The sound didn't come from one direction, but as if the entire sky was wailing in pain.
Everyone couldn't help but cover their ears, arching their backs in agony.
This sound transcended fear, reaching the depths of biological instinct.
Immediately following, was a massive shadow, accompanied by a terrifying whistling that tore through the air, plummeting straight down from the firmament.
Liu Qian abruptly raised his head, his pupils instantly shrinking to pinpoints.
A... no, a beast!
A monstrous bird, so colossal that it was suffocating, tore through the lead-grey cloud cover, diving straight towards them!
Its wingspan was a hundred feet in size, obscuring the already dim sky, instantly dragging the entire bloody ground into an even deeper gloom.
Covering its massive body were not ordinary feathers, but dense, long plumes that shimmered with a bizarre purplish-red metallic luster, rustling in the fierce wind brought about by its dive.
Most chillingly, it had three heads.
Each one was as large as a sturdy colt, covered in the same purplish-red keratinous scales.
Three pairs of eyes burned with an intense desire for slaughter in the grey darkness.
At this moment, its three massive beaks, filled with serrated fangs, opened simultaneously, emitting an ear-splitting shriek, as a foul-smelling gale, laden with the heavy scent of sulfur, swept towards them, seemingly intent on devouring all living things on the ground whole.
Run!
The instinct for survival overwhelmed all hatred.
How could Liu Qian still care about tangling with Gillian?
He was almost relying on reflexes enhanced by Dragon Blood, before the monstrous bird's devastating shadow completely enveloped him, he abruptly stomped on the ground, like an arrow shot from a bowstring, sprinting madly towards the nearest twisted and gnarled forest of withered trees.
The sand underfoot was mixed with viscous blood, making every step exceptionally slippery.
In his ears were the terrified and desperate screams of the guards, the monstrous bird's diving shriek and the roar of its wings tearing through the air, as well as the sound of flesh being torn apart from behind.
Liu Qian didn't dare to look back, he could imagine the horrifying scene.
The Lannister guards' prized half-body plate armor was probably no more sturdy than paper under those giant claws.
Gillian Lannister, how long could his selfish and cold face hold up against this absolute power?
A trace of glee flashed through Liu Qian's heart, immediately drowned by an even stronger desire to survive.
He ran for his life, darting between the tangled roots of the withered trees.
The thick, almost impenetrable white sulfurous mist was everywhere, visibility was less than five steps, every step was taken upon unknown terror.
He didn't know how long he ran, until the terrifying shriek and the human screams behind him were gradually swallowed by the thick fog and distance, that he stopped.
He glanced around, seeing nothing but deathly silence.
Liu Qian exhaled a breath of foul air, finally safe.
At this moment, a bold idea surfaced in his mind.
Was the retreat of the previous scaled monsters so sudden and orderly because they sensed the arrival of this purple-winged beast?
Were they fleeing in fear of a higher-level predator?
At the thought of this, Liu Qian broke out in a cold sweat, the intelligence of the Valyria monsters was beyond his imagination.
He didn't dare to dwell on this question, and then thought of that crazy man.
"Damn Gillian! Damn Lannister!"
Liu Qian gnashed his teeth, cursing silently.
He was only trying to survive, taking a dead man's sword to hack and kill monsters, in the eyes of that blond nobleman, he, as a slave, didn't even have the right to struggle for survival?
Was he supposed to just offer his neck to be slaughtered like livestock?
What was even more hateful was that he didn't hesitate to slaughter those guards who still had a trace of pity.
In his eyes, besides himself, probably even the family guards he swore to protect were nothing more than pawns to be discarded at any time.
This ruthlessness was more chilling than the claws of monsters.
Liu Qian deeply imprinted this icy face in his heart.
Immediately following, he felt regret.
The reason he had delayed with Gillian for so long was mainly to recover his strength, but the arrival of the monstrous bird disrupted his plan to kill and silence him.
Although it seemed that the monstrous bird would help him take Gillian's head, one shouldn't fear ten thousand, but only be afraid of one in case, that Gillian might survive the disaster.
Liu Qian's gaze sank, if Gillian didn't die this time, next time they met, if there was a chance, he would repay him with blood.
Putting aside all distractions, just as Liu Qian was considering how to survive in this cursed land and how to obtain more Dragon Spirit.
Swish... swish... a sound like flowing stream water suddenly came from the depths of the thick fog less than ten steps away to the left.
