NOVEL FROG Chapter 52: Leaving the Ashen Mountains
Transmigrated back into the body of her child self, can the mighty Celestial Bing Meilu survive in a Xianxia world all the while staving off the advances of arrogant young masters and wannabe protagonists alike?
Why is life so hard for the Icy Beauty?
Any corrections or criticisms are welcome, I hope you enjoy Chapter 52: Leaving the Ashen Mountains
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The Drake let loose a blood-chilling roar. Its Qi flared outward with the force of a fully completed Third Realm being. It swam through the lava forwards her. Bing Meilu shot away like a jet, piercing through the surface of the lake and landing upon a large floating slab of basalt.
The rock beneath her cracked and split as lava exploded upwards toward the girl. She stepped into the air, carried by a cold wind that caused her white-blue robes to flutter.
Floating into the air she looked down, lines of spiritual sense seeking her foe. A moment later, lava erupted from the lake as a huge Drake lept from it. The creature was massive, from tail to head nearly covering half of the lava lake. Its body was covered in glistening jagged red scales dripping with molten rock and causing the air to steam. Huge coiled muscles rippled under its scales as great snakes writhed within it.
Bing Meilu smiled nostalgically. How many times had she gone drake hunting with her sworn sisters and comrades back in the day? She could remember the fond days of carefree hunting, discussing the merits of dragon blood as a skincare product, playing games of wivern-diving and more.
As if sensing she wasn't afraid, the Drake hissed angrily. Its jaws unhinged, fire leaping outwards, so thick with burning Qi it was more like a river of napalm.
Utpala Lotus Palm - Third Form - Eighty-Eight Petal Sheild
Bing Meilu gently shoved forward. A glowing blue lotus blossom upon her palm, growing out into a shield. The molten stream of fire split around her, spraying across the landscape like hellfire dripping from the spit of an angry deity.
"My turn. Earth-Sealing Ice Pillar!"
A spike of ice let loose from the sky, ripping down and smashing into Drake's back. A torrential weight descended upon it, as the frozen pillar expanded, ice wrapping around its scales in a deathly grip. Flaming Qi rippled from the Drak'es scales, ice melting and re-freezing around it over and over and over again. Even with the incredible Qi released by its Inner Core, Bing Meilu's pillar held stable, backed by her superimposed seventy-two Dao-Platforms.
"Watch Xi Fu. This is how you kill a dragon without destroying your harvest. Earth-Sealing Ice Hammer!"
An enormous block of ice crashed down from above, accelerating far beyond what was natural. Like a rampaging elephant, it crashed down into the pillar, with incredible blunt force smashing down into the dragon's internal organs. The Drake became a rotten tomato squeezed with too much force, expelling its crushed red innards out through its mouth, backside and other orifices in a jet of steaming gore and blood.
Bing Meilu frowned. To be honest, she was disappointed. Her raw power had far exceeded the Drakes. It had barely been a fight. There was none of the adrenaline-pumping life-and-death combat that pushed her and her enemy to unleash their most dangerous and complex moves.
"I suppose it's my fault for cultivating the Crystal Providence Divine Tome," she sighed. "At this point, only a Nascent Soul is qualified to be my opponent. That or a Chosen of Heaven."
Spectral winds carried Bing Meilu down to the corpse of the huge Drake.
"Five Fingers Span the Cosmos!"
The Drakes body temnbled and began to tear apoart. Bone was separated from flesh, flesh from scale, blood and veins from the organs. In moments, each component of its body was separated into clean piles. Just like that, the Drake was completely butchered. It was an elegant way for a refined young lady to butcher the corpses of her prey without dirtying her robes with blood. How marvellous!
In the center was one of the Drake most valuable parts. A large glowing orb of crystal, the center glowing with a fiery inner light. The orb was the size of a man's torso and made from cloudly crystal.
"There the Core needed to secure your freedom, Captain Xi."
