“Speak.” Fain frowned as he barked at it.
The experts all looked at the monster.
“On the seventh floor of the Necropolis of the Gods, I am only an ordinary creature. The truly powerful creature here is the Queen Mother!” The monster’s voice had a hint of arrogance in it. “I urge you to let me go. If you kill me, the Queen Mother will definitely slaughter you all.”
“The Queen Mother?” Linley frowned in puzzlement.
One of the Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lions explained to the other people present, “In the other planes, there are some special life forms that are divided into a ‘mother’ component and ‘child’ components. Those ‘child’ components are given birth to by the ‘mother’ component, and the power of the ‘mother’ is hundreds of times that of the ‘children’. Actually, the Hornet-type magical beasts are a good example of this. Each clan has just one ‘Queen Mother’, and the other magical beasts are all her children.
“Mother component? Child component? Queen Mother?” Linley and the others were all secretly surprised.
If this was the case, then the power of the Queen Mother would be far greater than that of its children.
“Right. The relationship between myself and the Queen Mother is the relationship between a ‘mother component’ and a ‘child component’,” the monster immediately said. “You had best release me. If you kill me, the Queen Mother will definitely sense it, and at that time… you will have incurred the Queen Mother’s wrath. You will definitely die.”
The monster seemed very self-confident.
The power of the Queen Mother wasn’t something that it, a ‘child component’, could compare with.
“What should we do?” Desri looked at Linley and asked him.
Amongst this group, Linley’s status had slowly risen, especially after his performance in the sixth floor. After all, his power was clearly greater than that of everyone else. In addition, Tulily and the others had been assisted by Linley.
“To kill, or not to kill.” Linley hesitated a bit as well.
He couldn’t tell if this creature was telling the truth or not.
“Whoosh!” A sudden gust of wind. One of the Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lions charged at the monster, while at the same time, its body dramatically increased to the size of a titanic dragon. Its scaly, gold-fur covered sharp claws also reached several meters in thickness, and its thick, massive claws ripped viciously down at the creature.
The monster couldn’t help but want to let out a scream of terror.
The Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lion’s six eyes simultaneously sent out rays of black light, and as soon as the six rays of light enveloped the monster, the monster was no longer able to move.
“Bang!”
The sharp claws, carrying a faint, space-ripping power, slashed down on the monster’s body, pausing only slightly while cutting through it. And then, like a vase being shattered into pieces, the monster’s body exploded into four or five fragments, with green liquid flowing forth.
Although describing it took some time, in truth, this happened in the blink of an eye. The Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lion had killed the monster in a twinkling.
“Why did you kill him?” Rosarie’s eyes, flashing with a faint green light, stared at the Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lion. She asked coldly, “Aren’t you afraid of drawing the attention of the Queen Mother?”
“If you don’t want to be killed by the Queen Mother, then follow me.” The Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lion didn’t explain anything, immediately flying towards a certain direction. The other two Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lions immediately followed. Linley, Desri, and the others were puzzled, but they still followed and flew behind them.
After flying for roughly a hundred kilometers, the three Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lions came to a stop.
“What is going on?” Linley asked.
“We killed him, so the Queen Mother would probably chase after us,” Rutherford said with a frown.
The leader of the Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lions laughed, revealing its fangs as it grinned. “You people are really stupid. That monster said a few words, and you really believed it? Just one or two words made you afraid to kill it?” The other two Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lions had laughter in their eyes as well.
The three Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lions had been alongside Dylin for countless years, and the amount of experience they had, the likes of Linley and the others could not possibly match.
“What? Can it be that what the monster was saying about it being a ‘child’ component and there being a Queen Mother on the seventh floor was a lie?” Fain asked.
“No, that part should be true.” The Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lion nodded its great head. “That sort of plant life form, we three brothers have encountered before in the Gebados Planar Prison. Plant type creatures generally do have Queen Mother’s, and the power of the Queen Mother is indeed hundreds of times greater than that of its children.”
