11 I Am the One

Can Mantis Demons even speak?

Zhong Yue was stunned by its capability to speak. The demons he encountered in Cloudless Hall attacked anyone in their sight once released. Due to this, Zhong Yue thought that all Mantis Demons acted based on their strong urge to kill and he was oblivious to the possibility of them actually being capable of speech.

However, the fact that these Mantis Demons who described Ting Lanyue and the other female upper house disciples as little heifers had struck Zhong Yue off guard. In his point of view, he regarded these female upper house disciples as a million times prettier and cuter than heifers, how were these demons able to make such a comparison between the girls and heifers.

Ting Lanyue shouted, "Dear brothers and sisters, prepare for combat! Junior Martial Brother Zhong, you are the weakest among us and have no prior experience with combat like this so you must stick close to me!"

Upon hearing her command, Zhong Yue was startled and did not know whether to laugh or cry.

As Ting Lanyue and the other upper house disciples galvanized themselves to engage the demons, Ting Lanyue whispered, "Junior Martial Brother Zhong, the Mantis Demons you encountered in Cloudless Hall were still in their infancy, which was why they were unable to speak and their souls are feeble. However, these are adult Mantis Demons here. They are a cut above their siblings in Cloudless Hall in every way—sturdy body figures, strong souls and efficient in combat. They aren't easy to kill."

Zhong Yue gaze focused toward to the army of Mantis Demons, only to find that these demons had advanced another ten feet closer to them. Unlike those Mantis Demons in Cloudless Hall, the demons in front of him now were so much bigger, stronger and faster!

Not only that, the arms of the demons in Cloudless Hall had no flesh, just bones in the shape of a scythe; whereas the bones of the grown-up Mantis Demons had a metallic luster.

This meant that their arms were no longer bony scythes. The metal components have completely infused into their bones, transforming their arms into metallic scythes. They are much more dangerous like this!

"Charge!"

Ting Lanyue shouted, unleashing her psyche and activating the [Spring Thunderbolt Sword Skill]. Dazzling lightning appeared from within Ting Lanyue and morphed into thunderous lightning swords, piercing the Mantis Demons in their paths.

As the other upper house disciples attacked using the [Spring Thunderbolt Sword Skill], deafening roars cracked the skies, and one after another, thunderous lightning swords flew out and struck the areas concentrated with Mantis Demons.

"The digestive systems of Mantis Demons are incredibly strong. The mature ones can directly consume darksteel ores and absorb it into the bones to strengthen them!"

While slaying Mantis Demons one after another, Ting Lanyue said to Zhong Yue, "These Mantis Demons are just average grown-ups, the most dangerous ones are the mutated Mantis Demons. They are inherently born with the Mantis Demon carvings, and when they reach adulthood, their bones will be completely supplanted by darksteel. At that point, they would become nigh invulnerable to ordinary weapons. The weight of their bones are usually around two to three thousand kilograms, and they have an explosive force of a few hundred thousand pounds. If your soul weapon is weak, you may not even be able to penetrate their skin! Fortunately for us, the occurrence of mutated Mantis Demons is infrequent, there might not even be one among a few millions of them. They are mostly found in the large-scale Mantis Demon lairs, so the probability that we will encounter one in this little lair is extremely remote."

In the time it took for her to say this, she had already struck down five Mantis Demons. Her attacks were fierce, swift, and steady. All of this went to show that her place as the strongest among the upper house disciples was not without reason.

The other upper disciples were also busy dealing with their enemies and tempering themselves at the same time. The size of this lair of Mantis Demons did not appear to be too big as it contained only around two hundred demons. Other than Ting Lanyue who had slain these demons quickly, there were also a few of the upper house disciples who were also quite capable in their own right. With their respective masteries of the [Spring Thunderbolt Sword Skill], they easily made short work of their foes.

He Chengchuan was among one of the more outstanding disciples. His strength had always been as equally strong as Ting Lanyue's so his attacks were also as accordingly fearsome.

