“Get away! Everyone escape!”

The leader Xie He shouted to all his men. Panic dotted his features as he prepared to flee.

“What about those kids!?” The injured person from before spoke as he hurried over.

“Leave them! They won’t live beyond today, we need to escape before it’s too late!”

Dum!

The flames that exploded from the Scarlet Flame Long Tailed Hawk were much hotter than before.

Though the kids were at a faraway distance from the battle, the heat still caused them great fear.

The Scarlet Flame Long Tailed Hawk started to forcibly draw in the nearby elemental flame energy, and not just any flame energy, only the most overbearing and tyrannical energy in the vicinity.

A massive ring of fire was being built at this moment. It was using the very same flames for its breakthrough to trap everyone and itself here.

Scarlet Flame Long Tailed Hawks were an extremely domineering type of magical beast. They normally resided in locations where the surrounding flame energy wasn’t too strong, all because of their innate breakthrough path.

Because they needed the most overbearing flame from wherever they were, they would have to release all restraint and forcibly take in the most powerful flame energy present.

Places with less flame energy would allow them to take in limited tyrannical flame, allowing them to more easily deal with it, giving them a higher chance of breaking through.

Of course, this didn’t mean that safety was guaranteed. One must go through a trial if one wishes to ascend to a higher realm.

“Damn! It’s not planning on letting us go!” Xie He saw flames of different shades of red rushing toward the Scarlet Flame Long Tailed Hawk and closing off all paths of retreat for them.

The flame burning in its eyes signified its supreme fury! It didn’t even react to certain parts of its body that were being burnt.

“Creeeeee!!”

With a piercing screech, it took to the skies once again, every flap of its wings kicking up gales of wind and fire.

Its head reeled back once more, preparing to let loose another plume of fire to burn them all to ashes!

“Damn beast! I’ll fight it out with you!”

Xie He circulated his spiritual qi, causing his 9 cauldrons to appear with one of them possessing a single Star Core behind him with a flashing light. He jumped to the skies with tremendous momentum, not intending to die without a fight!

“Blood Condensation Palm!”

Blood coloured veins covered the entirety of his palm as he released a giant palm-shaped attack towards the Scarlet Flame Long Tailed Hawk!

“Creeeeeee!!!!”

Seeing the giant blood-coloured palm rushing towards it, the Scarlet Flame Long Tailed Hawk released the plume of flame it was building up!

Rumble!

Another explosion spread out, forcing Xie He to fly back towards the earth in a sorry fashion.

His associates quickly rushed to where he was to help him out. If he died here, so would they, so had to band together to face this threat.

“W-We need to call for backup!” Xie He’s face scrunched up in a grimace. If he never pushed for the body of this beast, they wouldn’t be in this predicament, but there was no medicine for regret in this world.

He quickly took out a crystal from his robes and crushed it.

“We just need to last,” he said. “Reinforcements will come soon!”

…

“There they are! Feng Yu, Shen Ling, what are you all doing here!?”

A shout from the distance caught the attention of the Scarlet Flame Long Tailed Hawk, the men from the Blood Crypt Sect and the young disciples who were trapped between a rock and a hard place aka a giant flaming bird of destruction.

The disciples looked to the distance where they could see the first, second and third elder running towards them. Though the magical beast forest was huge, this kind of commotion was something that alerted even the elders.

Who could imagine that at the root of this calamity were their disciples!?

…

“Little demon,” Uncle Tian Lu called out.

You’d think he would call me by my actual name already, but to be honest, the name was really growing on me, “Yeah… master of the dancing tooth?”

He looked at me in all seriousness, like this wasn’t the time to be fooling around. Facial expressions in the cultivation world were really specific, but I heeded his wish. After all, he is my master and everything.

“Look at how the Scarlet Flame Long Tailed Hawk deals with the flames that were causing it damage not too long ago.”

I turned my head to where Uncle Tian Lu pointed out and sure enough, there it was, my answer.

The Scarlet Flame Long Tailed Hawk didn’t just haphazardly absorb the most overbearing flame willy nilly. I could see where it literally twisted the flame to its liking before it deconstructed the flame to a level it could tolerate before it took it in its body.

‘Does that mean I can also deconstruct the black lightning in my body to a much less powerful version of itself so I can have it fit my cultivation route? Wait, maybe I need to take it step by step and build it back up so I can reach a point where I can cultivate the black lightning.’

I could feel the inspiration that I so desperately needed finally hit me, much like that truck did. I closed my eyes and summoned the remaining black lightning outside my body.

Uncle Tian Lu on the other hand stared with great interest at what was happening to his disciple. The black lightning only existed in small quantity by now, but just that alone was enough to give him great palpitation!

“What will this birth?” He murmured under his breath.

The lightning eventually started to change colour and quantity to a more plentiful violet gold. The strands of lightning still danced around his body as his eyes were kept close in intense concentration.

…

The disciples ran towards their elders in jubilation. They truly thought they were going to die here, but thankfully they managed to last enough until help came.

“Why are you all so deep in the forest!?”

“Creeeeeeee!!!!!”

Vwoosh

Before any of them could answer, a wave of fire could be seen careening towards them with reckless abandon, burning up everything in its path.

