Chapter 1674: The Amazing Qiwa

The colorful moths were known as Pentachromatic Moths or Color Moths. A Disaster-class Stranger, they were deadly venomous as Qiwa said they were. Anyone bitten by the Color Moths would suffer pain bad enough to kill someone.

Thankfully, it was very easy to deal with the Color Moths. One simply needed to stay still. The Color Moths only bit moving creatures, so staying still was enough to avoid an attack.

Of course, there was also the obvious method: killing them. A Color Moth’s wings were very fragile, and they were afraid of fire.

One Color Moth was easy to take out, but a group? That was a different story.

Besides, there were tens of thousands of Color Moths in their vicinity right now. It would cost them a lot of time and energy to kill them all. It wasn’t worth the trouble.

Besides, they were here to look for the evil suppressing spiritual treasure, not to slay Strangers. If possible, they didn’t want to take any aggressive action at all.

So, they listened to Qiwa’s advice and stayed still. As expected, the Color Moths didn’t attack them and flew past them harmlessly. Some even took a break on their heads and shoulders as if they were rocks.

The group resumed their journey after the swarm of Color Moths had taken their leave. At the same time, they paid close attention to the walls just in case they happened to find a clue regarding the evil suppressing spiritual treasure.

Bei Yuan was immeasurably vast and deep. Therefore, the only place King Taishan might hide the evil suppressing spiritual treasure was the walls.

Unfortunately, they hadn’t found anything yet.

“Are you sensing anything, Joyless?” Feng Qingyou asked.

“No, not yet.” Ye Qing shook his head.

Feng Qingyou was referring to King Taishan’s senses. King Taishan once said that only he could sense the precise location of the evil suppressing spiritual treasures. Although they had taken out the original, a wisp of King Taishan’s consciousness was contained within the Earthly Sovereign Bell. The wisp of consciousness counted as an independent entity and so did not disappear along with the original.

Ye Qing had already subverted the wisp of consciousness and turned him into his faithful subject. Alas, it hadn’t detected anything yet.

Either King Taishan had lied to them, or the evil suppressing spiritual treasure was located in the deeper depths of Bei Yuan.

Ye Qing personally believed that it was the latter.

After all, the clues they had gathered so far all pointed toward the evil suppressing spiritual treasures being real. They were not a pure fantasy King Taishan came up with to buy his survival.

Feng Qingyou remarked, “It should be lower then.”

It was at this moment Qiwa suddenly shushed them nervously, “Shh... quiet. The Batskate[1] is here. Do not make even the slightest noise.”

They did as it said, and a few breaths later, a massive creature entered their field of view.

The Stranger was as big as a mountain. It had a large mouth and a flat body. It looked like it had a pair of wings and a tail that was as thin and long as a whip. Shape wise, it looked a little like a devil ray, but its body wasn’t sleek and glossy like one. Instead, it was covered in palm-sized, azure-colored scales that emitted gentle haloes of light. They looked gorgeous.

But of course, hidden underneath the Batskate’s gorgeous exterior was the core of a predator. Its mouth was wide open, so they could see that it was filled with squirming tentacles and guillotine-like teeth. Every Stranger or creature in its path was swallowed by its mouth and chewed into bits.

It was at this moment the swarm of Color Moths they encountered before came back. When they saw the Batskate though, they immediately panicked and flew in the opposite direction with all their might. It looked as if they had encountered their natural enemy.

However, their wings buzzed audibly when flapping at high speed. As a result, the Batskate heard them loud and clear. Before this, the Batskate was obviously relaxing and just cruising through its habitat at a leisurely pace. Now, it abruptly sped up and bared its fangs at the swarm of Color Moths.

Covered in blue light, it looked as if the Batskate was flying through time and space itself. Once it reached the back of the swarm, it opened its mouth wide and swallowed at least hundreds of Color Moths in one go.

The Color Moths could not hurt the Batskate in the slightest. They could only be hunted and devoured in helplessness.

In just the blink of an eye, the swarm of tens of thousands were mostly devoured. Only dozens of lucky Color Moths were able to escape.

The Batskate relaxed after it was done feeding. It looked extremely satisfied and pleased with its meal and glided slowly across the space.

It was at this moment Qiwa beckoned for Ye Qing and Feng Qingyou to follow it. Slowly, they moved in the opposite direction of the Batskate. Forget making noise, they didn’t even dare to breathe out for fear that the noise would catch the Batskate’s attention.

It wasn’t until the Batskate was completely out of view that Qiwa let out a sigh of pure relief.

Clearly, Qiwa was terrified of the Batskate.

It made sense. Not only was the Batskate a bonafide Ancient-class Stranger, it was even scarier than Qiwa, a Water Demon Ape.

The Batskate possessed poor eyesight, but its acute hearing more than made up for its disability. It relied on its hearing to feed. Not only did it possess extraordinarily tough scales that protected it from most harm, it also had the ability to travel across space so fast it almost looked like teleportation. That was how it was able to catch up to the Color Moths as quickly as it did.

In short, the Batskate was a powerful Stranger that could both take a lot of punishment and travel at high speed. Who wouldn’t fear an opponent like that?

𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Ye Qing was one of the rare few people who did not fear the Batskate, but even he did not want to fight the Batskate. After all, it was extraordinarily tough and speedy. It would take a stupid amount of effort to kill it, and if it managed to escape and live another day, it would almost certainly stalk them and give them a hell of a time. It just wasn’t worth the trouble.

The group would encounter more Strangers and dangers after this, but they were able to weather it all unharmed and unhindered thanks to Qiwa.

For example, there was the anomalous Reverse Wind. The Reverse Wind was harmless, but it caused them to move in the opposite direction if they tried to move against the wind. Not even a Sage was immune to this effect.

If Ye Qing and Feng Qingyou tried to move against the Reverse Wind, then forget making progress, they would lose the progress they had made so far.

However, Qiwa taught them an easy method to subvert its effects: walk backward. It both allowed them to break its effects and move even faster than before as if the wind was supporting them. It was quite magical.

For example, there was a strange fog that spanned several kilometers in radius. The fog could not be dispelled, and one would lose their sense of direction as soon as they were stepped into the fog. They would find themselves unable to leave no matter what they tried.

Without Qiwa, this would have been a troublesome obstacle even for Ye Qing and Feng Qingyou. But thanks to Qiwa’s experience, overcoming the obstacle was a simple matter of closing their eyes and walking forward without thinking. That was all they needed to do to walk out of the fog.

For example, they encountered a spider Qiwa called the Void Demon Spider. It had created a web spanning dozens of kilometers in radius in Bei Yuan, and it was invisible to the naked eye and spiritual senses. They never noticed it until they stumbled head first into the web and became caught.

The spider web created by the Void Demon Spider was substanceless even though it looked like it had a form. It was untouchable and immune to physical force. Neither the elements nor weapons worked against it either. Only spiritual energy was effective against it.

However, even Ye Qing and Feng Qingyou’s prodigious spiritual power found it difficult to cut through the threads. If they tried to sever the threads via brute force, it would have taken them an exceptionally long time to break free.

If just the spider web was giving them so much trouble, then the Void Demon Spider could only do so much worse. It was a bonafide Ancient-class Stranger that was even stronger than the Batskate.

1. Bat + skate. Bat is a bat, and Skate is a fish. ☜