To keep the sharp talons from hooking into his flesh, Xiao Yu immediately crouched in the direction they were sliding, then rolled away from where he stood.
"Hiss..."
Searing pain shot through his back, jabbing at Xiao Yu's nerves. His skin and flesh tore open, making him suck in a cold breath.
Without stopping to check his wounds, Xiao Yu mustered all his strength and shot into the distance. A great swath of lightning surged beneath his feet as he flashed away in a streak of electric light.
The Wind-Piercing Eagle remained unhurried, following behind him without overtaking or attacking him.
That also made Xiao Yu realize what it intended.
"Is this * treating me like a mouse?!"
Between the agony wracking his body and the Wind-Piercing Eagle toying with him, Xiao Yu's anger blazed three feet high. His composure shattered, and he cursed aloud.
Anger would solve nothing now. It would only throw his mind into disarray.
"In... out..."
Taking deep breaths, Xiao Yu forced himself to calm down, and the fury blazing in his eyes gradually settled.
I can't keep burning through my strength like this. Even if I exhaust all my Dou Qi, I won't escape the Wind-Piercing Eagle's eyes. I need a plan.
As he considered his options, Xiao Yu sprinted with everything he had, trying to widen the distance between himself and the Wind-Piercing Eagle.
But the Wind-Piercing Eagle clearly had no intention of letting that distance grow. It wanted Xiao Yu to become its food in utter despair.
Just as the Wind-Piercing Eagle closed in, a workable escape plan took shape in Xiao Yu's mind.
The Wind-Piercing Eagle is so confident in its astonishing speed that it wants to toy with me. I can use its arrogance to strike back and escape.
First, I'll use the cold properties of Blue-Silver Cold Lightning and extreme-breaking ice flame to slow it down, then use Three Thousand Puppet Thunders to possess the trees and block its sight.
Blazing sun heart flame will attack its mind. Combined with the Myriad Transformation Flame's endlessly shifting forms, it can create an illusion targeting the shadows in its heart!
As long as I can hold it up for a few seconds, I'll have a chance to conceal my aura with the Myriad Transformation Flame and escape!
There was no other way out now. He could only try this. Although success was far from certain, it was still better than being swallowed as food.
Xiao Yu did not hesitate. He spun around, and powerful momentum slammed into him. He stamped his left foot behind him, cracking the earth beneath it and sending dust billowing. He skidded more than ten meters before coming to a stop.
Blue-Silver Cold Lightning and extreme-breaking ice flame gathered in his hands. Intense cold began spreading outward, freezing the surrounding trees. Unable to withstand it, the flowers and grass shattered into icy fragments.
Pushing Blue-Silver Cold Lightning and extreme-breaking ice flame almost to the absolute limit of his ability, Xiao Yu swept both hands toward the approaching Wind-Piercing Eagle!
"Hey, little ***, look over here!"
He did not forget to distract the Wind-Piercing Eagle with his words, either.
As lightning and flame shot out, ferocious cold rushed toward the Wind-Piercing Eagle.
"Screech!"
The Wind-Piercing Eagle let out an enraged cry. This tiny morsel had dared to fight back instead of concentrating on fleeing. It felt insulted-insulted by an ant!
Accelerating abruptly, the Wind-Piercing Eagle formed blade after blade of wind around itself and charged into Blue-Silver Cold Lightning and extreme-breaking ice flame.
Xiao Yu was delighted. This little * really was arrogant. His chances of escape had just risen another notch.
Boom!
A tremendous crash rang out. Lightning scattered and flames flew, staining the sky blue and silver.
Blue-Silver Cold Lightning and extreme-breaking ice flame struck the Wind-Piercing Eagle. Only then did it realize it had been overconfident. The bone-piercing cold made its body tremble as ice gradually spread across it.
The Wind-Piercing Eagle tried to resist the invading cold with the Dou Qi inside its body, but it could not expel it immediately.
Still, it had not come unprepared. Arrogant as it was, it had kept a fallback ready.
