28 The Crying Sky
The very moment the elder of Dark Mountain Tribe growled, the red mist spread out and covered the blood red moon in the sky. A large number of Wings of the Moon screeched as they came and sped through the mist, covering the sky above Dark Mountain Tribe. Piercing roars drowned out all the sounds in the land. It was the only sound that could be heard that night.
Dozens of beasts drenched in blood were thrown into the air by the tribe members. Before they fell back to the ground, they were immediately swarmed by the Wings of the Moon that gathered upon them like bloody clouds. Amid the cries, the beasts’ bodies were entirely covered by the Wings of the Moon and their flesh pierced through by sharp teeth. They turned into dried up carcasses in an instant. Their blood and living bodies were devoured by the Wings of the Moon.
All that was left were only skin and bones. They crashed onto the ground and twitched helplessly before they all died.
Some of the numerous Wings of the Moon in the sky even ignored the beasts tossed into the air. They plunged straight towards the tribe members. Their eyes were filled with ruthlessness and a thirst for blood. Their targets were the Berserkers within the tribe.
Screams, cries and roars collided with each other. They resonated with the screeches made by the Wings of the Moon on that strange night.
The lake of fire that surrounded the entire tribe was like a solid barrier. It caused the Wings of the Moon that approached the tribe to retreat with a cry. It seemed that the fire, which could not even burn the houses could actually cause them mortal damage.
"Again!" The elder stood within the lake of fire and looked at the sky gravely.
Immediately more tribe members tossed even more beasts into the air in the midst of their fear. It did look like they were feeding and offering sacrifices to the crazed Wings of the Moon in the sky.
Time passed by. All of the creatures stored for winter had become food for the Wings of the Moon and fell back onto the ground like mummies. Driven by madness caused by their lust for blood, they started diving downwards. It seemed like an attempt to break through the lake of fire and descend upon the tribe to feast on the blood of the Berserkers.
The elder waved his right hand and the lake of fire turned into a giant vortex that spun rapidly in the sky. He was going up against the Wings of the Moon in the sky by himself. At the same time, arrows upon arrows pierced through the lake of fire and into the sky from the tribe to fight against the Wings of the Moon.
To the Wings of the Moon that were pretty much immortal, this sort of injury was nothing to them. Their flapping wings and piercing cries made the people in Dark Mountain Tribe panic.
Before long, some Wings of the Moon broke through the lake of fire and flew into the tribe, causing chaos within Dark Mountain Tribe.
The same also happened in Dark Dragon Tribe.
However, a strange sight happened within Black Mountain Tribe. All of the members of the tribe prostrated on the ground and remained still. In the sky, the Elder of Black Mountain Tribe, Bi Tu stretched his arms wide open. His face looked crazy with fanaticism as he stared at the sky, chanting.
Numerous Wings of the Moon circled around him. There were also a large number of them on him. Their fangs sunk into his flesh and they drank his blood.
Yet Bi Tu appeared to have lost all sense of pain. He did not resist instead, the crazed fanaticism on his face grew even more. As his face became paler due to the loss of blood, the strange chant became louder.
"I sacrifice my blood to you, o ancient Fire Berserker Tribe! You have obtained immortality and have turned into Wings of the Moon. You feast upon the Berserker Blood and now I will take the Blood of the Fire Berserkers into my veins!"
"Di He, Hong La Dong!" Bi Tu bellowed facing the skies and immediately, a piercing black light erupted from his body. As the black light spread out from his body, the Wings of the Moon on his body screamed. Their bodies started shriveling and the light in their eyes started dimming. After a moment, they fell off Bi Tu’s body as they lost all signs of life.
It drove more Wings of the Moon wild!
The process repeated itself. A large amount of blood from the Wings of the Moon was absorbed by Bi Tu. His body began to swell at an alarming speed and a thick presence of Qi erupted from his body.
The moment they sensed the presence of the Qi, not only did those Wings of the Moon become even more frantic, even the ones that went to Dark Mountain Tribe as well as Dark Dragon Tribe changed their direction and flew towards Black Mountain Tribe.
Not far away from Black Mountain Tribe, stood the figure of a person wrapped entirely in a black robe. He stood out among all the people of Black Mountain Tribe who lay prostrated on the ground. The black robe he wore was also not something that could be found in the small tribes around the area. As he stood there, he looked at the Elder of Black Mountain Tribe in the air, his lips curling up into a dark smile.
"I gave you the way to find the moon stones necessary to summon the Wings of the Moon made of the Fire Berserker. I also taught you the way to summon them. I told you the quickest way to arrive at the Awakening Realm. Your success is up to you now…"
Compared to the chaos outside, Su Ming was relatively safe. He pushed away the stones that covered the hole in the cave and jumped out. There were several spots on his skin that had blistered due to the heat. His lips were dry and cracked as his heart pounded against his chest.
