During the short-range sprint, Mister Gai was the only one who could barely keep up with the Carefree Bird's pace—and the busiest of them all.
Unfortunately, the Nine Springs Banner he had brought out had been borrowed from his junior brother, Wang Jiuquan. Back then, Wang Jiuquan had fought the remnants of the Shangqing Sect and Hun Liao, who had become one of the Hell Beings, and had accidentally damaged his cultivation foundation. He had returned to the mountain to enter seclusion and had yet to emerge. If he could have come personally to wield it, using the Nine Springs Banner to twist space and turn one li of distance into nine, he might truly have been able to launch another strike and improve their odds.
The "Bird Hunt" plan followed the snare design developed over many years and was divided into three layers. When witchcraft was activated on the ground and struck the Carefree Birds, luring them closer to the earth, the near-ground snare would activate first. The ideal outcome was naturally to capture them all in one stroke, but that was basically very difficult. And if the first blow failed, it would be hard to catch up again at the Carefree Birds' tremendous speed. Even with Mister Gai controlling the Nine Springs Banner, there had been no second opportunity. They could only inflict the greatest possible damage on the target, which was why the near-ground snare placed the greatest emphasis on instantaneous killing power.
Next came the snare within the gale belt at mid-altitude. With the Carefree Birds' extraordinary escape speed, only upon reaching this point would the cultivators have room to react. Yet capture would still be difficult. This area was meant to slow and restrain them.
The final blow was set in the Azure Sky Domain.