Another burst of power far off in the distance drew Long Wei's attention. The aura belonged to someone he was interested in meeting. A young teen if he recalled correctly. One three to four years younger than him. He felt the ever-slumbering Phoenix part of his Bloodline rumble to the tune of the aura. The kid had a Phoenix bloodline? He used that instant to tap into the sensing abilities of his Phoenix Bloodline and analyzed the Aura. It was pure. Something he would expect from the Main Clan, not a branch. A bastard? He couldn't be certain.
He cast aside the commotion occurring between the gathering of Saints and dashed towards the kid of his fancy. He didn't waste time and summoned some of his void Qi. His speed accelerated and his figure blurred in a black and purple stream.
When he arrived a dome of raw golden light engulfed an entire area of a thousand kilometers, burning the surroundings with the sixth most vigorous flame within the Myriad Realm, the Golden Sunflame that belonged to the Golden Crow Clan. Within that dome was the person he was looking for, confined to a single space by the effect a full-blown Saint's Aura.
He tore through the dome as if it were nothing but a thin membrane and stopped the gigantic flame claw with a single finger. His gaze settled on the young man with bright red hair, fear struck on his face as he tried squirming his way out of the confinement. Disappointment flashed through his dark eyes at the speed of light. No one noticed it. He expected a talent of his caliber to have more pride, arrogance, and an iron will. Ah. Yes. He understood. The kid was blessed with talents that many could only envy, but his Dao Heart was no weaker than that of a newborn baby in comparison. Worse. Even. He shook his head in understanding.
Before he canceled the confinement, Jinwu Xiaodan did exactly that in fear. The Golden Dome disappeared, revealing g the badly bruised surroundings. The beautiful forests and savannas became nothing more than a field of black and grey ash.
Jinwu Xiaodan's face contorted into various expressions in a split second before he settled on a humble one. His broad and ramrod straight back filled to the brim with arrogance and poise shrunk. He bent slightly forward and forced out a friendly smile for Long Wei to see.
He slammed his hands together, rustling his intricately designed robes, and bowed.
"Brother Wei. I apologise for threatening to lay a hand on him…it won't happen again," Jinwu said, trying to make himself as small as possible.
Long Wei ignored him and stretched out his hand toward Feng Li. The Coldness in his eyes disappeared, replaced by a bright friendly smile. Warmth ate away the frigid aura he constantly kept wading off him.
"I'm Long Wei," he said.
Feng Li shook his head, ridding the last visions of the past from his mind. He noticed Long Wei's olive hand, a bit lost on what was happening. Wasn't the man cold a few seconds ago? Where did the smile come from? Still, he didn't think too much about it. He knew that the man was the only reason he was still within the trials, and had a chance of winning the Cosmic Beads.
"Feng Li," he forced out the words from his mouth and grabbed onto Long Wei's soft hands.
Long Wei nodded and pulled him into a hug. He patted his shoulder and broke the hug. The smile still remained on his face, only it was less prominent, a barely visible upwards tug around the corners of his lips. Now, the current problem, Jinwu Xiaodan. He didn't have the energy to lift a finger and end the poor man's chance at the Cosmic Bead just yet. It was an honest mistake after all. But having someone that could do the less-than-pleasurable battles along the way would give him extra time to do important things. Such as killing Dong Meirong. And if he wasn't mistaken, fattening a cow was often the best way to do survival trials. Twice the results for half the effort. Instead of going around killing monsters and gaining accomplishments through the trials, he could just wait until the last week and kill everyone in the trial grounds in one swell swoop, cementing him as the Victor with little effort. Long Wei cursed himself for not thinking of that idea earlier. No wonder Frankenstein Outwitted him. He wasn't using his resources to the maximum of his capabilities.
"You-"
A word barely escaped his mouth when an ancient bright red aura covered everything in its sinister hue. Within the aura, lay a presence so deep, obscure, and absolutely terrifying. The Void Phoenix-Dragon bloodline within Long Wei grimaced once the aura covered him. His bloodline understood that its existence was on a far greater realm than the presence, yet its low cultivation forced it back in fright. Whatever the aura belonged to, was a being that far exceeded Immortals and gods in raw cultivation and prowess. He felt his Mindscape shake and rumble under the sudden burst of pressure.
Long Wei slammed his hands together and formed a few hand runes to summon and move his void Qi in predetermined routes to break off the influence the aura had on him. In a burst of resplendent purple light and sheer will of focus, Long Wei broke the hold of the aura.
The Aura burst came from the direction of the gathering of Saints he saw earlier. What exactly was going on? Silver wrapped around his deep black eyes. All color drained from the world, leaving an endless world of grey, black, and white. Black masses symbolized life force. And the larger the mass the stronger the life force of whatever he saw. White signified creatures, beings, and objects that didn't have a life force, the grey, he never understood. But his theory was that it was a representation of the way things with life and things without it interacted with each other.
He churned more void Qi to his eyes and the distance between him and the collection of Saints shrunk. Eighty-four of the eighty-five Saint Auras he felt earlier were where to be seen. Not even a drop of blood remained. Instead, he saw one man, a Saint, one that even rustled his Dragon Bloodline a fair bit.
What truly caught his eyes wasn't the sudden disappearance of the Saints and the rest of the unrecognizable Mortal Transcendent Auras he felt earlier. No. It was much bigger than that.
A temple.
An extremely large temple that eclipsed the gigantic black and green mountain ranges that jutted toward the sky. It stood tall above all those things. It towered over the clouds that hung a few hundred kilometers in the air. Gold light wrapped around it in the beautiful membrane that nearly forced him to gawp in awe.
But the temple wasn't what truly attracted him. No.
It was something else.
Further and further, his Heaven Shrouding Eyes peeled away the physical mysteries of the temple until his gaze landed on an artifact safely guarded in a room right near the top of the tower. His bloodline felt some resonation with the artifact. It was a cat-shaped statue with brilliant gold eyes that gazed upwards.
He directed more to his eyes, trying to peel away the layers and see their origin. A mistake on his part. The Cat's eyes drooped downwards, locking perfectly with his. A sound that came from the depths of the earth hissed into his eyes. Unbelievable pain rampaged through his Mindscape.