Translated by XephiZ

Edited by Aelryinth

The black storm had turned into an enormous object; it felt like it was right in front of the team.

After passing some run-down structures, Mo Fan saw that the ancient ruins merely consisted of a bunch of old rocks. There was nothing else, apart from the eye-catching tornado surrounded by lightning.

Yellow dust was blown into the air, carrying dried grass and rocks. It felt like the strong wind was dragging them toward the tornado at the center.

The wind's force was around eight on the Beaufort scale. The team was still able to hold their ground.

Mo Fan took out the Essence Orb and saw the light pointing to the center of the storm.

"Is this thing trying to get me killed?" he cursed instantly.

The strength of the wind and lightning was comparable to that of a Super Spell! Trying to force his way into it was the same as killing himself! It did not make sense for Mo Fan to get himself killed just to fill up the Essence Orb!

"It doesn't seem like there's anything around, let's leave this place," Zu Jiming piped up in a terrified voice once again.

"I'm starting to wonder what's the point of you having such a tough and plump body!" mocked Jiang Shaoxu.

The team did not dare get too close to the storm. However, there was simply nothing worth investigating apart from the spectacular tornado surrounded by lightning. No ancient treasure, no abnormal presence of Elements, not even a sign of demon creatures guarding the treasure.

Demon creatures were quite pragmatic when it came to treasures. It would be an utter disappointment if there was really nothing else in the area.

After searching around for half a day, the team confirmed that the ancient ruins only had a bunch of broken rocks. Nanyu did find some interesting runes on some stone pillars, but the others came back empty-handed.

----

"Damn it, not even a magic ore after spending so much effort to come here. Who was the one that said this place is an unexplored area?" cursed Zhao Manyan.

"Such a waste of time, I told you we shouldn't have come here!" said Zu Jiming.

"Let's take a rest and search again tomorrow. If there really isn't anything, we'll need to make our way back," said Nanyu.

Mo Fan was not too bothered. He did find his loot for the adventure, a piece of Fundamental Crystal. As for the thing that the Essence Orb was pointing to inside the storm, Mo Fan simply pretended he had not seen it. The strong wind and scary lightning were like the claws of a demon, which would tear any person that came too close to pieces!

Mo Fan did not waste his time. He proceeded to cultivate as the team went to rest, and practice the control of his Shadow Element.

Three hundred and forty-three Stars were still waiting to be Awakened. Such a huge project was not something a lazy person could possibly complete. Time was of the essence here!

Keeping his eyes closed, Mo Fan leaned back against a huge rock. His focus entered the Shadow Element Galaxy. The dark Galaxy was not necessarily elegant, but full of mysteries, and definitely had lots of things waiting to be explored. The more familiar Mo Fan was with it, the better his control of the Shadow Element would become!

"I should enhance the Stars of the Shadow Element first; I think I have enough."

The Little Loach Pendant had collected enough Soul Essences when he was killing the Forbidden Moon Rock Demons. Mo Fan was now able to enhance the forty-nine Stars of the Shadow Element to grant him access to the fourth-tier Giant Shadow Spike.

The process was fairly smooth. Mo Fan had the urge to try out the effects of the fourth-tier Giant Shadow Spike, if not for the fact that he could not find a single creature in the ancient ruins. Besides, his Shadow Element had also reached the Advanced Level recently. He still had not tried it out...

Suddenly, piercing cries like thunder came from high up in the sky. There were only a few at the start, but soon, a lot more peals joined in. It was so noisy that Mo Fan could not meditate any longer.

His eyes sprang open, and he looked up into the sky!

It was almost time for the sun to set. The orange light of the setting sun dyed the clean sky red. The sky to the west was a beautiful mix of layered orange and red.

The land and the walls were orange to begin with, so they perfectly matched the color of the sky as the sun was setting. However, with this vast painting of orange and red came lots of uninvited guests. They had green bodies as beautiful as jade, but wings that were totally blue. The feathers on their wings looked incredibly compact and elegant.

As they were flying in flocks, it felt like green clouds and blue veils were covering the sky slowly. They were slowly approaching the team's location!

"Damn it, it's them again! There are even more of them this time!" Jiang Yu suddenly screamed.

"Are you kidding me? We've already come this far; did the other demon creatures simply let them fly across their territory just like that?!" Zhao Manyan protested at the top of his lungs.

"We're done for, we're finished, look at how spacious this place is. There's no cover at all, how are we going to fight them!" said Li Kaifeng began to panic.

