Zither Emperor

Chapter 29 – A Startling Hunt (III)

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“There’s no need to explain. Let’s go.” Sura ferociously glared at Ye Yin Zhu from the corner of his eye before he soared up into the sky, taking point as they sprinted towards the mountainous forest.

Ye Yin Zhu helplessly pulled Xiang Luan and Hai Yang up into the sky, his movements awkward. His substantial advancement in dou qi allowed for his speed to rise imperceptibly high. Although he was carrying two others, following Sura wasn’t very difficult. Xiang Luan and Hai Yang merely felt a soft dou qi pulsing from Ye Yin Zhu’s hand, the dou qi supporting their bodies and making them feel weightless. Their surroundings passed by at a rapid pace nonstop. Although it was somewhat cold, this kind of intimate flying made them feel truly excited.

Following up the sloping mountainside, Ye Yin Zhu and Sura continuously ploughed through. In half an hour, they had already arrived at an elevation of 1000 meters. The mountain’s temperature was much colder, but the air was much fresher as well.

“This feels wonderful~!” Xiang Luan breathed out, leaning against Ye Yin Zhu’s shoulder. “What are we going to do next?”

Walking ahead, Sura surveyed the nearby mountain. “Yi, so many wild animals?”

Ye Yin Zhu followed him and looked in the other direction as well. Sure enough, in the forests of the other mountain, a great amount of beasts could be seen. Not only that, the beasts were facing and moving towards them. They varied in size, but they all appeared to be in somewhat of a panic.

“Let’s go!” Sura shouted, his body already shooting forward like an arrow. Like a gray bolt of lightning, he had charged into the mountain in the blink of an eye. Even though Ye Yin Zhu’s speed had increased astonishingly upon his advancement to Yellow Rank Level 5, he couldn’t help but gasp in amazement.

Xiang Luan cried out, “So fast! He truly is of the Assassin division. Yin Zhu, we need to go quickly and take a look!”

“Right.” Ye Yin Zhu once again increased the circulation of his dou qi, chasing after Sura’s ascent up the mountain. Going down the mountain was naturally easier than going up. He only needed his dou qi to pay attention to their bodies before he jumped down the mountain peak, relying on only his physical strength. While Xiang Luan and Hai Yang cried out in alarm, they arrived at the base of the mountain in merely a few moments.

Sura was already on the move, his lightning-quick figure weaving in and out of the mountainous forest. Because of his rapid moves, his body flickered like an illusion. Her right hand held a black dagger, and with every twist of Sura’s body, a beast would fall to the ground, dead. Ye Yin Zhu clearly saw Sura’s dagger slice across the beast’s throats. Those beasts were unable to even shriek, as their throats were already violently spraying blood everywhere. Regardless of the size, no beast was actually able to resist Sura’s strikes. Sura seemed to be venting his frustrations from before. In merely a few breaths’ time, he had already felled an additional 10 beasts. The cold air immediately reeked of blood.

Observing this massacre, Ye Yin Zhu couldn’t refrain from feeling ill at ease. He wanted to call out to Sura, but Sura’s actions were indeed too swift. His gaze was unable to even catch Sura’s figure.

“Wow! So violent… I have never seen such a violet assassin. It seems he wasn’t just bragging about his dou qi.” Xiang Luan didn’t have difficulty adapting like Ye Yin Zhu; instead, she was very excited. Releasing Ye Yin Zhu’s hand, a flash of light sparked from her space ring, and her pipa fell into her grasp. Lightly brushing against the strings with her right hand, a green radiance twinkled into existence. Each and every crisp sonic boom exploded against a beast within the mountainous forest.

This was the first time Ye Yin Zhu saw Xiang Luan use magic. Xiang Luan’s control over her sonic booms were very precise. Each explosive note immediately caused a wild animal’s body to convulse and fall to the ground, dead. The majority of these beasts within the mountain forest were rank 1 magical beasts. Would their remains even be marketable if she continued to kill them with sonic booms? The pipa in her hand rang out, releasing a faint, silvery light. One look and it could be seen that this pipa was not a common device.

