The Avalon Of Five Elements

"Ai Hui is gone."

Hong Rongyan stared at the undulating colorful ripples in the distance, slightly dazed.

Autumn Water's clay doll laid on Hong Rongyan's shoulder and asked dispiritedly, "What do you mean by 'gone'? I thought he was gone all along."

Fu Sisi's self-destruction had damaged Autumn Water's body terribly. Right now, she was feeling extremely angry. Every time she encountered Ai Hui, something bad was bound to happen to her. Previously, Ai Hui almost destroyed her mind. This time around, he caused her body to be severely damaged. Initially, she still thought she could seek revenge.

"Previously, Chi Tong merely suppressed his consciousness. Now he was officially obliterated by Chi Tong," Hong Rongyan replied plainly.

"Why?" Autumn Water still didn't quite get what was going on.

"That's because only the legitimate [Deathly Seeds of Demonic Consciousness] possesses such might," Hong Rongyan answered.

Upon hearing these words, a fearful look flashed across the face of the middle-aged man that was standing beside Hong Rongyan with his head lowered respectfully. The revival of an ancient demonic god was already very terrifying. A demonic god that had regained his strength fully was even more terrifying than that.

"Does that mean Chi Tong has returned to his peak form?" Autumn Water stammered.

She began to feel scared now.

The energy undulations reminded her of the battle of Grandmasters at Jadeite Forest. The Assembly of Patriarchs had been studying Chi Tong for a very long time. They clearly understood that the level of Grandmaster wasn't Chi Tong's ultimate goal.

The Assembly had created many weapons that could be used to "hunt" Chi Tong. but nobody knew whether or not they would really work.

"No." Hong Rongyan was very calm, appearing as though he had anticipated this turn of events. "Destroying Ai Hui's consciousness could only release the might of [Deathly Seeds of Demonic Consciousness], its impacts on us are still very limited. His weakness lies in his physical body."

""Physical body?"

Hong Rongyan nodded and continued, "That's right. Right now, the physical body that Chi Tong possessed is Ai Hui's. It's absolutely impossible for him to completely blood-refine it overnight. Chi Tong's attainment in blood refinement might be peerless, but Ai Hui's body is far too weak. Even if he possesses the God's Blood, it will still take a long time to fully blood-refine it. If Chi Tong tries to do it by force, either the body explodes, or…"

Suddenly, Hong Rongyan froze and went into a daze.

"Or what?" Autumn Water blurted out.

Hong Rongyan returned to his senses and continued, "Or he becomes a monster."

"A monster?"

"That's right. When I was studying Chi Tong, I realized that the God's Blood is actually made up of the blood of ten thousand beasts. But why was the body that Chi Tong forged humanoid instead of animaloid? Chi Tong was born out of pure will. Therefore, he doesn't care about whether his body is humanoid or animaloid. However, when he forged his body, he decided to make it humanoid without any hesitation. Hence, I have come up with a conjecture…"

Autumn Water felt as though there was a cat gnawing on her heart. She quickly asked, "What's your conjecture?"

"A humanoid body is really the ultimate state of blood refinement," Hong Rongyan replied.

"A humanoid body is really the ultimate state of blood refinement…" Autumn Water muttered to herself.

"Yeah," Hong Rongyan continued, "Subsequently, I coincidentally read in a book that there were a few times where Chi Tong transformed into a monster after he forged his body. The monster looked neither humanoid nor animaloid. It consisted of characteristics from many different beasts, and it looked different each time. I called it [Monsterification]. It's only after Chi Tong succeeded in developing a peerless blood refinement technique and stabilized his physical body that this phenomenon never occurred again. Think about it, after a blood elementalist awakens his or her ancestral mark, he or she displays the characteristics of a certain beast. Can you see that they are very alike?"

The clay doll on his shoulder was biting its palms. Then it tilted its head and asked, "Now that you mentioned it, it does seem like it."

