Chapter 153: Sun Splitting

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“Can it be done?”

Fan Bingbing hums as she considers his question.

“It is one thing to differentiate between the traps that are still working and those that are not, but to modify them… It is not impossible, but it will be dangerous.”

Not impossible. They are such sweet words under the circumstances.

“I submit myself to the guidance of the Exploration Division.”

~~~

Qing Jin.

The name echoes in Qu Rou’s head like the tolling of a bell. During the banquet, Qu Rou had dismissed the pill-making contest as a simple spectacle to disguise the machinations of the Elders. The two disciples brought before everyone were not worth paying attention to. That had been his thinking back then. Had he known that Qing Jin’s deeds were no fabrication, Qu Rou would have imprinted Qing Jin’s Qi into his memory.

Alas, there is no time to lament what could have been. Especially not when the opportunity to fix his mistake lies before him.

The pebbles on the floor quake as Qu Rou bursts into the temple. His shoulders heave with every breath he takes but not due to any fatigue.

They heave with rage.

It takes him a fraction of a second to examine his surroundings. He feels the myriad creatures crawling inside the temple, and his aura rises to scare them off. The power of a cultivator in the Fourth Level of the Earth Realm blankets all before Qu Rou pushes on with unimaginable speed. His are not the silent steps of a thief but the brazen charge of a wild ox rampaging through a busy street. That the floor does not crack under his strength is a testament to the quality of the materials used to build the temple.

As Qu Rou nears the first intersection, he sees the corpses of several Spirit Beasts lying on the right corridor. That indicates the disciples fought their way through there.

However, Qi does not lie.

When Qing Jin’s soul fragment left the temple to speak to him, it left a trail behind it, and that trail has not yet faded away. For some, the temple may be a labyrinth of multiple levels, but Qu Rou can see his path clearly. He steps confidently onto the left corridor.

And activates the first trap.

A vicious torrent is unleashed from the far end of the corridor, flooding everything and leaving no room to dodge. Were it not for the pungent smell that accompanies it, Qu Rou would have dismissed the clear liquid as mere water. As he runs towards it, his Qi reaches out to the liquid and examines it. There is no intent within it, certainly nothing that can harm his soul.

Perhaps some acidic concoction?

He spits.

Inelegant, perhaps. Qu Rou will omit this part of the story from his recollection if anyone asks. Regardless, it does the job. The spit reaches the liquid before the liquid reaches him. It allows Qu Rou to appreciate how the fluid reacts to the intrusion, gauge its lethality, then dismiss it as relatively harmless.

Qu Rou breaks right through.

The acid stings his robes and irritates his skin. However, that level of damage is easily repaired. Indeed, Qu Rou does so before he has reached the end of the hall. Though he may not be able to reconstruct his entire body from nothing like Heaven Realm cultivators can, as an Earth Realm cultivator, Qu Rou’s regenerative abilities are still far above most. It is his soul that dictates the shape of his body. And so, all physical damage can be fixed without effort. Only the smell is left.

He could have easily avoided it all had he just retreated temporarily, but that is not an option. If Qu Rou waits too long, the trail left behind by Qing Jin’s soul fragment will fade away. It is bad enough it has already been hours since Qing Jin’s soul fragment first left the temple. The sheer number of Spirit Beasts dwelling in the place and high-amount of ambient Qi muddy everything up.

Without the trail left by Qing Jin’s soul fragment, there is a decent chance the disciples could end up escaping before Qu Rou finds them. It is one of the reasons why Qu Rou chose to wait outside until now.

He cannot waste any time.

With lightning-fast movements, Qu Rou clears the first floor in under three seconds and enters the temple’s lower levels with the same tempestuousness. He senses the many Spirit Beasts moving about.

Soon, he hears them as well.

Qu Rou can barely see them in the darkness beneath the temple, but he can feel as countless enormous spiders come crawling from around the corner. For the first time, Qu Rou stops running and draws his bow. He takes one of the feathers in his hair, and a jolt of Qi morphs it into a large arrow, which he aims at the creatures.

He lets it loose.

The spiders die.

The giant arrow rips through the corridor. It doesn’t even need to hit Qu Rou’s foes. The force behind it is such that the spider’s bodies are torn to shreds in its wake. Cracks appear on the wall as it hits it, and the impact reverberates all around. Still, the cracks are not deep enough for the arrow to be left embedded in the wall. Instead, it merely clatters to the ground.

[Shooting Star Step]

Qu Rou blurs towards the end of the hallway with his clan’s secret movement technique. More spiders await him around the corner. There are so many they crawl over each other’s bodies to advance.

Another arrow clears them out.

[Shooting Star Step]

Fire. Advance. Fire. Advance. Qu Rou falls into a simple pattern as he makes his way through the temple. The spiders are no match for his arrows. He does not even need to aim. A single shot is enough to clear the way every time. The only problem is the sheer number of creatures that block his way. It is not just spiders. There are all sorts of Spirit Beasts trying to attack him. Creatures of fire and flesh, of smoke and earth.

How can there be this many? It is as if all the Spirit Beasts in the temple are gathering in his path, but that makes no sense. Most Spirit Beasts should know better than to approach a foe beyond them. That is why he flared his aura as soon as he entered the temple!

