Chapter 459: Scorpion-Tailed Tiger
The General level flame soldier was not enough to make Hui Yue use Wu Wei so utilizing the smallest amount of Qi possible, he activated Velocity Flow after which he sped towards the soldier. With his swords in hand, Hui Yue cut downwards, and before the flame soldier could react, his head was already sent flying.
Only a few seconds had gone by, and he had killed the General as easily as killing a chicken. The minuscule amount of Qi he used to activate Velocity Flow was instantly restored from the dense essence of the heavens and the earth in the massive tower.
Hui Yue was correct when he assumed that there would be no time to relax because just as the General level flame soldier was killed, and vanished from the chamber, another two energy balls appeared. They formed into two General level flame soldiers.
Hui Yue with his two swords had no more difficulty dealing with the two generals than the first one. By relying on Velocity Flow, he managed to effortlessly avoid their initial attack while rushing at the two experts. One sword swept out at a time, and two experts fell lifelessly to the ground. One was sliced in half while the other was stabbed.
Hui Yue felt no guilt from killing these experts. He still remembered that in the first trial the bull spoke about the Nirvana Phoenix Flame which brought them back to life no matter how many times they died.
Hui Yue would be lying if he said that he was not interested in the Nirvana Phoenix Flame, but to him, the Formation of Life was much more important. If he could only have one of the two, he would take the Formation of Life.
Although the Nirvana Phoenix Flame was amazing, and had the ability to resurrect, Hui Yue was not stupid. He knew there had to be some negatives for such a flame to exist. A flame which was able to always resurrect people would be simply too heaven-defying! There had to be a major downside to it, and thus Hui Yue was not too interested.
These thoughts flashed through Hui Yue's head as he saw four energy balls appeared in front of him. Once again they were General ranked flame soldiers and not difficult to deal with.
"I guess the speed they start with is slow to ensure that everyone has a chance." He mumbled before he once more activated Velocity Flow and executed the four experts.
After four experts came eight experts, but even so they could not make Hui Yue use more than the Velocity Flow.
As the eight slain Generals vanished, Hui Yue could not help but wonder if he would see sixteen Generals next; however, moments after only one energy ball appeared.
This energy ball was at least double the size of the others, and what appeared in front of Hui Yue was a massive beast. This beast was one that Hui Yue had never seen before, but he understood that when this realm was created the majority of the experts were all beast. He did come from the Divine Beast World after all.
The beast in front of him was a tiger with a scorpion tail and large red eyes. It was at least two meters tall and had an imposing aura. As for what rank it was, Hui Yue could not tell, but looking at the beast, he knew that it was a great deal stronger than the General level flame soldiers he had just fought.
This time Hui Yue did not activate Velocity Flow, but instead waited for the scorpion-tailed tiger to make the first move. He needed to gauge the strength of this beast before he would know for sure how to deal with it.
The tiger clearly did not need to be invited to attack, and as soon as it saw Hui Yue, it exploded with an overwhelming pressure as it pounced at Hui Yue. Its sharp claws protruding from its paws, and its teeth were bared in a sneer. It was clear that this beast did not put Hui Yue in its eyes; a simple human cultivator, even a Saint, was nothing more than food. To an outstanding beast like him, defeating this human would be easy.
The thoughts of the tiger were as clear as day to Hui Yue, but he did not become annoyed nor arrogant. He silently wielded his two swords as he blocked its sharp claws. As they collided, Hui Yue was forced to take a step backwards. There was some serious power behind this tiger’s attack, and although Hui Yue was prepared, he still felt surprised by just how strong this beast was. It was clear that the difficulty of the challenge had risen drastically.
"Only Cai Jie will have the power to defeat this beast apart from me." Hui Yue mumbled to himself as he activated Velocity Flow. He vanished from the place he had been standing before he reappeared behind the beast. A sword flashed in the chamber, and a low shriek sounded out as the beast tried to avoid the sharp edge. Unfortunately, Hui Yue had used Velocity Flow, and the speed he used was far superior to the scorpion-tailed tiger.
The now wounded tiger was still far from defeated and thoroughly enraged. Hui Yue had to use his Qi to push Velocity Flow to its limits to avoid the tail which flashed towards him, missing just by a hair's breadth. Although the scorpion-tailed tiger was slow, his tail was outstandingly swift. His tail made it difficult for Hui Yue to attack, especially since every time he moved to a new position, it would lash out at him again not letting him catch his breath for even a moment.
