It was Ai Hui's sixth time regaining consciousness.
He felt as though he was being torn apart once more; the sensation bound him so tightly that he had to open his mouth wide to gasp for air. He could feel an inch of flesh tearing under his skin. It was tearing, regrowing, reorganizing, and tearing again in an endless cycle.
His past five experiences had been very brief and he had woken up to immediate and immense pain each time. He could acutely sense that his window of consciousness was lengthening.
He extended his hand, or rather sharp-as-hook claw, and let out a bitter laugh. If the others were to see him in this monstrous state, they would probably be beyond shocked.
Was he still considered human?
Ai Hui lost interest after some self-mocking. Chi Tong that he feared the most had occupied his body and even harmed his people, something he could never forgive. The thing he was most worried about had not occurred and he had managed to survive Chi Tong, so was there really anything for him to complain about? Granted, he looked like a beast, but he would gladly accept this consequence over anything else.
I'm part-human at least, he consoled himself.
With that, he diverted his focus onto moving away from this unfamiliar beast's body.
Ai Hui was an extremely disciplined person; his self-control was instinctive. Even if his window of consciousness was fleeting, his natural reaction was to attempt to gain control over his own body.
He knew that his priority was to extend this window, but it really wasn't an easy feat.
He felt dizzy and less sharp than usual. The pain in his body was a constant reminder that it would soon engulf and swallow him up.
He looked around with a foreign and shockingly sharp vision and could easily spot the traces on the rocks from miles away. He could also clearly see a finger-thin spotted lizard hiding within the shadows.
Where is this?
He was in a boundless wilderness, surrounded by grit. The earth elemental energy was rich and heated. The heatwave rising from the ground warped the distant scenery into an overwhelming blur.
At this point Ai Hui's ear twitched. He turned to look toward his left.
There seemed to be people battling...
He flew over, struggling and staggering along the way.
Amid the barrenness, he noticed two groups of people facing one another in confrontational stances with swords and daggers drawn.
The atmosphere was chillingly hostile as Xiao Buyu murderously sized his opponents up. The God Tiger Division, led by Shan Minxiong, proceeded to the front line as the elites of the Radiance Blood Division, led by Xiao Buyu, were in charge of tracking Ye Baiyi's location. If unsuccessful, they were to join She Yu as soon as possible.
Xiao Buyu was feeling absolutely terrible. His mission, fraught with obstacles, almost convinced him that he had been possessed by an unlucky god. General Ye appeared to have vanished without a trace, and his task to join Her Highness had yet to progress. Initially, he could still locate the secret marks left behind by her, but those had disappeared midway.
He searched around the last secret mark and noticed a battlefield in the process. It was filled with thousands of holes, each an evidence of a gruesome battle that had taken place. In this battlefield, Xiao Buyu spotted a trace left behind by Her Highness's blood spiritual force. Apart from that, there was another kind of eye-grabbing trace - one left behind by the five elemental energies.
His heart jumped right out of his throat; he hadn't seen anything like this before, but according to previous records, he could vaguely guess who the opponent was.
These people before him validated his conjecture.
The passion in Xiao Buyu's heart was set ablaze in that moment. "Sky Leaf Division!" he shouted through his gritted teeth.
The traces left on the battlefield contained all five elemental energies, which were only possessed by the Assembly of Patriarchs and the recently established and enigmatic Sky Leaf Division.
There was only one possibility - Sky Leaf Division!
Xu Jing was the head of the division. He had a calm personality and was well-liked within the division. The division leader, Gu Xiaobao, was still in seclusion, so he had to take over and assist Fu Sisi.
Xu Jing had a great built. With broad shoulders and a big chest, he looked just like a door god. On top of a square face and copper skin, he possessed a gaze sharp as lightning and eyebrows dense as blades. He looked intimidating even without trying.
While taking a clear look at the fellows, he said in a deep voice, "So it's Xiao Buyu, the head of Radiance Blood Division."
Despite it being a fire vs water situation, Xu Jing had no plans to complicate the issue. His priority was to locate Fu Sisi and not to get tangled with Radiance Blood Division. As he thought about how to get away, he heard a cold laughter coming from Xiao Buyu.
"Kill! Spare no one!"
A bright light flashed across Xu Jing's eyes. Throwing all distracting thoughts to the back of his mind, he yelled cooly, "You're courting death!"
A bloody battle broke out.
Ai Hui followed the battle's sounds, but the moment he moved, he sensed something amiss.
His vision blurred and he vanished from the spot. Before he could react, the ground magnified within his field of vision. Right in the center of his sight was a rock that as tall as a few men combined, and the traces on it were extremely familiar. Exposed to strong sunlight, the rock emitted clearly visible heat waves that looked like transparent, billowing waves.
Wait… wasn't that the rock he had just seen a moment ago?
Ai Hui's already muddled brain couldn't react in time, so he could only look on as the rock continued magnifying. The little spotted lizard hiding in the shadows raised its head. Looking at the figure that had appeared suddenly, it was equally taken aback.