“And yet you still killed it?” Karossa frowned.
Linley was puzzled as well.
The Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lion snorted. “You don’t even understand this? This Queen Mother can give birth to hundreds of thousands of child components. To the Queen Mother, its children are nothing more than little soldiers. Have you ever seen an Emperor who immediately went to seek revenge for the sake of the death of a single soldier?”
The Blackscale Scorpion also rumbled, “Amongst the hornet-type magical beasts, the deaths of ordinary soldiers are indeed paid little attention to by the Queen Mother’s.”
“That’s just the first reason. The second reason is, it would be good if the Queen Mother chases after us,” The Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lion said.
“Hrm?”
Everyone was puzzled. Why was it good for the Queen Mother to chase after them?
The other Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lion said, “Remember the sixth floor? At first, the Flame Tyrant was next to the corridor, but after leaving, it ordered the thousand-plus Magma Demons to block up the tunnel. Same logic. Their responsibility is to prevent us from leaving. I expect that the Queen Mother should be next to the exit to the eighth floor.”
“Right.” Fain nodded. This logic was very simple. Only, the experts present hadn’t thought of it.
“Would killing one of her ‘child’ components make the Queen Mother leave the tunnel? What a joke. If she truly left, we would actually be able to seize the opportunity to find the tunnel and immediately enter the eighth floor.” The Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lion licked its lips. “Let’s keep looking for the tunnel. However, while searching for the tunnel, it’s best to be careful. You cannot compare the 'child' monster to its Queen Mother.”
All of them knew this to be true, and they immediately went to look for the monster.
None of them dared to be rash. After all, the Queen Mother was here, somewhere.
“The creator of this Necropolis of the Gods has really spent quite a bit of effort.” Linley, while flying in search of the tunnel, had to sigh inwardly with praise. Linley had never seen the likes of the Flame Tyrant or these plant creatures.
“But if it truly was developed by a Sovereign, then perhaps he would only need to have his subordinates go search for these strange, unique races and bring them here.”
Linley sighed in his heart.
They continued searching. This desert world was extremely vast, and each time, before flying too far, they would see some oases from afar. They weren’t afraid, and they would immediately fly over to see if there were any tunnels near the oases. If the oases transformed into a monster to attack them, then… the five magical beasts would immediately go kill the monster.
After a long time.
The wind blew across the desert world, whirling the sand high in the air, some dunes rising while other places sinking down. Along with the gust of wind, “rustle, rustle”, a large amount of sand rolled about, revealing a black rocky wall.
“Look. That seems to be the exit.” Fain pointed excitedly off into the distance, and everyone saw it as well.
Everyone here
had excellent vision. That black rock wall, in the yellow desert, stood out very much.
“That is definitely the tunnel.” Linley and the others immediately flew over.
“Whoooosh.” Linley summoned a gust of wild wind which immediately landed against the stone wall, blowing the sand on it off into the distance, instantly revealing the full edifice that had been covered by the sand.
This was a black, pyramid-like structure. Beneath the black pyramid, there was a ten-meter-tall set of stairs, and the faint black glow let everyone here know… that they had found the right place. This sort of black glowing stairway was the symbol of the exit.
“Rumble…” Suddenly, countless vines and tendrils of grass erupted from around the tunnel beneath the black pyramid.
In virtually the blink of an eye, the entire black pyramid was covered by countless rattans and grass tendrils, and even the exit tunnel was completely sealed off airtight. With the black pyramid at the center, within an area of a hundred square kilometers, countless rattans and grass vines rose up towards the sky.
Linley and the others felt their hearts tremble, and they immediately flew back and flew higher.
“Haha…” A clear voice rang out from below, and then from within the countless vines and grass tendrils, an enormous green light charged upwards into the sky, then came to a halt in mid-air.
