Lord Xue Ying

Chapter 317: Mirage Creature

Translator: Radiant Translations Editor: Radiant Translations

A trace of fierceness shimmered in Chen Jiu’s eyes, his right hand immediately smashing out. His fist flew out with a faint trace of the roar of a black dragon. His attack’s power was very restrained, and not even a trace of fallout radiated inside the sealed cabin’s space.

Peng! When his fist collided with the soft, azure-colored tentacle, power immediately surged out.

A stream of sinister power immediately transferred along the tentacle and toward the body of the creature hidden within the Mirage.

"Be careful, it’s a Mirage creature with eight tentacles," Xue Ying immediately transmitted, and in a flash, his body passed into the Mirage.

Hong Long Long~

The Mirage Creature seemed angry after having been unable to take advantage in the direct confrontation and even being caused to feel pain. In an instant, one soft, azure-colored tentacle after another waved out from the Mirage, and before long, a full five long tentacles almost simultaneously slithered toward Chen Jiu!

Chen Jiu’s expression was faintly fierce, and his body suddenly sprouted eight arms!

Peng! Hong! Ca!

When it came to close-quarter combat techniques, Chen Jiu might have been the most powerful among the crowd that entered Crimson Rock Mountain this time! The True Meaning of Eight Dragons included nearly all kinds of complex battle techniques. Some were fierce, sinister, strange, and sometimes, they even included Life or Death concepts that always switched. Together with the True Meaning of Only Me, which allowed him to sprout eight arms, his close-combat ability was terrifyingly strong. Back when they were charging through the Meteor Bridge, even three silver-armored swordsmen laying siege on him wouldn’t have come even close to defeating with him.

He! He deflected a tentacle coming from the front, while two of his arms grabbed another. Suddenly, he powerfully tugged outward. "Get out of there!"

Chen Jiu’s power when using the True Meaning of Only Me surged violently, exceeding all other Transcendents in Crimson Rock Mountain this time!

Pa!

The tentacle unexpectedly broke off, followed in speedy retreat by all of the other tentacles.

The severed tentacle fell onto the sealed cabin room’s floor, twisting and struggling before finally squeezing as fast as it could back into the Mirage.

"Mirage Creature?" Chen Jiu frowned, immediately transmitting, "Dong Bo, it seems like we’ll have to rely on you."

"Leave it to me," Xue Ying’s voice reverberated inside the cabin.

...

Within the Mirage.

The white-robed Xue Ying licked the corner of his lips. He could still feel a lingering bitter taste inside his mouth from the Hundred Bitter Restoration. His hands gripped a fiery-red spear, and he looked ahead toward what looked like an eight-armed cephalopod. The creature’s severed tentacle had just returned to the Mirage and reconnected to the rest of the body. It floated within the Mirage, its eight tentacles stretching at will and enshrouding the surrounding area of twenty to thirty meters.

The two blood-colored eyes affixed on its head were staring at Xue Ying.

"This is my first time seeing a Mirage Creature after entering Crimson Rock Mountain," Xue Ying muttered.

While he had previously come across a few existences able to enter the Mirage, such as the Stone Sculpture Protectors, the Deity-realm Flying Venomous Scorpions, and others, none of them had been genuine Mirage life-forms! Inside the Mirage, they would all be greatly suppressed in all aspects, from speed to strength and any other combat related abilities. In addition, their each and every move inside the Mirage would send out powerful waves.

One could detect these waves even from the outside world.

But Mirage Creatures were different!

They could move without care inside the Mirage, wouldn’t be suppressed, and could move quietly without producing disturbances. They were akin to Transcendents who grasped the True Meaning of Mirage.

"True Meaning of Mirage?" The eight-armed creature looked at Xue Ying, letting out a low roar. "Transcendent, your True Meaning of Mirage is pitiful. You can’t even meld with the Mirage."

"Why haven’t you done so, then?" Xue Ying held his spear at the ready.

"Unlike you, I can rely on my innate skills. With your True Meaning of Mirage being this weak, I’m afraid your strength is far inferior to that of the eight-armed transcendent outside," the eight-armed Mirage Creature lowly intoned. It had exchanged a few moves with Chen Jiu and was still afraid to face him again. In its eyes, the close-combat power of the eight-armed Transcendent was really high, and it feared it might be truly difficult to defeat him. If it remained inside the Mirage, however, the eight-armed Transcendent couldn’t deal with it either.

This was what made Mirage Creatures so frightening; they could easily sneak attack enemies, while it would be very hard for those same enemies to find them.

But this time, the team they ambushed contained Xue Ying.

