Chapter 2235: Blood Toad

At this moment he stared at the sky thick with clouds, and suddenly a strange thought arose:

Just when the war began it was still clear skies, when did it become overcast with cloud masses?

And these clouds kept churning without rest, like an overturned sea surface, as if some monster were trapped inside.

The thought had not finished when the clouds suddenly unleashed more than ten bolts of lightning, crackling several times as they struck the distant mountains, those long electric chains making one's hair stand on end.

Not only did Lin Mu catch fire, but a boulder two zhang in diameter was split by lightning and rumbled down into the deep valley.

Both armies were startled.

Hu Min's subordinate commander Wu Yitian was leading the troops across the low slope when he heard the sound and turned to look, only to see a red mist suddenly rising from behind him!

In an instant, the red mist condensed into a monster.

This thing resembled both a human and a toad, or more accurately, like a toad standing upright, because its hind legs were long and forelimbs short, head large and mouth huge, the mouth splitting back to the ears, and its body covered with many red bumps.

But unlike a toad, its claws were longer and sharper than an otter's, yet unusually agile.

Seeing this, the personal guards behind Wu Yitian shouted "Be careful!" and lunged forward.

But it was too late; the thing split its mouth, a red shadow shot out, and pierced Wu Yitian's occiput.

Immediately it opened its huge mouth and swallowed Wu Yitian whole!

Everyone was shocked.

A god eating people on the battlefield—this was the first time seeing such a thing.

Moreover, its appearance was completely different from the previous vessel.

The divine descents He Lingchuan had seen before, no matter which god was in control, the vessel's appearance remained basically unchanged, only the core was replaced.

But this one had completely transformed the vessel—needless to say, its combat ability had greatly increased.

More than a dozen arrows aimed at its heart, yet the red toad again dispersed into red mist.

When the arrows passed through the red mist, it also vanished.

After more than ten breaths, Hu Min's heart suddenly throbbed violently—a premonition!

He was a warrior tempered through countless trials, with an almost instinctive sense of danger; this contraction of his heart felt as if someone had driven a needle into it.

He happened to be standing beside a fine steed, and without hesitation he threw himself sideways, using the horse to shield himself.

Immediately afterward, his left arm erupted in sharp pain, and he heard the horse's painful neigh.

It turned out two red cords had pierced the horse's thighs, and with remaining force they also stabbed into his arm.

Had he not reacted extremely quickly, those red cords would have pierced his heart.

Looking again, what was this if not the monster's tongue?

And after piercing its prey, the tongue would instantly split and branch out, fixing the prey in place.

Don't be fooled by the monster's modest size—when its tongue retracted, it dragged both person and horse back, intending to swallow them whole in one gulp.

But with a large horse plus a person, the weight was considerable, so the speed of its tongue retraction was not as nimble as usual.

A knife flew in from outside, slicing past the red tongue with a swoosh.

This tongue, as hard as a steel cable, was severed; Hu Min was saved, and the long knife flew another zhang to embed itself in the ground, its hilt a beautiful dragon's head.

Floating Life.

In the nick of time, He Lingchuan acted promptly.

Now the Floating Life Blade has the ability to conceal itself; once he throws it, it immediately vanishes into the void, only appearing before the enemy, greatly reducing the chance of interception, and it is also hard to interfere with during flight.

He then gestured, and the Floating Life Blade returned to his side.

The red toad's gaze followed the precious blade as it turned, locking firmly onto He Lingchuan.

He hooked his finger at it, saying, "Come on."

Let's see who kills whom.

Strictly speaking, this monster's skill and the Floating Life Blade's concealment are the same—slipping into the enemy's blind spot behind them before revealing its form. And He Lingchuan fears nothing more than such opponents.

The monster grinned at him, revealing bloody steel teeth.

It paused like this, and Shi Shichu immediately said: "It seems to have grown a bit stronger."

Before the blood toad's first massacre, its skin was entirely sunken, like wind-dried board duck. But now, when it ambushed Hu Min, it actually had some muscle, no longer emaciated.

He Lingchuan's eyes flickered: "It can strengthen itself by eating people."

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The blood toad glanced at He Lingchuan once more, then vanished from its original spot again.

The personal guards beside the Tiger-Wing General gripped their weapons tightly, waiting only for its appearance to strike immediately.

However, it did not come over.

Where had it gone? Everyone's eyes swept back and forth across the battlefield; the lakeside clearing was neither particularly large nor small, a sea of people everywhere, the terrain uneven with countless hiding spots—trying to find a monster here was like looking for a needle in the ocean.

Suddenly, the Great Wind Guard beside him shouted: "Over there!"

Following his pointed direction, two hundred zhang away on a small hill, the red toad again bit a minor dragon-coiled commander Du Lingshan, who had just turned twenty-three the day before, had first shown promise in the previous Battle of Yuheng City, and was promoted by He Lingchuan, now leading troops to block the Beiqa mountain infantry.

His two personal guards behind him fought desperately to rescue him, but both were eaten.

However, Du Lingshan, ignoring the pain, struck back with two blades, hitting the monster's shoulder and chopping off one of its arms!

The vessel strengthened by divine power was astonishingly hard—even blades that cut gold and jade could not slice through it—but Du Lingshan could achieve such a feat in one strike, not only due to his own superb cultivation and martial skill, but primarily because of the thick red elemental force!

The elemental force of the Panlong army's commanders, even divine vessels cannot withstand head-on. Moreover, their reaction speed actually exceeds the demons' predictions.

The blood toad roared angrily and turned into red mist, dispersing.

Before this Panlong army's expedition to the Xiluo region, Beiqa and Panlongcheng had not fought for several years, although they had never ceased monitoring Panlongcheng, but much intelligence had to be exchanged firsthand to be understood directly, such as the growth and changes in Panlongcheng's elemental force.

The blood toad suffered from delayed intelligence updates—even a heaven god was actually wounded by humans.

But through this engagement it can also be seen that Panlong soldiers, as individuals, still cannot match the demons. Setting aside the demons' own power and agility, their divine arts are myriad and strange, and a moment's carelessness by the opponent leads to being hit.

At this moment Hu Min also came running, holding in his hand the half of the long tongue severed by the Floating Life Blade. The Red General was pursuing the Jin Pass ghost spawns when he turned back and, from a distance, shouted to Shi Shichu: "It's just a blindfold—track its whereabouts."

The Blood Toad's long tongue was like an oversized earthworm, limp and slick in the hand, still writhing and twisting. Xu Shichu did not find it disgusting; he grabbed it in one hand and used the tail of a silver needle to scrape off a sample of flesh and blood, then ignited a flame to roast it.

The flame was an eerie pale cyan; a human hand touching it felt no heat, yet the entire silver needle was burned to a glowing red like a branding iron.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the personal guards beside Hu Min hurriedly treated his wounds.

Hu Min's luck was not bad; the Blood Toad's strike had not shattered his bones, and the wound was very small. He sealed his own acupoints to stop the bleeding, swallowed two pills, and the personal guards applied a gel-like ointment; the wound then transmitted a wave of numb itching.

(End of Chapter)