Chapter 36 “Escape from the eagle’s grasp”
Climbing for a full day and night, the members of the Ye family finally reaches the mountain peak as planned.
With the day coming to an end, their harvest can be regarded as great: ten intermediate carnivores and a high class white tiger.
In order to make it easier to lug around the bodies, Ye Saint and the others only kept the most valuable parts like the skin, fur, horn, teeth and so on. Even so, this still costed the group quite the effort and time, making their arrival at the top late into the night long past twelve.
“Everyone rest around the bonfire for a couple of hours, I will take the night’s vigil first.” Ye Saint can tell the younger kids were already exhausted.
Hastily pitching their tents, the crowd quickly fell asleep in a daze.
The night went by smoothly as usual, but things quickly changed during the darkest period of the night, which was the moment before the arrival of dawn.
Hearing big cousin Ye Saint shouting outside her tent, Ling Yue rushes out into the campsite.
Like her, Ye Qing and the others also rushed out of their tents to see a dark suspicious figure running in the direction of the cliffs.
“Something’s happened, let’s go over and see!” Ye Qing immediately wanted to chase after the dark figure.
“Don’t be reckless, the cliffs are rugged and there are some large dangerous birds in that area.” Ling Yue stops Ye Qing.
“Don’t follow me if you’re afraid to die.” Ye Qing gives Ling Yue a harsh stare and led the other anxious members away towards the cliff.
It didn’t take long for the dark shadow to reach the cliff area after a few jumps.
Packed with densely tall cliffs reaching hundreds of meters in height, this area was filled with long vine trees along the surface along with several large nests belonging to a breed of eagles.
The Silver Claw Eagles are the overlords of the cliffs in Seven Star Mountain. Using their powerful talons, these predatory birds can easily grab a full-grown man right out of the ground and into the air.
“Ye Ling Yue, we will see how you will die this time.” Song Han’s eye were full of deviousness as he pulled a bag of powder to throw at the eagle’s nests littering the cliffside.
That bag of powder was a drug specially concocted by Master Lian to be used on this occasion. Once a bird smells the scent of this stuff, the creatures will fall into a maddening frenzy and attack the members of the Ye family who’s on their way over.
Coldly sniggering, Song Han makes his way over to the dense bushes to hide himself from sight. What this villainous character doesn’t realize was, at the moment when he poured the powder down the cliff, a strange gust of wind suddenly blew upward from below and somehow caused a portion of the powder to cling onto his clothes.
By the time Ye Qing and the others came over to the cliff area, the only thing to welcome them was an empty space without a single sign of Ye Saint ever being here.
Woosh~woosh~woosh~
Hearing the strange wind sound coming from below the cliff area, Ye Qing moves over to gaze down at the source. What came into his view instantly caused his scalp to fuzz up.
From the deep mountain cliffs, hundreds of Silver Claw Eagles were rushing up to where they were.
Perceiving the human scent in mid-flight, these eagles became even more restless due to this period of the year being their mating season.
“Hurry and spread out!” Gasping, Ye Qing cries aloud to hurry everyone into retreating.
But it was too late. Opening its claw, one of the Silver Claw Eagles had swooped in at Ye Qing and tore a big open wound into his shoulder.
At this time Ling Yue have also arrived at the scene. Seeing the how densely packed the sky was from the Silver Claw Eagles, she knew then there’s no way to get out of this unscathed for Ye Qing and the other two with him were already surrounded on all sides.
Making a prompt decision, Ling Yue pulls out the Yuan Iron Arrow she confiscated from Song Han and fires it at one of the Silver Claw Eagle.
As expected of an Yuan Iron Arrow made from fifty percent grade metal. In a stream of light, the arrow pierced directly into the side of a eagle’s wing and caused the creature to pummel down into the ground.
The suddenness of the arrow left the group of animals in an anxious state, causing them to swoop further up into the air and giving some more leeway for everyone to maneuver.