The young man nodded, putting it in his spatial ring. The rest of the faction followed suit, storing away all the parts of the dragon's body, the rich red gold of flesh, bone and of course the blood, reserved for Jiang Hu's cultivation.
"We could go hunting further, But I think it's about time we leave the Ashen Mountain," Bing Meilu declared. "We'll make a couple more stops to stock up on some valuables, then we leave."
After months in a searing, white ash-covered landscape, they would be heading out.
---
The Bing Meilu's Faithful Slaves Faction arrived at the gate of the Ashen Mountains, at the back of Redscale City. The Tang family elder sat there as before, but a small child excitedly nipped at his heels, running in circles and shouting.
'That's Tang Hongyi who manned the gate when I was young,' Bing Meilu realized, smirking slightly.
"Do any of you have image recording jades?" Bing Meilu asked.
"I-uh, I do?" Xi Fu said hesitantly.
"Give me one,"
The man pulled a small slip of jade from his spatial ring, tossing it to Bing Meilu. Suddenly his eyes widened.
"W-wait- Wrong one!"
Bing Meilu's eyes narrowed as she watched the recorded scene on the jade. It seemed Xi Fu had accidentally given her a used one, and not a blank. Before he could say anything, she erased the filth with a flash of spiritual energy. Xi Fu fell to his knees, an expression of despair on his face.
"My only one with Xue Xiang!" he cried.
'That woman he was with looks familiar somehow...' Bing Meilu thought. 'Probably nothing.'
She activated the recording jade, filming Tang Hongyi acting like a foolish child. She'd use the embarrassing video as blackmail to get into the Ashen Mountains when he took over from his father. They might have been acquaintances, but the gatekeeper had squeezed out more than enough money from Bing Meilu to warrant such treatment.
After that, Bing Meilu led her faction over to the gate.
"You're back?" the man asked in surprise. Then his eyes widened.
The faction members were not doing anything to hide their auras. From a group of mostly First Realms, with a few Seconds, there were now two Core Formation cultivators and multiple high-level Foundation Establishments!
This was... unfathomable. The only reasonable explanation was that they had been hiding their cultivation levels, pretending to be weaker. There was no way they had advanced so much in such a short period of time.
He had thought they had returned because they had given up on saving the life of their criminal friend- now it seemed they might have actually had a chance.
"We happened to stumble onto a few lucky encounters," Bing Meilu smiled. "Here's your cut."
She dropped out some stuff for the man. She had promised 5% but actually brought out more like 0.5% of what they had gathered. The man's eyes widened at the miraculous amount of resources dropped at his feet.
Drakes and wyvern parts, rare plants, bottles of spiritual water. It was a harvest!
"How did you get so much?" his eyes were wide.
Even some of the Nascent Soul hunters wouldn't bring back such a huge profit.
"As I said, we had some good luck," Bing Meilu said politely. "It must be the Heavens smiling on the survivors of the Moon Crying Swan Palace. "
The Tang elder nodded slowly, before smiling.
"Congratulations then. Did you manage to find a Peak Core Formation Drake?"
"Indeed. Alongside the Core, I also happened to stumble onto some very interesting information. I think I need to speak to some of your clan's elders."
The Tang senior raised an eyebrow. While the answer might have been no before when the group had no Core Formation members, it was now a yes. A Captain of the Sky Swallowing Gulper Armada had far more prestige and authority, they had to be respected to a certain degree, especially since they were in Sky Swallowing Prefecture.
"Of course. Elder Hong Long Cao-Cao's office is by the town hall. tell him I sent you."
Bing Meilu bowed in thanks, before heading off.
The Tang senior watched them leave.
"Huh, I don't see the criminal collar on any of them?"
---
The roads parted as the faction strode through them, dressed in the white cloud-covered robes of the Armada, with two Core Formation level cultivators.
They entered the richer inner core of the city, where the Redscale clan members, wealthy merchants and high-ranking officials lived and worked. They passed by the huge marble city hall to arrive at a tall office.
