Evolution - Chapter 18
Chapter 18
This was, after all, merely the border between the cultivation world and the mortal world. Spiritual energy was scarce. The forests were dense, but far from blotting out the sky. Most of the creatures within were ordinary wild animals; demonic beasts, demonic plants, and spiritual plants were exceedingly rare. Even when they did appear, they were low-level, not much stronger than common beasts.
But for most of the children participating in the Tianyi Sect’s entrance selection, this was already difficult enough. For mortal children who had never cultivated, passing the assessment was entirely a matter of luck—if they were lucky, they could reach the finish line before their three protective uses were exhausted.
The group proceeded at a slow pace. After about half an hour, with Luo Gengjiu and Luo Mingsheng constantly checking the direction, they managed not to get lost. However, to ensure their safety, they often had to take detours to avoid areas where large beasts might be lurking.
As they walked, one of the two little boys who had been crying and whining about going home suddenly burst into a wail, startling everyone. He sobbed and rolled on the ground. “I’m not walking anymore! I’m not walking anymore…”
At his cry, the other boy promptly lay down and started rolling as well, joining in a duet: “I’m not walking anymore! I’m not walking anymore…”
Luo Mingsheng felt a fire of irritation flare up at their howling. “Keep moving! Don’t stop!” she shouted.
The two had already been slowing down and falling behind. Cao Hu, Zhao Xian, He Yi, and Er Ya were all ahead. Hearing the anger in Luo Mingsheng’s voice, they obediently continued forward. Gu Jiawen was a bit weaker, so Luo Mingsheng had been paired with him to look after him. Now that she had stopped, he also paused for a moment, thinking it was a pity that if these two brats refused to move, they would be giving up their chance to enter the immortal sect. He offered a word of encouragement, “Hurry up and get back on your feet.”
The moment he got some attention, the brat perked up. “No! I want her to carry me!” he blurted out, pointing a finger at Ji Changqing.
The target of his finger didn’t even spare him a glance. Throw your tantrum all you want, we’re not indulging you.
Gu Jiawen’s mouth twitched. This case was too severe for him to handle. Time to make a run for it.
He lifted his feet and walked on. He could see clearly that throwing a fit wouldn’t work on the people who had a say in this group. If they refused to walk, no one would carry them. Out of the ten people in their team, only two would be carried if they couldn’t walk: He Yi and Luo Mingsheng.
Luo Mingsheng’s brows were knitted tightly. She looked down at the two idiots and said impatiently, “If you’re coming, get up. If not, we’re leaving. If you can’t take it, just quit.”
As if on cue, the two idiots howled in unison, “No way! You worthless girls, hurry up and carry me!”
Gu Jiawen nearly stumbled in shock.
Luo Mingsheng, surprisingly, was overcome by a sense of responsibility. Though she was seething with anger, she patiently tried to reason with them. “On the path of cultivation, one must always rely on oneself. Others might offer guidance or help by chance, but there is no logic in making demands of others.”
The two brats spat out the insult “worthless girls” with extreme fluency. “Worthless girls should just be obedient, do their work, and serve men well!”
Ji Changqing patted the blushing Luo Mingsheng. “Let’s go. Don’t argue with fools.”
The little girl’s face was dark as she quickly took out two bamboo tubes of water and two portions of roasted meat. “We’ll leave these for you. Follow if you can keep up. If not, you’re on your own.” With that, she pulled Ji Changqing along and jogged to catch up with the others, not bothering to see if the two brats behind them sat up to eat and drink or continued to roll around and kick the food away.
In the time it took to exchange those few words, the five tots up ahead hadn’t gotten very far, so it was easy for the two of them to catch up. When they were about thirty or forty meters away, they faintly heard the heavy sound of running and crashing coming from a higher point to their left front.
Ji Changqing made a split-second decision, pulling Luo Mingsheng up into a tree. “See if there’s something going on over there.”
Luo Mingsheng looked into the distance. About seven or eight hundred meters away, trees were shaking violently as something crashed through them. “An arrow-boar!” she cried out. Seeing the direction of its reckless charge, she realized the five people ahead were directly in its path. She yelled urgently, “Quick, run back! Scatter and climb the trees!”
He Yi was an expert when it came to escaping danger. The moment she heard Luo Mingsheng’s shout, she grabbed Er Ya and bolted back the way they came. Gu Jiawen saw this and, without a second thought, turned and ran. Although He Yi and Er Ya had started early, their bodies were too frail. As little girls who had been underfed and poorly clothed for years, their short legs couldn’t carry them fast, no matter how hard they pumped. Zhao Xian and Cao Hu, who had been doted on at home and were built like sturdy little tigers, caught up in a few bounds. Just then, the arrow-boar let out a long howl. Zhao Xian and Cao Hu were terrified, thinking the beast would pounce on them at any second. They recklessly shoved He Yi and Er Ya, who were in their way, and stumbled forward.
Er Ya was luckier; she fell toward the higher side of the slope. Though her limbs were weak with fright, she stubbornly climbed back up and looked around dazedly for The First. “He Yi!”
Damn it all! He Yi, who had been pushed and lost her footing, tumbled down the slope, her heart filled with grief and indignation. She never would have imagined that she, of all people, would one day be pushed down a hill by a little kid!
“The First!” Ji Changqing, who was rushing over, was startled. The main concern wasn't where she might get bruised from the fall, but if, by some stroke of bad luck, the arrow-boar also charged in that direction, her three protective uses would be gone in the blink of an eye.
Luo Mingsheng was also a little nervous. “Xiao Jiu will be back soon. I’ll go down and find He Yi. You figure out a way to make the arrow-boar change direction!”
