Both the tiger and the bear possessed thick, plush fur and broad, bulky builds of immense muscle mass. Their eyes were sharp, intense and of mismatching colours. The tiger had a golden right eye and a white left eye. Its stripes were thick and dark as they raggedly streaked down its body. The bear had a blue right eye and a purple left eye. It was slightly taller and larger than the tiger.
"Interesting eyes they have," commented Wu Xingyu.
"So it was these demons causing the earthquakes," determined Song Yehai.
"Seems like it."
The beasts were powerful, beautiful and ferocious as they stood their ground against Wu Xingyu and Song Yehai, baring their teeth and digging their unsheathed claws into the earth. Both grandmasters took out their weapons, Wu Xingyu his fan and Song Yehai his whip.
The tiger and the bear reeled back and inhaled deeply. Their eyes flared intense white, gold, blue and purple light as their fur raised with air seeping out of them, the tiger emitting snow white steam and the bear black ashy smoke.
Each beast let out a mighty roar that shook the earths. A gust of wind blasted out of the tiger while a torrent of water streamed out of the bear, merging into a whirlpool that swallowed everything in its path. Wu Xingyu and Song Yehai quickly leapt out of the way before they could get sucked in or splashed on, landing on higher branches to evade the water flowing beneath them.
"So the tiger breathes out wind and the bear breathes out water," noted Wu Xingyu. "We should find out what other abilities they may have."
Song Yehai nodded in agreement.
Just as the waters soaked into the soil the earth began to tremor again in increments. Song Yehai cleared away the thick foliage right in front of them, allowing them to see that the tiger had grown exponentially in size. It was as tall as an adult tree, its paws leaving craters with every step it steadily took as it approached its targets.
The gargantuan tiger jumped, its strength vastly augmented without compromising its speed and agility. Soaring higher than the mountain peaks and momentarily eclipsing the sky, it lunged for the tree Song Yehai and Wu Xingyu were on.
"Look out!" Song Yehai warned as they jumped off the branch. Landing on the ground, Wu Xingyu noticed the shrubs rustling in an odd manner and threw his fan towards it. The fan hacked off several tall-growing grasses and leaves. Just as it returned to him, he was met with a sudden push.
Song Yehai held up his sword with one hand to block an incoming force while his other arm shoved Wu Xingyu aside. There was a clang against the sword's blade and the low, guttural sounds of the bear, but the bear itself was nowhere to be seen. A slash from nowhere cut into Song Yehai's lower arm.
"Yehai!" cried Wu Xingyu.
Song Yehai was fighting quite arduously before thrusting his sword forward. The bear appeared, revealing itself after it was stabbed in the shoulder before rolling on the ground in pain. Wu Xingyu rushed to Song Yehai's arm that was injured in the scuffle.
"It's nothing," Song Yehai wiped aside the blood oozing out from four claw cuts. "Be careful with the bear. It can turn invisible."
Wu Xingyu lightly fanned over the wound. A purple mist sprinkled over the arm and closed the wounds.
"Thank you," said Song Yehai.
"No, thank you," returned Wu Xingyu earnestly.
The giant tiger roared, its magnified voice blaring across the mountain ranges. Song Yehai and Wu Xingyu blocked their ears and split apart as they sensed the invisible bear pounce in between them. Song Yehai engaged with it while Wu Xingyu dealt with the behemoth from behind.
Wu Xingyu threw his fan. The tiger furiously swiped it aside. A grin appeared on Wu Xingyu's face just as a flying sword of light cut through the air and stabbed into the tiger's back before it had a chance to pounce on Wu Xingyu. The sword went straight through the stomach and plunged into the earth, creating a bloody opening on the tiger's body.
Though the bear could not be seen, Song Yehai still managed land a number of successful strikes of his whip on the it. Eventually it changed its course of attacks and decided to spew streams of water from afar. Song Yehai dodged the arbitrary waterfalls that attempted to swamp him. Suddenly the bear appeared right behind Song Yehai and almost sank its teeth in him when it was knocked aside by the timely intervention of the Purple Feather Fan. As it laid on the ground a white sash bound tightly around its body. Unable to shake it off, it turned invisible again and scurried off.
Swapping positions with Wu Xingyu, Song Yehai flicked two spiritually charged needles at the giant tiger, whose increased size made him an easy target. Piercing into its eyes, gold and white tears streams out from the corners as the tiger roared in pain before going on a violent rampage. Without its sight its attacks were aimless, sporadic and needlessly destructive as it toppled trees, punctured mountains and fissuring the earth, completely restructuring the terrains. Once the great beast seemed to tire itself Song Yehai retrieved his sword and slashed across the throat, slicing deep enough to fully sever the arteries.
