amaotonovel Chapter 401 Explosion
Chapter 401 Explosion
The night was as dark as ink, and a thin layer of mist filled the mountains and forests.
Two dark shadows appeared silently in front of the cave where Hu Qing and his companions had been.
The moonlight was obscured by dark clouds, and only the round jade in their hands emitted a faint green light.
"It's right in front, that piece of trash." The old voice in the jade stone said with a bit of impatience, "The storage bag is the key. Don't let me down again."
The tall black figure's knuckles turned white as he took the jade into his arms.
The two looked at each other and tacitly released their spiritual sense to investigate.
The cave was silent, with only the whimpering of the night wind blowing through the cracks in the rocks.
"Come in." The short black shadow lowered his voice and stepped into the cave first.
He walked with the lightness of a cat, his black robes blending perfectly into the shadows.
His companion followed closely behind, the short blade at his waist flashing a cold light as he turned.
The cave was in a mess.
The short black figure squatted in front of the ashes, picking up a handful of charred residue with his fingertips.
A crisp female voice came from under the mask: "Xiao Qi is a waste. He failed to guard the treasure house and died while on duty. Not even ashes are left."
On the other side, a tall black figure was leaning over to observe the ground.
He suddenly stopped in front of a blurry footprint and picked up a few gray hairs from the cracks in the soil.
In the faint light leaking in from outside the cave, the tips of the hairs glowed with a strange metallic luster.
"Two humans, a rat-like orc, and..."
His nose twitched slightly, "Some kind of demonic beast, high grade, feels like a dragon..."
His voice was eerily calm. "The footprints are very fresh, no more than two hours old."
"Human? Are you saying Xiao Qi died at the hands of a human?"
She sneered, her voice full of sarcasm, "If Xiao Qi were still alive, I would have to put him back into his mother's womb and recreate him myself!"
The fifth elder stood in the shadows, his arms folded across his chest. Upon hearing this, he simply glanced at her indifferently, his tone indifferent:
"The Fourth Elder is quite impressive, but isn't he assigned to do this kind of dirty work?"
The elders under the orcs were also divided into factions. The fourth elder's disparagement of the seventh elder made the fifth elder from the same faction a little unhappy.
The fourth elder turned his head abruptly, a cold glint in his eyes: "The Beast King didn't send me here to listen to your sarcasm!"
She flicked her fingertips, and the fragment of the storage bag found on the ground shot towards the fifth elder like a blade, but was blocked by an invisible barrier in mid-air and fell lightly to the ground.
The Fifth Elder sighed and shook his head: "Fourth Elder, with your temper, it's no wonder you can't even control your own men."
He bent down to pick up the fragment, his fingertips stroking the cracked edge, and thought, "The storage bag is destroyed, and the contents are most likely destroyed. There's no point in arguing anymore."
The Fourth Elder snorted coldly, tightening his fingers slightly in his sleeves, his nails almost piercing his palms. "Your faction has committed many cases of embezzlement."
The Fifth Elder finally couldn't help but frown, his tone colder: "Fourth Elder, don't be so confident. The Beast King sent us together because he doesn't trust any party.
If you continue to act recklessly, the responsibility for the mission's failure will be entirely yours."
A hint of gloom flashed across the fourth elder's eyes, but he didn't say anything in the end.
She turned and walked towards the cave entrance. The night wind lifted her robe, making it rustle.
After a long while, she said coldly, "Get to the bottom of this. I'll find him alive or dead."
The Fifth Elder looked at her back, the corners of his mouth twitching slightly, and he whispered to himself: "What a crazy woman..."
He looked down at the fragments in his hand, a dark look flashed in his eyes, and then he rubbed his fingertips, and the fragments turned into ashes and dissipated in the night wind.
Then he took out the jade stone that was glowing with a faint light from his arms, injected a trace of demonic power into his fingertips, and fine blood-colored lines suddenly appeared on the surface of the jade stone.
He reported his findings in the cave one by one in a low voice. When he mentioned "two human monks whose cultivation was no less than that of the Seventh Elder", the jade suddenly trembled violently and a heavy gasp was heard.
"Bring them back..." The Beast King's voice seemed to be squeezed out from the abyss, with a creepy desire, "I want to watch them with my own eyes...eat them..."
The fifth elder was about to respond when the jade suddenly dimmed.
He frowned and turned around to discuss tracking with the fourth elder, but saw the woman squatting beside the ashes, her slender white fingers reaching deep into the ashes.
