The sorrowful old man sighed, knowing he would not get Xu Ying to drink tea today. With a sweep of his sleeve, he stowed away the table, chairs, teapot, and teacups, then slowly took his leave.
His pace seemed slow, but was in truth extremely swift; in mere moments, he vanished from Mount Wuwang.
Meanwhile, Mount Wuwang suddenly unleashed an earth-shattering boom. The mountainside hitched slightly, countless boulders burst outward, and the colossal peak began slowly toppling to one side.
The mountain was simply too immense—even as it collapsed, it would take some time before it crashed against the earth.
Xu Ying continued sprinting frantically beneath the expanding silk handkerchief. Yet having shrunk to the size of a bean, no matter how fast he ran, he could not escape the area covered by the cloth in time.
"Ah Ying, is that you?" A great serpent suddenly appeared ahead and asked.
The serpent bore dragon horns of black and white upon its head, its body clad in mirror-like scales. It was indeed Yuan Qi. Although he appeared as large as before, that was only relative to Xu Ying.
Xu Ying had shrunk to the size of a bean, and Yuan Qi had also been shrunken to barely a foot in length, though he was still a hundred-odd times larger than Xu Ying.
Boy and snake shared the same bitter fate, both reduced in size by Granny Yu of the Zhou clan using a silk handkerchief.
Xu Ying jumped onto Yuan Qi's back and urged, "Xiao Qi, speed up! We need to get out of here as fast as we can!"
Carrying him, Yuan Qi slithered outward and asked, "What kind of method did that old hag use? How is it this terrifying?"
The voice of the great bronze bell rang out: "It should be the Nuo art of scattering beans to form soldiers, only she used it in reverse. Scattering beans to form soldiers allows beans that strike the ground to transform into golden-armored divine beings, swelling with the wind until they are far larger than normal humans. In reverse, the old woman can turn people tiny, shrinking them to the size of beans. Among Qi Refiners, there are similar arts as well."
Xu Ying's eyes flickered. "I have already opened the Mud Pill secret depository, understood life, death, yin, and yang, and can control the vitality of the human body. Subtle as her Nuo art is, it won't trap me for long; I will be able to restore my normal size soon. Yuan Qi, if you comprehend the size-shifting arts recorded in True Cultivation of the Ba Snake and the Dragon Snake Awakening Technique, you can break her Nuo art as well."
Yuan Qi slithered forward at full speed, recalling the transformation arts in True Cultivation of the Ba Snake that Xu Ying had taught him. Sure enough, there were methods regarding physical transformations. Overjoyed, he thought, *Ah Ying truly is reliable. With just this hint from him, I already know how to break it.*
Suddenly, looking through the silk handkerchief, they saw Mount Wuwang toppling over. Despair seized their hearts. Mount Wuwang was crashing straight in their direction; before long, it would smash them into paste!
Under normal circumstances, they might have stood a chance of escaping, but now, with their tiny limbs, there was simply no way to outrun the mountain's shadow!
Right at that moment, a large hand pinched up the silk handkerchief. Beneath it, Xu Ying and Yuan Qi were caught in the cloth and swept helplessly into the sky.
Granny Yu of the Zhou clan chuckled with a toothy grin. Shaking the silk handkerchief over the basket hanging from her arm, Xu Ying and Yuan Qi felt the world spin wildly around them before tumbling out from under the cloth and into the basket.
"This old woman has fetched Young Master Xu and shall take her leave first!" Granny Yu cackled, though it was unclear to whom she was speaking.
The basket was nearly half-full of beans. Xu Ying and Yuan Qi landed right among them, crashing down so hard that the beans cried out in pain: "Ouch! Ow!"
Startled, Xu Ying and Yuan Qi watched as the beans stood up like tiny humans one after another. Clad in golden armor and golden helms, clutching cyan swords, heroic vitality surged between their brows; every single one of them was remarkably handsome and dashing.
Yuan Qi recoiled, asking warily, "Who are you? Were you captured by this evil crone as well?"
