Chương 311: Earth dwellers

Long Feng glanced at the middle aged man and nodded.

"That's right. I am a new disciple." He retracted his gaze slowly and smiled, revealing his teeth.

"How surprising. You must've been extremely lucky." Long Feng nodded and didn't respond to that remark. He was about to resume his comprehension when he changed his mind and decided to use this opportunity to inquire about this mission.

"What exactly is this mission about? Why is everyone acting weirdly?" He asked curiously. Yu Zihao's smile froze then slowly faded away.

"Ah. It's simple. You all just need to protect us and the mine." He replied.

"The mine? Protect the mine? I don't get it. Most importantly, what are we protecting you from?" Yu Zihao shifted his gaze and peered into the darkness at the far end of the cave where no crystal existed to light up the place. Long Feng followed his gaze and stared in the same direction, having the same feeling of unease he sensed when he first looked.

"What's in there?" He asked. Yu Zihao didn't reply for a few seconds. Long Feng waited patiently. Then right as he opened his mouth to speak, faint scratching and growling noises echoed from deep in the cave. Long Feng's hand instantly reached for his sword hilt as he sensed the atmosphere in the cave suddenly shift. Yu Zihao's expression turned severe and he stood up, returning to join the other miners. They all suddenly rushed towards the tunnel entrance behind them and gathered there, standing close together.

As for the disciples, they all stood up with bitter expressions as they gathered together and began to circulate their energies. Long Feng, Gui Wu and the other two new disciples who didn't know what was going on rose to their feet and stared at the far dark end of the cave with cautious expressions.

"What's going on?" One of the two rank seven Imperials questioned loudly. No one replied him. Everyone waited with bated breaths as the noises slowly grew louder, signalling the approach of whatever was causing the noises. Long Feng's eyes were narrowed as he held his breath and tightened his grip around his sword hilt. A few seconds passed, feeling like long minutes to everyone gathered. Suddenly, a piercing shriek echoed through the cave as a shadow rushed out of the darkness, followed by many more shadows.

The noises reached a peak as the shadows surged towards the gathered disciples like dark clouds.

"Protect your Dantian and control your energies! Don't let them get into your body!" One of the old rank seven Imperial realm disciple shouted as he drew out a weapon that gleamed coldly. His words were directed at Long Feng and the other three who didn't know much if anything at all. Long Feng's spirit energy surged out as oke or the shadows rushed at him. He didn't even get a good look at what it was before he sent out a palm strike containing his full strength, comparable to rank six Imperials.

A powerful blast of energy sent the shadow spinning backwards. At the same time, several other explosions sounded as the disciples pushed back the first wave of the strange shadows. It was only now that Long Feng got a full look at what they actually were.

"What're these?" He murmured with a frown. He couldn't really call them wild beasts. Their bodies were strangely glossy and sparkling, adding a strange look to their dark figures. They had two crimson eyes each and wide mouths that nearly filled up their whole faces. They weren't very large, just the size of a human child. Moreover, they stood on two legs but actually had no arms. Long Feng had never seen these kinds of creatures before. The dozens of creatures let out piercing shrieks as they surged forward again.

Some of them then diverted around the disciples, trying to attack the miners. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

"Protect the miners!" Someone shouted. Long Feng frowned as he punched at the creature attacking him without holding back. The punch caused the creature to suddenly exploded into a mass of glowing gas. But before Long Feng could react, the gas reformed together into the creature again and it rushed at him once more. Long Feng's frown deepened. He didn't expect these creatures to be so weird. He couldn't sense any form of energy or aura in them, but they seemed to be immune to his attacks.

"They absorb your energy and get stronger! Use your Dao energy instead!" One of the two rank eight Imperials shouted and unleashed a powerful flame at the rudimentary intent stage and burned one of the creatures to smoke. Long Feng and the other three new comers were instantly enlightened. After the first attacks, the creatures did seem to become faster and more ferocious in their attacks. Gui Wu was already beginning to feel slight pressure. Most importantly, the creatures didn't seem to have any attack power.

Instead, they were frantically trying to bite at the disciples. That caused the four new disciples to feel threatened. Long Feng no longer held back his sword energy and used it. The sword energy directly cut the creature into pieces and it didn't reform again.

"Look out!" A rank seven Imperial shouted. Long Feng turned around and found one of the creatures had bitten a rank six Imperial. It didn't leave any bite marks. Instead, the creature strangely broke into tiny particles that flowed into the disciple's body through his pores. The disciple's face was filled with despair as he reached out for someone beside him.

"Help me…" he stammered as his face suddenly warped in pain. Several more of the creatures rushed into his body. His imperial energy defense was completely devoured by them and didn't pause them at all. After a few seconds, he let out a loud cry of pain. His veins popped out as his cultivation suddenly began to talk. From rank six Imperial realm down to the peak spirit realm only took a few short seconds. His screams were becoming increasingly loud untill his voice turned hoarse.

The extreme pain in his voice could be sensed clearly. Long Feng and the other disciples felt a chill rush up their spine as the disciple began to claw at his flesh till blood flowed. At the same time, his body began to shrivel. His skin dried and his hair began to fall off. In a single minute, his body was reduced to a shriveled skeleton, devoid of life. Everyone watched this in silence and even the other creatures temporarily ceased their attacks and gathered around the skeleton.