Following his white sash Wu Xingyu leapt into the air and slammed his foot down onto the bear as he landed. A chilling crack of the bones sounded from where he stomped, followed by the whimpers of the wounded beast. When the bear reappeared on the ground, Wu Xingyu summoned back his sash and went to stand by Song Yehai's side.
"These beasts don't look like they're going to giving up."
The tiger and the bear roared again, their winds and water twisting and merging into a spiral that gradually became a whirlpool linking Earth with Heaven. Wu Xingyu and Song Yehai stared in awe at it's colossal size and sheer power that could overwhelm mountains.
"Is this the best they've got?" asked Song Yehai.
"I hope so," said Wu Xingyu.
As the whirlpool expanded and swirled faster and faster the humidity amplified to extent that the air became stuffy. Minute droplets of water struck against them, dampening their clothes and soaking their skin.
"I'll take care of this," Wu Xingyu held onto the fully opened Purple Feather Fan and spun it in his hands. A purple aura was released from the magic artefact. Once it was thick enough Wu Xingyu flung the fan at the whirlpool.
The fan spun rapidly, slicing everything in its path and cutting up the waters like a chopping wood. They scattered in chunks in all directions. A whip slashed apart the chunks that came towards Song Yehai and Wu Xingyu before they could get slashed. The end of the rope was swallowed by another gust shot out of the tiger's mouth, redirecting the whip back at Song Yehai, who caught it easily before he could be struck.
Just as he prepared his next attack the colouration of the forest rapidly altered into a piercing glare of pink. Thousands of blossoms bloomed in an instant, pushing out the green like a swarm of parasites plaguing the trees. The speed in which they opened and the quantity they came in contributed to their unnatural appeal. Song Yehai and Wu Xingyu were both more troubled than amazed by this phenomenon.
"Where did these blossoms come from?" asked Song Yehai.
Wu Xingyu shook his head in confusion. "Could these trees also be demonic?"
A rosy fog shrouded the forest lands as petals sprinkled pollen on them, their soporific effects permeating the air. Song Yehai covered his nose and mouth with a handkerchief soaked in herbs and breathed steadily, maintaining his composure against this foreign element that drifted listlessly around them. His eyes soon became teary.
"What is this fog?"
A mighty roar interrupted them from behind. Before Song Yehai could react an excruciating sensation overtook his right abdomen and shortened his breath. His handkerchief slipped from his hand as he looked down in cold sweat.
"Yehai!" cried Wu Xingyu.
A chunk of Song Yehai's right abdomen had been completely torn out, exposing his organs and bones. Part of his bottom ribs and cartilages were cracked into pieces. Blood pooled out like a grisly waterfall.
"YEHAI!" Wu Xingyu rushed to support him but was met with a powerful head-butt from the tiger that knocked him a few metres away.
"Xingyu," Song Yehai reached out to him but his legs wobbled until they were drained of strength.
The tiger and bear appeared more alive and intimidating than ever with heightened senses and shining, sharpened canines. Like deathly glows of sickly light their eyes radiated untamed rage and ferocity as they growled hungrily through their teeth.
"These trees," Song Yehai realised as he fell to his knees and held himself up with one arm while clasping onto the injured area with the other. His entire body trembled from the pain as he coughed up a mouthful of blood. Beads of cold sweat proliferated from his temple down to his chin. Even just breathing could suddenly be such a strenuous task.
"These trees… the flowers on them… their pollens…"
His vision started to blacken but he fought to remain awake, fumbling through his sleeves until his fished out a vial and shakily brought it to his mouth. The tiger and bear walked up to Song Yehai like approaching a delicious meal.
A wave of panic in him caused the vial he barely managed to open to slip out of his hand and spill the pills it contained. Song Yehai dropped his arm as he fell to his side as the pain on his body augmented. "Damn it."
Before the beasts had a chance to sink their teeth into him, a white sash struck at their faces from the side, almost breaking their jaws and shattering their canines.
Wu Xingyu propelled himself forward and slammed a devastating punch in the tiger's head, incapacitating it. He then attempted the same strike on the bear but it managed to dodge in time and quickly run back, creating a safe distance for itself. The tiger weakly followed after it.
"What the hell do you think you're about to do to Yehai?"
