21 Bloody battle.

The rest of the group felt their backs drenched in cold sweat after seeing the expression of the Mist Eagle. Yao Qin's power was not completely suited for combat, it only allowed him to triple his speed for a short duration, but he had still reached the 4th level of the 1st grade, so he should still be able to at least put up a fight.

The rest of the group had ugly expressions. The people from the Peng clan were better off, after all, Yao Qin was not from their clan. But Yao Min and Yao Xiang had spent the last seven months together, fighting and training together, building up a strong sense of brotherhood. To see him die like that, without even a whole body, not only filled them with sadness, it also filled them with rage.

They were furious, but they still had to keep a clear head, lest they all end up dying here. Since the Mist Eagle managed to kill Yao Qin with a single attack, albeit being a sneak attack, it still showed that it had already started to awaken its bloodline. Yao Min locked eyes with Peng Yi, and they both gave a heavy nod.

The Mist Eagle was already wounded, and Yao Jun's attack had already worsened its wound. If they tried to escape, the Mist Eagle was faster than them, so it would just take them down one by one, starting with the slowest. Since it was already wounded, and they couldn't run, they might as well stand their ground here and take it down.

Yao Qin's death saddened them, but the moment they set foot into Golden Cloud Town and decided to scout the Cloud Wilderness, they had already come to terms with suddenly dying. They had even prepared letters and wills that would be sent out if they were to lose their lives in the Cloud Wilderness.

Yao Min motioned for Yao Jun to take some distance from them. In a frontal attack, he was too weak to be of any use, he would instead just be a burden. They could not talk to each other, the Mist Eagle obviously understood human speech. The only way they could fight was by using their tacit understanding.

This was Yao Jun's first time entering the Cloud Wilderness alongside the people from the Peng clan. So he would obviously not be able to understand their fighting style, aiding and supplementing them. It was much more likely that he would end up blocking and distracting them, thus, they decided to send him away and out of the fight.

Peng Yi took his group and assaulted the rear of the Mist Eagle, while Yao Min and Yao Xiang assaulted its front. Peng Dong used guerrilla tactics, dashing in and unleashing one or two attacks before quickly retreating. The Mist Eagle could indeed conjure up illusions, it even seemed like it could use its strong mental powers to probe into peoples memories.

But all this was under the precondition that it was given the time needed to focus and concentrate. While it was under the furious assault of Yao Min and Peng Yi's groups, it was simply too hard for it to conjure up an illusion of the same strength as the one it had tricked them with earlier.

Yao Jun did not dare interfere in this fight, he was very clear on just how weak he was. He backed up into the cave, hiding out of sight in the darkness. In his hand appeared a small and unadorned black stone gate, 6 dim purple lights shining just above the gate. He was waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.

He did not dare let the others see the gate, his fathers warning still ringing clear in his ears. Even if everyone else in the group ended up dead, he would not let them see the gate. He had spent a bit over two months with Yao Min and Yao Xiang, he also had a good impression of the people from the Peng clan. But if they saw the gate, there was no way of knowing who they would tell.

If they told the wrong people, it could easily end up implicating his parents, branding them with the name of Demons. Yao Jun was unwilling to see this happen, in this whole world, he had no one but his parents, so he would not allow anything bad to happen to them.

While Yao Jun was waiting for his opportunity, Yao Min and the others were slowly cornering the Mist Eagle. Peng Yi had a power that allowed him to instantly erupt with double his normal strength. Using this power, he managed to land a heavy blow on the Mist Eagle's right wing, shattering the bone and ruining the wing.

Meanwhile, Yao Min had focused most of his attention on the Mist Eagle's chest wound, slowly worsening the wound through rapid attacks. Yao Xiang placed his focus on its head, forcing it to keep moving its head to dodge his attacks, but he still managed to take out one of its eyes.