Mo Fan was utterly confused after hearing their screams. -What the heck is going on? Why are there so many strange birds in the sky all of a sudden?-

Somehow, Mo Fan was not totally unfamiliar with the bird, as he had encountered one a lot bigger than the ones in the sky that had trespassed into the path of his flight, and almost caused a tragic flight accident!

"My Heavens, they are coming from this direction, too!"

"Same here! Crap, we've been surrounded!"

Mo Fan looked into the sky and saw every direction was full of the strange birds with green bodies and blue wings. If they were migrating as a group, Mo Fan would simply treat them as some color added to the sky. However, judging from their flight paths, the birds were obviously heading toward them!

"Damn it, why didn't anyone tell me what happened?" cursed Mo Fan.

The numbers of the strange birds were utterly shocking. There were at least eight thousand of them, if not ten! It was as huge as an army of demon creatures! Even though Mo Fan had seen some great things before, he was not hoping to see something so epic so often, as it was too scary!

"Around a month ago, we had just arrived in Peru. We carelessly entered a place that was referred to as a forbidden land by the locals. Since then, these strange birds have kept ambushing us. There were only a few dozen of them at the start, so we managed to eliminate them with ease. The number then increased to a few hundred, and we managed to get rid of them too. After that, when we were in a city, the strange birds still came after us, and were eliminated by the city's defenses. It did trigger an orange alert… after that, oh, it's what is happening now!" Zhao Manyan explained to Mo Fan.

Mo Fan's face fell dark after hearing the words.

What kind of tough luck did he have, the team had only encountered a few ten, a few hundred, a few thousand… and yet as soon as he joined the team, there were almost ten thousand of them! They were so far away from the city, it was impossible to rely on the city defenses to get rid of the birds!

There were almost ten thousand of them, and these strange birds did not seem weak, either. They only had around ten people, and one had just died not long ago. It would be a miracle if they could handle such a huge army of birds!

"Why didn't any of you tell me before?!" demanded Mo Fan.

"You didn't ask! Besides, we seriously thought the previous attack was the last one. Who would have thought...my Heavens, what did we do wrong to deserve being chased around by these things?!" wailed Zhao Manyan.

"What should we do now? Someone think of a plan!"

"Even if we dig into the ground, I bet they will dig us out. There isn't any cover nearby, we are all going to die!" wailed Zu Jiming.

The strange birds gradually got closer. They were looming over the team like clouds.

Mo Fan felt incredibly annoyed, looking at the countless creatures in the sky. It was true that he had complained about not having any demon creatures nearby to try out his fourth-tier Giant Shadow Spike and Advanced Shadow Element, yet were the Heavens so crazy as to send an army of demon creatures after him?

Ai Jiangtu had a grim expression, as even he was not confident he could survive the ambush.

As a matter of fact, the team had no chance of defeating a thousand of the strange birds. They had only managed to survive with the help of the city's defense.

"What can we do now?" Nanyu had totally run out of ideas. She looked at Ai Jiangtu helplessly.

"If I let you choose between fighting the army of strange birds or entering the storm, which one will you choose?" asked Ai Jiangtu with a serious face.

"Captain, are you out of your mind? This storm and lightning are as powerful as a Super Spell. We're dead for sure if we go inside!" yelled Jiang Shaoxu.

"We won't be going too deep inside it. Frankly speaking, we have to reach a distance where we can still stand against the storm, but the birds can't… it's the only way I can think of now. If you don't want the birds to tear you to pieces in five minutes, just follow me into the storm," said Ai Jiangtu.

The others were left with no choice. As Ai Jiangtu had mentioned, the storm was full of uncertainties, but they would surely die if they decided to stay and fight the army of birds!

---

While making their way toward the storm, Jiang Yu noticed Mo Fan had a dull expression, as if he had been kicked while lying down. He could not help but ask, "Are you thinking that it was better for you to give up back in the canyon?"

"Screw you! It's the nest that you guys poked; why do I have to suffer together with you?" cursed Mo Fan.

"You can try telling the birds that you aren't with us, and see if they are kind enough to let you go..." Zhao Manyan added.

"..."

---

In the end, the team had no choice but to enter the storm. However, Mo Fan really hated the feeling of being forced to do something. He always thought that the point of getting stronger was to give him the power to choose. He could say no to something he thought was dangerous and was unwilling to do. He could fight the things he disagreed with bravely, instead of being chased around without any sense of dignity!

That being said, when his life was at risk, dignity was just like integrity, something he could throw away at any time!