The True Blazing Fire Eagle

Jiang Fu'an had no intention of standing by and watching. With a tap of his foot, he used Cloud-Soaring Steps and joined the battle.

Who knew what demon beasts might still be lurking nearby?

They could not linger here for too long.

At that moment, the five Half-Spirit Wolves had all focused their attention on Stone.

Jiang Fu'an's figure flashed, and he had already circled behind one of them. His arm sank as his long blade chopped down fiercely with a howl of wind.

The Half-Spirit Wolf's ears twitched as it sensed danger. Its four limbs kicked off the ground, and it sprang forward.

The blade skimmed past the fur on its tail, barely missing it.

But before it could celebrate, Stone's blade flashed in from the side, following it like a shadow.

"Slash!"

The sound of the blade cutting into flesh was especially clear.

Most of the Half-Spirit Wolf's neck had been severed. Its body collapsed to the ground, its limbs still twitching unconsciously.

Father and son, one in front and one behind, worked together seamlessly. In the blink of an eye, they had taken down one.

Stone did not pause. He twisted at the waist and swept his long blade sideways at another Half-Spirit Wolf.

Jiang Fu'an had long predicted its route of escape. Almost the instant Stone swung, he stepped forward and slashed with all his strength at the empty space to his front right.

Sure enough, the beast leaped in that direction in its panic.

The blade descended without the slightest deviation, striking directly above its nose bridge, between its eyes.

"Awooo—!"

A miserable howl rang out.

That blow had nearly split half its face open. Its eyeballs burst, and blood streamed everywhere.

It rolled and writhed on the ground, no longer posing any threat.

The father and son dealt with the remaining three in the same manner.

One launched a fierce frontal assault to draw their attention, while the other ambushed from the flank and went straight for their vital points.

In just a few breaths, the battle was over.

Jiang Fu'an shook the droplets of blood from his blade, but there was not the slightest hint of joy on his face.

He turned to Stone, reproach in his voice.

"Stone, why did you run out here without saying a word and risk your life fighting six Half-Spirit Wolves by yourself?"

Stone had been excitedly looking at the wolf corpses on the ground, but at his father's words, the smile on his face froze.

He lowered his head, his voice softening.

"Dad... I'm sorry. My hands were itching, and I couldn't hold myself back."

Jiang Fu'an understood. This child trained in martial arts all day with his head down, dreaming of becoming stronger even in his sleep.

There was usually no one in the village to spar with him, so he had been holding in all that pent-up energy.

Now that he had finally encountered Half-Spirit Beasts, that urge to test himself was indeed hard to resist.

Understanding was one thing, but he could not go easy on the lesson that needed teaching.

The situation around them was unknown, yet he had dared to charge out alone and fight?

What if several more had suddenly appeared while he was fighting at his fiercest? The consequences were simply unthinkable.

"Peeee—!"

Just as he was about to speak again, a sharp, drawn-out whistle suddenly tore through the air from the direction of the Jiang Family residence.

Jiang Fu'an's expression changed drastically.

"Move! Back to the cellar!"

He spoke rapidly. As he talked, he bent down, pulled several short spears from the ground, and casually handed them to Stone.

As for the wolf corpses on the ground, there was no time to care about them now.

That whistle was the signal he had agreed upon with his daughter, Yue'er.

It meant an enemy too powerful to fight had appeared, and they had to retreat immediately.

Father and son used Cloud-Soaring Steps at the same time. Their figures moved like the wind, rising and falling through the ruined village paths, and in only a few breaths they rushed back to the gate of their courtyard.

But the enemy was even faster.

A fiery-red figure was already hovering in the sky above the courtyard.

Judging by its outline, it seemed to be an eagle as well.

Though it was still some distance away, it had clearly spotted the two on the ground.

If they entered the cellar right in front of it now, they would undoubtedly expose the entrance and invite endless trouble later.

Jiang Fu'an hardened his heart, shoved the short spears into Stone's arms, and said in a low voice, "Prepare to fight. We can't avoid this."

In the time it took to say those two sentences, that fiery-red figure had already closed in at tremendous speed.

Its appearance was now clear.

It somewhat resembled the two Blazing Fire Eagles raised at home, but it was larger. Its feathers were red as burning coals, and its eyes were sharp as blades.

When it spread its wings, the shadow it cast nearly covered half the courtyard.

Even from this close, they could feel an oppressive pressure rushing toward them.

Jiang Fu'an's heart sank.

