Chapter 304 Upgraded Liu Bian
Although the dizziness was killing him, Miaomiao recovered in a minute. The water element Qi synergized with his unified blood and his Life Essence, boosting his self-recovery ability.
After getting back on his feet, Miaomiao braced himself and entered the portal.
…
Deafening wails of wind screamed throughout the grey wasteland. A giant tornado blew grey ashes, dirt, rocks, and grey miasma to the sky.
Dirt and grey ash hit Miaomiao's face, entering his mouth and nose. The 700km/h stormwind almost sent him to the air or cut his skin to shred with random sharp rocks and small dirt.
Miaomiao couldn't see anything after he had entered the portal. As soon as he got to the other side, he was greeted with an insane dust storm.
Moreover, the Twilight Qi in the air was overwhelming. Every time Miaomiao breathed, he felt suffocating as if a mouthful of water entered his lungs. Without a choice, he used the tortoise breathing technique and created a water element barrier around himself, filtering the air and blocking the dust.
Unfortunately, it was a bad idea. Within a few seconds, the water barrier blackened, blocking Miaomiao's line of sight.
'Damn it! Fine. I'll travel blind!'
Miaomiao kept circulating his water element Qi and discarding the wastewater, maintaining a small clean area in front of him to be his peephole. Also, he spread his Qi sense, trying to scan his surroundings.
The wasteland was located in low, flat land, surrounded by tall stone mountain ranges. Yet, the storm wind flowed counterclockwise, circling within the enclosed wasteland.
Miaomiao closed his eyes and concentrated on his sense to find a way to leave this place.
However, instead of finding the exit, Miaomiao found over ten thousand naked corpses of various cultivators, broken weapons, and shattered artifacts, being carried by the storm wind in the sky.
At a glance, they seemed like ordinary dead bodies. But when Miaomiao paid attention to them, he discovered that these corpses were alive!
They were undead ghouls, zombies, and vampires!
'Wow. Sucks to be you.'
Miaomiao almost forgot what he was supposed to do. He shook his head and smirked at the undead cultivators, pitying them. He didn't know what had happened here, and he didn't want to know.
Five minutes later, Miaomiao braced the wind and trekked northward. He walked away from the eye of the tornado, trying to reach the nearest hill and get a shelter for now.
After getting out of the windstorm, Miaomiao could finally see everything.
This place seemed to be a plane as the sky was without stars or a moon. To make sure, Miaomiao flew to the sky to get a clear view of this world.
As Miaomiao had expected, it was a floating continent in a dark space. Beyond the enclosed mountains, there was nothing but a grey wasteland with dried soil. The edges of this plane were cliffs, leading toward the nothingness.
This plane was as wide as ten Red Sun Cities. It was on a smaller scale comparing to the dryad's plane.
Yet, Miaomiao's face grimaced. As this plane was so small, the anxiety swelled in his heart. He hoped that nothing had happened to Ju Shoufen.
He didn't care about Ding Bu, Ma Moxi, or his mentor as Ju Shoufen's survival took priority. The rest of them was bonuses.
Miaomiao touched the master ring, trying to pinpoint the location of Ju Shoufen again.
VING
Miaomiao widened his eyes, and a relief smile appeared on his face. Finally, he found Ju Shoufen.
Her life signature was still healthy. There was no sign of injury in her aura.
Ju Shoufen's location was 10 kilometers away from the south hill, which was the opposite direction that Miaomiao was. He needed to cross the storm field again if he wanted to reunite with her.
Miaomiao looked at the dust storm and the zombies in the tornado again. It reminded him of a certain movie with several sharks in the tornado. As such, he didn't want to fly over the storm and get entangled with random flying zombies and ghouls.
Since he couldn't fly over the storm, Miaomiao detoured by flying over the mountain range counterclockwise, going along with the wind, heading toward the western mountain range. Then, he would head toward the south hills.
Just as Miaomiao was leisurely admiring the view and flew at a cruise-pace, the life signature of Ju Shoufen wavered. Then, her Qi rapidly decreased.
Something had happened to her!
"SHIT!"
Miaomiao accelerated, hoping that he could reach her before something bad happened.
…
South Mountain Hills, beyond the mountain range surrounding the low land, a large area of flat wasteland extended until the edge of the plane.
At the center of the southern wasteland, Ju Shoufen knelt and groaned as she looked at the old man, whose mask had been corroded away by black fluid. Then, she glared at the company of flying undead monsters. Luo Song and three succubi stood behind her, trembling and shaking in fear.
A kilometer away from Ju Shoufen, Wang Yun stood on top of the south mountain peak. He tossed away the corpse of his meat shield, Dong Zhongying, down the mountain. Then, he glanced at Ma Ping next to him, whose body had been riddled with graze wounds and holes.