There was a line of people waiting, but Bing Meilu directly walked past them towards the entrance, ignoring the foul looks sent at her. A guard stood by the door, looking over at her.
"Elder Tang sent me to speak to your Boss," she said.
He hesitated for a movement.
"Move," she ordered, voice cold.
He pushed open the door, and she strode inside with her faction, ignoring the boos of the riffle-raffle forced to stand in line. Inside the office sat a man in gaudy red dragon robes. This was Elder Cao-Cao of the Redscale clan, who was in charge of adjudicating legal disputes.
He looked over in surprise at the group.
"To what do I owe the honour of this visit?" he smiled at Xi Fu and Jiang Hu, who seemed the most important.
While Cao-Cao was a Nascent Soul, he was just an elder of the Redscale Clan, Xi Fu and Jiang Hu were Captains of the area's Hegemon Sect. He had to show them respect.
"I have some very interesting information for you," Bing Meilu said, walking to the front of the group. "I am Bing Meilu, head of this faction."
She withdrew a single Dragonblood Spirit Crystal from her spatial ring, smiling as Cao-Cao's face turned serious. To draconic cultivators like the Redscale clan, a crystal-like that was an invaluable cultivation resource.
"Where did you get that?"
"I found a vein of it in the Ashen Mountains," she smiled.
His eyes boggled. Better than just having a small amount, if there was a minable vein nearby, that would be incredibly valuable to the clan.
"Why were you in the Ashen Mountains?" he asked, frowning.
"We were actually hunting for a Drake Core to be used to buy the life of a criminal."
Bing Meilu waved her hand, her spatial ring depositing said core in the lap of the Elder.
"For who's crime?"
"Captain Xi Fu," she pointed at the spear cultivator.
"He isn't wearing an explosive collar?" the elder said in confusion.
"I removed it."
"You what?" his face turned red with anger.
That was a blatant violation of the law and justice system of Redscale City! Also, how did she remove it? That explosive collar was an advanced formation, no one in Foundation Establishment should be able to remove it.
"Do you think you can put a death sentence on a Captain of my Armada? I'd like to see you explain that to the port authorities!" Bing Meilu's voice turned arrogant. "I'm sure Commodore Rampage-Sword will be interested to hear you did such a thing to a Core Formation allied with his faction!"
She smiled as Cao-Cao bit his lip in rage. He was probably far more offended by the fact that a mere second realm was speaking to him that way than anything she had said. Despite the rudeness, he wouldn't do anything to her over this.
It was always nice to have strong backing!
Actually, she was in the right as well. As a trusted subordinate, the Redscale clan could feasibly execute a First or Second Realm member of the Armada if they committed a crime, but a Captain had a much higher status. If a crime was committed, the Armada could launch an investigation of its own, but it would never let any subordinate execute one of its Captains.
"Very well, with this Core, Xi Fu is cleared of wrongdoing for his crime of... four counts of deflowering a virgin noblewoman, seventeen counts of sleeping with a nobleman's property without his permission, and eighty-five counts of banditry and looting....?" the man feel silent as he checked Xi Fu's record, looking up in shock at the sheepish man.
"How did you even survive this long?" the elder asked Xi Fu in shock and amazement. "Nevermind. Let's get back to the business of this crystal vein. Where is it?"
"I'll tell you. In return, I want three favours."
Cao-Cao narrowed his eyes.
"Now that I know it's there, it's only a matter of time before it's found."
"Yes, but can you guarantee that it'll be your faction that finds it?" Bing Meilu smiled coldly.
Like all powers past a certain size, there was infighting in the Redscale clan as well. He wouldn't want someone else to claim the vein and take the glory and resources.
"What do you want?"
"As I said, three favours. To be redeemed upon a later date. Sworn before the Dao of Heaven."
Cao-Cao fell silent for a long moment, weighing the options in his mind. He narrowed his eyes.
"Your conditions are acceptable."
"Then we have a deal."