Rise of the Midnight King - Rise of the Midnight King – Chapter 68

“Wheee Whooooo!” A wolf whistle sounded out in the distance.

Bao bi immediately perked up. That was the sound that the Xaoi sect disciples were supposed to make if they were in distress. After what Xie Mingyu said about taking their resources as payment, it also meant that whoever called was likely in big trouble and willing to potentially have to give up all of their stuff. Bao bi had come up with the sound out of the blue, but it was hard to believe he would hear that sound for any other reason.

He immediately began to race in the direction he had heard the noise. He didn’t have to travel far until he came out on a hill overlooking a wide valley. In the center of that valley were three girls he had encountered earlier. It was Tian Mei, Su Fan, and Dian Ai. Dian Ai was trying to run while pulling an unconscious Su Fan and attempting to whistle a second time. Tian Mei looked like she was fighting for her life on the line, while it looked like Su Fan had fallen. There was dirt across part of her body and blood on her face. It was anyone’s guess if she was still alive.

There were several dozen creatures. Tian Mei was trying to hold them back, but a few slipped through and chased after Dian Ai. They appeared like wolves, except they were as tall as a man. They had long arms which reached the ground, and their back legs were that of animal hindlegs. If anything, they looked like werewolves.

“Don’t waste your time!” Tian Mei cried out to Dian Ai. “Just escape!”

“There is someone there!” Dian Ai cried back, pointing off to the distance. “They must have heard us! We’re going to be saved!”

At first, Bao bi thought she was pointing toward him. Although he wanted to help, even he wasn’t confident about defeating several dozen creatures. Tian Mei was at the top of the 2^nd realm. She should have been nearly as strong as Bao bi, and yet there were far too many for her to deal with. She had already slain about five whose bodies were on the ground, but more had come and they were overwhelming in number.

He quickly realized that Dian Ai’s finger was pointed a bit too far to the right. He couldn’t help but follow his finger, and that’s when he saw that there was another boy who had come toward the whistle. It was one of the boys from the middle. He had been the highest ranked of the middle group, which was to say he was probably stronger than Su Fan. If Bao bi and Liang Long joined in the fight with Dian Ai, they might be able to hold them off long enough for more people to come.

However, a moment later, he heard Liang Long give a snort, and then turn away from Dian Ai as she looked directly at him. He began to walk away as if their business had nothing to do with him. Her eyes of hope turned cold and she made a wrong step, tripping down to her knees and dropping Su Fan. At that moment, one of the creatures pounced on her, but an artifact on her neck suddenly glowed, and a barrier exploded around her. The werewolf was thrown back, letting out a howl as if it had been burned. A little bit of smoke rose from its chest.

Dian Ai quickly rolled over, seeing what happened behind her. She was panicked now, scrambling back a few steps before realizing the protective talisman around her neck had activated and saved her life. When she noticed the barrier moving to keep her centered, and Su Fan nearly reaching the edge, she finally stopped her movements. Her hand instinctively grabbed the pendant on her chest, letting out a staggard breath.

“Stop wasting time!” Tian Mei cried out. “No one is coming! I made a promise to keep you safe. That barrier only lasts a few minutes. You have to escape on your own. I can’t hold them back anymore.”

Although she said that, she hadn’t been holding them back much in the first place. Three werewolves had already surrounded the bubble protecting Dian Ai and the unconscious Su Fan. They let out occasional strikes, only to rebound back, but it was clear they were testing it for weaknesses. Dian Ai reached out to Su Fan again, planning to continue to drag her.

“Leave her!” Tian Mei cried. “We’ll all die if you try to save her. If you leave her… you might have a chance.”

When Tian Mei spoke those words, her expression grew more severe. It was as if she had decided in her mind. She had been asked to protect Dian Ai, and even though she never thought she’d reach this point where she was overwhelmed, she knew these hidden realms had all kinds of dangers within. She still couldn’t help but feel that this was suspicious. After all, they had been careful. Hunting parties of werewolves should have been small, yet they were facing their entire colony almost like they had stumbled directly into their nest. It was like the group was attracting them for some reason, but she couldn’t understand it.

Her suspicions weren’t particularly far off. Sometime earlier, their group had run into Xie Mingyu. It was more accurate to say they had discovered a treasure, an extremely rare ingredient, and Xie Mingyu had come upon them extracting the treasure. He demanded that they give it to him, but they refused. Since it was three-on-one, he didn’t have the confidence to be able to defeat them, and he wasn’t foolish enough to potentially injure Dian Ai in a way that could be traced back to him.

