Chronicles of Heaven's Chosen - Chapter 9

Dragging her injured leg, Yuan Yao raced onward until she caught up with the cultivators ahead.

She also managed to put some distance between herself and the leech monsters.

But it did not last.

The creatures pursuing her suddenly sped up as though something behind them had frightened them out of their wits.

“What the hell?” Yuan Yao’s face changed.

She gritted her teeth, ignored the agony in her ankle, and sprinted forward like a madwoman.

Before long, she overtook several of the young cultivators.

Then a shrill scream rang out behind her.

One of them had been sucked into a desiccated husk by a leech monster.

【Target Aotian has died. Awakening Value erased,】 System 250 announced.

Yuan Yao frowned, her face growing paler.

If she kept running like this, her foot was going to break.

Her breaths came short and fast. Cold sweat beaded across her forehead.

Then she stopped.

Drawing a deep breath, she turned to face the cultivators racing toward her and raised one hand with heroic resolve.

“You go first. I’ll hold them off!”

The cultivators were startled—and overjoyed.

Then they sensed that Yuan Yao was only at the ninth level of Qi Refining.

They fell silent.

Did she have a death wish?

These leech monsters had reached the late second rank, making them equal to late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators.

And a mere Qi Refiner thought she could fight them?

“You should be running too!” a female cultivator yelled, furious at Yuan Yao’s apparent stupidity.

Yuan Yao’s answer was resolute. “No. You run first! Even if I die, I’ll buy you a little more time.”

The cultivators were speechless.

Such a beautiful girl, yet apparently an idiot.

So why were they a little moved?

【Targets Duanmu Peng, Li Xun, and Feng Lie have reached an Awakening Value of 38.】

A leech monster was about to latch on to Li Xun.

Yuan Yao immediately pulled a black longbow from her storage space, drew the string, and shouted, “Move!”

The instant the word left her mouth, she released a fire-attribute arrow.

Whoosh!

Flame engulfed the arrow in midair, transforming it into a fire dragon.

Boom!

At the critical moment, Li Xun twisted aside. The flaming arrow missed him and plunged into the giant leech monster at his back.

The monster shrieked.

“Go!” Yuan Yao ordered.

Li Xun and the other two stared at the black longbow in her hand, astonishment and uncertainty crossing their faces.

It was a high-grade artifact!

“Thank you, Fellow Daoist!” Duanmu Peng could not help saying. “Let’s escape together!”

Yuan Yao shook her head with firm resolve.

“Leave this to me!”

Seeing how confident she was, the three of them finally chose to trust her.

“Take care, Fellow Daoist!”

With those words, they ran past Yuan Yao and surged to the front.

System 250’s voice rang out.

【Targets Duanmu Peng, Li Xun, and Feng Lie have reached an Awakening Value of 50. Congratulations, Host. You have successfully won over three targets and gained three days of life. Current remaining lifespan: a full five days and six hours.】

The corner of Yuan Yao’s mouth twitched.

Could five days of life really be described as *a full* anything?

Reality snapped her attention back.

The leech monsters before her packed the tunnel from wall to wall. Every nerve in her body pulled taut.

She drew the bowstring and loosed a volley of fire-attribute arrows.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

The leech monsters were no fools. They dodged the arrows and charged her with the speed of a gale.

Yuan Yao clenched her teeth. Heart aching at the expense, she pulled a high-grade explosive talisman from inside her robes.

Then she flung it.

Boom!

The deafening blast shook the entire passage like an earthquake. Fire engulfed the area, filling the tunnel with smoke and the shrieks of leech monsters.

Within the flames, their bodies burned fiercely. Instinct drove them toward any patch of ground the fire had not touched.

At the far end of the passage, Xie Yan narrowed his eyes.

He truly had underestimated “Kuang Ni.” She carried more high-grade artifacts than anyone could count.

That did not change the fact that she was still little trash.

Xie Yan had no fondness for people who refused to cultivate properly and muddled through life on borrowed power.

He was about to turn away when a flash of white appeared at the edge of his vision.

His steps paused.

The white-robed girl at the ninth level of Qi Refining had drawn her gaudy longsword and charged straight into the swarm.

Her blade swept out, trailing brilliant fire. The shifting light cast her face first in haze, then in perfect clarity.

For the first time, Xie Yan saw her face clearly.

His fingers rubbed unconsciously against the jade-green gourd at his waist.

After an indeterminate moment, he gave a faint, mocking click of his tongue and turned away.

Yuan Yao stood in the sea of fire.

While the leech monsters were wounded, she had to finish them off.

Fire did not frighten her. She had awakened the fire element.

The enraged leech monsters attacked in a frenzy. The crushing pressure of late second-rank spirit beasts rolled over her.

Boom!

Yuan Yao hardly felt it. The high-grade enchanted robe she wore shielded her from their pressure.

“First Form of Xiaoyao—”

She raised her sword. The blade danced in her hand, tracing graceful arcs through the air.

“Sword Arcs to the Heavens!”

Sword qi sharpened into blades. Blazing sword light erupted in every direction, crashing into the leech monsters surrounding her.

Yuan Yao’s gaze focused.

With astonishing speed, she darted toward the creature at the front and drove her sword through its skull before it could react.

Blood sprayed across her clothes.

Danger prickled at her senses.

She tore her sword free and spun to block.

Boom!

A giant leech monster rammed into her, hurling her into the wall.

Several more swarmed her at once.

One lunged for her ankle, drawn by the heavy scent of blood, and fastened its mouth over the wound.

Yuan Yao’s face went deathly white.

Agony tore through her ankle. She rolled upright, gripped her sword in both hands, and stabbed hard at the monster drinking her blood.

Shrrk!

Flesh split beneath the blade.

The leech monster opened its mouth in pain. Yuan Yao immediately raised her other foot and kicked with every scrap of strength she possessed.

Bang!

The creature flew backward and crashed heavily to the ground.

At the same time, a dense mass of leech monsters closed in from every side and threw themselves at her.

In moments, the swarm swallowed Yuan Yao from sight.

The noise gradually died.

An unnatural silence settled over the passage.

The leech monsters seemed to believe they had drained her into a husk. Slowly, they began to pull away, preparing to hunt down the cultivators who had escaped.

Then—

Something changed.

Countless slender ropes of multicolored spiritual light burst into existence like lightning, winding around every leech monster with astonishing speed.

Before the creatures could react, the ropes transformed into spiritual blades.

They snapped tight and bit deep into flesh.

“God, you stink…”

The girl’s weak voice drifted out.