Chapter 67 Gardening by the Riverside
The three Qi Practitioners exclaimed out in shock, that ship was one of the strongest soul weapons in the water stockade, it was the Shui Tu Clan transportation vehicle used when visiting the other clans, after constant polish and refinement through by generations of Shui Tu Clan elders, its strength and toughness was beyond doubt!
This ship was even used as a warship to rage in wars, defending the clan members from countless assaults of soul weapons and techniques; every trial it had endured in the past had never left so much as a scratch on its hull and yet, it was now cleaved into half by a fang!
The three Qi Practitioners quickly sheathed their soul weapons, they said, “Careful, this blade is too strong, don’t let it touch you….”
Zhong Yue leaped into the air, he swung his dragon tail and swept one of the Qi Practitioners away, the impact caused the Qi Practitioner to spurt out blood in mid-air. But Zhong Yue did not stop there, he aimed at the Qi Practitioner’s chest and heavily punched right at it!
The other two Qi Practitioners quickly turned and started to escape in fear, but lightning crackled beneath the Xiang Dragon and with a flash, it had caught up to them. Two dragon claws and two Qi Practitioners, they were slammed away by Zhong Yue.
Three deafeningly loud booms could be heard as the Qi Practitioners crashed into the Shui Tu Clan water stockade, they were slammed into the wooden defense wall with only their legs exposed out in the air, the broken wood splintered into their bodies creating wounds and forming rivulets of blood that trickled out like streams of water.
They were afraid of using their soul weapons, but if they were to engage in close-quarter combat, none of them could compete against Zhong Yue!
The broken wood prickled into the muscles of the three Qi Practitioners, one of them bellowed, “Awaken the Hebo, awaken the Hebo!”
In the water stockade, the Shui Tu Clan members quickly knelt down and prayed to the Hebo; Standing in the middle, he grew bigger and taller, around him were totem carvings that could be clearly seen, water around the stockade started to swirl around, forming a humongous whirlpool with water dragons soaring and fluttering in the water. They were dreadful and fully materialized, seeming like dragon kings of the water!
Zhong Yue stopped abruptly, he gazed at the Hebo from afar, his heart was palpitating, he could feel the strong and dreadful aura that flooded the water stockade.
Shui Tu Clan’s totem spirit, Hebo, was worshipped by the clan members for millions of years, a totem spirit with unimaginable strength and prowess – his existence was like a living god that guarded the water stockade!
His aura was strong and dreadful, his existence alone caused the water level to rise higher and higher, even the sky turned gloomy, the heavy rain poured down, and as the lightning flashed across the sky, the body of the great Hebo was shown to be even more majestic!
With Zhong Yue’s current prowess, he would definitely be crushed into bone ash if he dared to ram into the water stockade!
The great Hebo walked around the water stockade and released a few howls of anger, his speed was incredibly fast but he never stepped out of the water stockade.
The top ten clan is indeed strong. With this Hebo as their guardian, ordinary Qi Practitioners could never stand a chance in front of him! I suppose only the magnates can penetrate through its defenses and barge into the water stockade?
Zhong Yue could not help but praise in his heart. Only the top clans with thousands and millions of years history could have possessed such a strong totem spirit; whereas for his home clan, the Zhong Shan Clan, there was not even a single Qi Practitioner, not to mention the totem spirit.
It seems like the Hebo can’t walk out of the water stockade?
Zhong Yue glanced at the Hebo and was ready to leave, although there was hatred between him and Tian Myriad Mother, it had nothing to do with the Shui Tu Clan members, he was only releasing his anger on them as they had attempted to capture him the last time.
“Quick, inform the elder and have this monstrous creature captured! We must not let it escape!”
The three Qi Practitioners stood up, one of them stood in mid-air, his voice was filled with wrath, “This Xiang Dragon dares to humiliate us, after the elder captures him, I want to whip it and tame it like a dog, I will let this creature know what I am capable of doing!”
Immediately, a pool of water appeared above the water stockade, a few Shui Tu Clan members trod on it and they flew towards Swords Gate to inform and Elder Shui Zian over.
