Chapter 390: Sky Capital Peak
Chapter 390: Sky Capital Peak
Translator: TYZ Editor: TYZ/KLKL
Even though Sky Capital Peak had a "peak" in its name, it was actually a vast stretch of mountain range in reality. It had numerous karst caves and its terrain was extremely complicated. Those who were not familiar with the area would get lost easily.
In the dark night, a few figures lying in ambush in the shadows were whispering to each other.
"Brother Ning, will they really come?"
"Definitely. We are really unlucky. We only wanted to kidnap Blind He, but then the manager popped out of nowhere. Tell me, if you lost your manager, would you look for him? From the manager’s words, it seems like his master is rather powerful. We have to be careful."
"I will listen to Brother Ning."
"Alright. Don’t panic later on and listen to my commands. Don’t be afraid."
"Brother Ning, don’t worry, this is not our first time."
"Shh, he is here."
Ai Hui flew one round around the sky above Sky Capital Peak. Upon seeing that there was not a single trace of light coming from the mountain, he conjectured that the robbers must be hiding within the karst caves. He did not land directly on the mountain itself, but rather, at the foot of the mountain.
He silently advanced along the terrain of the mountain.
He was going at a very high speed. The precipitous terrain did not seem to have any effect on him.
Suddenly, Ai Hui raised his head and looked in a certain direction. He could sense someone was spying on him from in the dark.
The other party was prepared for him!
Knowing that he could not mount a sneak attack, Ai Hui blatantly flew forward at top speed.
Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!
Sharp whizzing sounds suddenly rang across the air. A few streaks of arrow gleams shot towards Ai Hui from different positions of the mountain.
Seven arrows!
In the blink of an eye, Ai Hui accurately identified the positions of where the arrows were shot from. A cold shiver went down his spine. The positioning of the seven arrows was ingenious. The seven arrows were locked onto the areas that he would possibly try to move into.
The other party was a veteran.
Ai Hui immediately made a judgement in his mind. His hand moved swiftly into action and a sword gleam streaked across the air.
Training continuously for the past few days had sharply increased his attacking speed. This improvement was very obvious in such a sudden situation. The tip of his Dragonspine accurately struck the first arrow.
Keeping his arm stationary, he flicked his wrist gently, drew a minute arc in the air with his Dragonspine and struck the second arrow.
Making use of the force coming from the tip of his sword, he sprung Dragonspine upward and struck the third arrow from an oblique angle.
Ai Hui was one-hundred percent focused.
Clink, clink, clink!
Concentrated sounds of collision rang across night sky. The process was a feast for the eyes. Sword gleams were blossoming in the dark night. The sparks produced from the collisions between the sword gleams and the arrow gleams floated before Ai Hui’s eyes like a cloud of shining mist.
Phew. Ai Hui finally breathed out. His hand felt slightly numb. The force from the seven arrows put together was not something to be reckoned with.
The arrows would likely have been shot out from some kind of trap-like mechanism. He could not sense any elementalist’s aura.
He was very satisfied with the seven strikes that he’d unleashed just now. This proved that his recent training was effective. In the past, he would have been able to ward off this type of attack as well, but he certainly could not have done it with such ease. In the past, he would strike three or four arrows and find an opening to escape. He definitely could not strike down all arrows.
This scene left the robbers dumbstruck.
"Brother Ni… Ning, this guy is very powerful!" said the robber, his voice trembling slightly. It sounded as if he was stuttering.
The robber who was called Brother Ning was very shocked as well. After all, the traps were set up by him. He had meticulously set up the traps in such a way that they would attack the possible areas where the enemy would move to. No matter which direction his opponent moved to avoid an arrow, he or she would be hit by a follow-up arrow.
He absolutely did not expect the other party to strike down the arrows instead of avoiding them. This caused his traps to fail.
"He’s an expert."
Brother Ning’s voice was composed. This made the others felt a lot more at ease. Brother Ning was their backbone. As long as Brother Ning could hold his own, they felt they would have a chance at victory.
"However, this is only the beginning."
A cold glint flashed across Brother Ning’s eyes in the dark. His voice contained a strong sense of confidence.
Everyone felt energized as Brother Ning’s confidence motivated them. They had followed Brother Ning through countless battles, and they had obtained victory in every single battle. They respected and had absolute confidence in Brother Ning.
Ai Hui scanned his surroundings warily. The traps set up by the other party were well thought out. A moment of carelessness would cause him to fall for them.
After waiting a while, there were no more arrows shooting at him.
The precipitous Sky Capital Peak was like a gigantic monster hiding within the darkness, containing countless dangers and a murderous intent.
Ai Hui did not wait any longer and continued to advance.
A weird feeling came from beneath his feet.
Ai Hui’s facial expression changed slightly. Oh no... Before he could react in time, the seeds buried deep within the ground beneath his feet suddenly exploded. A few demonic-looking green vines erupted from the ground and wrapped themselves around Ai Hui’s feet.
Beast-trapping grass seeds!
This was a very useful type of grass seed. Once something made the slightest contact with the seed, its husk would break instantly and a grass vine would grow frantically out of it to wrap itself around the nearest living thing. In the hands of a powerful wood elementalist, the beast-trapping seeds could strangle a ferocious wild beast to death.
The grass vines kept tightening their grip on Ai Hui, slowly digging into his skin.
Ai Hui could not struggle at all. At this moment, a huge, dark-green net came flying down on his head.
Green flames spiderweb!
Green flames spiderweb was produced by green flames spiders. The spiderweb was dark-green in color and more than ten meters long. The dark-green color flowing along the spiderweb came from a very deadly, poisonous fire. A tiny amount of it was enough to pose an extreme danger to an elementalist. It could seep under one’s skin rapidly and infect his elemental energy, causing the nature of his elemental energy to change drastically.
