Chapter 122: Wolves In Front, Tigers Behind
Thud!
Inside the mine cave, the heart coiled by the giant snake emitted a tremor felt throughout the entire space.
Under this tremor, the Six Dragon Gate martial artists closer to the giant snake instantly stiffened, their bodies turning to ore entirely, with blood seeping from the metallic surface as if incompatible with the body, quickly flowing to the ground and forming new metallic liquid there.
The martial artists farther away, though not polluted immediately, also showed varying degrees of ore pollution on their bodies.
“Run fast!”
The crowd, illuminated by flames and seeing the giant snake manifest, had their hairs stand on end and fled back toward the direction they came without stopping.
Just one vibration had polluted martial artists to this extent; it was not something they could handle.
Luo Jin acted the fastest, flicking his sword blade forward with a thrust, his swordplay driving his lightness skill like a meteor shooting straight ahead, instantly leaving the crowd behind to reach the cave entrance. But as soon as he stepped in, his whole body flew backward fiercely, crashing into the martial artists coming from behind, knocking them apart like bowling pins.
This sudden event stunned everyone, and they all looked toward the cave entrance.
The next instant, cold sweat poured down their backs.
Li Ye gripped Chen Hualong’s head with five fingers, dragging him inside. The dim firelight made him look like another demonic creature; though smaller than the giant snake, his menace was undiminished.
Someone couldn’t help pleading, “Bureau Chief Li, we can’t hold on! Let us go back!”
“Yeah, Bureau Chief Li, we’ve already scouted the general situation as you said, and a batch of people died. This demonic creature is beyond what we can handle.”
In response, Li Ye threw Chen Hualong forward and sneered, “When did I say that after you scouted the Demon Realm, I would let you go back.”
Luo Jin staggered to his feet and shouted, “Bureau Chief Li, you said you wouldn’t trouble me!”
“I’m not troubling you either, and the intelligence isn’t fully scouted yet. Isn’t there still one left?”
He flexed his fingers and looked toward the giant snake coiled around the metallic heart. “Figure out what it’s for, and I won’t trouble you. If you don’t, you die here. Same for all of you; if you don’t figure it out—”
He suddenly dodged to the side, not even glancing at the No. 1 demonic creature that rushed out from beside him toward his body. After dodging, he kicked out fiercely like a whip shadow, bursting that demonic creature with one kick.
“—then you die here.”
Pitch-black qi dyed his body, wrapping around it and swallowing the firelight reflecting on him.
Strike Malice, activate.
“Don’t make a move; I’ll help!”
Chen Hualong crawled up, picked up a long sword from the ground with one hand, and faced the giant snake.
He had a deep impression of Li Ye in this state because he had been like this before, stubbornly defeating him.
In comparison, this snake demon was terrifying but not impossible to handle.
He had suppressed this snake demon before.
But against Li Ye, he had no confidence.
At least the snake demon wouldn’t specifically target his family to kill, but Li Ye would!
Revenge and such could come later; first, he had to survive.
Suppressing the snake demon still gave him a chance to live, then let the military handle it!
With Jinze City’s Three Realms martial artists having stated their position, they could only grit their teeth and face the snake demon.
“Listen to me: collective attack to take down the snake demon. It’s just scary-looking; withstand the pollution! Second Realm with me up front, First Realm remote attacks—don’t get too close!”
Boom!
While speaking, the snake demon launched an attack, flicking its tail fiercely, bursting segment after segment of fragments from the tail, presenting colorful hues in the firelight.
Among those fragments, Li Ye even saw traces of gold ore.
As soon as the fragments shot out, the crowd scattered, dodging before charging straight at the snake demon.
Some with poor martial arts were hit by fragments, crying out miserably as the struck areas began to turn to ore.
But it was not as heavily polluting as the previous heartbeats.
Li Ye reached out and clamped a fragment showing sporadic gold ore. Up close, he could indeed sense a strange feeling as if his fingers weren’t his own, seeming to fuse with the ore.
“This level… Dragon Gate Realm takes a bigger hit, but after stabilizing qi and blood, it lightens a lot. Even if struck, pollution won’t appear immediately.”
Personal experience confirmed the pollution’s intensity more surely.
At this moment, Chen Hualong flew out first, his sword carrying true essence and sparking a streak of pure white sword qi, slicing through the snake demon’s body, bursting several gashes and stiffening its body momentarily.
The unique internal severing of true essence weakened the snake demon’s control, making its tail less agile.
Rat-tat-tat!
Outer martial artists swept with guns madly; those charging in used their own methods—sword light flying, blade chops, spear thrusts like dragons—all hitting the snake demon, widening the gashes on its body.
“Buzz!!”
Sensing the threat, the snake demon reared its head and opened its mouth, emitting a muffled sound like the mine cave collapsing.
“Retreat, use lightness skill!”
Chen Hualong foresaw something and hurriedly leaped upward, thrusting his sword into the rock wall above and hanging upside down from it.
From the snake demon’s coiled heart, liquid like silver water poured out, flowing large amounts of glowing viscous fluid that formed wave after wave, quickly slamming toward the surroundings.
Those who didn’t dodge in time or had poor lightness skill were eroded by the water, stiffening in place—low qi and blood turning to ore dead things, high qi and blood resisting but obviously slowed.
This included a Chen Family Second Realm elder who hadn’t practiced much lightness skill; trapped by the water flow, he struggled but couldn’t break free.
Bang!
