She looked toward another part of the sky, where the sun was rising, already showing a fish-belly white.
“Ahh…” she suddenly shouted toward the sky, her voice filled with endless unwillingness.
The group of ghost foetuses inside the house suddenly stopped their attack, then all changed back to their original forms, and retreated like a tidal wave.
The three martial brothers, covered in dirt and utterly dishevelled, were somewhat dumbfounded. They exchanged glances, not knowing what was happening, when suddenly the world spun and sent them crashing into the wall.
As they stumbled about, the three grabbed the stair railing, glanced out the window, and saw several massive tentacles working together to lift the house, raising it high into the air.
Higher and higher, lifted higher and higher.
The three instantly turned pale, all realising, was this going to be a high lift and a hard smash?
With this demon’s strength, if it smashed them onto the ground, would they not be like tofu in a cage? With their cultivation, how could they withstand it? They would be finished on the spot.
This was not about capturing them alive at all. This was trying to take their lives directly.
Yu Qing had to admit that the words he had used to comfort his two senior brothers just now had been too optimistic. He also did not quite understand what was going on. Had not Yun Xi said she would make them unable to live yet unable to die? If she killed them directly, would she not be letting them off too easily? Could she swallow that anger?
He thought about jumping out the window and running, but he was certain that would still be hard to escape death. With this demon’s strength, they were like ants. Once it made up its mind to finish them off quickly, even hiding in this iron shell would be hard to survive. Outside the iron shell, with no protection whatsoever, there was even less need to mention it.
His gaze swept across the room. In a flash, he made a decision, turned back and gave his two senior brothers three words. “Make dumplings!”
He himself first leaped to a large severed tentacle, swiftly sliced it open halfway with his sword, and with rapid sword strikes went swish swish swish inside the cut surface. In a few breaths, he was done.
The two senior brothers understood upon hearing this. Seeing his movements, they swiftly flashed over to do the same.
They all knew they were gambling with their lives now. Racing against time, fast, fast, fast.
Yu Qing, sheathing his long sword, hoisted the large tentacle onto his back, wedging himself into the cut surface of the tentacle. Kicking off the wall, he quickly curled up inside the tentacle. There was no time for any refinement. Back facing the main door, he shot straight out, or rather, flew out together with some severed limbs and debris being flung out of the room.
The instant he flew out hiding inside the large tentacle, through a gap he saw that when he flew out, it was precisely when the massive tentacle had lifted the iron house to its highest point. He watched the iron house pause briefly in mid-air, then the massive tentacle suddenly exerted force. Amidst a whistling sound, it violently smashed the iron house toward the ground.
The view through the gap flipped along with the tentacle. Yu Qing’s heart leapt into his throat. He did not know whether among the debris shaken out of the iron house there were Old Seven and Old Nine, nor whether the two could escape in time, especially Old Seven, so fat, could he make it?
Bang! Impact. The tentacle wrapping him crashed into Yun Xi’s massive body.
Repeated impacts, bouncing and falling among Yun Xi’s thousands of arms. Yu Qing held his breath and endured. Finally, with a bang, he crashed onto the ground.
The fallen tentacle rolled slightly and stopped. Yu Qing, who had been holding his breath, slowly exhaled, feeling as if his internal organs were all shaken into turmoil. Fortunately, he was wrapped in a meat shield outside, otherwise it would surely have been even more unbearable.
Falling from such a height like this was definitely not as good as leaping out and using hands and feet to borrow force and land safely, which was also safer. Falling hard from such a height was gambling with one’s life. But there was no other way. Yun Xi was not blind, and there were so many ghost foetuses watching. If someone ran out, how could they not see? To survive, one had to gamble with one’s life.
Fortunately, a mistake turned out fortunate. Yun Xi had too many tentacles. Falling down inevitably meant crashing into them. Landing after layer upon layer of impacts was instead better than falling directly from high altitude to the ground. Otherwise, it would probably not be merely feeling shaken.
