Chapter 50: The Old Man In the Deep Sea

'Swish'

'Tssch'

Massive volumes of steam were produced as the sea started to evaporate due to the heat unleashed by the gigantic ball of flames that literally covered the skies.

The heat unleashed by it was to such an extent that all life forms in the sea within a 2-kilometre range around the gigantic ball of flames died out immediately except for a few powerful Adept Stage marine creatures that resisted an untimely death.

It looked as if a raging tornado had started to form due to the volume of the steam that was continuously being formed and the insane amounts of kinetic energy that it carried along with it.

With the burning ball of flames as the center, the steam moved along a diagonally upward direction as it started to rotate around it which lead to the formation of a powerful tornado around the burning ball of flames that resulted it with a base diameter of around 500 metres.

The tornado started to generate strong wind currents and began to suck in more water from the surface of the sea which in turn immediately evaporated into steam due to absorbing the excessive heat that radiated from the burning ball of flames and further reinforced the speed and volume of the tornado.

The huge burning ball of flames had lasted for only about 5 seconds before it started to shrink in size due to having already expended the entirety of its energy reserves.

From its initial diameter of 400 metres, it rapidly shrunk in size to about 20 metres in diameter within a single second and vanished completely in the next second leaving behind a dried up body of Li Qiu at the centre of it.

The tornado had already reached till his position but he was neither harmed nor swept away due to being at the exact centre of the eye of the tornado with the eyewall only existing at 200 metres away from him.

The Vermillion Bird could only gaze at the withered body of Li Qiu before the rising tornado blocked its vision of him.

'Flap' 'Flap'

The Vermillion Bird flapped its wings and shot towards to the rescue of Li Qiu when suddenly, a purple bolt of lightning grazed past it while singeing a couple of its feathers.

The Vermillion Bird shot down a look towards the source of that lightning bold and finally gazed upon the visage of a bird that had a shining horn above its head and seemed to be charging towards the Vermillion Bird with crazed eyes.

The Vermillion Bird sent a hail of its blood feathers towards the one-horned leader that blasted towards it like the bullets fired from a machine gun and immediately sped up towards the tornado.

'Zap'

A flicker of lightning flashed above the horn of the one-horned leader that immediately vaporized the hail of the feather bullets. The one-horned leader chased after the Vermillion Bird, but due to their difference in flight speed, the distance between them sharply increased.

Sonic booms were produced in the air around the Vermillion Bird as it instantly broke through the sound barrier while the one-horned leader who chased after it couldn't catch up to its speed and could only result to spam its lightning bolts at its target in hopes of paralyzing it.

'Zap' 'Boom'

The Vermillion Bird sharply avoided the lightning bolts that had been unleashed by the one-horned leader while it continuously sent a hail of its blood feathers that impacted upon a single precise location on the raging tornado.

On noticing that the Vermillion Bird's objective was to enter into the rising tornado to save that

human individual, the one-horned leader kept spamming its attacks while it stealthily prepared a powerful lightning bolt.

'Thud' 'Thud' 'Thud'

'Rrrr'

The hail of blood feathers finally pierced through a mild section of the tornado and created a wide enough gap for the Vermillion Bird to pass through it when it was just 500 metres before it, just a second's distance away due to its speed.

The feathers of the Vermillion Bird were already fluttering in response to the powerful gales that were emanating from the rising tornado that seemed to have already risen to about 800 metres above sea level, with Li Qiu currently free falling at a position 200 metres from above the sea level.

The suicidal attacks of the inflammatory birds and the careful positioning of the wind barriers by the Eagles had sent his body protected by the 'Great Sun' upwards with each successive attacks that resulted him at a height of 600 metres above the sea level before his Aria ran out.

As it saw the Vermillion Bird closing in on the now open spot in the tornado, the eyes of the one-horned leader coldly gleamed as a certain entity present within its mind calculated the precise timing to launch its powerful lightning beam.

'Ding!'

