Fight the beasts

——(POV third person)——

The moment this stage of the test was over, the old man appeared again.

"Well done. Now that you are finished with the entry tests, you can get to the real action. Enter the portal and be ready." The old man said and while he faded a portal appeared where he stood previously.

'The visuals are something else in this formation.' Li Huang nodded approvingly.

Taking turns, everyone entered the next stage. No one took the old man's words lightly and they were ready to fight on a moment's notice.

The next stage location was a grass field as far as eyes could see without using Qi to enhance your eyesight.

The old man this time entered from the sky and walked on an imaginary staircase downward. On the way, he also started speaking.

"The points that you have gained in the last two stages sum up to 136 points. As I explained beforehand, the higher you score the harder challenges you face." The old man smiled. For a moment Li Huang thought that he is one of his ancestors as his smile really looked like how grandpa Long would smile while training him.

"Now for each point, you will face a beast with the power equivalent of the ninth stage of the Qi Gathering Realm." The old man said and let his words sink in.

"Now it is you against 136 beasts. Let's see how you handle it." The old man said and went back up those none-existent stairs.

The disciples were shocked, most of them are at the ninth stage of the Qi Gathering realm so fighting these many beasts on the same level as them is a far-fetched idea.

To Li Huang and Hu Anjing, it wasn't that hard but they tried to ease the tension that was building up in the team.

"I will get 30." Li Huang said to Hu Anjing. Pointwise he was responsible for 20 of them but he choose 30 to create a competitive atmosphere.

"I will get 40." Hu Anjing said as she unsheathe her Chinese broadsword.

Now everyone relaxed, they forgot that Li Huang and Hu Anjing were their teammates. For Hu Anjing who is at the peak of the twelfth stage of the Meridian formation, these beasts are not much and 40 of them could really only count as a warm-up.

But Li Huang and Hu Anjing know better to aim higher as you never know how hard the next stage is so they have to preserve their energy.

From the surrounding plains, hordes of beasts come charging toward the group.

"Junior sister Ye Ling, form a defensive formation. Anyone who stays out is responsible for their life so don't rush to the fight." Li Huang said a few words. On the other hand, Hu Anjing was long gone and was charging toward a big horde of the beasts.

Li Huang also rushed out to use this time and deal with more beasts before they get surrounded.

'Now is a good chance to use what I have learned.' Li Huang thought.

He was talking about the sword mastery that he gained from the sword mark. That was some sort of sword dance that would go with the flow of your opponent's movement at first and after a few moves, you will be the one who is controlling their movement.

From his limited understanding of the sword dance, Li Huang knew that this was a great method for crowd management.

For the first time, Li Huang choose twin blades as they would work better in this situation.

Getting in front of the beasts he stabbed two of them that were in front of the horde simultaneously in the head as he used his sword Qi on his blades.

As the blades placed themselves in the beast's skulls, with a rhythmic motion, he threw them at the beasts that were using the chance to sneak on him.

Crouching low, he attacked the next group that surrounded him and detached their front limbs with a circular motion of his twin blades.

As the beasts in front fell, the others who were behind them tried their luck by jumping on the fallen ones who were still alive but lacked their front legs.

Li Huang would take a turn and each time would kill two beasts; one with a sword held high as the beast was jumping, the other with his other sword that would finish the beasts that were trying to get up from the ground. With each diagonal alignment of his arms, two beasts would die and as he was faster than them he could handle a handful of them at the same time.

Done with the 14 beasts here, he joined Hu Anjing back where other disciples were and there started blazing through the beasts. As Ye Ling was also well accustomed with Li Huang and Hu Anjing, their teamwork was good enough to have no problem fighting against these numbers.

…

"They were weaker than the giant giant apes." Hu Anjing said after they were done with all 136 beasts. Everybody at least had two kills so you could say it was a successful team training.

"Yes. They were stronger and they were a lot more." Ye Ling also nodded. That fight was her hardest fight and she learned a lot from it so you can say she has improved from that time.

"The huge number of them at that time helped us today." Li Huang also agreed. Not only they could create a good level of teamwork with Ye Ling but they also got many points that helped them in opening this formation.

As everyone was getting back in shape with pills on Hu Anjing's suggestion, the old man showed himself again.

"Your teamwork here helped you to pass this part of this stage's test." The old man said and everyone got to know that there is at least one more part to this stage.

"Your fighting style has been analyzed in this round. Now you have to fight your clone with the same aptitude as you but with only this last fight's knowledge." The old man explained.

"This is the last part of this stage so I wish you all good luck." The old man said and vanished in his usual style.