Mei Yue’er summoned her personal sword.

The sword’s hilt was made of fine onyx with a carving word: [Aurora] on it. Its silver blade emitted an aura of requisite steel along with a glimmer of green radiance. Just a glance at it, one would be able to tell that the sword was an extraordinary treasure.

Normally, youngsters, who had not entered any school yet, were not allowed to wield any weapon outside. However, young masters or mistresses such as Mei Yue’er were granted by their family’s influence permission to carry one for their own protection.

After summoning her sword, Mei Yue’er activated her Theríon upon the sword and slashed down: “[Aurora Slash]!!”

A crescent green light was shot out from her slash heading straight towards the beast. The attack directly hit the Wight Wolf’s forehead. Following an explosive sound, a tiny cut appeared on its head.

It seemed even a Six Fangs Fighter was able to do some damage to a Talon Monster with the right weapon. Despite that, the damage done to it was insignificant to put them out of this perilous situation, but there was no back-off in Mei Yue’er’s eyes.

After getting its attention, Mei Yue’er used [Aurora Treading Steps] to teleport herself to the opposite side of where Feng Luotian was hiding to prevent any stray bullet that might hit him.

Immediately after finishing her teleportation, Mei Yue’er shot another [Aurora Slash] at the Wight Wolf with double Theríon poured into the sword, doubling the damage output.

This time the attack hit the left side of its body, leaving a larger wound on it.

“Roar!!”

It screamed out as it started to feel pain from the attack. With this, it seemed like she really got its full attention. The Wight Wolf’s ferocious gazes fell upon Mei Yue’er as it unleashed a suppressive force upon her.

Her movement became as slow as a snail.

Before she could even react, the Wight Wolf suddenly flashed and appeared right in front of Mei Yue’er.

With the Wight Wolf’s claw swipe, she was blasted away as her body crashed into several trees until Mei Yue’er smashed onto the biggest tree around.

After dropping onto the ground, she was in a crawl position with injuries all over her body, following by a large amount of blood coming out of her mouth as she vomited.

Not even a second to spare, the Wight Wolf manifested itself right in front of her, ready to give her another strike of its claw. However, this time Mei Yue’er saw which way the attack was coming, so she raised her sword to block the attack.

Even though she was sustaining much less damage than the previous swipe, she still got sent far away. And even worse, the place she stopped after receiving the attack was approximately close to where Feng Luotian was hiding.

The moment she noticed this, Mei Yue’er used another [Aurora Treading Step] to get as far away from Feng Luotian as possible. She picked a high-rise branch on top of a tree three hundred meters away as an endpoint of her skill. Streaks of green light connected her with the top of that branch. In the next moment, she materialized herself there.

Looking at the situation around Feng Luotian, which was still safe and sound, Mei Yue’er let out a sigh of relief. She crouched down and put her left hand on her right arm that was holding the sword.

As a matter of fact, even though she successfully guarded the Wight Wolf’s attack using the sword, the arm holding it was receiving the full force of impact. At the present moment, she could hardly lift her sword up with that right arm of hers.

“!!” Mei Yue’er became alert as the Wight Wolf was nowhere to be found. Her current location was high enough for her to observe and see everything clearly in about a 500-meter radius.

Suddenly, a deafening sound reverberated. Then, following after, a huge tree was sent flying in her direction.

Mei Yue’er swiftly moved out to avoid being crushed by that flying tree as she landed on another tree’s branch.

The sounds of that huge tree hitting other trees and falling branches were still resounding throughout this part of the Thicket.

Mei Yue’er was on her full alert and yet …

RUMBLE!!

Pressure from a ferocious beast was sensed right behind her back, along with a suppressive force that restricted her action.

Mei Yue’er paled in shock: “H-How in the world!?”

“ROAR!!” And a reply for that answer was a breath attack from the Wight Wolf: [Ghost Howl].

“Argh!!”

Mei Yue’er screamed in pain. Her sword was broken asunder. Her dress and skin were sliced leaving a thousand marks. Her figure was blasted away to the ground. And whether it was coincidental or intentional, she once again landed right in front of Feng Luotian, mutilated and blood-soaked.

Feng Luotian trembled all over at the sight: “Y-Yue’er!!” He squatted down but did not dare to touch her, afraid that he might add more suffering to her. Tears started to flow out of the boy who could not do anything but be in despair.

Hearing his voice, Mei Yue’er slowly opened her eyes: “Luotian, run!! There is no point in both of us dying together.”

With a boom, the Wight Wolf landed right next to them. Its eyes only focused on Mei Yue’er, entirely ignoring Feng Luotian.

Mei Yue’er struggled to get up from the ground preparing to fight with the monster while having no energy left in her at all.

The Wight Wolf opened its mouth intending to swallow Mei Yue’er whole.

Seeing what transpired in front of him, Feng Luotian’s hatred for his own uselessness drastically increased than ever before.

The scene where he was with his father on top of that cliff resurfaced in his mind.

Followed by the scene where he took the oath to never let his brothers and sister have their last breaths before him.

The roaring sound of the phrase ‘Will to Protect’ reverberated again and again in his ears.

At the last moment, where Mei Yue’er was gradually closing her eyes and accepting her fate, Feng Luotian pushed her away and eventually got his whole torso in the fangs of the beast.

With a sound of blood dripped down, Mei Yue’er opened her eyes and take a careful look at what had really befallen right before her eyes: “L-Luotian … why?”

A second ago, she was welcoming her final moment for a sake of saving him. A second later, she saw him got his final moment instead of her.

Her eyes were trembling nonstop. There was no word to describe what she was feeling right now.

