The shrieks of Rotting Bone Bats pierced the sky over Fallen Maple Territory. Their dense black wings blotted out the sunlight, shrouding the square in a cold, gloomy shadow. The black-robed leader stood on the back of the largest Rotting Bone Bat. The cloudy eyeball atop his bone staff swiveled, surveying Loran and the others standing ready in the square. His hoarse laughter drifted on the wind. "You brat from the Kane Household, did you think purifying the Qilin would let you stop me? Today, I'll not only take Lei Lin away, but reduce Fallen Maple Territory to scorched earth!"
Loran held his knight's sword across his chest. Third-tier Dou Qi flowed along its blade, its pale golden light interweaving with the crimson flames around Lei Lin to form a defensive line of light and shadow before the square. "You won't lay a finger on a single inch of Fallen Maple Territory!" He looked back at the guards behind him. "Split into two teams! Left flank, follow me and hold the entrance to Maple Leaf Forest. Right flank, follow Uncle Byrne and protect the lord's manor. Use the terrain to buy time until Lei Lin's strength fully recovers!"
Old Byrne nodded firmly and rested his battle-axe on his shoulder. "Rest assured, young master. As long as I draw breath, I won't let those black-robed men take a single step into the lord's manor!" The thirty guards swiftly split into two teams. The left flank followed Loran toward Maple Leaf Forest on the eastern side of the square, while the right flank fell back with Old Byrne to defend the manor gates. The archers drew their longbows to the full, aiming their arrows at the Rotting Bone Bats overhead.
"Attack! Whoever captures the Qilin will be rewarded with evil-power body tempering!" The black-robed leader swept his bone staff, and hundreds of Rotting Bone Bats suddenly dived. Their claws gleamed with a bluish-black poisonous light. Drool dripped from their mouths onto the paving stones, instantly corroding small pits into them.
"Loose!" At Old Byrne's command, the right flank's archers fired together. Arrows pierced the Rotting Bone Bats' wings, spilling black blood, but failed to halt their charge. Several wounded bats instead grew even more frenzied and slammed straight into the guards' defensive line. They knocked two guards to the ground and snapped their sharp teeth toward their throats.
"Lei Lin!" Loran shouted urgently. Lei Lin understood and swept its long tail hard against the ground. Crimson flames spread across the paving stones, raising a wall of fire in front of the guards. Its heat checked the bats' charge, allowing the fallen guards to roll to their feet and slash off the bats' wings.
Meanwhile, the left flank had retreated to the entrance of Maple Leaf Forest. Loran glanced at the expanse of red maples behind him, a glint of resolve flashing in his eyes-the fallen leaves lay half a foot deep, making them an ideal aid for his fire magic. He took a deep breath and condensed three fist-sized fireballs in his right hand. With a flick of his arm, he sent them landing precisely in the leaf piles along the forest's edge.
Boom! Flames erupted instantly and spread swiftly with the wind, forming a ring of fire that firmly guarded the forest entrance. The diving Rotting Bone Bats crashed into the ring, their wings catching fire at once. They let out piercing shrieks and struggled as they fell to the ground, where the flames soon consumed them.
"Interesting." A trace of surprise flashed through the black-robed leader's eyes before he sneered and tapped his bone staff against his palm. "Since you like fire, I'll play with you using poison." He pointed his staff at the ground. A grayish-black beam shot from the cloudy eyeball and struck the paving stones in the center of the square. A fissure suddenly split the ground, and black vines burst wildly from it. Their thorns glimmered with a deadly green light as they coiled toward Loran and Lei Lin.
"Bone-Eroding Vines! If they catch you, their poison will corrode your meridians!" Old Byrne's voice came from the direction of the lord's manor. He was hacking apart vines reaching for the guards, but they grew far faster than anyone could have imagined. For every vine he severed, three new ones sprouted.
Loran slashed through a vine curling toward his ankle. The instant his blade touched it, a sharp pain struck him-the poison on the vine had seeped onto the blade and was spreading toward his body through his Dou Qi. He hurriedly channeled his fire magic, coating the blade in flames. The heat instantly burned away the vine's poison, but more vines had already surged in from every direction, surrounding him and Lei Lin.