These few members were not Qi Practitioners, they were only former disciples of the upper house that had failed to manifest their spirit before the age of sixteen. They were repatriated back to the clan, relegated to the main force that guarded the tribes.
Zhong Yue was planning to leave, but he changed his mind upon hearing those words, he snorted and lightning burst out around him, he leaped into the air and flashed over to the Shui Tu Clan members treading on the water.
The next moment, the few Shui Tu Clan members were falling down from the sky – Pu-pu-pu – their bodies pierced into the ground with only their heads exposed above like helpless moles.
There were people flying out from the water stockade, moments later, another row of heads appeared beside the river; the Shui Tu Clan disciples were all planted into the ground. One after another, they looked at the Xiang Dragon in mid-air who was continuously capturing their martial siblings and planted them into the ground, their eyes filled with fear and they dared not move a single inch.
Someone attempted to escape and the flash of a lightning bolt immediately struck at the riverbank. Each and every Shui Tu Clan disciple had a good taste of getting electrocuted, they were charred and their hairs were erect upright like bristles.
The others then stopped their fruitless attempts at escape and stayed stock-still, dare not to move at all.
“Barbarous beast!”
The three Qi Practitioners saw his actions and were furious, they looked at one another and one of them said, “I will fake an attempt to fly towards Swords Gate and the two of you dive into the water, the intelligence of this beast is not high enough to notice anything at all, I will keep it busy while the two of you go and get the elder here. As long as the elder arrives, we can do anything we’d like to it!”
The other two Qi Practitioners nodded and dived into the water, they would swim along the river towards Swords Gate while the third Qi Practitioner flew into the air and shouted at Zhong Yue, “Barbarous beast, come and get me!”
Zhong Yue crossed his arms and sneered.
The Qi Practitioner’s heart suddenly thumped in fear, he cursed in his heart as he saw Zhong Yue dive into the water. Not long after, the water surface was agitated with ripples as a Xiang Dragon slowly walked out with a Qi Practitioner in its claws, the Qi Practitioner was heavily wounded and the beast planted him on the riverbank.
Thankfully one managed to escape….
Just when the third Qi Practitioner was feeling thankful in his heart, the Xiang Dragon once again trod on the water like a flash of lightning. Moments later, it returned with the second Qi Practitioner in tow.
The second Qi Practitioner was bashed heavily and had lost the strength to even put up a symbolic struggle.
It’s fine, it’s fine, I will seize this chance and get away from here to get more help!
The third Qi Practitioner quickly sneaked away, but he could only travel ten miles away before he heard sounds of thunder rumbling from behind him, he turned around and saw the Xiang Dragon holding a gigantic blade ramming right at him!
Moments after, Zhong Yue bashed and bullied the Qi Practitioner, grabbed him and walked over to the riverside. He was then planted into the ground just like his other clan members.
The water stockade was in an uproar, countless fishing boats sailed out in all directions, they were the Shui Tu Clan disciples seizing the opportunity scurry over to the Lei Hu Clan to plead for help.
The Lei Hu Clan is ranked the sixth in the top ten clan, above the Shui Tu Clan, there will be more strong cultivators in the Lightning Lake….
Zhong Yue thought in his heart, he then controlled a wave of water and splashed in on the Shui Tu Clan members, followed by a few strikes of lightning, the Shui Tu Clan members were charred while blurting out black fumes from their mouths, they could only breathe heavily with no extra energy to even move at all.
“Ho-ho!”
The Xiang Dragon chortled merrily and trotted away with its rear legs, the Shitu Clan disciples and Qi Practitioners were all shocked and furious, they tried to free themselves but were too powerless, they were moaning in their hearts, Damn, damn, if the brats of Lei Hu Clan saw us in this state, Shui Tu Clan will then surely be a joke in the Great Wilderness….
Lei Hu Clan members are all big mouths, the news that Shui Tu Clan was humiliated by a Xiang Dragon will soon spread across the Great Wilderness, everyone will know about it, they will never stop laughing at us for tens of years….