Having everyone run back a bit to avoid the key area and hide in the trees was one solution, but the problem was that no one could control what the arrow-boar was thinking. If it decided to roll around and have some fun when it got here, hiding wouldn't do them any good.
Ji Changqing lifted the dazed Er Ya into a tree and glanced at Gu Jiawen, who was already struggling to climb one himself. Satisfied, she stood on a branch and observed the arrow-boar’s path from above.
In a matter of breaths, an arrow-boar four or five times the size of a domestic pig and as fast as a galloping horse appeared before them. It crashed into trees as it charged, huffing and puffing, looking utterly enraged.
Ji Changqing held her breath, her eyes fixed on the rampaging arrow-boar, calculating its trajectory and constantly trying to figure out how to divert it from He Yi’s location.
Just as the arrow-boar was about to ram into her tree, she threw herself downward. As her feet landed on its back, her hands tightly gripped the tuft of arrow-like hair on its head. The beast’s name came from this feature; as a low-level demonic beast, besides its great strength and thick hide, it could also stiffen the hair on its forehead, infuse it with demonic energy, and launch it like an arrow to attack.
Feeling something land on its back, the arrow-boar bucked and rolled in fury, trying to throw off the little thing that dared to ride it and either crush it or smash it to death. As it began to roll, its left eye turned upward. Ji Changqing leaped high, holding a long staff with a sharpened end, and thrust it forcefully toward the arrow-boar’s eye.
The squelching sound of the staff piercing the eye was accompanied by the arrow-boar’s sharp, agonized shriek. It thrashed its head uncontrollably, and Ji Changqing used the momentum to be flung away, landing lightly behind it. The arrow-boar howled and spun around, trying to find the enemy that had wounded it. The originally white hair on its head gradually turned red.
Ji Changqing had a bad feeling. Damn it, it’s charging up its ultimate attack.
When a Boss is preparing its ultimate attack, if you can’t interrupt it, the safest place is on the Boss itself. Faced with danger, Ji Changqing became exceptionally calm. She shadowed the arrow-boar’s movements, always keeping herself to its middle and rear, refusing to appear in front of it.
This was obviously a huge drain on her stamina. But what could she do? She was desperate, too! Her only long staff was firmly lodged in the arrow-boar’s eye. She was now empty-handed. If she had a sharper weapon, she could have tried to inflict a few more wounds.
Just then, Luo Gengjiu arrived. Seeing the situation, she knew what to do. No words were needed; she had to rescue her companion first. She threw a few small fireballs from a distance to draw the arrow-boar’s attention, then tossed a short sword to Ji Changqing. “Can you hold on?” she shouted. “If you can, wait until after it fires this wave of arrow-bristles, then we’ll find a way to blind its other eye!”
With the two of them working together, things were naturally much easier. After a moment, the arrow-boar finally finished charging its energy and furiously unleashed its ultimate attack. Arrow-bristles imbued with fire-aspected demonic energy shot out, blasting away the trees, flowers, grass, rocks, and soil in a 180-degree arc in front of it, leaving a trail of sparks.
Ji Changqing seized the opportunity and used the same trick again. First, she jumped onto its back, then waited for an opening. Grabbing what little was left of its forelock, she was even more audacious this time, climbing onto its head to cause trouble. As the arrow-boar thrashed its head wildly, she timed her move perfectly and plunged the short sword forward.
The sharpness of the short sword far exceeded Ji Changqing’s expectations. Previously, with the long staff, she had leaped high, using her own weight and the force of her descent, but the staff had only penetrated less than half a foot before getting stuck. This short sword, just over a foot long, sank all the way in.
The enraged arrow-boar roared and crashed about with ferocious force. Ji Changqing couldn’t evade it and was sent flying, sword and all. When she hit a tree, a halo of light flashed briefly around her, deflecting most of the impact. She let out a muffled grunt and spat out a mouthful of blood. She had managed to save her life, but the force of the collision, which had snapped the tree in half, was enough to leave the exhausted her completely unable to move, even with most of the force deflected.
She simply lay flat on the ground, listening to Luo Gengjiu a short distance away, tangling with the arrow-boar, which was now a spent force. It wasn’t until about a quarter of an hour later that the sounds over there gradually died down. After a long moment, she heard Luo Gengjiu’s slightly weary voice. “Are you okay?”
Ji Changqing opened her mouth and coughed up more blood. She curled up, clutching her chest, and replied in a whisper, “I’m fine, I think. Not dead yet.”
Luo Gengjiu popped a pill to restore her spiritual energy and then used that energy to examine Ji Changqing. “Let me see if I have any pills you can use.” A person who hadn’t started cultivating couldn’t withstand the spiritual power of a pill; taking one would make their body rupture in an instant, so she didn’t dare be careless.
Ji Changqing wasn’t hopeful either, but a thought occurred to her. “How about you scrape off a little powder for me to try?” Without medicine, she would be saying her goodbyes any minute now.
Luo Gengjiu thought for a moment and agreed it was possible. She carefully took out a pill for treating internal injuries and scraped off a tiny amount, about the size of her pinky fingernail, and fed it to Ji Changqing.
The pill dissolved the moment it touched her throat. At first, Ji Changqing felt her cooling body slowly warm up, and the pain in her chest, back, and waist gradually subsided. Her pale face visibly regained its color. But soon, something felt wrong. The warm current inside her grew scorching hot, and the original pain from her injuries was replaced by a different, twisting agony.
Luo Gengjiu’s expression changed as well.
In her panic, Ji Changqing suddenly remembered the medicinal baths from their previous game instance. She scrambled to her feet and began to frantically practice her Physique technique—refining the immense, directionless medicinal power into her blood, flesh, muscles, and bones.
As long as her Physique technique advanced fast enough, the explosion wouldn’t be able to catch her.
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