Chapter 645: The Gourd of Shuten (4k)
“Whoosh, whoosh!!” Eight strands of sword qi shot out like bullet casings, their speed so fast that people could hardly react. Down below the mountain, everyone could only see a flash of silver light in the arena, followed by a clear sky being cut open, allowing the sunlight to re-enter their eyes.
“Was that armor broken?” It was like cutting the first ray of light in the dark night. Then, everyone heard the sound of armor falling off. Their gazes followed the sound, only to see the General Feng’s former armor turning into rubble and falling. Looking at the sunlight in the sky and the other half of the sky being pitch black, and then at Su Jiu, whose clothes were fluttering in the breeze on the other side, a thought surged in countless people’s minds: could this be the envoy of the Lord of the Gods?
“Boom, boom, boom!!” Before they could have any other thoughts, the mountain before them suddenly began to shake. Loud rumbling sounds came from the peak as it trembled, shortly after the entire mountain collapsed, rolling stones sliding down the mountainside like an endless stream of balls.
“Block all those falling rocks!” with Endo Saka’s sharp shout, the guards immediately supported several energy shields to block the landslide. The citizens watched with shock.
“I admit I underestimated you, but even without the formation providing energy, I am not afraid of you. Fine Snow, Yamaoka Hisashi, it’s time to end this…” Looking at the commotion below, Feng slowly raised his head. Beneath the armor were black bones, and the killing aura enveloped the entire skeleton, the whole body emitting an even stronger aura than before. That aura was infinitely close to Intermediate Battle God level, and he looked like a Demon King. Feng carried his attached form in real-time. In emergencies, the soul and the attached form merged, and at this time, soul-type monsters would be much stronger than before. He slowly rubbed the blade with his broken gauntlet, bending down again, the rules coloring the bloody sword qi even more. Then people below felt their vision blur, and he flashed to attack. Half of the sky was dyed red, like Feng’s crimson hue.
“He can’t maintain this state for long either. I can’t maintain three layers of Elegy for long, but I can attack while healing.” Su Jiu’s eyes narrowed. Without the amplification of rule power, she could only activate the Ice Domain to maximize the attribute damage of her sword, compensating for the difference in power between herself and General Feng. The other half, a cage of flowers, was drenched in Frost Blossom. The two auras that separately enveloped half the sky suddenly condensed. In an instant, the ordinary people below the mountain just felt their vision blur. Two beams of light flashed by, followed by the clashing of metal and a huge shockwave that burst forth from the center of the sky. Boom! Below the mountain, the sound of air being torn apart, and then they saw the blinding sword and blade qi clashing in the sky. However, even though they couldn’t see the exact fight, these ordinary people could feel the intensity, as sword strikes occasionally hit the ground, creating ravines several meters long.
Su Jiu and the other’s battle naturally alerted the two, Watanabe and the other. Both had different expressions on their faces. Neither of them expected Su Jiu to have the strength to contend with a War God level expert. The middle-aged man couldn’t believe that his fiancée, a priest, knew such a person. In his opinion, even if he wanted to hire someone of this level, it would cost a lot. On the other hand, Watanabe’s face showed shock. He looked at the sharp sword qi and felt that the endless energy input was gone, realizing that the situation was about to be reversed. After all, the longer they stayed, the sooner their reinforcements might arrive.