The nearest golden-armored man planted his hands on his hips and shouted with scorn, "What evil crone? That is clearly the Master of Dangtian Manor! You ignorant mangy snake! Haven't you ever heard of scattering beans to form soldiers? We are Dangtian Manor's—"
Thousands of golden-armored men turned their heads toward them in unison, roaring in perfect sync: "Bean soldiers!"
Yuan Qi's eyelid twitched. Whispering to Xu Ying, he asked, "They aren't human?"
Before Xu Ying could reply, the bronze bell spoke: "They are the beans from scattering beans to form soldiers. That Granny Yu truly is something, though—to actually bestow intelligence upon these bean soldiers. Such magic isn't something that can be achieved through secret depository vitality alone. The Zhou clan's Nuo arts have likely advanced far beyond their origins, becoming considerably more ingenious than the equivalent arts of Qi Refiners."
It had always deemed Nuo arts inferior to the techniques of the Qi Refiner era; for it to concede that this Nuo art had surpassed its Qi Refiner counterpart was rare indeed.
The leading golden-armored man asked, "Which of you is Young Master Xu? The Master of Dangtian Manor ordered us to look after the young master and ensure he comes to no harm."
Xu Ying gave no answer. Immediately stepping on a bean soldier's head, he began clambering upward, trying to escape the basket.
"Don't go out!"
The golden-armored bean soldier grabbed his legs and yelled, "There are terrifying two-legged gods outside! Their talons are dozens of times bigger than you, with iron beaks, golden throats, crimson flames blazing on their heads, and sharp steel wings! They breathe clouds and mist, and their cries are like thunder! Many of our brothers have perished in the mouths of those two-legged gods!"
Yuan Qi pondered a moment and asked, "Could you be talking about... chickens?"
Xu Ying, bent solely on escaping, kept climbing. A swarm of bean soldiers tugged and pulled, dangling from his legs to haul him back down. With great effort, Xu Ying finally reached the rim of the basket and lifted the silk handkerchief to look outside.
He saw that they were soaring high in the sky. The old crone carried the basket on her arm, and behind her was a giant roc bird soaring with spread wings, carrying them swiftly through the air.
The giant roc was likely manifested from the old woman's Hidden Scenery, carrying her and them across the heavens.
Suddenly, Xu Ying saw the distant mountain ranges shudder. Immediately afterward, a terrifying shockwave swept outward, completely wiping away the clouds wherever it passed!
"Not good!"
Xu Ying's face changed drastically. He shouted urgently, "Lord Bell, come out and save us!"
The bronze bell flew out from the back of his head, instantly blowing the basket apart. Xu Ying, Yuan Qi, and the string of golden-armored bean soldiers clinging to Xu Ying's ankles all tumbled into the bronze bell.
The bronze bell was a magic artifact forged by an ancient Qi Refiner and concealed within Xu Ying's mind; Granny Yu's Nuo art could not shrink it, so it maintained its original size.
The moment the basket blew apart, Granny Yu noticed. Startled, the old crone hastily reached out to snatch the bronze bell, calling out, "Young Master Xu, do not resist this old woman! I mean no il—"
Before she could finish her sentence, that terrifying shockwave slammed into them. The golden-winged roc Nuo art behind Granny Yu shattered instantly, and the horrific impact crashed against the old woman. Spitting blood, she was sent flying through the air!
*Clang!*
The destructive wave collided with the bronze bell. The bell resonated loudly as all manner of runes lit up across its surface, humming and spinning to form an immensely thick wall of light as a barrier!
However, there was a massive palm print upon that wall of light—the wound left by the maiden in the coffin—which became a breach in the bell's defense!
In the next instant, the thick barrier of light tore apart. The bronze bell clanged wildly, sent spinning through the air by the blast.
*It's over!*
Gloom washed over the bronze bell. *I barely managed to sneak some vital blood these past days to heal a fraction of my injuries, and now all that effort is going down the drain again!*
Inside the bronze bell, Xu Ying, Yuan Qi, and hundreds of golden-armored bean soldiers were tossed violently up and down, slamming into one another. A bean soldier screamed, "Someone's crushing me! I'm going to die!"
No sooner had the words left his mouth than he was squashed into a bean cake, dying an untimely death.
