Chapter 28: More Enemies

"Hmmm~ hm~ mmmm~"

High up in the sky, the ordinary-looking heavenly qi cultivator was humming a tune, as he sat on his cloud. With closed eyes and a blissful smile, he looked at peace. In his hands was a fishing rod; the line sank into the clouds and disappeared.

Suddenly, he opened his eyes and jerked the fishing rod towards him. A white ball of light flew up at him. Waving the fishing rod, he flung the white ball of light behind him and outside of the barrier.

"Another one got eliminated." He mused to himself. He peered down from his cloud and counted the remaining participants. About 12 left. He thought. A lot of participants got eliminated so quickly!

At the start, there were plenty of participants, but after an hour, the numbers were significantly reduced. The main reason being the demon beasts. Even though these children were at the fifth rank or above, they never practiced fighting a demon beast before. Thus, although they were stronger than initial stage demon beasts, they would still be defeated by them.

I think that was the fourth person I've fished. That must mean Yang Yugang and Yang Chun are doing most of the work. He nodded to himself as if he was pleased. I knew it was wise to leave those troublesome kids to them.

He resumed humming and basking in the sunlight.

****

In contrast to the peaceful atmosphere in the air, Yang Bin was running for his life. He could feel the heat of the flames right behind him, propelling him to run faster and faster. His eyes rapidly scanned the complex terrain ahead of him, deciding where to escape to. With his vision enhanced by the Mystic Pupils, he could see everything: birds fluttering away, crickets leaping aside, and even the abnormal movements of a branch in the tree ahead of him.

Wait, the branches. Why are they moving like that? Yang Bin frowned. He felt an indescribable sense of danger.

"Stop!" Yang Bin shouted, holding out his hand.

As if startled by the cry, the red bird chasing him frantically beat its wings to stop itself. It rapidly looked around, scanning for danger. When it saw no threats, it glared back at Yang Bin. It sucked in a breath, prepared to make him suffer its wrath for messing with it.

Seeing this, Yang Bin hurriedly held up his arms in front of his face and explained, "Wait! I think there are people here!"

Burping some flames out, the bird looked at him with suspicion. It chirped at him, as if telling him to prove it.

Yang Bin smiled wryly to himself. This bird seems to understand human speech very well. Where did Yang Chen get such an intelligent magic beast?

Turning his head back to the trees ahead of him, his gaze became somber. He was certain he had seen the branch move erratically, but now it laid completely still. Either he had imagined the movements, or there really was someone up there.

Behind him, the bird started getting impatient. It chirped threateningly.

Ignoring it, Yang Bin continued to slowly survey the trees. There was movement in his peripheral vision, but when he snapped around, it was motionless. Then there was another miniscule in the other side of his peripheral vision, but once again, when he turned to look, there was nothing.

This continued on for almost a minute. By now, Yang Bin could pinpoint three locations where the movement originated and he was focused on them. The bird behind him also seemed to have picked up on the abnormalities and remained silent.

"Come out! I know you are there!" Yang Bin called.

There was absolute silence following his cry, causing him to furrow his brows. Was I really just imagining it? Whether he was imagining it or not, he had an ominous feeling about this place and wanted to leave immediately.

Just as he took a step back, he heard a voice.

"It looks like we were discovered. Get him!"

Following that command, Yang Bin saw three shadows jumping out from the trees: one on his left, another on his right, and last in front of him. His eyes widened and immediately turned to run. In a one versus three situation, he had chosen the best option: fleeing.

Chirping loudly and urgently, the bird flew even higher. It spat out a couple fireballs at the attackers, as it retreated.

Looking behind him, Yang Bin saw that the fireballs didn't hinder their pursuers in the slightest. They easily evaded them and continued chasing. Now that he was able to have a good look at the attackers, he noticed that all of them had a pale teal colored qi swirling around them.

Definitely the effects of a talisman. Yang Bin redoubled his efforts, and the gap between him and his pursuers slowly widened.

"Quit running like a coward!" One of them hollered. Frustration was evident in his voice.

Yang Bin shot a glance back at them, as if they were stupid. Stop running and allow myself to get beaten up? No thanks. I'll pass.

Instead, he yelled loudly, "Mengyao!"

Yang Mengyao, who was still in a heated battle against Yang Chen, heard his cry. She quickly disengaged and looked at him. Upon seeing three people chasing him, her eyes widened and immediately started running towards him, forgetting Yang Chen.

A gleam appeared in Yang Chen's eyes, when he saw this. Putting his fingers to his mouth, he whistled. It was neither loud nor piercing, completely unnoticeable to Yang Bin and Yang Mengyao, but the bird heard it. It stopped spitting fireballs and swiftly flew over to Yang Chen's side. Then the two escaped, leaving Yang Bin and Yang Mengyao to deal with the three pursuers.

Noticing Yang Chen's departure, Yang Bin secretly felt relieved. He was unsure about the strength of the three attackers, and adding Yang Chen and his bird to the mix would make things much more difficult and chaotic.

Fixed on Yang Bin's figure, the three attacks didn't realize that Yang Mengyao was approaching them until she appeared right behind him. Facing her, they froze, as uneasiness spread amongst them.

"Boss, what do we do? Do we leave?" One of them urgently asked. They weren't willing to fight someone who was on par with Yang Chen.

"Calm down. She might be stronger than us, but we have more numbers. Her fight with Yang Chen must have also drained her; there is no need to be afraid. You two go stop her. Once I'm done with the boy, I'll join you guys." The leader quickly quelled their panic.

Reassured by their leader's confidence, the two resolutely nodded and charged forwards.

With Yang Mengyao behind him, Yang Bin faced them fearlessly. "Come!" There was a smirk on his face, as he lunged forwards.

The distance between the two parties rapidly shrunk. Right as when they were about to collide, the two suddenly split apart and ran past Yang Bin.

Stunned, Yang Bin stopped in his tracks and quickly turned around. They weren't aiming for him but for Yang Mengyao who was behind him!

Yang Bin was flabbergasted. He wasn't sure whether the rune was really so strong that it gave them the confidence to take on a seventh rank body tempering cultivator or they were just suicidal. Whichever it was, Yang Bin didn't have the time to ponder on it; the last one was headed at him…

and with a wooden sword.

"Hey! That's- that's not fair!" Yang Bin spluttered. He shakenly pointed at the wooden sword in his opponent's hand.

"You can only blame yourself for being poor!" The reply hurt Yang Bin more than any weapon. "Take this!" Raising the sword above his head, Yang Bin's opponent performed an amateurish vertical slash.

How predictable. Yang Bin thought, as he watched the sword slowly descend in front of him. Taking one small step aside, he easily dodged the attack.

Feeling confident, Yang Bin scoffed at his attempt. "It looks like you aren't even-" As Yang Bin was talking, his opponent suddenly moved.

In a blur, the sword that was originally pointed towards the ground was instantly brought up and swung horizontally. By the time Yang Bin noticed it, it was already centimeters from his face.

Instinctively, he kicked backwards while using phantom tracks. Stabilizing himself, Yang Bin looked back at his opponent with a grave expression and rapid breaths.

"Huh? You were able to dodge that?" His opponent was shocked. He didn't expect anyone to have such incredible reaction speed.

Eyeing him vigilantly, Yang Bin took on a defensive stance. "How cunning. You disguise yourself as an amateur and surprise your opponents when they let their guard down."

"Correct. You are the first person who is able to remain fine after falling into my trap." His opponent nodded slightly. "I am Yang Kai. You should know the person who defeats you."

With that said, Yang Kai rushed towards Yang Bin. This time, he didn't hold back.