Xiang Luan seemed to be competing with Sura. In a short while, their slaughtering had felled over a hundred beasts. Sura’s sole reliance on his attack speed amazed Xiang Luan. His attack speed wasn’t slower than her plucking, and the amount of kills he had exceeded her own.

Hai Yang hadn’t joined in the killing. From beginning to end, she just calmly stood beside Ye Yin Zhu, her small, cold hand nestled warmly in Ye Yin Zhu’s own. She gripped his hand awfully tight, as if she was afraid he would run away.

“Sura, Senior Xiang Luan—enough! Although our group is large, we will still not be able to eat this much meat. Don’t continue the slaughter!” Ye Yin Zhu yelled. For the most part, the sizes of the beasts weren’t small. Although the space ring could completely accommodate them, the excessive hunting would prevent them from eating all of it.

A gray silhouette flashed by. Sura had already returned in front of them, his hand and black dagger untainted by even a speck of blood. His expression was very tranquil, his breathing still smooth. It was as if he hadn’t been doing anything.

Xiang Luan continued to release Spiritual magic, but at this moment she was already a little tired. She withdrew her pipa and shot a glance at Sura, saying, “You are indeed a cold-blooded monster.”

Sura indifferently replied, “Thank you for the compliment. All assassins are cold-blooded.”

Ye Yin Zhu walked forward, Hai Yang following him. As Ye Yin Zhu placed the dead beasts into his space ring, he pensively said, “How come so many beasts appeared here? Guys, look. An unceasing amount of beasts came to this side of the mountain. It’s rapidly approaching winter, yet these beasts aren’t preparing for survival. Could it be that they can’t migrate?” The space ring Anya gave him had a huge empty domain divided into many partitions, so he wasn’t worried about the beast corpses tainting his guqin.

While he was speaking, all sorts of beasts were still moving in their direction. Although Sura and Xiang Luan’s massacre had scared them, they simply bypassed Ye Yin Zhu’s party of four without any signs of retreat.

Sura nodded and said, “This is very abnormal. You guys wait here; I’ll go take a look.”

Ye Yin Zhu hastily said, “Let’s all go together. We can all watch out for one another.” His Pure Zither Heart, which was completely pure, had a bad premonition.

When he was at the Desolate Jade Sea, he would practice the zither every day. His audience back then had been the beasts of the field and birds of the air. He was awfully familiar with the aura of beasts, and at this moment, he clearly sensed the panicked auras within the mountainous forest. To cause such a large amount of beasts to appear within the mountain forest, surely something was about to happen.

Sura glanced at Xiang Luan and Hai Yang before saying, “You take care and protect them in case we run into any powerful beasts. I’ll catch up while you escape with those two first. Yin Bi, manifest.” Sura lightly patted his chest as he spoke those words.

A silvery light sparked, and the meter long small silver dragon, Yin Bi, floated through the air before falling to the ground. Kneading its eye, it gave off a drowsy appearance. Its short and stout body appeared somewhat comical on the ground. Just as it crashed to the ground, it turned around and used its two front claws to hold onto Sura’s thigh. Its round belly was directly attached to his thigh. “No, mama. Outside cold. I want sleep.”

Hearing Yin Bi call Sura ‘mama,’ the corner of Ye Yin Zhu’s mouth involuntarily quirked up in a smile. Hai Yang and Xiang Luan became lifeless.

Hai Yang cried out faintly, “Is that a dragon?”

Xiang Luan answered her question. “Definitely, that’s definitely a dragon. Not only that, it’s a noble Silver Dragon. It’s so young, yet its ability to speak fully demonstrates its future rank. But, why does it call Sura ‘Mama?’”

Ye Yin Zhu smiled and said, “This small guy just hatched, and the first person it saw was Sura. Maybe because of this, it calls Sura ‘Mama.’”