Chapter 203: The Infected
Chapter 203: The Infected
Xiang Ling let go of the person but they remained glued to her as if their life depended on it. Their fingers were digging holes in her body as that person clutched to her so tightly that it was almost painful.
"Let go of me! We are safe now." She said while trying to pull herself out of the person’s hold.
Her words finally made the person soften their hold on her as they pulled away enough for Xiang Ling to realize that it was a woman, around the same age as her or maybe a few years older.
"AH! I’m not dead? I’M NOT DEAD!!"
Xiang Ling almost covered her ears while she tried to place some distance between herself and the weird woman. She was dressed in a dark green dress which almost molded her with the greenery and darkness around her. Even from a distance, it was obvious that the fabric of the dress was top-quality. Same went for the golden jewelry she was wearing. If Xiang Ling had to guess, the woman belonged to some noble family or was a senior disciple of some cultivation Sect. In short, her identity was not normal in the Mortal Realm.
Not wanting to stay there any longer, Xiang Ling decided to teleport away since she had the chance. But once again she was stopped right before casting the spell. This time again by the woman who suddenly threw her arms around Xiang Ling and hugged her tightly.
"Thank you so much for saving my life. I will always be grateful to you for today. I thought I was going to die today, but then you appeared out of nowhere..."
The woman continued to speak while strangling Xiang Ling who was struggling for her next breath. It took her a few efforts before she finally succeeded in pushing the woman away and quickly took in deep breaths to fill her lungs.
"Oh! Are you alright?" The woman tried to approach Xiang Ling when she realized that she probably hugged her way too tightly. But as soon as she took one step forward, Xiang Ling took two steps back to maintain the distance.
"You don’t need to worry about me, and I don’t need your gratitude. Please let me leave now." Xiang Ling quickly said to stop the woman from taking another step forward.
"Uh? Well... I don’t think you can leave right now." The woman spoke with a weird sort of tension in her voice.
"What do you mean?" Xiang Ling asked while turning her attention toward the woman only to find her tension filled gaze fixed on something behind her. Right at that very moment, she sensed the evil aura coming from behind her.
Suddenly, the tranquility of the night shattered as a horde of devil vines attacked her from the back, their twisted forms writhing with malevolent energy as they tried to get a grip of Xiang Ling and the other woman.
She immeditely cast a spell to repel the vines and noticed the woman doing the same thing. The two of them shared a quick glance before a nod of understanding was exchanged between them and they both took their stances to face the vines that were returning with another powerful attack.
Calling out her sword, she unscathed it with a swift motion. Its blade gleamed even in the darkness as it slashed through the vines and left them writhing in pain and failure.
"That’s a nice blade. Almost divine looking!" The woman shouted from where she was busy taking down a group of vines with her own sword that held no light in front of Xiang Ling’s sword which was made from an ancient meteorite and filled with the power of divine stars.
Realizing that fighting with swords was not enough, Xiang Ling took a chance to cast a spell under her breath. Her hands weaved an intricate gesture as she summoned her divine powers to take down the vines. She noticed a group of wines making their way toward her, ready to hit, but before they could have done that, the woman was there, slicing through them as she protected Xiang Ling.
That was more than enough time for Xiang Ling to finish casting the spell. A powerful force burst out of her and hit the vines, destroying them to their very core. But the fight was far from over as more plants joined in, all tinted with demonic energy.
Undeterred, Xiang Ling leapt into the fray, her movements a blur of the years of training in martial arts and cultivation powers. With each strike, she carved a path through the writhing mass of infected plants, her sword slicing through their twisted forms with precision.
But the demonic energy was relentless, it kept chasing after them as the thorny tendrils of plants and vines lashed out at them with ferocious intent. With a nimble sidestep, Xiang Ling narrowly avoided their grasp, her senses honed to a razor’s edge as she anticipated their every move.
"We need to leave this place immediately. There’s no ending to these things!" The woman shouted as she took down two more plants, but it was quite obvious that she was getting exhausted with each passing moment.
Being aware that the source of these attacks was actually a demonic energy, Xiang Ling didn’t try wasting her time in taking out the infected vines and plants. Nodding her head, she grabbed the woman’s hand and immeditely teleported both of them away.
Merely a moment after they disappeared from the scene, another figure appeared there, hidden under a huge black cloak. The infected plants and vines started retreating rapidly as if terrified and it was all for right reason as the very next moment, the hooded figure reached out with one of his hands and sent a ball of his extremely powerful demonic energy toward the infected plants and vines.
It didn’t even took a second before they all burst out into flames and disintegrated into nothingness.