Peng Dong and Peng Yan focused on one leg each, slowly hacking away at them and robbing the Mist Eagle of its mobility. Peng Shi did not have a strong combat ability, he had the ability to produce small orbs of light that he could fling around. He mostly used these orbs to distract and disorient the Mist Eagle, flinging them directly at its eyes and head.

The Mist Eagle had lost most of its mobility and was losing blood fast, but no one rejoiced. Peng Dong had lost an arm during a failed attack, Peng Yi could only use his right arm, his left arm ended up completely shattered after breaking the Mist Eagle's wing. Yao Xiang had lost a chunk of meat from his left shoulder and Yao Min had a large gash across his abdomen. Only Peng Yan and Peng Shi were still mostly fine.

They didn't dare relax either, they knew that when the Mist Eagle was truly driven into a corner would be when it erupted with its most fearsome strength. They did not dare hope that they would all be able to return home. They only hoped to be able to allow at least one of them to survive to return and give them a proper burial.

The Mist Eagle accidentally put too much weight on one of its wounded legs, causing it to falter and stumble. Yao Min and the others decided to take this chance to rush in all together, not allowing the Mist Eagle to focus on any single one of them.

Just as they were rapidly approaching it and letting loose their attacks, the eyes of the Mist Eagle bloomed with a ghostly light as it raised its head skyward and let loose a deafening screech. A dim gray light burst out from its body, rapidly engulfing Yao Min and the others within. As they were engulfed by the gray light, their eyes quickly lost their clarity, turning dull and confused. Their attacks moved slightly, no longer heading for the Mist Eagle but for each other.

They seemed incapable of putting up any resistance under this gray light. Yao Min directly decapitated Peng Dong, while Peng Dong's blade sank into Peng Yan's chest, going straight through him. Peng Yan cleaved down on Yao Min's head, splitting it open like a ripe watermelon.

Peng Yi and Yao Xiang both started hacking at each other with all their might, reducing each other to what could almost be considered mincemeat. Peng Shi's situation was the one Yao Jun found the eeriest. Peng Shi simply walked up to the Mist Eagle and placed his head into its beak, allowing it to bite off his head.

The gray light quickly dimmed, and the eyes of the Mist Eagle also lost their luster, becoming murky and unfocused. Releasing the attack clearly drained it of most of its power, but Yao Jun still couldn't help but shiver when he looked at it. Just that single attack from the Mist Eagle caused everyone else to start murdering each other. An attack like that was simply too dreadful.

The Mist Eagle lowered its head, chest heaving and body trembling, it was obviously at its weakest point. Yao Jun took a deep breath, the heavy stench of blood almost making him throw up right there, and charged out. He could not miss this chance, if he did, he would probably be the next one to die.

The Mist Eagle slightly raised its head and looked at Yao Jun, it could not see him clearly, but it knew just who it was that was dashing towards it. Just as it was about to sneer at this human who didn't know its place, a black light flew out of Yao Jun's hand, hovering above the Mist Eagle.

The Mist Eagle raised its head to look at the black light that materialized as a small black stone gate, it could feel a threat from this tiny gate. As it looked at the gate, the gate slowly opened. The Mist Eagle used all its might to focus its eyes and look at the gate. As the doors of the gate opened, the Mist Eagle saw a small forest, only around five kilometers in length, behind its gate.

Before it had time to process any of the information, a purple light shot out of the gate, quickly forming a ferocious Lightning Tiger that was almost two meters long. The Lightning Tiger crackled with purple lightning as it crashed into the Mist Eagle, its jaws clamping down on its throat and bringing it crashing down to the ground.

Yao Jun was not far behind the Lightning Tiger, coming up next to the Mist Eagle just as it crashed into the ground. The Lightning Tiger clamped down on its throat, preventing it from moving, but it still managed to figure out what was going on. The Mist Eagle moved its eyes onto Yao Jun, the insignificant human it had ignored all along, its eyes shone with an unwilling light.

