The Geared Immortal

Chapter 78

The blowing wind brings a chill, but none ever this cold and ghostly. The feeling of emptiness and despair runs into each and every cultivator who had survived, like millions of tiny needles. The ruined ground and dust carried by the wind exudes a deathly aura which pervades the surroundings, where corpses of many cultivators with their parts strewn everywhere litter the ground.

In the middle of this stood a huge figure covered in a black fog. Under that slowly dispersing black mist is a figure with an appearance of a giant humanoid beast with a head of a tiger, a man's torso, and a lion's hind legs with a long tail of a dragon. The whole body of the beast is covered with long furs that make it looks like a golden tiger with its black stripes. The domineering presence of the beast makes every cultivator in the area shake in fear and trepidation.

High up in the air three figures are watching the situation down below with a frown on their faces. The reports they receive from the scouting teams says that the leading creature is a level 6 beast. But as they see it this beast is not just a normal level six beast, it is almost on par with a level 7 beast and a beast king for that matter.

"Sigh… I guess we need to go all out. I Zhao Long am honored to fight with you fellow Dao brothers." One of the men says as he takes out a long metal pole which is his magical weapon.

"It's been a while that I can do this. I Shanguan Lao am willing to fight along with you seniors." The red-robed Shanguan Lao said as he takes out two circular rings and held it on both of his hands.

"Haha! Senior Shanguan is too kind. All of us here have the same cultivation realm. I Taili Xi am honored to also fight with you." A man with a long beard said as he also took out a long halberd with 3 rings at the back of the blade.

The three World nascent cultivators prepare to fight against the huge beast standing on the ground littered with corpses of cultivators it killed. The black aura has already dissipated which now clearly shows the menacing figure of a huge beast.

"Haha! Three puny humans wanted to challenge me? You are seeking your own deaths. I'll enjoy devouring your bodies and souls. Kekeke…"

Then without another word the beast puts some pressure on its legs as its muscles bulges, and then with its full strength rushed towards the three floating men in the air. While rushing it open its hands and from its fingers sharp steel-like claws suddenly appear.

The three cultivators immediately move to all direction just to evade the rushing beast. When the beast stops were the three cultivators are floating before, it quickly chooses a target and relentlessly chases after him. The one it chooses is the man with a long metal pole as his weapons.

As the beast chase after Zhao Long who is holding a long metal pole, Shanguan Lao and Taili Xi followed behind. Although the beast might be strong, the three World nascent cultivators are confident with their abilities to be able to fight against it.

While fleeing Zhao Long had a smile on his face as he secretly took out a jade tablet. Then after channeling his Qi in it, he let it go. As they were flying the beast noticed that something fell out of Zhao Long's body. This caught the beast attention, but then a sudden bad premonition came over it as of by instinct and immediately change direction. But before it could maneuver, a sudden bright flash of light blinded its sight.

"Arrgghhh!"

BANG!

The beast roared as when it closes its eyes it suddenly felt a stinging pain from its torso. Making it tumble to the ground with a strong force falling like a meteor, then with a bang created a big crater.

The one who hit it in a sneak attack is Taili Xi, using a thrusting motion with his halberd. As Taili Xi and Zhao Long have been working together as a tandem for years, their battle prowess has been enhanced and the coordination between them has already been perfected. Both can know what each other is thinking without even communicating.

That simple thrust coming from Taili Xi contains around 50% of his spiritual Qi, that's why the impact was too great.

The halberd of Taili Xi is still brimming with power as electric sparks can still be seen dancing on its blade. This is a skill he mastered after his long years of training and combining the Dao of lightning with his halberd technique. The power this skill produces the whole depends on the amount of spiritual Qi one uses. With 50% Taili Xi is able to combine forces with lightning, if he uses 90% then he can destroy a wide range area of two mountains. But of course this would cause him to lose his strength, so if it's not yet life and death he would not opt-out to do this.

