Zhao Jing and the team had caught up with Grim.

Huff! Huff!

Zhao Jing complained. "Brother, you are way too fast."

Grim appeared beside Zhao Jing and whispered. "Brother Zhao, can you buy me two minutes? I need preparation time for my trump card."

Zhao Jing whispered. "Leave it to, brother Grim."

"Thanks, Brother Zhao. Be sure to battle from a long distance, and when I say run, tell everyone to retreat immediately unless you want to die." Grim warned him.

"Ok, brother Grim." Zhao Jing replied with a grave expression.

Zhao Jing gathered the team and attacked the wyvern, attracting its attention.

Meanwhile, Grim withdrew about ten kilometers from the battlefield.

***

'Energy Burst'

An orb appeared before Grim and grew slowly as his Qi started to deplete.

'Storm'

Meanwhile, the clone started merging the bolts one by one.

'Dual Domain'

The 'ice' and 'lightning' domain spread across 5 kilometers(3.1 miles)-locking everyone within.

'Ice Domain'

'Fire Domain'

'Lightning Domain'

'Wind Domain'

Zhao Jing and the team formed their domains as a counter.

Their combined domain formed a small but powerful to counter the enemy. However, the downside was the 50% more Qi consumption rate than before.

'Ice Arrows'

The wyvern noticed the strength of the domain. So it launched attacks to weaken it.

'Ice Shards'

'Stone Palm'

'Fire Rain'

'Lightning Dragons'

Everyone counter-attacked, increasing their Qi consumption rate.

Most of the attacks were dealt with, but some managed to pass and clashed on the domain. The collision increased their consumption rate by 10% again.

Their Qi consumption rate was almost about to double. It would be lucky if they managed to last even eight minutes at this rate.

Zhao Jing encouraged everyone. "Everyone, hang on for some time."

The battle continued for two more minutes, and they were being pushed.

"Run"

Suddenly, Zhao Jing heard the signal.

"Everyone retreat."

Zhao flew away as fast as he could, and the rest of the team followed suit.

The Wyvern was slightly puzzled by their action. Suddenly, a lightning bolt appeared before it.

Its body size made it impossible to dodge.

Baam!

The bolt struck the scales, and the lightning spread across 100 meters(328 ft)-leaving scalding scales and burnt flesh.

Roarrrrrrrr!

The wyvern roared in anger. However, an orb size of a car appeared before it.

The energy within the orb sent chills down its spine.

'Ice Coffin'

'Gravitational Field'

The wyvern enclosed the orb with a thick layer of ice and created a gravitational field around it in hopes of countering.

Suddenly, the wyvern heard a sound. 'Detonate'

Within a millisecond, the orb tuned into plasma and started expanding. The plasma started clashing with the 'ice coffin', and melted within a few milliseconds.

Thanks to the 'gravitational field', the plasma only expanded a radius of 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) and evaporated everything within.

Screeeeeeeeeeccccccchhhhhhhhhh!

The wyvern screeched in agony, but its screech was overshadowed by the flames that spread across a  radius of 6 kilometers (3.7 miles), and it was followed by powerful shockwaves that spread across a radius of 30 kilometers (18.6 miles), sweeping everyone including Grim.

***

Frontlines

A fierce battle was ongoing.

Suddenly, they saw a powerful flash, followed by an enormous ball of fire, shockwaves, and dust clouds in the distance.

Both sides ceased the attacks and glanced in the direction of the commotion.

"My disciple"

"Brother, Grim"x200

Everyone from the "Faith' academy had an anxious look.

Suddenly, a giant mantis attacked Lou Xiang catching her off guard.

"Master, look out!" Ren Dan and Gu Lan warned Lou Xiang.

A spike flew out of nowhere and impaled the mantis.

Fang Meng yelled. "Focus on your battle first if you don't want to die before determining the details."

"Yes, sect leader."

Everyone regained their senses and continued the battle.

***

The dust clouds settled after half an hour.

Crackle! Crackle! Crackle!

The ground shook, and a hand appeared. Afterward, the man dug himself out.

Cough! Cough!

The man yelled. "Is anyone else alive?"

"I'm here."

"I'm here as well."

"Me too."

The man heard multiple responses and breathed a sigh of relief. Most of them were severely injured due to the fire, and the shockwaves.

Crackle! Crackle!

Grim and the clone also dug their way up.

Zhao Jing ran toward Grim. "Brother Grim, you are alive as well."

"Yeah, but most of my Qi has been exhausted. What's the situation with others?" asked Grim.

"Wait, let me check."

Zhao Jing began counting the number of cultivators.

One...

Two...

....

Ten...

Zhao Jing yelled. "Ten? We're supposed to be twelve. Who's missing from here?"

Everyone started investigating and concluded.

Ren Ping reported. "Brother Zhao, inspectors from the beast alliance, and the merchant alliance are missing."

The atmosphere turned gloomy at the sudden realization.

Rumble! Rumble! Rumble!

The ground began to shake.

Swoosh!

