Had it been forty minutes? Fifty?

They had been walking all the way through the edge of the forest, through the all-year lush trees and vibrant leaves, yet they couldn’t reach near the home yet. Erhuli’s growls were growing stronger by time, and her eyes sparkled- with something Ubel felt he was quite familiar.

Bloodlust.

There had to be something wrong, he realized. He did a few minutes ago, yet the path continued.

They went on and on and on and on- and just as they rounded another patch of long grasses and oak trees, he saw footprints. Not large, with a slight dent at the heel- the same pattern as his wooden sandals.

What are they doing now? First The Raven came to his mind, then his grandmother. They were the only people that could cause any anomaly, and the moment of the believers’ departure aligned perfectly with the abnormal situation.

What are they intending to do?

Not something ordinary. Ubel cast his brows into a frown of bronze- steely.

Premonitions were not his thing, neither intuition. He faced too few dangers, and those few were always presented to him beforehand. All he felt before them could be attributed to restlessness or anxiety, yet this blooming sense of heaviness in his heart definitely proved an unknown. Or known, now that he had a clue.

‘’Erhuli, come here-’’ Ubel reached out with his hands.

‘’GRRRRRRRRRR!’’

Erhuli suddenly opened her maws wide and chomped down with her glinting fangs- a fountain of blood erupted. Ubel’s eyes widened and his steely gaze curved into one of astonishment, then the pain rushed in.

‘’HAGH!!-’’ As if his hand was melting under the crimson liquid, Ubel let out a sharp hiss- he exhaled a patch of white mist through the gaps of his half-yellow teeth. As the nerves of his body responded with an automated response, his hand rose to slap the fox down from his arm.

But he stopped himself right before it fell. ''GRR! GRAAA!’’

Erhuli let out a howl and started mauling Ubel’s hand around, Ubel staggered a few steps back from the sheer force. These children, these little foxes were far stronger than they looked. The grip power of the jaw didn’t let him even move his fingers, and the fangs dug deeper into the torn flesh- cutting left and right in the wound.

‘’Girl! Calm down, Erhuli!’’ Ubel managed to let out a shout and grasped Erhuli’s soft head. Her ears perked up in hostility, and her eyes sparkled with bloodlust again.

In the meantime Ubel gripped Erhuli’s head, a deep rumble boomed under them and rushed outside. Ubel snuck a glance at his feet, to the patch of brown earth under green grass, cracked like a spider web and spreading further, and in a moment’s flash leaped to the side.

The web-like crack was a mere appetizer it seemed, as the rumble exploded into a flurry of flung rocks and trees, with the piercing howls of a hurricane. Ubel covered his right ear with his empty hand, the sound itself almost ruptured his other ear. From his left ear trickled down droplets of blood and a few littered on Erhuli’s nose.

Her eyes opened wide, the slits turned into circles, and the glint in her eyes disappeared.

‘’Grrrrrrr!’’ She let go of the mangled hand in her jaw in a rush. Yet she chose the most unsuitable moment to free them both. The cracks and the splinters exploded a second time and the hurricane pulled her in, revolving her around in the air.

‘’Erhuli!’’ Ubel gnashed his teeth and opened his right palm wide, and his right ear came under the assault of the explosion sounds. Blood literally burst out of both his ears with a blast. The cracks, now a deep ravine as wide as a few meters- and as long as hundreds of meters- sneaked under his feet to swallow him in.

But he stepped up.

Qi turned into a corporeal mirror under his both feet, and they moved upwards to climb further. Ubel stepped forward once more, another crystalline Qi mirror came into being, yet right as he stepped on it to reach Erhuli a piece of boulder smashed against his feet. Against the devastating echoes of the hurricane and the extending ravine, the huge rock’s noise was as silent as night- and with its benefit it crashed onto the mirror.

The mirror shattered to pieces, Ubel’s eyes widened again, his right feet descended the abysmal ravine. He fell headfirst for an instant- and his eyes caught the trace of a fiery-red at the bottom. No warmth rushed out, it didn’t seem to be magma. But he didn’t care, he couldn’t care at the moment.

His hands slapped against each other and boundless Qi rushed towards him- almost all of it was obstructed by the devastation around. But the tiny flicker of Qi was enough- it was more than enough!

Ubel thought of the Lord Of Yadratafos- he thought of his evading technique ever since he trained under Heshang. So he had a solid image in his mind, and his body was already accustomed to the execution of it.

Qi gathered under his descending right foot, and his stable left foot, and in an instant burst off!

He flew- he blasted into the sky with a sea of blue Qi exploding under his feet. His speed was several times higher than his full-sprint, and the sheer momentum of the explosion sent him right through the crazy howling whirlwinds and flying rubble.

Yet it was a short-bump, a one time strike with limited steam. The wind slowed him down, the rubble smashed on his body, and just as he could touch the whimpering Erhuli’s body he started falling down.

Ubel felt his hearing go down again- if this continued he would suffer a permanent hearing loss, or even deafness. But he had to take that child out of there!