Liu Qian instantly gripped the steel sword he had seized, the tip of the sword slightly raised, held horizontally in front of his chest, his muscles poised to strike.
There was no one else here, if there was danger, he would not hesitate to activate the system's power.
He slowly moved his feet, his whole person like a ghost merged into the thick fog, quietly probing towards the source of the sound.
The mist was slightly parted by an invisible force, the scene before him made Liu Qian's breath catch.
A small pool of water, about ten meters square, quietly lay in the embrace of the withered forest.
The pool water was not clear, but presented a slightly boiling milky white color, with tiny bubbles constantly emerging from the bottom of the pool.
And the source of the sound was a young girl sitting sideways on the bank of the pool, about twelve years old.
She had her back to Liu Qian, her silver-golden long hair like flowing moonlight, shimmering with a soft and dazzling halo even under this grey sky.
Her skin was almost transparently white, as if carved from the finest mutton-fat jade, emitting a hazy luster in the pervasive steam.
The girl's slender and graceful waist, rounded shoulders, and slender legs were all exposed to the air without concealment, like a water sprite descending into the world from mythology.
She was gently stirring the slightly hot pool water with her slender jade hands, her fingertips tracing across the surface of the water, creating ripples, her expression tranquil.
Even through the thick fog, that breathtaking beauty was enough to make any man's heart beat faster.
She exuded an aura full of vitality, like a bud covered with dew in the early morning, exuding a pure and charming allure, deeply attracting Liu Qian's gaze, making him almost forget the danger of this place.
However, when the girl seemed to sense something, slightly turned her head, revealing her face, Liu Qian only felt a chill instantly rushing from the soles of his feet to the top of his head, making him gasp.
That was a face where an angel and a devil were forcibly stitched together.
The left half of her face was as exquisite as the most perfect masterpiece of the gods, her skin was delicate and flawless, her nose was straight and delicate, her lips were full, and most captivating was that deep purple eye, like the purest amethyst gemstone, deep and mysterious, flowing with starlight, beautiful to the point of suffocation, beautiful to the point of unreality.
But the right half of her face was a creation of hell, dense and hard scales like ugly vines, covering the skin that should have been there.
The same deep purple eye was the cold vertical pupil of a reptile.
Scales! Vertical pupils!
The appearance of this right face was clearly the same as the humanoid monsters that had driven them to the brink not long ago.
But those monsters, their eyes were turbid and violent, their behavior was crazy and bloodthirsty, they had long been reduced to beasts that only knew killing and devouring.
And this girl in front of him, her left face was absolutely beautiful, her expression was tranquil, and she was bathing in this strange boiling spring.
This was clearly the behavior and mentality that only humans have.
The fresh vitality on her body was definitely not something that those walking corpses could possess.
Could this be a survivor of the legendary Valyria doomsday cataclysm?
Some people who looked like this girl instantly came to Liu Qian's mind.
Greyscale patient Shireen Baratheon and the Stone Men of the Shivering Sea.
Although he had never seen a real greyscale patient with his own eyes, the process of skin hardening, keratinous hyperplasia, and eventual transformation into a mindless stone statue described in the memory seemed to be somewhat similar to the symptoms of the girl's right face, but there was an essential difference.
The end of greyscale is complete petrification and stiffness.
And those monsters, the large mouths they opened when attacking, the sharp and messy fangs inside, and the slender tongues that flexibly licked the brain showed that they had not petrified, but had undergone some kind of more terrifying mutation.
He was immersed in this shocking comparison and thought, when a strong and pungent stench drilled into his nostrils without warning.
Something! Very close!
The hairs on Liu Qian's body stood on end, the instinct to fight made him instantly raise his head to find the source of the smell.
The moment his gaze moved upward, a drop of foul-smelling saliva, with a "plop" sound, dripped onto the ashes at his feet.
His heart sank suddenly, Liu Qian's gaze rapidly moved upward along the trajectory of the saliva droplets.
He saw a monster covered in yellowish-brown scales, crouching on a thick branch above his head like a giant gecko.
Its ugly head was lowered, on its pitted scaled face, those scarlet vertical pupils locked onto Liu Qian below, its slender tongue constantly stretched out and retracted, and sticky saliva dripped down.
Its limbs were tense, its claws were deeply embedded in the withered wood, and its whole body was in a ready-to-pounce posture.
The target was Liu Qian's head!