Chapter 66: Demonic Arts
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Mt. Spirit Beast was known as a mountain, but it was actually a ma.s.sive mountain range. This mountain range was oddly precipitous in the north-south area; if Jiang Yi wanted to ascend the mountains through the north-south area, it would prove to be a difficult task. The east and west sides had a much flatter surface; there were countless peaks and flats, and it was filled with forests, rocky peaks, or ravines—making the topography of the area rather complex. Of course, it was rather hard to get lost during the Blood Purge; as long as the partic.i.p.ants used the highest peak of the mountain range as a marker, it would be fine. On that highest mountain peak would be the location of the Mt. Spirit Beast College.
These are demonic beasts? There doesn’t seem to be a difference between them and wild beasts though?
Jiang Yi was currently lying on an extremely tall tree and observed six martial artists were surrounding four demonic beasts from afar. These four demonic beasts were like wild boars, which had two tusks but had a back filled with spikes.
In the views of Jiang Yi, these wild boars weren’t as ferocious as the rumors of the demonic beasts. They merely relied on the tusks and spikes to ram into their enemies. The speed might be at the level of someone at the sixth stage of the Cast Tripod Realm, but those six youths and la.s.ses could easily dodge the ramming attacks and counterattack. Had it not been for the wild boars’ thick hide and tough defenses, the wild boars would already have been slain.
“Why won’t the six of them just slay these beasts? One of them is even at the eighth stage of the Cast Tripod Realm, right? Why are they dragging this fight out?”
Jiang Yi was rather puzzled by his thoughts as he locked his sights on a young lady who had the most strength among them. This young lady was around the age of 18; her looks might not be on par with Ji Tingyu but was still considered above average. Her status was obviously the highest among them as well, considering that she was equipped with a fire-red colored long sword artifact. As she thrust to the left and to the right, it would leave streaks of b.l.o.o.d.y wounds on the demonic wild boar. But she would always just take a quick thrust and back away, never using her full strength.
“Be careful!”
Suddenly this young lady yelled and retreated with a burst in speed. The rest of the members began to scatter frantically. Jiang Yi’s spirit got a shock and quickly locked his eyes on those demonic wild boars; he knew that they were about to activate their demonic arts.
Sure enough!
The four demonic wild boars let out some odd grunts; and the dozens of spikes from their spikes suddenly got launched from their bodies, shooting out in all directions like sharp arrows. The spikes flew at lightning speed and were surprisingly powerful enough to penetrate a giant tree in front of Jiang Yi that had the thickness of three human bodies.
Brutal!
Looking at the countless holes that got pierced in these ancient trees, Jiang Yi was shocked in his heart. If the hunter didn’t know that this wild boar was a demonic beast and wasn’t cautious of their spikes, even a martial artist at the eighth or ninth stage of the Cast Tripod Realm would have been penetrated if they were careless.
“Die!”
Those six youths dodged in advance and didn’t suffer any injuries. They rushed in like ferocious tigers and easily slain those weak demonic wild boars which shot out their spikes.
“So those are the tokens?”
Seeing the youths dug out four-finger-width tokens from the four demonic beasts, Jiang Yi got rather curious. These tokens looked ordinary: two of them were red, and the other two were yellow and green. These demonic beasts shouldn’t have these tokens within their bodies by nature. It was obviously placed inside the demonic beasts by formidable mentors from the college.
Seeing everyone handing over the token to that young lady, Jiang Yi realized that these youths were all from the same clan. The rest of them were here to a.s.sist this young lady on the Blood Purge. They would hand over all the tokens they got from the demonic beasts to ensure that she would successfully pa.s.s the Blood Purge.
“Time to work!”
Jiang Yi silently retreated and went around them to begin searching for demonic beasts.
Because he was rather late when he entered the mountain, the other 800 partic.i.p.ants had already spread throughout the forest. Along the way, Jiang Yi could see that there were shadows of people everywhere; and most of them were locked in battle with demonic beasts. He took an entire hour and still wasn’t able to find any singled-out demonic beast.
But after observing a few battles, Jiang Yi got a slightly better understanding of these demonic beasts. All of these demonic beasts possessed some demonic arts: a fire-breathing rhinoceros, a ground dragon beast that could easily dig into the ground, or a hyena that could release poisonous mists. All of which helped Jiang Yi expanded his knowledge of the world.
“This isn’t working. There are only three days left, and the nighttime will be rather dangerous. I need to make full use of the time I have.”
Jiang Yi got rather anxious and decided that he should not search around here anymore. He headed towards the tallest mountain peak in the center; he a.s.sumed that there would be lesser people there since most of the people were here.
As he sprinted for an hour, the topography of the lands became increasingly complex. Had it not been for that tallest mountain peak, anyone would have gotten lost.
