Chapter 419: Swamps of Gloom, Land of Death (II)
Under the push of the Holy Mantle, the poisonous fog was pushed aside, and although the air was still muddy, at least the poison was unable to penetrate the insides of the Holy Mantle.
If this had been just an ordinary Holy Mantle, some of the corrosive effect of the poison would still have affected it, but the Ripples of Light supplementing his Holy Mantle made it different. Through the constant vibrations, the poison was pushed away, making it unable to adhere onto the surface of the barrier. Sensing the consumption of his spiritual energy, Long Haochen noticed that his consumption was far lower than his recovery rate. Nodding to his comrades, he took the lead, walking deeper into the Swamps of Gloom with the Glorious Holy Shield and the Rippling Light in his hands.
The control of the Eleventh Holy Guard over ice magic was very skillful. As everyone walked forward, the area he walked past stayed solid for some time, and only slowly regained its original swamp characteristics. With the assistance of Long Haochen’s Holy Mantle, the 64th commander grade Demon Hunt Squad entered the swamps smoothly.
Inside, the swamp was extremely dark, and the sunlight had a good deal of difficulty to reach through the fog. After walking for roughly a hundred meters, Long Haochen stopped his steps, looking around.
The swamp contained a large amount of plants, mostly vines taking root inside the boggy ground. The color of these vines was very similar to the poisonous marsh gas.
“Han Yu, if we get ambushed and my Holy Mantle is broken, create another Holy Mantle to protect everyone. At that time, please remember to close your eyes and try to avoid breathing in any of the poison.”
“Yes.” Han Yu consented.
Although this poison would probably not be that harmful for powerhouses of the sixth step like them, it was better to be cautious. A careful sail would make a ship last for ten thousand years.
Right when Long Haochen was speaking, his eyes suddenly dilated, and his gaze shot forward, Yating immediately sensed his intent, and aimed a white glow in that direction.
With a low roar, a massive figure charged towards Long Haochen.
The fog was so dense that it was only when this enemy clashed against the Holy Mantle that everyone could see its appearance.
It was a huge lizard, entirely dark golden in color, with pus all over its skin, and a pair of very sinister dark green colored eyes. Opening its mouth, it aimed its snarling teeth at Long Haochen.
Long Haochen’s response was extremely fast. As the outwards Holy Mantle disappeared abruptly, the Glorious Holy Shield was lit in white. This was a result of the release of the Holy Sword Technique and a Shield Bash, welcoming that rushing lizard.
With a stuffy bang sound, the lizard fell over, but Long Haochen didn’t move a single step. The Rippling Light in his right hand just performed a lightning-fast cut, drawing a graceful arc of light in midair, executing a Light Thron combined with Holy Fire, violently cutting the neck of that lizard.
With a Pop, blood oozed and that lizard’s head separated from its body. Its blood was yellow green, and had a nauseating look. After being cut to death, his corpse slowly sank into the muddy swamp, producing a series of bubbles.
Lin Xin slipped out a remark in a low voice, “Couldn’t that have been a relative of Haoyue?”
Wang Yuanyuan gave him a blank stare, “If you have such remarks, you should directly tell them to Haoyue.”
Long Haochen declared, “This should be a magical beast of the fifth rank, and of the poisonous type. I guess some of the creatures from the swamps mutated due to their environment.” For another knight, even at the seventh step of cultivation, Light Thorn shouldn’t be able to instantly kill a magical beast of the fifth rank, equivalent to a powerhouse of the fourth step. But Long Haochen’s Light Thorn contained Ripples of Light and Holy Fire, with the addition of the property of doubling the attack power from Rippling Light. With this instant kill blow, he determined the strength of this lizard in the shortest time.
“Master, I can make the surroundings cleaner.” The Eleventh Holy Guard’s low voice sounded out.
Long Haochen gave him a surprised look, and nodded in response, “Okay. However, you have to save your spiritual energy as much as possible.”
The Eleventh Holy Guard replied, “The water essence here is dense, so it won’t consume much energy.” Saying that, he waved the staff in his hand, and with a deep and low chant, a dark blue colored radiance spread outwards.
This Eleventh Holy Guard launched spells faster than Long Haochen had ever seen anyone cast spells.
Along with the release of that dark blue radiance came some rustling sounds in the air, and a bizarre scene unfolded. The surrounding poisonous fog actually thinned out at extreme speed, and instantly, the area within fifty meters diameter around became very clear.
The poisonous fog was fundamentally made of a mixture of vapor and poison, and when the Eleventh Holy Guard froze the water in the air, he naturally cleared the poison as well.
