Chapter 186 Chapter 187 Murder (Part Two)
The recruit carried a cloth bag, inside which was a constantly stirring cat. He felt relieved; there was nothing safer than this. It was said that they were here to hunt down a transcendent being, which scared him to death.
As he turned a corner, a wave of fatigue washed over him, and for a moment, he was distracted. He suddenly returned to his senses and unzipped the cloth bag. The orange cat’s head had just poked out of the bag when a familiar figure materialized out of thin air—it was Ji Ma, unmasked.
Ji Ma held her forehead, feeling dizzy for a moment. She drew a tube of red-brown potion from her waist and handed it to the orange cat, saying, “If it’s you, you’ll understand. Drink the potion, then run to find a safe place to sleep as fast as you can; the roof would be best.”
The orange cat nodded, obediently biting the test tube, lightly leaping down, and using its teeth to wrench out the cork before gulping down the potion.
Ji Ma drew her short sword, the sharp blade aimed at the throat of the still-dreaming recruit, saying, “Just go die.”
“I got you!”
A thunderous voice suddenly erupted in the colonnade.
The recruit immediately awoke, only to find his legs trembling, utterly frightened; terror had seized him.
Young Master Is appeared at the corner, less than two meters from Ji Ma. Without hesitation, he hurled a translucent sound wave spear at Ji Ma. The trajectory of the spear deviated in the air and exploded between Ji Ma and the recruit.
The sound of an explosion roared, the shockwave knocked the recruit back, tearing the cloth off his body. He flew out like a rag doll, rolling several times, a trickle of blood flowing from his ear.
Ji Ma naturally was unable to dodge in time; the shockwave ruffled her black hair, her eyes widened in surprise as her body leaned back.
Is was extremely pleased. He didn’t expect Ji Ma would expose herself for a scrawny cat, likely unaware of her own extraordinary abilities.
Finally, the biggest stone had dropped.
Just as the corner of his mouth was lifting.
Ji Ma vanished into thin air.
It was an illusion!
Is was startled, and immediately, just three meters away, the distinctive sound of a crossbow bolt sliced through the air, shooting straight toward his back.
The hairs on the back of his neck stood up; for a moment, his mind went blank, unable to react.
The bolt shot from a steel-armed crossbow was generally used against heavy armor; the arrow, tied with incendiary oil, smashed harshly into his back.
“Boom!”
The incendiary oil ignited, a wave of not-so-strong shockwave brushed against Ji Ma’s cheek, lifting her hair.
It was indeed Ji Ma; next to her, a soldier looked bewildered, immersed in a beautiful dream. Just now, Ji Ma had jumped into reality using his dream as an anchor, waiting invisibly for an opportunity.
Until the ship mage shouted, “Enemy attack!”
The soldier finally awoke, saw Ji Ma with black hair, horns, wings, and a tail, and was startled into shouting, “Demon!”
He reached for his hilt, but after several attempts, he missed.
Ji Ma ignored the soldier beside her, grabbed a bottle of incendiary oil from her waist, stepped forward, and hurled it toward the figure in the residual explosion.
The extremely unstable incendiary oil began to boil the moment she threw the bottle.
A sharp sound erupted, the bottle shattered in mid-air, flames dispersed, exploding, and burning oil splattered everywhere.
But Ji Ma was extremely lucky; not a drop of incendiary oil landed on her, all miraculously bypassed.
Meanwhile, Is was drenched in burning oil all over a spherical shield made of blue water.
The spherical barrier originated from a milky-white conch on Is’s belt. He gritted his teeth, both angry and terrified, as he braced against the fiery “water sphere,” striding forward toward Ji Ma:
“You are the most venomous woman I’ve ever seen; catch her!”
Without waiting for him to finish, Ji Ma discarded the steel-armed crossbow and turned to flee.
Facing her was a group of soldiers with drawn blades and black iron helmets. Ji Ma maintained her speed and dashed toward the crowd.
One soldier could have slashed at Ji Ma, but he thought that wouldn’t catch her and might harm her instead. Hesitating, he let Ji Ma slip past his shoulder and escape. Another soldier turned around, intending to hit Ji Ma with the back of his blade, but upon seeing her beautiful face, he inexplicably felt pity and missed, nearly hitting his fellow soldier’s head.
Is couldn’t kill indiscriminately, shouting in anger, “Just slash!”
A soldier blocking Ji Ma swung his sword straight at her but accidentally twisted his waist, knocking into the soldier beside him instead, creating an escape route for Ji Ma.
This fortunate ring had such great effects.
Ji Ma didn’t hesitate to escape through the gap, dashing toward the gray-black vortex on the stone wall, which was the exit leading to the palace of dreams.
“Demon! Don’t even think about escaping!”
It was the loud voice of the ship mage, who stood in front of Ji Ma with a black gooseneck egg on his neck. He lunged at Ji Ma with a punch, yelling, “Storm!”
A wall of wind lifted the grass on the ground and pressed toward Ji Ma.
At that moment, Ji Ma’s foot slipped, and she fell to the ground; the wind wall grazed her cheek, stinging painfully. The soldiers behind her caught the brunt of it, all knocked to the ground.
“Thunder Claw!”
Three claw-like appendages struck toward Ji Ma, who had just gotten back up.
Ji Ma reacted extremely quickly, leaning back to dodge this attack. The snapping claws brushed past her, and she stepped back a few paces, activating her “Simulation” skill to mimic the flying abilities of a green dragon, combined with her own existing flying ability.
She unfurled her wings and lightly took off into the sky.
“Still able to fly?!”
The ship mage snorted coldly, remaining motionless while waving his hands.
