Huang Ying was trapped within the talons of the large red-feathered Dragonfire Eagle, the sharp claws wrapping around him so that he could only barely move his limbs. But even though he could move his limbs, there was extremely little he could do in this situation save for sheathing his spear again. The eagle had reached either the 9th Stair of Ascension or even the 1st Mountain of Immortality, it was so much stronger than him that Huang Ying barely amounted to an ant to it. And even if he somehow managed to do something that freed him from this beast's grip, he was so high up in the air that the impact from hitting the ground would completely crush him, no matter how much he tried to use his wind to decrease his speed. Trapped in such a situation, Huang Ying couldn't really think of anything else to do but laugh.

"Hehe, really stuck in a shit situation here, huh? I know I was the one who voluntarily jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire, but got any plans for escape, Li Jun?"

It was Huang Ying who had chosen to jump up and allow the beast to snatch him away, so he knew that whatever happened from here on out was on him. But he didn't regret his actions in the slightest, Song Yi and Chen Hong would be snatched up along with him if they remained where they were, given the option he would do the same again without question or hesitation. As for everything that followed him getting dragged away, he could only deal with it as it came, he didn't really have any other choice. Li Jun's response swiftly followed, a soft curse and a deep sigh that contained a touch of relief.

"If I believed that there was anything you could do against this Dragonfire Eagle, then I wouldn't have told you to flee so intently. But you chose to remain behind rather than doing the sensible thing, so now you are almost certainly going to die."

The death of Huang Ying would free Li Jun and allow him to finally reincarnate himself, it had been one of his wishes ever since he ended up trapped in Huang Ying's soulsea. Huang Ying understood this so he also understood why Li Jun sounded slightly relieved as he spoke, the corners of his mouth curving up slightly. Smiling and laughing, these had already become conditioned reflexes to him, they popped up whenever his situation got worse. Huang Ying decided to ignore Li Jun's negativity, turning his head as much as he could to survey the surroundings that whizzed past them.

"Well, it hasn't killed me yet so it seems like its got some plan for me, maybe it's got something to do with where we're heading? Well, whatever it is, as long as I'm still alive I'll end up having an opportunity to escape sooner or later."

The place the Dragonfire Eagle was bringing him was one of the places Huang Ying wanted to head to the least, the gnarled mass of large trees growing into and around each other at the center of the forest. As the absolute center of this forest, it was doomed to be the place where all the strongest beasts gathered, it was the worst possible place to be.

The Dragonfire Eagle was far faster than anything Huang Ying had seen before, it only took it half a minute to cut straight through to the center of the forest, a journey that Huang Ying was confident would take him at least a week. Now that they had gotten so close to the massive trees, which were each about 200 meters in height and half as large in width, Huang Ying could get a bit of a closer look at the trees.

They had the same general shape as the rest of the trees in the forest, upward-curving branches at the top that made them resemble circular hands, but these trees also had several large and thick branches growing out from all around them, each of these branches coiling around others to form something akin to large platforms. And resting on all these large branches were exactly what Huang Ying feared, tens of Demonic beasts in all shapes and sizes, each one radiating an atrocious pressure that caused his chest to feel stuffy.

From the looks of it, Huang Ying skipped the fire when he jumped out of the pan, he headed straight for the volcano, the corners of his lips pulling up even further. But if there was one piece of good news he could see from the current situation then it would be that none of the Demonic beasts resting on these branches seemed to be on good terms with each other. They all cast glances at each other, occasionally letting out a sound as a warning that the others should stay away.

The Dragonfire Eagle let out an ear-piercing screech as it arrived, silencing every beast residing below a height of 150 meters. The beasts residing above the 150-meter line glared at the Dragonfire Eagle but didn't move against it, casting a wary glance towards the peak of the trees. The upwards curving branches prevented Huang Ying from seeing the peak of the trees, but the mountain-like pressure coming from the top was more than enough to tell him just what sort of beast resided there, one of the overlords of the forest.

The eagle descended to a branch hanging 156 meters above the ground, hovering above what looked like a large nest made from torn up trees and pelts from various beasts. Situated at the center of this nest was a single four-meter tall egg with a light brown shell covered in darker spots, and surrounding this egg, and covering the entire nest, was a small lake of blood and bodies.

Some of the bodies belonged to cultivators while others belonged to beasts, all of them with shattered limbs that caused their blood to flow out and gather within the nest, nourishing the egg. The bodies closer to the egg were all clearly dead, some having perished from their wounds while others had died by drowning in the small lake of blood. The bodies further out, however, were still very much alive, if wounded heavily and mostly unable to move. Something that sounded like Li Jun clicking his currently non-existing tongue resounded within Huang Ying's head as he overlooked the scene, Li Jun's voice quickly following.

"So that's why it went through the trouble of picking you up. It knows that it only has a few more years left so it wishes to strengthen its descendant as much as possible. All those bodies should contain reasonably strong bloodlines, having absorbed all of them, I can't even imagine what sort of being will be born out of that egg once it hatches. And the number of bodies also suggests that it has been doing this for at best a few days, maybe around a week. I must say, your timing for coming to this forest probably couldn't have been worse."

