Chapter 373: Lotus-leaf-made Mouths
Ai Hui was groaning in his heart.
Suddenly, the lotus leaves beneath his feet transformed into big, sinister, green-colored mouths. The inside of every mouth was a dark void, resembling a gateway to the netherworld. Even with scorching sunlight shining on him, Ai Hui’s hair still stood on end.
A terrifying, attractive force erupted from the huge mouths. Ai Hui’s body trembled. He could feel the elemental energy in his body was out of his control and was flowing towards those mouths.
Ai Hui was flabbergasted. After he stepped into the Two Elemental Realm, his control over his elemental energy had become very strong. Even though most of the time he could not control the elemental energy in his surroundings, he could still maintain a great control over the elemental energy within his body. A situation like this seldom happened to him
His surroundings rapidly became dark.
Even the sunlight was being devoured by the huge lotus-leaf-made mouths.
What kind of weird technique was this?
A cold shiver went down Ai Hui’s spine. He had to take off from the ground immediately! He spread the Starry Gem Swordwings on his back and flew towards the sky.
However, what happened next set him in fear and trepidation.
The darkness beneath was rising and catching up to him swiftly. Like the darkness from the netherworld, the surrounding light was being devoured with a horrifying speed. The speed of the rising darkness was much faster than Ai Hui’s flying speed. In an instant, the darkness surpassed him, rising over him into the distance.
Ai Hui was in a void of darkness now. A beam of sunlight shone on his head from above him.
Half of his body was being illuminated but no shadow was produced. The beam of light continued on its path towards the boundless void beneath his feet. The worst thing was the beam of light was shrinking rapidly.
Ai Hui felt as if he had fallen into a huge drawstring bag and the beam of light that was shining on his head was shrinking due to the drawstring being pulled and tightened.
No matter how much effort he put in, he could not get closer to the mouth of the drawstring bag above him. The opening was becoming smaller and smaller.
When the last trace of sunlight vanished, the sky above Ai Hui’s head had disappeared and his surroundings were engulfed by darkness. Only the huge lotus-leaf-made mouths beneath his feet were still emitting a faint glow. However, very soon, the mouths started to close one by one. All of them had withdrawn back into the void of darkness like nimble jade snakes.
When the last traces of faint light disappeared, there was nothing left except for the void and darkness.
Dead silence. Absolute dead silence. Ai Hui could hear his own heartbeat. The speed at which his elemental energy was depleting was becoming increasingly fast. Eventually, it was so fast that Ai Hui became panicked.
An unknown amount of time had passed.
Ai Hui seemed to lose his gauge of time. He sensed something was amiss. To a veteran with rich combat experience like him, sensitivity towards time was an instinct to him.
However, at this point of time, his instincts had failed him!
Before Ai Hui could understand what was going on, he suddenly heard a sound.
Thump, thump, thump!
It sounded as if someone was beating a drum. With every hit of the "drum", the sound got louder and louder. It was so loud that Ai Hui’s head was throbbing.
Wait, wasn’t that the sound of his own heartbeat?
He was stunned. Whatever happened here was filled with a weird aura.
The sound of heartbeats became increasingly loud, so much so that he felt he was flooded by it. Suddenly, he realized that his fingers did not seem to follow his commands. By the time he could react to it, a feeling of numbness was spreading throughout his body.
His entire body froze.
In the dead silent void, Ai Hui was like a motionless statue.
Like a venomous snake, the feeling of numbness drilled into his brain. He could feel that his thinking process was gradually becoming sluggish and numb.
Helplessness arose within his mind. The strength disparity between him and Qing Feng was so great that he could not even retaliate.
The grass-lotus puppet created by Dai Gang was so powerful!
Ai Hui remained motionless. Like a corroded gear, his brain was operating with sluggishness and difficulty. He felt as if he was taking countless years to even let out a sigh of regret.
His stationary eyes stared blankly at the void in front of him.
She Yu did not expect herself to be so passive today.
Even though Old Ling was a Master, his strength was not enough to push her into such a difficult situation. Her attention was mainly focused on the green glowing ball. Every single lotus leaf emitted a beam of green light. All the beams of green light converged in the air and formed a green glowing ball.
Chu Zhaoyang was motionless like a statue in the green glowing ball. His eyes were hollow and devoid of any life.
She wondered whether or not Ai Hui was still alive in the green glowing ball.
What inheritance was this?
She shivered with cold. Anything or anyone that was related to Dai Gang was complicated in nature. Even a grass-lotus puppet built by Dai Gang was so terrifying...
No wonder Holy Emperor was most scared of Dai Gang.
This was no secret among the higher-ups of God Nation.
Holy Emperor referred to An Muda as a pile of dried up bones. Every time the name of An Muda was mentioned, Holy Emperor would snort disdainfully. As a Grandmaster, An Muda still let the Avalon of Five Elements fall apart. Holy Emperor saw this as incompetence.
On the other hand, Holy Emperor feared and admired Dai Gang at the same time. He viewed Dai Gang as a powerful enemy.
Before today, She Yu did not really have a high regard for Dai Gang. She felt that he was not qualified of becoming Holy Emperor’s enemy. She was fortunate to be taught by Holy Emperor before, and therefore she clearly knew how unfathomable Holy Emperor’s strength was. However, the terrifying capabilities that Qing Feng displayed today had certainly startled her.
She clearly knew how difficult it was to deal with Ai Hui.
Strength-wise, Ai Hui was much weaker than her. However, every time she fought with Ai Hui, he would give her so much trouble.