Lei Lin suddenly let out a cry that shook the heavens. The contract mark between its brows blazed red as it leaped up, tracing two flaming arcs through the air with its foreclaws. The arcs became two walls of fire when they struck the ground, scorching the approaching Bone-Eroding Vines black. Yet the vines possessed tremendous vitality. Even after being burned, their roots still writhed underground, seemingly searching for new directions to grow.
"This won't work. The vines' source is underground. We have to destroy their main body!" Loran looked toward the black-robed leader, who stood on his bat's back, continuously pouring evil energy through his staff to nourish the vines. Gritting his teeth, he told Lei Lin, "Lei Lin, keep the Rotting Bone Bats occupied. I'll deal with their leader!"
Lei Lin nodded, crimson flames surging around its body. It charged into the sky and spread its wings (Lei Lin was previously established as having a steed-like body; an addition here: two pairs of crimson fire wings, as thin as cicada wings, unfolded behind its shoulders). Its fire wings fanned out blazing whirlwinds that sent the surrounding Rotting Bone Bats tumbling in all directions.
Loran seized the opportunity to leap up. Using the fiery whirlwinds Lei Lin had created to propel himself through the air, he charged toward the leader's Rotting Bone Bat. He poured all his third-tier Dou Qi into his knight's sword, making its pale golden light flare, and raised it above his head. "Battle Qi Slash!"
Golden sword energy cleaved through the air, bearing straight down on the black-robed leader. Yet just before it struck, the leader suddenly pulled a black bone shield from his robes. It bore the same skull-and-serpent pattern as the emblem. He held it before him, and with a sharp clang, the golden sword energy struck the shield and was completely absorbed. In the skull's eye sockets, dark red gems flashed with an eerie light.
"Useless! This is the Bone-Eroding Shield, refined from the remains of a hundred magical beasts. Your Dou Qi can't break through its defenses!" The black-robed leader grinned viciously and suddenly pointed his staff at Loran's back. A grayish-black beam of evil light shot toward him. Unable to dodge in time, Loran barely managed to twist sideways. The beam grazed his ribs, leaving a bone-deep wound across his armor, and black poison instantly spread around the injury.
"Young master!" Old Byrne roared and charged toward the black-robed leader, but after only two steps, several thick Bone-Eroding Vines wrapped around his legs. Their thorns pierced his trouser legs, and poison seeped through the wounds. Old Byrne's face went pale at once, yet he still gritted his teeth and swung his battle-axe, severing the vines.
Loran fell to the ground. The agony of his wound left him barely able to stand, and as poison surged upward through his blood vessels, his vision began to darken. Sensing his peril, Lei Lin abandoned its pursuit of the bats and dived down, shielding Loran beneath its body. Crimson flames burned across its back, driving the surrounding vines away.
"Loran..." Lei Lin's voice suddenly sounded in Loran's mind. It was their first mental exchange since forming their contract. "Use your Dou Qi... together with my flames... to purify the poison..."
Loran abruptly regained his senses. He could feel Lei Lin's power pouring into his body through the contract mark. Crimson flames flowed through his meridians, interweaving with his pale golden Dou Qi. He tried guiding both powers toward the wound. The golden Dou Qi suppressed the poison while the crimson flames burned away the evil energy. Working together, the two powers actually began to make the black poison around his wound slowly recede.
"This is... Dual-Power Purification?" Loran was both astonished and delighted. He had never expected his Dou Qi and Lei Lin's flames to produce such an effect. He struggled to his feet, coating his knight's sword in both Dou Qi and flame. Gold and crimson intertwined, forming a two-colored sword radiance.
At the sight, the black-robed leader's expression finally changed. "Impossible! How can human Dou Qi fuse with a Qilin's flames?!" He stopped holding back and drove his bone staff hard into the Rotting Bone Bat beneath him. The bat let out an agonized shriek, its body rapidly shriveling as the staff absorbed all its power. The cloudy eyeball atop the staff turned blood-red, radiating terrifying evil energy.
"Evil Spirit Descends into the World!" the black-robed leader roared. He swung his staff, and an enormous black phantom surged from it. With bat wings, a skeletal head, and a bone sword clutched in its hand, it lunged at Loran and Lei Lin.