They exchanged sluggish glances.
Like a meteor, Ai Hui slammed straight onto the solid rock with his eyes open since he couldn't close them in time.
Pop!
A bottomless hole appeared on the rock in an instant. It was like a heated drill had bore a hole through a lump of frozen fat.
The spotted lizard turned its neck in confusion as the figure disappeared again. Had its eyes played a trick?
Pop!
The ground three hundred meters away exploded and endless dirt and gravel shot up into the air. The force was so intense that the raised soil and rocks produced a black wave that was over thirty meters tall.
Hu! A towering figure appeared far away followed by a loud gush as the black wave started surging.
The raised dirt and rocks rained down at this point.
A rainstorm took over the wilderness as the debris hit the rock, crackling and rattling incessantly. Startled, the spotted lizard slid into a crack of the rock.
In midair, Ai Hui was unable to control his own movement.
Initially, he was shocked too, but he was quickly pleased to find that on top of being unhurt from the massive impact, the searing pain in every corner of his body seemed to have faded a little.
This discovery excited him and snapped him out of his daze.
The widespread pain was causing him to be on the verge of collapsing. According to past experiences, he would soon fade into this boundless agony.
Now that he had accidentally discovered a way to reduce the pain, Ai Hui dove down without hesitation.
Bang!
The moment he smashed into the soil, a formless ripple spread rapidly. The ground within a 150 feet radius became soft as water as the ripple continued to expand in a visible speed.
The next moment, more soil and rocks formed another black wave, ten times as powerful as last time, that rocketed high into the sky. It looked like a black pillar that was holding the sky in place.
Boom, yet another black wave shot up into the air miles away.
Ai Hui's body wasn't amid the pillar-like wave. He appeared spotless in the air, about thirty feet away from the wave. The striking black wave had become a backdrop for him.
He shook his head and his slackened eyes immediately regaining some clearness.
He gathered his remaining soberness and inhaled deeply before diving down once more.
The battle between the Sky Leaf and Radiance Blood Divisions was evenly-matched and aggressive to say the least.
The members of the Sky Leaf Division possessed skills that baffled Xiao Buyu. Despite there being only twenty of them, none wasn't a Master elementalist. Plus, their abilities far exceeded those of average Masters. The battle progressed ambiguously with great powers involved and splendid colors accompanying them. Meeting force with force, it came as a shock that the Radiance Blood Division wasn't able to gain any advantage.
It wasn't Xiao Buyu's first time experiencing something like this.
Within a brief period of time, the Radiance Blood Division had lost over ten elites.
What he didn't know was that his opponents were suffering as well. Sky Leaf members were capable but had inadequate battle experience compared to the veterans in Radiance Blood. Xu Jing felt as though they had fallen into a quicksand, and it was indescribably unendurable.
Even after taking down over ten members, the remaining soldiers of Radiance Blood weren't suffering from serious injuries.
What Xu Jing feared more was the fact that Xiao Buyu seemed to have found a way to deal with them. He could unquestionably feel the pressure building up. It was incorporeal yet becoming forcefully binding. The radiant tigers beneath Xiao Buyu had acute senses and telepathic abilities. Many a times they had managed to dodge most of his killer moves, which made him feel as though he had thrown punches at a pile of cotton.
Xu Jing felt rather anxious. This couldn't go on!
According to the current situation, their elemental energy would be exhausted before getting rid of the opponents. When that happened, they would be like chickens on a slaughter table, with no chance of escaping. The Bluster Blood Division was good at sudden bursts of attack, while the Radiance Blood Division was good with long-range raids, speed, and endurance.
This won't work. We have to speed up!
Xu Jing was determined to execute his killer move.
Just then, a sound traveled from the distance and all the battlers present sensed it simultaneously.
Rumble, rumble, rumble...
Thunder?
Xiao Buyu and Xu Jing raised their heads in unison. Not a single cloud was spotted in the piercingly hot sky, so how could the sound be thunder?
Then...
The rumblings became increasingly distinct and loud.
They were coming this way!
Once again Xiao Buyu and Xu Jing looked up toward the source.
There was no need to fly up, since the vast and unobstructed field fell right into their field of vision.
All of a sudden, the leveled and smooth horizon pulsed a little.
It was a very small movement, but all the keen battlers never could've missed it.
What followed after was an astonishingly frequent and increasingly obvious throbbing of the horizon. After some time, Xu Jing and Xiao Buyu managed to make out what the throbbing was - balls of soil exploding into the sky.
What are those...
The exploded dust waves became visibly clearer and more resounding. The waves surged into their sight, as if an invisible giant was striding toward them.
Xiao Buyu and Xu Jing's faces changed instantly. They had no idea what those things were, but they could sense that they were fatally dangerous!
They could no longer care about the battle as they roared simultaneously.
"Enemy incoming! Radiance Blood Division, retreat!"
"Beware! Sky Leaf Division, withdraw!"