However, that didn’t mean that he wasn’t against using blades in the dark. He managed to secretly infect Su Fan with a sagebeast attractant he had been given for his protection. It was meant as a distraction to help him escape if he was in over his head, but he wasn’t beyond being spiteful to this group of women who acted like they were superior by sticking together.  Even if Tian Mei was sharp enough to notice, her attention had mostly been doting favor with Dian Ai, and so before they realized what was going on, more and more monsters attacked until eventually a nearby colony of werewolves was attracted by the smell of blood.

When they caught on to Su Fan’s scent, they naturally began to concentrate on her. Perhaps the only reason that the group had lasted this long was because Su Fan was attracting them and they had initially been ignoring Xie Mingyu until she managed to knock a few down and catch their interest. That said, her situational awareness was spot on, and if Dian Ai abandoned Su Fan, there was a good chance that she’d be able to get away, especially if Tian Mei used her trump card to keep them all distracted.

However, Dian Ai was young and perhaps a bit too kind thanks to her family’s sheltering. She seemed reluctant to abandon the other girl, which would almost certainly assign her to death. She could only stare in indecision as more of another werewolf joined the previous two and began attacking the barrier, causing it to flicker as its energy was quickly depleted.

Bao bi surveyed this entire situation while keeping a cool head. Perhaps, if it had been him back in his previous world, even then, he might have panicked and not known what to do. However, Liao An had been training him by taking him out to the location of sagebeasts and hunting. Over the years, he didn’t like it when Liao An went to such dangerous situations on her own, so he had come with her willingly. As a result, he had gotten used to fighting a variety of sagebeasts. Most of them were bigger and stronger than him. It might even be better to say he was more comfortable killing them than fighting people.

Of course, all of this was done carefully under Liao An’s tutelage, and she naturally placed him in situations where he was outnumbered or disadvantaged several times just to encourage his development. He was never in any real danger, but he wouldn’t have known that. Part of the reason he had grown protective of her was because she had allowed him to save her countless times. She never showed her true strength around him, dangling her vulnerability in front of him to encourage his growth.

Of course, not all of this was because she wanted him to grow stronger. Tigra’s more playful side enjoyed living out the fantasy of being rescued. It made her feel special in many ways and drew out Bao bi’s protective side, which she found somewhat sexy. She never would have guessed that playing out her fantasies would eventually give Bao bi a bit of a rescue complex. When he saw someone in danger, he couldn’t walk the other way. Perhaps, this was why he had saved the Jiang siblings in the first place, and also why he had spared others.

Dian Ai began to feel fear for perhaps the first time in her life as the barrier erected from her protective talisman began to sputter on its last bits of energy, monsters towering over her with sharp stained teeth covered in drool and vicious claws stared down at her with hungry animal eyes like they planned to devour her whole. She had completely frozen, unable to move.

Tian Mei no longer had the time or the energy to address Dian Ai anymore, as the werewolves had become overwhelming. She wasn’t even able to deal with them with her complete attention. She had reached the end, and the only choice she had left was to use her final trump card. It was a potion her family had managed to acquire with some cost. It was similar to the potion that Yang Ying was given and used in that it increased a person’s power.

However, this one was a bit less punishing, merely increasing a person by a few tiers for about ten minutes. It would have severe backlashes after though, especially depending on how it was used. In this situation where more enemies were coming into the valley every moment, her death would shortly follow the backlash, as she’d be incapable of fighting any longer. However, she didn’t have any choice. Letting out one final roar, she pulled out the vial and downed it in a single swig.

The werewolves that had been attacking her backed off a step, wary as her body suddenly began to change. A boiling sensation shot through her body as her energy surged. For a moment, her energy which was sitting at the 1^st tier of the third realm began to climb. She reached the 2^nd tier, and then the 3^rd tier. More and more energy began to build, but it ultimately wasn’t enough to bring her into the mid-tiers of the mortal maturation realm. Her eyes flickered with light as her dantian gave off a hundred times the energy that it originally did. Her power was incomparable to the power she had before.  It was enough that the werewolves all hesitated, giving her a moment of reprieve.

In the end, the energy boost wasn’t enough to bring her into the 4^th tier, but that wasn’t surprising. There was typically a bottleneck between these tiers, and such a barrier couldn’t be crossed easily. This still put her at the top of the 3^rd realm, lower tiers. If she had to battle Xie Mingyu in this state, he would likely not have been the champion of the disciple selection’s eldest group, but then again, such tricks were frowned upon if not outright banned.

Either way, it was a family heirloom, something one of her ancestors, a cultivator much higher realm than herself, had left in the family vault untold generations in the past. It had only been given to her as a last resort to try to preserve her life. She never imagined that she would have had to use it in a mere disciple selection. For families of the mortal world, such items were divine artifacts that were part of a family’s foundation, and by consuming one, she had weakened her family.

