## AST 2229 - Horrifying White Tiger Divine Feet, Awakening the Guardian

With remaining grievance leading up to his death, the Golden Yaksha looked towards the Diamond White Tiger King and muttered, “Diamond White Tiger King.”

It was apparent that they didn’t recognize the Diamond White Tiger King from before. If they had, it would be hard to tell whether they would have still accepted the fight. Still, it was too late by now. Qing Shui kept the Golden Yakshas’ Five Colored Formation Breaking Stone and the others without sparing another glance. After all, at their level, the items they carried must be decent regardless.

The Diamond White Tiger King had displayed the powerful White Tiger Divine Feet and killed the senior warrior from the Golden Yakshas, leaving the latter’s counterparts apprehensive about their situation. They were now stuck in a dilemma. It would be impossible to fight against the white tiger alone. After all, who would be able to deal with that attack?

On the other hand, Qing Shui was elated. He didn’t expect the Diamond White Tiger King to carry such an element of surprise. In fact, his initial plan was to use the Diamond White Tiger King as a disruption while he searched for a way to defeat their opponents on his own. As long as the Stellar Transposition and the Flying Swords were incorporated properly, they would be enough to draw his opponent’s final breath. He was currently in his later part of the Divine Connection after all.

Qing Shui had made his preparations to attack in a few moment’s time, leveraging on their unpreparedness. Now that Qing Shui had the Five Colored Formation Breaking Stone, in addition to their wariness of the white tiger, he doubted they would dare to attack. Rather, they would likely retreat back to the safety of their Guardian Beast.

The bigger sects and aristocrats of Immortal Palaces all had their own Guardian Beasts. It was the mightiest existence of the sect, with power to protect them and the offering in exchange for the authority they wielded.

The Sea King Palace didn’t have a Guardian Beast. Qing Shui was aware that they were not at that level of power yet.

The Divine Palace had one, but Qing Shui had never seen it before.

Many of the less mighty groups had their own Guardian Beast but they were simply weak. At that thought, Qing Shui wondered if it was time to get the Sea King Palace a Guardian Beast as well.

Not just any demonic beast could be a Guardian Beast. Guardian Beasts didn’t belong to any particular person, but protected an entire clan of people instead. Hence, to find a Guardian Beast, he would have to look for it nearby. It would be best if it had grown strong from the clan’s power.

With a shake of his head, he cast those thoughts aside. Qing Shui was ready, his mind set on killing one more of them. In any case, they had already killed two of them, and the others would not pose a threat to the Sea King Palace. However, there were still dozens of gifted members situated behind the Golden Yakshas seniors in the front row. They would be the ones to support their clan’s survival in the future.

The remaining two seniors of the Golden Yakshas exchanged looks before one of them abruptly held out a seal type of item and moved it around in haste. What followed left Qing Shui stunned. The entire fleet of Golden Yakshas had disappeared without a trace, not a single one left behind.

Fled. They fled just like that…

They hadn’t simply fled. They had used a precious type of one-time use, transportation seal to do so. It was one which required them to place a designated location beforehand. It was something used to save their lives at the most critical moment.

After a while, Qing Shui snapped back to reality. “Wasn’t that too exaggerated? They would have a 50% chance of fleeing successfully if they had just turned and walked. I was still hoping they would leave at least one person behind…”

“In that case, I suppose they were right in choosing that method,” Beihuang Fei replied and laughed.

Even though their troubles with the Golden Yakshas had been dealt with for now, there was still a possibility that they would return, perhaps even with their Guardian Beast. That was an issue they might have to face in the future, but at least for now, they would be fine.

After a few days of stay, the Yunlong couple left when everything had calmed down.

Yin Tong, Beihuang Fan, Beihuang Yu, and the others followed suit while Qing Shui stayed behind without plans of leaving just yet, despite not being in any critical danger. His opponents could only tolerate their rage towards Qing Shui if they didn’t want to risk clashing against him again. Besides, it would only incur mockery from the Main Continent, causing others to gang up against them.