"Ugh."
Wang Yun gritted his teeth and turned around, looking at the minions of Liu Bian.
"This son of a bitch deserves to die a hundred times over! He's gone insane!"
Flying above Wang Yun and Ma Ping were 200 skeleton soldiers in shining obsidian plate armor and skeleton horses, aka the death knights, whose cultivation base was on par with nascent soul experts. They glared at the two nascent soul cultivators, emitting Death Qi and the power of shadow element.
They had killed a hundred death knights already. And yet, Liu Bian kept summoning more of these deadly monsters as if he had an infinite source of energy and resources.
Moreover, Liu Bian had something that shouldn't be existed.
"If it wasn't because of that Lich…"
RUMBLE
The plane shook and 10 more death knights emerged from the ground.
They appeared behind Ju Shoufen!
Ju Shoufen also sensed them. She took out her immortal-grade fan and a fire element crystal. Then, she crushed the crystal, allowing the broken pieces to fall on the feather fan. She pulled the four succubi away from this area as she might have to fight these monsters.
The fan was lit aflame, and a beautiful figure of a fire spirit emerged.
'Mother.'
Ju Shoufen's face grimaced, "This place be our graves. Let's do our best."
'Understood.'
The fire element spirit, aka Ju Shoufen's dead daughter, entered Ju Shoufen's body. Then, the loli grandma transformed into a giant fire crow.
KAAAAAA!!
…
A kilometer away from Wang Yun's location, Liu Bian, in his Wang Diaochan's form, had been stomping on his younger brother, who was crouching and hugging his knees. The former spat at the poor child and mocked him.
"This is what you get for trying to rob my throne, you retard son of a fuck!"
Liu Bian kicked Liu Xie again. The boy shut with his eyes tight in pain, and tears rolled down from his eyes.
Liu Xie hugged his knees and endured the torture. He kept holding on to Ju Shoufen's life-saving talisman in his hands, which continued to heal his physical body over time.
"Let go of the boy, you heretic!"
Luo Cheng, who was a hundred meters away from Liu Xie and Liu Bian, yelled at the necromancer.
Liu Bian glanced at the dwarf and smirked.
A 190cm tall humanoid skeleton monster in a dark robe emerged from Liu Bian's shadow. It cackled and pointed its green jewel staff at the dwarf elder.
WHOOSH
While the attention of the Lich was on Luo Cheng, a transparent figure moved at a high speed and snatched Liu Xie away from Liu Bian.
However, the Lich sensed it. It turned around and stomped its foot.
"AHHH!!"
Ma Moxi's stealth technique was abruptly canceled. Below him, shadow spears punctured through his legs, arms, and stomach. Even Liu Xie was stabbed in his shoulder!
"This Lich again!"
Luo Cheng unleashed his advanced fire element, the molten fire, summoning a fountain of molten lava.
The ground below the Lich turned into a magma pool, and a jet stream of lava engulfed both the Lich and Liu Bian.
While bathing in the lava, the Lich's created a black barrier dome around its master, protecting him from the advanced element attack. Its red eyes in the hollowed skull glanced at the lava below its feet. It simply pointed the staff and the ground and ignored the lava fire.
The red lava suddenly turned black, and it disintegrated into grey dust.
As the lava was frozen and turning into dust, a giant white fox with three tails next to Luo Cheng opened her mouth and unleashed an orange beam toward the Lich.
The skeleton lich sneered and waved its bone arm, deflecting the beam energy away as if they were nothing.
At that moment, Lu Fengxian expressionlessly emerged from a mountain of rocks 100 meters away from the battle site, which had crushed his arms and legs an hour ago by the hands of this Lich. Lu Fengxian's red eyes fixated on Liu Bian as he dashed forward.
An energy crescent halberd manifested from Lu Fengxian's injured right hand. His sight fixated at the red lines of Liu Bian's dark shield as he swung his halberd.
CLANK!
With one attack, the barrier, created by the 8th-stage lich, was destroyed. However, Liu Bian was nowhere to be found.
Ma Moxi bellowed, "BELOW YOU!"
Lu Fengxian clicked his tongue as he also sensed it. From the ground, a shadow spear punched through the soles of his right foot, and several spears followed, aiming for his torso, arms, legs, and his head.
"HMM!"
A shockwave exploded, surrounding Lu Fengxian as the core. The killing domain of Lu Fengxian had been fully activated, and he destroyed the shadow spears from the pressure alone.
Then, Lu Fengxian corrected his stance and looked at the ground between Ma Moxi and him.
He found Liu Bian! The ex-prince had been hiding underground!