Ai Hui was extremely vigilant and cunning. Whenever he was in dire straits, he would become extremely determined and ruthless and fight with all he had. A moment of carelessness would cause her to be severely injured. The Ai Hui from three years ago was already very hard to deal with. The current Ai Hui was even harder to deal with.
Hence, when She Yu saw Ai Hui stay motionless like a statue in the green glowing ball, she was extremely traumatized.
Luckily, Ai Hui had not died yet.
Without batting an eyelid, she flitted to and fro among Old Ling’s attacks like an ever-changing wisp of half-smoke-half-phantom.
Old Ling’s face was slightly pale. Qing Feng had already gained the upperhand, but he had not even taken down his opponent yet. This made him feel ashamed. After all, he was a Master, how could he lose to a grass-lotus puppet?
Old Ling’s offense became increasingly aggressive. This caused She Yu’s situation to become increasingly difficult.
A smile appeared on Qing Feng’s face. He cackled, "Such powerful skills? This can only mean that you’re one of the seeds of God Nation. And since you’re a girl, that means you’re Red Dress She Yu."
She Yu was overwhelmed with horror. There was nothing unusual about finding out who she was. However, the seeds of God Nation were confidential and unknown to many. Even in the internal department of God Nation, there were not many people who knew about it. How did Qing Feng know about it?
Could it be... Dai Gang?
Dai Gang actually knew so much about God Nation!
She Yu’s first thought was that there was a traitor in the internal department of God Nation. However, she shut down this notion very soon. No traitors could avoid Holy Emperor’s eyes.
"I heard that She Yu is a great beauty. No wonder your figure is so good. It’s a pity I don’t want to be a woman. I’m wasting such a good body."
Qing Feng’s voice was cackling and abnormally awful. Right now, his voice was leaking and unclear.
Upon hearing Qing Feng’s words, She Yu’s blood ran cold. Could Dai Gang replace Qing Feng’s grass-lotus body with a human body?
The only human part on Qing Feng was his head. Wouldn’t that mean Dai Gang could switch heads?
This kind of forbidden art had not even been developed yet in God Nation’s Beast Venom Temple.
Having been distracted, she was almost injured by Old Ling’s attack.
Qing Feng shifted his gaze from She Yu to Ai Hui, who was still trapped in the green glowing ball. After examining Ai Hui for a while, he could not help but gasp in admiration, "This body seems not bad."
The more Qing Feng looked at Ai Hui’s body, the brighter his eyes grew. This was body was simply perfect.
Ai Hui had a well-proportioned body frame and his muscles contained terrifying power. Even his eyeballs were sparkling and translucent. Qing Feng had never seen such a perfect body.
Qing Feng was overjoyed. He then chuckled loudly, "Hahaha! How unexpected! It’s really unexpected! I actually found the body I need in this place. With this body, I can become human again! I want to become human again! Hahaha!"
Qing Feng suddenly stopped laughing. He turned around, looked at She Yu and grinned, "Speaking of becoming human again, don’t the blood elementalists always keep elementalists as captives to interrogate them?"
His voice was already awful. This made his words sound even more frightening.
She Yu shuddered in fear. After getting grazed by Old Ling’s attack, there was a deep cut on her left arm. The cut was so deep that her arm’s bone could be seen. At this moment, the corner of She Yu’s eyes suddenly caught sight of something. She turned, slightly shocked.
Inside the green glowing ball, Ai Hui remained stationary like a statue. However, within the depths of his hollow eyes, a needle-like radiance was silently appearing. Upon seeing this, She Yu’s eyes lit up.
After floating in the void of darkness for an unknown period of time, Ai Hui’s consciousness was slowly returning. Even though he was still very sluggish, he did not completely lose his ability to think.
Was the void of darkness an illusion?
As this thought emerged in his mind, the [Skyheart Flaming Lotus Lamp] in his sky palace began to operate.
It was operating very slowly. A wisp of a small flame rose from the [Skyheart Flaming Lotus Lamp].
After this, the operating speed of the [Skyheart Flaming Lotus Lamp] started to increase slowly. The light from the [Skyheart Flaming Lotus Lamp] slowly scanned Ai Hui’s body.
Whoosh!
Suddenly, a faint layer of flames appeared all over Ai Hui’s body. The flames were extremely weak and appeared almost colorless. However, when the layer of flames appeared, Ai Hui felt his entire body become lighter all of a sudden. His sluggish mind became much clearer in an instant.
Ai Hui immediately calmed down.
Since the [Skyheart Flaming Lotus Lamp] worked, this proved that the void of darkness he was in was an illusion. [Skyheart Flaming Lotus Lamp] specialized in breaking illusions. It was exceptionally effective against this kind of illusion. What happened next also verified Ai Hui’s conjecture.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Wisps of black smoke rose around Ai Hui’s body. His body began to emit traces of weak flames. These weak flames looked as if they could burn the void of darkness.
After a while, Qing Feng lost interest in the battle between She Yu and Old Ling. He already felt extremely content about capturing such an outstanding body. If he could bring Xiao Shuren back to Grandmaster Dai, that would be perfect!
If he achieved such a great meritorious service for Grandmaster Dai, the Grandmaster would replace his body with the perfect body of Ai Hui.
No, there was no such word as ‘perfect’ in Grandmaster Dai’s dictionary. Nevermind, Grandmaster Dai could make his already perfect body even more perfect.
He would become more powerful as well!
When Qing Feng thought of becoming more powerful and having a new body, an excitement swept across his mind.
As his gaze landed upon Xiao Shuren’s court, a sinister smile appeared on his face.
Suddenly, he sensed something was amiss. He turned his body around abruptly and looked at the green glowing ball above the ground of lotus leaves.
Both of them looked at each other in the eyes.