Volume Five: First Glances of Brilliance - Chapter Eleven: Hunted

Towering ancient trees seemed like mere rice seedlings in a paddy field compared to the colossal Thunder Beasts. With a casual flick, the trees were snapped in two. Amidst the roaring thunder and flashing lightning, Li Chengzhu and Yuan Mu dodged desperately left and right to avoid the countless thick bolts of lightning raining down upon them.

The sky was instantly woven into a grid of electricity. Occasionally, two bolts of lightning collided with each other, producing a deafening crash.

Finding a brief moment of leisure amidst the chaos, Li Chengzhu glanced down at the ground. The protective coloration of the Thunder Beasts had now truly merged them with the trees. Had it not been for the silver fox-like flashes above their heads when they attacked, Li Chengzhu would have been completely unable to distinguish these celestial beasts from the surrounding woods.

The Thunder Beasts either opened their mouths or lowered their heads, locking their targets onto Li Chengzhu and Yuan Mu, who were dancing figure-eights in mid-air.

These formidable Thunder Beasts were like laser-firing turrets set up on the ground. Wherever Li Chengzhu flew, they fired, and these turrets were mobile.

There were simply too many Thunder Beasts. Dragging clouds of dust in their wake, they closed in on the two men, bombarding them with an incessant barrage of lightning that struck relentlessly against the Nine Heavens Grand Luo Cauldron.

What brought a sense of relief to Li Chengzhu was that the strength of these swarming Thunder Beasts was not as terrifying as the very first one they had encountered. Thus, although the situation remained perilous, the defensive power of the Nine Heavens Grand Luo Cauldron allowed the two to struggle on for a while longer.

For the first time, Li Chengzhu regretted not possessing any decent defensive magical treasures. His Meteor Sword and Glazed Needles were purely offensive, and only the Nine Heavens Grand Luo Cauldron could be considered a semi-defensive, semi-offensive immortal artifact.

Yuan Mu was even worse off, possessing only a single immortal artifact, and that of the lowest first grade.

If Gu Linglong's Emptiness Mirror were here, if Yuan Mu had a few powerful offensive immortal artifacts, or if his own cultivation weren't so low, they could have easily escaped and then turned back to launch small-scale sneak attacks. There were simply too many "ifs." But lacking even one of them was enough to bury both of them beneath the lightning of this horde of Thunder Beasts.

"An ant colony can bite an elephant to death," Li Chengzhu thought with a bitter smile as he continued to dodge the lightning.

Both of them were practitioners of immortality, and Yuan Mu was even at the late stage of Immortalhood, yet they were completely helpless against this group of Thunder Beasts, driven like stray dogs fleeing in all directions.

"Aroo—!" A Thunder Beast let out a furious roar.

"Aroo—!"

"Aroo—!"

Its nearby companions suddenly halted in their tracks, aiming the twin horns atop their heads directly at it.

Following the first roar, the Thunder Beasts from all directions joined in unison as if responding to a signal. For a moment, it sounded like ten thousand charging horses neighing; the tree branches shook violently, and withered leaves drifted down like rain.

Boss Li and Yuan Mu exchanged a look of terror, a deep sense of unease welling up in their hearts simultaneously. Wood-attribute spiritual energy began to gather on a massive scale beneath their feet, a realization that chilled them to the bone.

"Run!" Yuan Mu roared fiercely, manipulating his hand seals to release his hula hoop-like artifact into the outer air, where it hovered around Li Chengzhu's Nine Heavens Grand Luo Cauldron to do what little it could.

Without waiting for Yuan Mu's warning, Li Chengzhu had already sensed that something was amiss. Channeling all ten percent of his immortal spiritual energy, he drove his immortal sword and accelerated forward.

The Meteor Sword emitted a faint whistling sound as it cleaved the air. The headwind whipped Li Chengzhu's white cloak into a frenzy; had they not been fleeing for their lives, he would have truly cut the figure of an elegant and refined scholar.

Down below, several Thunder Beasts formed a circle, simultaneously aiming the sharp horns on their heads toward their companion in the very center. With a roar, silver arcs flickered between the horns of the surrounding Thunder Beasts, and bolts of lightning shot rapidly toward the companion in the middle.

Even a creature as massive as a Thunder Beast was knocked back a step by this surge of immense wood-attribute energy. But immediately afterward, a counter-directional bolt of lightning shot back, targeting the horns on its head.

The Thunder Beast in the center staggered, its thick limbs trembling slightly as if enduring excruciating pain. Yet, the expected sound of impact never materialized; those thick bolts of lightning struck the Thunder Beast as if sinking into a vast sea, causing only a ripple of light arcs to spread.

Howl after howl echoed, venting the fury buried deep within the beasts' hearts. The Thunder Beasts in the center opened their copper-bell-sized eyes, stained red with rage, and slowly raised their heads, glaring with intense hostility at the two figures fleeing desperately through the sky.

These actions took place in the span of a single fleeting moment.

Li Chengzhu and Yuan Mu were running for their lives. Although they flew toward the direction with the fewest Thunder Beasts, there were still plenty of enemies in that path. In that transient blink of an eye, not a single bolt of lightning was fired at them, causing Li Chengzhu's suspended heart to drop slightly. Just as he was about to turn his head to look down, a bolt of lightning of unimaginable thickness twisted its body like a venomous snake, hissing as it shot upward from the ground.

Li Chengzhu's newly turned eyes could even see the scenery refracting through the vacuum left in the wake of the lightning, twisted and distorted.

As the first bolt of lightning struck, the dormant attacks from all directions once again became aggressive and arrogant.

