Chapter 128 – Surprise!

Even though they were little kids, they were sly and clever imps. Unwilling to say much, they only told Yue Yang, Ye Kong and company to not move from their original position.

Their intentions were that they did not want to compete with the older brothers and sisters.

It goes without saying that they were young and weak, plus with Demon Insects roaming about everywhere, once they dismounted their Flying-type beasts, the situation could become dangerous for them quickly. Hence these smart little chaps targeted the new students like Yue Yang and company. They realised that Yue Yang, Ye Kong, Fatty Hai and company did not know how to recognise the herbs, and were the type to just look around upon arriving in the Demon Abyss. Hence, under the leadership of a little girl around ten years old, they came over to discuss the possibility of cooperation with Yue Yang.

If it was purely to defeat demons or hunt for magic crystals, it would be a wonder if Yue Yang would even bother to pay attention to them. But when it came to gathering medicinal herbs, did he, who did not even know what the Black Eared Shrivel Heart Orchid looked like, even have a second choice?

“Found it!” A female classmate had first used her Snow Wolf beast to disperse the Demon Insects, then, in a pleasant surprise, found the medicinal herb in the rock crevice. She hurriedly placed it into her medicine sack.

The one who helped her find the medicinal herb was a little jumping mouse.

It did not have any battle capabilities, but through jumping and hopping about, it helped its owner find three Black Eared Shrivel Heart Orchids in succession.

At the start, Yue Yang initially thought that the Black Eared Shrivel Heart Orchid was only about one metre tall, and that they grew all over the ground, mingling with Rat Spot Flying Yang Grass, in a way that was so visually confusing that it was hard to differentiate. What he was unaware of was that it was entirely different from what he thought. This Black Eared Shrivel Heart Orchid was actually only about two centimeters tall in height and was also a weird type of plant that grew in the depths of rock crevices. Not talking about one entire plain, even to find one of them in a mass of stone rubble was definitely not going to be easy.

“You cannot just pick any grass, this isn’t a Black Eared Shrivel Heart Orchid at all, it isn’t Rat Spot Flying Yang Grass either. It isn’t even Silver Fragment Leaf Smelly Flower… This isn’t even a herb.” Fatty Hai tried to imitate their actions, digging up anything resembling a Demon Abyss plant. He thought that if he collected an entire nest, no matter what he would find a few Black Eared Shrivel Heart Orchids. In any case he just needed to bring the herbs back and cause headaches to the clinic’s doctors. However, there was a tall and pretty girl, who saw the herbs in his hands and could not help but laugh at him while covering her hand over her mouth, as if she saw a big gorilla that didn’t know how to peel the skin of a banana.

“Not even one?” Fatty Hai still refused to accept this reality.

“If it grew all over the ground, why is there a need to send us here? Besides, you did not employ the proper methods to gather the herb, so even if you collected it, it would have also become useless. Take your time to learn, don’t worry, I will collect more and not let the poisoned soldiers be deprived of the cure because of your failure to gather the herbs.” That tall girl’s tinkling laughter sounded like the ringing of bells.

Fatty Hai felt embarrassed upon hearing this, and hurriedly discarded the weeds in his hands.

Yue Yang did not distract himself gathering the herbs. He knew that in terms of differentiating between the herbs, he still had much to learn. Now what was most important was to prevent accidents from happening.

Yue Yang thought that working with Little Princess Bei Bei and company was a successful method of gathering the herbs. The eagle-eyed man did not stipulate that they must personally pick the herbs, working in teams was also within the rules. Otherwise, why would he require a group to be formed between every five people? Yue Yang reckoned that teamwork training was also an implied purpose in this.

“Newbie greenhorns should learn more.” A boy with a haughty appearance came over and picked a medicinal herb beneath Ye Kong’s feet, sauntering off looking immensely pleased with himself.

The beast he was using was a long-legged spider which could accurately detect the location of the medicinal herb.

This guy was actually not very good at it, he was just a little better than Yue Yang, Ye Kong and company. Currently he had also only picked two Black Eared Shrivel Heart Orchids.

There was also a solitary girl wearing thief’s clothings that acted the most extreme. When everybody was still turning over rocks everywhere, she had already unfolded her scroll, and in a thin streak of white light, had directly teleported back.

Evidently, she had already collected ten Black Eared Shrivel Heart Orchids.