The question, fuming with unchecked rage, paralysed the beasts, its tone instilling immense fear in them. All their predatory instincts, their inborn savagery and brutality of the wild vanished, replaced with a gut-wrenching alarm.
"Don't touch him!" warned Wu Xingyu harshly, his anger pushed to unprecedented limits. Petals from the trees detached from the buds and swirled around him in a flurry. The rose-tinted fog of pollens thickened into a hellish crimson haze.
The tiger and the bear stumbled back from the dark whirlwind escalating before them and trembled like sinners soon to face judgement from a righteously enraged devil.
"GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM HIM!"
Violent gusts of winds blasted outwards. The petals, beautiful yet lethal like double-edged blades that could cut through flesh and bones slashed through the air. Dark pink trails of light followed them as they ran amok and attacked the tiger and the bear from every angle. The beasts flinched from the cuts done on them, jumping sporadically and yelping fearfully. They turned to flee when the lacerations deepened from skin surface to limb amputations.
But the petals were relentless and unstoppable, dyed red from their blood as they viciously spliced into them. Standing in the middle of it all Wu Xingyu was a demonic entity from the depths of inferno as he demanded the carnage.
Through the blood, anger, death and mutilations that tainted his vision, all he could see was the gravely injured Song Yehai.
The red fog returned to its pink shade for a few seconds before fully vanishing. The trees were almost devoid of blossoms or foliage, leaving a barren entanglement of thin, spiky and crooked branches above them. The petals and leaves had mostly browned and withered, becoming one with the dirt. The tiger and the bear were fully eviscerated and hacked into chunks of meat and bones scattered everywhere.
"Xingyu?" muttered Song Yehai almost breathlessly.
The wrathful aura around Wu Xingyu was mollified. There was no demonic entity or anything terrifying around, only the Snow Phoenix Grandmaster in his white, untarnished robes.
"Yehai!"
Rushing to Song Yehai's side he fumbled for the pills all over the ground, scooping up as many as he could and quickly gave them two puffs of breath to blow off as much dust as possible before, very unsteadily, bringing them into Song Yehai's mouth. "Here, quickly swallow them."
A few pills slid from the side of his palm and bounced on the ground before rolling away. Wu Xingyu closed Song Yehai's mouth and carefully lifted his head by the chin, gently pushing the pills to go down his throat. Song Yehai choked on them but suppressed his coughs and forcibly swallowed down.
Muscles, fat, blood vessels and tissues began to grow in raw pink, red and white clumps, like thick earthworms emerging and then converging into bigger lumps where it had been torn on Song Yehai's body. Song Yehai gritted his teeth as the missing chunks regenerated and a new layer of outer skin fully covered the area.
"It's closed up," said Wu Xingyu. "How are you feeling now, Yehai?"
"A lot better," Song Yehai panted as he touched the regrown flesh.
"Does it still hurt?"
"Not, but there's not enough pills to regrow all the missing flesh."
Wu Xingyu tried to fan the area with his Purple Feather Fan.
"It's no use," said Song Yehai. "I haven't recovered all the flesh I've lost. Plus, they won't heal my bones that are broken. My life's not in danger but my wounds are still too serious for the Purple Feather Fan to heal."
Wu Xingyu closed his fan and stored it back in his sleeve. "What other pills or medicines have you got on you?"
"One for blood loss recovery. Should be…" Song Yehai reached his hand in his sleeve and took out another bottle. "…This one…" his brows furrowed as a great delirium clutched his head and body, trying to pull him down to the ground and shut off his senses. Wu Xingyu quickly fed him one pill. The delirium gradually dissipated. Wu Xingyu checked his pulse.
"Your blood's starting to circulate again but your energy levels are extremely low. You'll need lots of food and rest for that."
"I'll be fine. We need to get back to the East Seas," Song Yehai struggled onto his feet. Wu Xingyu brought one of his arms over his shoulders.
Song Yehai's legs became limp, almost dragging Wu Xingyu down to the ground with him. "I can barely move my legs. Let's rest a bit here."
"Let me carry you," without another moment of hesitation, Wu Xingyu pulled Song Yehai towards him and carried him on his back. A thick, wet splatter drenched the front of his robes, blotching it with red patches that reached his waist. Blood-curdling coughs escaped Song Yehai's throat.
"I'm sorry, Xingyu," apologised Song Yehai weakly.
Wu Xingyu felt the same wetness on his right arm. Alarmed, he looked to see that it was covered with blood.
"Yehai, your… your wounds are reopening?!"