Chapter 58: The Price of Retreat

Ellis swallowed hard, attempting to greet the Thunder Kun Bird King with a friendly smile.

“Hey there, good day! We’ve come all this way just to help you with some weeding. Please, go right back to sleep. And this must be your child, yes? Absolutely adorable!”

However, despite Ellis’s knack for speaking to people as people and birds as birds, her efforts did not earn her a friendly welcome from the Thunder Kun Birds.

The Thunder Kun Bird King stretched its neck, letting out a piercing cry that soared skyward.

Its high-pitched shriek momentarily overshadowed the booming thunder overhead.

The entire mountaintop erupted like boiling water. All the Thunder Kun Birds, previously deep in slumber, jolted awake.

They immediately spread their wings and soared into the air, circling and closing in on the group.

A vast, blue deluge of wings obscured the sky, their azure eyes locking onto Ellis and her companions like targeting radar.

Electric sparks crackled across their feathers, and these violet bolts intertwined, forming a massive electrical net that trapped Ellis and the others.

Ellis: “…”

Larry sighed, shaking his head. “Ah, old friend, perhaps next time, refrain from speaking when you’re on the verge of success. Well, no matter. We need to find a way out.”

Ellis glanced at the chick in the nest, then asked, “What if we use the chick to control the flock?”

“An excellent idea.”

As a man of action, Larry immediately put Ellis’s plan into practice once he deemed it feasible.

The Thunder Kun Bird King had never expected these two seemingly frail ants to suddenly launch an attack. It saw only a flash of golden light, and its child vanished from the nest, plummeting into Larry’s grasp.

Even as a chick, its size was twice that of Larry’s. He could only suppress it by pinning it to the ground.

Witnessing its child fall into enemy hands, the Thunder Kun Bird King roared in fury. It spread its colossal, sky-darkening wings, emitting a deafening cry that filled the air with blinding flashes of electricity, transforming the surrounding space into a brilliant white.

The electric currents surged wildly, scattering in all directions. Shards of rock, blasted loose, flew like bullets.

Ellis raised her barrier, then shouted, “Calm down! Your child is in our hands!”

“With all this noise, it would be a miracle if it could hear you!”

Larry pressed his sword directly against the chick’s neck.

This action had an immediate and profound effect. The Thunder Kun Bird King ceased its assault at once, gazing at its child with profound worry.

“Phew”

Seeing this, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed this chick held considerable sway.

Ellis turned to Julia and asked, “Julia, have you finished collecting the Startle Thunder Grass?”

Julia displayed her backpack to Ellis. “Yes, I’m finished. It’s a full bag, definitely more than enough.”

“Let’s go!”

Larry, holding the chick captive, began to slowly retreat.

The poor, dragged chick continuously let out soft, sorrowful chirps.

Irene, seeing this, tenderly stroked its head and said to Larry, “Wait a moment. It’s too cruel to drag it like this. Its downy feathers aren’t yet strong enough to protect its body from being dragged over such steep, broken rocks.”

Irene summoned several slime-like creatures, instructing them to carry the chick forward.

With this cushion, soft as a water blanket, the chick was clearly much more comfortable. Coupled with Irene’s constant soothing, its eyes grew considerably calmer.

However, for every step Ellis and her group retreated, the Thunder Kun Birds and their King advanced a step, effectively preventing them from breaking out of the encirclement.

Even when they tried to tell them to keep their distance, it was evident these Thunder Kun Birds did not understand human speech.

Suddenly, Ellis noticed that the infected Thunder Kun Birds, marked with black blotches, had not emerged from their nests. Moreover, the normal Thunder Kun Birds avoided that area as if it harbored a plague.

So, Ellis told Larry, “We’ll retreat from that direction.”

“Alright.”

Indeed, Ellis’s plan proved viable.

The closer they moved towards the nests of the black-spotted Thunder Kun Birds, the fewer Thunder Kun Birds remained to encircle them in their path. The Thunder Kun Bird King, in particular, cried out in increasing agitation.

Julia spoke with concern, “These Thunder Kun Birds seem extremely agitated. That area looks very wrong.”

“Don’t worry, we don’t intend to enter that zone. We just want to retreat along its edge.”

This was Ellis’s strategy. However, what she hadn’t anticipated was that as she and her companions, still carrying the chick, entered the boundary of the black-spotted Thunder Kun Birds’ territory, the Thunder Kun Bird King’s eyes filled with despair.

It then seemed to abandon something, letting out a sudden, powerful cry.

Subsequently, all the Thunder Kun Birds, including their King, opened their beaks. Spheres of dazzling lightning gathered in their mouths, aiming directly at Ellis and her group.

Facing hundreds, if not thousands, of avian maws, Ellis felt immense pressure. She realized she had underestimated the Thunder Kun Birds’ reverence for this area.