Only after a while did the violent tempest outside finally subside. The bronze bell plummeted from the sky and crashed into the mountain forest, clanging as it rolled for three or four li before finally coming to a halt.
Xu Ying clambered out from the bell's mouth with difficulty and sat on the rim, his legs trembling and his body still shivering. Only after a moment did he recover his wits, whereupon he set about realigning the dislocated bones of Yuan Qi, who had been rattled to pieces.
The jolt had been so severe that Yuan Qi's skeleton had slipped completely out of place. Fortunately, Xu Ying was a snake catcher, so resetting the snake's bones proved effortless.
Slithering to Xu Ying's side, Yuan Qi gazed at Mount Wuwang snapped clean in two in the distance. Weeping without tears, he mumbled, "My home is gone..."
Behind them, the surviving golden-armored bean soldiers knelt on the ground, wailing and beating their chests over the corpses of their comrades. That divine ability shockwave had crushed many bean soldiers into bean cakes, sending them to early graves. Yet more than half had survived—a good three to four hundred of them.
Suddenly, one of the bean soldiers leapt up and kicked the weeping comrades beside him, shouting, "A real man in this world should return wrapped in horsehide, winning glory and establishing great deeds! Why cry like weeping maids? Up, all of you! Have you forgotten how painstakingly the Master of Dangtian Manor raised us?"
The bean soldiers perked up as though injected with chicken blood, each suddenly brimming with vigor and ferocity.
Xu Ying surveyed them in surprise. For these bean soldiers to survive such a terrifying impact meant they were not nearly as frail as he had imagined.
On the contrary, each bean soldier was remarkably strong and possessed formidable might!
*After Granny Yu refined them into bean soldiers, she must have tempered them repeatedly to boost their combat power,* Xu Ying thought to himself.
"Lord Bell, are you alright?"
Xu Ying called out twice. The bronze bell's feeble voice replied, "Ah Ying, my injuries have worsened. I must retreat into your Mud Pill cave-heaven to nurse my wounds."
It wobbled as it rose into the air, shrinking rapidly before darting into the back of Xu Ying's head and vanishing.
In the next moment, the bronze bell swayed into Xu Ying's Mud Pill secret depository, floating within the Mud Pill cave-heaven.
*Lord Bell is injured, so for now we can only rely on ourselves. How strange—just who is clashing out there? To possess divine abilities this terrifying, where mere aftershocks could exacerbate Lord Bell's wounds!*
Xu Ying steadied his mind. The power of such divine abilities vastly surpassed that of the white-robed Nuo immortal; it truly was formidable.
Among the experts he knew capable of taking on the subterranean behemoth head-on, there were not many. Judging from the performance of the white-robed Nuo immortal, he was most likely no match for the subterranean beast. The bronze bell in its prime certainly could, and the maiden in the coffin naturally could as well.
And that sorrowful old man could likely do so too.
No one else had such capability.
*The Zhou clan brought many people this time. Their leader is Regional Inspector Zhou Heng, and that old crone Granny Yu is also a Zhou clan expert. Could it be that the Zhou clan ancestor took action and battled the subterranean behemoth?*
Xu Ying's heart stirred greatly. The subterranean behemoth might be the master of the Mud Pill Palace, while the Zhou clan ancestor was likely the snake catcher who entered the stone chamber over three hundred years ago—the successor of the Mud Pill Palace master. How magnificent would their battle be?
He wished he could return to Mount Wuwang immediately to spectate, but a mere aftershock from their divine abilities had nearly cost them their lives, let alone drawing close to watch!
*We can't linger here. People from the Zhou clan will probably track us down soon!*
Xu Ying looked around, but saw impossibly towering trees everywhere, and the mountains were indescribably vast, impossible to scale!
"You cannot leave!"
The golden-armored bean soldiers intercepted Xu Ying and Yuan Qi. Their leader said, "The Master of Dangtian Manor commanded that you must stay here and await the manor lord!"
Suddenly, a bean soldier pointed at the sky and shrieked, "The two-legged giants are here!"
