Qi Xu spread his wings, desperately protecting the broken egg on his back, and with Xiao Wu and Xiao Liu, flew with all his might in the opposite direction from the stone cave.
The last cries of the adult birds behind him still echoed in his ears, mixed with the distant, earth-shattering footsteps of a giant beast. Qi Xu felt he had never been so clear-headed. Overwhelmed by grief, he found himself calm.
Qi Xu dared not fly into open areas, but could only cling to the steep cliff face and burrow into the dense thicket of bushes.
The roar of the sleeping behemoth sometimes seemed distant and sometimes approaching, each time making Qi Xu's head buzz as if countless needles were pricking it.
I remember the big black bird's father saying that the giant beast had poor eyesight, but its sense of smell and hearing were extremely sensitive. So it simply landed on a damp mossy ground, used its claws to dig up the wet mud, smeared it on its own and Little Five and Little Six's feathers, and then wrapped the broken eggs in soft dry grass and hid them behind a sunken rock.
"Don't make a sound, don't move," Qi Xu said in a low voice, pressing down on the still trembling Xiao Liu with his wing. "I'll come back for you once I've confirmed it's safe."
Qi Xu had to go check on his parents' condition, even if there was only a sliver of hope, or if he could slightly distract the sleeping behemoth and give his parents a chance to catch their breath.
Xiao Wu and Xiao Liu also snapped out of their panic, nodding vigorously to show they weren't afraid. Holding the broken egg, they tried to stay close to the edge of the cliff, minimizing their presence.
Qi Xu quietly flew out of the bushes, gliding low close to the ground. In the distance, towards the valley, dust billowed, ancient trees were snapped in half, and huge ravines were cracked in the ground.
Yesterday this place was an incredibly beautiful, dreamlike valley, but today... it's all gone.
The sleeping behemoth was such a large and conspicuous target that Qi Xu quickly spotted it. In front of him, two extremely disheveled black figures weaved through the dust and smoke—it was the big black bird's father and mother!
They were flying in the opposite direction from the valley, occasionally letting out sharp cries, clearly trying to distract the giant beast and prevent it from continuing to destroy the valley.
As the saying goes, a mother bird and her child are connected at heart. As if she had a premonition, the mother black bird saw Qi Xu as soon as he arrived nearby.
The mother blackbird's wings were stained with blood, her feathers were disheveled and stuck to her body, and her once sharp eyes were now filled with panic and anxiety.
The moment it caught sight of Qi Xu, it let out a shrill cry, a voice filled with desperate resistance, yet fearing it would attract the attention of the slumbering behemoth, it desperately tried to avoid looking at its cub...
Qi Xu's wings faltered, and his heart felt as if it had been hit hard by a boulder; he couldn't even cry.
The black bird father was swooping down towards the giant beast's eyes with all his might. His sharp claws scratched across the beast's rough skin, but only left a few shallow bloodstains, which only enraged the beast.
The giant beast suddenly raised its forelimbs, bringing a howling wind as it slammed them at the father black bird. The father bird couldn't dodge in time; its wing was grazed, and its body crashed to the ground like a kite with a broken string, rolling a long distance across the rocks. Crimson blood instantly stained the withered grass beneath it.
After landing, it used its last bit of strength to try to prop itself up, but its limbs felt as heavy as lead and it was completely unable to move.
Looking up, the colossal foot of the sleeping beast, as large as the entire sky, was slowly pressing down, its shadow instantly engulfing the heavens and earth. In that critical moment, the mother black bird swooped down, using all her remaining strength to strike the beast's leg...
Unfortunately, it was completely useless. The sleeping behemoth casually tossed it around, and the mother black bird was blasted more than 20 meters away.
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