“There are indeed lesser people here. Mm… there is a movement ahead; it’s a demonic beast!”
Jiang Yi stopped at a formation of rocks. It was all rocky peaks ahead, and the road was rather unbalanced. Jiang Yi walked in about several hundreds of feet and felt a bone-chilling intent coming from a giant rock on the left side. He instantly retreated and pulled out a green-colored artifact, the Green Destiny Sword that he got from Ma Fei.
What a huge snake.
The demonic beast appeared as it emerged from one of the caves in these rock formations. It was a thick giant python covered in black and brown scales. It had this triangular-shaped head and bloodshot eyes which instilled fear in the hearts of people.
Jiang Yi had battled with humans plenty of times, but this was his first fight with a demonic beast. He knew that all the demonic beasts here were tier-one at best, and their strength would be at the ninth stage of the Cast Tripod Realm at most. Or else, it would be too strong for everyone who partic.i.p.ated in the Blood Purge, but his palm was still sweating profusely.
“Black essence force!”
He instantly channeled a wisp of black essence force to his eyes and retreated to the outside of the rock formations while waiting for the demonic python to appear.
“Hiss Hiss!”
The demonic beast python soon appeared, and its speed was astoundingly fast that Jiang Yi felt fear in his heart. Basing just on the speed, this python at least had the strength of a seventh stage of the Cast Tripod Realm, much faster than those demonic wild boars that he first saw.
“Swis.h.!.+”
This python was at least 30 feet long. As soon as it exited the rock formations, that steel-like tail whipped at Jiang Yi with lightning speed. Had it not been for the black essence force enhancing Jiang Yi’s vision, he would only be able to see a black shadow flash and wouldn’t be able to clearly see the movements.
“Bang!”
Circulating his essence force, he leaped towards the left side and locking his eyes on the tail of the python while slas.h.i.+ng at it with his right hand which was equipped with the Green Destiny Sword.
“Boom!”
There was a strong rebound of strength as Jiang Yi’s left hand felt numb. He got sent flying and crashed into the ground, but his eyes lit up. Because the python’s physical defenses weren’t tough, his slash earlier nearly severed the python’s tail. If this was to carry on, he would definitely be able to easily slay this demonic beast.
“Hiss Hiss!”
Feeling the pain in its tail, the python hissed a few stenchy breaths before swiftly slithering towards Jiang Yi. The tail which was still flowing with dark red blood slammed from above Jiang Yi.
“Boom!”
With such a fast reaction speed, how could Jiang Yi be hit by the tail slam? He rolled aside with ease while the huge snake whip slammed onto the ground, causing the surface to shake for a moment and leaving behind a deep ditch.
“Come on, you brute. Let me show you this Young Master’s strength!”
Jiang Yi launched himself from the ground and slashed repeatedly with the short sword in his hand. He then used his insane reaction speed to dodge in advance.
As the green light glowed, fresh blood spurted violently.
As Jiang Yi’s body radiated every time, the Green Destiny Sword would leave down more wounds on the python’s body. Jiang Yi was knocked away a few times, but he would use the Wrestling Hand and Green Destiny Sword to neutralize some forces—making sure that he didn’t land on his head or chest. His hukou acupoints on his hands were bleeding, but it wasn’t a big issue.
“Hiss Hiss!”
Fifteen minutes later, the python’s body was filled with wounds and was drenching the ground with its blood. It knew that if this carried on, it would die from the slashes. Breathing out an angered breath of stench, it raised its head high; and the blood-red eyes suddenly glowed, shooting out two red beams at Jiang Yi.
“Keke, finally going to use the demonic arts? I have been waiting for this!”
Jiang Yi’s tensed heart was finally relieved. From the previous battles that he observed, these tier-one demonic beasts would only unleash their demonic arts when their lives were in danger. Once they released the demonic arts, their body would weaken. As long as he was able to dodge the demonic arts, then the victory would be at hand.
Jiang Yi had been cautious of the demonic arts attack all this time. Would he actually fail to dodge it?
Obviously not!
His body rolled to the side in advance, narrowly dodging the red beams which shot at the giant boulder where he stood earlier. That boulder instantly burst apart into a fine powder, showing the extreme brutality of this demonic art.
“I now have one token!” Jiang Yi was pleased as he leaped forward and rushed towards the demonic python beast.
However, what made his stunned was that there were two shadows which emerged from the rock formations and was faster than him. They dashed towards the python like wind, simply brandis.h.i.+ng their weapons to slay the python.
“d.a.m.n you. You dare s.n.a.t.c.h my token?”
Seeing that he was ignored, as the two of them dug out a black token from the abdomen of the python, Jiang Yi’s eyes turned cold instantly.
He had yet to even s.n.a.t.c.h, and someone actually came to s.n.a.t.c.h his token first?