Captain Lin, Vice-Captain Feng, and Xiao Yu watched him in profound silence. Xiao Yu's pink-red eyes softened. Having been deeply moved by her brother's respectful rituals over these past months, she had already followed his example, offering her own quiet, internal prayer for the beasts they had slain while gathering the core earlier.
But to the two Enforcers, in a continent where cultivators gleefully slaughtered beasts and mocked their corpses for loot, seeing a young man offer such genuine, solemn reverence to an enemy he had just killed was entirely jarring. It spoke of a martial discipline and a depth of character that neither Enforcer had ever witnessed in the Academy.
"Let's move," Lin finally said, her voice noticeably softer.
Yoriichi turned away from the sinkhole. He walked over to Vice-Captain Feng's falcon, heavily pulling himself onto the broad, feathered back, while Xiao Yu mounted Captain Lin's bird.
With a powerful screech, the two Rank 2 Cinder Crested Falcons beat their massive wings. A wave of heat radiated from their crests, parting the toxic fog as they violently launched themselves into the darkening sky, leaving the Blistering Haze Wetlands behind.
They flew steadily toward the west.
The humid, suffocating air of the wetlands was quickly replaced by a cool, crisp evening breeze. Below them, the landscape shifted dramatically. The twisted mangroves and murky swamps gave way to a sprawling, endless ocean of towering, emerald-green bamboo stalks that stretched as far as the eye could see.
As the wind blew across the vast expanse, the bamboo stalks rubbed against one another, creating a continuous, eerie rustling sound that resembled millions of people whispering in hushed, secret voices.
"The Sea of Whispering Bamboos," Yoriichi noted internally, recognizing the geography from the academy's regional maps.
He sat behind Vice-Captain Feng, the rushing wind cooling his flushed skin. He looked up at the stars beginning to peek through the twilight sky, calculating their trajectory.
'The Jia Nan Academy is located to the direct south of the Abyssal Trench,' Yoriichi analyzed pragmatically. 'Yet we are flying due west. Captain Lin is taking a deliberate detour. It is a highly logical maneuver. The airspace directly over the Abyssal Trench at night is hunting ground for Rank 3 and Rank 4 aerial predators. This bamboo sea, while unsettling in its acoustics, harbors far less aggressive beasts. It is a safer, albeit longer, route back to the academy.'
He closed his eyes, allowing the ambient worldly energy to slowly seep into his exhausted Dantian, focusing entirely on solidifying his newly formed liquid Dou Qi drop.
Minutes turned into a half-hour of peaceful, uninterrupted flight. The hushed whispering of the bamboo below was the only sound accompanying the steady wingbeats of the falcons.
Suddenly, the hairs on the back of Yoriichi's neck stood straight up.
A terrifying, high-frequency hum pierced the air.
BZZZZT!
From the dense bamboo forest below, a massive, crescent-shaped blade of highly compressed, dark-red Dou Qi rocketed upward into the night sky. It was a targeted, lethal anti-air strike.
"Evasive maneuvers!" Feng roared, yanking the reigns of his falcon violently to the right.
The Cinder Crested Falcon screeched in sheer terror, banking so hard its wings were nearly vertical. The dark-red energy blade missed the bird's main body by mere inches, but the razor-sharp wind shear cleanly sliced off a dozen of its fiery crest feathers.
The sudden, violent tilt nearly threw Yoriichi off the bird. He gritted his teeth, digging his fingers deep into the leather harness to keep from plummeting hundreds of feet into the bamboo sea.
Before they could even stabilize, three more crescent energy blades shot up from the darkness below, illuminating the night sky with a sickly green light.
"We are under attack! Break formation and descend!" Captain Lin commanded, her voice ringing with absolute authority. "The falcons cannot maneuver against concentrated Da Dou Shi artillery!"
Xiao Yu clung to Lin's waist, her heart pounding as their falcon entered a steep, evasive dive to avoid the incoming barrage.
As Vice-Captain Feng forcefully guided their terrified mount toward the bamboo canopy, Yoriichi forced his heavy, exhausted eyelids open. He pushed past the physical pain and forcefully ignited his Transparent World vision, scanning the dark, swaying forest floor below.
Through the dense stalks of bamboo, his vision isolated the circulatory systems of their attackers.
'Three hostiles,' Yoriichi analyzed instantly, his analytical mind bypassing the chaos. 'All of them are radiating the distinct, heavy kinetic pressure of the Da Dou Shi realm.'
His crimson eyes narrowed as he focused on the aura of the figure standing furthest to the left.
The circulatory flow of that specific individual was erratic, burning with the lingering traces of a blood-rage pill. Furthermore, the skeletal structure on the right side of his upper torso was abruptly truncated.
'An amputated right arm...' Yoriichi realized, a cold, lethal calm washing over his exhausted mind. 'It is the assassin from the waterfall cove. He survived the blood loss and retreated, only to return with others. They anticipated the academy would send a retrieval team and laid an ambush on the safest return route.'
But as Yoriichi scanned slightly behind the three Da Dou Shi, his heart skipped a beat.
There was a fourth presence.
It was completely silent, emitting almost zero Dou Qi fluctuations. But to Yoriichi's Transparent World, the density of the dormant energy within that fourth figure was terrifying. It was an abyss. It was vastly superior to the Da Dou Shi realm.
'A Dou Ling... or a heavily suppressed Dou Wang. They brought a true master to ensure no one escapes,' Yoriichi deduced, bracing himself for the impact.
CRASH!
The falcons smashed through the upper canopy of the Sea of Whispering Bamboos, shattering dozens of thick green stalks before skidding to a rough, chaotic halt on the soft forest floor.
Yoriichi, had slight difficulty dismounting. His boots hit the dirt heavily, and he stumbled forward a step before regaining his balance. Xiao Yu immediately rushed to his side, her liquid Dou Shi aura flaring defensively as she summoned her azure whip.
Captain Lin and Vice-Captain Feng landed flawlessly, instantly stepping in front of the two students. Their weapons were drawn, their Da Dou Shi auras erupting into the clearing, violently pushing back the eerily whispering bamboo.
"Show yourselves!" Captain Lin shouted, her voice laced with absolute, murderous fury. Her lightning Dou Qi cracked the air around her. "You are extremely bold to attack the students of the Jia Nan Academy, especially while trespassing within its sovereign outer territories! Stand down immediately, or face the wrath of the Elders!"
For a moment, the only response was the rustling of the bamboo.
Then, slowly, silently, three distinct silhouettes emerged from the light, misty fog hanging over the forest floor.