Grinning, Junwei climbed onto the dog, who grunted in annoyance.

Mei, who was watching from a distance, wondered if she could hit him with her axe from where she stood. It was a bit too far for her to be confident, however, so she decided against it.

There wasn't a need for her to do that either. Wang Wei could handle the ranged attacks with Xiuying's help anyway, so why bother? Mei turned to look at him expectantly.

Eh? Why was he pale?

He turned away as he saw her look.

"I, uh... am out of qi."

"W-what?!" Mei stuttered.

From the side, her other teammates looked just as shocked.

Why would he push himself to the limit just to burn the trees? She thought he was smarter than that!

"I didn't expect them to come so quickly!" Wang Wei said defensively, seeing their incredulous looks. "Give me a moment..."

He grabbed a handful of qi pills from his bag and tossed them into his mouth. Too many, unfortunately. He started choking and coughing.

Mei: ...

Meanwhile, Blackie closed in, leaping into the air and flying towards them at an incredible speed. Without time to think, Mei activated both her body techniques and held her hands out in an attempt to stop the dog.

"Grrrrrr!"

Using the momentum of its jump, Blackie swiped at her, sending her flying. All she could see was a blur of trees and grass as she spun through the air, before crashing into the branches of a tree. As the sound of cracking wood rang out, Mei fell to the ground, stunned.

Liu Qiang cursed under his breath, before activating his metallic lustre. He really didn't want to, with how Junwei's element was lightning, but now that Mei was out, he was the only one left on the team with body arts.

"Take this!"

He slammed his war hammer into the side of the dog with all his might. Yelping from the blow, it leapt to the side, growling. Junwei flailed, nearly falling off the dog from the sudden movement.

"This is so dumb! There's no pain or injury, so you can't even tell if you're even doing any damage!" Liu Qiang complained.

Meanwhile, from a distance, Guang Ai cupped her hands to her mouth and shouted.

"Junwei! What are you doing! Stab the fatty before he hits Blackie again!"

"I know! Don't pressure me!" he said, swinging his spear.

Liu Qiang rolled to the side, barely dodging it. In the corner of his eye, he saw Junwei's free hand lighting up with lightning qi. Realising he didn't have time to dodge it, he made a split second decision to deactivate his metallic lustre.

Not even a second had passed before Junwei tossed lightning at him, making him gasp before convulsing helplessly.

"Dammit!" Yingyi shouted. "Wang Wei, this wouldn't have happened if you weren't busy being a dumbass!"

"You've literally not done anything the whole time! Don't judge me!" Wang Wei shouted back.

"Stop fighting! Now isn't the time!" Xiuying said.

As they argued, the dog raised its paw to stomp the helpless boy. Zhang Ming, seeing that, prepared to rush over with his shield, but it was too late. The dog began stomping on him violently.

"Liu Qiang!" Wang Wei cried out.

"Wang Wei, do your thing!" Xiuying nudged him.

"Eh? But the qi pills need more time to take effect..."

"Tsk." Yingyi grimaced. "Screw it, I'll ignite the fire instead!"

From his hands, a small flame appeared. It grew slightly in size, fueled by the wood qi.

...only to be hit by two blasts of water, extinguishing it and soaking him from head to toe.

"Gah!" Yingyi gasped, glaring at the two disciples beside Guang Ai.

In the end, Wang Wei's flames were too prominent. Any team that dared to face him would have prepared countermeasures.

"Haha, do you know what this means?" Junwei laughed.

At the same time, under the dog's paw, Liu Qiang vanished, disqualified.

"Nooooo!" Wang Wei cried out.

"How do you think electricity will react with-"

"Shut up," Yingyi said angrily. "We know."

"Hey, can't you be a good sport?" complained Junwei. "Just let me explain how much trouble you're in, okay?"

Yingyi ripped off his drenched robes and threw them at him, covering Junwei with water. Immediately, the arcs of lightning began to arc from his spear to his body.

"Aaaaaaaa!" he shouted.

"Hah," Yingyi smirked, proud of himself, despite standing in his undergarments.

"Just kidding!" Junwei stopped screaming, his smug look returning. "Come on, this lightning literally comes from me! Why would it hurt me? Dumbass!"

Shit! Yingyi cursed under his breath.

"Awooo! Wo wo wo! Woooffff!" Blackie began jumping around.

"Blackie! What's wrong?" Junwei went pale as he held on for dear life.

Yingyi's eyes lit up. That's right, the lightning would still hurt the dog! Most definitely all according to plan.

From the dog's frantic jumping, Junwei's head crashed into a branch, knocking him to the ground. Blackie then chomped him in anger, eliminating him too.

Watching from a distance, Guang Ai and the other 2 disciples cursed.

"Junwei, you idiot!" she grumbled. "Blackie, you deal with them yourself!"

Blackie shook the water off itself, then barked happily.

Meanwhile, Mei finally started to get out of her daze. She raised her head groggily, rubbing her eyes.

"Urgh..." she groaned. "What's going on-"

Blackie swiped at her again, sending her flying. She crashed into the trunk of a tree, knocked unconscious, yet again.

"Mei Xiu!" Wang Wei cried out.

Yingyi, Wang Wei and Xiuying looked at the dog warily, prepared for it to attack. But to their surprise, it ran in the direction of Mei instead, who had been sent flying quite a distance. The playfulness of the dog was in their favour!

"Maybe we should just make a run for it..." Yingyi muttered.

"I agree." Wang Wei said.

"Me too." Zhang Ming nodded.

"So heartless..." Xiuying sighed. "But I guess we don't have any other choice."

And with that, the four of them began running away, one in nothing but undergarments.

"We'll apologise to her later." Wang Wei said.