Chapter 118: Is It His Birthday?

"Do you think they died in there?" On Park asked.

"If they did, we just wasted hours here waiting for nothing." Peizhi yawned.

"Is this little Qi Gatherer really so important that all the Elders are going crazy because of her?" On scoffed.

"We wouldn't be out here if she wasn't." Peizhi informed.

"We're not even worth investigating the girl herself but her underlings! That says enough about the strength of the Qi Gatherer." Shing brought up.

"It's just hard to believe that a Qi Gatherer could be worth so much attention. If it was the Sect Leader's daughter or granddaughter I'd understand. But as far as we know, this Qi Gatherer is just an unknown! No one knows anything about her and everyone is scrambling to figure out her background." On exclaimed.

"Why wouldn't they be trying to figure out her background? What if she's a spy sent by one of the other sects? What if she has a relationship with one of the Golden Serpent Sect's enemies? What if she wasn't truly loyal to the Golden Serpent Sect and needed some "convincing" to bring her heart towards the sect's interests." Peizhi explained all these different possibilities.

"Wouldn't the sect want to do whatever to please this Qi Gatherer so she didn't leave? Because once the Nine Swords Sect and the Blossoming Water Palace finds out about her, they'll be doing everything they can to investigate her background and decide whether to kill her or bribe her into joining their sect." Shing asked.

"Who knows?" Peizhi shrugged.

"I think I see them coming out!" A disciple cried.

  The group of more than a dozen cultivators suddenly looked over at the hole that Jing's followers jumped down. Their master sent them here with a single purpose and they didn't plan to let him down. They all rushed over to capture them all in one fell swoop. They'd should without a doubt be tired and exhausted after completing the task that took this long. More than half the day was spent waiting for them to come out of the mountain.

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"Haha what the hell is this?" Hu Tao laughed happily. "I didn't know it was my fucking birthday!" He shouted.

"I knew we'd regret leaving those guys alive..." Bing murmured.

"Tch. Damn it. If I was fully healed, I'd make you bastards regret trying to ambush me." Ying clicked with her tongue.

"I'll have to sit this one out..." Lei Zhi has yet to recover from his tussle with the Flame King Hippopotamus. In his stead, he released Quon from his silver bead. The capture spell he placed him in was broken and the giant octopus immediately wrapped itself around the exhausted beast tamer in an excited embrace.

"Can you help Hu Tao and Bing out with those disciples over there?" He asked politely.

"Bloorp!" Quon responded in agreement and dashed off with Hu Tao.

  Bing was the slowest to charge towards their enemies as he doubted he'd have to do much in this fight since Hu Tao was participating. Bing understood the absurd monstrous strength of the 3rd stage Qi Consolidator. He couldn't picture himself defeating Hu Tao even if time stopped and he trained for a hundred years. That's just how crazy and insane he was in Bing's eyes. If he was being honest, his estimation of Hu Tao's strength was probably an exaggeration of great proportions but if you saw what Bing saw from Hu Tao. You wouldn't be so quick to dismiss his opinion of him.

  Several cultivators suicidally charged Hu Tao in hopes of pinning him down. Hu Tao grinned and let them take him to the floor as four cultivators circled around his captured figure. Everyone watched as the four cultivators quickly tried creating a trapping formation just for Hu Tao. Bing's eyes widened as soon as he saw what they were attempting to do. They must know that he's the most dangerous in their group! Bing used Swift Devil to dash with frightening speed towards one of the array cultivators. With a sickening crunch, Bing's thick head found itself lodged within the gut of the cultivator. Shattering his bones, discombobulating his organs, and stopping him from completing the formation. Perhaps if he wasn't in the middle of setting up an array, he would've been able to dodge Bing's bull-like charge as he was two small stages ahead of Bing.

  The cultivators who took Hu Tao down were stunned after seeing one of the spell masters get taken out. Seeing that the first part of their plan failed, they quickly tried to get away from Hu Tao. But how could Hu Tao let them leave after already being taken to the ground? His chains moved like living snakes and wrapped around each and every disciple holding on to him. They squirmed, struggled, and screamed trying to get free but as far as Hu Tao knew, his chains were unbreakable.

  He stood up with his back straight and wearing a smile on his face, Hu Tao channeled his qi within his legs and jumped far into the sky with the disciples attached to him and his chains. His mad laughter as they tried to free themselves using any possible means only heighted their panic. The group of disciples soon started spiraling as they began falling back down to the mountain. Hu Tao had no problem cackling at the peril they were in. He jumped very far up into the sky. Landing on the ground at this speed from the height they came from only had one outcome for these handsy bastards that decided to grab him.

