""Just what is wrong with you, Hong'Er! Sister almost died back there! Look!"" The burly, dark-skinned Ren Hei yelled as he pointed at the figure of a woman: she was tall, her flowing long white hair held some black hue here and there, making the hair resemble a tiger's stripes.

Although the woman seemed to be in her late thirties, her exotic and feline traits made it difficult to guess her real age. Her generous figure as of then was bent over, her pale face contrasted with the dark skin, her tribal dress was ruined to the point it looked like rags.

As she panted nonstop, the woman's eyes showed trace of fear, her eyes were red as if she was on the verge of crying, her mouth trembled showing the trauma and terror she had just experienced.

Three people stood in front of a crimson-haired, red-skinned, red-eyed boy. The youth wore a white loose undershirt and black loose pants, his body was toned and muscular, his traits were feminine, however no woman would feel that he wasn't masculine due to his buff body and the hint of courage between his eyebrows.

Currently, however, the boy's eyes seemed devoid of life, his whole countenance was that of a dead man, he truly looked as if he could topple over at any moment.

The three people, on the other hand, exuded unparalleled life force, as if they had lived with some sort of huge burden on their shoulders for a very long time and had only recently began to enjoy the taste of freedom.

The one who had just spoken was a middle-aged man: he had dark skin as black as carbon, long white hair tied into braids that went down his back, a prominent chin covered in a trimmed white beard while his two eyes had black irises that fused with the pupils.

His weird, high-pitched yet at the same time deep, voice was due to him not being a single entity: he actually lived in symbiosis with the snake that was currently wrapped around the man's shoulders and neck like a scarf, thus explaining the two different ranges in the tone of his voice.

Currently, the man's expression was one of rage, however a hint of worry could be seen flashing deep in his eyes.

The dark-skinned, exotic woman finally stepped forward, shaking her head "Eldest Brother Ren Hei... It was my carelessness that drove me into falling head-first into their traps... Youngest Brother has no fault for that!"

The third person, a bald youth, also stepped forward, stretching his waist and arms "Yeah, what's more, we even got the chance to do some exercise! As those guys said, we ware still under that bastard's seal so people have begun to underestimate us... We should let these guys know that we are no pushovers!" The blue hue in his eyes shook bizarrely, as if a storm was about to form within.

The dark-skinned man blushed before sighing ""You guys are spoiling Hong'Er too much... Fine, just don't repeat the same mistake twice, else there will be punishment!"" He humphed and walked away, his cheeks red.

The bald youth grinned and the woman smiled warmly: they looked rather amused by the burly man's reaction. Once Ren Hei finally disappeared from view, the two finally edged closer to the red-skinned youth.

The bald youth put an arm over the boy's shoulder, making the young man shiver from the unexpected contact. Two red rubies full of confusion as well as terror scanned Ren Long's face, apparently searching for any signs of the older male's anger on his features.

"Geez man, chill! Nobody got hurt! You had a bad moment back there, it happens to everybody!" The youth with the azure dragon tattoo sighed and let the boy go, patting his back.

The older woman sighed as well and inched closer, her hand throwing the boy's hair into a mess. She winked when she noticed the boy's confused gaze "Consider it your punishment for leaving your sister all by herself back there!"

The woman finally glanced at the bald youth and only then her expression flickered. 

She quickly hid any sign of it though and a vein popped on her forehead "Rather than that... How could you take that as an occasion for showing off, you frigging dragon! I was dying back there, you know!"

She grabbed the youth by his ears and walked away as the man whined in pain.

"OuchouchouchouchOUCH! Sister, let go! They are going to fall off, I feel it!"

"Me and your big brother are going to have a looong talk! Don't worry Hong'Er, nobody will harm you or any of us here on Worldlords Flying Island! See you later!" With that, the dark-skinned woman kicked off the ground and flew through the air, soon disappearing from view.

The red-skinned boy simply stood there in silence, lost in his thoughts.

I... Is this truly an illusion? A trial? How... How is this so life-like? Did this really happen back when I still hadn't appeared yet?

A tear fell from the boy's cheek.

Sister... Is this a world where you do not exist?

How... Just how can I live here knowing that?

Tears slowly began to fall from his eyes as he grabbed his chest, as if he wanted to assure himself that his heart was still pumping.

What... Should I do, Sister?

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Meanwhile, a woman grit her teeth as she sped through a forest. In her arms, a bald youth breathed frantically as sweat permeated his forehead. Suddenly, his face grew paler and he spat out a mouthful of blood.

As soon as the blood fell on the ground, it died the earth black and began to slowly corrode it...

"Shit!" The woman cursed and quickly landed on the ground in the middle of a clearance, laying the boy down in front of her.

 She put her thumb and index finger in her mouth, and then whistled. The sound could only be heard clearly by a few beasts as it traversed the whole Flying Island.

A few breaths of time later, a black-golden blur could be seen in the distance and it flashed before appearing by the woman's side: it was a majestic bird, its black and golden feathers made him look like a king amongst all kinds of birds.

In its golden beak, the bird held what looked like a pill of some sort, completely white and yet surrounded by a multi-colored glow. It handed it over to the woman immediately and then flew into the air, scanning their surroundings to make sure that her master would be safe.

The woman immediately threw the pill into her mouth and bit down on it before spitting it back out: the pill had become a gaseous, rainbow-colorer substance. As soon as it appeared, the gaseous mass entered the bald youth's body.

