16 Dragon and Phoenix 5

"There's no need to run! A little guy like that, I can kill in no time!" Hu Rong shouted stubbornly over the sound of loud rumbling and roars.

"Then why are you running with us?" Mao Mao replied in a snarky manner.

"That's... that's merely because you guys are running, so I naturally started running with you!" Hu Rong answered.

The two continued bickering, even as the large tiger-like beast gained on them. Yin Mei felt that fighting this beast and killing it would make her feel bad, since Hu Rong and Hu Xi were both six-winged tiger beasts. In other words, this demon beast could very well have been a member of the tiger beast clan before it had been corrupted by demonic energy.

But looking at the eager to fight Hu Rong, and the ever silent and stoic Hu Xi, Yin Mei felt that her worries weren't at all necessary.

Anyways, she also wanted to ask the question of why they were running. This beast was at least one large realm higher than the person with the highest cultivation in their group, Hu Xi. But, all of them here were elites who possessed numerous treasures on their bodies. If they teamed up and fought the demon beast, they would probably be able to defeat it. Though Yin Mei couldn't say if they would come out unscathed, they certainly wouldn't die.

That being said, it certainly wouldn't be optimal for their group to get injured at this moment in time. She couldn't decide whether escaping or fighting would be the better choice.

In the end, Hu Rong couldn't restrain her desire to fight, and under Mao Mao's goading, turning around to start battling the large demon beast. Of course, the others couldn't leave her behind fighting alone, so they also stopped and helped her.

Yin Mei waved her slender sword, a golden fire appearing on the blade. With a single slash, the fire shot out at the demon beast, causing it to scream in pain. Even though they were in a forest, Yin Mei didn't worry much about things catching flame. Because she was inhabiting the body of a phoenix, she had absolute control over all fire (except that of other phoenixes), and could easily keep the fire from going out of control.

On the other hand, Gui Neng and Gui Heng had cursed the beast so that it would suffer from hallucinations and illusory pain, while Hu Rong and Hu Xi were battling the demon beast up front. Their dazzling saber work was quite impressive to look out. Mao Mao, who was slacking off and standing next to Yao Lan and Yao Yan, who both had nothing to do, whistled and said, "The Hu siblings really have the best saber techniques."

Yin Mei along with the Gui siblings no longer had anything to do and had already played their part, so also stood around with the other three. They soon ended up chatting, commenting on the battle.

"Oh! So close. They just missed the demon beast's weak point." Mao Mao said, shaking her head regretfully.

"Even if they missed it, the demon beast has already been weakened considerably. It won't take them long to defeat it." Yao Lan mused. "With Feng Hua's flames constantly eating at its vitality, no matter what, it'll lose in a match of stamina."

"Why are you just mention Big Sister Hua's flames? What about the curse? Our curse is the reason why those Hu siblings are having such an easy time!" Gui Heng said angrily, his pride slightly hurt. Gui Heng was at a delicate adolescent age of 107 years old, and was prone to the thing known as hormones.

"Hey! What the hell are you guys all doing, chatting away in the middle of battle!?" Hu Rong angrily said, as she was blown back by a blow from the demon beast and landed near them. She was completely outraged. They were having fun like they were on an academy outing, while she and her brother were fighting!

"Well, we wouldn't want to interrupt your fight." Yin Mei said, as if it was for Hu Rong and Hu Xi's sake that she wasn't interfering.

"That's right. A battle between warriors shouldn't need our help." Mao Mao chimed in.

"You- you- you actually call yourselves my friends?" Hu Rong was practically shaking, speechless from anger.

"Rong Rong! What are you doing!?" Hu Xi shouted at his sister, angered that she had joined up with the others in chatting and had left him to defend against the demon beast alone.

"Wow, big brother Xi must be pretty angry. That's the first I've heard him speak this entire trip." Mao Mao said, hand over her mouth as she widened her eyes.

Hu Rong was very angry, but she charged back into the battle, using her anger as fuel as she slashed maniacally at the demon beast.

"You shouldn't tease Hu Rong too much. She takes it all very seriously." Yao Lan said. The sounds of fighting and roars continued on in the background.

"Don't worry, hehehe, with the fatal combo of our curses and Feng Hua's phoenix fire, that big oaf won't be able to stand against a berserk Hu Rong, hehehe." Gui Neng said, laughing creepily.

"What about an equally berserk demon beast?" Yin Mei said, having been watching the fight between the Hu siblings and the demon beast this entire time while the others talked, her face now an expression of "Oh shit". She pointed at the demon beast, whose size had seemed to have doubled, an intense aura leaking from it as its red eyes shed tears of blood.

"Ah..." They all said, just now noticing that the situation they were in may be a little bit dangerous...

"You guys, stop standing around and help us already!" Hu Rong said, as she leapt up and slashed at the demon beast, but was knocked away by his claws, the sheer force of her body flying off destroying several trees and only stopping when she had travelled a mile or so.

"Oh... it looks like a hallucination curse might have been a bad idea..." Gui Neng said as she looked up at the monster.

"This was the fault of your curse!?" Yao Lan shouted, her carefully constructed expression falling apart. Well, since all of the ones here already knew about her two-faced personality, she was always less careful around them.

