The crowd didn't understand why Ning had suddenly shouted, but at the next second, they did.
Space itself twisted as a black figure appeared in front of Ning. It was a black-feathered blob about half of Ning's height. Light started dimming in the surroundings as if clouds were blocking the sun in the sky, yet nothing was there.
"What is that thing?" someone asked.
Jan who was beating the Beetle stopped and looked at the feathered blob, unable to figure out what exactly it was. However, he didn't worry much for his friend as it was only at the 1st realm of the Foundation Establishment.
Suddenly, the blob of feathers started moving. Wings unfurled a bit followed by a head poking out, and finally, the talons standing up on the ground.
When it finally stood on its legs, the blob which turned out to be a bird was half a meter taller than Ning.. It was none other than Night.
"So big," Ning couldn't help but admire. The beetle was taller than Night right now, but it was a fully evolved beast. White Night's evolution was only halfway through and he was called out during his sleep.
Night's eyes were still closed, but now he slowly opened them. Night was unfortunately disrupted out of its hibernation.
Like darkness itself, his eyes were now fully black. The same was true for his talons as well.
In fact, there was not a single part of his body that wasn't black in color. As if lights were sucked in through those eyes, when Nights opened them, the light around them dimmed a step further.
"What the F*ck is this?" Gai said in exclamation.
"Do. You. Need. Help?" a bunch of broken but fully coherent set of words appeared out of Night. Ning was surprised at the level of intelligence he had gotten.
'And he's not even fully evolved yet. I wonder how much better he would get once he is fully evolved,' Ning thought.
"Yes, Help the beetle," Ning said. The words hadn't finished leaving his mouth when suddenly Night disappeared. Gai was surprised too to see the bird disappeared from in front of him.
"Where did it go?" he asked. He looked around, but couldn't find any signs of Night anywhere. However, he did see something weird.
"Hey, where are the other 2?" he asked Jan.
"What two?" Jan looked back to see that 2 of the 4 sect members of theirs had suddenly disappeared. He turned to the remaining two and asked, "Where did the tw— " before he could even finish his words, the two people suddenly turned to yellow lights and disappeared.
Jan neither heard nor saw anything. And yet, all 4 of his sect members were gone. "What is going on he— " before he could finish the sentence, he saw a flash of black before his eyes, and similar to the rest of them, he too vanished in yellow light.
Seeing his sect members disappear, Gai knew he was in trouble. Without a second's delay, he took out a talisman and threw it on the ground immediately.
The talisman spilled out blue energy that engulfed him in less than a second and he vanished. In the same second, the vanishing energy was moved a little, but it didn't affect much at all.
After another second, Night appeared next to Alex and looked at him with his dark eyes.
"Did. I. Do. Good.?" he asked.
"Yes," Ning said as he put away his sword. "You did very well. You must be tired right now. I'm sorry I called you out while you were hibernating, but I needed you."
"Night. Like. To. Help. Master."
"I see. Thank you. You can go back and rest now," Ning said sending Night back to the Beast Space to continue evolving. He probably couldn't call him next time until he evolved.
Interrupting his hibernation more than once for the sake of a tournament was not worth it.
"Come here," Ning called the beetle. The beetle flew up to him and landed.
"Sigh, with how much you helped, I guess I can't just keep calling you a beetle right? You need a name," Ning said.
"What name should I give you?" Ning thought for a second. "Hmm… Oh, I know. How about, Aegis? That was the name of a shield or something in my world. I remember reading about it once."
"Yeah, Aegis is a great name. You like it?" he asked.
Aegis cocked his head in confusion and for the first time spoke, "Name?"
"Holy Sh*t, you can speak?" Ning said in surprise. He had tried talking to the beetle the first few days he had got him, but it couldn't at the time.
"What changed? Did your evolution bring it? Or your increase in cultivation base? Hmm… since your mental strength increases with cultivation base, then it's probably your cultivation base," Ning said.
The beetle didn't speak any further. "Sigh, alright you too can go back too," Ning said and sent Aegis back to his beast space.
"Aii. The pain is getting stronger," he said as he clutched his chest once more. "Damn, just how strong is that Flood Dragon to crack my chest like that. Its strength definitely doesn't match its cultivation base," Ning thought.
He brought various ingredients out once again and started mixing them in his hands before dripping the juices directly into his mouth.
The sweet juices entered his body and brought out a cool feeling that took away all the pain. His chest stopped hurting and he laid back down on the ground.
He laid there for a few minutes before standing up and walking towards the Blazing Toucan.
The bird was tending to its wound while constantly being on the lookout for the 2 men returning. When it saw Ning, it immediately got in front of Ning and protected its eggs.
Parents were a soft spot for Ning. He couldn't possibly think of hurting someone or something that was fighting for their lives to protect their children.
Seeing the situation, Ning just shook his head and walked away.