Chapter 98: New Card—Invisibility Card!

"Yes!"

Chen Mu answered inwardly and picked up the card.

He reached into his pocket and touched the card to inspect it.

Martial Demonstration Card!

Another Martial Demonstration Card obtained.

'Who died?'

Chen Mu was curious.

The drop rate for a Martial Demonstration Card was extremely low; the corpse's owner in life had to be at least a martial arts grandmaster, well-versed in dozens of Wu Gong, and capable of creating his own.

Someone who met this condition…

'Lin Hun?'

Chen Mu pondered, his expression on his face unchanged, as he listened from afar to the sounds within the cave.

……

Meanwhile, inside the mountain cave.

In a cave with a dome over ten zhang high and only about ten zhang across.

Huang Keqin, Fang Yuanfu, Fang Yuanzuo, Wei Dongliang, Di Chunlei, and others darted about rapidly, dodging the invisible killers.

In this not-very-large cave, the central area was a pool of water.

Above the pool, suspended in midair, was a square stone slab over three meters long and wide.

A skeleton sat cross-legged on the stone slab.

The skeleton was silvery-white all over, its outer perimeter shrouded in a curtain of light formed by "Duan Tianhe Sword Qi."

From the deep-green pool, one after another invisible exotic beasts crawled out from time to time.

These exotic beasts moved at tremendous speed, caught the scent of humans, and ferociously attacked Huang Keqin, Sun Jindong, and the others.

Lin Hun, who had entered first, was killed.

His entire body was bitten clean in two at the waist; the upper half of his torso, and especially his head, burst apart—red and white splattering all over the ground.

"What kind of exotic beast is this?"

Shi Shi Kuangsheng's figure flickered; the longsword in his hand swept up a swath of sword light, slicing out with a sharp "shwa."

Whoosh!

Sword qi whistled out, slashing through the air and plowing a furrow in the ground.

The rapidly pouncing exotic beast simply wasn't hit.

Under its invisibility, not a trace of aura leaked from its body. Because it had come up from the pool, at first it would leave wet prints on the ground, but after running a couple of laps, the water traces vanished, and even its footprints were gone.

"Bam~!"

Wei Dongliang struck out with a palm, blasting straight ahead.

The dark-gold palm imprint struck an exotic beast; with a muffled, strange sound, it shattered the beast's invisibility, revealing its body, which was sent flying backward, slamming into the wall and gouging out a shallow crater.

The exotic beast slid down to the ground. The crowd looked toward the sound and saw a ferocious beast about two meters long, its body shaped like a crocodile but with a very short tail, sharp tusks bared at the corners of its mouth, and covered in fish-scale-like scales.

Wei Dongliang's palm had left the exotic beast lying in the corner of the wall, no longer moving, only its four limbs twitching.

"Whoosh!"

Shi Shi Kuangsheng swung his sword, slicing a streak of sword light through the air; with a "puchi," the head of this now-visible exotic beast was cut clean off.

……

【Corpse discovered. Pick up?】

"Yes!"

Outside the mountain cave, Chen Mu once again picked up a card from afar.

Then he reached into his pocket and touched the card to inspect it.

Invisibility Card!

A new card!

As the name suggested, using the Invisibility Card could put one's body into an invisible state.

This invisibility covered not only the flesh but also clothing, as well as aura, breath, and heartbeat.

Everything within a one-chi radius of the body's surface could be made invisible.

Duration: ten minutes.

'Ten minutes of invisibility, concealing everything—very nice!'

The corners of Chen Mu's mouth curved up slightly.

【Corpse discovered. Pick up?】

"Yes!"

The card was in hand; he touched it to inspect.

Another Invisibility Card!

'That's two now!'

'These invisible exotic beasts don't seem all that strong.'

Chen Mu mulled it over inwardly.

But for him, that was a good thing.

An Invisibility Card could only be used once, for ten minutes each time.

Pick up a few more, and he could turn invisible multiple times.

【Corpse discovered. Pick up?】

"Yes!"

