Bai Jun stood back with his eyes widened and jaws slack. The knight class woman just momentarily recreated the strength of a top tier viscount. He had witnessed the strength of thunderstorm arrows before but this was just on a total different scale. If the arrow he had seen before was a thunderstorm, this was a full blown natural disaster.
The initial shock from the jump caught them off guard, it pushed them back a couple of feet as Qiu Ye launched herself into the air. Now realising that the woman was the real deal, they anchored themselves into the ground and prepared for any other large bursts of energy. Though she moved far too fast for Bai Jun to see, the guards clearly saw Qiu Ye shooting the arrows and throwing the spear within seconds and landing on the floor.
The arrows formed a ring in the air, wave like ripples could be seen by the guards where the air was displaced by the spinning arrows. The spear initially arched but once it went through the centre of the ring of spinning arrows, it straightened and extended. The force of the five arrows transferred to the spear and propelled it forward, causing the first sonic blast as the spear broke the sound barrier.
Qiu Ye stood there focused. The initial stage was over, the arrows wouldn't be enough to pierce the scales no matter how injured the beast was and the spear was too heavy to fly all the way even with her wind control. By using the arrows to push the spear forward, the momentum took the slack off from Qiu Ye and allowed her to steer and push the streak of black lightning across the sky.
Though the entire attack took about 5 seconds, with hawk eye and time difference running at maximum capacity, it seemed like half an hour to Qiu Ye. She had to carefully break apart the air so the spear wouldn't be stopped by terminal velocity and also add extra force behind it to push it forward. She couldn't risk being lazy with this attack since the viscount beast soul weapon would have a really tough time digging into the duke class beast's body.
With another crack of thunder, the spear pierced the salamander's body and pinned it to the body. Qiu Ye didn't hear the announcement that she increased in Duke experience so she immediately told Bai Jun and his men to go in to bring the beast closer to death. The guards rushed in on the birds and Qiu Ye hopped onto Bai Jun's mount.
The salamander screamed and struggled against the spear, it was already starting to break apart. Before she would lose the spear forever, Qiu Ye pulled it back into her soul ream. She could feel the cracks running down the shaft starting to slowly mend itself. Winter hadn't said anything about beasts to look out for around her so she focused on bringing the beast down. For now there were no weapons she had that would do proper damage so she was just going to use her fists.
With the siren transformation, her physique was up to standard for the average to low end viscount. But with her skills she was confident she would at least be able to take the final blow without having to sacrifice her spear. She was already feeling the backlash from pushing herself to the maximum. The guards were doing well suppressing the salamander, allowing her to get a heavy punch at the large wound. Though the physical attack did nothing to the beast, by using a combination of lightning and sound, Qiu Ye wreaked havoc at the scaled beast's innards.
After twitching for a few seconds, the salamander fell on it's side and died. Qiu Ye heard the announcement in her mind and smiled.
Duke Experience increased, Duke Beast Soul obtained.
Since reptile beasts didn't need to be kept whole like mammals, Bai Jun and his guards immediately started butchering the beast an collecting any intact scales it had. Now that the beast was dead, it's defence dropped enough for them to cut it open with just viscount gear. The terms Qiu Ye agreed on was for Bai Jun to take the body but he gave her a handful of scales as a bonus tip. Even though it was better to sell them by the bulk, she could get a smith to sew it into her cloak. When treated and properly forged, the scales will regain their normal strength and durability. Though she can't upgrade her beast soul gear, she can attach them to her physical gear. Maybe it was time to upgrade her cloak to something more protective or weather resistant.
Now that the main threat was gone, Qiu Ye had time to rest a bit. She kept an eye on Bai Jun and his men to make sure none of them slinked into the cave to take more than they agreed on. She also had Winter diligently keep watch on any possible beasts or foreign parties looking to try and steal their loot. However Bai Jun held up his part of the deal and waited for Qiu Ye before heading into the cave.
The entrance was small and seemed to be formed much later than the rest of the system, it was filled with fruit and dead bodies of beasts. Some of the bodies were clearly rotting but the smell of fresh vegetation covered the scent of rotting flesh. Seems like there was some kind of symbiotic relationship between the salamander and the fruits in the cave. Whatever the beast couldn't eat would be used as fertalization for the plants that grew in and around the cave. Most fruits in the in-between also somewhat help strengthen people and beasts.