Suddenly, a tail emerged from underground and wrapped around Grim's body. Then, it crushed the body into bits leaving the head to roll over.

Everything transpired too fast for anyone to react including Grim.

Everyone was shocked.

The clone screamed. "Nooooooooooooooo."

The wyvern's body emerged from the rubble. Its majestic appearance was nowhere to be seen. Half of its body had fourth-degree burns, and the other half had burnt patches.

Most of its scales were missing, making it look like a pangolin without scales. (Don't google it.)

As for its beautiful face, it had deformed into the face that 'only a mother could love'.

"Haha, you're next human."

The Wyvern lunged toward Zhao Jing with its mouth wide open.

***

'Aerial'

The clone appeared before Zhao Jing and kicked him out of the way.

Zhao Jing yelled. "Brother Grim."

But it was already too late. The wyvern gobbled up the clone.

The wyvern snickered. "You're a lucky human. But he can't save you anymore."

It dashed at Zhao Ming again without realizing ticking the time bomb he had ingested.

Meanwhile, inside the wyvern.

'Energy Burst'

An orb appeared before the clone and grew slowly.

Suddenly, the wyvern had a bad omen.

As before, the clone forcefully injected all his Qi, causing the orb to grow immediately.

'Detonate'

The orb turned into plasma and expanded till it hit the inner walls of the wyvern's body.

The wyvern started ballooning as a result-forcing it to halt.

The cultivators noticed the sudden change.

Zhao Jing had a bad omen and yelled. "Everyone run for your lives."

***

It is said that a decapitated head can have consciousness for 4-5 seconds, determined by the amount of oxygen in the head.

It's safe to say, Grim had about 30 seconds at most.

'Life Flux'

Then he closed his eyes and took a nap. So he wouldn't use up his oxygen supply by thinking about useless things.

Suddenly, he heard a notification.

"Not enough Qi for ability."

He was annoyed. "Not now, system."

'Life Flux'

"Not enough Qi for ability. You will die in 28 seconds."

"27 seconds"

Grim tried to think of something, but nothing came to his mind. (I wonder why that is)

"25 seconds"

He relented. "Ok, Ok. I'm all ears."

The system replied. "The host can siphon Qi from the crystals. But doing so will damage the crystal."

"Ok, then I'll do it. I don't have any choice."

He agreed quickly.

Suddenly, he remembered something.

"Wait a minute. My entire body was crushed and crystal along with it. How am I supposed to siphon Qi out of nothing?"

The system replied. "Your second and third have been crushed, but your first crystal is unharmed."

Grim was shocked. "It's unharmed? how?"

The system replied. "Forget about that fried chicken, even if Colonel Sanders were to arrive, he couldn't harm the crystal."

"20 seconds."

Grim panicked. "Alright, alright. How do I do?"

The system replied. "Let your thoughts control the crystal."

Grim thought about the crystal, and a black crystal flew out of the rubble and landed in his face.

'Life Flux'

Soon, body parts started regrowing below his head while rapidly consuming Qi.

Just when he was about to run dry, the dark crystal supplied him with more.

***

Grim was still recovering.

[Congratluation to the host for eliminating the Wyvern]

Ding! Ding!

[The host has unlocked quests to unlock the next level system upgrade]

A quest had been created.

Step 1: Extract 10 crystals from Planar-realm beasts

Step 2: ?????          ]

Rumble! Rumble!

Suddenly, the ground began shaking.

He rolled his head toward the source of the sound and saw a bright flash.

"Not this again."

He knew what was about to happen, and he didn't like it.

'Vigor'

He strengthened his incomplete body by 110x and bit the crystal.

Soon, plasma, fire, and shockwaves caught up with him. However, his only concern was the shockwave since he could endure a temperature of 5300 °C (9572 °F).

The wyvern had to endure most of the pressure and the temperature from the 'energy burst'. So the aftermath was only 25% of the previous explosion.

However, it was enough to toss away his incomplete body like a leaf by the shockwaves and be buried somewhere by the end.

***

Pthui!

Zhao Jing spits out the dust. Then, he began calling out and searching for the remaining cultivators.

All the cultivators were assembled an hour later except Grim, they couldn't find him no matter how much they searched.

Tao Shun mentioned. "We should search for Brother Grim longer."

However, Kong Ming interjected. "You already saw one getting crushed and the other blowing inside the wyvern. Instead of wasting time here, we should help in the frontlines."

Zhao Jing and Tao Shun yelled. "You ungrateful bastard. You would be inside the beast's stomach if not for Brother Grim."

However, the rest of the cultivators sided with Kong Ming.

Ren Ping stated. "Brother Zhao, Brother Tao, we should focus on clearing the frontlines for now. We can organize a search for Brother Grim after that."

Zhao Jing snorted. "You too? You guys can piss off. I'll search myself if I have to."

Tao Shun commented. "I'll come too, Brother Zhao."

Zhai Jing and Tao Shun began searching for Grim, while the rest went to the front.

[Evo points left: 10,444,750]