"If Chi Tong transforms into a monster, it is actually our best chance to capture him," Hong Rongyan continued.

The clay doll's eyes lit up. "Why? Is it because he would be overwhelmed by the brutal nature of the beasts?"

Hong Rongyan shook his head and replied, "No, but rather, he would be overwhelmed by the different beast natures. The God's Blood is made from the blood of ten thousand different beasts. Every one of these beasts has a different nature. Their natures clash with each other terribly and intensely, but Chi Tong was able to suppress it through an unknown method. However, once [Monsterification] happens, he won't be able to suppress it anymore and the different natures of the ten thousand beasts would overwhelm him. Even [Deathly Seeds of Demonic Consciousness] will be suppressed and sealed by this phenomenon, causing Chi Tong to lose his rationality."

"I see!" Realization dawned upon Autumn Water's clay doll. Suddenly, she asked with doubt again, "Does this mean that the training system of Blood of God's blood elementalists is flawed?"

"That's right," Hong Rongyan said, "Beast Venom Temple has always been so obsessed with creating new blood beasts because they want to find a breakthrough in this aspect. However, they have not made much progress."

At this moment, a concentrated beam of bloody glow shot up into the sky, resembling a bloody sword that pierced through the layer of clouds!

The colorful energy ripples in the sky behaved as though they had encountered their predator, spreading outwards and avoiding the bloody glow hastily. Following which, they disappeared like popped bubbles.

Roar!

A brutal and savage beast roar echoed across the air from the distance.

The clay doll was stunned. Then it stammered, "Don't tell… tell me… he has undergone [Monsterification]..."

Hong Rongyan returned to his senses and replied anxiously, "Go!"

　　.....

In the darkness, a figure's chest was flickering with a red glow. He was standing there like a wooden stake, motionless. Whenever his chest lit up with the red glow, one could indistinctly see his chiseled jaw. His eyes were tightly shut and he had a blank look on his face.

The red glow gradually dimmed.

Suddenly, a group of figures appeared behind him and jumped on him, causing him to fall to the ground.

"Got him!"

"Faster, come and help!"

"Grab hold of his legs!"

"His other leg! Quick! Grab hold of it!"

The sound of somebody falling to the ground and exasperated yells echoed through the air. Dust sprung up everywhere in the darkness. It was total chaos.

A group of people was pressing Ye Baiyi against the ground. Some were pressing against his legs and some were pressing against his waist. All of them were panting heavily, but they did not dare to let loose the slightest bit. Everyone was covered in dirt, while Ye Baiyi was still sparkling clean. His white robe resembled the color of snow.

A few days ago, Ye Baiyi was suddenly "reanimated" and his heart beat wildly while flickering with a red glow. Initially, everyone thought Ye Baiyi was not going to wake up. However, to their surprise, Ye Baiyi suddenly stood up straight and gave everyone a fright.

During his days in the Avalon of Five Elements, Ye Baiyi was already incredibly powerful. Now he was even more powerful than before. The only person who could contend against him was Shi Beihai, but he had not fully recovered yet.

Everyone knew something was wrong, but they behaved as though they were preparing for the arrival of a powerful enemy.

Very soon, those who had sharp eyesight realized that Ye Baiyi's eyes weren't opened. However, before they could tell everyone this observation, Ye Baiyi suddenly jumped into the darkness like a spring. Everyone was dazed momentarily before chasing after him.

Soon after, all of them realized that something was wrong with Ye Baiyi. His posture was exceptionally weird.

His eyes were closed, his body was upright and rigid, his waist and legs were straight, and he was jumping forward like a spring.

None of them had ver seen such a weird scene, and they felt a cold shiver go down their spines. If Ye Baiyi had his arms raised horizontally, he would be no different from a jiangshi. Right now, he looked incongruous with the surroundings and he was extremely fast. Whenever he jumped, one could even hear the a whizz echoing through the air. The more terrifying thing was his destructive power. There were a few times where there was no path ahead of Ye Baiyi and yet he continued to jump forward and force out a path.