Immediately, Ji Ma sensed the turbulence in the air, as fierce winds buffeted her wings. In the chaotic airflow, even someone as balanced as Ji Ma was thrown off, her black hair dancing wildly in the wind. She desperately tried to regain her balance, but her speed significantly decreased.
Struggling to observe the battlefield from above, she saw Young Master Is pulling his arm back, murmuring spells, throwing the translucent sound wave spear at himself.
Faster than sound, there was nowhere to hide. She felt a blast in her abdomen, the piercing sound explosion torturing her eardrums; even though she had already stuffed her ears with cotton, she still experienced unbearable headaches, almost fainting.
The world became a blur.
When she regained consciousness, she saw the grass in the backyard rapidly approaching her face.
Just as she was about to crash face-first onto the ground, she forcefully flapped her wings, flying close to the ground, with grass blades continually grazing her chest; for a moment, Ji Ma experienced the advantages of having a flat chest.
Just as she was about to crash headfirst into the wall, she pressed both hands against the ground, coordinating her wings to exert force, elegantly twisting in mid-air, aligning her chest toward the wall, her limbs “landing” against the wall like a cat.
Looking up, she saw the gray-black vortex above her head.
“Goodbye.”
Just as she said this, Is rushed in with a transparent barrier surrounding him, and a sharp blade in hand, piercing towards Ji Ma.
Without hesitation, Ji Ma pushed off from the wall strongly with her long legs, forcefully flapping her wings, colliding with Is.
Is was shocked, thinking Ji Ma was reckless, but then he saw her pull a bundle of incendiary oil bottles from the bushes. With both parties moving too fast, neither could evade.
If it’s come to this, you still won’t surrender; you want to die together with me? Am I too merciful?!
Amid the fear and anger, his blade plunged toward Ji Ma’s face.
Ji Ma, clutching the bundle of incendiary oil, crashed into Is head-on.
The glass bottles shattered, and the incendiary oil ignited, overflowing, leading to a massive explosion.
The ship mage lowered his head and raised his hand to summon the storm to counter the shockwave, dazzling flames raining down, the grass scorched black, the walls burned black and crumbling. A poorly made puppet caught fire, landing on the ground.
Is gasped in horror; his face was charred, his white robe covered in flames, and the diamond brooch on his chest was nowhere to be found; he panicked, trying to pat out the flames on his clothes.
The ship mage raised his head and saw Ji Ma standing against the wall; aside from the edges of her skirt being slightly burned, the rest of her remained unscathed, with a deep gash on her cheek, the flesh torn, even exposing her mouth cavity. Yet she showed not a hint of pain; her complexion remained normal, as if the wound on her face were no big deal. She looked down at the two transcendent beings and the disoriented soldiers.
The ship mage felt this demoness radiated an aura that contrasted sharply with her appearance; clearly, his side’s combat capability exceeded theirs, yet she moved with ease.
Ji Ma removed the cork from the blood-filled ram’s horn cup, tilted her head back to take a sip. The wound on her face began to sprout flesh, writhing and healing at a speed visible to the naked eye.
She pointed at the ship mage and said, “Hey, you black gooseneck egg, so eager to serve that guy; you’ll eventually face retribution. Don’t you fear he’ll mess with your wife? Tsk, **-freak.”
“You!”
The ship mage shouted angrily, raising his hand to summon a thunderstorm attack on Ji Ma, but he saw Is still struggling to extinguish the fire on himself, shouting in terror. He had said before that he was terrified of flames.
In a moment of hesitation, the ship mage lowered his hand, a gust of wind rising, partially extinguishing the flames on Is.
Is turned his head, revealing his white teeth, overcoming his fear of the incendiary oil, shouting to the ship mage: “Don’t worry about me! Blast her!”
Just then, Ji Ma was already half-submerged in the vortex, with only her skirt and a tail visible.
The ship mage no longer hesitated; he activated his extraordinary abilities, his eyes filled with electric blue, his beard standing on end as if electrocuted.
“Boom!”
Like thunder, lightning erupted from his palm, striking against the gray-black vortex and the wall, causing bricks to shatter in an instant. Wind blasted, and the front wall collapsed.
Ji Ma’s tail was struck by electricity, and when she landed in the palace of dreams, she jolted.
The exit behind her was unstable and on the verge of collapsing, a force from reality dragging her.
Ji Ma, with her tail feeling the shock, thought quickly; if the exit collapsed, her physical body would likely be dragged into reality.
She leaped, flying out of the palace of dreams and into a gray-white dream, spotting a nearby pitch-black dream seed—it was Lian Xi. She seized the dream seed and immediately entered Lian Xi’s dream, escaping the dream before the exit of the dream palace collapsed, returning to reality.
A wave of dizziness hit her.
Ji Ma held her forehead, fighting off the dizziness, and found herself standing on a red-tiled roof. A skinny orange cat was lying on the roof ridge.
She picked up Lian Xi the cat, who purred softly, its fuzzy head nuzzling against her cheek.
Ji Ma turned around, spread her wings, and escaped to a shadowy spot, going invisible while carrying the cat away.
The journey went smoothly; despite a few small mishaps, she easily resolved them with her extraordinary abilities. She successfully escaped behind the city wall, slipped into the forest, then breathed a sigh of relief, placing the cat on the ground and lifting her hand that held a strand of yellow fur.
Indeed, it was Is’s hair, which Ji Ma had pulled off. The hair she had previously found was too little to curse effectively.
The counterattack was not without gain.
Ji Ma glanced at the dimly gleaming lucky ring, saying, “This thing is great; the side effects are not obvious, and I didn’t feel particularly unlucky after using it.”