Another card…

Uh, no, this one's a Qi card—three months of Qi.

……

Inside the cavern.

"Aaargh—!"

Accompanied by a scream, one of Fang Yuanfu's subordinates was pounced on by a strange beast, which bit into his neck; with a crack, his head was bitten clean off.

"Kill these beasts first!"

Shi Kuangsheng said in a low voice, "As long as these beasts aren't dead, none of us will be able to approach the Sword Reverent Duan Tianhe on the stone slab."

"……"

No one replied, but by unspoken accord they each targeted the invisible strange beasts and began to slaughter them.

Although the strange beasts were in an invisible state, moved fast, and didn't leak even a trace of their aura—

the space was limited, and among those who had entered the cavern were several late-stage Heaven-Communion cultivators, as well as an Earth-Altar realm cultivator, Wei Dongliang.

Holding their breath and focusing their spirit, carefully sensing the subtle air currents, they could still lock onto the rapidly moving invisible strange beasts and kill them.

"Boom—"

"Whoosh!"

"Rumble—!"

Muffled thuds, crashing sounds, and the noise of tearing flesh rang out from time to time.

Along the way, another three people were rammed to death and bitten to death by the invisible strange beasts.

A quarter of an hour later, the fighting stopped.

No more invisible strange beasts crawled out of the pool; on the surrounding ground lay seven strange-beast corpses.

"Damn, almost got the worst of it."

Di Chunlei cursed, withdrew his fist, lifted his foot to nudge the nearest invisible strange beast's corpse, and frowned. "What do these things eat? This cavern's been sealed for over two hundred years—how did they survive?"

"There should be an underground river beneath the pool," Zhao Fuzhou replied. "Sword Reverent Duan Tianhe diverted the underground river's water into this cavern, and set up a small, clever floating prohibition above the pool."

"This prohibition probably won't be that easy to break," Huang Keqin said, frowning.

"A prohibition formed from 'Duan Tianhe Sword Qi,' incidentally linked to the water vapor below. To break it, you have to cut off the water vapor's supply first," Fang Yuanfu added.

"Then what are we waiting for? Get to it."

Fang Yuanzuo said in a low voice; the moment his words fell, violent Qi surged as he threw a punch.

Whoooosh—

The fist-force pierced through the air and slammed into the underside of the square stone slab.

"Boom!"

A dull, strange thud.

The stone slab didn't move in the slightest, and the silver-white skeleton on it didn't tremble either.

Only the pool exploded, sending up great sheets of water that splashed everywhere.

"Don't attack blindly."

Di Chunlei glanced at Fang Yuanzuo and said irritably, "A prohibition laid down by Sword Reverent Duan Tianhe—how could it be that easy to break? Cutting off the water vapor doesn't mean destroying the pool, and it certainly doesn't mean attacking at random; it means diverting the water vapor away."

"Right, trying to force our way through will probably be very difficult," Shi Kuangsheng frowned. "Looks like we'll have to strike together—at least half of us attacking at the same time, using Qi to cut off the water vapor beneath the stone slab."

"Fine."

Huang Keqin said calmly, "You lot, go to the edge of the pool and use Qi to cut off the water vapor."

Huang Keqin waved his hand at his subordinates.

"You lot go over there too and divert the water vapor," Shi Kuangsheng said, waving his hand at his own subordinates.

Seeing this, Fang Yuanfu raised his hand toward his own subordinates.

Wei Dongliang did the same, giving Sun Jindong and the others a look.

Immediately, more than a dozen people stepped forward together and arrived at the edge of the pool.

"Hah!"

With a shout, these men circulated their Qi outward—first dispersing the water vapor above the pool, then using Qi to block any further supply of water vapor, connecting up to the stone slab above.

In less than two minutes, the light barrier on the stone slab dimmed noticeably.

"While we've got the chance—strike together!"

Shi Kuangsheng shouted.

Whoosh!

Swish—

Boom!

Sword Qi, blade light, fist-force—all surged forth at once, slamming into the stone slab.

"Boom—!"