“If you guys really can’t recognise the herb, you can ask for your beasts‘ help. Your beasts’ sense of smell and sight tend to be sharper than humans on average.” The tall girl was a little puzzled by Yue Yang, who was currently using his Divine Vision to sweep his eyes over the surroundings, vigilantly guarding against sneak attacks by demons. But she was happy that somebody was being a bodyguard free of charge. This way, she could set her mind on gathering the herbs. She saw that Yue Yang’s group of newbies really had such poor foundations that she couldn’t hold back from guiding Ye Kong, who looked more honest. “Black Eared Shrivel Heart Orchid, generally speaking, would not nestle in places that are too deep. They also need to absorb energy from the Devil Moon, so you don’t need to search in very deep and submerged areas. Secondly, you must keep a lookout for Demon Insects, normally, they do not like to stay near the stone crevices where the extremely poisonous Black Eared Shrivel Heart Orchids are normally found, but they do not mind staying near the Rat Spot Flying Yang Grass, so places where the Demon Insects roam about can also be ignored. Thirdly …… ”

With the guidance of the tall girl, Ye Kong spent quite some effort before finally finding one herb growing in the middle of a shallow rock crevice, without any water submerging it or Demon Insects crawling about.

Since it corresponded with all the requirements, this should be that Black Eared Shrivel Heart Orchid, Ye Kong was just feeling inwardly gleeful.

But, as he grasped the herb, the Little Princess Bei Bei, who was riding a Level Two Bronze Hobby and spiralling about swiftly, swooped down on him fast and her girly voice continuously shouted. “Idiot, quickly throw it away!”

The tall girl also reacted, crying out “Oh God, that is Fishy Juice Tempt Worm Grass, the juice from this type of grass will attract large amounts of Demon Insects, quickly discard it!”

Ye Kong indeed detected that there was an additional faintly fishy smell in the air, and it was really different from the odourless juice of the Black Eared Shrivel Heart Orchid. Looking around him again, he didn’t notice when, but suddenly a large group of Demon Insects bearing their fangs and brandishing claws had appeared.

Frightened, he hurriedly threw away the herb.

He noticed that he hadn’t thrown it far enough away from himself. The group of Demon Insects surged upon him, and it was still a far from good situation, so he hurriedly picked the herb up again and took to his heels, drawing the tide of Demon Insects after him.

When he threw that Fishy Juice Tempt Worm Grass far away and wanted to escape from the swarm of worms again, he realized that he had already been surrounded by the torrent of Demon Insects.

When the Li Clan brothers and Fatty Hai saw this, they hurriedly summoned their beasts to save Ye Kong.

After a long time, the four idiots, who had their entire bodies filled with bites of the Demon Insects and covered all over in wounds, finally fought their way out of the swarm of worms under the help of the Hui Tai Lang. They immediately fled to Yue Yang’s side, every one of them worn out as a dead dog.

Ye Kong was still okay but had received a big shock. Fatty Hai was so tired that he immediately fell to the ground, unwilling to move even an inch even when Demon Insects had crawled all over his body.

Yue Yang had only sent out his Hui Tai Lang and did not personally go to rescue them. These Demon Insects were of a very low level. Ye Kong and company could deal with them. This was also a good opportunity to toughen them up.

Little Princess Bei Bei showed a very burdened expression and chided Ye Kong and company like a little adult. “Brothers, if you do not know how to pick the herbs, don’t randomly pick them. This is the Demon Abyss. My Empress Mother, ah, I mean, my mother said that in the Demon Abyss, one cannot lower one’s guard no matter what we are doing.”

When they realized that they were even scolded by a six or seven year old little child, Ye Kong and company looked at each other in dismay, not knowing whether to laugh or cry in their hearts.

There was one little girl of the group of five kids who flew down and waved her hand, advising them. “All of you don’t move. We discovered a few hundred Black Eared Spheres growing as a thicket. They are probably going to blossom in about an hour. We will gather them at that time, as that would be the most fresh and most useful type of Black Eared Shrivel Heart Orchid. All of you don’t be too anxious and maintain your body strength. Later, just concentrate on protecting us while we are picking the herbs. Bei Bei, summon your beast to give them some treatment first. We’ll search again later and see whether there are still Black Eared Spheres around here.”

“Where are the Black Eared Spheres?” The tall and pretty girl was astounded. “Princess Qi Ming, it had not occurred to me that there’s somebody who can actually recognise the Black Eared Sphere amongst you. I have already learnt medical skills for three years and even now I do not dare to guarantee that I can definitely differentiate between the Black Eared Sphere and the Rat Spot Sphere, because they really look too similar. Can you really recognise them?”