A trap opens up above him.

A hail of spears come down the ceiling. Qu Rou grits his teeth. The corridor is too narrow, and the spears are coming down too fast for him to draw his bow in time.

He swings it instead.

Qu Rou’s bow is supple yet incredibly strong. It is not made to be swung around like a mace, but that does not mean he can’t. Though it makes him scream with indignation on the inside, there is no other choice. A swing of his bow knocks three spears out of the way. The fourth spear he needs to grab. The fifth, he kicks. For the sixth, he moves his head out of the way, but it graces his cheek, drawing a line across it.

Before blood has a chance to seep from the wound, his regeneration has already taken care of it.

Another [Shooting Star Step] takes Qu Rou to the end of the corridor, and for the first time, Qu Rou takes a moment to gather himself. He has been using his clan’s movement technique to briskly clear the corridors, but being in the Earth Realm makes repeated use of it a chore. It is preferable to merely running, but the curse of the Earth, gravity, tries to hold him regardless of how he chooses to move.

Qu Rou does not stop for long. Not even for two seconds. No matter what, he cannot falter! Else, the trail will vanish before he reaches Qing Jin.

Blades. Acid. Noxious Gasses. Even though most of the traps in the temple should have already been triggered by those who came long before him, Qu Rou keeps running into them. They force him to slow down, to be more mindful of his steps in the darkness. No longer can he just dash in without worry. He has to do things like grab the corpse of one of the spiders and throw it ahead of himself to see what it will trigger.

Still, he clears the first few underground levels with no wounds on his body.

It is not that nothing managed to hurt him. Rather, his regeneration can heal every minor injury with ease. Qi burns around him, constantly keeping his body in perfect shape. He has his bow on his right hand and an arrow on his left.

A roar comes from behind Qu Rou.

He turns around in time to see a Spirit Beast emerge from his shadow. A Shadow-Dwelling Devourer, a rare type of Spirit Beast with the innate ability to move through shadows. It is big and hairy, with powerful muscles and menacing claws.

True Realm, Ninth Level.

Far stronger than anything Qu Rou has faced in this temple so far, yet it is still only in the True Realm. The creature’s instincts should be telling him it is no match for him. Indeed, despite their fearsome name, Shadow-Dwelling Devourers are cowardly by nature. This creature should be doing its best to avoid him instead of trying to attack him. The spiders should also have avoided him due to the difference in strength.

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Why do they attack him so fiercely?

Those thoughts flash through Qu Rou’s mind as he raises his bow to shoot at the beast.

Qu Rou flinches.

Something tickles at his back and leaves him startled. A blade, he realizes belatedly. Not seeing it in time would have been a death sentence for most people. For Qu Rou, the feeling is little different from a drop of rain falling on the back of his neck. It is not pain but surprise that makes him flinch.

The Shadow-Dwelling Devourer’s claws close in on his face.

Qu Rou’s pride as an archer screams as he’s forced to block the beast’s claws with his arrow, holding it like a sword. He grits his teeth and pushes the beast back with a burst of strength, slamming him against the temple walls. The creature tries to sink back into the shadows, but Qu Rou’s Qi holds it in place. His soul clashes against the Spirit Beast and grinds it down.

His arrow goes right through the beast’s head.

All while the mysterious blades keep striking his back.

Qu Rou turns around, furious. An arrow clears the hallway, but there is no sign of the one who attacked him.

And yet, more and more blades keep coming towards him.

They are not steel or flame but sound. As a single arrow from Qu Rou overpowers them all once more, he realizes what is happening. Unlike his arrows, these sound blades freely echo across the corridors of the temple. He has heard of something like this before. One of the Eternal Flame Clan’s allied Sects dedicates itself to sound and music. This must be one of their techniques.

As he ventures deeper into the dark temple, Qu Rou’s steps are accompanied by a never-ending melody. It is quick and fast-paced, just like the attacks that come along with it. Countless blades of sound try to wound his body, but they are to him as summer rain.

And yet, he cannot do anything to stop it. The one attacking is beyond the reach of his bow. He could even be on a different floor!

The blades, the Spirit Beasts, the traps.

They are all nothing more than annoyances!

Qu Rou grits his teeth as more spiders get in his way. Always more! Useless vermin too idiotic to know better than to challenge him!

The floor opens up under him.

For some reason, Qu Rou cannot step out of the way in time. The rigors of the Earth Realm do not allow him to boost himself out of the pit using [Shooting Star Step]. All Qu Rou can do is slow down his descent to the bottom. He senses the many spiders awaiting him down there. However, they are little more than an afterthought. As soon as he touches the floor, he’s right in front of it. He does not need eyes to see, but he lifts his head up, all the same, to look up at the monstrosity before him.

Earth Realm, Level Six.

The Mother Spider screeches.

Qu Rou has his bow up in an instant. Before he can fire, the Mother Spider spits acid at him. Qu Rou blurs to the side with [Shooting Star Step] and fires. His arrow strikes the Mother Spider’s legs.

However, it fails to pierce the Spirit Beasts’ body.