Chapter 17:Bolin

Two leaves arrived at different locations at the same time. One of the leaves was targeting the rainbow mist toad whilst the other leaf seemed to be targeting nothing. In the area it was sent to there, seemed to be no creature in sight.

When the leaves were almost at the rainbow mist toad's location, it was met with a thick hazy mist made up of the colors of the rainbow. The toad blended completely within that mist. Unlike the other core formation creatures that had larger sizes, the rainbow mist toad was the size of a palm. However, despite its small stature, it wasn't one to be underestimated. Its defining ability, the rainbow-colored mist was a concoction of different poisons with each color having a different attribute of poison. If a core formation expert was caught unprepared in this mist they would be poisoned to death within minutes. The mist also had the effect of boosting the physical attributes of the toad, especially when it came to agility and regeneration.

The leaf targeting the rainbow mist toad was soon swallowed into the mist it had created.

As for the other leaf that seemingly had no target in sight, once it reached a particular location another blinding streak of white light struck the leaf splitting it cleanly into 4 pieces. Each of the four pieces was in the shape of the pointy end of a star. Each of the split parts moved to the north, east, south, and west respectively. Once they were a sufficient distance apart, Feng Xin's voice carried over.

"Four cardinals of imprisonment."

A blinding white mist was produced from each of the four shards as it slowly rose upwards with the shards rising slowly along with the mist before they froze at the midpoint in their rise. Each of the shards then started moving towards each other as if drawn by some sort of attraction. As they were moving rapidly towards each other they all simultaneously hit some sort of an invisible barrier that stopped them in their tracks.

Soon after the collision, everything below the four shards was frozen in a block of conical-shaped ice. A figure could be seen shimmering in and out of existence pinned in the middle by those 4 shards. The shimmering continued for a while before the figure could finally be clearly seen. It was a dragonfly that was about 20 meters tall with a blue almost crystalline body with 2 pairs of translucent wings that were flapping so rapidly that they seemed to cut the air around them. Every time those wings flapped a faint mirage would appear with faint water refractive lights being transmitted from its body to its wings.

The mirage would dissipate every time it came in contact with the shards and the cold mist surrounding them. The creature was a mirage dragonfly notorious for its camouflage ability and wings that were as sharp as any sky-rank weapon.

It continuously tried to invoke its mirage ability only to be disrupted once more with the duration of its ability reducing more and more every time it was used, till it reached a point it couldn't use it anymore. Once the mirage ability failed, it tried to use its wings to shred the ice below it apart only for its wings to get heavier and lag after each strike till it couldn't raise them anymore.

The four leaf shards had pinned it just below its thorax where the abdomen was connected. The whole abdomen going downwards was completely frozen. The mirage dragonfly tried with its might to pull itself upwards but the conical ice anchored it firmly to the frozen ice around it. The more it desperately tried to pull itself free from the ice, the more it risked separating itself from its abdomen, which would result in a painful death were it to happen.

It continuously shrieked in fear and desperation as it smashed the ice with its two free limbs but another failure gladly welcomed it in its bosom. The conical ice was slowly sapping it of its energy as its buster and fluster were slowly reducing in intensity with time before it completely slumped over bending on the conical ice.

"Good, it should have a few minutes of survival before it freezes to death. That should give me more than enough time to take care of the rest. How naive of it to think it could hide from me despite our huge difference in cultivation base.

I wonder how it even survived till this point with such combat sense." 

Feng Xin turned his head from the mirage dragonfly as his gaze landed on the rainbow mist of the toad with a small smile on his face.

"Seems like this little one is rather gifted. It managed to evade the leaf of winter a few times even though it got mildly injured. I can't risk it getting injured further, this is a trove of merit points."

Feng Xin on finishing that statement rapidly flashed to where the rainbow mist was with the shadow void steps.

The rapid snapper cottonmouth at this time was the fifth one to fall at this time as Feng Xin was making his way to the rainbow mist toad. The rapid snapper cottonmouth was dark gray with faint patches of green on its coat. It had a medium-scale girth which was rather small for a creature in the core formation realm.

Due to the environment of the green fog swamp, the creatures here have a smaller size compared to the creatures outside of the area. Years of adaptation to the foggy swampy environment led most of them to adopt speed over brute strength.

The rapid snapper cottonmouth had an extreme reflex and attacking ability with powerful jaws to match. With its speed and powerful jaws, it's able to tear someone's limbs off in one hit. The cottonmouth at this moment was sliced clean at the end side of its jaws. The two slices extended down to its tail. Its lower jaw was now hanging loosely with blood spilling from its mouth down all the way to its sides. It was in its last squirms at the moment with its life slowly ebbing away.

