Chapter 117: Release That Bird!
Chapter 117: Release That Bird!
Listening to the two, Bai Yunfei asked in surprise, “Eh? Miss Tang, have you seen this white bird before?”
Nodding, aunty Zhao replied, “Several days ago we came across it. It was injured in a forest, and the young miss used some of her soulforce to treat its wounds so that it could fly. But it’s a soulbeast that doesn’t like coming into contact with humans.”
“It’s one of the fastest bird type soulbeasts due to its inherent wind affinity. At full speed, it travels so fast that it leaves behind a mirror image. That’s why it’s known as the ‘Quickshade Bird,’ and it is considered one of the favorite types of soulbeasts for a soul cultivator to have. This particular Quickshade Bird is only at the beginning of the fifth level. That’s roughly the equivalent of a Soul Ancestor, but with the wounds it has, its strength is now low enough to be trapped by these two fourth level birds… I bet the wounds it had experienced earlier were from these people. It was able to escape before, but, in the end, it seems it was unable to get away from them…”
“Chirp!!”
At that moment, another loud chirp could be heard. It interrupted aunty Zhao and caused Tang Xinyun to give a small gasp. Turning his head, Bai Yunfei saw the Quickshade Bird barely dodge the claw of the golden eagle before being slammed with a gust of wind by the other gray bird. It haphazardly dodged to the side, but the bird’s injured wing forced the bird off balance, causing it to spiral to the ground.
At the same time, the taller soul cultivator whistled, signaling everyone to throw their nets out all at once.
During this crucial moment, the Quickshade Bird gave a shrill chirp. It tilted its wings, moving nearly a meter to the side to dodge the net.
“Hmph!” The taller soul cultivator snorted. There was a flash in his eyes as if he had finally caught the opportunity he had been waiting for. With a wave of his right hand, a golden beam shot forth toward the Quickshade Bird. Flashing forward several dozen meters, the light then coiled around one of the claws of the bird!
It was a golden rope about the same size of a bamboo shoot! This golden rope appeared out of nowhere, catching the Quickshade Bird. It could not escape; this rope had to be a soul item.
……
The moment the Quickshade Bird was captured, Tang Xinyun’s foot pressed deeply into the ground. It was as if she was preparing to charge off after the bird.
“Young miss, you can’t!” Aunty Zhao grabbed hold of her arm with narrowed eyes, “There’s far too many people over there. You can’t just recklessly charge in and make enemies of all of them for the sake of a mere soulbeast.”
“But…” Tang Xinyun looked to the terrified Quickshade Bird with despair. “Aunty, I wish to save it. Look how pitiful it is and how desperate it is while trying to get free. Look at them, you can clearly see that they’re bad guys. There’s no doubt they’ll torment it…”
“I agree. I can practically hear the dismal cries of the bird as if it were a human… Brother Bai, can you save it?” Tianming asked from the side as he stared at the pitiful Quickshade Bird.
Bai Yunfei’s eyes turned to glance at Jing Mingfeng who in turn shrugged his shoulders. “You decide. I believe that even if we were to fight them, driving them back wouldn’t be too hard.”
There was still hesitation in Bai Yunfei’s mind. He had already ascertained that this Quickshade Bird had been the very same ‘destined travelers in arms’ he had encountered before. It was when a bird had flown by above him. More importantly, it was because of Hong Yin that he felt some affection toward soulbeasts. As the Quickshade Bird desperately tried to flee from the human’s grasp, Bai Yunfei felt his desire to save the bird grow stronger than ever.
However, the amount of people here was a problem. Each one of person was strong, and with all of them here for the express purpose of trying to capture the soulbeast, someone had to have hired them all to capture it. In that case, if Bai Yunfei and the others were to interfere, they would be risking offending an extremely large power…
While Bai Yunfei was hesitating, the situation in front of them had grown even worse. The bird had continued to struggle as it tried to shake off the golden rope, but to no avail. Its wings flapped wildly in order to take flight. The rope was now tied around its wings causing the wound on the bird’s wing to open and shoot forth even more blood. Despite its injuries, the bird was still desperately trying to take off into the sky.
The bird had just so happen to look in the direction of Bai Yunfei. From his hiding spot, Bai Yunfei could clearly see rage and unwillingness in the bird’s eyes.
