As the halo faded, the three below and the three in the distance could see blood seeping from the corner of Ying Zheng's mouth. He seemed to have come off worse in their last exchange.
That was hardly surprising. Clashing head-on with an Elemental Beast was never wise, especially when the strength of a Superior Grade Three-Element Beast far exceeded the physical toughness of a Return to Truth Realm Elementalist. Fortunately, this one was a bird rather than a powerful land beast.
Had Ying Zheng faced a Superior Grade Three-Element Beast on the level of a rhinoceros or a bear, he would have suffered more than a little bleeding. At the very least, its blows would have caused internal bleeding and left him debilitated.
Of course, that did not mean the Divine Bird's physical strength was any less terrifying. An elemental bird of this level would have cultivated for at least two hundred years. Every feather on its body had shed all impurities and reached a state of utmost perfection and purity, capable of being as gentle as the sea or harder than a mountain. Each surpassed a sharp sword forged by a master smith. Its mirror-smooth, pointed beak outclassed any spear made from black iron or meteoric iron, and a light squeeze of its claws could pierce the thickest armored shield.
Without this divine artifact protecting him, a strike from that terrifying body would have made Ying Zheng cough up blood and sent him flying dozens of meters. With a little bad luck, he would have lost his balance and fallen off the cliff, plunging from above the waterfall, more than nine meters high, into the spring-fed lake below.
Even from so far away, Okelo could be certain that this object had come from that place.
"Whew, I never