Hui Yue was swift but so was the tail, and soon all that could be seen within the chamber was shadows flashing. Hui Yue never stood still for long enough for his figure to be seen as anything more than a blurred shadow. The tiger, however, was not moving as swiftly but his tail was flashing everywhere. Looking at this tail it was clear that it could expand and retract at will as it constantly lashed out at Hui Yue's ever changing position.
Hui Yue, who was not the slightest bit worried about the Qi he was using to maintain Velocity Flow. He was already a Saint, and Qi was something he had plenty of.
Suddenly in Hui Yue's hand, the black sword vanished. It was sucked into the Universe Box before a blue flame appeared in his hand. The heat this flame generated was so intense that even the ferocious tiger retreated slightly. The temperature within the room now started constantly increasing, and Hui Yue had a smile on his face as the flame increased in size.
This fireball was the very first spiritual energy attack he had learned. Although he had not used it for a long time, he took it out now because of one reason. During his time in this Trial of Fire he had managed to get his hands on fire attributed Ancestral Worldpower. With but a slight bit of this energy pour into his fireball, the offensive power had been multiple times over. Even though he used some of his Ancestral Worldpower, it was so little that it did not matter much. To keep fighting any longer, on the other hand, would likely cause him end up with injuries or wasting energy.
"Be grateful that I don't chop you to pieces." Hui Yue said slowly as he juggled the fireball in his hand before he flickered his finger causing a part of the fireball to shoot towards the tiger at high speed. It flew so fast that the tiger could not react before a shriek of pain sounded through the chamber.
The beast did not die from this one fireball, but its fur had caught fire, and it was clearly pained as it lost all sense of reasoning throwing itself at Hui Yue in a frenzied state. Foam started to appear around its mouth as it kept howling and its red eyes had turned completely savage as its bestial instincts took over.
The beast which had put up a great fight before had entered a berserk state, and although it had gained immense strength, it had lost the ability to think things through which made attacking it much simpler. He no longer controlled his tail like a whip which caused Hui Yue to not need to spend as much time avoiding the attacks. His Velocity Flow was still active, but now it was only used to easily avoid attacks before he shot one small fireball after another at the beast.
Although this beast would be resurrected by the Nirvana Phoenix Flame, it was also obvious that he was in severe pain. The pain inflicted on him was so immense that it wished to die, death was after all not something that it feared.
The more flames that landed on him, the more panicked his attacks became, but, the more unfocused the beast became. As the beast grew less conscious, his attacks became weaker and weaker. Finally, Hui Yue used Velocity Flow to arrive next to the beast and behead him.
It was simple and swift, and when Hui Yue looked at the beast in front of him, he almost saw gratitude in the eyes of this scorpion-tailed tiger.
"Not bad." A voice rang out throughout the chamber; the same voice which belonged to Lan Feng’s father. Hearing it, Hui Yue intently listened to what he had to say. "You managed to get through this trial fairly swiftly and seem to be above average."
"Your performance was not outstanding, but it was not bad either; I will offer you the chance to continue participating in this trial. There will be three treasures that you could possibly get if you satisfy my requirements. The first is an immortal treasure, the second a pill created by the Alchemist God, and finally the final prize which you will only get if you finish this trial."
"You will participate in three matches. Winning one match will provide you with one item, and winning all three will provide you with all of them."
"So far four hundred and seventy-four have gained the first treasure. Twenty-three have gained the second, and none have ever gained the third."
"This Trial of Fire was not only made for the Formation of Life but also for myself, the Vermilion Bird, to find a suitable successor. I do not wish for my son to become my successor due to his nature. I wish for him to live a leisurely life where he faces no danger, or hardship, and can live the way he wishes. If he were to succeed me and become a God, he would face dangers every day. I cannot bear to watch my son go through that, and thus, I will never let him enter the Formation of Life."
"Here I am, rambling about my son. If you are from the Divine Beast World, I am sure you have heard about him. He is an amazing talent, the Blue Phoenix Lan Feng. But, sadly, talent alone is not enough to let one become a God. If you inherit my legacy, then I hope that one day you will help look after this son of mine."
While the Vermilion Bird was speaking Lan Feng was flooded with emotion. He had always thought that his father looked at him as a useless child since he did not have any expectations for him. Only now, after his father had entered his eternal sleep, had he understood that his father just wished for him to have a great life.
Hui Yue smiled upon hearing the words, and he understood Lan Feng's feelings perfectly well. This was relief which had unlocked his heart, and much of the arrogance which Lan Feng had felt was just a means to protect himself. Deep within Hui Yue's core was a crying blue phoenix.