Chapter 204 – The New Generation
Boom!
Under that powerful sword light, the scale of that beast’s chest had been shattered completely. Along with all the dark red blood in the air, its whole body eventually was blown backward. While it was in the air, one could see the confusion in those stone-cold beast eyes. It could not understand what had happened. It did not understand how Ye Chen, who was not its opponent at all a moment ago, suddenly became so dominant. The aura of his sword attack reminded him of that ancient beast Wind Wolf. During a battle for territories, that Wind Wolf had broken open its protective layer with only one claw attack, which had forced it to try everything to escape.
It was a top rank 6 beast after all. Its body twisted, immediately regaining its balance. Its fist-sized scales started to vibrate together like small little sharp blades, which made its already massive body look even more powerful and gigantic.
The beast roared three times, and its neck suddenly expanded to twice of its size. It opened its mouth and breathed out a pile of extremely condensed red beast qi towards Ye Chen. The beast qi was like an arrow, twisting and speeding up.
“Separate!”
Leaving a zhen qi shadow where he was standing, Ye Chen’s real body drew a perfect line in the air, attacking the beast from the side. That speed and that smoothness was nothing like before. Even that Iron Scale Beast thought that the zhen qi shadow was his real body.
The second the zhen qi shadow was shattered, Ye Chen’s attack had arrived as well. With the sharp shine of the Star Scare Sword, it went all the way through the beast’s neck.
Blood spilled out everywhere. The beast looked like someone was choking it, wanting to scream but could not. Its body could not help itself and twitched uncontrollably.
“Cut!”
Because of reaching the new cultivation level, the power of Ye Chen’s One Sword Attack had increased drastically. His sword attack went right in its wound and sliced down more than one meter. That sword attack could have completely blown away that beast. However, the beast somehow had the power to go against the impact power. It waved its four-meter-long right arm and attacked towards Ye Chen. Its sharp claw light tore open the air. The friction in the air made an incredibly loud noise which could even tear apart an average person’s ear drum.
Ye Chen clenched his left hand into a fist. The fourth movement of his Tyrant Fist “The Tyrant Seasons” had been performed, which attacked towards that Iron Scale Beast’s right claw.
With that thunder-like huge exploding sound, both of them were forced to back out. However, the difference was that the beast had been blown away with its body rolling on the ground, while Ye Chen was only pushed back by the momentum. His body was still standing, only his feet gently slid on the ground, leaving light white qi flow in the air.
Checking the claw mark on his fist, Ye Chen thought to himself, ‘Beasts are always great at fighting up-close. Only a small amount of beasts are specializing in distant fights. The claws of that Iron Claw Beast were almost as strong as the low-rank great weaponry. Along with that burning hot beast qi, most of the Late Clasping Yuan Realm warriors could die from that attack. If it was not for my Tyrant Fist fourth movement being almost as powerful as a mid-rank Earth Realm martial skill, and his King Kong Jade Body Boosting Art, along with his sword intent that had been added onto that fist power, that claw attack would have shattered my left arm…’
‘I mainly train the sword arts so that I do not need to train fist arts too much. But obviously, my Tyrant Fist Art is not as powerful as my other martial arts. I will have to find another fist art with a higher rank to replace it. Or once when my cultivation is stable enough, I could combine the four movements of the Tyrant Fist into one attack. Then it might have the power of a high-rank Earth Realm martial skill.
With these thoughts in his mind, Ye Chen’s body kept shaking. Four zhen qi shadows appeared one after another. His real body appeared on the right side of the beast almost the same time, his sword attack landing right in the beast’s eye.
The Lone Peak Kill’s killing intent was way too sharp. The second the beast got confused by the zhen qi shadows, it somehow could not move its body for a brief moment because of the killing intent’s effect. While it waited until it could move its body again, the sword had already been stabbed in its eye.
Swoosh!
Ye Chen backed out instantly after he took out the Star Scar Sword. He knew the Iron Scale Beast with one blind eye would definitely go ballistic for a while, which meant it would be dangerous to stay close to it. He knew he would still have time to kill it after it had burned out its energy.
Exactly as he had expected, the intense pain from its left eye being punctured had aggravated the beast. Its remaining eye went drastically red almost instantly, shining with bloody red light. The next second, the red beast qi around it started to boil like hot water. It was extremely intense, shooting straight into the sky.
Shooo!
The red light flashed in the sky. The Iron Scale Beast appeared in front of Ye Chen, as a claw attack landed on his head.
His head exploded, but it turned out to be only a zhen qi shadow of Ye Chen.
Ye Chen’s real body was behind the beast, his sword stabbed into its rear leg.
The beast was on the edge of going mad. It thought to itself, ‘The Wind Wolf was able to beat me because it was strong enough. But this kid’s power is of course not much stronger than mine. How could he put me in such bad position?’
All of its scales on the surface of its skin had stood up. Its body shook once, as endless sharp scales shot out into different directions while making sharp noise.
Ye Chen had already backed out more than one hundred meters after his sword stabbed into the beast’s leg. Although the scales had been shot out at an inhuman speed and with extraordinary power, there was a huge distance between it and Ye Chen. With the help of the sword light and protective layer’s blockage, those scales could not cause any damage.
The Iron Scale Beast was still not powerful enough to be able to grow all those scales back immediately. After shooting out so many scales at once, there were a lot of bald patches now on its back which made its defense decrease drastically. Following its muscle line and bone structures, Ye Chen had discovered the second fatal weakness of that beast – there was a light-colored line on its spine.
“Tornado Broken Clouds!”
After making that discovery, Ye Chen had a new plan of attack. His Star Scar Sword drew a line in the air as the sword qi rose up, forming a tornado that was powerful enough to shred great steel. It wrapped up Ye Chen and attacked towards the beast.
