Chapter 23

The burst of silver light tore through the defensive barrier set up by the two upper-level students, heading straight for Shang Xia's position.

Facing the silver light rushing towards him, a familiar aura flashed by. Shang Xia didn't have time to ponder the reason; he just focused on channeling the surging yuan qi within his body and pushed his palms out forcefully in front of him.

"Get out of the way!"

A loud shout came, but Shang Xia didn't retreat, nor did he have time to retreat.

He didn't even have time to figure out who had shouted.

A slightly golden-red bolt of lightning shot out from the lightning glow Shang Xia had gathered in his palms, colliding with the silver light that had rushed close.

Bolts of lightning exploded instantly, with golden, silver, and red lightning spreading out like a spider web in all directions.

The Jinyun carriage Shang Xia was in was immediately pierced and damaged by the lightning, and a large amount of supplies were scattered from the collapsed carriage space. The string cage hanging on the carriage was also thrown out.

The scattered lightning also affected Shang Xia, but apart from a fleeting tingling sensation, it didn't seem to cause him any other harm.

"Chirp chirp—"

"Chirp chirp—"

As the convoy fell into a brief chaos due to the sudden attack of the silver light, two different bird calls sounded clearly, even resonating with each other.

Could this silver light be targeting the mutated swallow in the string cage?

A strange thought instantly flashed through Shang Xia's mind.

However, in the split second, Shang Xia didn't have time to react further.

The silver light, though blocked by Shang Xia, was not injured in the slightest. It even drew a beautiful arc in mid-air and turned to chase the flying string cage.

It was indeed targeting the mutated swallow!

Shang Xia was now certain.

"This is a thunderbird, everyone get out of the way!"

Another angry shout came, and when Shang Xia looked, he saw Attendant Yuan rising into the air, his figure briefly hovering.

So this is a thunderbird!

Shang Xia immediately recalled that when he was cultivating the "Mixed Yuan Thunder Hand," he had used a thunderbird feather as an important auxiliary material.

No wonder I had a familiar feeling earlier!

At this moment, Attendant Yuan, suspended in mid-air, was visibly enraged.

As a third-level martial realm Extraordinary Martial Artist, he had been bypassed by a thunderbird flying directly towards him, even though he had sensed it beforehand.

This was a humiliation!

At this moment, Attendant Yuan's martial realm aura was fully unleashed, and the yuan qi in the world was instantly stirred.

Shang Xia could even sense that the surrounding yuan qi seemed to be tinged with Attendant Yuan's anger, filled with a restless emotion.

This is the martial realm!

The will of martial arts had erupted, touching the edge of mental will influencing reality!

Attendant Yuan stretched out his hand, and a giant hand formed entirely of yuan qi spanned several dozen feet, freezing the surrounding space and reaching out to grab the silver light and the string cage.

Just as the silver light was about to break the string cage and rescue the imprisoned mutated swallow, a cry of frustration sounded, and the silver light, which had been frozen, suddenly exploded.

The surrounding space that had been frozen was broken, and the silver lightning surrounding the thunderbird was finally exhausted.

At the same time, a feather over half a foot long fell from the sky.

However, the thunderbird finally escaped from the yuan qi giant hand of Attendant Yuan, revealing its form to everyone for the first time.

Compared to the slightly smaller body of the mutated swallow, it exuded a quality of strength and elegance combined.

As it flew, faint lightning flickered between its feathers, giving it a silver glow on its surface.

This was also the reason why people usually found it hard to associate the thunderbird with the mutated swallow.

However, this time, under the suppression of an Extraordinary Martial Artist of the martial realm, the thunderbird's lightning power could not keep up with the loss, revealing its true form to everyone.

This made everyone realize that the thunderbird was also a type of mutated swallow!

Or perhaps the thunderbird was a second mutation of the swallow?

The thunderbird, having escaped from Attendant Yuan's interception, was now aware of the danger.

It no longer cared about the mutated swallow in the string cage, and a layer of faint lightning reappeared on its surface. As the lightning flickered, the silver light of the thunderbird disappeared from its original position.

"Chirp chirp—"

The mutated swallow in the string cage let out a mournful cry, clearly realizing that its hope of escape was now a luxury.

When the thunderbird reactivated its lightning power to escape, the first to react was not Tian Mengzi and Jin Guanchao, the two upper-level students, nor Attendant Yuan, whose aerial strike had missed again, but Shang Xia, who had cultivated a martial arts technique similar to the thunderbird's essence!

Almost as soon as the thunderbird fled, Shang Xia, who seemed to have anticipated this, had already predicted its escape direction and activated the second form of his martial arts technique.

Faint lightning flickered around his body, focusing on his legs, increasing his speed several times over.