"Mm, probably..." Gui Neng replied sheepishly.

"Enough arguing, let's just finish him off." Yin Mei said coldly.

They all fell silent and started to make serious preparations for battle. Actually, they were expecting this. Leaving the demon beast, even when he hadn't gone berserk and powered up, to just the Hu siblings was pushing it after all. That being said, of the group, only the Hu siblings and Mao Mao were frontline fighters, though Mao Mao was more of a stealth type. Yin Mei could certainly take a frontline position, having decent skill in the sword, but she was more skilled in ranged techniques, since Feng Hua didn't like getting up close and personal in a fight. But she also thought that wielding a sword with elegance looked beautiful, so she had at least trained herself a bit in the sword. On the other hand, the Gui siblings were mage types through and through, while the Yao siblings had below average accomplishments in any fighting techniques, though they could handle poisons very well.

The result of them getting serious was a win for their sides. Hu Rong had two broken ribs and a gash on her chest, but was mostly unaffected. Yin Mei, due to not being completely adapt at handling her new body yet, was also injured and had a cut at her waist. The rest were mostly uninjured, save for some scratches and bruises. Although these injuries may look serious, they were easily healed with a single pill. For flesh injuries like these, as long as the person was dead, it wasn't too hard for them to be healed. It was only if the injuries had complications like energy corruption, did it require much more expensive pills. That being said, none of the people here lacked medicine like that.

That being said, the fight had been fairly intense, so the group set up camp to take a short rest. Yin Mei put up a protection talisman while Yao Yan set up a fire and Hu Xi and Hu Rong went hunting for food. Actually, they had brought food, but all of these noble kids wanted to experience the true camping out and so the two Hu siblings went to search for demon beast meat to eat.

"Aren't they taking a while?" Yao Lan said, as they all gathered to sit around the fire.

"I'm worried. I hope they don't encounter a demon beast like the one earlier," Yao Yan had a worried look on his face as he kept on glancing back to outside the protective barrier.

"Even if the opponent was a large stage higher, they'd still be able to escape," Yin Mei said. Actually, as long as the opponent wasn't on the level of their parents, then they would be able to escape. And someone on the level of their parents would be as rare as unicorn horns and phoenix feathers. Though that was probably a bad comparison, considering that none of those things were very rare in the upper realm. The point is, such an existence was difficult to come by.

"Let's not talk about these boring things anymore," Mao Mao complained.

"Boring? Then what do you want to talk about?" Yao Lan answered.

"Hah, I bet she just wants to gossip." Gui Neng sneered.

"Gossip? What gossip?" Gui Heng, compared to his sister, looked oddly interested.

"Idiot, why are you interested in that stupid stuff?" Gui Neng replied, her eyes glaring at her younger brother from under her bangs.

"No, the only gossip going around these days is about Long Aotian this and that," Mao Mao snuck a look toward Yin Mei, who shrugged, her face indifferent.

"Cheer up, Feng Hua. I'm sure there are better people out there," Yao Yan tried comforting Yin Mei, but because they weren't too close, it only made her feel awkward.

"Even if you say that, there aren't that many eligible men..." Yao Lan said. "Maybe Hu Rong's family? She has six older brothers..."

"They're all fighting maniacs, though," Mao Mao complained.

"Mao Mao, I didn't know you were so in to love stories." Yin Mei couldn't help but comment. Mao Mao didn't seem like the type. Sure, she was interested in gossip, but only because she liked to use it to blackmail or tease others. That being said, Yin Mei did guess that maybe love stories were easy teasing material?

"Feng Hua, do you have anyone you have your eye on, now that your engagement is broken?" Gui Neng asked, tugging on the sleeve of her friend. If she did have someone she like, she would definitely personally concoct her some love potions (*censored*) free of charge.

Yin Mei was silent, seemingly thinking of something. She looked like she was in a bit of a daze, but finally answered with a no. "There isn't anyone."

"What! That's a lie! Look at that long pause! Who were you thinking of?" Mao Mao immediately retorted.

"Among our generation... maybe the Qilin clan's eldest son?" Yao Lan hypothesized, her face serious.

"The Qilin clan's eldest son? No way, I hate that man!" Gui Neng immediately looked disgusted, quickly turning back to Yin Mei. "Feng Hua, it isn't that guy right?"

Yin Mei, who was healed by Gui Neng's cuteness as she worried, reassured her. "It's really not."

The four girls continued chattering while the two guys were completely left out of the conversation, sitting on the sidelines while gazing at the scenery with nothing to do. After a while, the Hu siblings finally came back with several hunting prizes, setting them down inside the protection barrier.

"What were you guys talking about so excitedly?" Hu Rong asked as Hu Xi set to work skinning and deboning the demon beast corpses.

"Love!" Mao Mao and Yao Lan had glittering eyes, and Hu Rong immediately withdrew, pale faced.

"Okay, I'll just leave you to it-" But she couldn't escape and was immediately caught by the two and tortured with love stories.

Yin Mei laughed, watching all this. It was different from when she went treasure hunting all alone, with no one but her shadow for company. It was warm.