"I would've just beat the shit out of you fuckers for trying to ambush me! But trying to trap me in a formation?! You didn't stand a chance of leaving this place without dying then!" Hu Tao let them know it was their own fault they were going to die. He was still a bit traumatized from the Treasured Plains.

  They were more focused on their impending deaths than hearing the words of a madman who was about to kill himself with them. Completely regretting ever going after this group. All for a few low-level spirit stones and now they're going to die! Dying for something so meaningless compared to their own lives.

  The many bodies went splat and crunch as Hu Tao controlled the angle, speed, and direction of their descent. He made sure to place himself on top of all the bodies of the ambushing disciples as they hit the ground first. Despite how crazy this move was, he didn't want himself to be injured because of it. How would he enjoy the rest of the fight waiting for him if he wasn't at 100%?

"Such a show off." Ying scoffed at his move.

"Like you could do better, Princess." He challenged.

"I hope you didn't think that move was cool or anything! Cause it wasn't!" Ying made sure he didn't misunderstand.

"It was cooler than anything you could do." Hu Tao defended his impromptu technique.

"You want to see cool?! Give me a second!" Ying tossed another recovery pill in her mouth.

  It melted on her tongue and she charged towards one of the ambushers with her large evil-looking blade held over her shoulder. The disciple smirked after realizing that the girl was injured and was at the same stage he was. With his Golden Snake Fists, he could easily bite this girl apart while avoiding her stupidly big sword. The confident cultivator's fists seemingly changed into living snakes as they bit straight towards Ying.

  Ying was momentarily surprised at the speed of his fists. Maybe this guy wasn't as weak as he looked. But regardless of how skilled or quick he was, Ying had a point to prove! Something far more important than taking this guy seriously. The embarrassment she'd feel not being able to pull this off after talking all that talk to Hu Tao would be unbearable. His 5 fingers brought close together struck her directly in the shoulder and stomach. Aggravating her wounds but doing little to stop her determination.

  The Golden Snake Fists disciple expected Ying to drop after being struck directly in two of her nerve points but surprisingly she stayed standing. Standing and staring straight into his eyes with a murderous aura leaking from her figure. Hu Tao watched with an amused look on his face at Ying's "cool technique" while fighting other disciples without directly looking at them.

"Is he fighting us without even paying attention to us!?"

"Kill that bastard! I don't care what stage he's at! How dare you disrespect us like this?!"

"Focus on him while he isn't looking at us! We'll kill him and leave the others alive!"

  Ying pulled her fist back slowly and struck the disciple in the gut, momentarily launching him off the ground. His shock at her not dropping to his strongest technique, prevented him from responding to her obvious and slow punch. As he succumbed to the effects of gravity after being knocked in the air, Ying grabbed his robes before he could drop to the ground and tossed him harshly into the ground. She raised her sword above his lying figure and an orb of flames sparked on the tip of her greatsword. The blade wielder's qi fueled into the ball of fire before suddenly combusting into the form of an even greater blade, similar to her own. This colossal blade of blaze slowly lowered itself into the fallen cultivator's chest and pierced through his heart, slowly burning the skin on his flesh and everything else on his body.

  Ying looked at Hu Tao with a cocky smirk.

"You fucking bitch! You know that doesn't count!" Hu Tao yelled at her.

"Sounds like you lost!" Ying happily gloated.

"Bullshit! I barely used any qi at all in mine! You used an entire fucking secret technique that drained most of your qi!" He shouted.

"No I didn't." Ying popped a Qi Recovery pill in her mouth and chewed.

"Then what the fuck are you eating right now!?" One of the enemies Hu Tao was fighting managed to land a strike upon his face in his anger. But it didn't seem like it did any damage whatsoever.

"A dumpling." She lied casually. Inwardly, she was very excited at how angry she was making him. Finally, this bastard could taste a bit of the pain she feels dealing with him.

"I had enough!" On Park shouted. "Flirting in the middle of a fight?! Not even taking your opponents seriously?! I didn't even want to take this damn assignment but now I want nothing more than to torture and hurt you all in the most painful of ways." He grabbed a sack from his waist and started downing several red colored pills.

"Here we go..." Peizhi took out a green colored pill from a similar looking sack and swallowed a single one.

"You all really messed up now..." Shing brought a blue colored pill onto his tongue with a small smile.