Chapter 72 - Tentacled Monster
Jiang Yi spent the night within a small cave and got up early in the morning the next day. He took a long route to avoid this entire area. He walked for nearly two hours before beginning his search for demonic beasts.
Today was a surprisingly peaceful day. During his hunts, he did meet other participants, but they didn’t take any action to snatch. Jiang Yi definitely wouldn’t be taking on the role of a tyrant to snatch any tokens. Hence, today was so peaceful.
Jiang Yi didn’t have a great harvest today though. He had slain merely twelve demonic beasts, but among them, three contained the black token. He now had a total of 24 tokens, but eight of them were black.
I only have eight colors of the tokens. I didn’t even get a single token from the last color?
Jiang Yi got rather nervous; with only one day left, he was about to fail the Blood Purge if he couldn’t obtain enough tokens.
On the third day, Jiang Yi awoke even before the sun rose. He could see that everyone was awakened, too. It was obvious that there were plenty of people that didn’t have enough tokens. They were prepared to go all in.
“Hey, little brother! Wait up!”
On one of the mountain tracks, Jiang Yi was held back by a chubby participant. His eyes instantly turned cold, the youth thought this person could be aiming for his tokens. Jiang Yi wouldn’t mind snatching his tokens in response.
This fatty was dressed quite luxuriously, a pity that his body was rather obese which ruined the high-classed robes. He lifted up both his hands to dispel any signs of ill intentions. He stood about 30 feet away and laughed. “Hehe. Little brother, do you have any tokens on hand? I am giving a high price to buy them.”
“Buying tokens?”
Jiang Yi got into a daze; he had this quick thought that since they could snatch tokens, they could also buy them. The college didn’t care how someone entered—as long as that person had enough tokens. He twitched his mouth and replied, “I don’t have any. I don’t even have enough and wanted to buy some. You better look for someone else.”
The fatty’s cheek squeezed his eyes into a narrow line as it glittered when he grinned. “This little brother… I have some extra tokens here; shall I sell it to you? How much purple gold can you offer for a single token?”
“En?”
Jiang Yi was tempted; he then asked softly, “What colors do you have? How much for a piece?”
The fatty laughed. “To be honest little brother, I bought a lot of tokens just to sell them. What do you need? Except for gold tokens, I have extra for the rest. Each token is worth 100 taels of purple gold.”
Isn’t this like a scamming merchant? Actually taking advantage of the Blood Purge to earn some profits.
Jiang Yi felt anguished and funny at the same time. He frowned as he didn’t have enough gold on him. He paused for a moment before asking, “I don’t have so much purple gold. Can I use Earth Essence Elixirs for a trade? And… why aren’t there any gold tokens?”
“Earth Essence Elixirs? Great stuff!”
The fatty’s eyes were emitting light as he nodded. “Deal, one Earth Essence Elixir for one token! Little brother, what colors do you lack? Don’t you know about the gold tokens? They are the rarest, and there are only about 100 of them. This Blood Purge has a few thousand demonic beasts only. If your luck isn’t good—don’t mention three days, you won’t even get one after ten days.”
Just as I thought it would be!
Jiang Yi realized the reason and quickly sorted out his tokens to see which one he was lacking. He then retrieved the equivalent amount of Earth Essence Elixirs to exchange with the fatty.
“This brother is truly a straightforward person! I wish you the best of luck to enter the college. I am called Qian Wanguan; calling me Xiao Wan will do. If you are able to enter the college, do take care of me!”
Once the fatty received Jiang Yi’s Earth Essence Elixirs, his attitude became rather passionate; even the way he addressed Jiang Yi changed. He was in the midst of a conversation with Jiang Yi when suddenly another group of people approached. He quickly gave an apologetic laugh and headed towards them. From afar, Jiang Yi could hear him say: “Fellow brothers, do you have extra tokens? This little brother is willing to buy them for a high price…”
Qian Wanguan? What a natural born profiteer.
Jiang Yi sighed silently but was rather satisfied. He used just a few Earth Essence Elixirs in exchange for those tokens that he lacked. Now, he only needed to find those gold tokens.
Only a hundred gold tokens? Seems like these gold tokens can only be found on those ferocious demonic beasts.
