Chapter 557: The Treacherous Street

On a street teeming with people.

Li Luo and his group kept their formation as they advanced cautiously. They looked at the noisy crowds around them, eyes filled with wariness and vigilance. After all, no matter how lifelike these people seemed, they absolutely were not real, and no one knew whether some terrifying Other might be hiding among them.

The Eldest Princess and Qin Lian Zong, both of Tian Zhu Jing, were at the very front of the group, while Gong Gong Shenjun and Zhao Zhao Beili were at the very rear. These two positions were the most dangerous, so naturally they required the strongest members of the group to stand guard.

Li Luo, Lu Ming, Sun Sun Dasheng, Senior Zhu Zhu Xuan and the other Diviner Phase cultivators were positioned in the center of the group.

"Are these people real or fake? I really want to grab one and test it." Sun Sun Dasheng shouldered his staff, his gaze fixed straight on the crowds coming and going around them.

Hearing this, Li Luo was immediately startled and hurriedly stopped him: "Don't cause trouble!"

This really was a thick-headed brute, daring to actively provoke trouble in a situation like this.

"If you want to die, go do it somewhere else, don't drag us down with you." Lu Ming also said irritably.

Senior Zhu Zhu Xuan's expression turned uneasy as he took two steps away from Sun Sun Dasheng. This guy seemed to not be all there in the head; better keep some distance so he wouldn't get killed along with him.

Sun Sun Dasheng defended himself: "I'm just throwing a stone to test the road. If these people really have problems, it's better to deal with them early."

The others could only give dry laughs at this, then watched him warily, ready at any moment to stop him from doing something reckless.

While they were talking here, on the street bustling with people coming and going, a thin, frail figure suddenly came tumbling out of the crowd and collapsed right in front of Jiang Jiang Qinge on the right side of the group. It was a little beggar in tattered clothes, his face sallow and emaciated, exposed skin covered with festering wounds, looking utterly wretched. At this moment, he held up a chipped bowl, his eyes filled with fright as he looked at Jiang Jiang Qinge, but still summoned his courage and timidly held the bowl out.

"Sister, please spare me a bite to eat, I'm so hungry." he said in a trembling voice.

The advancing group came to a halt, everyone's gazes turning over, all carrying wariness.

Jiang Jiang Qinge's golden eyes regarded the pitiful little beggar before her, and she said softly: "Very hungry?"

She extended her slender, jade-like hand, not minding the little beggar's dirty, tangled hair at all, and placed it on his head.

The little beggar's eyes went wide, a look of hopeful light shining in them.

But the next instant, brilliant light bloomed. Jiang Jiang Qinge's five fingers clenched into a fist, light-attribute phase force transforming into burning flames of light, and she delivered a meteor-like punch that slammed heavily into the little beggar's face.

Boom!

The little beggar was sent flying by the punch, his entire body crashing through the street stalls one after another, before finally smashing into a house. The house collapsed down, burying him beneath it.

The sudden turn of events immediately threw the street's crowd into chaos, and they began fleeing in all directions.

The people in the group also fell silent for a moment, looking at Jiang Jiang Qinge with a hint of astonishment in their gazes. Clearly, her decisive, thunderous strike had been quite unexpected.

Seeing how gently she had been patting the little beggar just now, they had been worrying about whether to speak up and remind her not to casually show kindness at a time like this. Turns out they were overthinking it.

"Li Luo, your fiancée is really fierce, decisive in killing, a ruthless one." Sun Sun Dasheng sighed to Li Luo.

Li Luo paid him no attention, instead looking toward the collapsed house at the front of the street. The next instant, his gaze suddenly sharpened, for he saw the house there explode apart in an instant. A piercing shriek erupted, rolling waves of malice energy surged up, and the ruins were instantly melted away.

Everyone looked over and saw that at the site of the ruins, within the thick malice energy, the twisted little beggar began to swell. In the blink of an eye, he transformed into a humanoid spider-like Other. The spider's upper body was a mass of mangled flesh and blood, and it was precisely that twisted little beggar.

The little beggar's mouth split open to the base of his ears, his mouth full of black fangs, drooling with foul-smelling saliva.

Its gaze fixed on Jiang Jiang Qinge with venomous, ferocious hatred.

Yet Jiang Jiang Qinge was utterly unafraid, merely saying coolly: "Still hungry now?"

The little beggar's childish face was covered in venomous hatred, the spider body writhing beneath him a mass of mangled flesh. He suddenly opened his ferocious maw and let out a twisted shriek.

Boom!

This stretch of street suddenly began to shake violently. The surrounding houses collapsed without warning, and beams of powerful malice energy shot skyward. One powerful Other after another began burrowing out from within, among them even no small number of small Calamity-level Others.

With such a display, rolling malice energy surged forth, blotting out the sky.

"The Others within hundreds of miles of Red Stone City really have all been drawn here." The Eldest Princess saw this, her pretty face tightening slightly. Her slender hand gripped the Jade Scepter tightly, then powerful phase force erupted from her delicate frame. Seven resplendent Tian Zhu manifested behind her, drawing in and releasing the energy of heaven and earth.

