Even if it’s a false death, I don’t need to feel the sensation of being devoured by this beast! Time slowed down at the waves of death covering his senses. The Crystalisk would soon devour him completely, within the next moment. With staff in hand, Shuren forwent any notion of blocking the bite. His weapon would shatter in an instant.

If only I could use a sword, I’d just have to cut his eyes away! This thing is the strongest against blunt damage.

Watching the pulsating mass of flesh in its upper mouth, Shuren’s arms burst with energy and Qi. I have to put everything in this attack. More than a 100% of my Qi Aura!

Fingers gripping his weapon, Shuren waited for the last moment possible. When the Crystalisk would be most vulnerable.

His vision was replaced from the skies to the lurching darkness of the beast, its maws now ready to clench together in a devastating bite of ravenous death.

Shuren roared, stabbing his staff towards the upper roof of the Crystalisk’s mouth. It pierced through the flesh towards the head with squelching sounds.

His eardrums almost burst from the maddening roars of the Crystalisk as his world shook in chaos. He ignored the pain and soreness in his arms, gathering strength once more with the slivers of Qi he had left. Using his embedded staff as an anchor, he leapt himself out of its maws and used its teeth as a footstool to fall towards the ground.

But the beast wouldn’t stop.

With lunatic wrath, the Crystalisk bore with the irritating pain and focused on Shuren with a breath. Incandescent speckled light grew in its mouth to charge up a devastating move. It wasn’t like before, where it took a moment to use the storms of icicle dirks upon Shuren and Ming. This time, it was fast.

Too fast.

Shuren was still falling when its breath formed into a condensed heat beam ready to explode.

Even when the Crystalisk heard that whizzing sound of slicing air, it didn’t care. With its prey now in sight, the Crystalisk roared. To kill those in its domain, the mortals that dared to even injure it, and kill even its food that it kept as livestock.

Half its sight turned to blood.

A sword had stabbed right into its left eye.

“How’s it feel being the bait for once, aye?!”

Shuren couldn’t be so glad hearing his taunting voice. Flipping himself over to gain balance, he landed with ease.

“Looks like we’re both disarmed, huh,” Ming said as he rubbed his shoulder.

“You’re good. The Wu Clan trains their members well.” In a rare gesture, Shuren complimented Ming. He looked around the battlefield to see if any more cluttered weapons of fallen combatants laid around.

They surely weren’t the only one who had traversed the heart of this volcanic region.

When they both heard the slammingof the Crystalisk landing firmly on the ground to scrape the sword out of its eye, both Shuren and Ming ran towards the fallen weapons in the distance.

In a few moments, Ming grabbed the broad sword by the side. Likewise, Shuren grabbed a spear opposite him as well.

Shuren forced his injuries and soreness to the side, even though his body cried to sit down and cycle Qi. Though he’d use all of his Qi Aura for that one strike, he could still siphon out more Qi in the reserves within his body.

The reserves of Qi within a cultivator’s body were different from the ones they used externally to envelop their body in Aura. In basic terms, the higher your Stage, the more reserves you could hold.

In an analogy, If a Stage 3 had akin to 3 gourds of Qi reserves within his body, usually his Qi Aura would be the amount of a single gourd. Shuren at Stage 6 had 6 gourds worth of Qi reserves, and had already used half of all his reserves available in his battles, with only 3 more gourds left with of Qi reserves.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

But the torn muscles in his arms would take a bit more time to heal. Shuren bore with the pain and waited for the Crystalisk to approach him.

The Crystalisk didn’t approach them whatsoever.

Its crystalline spine, that once glistened with light, now turned dim.

A sharp spear of light shot out from its mouth, reaching at the distance Shuren was at in a blink. Shuren reacted at the last moment, only to feel the burning pain.

A chunk of his outer shoulder had torn off.

But he didn’t dare hold a hand to cover his injured shoulder.

The spear of light wasn’t just a spear. It was a condensed breath, like a stream of high pressure water shot out from a Marshen Lobster. The beast swung its head around wildly, with its high pressure breath of hot light destroying chunks of rocks and whizzing past both Shuren and Ming.

Ming ran even as it burnt some of his hips to the side. “Now’s the time. I can feel it, this is our biggest chance!” He yelled with madness, weaving and ducking past the chaotic breath of destruction.

