Molting the Mortal Coil

Chapter 908: Fire

A woman with a mischievous smile on her face and brilliant black painted fingernails looked at the overgrown forest in front of her. The thirty foot tall trees were like fence posts for an overwhelming amount of thorny brambles. Thorny bushes nearly ten feet high wove between the trees at high tension like they were a wire fence. Traveling through this forest would be like trying to walk through a forest of razor wire, but this woman seemed to think it was all a joke.

This is the place they said is similar to our home? How ridiculous! How could these messy vines compare to our magnificent forest?

She held up her hand, the palm of which had a small hole just like the cold faced woman, and nothing seemed to happen. Then a tiny lick of flame the size of a candle appeared on the tips of each of her fingers. She pulled her fingers towards her palm, forming a claw shape and bringing the tiny flames closer to the hole on her palm. When she did there was a whooshing sound of ignition. A narrow stream of flame suddenly flared to light, connecting her hand to the large bushes in front of her. The fire didnt shoot out of her hand, it crawled along an invisible string, running straight into the overgrown vegetation. The wrist thick vines that required rank 3 Cultivators with sabers to slowly hack through were instantly defeated by the jet of flame.

The fire zoomed down that invisible cord and then darted into the bushes where it suddenly bloomed. The thin stream became a massive cloud, blossoming into an explosive expansion and shooting taller than the forest canopy. A roaring fire more than a hundred yards high appeared without any prior warning, suddenly bathing a quarter mile area of the forest with heat.

The woman who caused this conflagration had already pulled back her hand. She was lightly blowing on the tips of her fingers and the thin curls of smoke spilling from them. This gesture was purely stylistic. There was no way shed harm herself with her own flame, shed just fallen in love with blowing smoke from her fingertips after an attack. Even more ridiculously shed also turned away from the giant forest explosion, standing nonchalantly with the raging fire behind her while blowing smoke from her fingers.

Those in the command center overlooked her flashy and inefficient actions. Especially since this hidden base of the Yi Yang Group was deep in this overgrown forest. Before they even knew they were under attack the whole of the forest was burning. They were first astounded that such a huge fire could appear out of nowhere and also worried about what could burn down these powerful plants. The brambles were a weak form of Spirit Plant. It wasnt useful for cultivation or in any recipes, but it was tough enough that it gave even cultivators trouble. This forest overgrown with these brambles became a trash heap where no one wanted to go, but that also made it perfect for a secret base. Now all that care in choosing an inaccessible and overlooked location was for nought. The huge flames completely engulfed the whole forest and burned away all their camouflage.

Yet, to the Yi Yang Group that was all it was. An annoying setback. Even these flames strong enough to burn away the whole forest werent that dangerous. The defensive formation of their base could easily handle a little forest fire. Well, a big forest fire in this case. As the flames surrounded them completely they realized it was quite a bit more intense than they expected and they had to push the defensive formation to full output. They only became concerned after the fire was still raging three hours later. Wasnt the whole forest burnt down already?

Contrary to their expectations the whole forest still seemed to be intact. Rather than seeing charred ashes and a scorched earth the whole forest was still overgrown. Fire covered them all, burning furiously, but not consuming anything. Looking closer they realized that wasnt true, the edges of the leaves were curled up and darkened. What was going on?

Just as the Yi Yang Group leaders were scratching their heads in confusion their questions were suddenly answered. That flashy woman appeared over the top of the treetops. She flew across the sky like she was skating on thin air. It was only when she got closer that they could see jets of flame shooting downwards out of her feet. She twirled in mid-air and skidded to a stop at the edge of the forest. She stood just where the clearing around the Yi Yang Groups base started and gave the whole base a sassy smirk. She twisted her hands at her sides, spreading her fingers and revealing her palms towards the base. They didnt notice the holes on her palms until a few moments later, wondering why she was standing in this strange pose for so long.

Then she spun her hands back into a more normal position and faced the Yi Yang Group base with a smile. She lifted her right hand and with exaggerated slowness she snapped her fingers. A small orb of flame jumped off her fingertips and fell forwards in a lazy arc that would make it land only a dozen feet in front of her. Just before it hit the ground it bloomed, igniting a line of flame upon the ground. Like a carpet of fire it unrolled towards the Yi Yang Groups base. When it reached the base it was like a tinder keg went off, it was like the whole base was soaked in accelerant booming into a massive fire.

The forest fire raging around them was already stressing their defenses. When their whole barrier was used as a firepit they fully realized the danger they were in. How could they mount a response or plan an escape when not only their whole base but the entire forest was burning furiously? What sort of monster were they facing that could keep such a giant fire raging for so long?

How would they know that this woman had been outside the forest for the last few days pumping poison into the forest. Her own variation of the Killer Garden poison, she called it Fire Garden, turned plants into living wicks and made the forest into a giant oil lamp. It went along quite well with her two other poison variants. These two invisible poison gasses were also flammable. The first was a slow burning fuel just like the Fire Garden, except that instead of infecting plants it was heavier than air and clung to objects. It could sink down into depressions or attach itself to objects or surfaces. This invisible gas, which she called Gaslight, replaced the normal air and could be used to make an airless room, or left as a trap. When ignited, Gaslight burned just like the Fire Garden, acting as a fuel for the flames to make it burn for an extended period. The last of her invisible gasses was her favorite and she was happy to show it off to the crowd of guards that charged out of the Yi Yang Groups base.

A troop of a hundred Guards were sheathed in powerful defensive barriers created by Magical Tools. Even so, they had to run through raging flames which clung to their bodies as they passed through it. The barriers around them blocked the direct flames, but the residual heat was already scorching their skin. Their faces had turned red and started to peel, but the power of their wide brimmed hats made them ignore the terrible pain and rush forward like drones.

The woman put her favorite poisonous gas to use, holding her hand towards the group of troops and releasing a jet of unseen gas. She released the gas for only a short interval, forming it into a spear-like vortex wave. When it contacted the fire still burning upon them it detonated, blasting a dozen of the heavily armored troops into burning chunks of cooked meat and glowing metal debris.