Chapter 49: Annoyances Appear
Artemis was gritting her teeth as she sat on the stairs outside the door. She had been there for over three hours; she had stood, paced back and forth before sitting back down. Even though she knew that her current relationship with Percy could barely be called a relationship of any kind, she still felt annoyed. At the very least, he could have communicated to her that he would be late by sending a message with spiritual power, directly to her mind. But no, she had to wait all this time. And while she could have walked around the city of the spirit hall, since she didn't know when Percy would come out, she couldn't move from the spot or he would definitely leave without her.
After four hours had passed, the doors finally opened, revealing a happy Percy. While drinking tea with Bibi Dong, the spirit bones had arrived, and as she absorbed them into her body, Bibi Dong decided to keep an eye out for anything.
The left leg bone increased his speed by 10% and was 40,000 years old. As for the head bone, it was a bone over 50,000 years old that increased wisdom and brain activity, as well as an attack that caused the enemy to have a false sense of direction.
Now, he finally had all the spirit bones to be able to pass the current Asura God test. In fact, the reward was not an increase in the ages of his spirit rings, but rather his soul power increased to level 86, two levels in total. Along with this increase in soul power, his spirit power became a little more concentrated and he gained 25% more affinity with the Asura God, leaving his affinity at a total of 35%.
The next mission he had to accomplish was to reach rank 91 of titled douluo within a year's time. As a reward, his affinity would increase to 50% while the age of all his spirit rings increased by 10,000 years.
"Huh?" Percy stopped at the entrance and looked at Artemis in confusion, "You're still here? I thought you'd be tired of waiting."
She just glared at him before huffing.
"Where are we going now?"
"I'm going home, Artemis. I don't know about you, but I want to see my wife and son."
Artemis's eyes slowly widened at Percy's words. Wife? Son? Of course she had thought about the possibility, but hearing it straight from Percy's mouth was different!
"You... got married?"
"Just a few months ago," Percy nodded before unfolding his dark golden wings and rising off the ground.
"I... I see..." Artemis nodded, but she felt tears in the corners of her eyes. She shook her head as she squeezed her eyes shut a little to keep from crying. His silver wings sprouted from his back and he followed Percy, but this time he didn't try to strike up a conversation.
The two of them flew away from the city and passed through several smaller forests. The white wolf of the sky appeared shortly after they left the city and followed Artemis. But, when at least an hour had passed and the sun was setting while the moon in the sky was brightening even more, Percy took out the God-Slaying Sabre and slammed it down hard.
BOOOM!
Anaklusmos collided with a large hammer and a large shockwave sent Artemis flying towards the ground.
"Clear Sky Hammer," Percy narrowed his eyes, noticing a man similar to Tang Hao, but much more orderly and serious. Percy's spiritual power spread out everywhere, noticing two more people. There was a title douluo hiding among the trees and someone at level 50 a little further to his right, right where Artemis had fallen.
"Tch..." Percy clicked his tongue as the power of his skull spirit bone kicked in. He moved to the side as the man punched, but his powerful punch went out the other way as Percy descended like a raging meteor.
"Seventh Elder, watch out!" Seeing and understanding that his orientation was affected, the man immediately roared. Sadly, it was too late. The thin, old man's eyes looked into Percy's, feeling and seeing horrors as he felt despair flooding his body.
The Seventh Elder's eyes bled, as did his nose and ears. His mouth opened as he raised his head and fell to his knees spitting blood and screaming hoarsely. His wrinkled hands held his head on both sides, trying to pull out whatever was in his head. The man almost seemed to scratch at his skin trying to remove his own skull and brain.
Percy appeared in front of him and cut off his head in one blow. The other person watched in shock as the Seventh Elder's head slipped from his neck and fell back as blood fell like a waterfall from the horrible wound that caused his death.
Percy jumped back, avoiding the blow from the first man as he helped Artemis to the ground. She frowned, annoyed at being beaten. She knew Percy was strong, just like the man in front of the two of them, but she was still annoyed. She also saw a young man with a frown and his jaws moving as if he was chewing his own teeth.
"Tang San… Tang San…" Percy shook his head. "It seems you've forgotten something really easy to understand: While you grew in power, what was stopping me from doing the same?"
"And you, you must be Tang Xiao, Tang Hao's brother and head of the Clear Sky Clan."
"By the way, how is Tang Hao?"
Tang Xiao had a dark look on his face as he looked at his enemy. Clearly, he knew that Percy knew from the start that Tang Hao would not be able to heal his wounds and would die due to blood loss.
"Though I wonder, did Tang Hao tell you two how Ah Yin was discovered by the spirit hall?" Percy asked and smiled coldly upon seeing Tang San's angry and dark expression.
"Oh… it seems he told you, Tang San. But you didn't tell your uncle. Tch… that's to be expected, like father, like son. I mean, Tang Xiao was also in love with your mother, so it's no wonder you wouldn't tell him that Tang Hao informed the spirit hall so he could get Ah Yin's hundred thousand year spirit bone and ring."
"Shut up!" Tang San roared angrily.
Tang Xiao had an expression of surprise, doubt, and a bit of betrayal. But he never took his eyes off Percy. Even if that was true, he still had to kill the man in front of him. To him, blood ties were more important than a spirit beast turned human that didn't love him. Love didn't matter right now, at least not to him.
"Artemis..."
"What?"
"The boy has two martial spirits: Clear Sky Hammer and Blue Silver Emperor. On top of that, he might have spirit bones. He also uses hidden weapons with strong poisons."