At some unknown time, a dark red mark had appeared on top of the man's skin and had spread to cover more than half of his body. Ren Long spat out another mouthful of the acidic blood: that blood that could corrode the stone, what kind of pain would it bring if it were to flow in a man's veins?

From the degree of this strange illness, Ren Bai, the dark-skinned woman, judged that it had already began to act up ever since... The battle with those cultivators' group a few hours ago! And yet, Ren Long had kept it secret and had acted as if nothing had happened for all this time!

A rainbow-colored pattern began to appear on the bald youth's body as the gaseous-form pill attempted to fight back against the dark-red curse marks. However, the marking almost didn't seem hindered in the least as they kept spreading all around the male's body, barely slowing down when they met the rainbow pattern before breaking straight through.

Tears fell from the woman's face and fell on the bald youth's body as she kept changing the seals in vain. Soon, the power of the rainbow-colored pill began to fade away... A single drop of blood mixed with the tears as the woman's grief and pain reached never seen before heights.

"Why... Why didn't you say anything..."

The bald youth coughed out even more blood and his face grew so pale that just white wouldn't be enough to describe it! He raised his head, tears of blood fell from his eyes. However, in his pupils there was no desperation, only regret and irony.

"Ehehe... Brother... How could... I let him seem like thi- Koff! Kahg!" Another mouthful of blood dyed the ground black. 

The woman was now crying nonstop as she finally understood. She knew what the cause of all of this was: this was none other than the effect of the Seal imposed by Tian!

Tian's Seal had imposed one thing on the four Divine Kings: do not transform into your real forms!

To the four Divine Beasts, this was like asking them to fight experts at martial arts with their hands and feet tied while blindfolded. 

Their power laid for the most part in their True Bodies: while beasts could take a human form, this was because it made it easier for them to do many things that required precision or simply for commodities, as their true bodies could span for entire Planes of Existence.

However, the true might of a Beast of the Heavens only showed itself when they fought as Beasts, not as humans. This was because their immense power would be greatly diminished while in human form due to the huge difference in size, absence of abilities unique to the beast's body and also the range of the attacks.

The Seal was like a curse: those who broke the rule imposed upon them would die.

However, after Jin FengHuang's sacrifice a few days earlier, the Seal had been severely weakened to the point it could be considered broken. 

However, those beasts that had experienced the Seal's suppression for thousands, millions of years, how could they not still feel the aftereffects?

While it would not be an immediate death, if the four Divine Kings were to transform they would experience severe Qi Poisoning. This, in a world where everything is made of Qi, is akin to a degradation of the infected's body, mind and even soul!

While the Divine Earth King, Ren Hei, was both extremely resilient and could replenish his energy thanks to the omni-present forces of nature, the Divine Sea King, Ren Long, had no such benefit! Sure, the might of the ocean increased his power and cultivation speed, however it would not aid him in resisting Tian's Seal.

Thus, when Ren Hei and Ren Long transformed it was Ren Long only that had to bear with the might of the Seal.

This could also be seen by how long it took him to unseal their true forms: the Divine Earth King's transformation only took the time that he needed to bite his tongue and he immediately transformed afterwards.

However, Ren Long had taken a much longer time, as well as the aid of many hand seals. While it might not have looked like something important, that was indeed a difference between the Heaven and Earth compared to Ren Hei's flawless transition into his Divine earth King form.

Ren Bai gritted her teeth. 

Of course she understood what had passed by Ren Long's mind: Ren Hong had lost his mother just a few days ago, if he were to see his brother so severely wounded as well his spirit would probably have broken apart... However, this wouldn't change anything! 

If Ren Long died...

Ren Bai felt great pain in her heart.

She hated herself for falling into that trap. Had she not, the four of them could have easily run away without the need to engage so many cultivators all at once, thus not needing Ren Long to transform and having to bear the Seal's curse.

Then, in her heart, she also began to feel betrayed... She felt anger towards the one that, in her eyes, was responsible for all of this: had Ren Hong also aided his two brothers in combat, they would not have had to transform and bear the backslash from the Seal's aftereffects!

That is right. At some unknown time, in her heart, she had began to hate Ren Hong. 

Tears of blood streaked down her cheeks, her eyes burning with rage as she recalled the red-skinned boy's figure. Then, her expression lit up with hope as she remembered something. A crazed smile appeared on the girl's lips.

"Yes... This could work! Wait for me, Brother, I will save you!" She gritted her teeth and prepared herself for the worst as she made a strange hand seal: as she did the motion with her hands, they suddenly began to exude a sharp will, like that of an unseated blade.

"Self-Cleaving Techni-"

Swish!

A figure that was nothing more than a blur suddenly appeared out of nowhere: the majestic bird didn't even take notice about the new arrival as the figure headed straight towards Ren Bai. With a flash, that someone grabbed her hands and spread her arms apart, thus disrupting her hand motions.

This, coupled with the shock of the sudden grab, was enough to stop the technique from activating as the sharp will disappeared completely. The woman stared in shock and disbelief as even she couldn't sense the arrival of this person before it was too late.

It was only when all this happened that the golden feathered bird noticed someone had intruded.

He gave out a loud squak before charging towards the mysterious newcomer whose blazing eyes were full of contempt... and killing intent!