Chapter 100: Pear Needle Rainstorm
Zen's flying knife was so sharp that hardly anything could withstand the blade.
Each slash cut the demon's wound deeper.
Zen wielded his knife like an insane butcher, slashing at the demon general wildly.
It was well known that demons were hard to slay, and even if a demon was seriously hurt, his health could be restored in a short period.
“Die! Die! Die!”
“Forget you!”
yelled Zen. Now that he had the advantage, he wouldn't give the demon general a chance to heal.
When the demon's head, arms, and torso were all hacked off, and lay in bloody hunks, Zen stopped and gasped air into his lungs.
Zen glanced down at the remains of the demon general, ensuring that he was dead.
Seeing the horrific fate of their general, the ordinary demon soldiers fled, scattering.
The demon general's blood was splattered all on Zen, giving him a strong aura of death.
The disciples of Drizzle Peak gawked at Zen, a slightly fearful look flashing in their eyes.
Their fear didn't come from a little bit of the demon general's evil spirit that remained in Zen's body. No, the frightful manner Zen killed the demon general had terrified them. Right now, they saw Zen as the god of death!
Although Zen was only half a step into the nature level, the killing intent exuding from him scared the nature creatures!
As Cleve re-sheathed his sword, he approached Zen. After checking Zen's shoulder wound, he pulled out a small bottle from his waist. He got a pill and handed it to Zen before saying, “Here you go, this is a Flesh Restoring Pill from the Herb Pavilion.”
Taking the pill without hesitation, Zen popped it in his mouth.
The Flesh Restoring Pill might not compare to the Red Cloud Pill Master Su gave him, but, a Flesh Restoring Pill was expensive for any inner disciple.
When they first exited the giant flying chariot, Cleve and the other inner disciples spoke ill of Zen, and yet, even after that, Zen saved them.
To make up for his earlier behavior, Cleve happily gave Zen a Flesh Restoring Pill.
Qiu and the other inner disciples went over to the demon soldier corpses and pulled the gray bead from each carcass.
“Demon cores!”
said Zen. He narrowed his eyes when he saw the gray beads.
The demon body differed from the human body completely. While humans' navels housed their power, demons' power was from within the demon cores.
The assessment of the task was based on the total number of demon cores accumulated. Thus, even though they had already lost two fellow disciples, they weren't about to forget to collect the demon cores.
After Qiu silently gathered up demon cores, he handed four of them to Zen.
The four cores were from the demons killed by Zen.
The disciple saw Zen's great strength, and he dared not rob him of the demon cores.
Cleve stabbed at the demon general's chest with his sword and dug out the core.
The demon general's core was twice the size of a demon soldier's core. Cleve handed the core to Zen and said, “Zen, here you go. This is the demon general's core!”
That added up to five demon cores that Zen received. He put them in his space ring.
If Zen could be placed first in this task, he would receive many points along with the mid-grade spiritual weapon.
There were many talented inner disciples from the thirty-three peaks, including ones from the Skytop and Blackrock Peaks. But, as long as there was a chance to compete against them, Zen wouldn't give up.
Two disciples were dead at the end of the battle, an outer one and an inner one.
“Alas! Such a shame that the demon soldiers swallowed them,” said one of the inner disciples in a low voice.
Cleve shook his head sadly and added, “In a previous task to kill demons, the disciples encountered demon generals. But that time, the demon generals slaughtered one hundred and twenty disciples from twelve peaks. In contrast, we don't have many casualties.”
It was lucky that eight out of ten of them survived after the encounter against a demon general and dozens of demon soldiers.
Henry's attitude toward Zen was changed too.
Before, Henry knew there were more talented disciples than himself, but he looked down on Zen.
Now, during the task of hunting demons, Henry learned a good lesson and recognized his weakness.
That was a discipline of sorts, honing Henry's personality.
After the remaining eight cleaned up the mess, they moved on.
The disciples' mentalities were changed.
Before the encounter, the inner disciples saw the outer disciples as a burden.
Now, it was accepted that Zen should be the team's leader.
Even Cleve agreed.
Trudging on through Sky Forest until the sun set behind the distant mountains, they didn't meet any more demons.
“Demons hunt at night. Let's find a place to rest,” suggested Cleve, walking to one side of the line of disciples.
Zen nodded and said, “You're right, and it isn't suitable for us to wander around at night.”
“There's firelight ahead!” shouted Gury.
Looking ahead, the team saw a bonfire burning in the distance.
Since there was a bonfire, it meant other humans, maybe disciples from the Cloud Sect's other peaks were there.
Now that a demon general had appeared, the team was very prudent. If they were with disciples from the other peaks, they would be safer.
So the team walked in the direction of the bonfire.
As the group neared the bonfire, they unexpectedly heard the sound of a trigger being pulled burst through the air.
“Phfft... Phfft... Phfft!”
Needles poured out of the sky at Cleve, who led the group.
“It's Pear Needle Rainstorm!”
Cleve's expression changed abruptly when he realized he couldn't avoid the needles. He unsheathed his sword quickly to protect himself. Nevertheless, Cleve's defense still had gaps, and too many needles flew at him to block. It was as though a monsoon might swallow him in an instant.
Since each needle was highly toxic, if any jabbed Cleve, he would be dead soon after.
A blur of a figure appeared in front of Cleve.
It was Zen.
Zen blocked the way between the needles and Cleve, completely, and let the dense needles pierce him.
Within seconds, Zen's body was covered by a large number of needles, which looked scary.
Seeing Zen, Cleve stammered, “Zen, Are, are you all right?”
Zen reached up swiping the needles off his body and with a smile, he calmly said, “Yes, I am fine! They are just like embroidery needles and unable to hurt me.”
Cleve and the others couldn't say anything to Zen's statement.
Pear Needle Rainstorm was one of the most famous secret weapons of the Zhu Clan. Because the quantity and speed of the large needle no one could flee from it, usually.
The needles were extremely thin and able to pierce a nature creature's life vitality easily, penetrating the skin to release the poison at its tip. They were tough to defend against.
Yet, Zen seemed impervious to the toxic needles.
As Cleve, Henry, and the others saw Zen's calm look, only one word appeared in their hearts, monster!
Indeed, Zen resisted demons with his physical strength and was immune to toxic Pear Needle Rainstorm. What a miracle! It was like he was a deathless monster!
After Zen removed the embedded needles, he led the team to the bonfire.
Before Zen got to the bonfire, a voice called out in warning, “Stop!”