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Qiu Ye crouched down and examined the fruits, they didn't seem out of the usual standard of things found in the in-between. Though the fruits didn't seem to be as strong as the soul fruits growing on the third level, their sweet aroma was quite attractive. They looked like grapes the size of apples, growing in small bunches attached to a branch which grew out of the large vines on the cavern walls. Qiu Ye picked a few bunches of the fruit, letting Bai Jun also have a few. She didn't want to overpack and she could return here anytime to harvest more anyways.
They continued down a winding tunnel heading down to the second atrium, the sound of their footsteps and trickling water echoed. There didn't seem to be any other beasts living in the space but the group treaded with caution. When they reached the end of the passage, the cave opened up to a large chamber with stalactites and stalagmites. A green looking liquid dripped from the ceiling and formed small pools on the floor. In each pool was a cluster of eggs the size of pumpkins, 3 to 4 eggs sat in each pool of the green water.
Qiu Ye raised her hand to tell them to stop for a bit as she held out her hand to catch one of the droplets of water. Longevity offered resistance to poison so she wasn't worried that any substance in the first floor could harm her too badly. The green water was cold, though it flowed like water, it felt a little more viscous. She first smelled the fluid, though there was no scent, she felt a slight coldness emanate through her body. When she drank the droplet, her entire body was enveloped with a cold yet comfortable feeling. Her eyes widened when she realised what it was, Bai Jun seemed to notice her expression.
"Do you know what it is?"
"Have you heard of Jade snow?"
"The skill?"
"Well the skill actually was created after studying the actual jade snow itself."
"Well what is jade snow?"
"It's a type of snow formed by condensation and compression of the aura which came from the jade dragon. Unfortunately, the Bing family head killed it a while back and thus no more jade snow was formed. There may be juvenile jade dragons out there but they won't become fully grown for the next few centuries or so."
"How unfortunate, so is this water melted jade snow?"
"I think so. Do you have any containers we can use to take some with us? It can be very helpful for deviant water users to train with."
"Yeah I have a few water tight containers we can use, but we might have to use our mounts to carry those."
"Thats fine, there shouldn't be anything around here we can't handle."
Bai Jun rolled out a few large silicon water bladders and hung some from the major stalactites which had the water dripping from the tip. For now they focused on gathering the eggs and distributing them while the water filled up in the containers. Though the dripping was inconsistent and slow, every drop was worth the time. The pools on the ground were contaminated but they could still be helpful so they used other water bladders to scoop up as much as they could when they removed the eggs from the pool.
After a few hours of hard work, all the water they could gather was tied up to their beast mounts and a large pile of eggs sat at the centre of the atrium. The eggs were white with black lines running around the shell. In total they had 40 eggs gathered, a few had been smashed so they couldn't use them. Bai Jun's guards must have been paid quite handsomely and trained well because they didn't even try to steal one. With a 50/50 split, Bai Jun and Qiu Ye got 20 eggs each. They immediately started cracking open eggs.
Duke experience increased
Marquees experience increased
Earl experience increased
…
The voice repeated in Qiu Ye's head each time she cracked open the egg. She made sure not to completely destroy the egg since the yolk was very valuable. After cracking open the 20 eggs, Qiu Ye gained a total of 8 duke, 9 marquees and 3 earl experience points. She also luckily got a duke beast soul and 2 marquees beast souls. Unfortunately she was still a knight, her rainbow soul realm managed to allow her to use up to viscount equipment but she wasn't confident she could reach past that. A 2 rank upgrade was already quite impressive, so she was happy with what she had.
With all the jade snow, fruit and salamander egg yolk, she should upgrade to a baron in no time. She was still on track on saving new moon city from the hoard of monsters pouring out of the warp gates. The progress she was making made her feel more confident but more strength was never a bad idea.
The second atrium didn't have any more branching paths that lead anywhere so they packed everything up and headed back to the Iron Forest sanctuary. The trip back was a little slower, some beasts must have sensed the melted fruits or the jade snow extract and wanted some of it so they headed their way. They were mostly just knight or baron classed beasts so Qiu Ye quickly picked them off with her bow.
At the gate of Iron Forest, Bai Jun handed Qiu Ye 2 thirds of the Jade snow extract.
"If not for you we wouldn't have known this was valuable, you've earned it."
The bags were a little heavy but Qiu Ye hauled it into a room she bought in the shelter. Security was quite tight because of the noble presence so she wasn't too worried. She then ordered a waxed cloak from the local smith and paid for the black scales to be sewn into it. It costed quite a bit but the investment was worth it. Though she knew what the Jade snow extract was, she wasn't very sure how to use it efficiently so she just held on to it for now.
She then summoned the beast soul she gained from the large black salamander, as soon as it appeared, she groaned.