Huang Ying had nothing to say in response to Li Jun's words, their timing had indeed been about as bad as could be. But as it was the academy that set the schedule there was nothing that Huang Ying could have done about it so complaining about it now would be utterly pointless. Shortly after Li Jun made his statement, the Dragonfire Eagle made its move again.

It didn't immediately descend to the nest, it clenched its talons slightly and shattered Huang Ying's arms, breaking all the bones within them and rupturing all the veins within the. It then threw him into the air, ignoring his beast-like growl of pain and using its fang-filled beak to peck at his legs, shattering them just as it had his arms. It then grabbed onto him with its beak, lowering him down to the nest and placing him amidst the other bodies within the lake of blood.

The blood was almost half a meter deep so Huang Ying's face was immediately submerged in it, the viscous liquid flooding into his mouth as his own blood poured out and joined up with it. He quickly raised his head above the surface, spitting and coughing out the blood that was still in his mouth. By the time he opened his eyes again, his vision dyed slightly red thanks to the blood covering his body, the Dragonfire Eagle had already departed again, Huang Ying just barely able to see its form as it flew away to look for more prey.

Huang Ying finished spitting out whatever blood remained in his mouth, the irony, yet still somewhat sweet taste perforating his entire being. He tensed the muscles in his stomach and leaned back slightly, straightening out his body so that it started to float somewhat unsteadily in the blood. Just as Huang Ying managed to stabilize his body, a feminine voice came from his side.

"So another poor bastard has been tossed into the pot, huh? Kid, you got a name? I'm Ming Chang from the Sunhollow Dessert Academy, I came here to test my luck with the others, can't say I expected it to end this shittily though."

Huang Ying focused his perception again now that he stabilized his body, quickly locating the one who had spoken to him. Floating about ten meters away from him was a seemingly delicate and curvaceous girl who seemed to have just entered her twenties, her shoulder-length peach-colored hair was stained with blood but her golden eyes still shone brightly, contrasting somewhat with her tanned skin. Huang Ying spent a bit of his focus on remaining properly positioned to float, responding to the girl.

"Tell me about it, things went so far south that they're about to go north again. I'm Huang Ying, currently enrolled in the Fierce Flame Academy. Well, most of those buggers want me dead, so we'll see how much longer I'll stay there."

The girl, Ming Chang, let out a quick burst of laughter after receiving Huang Ying's response. His mental fortitude was clearly rather excellent, otherwise, he wouldn't be able to make jokes in a hopeless situation like this. Following Huang Ying's carefree introduction, the other people floating around him also started to introduce themselves, some of them grunting due to the pain coming from their shattered limbs.

"Geh, fuck that bird, it really doesn't know how to be gentle. I'm Xun Zhi from the Seasprout Academy, a pleasure to die with you lot."

"Yeah, we ought to give that bastard a spanking once it comes back, really teach it who the boss is. I'm Guo Shui from the Plainsky Academy, I'd say that I'd like to get to know you better, but we're all dead so it doesn't really matter."

"Lang Zan from the Souls Reach Academy. I'll guess that none of you got any tobacco on you?"

"Oy, Lil' Zan, didn't you quit that shit three months ago?"

"Oh shut up, nothing wrong with getting a quick puff before we die here."

"You're the one who made the pledge to quit, least you can do is keep it in these last few days. Oh, right, I'm Han De, also from the Souls Reach Academy. I'd shake your hand, newcomer, but I'm afraid I can't even feel my own hand anymore."

With Huang Ying and Ming Chang taking the lead with what seemed like light jokes, the others around them lightened up somewhat. They were going to die no matter what, they might as well face their deaths with a nice joke and a smile, anything else would just be too sad for them to bear. But Huang Ying had yet to accept his death, it was one of the few things he would not accept even until the very end. In truth, a plan was already starting to form in his mind, an insane and somewhat suicidal plan that he decided to set into motion by opening his mouth.

"Ey, you lot. If I told you that I could create a chance for us to escape, would you mind swearing an oath that you won't tell another soul about the things that'll happen from here on out? Oh, and you'll also have to swear that you won't send others after me or kidnap me to bring you with you, I've still got things I wanna do after all."

The others were somewhat dumbfounded by Huang Ying's sudden statement, not sure if he was making another joke or if the Dragonfire Eagle had hit him in the head. But there was no harm in swearing such a simple oath now that they stood in front of the gates of death, so with one person taking the lead, everyone swiftly swore the appropriate oath.

With the oaths sworn, Huang Ying moved into action. The blood around him turned darker as tendril after tendril of mud-like darkness spread throughout it, his law of devouring greedily swallowing up the plentiful energy within the blood and corpses around him. Part of the devoured energy flowed into his body and restored his wounds, the rest of the energy flowing through the tendrils and entering the bodies of the wounded people around him, healing their wounds and restoring their strengths. And while the others around him were filled with astonishment and shock at their restoring wounds, Huang Ying's gaze landed on the large egg at the center of the nest, a mad glint worthy of a beast flashing through his eyes as his lips curved into a grin.