Hu Tao could barely keep up with the 1st stage Qi Consolidator when he himself was a 4th stage Qi Consolidation fighter. This confused his brain greatly as he briefly didn’t understand why he was getting smacked around by this nobody. His skills weren’t bad but the real problem Hu Tao had was, he had no idea who this person was! Well, kind of. He knew that this guy was a disciple of one of the Head Elders but that’s about it.
Then just as Hu Tao was sent flying into the air from a giant boomerang rising into his gut, it hit him. He understood why this fucking loser was beating the shit out of him.
“You’re not as scary as the Inner Court faction leaders made you out to be.” Tang jumped after the flying Hu Tao.
“You’re not as smart as you fucking think you are, idiot!” Hu Tao laughed as multiple sections of his chain rose from the ground and snaked towards Tang.
Since he was in the air, it was impossible for him to dodge an attack like this. With several chains shooting towards him in all directions, Hu Tao thought this battle would be over soon. He cackled while falling back down to the earth as he watched Tang’s impending death. Even he would be strongly pressed if faced against an attack that gave him no chance to escape.
“Hmph.” Tang scoffed. “Heavenly Rotation!”
Using his qi to propel himself, Tang rapidly spun in a circle with his boomerang. A feat that was only possible due to Tang Wuying’s connection with Tyanir! The otherworldly god of acceleration has awakened his mind and body to a new form of qi that no other person in the world has, acceleration qi! This type of qi gave Tang agility that others couldn’t compare to.
A spinning dome of qi appeared around himself. Hu Tao’s chains bounced off when they impacted against this barrier and fell back to the ground. The owner of the chains was watching everything as he landed back on the ground. He didn’t have much longer to continue this fight. His iron ball was going to crash any minute now and with his current strength, he doubted he could deal with this kid.
“What’s your name, kid?” Hu Tao asked.
“What's the point of giving my name to a dead man?” He responded.
“I’ll find you again when I'm not injured. You seem like you’d be fun to fight against.” Hu Tao grinned.
“Hmph. If you think I'll let you leave just because you’re injured, you’re insane. I’m not so foolish to let someone who tried to touch my woman stay alive.” Tang’s qi exploded as the yellow markings on his skin brightly glowed.
Tang utilized Calm Heart and only focused on a single thought. Killing Hu Tao. Every unnecessary thought floating around in his brain was gotten rid of as he prepared himself to kill Hu Tao. All of his training in preparation for the Grand Tournament seeped into his bones. He’s practiced these movements daily against his 3rd Senior. While they may have failed against him, other people were a different matter altogether.
Hu Tao would’ve tapped into the power hidden in his chains but. He was just a clone! What a fucking shame that a good fight like this couldn’t be enjoyed to the fullest. As his head went flying in the middle of thinking, the only regret in his heart was not being able to fight at full strength.
----------------------------------------
Before Hu Tao’s metal ball crashed, several of the other clones were chasing after those fleeing. Many died, some were injured, and very few got away without any injuries. All of the clones that went against the faction leaders died but brought back very useful information to Hu Tao that Jing would love to hear. That crazy bitch loved learning about everything. Names, fighting styles, habits during fighting, habits out of fighting, what kind of spirit tools and weapons they had, if those spirit tools and weapons had any special effects, and just all sorts of shit that was difficult for a man like Hu Tao to keep track of. He could barely remember to bathe sometimes.
Stolen novel; please report.
But of course, Hu Tao would do his best for the woman he fell in love with! There’s nothing that pains his heart more than not living up to his woman’s expectations. Hu Tao’s ball was seconds away from landing. The ground beneath him began to slowly swallow him up as he entered his pocket dimension to avoid the impact. Unfortunately for Hu Tao there was someone watching him the entire time just waiting for the perfect chance to step in.
“It usually isn’t my style to do things this way, but it is deserving, don’t you think?” Manchu appeared next to Hu Tao’s half-swallowed body and pierced a metal sword through his throat from underground.
Hu Tao couldn’t even fucking curse this fucking shit bag motherfucker piece of shit before he was suddenly sucked into the sword. Manchu got a brief glimpse of the bright room inside that black ooze Hu Tao was going down into and saw two people next to the remains of a third one. He was curious about the alternate space Hu Tao had but right now didn’t have the time for such a thing. Because he sealed Hu Tao away in this Immortal Capturing Blade, the speed of the black ball above increased in speed.
Manchu slapped a movement spell on himself and appeared on top of the ball to suck it in as well. If he tried escaping to the left or right of it to escape its range, it would simply change directions and chase him around. He wasn’t the type of person to play with fate when he saw that Hu Tao himself was planning to avoid his own weapon. So, the black sky suddenly cleared up for those below ground.
A cloud of dust appeared underneath his feet and stopped him from falling. Now that his part of the deal with Meili was complete, all he had to do was avoid Hu Tao’s mysterious leader and capture ghosts for the remaining day left of the test. If a woman like that could chain Hu Tao down for several months, there was no doubt in Manchu’s mind that she kept very very deep secrets. She was even rumored to become the sect leader’s personal disciple in the future. It made sense that a person such as that would be capable of keeping Hu Tao on a leash.
----------------------------------------
“Lei Zhi, I have a task for you.” A message only for him appeared on Heaven’s Angels message talisman.
“Yes?” He replied back.
“I will soon send you a talisman that can sense life signatures. Stronger life signatures sound like a normal person’s heart beating. Weaker life signatures are weaker and harder to hear. My task for you is to save as many disciples as you can within these next three days. With your skills reaching the intermediate stage in God’s Fingers and the practical experience you’ll gain here. I believe you can save a least one thousand disciples before the end of the tournament.”
“Save as many disciples as I can...?” Lei Zhi had to open up his eyes and rub them to make sure he wasn’t seeing things.
“That’s right. Good luck.”
Runt stood by on the side. Lei Zhi was surprised to hear that Jing had such a task for him but as he thought about it, this task was probably given to him because of who he was. While he was curious to know why she wanted him to save as many people as he could, it wasn’t like he was going to refuse either. When else could he get the chance to help people like this for a reward?
“We got to help people now?” Runt asked.
“Well, I do. You don’t have to if it's too much trouble. If we encounter one of the others, you can join up with them while I try to help people.” Lei Zhi didn’t want to force the boy if he didn’t want to.
“Are we still going to capture ghosts?” Runt was the one mostly taking care of ghosts so far. He was gaining a lot of ghosts in his amulet and was proud of his progress so far.
“Of course.” Lei Zhi smiled.
In the distance, with his spiritual sight, Lei Zhi could see a being of water and qi running toward them. He pulled out his fishing rod in preparation for this inhuman creature only to put it away after examining its facial features. It was a technique of Jing’s. In its hand was a talisman filled with potent qi.
“To use it, just pour some qi inside of it.” Jing’s water clone told him, placing it in his hand.
“Alright.” Lei grabbed the talisman and the thing that resembled Jing collapsed into a small puddle.
“Was that supposed to happen...?” Runt questioned, a little bit freaked out.
“I suppose its only job was to give me this.” Lei figured.
“What is that?” He asked.
“It’ll help me save people.” Lei Zhi wasted no time in putting it to use.
Several heartbeats of varying volume came from the talisman. As the qi he sent into the talisman was sent in, some within it also came into his own body. Allowing him to accurately find the location of the heartbeats.
“Follow me.” Without a word, Lei Zhi began running off into the forest. Xiang gurgled in excitement at the fast speeds they were going.