Chapter 697: A Dire Beast

Translator: TYZ Editor: Lucas, TYZ

"Lou Lan, are you alright?"

"Lou Lan is alright."

Lou Lan’s tone was the same as usual, setting everyone’s mind at ease. Lou Lan’s appearance for the past two days had scared everyone out of their wits. In the aspect of relations with other people, nobody could be as good as Lou Lan; even Ai Hui wasn’t as popular as Lou Lan.

Lou Lan’s eternal vigor was unrealistically beautiful in this brutal and exhausting era.

"What happened?"

"Lou Lan doesn’t know either, it seems like there is somebody calling out to me."

Suddenly, Lou Lan widened his eyes. "Below!"

Immediately, Shi Zhiguang pushed his palm forward. Like a nimble swordfish, the Pinwheel Sword descended and pierced through the sea of clouds. In an instant, the Pinwheel Sword was engulfed by the sea of clouds. Pure white clouds skimmed past the Pinwheel Sword, giving off a mournful shrill.

After passing through the sea of clouds, everyone was able to see what was ahead once more.

Everyone heaved a sigh of relief as the ground appeared before their eyes.

There was a huge pit on the verdant mountain range. On the charred ground of the huge pit, there were numerous potholes. The pit was extremely dazzling, resembling an ugly mark that was branded on a piece of gleaming, gorgeous mink fur.

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The potholes that were of various sizes were countless and they covered a distance of hundreds of miles.

"Was this place attacked by meteorites?"

"Was it caused by a Grandmaster?"

Every member of the Sword of Lightning was shocked. They swallowed their saliva with difficulty while staring at the ground.

Lou Lan’s eyes were flickering with a red glow. Suddenly, he jumped down from the Pinwheel Sword. The rest returned to their senses and quickly followed suit.

There was a thick of grey ashes covering the ground too, and it was almost knee-deep. The faces of those who jumped down from the Pinwheel Sword turned slightly white. It was very hard for them to imagine how powerful an attack must be to create such a scene.

Lou Lan bent down and extended his hand into the ashes.

When he pulled his hand out, there was a fragment in his grasp. The rest turned around and looked at it.

"It’s a sword fragment... Ai Hui..."

Everyone’s faces turned deathly pale. Could it be...

Suddenly, Lou Lan looked as though he had sensed something and turned around to look at one of the potholes.

The next word he said put everyone on high alert immediately.

"Who?"

.....

Where is this?

The distant horizon was engulfed in a faint, orangish glow, looking as if it was on fire. The clouds above it were tinged with sunset hues. The last trace of afterglow was abandoning the boundless sky as darkness began to embrace the vast land.

When Ai Hui regained his consciousness, he realized that he was floating in mid-air by himself.

Before he could make sense of what was going on, an indescribable pain engulfed his body like a tidal wave. Ai Hui always felt that he had strong willpower, just like how he felt that his ability to endure pain was one of his few essential strengths that allowed him to strive in his cultivation despite his lack of genius.

It’s so painful...

Ai Hui felt as though every muscle, every bone, and every blood vessel in his body was being ripped apart, shattered, and popped respectively.

His endurance that he was intensely proud of collapsed within a split second and he lost consciousness once again.

His eyes that had just regained clarity lost focus once more.

A monster that had fish scales all over its body and long, hook-like fingers floated silently in the air, resembling a stationary, weightless statue.

When the last trace of afterglow disappeared from the blue dome of heaven, darkness took control over the sky and the earth. Wind whizzed through the air and the temperature dropped rapidly. Little nocturnal creatures crawled out of their nests and brought vitality and energy to the night.

Pop.

One of the monster’s arms suddenly exploded and blood violently spurted out of its wound.

In the wind, the blood became a cloud of bloody mist that flew thirty meters before landing on the ground.

When the cloud of bloody mist landed on the ground, the grass on the ground withered rapidly. Within seconds, the verdant underbrush became deathly white in color. As the faint bloody mist seeped into the bodies of the bugs in the underbrush, the bugs froze and then exploded with a pop.

Pop, pop, pop. The bodies of the bugs in the underbrush kept on exploding.

Even though the impact of the bugs’ explosions wasn’t really significant, it was strong enough to turn the withered, deathly white plants into white-colored powder that disappeared along with the wind.

The body of the monster in the sky was undergoing violent changes. It looked as though there were countless snakes wriggling under its glistening fish scales. Under the faint starlight, the scene was extremely horrifying.

Pop. Another part of its body exploded again, releasing another cloud of bloody mist into the air.

However, the next moment, the flesh at its badly mangled wound wriggled and regenerated with a visible speed. In the blink of an eye, the wound was healed. It looked as good as before without any scar.

Various parts of the monster’s body kept on exploding, healing, and growing.

During this process, the monster’s shape was silently transforming.

All this time, the monster’s figure did not move; it looked as though it had died.

Suddenly, its dazed, almond-shaped pupils regained focus and an ice-cold, dangerous aura filled its eyes. Following which, it disappeared.

.....

Under the night sky, two figures were flying through the air like two huge birds. They weren’t flying very high, thus allowing them to scan the ground for their target.

However, until now they were still empty-handed.

"Is it possible that Vice Leader Fu has already died?"

"Most likely. Only the Sky Leaf Division’s members know how to execute that move."