Gritting his teeth, he gathered monstrous amounts of Qi again, all rushing to round his feet and hands. They coagulated into circles of runes and glowed like moonlight- it was Lunar Qi from the Body Enchanting.

Ubel felt his physique turn slightly more resilient while he fell a few meters to the ground, now right beside the mouth of the canyon tens of meters wide, and let the runes burst off with a blinding radiance.

Right before he launched up, the heels and ankles of his feet broke into smithereens. Pain gushed in, his face turned into the shade of crimson, and his blood of the same color seeped out of his nose and mouth.

But he blasted through anyway. His enchanted body crushed the rubble into dust, his head smashed the trees into splinters, and his wide-open palm grasped the teary Erhuli’s right front paw. That made him hold on, and he kept going.

The momentum was greater than what he anticipated, however, and Ubel kept flying through the air. Now dozens of meters high in the air, his bloodshot eyes managed to see what was happening.

The whole forest was tilting!

It was turning into a slope, and at the far back he saw nine mountain peaks with holes, swirling in the air.

They were the Pierced Mountains!

They were the tails of a massive beast!

Where he was standing on was not a forest, but the back of that humongous monster!

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The wind scratched their cheeks and furs, but Ubel didn’t lose his focus. He saw Erhuli’s eyes shine with terror, her foxy ears fell in defeat, and her tail started moving in sync with the mountains from afar. Suddenly, a name came to his head. One also associated with Osbour, The Mountain Devourer, and Tulpar, The Beast God.

Tian Hui, Heavenly Fox Of Destruction.

‘’...YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!’’

He knew whose work this was, he instantly pinpointed what was happening. He didn’t care whether the assumptions were right or not- it was definitely related to her, and the thought of what could have happened to his father’s grave now made him mad.

Ubel’s eyes started spewing blood from the air pressure, his ears had only a semblance of their ability to hear now, and his feet could no longer move. But he still had his hands, and his Qi.

That was enough!

Qi rushed to his hands, traveled through the air like a surging river and a mighty sea tide. They brushed past all obstacles, even the air currents and howling winds, and coagulated into a humongous claw rivaling his size. A swipe of his hand was enough for the steely tips to pierce through the solid earth and stabilize their position.

Even then, the earth and the forest continued to rise into a slope, going upwards and rising higher and higher. Chunks of stone, branches, wild animals; deer, reindeer, wild boars, wolves, and massive trunks all rolled down towards them.

Ubel created a swirling sphere of Versatile Barrier around Erhuli and swirled in the air to gain a footing. Amidst the sharp screams of the animals and the screeching ravens, the howling wind tried to push him back into the deep canyon. It now spread over half of the forest, and continued to rush through the land in an attempt to break it down into complete dust.

From the faint mountain peaks afar, the colossal red fur of a tail could be seen thrashing around.

Ubel’s broken feet finally touched a flying platform of boulder, so he let go of the claw’s grip. Hurricanes whistled and struck his chest and face, they were no longer pure bloodshot. It was just blood seeping out, yet the picture of a broken grave and a weeping fox kept him going.

His foot slipped, but his claw struck again. The nails pushed deep into the earth, and with a lung from his arm Ubel propelled himself and Erhuli higher into the air. Then again, and again, and again...

In a few dozen seconds, he evaded hundreds of splinters and rubble while climbing the spiraling back of the Tian Hui. They exploded with deafening sounds at every second, it was akin to a battlefield.

‘’HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!’’

One last momentum sent him away from the stream feeding their garden to the hill near it, now with almost half of it broken. Ubel’s heart burst into a thousand pieces at the single instant, his hands reached out for the last ray of hope, and his eyes flashed a glare so terrifying it would freeze the souls of any immortal.

The Gaze Of Terror.

But it didn’t amount to anything.

A huge boulder rolled down, its size at least a quarter of the small hill itself, and smashed right onto the other face of it. It exploded into pieces of dust and sharp rocks, the hill burst into tens of different pieces, from within Ubel saw incense sticks snapping in half.

And a tombstone shattering.

The character Ke’ai flew beside his face, right before his eyes, but Ubel’s trembling gaze was on something else. He looked at the broken remains of the huge tomb, he watched them rain onto him and the deep canyon trying to swallow him, and he saw the corpse of his father with nothing below his head.

A single head, an expression of pure hatred, of desolation, of unwillingness.

‘’YOU! YOU! YOU! YOU!-’’

Would Ubel care if he could hear his own voice? He wouldn’t. If it wasn’t for his almost deafened ears, he would even have shattered his vocal cords in wrath. He would have torn his toes and nails, as long as he could reach next to that old woman standing in the air with an upset gaze. Why?

Because he was a dragon with a reverse scale. And that woman didn’t just touch it. She dug out the reverse scale, then stabbed his heart through there.

‘’Ubel!’’ She shouted, ‘’Son, I am sorry for this all!’’

