297 If Life Could Be Like the Moment When We First Met Part Nine

Xu Yourong sat back down and took out the Tong Bow and the Wu Arrows, and thenlowered her head in silence. Chen Changsheng slept behind her while countless crystals encircled her. Time slowly flowed by. The monsters hidden in the grass were slow at theonset, their inborn fear towards her Qi deterring them. The faint tune of the zither did not grow more frantic, and it did not urgethem on. Instead, it grew even calmer, as if placating these monsters. It soothed the hearts and souls of these monsters, telling them to no longerfear, inspiring them with the courage to overcome their fears. The surface of the water between the grass suddenly began to fiercely shake.The previous tiny ripples suddenly converged into one, transforming into atowering wave. The wave rolled across the pile of flattened grass, soaking her knees. She lifted her head and opened her eyes, staring into the depths of the water.Then she bent the bow, nocked an arrow, and then slightly loosened her fingers. Whoosh. The Wu Arrow flew through the air, piercing deeply into the water. There was nothing in the water, so what was this arrow being shot at? It couldnot be the water, could it? In the next moment, the wave of water suddenly dispersed and the ripples onthe surface were becalmed. It was as though one arrow was all it took for her to calm the waters. Xu Yourong's Wu Arrow naturally was not aimed at the water, nor was it aimedat the wave, but at the monster that had stirred up the wave. The limpid water was slowly dyed red. The corpse of a dragon serpent slowly floated up. Laying across the sea ofgrass, its corpse seemed as massive as a city wall. A Wu Arrow was planted between its eyes, buried all the way up to itsfeathers. In comparison to the massive body of the dragon serpent, the Wu Arrowwas like a thin blade of grass. However, this diminutive arrow had easily struck down the dragon serpent. This was not the end, but rather the beginning.  In the next moment, the surface of the water began to fiercely shake.Countless plumes of water arose, and then, accompanied by heart-shaking hissesof anger, dozens of massive figures breached the surface of the water andalighted upon the flattened grass.  Each of those massive figures was one dragon serpent! Each dragon serpent's head seemed larger than that pile of grass that XuYourong and Chen Changsheng were on! Dozens of dragon serpents broke through the surface, obscuring the sky as theydescended with astonishing momentum. The little girl wielding her bow on that pile of grass seemed tiny incomparison. The dragon serpent was an extremely famous monster on the continent, becauseits skin could be used to make the finest armor. From this fact alone, onecould infer how great the dragon serpent's defensive power was. The seeminglysoft and sleek serpent skin was abnormally tough. Not to mention normalweapons, even the strike of an Ethereal Opening cultivator would find it hardto pierce through such skin. As the humans, demons, the demi-humans, and other such intelligent beingsslowly began to dominate the Eastern continent, the vast majority of dragonserpents slowly began to seclude themselves in the rarely traveled lakes andpools in the wilderness. Despite that, they were still renowned for theirferocity. Who could have possibly imagined that this plain in the Garden ofZhou actually contained so many dragon serpents? Moreover, these dragonserpents made up only a portion of the monsters in these plains. It was no wonder that, in these past several hundred years, all the EtherealOpening cultivators who had entered these plains had never been able to survive. The legends said that the dragon serpents possessed the blood of the dragons,but they suffered from a plight as well. Their souls would never awaken, andthey could only live in the water. Perhaps this was the reason why they heldthe greatest animosity towards the bloodlines of the dragon and the phoenix.This was probably the reason why they had been the first to attack Xu Yourong. As these dragon serpents struck out, their bodies covered the sky and cast ashadow over the area. Xu Yourong's quiver only contained a bit more than ten Wu Arrows, so how couldthese be enough to account for each one of these powerful monsters? This was a problem, but she swiftly arrived at the solution to this problem.Since there were not enough arrows, then she would not use her arrows. As those massive figures attacked, they gave off terrifying hisses. She calmlygazed at them and once again drew back her bow, but there was no arrow on thebowstring this time. Her actions were still as steady as ever, concise without any unnecessarymovements. She would not waste a single bit of true essence or strength. Each time she drew back her bow, it was an exact duplicate of the first timewithout the slightest difference. Except for the direction the Tong Bow was pointed at. Twangtwangtwangtwang~! The bowstring vibrated like the strings of a zither,and the sound it issued formed a most unyielding and monotonous song. Countless slender white streaks departed from the bowstring and flew throughthe air, landing on the enormous bodies of the dragon serpents. The dragon serpents' incredibly sturdy skin, so tough that not even EtherealOpening cultivators would be able to split it, when touched by these slenderwhite streaks, began to crack open, piece by piece.  The slender white streaks seemed like they could sunder the air, as thoughthey possessed the ability to rend almost everything. In an instant, the bodies of those dozens of dragon serpents were denselygorged with bloody wounds, and their blood spilled down like a majesticdownpour. Within those wounds, one could make out the twisted dragon flesh andeven the dense white bones. It was an incredibly bloody and terrifying sight. The dragon serpents were in immeasurable pain, their upper halves writhingviolently in the air while their lower halves stirred up colossal waves thatwould shock the heavens. Those turbid waves touched the skies, and then were followed soon after by thewounded dragon serpents' most frenzied attack. Xu Yourong sat amidst the grass, her expression serene, unafraid and unawed,indicating that she would not yield. She simply began to fire her bow evenfaster, the blurring speed of her arms rendering her moves completelyunpredictable. Twangtwangtwangtwang! Several hundred, no, several thousand slender whitestreaks shot forth from the bowstring, scattering out in every direction fromthe pile of grass she stood on. Those dragon serpents could not even approach the pile of grass before theywere cut into boulder-sized chunks. The chunks ricocheted off each other asthey plummeted to the surface of the water, filling the sky like a rain ofmeteors. With continuous booms, the countless pieces of the dragon serpents splashedinto the water, stirring up enormous waves. Only after a long time did thewater gradually grow calm once more. The water had long since been dyed red by the blood of the dragon serpents,but now it began to gradually turn black. It was suffused with an unbearablestench, like a particular cheap and shoddy ink. When those dozens of massive dragon serpents had covered the sky, it appearedthat the heavily injured her had no means to resist, left only with the optionof becoming a meal together with the sleeping Chen Changsheng. However, whowould have thought that the feeble her only casually drawing back her bowstringwould be able to turn those terrifying monsters into a pile of meat chunks? Of course, even though she had seemed to draw back the Tong Bow very casually,it was in reality extremely tiresome. Moreover, it still had not ended. The inky water once more began to shake, creating even more ripples. Theripples crisscrossed everywhere, giving rise to an indescribable design. The countless monsters concealed in the plains, urged on by the tune of thezither, charged out like a tide into the water. Xu Yourong glanced at Chen Changsheng, her calm face expressing a littleconfusion and self-ridicule. What she was confused about was Chen Changsheng. Her calculations with theFated Star Plate clearly indicated that his life force had been exhausted, sowhy was he still alive? It was to the extent that she found it impossible toeasily depart. She was also confused about herself. She clearly knew that theyouth from the Snow Mountain Sect would die, so why could she not abandon him?Since yesterday night, she could have ignored him at any time, but why did shenot? The self-ridicule was obviously aimed at herself. Back when she was small andlived in the palace, the Empress would often tell her that she was toosoft-hearted, stressing that it was ‘no good’. Later on, when she moved to theSouth Stream Temple, the Holy Maiden would often tell her that she was toohard-hearted, and that this, too, was no good. Then was her heart too soft ortoo hard? Or did her wavering and uncertainty prove Nanke’s words of callingher small-minded correct?