Chapter 42 The Meeting of the Kings of the Ring Realms (5) Why did you provoke her...?
In fact, faced with a situation that was completely out of her control, Xia Ying really had the urge to just give up and let things drift.
Regardless of whether she was the one who caused the incident, it was, after all, a battle between the kings of the Ring Realm, and it was really difficult for Xia Ying, a newly born human, to interfere...
She did have good reason to convince herself, but Xia Ying glanced at the chaotic situation again and gritted her teeth.
Let's at least give it a try!
At this moment, the dragon and the sea monster had clashed, with dragon fire and giant waves flying together, quickly destroying most of the circular conference level.
The star tracker had long been destroyed; its intricate parts were reduced to dust in the magic explosion, scattering everywhere along with the shattered jade.
The seawater surged back violently, almost submerging the lowest audience hall, while above, a golden-red fiery hurricane swept through, and the jade palace teetered on the brink of collapse amidst the fierce battle between the two Ring Realm Kings.
Xia Ying intervened in the monsters' battle in that instant.
She bent down slightly, pushed off into the air, and the gale caught her, propelling her quickly towards the battlefield above.
The closer they got to the center of the battlefield, the more violent the magic particles became. The powerful magic from the dragons and sirens clashed and overlapped with each other, forming a dense energy field that seemed almost tangible, repelling any other magical fluctuations that strayed into it.
Nevertheless, Xia Ying's control over the wind-attribute magic element remained precise and stable. She weaved through the crisscrossing energy beams, narrowly dodging fatal aftershocks time and time again. Just as she was flipping over a huge piece of jade that had fallen from the dome, Xia Ying suddenly saw a pale blue magical beast ahead of her.
Can it really be called Warcraft?
The creature was graceful and slender, its body seemingly carved from a single piece of emerald jade. Its two horns resembled warm and clear crystals, with a faint milky white halo emanating from within, as if a galaxy had been submerged there.
Xia Ying murmured, "Qilin."
Her intuitive judgment was entirely correct; this was indeed the beast form of the King of the Tomb Keepers. Moreover, another detail soon confirmed Xia Ying's guess...
Xia Ying met the eyes of the beautiful magical beast and was immediately startled by the fury in those glassy eyes.
Reason returned immediately, Xia Ying avoided eye contact, and immediately increased her speed, rushing upwards ahead of her opponent.
After overcoming countless hardships, she finally reached the center of the battlefield. Xia Ying tried her best to steady herself and avoid being caught in the energy vortex, shouting to the monsters not far away, "Stop! Fafnir! Charybdis! Stop right now!!"
They were completely absorbed in the battle, and Xia Ying's shouts seemed insignificant compared to the intensity of the fighting; no one heard her voice.
So Xia Ying shut her mouth and pushed herself even closer to the center... the point where the flames and the raging waves were about to collide!
At this critical moment, the [Abyssal Dangerous Creatures Compendium] opened before her, its pages flipping rapidly, automatically retrieving skill entries for dragons and sirens.
The accumulated synchronization value has now reached a considerable number. Without thinking, Xia Ying completed the skill acquisition, and the laws and operating methods of the two types of magic instantly appeared in her mind.
She cleared her mind of all distractions and focused entirely on perceiving the magic itself. At the very moment the two magical energy fluctuations converged, Xia Ying seized the opportunity and triggered both laws simultaneously.
When the magical particles of vastly different properties began to separate, converge, and form an alternating, turbulent torrent, Xia Ying knew she had succeeded.
Due to the difference in magical power and physical strength, she could not completely block the attack of the Ring King, but her will still interfered with the magic itself. The two streams of energy affected by the attack deviated from their original directions and were pushed to opposite sides before they hit the girl.
The turbulent currents crashed against the palace walls, vanishing simultaneously. Xia Ying took a deep breath.
At that moment, her voice finally reached the other side's ears, and both sides stopped their attacks simultaneously, the scene suddenly freezing as if a pause button had been pressed.
The once turbulent center of the battlefield suddenly fell silent. In this blank space, Fafnir stared at her, the violent golden light gradually sinking into the depths of his eyes.