Loran could feel the terrifying power within the phantom. It had reached at least the peak of the fourth tier, far beyond his current strength. He tightened his grip on his knight's sword and looked at Lei Lin beside him. Lei Lin looked back, without the slightest fear in its golden slit pupils. Crimson flames surged wildly inside its body, and the contract mark between its brows lit up at the same time as the blade in Loran's hand.
"Lei Lin, are you ready?" Loran's voice sounded in Lei Lin's mind.
"Yes!" Lei Lin gave a resolute cry.
Loran leaped up, the two-colored radiance on his knight's sword surging. Lei Lin spread its fire wings and charged alongside him toward the black phantom. The human's and the Qilin's powers converged in midair, forming an enormous two-colored pillar of light. It pierced the phantom's body, and the phantom let out an agonized shriek as it began to dissipate.
The black-robed leader spat out a mouthful of black blood, clearly suffering a backlash from the phantom's dispersal. No longer daring to linger in battle, he turned to flee on his Rotting Bone Bat, only for a sudden streak of golden sword energy to strike his shoulder. His bone staff fell to the ground with a clatter.
"Trying to run?" Old Byrne had appeared at the edge of the square at some point. His face was still pale, but his grip on his battle-axe was firm. "You hurt the young master and trampled the honor of the Kane Lineage. You won't leave here alive today!"
Loran and Lei Lin seized the opening and pursued him. The two-colored sword radiance slashed out again, severing one of the leader's arms as he screamed. Enduring the excruciating pain, he pulled out a black talisman and crushed it. Smoke burst out once more. By the time it cleared, he had vanished without a trace, leaving only Rotting Bone Bat corpses and scorched Bone-Eroding Vines strewn across the ground.
The battle finally ended. The square lay in ruins, black blood mingling with crimson flames. The air held the smell of burning and a freshness left by the dissipated evil energy. Loran leaned on his knight's sword, gasping for breath. His wound still throbbed faintly, but he felt much better than before.
Lei Lin walked over and nuzzled his cheek with its forehead. Crimson flames flowed around his wound, speeding its healing. "Loran, are you all right?"
Loran shook his head and gave a faint smile. "I'm fine, thanks to you." He looked at the guards around him. Only twenty-one of the thirty remained, and seven or eight of them were seriously injured. Poison had corroded Old Byrne's left leg, and he was leaning against a wall, panting.
"Uncle Byrne, how are you?" Loran hurried over and combined his Dou Qi with Lei Lin's flames to help purify the poison inside Old Byrne.
Old Byrne waved a hand, his complexion improving a little. "These old bones can still hold on. It's just a shame that black-robed leader escaped. He'll definitely come back."
Loran picked up the bone staff. The cloudy eyeball atop it had lost its luster, but a trace of evil energy remained. Looking at it, he recalled the words "Two Qilins appear in the world" on the raised platform, and a thought suddenly came to him. "Uncle Byrne, do you think the Bone-Eroding Cult's obsession with Lei Lin might have something to do with the other Qilin?"
Old Byrne froze briefly, then frowned. "You mean... Snow Spirit Qilin? But the first patriarch and Snow Spirit Qilin disappeared a thousand years ago. No one knows their whereabouts."
"Perhaps we can find clues in the lineage's ancient records." Loran tightened his grip on the bone staff. "Fallen Maple Territory's forces are depleted now. We have to find a way to grow stronger as soon as possible, or we might not be able to hold off the Bone-Eroding Cult next time."
Lei Lin seemed to understand their conversation. It walked over to Loran and brushed his arm gently with its fire wings, as though offering encouragement. Loran looked at Lei Lin, then at the wounded guards in the square, his resolve growing firmer-he would not only protect Fallen Maple Territory, but also find the other Qilin, uncover the secret of "Two Qilins appear in the world," and utterly crush the Bone-Eroding Cult's plot.
The sun sank in the west, its crimson afterglow spilling across Fallen Maple Territory's square and stretching the human's and the Qilin's shadows long. Leaning on his knight's sword, Loran stood in the center of the square and gazed toward the distant Blackthorn Mountains. Not only did the threat of the Bone-Eroding Cult lie there, but perhaps the key to unraveling every mystery was hidden there as well.
The end of one battle meant a new adventure was about to begin. And through this trial of blood and fire, the bond between Loran and Lei Lin had become even more inseparable.