220: Chapter 220 Black Ming Jiao

Under Qin Ce's command, the Qingluan flew past two Wind Cores. After the acceleration from the Wind Cores, it flew toward the Star-Glow Rank Vicious Beast at a speed faster than Wang Zhuo's Silver-Patterned Peacock.

The sound of the wind whistled in his ears, and the mist streaked past before his eyes.

The Qingluan's speed had reached its limit. Its silver-blue feathers emitted a faint humming sound during the high-speed flight, and the nine Wind Cores scattered in the sky behind it like nine receding stars.

Qin Ce looked back.

Wang Zhuo's red image had stopped in place and was no longer pursuing.

In the vision of Nine-Star Insight, his three-colored sword radiance looked like a lamp that was gradually dimming, becoming smaller and smaller, further and further away, until it was completely swallowed by the mist.

Wang Zhuo hovered in the air, watching that blue-gold figure moving further and further away, and spat fiercely.

"Damn it, you're lucky."

He glared hatefully at the direction where Qin Ce had disappeared, the killing intent in his eyes so thick it felt like it was about to drip out.

But he did not pursue.

The Silver-Patterned Peacock's speed was inferior to the Qingluan, especially when the Qingluan had the acceleration of the Wind Cores.

Continuing the chase would only waste time and energy, and that time and energy could have been used for more important things.

However, Qin Ce was just going to die sooner or later anyway.

Wang Zhuo did not believe that Qin Ce could survive once he reached the Star-Glow Rank Vicious Beast.

The pressure in that roar made his back feel cold even from tens of miles away.

That level of existence was not something a Silver Rank like Qin Ce could provoke.

If he went there, it would be suicide.

Wang Zhuo withdrew his gaze and turned to look at the battlefield.

Next, it was his moment.

At this moment, there were still more than ten Gold-Tier Ferocious Beasts on the battlefield, and every one of them was injured.

Some had broken horns, some were blinded, some had their bellies ripped open, and some had their legs broken. They were still trapped in the illusion; some were laughing, some were crying, some were rolling on the ground, and some were in a daze.

They were completely defenseless, without any ability to resist, like a flock of lambs waiting to be slaughtered.

The corners of Wang Zhuo's mouth curled into a cold arc.

He only needed eight Gold-Tier Ferocious Beasts, and he would be the first to complete the charging of the Divine-Grade key.

Eight. With his current state, one sword strike per beast, it wouldn't take long to kill enough.

He dove down riding the Silver-Patterned Peacock, the three-colored radiance of the Three Absolute Swords condensing at the tip of the blade, slashing toward the nearest Earth-Splitting Bear.

The Earth-Splitting Bear was still immersed in the illusion, its mouth grinning, revealing a satisfied smile, completely unaware that death had descended.

The sword radiance cut into its neck, killing it in one strike. At the bottom of the diamond-shaped crystal in Wang Zhuo's hand, the golden liquid rose by a small amount.

The first one.

He turned to the second one.

A Frost-Toothed Tiger stood motionless on the spot, eyes wide open, reflecting unknown images in its pupils. The sword radiance of the Three Absolute Swords pierced through the top of its head, penetrating the skull. The tiger's massive body collapsed with a bang, shaking the ground.

The golden liquid rose by another small amount.

The second one.

The arc of Wang Zhuo's mouth deepened by a few degrees.

At this rate, it wouldn't take long for him to kill eight.

He turned to the third one.

Then, he noticed something wrong.

The surrounding Vicious Beasts had stopped moving for some reason.

They were no longer laughing, no longer crying, no longer rolling, no longer in a daze.

Their heads turned slowly, and pairs of blurry, unfocused, unfocused eyes looked straight at him.

Not looking in his direction, but looking at him.

Staring straight at him, like zombies.

A layer of cold sweat seeped out of Wang Zhuo's back.

He didn't know why.

They were clearly still in the illusion, their eyes were clearly unfocused, but there was something in their eyes that wasn't there before.

It was something more primitive, more instinctive, something that couldn't be described.

It was like a perception, an instinct hidden deep in the Bloodline, surpassing vision, surpassing hearing, surpassing all senses, a warning.

Perhaps it was the subconscious empathy felt after the death of the Vicious Beasts.

Or perhaps they had hallucinated Wang Zhuo as some kind of common enemy in the illusion.

Regardless of which it was, the result was the same.

That Earth-Splitting Bear was dead, and that tiger was also dead.

Their deaths caused all the remaining living Vicious Beasts to treat Wang Zhuo as an enemy at the same moment.

"Roar——!!!"

The two heads of a Two-headed Monster roared at the same time, its four eyes turning red. It picked up a mace from the ground and rushed toward Wang Zhuo. Its pace was unstable, and its vision was blurry, but its direction was correct—the direction where Wang Zhuo was.