Charybdis's body, which had almost merged with the seawater, reformed into human form and whispered, "Xia Ying?"
The berserk King of the Ring Realm now seems to have finally become communicative. Xia Ying organized her thoughts for a moment and said, "Listen to me, the whole thing started because the venue's teleportation portal malfunctioned..."
"All things in the universe return to the laws of Heaven."
The cold and solemn voice of the Qilin rang out, and the jade pieces and jade dust scattered in the battle rose up again, reuniting and instantly coalescing into two cages, binding the dragon and the sea monster within.
The unexpected attack enraged the detainees, reigniting the already de-escalating battlefield into a raging inferno.
"!!"
Because the King of the Tomb Keepers interfered, all of Xia Ying's previous efforts were in vain. She couldn't help but glare angrily at the instigator, only to see him transform into human form and walk towards her. With each step he took, new jade steps were generated beneath his feet.
"I should not have taken any chances from the beginning and given up on activating the Myriad Manifestations Restriction to completely restrain the King of the Ring Domain."
The Qilin walked step by step toward Xia Ying, its once clear and bright eyes now filled with anger.
"I should never have let you go in the first place."
"Wait a minute, how can you put all the blame on me?" Xia Ying protested, quite dissatisfied. "The whole thing started with the problem of the portal you provided, and I was about to appease them, but you had to do something unnecessary!"
"The King of the Ring Realm has direct access to the venue, and the Tomb Ring has never set up any additional teleportation magic."
"What?" Xia Ying was stunned for a moment. "Didn't you send out another invitation today? It was the teleportation magic from that letter..."
"From beginning to end, I only sent out one invitation letter 30 days ago."
The Qilin took another step forward, completely capturing Xia Ying's figure in its eyes.
"Further words are pointless!"
Xia Ying wanted to refute him in this way, but the other party had completely lost the will to communicate.
A large number of broken jade pieces rushed towards Xia Ying. Xia Ying subconsciously turned around and tried to run away, but the jade pieces seemed to have predicted her movement and formed a jade wall in front of her, which then quickly expanded in all directions.
Just as she was about to touch the hole that was just big enough for her to crawl through, a group of white-robed guards suddenly emerged and blocked her way.
Xia Ying quickly stopped, and in that brief moment, the jade piece had already repaired the tear, and the wall immediately became as clean as new, without any trace of damage.
At the same moment, a new jade cage quietly formed above Xia Ying's head. She quickly took a step back, luring the guards to chase after her, and then suddenly turned around, breaking free from the cage at the last moment, leaving the guards who were a step slower trapped inside.
She then ran toward other exits formed by the breaches, but each time she was blocked just as she was about to escape. The newly built jade walls were so solid that they could not be broken through by force... So in the end, Xia Ying could only turn toward the door of the audience hall.
The two jade doors were mostly submerged in seawater. Xia Ying swung down the [Heavenly Cloud Sword] and successfully cut a crack in them.
The guards had not yet caught up, and the gap in the jade gate continued to crack, allowing more and more light to fall into the palace. Things seemed to be turning around. Xia Ying took the last step, but the scene before her made her suddenly stop.
She was certain she had left the palace, but her location remained unchanged; she was still facing the broken jade gate.
Xia Ying moved and passed through the rift once again, but the situation was still the same this time.
After many more attempts, she finally realized that she was completely unable to leave the palace.
"Without my permission, no abyssal creature may leave the Jade Wall." Behind her, a Qilin appeared, stepping onto the jade steps. "Surrender, intruder."
"You cast spatial magic on the palace?" Xia Ying turned around. "You knew all along that I couldn't escape from here, so you were just making fun of my struggles?"
When the Qilin lowered its eyes, it resembled Guanyin lowering her brows, but its glassy eyes only shone with a cruel cold light: "Compared to the disaster you brought, this punishment is simply insignificant."
Xia Ying gasped, feeling as if something had suddenly exploded in her mind.
