The Black Lotus Avatar had no choice but to descend. After weathering several thunderbolts head-on, it shriveled under the blows until the avatar vanished. The spread-out metal lotus petals, too, drew back like frightened turtles retreating into their shells. In a flash, the entire magical treasure shrank back into a palm-sized black lotus.
It nearly blew away in the gale, but Shi Chun could not bear to lose it. In desperation, he snatched it up and put it away.
He was utterly stunned and looked around in panic. What the hell? Why did the lightning keep hunting me down? Have I done too many wicked things?
He had no idea what was happening. Li Hongjiu's attacks gave so little outward sign that even those struck by lightning did not realize someone was attacking them.
Shi Chun was actually in relatively good shape. You Mu, clutching the Six-Path Golden Wheel fused into a crescent, and Xu Anchang, gripping the Boundless Banner, had faces blackened as though by smoke. All they lacked was smoke rising from their bodies. They, too, nearly blew away in the fierce wind and drifted unsteadily toward the ground, though it was hard to tell whether they were drifting or crashing.
Drifting or crashing no longer mattered. What mattered was how uncanny that lightning was. It scared them half to death; even with a hundred times their courage, they would not dare fly into the sky again.
Shi Chun glanced back and immediately plunged after them. He was not so much eager to save them as worried about the two magical treasures they held, especially the Boundless Banner. That thing was incredible, and it had two more magical treasures stored inside it.
In the brilliant glare of the lightning, the three men's conditions were plain to see. Two