Xue Yueliang stayed still for a few moments, paying attention to the movements in her surroundings. She carefully turned to face wherever the sound had come from, vigilant, but her caution did not manage to bear any fruit. The mystery creature did not descend to attack her, nor did it leave her to her own designs. This left Xue Yueliang in the situation she hated the most - a stalemate.

"How bothersome."

She would be at a great disadvantage if she had to fight a creature she could not see. It would also be more troublesome since that creature could fly too.

Clicking her tongue, she jumped onto Hei Yu's head and exclaimed, "Invincible Sword Swirl."

Rings of sword Qi formed with her as the centre, and cleared the surrounding area of the poisonous fog, showing the beast that had been circling her.

The beast was faint grey in colour, it had two hind legs, and in place of its two front legs were wings. Its grey colour appeared like that of a corpse in her mind, and as if to confirm her suspicions, the flesh around its chest seemed to be rotting. The beast appeared both familiar and strange in her eyes. Seeing that she had witnessed it, it retreated deeper, releasing shrill cries.

"A wyvern?" She questioned.

She did not expecting such a creature to exist in this world, but considering how little she knew, it was not too surprising. There was no reason it could not exist here, and although she found them to be similar, there were still differences.

Due to the natural flora and fauna of the place, the poisonous miasma was replaced quickly enough, returning the visibility to where it was before.

"Roar!"

This time the sound came from much closer than before, and looking up she could see its ghastly black claws reaching for her face.

"Invincible Sword Slash!" She said hurriedly, slashing her blade against its sharp claws, and a sharp noise was heard.

Increasing her strength, Xue Yueliang managed to cut through it, and dark green drops of blood flowed down. Although her flames evaporated the majority before they could land on her, a drop fell on the hand holding the blade, causing her arm to sizzle. The drop sank into her flesh and melted away, leading to gooey flesh and blood landing on Hei Yu's fur, as a clean hole appeared on her fair hand. The pain caused her expression to change, and the wyvern flapped away, allowing her to process what just happened.

"Its blood is acid?" She hoped to use the Blood Moon Contaminates All to see from its point of view, but that did not seem possible now.

The strange things she seen recently kept on piling up, and she had to change her plans once again. Jumping off Hei Yu's back, she increased the strength of the Berserk Dragon Flame to its maximum and walked on her own feet, allowing Hei Yu to go forward on his own.

Since she injured it, she would be the main target, which would let Hie Yu fight other beasts on his own and allow her to reap benefits from two sides. Since this place was most likely a tournament, she did not think that it would be purposefully difficult and danger to her life should be minimal. Besides, from the first attack, she had some confidence in handling herself.

"Well, let's play," she laughed.

"Blood Moon waves." She said, attacking upward at an angle with every wave moving at a slightly different trajectory than the last, ensuring that at least one would harm it.

"Roar!"

The wyvern cried out, breathing out concentrated green fumes destroying her attacks and its attack made its way to her unimpeded. Her expression changed as she quickly jumped off to the side, fleeing to the outskirts of the attack. Even without being at the centre, some of the poison still managed to sneak through her defences.

The poison sunk into her arm, clinging onto her as it wished to meet her from the inside out. Thankfully the Berserk Dragon Flame had resided in her body for a long time, increasing her natural immunity, not allowing to get any deeper.

If only I had that crossbow, she thought.

Sadly, she could not store it before, and by the time she returned to where she had left it, it was already gone. Since the wyvern refused to land on the ground, she could not fight it on equal ground, but at least the strength of its attack was also weakened due to the distance.

I need to cut off its wings. Determining her target, Xue Yueliang felt at ease and caused her Qi to rush toward her legs, hoping to jump high enough to aim a clear attack.

Striking in mid-air would limit her flexibility, but that could not be worse than being unable to see your target. Jumping high up, she appeared like a shooting star while heading to the last place the previous attack had come from.

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As soon as she saw its silhouette, she raised her sword high up and swung, "Invincible Sword Slash!"

She had aimed for its wing but forgot that the wings were the most powerful defence for flying beasts, and her attack only left a faint cut. She clenched her teeth as she began her descent, using her flames to weaken her fall and landing gently on the ground.

What to do?

Her gaze darted around and hoped to think of something of use, it was an unpleasant feeling, not knowing how to defend or to attack, but she was not ready to give up yet. While dodging the wyvern's attacks, Xue Yueliang used all of her strength to think of a way out of this stalemate, but no real solutions appeared in her head.

After an incense stick's worth of time, Xue Yueliang clenched her teeth and declared, "Sometimes there's no other choice than to face things head-on."

Steeling her resolve, she once again jumped toward the beast, using more strength than last time as she hoped to land right on it. She felt there must be a reason it refused to get closer to her, and since she could not leave without killing it, she had to do something more drastic.