Lu Fengxian grabbed his energy halberd like a javelin, aiming to throw it toward the ground, where Liu Bian had been hiding.
BOOM
A giant hammer hit Lu Fengxian from behind, slamming onto his back and cracked his spine. Then, the ex-immortal was sent flying 100 meters like a rag doll, tumbling and flipping on the ground.
The Lich waved its shadow hammer in its left hand while its right hand still held the green staff. Its jaw moved up and down as if it was laughing at Lu Fengxian's attempt to assassinate his master.
ZAAP!
Another beam from Ku'er's mouth hit the back of Lich's head and burnt its worn-out robe.
Then, the beam exploded!
BOOM
Because of the sudden explosion, the Lich stumbled forward a step. Then, it scratched the back of its skull as if it was itchy.
The power of the 3-tail fox couldn't even damage the Lich's unknown reinforced skeleton!
"MOUNTAIN GOOSE SLASH!"
As everyone had been fighting with their lives on the line, they heard Jia Shan's voice from afar.
In the sky 20 kilometers away, 300 death knights on skeleton horses charged at the sword saint, preventing him from reaching the Lich and Liu Bian's side.
BOOM
50 death knights were cut down with one slash, but Jia Shan was still overwhelmed by their sheer number. He couldn't even get close to the Lich and help Ma Moxi's party.
Ma Moxi freed himself from the bind and ate a healing pill. He also fed Liu Xie a pill. Then, he carried the young emperor away from the combat area.
The assassin gritted his teeth and glared at the Lich in resentment. They had a way to kill the undead lord, but the enemies were too smart.
They separated Jia Shan, Ma Ping, and Wang Yun from the weaker cultivators. Then, they targeted them, the weakest links among the group!
'If only we have Jia Shan's soul sword… If only Miaomiao were here…'
…
Ding
[Your sponsor said, "Be careful. Your quest target has arrived. Kill those mongrels before he shows up, or you'll in deep shit. You can't take on three heroes at the same time since their heavenly fate pieces are going to resonate and activate the power of friendship. You can't overcome their stupid plot armor!"]
[Your sponsor has gifted you 100,000 tainted essence cores. Please use it to refuel Lich's energy.]
[Kishin Douji looks forward to seeing the death of Mao Miaomiao.]
[Kishin Douji has contributed 1,000 7th-stage cultivator corpses for this fight.]
[Kishin Douji suggests you should convert them into more death knights.]
[Yuan Hua is excited to see Mao Miaomiao's comrades suffer.]
[Yuan Hua has contributed ten shadow element cores to refuel your loss energy.]
Liu Bian sneered while he read the system messages.
Yesterday, a dao god reached out to him and offered to upgrade his system for free. Of course, Liu Bian had accepted.
His system suddenly changed, and someone introduced himself as a righteous SPONSOR, who wanted to support Liu Bian in his world conquest.
The mysterious SPONSOR gave him an urgent side-quest with the promise of great rewards.
…
Bounty Quest – Kill the Emerging Tyrant, Mao Miaomiao!
Quest Description
The recently emerging new force, Mao Miaomiao Army, is currently recruiting humans and demons alike. They have already gathered strong and talented people, including heroes, such as Ma Moxi, Ding Bu, Zhao Yun, and many others. This doesn't include 7th-stage and 8th-stage cultivators at his base!
If Mao Miaomiao were a good cultivator, who desired nothing but peace and order, I wouldn't have meddled in the mortal affair. However, his motive worries us.
This Hero is known to be excessively lustful. He has already brainwashed a dozen female demons, humans, and young maidens as for his sex slaves. Moreover, they have already given birth to 10 orcs, and there will probably be more in the future. He has also tamed Blood Orcs, and they were on their ways to populate this continent with demons, using the poor women!
At this rate, his forces will become too powerful for you and other cultivators in this continent to handle. If the world falls into Mao Miaomiao's hands, he will likely enslave all women and turn them into seedbeds for his demon babies.
To prevent the disaster from happening, I and several dao gods will lend our strength to you, the righteous ruler of the dead, so that you can stop Mao Miaomiao's lustful ambition.
Completion Conditions
Kill Mao Miaomiao
(Optional) Kill or Capture Mao Miaomiao's brainwashed comrades.
(Optional) Kill the Heroes, Ma Moxi, and Ding Bu.
Completion Rewards
1,000 Consumable Heaven-Grade Treasures, Wet Bananas.
1,000 8th-stage cultivator corpses.
A supply box from your kind sponsor.
(Optional Rewards) A supply box with immortal-grade treasures.
Failure Condition
Mao Miaomiao or his allies killed you.
Note
Because of the difficulty of this quest, your sponsor and several dao gods shall provide aid during combat. Please utilize their supplies carefully.