Chapter 404: Chapter 404

The Emperor Python King received the signal, coiled up Xu Jinghong, and started climbing toward the flower stem. Its snake body slithered up along the stem, and upon encountering the scalding stem juice, it let out a wretched scream, "Ah ah ah ah—it’s scorched my skin—!"

Qian Qi poked his head out sneakily, "Great King, I meant for you to throw me up here!"

"You didn’t say so earlier!" The Emperor Python King roared angrily. Didn’t it just get scorched for nothing?!

"Hold on, everyone! The hit stop time is only 10 seconds for a single strike!" Qian Qi shouted, then turned around and shook the Fire Silk Grass’s demon core again.

"Damn it, the analysis didn’t say whether consecutive hits add up to the 10 seconds or not." Qian Qi muttered softly, shaking the Fire Silk Grass’s demon core once more.

Then he poked his head out, ready to have the Emperor Python King throw Xu Jinghong in when he suddenly noticed a cloud of dust rising in the distance. He was momentarily stunned and then exclaimed, "Shit! The Magic Beast group is coming!"

"What?!" The Emperor Python King whipped its head around like a snake, straightening its body to look back, indeed seeing many Magic Beasts frantically charging this way like crazed creatures looking for food.

"What’s going on!" Qian Qi thought rapidly; the only explanation for Molten Rock Demons from all directions rushing over was that the snake vine of the Fire Silk Grass had been damaged, leaking red juice!

But he hadn’t harmed the snake vine... Wait a minute?

His A-level knife seemed to have dropped, could it be that the snake vine got injured while hitting it? So it just happened to leak red juice, causing the Molten Rock Demons...

Qian Qi couldn’t help but curse under his breath, "Useless snake vine! How are you so weak! Even got hurt hitting an A-level knife!"

System: [Wow... you’re shameless.]

If the snake vine wouldn’t leak red juice and frenzy the Magic Beasts, and he couldn’t cut it with the A-level knife, he would probably curse the A-level knife as a useless knife, wouldn’t he?

As if knowing it was being cursed, the snake vine, whose stop time had ended, came up and gave Qian Qi a massive slap.

"We need to hurry." After realizing that the stop time caused by consecutive hits doesn’t add up, Qian Qi raised his hand and shouted to the Emperor Python King, "Great King, in 5 seconds, throw Xu Jinghong up!"

She faced the "pointing fingers" of the snake vines at her back, ducked back into the flower stem, counted 5 seconds, and delivered a new heavy blow to the demon core.

Right after, Xu Jinghong was tossed up into the air by the Emperor Python King.

The sudden weightlessness made Xu Jinghong take a sharp breath as Qian Qi quickly returned to the wound, stepping on the snake vines to grab the airborne Xu Jinghong, pulling him into the flower stem.

When Xu Jinghong landed, he stepped on the remaining juice and was scalded so much that his body shook, his feet hopping wildly, not knowing which foot to put down first, almost tripping.

Luckily, Qian Qi swiftly lifted him up, teasing, "Eh hey, you jump even uglier than I do."

"Move quickly!" Qian Qi, like a jumping ape, bounced towards the snake stick in front, hoisting Xu Jinghong, "Bend down, we have only 4 seconds!"

She couldn’t estimate the subtle time difference when striking the demon core directly after the 10-second stop, so between the old and new 10 seconds, with her next strike, there would inevitably be a slight time gap, enough for the snake vines to attack the two of them again.

Given Xu Jinghong’s frail body, he would definitely perish on the spot.

Not to mention the Magic Beasts outside were coming fast, and if they failed, they would fall into the Magic Beast Tide, with their lives hanging in the balance.

Their fate rested on this single strike!

She placed Xu Jinghong’s hands on the snake stick, then firmly gripped his hands, using all her might to ram the snake stick inward!

The snake stick struck the demon core with twenty times its previous strength, accompanied by a cataclysmic explosion, seemingly occurring near and far, as if it were about to shatter the heavens and earth, instilling an innate fear of nature in anyone.

The entire Fire Silk Grass trembled in response, and Qian Qi, unable to keep her balance, slipped and fell onto the slick liquid on the floor.

She raised her eyes in astonishment, "This big of a commotion? Could it be a success?"