Seeing that the beast seems to be not moving, the three immediately scanned the crater. Then, each of their complexions suddenly changed. Because in the middle of the crater lays a single scale of a beast, and that scale is already charred to black.

"Haha! I almost fell for that! Cunning humans, you thought that I am stupid enough to fall for your tricks. Your power is still too low to fight against me." The beast Fen Hu said while he floats not too far away behind the three.

Fen Hu once again move and rushed to strike another cultivator, this time it was Shanguan Lao. Instead of retreating Shanguan Lao controlled the two rings in his hand which then grew bigger, and they began to rotate rapidly creating a buzzing sound. Then from two rings, they began to multiply into four, then eight, and then sixteen… until the sky seems to be covered with rotating rings.

"Now beast, let me show you my thousand rain of ring blades skill." Shanguan Lao said with a smirk on his face.

Upon seeing this Fen Hu's brows knitted and a thick Qi suddenly envelops its body, the dark mist also covered his figure. But Fen Hu didn't stop rushing forward towards Shanguan Lao who is just standing on air while the whole sky around him is covered in rotating rings.

Next, with a lift of his finger, the rings began their onslaught of attacks.

Skwik! Twing! Twing!

Sounds of metal hitting metal can be heard as the dark mist covered figure Fen Hu is being bombarded by ring blades all over. It seems like the blade rings are like endless rain falling from the sky. This, in turn, halted the beast's advance and in fact was able to push it back.

"Haha! Brother Shanguan Lao's skill is truly terrifying. And your Dao of wind is already at this level, I'm truly awed." Taili Xi praised as they watch the onslaught of attacks.

"I agree… Brother Shanguan Lao has good skill." Zhao Long also praised.

Shanguan Lao felt a little elated at the praises of the two World Nascent cultivators, this is one of his strongest skills. Many of his enemies have already fallen through this skill. When he uses this technique he has many choices, it's either he can kill the opponent, trap, immobilize, or even capture. But right now judging from the level of the beast they are facing his only option is to kill it.

Although the beast seems to look like it was already defeated, they still didn't put down their guard. As seasoned cultivators and with their long years of experience in fighting and bloodshed, they are always expecting the unexpected.

And true to their own judgment, the beast suddenly moved like a specter while the rings would just pass through its ghost-like figure. Seeing this Shanguan Lao face turn solemn, he didn't expect that the beast has this kind of movement skill.

"Kekeke… Is that it? Is that all you've got? Too weak." The beast teased as its sneering figure appears with the dissipation of the dark mist.

This made the three cultivators face turned ugly, as anger now can be seen on their faces. They now realized that if they don't give their all in this fight, it is clear that they will be at the disadvantage. Now using their various spells and elemental controls the three World Nascent cultivators are going to take thing seriously. When their auras were release, the cultivators watching the scene above immediately ran as far as they could. Luckily for them, they were able to escape.

As the whole wall that they painstakingly erected began to crumble because the natural laws in the area started to become unstable. As World Nascent Cultivators, each of the three has vast knowledge and control on the laws of the world. Although they cannot fully utilize it yet their understanding is enough for them to be able to command the elements at will.

Now fire, wind, water, and the land began to gather together forming a large vortex covering the beast and the three cultivators.

This devastation can be felt from a long-distance away. Even the beast and the cultivators that are still fighting in the forest stopped after they felt the strong disturbance in the spiritual Qi in the large area. The beast tide suddenly halted in their advance as each creature suddenly shivered in fear. Even the cultivators felt the pressure of the surroundings making them also stop their movements.

Every single creature both man and beast was frozen stiff on the battlefield unable to move. Although Shin Jiao and his team weren't affected by the event because of the protection of their headgears, they still stopped as all of them turn their gazes towards the horizon.

From where they stood, they can see a huge growing vortex which spirals upwards wreaking havoc to both the trees and the terrain. The vortex seems to be coming from the behind the longwall the cultivators formed.

This made Shin Jiao a little scared, he now knows clearly how powerful the enemy is. If he will step up and fight against it, he is not sure if he can survive as all he has is a very strong body and his gears. So he decided to fall back and go to the final line of defense.