Jiang Yi pondered for a moment before he started to sprint. One hour later, he stopped at a gorge. This gorge was rather deep and had complete darkness if one looked down into it. It was unknown what kind of demonic beasts were hiding below. Jiang Yi took a few glances, and his intuition told him that there were formidable demonic beasts below.
To seek treasures in danger. Perhaps the demonic beasts that lurk below might have the gold tokens!
Sinking into deep thought, Jiang Yi found the resolve to search around the nearby areas. He soon found a narrow slope and carefully descended it. Halfway down the slip, a wave of rotting stench surged, causing Jiang Yi to have this urge to vomit.
As he continued descending, the visibility got darker; Jiang Yi could smell a subtle stench of blood. He quickly channeled the black essence force to his eyes and looked downwards. With the enhancement in his eyes, his vision became terrifyingly sharp. It was indeed dark below, but he could see the entire scene.
“Urghh…”
The scene almost made Jiang Yi vomit, causing him to swiftly ascend. He could see an octopus-shaped demonic beast occupying the gorge below. The crucial thing was that there were four corpses at the bottom. That octopus demonic beast was using its tentacles to grasp one of the corpses while it was munching on it. The floor was littered with dismembered legs and severed arms, intestines splayed all over. Jiang Yi was about to react properly, but had it been somebody else, they would have been frightened silly.
“Hiss Hiss!”
The noise from above alerted the demonic beast, a few of its tentacles extend above like vines. It caught up to Jiang Yi in an instant and was about to twine around his body.
Seeking death?
The Green Destiny Sword flashed in the hands of Jiang Yi. He made half a turn to slash viciously at the tentacle behind him.
“Bang!”
Jiang Yi was surprised when that tentacle was easily severed by him. This demonic beast looked tough, but its physical defenses were so weak?
“Hiss Hiss!”
The rest of its tentacles extended towards him. Jiang Yi couldn’t analyze the current situation as he had to quickly slash at the other two tentacles. The results were similar: the Green Destiny Sword simply severed the two tentacles.
Something isn’t right!
Feeling a chill from his back, Jiang Yi was shocked when he realized what he was missing. He turned around and grew horrified when he saw the tentacle that he slashed earlier had regenerated! It then wrapped around his body and pulled him downward.
This tentacled monster can actually regenerate its limbs! Jiang Yi turned back to glance and saw the other two tentacles regenerating as well. He just realized what was going on!
But he realized it too late; his body was already in the midst of being pulled to the bottom of the gorge. That tentacled monster opened its massive scarlet mouth and revealed those saw-like razor teeth. If Jiang Yi was bitten by that mouth, the consequences would certainly be severe.
I’ll just do it!
Jiang Yi didn’t resist; he pretended to struggle and allowed himself to be brought into the scarlet mouth by the tentacle.
Three feet, two feet, now! Die, you brute!
Jiang Yi roared as he twisted his left hand which was originally twined up. The Green Destiny Sword slid across the tentacle that grasped his left hand. Once it was severed, his left hand was now free to cut off the rest of the tentacles. At the same moment, his right hand was revolving the black and blue essence force before slamming it against the massive mouth of the demonic beast.
“Boom!”
At such a desperate situation, Jiang Yi was naturally unable to reserve any strength and had to use his Exploding Essence Palm at its maximum. The entire gorge shook as it was engulfed in this blinding radiance. A layer of mud fell off from the sides of the cliff as a shocking explosion reverberated along the walls, causing Jiang Yi’s eardrums to nearly burst and bleed.
“Pfff!”
Jiang Yi was blasted off by the aftershock and felt this pain on his chest. Once he got up, he spurted a mouthful of blood. He immediately looked over at the tentacled monster and was left stupefied.
His palm strike was definitely able to match the full power strike from a martial artist who was at the first or second stage of the Purple Mansion Realm. Yet it was unable to kill this tentacled monster? Its massive body was blown into a mess, but Jiang Yi could see its body rapidly regenerating.
That green pearl!
Jiang Yi could see a green pearl within the body of the tentacled monster. It was emitting a faint green glow that felt soothing. Obviously, it wasn’t any ordinary item.
The regeneration ability of this monster must be related to the pearl! It must be an artifact!
Jiang Yi’s eyes lit up. He ignored the intense pain and weakness of his body. He then wielded his Green Destiny Sword and burst towards the tentacled monster.