'Zoom' 'Zap'

On its cue, a powerful bolt of lightning that was significantly more deadlier than its earlier attack against Li Qiu razed through the skies and cleanly passed through the hole that had been opened up by the Vermillion Bird.

'Scree'

The eyes of the one-horned leader blinked in shock and surprise when it received no feedback from its attack and then shrieked in rage when it finally figured out the little scheme that had been successfully enacted by the Vermillion Bird.

The moment the one-horned leader finished charging its attack, there was a sudden spike in its aura that was immediately sensed by the Vermillion Bird.

The Vermillion Bird then made a snap decision to change its course and trailed along the edges of the tornado and used the tailwinds resulting from the tornado to instantly reach the tip of its mouth at the top.

The one-horned leader raged while lightning bolts blasted out everywhere in its surroundings as it vented out its anger after it had been made a complete fool of by the Vermillion Bird who had long since dived into the eye of the tornado.

'Scree'

The Vermillion Bird that had dived into the relatively calm eye of the tornado screeched in shock when it finally laid its eyes upon the body of Li Qiu.

The withered body of Li Qiu looked no different from a corpse that has been buried for more than a month and lacked the minimal vitality of the living.

The Vermillion Bird gently clutched the withered body of Li Qiu as it gently flew up and out of the eye of the tornado and slowly drifted into the clouds to stay away from the line of sight of that terrifying one-horned leader.

Meanwhile, the Black Dragon that had lost one-third of its body starting from its tail and had also suffered from multiple bone-deep cuts went deeper into the sea in order to avoid being attacked.

It steered clear from any creature that radiated a significantly powerful aura as it slowly swam forward, intending to resurface at a place where it could no longer sense the presence of any birds.

The Black Dragon slowly and carefully swam forward when it gazed upon a huge rock that consisted of multiple crevices over its surface.

The Black Dragon, upon its careful inspection, didn't feel any nearby auras that were powerful enough to threaten it, so, it slowly crept into a crevice and rested its body there while all the open wounds in its body gradually began to close up as its body volume steadily decreased.

'Swish'

Suddenly, a powerful overbearing aura emanated over it that immediately knocked itself unconscious while Prakash, and Aurella, who had been treating the severe injuries of the unconscious Akiko foamed in their mouths and immediately fainted.

Time passed slowly, and finally, after an unknown amount of time had passed, a groan leaked out of Prakash as he slowly opened his eyes. His entire body felt ridiculously weak as he couldn't even accumulate a little bit of his strength in his limbs.

After struggling for quite a while, Prakash could finally prop himself up to a comfortable sitting position when he finally began to notice his surroundings.

He was sitting upon a soft bed, a table had been placed beside it and he was surrounded by walls on all sides that seemed to have been made from reinforced steel.

There were various charts that were posted on the surrounding walls that consisted of the world map, oceanic currents, and some nautical observations.

There was a small glass of water that had been placed on the table beside his bed. The glass seemed to be made from stainless steel while the interior of the room had a pale stench of iron permeating through it.

Prakash slowly raised his hand towards the tumbler but tripped it down due to his inability to exert proper strength through it.

The steel tumbler fell down onto the metallic floor and made a loud ringing sound that immediately destroyed the initial silence of his surroundings.

'Thud' 'Thud'

Li Qiu heard a series of footsteps that reverberated from beyond the door and saw the knob of the

door turn.

'Bam'

The steel door abruptly opened wide as an old man, probably in his seventies judging from his full white hair and wrinkly complexion briskly walked in.

His gait, and the demeanour, which he carried himself with were just like those of a hardened soldier.

The old man stood before Prakash and without saying any word immediately began to check for the condition of his body.

The old man checked his pulse, pupil dilation, inspected the portion of his severed limbs that had now been bandaged to check for the formation of any infection or if the gauze needed to be changed, etc.

Prakash couldn't resist the inspection since he could barely move and just his previous action of sitting up straight took more than a few minutes.

After a few minutes of strict inspection, the old man sighed in relief as he then gazed at Prakash with calm eyes that were almost devoid of emotions except for a faint trace of pity.