‘’I am sorry for lying to you,’’ Tears gathered at the corner of her eyes and splattered down. Few, in pure coincidence, even dropped on Ubel’s lips. ‘’I’m sorry for leaving you.’’ Though she didn’t seem to use much effort, her voice still resounded in Ubel’s ears.

‘’But be strong! You have a fate none have ever seen, and you need to grow! You need to be strong! So that you can save us, your mother, your world!’’

‘’You need to know it, SON!’’

Ubel no longer cared at this point. The humongous claws of Qi dissipated into nothingness and he lost the sole thing keeping him stable. He started falling down, dropping to the huge, dark canyon under him. Yet his frozen eyes gazed into the woman’s, into her supposed grandmother’s teary eyes.

‘’Don’t forget! Conflicts may rise out of nowhere, but your heart will have to be the same!’’

Ubel spat in the air. He hated the taste of those teardrops on his lips, but more so the sight in front of him.

His legs buckled, he curled up into a half ball, his lips quivered. Then he roared akin to an ancient beast.

‘’FUCK YOUR HEART!’’

He waved his left hand with devastating force and sent Erhuli flying through the air, still covered in the barrier. The Versatile Barrier suddenly sprouted spikes tens of meters long and revolved, tearing apart every obstacle in Erhuli’s way.

She found herself right in front of Ke’ai Huiqing.

‘’YOU DEFILE MY FATHER’S GRAVE, YOU DISTURB MY FATHER’S ETERNAL REST, AND NOW YOU PREACH!?’’

‘’YOU DARE PREACH!?!?!?!??!?!?!’’

The Versatile Barrier exploded right in front of her face with a ring of crystalline shockwave.

Erhuli flew out of the meeting point with a smaller barrier around her, safe and sound, while the heavens and earth rocked with another explosion. This time a ring of dust and clouds spread from Huiqing’s flying point, then followed by a beam of crystal blue light.

Now both his hands free, Ubel created two corporeal claws and clawed his way to the top!

He smashed the terrain, he dug out the earth, and he stepped on the flying pillars of stone! He was like a monkey king in its own jungle, he knew no bounds when it came to pushing forward!

‘’DON’T CALL ME SON!’’

A sigh echoed in the air.

The humongous ring of dust around Huiqing cleared up in the blink of an eye and she stepped out. There were still tears, and even her lips quivered.

‘’...you’ll know it, soon enough...’’ Huiqing bit her dry lips and shook her frail arms. They seemed heavier than mountains to shake. Erhuli, and around her Ubel’s Versatile Barrier, appeared in Huiqing’s palm.

Ubel continued to push forward, but he was restless. He couldn’t get near her no matter what. There were too many obstacles, even if he smashed through them, and he couldn’t reach her in the air. His legs were...a fierce glint passed through his bloodshot eyes.

Runes made of Lunar Qi spread under his feet and arms again, this time numbering in dozens. They circled around him and gave the glow of a majestic Moon- then exploded!

A mist of silver burst under his torso and sent him hurling forward, pushing him higher and higher in the air.

Now he had the chance to touch her neck!

‘’...so take care.’’ Huiqing finished her sentence at last. Ubel was now a few meters away from her, and his claws could very well tear apart her whole body. But she didn’t change her expression.

Instead, her fingers turned into claws imbued with Qi, a dazzling emerald of Wood Qi, and enclosed around Erhuli’s Versatile Barrier. She let out a whimper and growled at Huiqing, but nothing happened to her inside.

Yet, Ubel saw the changes instantly.

The barrier enlarged. Not two times, not five times, nor ten times.

A hundred times!

It turned into a swirling, emerald barrier hundreds of meters in diameter!

And in the same instant it grew up in size, he was already smashed under its surface. Ubel’s cheeks swelled, his nose broke down, tears appeared on his already wounded chest, and his finger bones cracked.

‘’YOGUGOGGGOGOGGOGO...’’

Under the barrier, he was mauled and thrown off kilometers away. The sheer speed crushed his remaining bones, half of his left ear fell off in a spurt of blood, whatever liquid left on his body blasted out of his pores.

Ubel caught the glimpse of the Seal Of Evil on his neck glowing, and the sea under him brewing with waves. The red glow sucked all the blood outside of him into it and thrashed around his neck to gather more, but it couldn’t escape from the rope tied around him.

Then he saw a monstrous shadow approaching from afar, hundreds of meters tall, clad in nine-colored flames. At its exact opposite was a Heavenly Fox with blazing flames and mountain-like tails, empty patches of rings on each.

His gaze, however, pierced through them all and focused on one woman. He could still see her, yet couldn’t even discern the shape of trees or the monsters’ themselves.

She looked on with pity for a long, long time. Her eyes closed, at last, and her attention turned back to the shadow clad in nine-colored flames.

The barrier disappeared at the same time, the Seal Of Evil spread its red glow around him to absorb all blood.

Just as Ubel felt his eyelids grow heavy, he felt a strange force invade his body. It tampered with his body and gave off a soft warmth that healed each injury to some extent.

But that warmth set off his heart on fire, his heart blazed.

And it was the sole color of wrath.