Her figure vanished from the spot in an instant, so fast that even the King of the Tomb Keepers was surprised. However, he quickly locked onto her location with his gaze. Xia Ying swept her sword from the right, but it didn't even touch the hem of Qilin's clothes.
Her position instantly returned to its original point.
After that, she kept approaching the Qilin from various directions and angles, but it was like a jade gate that she could never truly cross. No matter how many times she tried, she would be teleported back to her original place.
Not to mention defeating her, it seemed impossible to even touch her in this jade palace. However, Xia Ying, driven mad by rage, continued to launch attacks. Her persistence eventually made even the King of the Tomb Keepers grow weary.
As Xia Ying raised her sword to slash at the Qilin once more, she suddenly felt unable to move. She remained in the slashing posture, as if frozen in mid-air.
The Qilin slowly raised its hand and said to her, "Stop struggling. Anger will only make you look more pathetic and foolish."
As soon as he finished speaking, a gust of wind rose from his palm, and Xia Ying was pushed backward by a tremendous force. A group of guards wielding spears had already gathered in the direction she was falling. This battle, which was already a foregone conclusion, was about to come to an end...
As the reckless girl fell backward like a kite with a broken string, Qilin suddenly saw her curl the corner of her lips into a smile.
She did not fall into the guards' encirclement. Before Xia Ying landed, a huge wave rose up, and she was swept into the sea and quickly disappeared from sight.
Qilin frowned.
The sword wind swept in from directly in front. The Qilin suddenly raised its head, but before it could see the other person's figure clearly, it was pressed to the ground. Then, it felt a pain in its right shoulder as the [Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi] pierced its body.
Xia Ying straddled the King of the Tomb Keepers, and before he could see her expression, her veil slowly fell, covering most of her face.
"During one of my sword-wielding sessions, I suddenly felt something was strange."
Hidden behind the white veil, Xia Ying began to speak.
"I'm wondering, is this really spatial magic?"
Qilin remained silent, but Xia Ying didn't need his answer anyway.
“If this really is spatial magic, it does explain why you can move my position at will, but there is another kind of magic that can do this,” she said to herself. “That is time magic.”
"You want the guards to execute me, but do you remember how you did it?"
Xia Ying stretched out her palm and made a pushing motion.
She lowered her arm and rested it beside the King of the Graves, while her other hand remained firmly gripping the hilt of her sword.
"After confirming this, I had a new guess. Because I discovered that when my time was reversed, the flow of the wind magic I controlled did not change... Why is that?"
Xia Ying's hand slowly moved to his shoulder, touched his face, and then stopped in front of him.
"Could it be because..." she gazed into the depths of those turbulent eyes, "that only things whose essence can be seen through these eyes can be toyed with by the hourglass of time in your hands?"
Xia Ying said slowly, "As you can see, I guessed right again..."
The Qilin suddenly sprang up, a jade dagger materializing in his hand. He used the dagger to tear apart the veil that was protected by perception-blocking magic, then pressed it against Xia Ying's throat.
Xia Ying, whose expression was completely revealed, showed no sign of panic.
“At this very moment, I have a third question on my mind.” She continued to explain gently, “King of the Tomb Keepers, you have countless opportunities to execute me with your own hands, why do you insist on having the guards do it?”
She tightened her grip on the hilt, pushing the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi deeper, while her other hand grasped the opponent's wrist, urging it towards her own neck...
The moment the jade knife pierced Xia Ying's skin, the Qilin released its grip as if it had been electrocuted.
The jade knife, stained with a little blood, fell beside the two of them. Pure golden blood gushed from the wound pierced by the [Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi]. The golden liquid flowed down the Qilin's arm and dripped onto the jade knife, accidentally mixing with Xia Ying's red blood and instantly turning it black.
"Although you are a creature of the abyss, you cannot kill it with your own hands."
Xia Ying drew the [Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi], stood up, and pointed the gold-stained tip of the sword at her opponent.
"I'm so sorry, I guessed right after all."
"So what?" The King of the Tomb Keepers suppressed his anger and pressed his wound, which healed rapidly at a visible speed thanks to powerful healing magic. "Now that you no longer have the protection of shielding magic, do you really think you can defeat the King of the Ring Realm with just that?"
