Chapter Ninety-Seven: The Timid Little Lizard

At such close range, Thunderclap could clearly see the icy gleam in the green, turtlelike eyes atop the small heads of the score of flagpole beasts. Without a second thought, he flung out the Azure Veil artifact, which instantly transformed into a gigantic protective dome and enveloped the remaining four within it.

By then the flagpole beasts’ attack had already arrived. Their steel claws tore furiously at the barrier, producing a screech of grinding friction, yet the dome formed by the Azure Veil easily withstood the assault. The beasts wheeled in the air, black radiance a foot long bursting from each claw. Swoosh, swoosh—the black claw-light slashed fiercely against the barrier, only for the dome to shimmer with a pale blue halo and once again block the strike.

Seeing both assaults fail, the leader of the flagpole beasts suddenly let out a shrill cry. Its turtlelike eyes glared hard at the barrier, and then, with the rest of its kind, it howled away into the distance.

Thunderclap withdrew the Azure Veil and watched the departing beast pack in silence, no one knowing what he was thinking. Blue Tide let out a long breath. “That was close. These demons don’t seem all that savage after all.”

Thunderclap shook his head. “Not necessarily. I think they had some larger prey in mind and simply abandoned us as blood food. Do any of you know the name of these flagpole beasts?”

Everyone shook their heads. Not a single person knew. So the group buried their fallen comrade and continued onward in search of the giant reptilian beast. From Thunderclap’s explanation, they learned that the enormous creature actually had a rather delicate name: Timid Lizard. It looked much like a lizard, several times larger than an ordinary one, yet it was extremely timid by nature and was born with an exceptional talent for earth escape. At the slightest hint of danger, it would burrow underground and flee. That habit made the search all the more troublesome.

After two hours, Thunderclap and the others encountered a group of elves. More than a dozen female elves in blue robes—elves of the Azure Elf tribe—with Mu Qingchun also among them. Blue Tide greeted them and exchanged a few casual words. None of the elves recognized Thunderclap, not even Mu Qingchun. Thunderclap, however, was not afraid of being recognized. If they wanted to avenge the Azure Queen, their cultivation was still far too weak. By now, Thunderclap was a genuine Core Formation cultivator.

After parting from the Azure Elves, Thunderclap silently reflected that with the Azure Queen gone, talent in their tribe had withered away. Among the seven elven tribes, they now ranked last in strength. It seemed that in this trial they would amount to little more than background figures. Still, reflection aside, Thunderclap and the others pressed on.

Three days later, at Thunderclap’s signal, the group halted in an empty stretch of void. During this trial, everyone seemed to follow Thunderclap’s lead alone. His decisions were almost always correct, and more importantly, he possessed an uncanny ability to foresee danger. At that moment, a muffled rumble of thunder drifted from the front. Without changing expression, Thunderclap ordered everyone to prepare for battle and activated the Azure Veil for defense.

Ahead, the gray and sullen void revealed nothing. Aside from the muffled thunder, there was no sound at all, and no scenery could be seen. Yet with the aid of the blue radiance, Thunderclap could still make out a vast beast engaged in a life-and-death struggle with a flock of strange birds flying overhead. Not far away, several corpses seemed to lie on the ground. Could they be fighting over blood food?

The group, shielded by the Azure Veil, inched forward at an extremely slow pace. At last Thunderclap was the first to see clearly that the giant beast, dozens of zhang in size, was the very Timid Lizard they had been desperately seeking. Opposing it was a pack of flagpole beasts. It seemed the flagpole beasts that had earlier broken off from Thunderclap’s group were most likely the ones tracking the Timid Lizard. With only twelve days left before the trial ended, they could not afford to miss this rare opportunity, so they moved forward with great caution.

About ten-odd zhang away, Thunderclap handed out concealment talismans to everyone. Then he used the Azure Veil to cover only Blue Tide, and ordered the others to attack the flagpole beasts in the air. Big Wu and the female elf each unleashed their signature techniques—one sent out hundreds of ice spears, the other released a sea of pink mist. Their targets were all the flagpole beasts overhead, while Thunderclap drew the Nine-Treasure Lotus Staff from his chest, shook it in the wind until it grew dozens of zhang long, and then charged.

The hundred ice spears struck first, throwing the flagpole beasts into turmoil and injuring several. Before they could react, the pink mist surged over them. Immediately after, the Nine-Treasure Lotus Staff came crashing down, knocking several more flagpole beasts from the sky. The pink mist roiled violently for a moment, then suddenly shot out a cloud of black vapor. The cloud gathered and dispersed in an instant, revealing more than a dozen flagpole beasts once again, each with its beady turtle eyes blazing with ferocity. They abandoned the Timid Lizard and pounced on Thunderclap and the others at once.

Thunderclap and the rest were extremely startled. Before they could even understand how the beasts had seen through the concealment talismans, they were met with a savage assault. As the flagpole beasts beat their wings, waves of fetid black wind rushed into their faces, making everyone sick to the stomach, then dizzy and lightheaded. By the time Thunderclap and the others forced themselves back to clarity, black giant claws were already upon them.

Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh.

A blur of blackness flashed by. Two blue elves collapsed to the ground, leaving only Thunderclap and Blue Tide standing. Blue Tide was naturally unharmed thanks to the protection of the Azure Veil, while Thunderclap survived only because of the azure-yellow transitional divine art he had cultivated, as well as his body having once been tempered by lightning. His physique was far stronger than that of an ordinary person, to the point that even low-grade artifacts could not injure him.

