Chapter 2358

He pulled a small figurine from his sleeve, murmured a couple of lines, aimed it at the swarm of Bloodsucking Sparrows, and gave it a gentle shake: "Come out, give these blind fools a lesson!"

"Eh?" Zhu Xiuer took one look, finding it strangely familiar, "Isn't this the statue of Xu Ling Qionglong?"

A few days ago, it had still been in the mirror world, fighting Qionglong.

A wisp of transparent vapor seemed to hover over the figurine, and immediately a tornado whipped up out of nowhere behind the crane yaos!

From nothing to something, from small to large — just three or four breaths — the opponents simply had no time to react.

The tornado wasn't huge, seventy or eighty zhang in diameter; the crane yaos flew so steadily and swiftly they were barely affected;

but it wasn't small either — it burst open in midair, its form expanding just enough to swallow the diving Bloodsucking Sparrows, stuffing nearly all of them into the vortex.

Hundreds more panicked — some fled back, some crashed toward the crane yaos — and Zhu Xiuer shot out a handful of spider silk, lightly and deftly sticking them back.

Ground Spiders catching birds have always had great technique.

A wind monster like Qionglong has always had tremendous killing power against avian yaos in the air. He Lingchuan watched over a dozen clusters of blood mist, large and small, explode inside the tornado, like summer fireworks — beautiful and bewitching.

Those were the hidden wind blades in the vortex slicing the Bloodsucking Sparrows to ribbons, then conveying the nutrients to Qionglong.

By the time the tornado vanished, crimson feathers raining from the sky looked like a rain of blood falling on the ghost city.

By now the crane yaos had already flown several li away, leaving the ghost city far behind.

He Lingchuan looked back and could still see the face of the Earth Mother condensed from clouds and mist, her gaze seemingly locked firmly on him.

In such a brief clash, the two sides had become enemies.

Human great cities also set up no-fly barriers to drive away flying personnel, but they would never be like the Earth Mother — the moment someone approaches, she sends out Bloodsucking Sparrows to kill directly.

She truly regards living beings as nothing.

Right now Zhu Xiuer's net still held a pile of spoils waiting to be dealt with — not only were they chirping noisily, they seriously slowed the crane yaos' flight speed.

After flying a little longer, the cranes chose a patch of uncorrupted ground to land on.

Seven or eight Eyeball Spiders crawled out, wanting to eat these sparrows.

Bloodsucking Sparrows feed by tearing flesh from prey with their sharp beaks, while Ground Spiders inject potent anesthetic and digestive fluid into prey, able to suck out the liquefied essence of flesh and blood in a short while. But the little spiders had barely finished needling two sparrows when Dong Rui said, "Why not collect them first, leave them for my experiments."

"These can be used for experiments too?"

"Their minds are simple, very easy to control."

Zhu Xiuer agreed at once: "Fine, just the anesthetic. These things are annoyingly loud!"

The little spiders only injected anesthetic into the prey; before long they quieted down. So Zhu Xiuer bundled up the net and stuffed it into her abdominal pouch.

This is the internal storage space that comes with a new spider molt — it can even hold living things, though the capacity isn't large — otherwise the Spider Queen would have to carry prey on her back or tied to her abdomen every time, which is very inconvenient.

And once placed inside this abdominal pouch space, the Bloodsucking Sparrows' sensory link with their original master was severed; the Earth Mother could not track He Lingchuan and the others by following the trail.

……

Yujing City seemed to have undergone a heavy rain — a rain of Bloodsucking Sparrow feathers.

Watching the figures of the few crane yaos fly swiftly away, the yaos in Yujing City let out unwilling roars. A few avian yaos wanted to give chase but were stopped by the Earth Mother.

"Tracking is useless too; these fellows look extremely thorny at a glance."

The two Heavenly Gods standing on the city wall both frowned tightly at this sight.

A voice suddenly came from the side: "Daring to approach and observe — quite bold. The people on the crane's back, do you recognize them?"

A tiny stone man, only a bit larger than a palm, had appeared on the battlements at some point — round head, round brain, round belly, humanoid features, eyes glowing red.

"Don't recognize them; they're wearing masks." Xi Yu shook his head, "Many sects can command wind monsters; just from this one divine ability, the origin can't be determined."

The stone man picked up half a bird head from the ground, examined it carefully: "My little pets aren't something ordinary wind monsters can smash. These wind blades cut sharply and cleanly — very much like the handiwork of that wind demon from the Swiftwind Plains."

Yujing City doesn't raise trash; its Bloodsucking Sparrows are a unique breed — small in size, yet steel-winged and iron-clawed, even their feathers gleam with metallic luster. To put it this way: cutting open a Yujing Bloodsucking Sparrow is no easier than cutting open steel; ordinary gang winds simply can't do it.

Moreover, this wind monster wasn't dealing with just one Bloodsucking Sparrow, but over a thousand!

"Swiftwind Plains?" Wu Yao didn't know where that was.

Xi Yu obviously had better geographical knowledge than Him: "Inside the Baoshu Kingdom. That great mountain is even named after it, called Mount Mount Fengmo Mountain; every day zi-wu gang winds seep out from the earth's core, able to slice a living person into mincemeat in a few breaths. However, that Xian Sect perished hundreds of years ago, even the Great Mount Mount Fengmo was exterminated."

Wu Yao glared at Him. Why say so much detail? It sounds like he was sent by Between Between Between Beijia.

The Earth Mother asked the two of them: "Who knows you've come here?"

"In principle not many, but Ling Mountain and Cang Yan's intelligence has always been quite well-informed."

Wu Yao left a few true words unsaid — after they successfully descended as gods, they first went to help the Fu Kingdom win several battles, then headed northwest. Even if the god-descent at Pulu Island didn't alarm the world, their public appearance and unleashing of ultimate moves on the Fu Kingdom battlefield were seen clearly by who knows how many pairs of eyes.

Intelligence like this isn't easy to conceal.

"You call yourselves powerful, yet can't even hide your whereabouts?" The Earth Mother was not polite, "Trash!"

Perhaps this trouble was brought by these two useless Heavenly Demons.

Xi Yu raised an eyebrow, somewhat displeased.

Everywhere they passed in the mortal world, not to mention ordinary people, even ministers, kings, princes, and sect great yaos treated them with utmost reverence. Only this stone man barked orders at them, arrogant and crude.

Wu Yao said: "Today's mortal world is vastly different from the past; nations have risen, even immortals and yaos must attach themselves to them. They spy on each other's intelligence with methods so sophisticated and concealed that ordinary immortals and yaos can hardly imagine."

"Nations risen?" The Earth Mother laughed low, her voice full of mockery, "Along my way here, I haven't seen any risen nations."

Xi Yu said: "Petty small countries, of course they're no match for the Earth Mother."

"Oh?" The Earth Mother caught the implication, "Then in your view, which nation is my match?"

This Heavenly Demon means small countries are no good, but large countries are?

"Not to mention Between Between Between Beijia and Mou Kingdom, even the rising Cang Yan — you might not come out ahead there either." Xi Yu also stirred some anger, speaking impolitely, "These years, several ancient great sects have emerged from the Shanjin Plains, each wanting to cross arms with Cang Yan. The result? Result: Cang Yan still enjoys favorable winds and timely rains to this day."