“The flower… broke?” From the water, Mao Ba’er’s three heads came out and looked at the sky in shock. His superhuman vision quickly caught sight of a black ring of whale lice beside the flower stem! The livyatan… had actually split its attention and placed dozens of whale lice to secretly bite through the Rootless Nine Bends Aqua’s roots, leaving gods ignorant and ghosts unaware!

BANG!!!

 At this moment, the giant body suddenly charged out of the water! Utterly consuming all of its power! This time, the livyatan had surprisingly jumped 500 meters high!

“ROAR!!!” A lung-splitting howl rang out, containing an extreme excitement. A great mouth filled with lakewater, saliva, and sharp teeth opened as wide as it could! From where Xu Yangyi and everyone else were, they only saw the giant beast soar up under the moonlight. In its great maw, spread open by dozens of meters, a red flower light glimmered. Below, the entire cave’s lakewater surged up high!

The event was abrupt. No one whatsoever was able to predict it. A demonbeast without intelligence unexpectedly possessed such cleverness! Right now, everyone was far away from it.

“Fuck!” Xu Yangyi shouted. Without pause, he used Falling Moon to pierce into the livyatan’s back. He clearly saw that as the blade thrust in, the other’s body suddenly convulsed! Still, though, it charged onwards with no second thoughts!

Swoosh!

 The black silhouette at his side flashed. Presently, the livyatan had jumped out of the water nearly ramrod-straight. They were like rock climbers on a vertical precipice. Time seemed to freeze. He distinctly saw the incredulous look on Fang Cheng’s falling silhouette.

Bang!

 Absent of indecision, Xu Yangyi’s hand grabbed onto Fang Cheng, and his strong brows raised up in anger. “Are you fucking giving up?!”

“Only when I’m a ghost!” Fang Cheng unexpectedly squeezed out an unsightly smile. In the next second, his gaze immediately formed above.

As far as the eye reached, the splendid red shimmer was before the livyatan’s bloody maw. As the beast had jumped out of the water, it had brought countless splashes, which had transformed into dreadful torrential rains. The water soaked them through to the bone.

“Fuck!” Fang Cheng tightly locked his teeth. “Don’t tell me things are so easy for this monster?!”

“Easy?” Xu Yangyi laughed, “Dream on!” 

He raised his hand up and snapped. In almost the same moment as this snap, on the edge of life and death, a vine with the thickness of an arm suddenly dangled above the original stem of the Rootless Nine Bends Aqua! Soon… a nearly transparent figure appeared on the vine!

Zhan Twelve! From the start until now, he’d never appeared because he clearly understood that an assassin only had one chance to take certain action!

Xu Yangyi also realized that if the group was to be spoken of, there was no one able to climb so high and conceal their figure the most apart from Zhan Twelve. This was a decision of professional nature. It had nothing to do with talent.

From the beginning, when Jun Man’s vines crept upwards, they’d long since attached himself to the vicinity of the Rootless Nine Bends Aqua. As for Zhan Twelve, he’d flickered to the top and stayed silent for three whole days!

Three days, just for this action! In his eyes, there wasn’t a sliver of fear. Instead, with one hand grabbing onto a vine and the other extended, he swept quickly towards the aqua that the livyatan had already determined itself to have won! He was like a monkey!

CHOMP!!

 A booming crunch rang out! The great open jaws closed shut, yet the red light representing the rootless aqua appeared on the other side! A difference of a hundredth of a hair! 

At that instant, the giant mouth, which was enough to grind up and crush Zhan Twelve’s body and bones, brushed against him and flew past! Right now, his hand was clutching onto the flower that had driven the giant beast into madness! 

This

 was a true seizing of food from a tiger’s mouth!

“ROAR!!!” In ecstasy, the livyatan plummeted into the water and a small tsunami appeared again! Xu Yangyi said nothing. At an unknown time, he’d already removed his black singlet and exposed his strong muscle. He used the black singlet to fasten his hand to Falling Moon that was pierced into the creature’s back!

Boom! 

So heavy, the falling tsunami still inflicted injury on top of injury on Xu Yangyi and Fang Cheng. However, there wasn’t a sliver of hesitation, and the duo suppressed the overturning rivers and flipping seas that were their internals. With all speed, they charged towards the blowhole!

Slaying demons… was to be done in a single stroke! At this moment, the livyatan was bound to be feeling the nonexistent Rootless Nine Bends Aqua in its mouth. In addition, after the first time, a second would come as well. However, the tremendous body felt a kind of difficulty!

And that… was the time of their golden opportunity! The present scene had strangely calmed down. The livyatan’s enormous head moved. It could feel two insects dashing towards a certain place on its head, but right now it simply didn’t have the effort to care about these things!

It exhausted all of its strength to fiercely turn about its tongue, yet in the next second its eyes saucered wide. The livyatan seemed to be shocked and confused. Its huge head moved a good few more times as if it was tasting the inside of its mouth, but it discovered nothing.

Everyone else was completely dumbfounded. None had expected that Zhan Twelve would actually take action at the most pivotal movement and seize the treasure in one bound! And on the livyatan’s head, their commander and his senior brother were rushing towards the blowhole with manic speed!

Tick…

 It was a mystery whose pocket watch rang out in this dead-silent environment.

Zero seconds! In the final minute, both sides’ measures had all been put into action. First, the livyatan had severed the Rootless Nine Bends Aqua’s stem and then frantically jumped out, preparing to swallow. Yet unexpectedly in the end, Zhan Twelve, who guarded a tree stump to wait for rabbits, scaled the heavens in one leap and seized a morsel from a tiger’s mouth.