"Student Qin Lian Zong, we'll leave this place to you, alright?" The Eldest Princess's phoenix eyes looked toward Qin Lian Zong, and she swiftly assigned several teammates to him.

"No problem, you all just go ahead and set up the Purification Spirit Pearls."

Qin Lian Zong grinned, then took a step forward. With a clench of his hand, a massive hammer appeared in his grip, and his already burly frame swelled even further at this moment. Behind him, within the surging phase force, a faint ox-like silhouette seemed to manifest.

His foot came down, and the ground instantly cracked apart. That terrifying force made even Li Luo's eyelid twitch.

Then Qin Lian Zong led three teammates and charged straight at the Others appearing around them.

While Qin Lian Zong and the others held off the Others, the Eldest Princess's voice rang out: "Move, let's head to the first placement point first. Once Qin Lian Zong and the others finish here, they'll catch up."

Having said that, she took the lead, charging straight down the street.

The rest of the group followed one after another.

The little beggar Other's venomous gaze remained locked on Jiang Jiang Qinge. Seeing her about to break away, it immediately let out a shriek that pierced the air.

Boom!

But before it could get close, a massive hammer smashed through the void and came crashing down, slamming right onto its skull. Its head instantly split open with crack after crack, black viscous fluid streaming out from within, and it was sent flying hundreds of meters, crashing through building after building.

"Trash, Laozi will play with you."

Qin Lian Zong reached out and caught the returning massive hammer, shook the black fluid off it, and grinned ferociously.

The little beggar Other roared out. The next instant, it opened its mouth and spewed a torrent of black floodwater, within which countless anguished wails sounded, like a Heihe, sweeping toward Qin Lian Zong.

Qin Lian Zong's massive hammer came crashing down, the void trembling, and the terrifying force flipped this

entire street over.

The great battle erupted.

Meanwhile, Li Luo and the others closely followed the Eldest Princess's group, swiftly advancing toward the placement location for the Purification Spirit Pearls.

They could sense that in other areas of the city, violent energy fluctuations were also being transmitted. Clearly, the other team must have also encountered an attack from Others.

Obviously, to welcome them, the great Calamity-level Other within Red Stone City had long since made thorough preparations.

But at this point they could not spare any thought for the other side, because as they kept advancing, more and more Others began emerging along the way. These Others were considerable in both number and strength, so the experts in their group could only keep getting pulled off to deal with them.

In the span of just ten minutes, only the Eldest Princess, Jiang Jiang Qinge, and Li Luo, these four little Diviner Phase cultivators, remained in the group.

"One more street and we should be at the location." The Eldest Princess estimated the direction, then said solemnly to the others.

Her footsteps suddenly slowed at this moment.

Her somewhat sharp phoenix eyes looked toward the end of the street, where a figure sat cross-legged on the bluestone slabs. It was a burly man, his face utterly expressionless, no trace of human emotion in his pupils.

He raised his head and looked back at the Eldest Princess.

Then a line of blood extended down from between his brows, and immediately, flesh and blood along that line actually grew countless sharp, fine, densely packed teeth, gnawing at the flesh on the other side, looking extremely bizarre and terrifying.

After gnawing at each other's flesh for a while, the two halves of the body split apart, and from the broken place, a deathly pale hand drilled out from the flesh.

They had actually directly become two aberrations!

Behind them surged a heaven-overflowing miasma of malevolent intent.

The Eldest Princess sensed these two aberrations born of one body, her willow-leaf brows knitting tightly, clearly aware of how troublesome the opponents were.

This aberration was extremely powerful.

"Jiang Qinge, I may need your help here." She turned her head and said to Jiang Jiang Qinge.

Jiang Jiang Qinge hesitated for a moment, then nodded. Her gaze swept over Li Luo, Lu Ming, and the other three, and she said, "The street ahead is where we can set up the Purification Spirit Beads. The powerful aberrations along the way have all been intercepted by us, so you should be able to get through, but you still need to be careful."

Li Luo's face turned solemn. This journey had truly been far too perilous; small-calamity-grade aberrations kept appearing one after another, and people at their Divination Master realm really were having a rough time of it here.

But under these circumstances, no matter how hard it was, they could only brace themselves and charge forward.

So he didn't say anything more, just nodded, then waved his hand at Lu Ming, Sun Sun Dasheng, and the others.

"Go!"

With a light shout, he took the lead and charged straight out.

Meanwhile, the Eldest Princess and Jiang Jiang Qinge struck first, a torrent of phase force tearing through the air, carrying an awe-inspiring killing intent, and slammed directly into that bizarre aberration that had split in two.

An energy storm ravaged the main street, shredding the buildings on both sides.

Li Luo and the other three took advantage of the moment to dash out, then, not daring to look back, rushed into that street where the Purification Spirit Beads could be set up.