The coin was something else close by.
Baiyun quickly swept his divine thread around the area and found a foreign presence.
An oppressive force. A formless will.
His eyes shrank. It was a qi sense from a Core Shaper!
"Everyone, be alert! Something is coming that way!"
Baiyun yelled as he pulled out his bow and notched a wooden arrow in, aiming towards one of the tunnels.
BANG!
With a loud snap, the arrow shattered into countless fragments that shot down the tunnel. They stuck into the root walls and smashed dozens of holes open.
The disciples backed away, but nothing came. Some of them stared at Baiyun doubtfully. But Yingtao's face grew serious.
...
Clatter.
Clatter clatter.
The faint clatters slowly grew into hundreds of clatters as a giant centipede revealed itself from a tunnel bend. The disciples paled.
Under the light orbs Qinghe had summoned, its glossy black carapace glimmered with a hint of gold. Every shell segment was as thick as a dictionary and had long edges that covered the gaps in its exoskeleton.
It had metre-long straight horns that curved forward like a bull's and scrimtar-like mandibles of the same length. Its mandibles snapped with the clang of metal and the subtle whistle of sliced air.
"A warrior centipede!" Yingtao yelled. "Stay back!"
The disciples screamed and ran as the centipede slid further into the chamber, revealing more of its body, which seemed to lengthen endlessly. Its legs ended in sharp points like stakes, some curved and angled sideways like scythes.
Yingtao marched forward and the centipede raised its head, 10 metres of its revealed body looming over her.
Clang!
The centipede snapped its mandibles before lunging at her! Yingtao crouched and rushed beneath its massive body.
"HAH!"
She punched upward with all her might, her fist digging into its underside! The centipede slammed into the ceiling headfirst and smashed straight through the roots with a hail of crushed wood.
Yingtao had no intention of letting it process the attack. She summoned a pair of earthen hands to grab her legs and anchor her down, then reached upwards and grabbed one of its many legs, pulling its massive body sideways and slamming its head through a root wall!
Brief tremors shook the root caverns and dust fell from the ceiling. Baiyun held his bow and reached for a black arrow briefly, but stopped. It was better not to get the attention of such a dangerous beast.
This was quite the commotion... he grew worried and glanced around, hoping it wouldn't attract unwanted attention. He quickly checked Ying Shi's compass, but the mini-earthquake had jostled its rings and messed up the readings.
Baiyun's eyes twitched. What a piece of junk!
Meanwhile, Yingtao pulled out a spear of pure metal. But instead of a pointed tip, it had a mace's head, a brutish lump of spiked metal.
The centipede finally recovered and was furious. It snapped its mandibles more and more violently with deafening metallic clangs, before charging at Yingtao once more. This time, it did not raise its head, having learnt from its previous mistake.
But Yingtao merely looked at it with mocking eyes as she swung the mace downwards and struck the top of its head.
BANG!
Its head was smashed into a crater on the ground. With nowhere to go, its momentum arched its body upwards until it slammed into the ceiling.
The caverns trembled again, but Yingtao bent down and punched the earth. 9 pillars of earth rose and pierced into the ceiling, stabilising the caverns.
From a distance, the disciples cheered. Even Mohei had forgotten his fear somehow and was jumping up and down.
"Baiyun! Shoot it! Shoot it in the eye!"
Baiyun smacked him in the back of the head.
"Ow! What was that for?"
While the disciples seemed to have gotten excited from the seemingly 1-sided beatdown, Baiyun could tell the centipede had barely taken any damage. All Yingtao had achieved was disorientating it.
Ying Shi seemed to be on the same page.
"You morons! Now is not the time to spectate. Follow me and evacuate!" he yelled.
"Yes sir!" a few voices called out in unison.
Baiyun grabbed the grumbling Mohei, following the group as they fled.
Ying Shi quickly sorted out the jumbled compass and the qi clusters became coherent again. Sweat trickled down his face from focus as he ran. This time, he led the team away from any qi clusters.
Yingtao was left behind to fight while the disciples fled.
One by one, Qinghe's light orbs faded and she was plunged into pure darkness. But she only laughed. An intense aura emerged from her body, expanding into her field of qi sense! With it, she did not need light to see.
When the disciples were present, Yingtao had to suppress it in fear of overwhelming the disciples. But now, she could fight at her full potential!
Clangs echoed in the darkness as she engaged the creature. The centipede would charge at her only to be deflected by her spear mace, the attacks repeating like a slow unending dance.
But Yingtao was listening to the distant footsteps carefully.
She sensed the disciples had gotten far away enough and took a few steps backwards, circulating her qi and preparing her strongest move!
Earth Crush.
The ceiling above crumbled. The centipede looked up in alarm as a massive section of black rock hundreds of times its volume fell.
It slammed onto the centipede with all its might, pinning down all but its exposed head! It writhed its head and snapped its mandibles in fury as Yingtao approached, but it could not break free.