"Maybe not. Wasn’t there a more terrifying self-destruction two days ago? That one was exactly like ours. Sir said that it is Chi Tong’s [Deathly Seeds of Demonic Consciousness]. Chi Tong can imitate any move just by looking at it once."

"Are you sure he is that scary? My hair is standing on end now!"

"Yes, I’m sure. Hey, he is an ancient demonic god after all. Who wouldn’t be scared of him?"

"What does Chi Tong look like? Sir’s instructions aren’t really clear. If we don’t know what he looks like, how are we going to find him..."

It was very easy for one to get tired after staring at the ground from such a height for so long.

With an irritated tone, one of them said, "Why? I’m just speaking the truth. Am I wrong to say that? If we don’t know what Chi Tong looks like, how the hell are we going to find him? Finding a needle in a haystack is already incredibly tough. If we don’t even know what the needle looks like, how will we find it..."

"What is that?"

His partner’s light breathing jolted his mind. He quickly stopped whining and asked, "Where?"

"Directly in front of us."

Directly in front of them?

The moonlight was bright and the sky was clear without any clouds. As such, they had an excellent view of the sky and they were able to spot their target quickly.

Due to the long distance between them and the mass of shadow basking under the moonlight, they could only see its silhouette. They were sure that it wasn’t a human, as it looked much larger than a human.

"Is it a dire beast?"

"Let’s take a look."

After the outbreak of the blood catastrophe, the number of sightings of dire beasts had decreased sharply, especially the sightings of powerful dire beasts. It was as though they could intuitively sense danger and had fled to the depths of the Wilderness.

The blood catastrophe was the prologue of a war. Even though the war that lasted several years had taken countless lives, it had spurred a great development in the elemental energy system. Under intense pressure, various new and efficient absolute arts and training methods emerged rapidly. The overall strength level of elementalists had increased dramatically since the outbreak of the blood catastrophe. This could be shown through the significant increase in the number of Masters.

In the past, the dire beasts were the elementalists’ nightmare. Now, the elementalists were at the top of the food chain.

Both of them were very confident in their strength, but they were still on high alert. As they drew closer to the figure, they could gradually see what it was.

Its body was roughly the size of a small hill and it had its back facing the moonlight. More than half of its body was covered in shadow. The outline of the shadow gave off a gleam of light, resembling clear and crystalline water ripples. This was caused by the fish scales reflecting the moonlight.

"It seems like an ape-type dire beast, but I can’t figure out which species it belongs to."

There were countless types of dire beasts. Dire beasts of the same type had different breeding methods and evolution paths, causing them to have huge differences in their physical forms. Most of the time, the type of a dire beast could only be differentiated by humans after it died.

When the two people realized that it was a dire beast, they felt at ease. Soon after, suspicion arose in their minds.

"Something is amiss; why would a dire beast appear in this place?"

Just as the words resounded through the air, two scarlet glows appeared in the pitch-black shadow. The dire beast had opened its eyes.

"Be careful!"

A strong sense of danger engulfed the two people. At this moment, both of them were like two cats with their hair standing on end. They reacted extremely fast and they were well-coordinated. They abruptly flew off in directions opposite to each other.

The huge figure basking in the moonlight did not move. Its scarlet glowing eyes gradually dimmed.

After separating in opposite directions, they both prepared to launch a two-pronged attack. Their facial expressions were solemn, looking as though they were preparing for a powerful enemy. They did not dare to lower their guard. The instant where the monster opened its eyes made them realize how dangerous it was.

It was as though a motionless statue had started moving.

Crack. The sound of a bone cracking echoed across the air.

The monster raised its head slowly, appearing like an old man that had just woken up. Following which, it stretched its arms. The sound of bones cracking resounded through the air incessantly, making the two people wonder if the monster had a metallic bone structure beneath its ice-cold fish scales.

The monster was subconsciously stretching its body. The sound of its bones cracking resembled the sound of beans being fried.

The two members of the Sky Leaf Division had their foreheads covered in cold sweat. The air seemed to have frozen at this point in time and the two of them were extremely anxious. The more calm the monster appeared, the more pressured they felt.

How could a dire beast give them so much pressure? If someone told them that they could be pressured by a dire beast in the past, they would have felt humiliated.

The two of them looked at each other and saw fear and panic in each other’s eyes.

Since both of them were products of Master’s Glory, they were telepathically connected and they had exceptional coordination. They knew what each other was thinking without having to talk.

One of them reached out his palm and five elemental energy extended through his arm like intertwining vines. Following which, the five elemental energy transformed into a longbow that was brightly and colorfully lit. He had an ice-cold look on his face. After taking a breath, he placed three arrows on the bowstring and pulled the bowstring, preparing to shoot them as soon as he had accumulated enough power.

And the other person suddenly disappeared.

Boom!

The bowstring gave off a thunderous boom. Three streaks of light shot through the air and exploded like the blossoming of a flower, drawing three perfect arcs in the sky. They were aimed at the monster’s head, heart, and lower body.

In the opposite direction, his partner launched a surprise attack. He held a brightly colored sword in each of his hands, exuding an aura of death.

At this point in time, he was less than 100 meters away from the monster and he could finally see the face of the monster clearly. When he saw the eyes of the monster, his heart thumped heavily as a premonition arose in his mind.

The monster had a pair of limpid and indifferent eyes and its pupils were almond-shaped, completely devoid of any warmth. For some reason, the monster’s eyes reminded him of a deep and calm sea.

The next moment, the monster disappeared right in front of his eyes.