Book 3 Chapter 37 – Mythical Beast Ya Yu
A man stood on the surface of the lake as if it was nothing out of the ordinary. Streams of cold air spread out from where he touched the water, and the liquid beneath his feet crystallized at a perceptible speed. It was not long before a layer of ice covered the entire surface of the lake. Four other men were waiting on the shore, one wielding axe, two others with katanas, while the last one had a portable cannon on his shoulders. All of them seemed relaxed and confident in their imminent victory.
"Don't overdo it. It'll be a pain to blow it open if the ice is too thick. I don't think that animal's going to be able to do much after taking the VN219," one of the men who held a katana spoke out coldly. His voice sounded like someone scratching at glass with nails.
"We should stay on our guard. It's a mythical beast after all." The man with the cannon on his shoulders reminded his friends, but his expression indicated otherwise.
"So this is the infamous Bai Xi? She must be quite the beauty, I presume? I haven't had a taste of a mythical beast yet. Don't kill it right away, okay? Let me have some fun," The first man said with a lewd smile, without minding the warning from his friend.
The other men stayed quiet: it seemed like they were used to their friend's decadence. Suddenly, the man who was above the lake smiled contemptuously and dashed to the side. A flower made purely of ice appeared where he landed. The ice beneath where he stood a moment ago suddenly shattered, and a slender silver silhouette emerged from the lake and chased after him.
"Risking it all, huh?" The man performed a hand-seal. A wall made of ice appeared and blocked off Bai Xi's desperate attack.
"I've waited long enough." The other man with a katana, who stayed quiet the entire time, darted toward Bai Xi and swung down at her with his weapon.
"Wait! Don't kill her right away!" The lewd man of the gang rushed toward Bai Xi with his weapon. He found her irresistibly charming, despite her having a long tail instead of legs. 'Ah, I love out of the ordinary things!'
Bai Xi, who was caught in the air, struggled to dodge the blows directed at her. Green blood gushed out from her fresh wound and caused her to shriek in pain.
"A focus discharge? You think that you can do anything under the effect of VN219? Look at this barrier, we're one step ahead of you." The vulgar man walked forward with a smile. A thin, almost transparent veil of light hovered above his head; this was a shield to protect him against focus based attacks.
The man's arrogance angered Bai Xi. 'If I still had my inner pill, you think this pitiful drug and barrier of yours would be enough to stop me?'
The next moment, Bai Xi sustained another blow that almost cut part of her tail off. She fell down to the ground and writhed in pain. The lewd man picked up his katana on the backhand and impaled Bai Xi's right shoulder, nailing her to the ground.
"Do you guys want to try her out too? It's a mythical beast! Look at this body. Oh oh oh, I can't wait anymore. If you're going to stand around, then I'll be the first!" The lewd man said in an exaggerated voice. He ripped his own shirt off, revealing a lean, muscular torso.
"Careful!" The man with the cannon on his shoulder suddenly yelled out. He jumped into a bush nearby and sought cover.
The palms of the man who could control ice lit up with a white light, and his ice wall, which had just disappeared a moment ago, appeared in front of him. However, the sense of security provided by his wall was short-lived; the man sensed an oncoming danger and craned his neck. The next second, a rainbow-colored arrow pierced through the ice wall, grazing his ear as it flew through the layer of ice on the surface of the lake, leaving behind a wide gaping hole.
A few seconds later, two other streaks of light whizzed across the sky. One of them landed at the spot where Bai Xi emerged from the water, whereas the second was shot at where the lewd man stood a moment ago when he attacked Bai Xi. The projectiles seemed like missiles more than anything, flying with deadly precision at lightning speed.
"This scent of blood…" The rough-looking man with the axes turned around to look at the direction from which the arrows came.
"Three people," The man who struck first said in a low voice.
Just as he said so, Qing Linglong appeared, standing still in the distance with an indigo halo around her body. A fraction of a second later and a crater appeared in front of her. A man dressed in black appeared: it was Li Yiming, who tried his best to make his entrance as intimidating as possible. Fang Shui'er was nowhere to be seen; she had already found a perfect place from which she would be able to snipe their enemies.
"It's you?" The man who struck first was surprised.
"You know us?" Li Yiming stepped forward with his sword pointing toward the ground and made ready to use Thunderous Strike. He saw the bloody wounds on Bai Xi and was worried by how grave her injuries seemed. 'She can't die. Otherwise, I'll never be able to find Liu Meng!'
"I see that you're a forgetful man. We spared you back at the museum and now you show up looking for trouble again? Are you that eager to die?" The man answered Li Yiming's question with a scornful smile, but his worry actually grew. 'It's a good thing that we didn't fight him at the museum. The scent of blood on this guy, how many men has he killed?'
'So it was them.' Qing Linglong's body stiffened. 'It's not an easy thing to remain undetected with Eyeglasses watching. These guys aren't definitely not incapable idiots.'
"We let you have your chance back at the museum, how about you do the same for us here?" Li Yiming proposed. The last thing he wanted was to complicate matters even further.
