The group moved through the forest, well more like others moved while Long Yu was skipping through the forest, with his teddy themed backpack on his back humming a lullaby while sucking on a lollypop. The others sweat dropped at it, they had a near death experience yet Long Yu is moving as if he is in his home's backyard, sometimes it is good to be a child.
Ruth who was leading them stopped suddenly, "There is no use for hiding I know you are out there."
Suddenly few people appeared all of a sudden, Long Yu frowned when he saw those people looking at them he could see that they were injured and looked worse for wear.
Ruth: "Looking at you it seems you all went through a grinder, so I do not think you lot can attack us and win. This will be the last warning leave before we decide to kill you lot."
It was tense standoff, a single misstep will cause slaughter, Long Yu gulped at that.
A black haired man came forward, his left arm was on a sling, indicating it was broken, he raised his remaining good arm in order to surrender, "We surrender fellow cultivator, we do not wish to attack you, but we would request an audience, please we know that it is too much to ask but please it is for the survival of all the participants currently alive in this forest biome."
The team Shadow Wolves was startled to hear the word 'survival', Ruth glanced at his team leader who nodded at him.
Ruth:" Everyone except you take ten steps back and stand in a group where we can see you all and lower your weapons even the one still hiding", he commanded as he smirked at the person still hidden on a tree branch." The person who was speaking only him will step forward and speak where others do not try anything funny.
Long Yu was watching everything with his eyes sparkling, it was like the scene from one of the picture book his mommy read to him a couple of months ago.
The people followed Ruth's command and the one the broken armed man stepped forward spoke with a smile, "Thank You friend for listening to my request.", but Ruth wasn't one for any pleasantries, "Enough start speaking."
The man rose his hand again in a placating manner, "Yes Yes, my friend, I hope you know that the auto teleportation array is already broken, so we have to use manual teleportation from the nearest teleportation tower which is at the center of this biome, and please call me Mingke."
Ruth: "Yeah we know so what of it. Mingke"
Mingke: "Well the Scorpion-Spider led by their leader, 6th rank Wanxiang Adept 'The Spider Empress Magkri', has taken over the tower, it is now their nest, and also she has been attacking the other Emperors and Empresses of the forest, many tribes have fallen, she is taking mostly live hostages and you can guess why.", The Shadow Wolves grimaced as they could guess the why."So what do you propose?"
Mingke with a smile on his face replied, "I hope you can see how injured some of us are", he indicated his people with his remaining intact hand." Well my team as well some others, made our way towards the tower only to fall into that harlots trap, many died and those unlucky ere captured alive." Long Yu could see the loss, anger and self loathing in his eyes, he truly pitied Mingke now, "While trying to escape we were rescued by the 3rd rank Wanxiang Adept current Ape Prince, his father the Emperor of the Apes was captured in a sudden invasion, only he and his little sister are left of the royal family as others were captured or slain, same for all the others, thus under his leadership we formed an alliance, we are searching for survivors like you all, we request to join us, I know you people are very strong but I also believe it will be foolish to attack or survive the Spider Empress alone. So I beg of you please come with us to the alliance head quarters."
Bashista mulled over his options, the man seemed to speak the truth there is no deception in him, thus accepting it, "Very well we will follow you but if we see that you are duping us none shall leave."
Mingke beckoned a thin man with several bandages on him towards him, "This man his name is Zico, he will escort you all, while we patrol this area looking out for other survivors. Well good bye then."
Long Yu suddenly chirped in, "Wait do you have any way to contact the base if you spot the enemy."
Mengke shook his head sadly, "No kid we do not have, if we are attacked we try to hold and buy time for our runner who would inform our base."
Long Yu pondered before taking off his backpack, then he rummaged his backpack before finding a few pieces of paper, "Here take this talisman, it has communication array on it, just put it on your forehead then put some ki in it it will deliver your message to us, it has only ten uses so use carefully."
Mengke took the talisman the kid gave to him, "Thank You kid but something like this is precious in such an environment, and you should use such thing for your teams only."
Long Yu: "I know brother Mingke, my team mates have their own, it was just a surplus so keep it as a thank you for helping us."
Mingke:"Thank you, and I humbly accept your gift."
The Shadow Wolves moved from that position following Zico who was taking them, towards the base. Suddenly an urgent telepathic message came to him from Jack using the communication array given to his team by him a couple of hours ago, "Kid why did you give your enemy that talisman, they..."
Long Yu frowned," Big brother Jack please come down I know they are our temporary allies for now, but that talisman is something different, hidden beneath the communication array it has three different types of array, 'Location', 'Spy' and 'Capture', I hope you can understand where I am going with it."
Jessie snickered, "Kid you are something else to think so far ahead."
Long Yu basked in the praise, pranking everyone in Ayindril along with his elder sisters taught him a lot of things.
Soon they reached a cave, they entered the cave and found, various animals there mostly injured from fighting some clinging to their lives waiting to die because of injuries, the alchemists worked tirelessly to save them, they entered a little bit deeper now they saw injured humans lying their waiting for treatment. He cringed when he saw some people crying for their loved ones and teammates.
Zico lead them to what looked like a makeshift war room, Long Yu looked around and saw some people who he recognized as he remembered them from the stadium, until his gaze focused on Rong Niu, he chirped out happily, "Ya you are that 'Fan Girl'."