However, the peculiar sensation of passing through didn’t come; the snake vines seemed to have lost their target and swayed around aimlessly, exuding a sense of déjà vu as if they didn’t know what to do. Qian Qi quickly got up, muttering, "Did it only smash halfway?"

"Once more!" Qian Qi didn’t dally, grabbed Xu Jinghong’s hand and aimed at the snake stick for another blow, when suddenly she heard the Emperor Python King outside shriek with a coquettish sound like an old lady, "Ah ah ah ah Qian Qi! The Magic Beast Tide is here!"

Seriously, you’re an A-level Emperor Python King, what are you afraid of?!

Emperor Python King: "Ah ah ah ah ah—Qian Qi! So many A-level Magic Beasts—"

Great, now Qian Qi was screaming: "Ah ah ah ah ah—"

An A-level Flying Beast had already settled on the snake vine, its sharp, icy red eyes locked onto Qian Qi, and in the next second, its enormous bird head lunged into the flower stem wound, its sharp beak opening wide, a black, tough tongue twisting and vibrating within the sound waves, just inches away from Qian Qi and Xu Jinghong, "Gaaah—!"

A splash of saliva drenched the two of them.

But it didn’t cause any substantial harm, apart from their ears ringing, the flying magic beast hadn’t hurt the two, on the contrary, its head was too big, and got stuck at the gap, unable to get in.

Sounds of transformed Magic Beasts going berserk outside could be heard, fighting in chaos, along with the Emperor Python King’s repeated cries of "Stay away from me, can you compensate if you damage my snake scales!"

The flying magic beast couldn’t hook anyone with its mouth, and took a big inhale instead, causing the unsuspecting Xu Jinghong to get sucked in directly, fortunately, Qian Qi held onto his hand all the while but was also sucked into the bird’s mouth from inertia.

With a snap, the bird beak closed, the flying magic beast shook its head to pull the big head out of the flower stem opening, ready to swallow the food inside, but the bird’s mouth was pried open with great effort.

Qian Qi threw out a piece of obviously torn bird tongue, stuck her head out to take a peek below, "Goodness, there are so many Magic Beasts, every Power Level you can think of, if Little Hong and I fell down, Little Hong would undoubtedly perish without a grave."

Are you being polite?

"What should we do now?" The closer to death it gets, the calmer Xu Jinghong became. His younger siblings were supported, and he had long written his will, so facing death, he felt more composed.

Or perhaps, being next to Qian Qi, that cool composure facing death was magnified tenfold.

"I don’t know either." Qian Qi rubbed her chin, clearly at her wits’ end. Now this flying beast was neither too close nor too far from the Fire Silk Grass, she couldn’t bring Xu Jinghong back to the flower stem together.

Below were countless berserk Magic Beasts, some crazed enough to release skills upon seeing a flying magic beast.

Indeed, a fireball was charging straight at Qian Qi’s flying magic beast, scaring her into closing the bird beak immediately. The fireball hit the flying beast’s beak, causing pain to Qian Qi and Xu Jinghong from inside, and the attacked flying beast was equally furious, charging directly at the magic beast that attacked.

"Alas." Qiaoqiao sighed, "We’re further from the flower stem now."

It’s not safe to stay in this bird’s mouth for long; who knows if their brawl might accidentally hurt the defenseless Little Hong Cake on the side. When it looked like they were about to hit the ground, Qian Qi scooped up Xu Jinghong and jumped out.

"Emperor Python King! Go for the flower stem!" Qian Qi shouted as she jumped, hearing the Emperor Python King outside quickly run over in response, ignoring its burnt skin to grab Qian Qi and climb towards the flower stem rapidly.

But frenzied Magic Beasts were swarming in; Qian Qi and the Emperor Python King, having brushed against the red juice, became targets, unavoidably seized by the relentless and overwhelming charge of crawling and flying Magic Beasts!

A massive battle was about to begin!

Just as Qian Qi’s mind was racing to think about how to respond, a familiar, fearsome explosion shook everything around, sparking an instinctive fear! Tʜe sourcᴇ of thɪs content ɪs Nov3lFɪre.ɴet

The startled Xu Jinghong looked up from her embrace, "It’s getting closer from the west!"

Without knowing what caused it, Qian Qi looked up and her eyes widened, murmuring, "Oh crap—when it rains, it pours!"