Piao bit down hard twice more, her confusion growing with every mouthful.
Something was wrong, very wrong.
The monster's flesh was tough and dry; Piao felt as if she were chewing on air-dried cured meat from a thousand years ago, without a hint of flavor.
As she struggled to chew, she turned her head to look at her surroundings.
Yellow sand filled the sky behind them, and countless black-spot monsters surged toward them like a tide.
Those coming for her and Su Xue were all hideous and terrifying, each looking as if it wanted to swallow them alive.
Piao turned her gaze to the very front of the group.
There, Tuoba Feng was carrying a massive stone coffin and wielding a long blade, hacking away with all his might.
Swish—!
A flash of blade-light flickered, and a large swath of black-spot monsters was sliced in half.
The meat that Piao found so difficult to chew was surprisingly fragile under Tuoba Feng's blade.
Then there were the ghosts floating out of his coffin.
Those spirits were wreathed in black qi, and though their auras were clearly much weaker than hers—some even looking as though they might dissipate at any moment—they were incredibly efficient.
When they pounced on the monsters, they never missed, tearing a black-spot monster to shreds in just a few strikes.
Piao tilted her head, stopped her chewing, and muttered under her breath.
"Strange."
Why?
In terms of rank, she was now a genuine powerhouse at the third transformation of eerification.
How was it that she was less adept at handling ingredients than a few little ghosts?
'Could it be... that my eating posture is wrong?'
Piao looked down at the remaining half of the monster's leg in her hand, then at the elegant movements of the heroic spirits ahead.
When those heroic spirits killed enemies, they seemed to drift here and glide there, their movements flowing like water.
Piao became thoughtful.
She imitated the heroic spirits, trying to make her body feel lighter.
She took a deep breath, pulled the black-spot meat in her stomach upward, and then, mimicking the stance of the heroic spirits, swung both arms straight back, charging toward a stray black-spot monster like a stiff goose.
Piao opened her mouthparts and, taking advantage of her drifting momentum, bit down on the monster's neck.
Crack!
The monster's neck did not break, and Piao felt as if her mouthparts were about to shatter.
This monster's skin was even thicker than the previous one!
Piao shook her head huffily and stopped caring about posture altogether, grabbing the monster's head with both hands and twisting it hard like she was pulling a radish, then forced the whole thing into her mouth regardless of the consequences.
Gulp.
Swallowing hard again, Piao felt as if her throat was about to burst.
Changing her posture didn't make things any easier; if anything, it was more exhausting.
Just then, a wave of warmth suddenly spread through her belly.
The orchid phantom Su Xue had conjured was taking effect.
The Art of Universal Resurgence brought forth a wave of vitality.
The life-force flowed like a trickling stream, instantly enveloping the hard-to-digest death qi in Piao's stomach.
Under the wash of vitality, the severed limbs rapidly decomposed and melted, turning into pure divine energy.
Piao's eyes lit up.
Since the start of their journey to the Western Region, she had grown more and more fond of staying by Su Xue's side.
Not only was she beautiful and soft-spoken, but most importantly, she could help with digestion!
This meant that as long as she followed Su Xue, she could eat more and tougher things without worrying about indigestion.
The memory of nearly vomiting after eating copper poison was still fresh in her mind; she didn't want to look back on those past events.
In the past, only Ugly Hag would care if she felt uncomfortable after eating, but now there was another.
Piao stole a glance at the woman in green beside her, silently making a plan in her heart.
'The family list needs an update.'
Once they returned to the City of the Wrongfully Dead, she would record Su Xue's name in her little notebook.
Ugly Hag, the lord, and Big Sister Su Xue.
From now on, no matter where she went to eat, she would definitely bring Su Xue along.
She was so happy!
At this moment, Su Xue did not notice what Piao was thinking.
Her brow was slightly furrowed, her expression grave.
Although she specialized in the medical path, focusing on vitality and healing rather than slaughter, she was no amateur.
Since she had connected to the Myriad Herbs Life-Death Realm with that lord's help, her control over life and death energy had long since reached a level of perfection.
Against ordinary enemies, she only needed a single thought to reverse the life-force in their bodies into death qi, stripping them of life instantly.
Against dead things, she was even more of a natural counter.
However, the black-spot monsters here were very strange; the divinity and death qi within them were perfectly harmonized, protecting each other.
Attempting to trigger an explosion within them required several times more vitality than usual.
Su Xue was a great demon king who had successfully ascended to the seventh-stage.
According to the rules of the demon world in Gloomlight Province, her realm was already enough to claim the title of "Saint," just like the Thousand-Eyed Toad Saint or the Moon-Swallowing Wolf Saint.
Yet now, she found it so difficult to deal with these black-spot monsters.
And yet Tuoba Feng could clear the field with a single strike?
If this weren't the Western Region, where the air was permeated with endless death qi that she could convert through Life-Death Transformation to replenish herself, her vitality power would likely have run dry by now.
Su Xue's hair fluttered in the wind, at times pitch-black like ink as it absorbed the surrounding death qi, and at times snowy white as it released brilliant vitality.
As she scattered orchid phantoms, she quickly scanned the area.
"Something is wrong," Su Xue whispered to herself.
She had discovered an even stranger phenomenon: the death qi in the black-spot monsters flanking them from the left, right, and rear was intensely thick.
But strangely, while the monsters directly ahead were numerous, the concentration of death qi in their bodies was lower, making them slightly weaker.
Such a difference would be hard for an ordinary person to perceive, but as a plant-turned-demon, Su Xue's perception of death qi was far more acute than that of Piao or Tuoba Feng.
This was illogical.
The front was clearly the location of the god's tomb, the source of the black-spot outbreak. Logically, the closer they got to the source, the stronger the monsters should be.
The current situation was as if...
As if a pair of invisible hands were deliberately herding them.
They were not allowed to go left, not allowed to go right, and certainly not allowed to retreat.
They could only go forward.
They could only head toward that specific destination.
"Someone... or something, is guiding us."
Warning bells rang in Su Xue's heart.
She looked at Tuoba Feng ahead.
Tuoba Feng seemed to have entered a state of frenzy.
The massive blade in his hands swung in wide, sweeping arcs. He didn't care about exhausting his stamina or even about defense; he simply hacked his way forward relentlessly.
"Tuoba, slow down!" Su Xue couldn't help but call out a warning.
But Tuoba Feng didn't seem to hear her.
"Xiaoyun... don't be afraid, Daddy's here..."
Tuoba Feng muttered to himself, his eyes bloodshot.
He heard it.
The voice in the depths of his heart was becoming clearer and clearer—it was his daughter's crying. She was saying she was cold, saying it was dark, and calling for her daddy to save her.
This sound echoed in his heart and even burrowed into his mind, refusing to fade, causing Tuoba Feng to lose his reason.
Su Xue sighed.
Though she didn't know who the Xiaoyun Tuoba Feng spoke of was, she could tell his current state was very dangerous.
The lord had sent them here specifically to uncover the truth of the god's tomb.
Rate on N.U.