She would likely need to spend her life helping them recover what was lost at that moment, but that all depended on if she lived a bit longer. Since she had already committed to this step though, she was naturally prepared to die. In that case, protecting Dian Ai, she hoped that with her talent and skill, after she had grown a bunch, she would show Tian Mei’s family repayment for her life. She also hoped Tian Day, her sister, wouldn’t hold this against her. After all, it was her sister who had given her the potion in the first place.

Thus, with her newfound strength, she rushed out, her whip flashing and her red hair dancing, the ponytail she had once had fallen off causing her hair to flow from her head like a fire. The werewolves who had initially had the advantage were now being beaten back. Although her display could be considered quite heroic, it was all lost on Dian Ai who had become frozen.

She already had three werewolves on her. These were all second-realm creatures, and it was well known that sagebeasts in the 2^nd realm were stronger and more dangerous than their human equivalents. It was usually necessary to be a bit higher realm to fight on an even playing field. This was easiest to display with the fate of Su Fan. Su Fan had been at the top of the mid-2^nd realm, and yet she had been knocked out. Perhaps, if Dian Ai were to fight one-on-one, she might have a chance, but there were already three on her.

Crack…

It was at that moment that the worst situation started for Dian Ai. The barrier she had been depending on had finally run out of energy. The werewolves were vicious and continued attacking the barrier to weaken it quickly. In the end, it had only held out a short time. Of course, this barrier was special and was tied to the amulet, so as long as she had run and abandoned Su Fan, while the three werewolves consumed her, there was a high chance she could have escaped, but in the end, no matter how strong and how much potential she had, a ten-year-old girl was still only ten, and she had become frozen in indecision.

Her heart beat rapidly, and her legs shook to the point it was good she wasn’t standing, as she would have fallen on her butt if she wasn’t already in that position. She could only stare up at the sharp fangs and claws desperately breaking through to try to kill her. She had never felt so lost before. When she arrived at this place, she knew it was dangerous, but she quickly found Tian Mei who had looked out for her with such confidence. Thus, she had never actually experienced any crisis.

Of course, her training had also never put her in danger. Although she didn’t know this, her family had raised her from the beginning as a bride in the making. Her potential and all of her gains would eventually be claimed by a man. She was to be sold off and used for a hundred strokes, so naturally her training had never intended to prepare her to fight for her life as Liao An had done for Bao bi. Although they were both technically being raised for the same purpose, the distance they needed to climb was far different, and Tigra knew the dangers Bao bi would be able to face. She knew there would be times, like this very realm, where she wouldn’t be able to protect him, so she had prepared him for everything. Meanwhile, Dian Ai was the very epitome of a greenhouse flower, having been raised as a receptacle filled with the purest spiritual energy, but not the temperament to use it properly.

The barrier exploded at that moment, and Dian Ai could only turn her eyes away, wrapping her arms around Su Fan to protect her with her body, if only for a moment longer. It was her last act of kindness in a world that had only ever intended to chew her up and spit her out, although at that moment it was about to become far more literal. She was waiting for the pain and death that she knew would follow the barrier-breaking, but as the seconds passed, the attack didn’t come.

She could hear grunting, and slowly she began to open her eyes. Her bleary eyes finally looked up to see a man standing before her. Somebody had come and rescued her? She could also tell he was young, part of her age group. A face flashed in her mind. It was the young boy from the competition, the man who earned the 11^th position. He was not only her age and possibly a genius cultivator like her, but he had seemingly achieved it with none of the family resources she had.

Her heart began to beat harder and harder as her eyes continued to lift. He appeared to be in a struggle, and she realized that the werewolf who had attacked her was currently grappling with him. He was only in the 2^nd realm, but he was able to grapple with a werewolf directly. Just how powerful was he? Not to mention, he came just in time to save her, arriving not a moment too late. Her cheeks turned red and she couldn’t help but become more and more flustered. He was her knight in shining armor! Although she always seemed cold, she was quite fond of such stories, although she never would have admitted it.

“Fuck off!” He suddenly shoved the werewolf back and punched it.

The werewolf flew back, letting out a cry of annoyance. However, looking up, it realized all of the other werewolves had seemingly fled. It let out a growl, but as one of the weaker and smaller from its clan, it was no longer confident, thus with a growl, it turned and ran off into the forest. As for where the other two werewolves Dian Ai, Su Fan, or the rest of the clan went, Dian Ai had been too paralyzed to see.

However, her body calmed down, and she finally looked to greet the man who saved her, the man who had taken her heart. Bao…

“Sniff…” A someone lumpy, tall boy with a rather nondescript face wiped his nose with his hand. “What are you looking at?”

“Ah…” She trembled. “Who are you?”

He looked down at her, and then grinned, putting out the same hand he had just wiped his nose with. “The name is Qi Xue, and I rescued you!”