35. Blue Rain
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The monsters were led by a giant Level Eight bear, which charged forward the instant it saw them.
Weiyan nodded and Xu Wen and Xu Lian activated a twin technique.
Xu Wen could control wood like his mother, but Xu Lian had inherited her father's boundary techniques.
Combined, the two could create a fortified wall, strong enough to hold a Level six, maybe a Level Seven, but they knew it wouldn't hold any level eights for long...
The twins created two walls, one between them and the beasts, and a longer one to keep the beasts from following Xu Lin's group, even if they broke through the first one.
The bear crashed into the first wall, shaking the terrain, and they all took involuntary steps back as the wall shuddered.
Their weapons hissed to life, and they stood at the ready.
Weiyan turned to Luoyin. "2nd Disciple Zhang, I let you stay because you're knowledgeable." And she intended to personally ensure his safety. "Do you have any ideas?"
'Hmph. I stayed because I can't let anything happen to you!' Luoyin thought. 'Yuan Jing!' He activated the farseeing technique, and it creeped beyond the wall, calculating the beasts' strengths.
"There are thirty-three beasts. Seven Level eights, Five Level Sevens, Sixteen Level Sixes, and five Level Fives..." The beasts were all troublesome types too, with several tigers, wolves, pandas, serpents, and a rhino.
There were too many!
He had used too much qi already, in hurrying back to the camp, and secretly killing that first snake which had nearly attacked Xu Min.
And he would not summon Yinying.
There were simply too many eyes present, and he didn't even know Yinying's current strength.
He turned his appraisal technique on Weiyan and the others... They were strong, but wouldn't be able to defeat a handful, so a regular fight would be pointless.
They needed a way to destroy several at once...
"I do have a plan." Luoyin finally said. "...but it will depend on you. I need you to buy me some time!"
Weiyan nodded.
The giant bear's assault on the wall sent tremors through the ground, and Xu Wen and Xu Lian held their hands in seals, attempting to reinforce the walls.
But with a terrible creak and groan, the wooden wall snapped, and the creatures burst through.
The bear rampaged in first, followed by a tiger and two wolves larger than big carriages.
"Scatter!" Weiyan ordered, and they all leapt several distances apart.
"Xu Lian! The serpent!" Weiyan ordered, and Xu Lian instantly turned her attention to a level seven serpent which was easily the fastest, and its slithering around would surely make things difficult.
Xu Lin cast hand seals as she moved, and several barriers erupted from the floor along the serpent's body, locking it in place.
"Everyone, evade as much as possible!" Weiyan called out, managing to block a deadly swipe from a tiger, and the leaping away.
Tao Yun was already hurling fireballs at the bear, evading its gigantic claws, and he occasionally shot dense flaming arrows at other approaching creatures, using his weapon, a large fiery bow.
Meanwhile, Xu Wen's vines shot about, locking onto the creatures, holding them down or at least slowing them down for as long as he could, while Weiyan went between he and Xu Lian's captured victims, dealing blows to them, for what it was worth.
These tactics might have worked against fewer or less powerful opponents, but the beasts were too strong and too many!
They were burning large amounts of qi, simply by shielding, evading, or attacking, and had only managed to take down five beasts.
To preserve qi, they had switched to talismans and trick attacks. Still it was no good, and the beasts left were chasing after them with a vengeance, or trying to break through the second wall...
Weiyan was just beginning to lose hope, and she opened her mouth to give the 'Retreat' order, when there was a brilliant flash of blue lightning, and clouds suddenly covered the moon, casting them into more darkness.
'Rain?!' They all thought with dismay.
Wouldn't that worsen their current situation?!
But to their astonishment, dazzling blue raindrops began to fall!
Even more surprising was the fact that the raindrops only fell on the beasts, making them freeze, and casting the clearing into a sudden silence.
However, in the next instant, the beasts suddenly moved, and the disciples jumped back into action.
But the beasts completely ignored them and began attacking themselves!
A Level Eight wolf, its eyes blazing with fury, lunged at a rhino, which swung its massive horn in response. The other beasts, caught in the chaos, started to attack each other, their roars and snarls filling the air.
The disciples flocked together, watching the strange and spectacular sight, as the beasts brutally tore at themselves.
'What's happening?' Weiyan wondered, as beast after beast fell in the brawl.
Soon, one wolf was all that was left, but it was so weakened that a well-aimed arrow from Tao Yue sent it sprawling to the ground.
The blue rain ceased, and the clouds cleared.
Luoyin leapt down from a tree and stumbled towards them, clutching his chest, a spot it blond on his face mask. "It's called 'Madness Rain'." He explained, coming up with the first nonsensical name that entered his mind! "It makes the targets perceive themselves as enemies."