The wyvern screeched and spewed out toxic gasses, but the flames around her formed a faint dragon silhouette and roared right back at it, protecting her in the meantime but causing her face to pale. Sweat beaded down her forehead as her consumption of spiritual Qi was becoming higher than her recovery rate.

She used her to form a tiny platform under her feet, and although it was shattered the very next second, it allowed her to do a mid-air flip and land on its head. As soon as her feet landed, a faint sizzling sound was her word, as her shoes were slowly eroded.

"How unlucky," she complained. She was running out of spiritual Qi and would find it difficult to protect herself, she could already imagine the mangled flash her feet would become, upsetting her, but if she wanted to minimise the damage, she had to kill it quickly.

"Invincible Sword Slash," she tried again, hoping to cut off its head, but to no avail. The only damage her sword caused was a small cut on its neck, barely an injury.

"Roar!!" It roared out as it flipped over, hoping to shake her off, causing annoyance to flash in Xue Yueliang's face.

"Is a roar all you do?" She grumbled, stabbing her sword into the cut that had formed, holding on for dear life.

Fighting that bird was worth it. She thought.

She had previous experience in dangling of beasts that wished to fling her off.

Suddenly an idea formed in her head; she outstretched her arm, creating wind orbs on her palm and quickly increasing its strength. Although she used her flames to enhance the power of the orbs, that did not mean it could not be used alone. Since this beast had a great defence against her sword strikes and her flames were already in use, she had to bet her chances on this attack.

When the three orbs were finally done forming, each was about the size of a fist. She guided them toward the injuries that were already on its body. They landed on the wing, neck and the rotting flesh near its chest and exploded, causing her sword to dislodge. Thankfully she was fully prepared for this and used her Qi to form a standing platform, then jumped right back up, unharmed.

The wyvern, however, was not as prepared. Its injuries were exacerbated, leading to pieces of its flesh falling with its blood, causing great destruction to the beasts underneath it, as wailing cries were heard. Xue Yueliang felt the cold sweat streaming down her back. Even with the Berserk Dragon Flame, she would have been seriously injured if it had all landed on her.

She raised her blade again, "Blood Moon Waves!"

The different waves landed successfully on its neck, causing a bone-deep wound, but it was still not decapitated.

Xue Yueliang was not bothered by this because there was no way it could survive that. The wyvern could no longer keep itself in the air, and it began dropping to the ground as it desperately flapped its remaining wing to slow its descent. Xue Yueliang was faring no better in this regard, as she too began to fall.

She tried to slow down her descent, using her spiritual Qi, but she had a limited amount of spiritual Qi left, making the decision to allow herself to fall to the floor. She curled up as she fell, landing on her arm as she rolled over, absorbing most of the shock.

Sitting up, she was glad that none of her bones was broken, then looked at her injured arm that exposed her flesh to the air. The poison in her arm began to fester and bubble, and if she left it for even a while longer, the poison would spread. Not wanting this to happen, she picked up her sword and scraped off a layer of her flesh, her expression unchanging.

She then stabbed it onto the ground and used it as a clutch to get up, slowly making her way toward where the beast had fallen. Her breathing was ragged as she felt like she would pass out at any second, and her mangled feet stung while walking barefooted on the sand. She relied on her willpower to move forward. Soon she reached the wyvern's side and, noticing her, it tried to roar, but it sounded like a whimper instead.

"So you can make other sounds too," she laughed, glad she could a different type of response from him after all this battle.

The wyvern used its last remaining power to form a final attack, breathing out its final bout of poisonous fumes heading straight toward her. Like the previous times, her flames purified it, but this time, because of her running out of Qi, quite an amount of it had managed to escape. She slashed down with her sword, separating the stream of poison, and it passed by the two sides of her neck, causing the flesh in that area to begin eroding.

"Well, now you've done it," she laughed angrily, and in almost no time, Hei Yu appeared, digging its claws onto the open wound on its neck as it ripped it apart.

Hei Yu had sensed that Xue Yueliang was in danger and had rushed over, quickly killing this beast that had been troubling its master. The anger Hei Yu felt was not diminished after killing the beast as it continued to rip apart its corpse, venting the anger it felt.

"Hei Yu, stop! You will damage your claws," Xue Yueliang reminded, causing him to begrudgingly step back.

Smiling stiffly, Xue Yueliang stored the beast's corpse and began to find it hard to breathe. Since her spiritual Qi was running out, the Berserk Dragon Flame no longer had the fuel it was burning on, so the poison managed to invade her airways.

"Hei Yu, get me out of here," she ordered, feeling her gaze darken. Hei Yu sadly whimpered unhappy that she was injured, and he gently picked her up and put her on its back, rushing out of the hallway to where clean air was present.The door appeared so far away in her eyes, but she comforted herself with the blind faith that she would not die.