Chapter 591 566: Departure

The first ray of sunlight had just cut across the morning horizon, and the sky was still hovering between darkness and light.

The flock of Ice Cone Birds maintained its dense patrol formation, flying through a stretch of sky that appeared perfectly normal.

Their wings glimmered with the luster of ice crystals in the morning light. With each flap, they stirred up fine flecks of frost, leaving faint white trails in the air.

The lead Ice Cone Bird was a size larger than its companions, with a wingspan of nearly forty feet. Ice-cone-shaped plumes stood erect on the back of its head as it looked down upon all moving life on the ground.

It suddenly tilted its head slightly, its eyes twitching unnaturally.

But that incredibly faint spatial fluctuation was too fast. So fast that before the nerve signal could even travel from its pupils to its brain, the void beside it abruptly tore open.

Ah Ji was the first to appear from the spatial rift.

It stood atop a thick branch of Rootless Wood that jutted horizontally out of the void. Deep within the grooves of the wood's bark were trace amounts of Fire Element absorbed from a previous battle, which now glowed with the faint, dark red warmth of residual heat under the morning sun.

As a being with a Light and Dark Body, its Shadow Mimicry skill activated. It wore a Shadow Cloak that coalesced into a gigantic, hollow suit of armor burning with Soul Fire.

It focused its mind and gathered its power, directly activating Spiritual Awakening. The explosive surge in its Spiritual Power instantly elevated it to the level of a Five-star Pet Beast.

Then, emulating the posture of a Ghost Beast, yet infused with its own new understanding gained through Evolution, it unleashed a punch.

From within the void, Ah Kun simultaneously let out a whale-like cry imbued with the Fear Attribute.

It was deep, long, and incredibly piercing.

The spiritual pressure from that punch resonated perfectly with the fear-laced vibrations of the whale cry. In that instant, two completely different Spiritual Attacks collided, erupting into a psychic crest of combined fear and ferocity that swept out in all directions.

In that moment, every Ice Cone Bird on the scene felt as if something had suddenly exploded deep within their minds.

An uncontrollable fear, like ice-cold water, poured down their spines and into their brains, forcing out their most primitive, instinctual shivers.

They didn't dare to look back, as if a single glance would mean execution by the shadows behind them, as if some shapeless entity would snap their necks with a single bite.

Their wings froze in unison. Their ice-cone plumes collided uncontrollably, creating a dense sound of shattering ice, like someone had dumped an entire crate of icicles onto a vast, empty sheet of ice.

Immediately after, a silent Illusory Dream Tide seeped out from another void rift.

The Rainbow Wing Butterfly's fluctuations spread through the air like an extremely faint, thin, colorful mist, which transformed into an inescapable illusion the moment it touched the Ice Cone Birds' eyes.

The pupils of one Ice Cone Bird after another began to dilate as the image of a butterfly-like Divine Beast, awakened from a previous ancient era, appeared in their minds.

It had no face, no voice—only a pair of wings that blotted out the sun and sky, and an absolute, nerve-freezing pressure that made the ice-cone plumes all over their bodies tremble uncontrollably.

「On the ground below.」

The teams that were already in position began to act in unison.

The Grass Element group's Pet Beasts launched packets of potent, compressed Hallucinogenic Herbs into the air.

At almost the same moment, the Wind Element Pet Beasts in position activated their Skills.

Gust after gust of short, powerful wind pushed the powder packets upward, detonating them at a designated altitude.

High above, Cyan Treasure's Storm Ball suddenly appeared and detonated, scattering a massive amount of the powder. The Storm Ball also contained water vapor, and with its Quasi-Path Level Control Power, it combined the powder and water into a dense medicinal cloud that enveloped every single Ice Cone Bird.

The Ice Cone Birds were still immersed in the terror of the giant butterfly shadow created by the Illusion Tide when their nostrils were filled with the dense cloud of Hallucinogen molecules.

They had no time to resist, nor the mental space to identify whether this invasion was from the Spiritual Element or the Chemistry Element.