The caverns began to shake violently, incomparable to the tremors from before! All around, root walls crumbled and ceilings collapsed, crushing hundreds of juvenile centipedes. The depleted Lifesap root was crushed as well.
The centipede trembled in rage, but it could anything, Yingtao raised her mace and smashed its head into the ground. But only a scratch was left on its mighty shell.
Again. She snapped her finger and solid rock reformed the ground, pushing its head upwards once more.
BANG!
Yingtao smashed its head downwards and crushed the ground. She snapped her finger and the earth reformed once more.
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
...
Each time the earth reformed, the rock beneath grew stronger and stronger. It was as if the centipede was merely a nail beneath a hammer.
There was no exhilarating battle to be had, only torment.
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The centipede did not know how many times it had been struck for it could not count above 30. Even as its vision spun and its mind jolted, its eyes fixed onto the human with hatred. Beneath the wall of rock that crushed its body, each of its countless legs struggled with all their might.
Clear liquid oozed from its head. Only cracks had been left on its mighty shell, but the flesh beneath was badly wounded by the shockwaves.
To fight an earth cultivator underground was to battle them in their domain. It was not a fair battle.
BANG!
Another attack struck it, and its head spun. An antenna bro.ke off and further disorientated it.
The centipede knew the end was close. But it refused to accept that. It continued to struggle and struggle, its writhing growing more and more intense. The cracks on its exo-skull spider-webbed deeper and deeper.
This familiar sensation...
It knew what it had to do. The centipede rushed forward and slammed through its skull!
"Whoa!"
Yingtao backed away in shock as the shell of the centipede's head cracked open. The Earth Crush's rock trembled as the centipede shot out in an instant, leaving its exoskeleton behind.
The centipede was now pure white, clear liquid oozing from its underdeveloped soft shell. It had molted in desperation!
It rushed into the distance and away from the dangerous human before she could react. Its eyes hardened and the turbid waters of its mind seemed to clear, a rare moment of enlightenment.
The human it was facing. A warrior, much like it.
Small humans. Nymphs, much like the brood it protected with its all.
The cruel human warrior killed its kin.
A foreign concept formed in its damaged mind briefly.
Revenge.
Yingtao's eyes widened. She rushed over and swung her mace, this time easily cleaving through its body. But with its tail bisected, the centipede only grew faster!
...
Far in the distance.
Ying Shi glanced at his compass and raised a hand for the disciples to stop. The coin-sized cluster faded away. By now, it was apparent that it represented a warrior centipede.
How strange. In his previous raid, the aura of the centipedes seemed far stronger, which was why he couldn't identify them. He had a lot of questions, but no answers.
"Disciples. It seems Elder Sister has killed the warrior. It's time to regroup!" Ying Shi said.
The disciples nodded but Mohei booed.
"Eh..." he grumbled. "We didn't even get to see the fight."
But clattering suddenly came from the distance. Yingtao's voice echoed right behind.
"RUN!"
"What?" Ying Shi gasped.
Under Qinghe's countless light orbs, the warrior revealed itself and rushed in! More than half of its immense body had been lost and it left a trail of clear blood and innards behind it.
No. The reason the coin had vanished was not because of its death. It vanished because its aura had weakened far too much, no longer detected by the compass's settings!
Yingtao lunged out from the darkness behind and punched the earth, summoning a row of earth spikes. Most of them missed, but this time, one skewered into the segment right behind the centipede's head. Its desperate charge was finally stopped.
Mohei's eyes widened. He had only spoken casually, but the fight came to them moments later!
The centipede was not dead. It struggled and snapped its mandibles threateningly, until it finally paused.
But Baiyun, who had reached a thread of divine sense over widened his eyes. This flow of qi... the centipede had not given up. It was about to cast a spell!
A strange air of focus came over him and time seemed to slow.
With a hundred years of spellcasting behind his belt, Baiyun could easily read the qi flow of such primitive magic. He knew that in the next second, a metal spike would be launched in a certain trajectory. And its target... Sanguang.
He sighed mentally. That brat was lucky he was here.
Baiyun reached out his ringed finger where the Thousand Wills ring sat, pointing it towards Sanguang. With a single thought, he channeled divine sense into that finger.
Pierce.
A spike of divine sense formed beneath his flesh and stabbed upwards! The fragile skin of the finger was instantly shredded, sending droplets of blood flying into the air.
The divine sense struck the ring with a faint clink, activating the countless seals on it. Strand by strand of qi within rushed through fixed paths and turning mechanisms, the small shield of the ring beginning to glow. A spherical barrier erupted from the ring and began to expand, draping itself over Baiyun's body.
It was perfect timing.
The centipede completed the spell at that very moment, launching a metal spike forward! Yingtao's eyes lit up with panic, but it was far too late.
But just as it was about to hit Sanguang, the expanding barrier struck its side!
The Thousand Wills ring was merely a Qi Gathering artefact. To hope for it to contest even the weakest attack of a Core Shaper was laughable.