She quickly waved her hands. “Wait, we can still negotiate!”

Her response came in the form of a dense hail of lightning orbs, spewing forth from the Thunder Kun Birds’ mouths.

A massive lightning storm enveloped the area where Ellis and her companions stood.

“Hmph, if a tiger doesn’t show its fangs, do they take me for a sick cat?”

Ellis’s defensive barrier directly withstood the entire lightning storm.

While this outcome astonished the Thunder Kun Birds, they immediately began organizing their next wave of attack.

At the same time, Ellis suddenly felt something amiss. A chilling aura had, at some point, infiltrated their barrier.

Julia and Irene remained oblivious, their gazes fixed intently on the Thunder Kun Birds outside.

Larry, however, frowned deeply, asking Ellis, “Did you feel that?”

Ellis nodded, scanning her surroundings. From the crevices between the scattered rocks on the ground beneath them, tendrils of black mist silently crept closer.

These black mists slowly coalesced, forming a dark serpent that prepared to strike at the transported Thunder Kun Bird chick.

In this critical moment, a pair of jade-like hands suddenly seized the black serpent.

The person was Ellis. The black serpent, once gripped in her hand, did not remain docile. Instead, like iron filings drawn to a magnet, it began to cling to Ellis’s arm, and black patterns started to emerge on her skin.

“Ellis!”

Julia and Irene watched Ellis with alarm. Just as they were about to rush forward, Ellis held out a hand, stopping them.

“Don’t come closer. It’s highly contagious.”

Despite being infected herself, Ellis showed no signs of panic. Instead, she observed the black patterns with interest before waving her hand.

Just like spring snow meeting the morning sun, the black patterns receded completely.

Ellis assessed, “It’s a highly infectious curse. It strips creatures of their sanity and forces them to burn their life force to enhance their power, ultimately leading to death through slaughter.”

With that, Ellis strengthened the barrier, granting it four times its usual curse -blocking effect.

All the black auras that had been attempting to flood into Ellis’s area were now completely repelled.

Larry suddenly understood. “No wonder these Thunder Kun Birds absolutely refused to approach here, even abandoning their chick.”

Ellis nodded. “It appears they already consider it infected.”

Irene stroked the chick’s head, saying with a pained expression, “How pitiful, to be abandoned by its own mother like this.”

Julia, hands on her hips, sighed helplessly. “After all, it’s the Thunder Kun Bird King. It has to prioritize its species.”

The chick seemed to understand it had been abandoned by its mother, shedding sad tears.

Irene quickly comforted it. Although she was one of its captors, at this moment, she provided immense security to the abandoned chick.

As the group conversed, the second wave of attacks arrived.

As expected, Ellis completely blocked it.

If the attack strength was insufficient, merely stacking numbers would have no effect on Ellis’s barrier.

“It seems we can only venture deeper.”

Ellis frowned, looking at the infected black Thunder Kun Birds. “If the curse is this strong even at the edges, in the areas where the infected gather, it must be more than ten times stronger. Everyone, stay close to me.”

The group huddled together. The chick, remarkably perceptive, no longer tried to escape, so Larry stopped threatening it.

Thus, the four individuals and one bird slowly advanced into the heavily infected zone.

To Ellis and Larry’s relief, the most dreaded azure lightning did not appear.

As Ellis and her companions moved further away, the Thunder Kun Bird King, though still lingering at the boundary, ceased its attacks. It merely watched them in silence.

Just as Ellis had anticipated, the curse in these severely infected areas was more than ten times stronger. The air was thick with it. Had it not been for Ellis’s barrier, they would have already succumbed.

Going deeper, the curse auras actually clustered together, taking on the forms of various creatures: long snakes, giant dragons, and even Thunder Kun Birds.

They crashed directly into the barrier, causing the protective white light of the curse-blocking layer to flicker erratically.

“The one who cast these curses is definitely not simple.”

Ellis said, increasing the barrier’s strength by another factor. This time, the barrier stabilized completely.

Just as everyone relaxed, a bolt of azure lightning suddenly descended from the sky, aimed directly at Ellis.

“Look out!”

Larry was the first to notice. He immediately lunged at Ellis, tackling her.

The barrier, which thousands of Thunder Kun Birds couldn’t break, was torn to shreds by this azure lightning bolt as easily as ripping through paper.

Ellis, held in Larry’s arms, rolled several times on the ground before crashing into a nearby rock and coming to a halt.

“Larry, are you alright?”

The moment they stopped, Ellis immediately asked about Larry’s condition.

Larry, his face contorted in pain, shook his head. “I’m fine. What about you?”

“You’re fine, my foot!”

Ellis clearly saw that Larry’s back was completely charred by electricity. Not only that, but the black curses were spreading into his body from his injured areas.

He wasn’t the only one; Julia and Irene were also curled up on the ground in agony, infected by the curses.

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