The green female creature stood there in mid-air. She was fully ten meters tall, but her body was covered with countless intersecting vines and tendrils of grass. At the same time, in the area around her body, there were countless vines and roots that were nearly a thousand meters long.
Her tendrils and vines were clearly different from those of the ‘child’ components. This was because the countless tendrils and vines around her were so green that they seemed nearly translucent.
It was as though they weren’t plants, but were a type of soft, translucent gem-like material. It was an extremely strange thing.
“It’s been so long since an outsider has come.” The green female laughed as she spoke. “This period of time has been so boring. Mm… humans. Oh, what beautiful bodies. I like human bodies. Oh. Before that. Let me introduce myself first.”
The green female creature swept everyone with her gaze. “I am Lachapelle. You can address me as the Queen Mother.”
“As we thought.” Linley and the others grew still more cautious.
Linley and the others carefully inspected this ‘Lachapelle’. Lachapelle’s tendrils were a soft green color, like a gemstone. Just from appearance alone, they were far larger than the tendrils of the ‘child’ components as well.
“Lachapelle,” one of the Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lions said in its loud voice. “I trust you have encountered other outsiders here before as well, and won’t necessarily want to make trouble for us. I hope you can allow us into the tunnel, as otherwise… if we fight all out against you, I think you won’t have a good time of it either.”
The Queen Mother, Lachapelle, stared at the three Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lions. “Oh, threatening me. How intriguing. Then let me see if you have that level of ability!” While she was still speaking, suddenly…
“Swish!”
The Queen Mother, Lachapelle, suddenly charged into the sky, shortening the distance between her and Linley.
“Retreat.” Linley and the others immediately retreated back at high speed, not hesitating at all.
But the countless rattans and tendrils of the Queen Mother, Lachapelle, shot out like sharp arrows at the same time. As Linley was retreating, he hadn’t paid attention to his back, but he suddenly realized… that the thousands of tendrils and rattans which Queen Mother Lachapelle had shot out weren’t attacking in a wild, unorganized way.
These rattans were actually attacking in accordance with some sort of strange profoundness.
“Spatial freezing?” Linley discovered, to his astonishment, that it was as though space had suddenly frozen. But of course, it hadn’t truly frozen; only, Linley and the others felt as though they had fallen into a pit of mud, and even flying became extremely arduous.
“Swish!”
Suddenly, the countless tendrils instantly surrounded Rutherford and Karossa. Rutherford and Karossa were a bit slower in terms of flying speed compared to the others, and thus were directly surrounded by the countless vines.
The countless vines and rattans immediately began to contract…
“Squelch.”
Countless amounts of blood leaked out from the cracks between the constricting rattans and vines, and then they were quickly absorbed into the rattans and vines.
“Rutherford and Karossa are dead.” The faces of the fleeing Linley and the other fleeing experts changed dramatically. Even someone as powerful as Rutherford, one of the Five Prime Saints, had instantly been killed after being surrounded, without even being able to resist.
The countless constricting vines and rattans once more began to dance, but not even the bones of Rutherford and Karossa remained.
“Mmm. So tasty.” The dark green eyes of the Queen Mother, Lachapelle, still stared at the distant, hurriedly fleeing Linley and the others.
22
Regrowth
The Queen Mother, Lachapelle, had the face of an angel, but her actions were that of a devil’s.
“Children, keep a tight watch on this exit. As long as a single one of you remains alive, you cannot permit them to enter.” The voice of the Queen Mother, Lachapelle, shook the heavens, and instantly, a large number of noises could be heard in the ground below the sand.
Countless tendrils and vines erupted forth from beneath the sand, and the black pyramid structure was covered by three layers on the inside and three layers on the outside by the tendrils.
Lachapelle’s lips curved upwards slightly, and then with a “swish”, the air around her suddenly began to tremble.
The Queen Mother, Lachapelle, transformed into a streak of green light, chasing after Linley’s group at high speed. It had to be said that Lachapelle’s speed was simply too fast. In but a short while, Linley’s group discovered that Lachapelle was behind them in hot pursuit.