He broke and jumped through the hard and sturdy rocks as though they were tofu. Thud, thud, thud. Ye Baiyi was like a human-shaped chisel, leaving a human-shaped hole on every rock wall that he jumped through. He could disappear into the midst of the rocks and crevices in the blink of an eye.

There were numerous passageways, byways, and crevices, but nobody knew where they led to.

If it weren't for Shi Beihai, they would have lost Ye Baiyi.

After chasing Ye Baiyi for a few days, they finally caught up to him. Everyone was exhausted, but they did not dare to slack off. They continued to press him against the ground and resisted the terrifying strength that he exerted.

Thump, thump, thump.

Ye Baiyi's heartbeat was unusually loud and clear in the darkness.

Gradually, the sound of his heartbeat softened. Those who were sharp could sense that the resisting force coming from Ye Baiyi was becoming smaller.

"It seems like he is not moving anymore."

"Eh? He is really not moving anymore!"

"Thank God! He finally stopped moving!"

"Be careful. What should we do if he reanimates again?"

Everyone began to talk at once.

At this moment, Shi Beihai's gentle voice rang across everyone's ears. "Everyone, get up."

Everyone behaved as though they had been granted an amnesty. After letting go of Ye Baiyi, all of them sprawled on the ground while panting heavily. They looked extremely miserable, as they had exerted so much strength in order to catch up to Ye Baiyi.

And they weren't exaggerating.

Ye Baiyi wasn't tired at all. Even though he had jumped and broke through boulders for a few days straight, his speed did not decrease at all. The underground world wasn't exactly a safe place. There were various dangerous creatures lurking everywhere.

The weird thing was that these creatures did not dare to provoke Ye Baiyi no matter how fearsome they were.

What's worse, the person who roused them wasn't friendly at all.

"Damn it, I'm so tired! My legs are going to break soon!"

"He is already so scary now; won't all of us be killed if he truly wakes up?"

"Shut up! Don't jinx it!"

Shi Beihai did not mind his subordinates' complaints. He already knew Ye Baiyi wasn't as dangerous as everyone else made him out to be. Initially, Ye Baiyi's "reanimation" did give Shi Beihai a fright; however, he soon discovered that something was amiss.

Ye Baiyi looked as though he was being summoned by something...

The sudden turn of events disrupted Shi Beihai's plan. However, he was able to react quickly and he decided to follow Ye Baiyi. Ye Baiyi's behavior had confirmed his conjecture. Even though Ye Baiyi would make turns when he was advancing, he was still heading towards a particular direction.

Shi Beihai was very curious. What was summoning him?

Could it be a secret art of the blood elementalists?

Shi Beihai did not think so. If it was really a secret art, why would the blood elementalists wait until now to use it? The person that worried the most about Ye Baiyi falling into the North Sea Division's hands would be the Holy Emperor.

Ever since the Heart of God was implanted into Ye Baiyi's body, he had been behaving oddly.

The red glow emitting from Ye Baiyi's heart had disappeared. He became silent like a corpse once again.

Shi Beihai withdrew his gaze. Not only didn't the feeling of doubt in his heart disappear, but it became even stronger. Had Ye Baiyi arrived at his destination, or had that "something" stopped summoning him?

Right now, all of them faced an important question: where were they now?

Ye Baiyi seemed to have an extraordinary intuition towards the underground passageways. Furthermore, he was able to jump through boulders and proceed forward with an extreme speed. Shi Beihai reckoned that they were very far from away from their original position. However, there was no point in having a good sense of direction underground.

What was waiting for them above the ground? Would it be friendly or hostile towards them?

Shi Beihai made up his mind and instructed his subordinates, "We will rest here for ten hours first and then we will go up."

His subordinates immediately stopped talking and the light-hearted look on their faces vanished without a trace.

The dark, underground cavern became silent once more. The tired and bruised members of the North Sea Division were recuperating their strength.