"Awoo——!!!"

A Purple Thunder Demon Leopard rushed from the side, leaping high into the air, and a bolt of thunder smashed down toward Wang Zhuo. Its eyes were still hazy, and a smile from the illusion still hung on its mouth, but its thunder was real.

"Hiss——!!!"

A Ghost Wolf pounced from behind, its sharp claws aiming straight for Wang Zhuo's back. One of its hind legs was broken, making it limp as it ran, but its speed was not slow, and its direction was very accurate.

More than a dozen Gold-Tier Ferocious Beasts surged toward Wang Zhuo from all directions at the same time.

They couldn't see the real world, they couldn't see Wang Zhuo's face, and they didn't even know why they were attacking. But they collectively launched an attack in coordination.

Wang Zhuo's face turned livid.

He pulled up sharply, the Silver-Patterned Peacock flapped its wings violently, and he rushed out of the encirclement of the Vicious Beasts.

But his team members were not so lucky.

They were still in the illusion, their reactions were a beat slower than Wang Zhuo's, and their Pet Beasts were also in the illusion, completely unaware that danger had arrived.

A Beast Tamer riding a flying Pet Beast was swept by the Two-headed Monster's mace, and both the person and the Pet Beast were sent flying.

Another Beast Tamer was hit by the Earth-Splitting Bear's paw and fell from the sky.

The Beast Tamer of the Rock-Armored Turtle tried his best to hold up an energy shield to block behind Wang Zhuo, but the energy shield shattered after only three seconds under the siege of more than a dozen Gold-Tier Ferocious Beasts.

Wang Zhuo gritted his teeth and had to turn back to fight.

His team members could no longer help him; they were struggling to survive themselves. He could only rely on himself.

The three-colored radiance of the Three Absolute Swords flashed wildly among the group of Vicious Beasts.

But he was only one person, with one Pet Beast and one sword.

And there were more than a dozen Vicious Beasts, surging from all directions at once.

He was besieged.

It was not the kind of siege with coordination, formation, and method as before, but a chaotic, crazy, and desperate siege.

The Vicious Beasts didn't care if they would be hurt, didn't care if they would die; they were just attacking, attacking non-stop, attacking wildly.

If it weren't for his advantage of not being affected by the illusion, being able to see the attack trajectory of every Vicious Beast, and being able to make the most precise evasions at the most critical moments, he might have been killed in the first siege.

But even so, he was caught in a difficult situation, dealing with it extremely dangerously.

A claw mark was left on his back, and his combat suit was torn open.

A tooth mark was left on his left arm, and blood dripped down his arm.

The aftershock of an energy wave made his chest feel stuffy, and blood spilled from the corner of his mouth.

Six Gold-Tier Ferocious Beasts.

He only needed to kill six more.

But now, he couldn't kill a single one.

Whenever he tried to lock onto a Vicious Beast to prepare for a kill, other Vicious Beasts would attack from behind or the side, forcing him to give up the attack and turn to defense or evasion.

His key energy was stuck at just over ninety percent.

There was still the final stretch to reach one hundred percent.

But he couldn't get it.

A gloomy look flashed in Wang Zhuo's eyes.

He looked hatefully to the north, where the blue-gold figure had long since disappeared into the mist without a trace.

...

On the other side.

Qin Ce did not know Wang Zhuo's situation.

When Wang Zhuo's figure completely disappeared from his Nine-Star Insight vision, he immediately let the Qingluan slow down and flew cautiously.

The mist was still thick, and the seven-colored gas was still filling the air, but the world before his eyes was no longer that bizarre, pieced-together world.

Nine-Star Insight continued to operate, and in his vision, there were only red human figures, red beast shadows, red energy fluctuations, and the semi-transparent outlines of the surrounding environment.

Qin Ce patted the Qingluan's neck and stroked the head of the Tianlu in his arms.

"Tianlu, lead the way."

The Tianlu poked its head out of his arms, the nine-colored light on its antlers flickered a few times, and then it pointed to the northwest direction.

Qin Ce did not hesitate.

The Qingluan tilted its wings slightly and flew in the direction pointed by the Tianlu.

The Qingluan flew very slowly, more than half as slow as before.

The territory of a Star-Glow Rank Vicious Beast could not be compared to that of a Gold-Tier Ferocious Beast; its perception range was larger, its vigilance was higher, and its tolerance for intruders was lower.

Qin Ce needed to keep Nine-Star Insight running at full power at all times, constantly alert for dangers that might appear ahead, and ready to turn or retreat at any moment.

When Qin Ce was luring those Gold-Tier Ferocious Beasts before, he was actually trying to lure them to the outer areas as much as possible.