Even so, Thunderclap still bore nineteen wounds across his body, blood streaming from them. Forcing himself to stay calm, he realized the strength of these flagpole beasts exceeded anything he had expected. With a thought, he recalled the Nine-Treasure Lotus Staff. It circled overhead through three hundred sixty degrees, shielding the two of them. Then he took fourteen flying swords from his storage pouch and gripped a small triangular flag in his hand. After blowing a mouthful of pure breath onto it and shaking the flag three times, the fourteen small swords shot into the sky, encircling the dozen-odd flagpole beasts.

The Infinite Sword Formation was complete. It was currently Thunderclap’s strongest artifact for area attacks. If this were a one-on-one fight, he believed the Immortal-Slaying Gun in his hand could kill the beast in a single shot. But against more than a dozen flagpole beasts with astonishing speed, the gun was of no use at all. Even if he shot down one, before he could reload, the others would already have swallowed him whole. Thunderclap was determined to improve the Immortal-Slaying Gun, hoping to make it capable of area attacks or rapid fire. Having once been a sniper, crafting a gun that suited his hand had always been his dream.

The triangular flag swayed left and right, and the Infinite Sword Formation activated. Twenty-eight beams of light burst forth, slicing wildly through the flagpole beasts’ hard bodies. In an instant, rows of pale marks were carved across them. But the beasts’ ferocity was also fully aroused. With a furious howl from the leader, the flagpole beasts formed a ring, within it the five strongest beasts at the center. The leader let out another cry, and the entire ring advanced outward in neat formation, like a well-trained army.

All the cutting beams from the Infinite Sword Formation were blocked by the beasts on the outer ring with their bodies, while the circle itself slowed not at all. Just as Thunderclap was about to summon the Nine-Treasure Lotus Staff above his head, one of the outer beasts finally could not endure any longer. It was sliced into several pieces by the formation’s beams and dissolved into black smoke in the air. A gap opened in the protective ring, but by then they were already close to the edge of the formation. The leading beast gave a dull snort, and the outer beasts instantly changed formation into a triangular shield and accelerated toward one of the flying swords at the edge.

With a sharp pop, the beast at the tip of the triangular shield suddenly twisted the “flagpole” on its back. The upright pole snapped in two, spraying out a stream of pitch-black viscous fluid that splattered over the flying sword. The sword’s surface instantly became pitted and corroded, looking as though it had been soaked in water for a hundred years. Its spiritual power was utterly ruined, and it fell to the ground. The Infinite Sword Formation was broken.

The remaining dozen-odd flagpole beasts immediately broke free from the formation and, in the blink of an eye, reached Thunderclap and Blue Tide. At the same moment, the flagpoles on all of them snapped. More than a dozen jets of black ink shot toward the two of them. Thunderclap hastily formed hand seals and pointed. The Nine-Treasure Lotus Staff spinning above him trembled with a hum, then rotated like a wheel, kicking up a fierce gale that blasted the ink in every direction, not a drop escaping.

Yet the Nine-Treasure Lotus Staff did not stop spinning. Under Thunderclap’s command, it accelerated instead, whirling like a meat grinder as it crushed toward the flagpole beasts.

The leader of the beasts seemed not to have expected the sudden turn of events. It had no time to warn the others and led the way in retreat toward the distance. The beasts that fled a step too slowly were all ground to pieces by the Nine-Treasure Lotus Staff. Aside from the huge Timid Lizard, there were no other beasts left here.

From beginning to end, the Timid Lizard had stared with bulging cowlike eyes, watching this battle without blinking. Its forelegs remained hunched, clearly ready to plunge underground at any moment.

Thunderclap did not spare it a glance. He merely put away the contaminated Infinite Sword Formation and helped Blue Tide deal with the two fallen blue elves. Finally, he opened his right palm. The Nine-Treasure Lotus Staff shrank into an embroidered needle and dropped into his hand. Thunderclap said slowly, “Blue Tide, we’re heading deeper in now.”

With that, he flicked his right hand. The embroidered needle that had been the Nine-Treasure Lotus Staff shot out like an arrow leaving the string and struck the Timid Lizard squarely in the rear.

Throughout the entire process, Thunderclap’s eyes had never once looked at the Timid Lizard. Thus even such a cautious beast failed to sense the threat. The Timid Lizard, with its low intelligence, did not even have time to understand why this strange being had helped it only to harm it. The instant the embroidered needle formed from the Nine-Treasure Lotus Staff pierced its rump, the Timid Lizard reflexively sprang upward, then plunged headfirst into the gray, misty earth and vanished without a trace.

Blue Tide could not help but smile brightly. “That fellow really is a coward. Compared with his size, that embroidered needle was less than one ten-millionth as large, and yet it still fled in panic.”

Thunderclap took out a white jade bed. After enlarging it, and once Blue Tide had climbed aboard, he said softly, “No matter how sly it is, it can’t escape this fine hunter of mine. With the Nine-Treasure Lotus Staff here, it won’t get away.”

He jumped onto the white jade bed as well, covered the two of them with the Azure Veil, tapped the tip of his foot while pouring in spiritual power, and the jade bed shot upward before plunging into the void beneath the earth.