Tales of Demons and Gods : The Legend of Xiao Ning'Er

Merged with his Black Star Tiger demon spirit, he had grown to twice his size, and he was already a large man before transforming! His intimidating presence as he drew closer to them was suffocating as large beads of sweat started dripping down their backs. Chen Linjian's initial aggression was dampened the moment the other three men showed themselves, and their group all looked at each other with sinking hearts, unsure of what to do.

In the midst of their indecision, Yun Hua's body flashed as he moved before they even realised what was happening. He was a highly experienced fighter and he knew the best way to diffuse any remaining enthusiasm or zeal for confrontation. He had identified Ziyun as the weakest in the group and in an instant, he had appeared behind her, swinging a backhanded chop nonchalantly onto the back of her head.

Although she was wearing Ocean's Ripple, Ziyun did not have any protective gear on her head and she crumpled to the ground like a sack of potatoes, unconscious.

"Anybody else want to try?" Yun Hua asked with a lazy drawl. Any hope they had left disappeared like smoke on the horizon as they saw him stand over her body.

When the initial shock wore off, Xiao Ning'Er felt something snap in her soul as rage began to boil up in her heart. She clenched her fists as she saw her best friend so brutally and efficiently attacked, until all she could see in front of her eyes was a red haze.

Suddenly, there was a violent explosion of soul force around her before she realised that it came from her own body. As the anger within her continued surging, the Lightning Dragon Technique began to inadvertently circulate, causing her soul realm to tremble uncontrollably as her soul underwent an extraordinary metamorphosis. Faint sounds of thunder and rushing wind could be heard as a blinding cyan light burst from her in all directions, the wind pushing out any loose sand and leaves away in a radius of 20 feet.

Her eyes glowed with silver lightning as a dangerous aura began to emanate from her body in ripples every few seconds, like waves crashing on a beach. As their eyes cleared up from the initial burst of light, the others could see that raw soul force had condensed into beautiful, intricate wings behind Xiao Ning'Er's back as though she were a sacred, angelic fairy who had just descended from the heavenly realms above.

"Impressive! You instantaneously raised your cultivation from bronze to silver rank, and even triggered the rare miracle of soul forming. But you're still far too weak to face me because you're still one rank below!" He said this for the sake of his subordinates, who were still looking at Xiao Ning'Er in horror. They were greatly reassured and raised their weapons in front of them with grim expressions on their faces.

Soul forming is an extremely rare occurrence caused when someone has an unnaturally pure soul force. Demon Spiritists who could soul form were almost unheard of, and those who had manifested this talent were at least at gold rank. This girl was only bronze rank when she triggered it! Yun Hua wondered how much her family would be willing to pay for her ransom when he let them know. They might even be willing to empty their vaults to rescue someone who has a high chance to reach legend rank in future and be the cornerstone of her family's power and influence!

With traces of lightning still flickering in her eyes, she bent down to pick up Ziyun gently, turned to Linjian and only said one word before sprinting away at full speed, "Sorry..."

With her silver rank strength and the overflowing remnant energy from her incredible breakthrough still radiating from her soul and body, she easily dashed in between two of the black-robed men, heading in the direction of the river.

"Stop her!!" Yun Hua shouted as he started after her. With one rank higher than her, he would only need less than half a minute to catch up to her, especially with her carrying her friend. He was so focused on Xiao Ning'Er that he didn't see a body hurtling at him from his blindspot.

Chen Linjian tackled Yun Hua with all his strength using the sturdy paws of the Divine Winged Lion King and the powerful momentum of his flight to actually knock his unprepared enemy over to the ground. He kept his arms wrapped tightly around Yun Hua's waist even though he knew that he would only be able to temporarily delay, and not actually defeat, him.

Xiao Ning'Er saw what was happening out of the corner of her eye and slowed down, unsure if she should turn back to help Linjian.

"Run away, you fool!! I can't hold on much longer..." he gasped as a massive elbow covered with silver fur slammed into his face in an explosion of blood and cartilage. He almost lost consciousness at that moment but he doggedly held on even tighter as Yun Hua roared in frustration that this weakling was being such an irritating deterrent to him.

