Rumble!
Billowing clouds of dust surged forward at terrifying speed, felling vast swaths of trees. In the blink of an eye, Yu Xian and Little Nora were completely engulfed.
Yet the moment the dust rolled in, Yu Xian had conjured bubbles to shield himself and Little Nora, so neither of them was left coated in grime.
"Big Brother, someone's fighting!" Little Nora said at once, gulping down the meat in its mouth.
Yu Xian nodded with a brief "I know" before guiding the bubble upward into the air. Once they reached a certain height, he and Little Nora saw a robot clashing with an old man dressed as a wizard.
The robot's arms had transformed into beam cannons, unleashing colossal beams of light in rapid succession. The wizard darted low through the sky to evade them, then raised his staff to loose a dense barrage of energy bolts.
From Yu Xian's vantage point, the battle looked just like a bullet-hell game. Both combatants stayed constantly on the move to dodge incoming strikes while watching for an opening to counterattack.
"Could they have found the Forbidden Fruit?" Yu Xian murmured to himself as he watched the clash.
In truth, the Forbidden Fruit possessed immense allure for ordinary creatures; coming across one stirred an irresistible urge to devour it. But for powerhouses above a certain threshold, that allure diminished considerably, and brief contact posed no real danger.
Star Rank powerhouses could even hold one in their hands for days and nights on end without having their minds corrupted.
"Big Brother, the law of the Abyss says heavenly treasures go to the worthy—let's go rob those bastards!" Little Nora declared excitedly, eager to join the fray as it watched the combatants.
Yu Xian quipped dryly, "Where did you pick up that way of talking?"
"I don't know," Little Nora said, shaking its head.
Yu Xian sighed and broke it down for the fledgling: "The problem is, we still don't know what they're fighting over. What if it's not over the Forbidden Fruit, but a personal vendetta?"
"Then we just kill them both first! Survival of the fittest is the law of the Abyss anyway!" Little Nora said, growing even more thrilled.
Yu Xian retorted in exasperation, "If everyone did that, slaughtering every creature they ran across, wouldn't only the single strongest person be left in the entire world?"
"Fine. What do you think we should do, Big Brother?" Little Nora deflated instantly, asking with a look of disappointment.
Yu Xian smiled. "First, we watch the show. Once we understand the situation, we'll make a decision. If the Forbidden Fruit really is in their hands, we do as you said. If it's just a personal grudge, we won't interfere."
"All right," Little Nora sighed, obediently settling in to watch the spectacle.
Yu Xian glanced at Zhenwo Changjing and teased, "Auntie, 'pure'..."
He was mocking her earlier claim about Little Nora being pure and innocent. If Little Nora hadn't run into him, it would undoubtedly have grown up to become the Abyss's foremost bandit.
Yet Zhenwo Changjing merely maintained her serene smile, offering no reply to Yu Xian's teasing.
In the distance, the battle between the robot and the wizard raged on, their attacks growing ever more chaotic. The robot fired a variety of missiles from its chest while sweeping beams from its eyes and hands.
Not to be outdone, the wizard unleashed a relentless barrage of fireballs, frost arrows, and lightning. The two fighters were rarely hit themselves, but the surrounding forest and draconic beasts suffered immense collateral damage.
The trees ignited into a roaring inferno, spreading through the fallen timber into a widening sea of flames. Many draconic beasts, caught in the crossfire, collapsed groaning to the ground, forced to watch helplessly as the fire swept toward them until they were burned alive.
To be frank, Yu Xian could hardly bear to watch. He wasn't opposed to killing, but he opposed pointless slaughter.
Over the past several days, he had slain countless dragons, leaving behind swathes of blood-drained mummies, yet he could swear he had never tormented a single one. Virtually all of them had been slain in an instant and eaten clean, with nothing allowed to go to waste.
"What a waste. That's all our future rations," Yu Xian remarked with genuine regret, looking down at the slowly charring dragons.
Hearing this, Little Nora immediately perked up. "Big Brother, now we have a righteous cause! Let's get 'em!"
Before Yu Xian could respond, an arrow shot toward them from another angle. Yu Xian teleported to Little Nora's other side, catching the shaft with one hand while casting his gaze toward where the arrow had come from.
How interesting.
They had merely been spectating, yet someone had targeted them.
Little Nora's words had not been entirely wrong: the law of the Abyss truly was survival of the fittest, where the biggest fist made the rules.
"Merge!"
A crimson glow instantly flared around Yu Xian. The moment it met the red light emanating from Little Nora, the fledgling merged into his body. His form shifted rapidly, and a pair of golden wings sprouted from his back.
Five kilometers away, another squad drawn by the commotion of the robot and wizard's battle was watching to see if their captain's arrow had hit the mark. The moment they saw the target transform, their hearts sank.
"Not good. The target might be Heaven Rank—retreat!" barked the minotaur holding the bow at the very front.
Yet they had barely turned when Yu Xian appeared right before them.
The minotaur's reactions were exceptionally swift, and he roared immediately, "Battle! Frontline engage, Philier spread out!"
Before the shout had fully faded, eight black blood threads shot from Yu Xian's fingers, each piercing between the brows of a member of the squad. Their cranial nerves were severed in an instant.
Yu Xian touched down on the ground, manipulating the blood threads in his hand to slowly draw their blood, accessing their memories through it.
This was an orc squad, and the minotaur was their leader, named Feiliqi. They hailed from a place called Crescent Bay.
That was the largest settlement in District Jia-5 of the Abyss, where races whose worlds had been entirely destroyed by the Abyss took refuge.
Feiliqi and his companions had incurred a debt, and upon hearing that a Forbidden Fruit had flown in this direction, they had formed a team to leave Crescent Bay and search for it.
Over the past few days, Feiliqi's patience had worn thin, and wicked thoughts had crept in. He decided to abandon searching for the fruit altogether.
Instead, he resolved to hunt down other groups seeking the fruit, ambushing them to plunder their belongings. Yu Xian and Little Nora happened to be their very first targets.
His reason for attacking had been remarkably simple: Yu Xian looked young, and Little Nora looked like a harmless little yellow duck.
Seeing targets that posed no apparent threat, Feiliqi had taken a shot just to see what would fall, figuring there was nothing to lose.
He had thought he could kill two birds with one stone, only to kick an iron plate.
Once Yu Xian had absorbed the information, his eyes slowly closed. In the next breath, Feiliqi and his companions were drained into dried husks. Since they had already struck, there was naturally no question of letting the tiger return to the mountain.
Still, the memories of Feiliqi's crew were immensely valuable. Yu Xian had finally discovered an organized settlement in the Abyss.
Crescent Bay—that would be his next destination.
Chapter 212