Feng Xin had already reached the colorful rainbow mist and was now staring at a small rainbow-striped toad that had shallow cuts all over its body. The leaf that had pushed it this far was currently in between Feng Xin's thumb and index finger. It had a few chips at the side and a faint green taint on it. The taint however disappeared completely once the leaf was in his hand regaining its white glass-like lustre.

"I'm sorry friend, you'll have to come with me. I know some people who have an interest in your kind," said Feng Xin with a casual demeanor about him.

The rainbow mist toad whose face, if human would be interpreted as an expression of fear and horror. With Feng Xin so close to it, it could finally feel his fearsome overbearing pressure. It felt like it was being bombarded by a monstrous avalanche. The rainbow mist toad looked upwards with clear despair written all over its face as it silently wondered to itself when was the last time it felt this insignificant, with no odds of survival.

"It should have been the gaze from that alligator when I was in the foundation stage. Even now I still can't forget that gaze. I never thought I'd get to have that experience again. What kind of luck is this? I haven't stepped outside my pond in 20 years and the first time I do, this happened. Li Lun, old friend, you have really done me in this time," the rainbow mist toad silently muttered to itself as it stared in the rough direction of the green flash viper with a distraught face.

The rainbow mist toad was absent-minded for a few seconds before a look of firmness appeared in its eyes which turned to Feng Xin as it made croaking sounds as if to send a message to him. Feng Xin on seeing the toad's actions fished something out of a tiny white ring on his right index finger. The ring was a storage ring. The object that appeared from the ring was a small milky white bead.

He threw the bead at the rainbow mist toad which quickly caught it and gave a human-like bow as if to offer its gratitude.

"Might I have the honor of knowing the name of this esteemed master?" a middle-aged man's voice seemed to transmit from the milky white bead. This was a voice transmission bead.

"My name is Feng Xin, an inquisitor from the Order, though I don't know if you have heard of it."

"Sorry, I haven't since I've spent most of my life in this swamp and I am mostly a recluse. The heron and the egret may know since they venture out often. Well, now I think it's more apt to say 'they knew'... I can feel their aura fading away," said the rainbow mist toad as he looked at his dead 'teammates'

"I can't believe we who were lords over certain areas in this swamp got singlehandedly defeated within minutes, how laughable..."

A bitter smile appeared on its face as it said this.

"I wonder are all the humans out there as powerful as you?" The rainbow mist toad couldn't help but ask with some fear and curiosity mixed in its tone. The experience it had in these few minutes had upended its entire worldview.

"Pardon me for a moment." Feng Xin suddenly said as he stared in a particular direction and flung the white glasslike leaf in his hand like a dagger in that particular direction. The leaf was tossed with so much force that a part of the mist was blown apart instantly. A loud painful growl was heard soon after.

The rainbow mist toad winced in sympathy once it heard that pain-filled growl.

"Those yells seem to have come from the green flowered babirusa. Even though it has a thick tough hide, from that yell it looks like it's nothing more than a paper tiger in front of this human," thought the toad as beads of sweat appeared on its body mixing in with the blood from the cuts in its body.

"Sorry about that, I had to stop a friend from leaving before I had the chance to say hello. Where were we? Oh yes, whether there are people as strong as me out there? Yes, there are, and not in short supply either. Just the place I work is filled with crouching tigers and hidden dragons. There are monsters I can't last more than 10 minutes against in a fight while for others, one look is enough to paralyze me. I'm not anything special out there just an average person with a talent for eating. But against those in the same realm as me, I do okay. Your defeat today isn't shameful or unwarranted. You can take solace in that at least," Feng Xin casually answered.

The rainbow mist frog had a contrasting expression to the casual one Feng Xin had. At this moment he looked like he had been frozen solid by ice. He couldn't believe what Feng Xin was saying.

There were actually people out there stronger than someone who treated them like fodder within a few minutes.

It was unbelievable to the rainbow mist toad as it had just gotten a glimpse of how fearsome Feng Xin was. And from the look of things, he barely broke a sweat when taking care of them. But from how powerful Feng Xin was, why would someone like him bother lying to someone weaker than themselves? The rainbow mist toad had no option but to believe despite how dumbfounding the answer was. Never had he felt so tiny and insignificant as he did at this moment. Despite himself, he found despair creeping in that he almost forgot himself and why he wanted to talk with Feng Xin. 

"What's your name? It feels rather awkward calling you the rainbow mist toad. You must have named yourself right?" Feng Xin suddenly asked bringing the toad out of his stupor.

"Sorry, my name is Bolin, just Bolin."

The rainbow mist toad hastily answered using whatever little willpower it had left to pull its thoughts together. Whatever happened next would determine its life or death. It couldn't afford to be distracted.

"Well, Bolin is there a reason why you wanted to talk with me? I'm rather short on time here and looks like one of your friends may have just escaped my net," asked Feng Xin with no worry about the spirit beast that had escaped.