While everything progressed smoothly for Ting Lanyue, the same could not be said for the others. Unlike Ting Lanyue and He Chengchuan, the other upper house disciples were only as strong as the ordinary adult Mantis Demons, and some of them even suffered some injuries. However, none of them activated their items such as totem pillars and soul weapons as they were still able to manage without it.

"These Mantis Demons are also a good source of darksteel. Darksteel can be used to refine your soul weapon—the best of which usually comes from the two scythes as they contain extremely refined darksteel."

Ting Lanyue continued to explain, "Junior Martial Brother Zhong, their weakness is their heart, but the grown-up Mantis Demons have a layer of bones that protect their heart. Only by using Sword Qi skills like the [Spring Thunderbolt Sword Skill] will you be able to penetrate the layer of bones and strike their hearts. In Swords Gate, the [Spring Thunderbolt Sword Skill] is the best skill for dealing with Mantis Demons!"

Through observing the techniques and the upper house disciples' way of fighting, Zhong Yue quickly absorbed a significant amount of experience as the upper house disciples were currently superior to him in combat due to the higher amount of training they went through compared to Zhong Yue.

Suddenly, Xing Huo said hurriedly, "Zhong Yue, there's a mutated Mantis Demon among them, be careful!"

"Mutated Mantis Demon!?"

Just as Zhong Yue was about to warn the others about the mutated Mantis Demon, an extremely ear-piercing laugh could be heard. A Mantis Demon fighting with one of the upper house disciples swung its body, and it quickly grew taller and larger. It swung its scythe-like arms, and a white light flashed across the air!

As the white light flashed, the head of the disciple fighting with him detached from his body with the disciple's face contorted in disbelief.

"Seems like there are no Qi Practitioners here among you all, then I do not need to hide anymore!"

The demon laughed and jumped quickly, landing in front of another disciple! The disciple's reaction was swift, and they launched a thunderous Sword Qi toward the mutated Mantis Demon's chest!

But the mutated demon did not bother about his attack. It indifferently allowed the thunderous sword to explode on its chest, where it failed to leave even a single impression!

The next moment, before anyone could react, the disciple was decapitated by the mutated demon. The demon then grabbed the disciple's headless corpse and indulged in the blood that spewed out from its neck.

"Mutated Mantis Demon!"

As Ting Lanyue, He Chengchuan and the others recollected their thoughts; in their blind rage, they activated their [Spring Thunderbolt Sword Skill] simultaneously. In a flash, the entire battlefield was enveloped in thunderous Sword Qi which engulfed the mutated demon!

Thunderous swords, one after another, formed a massive ball of thunderbolts, surrounding the mutated demon inside of it. Ting Lanyue's beautiful eyes looked toward the direction of the thunderbolts ball, finding the mutated demon still standing at the same spot while drinking the blood of the headless body.

Shockingly, this mutated demon remained unharmed in the face of the [Spring Thunderbolt Sword Skill] cast by the superimposition of hundreds of upper house disciples' individual skills!

"Brothers and sisters, totem pillar formation! Immobilize and lock that demon down!"

Ting Lanyue shouted in a low tone. He Chengchuan and the others quickly threw out their totem pillars, forming a circle that surrounded the demon at the center.

Although not everyone had totem pillars, there were still almost fifty of them planted around the demon.

As someone who had been pressured to the extent of almost being incapable of moving, Zhong Yue knew how strong these totem pillars were, and now, around fifty of them were thrown out!

The pressure now should be over twenty times stronger than what he experienced!

As the totem pillars were activated, a wave of pressure surged throughout the battlefield that forced the Mantis Demons onto the ground.

After the lightning ball dispersed, the mutated demon remained standing in the middle of the pillars as if he was oblivious to the pressure!

The mutated demon turned its head sternly with its eyes showing an intense desire for blood as it stared at Ting Lanyue. He licked his lips and said, "Little heifer… I like to conquer pretty heifers like you…"

Ting Lanyue's forehead started to drip cold sweat, and when she saw some disciples trying to kill the mutated demon with their soul weapons, she shouted, "Stop! Mutated demons are very resistant to conventional soul weapons, and we have yet to master the [Spring Thunderbolt Sword Skill] completely. It would be useless against it right now! Now, split up into groups of ten and escape in different paths, save yourselves!"

