A Ferocious Beast?! Everyone’s faces paled with shock.
Ferocious Beasts were mostly formed from the condensation of violent energies in the world. They possessed immense demonic power from birth, a hundred times more vicious than ordinary monsters. Some colossal Ferocious Beasts had even caused countless calamities in the mortal realm. The Taowu, one of the Four Fiends, was slain by Immortal Guangwei beneath his Honing Blade in the past.
Even if Cultivators Mo Yan and Hu Jiaping were here, they might not be confident in dealing with a Ferocious Beast. How could these newly initiated disciples hope to face one?
Bai Ligelin’s urge to retreat grew stronger. “I… I think we should give up…”
Lei Xiuyuan pondered for a moment before speaking, “Although the Tiger Jiao is a Ferocious Beast, it can’t speak human language, so it’s probably not too formidable. I noticed its movements were slow, and its cry sounded miserable. It seems to have been severely injured already. It was likely trying to heal itself at the bottom of the lake when we forced it out. This is just a test from the academy. I believe we still have a chance to fight.”
“Let’s take turns! We’ll wear it down with a revolving battle strategy!” Ji Tongzhou, unwilling to admit defeat, immediately formed hand seals to use his Departing Fire Technique.
Li Fei grabbed his sleeve, shaking her head. “A revolving strategy would take until tomorrow to finish. I don’t think we should fight individually. The four of us should attack together. Our four-person team was originally arranged with the Five Elements in mind. I believe there must be a reason for this grouping.”
Lei Xiuyuan suddenly said, “Earlier, whenever the Tiger Jiao roared, it was accompanied by hurricane-force winds and massive waves. We must dodge them quickly. It seems to always protect its ribcage, which is likely its weak point. Ji Tongzhou and I will lead the attack. Don’t aim for its head or tail; focus on the ribs. Its snake-like tail is dangerous and will attack after it roars. If we’re caught or struck by it, we probably won’t survive. Bai Ligelin, you must keep its tail occupied. If anything goes wrong, Li Fei, remember to immediately use your Earth Movement for defense and healing.”
After he finished explaining clearly, the three children were momentarily speechless. After considering the options, they decided it was better to confront the beast head-on rather than avoid it. Moreover, Lei Xiuyuan’s tactical arrangement was clear and well-distributed. His usual attitude of treating everyone as fools somehow made them feel strangely reassured at this moment.
Bai Ligelin snorted, “You’re quite good at planning, aren’t you?”
She had never been particularly friendly towards Lei Xiuyuan, even after learning about Immortal Zhenyu’s situation. She remained cool, probably still remembering his two-faced behavior.
Ji Tongzhou, however, was a bit irritated. He had always considered himself the leader of the four-person team. Not only had Lei Xiuyuan helped them out of the water earlier, but now he was stealing the spotlight again. How could he be content with that? But despite his dissatisfaction, he couldn’t help but admire Lei Xiuyuan’s strategy, realizing he couldn’t have come up with such a plan himself so quickly.
“Let’s do it,” he said without further argument.
Once the four children had agreed on the plan, Lei Xiuyuan and Ji Tongzhou suddenly charged towards the Tiger Jiao from left and right. In an instant, fire and golden light exploded across the sky, accompanied by thunderous booms. The Tiger Jiao, already enraged, opened its mouth and let out another long, shrill howl. Several hurricane-force winds swept in, instantly dispersing the thick smoke and flames.
Lei Xiuyuan shouted urgently, “Now’s our chance!”
Bai Ligelin had already stealthily flown near the Tiger Jiao’s tail while the others were causing a commotion. As expected, its tail stood straight up. After the hurricanes subsided, it suddenly became as flexible as if boneless, coiling and twisting, ready to strike at any dodging figures that came near.
She raised her hand and shot out countless small leaves, which pattered against its tail. The leaves instantly transformed into thick, highly elastic vines, tightly binding their long tail.
Caught off guard by this sneak attack, the Tiger Jiao struggled violently, its brute strength tearing apart many of the vines. Bai Ligelin once again shot out countless leaves, transforming them into new vines to bind them. She shouted, “Hurry up! I can’t hold it for long! It’s too strong!”