“We all recognise them.” Little Princess Bei Bei nodded her head proudly.

Yue Yang inwardly sweated, looks like these few kids were members of the royal family, if not princesses, then they were princes.

Being princesses and princes, they did not study in Shang Jing Academy which was run by the royal family, but actually came to Ivy Academy to participate in the Death Class instead. No wonder the royal family of Soaring Dragon Continent could maintain its reign for a thousand years and not fall. Just looking at this type of educational method, one would know that the royal family was extremely strict in cultivating and nurturing their later generations.

To receive a long-term education in such a brutal environment, how would the princesses and princes, who matured from this, not be the most outstanding rulers in the future?

The fact that the Three Royal Households could rank higher than the Four Major Clans was not without reason.

Little Princess Bei Bei and the other little boy, who had a running nose and who was probably some country’s prince, had both summoned special-type beasts to administer medical treatment for Ye Kong and Fatty Hai.

Yue Yang discovered that neither of the kids had Grimoire Contracts, but were already very proficient at summoning ……

“The Blood Moon of the Demon Abyss is already at its apex. Stronger Demon Insects will be coming out to look for food soon. All herb gatherers immediately leave now.” The black armoured eagle-eyed man rushed over while riding an Armored Beast, shouting sternly towards the students. “Our mission requires ten herbs. Greedy people often fail and ultimately end up not having anything at all. They even suffer a tragic death in the Demon Abyss. I definitely do not encourage such behaviour. Everybody who has accomplished the requirements of the mission immediately leave now. ”

Upon hearing the warning of the eagle-eyed man, almost all the students opened their scrolls, teleporting away.

Only a few students were still indecisive.

They hadn’t picked enough herbs, but the number of powerful Demon Words was increasing and they could not guarantee their own safety. Especially when their peers had already left, they would definitely fail if they continued to stay here. Eventually, some of them gathered together and discussed a little with one another, finally teleporting back.

Two guys who were more confident in their battle strengths were still continuing.

The eagle-eyed guy went over to berate them, scaring the two of them and made them left in a hurry. Finally, only Yue Yang and company were left.

The tall and pretty girl looked at Yue Yang and Ye Kong, then shifted her gaze to Little Princess Bei Bei and company, who were still circling the sky riding on their beasts, and gritted her teeth. “I can stay back to help you guys gather the Black Eared Spheres. However, my primary major is not battling. You guys need to ensure my safety. If you guys can promise that under any situation you will never abandon your comrades, I will stay.”

“Ye Kong, you will be responsible for protecting her.” Yue Yang waved his hand at Little Princess Bei Bei who was still in the air. “All of you come down. There is an abnormal undulation in the air.”

“It’s possibly a swarm of Black Winged Worms. Quick. Descend!” Upon hearing this, the little girl, who was called Princess Qi Ming’s face changed, and she took the lead in descending. In this moment, the black armoured eagle-eyed man rode at flying speed to them with a fierce expression on his face, yelling sternly. “What are you doing? Aren’t you guys not going back?!”

“We haven’t completed our mission… ” Fatty Hai was so scared by him that he almost burst into tears.

“At most five minutes later, large swarms of Black Winged Worms, and an entire sky of Blood Sucking Mosquitoes will flood this entire bug-infested valley. You guys definitely cannot wait till the Black Eared Spheres blossom. Your failure to complete the mission is only one failure. But if you guys die here, then you will forever fail. In life, there can be many failures. Nobody can win all the time, but one must be living in order to move towards victory. All of you go back at once… Eh?” The eagle eyed man saw dark clouds raging in the sky and his face immediately became cold, lowly shouting “People who have Grimoires immediately summon their Grimoires, everybody hide under the shield and don’t use the Teleportation Scroll for now. The air movement here is extremely strange. All of you stay here. I’ll go and see why the Demon Insects are causing such a violent disturbance.”

Riding the Armoured Beast, the eagle-eyed guy sped towards the other side of the bug-infested valley towards the rumbling sound. Yue Yang looked at his retreating back and a trace of unease flashed across his heart. Even though he still could not see anything abnormal with his Divine Vision, but something bad was definitely going to happen…

Could it be that the Demon Army found this herb-gathering group?

Or could it be that some scary Demon Insects had come out?

At this moment, the sky was dark, and Black Winged Worms and Blood-sucking Mosquitoes emerged in large numbers like dark clouds filling up the sky.

