Pei Ling suddenly smiled. Unlike his cold smile earlier, this one was easy and warm. He squeezed Qiao Ranran's fingers and said, "All right."
In the time it took to exchange those two sentences, Wen Ziheng broke free of the Formation, swallowed several pills, rallied, and charged straight for Guai Guai beneath the Tribulation Lightning.
The Tribulation Lightning had scorched Guai Guai inside and out. It had scattered all the Demonic Qi the creature had struggled to gather, and its fur was a sorry sight. Its skin had split, its flesh was mangled, and its wounds were charred black, giving off a strange aura. When Wen Ziheng appeared, Guai Guai had no strength to resist. Yet there was no sorrow in its narrow little eyes—only a bright will to fight and a resolve that refused to yield.
Wen Ziheng's heart trembled at the sight.
Only now, up close, did Wen Ziheng recognize the Demon Beast undergoing its tribulation: it was the strange creature that always followed Pei Ling and Qiao Ranran. They had taken it for a Demon Beast of a different kind, one too weak to put up a fight. Yet it was a creature of the Demon Realm.
Pei Ling and Qiao Ranran had taken it everywhere in plain sight, and not one person had recognized what it was.
Now that he knew, Wen Ziheng's first thought was: Would Pei Ling kill me to keep me quiet?
But it was already too late. His sword light still flashed as Guai Guai struggled to its feet at the bottom of the pit. Lightning ran over its charred body. It threw back its head and howled, a massive beast wreathed in lightning, while vast Demonic Qi formed an ominous phantom behind it.
Its domain spread without a sound. Wen Ziheng,