“Don’t touch—!”
As soon as he uttered the warning, the Fourth Elder had already picked up a piece of burnt yellow talisman paper.
Her pupils suddenly contracted—the lightning patterns outlined with thunder stone on the talisman paper were rapidly lighting up.
"boom--!"
The moment the first lightning flashed, the entire cave was engulfed in blinding white light.
The Fourth Elder's figure flew backwards in the exploding air wave, and the protective demonic energy she hastily summoned was torn to pieces by the thunder talisman.
Immediately afterwards, the second and third thunder talismans exploded one after another. The violent force of thunder blasted spider-web-like cracks in the rock wall, and gravel fell like rain.
At the critical moment, the fifth elder turned into a black shadow and retreated quickly, hiding in the depths and using the spiritual shield to block.
The space in the center of the cave was twisted and shattered by the continuous bombardment of thunder talismans, forming several dark void cracks.
As the night deepened, smoke and dust gradually dissipated from the collapsed cave ruins.
The fourth elder stood in place, his black robe had long since turned to ashes in the explosion, revealing a set of fitting black soft armor.
The starlight outlined her slender figure, and a few bloodstains crisscrossed her pretty face, adding a touch of sharp beauty.
The night wind blew across the soft armor on her body, making a slight metallic friction sound.
She raised her hand to wipe away a bloodstain on her cheek. Her fingertips were stained with warm blood, which glowed dark red in the moonlight.
"Cough cough cough..."
The fifth elder bent over and coughed violently. Every cough seemed to shake out his internal organs, and the cough was particularly harsh in the ruins.
He supported himself on a collapsed rock wall with one hand and covered his mouth with the other, with a few wisps of black smoke seeping out from between his fingers.
After coughing out the last breath of foul air tinged with thunder and fire, he stood up straight, his black robe still spotless.
The explosion just now, which was enough to tear apart space, did not leave any scars on him.
He stood up suddenly and took out the sound transmission jade from his arms.
But at the moment the fingertips touched it, the jade turned into fine powder and fell from between the fingers.
"Damn it! You!"
The Fifth Elder turned abruptly, anger burning in his eyes. "How could the Beast King allow you to take the position of Fourth Elder if you couldn't even detect the most basic trap?"
His angry voice echoed in the ruins, startling a few night birds roosting in the distant treetops.
The Fourth Elder did not refute immediately. She tilted her head back, letting the cool moonlight shine on her face.
The impact of the explosion still made her ears buzz, and her mind kept flashing back to the moment when the thunder talisman exploded -
The blinding white light, the explosion that tore through the air, and the strange fluctuations as the space was distorted.
She took a deep breath, and the soft armor on her chest rose and fell slightly with her breathing.
"I will take responsibility." Her voice was softer than the night wind, but it was filled with unquestionable determination. "Return to the palace first and report. I will apply for a solo mission."
She turned to look at the Fifth Elder, a complex emotion flashing in her eyes, "This time... I was careless. I will personally capture these bastards."
The Fifth Elder narrowed his eyes, the moonlight casting deep shadows on his angular face.
He was silent for a moment, then suddenly sneered, a triumphant smile on his lips: "That's better."
Before he finished speaking, a pair of strange wings suddenly unfolded behind him.
On the inky black wings, there was a flowing colorful dark light, as if the aurora in the night sky was cut into the shape of wings.
The fourth elder looked at the pair of strange wings and unconsciously clenched his fists.
This is the fifth elder's innate magical power, the "Night God Wings". In the entire Orc Kingdom, there are no more than three people who can cultivate this kind of wings.
"Go." The fifth elder spat out a word coldly and flapped his wings violently.
In an instant, a strong wind arose, and his figure turned into a streak of light and disappeared into the night sky, leaving only a few slowly falling black feathers in its place.
The Fourth Elder didn't follow immediately. She squatted down, picked up a charred fragment of the thunder talisman from the rubble, and gently stroked the remaining spiritual energy fluctuations on it with her fingertips.
"Interesting..." she muttered, a dangerous glint in her eyes.
Then a faint black mist appeared around her, and her figure gradually became blurred, and finally turned into a wisp of light smoke and floated in the direction where the fifth elder left.
The ruins fell silent again. Only the night wind whistled through the cracks in the rubble, making a whimpering sound, as if telling of the terrifying explosion that had just occurred.
In the distance, a night owl landed on a broken tree trunk, its yellow eyes moving vigilantly, and soon it flapped its wings and flew into the depths of the dark jungle.