Leper Beast

Although the idea left me lost for a moment, not until master Baozhi who stood at the corner of the alter suddenly beckoned me over with a finger. I could feel my heart racing cause Baozhi has never once called me to speak with me before, was my master alright? I tried to stall my nervousness and slowly headed up to master Baozhi, he had gotten down from the altar and was heading towards me too.

"Greetings master Baozhi." I bowed politely in greetings and a faint smile formed on his lips.

"Your master asked me to send you a message." He said to me and I met his gaze waiting to hear what the explanation was.

"He won't be at the pavilion to see you off today, he has something serious to attend to but don't worry, he'll watch the tournament from where he is." He assured me but the fact it wasn't actually a serious matter relaxed me a bit, realizing he was in no sort of danger and I smiled gratefully at Baozhi before bowing once more.

"Of course master Baozhi, I appreciate the fact you took your time to deliver such a message to a mere disciple like me." I gratefully said to him.

"No need to thank me, I didn't want you to get worried so it was best to inform you so you can focus more on the tournament, goodluck." He added and now I feel even more confident than ever. I'm going to put all my efforts into this tournament and make sure we also come out victorious.

"Thank you master Baozhi." He dismissed me and I walked away from him.

Every teammate had gathered around the pavilion and in front, different portal appeared, opening up and swirling in large circles right in front of us.

The celestial sovereign finally walked up to the alter gazing down at all of us.

"As you know we will watch every step each of you take from the mirror portal, your actions would be judged once you all return from the tournament and remember. Each place you're transversed to has a stage like every four years we've done the tournament, failure to find enough artifacts and get points at the amount of time before the next portal opens leads to your sect loosing the team, are we all clear on this?"

"We are." Everyone chorused while the celestial sovereign turned down the hourglass on the table.

"Your time starts now, goodluck."

With that, everyone jumped into the portal, the Mount Fuan disciples met our gaze with a glare before jumping as well, our team also did same as we jumped into one of the portals and the world suddenly went dark as we swirled through the portal. Once we stepped out, a voice alarmingly rang out in our ears.

"Everyone watch out!" Yang Fe voiced out and when we all turned our attention towards what it was, a huge claw was gaining in on us and within seconds, we all summoned our flying sword and got atop of it, immediately evading the hit on time as we flew into different directions. Just like Yang Fe had predicted earlier, we landed in a forest but it was close to night time here and I didn't have enough time to study the place as another claw was sent our way leaving everyone dumbfounded.

"What in the heavens name is that?!" MingXia breathlessly asked, drawing out her blade as well, everyone did same and the beast finally turned it's red eyes to glare at us. Zhangjie let out a regretful sigh.

"I knew we should have chosen the other portal."

"Everyone take cover!" Yang Fe's voice broke out once again and a heavy force swept past us but luckily we evaded it on time but I was still twirled away due to how heavy the impact of the force was, falling off my flying sword but using my spiritual senses, It reached out to me on time before I could hit the ground.

"What is that thing?!" Bai QingQing was also in shock at how powerful the beast was, I couldn't tell exactly what kind of beast it was. It had the face of a leper, reaching up to the size of a tree, it's tail was long and had an arrow-like tip. It's red eyes glaring straight at us, not only was it huge but it was incredibly fast as well it's next hit would be hard to predict if one isn't cautious.

"That's a leper beast, avoid it's claws and tail." Yang Fe warned us while we nodded in response.

"We need to find those artifacts how do we stop this thing?!" Zhangjie asked through the whole commotion.

"We can't stop it, we need to distract it!" He informed while the beast gave an angry cry, leaping into the air ready to pounce on Bai QingQing who in return sent her sharp petals after it. The beast evaded her hit giving Bai QingQing an escape route.

"How do we distract it, this thing is powerful!"

It sent it's arrow-like tail at all five of us and I jumped out of my flying sword evading that sharp mouth that would have torn me in two and successfully landing on my flying sword. Okay I really didn't know the tournament was going to be this hard but I can't be useless too.

Yang Fe said we needed to distract it and that's what we'll do. While the others had the beast encircled and different spiritual lights lighting up the place with exploding sounds, an idea popped into my head and I glanced at Yang Fe.

"Senior Yang Fe, you should get the artifact I have an idea." I said to him and another sharp claw came both our ways and this time I had to land on the ground to avoid getting hit, same with Yang Fe.

"What plan?" He asked.

"I can't explain but inform the rest to find the artifacts, I'll distract the beast."

My words left him stunned. "What?"

"Just do it!" With that I got on my flying sword and made sure I kept few distances from the beast before whistling, it resounded along the quiet forest and it gained everyone's attention, including the beast.

"Beast over here!" I waved my hand at it, drawing out my whip which was surprisingly starting to glow in my hands, that was fast but I didn't have enough time to ponder on the subject as the beast headed my way, who doesn't like a chase? Well that was what I plan on giving the leper beast.

It lunged it's claws at me and I evaded it's hit and within minutes, I had the leper beast chasing me on my flying sword.

"What is she doing?!" Bai QingQing asked as the beast chased me everywhere.

"No time, everyone spread out and find those artifacts!" Yang Fe raised out and although confused, everyone did as he said and the searching of the artifacts began.

My heart pounded in both my ears as the beast chased me nonstop, I had to evade tall trees while the beast was smashing right through them chasing me like so wildly. If this goes on, the beast would definitely catch up with me in no time so I had to come up with a plan B. Cracking my brains another idea came up and I gazed at the whip which glowed brightly in my hand.

"If the whip is powerful to fight a beast, shouldn't it be powerful to hold one as well?" I quickly did the calculation in my head, luckily evading the tip of the beasts sharply angled tail and allowing my spiritual powers to flow into the whip, the four tails of the whip summoned themselves luckily. Glancing through each trees, I sent one end of the tail to a tree as it wrapped itself around it, sending the second one at another tree while letting the beast chase me in circles and we played this little game for a lot more longer and when I let go off my whip. The beast was trapped in the center, it's leg tied and a very loud thud was heard as it fell to the ground, wiggling itself violently from the rope but to my surprise, it couldn't free itself and an angry cry escaped it's throat again.

I hurried back to my teammates as they gathered all artifacts they could find.

"You guys done?"

"We found some but I'm not sure they're enough!" Bai QingQing stated showing all the artifacts they had gathered into a sack.

"I wonder when the portal will open, that beast is going to return and shred us in half!"

Well seemed like my whip was only able to hold it for a few minutes cause the ropes suddenly snapped, my whip freeing itself from the trees and heading straight to me, I caught it while the beast rised up and we could see clearly in it's eyes, It was tired of playing games.

"You want to know what I'd do at this critical moment?" Zhangjie asked and when the whole place went silent, he added.

"Run."