[1]

The hare leaped and the hawk swooped down. The changes were too swift. So fast that everyone dared not believe their eyes! They were dumbfounded and then stunned again. After several seconds, the livyatan roared in terrible anger! The entire cavern trembled! The beast’s two eyes scanned the area, and it advanced towards the direction of a twinkling red light like it had gone insane, charging at Zhan Twelve! 

Simultaneously, Xu Yangyi and Fang Cheng were already standing in front of the blowhole. It was a giant circular hole. If one didn’t know, they would even think it to be a manhole. On the inside, stratas of red flesh writhed, emitting a vomit-inducing smell.

Xu Yangyi took a deep breath and looking towards Fang Cheng with a rather cordial smile. “Senior Brother, demonize, alright? This is the last fight.”

Fang Cheng didn’t hesitate and immediately transformed into a giant wolf-demon that was around two to three meters in size. Yet he absolutely didn’t expect that he would now be attacked from behind. One that originated from his junior brother, from Xu Yangyi’s foot. The blow landed square on his back!

“AAAAAHHHHH!” an odd shout echoed, and Fang Cheng flew straight into the blowhole with an even faster speed. “You tricked me, Junior Brother!!!” His voice carrying an incomparable hidden bitterness, Fang Cheng fell exactly into the blowhole. His demonized body, neither too big nor too small, tightly stoppered the hole, a seamless fit.

The people ashore were also dazed. Jun Man didn’t follow up and breathe, staring foolishly at this amazing kick. He didn’t know what to say.

Yao Xintan’s Adam’s apple stirred, and he looked at the scene atop the whale’s head with extreme speechlessness.

“Hey…” Xu Yangyi sighed helplessly. “Your length and thickness was the easiest to use at hand. Also, a half-demon body’s resistance is a heck of a lot stronger than a human’s. Isn’t this a natural use to fill in a hole… Bear with it, just hold on, Senior Brother. You won’t get less than a single drop.”

“Fuck!” Fang Cheng was so angry he could vomit blood. “You’re too blackhearted, Junior Brother! Two drops! I want two drops!”

“Relax…” Xu Yangyi’s smile vanished, and he used Falling Moon to suddenly stab, thrusting into the blowhole. Like so, Falling Moon went straight in! The rampaging livyatan didn’t even sense this negligible pain. “Grab on to it.” He looked at Fang Cheng. “Don’t fall in no matter what.”

It was unknown how much time passed. After forty minutes, the cave suddenly spread forth with a bellow that quaked the earth and shook mountains. The boundless lakewater also frantically bubbled!

In an hour and twenty minutes, the shaking here reached the max! Countless mountain stones crashed down and even a berserk qi from inside the cave could be felt a hundred meters away.

After two hours, the cave finally came to a dead-calm, winds still and waves quiet. The giant whale had turned over on its stomach, lying down on the water’s surface. Its pupils had already totally dispersed. Covered in fishy blood, Fang Cheng climbed out from the blowhole at last and glared daggers at Xu Yangyi.

“You should see your face.” Mao Ba’er irately swung his tail, spraying water everywhere. “I wasn’t inclined to look… but when you plugged up the blowhole just now, it was practically a natural fit. The exact length as the inside. That’s called using everything to its best, you get it?”

Fang Cheng looked at Xu Yangyi and fell into a fit of grim laughter. In these two hours, everyone had been in charge of hiding, but he was in charge of expanding himself. Yes… he would remember this kick. Did it make sense if he didn’t ask for a corresponding reward?!

Especially in the end… An immeasurable amount of qi and excrement had collided with him and stunk up his entire body. The livyatan had thought up of every method and plan to flush him out, but he tightly grabbed onto the stuck-in Falling Moon. He had choked this prehistoric greater demon to death.

However, now wasn’t the time to divide shares yet. Everyone’s gazes swept over the entire area. Since earlier, this giant cave was no longer jade-green. Over twenty corpses, some facing up and some with their backs up, bobbed up and down in the water. From their seven apertures, water had mercilessly flooded in. In all likelihood, they would soon be buried here.

Numerous people had lost their lives in this battle. In regard to this over a thousand-meter-sized cavern lake, their blood was so insignificant. At this moment, wisps of dark-red mixed with wretched green made for a miserable sight.

“This is a cultivator.” Xu Yangyi stood on a hawk-puppet’s back and said emotionally, “Putting all of one’s strength into a fight for opportunity… Some ascend to heaven and become dragons, yet some turn into spring mud… but no matter who, all must have no qualms within the heart.”

Fang Cheng lowered his head, silent.

This

 was before they’d even entered Danxia Temple’s true door. 

This

 couldn’t be considered too long since they entered.

Alligator gars, the livyatan, Rootless Nine Bends Aqua… All kinds of mystical things had already shown up in front of them. Nonetheless, how magical was the world below? If the master path was like this… then on other paths, what kind of circumstances were those other geniuses in? The fearsome might and mystery of the Eight Great Deadlands had already begun to slowly unfold.

“Check casualties.” The crowd’s mood was somewhat gloomy. Not because of the creature’s death, but the sympathy brought by its demise. Perhaps, they would also be like these people some day, buried silently and obscurely in some nameless secret realm.

1. “Guarded a tree stump to wait for rabbits”. This is an old Chinese story. One day a farmer sees a rabbit run into a tree stump and break its neck. For the farmer, this is a free meal. He thinks to himself, I will wait at this stump for more rabbits to kill themselves for free food. Moral behind this story is an idea of “passively waiting for things to come to you and not making your own opportunities”.

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