It was not too long before the Lei Hu Clan ship sailed down from the river upstream, on it stood six or seven Lei Hu Clan Qi Practitioners, above the ship were flashes of lightning accompanied by the rumbling sound of thunder. Vaguely, one could see the shadowy figure of a Leigong standing in the gloomy clouds with a hammer and chisel in his hands, his aura was thunderous and marvelous. From afar, they could hear a Qi Practitioner shouting at them, “Where is the Xiang Dragon … Aiya, senior martial brothers, what happened to all of you? Is this a human-planting game?”
On the Lei Hu Clan’s ship, loud guffaws and laughter burst out instantly while the Shui Tu Clan members were mortified, at this moment, they even wanted to have their heads buried deeper into the ground.
A few moments later, the Lei Hu Clan Qi practitioners dug the Shui Tu Clan members out from the ground, the Lei Hu Clan Qi Practitioners were all brawny men, with thick hair like bear furs and barrel chests, just like human towers.
One of them smirked and said, “Senior martial brothers were terribly defeated by a Xiang Dragon, what an interesting story this is, how can I not share it with the brothers of Youyu, Tianfeng and the other clans?”
The Shui Tu Clan Qi Practitioners’ face darkened, one of them rebuked, “If it weren’t for the fact that the Hebo had to stay within the bounds of the stockade and guard it, without express permission from the elder, he will never leave from the water stockade. How could it even block us down right in front of our stockade?”
“The Xiang Dragon even had you all cornered in your own base?”
The Lei Hu Clan Qi Practitioners were happier, they gazed at each other and said, “Now this is more interesting, this alone is enough for us to gossip about for years to come!”
“I was still worrying that I might run out of stories when meeting with the martial siblings of the other clans, now I have just the right topic to start the conversations!”
The Qi Practitioners of the Shui Tu Clan snapped and one of them shouted, “Inform the elder, we must capture that Xiang Dragon and dismember it into pieces! Martial brothers of Lei Hu Clan, are you all interested in tagging along? After we capture it, we will serve you guys a meal of Xiang Dragon meat!”
The Lei Hu Clan Qi Practitioners shook their heads, among them, one stepped forward and said, “The Xiang Dragon is an auspicious beast, it’s presence in the Shui Tu Clan territory is a propitious omen to the clan. This is something that the other clans have can only hope for, it’s fine if the Shui Tu Clan doesn’t worship it but why the need to capture it? Moreover, the Xiang Dragon only lambasted you guys, it could take your lives but it didn’t, it’s generosity and magnanimity is clearly shown. To further continue the pursuit, you are just disgracing yourselves in front of others.”
“Your words make sense, but how can I just accept all the humiliations it gave us?”
The Shui Tu Clan Qi Practitioners rushed over to Swords Gate, they appealed for Elder Shui Zian’s assistance along with the other strong and formidable Shuitu Qi Practitioners. But it would all be useless as Zhong Yue had already traveled far. One day and one night, he had traveled over three thousands miles, across the mountains, through the forests, he persistently trudged onwards tirelessly.
His physique was stronger than the ordinary people, and was even stronger after he adopted the form of the Xiang Dragon; after days and nights of incessantly visualizing Sui Sovereign, the beast god essence in his body was decreasing gradually.
Another six or seven days passed before he was finally at the border of the Great Wilderness. There only remained a modicum of the beast god essence in his body, a few more days and he could then revert back to his human form.
The beasts in the Great Wilderness were great in number, some were even descendants of the legendary ancient beasts, but the Xiang Dragon was a felicitous beast, a descendant of dragons, there weren’t many beasts that dared take the initiative in inciting trouble with it.
Another half day and I will be walking out of the Great Wilderness.
Zhong Yue’s heart thumped in excitement, this would be the first time he ever walks out of the Great Wilderness to explore the outside world!
Outside of the Great Wilderness, I wonder if there are any humans living out there? How do the other races look like … Outside world, I am coming!’