The Avalon Of Five Elements

Yu Mingqiu was a man of tall stature. His long hair was tied up into a ponytail using a red hairband and his small and slanted eyes made him look as if he would fall asleep at anytime. On the contrary, all the elementalists around him were on high alert. They had already reached the depths of the Induction Ground.

"How much longer until we reach Central Pine City?" Yu Mingqiu asked while yawning lazily.

"Approximately three days’ time," replied an elementalist after doing some calculations.

"So sleepy." Tears welled up in Yu Mingqiu’s sleepy eyes. "Life is tough. Rushing here and there, how many nights of sleep have we missed? Light equipment and little manpower; how can I be so low-profile, I am, after all, a division leader..."

"Sir, you’re only a vice-division leader," reminded one of his subordinates.

"Oh, oh, oh... I’m still a vice-division leader, huh." Yu Mingqiu chuckled while yawning again. "A blemish does not obscure a jade’s lustre. In any case, vice-division leaders are always being dispatched for such situations. Haven’t you noticed that only the vice-division leaders are being dispatched?"

"All the division leaders are being stationed at the front line and they can’t be moved," an elementalist replied. "Reportedly, the front line is rather unsettled recently and there has been continuous harassment from the barbarian tribes. There are already a few places where fights have broken out."

"Bullshit!" Yu Mingqiu snorted. "How long have we been fighting the barbarian tribes? Don’t you know their actual capabilities? It’s such a coincidence that they attack us at this critical point in time. Haha, they are definitely colluding with the mastermind behind the blood catastrophe. As far as I am concerned, the blood poison is what we should prioritize right now!"

"Isn’t the blood catastrophe a natural epidemic? You mean it’s a man-made one?" The subordinate’s face turned pale with fright.

"You’re right about that."

"No wonder the blood fiends are getting stronger these days." the subordinate’s tone was filled with worry. "We need to increase our speed. The other units might have already arrived."

"It’s impossible," Yu Mingqiu replied with irritation as he involuntarily yawned again. "No one can be faster than we are. They are heading out from the front line while we are coming from our holidays. How can it be the same? It’s a different scenario! Those old fogeys had better compensate me handsomely for the time I have wasted. Otherwise, I will not let them off!"

"But Sir, you’re the one who wanted to go over..." the subordinate retorted.

"Rubbish, I need to go and save Mingxiu. Otherwise, Senior will kill me." Yu Mingqiu took a sweeping glance at everyone. "How about I let you all go back now? The next time all of you are in trouble, there will be no need for me to come to your rescue, right?"

Everyone remained silent.

"Sir, are we those kinds of people?"

"Sir, we have been following you for several days and nights!"

"Sir, you are only thinking about Miss Mingxiu, right?"

...

"All the while, I have been missing her," Yu Mingqiu replied lazily. "If not for her master’s wrath, I would have gone to Central Pine City for my holidays and lived happily ever after with Mingxiu. I wouldn’t even care for the position of division leader."

"Mister Lu will beat you to death, no, he would not let you die that easily." The subordinate ch"It appears that Miss Mingxiu has rejected you a few times," the subordinate continued. "Actually, both of you are rather close. She treats you like her own elder brother."

uckled.

When Yu Mingqiu thought of his senior, he couldn’t help but tremble in fear. If he was to fall into the hands of his senior, he would not be allowed to die easily even if he wanted to.

"It appears that Miss Mingxiu has rejected you a few times," the subordinate continued. "Actually, both of you are rather close. She treats you like her own elder brother."

With a look of disdain, Yu Mingqiu replied, "What do you know? Which girl in the world doesn’t say that? Mingxiu’s rejection is precisely why I see that there’s still hope for me. It’s normal for a nice and beautiful girl like her to be pursued by so many guys."

"Then it will be very difficult for you," the subordinate replied after a long hesitation.

"It’s a pity that there’s not enough time for Mingxiu and I to cuddle this time around." Yu Mingqiu put on an unhappy face. "There’s also a small Junior who Master has just accepted as his disciple, a brat from the Duanmu clan. Why can’t it be a female Junior? Really! Why can’t Master spare a thought for the love lives of his two disciples? I don’t care if Senior wasted his life by practising abstinence, but what about me? Do I need to waste my youthful years as well? Speaking of which, I feel really sad. Alright, since we are under the same Master, I don’t mind saving my little Junior; but then, what about Shi Beihai’s daughter? What does she have to do with me? He is from the North Sea Division whereas I’m from the Deathgrass Division. We’ve got nothing to do with each other."