It was true that Qing Shui had annihilated two of their stronger warriors but it was done without secrecy.

Qing Shui didn’t have much on his agenda in any case, besides playing with Qing Xiu, Qing She, and the other children, as well as helping them train. Thereafter, his mind drifted back to the topic of Guardian Beasts.

In truth, Guardians weren’t limited to just creatures like the demonic beasts. For example, there were bloodthirsty demonic vines which were terrifying species despite the fact that they were simply plants. The Main Continent had a lot of species of plants which were similar to that of the demonic vines, and they had much more to be feared about in comparison to demonic beasts. Even if they looked like they were just tiny trees, they might not be as innocent as they seemed.

Qing Shui’s thoughts shifted. There was a stalk of bloodthirsty demonic vines within the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal, and had been there for quite some time. It had plenty of time to absorb the Spiritual Qi within the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal, as well as being watered by the Spring of Life. While it didn’t appear to have changed much in size, its appearance had taken a complete turn from when it was first placed there.

That said, Qing Shui couldn’t know the status of the bloodthirsty demonic vines. In order to turn it into a Guardian Tree or a Guardian Vine, it would require an awakening.

It would then guard wherever it was awakened and there would be a huge price to pay for it. Besides, those awakened weren’t usually all that powerful either, which was why Guardians usually awakened on their own and guarded wherever it was out of gratefulness.

Qing Shui was a man of his words. Within the Sea King Palace, he looked for an area with a dense amount of Spiritual Qi. Even though he was under the sea, there were still mountains and lakes here, as they were within an enchantment.

Migrating the bloodthirsty demonic vines out, a few women came over, all of whom were startled beyond words when they found out about Qing Shui’s intentions of awakening it to become the Sea King Palace’s Guardian.

Qing Shui had the utmost faith towards the bloodthirsty demonic vines. After all, they had absorbed so much Spiritual Qi in the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal and had survived for so long. Hence, he thought the bloodthirsty demonic vines must have had intellect by now.

The process of awakening couldn’t be done alone. Qing Shui sent someone around the Sea King Palace to collect their member’s blood essence, drip by drip, refining it and adding into the Spring of Life. What was collected before was already in the Treasure Basin to increase its abilities. As for the Hundred Treasure Chest, Qing Shui left it out lest it became an entirely different creation.

Of course, Qing Shui and the other women’s blood essence were included as well, as those were the more crucial components. Even so, within such a vast Sea King Palace, its blood essence wasn’t something to laugh at either. They refined the blood essence into a drip that was the size and density of a human’s head.

With his mind, Qing Shui urged the bloodthirsty demonic vines to absorb this drop of blood.

Everything was smooth-sailing. The bloodthirsty demonic vine was the strongest and scariest existence among the vines indeed. It sucked up the enormous blood essence greedily. The very essence which contained countless of other blood essences, including Qing Shui’s and from the other women. For normal people, a drop of blood essence was enough to shave off half their lives, and they weren’t normal people. Each drop of their blood essence was packed with great energy.

Bang!

The bloodthirsty demonic vines rose abruptly, growing tenfold of their initial size, the entire body covered in crimson red. The enchantment above was broken and innumerable blood red demonic vines extended outwards and into the sea of people. A few of the giant demonic beasts weren’t in time to dodge it, and were bound and sucked dry of their blood essence.

Qing Shui could tell that it was a success just by watching as the drop of blood shrunk bit by bit. With the rate it was going, it would likely require a month’s worth of time to complete.

“The Sea King Palace will have a Guardian in the future. I wonder if the bloodthirsty demonic vines would be strong,” Muyun Qingge spoke up hopefully.

“Plant-type Guardians would usually have a designated area, unless their abilities were beyond nature’s order. Otherwise, most would only be able to move within the area. However, there are sure to be losses where there are gains. Even though mobility is inconvenient, their might will be far stronger than that of demonic beasts.”