33 Breakthrough

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Endure.

This is what Sieg repeated in his mind over and over again. He didn't expected that this small advancement on his cultivation would be this painful. If we are talking about his body, then there is absolutely no problem on enduring. But the pain he felt originated from something intangible, it came from his Ki and his spiritual energies being chaotic.

Sieg doesn't understand why it is like this, but he can faintly feel that the process would soon be over.

Inside his body, multiple strands of ki are circulating in a fast speed. They are flowing through his meridians, blood vessels, and veins nourishing them and elevating their capabilities by a bit. After they've done so they would settle down inside his dantian for a while before doing it again. This happened countless of time already and the nourishment his body received from this were stacked, making his progress very obvious. His aura was also leaking out, he had no way of controlling this as of now. What's worse is that he couldn't activate the 'Walk of Innocence' while doing so, therefore beasts around the area was made aware of his existence.

Some of them are intimidated by his aura, and there's also some who are furious since this creature invaded their respective territories and was slowly approaching him.

Sieg's spiritual energies are also doing the same for his soul and spirit. The only difference is that his spiritual energies are getting thicker and thicker, from their previous appearance which is in the form a thread, they now looked like a piece of blank paper. These spiritual energies are also in their purest form, which means a strand of these spiritual energy could kill a dire beast without any problems.

***

Time passed and soon, an hour already passed since the start of the final battle.

Multiple beasts are approaching the silently meditating Sieg, they were emitting a very dangerous aura and exploding with fury. Specially that they knew that a human dared to invade their place. They wanted to rip him in pieces and use his bones to issue a warning to those who would dare to invade their territories in the future.

Of course Sieg knew this but he's not on the right mind to care since he was in the middle of something very important.

*Crack* *Crack*

Sieg's body visibly trembled. He heard and felt some sort of a barrier shatter inside his body. Suddenly his suppressed aura exploded in full glory. All of the beasts who were about to pounce on him froze. They couldn't find the strength to take another step, they couldn't even let out a whimper because they are shaking in fear. This fear is like something that is deeply etched in their very beings. Right now they understood one thing. They made a huge mistake.

Sieg's slowly stood up, his facial figures seemed to be more defined right now. His eyes that are like two black pearls from the most majestic river. His brows that looked like two sharp blades. His waist length, white hair that looked like a cloud waterfall and skin snow white skin that would even put some maidens to shame. He seemed to be a bit taller compared before.

Everyone was entranced upon seeing him standing there like a lone hero. Most of the women inside the arena had their faces flushed deep red, they were very embarrassed but they just can't help but stare in this figure that looked like a prince in front of them. Some maidens even let out faint squeals and charming giggles as they looked at him. Thus from now on, Sieg's fandom would surely rise without a doubt.

Sieg knew nothing about all of this, he just made one swift motion and the beast around him shook and even prepared to dodge. What they didn't knew is that Sieg only wanted to look for his badge.

He saw that his counter was still zero and he was still in the last place. Currently, Xu Qing topped the rankings, killing 400+ beasts during that one hour that he was making a breakthrough. The others are still just approaching the 300 beast killed mark. This further shows the disparity of Xu Qing to rest of the contestants.

Sieg just unknowingly smiled and said: "I'm a bit late to this party and some people went a bit complacent already, that's a bit rude."

Upon saying this, the Blur Crystal Bamboo Blade appeared in his hand. He slowly unsheathed it, and the blade appeared in glory. Some of the beasts around him fainted due to fear, some even let out whimpers of defeat already and was already begging for forgiveness while lowering their heads.

Some of the audience also sharply gasped upon seeing Sieg unsheathe his blade. It had to be known that from the previous rounds, Sieg's blade never left it's sheath, he would defend using a sheathed blade and attack with barehanded, that was his style. Now however, he drew the blade out from the sheath. Sieg looked like a majestic deity holding the sheath of the blade on one side and the blade after. His stance was open, seemingly welcoming attacks of those who would dare, while his aura was also showing it's glorified existence.

Then Sieg uttered a few words.

"5th dance: A Maiden's Tribute."

An incredible scene happened, a faint image of a young serpentine dragon appeared, it emitted grunts of disdain and coiled itself around Sieg's body. The serpentine dragon looked at the beast around Sieg with disdain, then it tilted it's head towards the heavens and roared violently. There was a strong sound wave that appeared when this happened. Every beast that made contact with these sound wave exploded, leaving a trace of bloody gore and bits of flesh from their former bodies.

These sound wave travelled for 15 meters around Sieg, and no matter what Fierce Beast it is or whether it could fly or not, it would only take a mere contact with these sound wave for them to die.

