?"Then let's not stay here and give it what it wants. The beast is carefully wandering around the trees, making sure not to harm or damage any of the eyes," I said. "Let's use that and get away."
"I see your point, but get away to where? Behind us are the walkers who I'm pretty sure are finding their way here, and in front of us is a Void Stage beast. Though you're the only one capable of fighting, you can't win," Old Fu said.
He was right. Everyone here had their cultivation sealed. Although they can move and walk, they're all barely able to fight anything. Old Fu, even as a Void Shattering cultivator, is probably not even stronger than a Qi condensation cultivator right now.
"We're not fighting it. I have no idea what this Sheng Huo is capable of, nor do I want to find out right now. Also, there," I pointed between the trees, "there is a breeze coming in from there. There must be an exit or at least a path leading away."
Everyone followed the pointing of my hands. There is hope then.
"Right, but we need a distraction. Are we to use these soldiers as bait?" Old Fu said.
"It's not even noon yet! can we not get to sacrificing civilians already? Besides I have a way," I said as I threw a talisman toward one of the trees.
The moment the talisman stuck to the tree, the Sheng Huo immediately slithered its way towards its location. It sniffed around the paper with one of its many faces, and once the beast figured out the talisman posed no threat to itself or the tree, it ignored it.
"Follow me, hurry," I said as I ran up ahead.
Old Fu and the soldiers instantly followed after me as we navigated through the trees.
"It's following us!" one of the soldiers said, panic clear in his voice.
"I know, just keep moving!" I said as all of us ran forward.
"What are you planning?" Old Fu asked.
"Divide and conquer. We need to pull its attention as much as possible before diverting it," I said.
"And that Talisman has something to do with that?" he asked.
"Indeed," I said as the Sheng Huo slid in front of us, its claws sc.r.a.ping the ground in sparkling lights as it growled at us.
I didn't allow the creature to take another action as I snapped my fingers.
This caused the talisman from before to ignite and burst outward in a torrent of flames.
The creature, enraged at what happened, prioritized going back to the tree and trying to snuff out the flames than outright murder us there.
"RUN!" I said as the beast moved toward the flames.
"You successfully made it p.i.s.sed off at us," said Old Fu.
"Yep, and that was the only way to pull away its attention. It will take a long while to try and snuff out the flame," I said.
"Special talisman?" asked Fu.
"Yep, now let's hurry up; the breeze source is up ahead," I said.
The trees behind us took on more and more of the flames, and the creature kept howling as it tried to snuff them out. But the more it tried, the harder those flames will burn. My goal was never to burn those trees since I had no idea what they were for. But if I were to at least hamper the Sheng Huo from following us, then I don't really care if it all turns to cinders, even if those trees had a use or were of value.
We arrived at a ma.s.sive wall of the cavern we were in, extending all the way up to the cavern's ceiling. However, there was a fissure in the wall, big enough to allow a person through.
"Get in!" I said as I jumped into the fissure and looked outside it. Only to realize that s.h.i.+t wasn't as safe as I thought.
A gust of powerful rising wind surged from down deep below. There was not a single ounce of Qi here, and the powerful gust of wind surged from the deep and seemed to go all the way up. Looking up, there was a hole far, far away from us.
Old Fu came out of the fissure, his hand locked on the wall, his claw-like a metal grip dug into it.
He took a glance down, then up, and cursed.
"We're in trouble," he said.
"THE BEAST IS COMING!" said one of the soldiers still inside the cavern.
I pulled a long rope out of my holding bag and tied it around my waist and had it dangle with one arm as my other hand was gripping tightly on the walls.
I wanted to use my four robotic arms, but those are powered by Saint Qi Spirit Stones, and they were also sealed within a spatial fold that I was unable to access. Otherwise, I would have just used the paG.o.da. So, this had to be manual.
"Jump and grab onto the rope," I said.
The soldiers didn't hesitate as they jumped out of the fissure and grabbed onto the rope. All eight of them dangled from the rope.
"The Sheng Huo is coming, he's almost here," said one of them.
"We'll need to go up; old Fu, can you keep up?" I said.
"Yes, I'm recovering slightly. The moment we're outside, I should have the majority of my power back," he said.
"Then let's go!" I said as I clawed my way upward as fast as possible.
Old Fu followed after me, with his fingers stabbing through stone like it was b.u.t.ter as he went up, occasionally looking at the rift on the wall under us to make sure the Sheng Huo didn't follow after us.
But before any of us could react, a loud explosive echo burst from above all of us, enough of it that my face turned white.
The d.a.m.ned Sheng Huo actually burst out of the wall above us, and now ma.s.sive amounts of rock were falling at us.
"HANG ON TIGHT!" I said as I latched myself as close to the wall as I could while the rocks fell. The dangling and panic of the cultivators stuck to the rope were in many instances about to pull me down with them.
Thankfully, the majority of the rocks fell harmlessly, and we didn't lose anyone. But my eye locked onto the many-faced Sheng Huo above me that howled and came down as it was gripping on the wall.
It came charging down like a stampeding bulldozer with one objective, to crash into us and throw us into this bottomless-
looking gorge.
Thanks to the upcoming and powerful wind pressure, my skills won't harm the people underneath me. I opened my mouth and spat out my most corrosive poison, the Grizzly Spider's Flame Poison.
The purple smoke surged out in a ma.s.sive cone, and with a snap of my teeth, the poison ignited.
The incoming Sheng Huo, clearly panic-stricken as it had probably never met someone able to use Qi in its presence, tried to dodge away. But the rising wind and the potent poison were too fast for it to react.
The ignition of the poison found a host in the beast and burnt bright, but the b.a.s.t.a.r.d was keen on not going down alone. Granted, instead of trying to snuff out the flame, duck and roll style, it jumped at me, grabbing me by the shoulders.
Carrying eight cultivators decked out in armor was not the heaviest thing in my book. After all, my strength is capable of more than just that.
However, being pulled out of the wall by a dozen-ton weighing beast of nightmares. Even if I could also easily carry that, the walls I'm gripping gave out before my strength did. And down we go to the land of the unknown.
Old Fu, who was the only one that wasn't pulled down with us, instead of going up and saving himself, he actually let go of the walls and jumped toward the burning body of the falling Sheng Huo.
Now, that's the dumbest s.h.i.+t I've seen anyone do in a while. But frankly speaking, it was pretty brave and honorable.
I grinned as I saw the old man trying to save me even when his own Qi reserves were little to nothing.
The screams of the soldiers were all you could hear as we were going down deeper and deeper into this gorge that was only lit by the rapidly fading poisonous flames from the Sheng Huo's body.
The wind blowing and the rapid fall helped it extinguish the flames, but its inability to fly made it completely useless as it flailed around, trying to grip into anything that could keep it from falling to its death.
Old Fu came towards me, his head pointing first and his whole body shaped like an incoming torpedo to further increase his speed.
"Cut them loose!" he shouted.
I understood what he wanted to do; he probably realized I could easily save myself if I were to cut them loose.
"Don't worry, I got a plan!" I shouted back as I threw old Fu another rope.
He grabbed it and pulled himself toward all of us as we further fell down.
The flailing Sheng Huo managed to slam into a nearby wall, and because of that, he was bounced off of it and was now heading toward us. Realizing that this fall might be its last, it was not planning on going down alone. Quite literally as it bared its fangs and claws at me.