With a sour feeling in her heart, Xiao Ning'Er continued running forward until she reached the water's edge. She had thought Linjian would be disappointed in her but he had protected her instead! The black-robed men, who were only maybe 10 seconds away from her wondered what she was doing at the river. Was she actually going to jump in the turbulent waters and try to escape downstream? How reckless! Surely she would die, along with the unconscious girl in her arms.

In one smooth motion, Xiao Ning'Er pulled out two Flight Talismans from her interspatial ring, placing one onto Ziyun and activating it, and activating the other one in her other hand for herself. Without hesitation, she jumped straight into the river as her chasers looked on in open-mouthed astonishment. They were even more shocked as they saw her steps not break through the surface of the water, her nimble movements lightly carrying her across the river.

Xiao Ning'Er had to use the most profound movement technique she had learnt in her past life to stay afloat on the water because she was carrying someone at the same time. Fortunately, both Ziyun and herself were originally quite light anyway. The 30-second duration of the talismans was more than enough for her to cross the river which had a width of almost 200 meters.

Once she reached the other side, she turned back and let out a sigh of relief as she saw the members of the Dark Guild lined up along the other shore, looking on in frustration. They would not be able to catch up unless they found a way to cross the rushing, choppy waters. She would have plenty of time to find shelter and then to find their way back to Glory City as long as her pursuers didn't cut her off on her way back. This was unlikely unless they knew the exact route she would take.

'I hope that Linjian and the rest make it back to Glory City...' she thought as she remembered how valiantly he had fought to hold back Yun Hua for her and Ziyun. 'How dare that idiot call me a fool? He better make it back alive so I can scold him properly!' She felt a pressure at the back of her eyes as tears threatened to spill out. Then she looked at Ziyun, whispering as she started walking away from the river bank, "Come, let's find a safe place to check on your injury."

After walking for a couple of hours, she came across a cave which was rather ideal because it even had a stream of fresh water within 50 meters away. She laid Ziyun outside as she went in to check whether any demon beasts had made this place their home. She found a large family of Arcadian Warboars in the back of the cave, dangerous, territorial beasts which would have been risky for her to fight if she were still at bronze rank because their adults would reach early silver rank.

She quickly identified the alpha male of the family and easily ran a sword through its eye, piercing right through to the brain. As it writhed in the throes of death, she saw that the rest of the Warboars had no heart to fight this dangerous human who had effortlessly slaughtered their strongest in the space of 20 seconds. She allowed them to leave as she collected Ziyun, who was still unconscious, and brought her into the cave.

"We're having roast wild boar for dinner tonight." she hummed out in a random tune, knowing that her friend couldn't hear her.

.....

'Where am I?' Ziyun groggily wondered as she slowly awakened. She tried sitting up and immediately felt a sharp, throbbing agony at the back of her head. "Ooowwww!!" she exclaimed as she lifted her hand to hold the location of the torment as needle-like pains pierced through her brain.

"Ziyun, You're finally awake!" The familiar voice of Xiao Ning'Er rang out. Ziyun looked up and saw her friend sitting on the other side of the fire, noticing that there was a beast roasting over the fire. As the cobwebs in her head began to clear up, she was able to smell the tantalising scent of juicy meat and her mouth watered as she realised how hungry she was.

"What happened?" she asked as she sank her teeth into a succulent piece of wild boar. Xiao Ning'Er caught her up on what had happened during the time that she was unconscious.

When the story reached the part where Chen Linjian had fought so that they would have a better chance to escape, Ziyun was visibly shaken and touched by his actions, "He was always like that when we were younger...he had a good heart that always wanted to protect those around him. I guess as he grew older, the pressure of being the genius direct descendant of the Divine Family changed him. But I'm glad that inside, he's still the same friend I knew as a child."

The spoke for awhile more as their shadows flickered on the walls of the cave as the flames of the fire danced in front of them, before Ziyun decided to sleep due to a persistent headache that continued to throb from her injury. As her friend went to sleep, Xiao Ning'Er thought back on what Ziyun had shared about Linjian.