Catching the Beast
After a torrential downpour had swept through the mountain pass, the road at the entrance looked muddy and narrow. Bi Fan stood calmly and unflinchingly in a patch of shadow, his eyes utterly indifferent.
With his presence concealed so completely that not a trace escaped, no one would notice him unless they looked carefully. That was precisely why he could stand there without a care.
"The rain's stopped." Xuan Chen raised his head and spoke softly as he watched the rain fade from view.
Bi Fan said nothing. He simply raised his head in silence and glanced up. Only after a moment did he murmur, "That fellow's gotten much weaker."
Xuan Chen smiled. "It's probably refining all that thunderforce. Are you ready to make your move, sir?"
"Of course." He answered quietly, his figure darting toward the narrow passage like a ghost.
Moisture still hung in the air after the downpour, but as Bi Fan entered the cave, that damp feeling quickly faded. In its place, a slightly scorching heat washed over him.
"The temperature in here is much higher than outside." Bi Fan furrowed his brow slightly. "Can thunderforce raise the temperature of the surrounding space, too?"
Xuan Chen thought it over, then shook his head with a wry smile. "It can, under one circumstance: when the Thunder Swallowing Beast can't control the thunderforce it's absorbed, and its aura starts leaking out."
Bi Fan's eyes flickered. "Like when the auras from those two formations leaked out beneath the Lightning-Struck Wood?"
"Exactly." He nodded and explained, "Though objectively speaking, thunderforce tends toward an extreme burst of power. That Thunder Swallowing Beast seems unable to withstand the lightning it swallowed, which is why this place has become so strange."
"Can't take it anymore, huh?" Bi Fan muttered with