“Squeak!” Acting like he just found something, Little Squeak craws out of Ling Yue’s dress and points his little paws over at the bushes. Next thing Ling Yue knew when she looked over was the sight of Song Han hiding there like rat.
What a good Song Han, Ling Yue didn’t need any explanation right now to guess what’s the deal here.
Since Little Squeak and Ling Yue was soul linked due to the spirit contract, there’s a natural bond between the two that allows them to communicate at a basic level without words.
“Squeak!”
Barking several times, Big Yellow charges at the specified target by Little Squeak.
Song Han never expected his whereabout to be found, so it came as a great surprise when he saw a pair of flashing bean like eyes pouncing up to him after hearing a series of barks.
He honestly didn’t understand what’s the deal was with the big dog. With no provocation, the red eyed beast kept chasing him like a rabid dog ready to bite him whenever possible.
Out of panic, he fled towards the edge of the cliff where the eagles were bunched up.
Following the appearance of Song Han, the rest of the Ye family members then understood what’s going on and why there’s suddenly so many eagles attacking them.
“Song Han, why is it you!” Ye Qing’s eye turned bloodshot, finally grasping the situation.
“The shadow just now is him. He deliberately led us to the edge of the cliff.” Ling Yue joins into the battle circle.
“Ye Ling Yue, don’t you start maligning me.” Helpless from Big Yellow’s chase and the scratches from the Silver Claw Eagles, Song Han was also very annoyed by his predicament.
It was at this moment a loud shriek overpowered their conversation, sending their eardrums into pain.
Deep in the cliff, a Silver Claw Eagle King flew up and peered down at everyone in a dangerous gaze. Its silver feathers looked like a layer of oil was painted over the surface, shiny and sprinkling with sheen while its claws gave off a gleam of dangerous light.
High class predatory bird, Silver Claw Eagle King enters the fray!
No matter who it was, including Ling Yue, would go numb in her scalps. Silver Claw Eagle King was a king among the high class predatory animals in the mountain and even an eighth rank martialist may not necessarily be its opponent, let alone Ling Yue and her lot of small fries.
Probably caught by the scent of the drugs on Song Han’s clothes, the Silver Claw Eagle King went straight for Song Han and grabbed him.
“HELP!”
Song Han screams for aid, but at this time who would have the time of day to help him?
Dropping the well-deserved person over the cliff, the Silver Claw Eagle King circled around in the air for a moment longer until the screams completely died down.
With the first of his victims down, the Silver Claw Eagle King’s killing intent became thicker than ever.
“Sister Ye Ning, hurry and send a distress signal to the others for help. Everyone get over here and face our backs together for breakthrough!” Ling Yue knows that unless they work together here, none of them will make it out alive today.
The remaining few people left were already frightened silly by the Eagle King and flurried over when Ling Yue gave the command. Back against back, they resisted against the attacks of the eagles with all their might.
Unlike the rest of the eagles though, the Silver Claw Eagle King lingered in the sky for a moment before suddenly unfolding its wings out. In big flapping blows, giant bursts of gusting winds came crushing down at the group.
Against the immense force, Ling Yue and the others were blown away and were about to fall into the deadly abyss if this kept up.
But a simple death wouldn’t be enough for the Eagle King. Opening its claws, the retched bird went straight for Ling Yue and grabbed her. Under the desperate situation, Ling Yue’s eye turned sharp and in a countering grab, she goes for one of the eagle’s claw.
“Flying dagger, go!”
Following the vibrating sound of metal flying out, blood gushed out of the Eagle King’s abdomen area as pieces of feather scattered over the ground.
CAW~CAWW~!!
In a dramatic turn of events, the overlord of the cliffs inside the Seven Star Mountain suffers a fatal blow and comes crashing down into the abysmal cliff along with Ling Yue in toe.
Among the chaotic mess, Ling Yue manages to latch onto several vines to keep herself from falling, but as soon as she did that, several of the Silver Claw Eagles mercilessly flew over to peck at her.