The poison fire was extremely dangerous to an elementalist. The probability of an elementalist getting killed by it was extremely high. Even if he did not die on the spot, the nature of the elemental energy within his body would change abruptly, causing him to be in anguish.
For example, a metal elementalist’s body was both filled with and made up of metal elemental energy. This way, his inner body and physical body complimented each other very well. However, if the metal elemental energy within his body suddenly became another type of elemental energy, his body would strongly reject the new elemental energy.
When an elementalist’s body and the elemental energy within his body clashed, the pain he suffered was worse than being tortured by the cruelest torture machine.
Ai Hui did not dare to let the green flames touch his body. He made small movements with his arm, and then with his arm he held his Dragonspine upright.
A faint red-colored sword gleam, that resembled a red muslin cloth, was released from the tip of his sword.
[Lesser Red Muslin]!
[Red Muslin] was the move that he’d used to destroy the Sha Family’s residence. At that time, he used the momentum from the high-altitude dive to unleash that breathtaking sword move.
At that time, the impact of [Red Muslin] almost completely razed the Sha Family’s residence to the ground.
[Lesser Red Muslin] was developed from [Red Muslin]. Since he was in a confined space now, [Red Muslin]’s destructive power was greatly reduced. Hence, he named it as [Lesser Red Muslin]. Even though [Lesser Red Muslin] was not as powerful as [Red Muslin], it required less time to be unleashed. This, in turn, increased the difficulty of unleashing the move sharply. Despite this limitation, the practicality of the move had increased tremendously from [Red Muslin]’s.
[Lesser Red Muslin] was proof of Ai Hui’s improvements in his swordsmanship. This new move proved that his swordsmanship had moved on to a higher level.
In the night sky the red-colored, muslin-like sword gleam was like an illusion. It flew gracefully towards the green flames spiderweb.
When the red sword gleam made contact with the green flames spiderweb, surging elemental energy erupted through the air with a loud bang. Following which, the elemental energy transformed in a violent and chaotic burst of flames. Even though the green flames spiderweb was very dangerous, it did not have high durability. It was shredded to smithereens on the spot by the violent burst of flames.
Directional impact was an important characteristic of [Lesser Red Muslin].
The robbers on the mountain saw a huge burst of flames rise into the sky. As it rose higher and higher, it suddenly exploded into a drizzle of flames that sprinkled all over the mountain, resembling a gigantic fire umbrella.
The rain-like flames disappeared rapidly into the night sky.
Tranquility and darkness returned to the sky once more.
A commotion broke out among the robbers. Their traps had been destroyed once again.
"He is troublesome!"
"Since when did Crooked River City have such a powerful individual?"
"Who knows him?"
"I don’t"
The leader of the robbers, Brother Ning, did not say anything. His face had turned slightly ugly. He had spent a huge sum of money on the green flames spiderweb and beast-trapping grass seeds. Initially, he still thought he had the victory in the bag. He did not expect the other party to completely destroy his traps.
He felt slightly anxious. He had provoked a powerful fellow this time around.
Beads of perspiration appeared on Ai Hui’s forehead. Whenever he was being attacked, he would be extremely focused and felt nothing else. However, this time around, he was slightly afraid. The traps on this mountain were in an innumerable succession.
When Ai Hui hacked at the grass vines, he realized that the grass vines were unusually strong. He did not sever even a single grass vine, making him feel slightly shocked.
He channeled his elemental energy and severed all the grass vines with a few slashes.
Brother Ning’s heart was bleeding. The losses he suffered this time around were huge.
If the beast-trapping grass seeds’ grass vines were not destroyed completely, he could sprinkle a specially concocted restoration potion on them to restore them to the state of beast-trapping grass seeds. From there, they could be used again. However, if the grass vines were badly damaged, the seeds which they grew from could no longer be used.
Ai Hui took a deep breath and continued forward.
This time around, he learnt his lesson. It seemed that he was advancing as usual, but in reality, his feet were not touching the ground. He was actually hovering slightly above the ground. The Starry Gem Swordwings on his back were flapping indistinctly.
He no longer saw the other party as just a bunch of ordinary robbers.
Ai Hui was specialized in setting up traps. The two traps that he’d just consecutively encountered did not seem complicated, but they were very powerful and dangerous. From these two traps, he could gauge the strength of the other party.
However, he did not show any signs of retreating. Instead, he plucked up his courage and continued forward.
Along the way, there were rugged rocks that resembled oddly-shaped monsters in the dark night, surrounding him with killing intents.
Suddenly, out of the corner of his eyes, Ai Hui saw some rocks vibrating on the ground.
At this moment, the rocks in other areas began to vibrate as well. Soon, all the rocks on the mountain were vibrating, resembling monsters that had woken up from their slumber.
All the rocks within his line of sight were vibrating. The scene appeared extremely weird.
Before Ai Hui could understand what was going on, those numerous vibrating rocks began to rise from the ground. To his astonishment, the rocks subsequently fused together and formed humanoid rock monsters everywhere on the mountain.
Rock puppets!
Ai Hui’s eyelids twitched. Rock puppets were the lowest ranking among all the earth elemental puppets. Their rank was even lower than that of sand puppets. The only good thing about them was that they had huge strength. They were usually used by earth elementalists as laborers.
Other than having huge strength and the ability to throw rocks, the rock puppets’ fighting capabilities were not really powerful.
However, when they appeared on mountains, they would pose a great hassle to anyone who encountered them.
Rumble, rumble. The earth shook. With clumsy-looking and abnormally heavy footsteps, the rock puppets flooded towards Ai Hui from all directions.