Boom! A thunderous sound. The earth shook. Dust flew everywhere.
Yu Qing quickly widened the gap slightly. He saw the iron house had already crashed onto the ground with a thunderous sound. That momentum, he estimated that even an Earth-grade cultivator hiding inside the iron house would have trouble withstanding it.
And those massive tentacles still swaying overhead from time to time made one’s heart leap with fear, truly afraid they might press down to help loosen one’s bones.
At the same time, Nan Zhu, who had also tumbled and fallen among thousands of tentacles, crashed onto the ground. He was rather unfortunate. When he hit the ground, he directly bounced out from the cut surface of that section of tentacle. Blame his own elasticity for being too good, not easy to control.
Exposed? Ignoring the turmoil in his internal organs, Nan Zhu gave himself a scare.
He swiftly looked all around and discovered there were actually a few ghost foetuses standing nearby. He was truly frightened out of his wits. Peeking around again, he found it was fine. Those ghost foetuses were all attracted by the sight of the iron house smashing into the ground. No one noticed him. Just as the dust boiling up from the impact swept over like a sandstorm to provide cover, his obese body swiftly rolled over, rolling back to the tentacle he had brought out. Prying open the cut surface, he rolled himself back inside, then used the “shell” to cover himself tightly.
Unfortunately, time had been tight before, and there had been no time to hollow out the “shell” more thoroughly. He had only casually chopped away a few large chunks inside. And his body was too fat, so the “shell” could not completely wrap him up. Grabbing the edges with both hands and pulling them taut, there was still a gap of nearly half a chi exposed.
So he shook his body and rolled again, causing that section of tentacle to roll along with him, pressing the gap against the ground. Then he began silently praying for the gods’ protection, cursing Old Fifteen in his heart. If he could survive this calamity, he would never run around with that scoundrel again. Hiding in Linglong Temple and living a few more years, what could be better than that?
What answered him was another massive thunderous impact.
The ground-shaking thunderous sounds began to ring out continuously.
Those massive tentacles no longer lifted high and smashed down. Instead, they raised the iron house only a dozen or so zhang and madly smashed it toward the ground, fast up and fast down, wildly pounding it against the earth.
Yun Xi’s expression was also nearly hysterical. She indeed no longer intended to make Yu Qing and the others unable to live yet unable to die. Rather than letting them be rescued, it was better to kill them directly.
She had already sensed it. She sensed that truly powerful experts were arriving.
In other words, she knew she had been exposed. The traces her massive body left on the ground could not be completely eliminated in a short time. It was too late.
Once those people came, they would certainly conduct a thorough and comprehensive search of this area. She could not hide.
Boom! Boom! Boom…
A barrage of smashing, violently smashing again and again.
Yun Xi, in her furious outburst, had never thought she would one day be at odds with this iron house. The owner of this house had once been her friend. She had also never expected Yu Qing and the three to encounter this house.
It was true that she had lured the three here, but she only wanted to lure them to the lakeside, because she was temporarily residing in this area, making it convenient for her to act. She had not wanted the three to form a bond with this iron house. It was also very difficult to precisely lure the three here without them noticing. It was purely a coincidence that the three had stumbled upon it.
At this moment, she truly went mad and smashed it dozens of times before stopping.
The three martial brothers lying on the ground were also shaken dizzy. If they had still been inside the iron cage, one could well imagine the result.
Nan Zhu, lying prone on the ground, had it even worse. The gap was too large, and dust poured straight in.
Before the boiling dust had settled, a group of ghost foetuses suddenly charged into the dust, drilling into the iron house, searching everywhere inside.
This was about finding them alive or seeing their corpses, even if they were mangled remains.
When the dust gradually subsided, the ghost foetuses also crawled out of the iron house one by one, all empty-handed. They looked up at the naked Yun Xi in the massive flesh plate in the sky.
