Path Of The Dragon (A Dark Fantasy Cultivation Wuxia Xianxia Progression Series)

Chapter 124 The Water Watcher

Jie frowned and cycled lightning step as the chamber didn't look organized the same way as many of the other rooms the arak had prepared. But perhaps it was just the feeling of terror seeping into her from the wards...

Many of the auras Jie sensed seemed to be from the spiritual medicine, or a variety of artifacts arranged neatly around the room. Whatever gave off the aura of a ninth star Adept was moving. Though she couldn't see it.

They entered the room and Jie made sure to have her qi armor activated and ready in case something struck out at them as she moved at Pan Tian's side.

A large creature with slick, wet skin, two powerful limbs ending in clawed, grasping hands and a snake-like body burst out of one of the broken pipes on the ceiling. It opened its misshapen jaws and screeched as its chest swelled and Jie felt its aura fluctuate as it readied some kind of attack. Its aura was of the ninth star Adept rank. The same one she'd sensed before, Jie was sure. Hardly a threat. Unless it was hiding its true strength...

Jie pointed two fingers at it as she cycled finger of light. She was just about to fire when a shadow flickered into the room.

Overwhelming killing intent washed over Jie like an avalanche as a deep, rasping voice cried out, "No!"

A wall of water appeared out of thin air and smashed Jie backward. It disrupted her attack and carried her and her friends back through the pipe they'd walked along before arcing upward and slamming them into the filthy ceiling and holding them there.

Jie struggled against it, but the water around her held impossibly firm. The water peeled back away from her face, allowing her to breathe as their attacker followed after them into the pipe. Jie poured qi into her qi armor and told it to react to the water around her. The water exploded, freeing her from its grasp. Jie fell and landed on her feet, but her friends remained pinned to the ceiling.

"I won't let you harm them!" Jie roared as she formed a dragonfist around each of her hands and stood in front of her friends in the pipe.

"Me? Harm them? Don't speak to me as though I'm the savage here!" roared the voice as a frog man appeared in front of her, moving so fast that she had trouble following his movements. She couldn't sense his aura in the slightest other than the intense killing intent washing over her and making it hard to breathe, but the way he'd used water told her he was beyond her. Easily at the Elementalist rank. Perhaps beyond.

Jie said nothing, studying her enemy as she cycled her skills and desperately tried to think of a way to get her friends to safety.

The frog man stood with his hands behind his back, his simple robe neat and somehow undisturbed by his movements. He had large, dark blue eyes with horizontally slitted pupils, bushy white eyebrows, webbed feet, and a thin, well-maintained mustache with a long goatee that came down to a point. He carried a satchel with a strap over one shoulder. Why he didn't just use storage rings, Jie wasn't sure and she immediately wondered if there might be more to it than a simple bag.

The frog man took in a deep breath and almost as suddenly as it had appeared, his killing intent receded. He stared flatly at her though his enormous mouth was twisted into a disgusted frown.

"Barbarians," spat the frog man, "how do you justify your vile behavior!?"

Jie blinked for a moment, stunned. "What?! You attacked us!" Jie yelled.

"Ha! I merely defended Alice from you! Savages! All of you! How far must I go to get away from people like you? Thugs! Barbaric primitives!" shouted the frog man.

"I... what? Alice? You mean that monster?" Jie asked.

"Monster? You broke into our home and attacked her, and you call her the monster!?" roared the frog man, "unconscionable!"