168.2 – Nine Lives Cat (I)

“– be careful!”

Xihe’s voice has just sounded, when Xue Qilin barely caught a gold afterimage with her eyes, and rapidly jumped to the left. Xihe jumped in the opposite direction, avoiding the oncoming “shooting star”.

The sound of an impact exploded.

Jialan, emitting gold light from head to toe, landed on the place where Xue Qilin has stood previously and radiated a raging shock wave that lifted Xue Qilin and Xihe into the air.

After turning her body in the air and landing with her feet on the ground, Xue Qilin immediately raised her head and looked ahead.

In the cloud of dust, a gold glow depicts the outline of the lass, who is standing up slowly.

“It’s this feeling… this exhilaration, this excitement… it’s them.”

A trembling voice sounded, as Jialan emerged from the gradually dispersing cloud of dust.

“Thank you… thank you guys.”

Excitement —

The excitement made her pant, made her face flush.

“It’s you guys who made me feel this, so thank you… thank you very much!”

The lips of the lass, whose eyes are intoxicated, emitted a moaning voice.

“Ah… ah… but it’s not enough… not enough… I want more…”

Then, she smiled.

A strange smile.

“Now, can you give me more?”

She’s crazy.

Jialan is already beyond reasoning.

Something slowly climbed up her back, making Xue Qilin tremble involuntarily.

However, deep down in her heart, there is something — an impulse — brewing. She vaguely heard a roaring voice shout something.

“– Qilin!”

Phecda’s call made Xue Qilin suddenly snap out of it.

Eyes rippling with crimson color have already drawn near, but there is nothing reflected inside them. The pupils are unusually enlarged, as if they are black holes that can suck in all gazes.

Jialan sent a palm overflowing with light striking towards Xue Qilin’s chest.

The majestic true qi rushing towards her almost made Xue Qilin unable to breath. However, she still reacted and tossed dozens of talismans

As if directed by someone, the talismans, red characters and symbols on a black background, arranged themselves neatly between Xue Qilin and Jialan.

“Barrier, set boundary!”

Xue Qilin snapped her fingers, and the talismans radiated light and formed a barrier of light that blocked the invasion of the “gold”.

Boom –!

As if sounding a copper bell, when the palm hit the barrier, it made a dull sound.

Jialan, who wasn’t done yet, clenched her palm, which is pressed against the barrier, into a fist and twisted her wrist violently.

Along with a harsh sound of friction, a spiral of true qi broke through the barrier and drilled into Xue Qilin. She shuddered violently, and blood slowly trickled out from the corners of her mouth.

At the same time, the subtle sound of cracks spreading rapidly rose, followed by the crisp sound of porcelain breaking.

The barrier shattered.

With their power depleted, the talismans turned into ashes.

“Augment lightning with fire — Alkaid!”

Xue Qilin forcibly swallowed the sweet and fishy thing that rushed to her throat and stabbed Empyrean Universe with all her might, and a number of blue-white lightning arcs that appeared out of thin air wrapped around it. The power contained in the domain this time is far greater than in previous instances. This is due to Xihe converting the surrounding spiritual qi of other attributes into fire spiritual qi.

The sword body, with lightning arcs dancing around it, tore the atmosphere apart and stabbed towards Jialan’s throat fiercely. Jialan, faced with the lethal blow, didn’t evade, allowing it to hit her.

A violent sound of metal striking metal rang.

“What!”

Xue Qilin is appalled.

Empyrean Universe did indeed stab Jialan in the neck, but it didn’t even penetrate the skin. Coated with gold light, the place the opponent’s neck was hit is incredible hard.

“Boring… really boring. Is that all you got?”

Asura’er pouted and uttered in dissatisfaction.

“– That’s Imperishable Vajra Body! Fall back!”

Silver-white tails swept over to create an opening for Xue Qilin. At the same time, she kicked off the ground and threw herself backward.

“That’s really tactless!”

Jialan waved her arm gently and pushed Xihe’s tails aside, and then continued forward.

“Pest!”

Faced with the lightning fast attack of Jialan, Xue Qilin fought back with Flying Flames. At the same time, she detonated the spiritual qi between them, trying to slow down the other party.

However, it was in vain.

Jialan is covered in armor-like gold light. All the attacks vanished the moment they hit her.

This is Imperishable Vajra Body?! Xue Qilin gritted her teeth, slashed Asura’er with Empyrean Universe, and started a few sparks. She could only watch helplessly as the unscathed Jialan rushed towards her.

The next moment, an impact hit her.

Fortunately, Xue Qilin used Empyrean Universe’s hilt to deflect the palm slamming towards her in the nick of time, causing the palm to only graze her shoulder.

Despite this, she was still flung away.

“Asura’er, don’t forget that you are facing two opponents.”

Xihe’s stern voices resounded through the sky.

Jialan, who was about to pursue Xue Qilin, was engulfed by a pillar of fire that suddenly sprang out from the ground.

“So, since you are in the same boat, you want to exploit your advantage in numbers.”

Jialan extended her hands from the pillar of fire, and then pushed vigorously to the left and right. The pillar of fire immediately split into two, and then turned into flame debris.

“However, did you know that all scheming is futile in the face of absolute strength?”

As flame debris flew everywhere around her, the Vajrayana Grandmaster, in a backhand strike, sent a gold imprint barreling towards Xihe.

“I feel like I’m being underestimated.”

Xihe raised her eyebrows and, using dexterous footwork, tried to avoid the straight palm imprint.

“I’m not underestimating you.”

Jialan’s sweet smile gave Xue Qilin a bad premonition.

Her hunch soon came true.

At the moment when the two were about to pass each other, the gold palm imprint suddenly became several times larger. Xihe, unable to escape its rapidly expanding scope, was hit squarely.

Following an explosion of true qi, a cloud of dust rose and countless stone fragments splashed about.

“Xihe!”

Xue Qilin’s gaze passed Asura’er and headed for the place where Xihe is located, and she shouted urgently.

“I said I didn’t underestimate you. Why din’t you listen?”

Jialan, who has a look of grief on her face, released a long sigh.

“Really, why didn’t you believe me? Why –”

“No, you underestimated me.”

As if about to cut the space open, nine tails flailed recklessly, left silver-white trajectories in the air, and dispelled the cloud of dust that blurred the vision.

The figure that emerged no longer has the silhouette of a person.

It is a huge silver creature that looks like both a cat and a tiger.

It shook its head left and right as if it has just woken up from a deep slumber and took a step forward to exercise its body for the first time in forever.

The shape is similar to that of a lion or a tiger, the claws that dug into the ground are shaped like sickles, the fur covering the entire body is shiny and silver-white, the nine tails at the back are swaying in the air.

— Nine Lives Cat.

Xihe appeared in her true body form and emerged on the battlefield as a martial demon for the first time.