The next instant, the snake demon shook its body, shooting ore fragments again toward all directions. The elder reacted too slowly, half his body struck.
Only then did he raise his weapon to block, but immobile, he was just a sitting duck.
From the looks, he was an Army Breaking Pass martial artist; he knocked away some fragments, but more still hit his body.
“Uncle!”
Chen Hualong roared in shock and turned to rush over, but at that moment, a group of flying No. 2 demonic creatures emerged from the ground’s wave waters, rushing toward the surrounding martial artists.
Hindered, Chen Hualong used lightness skill to leap again, slashing two demonic creatures with his swords and blocking incoming fragments with more sword strikes.
But in this time, the trapped elder was grabbed by two No. 1 demonic creatures, with several No. 2 demonic creatures surrounding him spitting beads continuously.
The fragment attacks never stopped, gradually weakening the elder’s weapon-wielding hand until his body fully turned to ore and, after activating, became a new No. 1 demonic creature.
“Found the source.”
Li Ye, watching from afar, moved his feet, bursting afterimages in the air and instantly flashing above the elder.
Bang!
He stomped down with one foot, his heel crushing the elder’s head like a giant axe cleaving from the middle, splitting the demonic creature in two into the water flow.
“Strength’s off; not Second Realm.”
After one kick, he stomped the air, blasting qi waves before shooting upward, embedding one hand into the upper rock wall to hang.
Transformed demonic creatures, no matter how strong in life, had the same strength after transformation.
“You!”
Chen Hualong glared venomously at Li Ye but quickly withdrew his gaze to the snake demon.
At this time, he couldn’t afford to make an extra enemy.
Otherwise, if Li Ye went berserk, none of them would be spared.
Back then, the Disinfection Bureau feared him going berserk; now it was reversed.
“Concentrated attack! Just shatter the snake demon’s form!”
Chen Hualong roared, continuously releasing true essence sword qi from the air, each streak piercing the snake demon and making its movements stiffer.
The other martial artists followed suit, drifting back and forth with lightness skill, attacking the snake demon and bursting its gashes faster.
At this rate, victory was certain; the snake demon’s strength wasn’t that high, just its attacks’ pollution was fierce.
But Li Ye felt something was off.
No matter how these martial artists attacked, they targeted the snake demon’s body—or rather, all their attacks from any angle were blocked by the snake demon, as if consciously protecting that coiled heart.
Even Chen Hualong’s penetrating true essence sword qi, when slicing through to the heart, burst gashes that the snake demon’s body quickly absorbed and repaired.
Shatter the snake demon’s form to win?
What about the heart?
Li Ye suddenly said, “Prioritize the heart.”
Chen Hualong had just swung a sword and flown to a spot to catch his breath; hearing this, he said:
“That heart’s regenerative power is too strong. Focusing solely on the heart, the snake demon will repair it. Plus, our people can’t withstand prolonged pollution, and over time it will affect the outside. Just shatter the snake demon’s form; the heart will disappear automatically, and the pollution will be contained.”
He had dealt with this snake demon more than once.
The first time, he had considered targeting the heart.
But the snake demon was tricky; focusing on the heart meant neither could be resolved.
Plus, the pollution was spreading badly and about to be exposed, so he prioritized the snake demon.
Even so, resolving the snake demon took great effort, and after it died, he indeed got no token.
He hadn’t thought much then, figuring he’d search more and maybe find a token elsewhere.
Until he killed too much inside, re-triggering the snake demon, did he realize something was wrong.
But that time, the pollution erupted too severely, leaving Chen Hualong no extra time for the heart; he could only take down the snake demon, yet the pollution still couldn’t be hidden.
This led to his subsequent actions.
If he’d known, better to let the pollution expose directly; dead was dead.
At least he could claim credit for stopping the demonic creatures first; even if later investigated and linked to him, it was better than now.
“I don’t care about that; I want you to hit the heart.”
Li Ye’s words were ice-cold. “You had just a few people before; now how many? All pile on!”
“I’m done!”
The former Disinfection Bureau Chief, who had survived so far, had just retreated slightly when he heard Li Ye, then kicked off the air with lightness skill, flying straight toward the mine cave exit.
Letting Li Ye continue like this made him even more dangerous.
He couldn’t stay; life mattered more.
Bang!
The next instant, his back took a heavy blow, slamming him straight into the ground’s water flow.
Li Ye appeared behind him, stepping over after one kick, then flashed as an afterimage in front of him, kicking out again to send him straight into the snake demon’s coiled heart.
Crack!
The snake demon lowered half its body, clearly protecting the heart, then opened its mouth to bite the bureau chief. With a teeth-grinding sound, the bureau chief’s entire body was swallowed.
But a Second Realm martial artist was still Second Realm; unable to bite him dead immediately, the snake demon unconsciously increased force and shook its head up and down.
Li Ye said coldly, “I’ve given you the chance; attack now, or once it bites our big bureau chief dead… I’ll find the next scapegoat. So many Second Realms—wait for me to kill you, or fight for your lives? Do I need to teach you how to choose?”
Wolf in front, tiger behind.
To survive, they had to pick one to fight desperately.
No one wanted to fight Li Ye desperately; the lesson was lesson enough.
And Li Ye’s stance treated them as less than human.
He wasn’t afraid of pollution spreading either.
Strike Malice activated with black qi wrapping was also visual deception.
Li Ye was constantly absorbing the surrounding pollution, preventing the Demon Realm’s pollution from leaking out.
For the rest, he had plenty of time to let these people wear down the snake demon.
