The qi dragon roared in fury. Its killing intent surged, instantly filling the sky, while the air around them seemed to grow heavy. These two were like a pair of annoying flies, leaping from rock to rock and endlessly evading its relentless attacks.
But as the saying goes, he who chases two rabbits catches neither.
So the qi dragon could only change its hunting strategy.
"Since they are both stuck on this mountain with only a limited number of qi beads, their chances of survival are slim. As long as I don't get too close to them, I can take my time and knock them off the mountain one at a time."
At this thought, the qi dragon regained its composure. Its eyes flashed with cold light as it flew toward Wei Long, choosing him as its first target.
A chill ran down Wei Long's spine as he watched the elephant-sized, snake-like creature rush toward him.
"Seems this beast isn't going to run out of qi anytime soon." Wei Long sighed and reached into his pocket, rummaging around before taking out a small bead the size of a green grape. A soft silver glow emanated from its surface.
"Sigh... After this, I'll only have eight qi beads left." He concentrated on absorbing the bead's essence.
Boom!
The qi dragon suddenly spat its green cloud attack at Wei Long, unwilling to let him absorb the bead.
"This..." Wei Long's heart tightened. He quickly leaped upward, grabbing the rock above him, narrowly evading the cloud attack.
The qi dragon immediately began preparing its next cloud attack.
However, with its strength limited to the Qihai Scenery, it took quite a while to charge each attack and couldn't unleash them consecutively. This was intentional on Elder Feng Jing's part.
Wei Long naturally seized this opportunity and absorbed the essence from his bead. Qi surged into his qihai like a tide. He quickly circulated it through his limbs, bracing himself for the worst.
The qi dragon's cloud attack surged toward Wei Long again. He leaped, grabbing onto another jutting rock as the cloud swept past his ankles. Boom! It slammed into the mountainside, blasting a hole into the rock.
Wei Long's expression turned grim. "I guessed right after all. This beast has been relentlessly unleashing one powerful attack after another. It must have qi beads, and a plenty of it at that."
Previously, Wei Long and Wu Jian's strategy had been to tire out the qi dragon, but with this beast unleashing such powerful, qi consuming attacks for who knows how long now, that strategy was no longer feasible.
So Wei Long decided to throw this "battle of attrition" to the back of his head. With only nine qi beads in his possession. It simply wasn't feasible for him to begin with.
"Brother!" Wei Long cried out as he evaded another cloud attack, gnashing his teeth. "When are you going to attack?"
Wu Jian only sneered inwardly as he panted heavily, his gaze fixed on the qi dragon.
Watching Wu Jian ignore him, Wei Long gritted his teeth and jumped again, narrowly evading another cloud attack.
"Does he really think he can survive this without me? Let's see if you can keep hoarding your qi beads and not attack this beast now." Wei Long sneered inwardly.
Clinging to the mountainside, he quickly climbed toward Wu Jian. The qi dragon followed, its jaws slowly opening as it prepared its next cloud attack.
Wu Jian's brows furrowed. He quickly climbed away as he hoarsely called out, "Brother? Why are you coming here?"
Wei Long cast a helpless glance at Wu Jian and shouted indignantly, "Wu Jian, you're the only one whose attacks can reach this beast. Being stingy with your qi beads will get us both killed!"
"Brother, I already told you that technique consumes a lot of qi!" Wu Jian shouted, his breathing ragged.
Wei Long frowned.
His attempt to force Wu Jian's hand bore no fruit.
In order to get his hands on Wei Long's qi beads, Wu Jian was willing to suffer too.
"To think I was planning to escape this sect with such a person." Wei Long sighed at Wu Jian's selfishness.
The qi dragon let out a cold, mocking laugh before spitting its cloud attack at them. "How exactly did you plan on dealing with me when you can't even cooperate?"
They both scrambled away, evading the cloud attack.
The qi dragon, however, continued pursuing Wei Long.
"This beast obviously has plenty of beads. A battle of attrition isn't going to work." Wu Jian thought, stealing a glance at Wei Long.
"Back then, Elder Feng Jing gave us fifteen qi beads each. If Wei Long learned how to read and write from Xiao MeiYue like I did, he should have ten or eleven beads left by now, even after deducting the one he used earlier." Wu Jian guessed, sweat beading on his forehead.
"So long as I can hold out until Wei Long expends most of his beads and becomes desperate enough to follow my plan, I might survive."
Wu Jian stabbed his sword deep into the mountainside and stood on the hilt, his legs trembling as they strained to support his exhausted body.
Up until now, Wu Jian had only used the qi remaining in his qihai and had not touched his qi beads even once.
Unlike Wei Long, who had been relying heavily on his qi beads, Wu Jian only used his qi when necessary, relying mostly on his physical strength to cling to the mountainside while evading the qi dragon's cloud attacks.
Although this allowed him to conserve his qi beads, his body had paid the price, leaving him extremely fatigued.
Under the qi dragon's relentless bombardment, Wei Long leaped from one rock to another, narrowly evading each cloud attack.
"This beast has a sinister heart. It's relentlessly pursuing me because it wants me to expend my beads." Wei Long was fully aware of the qi dragon's intent.
However, with only a close-combat martial art at his disposal, there was nothing he could do against the qi dragon. "This can't go on like this. Sooner or later, I'll run out of qi and fall into this beast's grasp. I need to somehow convince Wu Jian... but" Wei Long sighed helplessly, turning his gaze toward Wu Jian with the intention of convincing him to work together.
But upon seeing what Wu Jian was doing, Wei Long's eyes widened in disbelief.
"This… this is..."
He clenched his fist in anger, partially crushing the rock beneath his fingers.
This person, whom he had hoped to work with, was leisurely standing on his sword, conserving his strength as he watched him scurry around while the qi dragon chased him like some kind of rat.
Is this person retarded? Why is he..
He could understand the qi dragon plotting against him, trying to make him expend his beads, but Wu Jian?
"We're on the same side, damn it!" Wei Long roared inwardly.
Once again, climbing along the mountainside, he headed toward Wu Jian.
"Wei Long, you are still thinking of using me?" Wu Jian sneered. He pulled his sword free and climbed away.
"Wu Jian, you haven't been using your qi beads in order to conserve them, but look at you now. You're completely exhausted," Wei Long shouted in disdainful tone.
Boom!
The qi dragon interrupted them with another cloud attack. The cliff face shook as swirling green clouds tore through the air toward Wei Long.
"Shit!" Swinging off the rock, Wei Long launched himself through the air and caught a protruding ledge. Dangling from it, he caught his breath before continuing, "Since you don't want to cooperate, let's see which of us gives in first."
Naturally, if Wu Jian could covet his qi beads and plot against him, couldn't he do the same?