The few creatures that had entered his body also flew out of the bones, looking much larger than before. Long Feng watched this in shock. A rank six Imperial was just reduced to a skeleton by these strange creatures without being able to resist! From what he could see, the disciple's cultivation was completely devoured by these creatures, then his life source and blood were devoured as well till he was nothing but a dey skeleton.

He didn't need to think twice to know that this was what terrified the other disciples. This kind of excruciating death was definitely frightening. The creatures resumed their frantic attacks, trying their best to land a single bite on any disciple. But after this hair raising scene, no one was foolish enough to leave an opening. Long Feng unleashed the full power of his peak sword concept energy to destroy a few of the creatures that rushed towards him. But the creatures were too much.

Even with the disciples' best efforts, some of the miners still lost their lives in the same excruciating way. Hell, it was already hard for the disciples to keep the creatures from coming into contact with their bodies. Before these creatures who seemed to all have Imperial level strength, these spirit realm miners were like lambs waiting to be slaughtered. Due to the sheer numbers of the creatures, even the rank eight Imperials were having a hard time. There was no need to mention the rank six Imperials.

The only good thing was that the creatures seemed to be drawn by those with higher cultivation. They rushed towards the two rank eight Imperials as though their had lost their minds and only the few remaining actually attached the rank seven and six Imperials. As for Long Feng, his spirit realm cultivation caused very few of the creatures to target him, and he easily dealt with them.

An incense stick worth of time later, the creatures suddenly let out loud shrieks and rushed back into the darkness, vanishing like they never appeared. Long Feng's hand that held his sword sheath loosened as he watched the creatures disappearing. He couldn't help but feel annoyed. He had picked this mission because it was one star; those were apparently the easiest in the sect. Moreover, it didn't require him to leave the sect, so he thought it would be simple. Just protecting some miners shouldn't be hard.

It would be perfect for him to focus on his cultivation. But now? If these creatures attacked frequently, then he wouldn't be able to focus on his cultivation. The mission jade never mentioned that rank six Imperials could die so easily. If rank six Imperials could lose their lives, then not even he was safe. He had to be constantly alert to prevent facing the same situation. Recalling the painful death of the earlier cultivator, he couldn't help but shiver slightly.

After waiting for a few minutes, they confirmed that the creatures were really gone. The few rank six Imperials, including Gui Wu sat down in exhaustion and fear as their gazes strayed to the skeleton that laid on the ground. Just minutes ago, this skeleton was a living disciple! And now he was dead! The miners slowly gathered the skeletons of their colleagues and stored them away, moving with such proficiency that anyone could tell they had done this many times.

They then returned to their spots and prepared to continue mining, appearing completely unshaken by what happened. The disciples weren't so calm, especially not the four new disciples.

"Someone needs to explain what the hell is going on!" Gui Wu shouted grimly while sweeping his gaze across all the old disciples.

"That's right. Wr deserve to know what's happening. What were those damn things?" One of the two rank seven Imperials also joined in, standing with Gui Wu. The old disciples casually glanced at them before one of the rank seven Imperials spoke.

"Earth dwellers. That's what they are." Gui Wu frowned.

"What is that?" He had never heard that term before in his life. Although he grew up in the Mainland, not everything was general knowledge, like these Earth dwellers obviously.

"They're a strange lifeform. Not exactly wild beasts but not anything else either. They live deep in the earth, feeding on special rocks or minerals." The explainer paused and glanced at Gui Wu.

"Their best meals are energy crystals, and nothing can compare to essence stones."

"So these… Earth dwellers, why are they attacking us? If they want the essence stones, why don't we just give them?" Gui Wu shouted. He wasn't really in the mood to think things through as his life was on the line here. The person didn't reply to Gui Wu's questions. He merely continued speaking, "Beyond energy crystals, they have an even better meal…Humans." Long Feng listened with a serious expression as the person leisurely explained.

"And in these past two months, seven disciples lost their lives." The person added. That caused a reaction. Gui Wu froze, the other two disciples widened their eyes in shock and Long Feng stared at him blankly for a few seconds before he repeated, "lost their lives?" He asked again to make sure he heard well. The person nodded heavily.

"Indeed. Three of them died last month; two rank six Imperials and one rank seven. As for the other four, they died recently. You four newcomers were in fact, brought to replace them." He explained. Long Feng held his breath and stared at the person in shock. What really surprised him was the fact that disciples could really actually die in a one star mission?!

"I-i don't understand. Isn't this supposed to be a one star mission? How would the sect let disciples die in their own territory?" Gui Wu asked with a shaky voice. The person chuckled and glanced at Gui Wu in amusement.

"If you think so, then it's clear that you know nothing. It's pretty normal in many two star and quasi one star forces; we outer disciples are pretty much servants. We exist to fill up the sect, complete missions and perform menial tasks so the real disciples, Inner and Core disciples can focus on their cultivation." He laughed after saying that. Long Feng listened silently. Ao Zhentian had already warned him about that; outer peak disciples weren't worth anything to the sect.

They could die and the sect wouldn't bother to investigate it. But he didn't expect it to be so blatant. He never found any warning while he read the detail of the mission; it only said they were to protect the miners. Nothing more.