Long Haochen also found out that the ice cones that fell to the ground decreased the surrounding temperature accordingly, which reduced the Eleventh Holy Guard’s output of spiritual energy. This acuity was truly admirable.
Since Long Haochen took notice of it, Lin Xin also did. As a mage, he always believed his own control over magic to be pretty good. But compared to the Eleventh Holy Guard, he was still inferior! Hence, he firmly drew a step back until he stood behind the Eleventh Holy Guard, and silently watched and sensed all his movements, grasping his traits as a mage.
Yating also became aware of that, having a self-awareness of her own. Although her development mostly originated from Long Haochen’s mental strength, her learning ability was in no way weak.
Yating reached the conclusion that on the aspect of elemental purity, she should be far above this Eleventh Holy Guard, and since Long Haochen broke through to the seventh step, the same went for her. One of the benefits from the fusion of spiritual stoves that occurred in the Illusory Paradise was that it permitted her to gain a state of a completely matured spiritual stove. In some sense, she even became a real advanced fairy, with the only difference being that her life was part of Long Haochen’s.
However, on the aspects of control and use of her magic power, Yating found out that she was far inferior to this skeletal Eleventh Holy Guard. Be it in the theoretical aspect or in practical control, the gap between the two of them was like night and day.
The Eleventh Holy Guard didn’t realize their scrutiny. He only did his duty, and returned to silence again after completing his magic.
Long Haochen turned his head to give a thumbs up to this Eleventh Holy Guard, and then continued his advance, leading the group.
With the burst of magic power from the Eleventh Holy Guard, their visibility increased greatly, and the oppressive power they felt after entering the Swamps of Gloom weakened. The eyes were a window to the soul. Other senses could temporarily take over the job of one’s eyes, but almost everyone would unconsciously only believe what they saw. But if confronted with something unseen by the eyes, they would then very easily become nervous. Of course, this wasn’t the case for Cai’er before the loss of her memories.
The more they advanced, the heavier the fog surrounding them became. The falling ice cones also started to grow in number, but contrary to the expectations, the Eleventh Holy Guard’s control over the surroundings didn’t weaken. The plants that surrounded them greatly varied, not only being limited to vines anymore. Some special flowers and fruits appeared, and the path started to become rugged.
Accurately speaking, there was no path after entering the Swamps of Gloom, and the path only consisted of the way Long Haochen made through. The surrounding vines were especially tough, needing at least two or three Light Thorns reinforced by Ripples of Light to cut through.
This job was again undertaken by Long Haochen himself on his own behest, with the others standing guard. In such a dangerous place nothing was more important than personal safety.
Cai’er silently followed at Long Haochen’s back. Seeing this very young man continuously waving his sword, to open up a path for his comrades, the fear in her eyes disappeared gradually. That feeling of safety from being protected by another reappeared, and some indescriptible things seemed to arise in her. Occasionally, her heart ached and her head hurt as if trying to remember about the existence of this man.
Slowly, her trust in Long Haochen was increasing, and her mood wasn’t as terrible as when she woke up after losing her memories. At least, she didn’t feel any threat from those accompanying her.
Although she became amnesic, Cai’er’s intelligence was still intact. She clearly sensed that if, after losing her memories, these people weren’t present by her side, then she would be really miserable. It was pretty good that they were at her side.
Right as Cai’er was letting her thoughts run wild, Long Haochen suddenly stopped his advance, “Something feels wrong.” He could sense all the surroundings in his mind, but couldn’t find out what was amiss. However, this feeling was growing more and more intense, and seemed a bit like before, when they had been encircled by the six Demon Hunter Remover squads, though it didn’t feel as intense.
This was an instinctive sense of danger.
Long Haochen’s expression suddenly became severe, and he gave a loud shout, “Cai’er, be careful!” Suddenly drawing back, his wide back bumped into Cai’er.
Although Cai’er was amnesic, her battle instincts were still present. When Long Haochen hit her so suddenly, her right hand was unconsciously pushed onto his back. Borrowing force from that push, she directly hit the border of the Holy Mantle.
Just as she was full of shock, a massive head came out from the swamps below, striking Long Haochen from the ground, and knocking him back. After that massive head pushed him away, it followed him in the air, and opened its mouth wide, showing with a two meters wide gap.
It was a dark green huge snake, whose muddy part was over fifteen meters long, and as thick as a water jar. The scene of its massive mouth opening was enough to give a terrifying shock to anyone.
Its appearance was without any warning, and no one felt its presence. It was just too sudden.
With a golden glint from Long Haochen’s body, the four spiritual wings abruptly propelled him up. Although the Holy Mantle was broken, the Holy Fire ascending from him got rid of the surrounding poison with no difficulty.