Because he knew that a large part of the Vicious Beasts were backed by a Star-Glow Rank Vicious Beast, he wanted to stay as far away from the range of that Star-Glow Rank Vicious Beast as possible.

Those Gold-Tier Ferocious Beasts that were angered by him, mocked by him, and lured toward Wang Zhuo were mostly 'sentinels' or 'subordinates' on the periphery of this Star-Glow Rank Vicious Beast.

Their territory radiated outward from the core area of the Star-Glow Rank Vicious Beast, layer by layer, spreading like water ripples.

So at this moment, when he was rushing to the area of the Star-Glow Rank Vicious Beast, he was going in the opposite direction.

Moving deep from the periphery to the core area.

Along the way, he passed through many territories of Gold-Tier Ferocious Beasts.

Some territories were empty—the Vicious Beasts had been lured away and had not yet returned. In some territories, there were still Vicious Beasts, but they were all trapped in the illusion, lying in their territory, motionless, as if dead.

Qin Ce flew over their heads, and they had no reaction.

After flying for about half an hour, the terrain ahead began to change.

The ground changed from gravel and dead grass to rock and moss, and from gentle slopes to steep ridges.

The concentration of energy in the air was rising sharply, not wind-type, not thunder-type, but a colder, heavier aura, as if something was pressing on his chest.

Qin Ce had the Qingluan lower its altitude, flying along the back of the ridge, using the mountain to block his figure and aura.

The nine-colored light on the Tianlu's antlers completely converged, and it curled up in Qin Ce's arms, motionless.

It also felt the danger; that level of existence was not something it could provoke.

Over one ridge, then over another.

When the Qingluan crossed the last ridge, Qin Ce's field of vision suddenly opened up.

Ahead, a large lake appeared.

The lake was huge, so large that one could not see the other side at a glance.

The lake water was deep blue, reflecting a cold luster under the gray sky light.

There was no wind or waves on the lake, as calm as a huge mirror.

The lake was surrounded by steep mountain walls, enclosing the large lake into a natural basin, with only a narrow gap on the side where Qin Ce was located.

And in the center of this large lake, there was a small island.

The island was not big, just a few hundred square meters, with no trees, no grass, only bare rocks.

The rocks were black, looking like a huge piece of black jade against the lake water.

That Star-Glow Rank Vicious Beast was above this small island.

Qin Ce's pupils shrank violently.

It was a giant beast with a dragon's head and a snake's body, over thirty meters long, pitch black all over, its scales reflecting a cold luster in the reflection of the lake water. Its head was like the dragon in legends, with horns, whiskers, and fangs.

Its body was like a snake, slender and powerful, coiling above the small island, shrouding the entire island in its shadow.

At this moment, the entire beautiful, rippling large lake had been turned upside down by this giant beast.

It was attacking.

Not attacking a specific enemy, but attacking the surrounding air.

It opened its mouth, spitting out a dark black energy column, hitting the lake, exploding into a huge splash of water.

A large hole was blown into the lake, revealing the black lake bottom below.

The splash fell down like a torrential rain, hitting the mountain wall, making a dense pattering sound.

It swung its tail, the black tail cutting through the air with a sharp whistling sound, whipping onto the lake surface.

The lake was cut into a deep gully, water walls on both sides reaching several meters high, surging to both sides, slapping against the mountain wall with a dull roar.

It tilted its head and roared, emitting a shrill, highly penetrating roar.

The sound echoed in the basin, shaking Qin Ce's eardrums painfully, and causing gravel on the mountain wall to fall down with a rustling sound.

The pressure contained in the sound, even from such a long distance, still made the Qingluan's body tremble slightly, and made the Tianlu shrink even tighter.

Qin Ce pressed the Qingluan down on the ridge, Nine-Star Insight running at full power.

Everything was done carefully; Qin Ce did not dare to mess around at all.

The perception range of a Star-Glow Rank Vicious Beast was too large; he dared not let the Qingluan fly up, dared not let the Tianlu release any energy fluctuations, and even suppressed his own breathing to the lowest level.

He could only lie on the back of the ridge, observing every move of the giant beast through the vision of Nine-Star Insight.

There was a wound on the giant beast's body.

Not an old wound, but a new one.

There was a long wound on its abdomen, extending from its chest to its tail, the scales around the wound rolled up, revealing the dark red flesh underneath.

The wound had not fully healed, and fresh blood was oozing from the edges, dripping down its scales onto the lake, staining the lake water a faint red.

Qin Ce's brows furrowed.

Nine-Star Insight operated again, and this time, he focused all his Mental Energy on the giant beast.

Lines of information poured into his mind like flowing water.