As the three Fiendhunters arrived in their flying ship of yellow papers, their hearts trembled. They had trespassed into the domain of a newborn Primordial Fiend! All of them were young, and none of them prepared to die, but they had signed their own executions to come here.

All three carried thick, heavy blades with square points, meant for hacking open thick hides or scaly armor. Stabbing would be useless against such creatures, due to the risk of the blade becoming stuck within the wounds.

Similarly, their white furs were woven with charms meant to heighten speed rather than turn blows aside. If they were caught in the jaws of a beast they were doomed regardless of what armor they were given.

It could be said the youngest generation of Fiendhunters were ‘soldiers’ rather than ‘warriors’. They were prepared and sent out in the expectation that many would die before the goal could be accomplished. Thus, they had been trained to put aside their fear and and follow orders without question! This training had been to create a fearless battle meditation state within them, a ‘fiery soul’. And this blazing passion ignited as they entered the territory of a vicious Primordial Fiend!

On Feng Yu’s scholarly face, this manifested as a look of icy magnificence. For Xiu Tian, his battle state was shown by a wide idiot grin splitting his handsome face in two, and he was laughing as he clapped Wu Zhang on the back. “Do you see? We’ve scared the toad so badly it has to beg for help! If we can only break free the Fiend from suppressing us for a split second, we should be able to finish our task and slay it!”

“Me and brother Tian will try to block the Fiend. You, brother Zhang, must strike, strike, strike!” Flicking his majestic long hair into the wind, Feng Yu revealed his cold, calculating plan with an absolutely calm voice.

But Wu Zhang… Wu Zhang’s training had failed him. This life or death situation had not brought forth his battle meditation state! Instead his knees knocked together and he flinched as brother Tian slapped him, his face quite pale, his hands sweating. “Ahhh, I’ll do my best.”

The other two were practically drunk on excitement for battle, and took no notice of their brother Zhang’s frightened reply as they turned to face one another and shared in a ferocious smile. This battle… this battle would be a glorious way to die!

Below, the toad smashed its craggy head against the ground in a wretched kowtow. Yellow blood ran from its severed leg. “Young master, please spare this old fool! I never intended to offend, I had simply planned to offer my service, but then these brats began to chase me!’

With every word that was met by silence, it became more and more convinced its life could be cut short at any moment. If there was no trace of killing pressure, surely that meant this newborn Fiend was even more ferocious, for it was able to strike without warning.

Meanwhile, Bu Bian was simply speechless.

Him, fight three Fiendhunters? Him, a young master? He knew his bloodline as a Goldmist Celestial Bat was powerful, but wasn’t this too much? His head began to swell as the toad begged him pitifully, and beginning to warm to the idea that he truly was fearsome, Bu Bian made a fatal mistake. He tried to puff out his chest before stepping out of his little nest, to make himself look a little bigger!

But because his body was made of mist, it could easily change form, and with that one breath he swelled to become three times the size of the colossal toad! His shadow fell across the valley, and his green eyes were like miniature jade moons.

“Ai, well…” He had meant to speak in a dignified manner, but his words were so loud they could not be heard as anything but a vast roar. As his snout nearly brushed the bottom of the yellow paper boat, the three cultivators within were treated the sight of his yawning mouth, struck by a wave of fetid breath that smelled of wine, shaken by every word!

In a past life it had been observed that Bu Bian was terribly frightening when he was woken from a nap, and this held doubly true as a beast. Any mortal cultivator would have trembled at that moment!

But having entered the battle meditation state, the Fiendhunters knew only one response to fear. And that was to meet it with equal courage!

“Beast, you will not destroy my brothers!” Feng Yu roared like a courageous lion, biting down on his tongue and spitting out a brilliant sword made of blood as he leapt from the prow of the ship.

“Foul creature, you’ll choke on my blood if you try to harm my brothers!” Xiu Tian cried, the blood from his cut palm expanding into a foul mist in the shape of a great hand as he too jumped from the flying boat.

All this happened in a single instant, and in that moment, both of them were utterly shocked! Both of them had secretly decided upon the same scheme. Each had planned to sacrifice their lifeforce to save the other with a forbidden technique.

So there was nothing for them to do but laugh with joy, blood flying from their mouths like cherry blossoms. With Xiu Tian striking from the left and Feng Yu from the right, their brotherly combined strike formed a magnificent cross as they fell towards Bu Bian.

“Eee? But these guys… they’re completely fucking crazy!” In that moment, Bu Bian shrunk back to his original size in fright, his heart thudding and his mind blank with terror. They were really, truly obsessed with his death, and every instinct in his body could be summed up in the word ‘flee’!

