Volume One: Awakening of the Dragon Soul Chapter 27: Crisis in the Rainy Night (Part Six) [Special Release]
“Li Qingchi?!” Mo Xing exclaimed in shock.
“Heh, as long as you know it’s me.” Li Qingchi flashed a wicked grin. “Let me make sure you die understanding why!”
Li Qingchi raised his bow, notching a blue-violet arrow with his right hand and letting it fly without hesitation.
The arrow tore through the air like a predator ripping the hide from its prey. At this distance, with such force behind the shot, dodging was impossible!
A blue-white light flickered in Mo Xing’s eyes. He raised his hand and swung it hard; the staff beside him flew into the path of the incoming arrow, which was then pinned into the wall!
The arrow had been deflected!
It missed Mo Xing’s shoulder by only two centimeters!
“Oh?” Li Qingchi paused for a moment at the sight before him. Mo Xing seized this instant, leaping to his feet and dashing away without looking back!
“Now this is interesting.” Li Qingchi casually grabbed a petri dish nearby and smashed it to the floor. The small insects inside spilled out with splashes of red liquid.
With a chorus of high-pitched squeaks, the insects began to grow larger.
“Let them keep you entertained. Rather than letting you die suddenly, I’d rather torture you slowly.” Li Qingchi smiled and walked away, reattaching the fallen red tubes into Mian Hua’s muscles and gripping his skull.
“Mian Hua, oh Mian Hua, though I’ve never been fond of you, your body truly is the perfect test subject for the red potion ‘MEIKO.’”
Mo Xing sprinted wildly, weaving through cabinets and lab benches, determined not to look back. If Li Qingchi shot another arrow, he’d be dead for sure!
But wait—why did it seem quiet behind him? Was Li Qingchi not chasing after all? No, villains are always ruthless! Survival had to come first! No, that wasn’t right either—he had to go back and save Senior Mian Hua!
Mo Xing glanced back and saw Li Qingchi wasn’t pursuing him. He breathed a small sigh of relief.
But now he was unarmed—the beginner’s staff was stuck in the wall as “decoration,” the pair of swords had been returned to Li Xiangcao, and he didn’t have any decent weapon on him. If only he could conjure one!
Wait!
Suddenly, Mo Xing remembered—his Dragon God power was water elemental, and water could be turned into ice! Wasn’t his umbrella made from ice? By the same logic, he could gather water elements again and forge an ice sword! Then he’d have a real weapon for combat!
Mo Xing stretched out his hands, gathering the water element, slowly forming ice, then shaping it into a sword blade.
Forging a weapon required concentration, and Mo Xing didn’t notice the blood-red, winged insects now flying toward him.
A loud buzzing filled the air.
Huh?
The sound of bees? But how could there be bees in a sealed laboratory?
Mo Xing spun around to see a swarm of winged, blood-red insects circling above his head, their jaws agape, ready to feed!
What the—?! What is happening?!
A fat, blood-red insect lunged at him. Mo Xing dodged, but it still managed to bite off an inch of his hair!
“Ancient wisdom says our hair and skin are gifts from our parents! And you bugs bite off so much with one snap!” Mo Xing drew his half-finished sword and swung it furiously in the air, trying to drive the insects away.
But the blood-red insects attacked with even greater ferocity, swarming toward Mo Xing in waves!
“Icy Pillars!”
A ring of ice columns, conjured from water element, crashed down around Mo Xing, freezing several of the attacking insects in midair. “Icy Pillars” was a fast-cast opening move, and Mo Xing was now adept at using it.
The rest of the blood-red swarm pressed in. Mo Xing raised his “ice sword.”
“Coldwater Spiral Storm!”
Jumping into the air, Mo Xing spun and slashed through a row of insects, then spun down to another spot, sweeping the blade through the surrounding swarm.
The Spiral Storm—a magic swordsman’s skill—used a spinning blade attack in midair to sweep enemies before the user. Though the books said its damage was modest, its real strength lay in aerial mobility and breaking out from encirclement.
With Mo Xing’s own water element, the spinning sword scattered water droplets, catching his enemies off guard—a surprise advantage!
It was almost like—
“A water-sprinkling bamboo-copter!”
Of course, he couldn’t call his skill something so juvenile, so he combined the original name with his own flourish, dubbing it—
“Coldwater Spiral Storm!”
Wait! This wasn’t the time to think up skill names—it was life or death! Another mass of blood-red insects surged in from the front!
“Slash!”
Mo Xing ran while swatting down the flying insects. No sooner had he dispatched one group than another closed in. He vaulted a lab bench, only to find a host of blood-red insects crawling up from beneath it!
Heavens! Was there no end to them?
Mo Xing was nearly driven mad! Even if he had a thousand hands, he couldn’t keep up!
He noticed several bottles of potions of various colors atop the lab table, grabbed one, and hurled it at the blood-red insects. Then he unleashed another “Coldwater Spiral Storm,” vaulting onto another lab bench before resuming his flight.
The insect buzzing grew fainter. Mo Xing looked back and saw the swarm wasn’t following; instead, they were clustering together—as if plotting their next move?
No, that couldn’t be right.
He hadn’t run far, and from this vantage he could see clearly—the insects were attacking each other!
They were biting and tearing at one another!
What was going on?
Amidst the blood-red swarm, some insects had turned purple-red—the ones he’d just doused with potion. The two colors of insects were now locked in battle!
More precisely, the purple ones lunged at the blood-red, only to be swarmed and counterattacked.
Mo Xing spotted a storage cabinet nearby with more bottles of colored potions. Through the glass he saw each bottle was labeled:
Blue potion: “KAITO.”
Pink potion: “LUKA.”
Red potion: “MEIKO.”
…
And a purple potion—the same he’d just thrown—labeled “GACKPO.”
A string of incomprehensible symbols—what could they mean? Mo Xing frowned, then a realization dawned. The insects took on the color of whichever potion had infected them, each exhibiting different behaviors!
He still didn’t know what the purple potion did, but the red one was clearly for berserk rage. Therefore, the blue potion should be able to “calm” them!
Mo Xing opened the cabinet, grabbed several bottles of blue potion, and hurled them at the blood-red insects.
His aim was true! Some insects fell, splashed with blue potion, and their skin soon turned blue.
“Fight poison with poison!”
Seeing the effect, Mo Xing quickly lobbed more blue potion bottles.
At that moment, the blue insects in that area took off again, circling aimlessly like a swarm of headless flies.
Suddenly, a few blue insects shot toward Mo Xing, with the rest of the swarm—red ones included—close behind!
What the—?! What was happening now?
The insects surged toward him like a giant net woven of red and blue, engulfing everything in their path!
“Help!”