Meanwhile Rong Niu was pissed she was considered a prodigy who trained hard day and night unmatched in talent except when he learned of the freaky seven year old she wouldn't mind being his friend but then this snot-nosed brat had the balls to accuse her of being a 'fangirl', she will beat the crap out of him show what is meaning to cross her. A dark aura spread in the room, they all heard a low menacing whisper, "What did you call me brat?", everyone inched away from Long Yu even his teammates, they might be loyal enough to give their life for him, but no one was stupid enough to court death through righteous feminine fury which Long Yu himself called upon through his stupidity. Plus everyone heard the saying, 'beating someone when they are a child, builds their character when they become an adult', well whether it is good character or bad they do not need to know for now.
Long Yu without sensing the danger he is in continued to blabber out, "Yup, a 'Fan Girl', after all you used a battle fan to defeat that fat idiot back then, I saw it although what you did I could not see as certain someone covered my eye". He pouted while turning his head to glare at Tina he was surprised to see them further away from him.
Rong Niu, cleared her throat, ' a silly child gave her a silly nick name nothing to get angry about'. She gave a pleasant smile to Long Yu, "Well my name is 'Rong Niu', and please do not call me by that nick name it is an insult to me so please do not mention it to me."
Long Yu nodded happily, "Ok, by the way may name is Long Yu. But why is it an insult."
Rong Niu giggled, "Tell you what I will tell you the reason after everything is over."
Long Yu: "Pinky promise.", as he held out his pinky of his right hand.
Rong Niu: "Yes pinky promise.", well after everything he is a kid, she will definitely succeed in her mission.
Suddenly they heard a cough the looked towards an imposing looking 'Silver Back Gorilla', with a scar over his right eye missing his right leg. "I believe an introduction is in order, but remove your hood child, you are in presence of royalty.", he spoke with a gruff voice.
As he removed his hood, most were drawn to his unique look, heterochromatic eyes, with red hair, but they flinched when they saw a few patches of his white porcelain skin, the remaining looked like has been peeled off leaving a red under skin, must be from some accident.
"Kneel before the royalty", said the same gruff voice releasing a bit of pressure, everyone one except Long Yu who just gave a curtsied bow.
Suddenly he heard another voice full of anger, "Impudent arrogant hairless ape child, kneel before", as the full force of a 3rd rank Wanxiang Adept Ape prince's aura slammed not only Long Yu, but others as well even though it was mainly focused on Long Yu, others felt it, everyone outside the room felt it, the entire cavern shook by his might, as dirt fell from the ceiling, scaring many.
Many were scared for Long Yu's fate after all he was a child, where as others watched with hidden glee the fall of another genius, all of them arrogant and die early, but the drama that follows is worth watch.
The next thing was burned in the mind of everyone present there, they heard a low whisper like a calm before storm, "How dare you order me to bow.", suddenly the storm hit them, "I WHO HAD BEEN CALLED 'RYUU', a 'DRAGON' BY MY MOTHER, I WHO HAVE ONLY BOWED INFRONT OF MY MOTHER AND TEACHERS. HOW DARE YOU A MERE WANXIANG ADEPT TRY TO MAKE ME BOW WHERE EVEN IMMORTALS FAILED TO DO SO.", with that shout an aura 6th rank Zifu Disciple, slammed them hard, normally it wouldn't have mattered as many were stronger than them but, Long Yu's aura was going head to head with the Ape Prince causing a miniature earthquake inside the cavern, as everyone looked at him a sense of fear erupted in their heart, gone was a happy go lucky child, instead it was replaced by a ferocious predator, and they were helpless prey trapped inside the room, some forgot to breath, some well the smell of urine says everything about them. Suddenly a silhouette of a draconic creature formed behind him, Long Yu's eyes were now devoid of warmth and kindness it was cold unbecoming of a child, and his pupil had had a draconic slit in it which seemed to be crossed by another draconic slit which crossed each other at the center of the said pupil. Then something unprecedented happened, the dragon opened his eyes the same eyes as Long Yu had, suddenly it overpowered the Ape prince's aura completely, everyone felt to kneel down and beg for his forgiveness mercy, as steams rose from his body which, and he began breathing out wisps of smoke, his skin healed at an unprecedented rate, as scale started to form on his cheeks and hands .
The Ape Prince suddenly laughed out loud, "HAHAHAHAHA brother why so serious I was merely testing the strength and caliber of you humans, please come and take a sit amongst us.", putting up a jovial face while inwardly he was scared and panicking, the child had the aura of an Emperor a true Alpha which surpassed even his father, he has to placate him and bring him to his side who knows what he might do in his anger.
Suddenly the aura disappeared and all changes disappeared, "Ah you should have said so", chirped out Long Yu happily.
Everyone sweat dropped at that 'bipolar much'. Then he spoke out with a frown, "I believe some of you should take a bathroom break, holding for long time will cause strange diseases to occur, and also it could lead to embarrassment, well I propose Prince to shift the discussion to another room it smells bad here."
Ape Prince: "Why yes of course of course.", as he guided them to a different room, whereas the people who peed their pants excused themselves to get cleaned while cursing long Yu inwardly. But a thought ran through everyone's mind, 'What kind of monster is he'.