Its stiffened body prevented it from accelerating to attack Xiao Yu, but the wind blades around it could still strike. It beat its enormous wings, sending the blades gathered beside it howling toward him.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Xiao Yu had no time to dodge. Every wind blade struck him, opening gash after gash and leaving him drenched in blood. The powerful impact even sent him tumbling once.
"Urgh!"
He spat out a mouthful of blood. Without time to tend to himself, Xiao Yu drove the Myriad Transformation Flame and blazing sun heart flame toward the still-rigid Wind-Piercing Eagle.
The colorless Myriad Transformation Flame and fiery-red blazing sun heart flame left his body, shooting swiftly toward the Wind-Piercing Eagle.
In an instant, scorching heat and bone-piercing cold assailed the Wind-Piercing Eagle's body together.
Those two extremes made it feel as though it had been plunged into a world divided between ice and fire.
Deep within its heart, memories also surfaced of being bullied and toyed with by other magical beasts when it was young. Desperate terror and fear of death welled up from the depths of its mind.
In the sky, the surroundings around the Wind-Piercing Eagle began to change as well. The fear in its heart passed from the blazing sun heart flame's child flame into the Myriad Transformation Flame. Xiao Yu controlled the Myriad Transformation Flame, shaping illusions of the suffering the Wind-Piercing Eagle had endured in its youth.
"Screech!!!"
That terrifying sensation sent the Wind-Piercing Eagle darting up and down, beating its wings wildly and shrieking nonstop.
Seeing that the Wind-Piercing Eagle could no longer spare him any attention, Xiao Yu was overjoyed and immediately fled.
Streaks of dark-red lightning sprang from his body and burrowed into the surrounding trees. Without any resistance, every possessed tree bent its trunk, its dense foliage hiding Xiao Yu from view.
By the time the Wind-Piercing Eagle dispelled the cold and scorching heat within its body and its mind gradually steadied, Xiao Yu was nowhere to be seen.
Humiliated and enraged, the Wind-Piercing Eagle began venting its fury and murderous intent in every direction. Countless trees were severed by its sharp wind blades.
Even the nearby small animals and magical beasts met a brutal end. Cracks scarred the ground everywhere, leaving the area in utter devastation.
After escaping the Wind-Piercing Eagle's sight, Xiao Yu immediately activated the Myriad Transformation Flame, completely masking his aura without leaving a trace.
"Cough, cough..."
His throat tickled, and Xiao Yu could not help coughing up a mouthful of blood.
His clothes were now in tatters, riddled with holes left by the wind blades. Blood poured out as though it cost nothing, staining his garments red.
The talons and wind blades had left his body covered in wounds. Although blades and swords could already barely harm him, that only applied to ordinary weapons.
What fifth-rank magical beast had claws that could not split metal and cleave stone? And those wind blades could even slice through refined iron.
Fortunately, Xiao Yu had protected his vital organs with Dou Qi in time. Otherwise, he might have dropped dead before getting far.
Forcing his grievously injured body onward, Xiao Yu frantically squeezed the last remaining Dou Qi from the Dou Crystal in his dantian, flashing through the forest.
Pain and exhaustion gradually washed over him. Xiao Yu's mind grew muddled, and the depletion of his Dou Qi made his steps begin to falter.
Am I going to die here today?
That was Xiao Yu's final thought before he lost consciousness.
Even after he blacked out, the momentum from his high-speed movement continued carrying his body forward.
Bright sunlight suddenly shone through the trees ahead. After Xiao Yu's body burst out of them, he plunged straight down.
There was a cliff ahead. Since Xiao Yu had already fallen unconscious, his uncontrolled body could not stop under the force of its momentum. In an instant, he shot over the edge and fell.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...!
The wind from his rapid descent roared constantly beside his ears, but Xiao Yu's eyelids never so much as flickered. Clearly, he would not wake before hitting the ground.
Thud!
The sound of something striking the ground rang out, sending dust flying. Yet down beneath this cliff, it stirred not even a ripple...
Those "*" symbols in the text weren't censorship; the author added them himself. Anyway, those who get it, get it. If you don't, there's no need to understand, right? Hehe.
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