Chapter 519 - 258: Form 4: Cat Scissors

Chapter 519: Chapter 258: Form 4: Cat Scissors

From each fleshy tendril, adorable baby faces squeezed forth, a dense and writhing mass. Their hollow mouths emitted human-like sounds.

Ye, Snake, and Xi’er clamped their hands over their ears and fell to their knees with a thud. Their bodies trembled uncontrollably, faces wracked with agony. It was as if the sound was a death knell to them, inflicting a torment Zheng Xiu could not comprehend.

As Mystics, Yin Qingqing, Feng Bei, and Zheng Xiu only felt a slight discomfort, their reactions nowhere near as severe.

"Take them!"

Zheng Xiu shouted over his shoulder at Yin Qingqing. She nodded, and a sheet of human skin sprang from her, instantly swallowing Ye, Snake, and Xi’er.

Now burdened by the weight of several people, Yin Qingqing’s movements were sluggish. She gritted her teeth and retreated.

The terrifying fleshy tendrils were a trypophobe’s worst nightmare. Even though Zheng Xiu didn’t suffer from the condition, he didn’t dare let his Incarnation touch the grotesque things as he weaved through the air.

The Incarnation was not invincible. Zheng Xiu had spent a long time as a Prisoner and had come to understand his Incarnation to a degree. It wasn’t completely immune to all attacks. Things like the Crow Fosterer’s Suicide Technique or the "contamination" from the Darkness could very well affect his Main Body, far away in the Red King Mansion.

Facing this unknown evil, Zheng Xiu dared not take any chances. His jet-black wings of light carved elegant arcs through the night sky as he dodged the lashing tendrils, drawing closer to the heart of the fleshy mass.

"Ten Thousand Swords!"

Zheng Xiu’s right arm contorted as the strangely shaped Painter’s Deceitful Object crossed the distance between his Main Body and Incarnation, traversing worlds to appear in his hand. Biting his finger, he stained the air with blood. His hands moved in a blur, painting on the void itself. In an instant, a torrential storm of blood-red longswords filled the night sky, their crimson glow blindingly bright.

"Unity!"

Zheng Xiu’s gaze hardened. The countless tiny swords converged into one, forming a terrifying Giant Sword nearly a hundred feet long and wide that blotted out the sky. It slashed down toward the faintly visible umbilical cord.

Such a terrifying Miracle Technique had already stunned the distant Yin Qingqing into silence. This was something never recorded in the archives of the Secret Ministry. Who would have known that the famously pampered Prince Fu had been secretly cultivating such earth-shattering Miracle Techniques!

’But I’m clearly an outsider. Why would he show his true strength in front of me?’

Dumbfounded, Yin Qingqing’s mind was soon flooded with questions. At the Secret Ministry, she had pried into the secrets of others countless times and knew better than anyone the importance of secrecy. ’Isn’t the Red King worried that I’m actually a mole sent by the Great Emperor? If I were to report everything I’ve seen these past few days to the Great Emperor, wouldn’t that make him wary of the Red King’s true strength?’

’Is this... the Red King’s trust?’

It was a notion she had never imagined would be afforded to her.

「Meanwhile.」

Zheng Xiu was unaware that Yin Qingqing was feeling conflicted by the "trust" and "nonchalance" he had inadvertently shown. The Unity Sword, born from the Painter’s Miracle Technique, slashed down. In his inspiration vision, the faint umbilical cord suddenly turned transparent. The Unity Sword seemed to strike empty air, passing right through the cord without harming it in the slightest.

BOOM!

Its momentum unabated, the Unity Sword continued on its path. A terrifying wave of Sword Qi crashed down on the city below. The rumbling sound of collapsing buildings echoed endlessly as Lu Town once again suffered a devastating blow, a huge swath of the city split into rubble.

In response to Zheng Xiu’s attack, the mountain-sized mass of flesh paused for a fraction of a second.

Suddenly, on each and every baby face, eyes with sharply defined black pupils popped into existence.

Thousands upon thousands of eyes stared unblinkingly at Zheng Xiu.

A chill ran down his spine.

Stared at by tens of thousands of "innocent" eyes, Zheng Xiu felt a paralyzing tingle shoot from the crown of his head straight down his spine. His hands and feet went cold.

[Ya!]

[Hee hee!]

[He found it?]

[Oh, he knows!]

[He knows, he knows, he knows!]

[Come and play with us, big brother!]

[Hee hee ha ha ya ya ya!]

[How stupid!]

The baby faces, grotesquely distorted from being crammed together, sprouted milk teeth from their rosy lips. As "They" laughed, their upper and lower teeth chattered against each other. The horrifying sound made Zheng Xiu’s ears ring. For a moment, the sounds and sights gave him the illusion of being back in the Darkness, steeped in Filthy Qi.

Countless fleshy tendrils twisted together high above, forming a long Pillar that swept across the night sky. It then plummeted, crashing down toward Zheng Xiu with a great ROAR, greedily intent on devouring him.

As the attacks grew more intense, Zheng Xiu found it increasingly difficult to evade.

Zheng Xiu’s attack alerted the Nascent Soul flesh-thing. It realized this foolish Human knew where the "umbilical cord" was. In short, from the creature’s perspective, Zheng Xiu’s threat level was now maxed out, causing it to transform into an even more terrifying form.

"Meow!"

The Orange Cat, who had been watching coldly from the sidelines—as if holding a grudge over the recent spanking incident (?)—couldn’t help but meow a reminder when it saw Zheng Xiu in peril. "Meow meow."

[You’re using that thing of yours all wrong, meow.]

"You mean the Painter’s Deceitful Object?"

The Orange Cat proudly puffed out its chest. Seeing Zheng Xiu’s failure, it seemed to have forgotten its anger. Its eyes glowed green, and the corners of its mouth curled up as it tilted its head and meowed, [So that’s what you call that ’thing’. In any case, it’s not meant for ’cutting’.]

The Orange Cat yawned and rubbed its belly.