Desperate Struggle

The unnatural, strange roar caused a sudden chill to run down the backs of everyone in the clearing.

Chang Liuyun's face paled and he coughed a mouthful of blood into his sleeve. Feeling dizzy for a moment, Chang Liuyun almost didn't notice Lei Mingxing's grip around his shoulder loosening. Alarmed, he hastily turned his head and reached out with his blood-stained hand to catch the unsteadily stumbling Lei Mingxing.

The roar affected Lei Mingxing a lot more than she would like to admit, blood spurting from her nose and mouth, soaking her face veil and sleeve as the world spun around her. So, the moment she felt a hand holding onto her, Lei Mingxing clasped her fingers around it as tight as she could while gritting her teeth.

But there was no time to stand around and wait for the dizziness to disappear.

The owner of that devastating roar was still somewhere behind them and they weren't delusional enough to believe that, whatever it was, had a very friendly attitude toward humans.

Lei Mingxing felt the arm pulling her along, but their pace was pretty slow.

She tried her best to focus and break out of the spinning world and after a few seconds, she was finally able to at least run straight.

As soon as she felt a bit more in control, Lei Mingxing looked up, only to find Chang Liuyun's mouth twisted from the pain of using his broken leg. So, Lei Mingxing decisively dived under his shoulder, using her body to lift his injured side, relieving Chang Liuyun of some pain while also speeding up their escape.

Screams sounded from behind them as they finally reached the invisible barrier next to Suan Bian's group.

The servants were anxiously waiting for Suan Bian to open the barrier, but no matter how many flames the other conjured and threw at the barrier, nothing happened. This hadn't changed from the moment they got to the barrier until now, else, they would have already fled, not caring about the Young Master's guests one bit.

Suan Bian was becoming more and more flustered the more his attempts failed, but the barrier wouldn't open no matter what.

Ultimately there was nothing else he could do than turn around with trembling legs.

He froze.

His body began to shake uncontrollably as his eyes widened in fear. He opened his mouth to scream, but no sound came out.

Fear also gripped Chang Liuyun's heart when he saw Suan Bian's horrified expression. Hesitantly, he turned around.

The thing behind them could only be described as a monster.

A convulsing black thing with yellow teeth that broke through the darkness and frenzied red eyes. Wherever it passed, the precious and rare medicinal herbs had whithered, leaving only a yellow trail of death behind.

The monster was leisurely moving towards them, grabbing any and all mercenaries close enough for it to catch with the liquid darkness that made up the monster's body.

In a single gulp, the monster swallowed the helpless mercenaries into the seemingly bottomless hole that was its maw.

Never to be heard of again.

The moment Suan Bian's servants laid eyes on the monster, all of the reason and composure they had barely maintained disappeared in an instant. Desperately, they began to throw everything they had at the barrier. Every technique, every weapon skill,... even after they didn't have any Qi left inside them anymore they didn't stop, clawing at the wall with their bare hands, splitting their nails.

But those people soon fell down in a puddle of their own blood as the surrounding pressure smashed their inner organs to paste.

Chang Liuyun almost joined these people after seeing the impending monster, but he was able to retain some of his reason and restrained his initial impulses.

Trying to damage the barrier was pointless, nothing stuck, every attack just uselessly slid down the wall. So, he had to find another way to get through this.

But even with his mind working to its fullest capacity while glancing around his surroundings, Chang Liuyun always came to the same conclusion.

Escape was their only option. There was no way they could face this thing when they were this weakened.

Actually, even if they were in top condition, there was not even the slightest chance of victory against such a monster.

With this discouraging thought, Chang Liuyun also began to fling some of his fire at the barrier in hopes that something might change, but the result was to be expected.

His flames quietly dissipated the moment they touched the barrier.

Chang Liuyun's heart beat faster, his breathing became more hurried, and no matter how desperately he sucked in the air around him, it didn't feel enough. Like he was slowly being strangled to death by his anxiety and fear.

No!

He can't die! He had to survive!

