Chapter 0574: Betrayal

The terrific battle continued within Russet Rock City.

The battle was most conspicuous high in the sky, with large ripples of energy blowing back and forth, ripping through the clouds at fearsome speeds. Below, smaller battles raged on, intensity at a smaller scale but no less desperate. It was just as well that this whole area was a deserted city; otherwise, the accidental casualties would have been too many to bear.

Lan Lan, the First Princess, Gong Shenjun, and the rest of the Heavenly Pearl Stage students were doing their best to fight the Bloodtailed Other.

It continued to giggle and coo up in the air, its seductive laughter affecting the students fighting below.

A Greater Heavenly Disaster Class Other was truly a terrifying enemy.

It still held the advantage even against eight Heavenly Pearl Stage students.

Below, Jiang Qing'e was leading the Three Star Hall against an assortment of enemies. Although the Lesser Heavenly Disaster Classes had been dealt with already, there were still many Disaster Class enemies left. Jiang Qing'e was a rock against them all. She alone took on five Disaster Class Others, sweeping through them and lifting the morale of her comrades.

The firm defense line that the Three Star Hall students held ensured that no Others could encroach on the elite fight, saving the First Princess and the others from an even more unfavorable battle.

Next was Li Luo's side.

In terms of strength, their group was the weakest of the three fights. The strongest among them were Ao Bai and Yuan Banshan from the Enlightened Sage College. The latter had lost to Ao Bai in the hall-level competition, but he was still much stronger than the other Fourth Changing students like Zhu Xuan.

Over the course of the last hour, they had sped around and set down six droplets of cleansing dew, which was a rather decent rate.

Of course, their progress was helped by Jiang Qing'e's group, who were attracting the attention of most of the Disaster class Others.

Weng!

Another drop of cleansing dew landed, and another purification barrier bloomed out. Li Luo and the others sighed with relief.

"Three more drops, and we'll have a proper formation established!" Ao Bai shouted back at them in encouragement. Their faces lit up.

Once the formation was up, the illusion formation would be dispelled, and then even the Greater Heavenly Disaster Class Other would be affected. The entire situation would shift in their favor.

"Come on, put some speed on!" Ao Bai urged them, leading the way across the street.

The others hastened after him, and even the lagging Li Luo did his best to keep up.

He had no problems with Ao Bai taking charge of the group. It was easier for Li Luo to chill at the back and blend in. Although many of the Others had been drawn over to Jiang Qing'e's side, there were always a few stray ones that wandered across their path. A front man like Ao Bai packed a lot more firepower.

He would be even happier if Ao Bai could just straight up tank all the enemies so he could stroll to the mission’s finish line with his eyes closed.

While Li Luo was thinking his slacker thoughts, the group had already charged to another street.

When they burst out into the avenue, a strange wind whipped up in their faces.

Many threw up resonant power defenses instinctively, but they were all melted away instantly by the wind, which chilled them all to the bone.

"Be careful! An Other ambush!" Li Luo yelled hurriedly.

The students hurriedly reached deep into their resonant palaces, scrambling to put up more resonant power defenses and flush the chill from their bodies. At the same time, they grouped up tightly and faced outwards, wary of any threats.

Yet surprisingly, there was no further disturbance after the strange wind blew by.

"What's going on?" Sun Dasheng frowned.

The others looked around at each other, confused.

The tense silence held for a full minute, then someone broke it. "Senior Ao Bai, what should we do now?"

Li Luo's eyes flicked to Ao Bai's still figure as well. Ao Bai stood like a statue, not replying to anybody.

Li Luo's eyes narrowed. Ao Bai was too still. Unnaturally still.

Behind Ao Bai, Yuan Banshan felt like something was off as well. He put a cautious hand on Ao Bai's shoulder. "Brother Ao, what's wrong with you?"

The moment Yuan Banshan's hand touched Ao Bai's shoulder, the stronger student whirled, sending a powerful punch exploding into the torso of Yuan Banshan.

Pssssssh!

Caught completely off-guard, Yuan Banshan took the blow in its entirety. A fountain of blood spurted out from his mouth, and his bones cracked within. He was sent flying dozens of meters backwards, down for the count.

This betrayal stunned all of them.

Ao Bai attacking Yuan Banshan?!

And while they were still reeling, Ao Bai had already struck again. Two palm-shaped shadows burst out, smashing away the two closest students.

Another shrill howling gust of wind.

One of the two was Zhu Xuan, who had spent much of the time up till now trying to cozy up to Ao Bai.

"Brother Ao, what's wrong with you?!" Although he and Ao Bai were both Two Star Hall students, the difference in their power was stark. One hit from Ao Bai required all of his strength just to defend against.

Boom!

Ao Bai's resonant power had overrun his own all too easily, and despite his best efforts to fight back, he was soon defeated in the same fashion as Yuan Banshan.

In a few short moments, the three closest students to Ao Bai were all seriously injured.

Fortunately, the shock of the betrayal had worn off the others by now, and they hurriedly backed away from Ao Bai.

"Senior Ao Bai, what's wrong with you!?" Jing Taixu called out, his face gray.

Sun Dasheng and Lu Ming were watching with eyes wide as well.

It was truly dispiriting that the strongest of their little group would be turned against them.

"I'm afraid Senior Ao Bai's body is no longer his own," Li Luo said flatly. The One Star Hall students gasped.

"You mean... he's being controlled?" Lu Ming whispered.

Li Luo did not reply. He was too busy watching Ao Bai, who had lifted his head and locked on to the remaining four students.

Ao Bai's face was an emotionless mask, his refreshing smile completely gone. And a moth with dark-red wings fluttered in his eyes.

The crimson moth beat its wings lazily, releasing a dark-red powder that darkened the red of Ao Bai's eyes steadily, even as red liquid seeped down the corners of his eyes and trickled down his cheeks.

𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

They shuddered. He was crying blood.