Shuren, not wanting to be held behind, took action as well. His crystal veins are losing colour. This must be its last move. If so, it shouldn’t be as impervious anymore!

Spear in tow, Shuren edged closer to the Crystalisk. For over half a minute, it continued to destroy half the volcanic mountain, yet barely deal with the prey it looked down on before. But even its wild dance of chaotic breath slowed down.

It was exhausted.

And none of them would let up now.

The Stage 8 Deviant Beast and apex of the volcano, was now ripe for the slaughter.

Having closed the gap, Shuren jumped on its back. Ming followed as well, jumping towards its head. Even when the Crystalisk stumbled around and shook its body to get the mice off its back, they didn’t budge.

Shuren did a wild swing on the spine of the beast, this time shattering the crystals with ease. He didn’t even need the blunt force of the staff. The spear was more than enough.

With each portion of the crystal spine destroyed, the lifeline of the Crystalisk diminished. Ming stabbed deep into the crown of the beast, using the weight of the broadsword as part of his force.

The whimpering roars was the horn of celebration.

Shuren ensured it couldn’t use any more devastating attacks, crippling it. Ming was the executioner, stabbing deep into its head.

The heated surface of its back was replaced by the air as both fell to the ground, surrounding by glistening motes of blue lights.

And in its stead, six crystals rolled around.

Shuren, still wielding his weapon, stared at Ming. Likewise, he did the same.

Both tired and exhausted, but Shuren was far more injured and weaker than the other.

They both raised their weapons, charging up for a final move.

Shuren threw his spear right past Ming, while Ming did the same with his original blood-covered sword.

The groans of two lurkers hiding amongst the boulders and destruction of the battlefield came out, dying in an instant with the weapon piercing their hearts.

Hearing their bangle hum, 400 points were now added to their rankings. Both decided to look up the current top 5.

Rank 1. Aerestia. 950 points.

Rank 2. Wu Ming. 900 points.

Rank 3. Zhou Yan. 820 points.

Rank 4. Liu Shuren. 770 points.

Rank 5. Huang Shi Junyu. 660 points.

Shuren focused on the man on Rank 50, who he didn’t expect to still be hanging around.

Rank 50. Tez. 170 points.

But that wasn’t the main problem. If Wu Ming tried to kill him now, not only would he get all six crystals, he’d gain an additional 770 points with the new rules.

“Relax. We take half, and move on. How about that?” Ming read Shuren’s mind, suggesting a truce. Though, in actuality, he wasn’t even sure if he could cleanly defeat Shuren. It wasn’t worth a battle to the death for now.

Both didn’t have their weapons in hand anyway, so Shuren and Ming took their crystals.

With the burst of the first crystal, all of their injuries were healed. Even Ming’s broken wrist was no more. A worthy reward for dealing with one of the five strongest beasts in the test.

With the second, both Shuren and Ming received differing scrolls held in their hands.

This is… A Rank 1 Dome Formation. I can trap any opponents in the vicinity temporarily to deal with them. Not bad.

With the third. Ming received a flying eagle as a mount. This time much larger, he could sit on it safely rather than being dragged by the hand. “Don’t die off before the end, alright?”

“You underestimate me. I’ll take first place soon enough,” Shuren retorted with absolute confidence.

“Ha! We’ll see about that,” Ming said as he used Qi Tether to regain his sword.

Shuren nodded in acknowledgement, waiting for Ming to fly off.

He activated the third crystal, this time gaining a glowing rune on his chest that soon melted into his skin.

“This is… A Sacrosanct Artifact? I can survive a fatal blow once? This is easily the best trump card I could’ve gotten!” For once, Shuren held a wide smile with the reward.

Sacrosanct Artifacts were the defence of cultivators, while Zeal Artifacts were the offence. Usually in the form of armour or accessories that boosted one’s health, external or internal defences, or even boost regeneration or stamina.

With two lives, he could take liberty into being even more on the offensive, and make use of even more tactics in battle. The options were unlimited!

The sounds of crackling thunder and shattering glass soon jolted Shuren out of his excitement, making him stare eastward.

And what he saw was a strange field coming closer towards him. At every step, it made the region crumble away into fragments.

The world itself was being eaten away.