“Quick, quick.” Each person in Linley’s group were exerting themselves to fly at their utmost speeds.
“Rutherford and Karossa, two powerful experts, were killed and devoured in the blink of an eye. The power of this Queen Mother is simply terrifying.” Linley felt his heart clench as well. Before, when Bebe had captured that ‘child’ component plant, although it had also been able to surround everyone, not a single person had died.
In particular, the likes of Linley and Fain hadn’t even been injured.
The difference between the ‘child’ and the ‘mother’ was simply too great.
“Boss, be careful,” Bebe’s voice suddenly rang out in Linley’s consciousness, and Linley immediately looked backwards. He saw a green, semi-translucent tendril the thickness of an arm shoot towards him through space at high speed like a sharp arrow.
Linley’s speed was only considered below average amongst the eleven remaining experts.
“Break!” Linley delivered a backhanded chop with Bloodviolet, and Bloodviolet carried with it its devilish violet flashes of light, causing space to suddenly distort as it chopped down against the semi-translucent tendrils.
Profound Truths of the Wind – Tempos of the Wind, level two!
Linley had a feeling… much like how, when he was young, he had tried to use a hatchet to chop down a tree.
“Bang.” Bloodviolet sank into the tendril, but Linley’s full-strength blow had only been able to cut 80% of the way through this arm-thick tendril. At the same time, Linley suddenly sensed a tightness around his waist. That tendril had already wrapped itself around Linley.
“It didn’t break?” Linley was amazed.
Linley knew exactly how powerful this full force sword attack of his was. But a single tendril of this Queen Mother, Lachapelle, had reached such a terrifying level. Linley didn’t think anything else, and immediately th
e Bloodviolet flexible sword in his hand began to tremble.
Profound Truths of the Wind – Rippling Wind!
In almost an instant, the Bloodviolet sword that had already sank into the tendril trembled more than ten thousand times, sawing straight through the remaining 20% of the tendril.
But as Linley was chopping off this first tendril, his speed was impacted, and instantly, hundreds of tendrils swept towards Linley, seeking to surround him. Linley’s face instantly turned absolutely pale. “A single tendril was already so hard to break, but hundreds…”
Those hundreds of tendrils surrounded around Linley in the blink of an eye, and those people who were fleeing ahead of them felt their hearts tremble.
This had happened once already, not too long ago. Rutherford and Karossa had been surrounded by these tendrils, and the result was… not even their bones were left. Linley was the expert with the most powerful attack in this group. If even Linley were to die, what could the rest of them do?
“Boss!” Bebe called out in terror, and at the same time, ignoring the danger, he immediately turned and charged back towards Linley.
“Swish.” Bebe transformed into a black ray of light as he flew at high speed.
In the same instant those hundreds of tendrils surrounded him, in Linley’s other hand suddenly appeared the adamantine heavy sword. Linley now had the adamantine heavy sword in his right hand and Bloodviolet in his left. The adamantine heavy sword floated down with seeming grace, but in truth, it had shot out as fast as lightning.
Profound Truths of the Earth – Throbbing Pulse of the World, 64 Layered Waves!
The time had come for him to go all out.
“Break for me!!!” Linley’s face was extremely ferocious.
Linley was entirely surrounded by tendrils, and in the space in front of him alone, there were dozens of tendrils blocking him from going forward, trapping him within their net.
The dozens of tendrils struck by the adamantine heavy sword all shuddered, but the soft, pliable, yet tough tendrils were extremely resilient against vibrational forces. Despite Linley attacking at full strength with his Throbbing Pulse of the World – 64 Layered Waves, only ten or so tendrils in the path of the adamantine heavy sword transformed into splinters, while the other ten tendrils remained.
Gods of Yulan: Book 4 of the Coiling Dragon Saga Page 17