These images were branded to each and every person who's currently watching him. Sieg's wasn't done though. He made another gesture and said:

"6th dance: From Sunrise to Sunset." Then, the serpentine dragon, who coiled itself to him and was already at the verge of dispersing, moved. It threw itself onto Sieg's blade infusing it with a bright yellow glow. Sieg's blade looked like it was made from light now, even though it doesn't look as bright as the one he saw previously, he was still elated to see this.

Sieg suddenly moved, he jumped from the edge of the cliff and plunged directly down to the huge patch of forest. During his flight down, he saw myriad of winged beasts around him. He waved his blade repeatedly and his attack formed a blade wave which flew with astonishing speed towards his targets. Each time he see a beast, he would attack. And by the time that he landed on to the ground with a loud bang, carcasses of winged fierce beasts rained down around him as well.

He didn't linger on for too long and sheathed back his blade and went inside the huge patch of forest for one purpose.

And that is to kill.

***

20 minutes passed. Only 40 minutes left until the competition is finished and the rankings are finalized. The crowd is watching with fervent ardor, afraid to miss even a single moment.

The formation was made by a high leveled master. Even though the six people entered at the same time, there's no way for them to meet once their inside, the only time that could happen, is when the formation was broken or deactivated, otherwise there's just no way.

And since the formation was used with the purpose of becoming a trial, the expert who made it made it so that it is possible for them to monitor their own progress.

All of the contestants were now made aware of their own placements in the rankings. And so far the person who was 1st place is clear to them. But there was a sudden changes that caught them off guard.

The five contestants were in the middle of the fight when suddenly, their badges vibrated. Even though they still haven't seen their badges, they are aware of what the vibration met.

There was a change in the rankings.

All of them took out their badges upon finishing their battles. Ye Han, Lin Fang, and Gu Tian was shocked to see that their placements were changed, they dropped one rank. The last place is now Ye Han having killed his 300th prey. Lin Fang wasn't that far away either with his 350 beast killed counter. Gu Tian is approaching his 400th prey already but he already spent quite a portion of his reserves. Gao Yu is at 470th beast while Xu Qing is approaching the 500th mark.

Not even five minutes passed and there was another vibration in the badges. Gao Yu was pushed into the third place so the others are also pushed back down by a rank as well, only Xu Qing's rank remained but she sensed foreboding storm. Instead of being uneasy, she felt quite excited in reality. His uncle's words are right, someone out there is going to give her a heated battle. So she held nothing back anymore, throwing her feminine image and directly charging towards the beasts with even more ferocity.

Others are not feeling the same as Xu Qing, they were incensed. They were out here trying their hardest and then suddenly a mysterious entity just took all of their hardwork away, how can they not hate? Now they needed to exert even more effort to take their place but they're running out of time.

And just like before, Sieg wasn't aware about all of this, and even if he is then he could only apologize, the allure of the Earth-Tier Ki Manual is just that irresistible, plus the five Foundation Condensing Pills? Sieg's would stay still after knowing all this.

Right now, he already killed 490th beast and still counting right now, everywhere he went is just a scene of massacre. Bits and pieces of Fierce Beasts scattered everywhere, their bloods splattered everywhere dying most of the forest red. Pitiful cries and whimpers of beasts could be heard wherever Sieg went.

The people who are watching this had their stomach churned. Even so, they can't help but not watch as Sieg usher this utter massacre. They just couldn't believe that such a young person could mercilessly kill Fierce Beasts like harvesting cabbages. There's also no hint of panic, exhaustion, or rush in his face at all. It was like he was having a nice walk in his yard when in truth, everytime he waved his blade a beast would die, he was not even bothering to turn his head to look for beast, he would just slash in the air and the blade waves would automatically find their targets.

In fact, even the Four Sect Directors and the City Lord is a bit shocked to see such a scene. They were already aware that this 'white-haired boy' wasn't really trying from the way he performed during the previous rounds, but they weren't expecting that he was holding back this much.

Time ticked away and when the time remaining for the last round was only 10 minutes, there was another vibration that occured in the badges.

Xu Qing froze a bit when she felt this, she slowly looked at her badge and her eyes widened a bit when she saw the current rankings.

Beast Killed: 614, 2nd place.

This prompted a sense of panic in her countenance, her ferocity reached the maximum and flew at top speed to where a large concentration of beast was. She slashed her whip-sword and everywhere it went, beasts would split in two. She wasn't holding anything back anymore, she was even using a bunch of exploding talismans to aid in her killing spree, but no matter how hard she tried, there wasn't any reactions from the badge at all. This made her panic even more.

What she wanted was a challenge but not defeat.