Chapter 0569: Killed

When the red eyeball popped out of the candied stick, Li Luo knew that he had guessed right.

The bewitching Other's true body was not at all the old hag, but the sugar hawthorns that the body was holding.

Weng!

Li Luo chopped down viciously on the sinister, red eyeball.

This time, there was venom on the old hag's face, mixed with a tinge of worry in the lines of blood that traced the eyeball. They flew up off the pulpy surface, forming a bloody hand that clawed at the incoming sword.

Pssh!

The two clashed, but the palm was persistently resilient. Black, snake-like wisps of power emerged from the point of contact as it resisted the sword attack.

He had actually failed to sever it with one strike!

Evidently, the bewitching Other had sensed the danger and was no longer allowing Li Luo to act with impunity.

"I thought you weren't afraid of anything," Li Luo taunted. His fingers flexed once more around the hilt.

"Level One Divine Elephant Power!"

The veins in his arms bulged with power.

"Thunderpeal Avatar!"

It was not yet over. Li Luo activated his Thunderpeal Avatar, unleashing a powerful hum as the electrical power washed over his muscles, tendons, and bones, strengthening them.

"Level Two Divine Elephant Power!"

Li Luo grunted. His skin was stretched tight over his bulging muscles now, and the brutal, raw power of a rampaging elephant filled him.

"And... break!" Li Luo moved all the energy to the sword, unleashing all of it in his next attack.

Crack!

A crisp snapping sound pushed the sword blade onwards, snapping through the black wisps of energy like a hot knife through butter.

A clean and powerful slice, ringing out like a ripple through the air.

The sword moved gracefully through its arc to completion, sending black tendrils of power flying through the air where they dissipated into nothingness.

Pssh!

A harsh, screeching sound grated his ears, and Li Luo winced.

The sound came not from the old hag's mouth, but rather from the candied stick.

As the black tendrils faded away, the candy began to lose its shape, revealing a truer form in its wake.

A pulsating mass of sickening flesh, red, slimy, and glistening. Vague impressions of limbs extended from it, and a crimson eyeball spun furiously in center mass. Pssh!

The old granny with the candy stick melted away into a pool of blackness when the true form of the eyeball was revealed.

This had to be the real true form of the bewitching Other.

From its appearance, Li Luo could immediately tell that the bewitching Other was not particularly strong per se. Once its true form was revealed, it was only a Red Eroder in strength.

Thus exposed, the bewitching Other could do little to harm Li Luo. Throwing him more venomous looks, it hopped off the railing that it had been perched on, then it morphed into a beam of crimson light and shot off across the street.

"Running away?" Li Luo chuckled. Pulling out the Lambent Hawkeye from his back, he notched an arrow in a flash and nailed the quivering lump to the floor with it.

Eeee!

The bewitching Other squealed and struggled to escape.

Li Luo continued to notch arrows and let fly, turning the bewitching Other into a porcupine of light arrows. Finally, the bewitching Other could take no more, exploding into a vile-smelling pile of goo.

When it exploded, the corrupted victims froze immediately mid-action, as if they had suddenly been turned into statues.

Zhu Xuan had frozen up as well.

Lu Ming and Sun Dasheng heaved sighs of relief, looking over at Li Luo.

"How did you know the true form wasn't the old granny, but the sweets instead?" Lu Ming asked curiously.

They had been paying some attention to Li Luo out of the corners of their eyes.

"It's only a Red Eroder, not even a Disaster Class. How could it have taken so many blows and still moved so easily? There was only one possible explanation: we were barking up the wrong candy cane," Li Luo said easily, slinging the Lambent Hawkeye back on his back.

"And the real body couldn't be that far away... and the next suspect on the list was the hawthorn."

Both Lu Ming and Sun Dasheng were duly impressed by Li Luo's analysis. It was simple enough when he explained it, but to be able to puzzle it during the heat of battle, execute the plan to target the weak spot of the bewitching Other, and then win an advantage for the overall battle... It was superb work.

"Candy cunt," Sun Dasheng swore. "It was not even a Disaster Class, but it sure caused us more trouble than some of the lower Earthly Disaster Classes."

Lu Ming nodded in agreement. Although the bewitching Other had been dealt with easily enough once its real body had been found, its unique powers had caused them disproportionate trouble. If not for Li Luo sniffing out its weakness early, they might have been in a dire situation indeed.

"Russet Rock City is full of perils," Lu Ming said empathically. The stronger Others had already been engaged by their stronger teammates, and still they were having trouble. Russet Rock City was truly no place for Resonant Master cultivators to be in.

“Blergh!”

While they were speaking with relief in their voices, the sound of someone relieving himself came from behind them. They turned around to see Zhu Xuan on his knees, retching uncontrollably. A vile-smelling black liquid was being expelled from his mouth.

Li Luo and the others took a few steps back, wrinkling their noses as they prepared their defenses against Zhu Xuan.

Zhu Xuan had puked so hard that his eyes had rolled back in his head. A while later, he looked up at them, face ashen.

"Zhu Xuan, have you recovered?" Li Luo called out calmly, Onyx-Elephant Blade in hand. "If you're not yet recovered, we could send you on your way. Y'know... save you from yourself and all that." Lu Ming and Sun Dasheng stared at Li Luo briefly. Clearly, Li Luo and Zhu Xuan were not great friends.

"I'm fine, damn it!" Zhu Xuan said hoarsely, his voice still weak.

Li Luo sighed regretfully.

A vein on Zhu Xuan's temple pulsed. “Li Luo, you swine, do you really want to see me corrupted so you have an excuse to cut me down?!”

"Bad Zhu Xuan, your performance was terrible. D'you know that the candy you ate corrupted you? Do you know how much trouble you caused us?" Li Luo reprimanded him strictly like a parent talking to a child who had stolen candy.

"Oh, and that candy you ate? D'you know that it was actually a dried eyeball? Infused with black water... probably corpse-flavored, fermented and aged with notes of decomposed fluids. How was the taste? A little bitter?"

Zhu Xuan's face turned from green to white, and his head dipped back down to puke some more.

Lu Ming was speechless. Li Luo's impudence knew no bounds.

Sun Dasheng looked pityingly at Zhu Xuan. This incident would probably leave a deep scar on the guy's psyche.

Li Luo grinned shamelessly. Zhu Xuan had always tried to cause trouble for him in school. Given a chance to pay him back, he wasn't going to say no. Still, he kept it within limits, not eager to see Zhu Xuan corrupted again. He turned away from them. "Come on, let's go. We're almost at the place to leave the first drop of cleansing dew."

He sprinted off.

Lu Ming and Sun Dasheng followed closely, while Zhu Xuan staggered a little unsteadily after his three juniors.

The four proceeded through the streets unhindered and reached the designated area a few minutes later.

Li Luo flipped up to the roof nimbly, checking their surroundings. He could see energy disturbances on a gigantic scale some ways away, as if storms were brewing all around them. He knew that they indicated fights way beyond his level.

Li Luo did not hesitate, immediately extracting a drop of cleansing dew and reactivating the ward in that area. A cleansing barrier began to expand across the area, spreading out from their location.

𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

As it began to spread, Li Luo and the others noticed changes happening.

The lively crowd on the street faded away into nothingness.

The pristine buildings and well-paved streets fell away, showing ruins and battered cobblestone.

This was the reality of Russet Rock City.