"This is… I can’t believe this is one of the resting places of the Wings of the Moon!" Su Ming stared at the spot where the Wings of the Moon appeared in the cave. He heard many legends regarding the Wings of the Moon since he was young and knew just how terrifying they were. The legends about how they were almost immortal also made Su Ming narrow his eyes in fear.
After a moment of silence, he crawled out of the entrance of the cave slowly. As he was near the exit, he stuck out his head quickly and looked around. The sight made him gasp. The sky was covered by red mist and an uncountable amount of Wings of the Moon circled the sky, the sound of their roars echoing.
Su Ming immediately retreated into the cave.
‘I wonder what happened to the tribe… I can’t go back now. If I leave now, the Wings of the Moon will definitely find me.’
Su Ming frowned. He was feeling very agitated and worried about the tribe.
Even so, he knew that he had no way to solve the problem. He looked at the place within the cave, where the Wings of the Moon appeared. Slowly, a glint appeared in his eyes.
‘The number of Wings of the Moon is obviously a lot of more than the previous times. By the looks of it, the deeper parts of the cave should be empty now…’
Su Ming hesitated for a moment before walking forward slowly. After he stepped over the place he used for quenching and observed the deeper parts of the cave, he decided.
‘I might as well see what’s in there that allowed the Wings of the Moon to stay here for so long. I might be able to find their secret and tell the elder. It might be of some help to him.’
Su Ming then ran towards the deeper parts of the cave that he had not explored before.
It was odd. The cave was usually hot. There were even times when Su Ming felt as if there were hot waves crashing onto him. However, as Su Ming went deeper into the cave, he no longer felt any heat. Instead, he felt a chill coming from within the cave.
As Su Ming continued walking deeper, there was another uproar amid the three tribes on Dark Mountain.
Several hundreds of the Wings of the Moon had already penetrated the lake of fire protecting Dark Mountain Tribe. They dived towards the tribe members and fought against the Berserkers. Bei Ling’s eyes grew cold as he protected Chen Xin, who stood behind him. A cold wave spread out of his right hand, forming sharp icicles around them. There were a lot of wounds on his body and blood poured freely out of his body. Suddenly, he narrowed his eyes and focused on a point far away. He reached for the bow on his back with his right hand without any hesitation.
As Bei Ling took the bow, a strong killing intent came forth. He drew the bow with his left hand and the tip of the bow gleamed. Immediately, the snow around them gathered at the tip of the bow and he shot an ice arrow towards the direction he was looking at!
Some distance away, Lei Chen was overwhelmed by a lust for blood. There were numerous Wings of the Moon on his body but he did not care. Instead, he seemed to be taken over by madness as he grabbed one of them and tried to bite it.
"You want to suck my blood?! Fine, I’ll suck yours too!"
Just as he was about to bite down on the Wings of the Moon in his grasp, he noticed there were dozens more flying towards him. With his current level, there was no way he could fight against so many of them.
At that moment though, a cold blast of air rushed towards him. As the cold wind appeared, an arrow made of snow and ice exploded on top of Lei Chen with a bang. It caused all the Wings of the Moon on top of Lei Chen to fall, saving him in the process.
Lei Chen was surprised. He turned and looked at Bei Ling, who was coolly putting aside his bow. An indescribable expression appeared across Lei Chen’s eyes.
The Qi of the tribe leader of Dark Mountain Tribe was rolling off his body like waves. In his hands was a long silver spear. Every time he threw the spear, cries would echo throughout the sky as numerous Qi waves hit the air, causing the Wings of the Moon to spread out.
Even so, the number of Wings of the Moon that rushed down was too many. Some of the normal members of the tribe were even nearly captured by some of them.
That moment, the elder acted. He swung the bone cane in his hands and the entire tribe trembled. An illusion of a giant statue of the God of Berserkers formed in midair. The statue’s eyes were filled with ruthlessness as if it was alive. The dragon in its hands even lifted its head and roared. Then it flew into the sky and swept through its surroundings.
As time passed, the night of the blood red moon slowly went by but the battle in the tribe became even more intense. Some Wings of the Moon captured a few members of the Berserker Tribe alive instead of sucking their blood near the end of the battle. They intended to bring the members back to their lair and suck out their blood.
As light started to brighten up the sky, a piercing cry sliced through the air from Dark Dragon Tribe. Among the numerous Wings of the Moon was a white figure. Her beautiful face was pale and filled with despair as she was captured along with her other tribe members by the Wings of the Moon. They were flying back towards Dark Mountain.
Behind them, an old woman wearing sackcloth chased after them desperately.
As their cries of terror continued traveling away from Dark Dragon Tribe, the old woman’s eyes became bloodshot and were filled with despair before long. She turned around and gave up on the chase. She chose instead to go back and defend her tribe.
When the person in white saw this, tears escaped her eyes…
As her tears fell, they disappeared without anyone noticing.
As daylight arrived and the blood red moon disappeared, the tens of thousands of Wings of the Moon let out a huge cry and flew back towards Dark Mountain from all directions. Some of them carried the girl in white and her other tribe members towards Black Flame Mountain. They entered through the cracks.