The little girl, who was called Princess Qi Ming, immediately summoned her Grimoire and hid the five little kids under her Shield. As if in a mutual understanding, they even kept their beasts without panicking at all. Princess Qi Ming then summoned a normal-ranked Level Four Flaming Hatchet Puppet and calmly waved at the tall girl, indicating that she should also hide in here.

The tall girl hurriedly squeezed herself in, carrying Little Princess Bei Bei.

When they saw Fatty Hai idiotic manner of clumsily unable to summon his Grimoire for a long time, they stamped their feet in worry. Ye Kong and the Li Clan brothers had already gotten used to it. If Fatty Hai could swiftly summon his Bronze Grimoire, as a grimoire contractor, he wouldn’t be weaker than an ordinary warriors. It is precisely because Fatty Hai summoned his grimoire a lot slower than other people, so usually the others had already beaten him to a pulp while he still had yet to summon his Grimoire, hence he was such a tragedy.

“See, I (Oresama), the boss is still the best.” Fatty Hai, having summoned his Grimoire with much effort, and after that summoned the Iron Rhinoceros, started to brag with a proud and pleased look on his face.

“…….” Ye Kong and company were speechless.

“Brother Xiao San, quick come behind the shield.” Little Princess Bei Bei hurriedly called out to Yue Yang whom she noticed was still outside.

“Everyone, there’s no need to worry about me. All of you don’t move. There’s something strange coming.” Yue Yang stood in the midst of the Black Winged Worms and Blood-sucking Mosquitoes, which filled the sky with their hairs. Channelling his Innate Qi into his blade, the purple fires of the Hui Jin magic blade roared. All of the Black Winged Worms and Blood-sucking Mosquitoes, which flew near to him, were burnt to ashes. However, there was even a higher number of Black Winged Worms and Blood-sucking Mosquitoes that pervaded the air like dark clouds, hiding the sky and covering the earth. Ye Kong and company could only vaguely see that in front, two masses of raging flames had ignited and rocketed into the sky. One was the soaring purple flames of Yue Yang’s Hui Jin magic blade; the other was the black flames of Demonic Qi from the body of the Hui Tai Lang.

Yue Yang had used the Yin Yang Twin Fish Circle, the ‘Spherical Beheader’, the skill which he had self-learnt during the Yue Clan’s New Year Tournament. The Hui Jin magic blade slowly spun. The purple flames burned the Demon Insects, which were trying to get near with all their efforts.

The one meter radius of space around him had become an area of Demon Insect vacuum.

No worm could approach.

Suddenly, the black flames on Hui Tai Lang’s body became larger. With a final roar into the sky, all the black flames on its body exploded, gushing and squirting out with a rumble.

The frightful Demonic Qi that radiated from its body, as well as the infernal black flames enveloping its body, not only burnt and killed the surrounding Demon Insects, but even had an oppressing, pressuring quality that resembled a Demon King’s presence, scaring the weak and little Demon Insects in front of it into disorder, as they hurried to scuttle away from Hui Tai Lang.

Fatty Hai’s Iron Rhinoceros was so intimidated that it directly lay down on its stomach… Not only the beasts, but Fatty Hai, Ye Kong and the Li Clan Brothers also felt a wave of heart palpitations. Looking towards Hui Tai Lang, it gave them a feeling as if it was the Demon King standing right in front of them. Yue Yang was also slightly surprised. Turned out that it was only at this time that Hui Tai Lang finally started to emit the formidable power of Demon King Ha Xin’s demonic power. Even though Hui Tai Lang only absorbed Demon King Ha Xin’s demonic qi, it was after all the qi of the Demon King, hence it was not a small matter.

Could it be that being in a dangerous environment could stimulate the hidden capabilities within the Hui Tai Lang’s body and let it level up or evolve?

Yue Yang was inwardly gleeful. If it really was so, then that really was an unexpected pleasant surprise.

As the black flames on the Hui Tai Lang’s body intensified and its body continuously reconstructed and evolved in the black flames, the ground suddenly shook with tremors. The entire valley was shaking, as if there was something about to dig itself out from the ground.

“What the hell is that?” Yue Yang had a shock in his heart.

Aren’t these tremors, caused by this demon who was trying to dig itself out of the ground, too big? Could it be the Godzilla of a different world?

The black flames on the Hui Tai Lang’s body intensified increasingly. Its body was also continuously perfecting itself. As if it was stimulated by the Gigantic Demon, its evolution process picked up speed yet again.