Chapter 16
Our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/PazjBDkTmW
Chapter 16: Burning Wings
Beautiful talismans burst into flames.
On the talismans, purple symbols, sharp as razors, suddenly magnified, emitting a sweeping red glow.
Li Hui thought, “This works.”
With a loud boom, a wretched scream followed.
Not far away, Brother Zheng, who should have been flying in the air and preparing to strike, fell like a meteor, crashing hard onto the blue brick ground, one side of his face scraped and bloodied, appearing gruesome. His Rune Wings trembled as they shrank back, as if encountering a natural enemy.
Brother Zheng spat out blood; he had flown too high and too fast, and when his Rune Wings suddenly malfunctioned, he didn’t have time to react, resulting in a horrible crash that caused serious internal injuries.
He tried to get up several times but felt utterly weak, as if his bones were dislocated, and in disbelief, he stared at Li Hui, glaring with wide eyes, shouting, “Brat, how much money from the sect did you embezzle to buy such a powerful anti-flight talisman? No, it even restricts spiritual energy!”
“Anti-flight talisman?” Li Hui didn’t think that was the case; he believed the trouble stemmed from the silver snake bracelet’s hidden tricks.
He didn’t have time to ponder further; figures were rushing towards him from afar. Li Hui sprinted towards Brother Zheng instead of making for the town gate.
“What are you going to do?” Brother Zheng hastily reached for his waist, only to feel a sharp pain in his hand, causing him to grunt in agony.
The iron finger armor, like a bird’s beak, had embedded itself into Brother Zheng’s right hand. Without the golden money darts, this armor could serve as a hidden weapon. Li Hui approached quickly, his hands darting around “the injured,” as if dancing butterflies around them.
Brother Zheng howled in rage.
His bag of treasures was gone, his Rune Wings had been forcibly ripped away, the nine-chain bag on his wrist could no longer be held, and even the two six-pattern talismans hidden in his sleeve were snatched away effortlessly.
“Li Hui, I, Zheng Tianxiang, will never let you go!”
“So you’re Zheng Tianxiang.” Li Hui saw the triangular-eyed man charging towards him. He pulled the iron finger armor out of Brother Zheng’s hand, leaving a trail of blood, and turned to run.
Why not run? The other side had the numbers, and those two miscellaneous disciples could lock onto him using talismans. He felt an uneasy knot in his stomach, so he escaped by the skin of his teeth.
Just as he stepped out of the town gate, Li Hui quickly positioned Zheng Tianxiang’s Rune Wings behind him.
“Rise! Fly, now!”
Li Hui brought his fingers together, channeling the thin spiritual energy in his body, making the hand seal to manipulate the artifact.
It was the first time he used an artifact; he had only glimpsed it at last year’s morning class, where he watched inner sect disciples demonstrate the hand seals on stage.
“Rise, rise, rise…”
At that moment, Li Hui’s heart raced; success meant he’d escape danger, but failure meant being surrounded and killed, hanging between life and death.
“Don’t run, you little brat!”
The triangular-eyed man brandished a long sword, which crackled loudly as large arcs of electricity flew from it, clearly a rare artifact.
Suddenly, Li Hui’s right wrist glimmered subtly with a soft silver light invisible to others, and the Rune Wings behind him ignited with a loud whoosh.
Under Brother Zheng’s furious gaze and the triangular-eyed man’s menacing glare,
Li Hui transformed into a blinding flash of light, unleashing a deafening roar that split the night sky, rapidly shooting toward the horizon.
“Whoa!”
Before him, the world blurred, indistinguishable between sky and ground, and Li Hui screamed, “This is definitely unreliable, way too fast! Stop, stop already!”
The burning wings behind him continued to blaze, completely ignoring his commands, relying solely on the artifact’s inherent power to display might. Such a wild expenditure would severely damage the artifact, and perhaps after one use, it would be unusable again.
Across the wasteland, over the dam, Li Hui left the forest and river behind.
Feeling dizzy, he tightly grasped the hand seal to control the artifact, choosing to close his eyes and not look at the spinning world around him. It was his first experience of flying, and it felt very uncomfortable.
Fortunately, the quality of the wings was decent; they blocked the strong winds rushing towards him, or else the pressure alone could have cost him his life.
After flying for what felt like ages, about the time it takes for two incense sticks to burn, Li Hui felt a sudden loosening at his back. When he opened his eyes, he screamed in terror.
“Heavens! No!”
The Rune Wings transformed into ashes and scattered, revealing a blurred scene below, as if he were soaring over a water field.
“Help!” Li Hui’s voice changed; he cried for help but didn’t know who to ask. Although his speed had lessened, he was dropping lower, just a dozen yards from the ground.
Seeing the landscape change and lights appear in the distance, Li Hui felt a chill in his heart, thinking, “If I crash into a building or a mountain, then my life is over. I must land in this water field.”
With that thought, he reached for his collar and grabbed another forbidden talisman.
“Stop!” he yelled with determination and a hint of madness.
The purple characters expanded instantly, and the Red Glow swept back and forth. A massive explosion erupted behind him, and the blazing Rune Wings collapsed completely.
Talisman light sputtered everywhere, and in that moment, Li Hui deeply felt how “heroic” Brother Zheng had been just two incense sticks ago. It was a bond of life with the earth, so profound and thick that it forced him to spit blood.
The impact was overwhelmingly intense; even though Li Hui curled into a ball, blood still sprayed from his mouth as he tore through the water field, carving out a deep trench.
In that instant of coming to a stop, Li Hui fainted.
If things ended there, it would have been the end of his life. But at that moment, an array of golden light emitted from his vital points, creating a mysterious pulling force.
The golden light rose, almost as if time was reversing, lifting his blood that had splattered in the water field, bringing it back to him drop by drop.
His injuries healed rapidly, yet the strands of white hair on his forehead multiplied from one to two, then to three, with crow’s feet appearing at the corners of his eyes.
Gradually, thirty-six points of golden light flickered to life around him. Just as this golden light was about to fade after fulfilling its purpose, the silver snake bracelet on his wrist trembled, as if lifting its snake head.
The serpent’s fierce eyes glistened, and the thirty-six points of golden light suddenly expanded, revealing runes swirling within them.
In the water field, the silver snake seemed to engage in a battle with the golden light, but the difference in power was vast; the golden light crumbled at the slightest touch, forced to submit.
Time passed, and Li Hui’s black hair mostly turned white, but his aura soared even higher. Surrounding him, spiritual energy swirled like sand falling through an hourglass.
“Pop pop pop!” The thirty-six acupoints on his body erupted like popping beans, and then the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes slightly faded. After a while, the strange phenomena gradually disappeared.
In a hazy, muddled state, Li Hui saw bookshelves surrounding him.
In his heart, he felt a call. As he raised his hand, he picked up an ancient miscellaneous book. Upon flipping through it, he found it was a travelogue, recounting tales of another continent in a tone of deep regret.
Suddenly, when Li Hui turned a page, he saw an object that shocked his heart: it was a silver snake with a hairpin-like shape.