Xu Ying looked up to see a flock of unknown blue birds that had spotted them and were flying their way. These blue birds were an exotic avian species of the Netherworld. As a snake catcher, Xu Ying had seen many beasts and birds, but he had never seen such strange blue birds before.
The flock landed with a flurry of wingbeats and charged at them. Resembling divine beings from primordial legends, they were draped in iridescent feathers, had iron bones and sinews of bronze, and possessed bodies tens of thousands of times larger than Xu Ying and his companions!
Where their feet fell, the earth shook and mountains trembled; when their wings flapped, ferocious gales surged!
With every peck, bean soldiers were left utterly helpless—bones broken, tendons snapped, swallowed in a single gulp, meeting their ends on the spot!
All around Xu Ying, bean soldiers fled in panic, their wails echoing as if an apocalyptic cataclysm had arrived.
An exotic bird pecked down, snapping a bean soldier beside Xu Ying in two. His death was gruesome beyond measure; half his body was swallowed whole by the bird, while the remaining half shrieked incessantly.
Some bean soldiers rallied their courage, raising their cyan swords to clash with the exotic birds. But these creatures were no ordinary beasts—they were exotic variants from the deep mountains of the Netherworld, impervious to blade and sword. One after another, the birds pecked the resisting bean soldiers to death with effortless pecks!
Xu Ying finally snapped back to reality and shouted at once, "Xiao Qi, run!"
In all his years, this was the first time Yuan Qi had ever witnessed such a terrifying scene. Crying out in fright, he hurriedly followed Xu Ying!
From behind, an exotic bird swooped low with a roar, catching Yuan Qi's tail in its beak and hoisting him up. Xu Ying roared, leapt into the air toward the bird's head, and swept out a kick.
Behind him materialized an Elephant King divine body two beans tall, sweeping a kick alongside him.
*Smack!*
The bird's beak was knocked askew by the blow, flinging Yuan Qi free. Yet the tremendous recoil shattered the Elephant King divine body behind Xu Ying, dispersing it into bloody mist.
Startled and furious, Xu Ying hit the ground and saw the bird's sharp talons lunging forward. He immediately executed Giant Python Rolling; a finger-thick Ba Snake coiled around his body, whirling rapidly to ensnare the exotic bird's feet!
"Go down!" Xu Ying bellowed.
The exotic bird exerted strength through its feet, snapping the Ba Snake formed of his vital blood clean in two!
Xu Ying froze.
The Ba Snake was an image of the Great Dao he had comprehended by referencing the Ba Snake Dao image chart in True Cultivation of the Ba Snake, yet it was shattered by an unknown bird!
Just as he was about to be pecked to death by the exotic bird, Yuan Qi charged in from the flank, scooped Xu Ying up with his tail, and sped away like the wind, dodging the lethal snap of the bird's beak!
"Cover Young Master Xu's escape!" a bean soldier shouted loudly.
Dozens, even hundreds, of golden-armored bean soldiers surged forward, recklessly throwing themselves at the blue exotic birds pursuing Xu Ying, fighting desperately with their lives on the line.
The blue birds began a slaughter; limbs flew in all directions, turning the ground into a hellish battlefield!
"Protect Young Master Xu!"
Golden-armored bean soldiers swarmed in waves, swinging their cyan swords to battle the giant birds to the death, falling one after another.
Xu Ying was stunned. This scene actually stirred a pang of emotion in him.
"Xiao Qi, put me down," he said softly.
Hearing this, Yuan Qi uncoiled his tail and set him down.
Xu Ying stopped in his tracks, no longer fleeing. Yuan Qi urged, "Ah Ying, what are you standing there for? Let's get out of here!"
Xu Ying shook his head and said in a low, firm voice, "I have opened the Mud Pill secret depository; I am already a Nuo master. I want to reverse-engineer the Nuo art of scattering beans to form soldiers. I cannot let these bean soldiers sacrifice themselves for us in vain!"
Abruptly, he channeled his Mud Pill cave-heaven. Instantly, a space of primal chaos manifested behind his head. Parting the chaotic clouds and mist, the Mud Pill cave-heaven emerged into view.
Chapter 44