"So, we don’t save them?" the subordinate questioned.

"Hmm... we still have to save them." Yu Mingqiu gave a bitter-looking face. "I’m afraid of Shi Beihai beating me up. He would definitely do it. Other than Master and Senior, none of us here are his match. If it happens, Master and Senior definitely won’t help me."

"Miss Shi is a great beauty," the subordinate reminded.

"My heart belongs to Mingxiu!" Yu Mingqiu gave a slight cough. "I heard that she is an austere beauty. Oh, that means she is also an icy beauty. I think she’s Senior’s type of girl. I can forget about it. Anyways, I’m doing this for everyone’s sakes. We only have around one hundred people. How many people can we actually save?"

"How many can we save?" The subordinate asked while looking at Yu Mingqiu. Yu Mingqiu’s reply would decide the difficulty of the situation they were going to face.

Everyone’s gaze turned to Yu Mingqiu simultaneously.

After a slight hesitation, Yu Mingqiu replied, "We will first help them with their defenses. If the defense can’t hold, we will bring three people to retreat with us; they will be Mingxiu, Duanmu Huanghun, and Shi Xueman."

He had to think of and be responsible for his subordinates. They had a total of one hundred men and the blood fiends were getting increasingly stronger. It would be very difficult for them to break out of a siege if it was necessary for them to do so. They did not have the capability to bring so many people out with them.

Everyone heaved a sigh of relief. The atmosphere of the unit brightened up once more. It was not a big problem for an elite unit like them to retreat with three people.

Suddenly, Yu Mingqiu’s eyes shrunk and he yelled, "There are enemies right in front of us, prepare for battle!"

A massive red cloud was flying towards them at a terrifying speed.

When the massive red cloud flew closer to them, they could clearly see that it was a bunch of oversized blood bats. The blood bats were huge in number, looking like a massive red cloud from afar.

Yu Mingqiu shook his head and moaned. "There are birds coming from afar, prepare to feed them the melons!"

A seed appeared out of thin air on his palm. As he channeled his elemental energy into the seed, it germinated, grew, blossomed, and bore fruits at a visible speed.

Within seconds, two fist-sized, dark green, ripened melons appeared on his palm. The vines, stem, and roots of the melons had reduced to nothing but dust, leaving only a few pieces of leaves.

These melons were called the Thousand Seeds Exploding Melons. The ‘Thousand Seeds’ referred to the huge number of seeds that it had inside of it. There were more than a thousand seeds in every melon. This melon was one of the classic battle melons that the Deathgrass Division liked to use.

Yu Mingqiu inserted two pieces of leaves into every melon.

Everyone followed suit.

With a frivolous look on his face, Yu Mingqiu blew his whistle and yelled, "Get ready!"

"Fire in the hole!" Yu Mingqiu roared and threw the melons in his hands towards the incoming blood bats.

Everyone followed suit. Two hundred melons flew towards the incoming blood bats with a whizzing sound.

When the blood bats noticed the small black dots that were flying towards them, they flapped their wings and dispersed in all directions.

Suddenly, the leaves that were inserted into the melons started flapping. Like wings, the leaves flapped faster and faster. The melons’ flying speed increased abruptly, causing them to fly even faster.

The deafening whizzing sound got increasingly louder, striking fear into one’s heart.

They were like shadows of death, ruthlessly plunging into the bunches of blood bats that did not manage to disperse in time. The melons then exploded with a loud bang. Hundred of thousands of seeds exploded in all directions. Every seed that pierced into the body of a blood bat exploded once more.

The series of explosions wiped out the horde of blood bats like a violent storm.

This wave of attacks certainly caught the powerful horde of blood bats by surprise. A tremendous amount of flesh and blood bat corpses fell from the sky. The previously cloud-like horde of blood bats had been reduced significantly in number.

"There are no big birds in this world that would want to gnaw on grass after eating melons!"