This was a true Blazing Fire Eagle, a First-Order Spirit Beast.

The two at home were merely Half-Spirit Beasts born from its breeding with ordinary eagles. They could neither use fire-element spells nor compare to it in strength.

Realizing this, Jiang Fu'an held nothing back.

With a thought, the Storage Ring on his finger flashed faintly, and a talisman appeared in his palm.

The talisman paper was yellowed, with tiny arcs of electricity faintly flowing through its patterns.

This was a first-order high-grade Lightning Talisman.

The lightning it unleashed was incredibly fast, nearly impossible to evade. It was precisely the perfect weapon against a swiftly flying demon beast like this.

Jiang Fu'an narrowed his eyes and locked firmly onto the red figure in the sky.

The distance between them closed rapidly... one hundred and fifty meters... one hundred meters...

Now!

Spiritual power burst from his palm, and the talisman shot out like an arrow loosed from a bow.

The moment it flew into the air, the talisman paper suddenly exploded—

"Crackle!"

A dazzling silver-white lightning serpent appeared from nowhere and struck straight at the Blazing Fire Eagle at a speed the naked eye could not follow!

The eagle sensed the fatal threat and frantically beat its wings, trying to turn away, but how could it possibly make it in time?

The lightning was far faster than its reaction.

In an instant, it was completely swallowed by a violent mass of silver light.

Almost at the same moment Jiang Fu'an activated the Lightning Talisman, Stone threw the short spear in his hand toward that chaotic mass of lightning with all his strength!

Jiang Fu'an did not stop moving.

The Storage Ring flashed again, and another bluish-gray talisman was already pinched between his fingers—a first-order mid-grade Wind Blade Talisman.

"Clang!"

The short spear struck the Blazing Fire Eagle, but it gave off a crisp sound like metal colliding.

The spear tip could not even pierce its feathers before being knocked aside.

By then, the lightning around the Blazing Fire Eagle was gradually fading.

Its feathers were charred black all over, green smoke rose from many places, and its body swayed in the air. It was clearly injured, but its aura remained.

It could still fight.

Just as it struggled to steady itself, Jiang Fu'an's Wind Blade Talisman had already been activated.

"Whoosh—"

An invisible blade tore through the air with a piercing shriek, slashing toward the Blazing Fire Eagle's neck.

It tried to dodge, but its entire body was still numb from the lightning.

Its wings merely flapped weakly twice.

"Slash."

A soft sound rang out.

The eagle's head separated from its body and fell from the sky, landing on the open ground before the courtyard with a thud.

The headless corpse glided several more yards before it toppled crookedly into the grass.

Jiang Fu'an let out a long breath. His back was already soaked with cold sweat.

If there had been the slightest mistake just now, and that beast had managed to spit out a fire spell... the consequences would have been unimaginable.

He had no time for lingering thoughts and immediately raised his head to look at the sky.

The sky was a quiet deep blue, cloudless for ten thousand miles. Not even the shadow of a bird could be seen.

"Looks like it was alone. No companions followed it."

Jiang Fu'an felt somewhat relieved.

He leaped lightly onto the courtyard wall and surveyed all of Xu Family Village.

The entire village was silent. The roofs cast long shadows in the dusk.

On the open ground west of the village, the six wolf corpses still lay quietly where they had fallen.

Other than that, there was not a trace of any other Half-Spirit Beast as far as the eye could see.

He withdrew his gaze and looked down.

Stone had lowered his head, looking wilted as he waited to be scolded.

"Stone, go have Yue'er continue sending the Blazing Fire Eagles out to keep watch. Then drag those wolf corpses from the west side of the village back here."

Stone froze at those words and raised his head in surprise.

He had thought that after causing such a huge disaster, his father would definitely give him a fierce scolding.

But he immediately realized that now was not the time to discuss that. The danger had not yet completely passed.

He hurriedly answered and bent low before slipping into the cellar entrance.

Jiang Fu'an watched his son's receding figure disappear. This time, he had no intention of nagging him further.

Some lessons were more effective when experienced once firsthand than when spoken of ten thousand times by others.

As long as the child could figure it out himself, he would naturally know the gravity of things from now on.

It was just that the price of this "lesson" had been truly steep.

That first-order high-grade Lightning Talisman, plus a mid-grade Wind Blade Talisman, were worth no fewer than twenty Lower-Grade Spirit Stones combined.

His gaze fell upon the charred eagle corpse in the courtyard.

"I just hope this fellow can help me recoup some of the cost."