Even so, in just a blink, the distance between Shang Xia and the thunderbird not only failed to shorten but seemed to be growing.

Seeing that he couldn't catch up, Shang Xia made a quick decision, channeling his internal yuan qi to form another bolt of lightning between his hands, which he launched at the silver light of the thunderbird.

Even Shang Xia himself knew that due to their partial shared origin, his martial arts technique would not cause much harm to the thunderbird.

A thunderous boom echoed in the air as a golden-red bolt of lightning struck the silver light of the rapidly flying thunderbird.

"Chirp—"

A slightly mournful cry sounded, but the silver light of the thunderbird only staggered in mid-air before disappearing from everyone's sight at an even faster speed.

In mid-air, a feather of the thunderbird slowly fell, as if suddenly attracted, and finally landed in Shang Xia's hand.

The faint lightning flickering on it gave a tingling sensation, just like the thunderbird feather Shang Xia had obtained earlier.

"Runs really fast!"

Looking in the direction the thunderbird had fled, Shang Xia couldn't help but sigh.

"If Junior Brother Shang can cultivate a light body martial technique next time, with his ability to cultivate the second form of the martial arts technique, he might barely be able to keep up with the thunderbird for a while without being completely left behind."

Tian Mengzi had come to Shang Xia's side and was looking in the direction the thunderbird had fled.

Shang Xia shook his head without speaking.

Given the flying speed of the thunderbird, even if Shang Xia learned the best light body martial technique, it would be unlikely to catch up with the thunderbird.

However, Tian Mengzi's words reminded Shang Xia that cultivating a light body martial technique was indeed necessary.

"Chirp chirp—"

The mournful cry of the mutated swallow came from behind, giving a sense of being abandoned.

Shang Xia and Tian Mengzi turned to see Attendant Yuan picking up the string cage that had fallen to the ground.

Looking at the mess on the ground, Attendant Yuan gave Shang Xia a complex look and said, "It seems you've taken someone's mate!"

As he spoke, he shook the string cage in his hand.

What he said...

Shang Xia's face turned slightly dark.

"What are you standing there for? Clean up, we need to get to Tongyou Peak as soon as possible!"

Attendant Yuan threw the string cage to Shang Xia and turned to shout at the other students in the convoy.

This time, two Jinyun carriages were damaged, and the various supplies inside had fallen to the ground, with many fragile items completely destroyed.

Fortunately, they had emptied a Jinyun carriage when they passed the outpost earlier.

After tidying up the scattered supplies on the ground, they were able to fill the empty Jinyun carriage.

This also meant that in addition to the two damaged Jinyun carriages, they had lost nearly a carriage's worth of supplies, including some extraordinary materials and highly valuable items like potions.

Attendant Yuan's face had been dark since he repelled the thunderbird.

Since Tongyou Academy established a base at Tongyou Peak in the Two Realms War Zone and secured its position, it had increased the clearance of the route from the war zone entrance to Tongyou Peak to ensure the safety of the transport route.

In fact, with the improvement of Tongyou Academy's strength in recent years, this route had become extremely safe.

Apart from a few unfortunate accidents, the only danger to the transport of supplies was some living corpses used to train new students.

The existence of these living corpses on the route was even a deliberate result of the academy.

Sometimes, they would deliberately bring some living corpses from a distance to wander near the route.

However, this time, an accident had befallen Attendant Yuan.

He clearly thought his luck was not good this time.

"At least we're not without gains!"

Attendant Yuan spread his palm, looking at the thunderbird feather in his hand, and shook his head: "Not enough!"

His gaze involuntarily turned to the string cage hanging at the back of the convoy.

"In fact, the value of this living mutated swallow alone is enough to make up for the loss this time!"

Attendant Yuan couldn't help but think: "If we add this thunderbird feather... No, there's another one!"

His gaze then turned to Shang Xia at the back of the convoy, but he couldn't help feeling dejected: "Whether it's the mutated swallow or the other thunderbird feather, it seems neither is related to me. This time, I'll inevitably be noted by the Performance Evaluation Office."

Thinking of this, Attendant Yuan's already dark face became even darker.

At this moment, Tian Mengzi, looking puzzled, walked over and said, "Strange, Tongyou Dao has been peaceful in recent years, and the Patrol Corps of the Academy Guard always patrols to ensure the safety of the route. A large group of mutated swallows shouldn't appear here!"

Attendant Yuan's heart stirred, but he angrily snorted, "After we reach Tongyou Peak, I will have a word with the head of the Patrol Corps, Tang!"

Just as Attendant Yuan was about to order the convoy to move again, he suddenly saw Jin Guanchao running towards the convoy from behind a hill.

Tian Mengzi was about to go to meet him but was grabbed by Attendant Yuan. Then they heard Jin Guanchao's panicked voice: "Enemy attack!"