"The eight-armed Transcendent is formidable, yes. As for as my strength, you’ll get to test it out on your own skin," Xue Ying replied.

Hu!

The eight-armed Mirage Creature immediately waved its tentacles. They slithered right over, each one vast and mighty.

This Mirage Creature was able to face off directly with Chen Jiu, so its strength must have reached the Deity stage. Though, it seems that in terms of Profound Mysteries and Laws, it’s slightly weaker. Xue Ying’s figure moved. Xiu! With a single movement, it shocked the eight-armed Mirage Creature. He was so fast!

The True Meaning of Extreme Penetration had reached the third stage.

Not only did Xue Ying’s movement speed soar to over five hundred kilometers per hour, he could now naturally switch between moves much faster in close-quarters combat.

Hong. The spear’s shaft revolved, following an arc before explosively expanding. It was ever so slightly like a humongous star suddenly letting out dazzling rays of light. It then immediately shrunk and turned into a single point.

The eight-armed Mirage Creature tried in vain to block.

After all, Xue Ying’s spear contained a vortex-like gravitational force, as well as exceedingly fast speed! Its tentacles failed to block the incoming attack, which led to its gruesome head being stabbed. The head immediately collapsed and was destroyed. Very soon, however, its eight tentacles rapidly retreated, and its head regenerated.

Such strong vitality, Xue Ying inwardly muttered. Even General Ku Meng was exterminated from one strike of my secret skill. This eight-armed Mirage Creature was unexpectedly able to resist. Still, my secret skill has yet to be perfected. It should greatly increase in power once I work on it.

The True Meaning of Extreme Penetration had just reached the third stage, while the True Meaning of Star was still at the peak of the second stage.

The secret skill formed using these two True Meanings—Star Meteor Annihilation—naturally changed accordingly, but the strength of the two was not equal, so there were some difficulties when combining them. While that meant that Xue Ying had to spend a little more time to perfect his secret skill, it was still three to four times stronger than before he entered Crimson Rock Mountain.

The eight-armed Mirage Creature was also frightened by this strike. After receiving the attack, it once again rushed forward, this time even more frantically. Its eight tentacles moved in even better harmony, and it didn’t spare any effort.

Xiu! Xiu! Xiu!

Xue Ying turned into countless afterimages. The eight-armed creature’s tentacles were indeed fast, but for as long as it remained inside Xue Ying’s range, his spear would strike time and time again. After it was skewered five times, the Mirage Creature finally launched a futile attempt to escape away while howling.

"Fleeing?" Xue Ying followed close behind, chaining killing strikes just like before.

The Mirage Creature’s body was struck over and over, until its pieces finally collapsed into nothing. After a total of twelve strikes, it was finally annihilated.

...

Chen Jiu and Uncle Fu both anxiously waited. Both could faintly detect the undulations coming from inside the Mirage. The fight was clearly quite intense.

Suddenly… the white-robed Xue Ying left the Mirage, exposing a smile. "I’ve solved the problem."

"Ha ha." Chen Jiu and Uncle Fu immediately showed a cheerful look.

"We’re lucky to have Brother Xue Ying in our team. That Mirage Creature would have been really hard to deal with without his ability. Its speed and strength have both reached the Deity stage, and it also hid within the Mirage. It could just ambush us without warning from a close distance, while if we were to send attacks inside the Mirage, their power would actually suddenly decrease," Chen Jiu lamented. Mirage assassinations really made people’s heads ache. Those previous attacks had all been surprise attacks from a close range, while the creature itself even had eight tentacles to strike with.

"En." Xue Ying nodded. "Brother Chen Jiu’s close-combat skill can be considered essentially perfect. Anyone else would have found it hard to stay alive after an ambush from the Mirage Creature."

The situation had been dangerous at first, but Xue Ying, having grasped the True Meaning of Mirage, could force the Mirage Creature specializing in sneak attacks to fight him head-on.

"Let’s check our spoils of war first," Uncle Fu said.

Xue Ying, Uncle Fu, and Chen Jiu all looked towards the fat warrior. It was chained by shackles, the other end of which was in Chen Jiu’s hands! After being chained, the fat warrior was simply unable to struggle free. Its small bit of strength was not enough to allow him to resist Chen Jiu.

Xue Ying’s emotions stirred.

A Mirage avatar appeared and immediately walked over to the black-colored metal chest. He was quite eager to see what was inside.

"En?" Chen Jiu and Uncle Fu’s complexions suddenly changed.

"What is it?" Xue Ying looked towards them.

"Just moments ago…" Chen Jiu slowly said, "Wu Ma Hai died!"