"What? Ahahahaha! What are you dreaming about?" The lewd man reacted as if he had heard the funniest joke in the world. "We spared you last time, and instead of gratitude, you're acting as if we owe you a favor?"
"Go!" The man with the axes yelled. He threw one of the giant axes he held toward Li Yiming and bolted toward him with the other one in his hand. At the same time, a beam of light shot toward Li Yiming from the forest in the distance. The man with the katana leaped at Qing Linglong while his friend ran around with icicles forming around him and sought an opportunity to strike. As for the lewd man, he rushed toward a tree in the distance: it was Fang Shui'er's hiding spot.
Li Yiming rolled forward, dodging both the axe and the beam of light, and tackled the man who ran at him. Qing Linglong brandished both of her daggers and met up with the man who jumped at her. Three more arrows flew out of the forest, targeting the man with the icicles this time. Fang Shui'er ran between the trees and continued to fire while the man with the lewd smile chased after her.
'That woman has the body of a goddess beneath her armor! Also that one with the two daggers… What a day today, is this a reward from Heaven's Laws? Hahaha!' The thought of Fang Shui'er made all of the lewd man's blood rush toward his lower body. However, his thoughts were interrupted by a fist that suddenly punched through his skull from the left side and came out on the right. The hand held between its fingers the man's brain. The lewd man was still moving forward with a smile hanging on his lips and did not stop until he did a full spin around the arm. His body then fell down, limp, in a pool of his own blood.
"Shit! Careful, they have more people!" The man with the cannon yelled out. He shot two shells toward where his friend died, and quickly grouped up with the icicle man. The rest of his group also retreated quickly after a few brief parries.
Suddenly the sky darkened, but instead of rain, fireballs about the size of a basketball rained down from the clouds that had gathered. They flew relatively slowly and did not carry a lot of power, but the entire lake was being targeted. The projectiles of fire rained down, striking at both friends and foes within the perimeter. Li Yiming's group and the other guardians split up and focused on dodging the attack instead of fighting with each other.
"It's Liu Meng." Li Yiming glanced at Qing Linglong to ask for her help and looked around eagerly for Liu Meng.
"Careful! Ya Yu!" Qing Linglong was also apprehensive about how quickly things got out of control.
A shadow landed right next to Bai Xi, who was still moaning in pain on the surface of the lake. The camouflager smiled as he approached her. "I finally found you. Don't worry, your suffering is over. You can leave the rest to me and go to sleep now." The camouflager extended his hand and caressed Bai Xi's face as if she was his lover. Bai Xi's struggles and lamentations gradually ceased, and her pupils slowly dilated until she gained the empty stare that Liu Meng and Ya Yu had.
"Where's your inner pill?" The camouflager suddenly burst out in anger. All of his elegance and charm vanished in an instant, and he turned into nothing more than the embodiment of rage and anger.
"You destroyed my pet!" The camouflager wrapped his arms around Bai Xi, staring at Li Yiming and the other guardians with eyes filled with frenzy and rage. "Kill them all, Ya Yu! Spare no one."
A hoarse, low-pitched roar was heard. Two of the big trees around the lake were suddenly obliterated. When the cloud of dust had settled, a man with the body of a cow, claws of a tiger and legs of a horse appeared. It had bloodshot eyes and muscles that seemed like they were about to burst open due to their massive size. Its heavy breathing indicated that it was hungry for blood.
"Ya Yu?" The man with the two axes yelled out in surprise, but he was not intimidated by the appearance of the beast. Instead, he was ready to fight it. He looked at Li Yiming, and then back at Ya Yu, and tried to guess the relationship between the two.
"That guy's a camouflager. Ya Yu is under his control. We were trying to lure him out from the start." Qing Linglong saw through the man's hesitation and tried to weave a temporary alliance against the camouflager, who was by nature a mortal enemy of the guardians.
"A camouflager?" The man with the katana looked at the beast tamer and began to consider Qing Linglong's offer.
"Moooh—!" A strange roar came out of Ya Yu, and he galloped in their direction.
The leader of the other group of guardians did not have much time to think. He glanced at one of his friends and both quickly jumped back. He did not think that a seemingly easy pursuit of Bai Xi would turn into such a vicious struggle. Already, Li Yiming's appearance made him wary. Now, with Ya Yu and one casualty already sustained, it would be very unwise to continue to linger around any longer.
"Arghh!" The man with the giant axes knew what his leader wanted. He leaped high into the air and came crashing down like a meteorite. The dark glint on his axes shone vividly as he struck the ground beneath him.
Bang!
A deafening noise was heard. The ground of the park splintered, producing a shockwave mixed with a streak of dark light that flew toward Ya Yu.
At the same time, the ice manipulator performed a seal and started chanting on the surface of the lake. A whirlpool quickly formed, and when the last seal was performed, a giant snake made of ice emerged from the lake and gnawed at Ya Yu.
For some reason I find it very funny when I picture Ya Yu as a big cow