would never laugh in this manner and the sound of explosions muffled the voice. Before WangXia wrapped his mind around, YinKong dashed into the flesh again, still with Heng in her hand. The Light of the Soul failed to hinder her even for a second this time. She easily thrust into the flesh. WangXia didn’t know what happened to the flesh when it began to wither from the point where YinKong broke through. It was tearing apart like a piece of ragged cloth and dried flesh was falling off its body. After the flesh lost a good part of itself, WangXia finally saw YinKong who was looking down from above. She had a gentle smile on her face but her eyes felt cold as ice.
At a distance far from these four people, Zheng was also falling within the blinding blue light. His situation wasn’t terrible because the blue light that was disintegrating almost everything it touched couldn’t disintegrate the white flame engulfing him. Perhaps this was the intention of the Cultivators to disintegrate the Sky Tower and the majority of the objects inside, leaving only some selected items and glittering stones intact. Zheng was falling in the air with nearly nothing but the blue light around him.
Zheng couldn’t move an inch. The blue light was pushing him down toward the lava sea with the weight of Mount Tai. His wings couldn’t move and even his Qi and refined Qi were frozen inside. Only Blood Energy and Magic still flowed ever so slowly. Without a second of thinking, he channeled Magic into Tiger’s Soul. The ineffable aura appeared from the blade once more. The blue light around the blade warped as though they were avoiding the aura. Zheng felt the arm holding Tiger’s Soul was freed from the weight at once. He swung the blade at every direction, tearing an opening through that nearly solid blue light. Qi and Blood Energy rushed through his body at full speed to activate Destruction. He dashed through the opening and out of the blue light before it closed up again. However, it also signified he could no longer obtain any of the manuals and items still enclosed in the light.
Zheng turned around and glanced at the numerous glitters moving further and further away from him along with the blue light then at the few glowing rocks, the bell, and the mirror worn on his finger. These were merely a very tiny fraction of all the treasures in the Cultivators’ heritage but something was better than nothing. Plus, the value of these items were far more than several rank S rewards. Zheng then flew toward the way he came with determination, where his comrades were waiting for him to save them… After that, the bonus mission would finally come to an end.
YinKong and WangXia had jumped up to the highest layer of the broken rocks. They even managed to ascend a bit further by jumping on the bats WangXia materialized, but that was all they could do at this point. The four people were waiting to be saved or die.
WangXia was looking up at the sky anxiously. YinKong on the other hand was looking straight at Heng to his confusion until he shivered. Then she looked to WangXia with a giggle, then moved to Xuan. Her face had a mix of strange and cute expressions. Before she got to do anything, a cloud of white flame flew toward them. It was Zheng who had just escaped from the blue light.
He put out the flame as he arrived and yelled. “Good that you are still here! It would have been bad if you fell.” He put Tiger’s Soul away then reached his arm over yk’s waist and held her. He flapped his wings to fly toward WangXia.
“Hehe. Are you trying to take advantage of me? Be careful that I complain to your little girl after we go back.”
Zheng was overjoyed to save his comrades but this out of place tone made his hand shiver. He nearly threw WangXia off. YinKong was laughing in his arm with a smile that didn’t belong to her usual indifferent self. However, those eyes remained cold without any warmth. It felt as though the eyes were staring into his heart.
“YinKong… are we comrades?”
“Uh… yeah.”
“Then look at us with the eyes that you look at comrades… Welcome back. Let’s return, to our world.”
Zheng carried the four people up toward the whirlwind coming at them. Floating above the whirlwind were several Sky Sticks. This dangerous bonus mission finally came to an end.