Other Battlefield. “At this high intensity, I can still last six minutes.” In the sky, Su Jiu’s left hand glowed with dark green light, and her right hand held the long sword “Snowfall.” Using this method of madly attacking with [Prosperous Dream] while recovering, she actually managed to suppress the experienced General Feng for a while. The wind and snow howled, almost covering the broken Red Warrior armor with dark green frost. This was not ordinary frost; if a person with a physical body touched it, it would cause severe frostbite. Feeling the chill from the broadsword, General Feng’s ghost fire flickered again in his eyes. He could feel his aura weakening. After another clash of swords, he used the force to create distance and muttered in a low voice, “Ibaraki, stop providing power…” Su Jiu didn’t give him a chance to breathe, flashing over again. In an instant, two figures flashed in mid-air, their external qi fiercely clashing. Sword qi spurted from the blade, even clearing the sky. “Snap!” After about half a minute, a loud sound echoed. Everyone looked, only to see General Feng’s煞刀 (sha dao) being struck by the rotating white dragon tail, falling to the ground that was still sliding. “Bang!” The blade intent, filled with malevolence, instantly turned the ground black and red, as if infected with black mold. General Feng stared blankly at Su Jiu, feeling the frost on her body, and the ghost fire in his eyes dimmed a little. He asked in a low voice, “Why, your vitality hasn’t decreased much? Prolonged use of Fine Snow consumes vitality…” Sensing the increasingly weak General Feng before her, Su Jiu didn’t hesitate. Her eyes narrowed, and her long sword made a thrusting motion, instantly piercing the already tattered abdominal armor. Just as Su Jiu let out a sigh of relief, she found that his corpse had turned into a mass of red mist and disappeared into thin air. Instantly, her spirit tensed up, and she was about to use her mental power to probe the blood mist. However, she found a small gourd in front of her. The gourd was plain black, with a pattern of six interlocked magatama in the center. On the edge was an old inscription of [Good Fortune]. The red mist had entered the small gourd, and then the gourd was about to dart downwards, as if it had sentience. “What is this?” Su Jiu quickly grabbed it and checked it with her mental power, finding some liquid sloshing inside. She brought her nose close to smell it and detected a slight aroma of wine, comparable to the scent of top-grade liquor from Bear Country. However, she dared not taste it, knowing that this thing had just taken General Feng in, so she would research it thoroughly first. Su Jiu wanted to put the gourd into her storage ring, but found that the two repelled each other. Instantly, she was a bit stunned, blinked her eyes, and muttered to herself, “Does this gourd also contain a spatial bag?”
“General Feng, was he dealt with by you?” The voice of the middle-aged man from before sounded behind Su Jiu, sounding somewhat weak. “His power suddenly weakened a lot, he was no match for me at all.” Holding the mysterious wine gourd, Su Jiu turned her head and saw a face covered in bloodstains. She nodded, and with some surprise, asked, “What about the temple priest?” “After you defeated General Feng, he ran away. If it weren’t for you, I might have really fallen here.” The middle-aged man laughed at himself, and his gaze inadvertently swept over the wine gourd in Su Jiu’s hand. His brow furrowed slightly, and he fell into thought. “The wine gourd in your hand…” “Do you recognize it? This is what fell from General Feng just now.” Su Jiu shook the liquid inside, and the fragrance overflowed from the opening. She swallowed again, this wine gourd always gave her an uncontrollable urge to drink it all at once. “This is the work of the legendary alchemist Fujiwara Yoshimasa. It’s just that the star rating is incorrect… In his surviving works, there are no alchemical items with six magatama. Five magatama are already top-tier War God level items, and the Eight Great Clans still have some.” The middle-aged man explained slowly, his gaze falling on the magatama, seemingly finding it difficult to understand the reason. He shook his head and decided not to think about it further, saying very seriously, “Since you obtained this thing by killing a monster, keep it well, and don’t expose the star rating on the gourd, otherwise some War Gods stronger than this General Feng will also want to explore it.” “Okay.” Hearing this, Su Jiu took out three cartoon-style band-aids from her ring and stuck them on the magatama of the gourd. She still didn’t want to cause too much trouble. The middle-aged man’s mouth twitched as he saw Su Jiu covering it with band-aids. He didn’t quite understand her train of thought, coughed, and said, “If you want to use this gourd, just soak it with your blood. I’ll go down first to stabilize the situation and then organize the people…” “Until