Weiyan was the first to overcome her shock, and she hurried to Luoyin, catching his upper arm, just as he nearly fell.
"Zhang Luoyin, were you always so powerful?!" Xu Lian asked, her voice dripping suspicion.
Several eyes narrowed at Luoyin, and he quickly waved a hand.
"No no, this was done with a talisman!" He smoothly lied. "I saw it in a book! The madness is caused by a herb I had, and the talisman caused the rain!"
It was half true...
He indeed had a herb that could drive any beast to madness, but the effect was too mild, so he had needed time to refine it with another herb, which greatly increased its potency!
Then he needed a way to get it on every single beast, without endangering anyone.
There were certainly other ways... But there was a particular technique he needed to try.
The ruler of the East Seas bore the duty of bringing rain to mortals, and was tasked with the tiniest details of where to send rain, when to send rain, and even how much rain to send per region!
Bailong had never ruled the eastern seas, but his father and elder brother had once chosen him as successor, and that somehow awakened the dormant power within him.
Once he became Lord Medicine, he occasionally came to plague infested regions in the Mortal Realm, and came up with a new technique to send medicines in the rain, much to the annoyance of his two friends.
One's duty was to guide the fate of mortals... "Bailong, how many times do I have to say it?! Things happen for a reason! That region was supposed to be wiped out by a plague, or they might wage a deadly war on ......"
The other's duty was to govern the realms, and ensure immortals did not interfere in the mortal realm... "Bailong! Do you want me to die from the sheer complaints of the Plague deity and the Sky Council?!"
All Bailong could do was smile apologetically, as he was sentenced to yet another grounding within Central Sky Realm, where the same two friends would come and keep him company, sharing wine and laughter...
Pushing the sad memories away in the present, Bailong knew it was utterly crazy to try using the rain technique as a mortal.
But he had never forgotten how the rain fell with blue lightning, the night he awakened as Zhang Luoyin, and the night he raged before his brother's statue.
The technique was certainly possible.
And he had done it, ...but at the cost of nearly emptying his remaining qi!
'I'm never doing that again!' He firmly decided.
There was a collective sigh of relief, as the disciples acknowledged they had just survived an incredible ordeal.
The air was crisp and clear, and thirty-three beast cores rose up, lighting the night in glowing colours.
They left them there like that for a minute or two, simply enjoying the peace and the colours.
Then Luoyin swiftly held up a hand, and six specific cores zipped into his ring. "Well we're five, so six cores each! The two strongest can agree on the remaining three!"
"Who gave you the right to pick first?!" Xu Lian demanded.
"But I'm the eldest here!" He pretended not to know Tao Yun was at least two years his senior!
"Says who?! Disciple Tao is the eldest! And besides, you're the weakest!"
"Now, now, did I not just kill most of the beasts?" He shrugged.
"Oh?" Xu Lian raised a brow. "Didn't you say it was a herb and talisman?!"
Xu Wen patted her head. "There, there, it's already done. All the cores here are powerful." He said
Tao Yun and Weiyan simply shook their heads, while Xu Wen and Xu Lien slyly eyed Luoyin with suspicion.
'Did that rain really work the way he said?' Xu Wen wondered.
The blood on Luoyin's face mask suggested he had spewed blood after expending a large amount of qi.
Would a talisman do that?
But as they all shared the remaining cores, Luoyin was oblivious.
He was internally rejoicing!
'Seven decent beast cores in one night!' He just got six more, in addition to the core of the Serpent he had killed earlier!
'Wait till Laoying hears!'
But a shadow suddenly crossed his mind...
After awakening as Zhang Luoyin, he had heard all the accusations against the Black Dragon.
In addition to descending on the Mortal Realm to kill and destroy, there had been mention of a strange curse.
'What was it?' He tried to recall the name. 'Ah! The 'Blood Frenzy Curse'!'
The people had said:
"The Blood Frenzy Curse, could make a child stab its own mother, and a mother stab their own child. Anyone under the curse couldn't recognise friend from foe, and went on a killing frenzy..."
Luoyin's eyes widened.
Wasn't that exactly what he had just done to these beasts?
If his suspicions were correct, a black dragon was indeed wreaking havoc in the mortal realm, and they were most likely using his rain technique to spread a poison which drove people into a killing frenzy.
This was no longer a case of being mistaken as the culprit.
No. Someone had deliberately tried to make mortals, and even immortals believe he had done those things!
The question was who?
Only he and his older brother could control rain, but only another dragon could use that technique.
His brother, current ruler of the Eastern Seas, severely hated him and was cold-blooded enough to do such a thing.
But he wasn't a dragon! He was a Merman.
So what exactly was happening?
Who was this hidden enemy...?
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