Feng Luotian who had not yet lost his consciousness uttered his last words in a hoarse voice: “Yue’er, just get up and run, please. This will be the first time and the last time in my crippled life where I can finally be worth something.”

However, his request turned backward.

Mei Yue’er could not hear anything he said. The only thing she got was he was still alive. So, instead of running away as he said, she jumped up and climbed over the beast’s face and tried to pull its upper jaw up.

Feng Luotian: “Yue’er, don’t let my sacrifice be for nothing!!”

Mei Yue’er cursed: “Shut up, you bastard!!” as she did not want to hear any of his crap. She would definitely not let him die while she was still alive.

And a curse similar to Mei Yue’er’s words was barked from another direction: “Yes, shut the hell up, you damnable bastard!!”

That curse was from Sun Wuji who finally caught up to them. He heard the last words very clearly, thus he got angry at his brother for giving up on his own life so easily.

Sun Wuji was currently leaping up in his stony form carrying a tree he twisted off earlier: “Eat this, you sucker!!”

With all the strength he recovered, Sun Wuji nailed the tree he carried at the back of the Wight Wolf’s neck.

Unfortunately, whether it was his lack of strength or the tree not hard enough, the attack was unable to do anything. The tree shattered to pieces with no damage.

Sun Wuji shouted in his ultimate frustration: “Oh, come on!!”

The Wight Wolf flung both of them off its back, followed by another claw attack.

Sun Wuji knew that another attack would instantly end Mei Yue’er’s life, giving her current injury, so he took initiative and bore it all by himself.

He was blown away into a stony hill nearby, flattening everything nearby. Blood gushed out from all over his body despite being in a stone transformation state.

He got down to gravel position and coughed off the blood.

Being only Five Fangs Fighter, and without any weapon or treasure to protect himself, a strike from a Talon Monster was enough to render him to pieces.

Sun Wuji was incredibly lucky to be alive right now. Or rather, he was incredibly strong in his own level of cultivation.

Feng Luotian called out in worried: “Brother Sun!! Run!! Run and get to the city wall as fast as y …”

Before he even finished his words, the Wight Wolf swung his body into its mouth and swallowed him whole.

At that moment …

At the sight of a brother got eaten …

For both Mei Yue’er and Sun Wuji …

There was only …

Despair … and anger.

On the top branch of a tree not far from where the Wight Wolf prevailed, two figures were secretly observed what had eventuated so far. One of them was wearing a black cloak while another was wearing a white. Their cloak was covering half of their face, no one could identify their identities just by looking at them.

The one in black started talking in a low tone: “What an unexpected turn of events, right Whitey?”

The one in white answered with a sissy voice: “Indeed, Blackie. Who would have thought that the famous God’s Cripple Son would end up like this?”

“Heh, anyway, there is no change in our plan, right Whitey?”

“Indeed, Blackie. One dead cripple wouldn’t set any ripple to the plan at all.”

“Let’s keep watching how it will turn out, right Whitey?”

“Indeed, Blackie. Our target is still not dead after all.”

They both started chuckling in the dark.

Both Mei Yue’er and Sun Wuji still could not believe their eyes when they saw Feng Luotian disappeared into the beast’s mouth.

A flashback to the past, before anyone in the group had awakened yet, where Feng Luotian was still the leader of the group and protected them from any harm by either bullies or accidents, they all had made a promise to live by a “will to protect” – the teaching from a God, Feng Luotian’s Father.

Ever since then, they would not allow anyone they loved to die before them. They would protect them with their lives on the line. Hence, every time their brothers were in a life-and-death situation such as this, they would disregard their own life in order to get them out.

Now, however, what happened before their eyes had betrayed that very promise. They had lost their brother yet they were still alive. The feeling that they were never before imagined they would experience, erupted.

Gradually but surely, their eyes turned red.

No one knew whether it was from their blood or from the deepest part of their hearts.

With a loud deafening burst of fury, Mei Yue’er’s Theríon soared out of nowhere until she reached a breakthrough to Seven Fangs.

Same with Sun Wuji, he burst his Theríon and achieved an advance to Six Fangs Fighter.

Both of their auras turned darker.

Their wounds still opened, and their blood was still flowing out of them. Presently, they resembled two bloodied devils who were just emerging from hell. Their crimson eyes flashed as they charged straight at the Wight Wolf.

RUMBLE!!

The Wight Wolf released its suppressive force intending to restrict their movement. Yet, the suppressive force had zero effect, unable to slow them down at all.

They both unleashed their Theríon at its maximal level.

Sun Wuji turned into a five-meter-tall stone giant. He balled his fist and gave a powerful punch to the monster’s head.

With everything he had got, Sun Wuji could finally do some damage to a Talon Monster.

The Wight Wolf shook its head dizzily before its head was clutched by Sun Wuji’s gigantic arm of stone, locking it down in place.

On the other hand, Mei Yue’er leaped up high activating a more advanced skill than the previous [Aurora Treading Step] which was [Aurora Thousand Illusion Strike].

Instantly, a thousand figures that looked exactly like Mei Yue’er came into sight, encircling the Wight Wolf.

All of them had streaks of green light connecting them to opposite sides right through the Wight Wolf’s body.

When the real Mei Yue’er retrieved another short sword from its sheath and pointed toward the beast, the rest of her also did the same.

At this moment, the Wight Wolf sensed a deadly attack coming, it tried to struggle out of Sun Wuji’s grapple. But with another punch from Sun Wuji, its struggle was pacified.

All thousand figures of Mei Yue’er glowed in green light.

“Die!!”

With a shout from Mei Yue’er, all of her images flashed through the beast slicing it in the process, making a thousand marks blade on its body.

The Wight Wolf cried out in pain before losing its consciousness as its eyes turned dim.