the sacrifice ceremony is successfully held, the supernatural monsters may cause trouble again at night. If possible, please stay and help for a day or two. We will also provide magic crystals as assistance.” With that, the middle-aged man turned into an arc of electricity and shot downwards, as if to explain the situation of this sacrifice. Su Jiu then also turned into a stream of light and flew towards the mountain. Since the matter was not resolved, she was happy to slack off here for two days, as the constant travel was indeed tiring. After greeting the old man, Su Jiu stayed in the room, healing herself while bleeding onto the gourd. If this gourd was as magical as her brother-in-law Yamaoka Natsu said, she might be able to use it. In the meantime, many people wanted to see her, but were directly refused. Su Jiu also threw the gluttonous dragon E Huo outside, otherwise, it would keep sticking its butt out and heading towards the wine gourd. As the sun set, Su Jiu saw the black wine gourd soaked in blood emit a faint red light. A preliminary connection had now been established. The moment she established the connection. The dragon head ring containing space also emitted a silvery-white light, and a thought was transmitted from the ring into Su Jiu’s mind: [ (Sakura) Hidden Mission: Lost Evil Soul] [Completed] [Reward: Shuten Gourd: Heaven and Earth separate Yin and Yang. Yang is wine, Yin is soul.] [How to use: Kill monsters and refine them instantly!] “What the heck? Something of Shuten-dōji?” Su Jiu was dumbfounded and continuously complained, “No, you didn’t give me the quest, and now it’s completed in advance? And what kind of a quest is this, I took the object myself.” “You broken ring imitates the system in novels and doesn’t even say [ding]. You issued the reward only after I already got it.” Ever since she rarely used this ring, Su Jiu knew that this thing often malfunctioned, either with cryptic quests or with quests that were completed without knowing anything. The ring transmitted information again: [In ancient kingdoms, there are forgotten souls. Fulfill their wishes and you will receive various assistance. How to get quests: Have corresponding level and reach corresponding location.] Feeling this ring, Su Jiu increasingly felt that this was a trial given to her by someone, possibly her mysterious mother. However, that trial person didn’t know that her strength could already fight enemies one level higher. So, there was this situation where the quest wasn’t assigned, and she took the reward beforehand. Since this wine gourd was fine, Su Jiu narrowed her eyes, licked her lips, and poured the wine gourd into a paper cup. She could only pour about half a cup. The liquid was deep red, like wine from many years ago, crystal clear. “So little?” Cursing inwardly, she took a sip… The next moment, an indescribable impact erupted in her mouth, and a massive amount of energy rampaged through her fragile esophagus. Su Jiu’s pupils widened. How long had it been since she had experienced this feeling? She quickly sat cross-legged and reactivated the Level 3 Elegy to disperse the energy, otherwise, this energy would damage her meridians. In an instant, her skin turned red like a boiled shrimp, and steam kept rising from her head. This state lasted for about several hours before it subsided. “This wine is really strong. I feel like I’m just one step away from Intermediate Battle King.” When Su Jiu opened her eyes again, her aura had condensed considerably. She had a feeling that if she fought General Feng again, even if he hadn’t suddenly weakened, she could put up a good fight. “It’s a pity that there’s only a little bit of wine left, but I should still be able to refine it, right?” Sighing, she looked at the gourd and was surprised to find that the entire gourd had turned silver-grey. When she reached out and touched it, a strange chill spread through her palm. She guessed that refining meant refining it into wine, but it was a pity that once refined, the magic crystals would also disappear. This was truly the law of conservation of matter.
[Yang, activated by external qi.] Immediately after, a message was transmitted into Su Jiu’s mind, leaving her somewhat stunned. She then sent some external qi into it. The next moment, the entire gourd trembled slightly, and a red phantom suddenly spat out from the mouth of the gourd, emitting the aura of a low-level Battle King. Its appearance was exactly that of General Feng who had fought Su Jiu before! “Didn’t I kill him? What’s going on? His strength has dropped to low-level Battle King.” Su Jiu immediately became vigilant, holding the loquat branch, and slowly approached it. She found that the phantom looked confused and didn’t have any thoughts at all, and it seemed on the verge of dissipating. As if noticing Su Jiu looking at it, the phantom of General Feng was stunned for a moment, then knelt down, and a voice came from its mouth like a puppet: “Master.”