“Hmph!”

His cauldrons also materialised behind him. The cauldrons were mostly dim, save for two, that were fitted with their own ignited cores, also known as a Star Core. They blazed with the flame of their element.

This was how it was. Any cultivator that circulated their qi for battle would also generate the phenomenon of the foundation for their cultivation.

“Trigram Shield!”

The third elder executed a quick set of hand seals summoning a large triangular shield. The wave of flames crashed upon the shield, shaking the surrounding land.

“What an exquisite art, and it seems your cultivation has increased once again, third elder,” Di Yi Lingdao pointed out.

“You overpraise me, first elder. Come, let’s protect the children and take them away from here,” he laughed it off, not wanting to stay too long on this subject.

“Wait!”

“Screeeeee!!!!!!”

A shout from the distance caught their attention, but when the three elders saw what was happening, all three of them showed dark expressions.

“Xie He, what are you doing!?” The first elder asked in rage.

Behind Xie He and his men was the Scarlet Flame Long Tailed Hawk hot on their tails releasing flame attacks every now and again leaving them in a sorry state.

“Elders of the H-”

“Forget the formalities! You did this on purpose, didn’t you!? Leading the Scarlet Flame Long Tailed Hawk over here to force us to fight together with you!”

Pu ci!

Just as the first elder finished speaking, the ring of fire was completed. Now they were trapped!

Now it was a situation of fight or die!

“I have no idea what you are talking about! I clearly saw that we were all in danger and simply used the chance for us to band together so we could have a much higher chance to survive!” Xie He sneered.

The three elders were furious. The Scarlet Flame Long Tailed Hawk may have noticed them and even sent miscellaneous attacks their way, but it paid no more attention to them than that.

Yet now these shameless fellows brought this monster over to them, forcing them in the situation they were!

The worst part was that the disciples were still here. This level of battle was much too dangerous for them, the shockwaves alone could very well kill them.

“Screeeeeech!!!!!!!”

Another high pitched cry resounded as the Scarlet Flame Long Tailed Hawk was finally upon once more.

“Trigram Shield!”

The third elder released his defensive move once more blocking the flames this overlord of the current area levied at them!

“Blood Condensation Palm!”

“Scarlet Claw!”

Xie He and the surviving members of the Blood Crypt Sect released their most potent attacks just at the moment the Scarlet Flame Long Tailed Hawk finished attacking, sending it reeling back!

The first and third elder used their energy to protect the disciples.

When Xie He saw this, he sneered in contempt, “Just a bunch of useless disciples. Endangering all our lives for the four of them isn’t worth it!”

Finished saying this, he rose in the direction of the disciples, ready to attack them.

“Xie He, you dare!?” When the first elder saw this, he was enraged!

How dare Xie He raise a hand against his disciples!? And in front of him, no less! This was a slap in the face!

“If you’re going to hold back to protect them, then I might as well kill them now! At least this way, some of us can make it out of this alive!” Xie He roared.

The first elder stood in front, making his stance known, “Then you must defeat me to do so!”

Boom!

The first elder’s Core Flame Evocation realm aura exploded out while it rampaged, not leaving any room for discussion.

Fwhip!

“Hic! Hiccup!”

“I-Is this little Ling’er, Yu’er a-and the… hic…! Others?”

Suddenly, a drunken old man appeared beside the children. No fluctuation of spiritual qi could be felt within him. He was no different from a mortal.

The first elder was surprised to see that Uncle Tian Lu was here, “Elder Ti-”

The only reason they were able to have such an elongated conversation was because the Scarlet Flame Long Tailed Hawk was starting to suffer under the onslaught of the flames when it got knocked away earlier.

Its lack of essence blood resulted in a fatal lack of energy. As of now, it was simply trying to gain some moment of reprieve; it wanted to commit the last vestige of its life towards eradicating these irritable cultivators!

“Who is this old man! Scram from here!” A disciple from the Blood Crypt Sect released a palm in the direction of Uncle Tian Lu, intending to kill him.

Boom!

An explosion rang when the palm attack hit, causing dust to kick up and spread, obscuring everyone’s vision.

“How did that old man get in here?” Xie He muttered under his breath.

“Y-You might wanna… hic…! Hiccup… pay attention to the thing behind you.”

“What the…!” Xie He was flabbergasted as somehow Uncle Tian Lu appeared on the outside of the fire ring flat on his butt on the ground like he got knocked down by the youth’s attack earlier, though it was meant to kill him.

Not just that, the disciples beside him, not sure what happened.

“How did we…?”

Dum!

Before anyone could make heads or tails of whatever it is that happened, a powerful fluctuation exploded behind them.

When everyone turned around, their pupil shrank in shock.

The Scarlet Flame Long Tailed Hawk, now burnt and ugly with its beautiful crimson feathers now charred black was charging towards them with reckless abandon.

Its windpipe was burnt, disallowing it the chance to release it shrilling cry.

“We’ll take this chance to finally kill it,” the second elder spoke for the first time and allowed his 3 Star Core cultivation to spread out.

However, no one thought about it too much and readied themselves for a battle as well.