On the desolate plain, fierce winds swept up sand and dust.
Several battered figures lay sprawled across the muddy ground, unwilling to move so much as a finger.
Yu Feng lay on his back, gasping for breath.
His once-neat short hair had become a bird's nest, with a few blades of grass caught in it.
"I can't go on... Even if a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast walked right up to me, I wouldn't run."
His voice was hoarse, and getting a complete sentence out seemed to take everything he had.
"Let it eat me. At least I wouldn't have to keep going through this hell once I was in its stomach."
"Hah, you... Cough, cough!"
Osler, lying nearby, rolled his eyes. He tried to mock him, but parting his cracked lips only set off a violent coughing fit.
"Save your strength."
"When that Fifty-Thousand-Year Ghost Tiger was chasing us, nobody flapped his wings faster than you. Why act tough now?"
The Shi Brothers sat slumped back to back, their Black Tortoise Shells covered in crisscrossing claw marks.
They no longer had the strength to bicker. All they could do was gulp down air that smelled of earth.
Dugu Yan leaned against a broken boulder and managed to gather her disheveled hair with one hand.
"Enough, both of you."
Dugu Yan gritted her teeth, helplessness coloring her voice.
"We've been running for our lives and fighting day and night in this wretched place."
"Ye Qing's training standards have always been insane. We barely survived today's trial, so use the time to recover your Soul Power. Who knows what monster will show up next?"
At the mention of Ye Qing, everyone who had been complaining shuddered in unison.
Just then—
"Oh? Sounds like you missed me?"
Space in midair suddenly twisted.
Ripples spread