The gray bird and golden eagle had already flown down to deliver the final grace when the Quickshade Bird let out a loud chirp that was filled with desperation. A rich amount of wind began to course through its wings before transforming into a small hurricane that forced back the two birds. After that, the hurricane dissipated back into the bird’s wings. No matter how much it tried to flap its wings, the bird could not do anything more…
“Hmph, the finale death throes! Don’t let it waste its energy and kill itself!” When the taller soul cultivator saw the golden rope grow even more taut with the amount of force the bird was exerting, he began to try his best to restrain the bird’s movements. With another command, he and the shorter soul cultivator gave a nod and brought out their left hands.
A single multi-colored snake short forth from the robes of the taller soul cultivator. With eyes crimson-red, the snake spat out a glob of venom that was multicolored, and caused many of the nearby people to shudder in fright. Clearly this venom was very poisonous.
Coiling in mid-air, the snake wrapped around the golden rope, and began to travel along the rope at a rapid pace.
The moment the snake was traveling up the rope, the shorter cultivator had a gray shadow dart out from his own robes. A single small bat of a gray color had appeared with a shrill shriek that accompanied the flapping of its wings. It shot toward the Quickshade Bird!
……
When the two soul cultivators had lifted their arms to command their soulbeasts, Bai Yunfei’s pupil dilated as he gasped to himself, “The Beast Taming School!!”
It had been very apparent to see that the two soulbeasts had emerged from space rings! The only ones capable of such a thing were those from the Beast Taming School! Now all of the pieces of the puzzle were on the table. The two soulbeasts that had been attacking the Quickshade Bird were clearly more soulbeasts under the control of these two. That was why they had been rather stiff and leaked some soulforce earlier.
Bai Yunfei’s eyes narrowed in resolution. “We’ll save it! No matter what happens, do not let them find out our identities! Only Jing Mingfeng and I will head out. Aunty Zhao, look after miss Tang and Tianming. Unless you can help it, do not reveal yourselves!”
In the middle of his command, Bai Yunfei’s face had begun to twitch and spasm. By the time he finished speaking, Bai Yunfei had already assumed a different physical appearance. His body was only several inches taller and his ability to change his face was not at all perfect, so the look of his face now was quite strange to look at it. No matter who saw this face, all they would see would be a face that didn’t quite match the features on it. Now was not the time for Bai Yunfei to worry about his technique; the most important thing right now was to make sure his original appearance would not be seen.
Understanding the intentions of Bai Yunfei straight away, Jing Mingfeng’s movements had been even swifter than Bai Yunfei. His face completely changed with a wave of his right hand over his face. It was like he was conducting a magic trick.
Within several seconds, the preparations of the two had finished. With a nod of their head toward each other, they charged forward without hesitation.
……
The speed of both bat and snake had been tremendously fast. In the span of several seconds they had already reached the Quickshade Bird. Striking the hurricane around the injured bird, a hiss and a shriek were heard as the two were flung back. However, the damage had been done, the hurricane had been dissolved, revealing the Quickshade Bird within.
The two soul cultivators stared fixedly at the injured bird with their soulforce fluctuating wildly. Straight away, the two soulbeasts followed their owners command and flew straight at the Quickshade Bird!
A shrill chirp made its way into the air as the Quickshade Bird revealed a glint of despair in its eyes. Its bloodstained wings began to slow down as if it resigned itself to its fate…
“Whooooosh!”
When the soulbeasts were just several meters away from the Quickshade Bird, four different ear-piercing sounds could be heard followed by four different glints of metal flying at the four soulbeasts!
“Ding ding!” Two separate clinks could be heard as a single dagger struck the snake coiled around the golden rope. There was a spark as the blade collided with the snake, but other than a faint white mark on the scales of the snake, there was no visible damage. However, the grip the snake had on the rope had slackened enough for it to fall from it. The other sound had come from the golden eagle being struck in the abdomen. In a flurry of golden feathers and another burst of sparks, the eagle had emerged unharmed as well, but it had been hindered in its flight.
As the lightest of the four, the gray bird had let out a small chirp and tilted to the side in order to dodge the incoming dagger. However, the bat had suffered disastrously in comparison to the eagle. Its right wing had been completely pierced through. With such an infliction, the bat had been knocked unbalanced and fell to the ground.
The incoming two figures had already been spotted by the entire crowd. One of them shouted out loud,
“Oy! Bastards! Release that bird!!”