Before Baiyun's eyes, the barrier burst into molts of light upon contact. It was the natural result of a mantis facing a chariot.
But even that was enough.
The straight shooting spike veered from the impact and spun off course, its tip slashing across Sanguang's stomach before flying past him.
Baiyun's moment of focus wore off and time seemed to resume. Blood oozed from his finger and soaked into the Thousand Wills ring.
Sanguang fell backwards in terror. His eyes shook as he watched blood spill from the massive wound on his chest, soaking his robes red and pooling to the ground.
The bloodied root floor began to pulse, as if delighted.
Sanguang did not feel any pain from the shock. but he was terrified. He stammered gibberish for a moment, before breaking into tears.
"Ahh... ahhh.... Uuaaaahhhh!"
"Sanguang!" Yingtao yelled.
The centipede writhed more and more violently, its hatred and killing intent filling the air! Hate! Hate, hate, HATE! It had put its all into that attack, but failed!
Before it could launch another attack, Yingtao's mace slammed into its head one last time and crushed it into paste.
She rushed to Sanguang's side and accessed the horrid wound, a bloody line of red that ran from his hip to his shoulder. She reached out with the weakest qi sense she could muster, then heaved a sigh of relief.
"Heavy bleeding, but minimal damage to internals. Sanguang, you will be fine!" Yingtao said, reaching out to grab his shoulders.
"I..."
Sanguang mumbled something before falling limp, unconscious from the shock.
Yingtao summoned an elixir from her spatial ring and poured it into the wound. It bubbled and hissed, letting out a faint white mist.
"Elder sister. Let me handle this." Ying Shi said.
"Un." Yingtao nodded.
She stepped aside as her brother approached, a spool of silver thread and a golden needle in hand.
With slow and careful motions, he began to stitch up the wound. It was a strange sight, for the muscular hands of a young boy to be that deft and precise. A few disciples watched with hands over their mouths in morbid curiosity, while the others turned away, unable to stomach the gory sight.
"Qinghe, assist me." Ying Shi said, his hands still working lightning fast.
Qinghe nodded and tossed her staff to the side. She raised a hand into the air and halted the bleeding of the wound with qi. Then, she raised her other hand.
From the Sanguang's bloodied robes and the ground, the blood rose into the air and formed a crimson orb. The root floor pulsed as if aggravated.
She shut her eyes and focused with both hands still in the air. Motes of glowing red essence began to separate from the blood orb. Over the next few minutes, the orb grew more and more transparent, until finally, it became a sphere of clear liquid.
Qinghe waved a hand and let it splatter onto the root floor once more, distaste in her eyes. There was no reaction this time.
On Ying Shi's end, he had finished up as well. The wound was fully stitched, the crisscross of silver thread glimmering in the light. He was now feeding Sanguang an elixir slowly.
"Move aside." Qinghe said.
She pushed Ying Shi's hand aside before shoving the clump of blood essence down Sanguang's throat.
"Um," Mohei suddenly said. "Why didn't you just use your magic to push the blood back into his wounds?"
Qinghe glared at him.
"Ehh? What's with that look?" Mohei was taken aback.
"Don't embarrass yourself by saying nonsense if you know nothing." she harrumphed.
"Eh?!"
Mohei turned to Baiyun helplessly. But to his shock, Baiyun was staring at Qinghe with eyes of excitement!
Baiyun clenched his fists. This girl was an alchemist!
Light, Wood and Water.
Those pursuing combat professions usually focused on 1 element, with 1 or 2 supporting elements at most. But being an alchemist demanded mastery over all 9 elements. There were other support occupations that required 9 element mastery too, but that was beside the point.
Showing control of 3 elements wasn't enough evidence, but only an alchemist could extract essence with such skill!
Baiyun began to feel excited, silly as it might be.
Other than that dodgy old man in the prison, she was the first alchemist he had seen in this life. And definitely the first proper alchemist, not some uncultured swine using spit from his mouth to brew alcohol! Baiyun had no intention of being tossed into prison again just to meet him a second time.
He began to think furiously, even forgetting his finger was bleeding.
Having been forced to live as a servant for 8 years, he had a burning desire to see proper alchemy once more. He felt even the mere sight of a pill furnace might send him into a frenzy.
There had to be a way he could convince her to let him have some proper equipment once more! Perhaps he could volunteer to help as an assistant?
The biggest issue was his identity.
Alchemy was an art that relied on fine qi control and sensitive meridians, but he had none. A servant was the worst possible candidate for an assistant.
It was as if he was a blind man who wanted to help an artist colour their lines in. Who would trust him to choose the colours, or even be able to tell where the lines were drawn?
Baiyun clutched his head with his hands. Ahh, what a headache!
The blood dripping onto his hair finally caught his attention. He quickly composed himself and lowered his hands.
Ah. The ring soaked in his blood was glowing.
Baiyun's face grew blank. He had acknowledged it as master by accident.