Chapter 160: Third Trial (6)

Chapter 160: Third Trial (6)

An explosion of spiritual pressure with actual force presses the grass into the dirt and causes Wu Yulans and Lan Xiaohuis expressions to change. Though their hearts are still stable, that roar and accompanying explosion are enough for them to lose their cool briefly.

The origin of that roar is the white tiger before them.

For two months, after visiting the Master of Thousand Calamities Palace, the two ventured into the Forbidden Lands and searched the area relentlessly for the items they needed to cure Yun Fei. Though they never found even a sign of such items, they have become familiar with the demonic beasts and the hierarchy in this place.

This clearing, in the deep forests and valleys of the Forbidden Lands, was the domain of something they called a Beast Lord a supreme existence within its territory. Other demonic beasts would not attack it or challenge it, choosing instead to flee, give way, or even prostrate themselves in front of it. Such behavior was not entirely unusual between demonic beasts, but in the case of the white tiger, it was even more exaggerated.

Furthermore, the Beast Lord would attack anyone that entered its territory with extreme aggression and xenophobia. Nevermind other demonic beasts, cultivators were even higher on its kill list.

As such, every time they ventured into this area, they were aware that the white tiger was hunting them, and, for the most part, they tried to avoid confrontation.

Because the white tiger was a late stage Core Formation demonic beast and a Beast Lord beyond that.

But today, theyve decided that it would die.

Wu Yulan was the first to blast forward, wielding her cyan-white sword in both hands and holding it high above her right shoulder. Her movement was so quick that even I find it difficult to track her motion and predict her trajectory.

This was not the [Eternal Moment Swordsmanship] that she had learned recently, but rather her own style of martial arts that she wielded previously. I praise Wu Yulan for her smart decision to conceal her true strength especially with its vast disadvantages but even so, I find it a dangerous gamble.

A gamble she ends up paying dearly for.

A burst of black energy emits from the white tiger, briefly forming a halo around its body, and the pressure is enough to slow Wu Yulan down just enough for the tiger to not only defend itself but strike back.

Four arcs of black light as solid as swords launch from its claws, screaming and howling through the air as it closes the distance towards Lan Xiaohui.

Lan Xiaohui is charging forward with the Vanishing Moon Steps technique, but as the claws approach, I sense her internal energy immediately enact a rapid transformation. Such a rapid transformation would not be possible for her if it were not for my assistance.

She takes one more step, and before, whenever she stepped on the ground, there would be a black burst of energy from her feet, but this last step, instead, contains purple-white lightning discharges.

Liminality Steps.

She tosses her body into the air, and rotates around her axis, slipping effortlessly between the third and fourth energy arcs. Only the very edge of her sleeve gets caught in the final arc, and is mercilessly torn to shreds by the deadly energy.

Before her arc reaches its peak, her body suddenly propels forward like a comet, completely defying her own inertia, and she lashes out with my vessel which is shrouded in dark, violent energy.

Heartless Blood Lily: Autumn-Severing Petals!

When my vessel strikes the claw, the black energy shrouding my sword solidifies and scatters, falling off my edge like the petals of a lily flower. Each one of these petals vibrates in a peculiar manner, blurring in the vision of normal, mortal creatures. Even in the eyes of the white tiger, the black and red petals that reflect on its glazed surface are smeared across the space, and within that smear of color, countless swords lurk.

To the Heartless Blood Lily, the petals that scatter in the autumn are not submission to season and nature, but defiance of fate to cut the notion of death and withering and to overturn the natural order of the universe.

Then, those pupils that perfectly capture the likeness of those petals, moments before they touch the white tigers skin, narrow to tiny points, before widening completely. But it is too late.

The petals tremble one final time before scattering, releasing the compressed sword energy.

The white tiger howls; my divine-grade vessel cuts through the white tigers claws and sinks into the meat below, severing its right paw; the sword energy within the petals explodes into the tigers body, blowing three large holes into its perfectly snowy fur.

Bloody mist explodes into the air.