As Yu Mingqiu was reciting his poem, he loaded his bow with an arrow.

Everyone broke out in laughter, following which, they also loaded their bows with arrows while reciting, "There are no big birds in this world that don’t want to gnaw on grass after eating melons!"

A rain of grass arrows came pouring down from the sky.

When the blood bats saw the incoming weak-looking grass arrows, they did not bother to dodge and surged forward.

At the instance when the grass arrows made contact with the blood bats, all of the arrows transformed into a huge grass net, trapping the blood bats within them tightly. The grass nets might look extremely fine and weak, but in actual fact, they were very sturdy. No matter how hard those blood bats struggled, they could not break free.

The blood bats fell from the sky, resembling a rain of dumplings falling from the sky. Numerous thumps could be heard coming from the ground.

Splatters of blood that resembled blossomed flowers were formed on the ground.

In the blink of an eye, more than half of the cloud-like horde of blood bats were killed. The remaining blood bats lost their fighting spirit and retreated.

Everyone was laughing happily as they kept their bows and arrows.

"Sir, nice poem!"

"This is a rare opportunity for us to use these lines. Everyone must memorize them properly!"

"But Sir, bats aren’t birds."

...

Yu Mingqiu acted as if he hadn’t heard them, then played with the bowstring and sighed. "It’s a pity that Mingxiu didn’t see my heroism. Otherwise, she’d definitely devote her life to me. The youngest division leader ever..."

"Sir, it’s vice-division leader!"

"Okay, okay, I’m a vice-division leader. I almost forgot about it. Every time I recite a poem, I become mentally exhausted."

Yu Mingqiu put on an act and shook his head. No one had seen the tinge of worry in his eyes.

After five minutes, a flock of blood sparrows emerged from the blood forest beneath them.

The blood sparrows were not really powerful, but there was a huge number of them. Furthermore, they launched a surprise attack from underneath, catching the elite unit by surprise. They were starting to have casualties.

Yu Mingqiu’s face darkened.

After a few minutes, as they were passing through the clouds, a wave of blood falcons suddenly appeared and attacked them.

The blood falcons were as fast as lightning. They caused the elite unit to have more casualties. The worst thing was that they had expended a huge amount of their resources and elemental energy.

Yu Mingqiu’s heart sank. It felt as if there was a huge, invisible net silently entrapping them.

This thought suddenly came to his mind. Could the Induction Ground be a bait?

The blood catastrophe had started at the weakest place, the Induction Ground where everyone’s children were located. As such, the Thirteen Divisions must reinforce it. In this critical moment, the barbarian tribes had suddenly launched an invasion against the front line, causing the situation to worsen. What followed was the same response from every division leader, which was to dispatch their vice-division leaders.

On one side, the higher-ups must defend the front line; on the other side, they had to protect everyone’s sons and daughters. Hence, they had to send the vice-division leaders for the latter task. The life of a vice-division leader was so miserable...

Until now, a lot of people still thought that the blood catastrophe was a natural disaster.

This was such a perfect plan, Yu Mingqiu exclaimed in admiration silently.

Encircling an enemy post in order to attack the reinforcements coming to its aid. Even when one recognized the trap, he or she would have already been caught in it.

Yu Mingqiu’s facial expression changed. Then, he said to his subordinate, "We must split ways. You all will break out of the siege while I will continue towards Central Pine City."

"Sir!" the subordinate became worried immediately.

"Listen to me." Yu Mingqiu’s usually joking self had completely disappeared as he spoke solemnly. "We will split ways and all of you will return to seek reinforcements! Remember, stop the other divisions from following and try to make them do their best to unite together. There’s a mastermind behind the blood catastrophe! I will go to Central Pine City. Don’t worry, I will fly at my highest speed. The blood fiends will not be able to catch up with me. I will wait for your reinforcements in Central Pine City. Hurry up, I will cover all of you for awhile."

Even though his subordinate was unwilling to do so, he did not dare to disobey Yu Mingqiu’s order. Clenching his teeth, he turned around and flew off.

Yu Mingqiu looked at the incoming blood falcons and blew a whistle. An aura of killing intent rose in his slanted eyes. "I really want to see who caused all these troubles? It’s never easy to take advantage of me."