There had to be something, anything, he could do!

Chang Liuyun was about to look away from the invisible wall, to scan his surrounding for something that might turn this situation around when he saw a tiny blood-red flame struggling to reach the barrier.

He didn't have much hope, but still carefully observed the flickering flame.

Chang Liuyun held his breath as it finally reached the invisible wall and...

Stuck!

Burning open a small hole.

His eyes lit up and he quickly spun around.

Blood was pouring down from under Lei Mingxing's face veil as she pointed her arm at the barrier, drops of red still falling from the sleeve. The shield of Qi around her was flickering weakly.

Lei Mingxing's brows were furrowed in concentration and she struggled to keep her squinting eyes open as her legs shook, threatening to cave in under her weight.

Chang Liuyun hurriedly held her tighter and spread his shield over her body to the best of his abilities, hoping to elevate some of the strain on Lei Mingxing's Qi.

But this was still not enough to allow her to break through the barrier.

And the monster was closing in on them.

"Hey, lend us some help here!", he shouted at the petrified Suan Bian with desperation in his voice.

From the moment Suan Bian first laid eyes on the monster until now, his attention had been entirely focused on it this whole time, but he managed to take his trembling eyes off it for a moment to look over at Chang Liuyun.

"Come here and put your shield over her, hurry!"

Suan Bian was a bit confused by Chang Liuyun's request at first, but he soon discovered the fist-sized hole surrounded by blood-red flames. A spark of hope lit up inside his eyes and he ran over to them.

He quickly covered the two with his shield.

The force pressing down on Lei Mingxing vanished and she had some breathing room for the first time, but this just meant that she now channeled all her inner Qi to fuel the fire burning on the barrier.

She was already beginning to feel light-headed from all the blood pouring down her nose. Even worse, she had the illusion that something was clamping down on her Qi, crushing her insides, distracting her, and effectively preventing Lei Mingxing from finally creating an opening in that d*mn barrier.

"Hurry up! The monster is almost here!"

Lei Mingxing could hear an, to her, extremely irritating voice urging behind her.

This voice was like sandpaper rubbing down her already tightly strung nerves, causing them to finally snap.

She felt incredibly scared and frustrated, both these feelings culminating in a kind of raging anger that she had never felt before.

"SHUT! UP!", she shouted through her grit teeth.

Abruptly, seemingly in accordance with her anger, the blood-red flame surged up, burning a hole big enough for a person to pass through.

This was the moment Chang Liuyun had been waiting for, he grabbed a hold of Lei Mingxing and rushed out of the clearing, Suan Bian right behind them.

They fell heavily to the ground, but Chang Liuyun just quickly whipped his head around to look behind them.

BANG!

The convulsing mass of the monster rammed against the barrier, it seemed to have sped up after seeing them escape.

Time and time again, it hurled its enormous weight and body against the barrier to get through the opening as well, but the hole Lei Mingxing had created closed regardless of its efforts.

And with every futile attempt of the monster, some of the stone pillars surrounding the clearing began to collapse, shrinking the barrier until the monster, which was twice as tall as a grown man, lay nailed to the ground, roaring with resentment in his crimson eyes.

The mercenaries and servants still trapped inside the clearing joined in on its howl, becoming a twisted choir of resentment and agony.

Eventually, the howling stopped, with the people trapped inside dying because of the excessive bleeding from their seven orifices.

Chang Liuyun, Lei Mingxing and Suan Bian weren't affected by the roar, the barrier shielding them from it, only its sheer deafening volume reached them.

They pressed their hands down on their ringing ears, cringing from pain.

Ding.

A clear chiming sound interrupted the roaring of the beast, followed by a final scrunching noise. After that, nothing but silence remained in the forest.

Chang Liuyun was the first to open his eyes again.

Nothing!

The whole clearing, including the stone pillars, monster and mercenaries had vanished into thin air, as if they had never existed at all.

Left was only a crowd of tall, majestic trees and a few small black drops on the ground.