Before she could even finish, strange marks emerged from the skin of the trapped mutated demon—they were the natural markings of mutated mantis demons! Ting Lanyue's face changed when she saw the markings and shouted again, "Hurry up! We will die here if we do not act now!"

She knew deeply of the horrifying strength of these mutated Mantis Demons. They were not only strong, fast, and resilient. They also had these natural markings of totems that could imbue them with immense power. The emergence of these markings on the trapped mutated demon now could only mean that it was trying to unleash his full power to extricate itself from the disciples' totem pillars!

With the power of this mutated demon, it would be as easy as pie to slaughter all the upper house disciples. Its speed exceeded what anyone of them could ever fathom, therefore, if the upper house disciples did not act fast, perhaps none of them would be able to survive!

He Chengchuan and the others also realized the situation was beginning to develop toward a dreadful outcome as they quickly escaped in all directions in groups of ten.

Zhong Yue followed behind Ting Lanyue, and he inadvertently looked behind him. He came to realize that the totem markings on the mutated demon's body grew more lustrous than before. The pillars then started to vibrate incessantly and eventually loosened. The mutated demon would shatter the shackles of the pillars anytime soon!

While everyone was running as fast as they could and the moment that Zhong Yue looked behind, a totem pillar was launched into the air and pulverized to pieces.

Pak Pak Pak!!

Within a few seconds, the totem pillars were launched and shattered one by one in the air.

Swoosh——

With his ghostly movement speed, the mutated demon dashed toward Ting Lanyue and Zhong Yue's group!

Suddenly, Zhong Yue asked in his psyche ocean, "Xin Huo, with my power now, will I be able to defeat this mutated demon?"

In his psyche ocean, Xin Huo was stunned for awhile and then said insouciantly, "Defeating it? He has the protection of the natural totem marks, and they are unlike that of an ordinary totem pillar. The chances are that you will die before you could kill him! But…"

Xin Huo stopped talking, and Zhong Yue immediately asked, "But what?"

"But if you transformed into the Sui Sovereigns' Form, you might have the chance to win. With the Sui Sovereigns' Form to amplify the power of the low-class [Spring Thunderbolt Sword Skill], you might be able to win."

Xing Huo continued, "However, I cannot guarantee your odds of winning. After all, you are not a pure-blood Fuxi—a pure-blood Fuxi would be able to slay this mutated demon quickly.

Zhong Yue stopped as Ting Lanyue, and the others continued running forward without realizing that Zhong Yue did not follow behind them.

"If a pure-blood celestial race could do it, I believe I can as well!"

Zhong Yue turned and rushed toward the mutated demon.

The mutated demon roared, and the markings on his body started to glow one by one. As the markings glowed, his speed increased, and his scythe arms continued to sharpen.

Whereas for Zhong Yue, as he strode forward, his psyche in his psyche ocean gushed out and formed into the Sui Sovereign as the head of a dragon, body of a human and tail of a snake came into being. The Sui Sovereign's height reached a hundred feet and stood staunchly behind Zhong Yue!

As the Sui Sovereign coalesced, Zhong Yue felt endless strength surging into his body!

"[Spring Thunderbolt Sword Skill], the spring thunderbolt that struck away winter, the radiance of the lightning that shined upon the nine provinces!"

Zhong Yue shouted, and a thunderbolt exploded from under his legs, lifting him up to fly in the air. The next moment, the roar of lightning reverberated throughout!

At the same moment, Ting Lanyue turned and realized Zhong Yue's absence. Shocked, she said, "Junior Martial Brother Zhong has not practiced any advanced techniques, making him slower than the others…"

She immediately returned to the location they were at before they started fleeing. Shen then look up all of a sudden to see a young man dancing in the skies on a stage of thunderlight. His hands were grasping onto something invisible as if it were wielding a massive sword, slashing toward the mutated demon!

The strike then erupted into a huge lake of lightning that spread across the skies!

At the same time as the strike exploded, Ting Lanyue exclaimed in astonishment, "The true quintessence of the [Spring Thunderbolt Sword Skill]."