The beast’s body was really stiff after shooting out all those scales. It was easily wrapped within the tornado.
“Kill!”
Within the top part of the tornado, Ye Chen had his both hands on the sword. He stabbed into that light colored line with great power; his sword went in the beast’s body to almost one meter deep. Then, he used all of his strength to pull backward. Following that light-colored line, the beast’s back had been sliced open, showing its spine, which was extremely horrifying.
Roaring into the sky, the beast tried its best to escape from Ye Chen’s control. However, the Star Scar Sword was deeply stabbed into its body; it would not be that easy to shake it off. The life and energy of the beast were like air in a punctured balloon, continuously pouring out.
After few blinks of an eye, the beast’s body suddenly lost its liveliness, falling from the sky.
“Finally dead…”
Ye Chen could sense that the life in the beast had completely disappeared. Its body was no longer as tough as before and had gotten slightly softer, which was a sign of losing beast qi and life force. Without the life power and the power of the beast qi, the Iron Scale Beast was not even as sturdy as a rank 4 beast.
Boom!
The dead body of the beast had crashed a hole into the ground. Ye Chen jumped over to the other side.
The Star Scar Sword was waved in the air, and Ye Chen soon was able to take out the inner beast pellet from the Iron Scale Beast. After giving it some thought, he decided to also cut down the beast’s claws. They were natural weapons, and with the enhancement of its beast qi were almost as powerful as low-rank great weapons. In this True Soul continent, a lot of the great weapons were made of beasts’ bones as their core materials. In some particular situations, it created some unexpected effects.
AHWOOOOO!
After collecting all the beast materials he needed, Ye Chen’s ear moved. Thousands of miles away, a roar shook the earth. Vaguely, he could sense the air start to move a little bit faster.
“It is a rank 7 beast... no! A rank 8 beast!”
Ye Chen did not look calm anymore. A rank 7 beast was able to kill him within a second. A rank 8 beast’s roar could probably shock him to death, leaving him no chance of survival at all.
The small beast wave this time was indeed not simple. Not only there were way too many rank 7 beasts, now there was even a rank 8 beast. It seemed to be developing into a medium-sized beast wave.
Expanding his body, Ye Chen flew towards the Gold Tripod City.
…
On the city walls of the Gold Tripod City, a lot of Astral Reaching Realm warriors standing up there.
The Crown Man frowned, “That roar gives me the chills. I am afraid that it was not a rank 7 beast… it might be a rank 8 beast.”
Fire Spirit said, “As long as there is no rank 9 beast, the Gold Tripod City is going to be as tough as a mountain. As for the fact that there is a rank 8 beast in this small beast wave, it is indeed quite confusing. Maybe this century is the beasts’ peak?”
Since the Ancient era, there had been countless beast waves. There was a pattern to be spotted from the records. The same level of beast waves would have a certain degree of increase or decline. Once it dropped to a certain level, it would suddenly raise up again until a certain peak.
“Yah, maybe!”
Besides the small amount Astral Reaching Realm warriors, many Clasping Yuan Realm warriors were standing on that wall.
“Look! The young generation has finally arrived.”
“The danger level of this beast wave is not that high, so the big martial institutions around here would definitely send some of their best disciples to come help. Only fighting in unpredictable battles could help them reach the next cultivation level faster.”
“That is the head disciple Meng Chao and the second disciple Tian Hao of the rank 7 martial institution – the Alchemist Martial School. Meng Chao had been ranked in the top forty in the last Hidden Dragon Rank. His power would probably be more powerful than some of the older Clasping Yuan Realm warriors.”
“The head disciple from the Blue Vulture Martial School is here as well.”
“The Fourth and the Sixth Nights of the Seven Nights of the Moon Pavilion are here too. These two were not belonging to any martial institutions and were purely trained by the Moon Pavilion. However, they did not get to enter the competition of the Hidden Dragon Rank. Rumor says their power was not lower than the top forty in that rank. There was even a possibility of it being in the top thirties.”
As time passed, a lot of the warriors from the young generation had showed up one after another, which included Tian Hao, who had just parted with Ye Chen. His power could only be considered average among them. The power of some young warriors even made the Clasping Yuan Realm warriors on the walls gasp.
The most memorable ones had to be the Fourth Night and the Sixth Night from the Moon Pavilion. They were both Mid Clasping Yuan Realm warriors with serious looks on their faces and extra sharp auras.
“How disappointing. I thought in the Gold Tripod City, we could discover some talented young warriors.” The Sixth Night was a teenager. He looked like a poisonous snake when he squeezed his eyes.
Guo Lanyue chuckled, “The news of the beast wave had been out for a while now. I am afraid the ones that were far away would not show up.” As she spoke, she was thinking about Ye Chen. He was not even eighteen, but his fighting skills were fascinatingly good. Unfortunately, his cultivation was still quite low, and he did not have that much of experience yet. If he could join the Moon Pavilion, he would only be able to become the backup member of the Seventh Night first. He might be able to become an official member when he grew a bit.
The Seven Nights were a group of seven young individuals. Each one of them was one of the top warriors amongst the young generation. Currently, three of them were from other martial institutions, and the other four were trained by the Moon Pavilion itself. The Fourth Night and the Sixth Night were indeed the young warriors they had trained who got quite a significant attention from the leader of the Moon Pavilion. This time, the leader had sent them immediately once he got the news of the beast wave. He wanted them to gain some experience from the bloody battles.
The Fourth Night, who was tall and good-looking, said lightly, “Our real battles will be in the next Hidden Dragon Rank competition. This is only the appetizer, so no need to think too much about it.”