Had it died to Yao Min or one of the others, it could accept that as they were very close to each other in actual strength. But it actually died to an insignificant human it could kill in less than three seconds, how could it not be indignant? Yao Jun ignored the eyes of the Mist Eagle, sweeping his gaze around the bodies scattered on the ground.

He was rather fond of all these people, so watching them die without being able to do anything made him feel a stifled feeling in his chest. Yao Jun heaved a deep sigh and shook his head, he was simply too weak, he was so weak that he did not even have the right to dream about protecting people he was fond of.

Yao Jun turned his gaze back onto the Mist Eagle, this Mist Eagle would be his second step towards becoming stronger. He raised his sword and stabbed into the Mist Eagle's remaining eye, piercing directly into its brain. Once its brain was pierced, the Mist Eagle's trembling stopped as its body lost all strength.

Yao Jun pulled out the sword as he took a step back, beckoning the gate to return to his chest. The Mist Eagle started emitting a dull gray light as it slowly shrunk, turning into a small orb of gray light that followed the gate into Yao Jun's chest. Yao Jun felt a stinging pain coursing through his body as the gray light orb entered his chest.

The pain was most notable in his eyes, almost going as far as making Yao Jun wish he could simply pluck them out. Yao Jun thought that he was well prepared this time, especially considering that he had already felt this pain once before. But as the pain coursed through his body, slowly strengthening it, he still found that he had underestimated just how painful it would be. Yao Jun curled up on the ground, clawing at the dirt as he waited for the pain to disappear.

After writhing on the ground for a few minutes, the pain finally subsided, allowing Yao Jun to sit up. Yao Jun slowly made his way to the cave, sitting down within it. He did not want to sit amidst the corpses of Yao Min and the others, he was also interested in whether or not the Mist Eagle had hidden anything within the cave, so the cave would do as a temporary abode.

Once Yao Jun entered the cave, he checked his body. Other than his body being slightly tougher and stronger than before, the most notable changes he found where that his eyesight was much better than it used to be. He could now see everything with much greater clarity, his vision range also increased greatly.

The other change he found was that he could feel an energy source located within his head, placed just behind his eyes, integrating with them. Yao Jun realized that this was Mental Energy, also known as psychic energy. This was the power that the Mist Eagle used to produce illusions and scan people to learn their secrets.

He could use this Mental Energy either like the Mist Eagle, discharging it from his body, or by using his eyes. If he discharged it from his body, the power would be weakened, but allow him more flexibility. Using his eyes as a conduit lacked some flexibility, but it greatly increased the power it could produce.

These two changes where the changes he wanted the most when he first started thinking about absorbing the Mist Eagle. Greater eyesight would make it easier to wander around in forests and unexplored areas. While the Mental Energy would greatly help him in fights and with more covert tasks.

"You are not allowed to eat him."

Yao Jun turned his gaze to the Lightning Tiger that was laying down next to him, head resting on this lap. He could strengthen the beasts he absorbed in three different ways. The first way was by slowly absorbing Raw Qi from his surrounding, some of this Qi would flow into the gate, strengthening the beasts. The second way was to feed them some herbs and natural treasures that contained a strong elemental power that matched their own element. The third way was by absorbing other Demonic beasts and letting them eat each other. He would lose the abilities of the devoured beast, but it would greatly strengthen the beast that ate it, shortening the time it took for it to evolve.

The more he strengthened the gate, the more of its wondrous mysteries slowly revealed themselves to Yao Jun, enthralling him with its potential. If he strengthened his beasts enough, they could even evolve into Desolate beasts and above.

The Lightning Tiger raised its head and gave a low growl, signaling that it understood, before laying its head down on Yao Jun's lap again. Yao Jun also leaned against the cave wall and closed his eyes. Tomorrow he would start looking for more Demonic beasts to feed to his Lightning Tiger and Mist Eagle, but now he just wanted to sleep.