"I have a bad feeling about this. Order the retreat! We have to go back to the final line of defense." Shin Jiao immediately said to the coms while he takes a shot at two beasts who just stood there stunned and hitting their heads which killed them.

As their team retreated they sneaked attack every beast king they can see on their way. With this, once all the beasts will regain from their stupor, they would find themselves with a lesser number of controllers as Shin Jiao and his team was able to take down even more beast kings.

Unknown to Shin Jiao, what he and his team did while retreating has already greatly changed the result of the battle.

Meanwhile, in the center of the huge vortex…

The fight between the three World Nascent cultivators and the humanoid tiger-like beast ensues. Clashing sounds and flashes of light can be seen every now and then as the speed of both parties is too fast. But after a long while, the three World Nascent cultivators are already drenched in sweat, and one of them is even wounded.

Taili Xi has received a long gash of a wound on his back when he was careless and because of impatience. When he attacked Fen Hu, he didn't expect that his halberd would just pass through its ghost-like figure and expose his back. Although he tried to block it with his Qi field, however, the claws of Fen Hu suddenly became brighter and Taili Xi discovered that Fen Hu's spiritual Qi is far stronger than his. With that attack, Taili Xi suffered a fatal wound on his back.

His robe is now drenching in blood and his body feels weak. He has already taken a healing pill, but it seems that the effect is very slow. So he knows that there is something wrong with the claws of the beast.

"Senior Taili Xi, it seems that your wound is not closing." Shanguan Lao noticed this too.

"That's right? How come, you already took a healing pill right?" Zhao Long also asked.

"Yes, but it seems that the damnable beast has some tricks." Taili Xi said with a grim face.

"Keke… Don't ever think that your healing pills can heal you now. Hihi… What? Is that all you can do? Glare at me? Do you humans want me to tell you my secret? Kekeke…" the beast Fen Hu said as its figure suddenly materialized at a distance from the three who is looking at it with murderous eyes.

Then, Taili Xi remembers the pill bottle that Qin Lou gave him. She specifically told him that the pill is made by her for high-level cultivators like him and that the effect is like the Rapid Hemostatic Pill that the low-level cultivators use. Upon remembering this, a sign of hope appears on Taili Xi's eyes.

So without a choice, he took out the small pill bottle. Seeing the pill bottle, he suddenly recalled that at that time, he sneers at the girl's foolish gestures, because of his pride as a cultivator. As a strong cultivator, he is confident of his own regenerative ability and shuns the thought of the pill given by a low-level cultivator. But now he had no choice but to take it, so he immediately pops the pill into his mouth.

Upon seeing this, the beast Fen Hu sneered, but then all of a sudden his complexion changed. Because he saw with his spiritual sense that the long gash of a wound at the back of Taili Xi began to close rapidly. Then after a matter of 30 seconds, the wound is already gone. With this result, everyone was dumbfounded.

"That girl is truly a genius!" Taili Xi suddenly blurted out as he was too astonished at the result.

Upon hearing his words the two suddenly thought of a particular humble girl who is always wearing a veil, who is now well-known in the whole Empire.

Fen Hu became agitated at this, the beast was angry that its claws effect was easily cured by a mere pill. But unknown to it, the wound is actually not yet closed as the pill's effect is just faster than the effect of its claws.

"I've wasted enough time here. I need to destroy the town so that I can gather far more souls." Fen Hu thought as an idea enters its mind.

A smirk appears on its ugly face as it suddenly made a move. Then suddenly his figure blurred and three identical beasts appear. And judging from the look of the three beasts, each of them is at the peak of a level 5 beast king.

Then in unison, they spoke.

"Now I want you to feel the hopelessness of your cause! So, despair and accept your impending doom. Keke…"

Then the three identical beasts rush in to attack the cultivators they were paired off, with a glowing energy sphere from each of their huge mouths.

"Now let the fun begins!"