"Do you want me to kill him?" she asked raising an eyebrow.
"He's an enemy, one that won't stop to kill me."
Artemis looked at Percy, who didn't turn his eyes towards her, watching the two in front of them. But, he nodded anyway and took two steps as his bow appeared while his wolf companion growled as he walked beside her.
Percy took a step forward that sank into the ground before he began to clash weapons with Tang Xiao in the sky. His dark golden wings immediately appeared as he condensed all his killing intent.
Artemis narrowed her eyes as Tang San raised his hand and the silver blue emperor appeared like vines above his hand. Grass immediately spread out as Tang San's first yellow spirit ring lit up.
However, Artemis was only still as she held her bow. The yellow spirit ring appeared beneath her as she began to aim. The white sky wolf was the one who roared, sending wind blades towards Tang San's first spirit ability: Entanglement.
Frowning, Tang San activated his third spirit ability, causing his third (purple) spirit ring to light up. His hand lifted and a spider web-like web formed before being shot forward.
Artemis sprang into action at that moment.
"First spirit ability: Accurate Arrow," an energy arrow formed and shot out, evading the net from the side and heading towards Tang San's head. He however tilted his head as his eyes lit up purple. But he immediately had to jump to the side, dodging the arrow that had bent behind him. Tang San spun in the air before landing hand over hand and doing several flips, using the phantom shadow's bewildering track to jump through the trees and try to make the arrow crash into them.
Artemis followed him alongside her wolf while controlling the arrow with her spirit power. This was the good thing about her first spirit ability. Casting it used little of her soul power, and for the arrow to follow the enemy, she only needed a small amount of spirit power. If Artemis's soul power was considered 100, then she would only use five to cast her first spirit ability. The arrow did not have great explosive power, but it did have penetrative power. At the same time, if her spirit power was another 100, then she needed only 1 spirit power every minute to control the arrow.
Tang San grunted, annoyed at not being able to lose the arrow. Then, he jumped and turned his body as he took out blades from his storage belt and threw them, bouncing off each other before they all hit the arrowhead.
The arrow shattered into specks of light and he stopped before leaping towards Artemis while taking out a crossbow. This was the Zhuge Divine Crossbow. Tang San fired three bursts of 16 arrows at once.
"Second spirit ability: Moon Shield", Artemis' bow, or rather her martial spirit, was called Moon Bow, and in the center, there was a small crescent moon. When her second spirit ability activated, this crescent moon lit up forming a shield that surrounded her like a sphere. All the arrows stopped and bounced off the shield as she continued running, jumping from tree to tree, getting closer with each step to Tang San.
"Argh!" Tang San growled angrily. He was unhappy that he couldn't kill his father's murderer. And now, he had to fight this unknown woman who seemed to be just as strong as him.
In that moment of anger, Tang San ignored his surroundings for a second, and the white sky wolf that had been lurking in wait, leaped up and bit Tang San's right arm.
Tang San's eyes widened in surprise and pain as he released his Clear Sky Hammer to strike the wolf. However, Artemis had already activated her third spirit ability. The black ring lit up around her and she pointed her bow towards the sky.
"Moon Waterfall"
The arrow shot into the sky and reached a high altitude in just a second. Suddenly, Tang San stopped as the wolf released him and ran. The dark sky lit up with a second moon before a waterfall of arrows descended as if in divine fury towards him.
Tang San roared as eight spider legs came out from his back, moving and colliding with the arrows. His Clear Sky Hammer moved again and again towards the waterfall that descended furiously towards his head. Each strike bounced back, sending a group of arrows flying in other directions, but the strikes that came one after another increased in power each time.
"Fool...", Artemis snorted before taking aim, her right hand moving back as another arrow was created and another black ring appeared from her feet.
"Fourth spirit ability: Moon Field," Artemis whispered and fired. The arrow shot out and the path beneath it lit up silver as white lines shot up and followed the arrow. This was another large area ability, anyone in the way would be pierced. Another use was for the arrow to continue its path as thick thread-like lines removed any obstacles.
Tang San, who had almost finished blocking the moon waterfall, was shocked when an arrow pierced his shoulder, near his neck. And, almost immediately, several thick threads created from soul power stabbed into his body. His chest, shoulders, abdomen and legs immediately bled.
"No… I…" Tang San muttered as he looked at his wounds in shock. His fury had prevented him from thinking and fighting clearly. His eyes locked onto Artemis, who was aiming another arrow at him.
"I… no…".
The arrow shot out and Tang San could see it almost in slow motion before it stuck in the center of his forehead. Tang San's head was forcibly moved back as his eyes went completely unfocused as he looked at the moon.
"No... I'm... sorry... dad..."
Tang San's last words came out slowly before the thick white threads dissipated and he fell back to the ground. Dust rose as his body impacted, blood began to stain the ground as Tang San's wide open eyes continued to stare at the moon, but this time there was not a shred of life in them.
"Those were good skills..."
Artemis turned around and saw Percy with several spirit bones in his arms.
"The other man?"
"He no longer exists."
Artemis just nodded before petting the wolf and thanking him for the help.
"Hey..."
"Yeah?" she looked up, looking into Percy's eyes.
"I could have handled this all by myself. But, still... you know... Thanks."
The bright grey eyes widened a little more than normal before returning to normal. A smile spread across Artemis' lips before she nodded.
"You're welcome..."
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