From within the void rift, Gu Ming was retracting the coverage of the Rootless Wood, checking on the situation every few moments.

Lu You occasionally had the Rainbow Wing Butterfly poke out from the rift and flap its wings to generate another Illusory Dream Tide, adding another layer of control to push any individuals showing signs of the drug's effects fading back into a state of submission.

This operation continued for about twenty-odd minutes.

When the first Ice Cone Bird finally stumbled out of the layers of control and fell to the ground, its movements had completely lost the characteristic grace and ferocity of its flying kind.

The way it folded its wings was like that of a great, exhausted bird that had had its bones removed. When its feet touched down, it staggered two steps, its knees buckling as it nearly knelt on the gravelly ground.

An Ice Cone Bird's plumes should have fanned out vertically to intimidate enemies when it felt fear, but right now, the row of icicles was plastered flat against its head, like a common bird soaked by a downpour. A low, almost whimpering cry escaped its throat.

Following that, the entire flock began to land one by one, like a row of falling dominoes.

One after another, their ice-cone wings made faint, splintering sounds as they touched the ground.

They kept their eyes squeezed shut, eyelids trembling violently, yet they dared not open them. Their long necks were bowed extremely low, beaks nearly touching the ground, as if offering the most humble submission to some unseen presence.

No one dared to let down their guard. They cautiously approached to investigate.

A team member had their Spiritual Pet Beast release a detection wave to scan a nearby Ice Cone Bird, confirming that the emotional fluctuations in its brain were a chaotic mess.

The fear's paralysis, layered with the brand of the Illusory Dream Tide, and then covered by the continuous corrosion of the Hallucinogen—this triple suppression had pushed their hostility down to the deepest level of their consciousness.

They couldn't distinguish the boundary where reality and illusion met.

No one spoke, but everyone exchanged the same look.

'We did it.'

People came forward one after another, using temporary wooden reins made from Cyan Treasure's Rootless Wood to harness the birds for temporary riding.

The Beastmasters tried using different levels of Spiritual Power fluctuations to guide them to spread their wings.

Gentle guidance didn't work. Neither did a normal or even an authoritative tone.

The group couldn't help but start to panic.

"What do we do? Our Beastmaster commands aren't working. These Demon Fiends' minds have been too heavily eroded—they've lost all rationality."

Their rationality was low to begin with; it would have been a miracle if they could be controlled after multiple layers of mental manipulation.

Over on Lu You's side, her Spiritual Power stirred. She mimicked her Rainbow Wing Butterfly and sent them the sternest signal to take flight.

The situation on the scene changed instantly.

The Ice Cone Birds tremblingly spread their wings, assuming a submissive posture.

When the first pair of icy wings unfurled in the morning light, their shadows on the ground merged into one.

Someone tilted their head back to watch the pairs of wings slice through the daylight. The silent group of riders finally broke out in an irrepressible, enthusiastic cheer.

Some waved their arms forcefully, others slapped their companions hard on the shoulder.

A middle-aged Beastmaster even picked up his dandelion Pet Beast and lifted it over his head, happier than he had ever been.

"Miss Lu You, your Rainbow Wing Butterfly is truly incredible," Tie Chenfeng said in admiration.

He could sense that commands from ordinary Pet Beasts were useless, and even the Beastmasters' own commands were ineffective.

But the Rainbow Wing Butterfly carried the aura of an ancient Fierce Beast. It was that specific presence that made this group of irrational Demon Fiends move according to their instinctual fear.

Their survival instincts were kicking in.

Many people on site still hadn't figured out the connection. Only those who understood this point truly knew how powerful Lu You's Pet Beast was.

At that moment, Gu Ming, riding his Cyan Cloud Falcon, came to a stop in front of the formation of newly tamed Ice Cone Birds.

His gaze swept over every face looking up at him. He didn't waste time with cliché declarations like "We are victorious!" but simply waved his hand forward.

"Move out!"