As the brotherly combined attack bore down, Bu Bian fluttered about in wild zig-zag patterns, dodging like a leaf on the wind as they wove a net of sword and fist techniques. In that first instant, his peaceful valley was utterly pulverized! Broken stone flew in all directions, flowers were cut into a million pieces and scattered to the wind.

In the next breath, the two brothers landed on the earth. Each of them landed in a crouch, and two hands moved in perfect formation, Feng Yu striking his hand to the earth while Xiu Tian lifted a fist towards the heavens. Black and white pillars of light burst into being at the edges of the devastated valley, sealing off all escape.

“You…” Xiu Tian’s eyes blazed with hatred as he glared at Bu Bian, who was soaring far above them now, completely untouched. “You coward! How dare you avoid my brother’s attack when he sacrificed his lifeforce!”

Striking his chest, Tian coughed up more blood, and suddenly the hand of black mist was joined to an arm, a shoulder; a giant made of black mist had materialized behind Xiu Tian, and swept both hands out to catch and crush Bu Bian.

“Monster! You’ve made my brother spend more of his life!” Biting deep into his thumb, Feng Yu slashed his bleeding hand through the air and conjured a spray of bloody spears. They flew out in a regular formation, with barely enough space for a gnat to fit between them.

But if Bu Bian could make himself giant, surely he could make himself small? “Please work!” He squeaked.

With but a thought, he compressed his form into a thin line of blazing golden light that left a zig-zag trail in the air as he slipped through the giant’s fingers and burst through the spray of spears.

“Ah-ha. AHAHAHA! I’M INVINCIBLE, I TRULY AM INVINCIBLE!” The laugh burst from Bu Bian’s mouth without thinking, and it made Feng Yu spit up blood in complete rage! His icy demeanor had cracked to reveal a stormy sea beneath!

“You bastard! How dare you laugh when my brother is dying!” His eyes brimming with tears, Xiu Tian struck his chest so hard his ribs cracked and blood flew out his mouth.

The giant palm crashed into the earth to block Bu Bian’s path like a black wall, forcing him to beat his wings and desperately reverse course to escape being smashed against it by his own momentum.

But this sent him right back towards Feng Yu!

“How dare you enrage my brother so, making him kill himself to avenge me!” Spitting out another great mouthful of blood, his robes now completely soaked through, Feng Yu shot forward and displayed all his strength and sword arts in an exquisite flurry of blows that would have made a mortal swordsman weep with envy.

But no matter how furious he grew, Bu Bian flitted away like a summer’s breeze.

“AAAAGH!” Wordless with rage, Xiu Tian lunged forward and deployed a swirling volley of kicks and open-handed strikes that resembled the turning of a vast storm. By now, he had spat up so much blood that his skin had turned to leather and clung to the shape of his bones, but as long as there was life in his body, Xiu Tian would continue to fight!

“HAAAI!” Feng Yu looked equally mummified, but he still found the moisture to shed a single brotherly tear as he too struck with all the strength he could conjure.

“AAAAH!” Bu Bian didn’t understand why they were screaming, but he was terrified! With all the might of his little wings as he tried to escape, but each attack sent him fleeing into another. He was forced to weave between them in a mad spiral of dodges and dives until, almost by accident, Feng Yu’s blade struck his neck -

- and passed through without leaving a mark.

“Huh?” Feng Yu’s eyes went wide, and he stopped attacking for a single second. In that moment he had lost all momentum, and his blade suddenly seemed too heavy to lift again, so he gave a gentle sigh and fell forward instead.

“But-” Xiu Tian was equally shocked, but could not even finish his sentence before exhaustion overwhelmed him and sent him toppling forward too.

They collided in the middle and slid to their knees together, two heads slumped over two shoulders, drooling a little blood, swords abandoned in the mud.

In all this time, Wu Zhang had not even found the courage to leave the paper ship, and as he saw his brothers defeated, a shadow fell over his heart. He had failed. With a furious wailing cry, he turned the boat around and fled over the mountains.

Seeing this, Bu Bian’s heart soared, and so did he. “Ahahaha. Yes, tremble before-”

A sudden explosion of slime cut him short as the great Jade Solehorn Toad’s tongue whipped out, swatting him from the air. Before he could recover, Bu Bian was dragged back, the sticky slime of the tongue clinging to his misty form and refusing to let him free as he desperately clawed at the earth. With a slap of slimy lips, he was gone.

“Oh-ho? What a bizarrely weak creature.” The toad laughed, and mused to itself. Could it really be so easy to slay a mighty Fiend?