As soon as she finished speaking, Ji Tongzhou and Lei Xiuyuan attacked from both sides, their Departing Fire Technique and Tai’e Technique striking the beast’s ribs on either side. The Tiger Jiao’s pain-filled roar was truly earth-shattering. In its agony and struggle, all the vines snapped. Bai Ligelin dodged quickly, already avoiding the range of its snake-like tail. She focused her mind and formed seals again. This time, the leaves changed into numerous thick, sharp wooden stakes, pinning the beast’s body to the lakeshore, preventing it from retreating into the lake depths.
This series of actions happened in the blink of an eye. The children were all shaken, feeling a mix of fear and excitement. Seeing the Tiger Jiao bleeding profusely and its struggles weakening, Bai Ligelin wiped away a cold sweat and said softly, “I don’t think it can break free now. Shall we check out the door at the bottom of the lake?”
Li Fei shook her head. “Have you forgotten about the second selection?”
During the second selection, many people thought they had defeated the Nine-Tailed Fox and rushed towards the golden door, only to be repelled and eliminated without exception. No one wanted to repeat that mistake here. The four children waited at a distance for a long time until the Tiger Jiao finally fell silent, presumably dead. Only then did they fly over on their stone swords.
Ji Tongzhou flew at the front. He had only seen Ferocious Beasts in illustrated books before and had always been fascinated by tales of immortals soaring through the clouds for thousands of miles, ascending to heaven and descending to earth to slay demons and exorcise evil. He had been too tense earlier to take a good look at the Ferocious Beast Tiger Jiao. Now, as he approached, he realized it was truly enormous. Its mouth alone could probably swallow all four of them and still have room for more.
Besides the wounds on its ribs inflicted by him and Lei Xiuyuan, there was an extremely long gash on the Tiger Jiao’s belly. This was the real fatal wound, proving Lei Xiuyuan’s observation correct – it had already been seriously injured. The academy wouldn’t give them a test beyond their capabilities.
Thinking carefully, this Ferocious Beast wasn’t particularly difficult to deal with. It didn’t have impenetrable skin or powerful demonic magic. The key was in the tactical arrangement and timing. The unspoken coordination between the four of them was crucial – if any one of them had been a step slower, they might have been seriously injured or even lost their lives.
Killing the Tiger Jiao was largely due to Lei Xiuyuan’s tactical arrangement. Ji Tongzhou was stunned for a while, then suddenly kicked Lei Xiuyuan’s leg hard, saying angrily, “Not bad at all! Where did that previous good-for-nothing go?”
Bai Ligelin also kicked him without mercy, “You two-faced schemer, you’re quite capable!”
Lei Xiuyuan turned to look at them both, smiling slightly. Everyone thought he would say something infuriating again, but he said nothing, just kept smiling. As he smiled, the others couldn’t help but smile too.
This was the first time their four-person team had truly worked together to defeat a Ferocious Beast. They realized that acting together felt much better than trying to be a lone hero. Even those they couldn’t stand before now seemed not so bad after all.
Lei Xiuyuan turned his head, still smiling, and Li Fei met his beautiful eyes. He had smiled many times before, but she felt that now he was truly happy. Although his face was covered in sweat and dirt, his hair was sticking to it, and his clothes were covered in dust and blood, she thought this Lei Xiuyuan looked more radiant than ever before.
“Good job,” she said, smiling and patting his shoulder, which was rare for her.
Lei Xiuyuan curled his lips. “So you can smile after all.”
…As if she had never smiled before. Li Fei couldn’t be bothered to argue with him and just shrugged. “Who said I can’t?”
“It’s rare to see you smile like this.”
She snorted twice. “That’s because I didn’t want to smile at you.”
Now even he was speechless. Bai Ligelin bounced over with a grin. “Shall we go? When we get out, let’s have a big feast! Oh, I saw some wine in the northern food stalls. Should we sneak a jug to taste?”
