Li Chang'an laughed heartily, but the smile on his face abruptly vanished. "Changming, do you think you have what it takes to stand against me?"
Xia Changming looked calmly at Li Chang'an. "At worst, I die. But do you think you can walk away unscathed, senior brother?" He spread his arms, and his body slowly rose, borne aloft by the flock of birds. Admiration showed in Li Chang'an's eyes as he watched Xia Changming. He nodded. "Taking half the birds from me is no mean feat!" He had driven all these birds here himself. Even though he had already brought the flock under his control, Xia Changming had used every means at his disposal to wrest control of half of them away. Though the effort had cost him a mouthful of blood, he was still the first person in the world to seize control of birds from the Feather Demon.
Li Chang'an raised his right arm, slowly clenching his entirely metal hand into a fist in midair. The flock behind him swept forward like a towering wave, then gathered into a long, snaking formation along the direction his arm pointed. One after another, the birds charged fearlessly toward Xia Changming's ranks.
Before Xia Changming, the birds gathered into the shape of a shield. Rather than rushing to attack, they waited for the enemy's assault. Viewed from a distance, it looked as though a black spear were hurtling toward a shield through the night sky at astonishing speed. Both were formed from birds, and the clash of spear and shield played out in midair. Amid the birds' piercing cries, feathers flew everywhere, drifting down through the night rain like a fall of black snow.
Hu Xiaotian and the others watched the battle overhead while clearing away the scattered wild monkeys attacking