This time, the lightning was not as dense, but its destructive power was incomparable to before. Sensing the massive spiritual energy attached to it, Li Chengzhu became even more cautious.

However, the speed, power, and accuracy of this wave of lightning were vastly superior and far more precise than the previous indiscriminate bombardment. On several occasions, Li Chengzhu could only barely dodge as the lightning grazed his body, leaving his white cloak smelling strongly of scorched fabric.

"They can execute combined attacks!" Yuan Mu looked down and was instantly dumbfounded.

The Thunder Beasts forming the circle were injecting their own lightning into the head of their central companion, as if charging up a battery. Then, the Thunder Beast in the center unleashed a massive blast toward the two men.

Yuan Mu could even see that after unleashing that attack, the central Thunder Beast lost its footing, knocked back a considerable distance by the recoil of its own attack before it managed to stabilize its massive body.

Once this attack concluded, the circle of Thunder Beasts seamlessly moved another individual into the center to await the energy infusion from its peers.

"Quick, fly higher, fly higher!" Yuan Mu roared.

The power of this attack was simply too terrifying, so terrifying that even Yuan Mu felt a chill in his heart.

Li Chengzhu hastily formed a hand seal, preparing to elevate their altitude, when he suddenly felt the Nine Heavens Grand Luo Cauldron shake violently. At the same time, his mind reeled as a scorching sensation grazed his back. Turning his head, he saw that the flying sword beneath his feet had been shattered, and Yuan Mu's body was charred black, with even several strands of hair standing straight up on end.

"How are you holding up?" Li Chengzhu asked anxiously.

"Damn it all to hell!" Yuan Mu spat out a breath of air, recalling his hula hoop as it spun in the air and threatened to fall to the ground. If he hadn't used the hoop to block just then, he surely would have been injured. The combined power of these lightning bolts was unexpectedly immense; even an immortal's protective spiritual energy could not keep them at bay.

If a single bolt of lightning could do this, what about two or three? Yuan Mu's scalp tingled, and he instinctively shrank his neck back.

"Haha." Li Chengzhu laughed mindlessly. Yuan Mu's appearance was utterly comical, yet Li Chengzhu did not dare hesitate with his hands. He controlled the Meteor Band to fly straight upward.

After flying continuously for several minutes, until the destructive power of the pursuing lightning had diminished considerably, Li Chengzhu finally dared to slow down and stop. Looking down, the scenery on the ground had long since shrunk into a tiny dot, and those swarming Thunder Beasts now looked no larger than ants.

Relentless, the Thunder Beasts lashed out into the sky for a long while before finally stopping in frustration. The distance was simply too great; no matter how powerful those lightning bolts were, their accuracy had fallen short by a hundred thousand miles. Even if one or two chanced to reach them, they were intercepted by Li Chengzhu using the Nine Heavens Grand Luo Cauldron.

Yuan Mu wiped his blackened face, his hands equally coated in soot. Judging by the looks of it, he had taken quite a heavy hit from that last bolt of lightning. He cast a resentful gaze at Li Chengzhu.

Boss Li retrieved the Nine Heavens Grand Luo Cauldron, then guided his immortal sword forward while teasing, "How does it feel?"

"Is this what you meant by celestial beasts that only know how to cast lightning and pose no other threat?" Yuan Mu was still furious that Li Chengzhu had provoked these beasts in the first place.

Li Chengzhu smiled awkwardly. In truth, he had no idea the Thunder Beasts possessed such terrifying strength. The one he had accidentally encountered in the Immortal Forbidden Land last time had been utterly weak, easily destroyed with just a mid-grade flying sword. Who could have expected these brutes to be wolves in sheep's clothing? No, rather, Li Chengzhu had never truly understood the true might of these creatures.

That previous Thunder Beast had looked much smaller than the ones below, and its head lacked the twin horns capable of discharging lightning. It must have been an underage juvenile Thunder Beast.

At this thought, a cold sweat broke out across Li Chengzhu's body. What if he had encountered any of the ones down below back then? He probably would have been turned into a roasted chicken long ago.

He gently patted Yuan Mu's shoulder and said, "My oversight, my oversight. The one I ran into last time wasn't nearly this fierce."

Yuan Mu sighed, then summoned some rainwater to wash his face clean. Only then did Li Chengzhu notice that a large section of his white cloak had been burned away by the lightning. The garment, which originally trailed down to his ankles, was charred black in the back, becoming increasingly tattered toward the hem. A pang of deep heartache struck him.

The little creature was perched leisurely on Li Chengzhu's shoulder, rolling its beady eyes as it looked this way and that. During the battle, it had buried itself completely inside Li Chengzhu's robes, refusing to even stick its head out. Clinging tightly to the front of Li Chengzhu's chest, it hadn't suffered a single scratch.

Yuan Mu was not just depressed; he was profoundly depressed. Had he been holding a slightly better immortal artifact, his cultivation at the late stage of Immortalhood would not have allowed him to annihilate all the beasts below, but at least he wouldn't have been chased and forced to flee for his life everywhere.

"What on earth are you here for?" After a moment of silence, Yuan Mu finally could not help asking. He had already questioned Li Chengzhu back in the space of the Azure Blood Ring, but Li Chengzhu had refused to spill the beans no matter what. Now that they had inexplicably provoked a massive horde of turret-like celestial beasts, he could no longer let this blind journey continue in ignorance.

Li Chengzhu cast a sidelong glance at him and smiled faintly, "I'll tell you once we find a safe place." Locking onto a direction, he guided the meteor forward and down.