Just as Li Fei was about to refuse, a sudden change occurred. The Tiger Jiao, which should have been dead, opened its mouth and let out a long, eerie, and miserable howl. It released the last bit of its demonic power completely. Hurricanes mixed with lake water came roaring in. The four children couldn’t react in time and were instantly swept up. The violently spinning water and wind cut at them like sharp blades. If Li Fei hadn’t previously cast an Earth Movement defense on each of them, they would have been torn to pieces by now.
Li Fei felt dizzy as she was thrown high into the air, spun around, and then violently repelled. Along with her, a stone sword was flung out – she wasn’t sure whose it was. She quickly grabbed it, barely managing to channel her spiritual energy, and flipped onto the stone sword. In the blink of an eye, the other three were also thrown out by the hurricane and white waves. The Tiger Jiao’s snake-like tail, as flexible as if boneless, whipped towards Ji Tongzhou, who was the closest. His stone sword had long been swept away by the huge waves. Although he was still conscious, there was no way he could avoid it. He watched helplessly as the long tail came crashing down on him.
Li Fei immediately released a transparent Earth Movement wall in front of him. There was a tremendous crash as the snake’s tail slammed into the transparent reddish-brown wall, shattering it to dust in an instant. She focused her mind, mobilizing all her spiritual energy to quickly erect several walls to block the snake’s tail. She flew swiftly, not caring about anything else, and grabbed Ji Tongzhou by the hair.
She intended to drag him away from the tail’s range, but the dying struggle of the Ferocious Beast was more terrifying than imagined. With several more loud crashes, those walls were easily smashed by the snake’s tail. There was no time to escape.
Li Fei no longer dared to hold back. She exhausted all her spiritual energy to wrap two layers of Earth Movement defense around them. Immediately after, she felt an excruciating pain in her chest as an irresistible force struck her body. Her vision blacked out, but she instinctively held tightly onto Ji Tongzhou’s hair. The two of them were sent flying for miles, crashing through a large swath of forest trees.
It took Ji Tongzhou a long time to recover. His entire body felt as if it had been torn apart, but this was nothing compared to the intense pain in his scalp. He touched his head and found his hand covered in blood! Had all his hair been pulled out?!
Someone was pressing heavily on top of him. He used all his strength to push them off and turned his head with difficulty to look. He saw Jiang Li Fei’s chest covered in blood and gore, her face also streaming with blood, looking as if she was dead.
Ji Tongzhou was so shocked that his soul nearly left his body. He hurriedly pushed her gently, but she didn’t move. Trembling, he put his hand in front of her nose and felt only the faintest breath, with more exhales than inhales. It seemed she would stop breathing at any moment!
She had done this to save him! Ji Tongzhou’s heart instantly sank to the bottom. He had let a girl save him! And now this girl might die!
Ji Tongzhou gently picked her up. Fortunately, the stone sword had fallen nearby. He immediately flew towards the lake. By now, the Tiger Jiao was truly dead, its once black and shiny body was now dull and gray. Two figures were bobbing up and down with the waves on the lake surface – Bai Ligelin and Lei Xiuyuan. They had been closest to the Tiger Jiao, and the incredible force of the hurricane and huge waves had left them covered in bloody wounds. They had already passed out.
Just moments ago, everything had been fine, and now he was the only one left standing. Ji Tongzhou fished the two out of the water and quickly checked their wounds. Fortunately, none were fatal. Only Jiang Li Fei’s injuries were the most severe, and she could die at any moment.
Ji Tongzhou cast a layer of Floating Charm Fire on her body and struggled to carry all three. At this point, he didn’t care whether he could swim or not. He clumsily sank to the bottom of the lake, where indeed there was a dazzling golden door. He didn’t even know how he managed to swim through it. As soon as he passed through the door, he saw the familiar Hundred Pavilions of the Tiered Building, where the incense in the huge bronze tripods was still warm.
Hu Jiaping and the other instructors who had been waiting on the high platform rushed over. Ji Tongzhou only managed to say, “Please save them quickly!” before he too collapsed to the ground.