"No, I know that's impossible." Xia Ying put away the magical artifact and said decisively.
Xia Ying recounted the old grudges that had accumulated over time.
"Although I can't kill you right now, but... look around."
The King of the Tomb Keepers subconsciously raised his eyes and looked around.
Near the dome, dragons and sirens were violently attacking the cage. Dragon fire and seawater were still raging everywhere, and everything in sight had become a mess.
"The Conference of Kings of the Ring Realms can no longer continue. Of course, the order you value has also been completely destroyed!"
Xia Ying bent down and leaned close to him, smiling in a very sweet but malicious way.
"King of the Tomb Keepers... no, Qilin, I swear this won't be the last. You'll face countless chaotic moments in the future, so it's better to start learning to accept them now."
The Qilin opened its eyes wide, and the emotions within them began to tremble violently. The turmoil rose uncontrollably until it reached its peak, and then its arrogance and haughtiness were completely shattered.
In a fit of rage and panic, he shouted the order: "Guards! Kill her!!"
Xia Ying straightened up, took a few steps back, and fell towards the audience hall below.
Countless guards swarmed towards her like a dark cloud, but Xia Ying didn't spare them even a glance. She was busy watching the King of the Tomb Keepers, observing his composure, certainty, and even dignity crumble little by little.
Let whoever wants to deal with this mess take care of it; I'm going to die first!
Xia Ying closed her eyes, feeling completely relaxed, ready to embark on her day trip to the Fountain of Life.
Suddenly, someone grabbed her hand forcefully. Xia Ying opened her eyes and saw the guard in black robes who had accompanied Qilin.
The guard casually tossed aside his standard-issue spear, pulled Xia Ying into his arms, and a cluster of black flames ignited, quickly burning away her robe.
"Kernel!" Xia Ying exclaimed in surprise, "How did you get here?!"
"He was dragged into being a guard by the King of the Graves," Cerberus yelled as he carried her away. "Why did you provoke him like that?!"
"I was furious!" Xia Ying argued, "You have no idea how outrageous he was!"
Xia Ying asked him, "What? Where are we going now?"
“Let’s go back,” Cerberus said matter-of-factly. “I’ll take you with me to see if we can take the opportunity to kill the King of the Graves.”
The demonic hound rose up on black flames, and Xia Ying laughed as she hugged his neck in the wind.
"Cher!!!"
What are you doing?
I love you so much!!!
“Of course.” Cerberus smirked smugly, wielding his long scythe to sweep away a group of white-robed guards. “You weaklings in white robes, be smart and don’t block our way! Can’t you see we’re in a hurry?!”
Cerberus seems to have made a special name for himself during his internship in the Tomb Ring. After the first guards who tried to stop him were killed, the remaining enemies immediately became timid and dared not approach.
"This guy's abilities are really troublesome," Xia Ying sighed, not particularly surprised by the outcome.
She turned to the demon hound beside her, and just as she was about to speak, she suddenly heard someone's voice in her ear.
This wasn't Cerberus's voice, but there was no third person in the cage, so she looked up and began to search further into the distance.
The mysterious voice sounded again.
Xia Ying's gaze suddenly stopped.
She was looking at a jade wall engraved with the emblem of the Feast Ring. In the midst of ruins, the waiting room belonging to the King of the Feast was completely intact.
Under her gaze, the jade disc slowly shattered, revealing the lower half of the king's face.
A pleased smile played on his lips as he spoke.
Just then, the notification sound of the [Student Handbook] suddenly rang out.
"drop!"
Cerberus pulled his phone out of his pocket, and the notification sound became louder: "Attention freshmen! The final assessment for the [Circular Domain Internship] is about to begin!"
Xia Ying simultaneously took out her [Student Handbook], and the two voices immediately overlapped completely.
"Wilderness Mission #63: [Argo], is about to begin!"
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The author's note: If a person avenges a dog, the person is good. If a dog accompanies a person in committing murder, the dog is also good.
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