Without speaking, Yun Xi knew what these ghost foetuses were reporting. Not to mention mangled corpses, not even a scrap of torn cloth was found.
How was this possible?
Three massive tentacles instantly lifted the iron house, moving it before her eyes. Several more tentacles drilled into the iron house, and before her eyes, pulled out all the miscellaneous debris inside.
The final facts proved there was nothing.
The colossal creature twisted its body, looking down from on high at the surrounding ground and water surface. No human figures were seen.
Nor was there any evidence of Yu Qing and the three having died. Without evidence, she did not dare to be certain whether the three had truly been killed by her.
Boom!
The iron house crashed onto the ground.
A group of ghost foetuses ran to the pits created by the iron house’s repeated smashing and dug through the soil searching. Another group scattered in all directions to search.
Yu Qing, seeing the movements through the gap, swiftly closed the gap tight, thinking this was bad.
Fortunately, that group of ghost foetuses had a dull reaction to these large severed tentacles. When walking past them, besides sweeping their gazes over them, they showed no intention of paying attention.
Many ghost cultivators even ran into the lake water and distant grass to search.
“Is it truly unavoidable?”
The massive body turned around. Yun Xi on the flesh plate faced the sky and spoke to herself.
Actually, she was very clear that some things were indeed already unavoidable. From the moment those people entered, it was destined to happen sooner or later. Moreover, the traces on the ground at this moment truly could not be cleaned up in a short time.
Before long, a figure flew through the sky and arrived.
The figure abruptly stopped, floating in mid-air. Slowly lowering its altitude, it floated to the same height as Yun Xi on the flesh plate. It was Tian Yu, who had arrived first.
Facing this familiar colossal form, and the familiar face attached to it, Tian Yu’s face was full of shock and uncertainty. “Yun Xi? No, what is your relationship with Yun Xi?”
He had seen Yun Xi with his own eyes. When they had dug Yun Xi and that golden coffin out back then, Yun Xi had died before his eyes.
Yun Xi stared at him for a moment, without sorrow or joy. Looking around, she still found no traces of Yu Qing and the three. She suddenly turned and left, walking toward the lake surface.
Tian Yu flashed away, descending like a celestial being. His toes slowly touched the lake surface. Circles of perfectly round ripples, like vajra rings, spread in all directions.
The moment Yun Xi’s massive body touched the lake surface, the water waves that had just been stirred up on the lake were instantly smoothed out by the spreading ripples.
The tentacles touching the water were struck as if by lightning and swiftly retracted. The massive body turned again, suddenly collapsing toward the ground like a landslide. All tentacles retracted, instantly shrinking into a massive sphere, rumbling as it rapidly rolled across the ground.
Two figures flashed through the air, floating in mid-air. They were Meng Po and Xiang Lanxuan. Both were astonished, not knowing what kind of monster this was, that it could be so massive.
They had never seen Yun Xi fully extended, let alone contracted into a ball.
Boom!
The rolling massive sphere suddenly whipped out like a lash, sending a tentacle smashing into the ground. The ground split open, revealing a dark underground fissure space. So there was something else hidden underground. The massive sphere immediately unfurled, swiftly sliding into the crack and disappearing.
With two swooshes, Meng Po and Xiang Lanxuan landed simultaneously, like meteors crashing into the ground. Dust storms erupted. The earth cracked and collapsed.
The two used their powerful cultivation to block Yun Xi’s underground escape route.
In the dust storm, Meng Po’s figure shot up toward the sky.
The spreading dust storm, seemingly about to drown everything, suddenly rolled back in reverse, like a curtain being pulled up from the earth, or like ten thousand horses galloping toward the heavens. With a vast and mighty momentum, it followed the ascending Meng Po.
The dust storm was pulled toward high altitude, condensing in the sky into a massive earthy yellow giant sword. The sword tip hung high inverted above the earth, aimed at the position where the ground below was still churning.