Beast Blood

Liu Yang stood on a stage with his fellow clansman lying on the ground outside of the stage.

The battles had just started, and yet he finished his very quickly, too quickly even!

All of the crowd's attention was focused on Xiao Yu, so they didn't see how Liu Yang beat his opponent so swiftly.

Li Bai, however, was able to observe the teen's movements.

"Hmmm... this Liu Yang kid might be a good disciple... but he has a fatal sickness."

Meanwhile, Xiao Yu was fighting his opponent fiercely on the stage that they were both in. Li Bai directed his attention to him next.

He was panting profusely, being on his last stand against this enemy in front of him. He was almost on his knees.

The man Xiao Yu was fighting was from one of the lower major clans, the Yang clan. Still, he was from a major clan, so he was not to be underestimated.

"Hahaha, you just got lucky on the previous round, didn't you? Now that your opponent is me, you don't stand a chance!"

The Yang fellow taunted Xiao Yu endlessly after seeing the sorry state that he was in. Xiao Yu's eyebrows creased as he tried to stand properly.

This didn't work as Xiao Yu stumbled closer to his opponent who was standing still looking down on him. All of a sudden, this unmoving opponent's knees suddenly rose up!

The Yang man threw a knee kick at Xiao Yu's face, knowing full well he couldn't dodge it. He had a wide grin on his face.

Xiao Yu saw the incoming knee, and struggled to get out of the way. In the end, he got hit. Xiao Yu was launched to the very end of the stage, close to falling off.

The Yang fellow walked closer and prepared to kick him, but soon sensed that something had changed within Xiao Yu.

Xiao Yu's eyes were covered with red, as if he was bleeding from the inside. Soon, his skin also dripped with a red liquid, covering his whole body with red.

Li Bai's eyes widened at first, but after, he nodded his head in satisfaction.

"To think he could tame a beast's blood, what an extraordinary lad. I want him as my disciple."

The red substance suddenly jumped towards the Yang fellow and grabbed onto him, slowly engulfing his whole body.

Xiao Yu stood up with red dripping on the stage. He raised his hand and pointed his palm towards his opponent, then slowly closed it.

The Yang fellow's body was imitating the hand's movements, levitating in the air and distorting in weird positions, aiming to close like Xiao Yu's hand. Sounds of bones cracking could be heard.

The Yang fellow was scared and in pain during this whole ordeal, but his wails could not be heard to the outside. His whole body was covered with the red substance, and the sound coming from his mouth was being absorbed by it.

Li Bai was surprised again, and a "tsk" sound could be heard coming from his mouth, while he was shaking his head. He was disappointed with this outcome.

"It seems that Xiao Yu is not controlling the blood, but rather he is being controlled by it."

After contemplating a little bit, Li Bai's grin expanded while looking at the teen covered in beast blood.

"What a stroke of luck! I am the only one who can teach him how to dominate the Red Horned Ox's blood, so it will be easier to convince him."

While Li Bai was thinking about such stuff, the battle between the Yang man and Xiao Yu had abruptly concluded.

An elder was standing on the stage, restraining the blood with all his might, while another was shouting at Xiao Yu. The Yang fellow laid on the ground making an impossible position with his arms and legs.

"What are you doing?! You should learn to restrain yourself!"

The elder was from the Yang clan. Xiao Yu's opponent was the Yang clan's little flowering bud, the most talented youth in the entire clan. The elder couldn't let him die!

The elder glanced at the blood attacking his companion, and continued to reprimand Xiao Yu.

"And why are you still attacking?! Do you want to die?"

Xiao Yu was standing still, all of the red liquid covering him gone. There was still some coming out from his back, attacking the elder.

He fell silent. He didn't know what to say to this old man. If he claimed that he couldn't control the blood, the old man would think that he was lying. He tried it out anyway.

"But elder, I can't control the blood!"

"Blood?!"

The elder almost spit out... well, blood, after hearing Xiao Yu's statement. Naturally, he was ready to refute anything that Xiao Yu says by claiming that it was hogwash.

Thus, he assumed that the part where Xiao Yu claimed that he couldn't control the substance was nonsense, but the substance being blood came as such a surprise to him, that he wasn't able to say anything.

"Yes, elder. Beast blood, given to me by my father."

Xiao Yu's family was poor and couldn't afford to support his education. It was only a stroke of luck that his father found the blood within the woods, or so he said.

"B-beast blood?!"

The elder was even more doubtful as he looked at Xiao Yu.

The crowd was also flabbergasted by Xiao Yu's claim. Everyone knew that when killing some beasts, the most dangerous part was their blood.

Some beasts had blood that could attack one after the actual beast died, and since the blood was a liquid, physical attacks don't work.

As such, before the beast blood awakened after exiting its host's body, one should get the important parts of the beast and escape quickly.

The average number of casualties from a beast's blood usually exceeded that of the beast itself. The only beasts whose blood didn't exceed their kill count were the ones who didn't have sentient blood.

There was also the ones who were too strong to be killed, not giving their blood an opportunity to attack due to the actual beast not dying. Awakening the beast blood had a prerequisite after all, and it was that its host should have died already.

There was once a dragon who got killed by a great warrior, and had its body salvaged before its carcass got abandoned.

The dragon's blood was unexpectedly the sentient type and proceeded to wreck a whole kingdom! The remaining survivors could only pray to their lives, for even the strongest warriors they knew in the whole continent would have been no match for the beast blood.

They were instantly proven wrong however, as a seemingly normal looking man confronted the blood. Their battle quickly became legend as stories of it was passed on by the witnesses.

Of course, this seemingly normal looking man was actually one of Li Bai's past selves, and he recklessly charged in because he was correcting his mistakes.

When he heard the news that the blood of the dragon he killed attacked and obliterated a kingdom, how could he stand by idly?

Before this whole ordeal, no one knew that one could control beast blood. But who knew that it could actually be controlled, and the first one to be controlled was actually a dragon's sentient blood?

Because of this, Li Bai knew that beast blood could be controlled, so he was the only one that wasn't surprised at Xiao Yu's declaration that the red liquid was beast blood.

Meanwhile, everyone's jaws had already dropped. They had obviously heard of the myth that a man dominated over a beast blood and controlled it, but they considered it as nonsense! Who expected that they would actually witness one right in front of them?

The Yang elder normally didn't believe Xiao Yu's words, for he was afraid that if it was actually true, this kid's potential would be limitless!

This Yang elder knew of the myth also, but not only did he know about the myth, he also understood the fact that it was actually not a myth, but real!

The Yang clan's ancestor was one of the witnesses of this battle between man and beast blood, with man triumphing.

He was fortunate enough to witness the scene, as he gained sudden enlightenments over it. This was how the Yang clan was formed.

The Yang elder didn't dare doubt his ancestor so he firmly believed that this Xiao Yu kid wasn't anything like his ancestor.

While this was happening on the stage, the elders of the other clans looked fascinated with the red liquid.

"Ooh, a hidden gem, I see."

One of the Zhou clan elders remarked. Beside him was an elder from the Lu clan. This elder looked indifferent to this sight, but inside he was freaking out.

What the hell is that thing?! He claims it's beast blood... Impossible! I tried this once, and it didn't work! The elder thought. I almost died then...

Naturally, he didn't want anyone to see his breakdown. So he hid it inside himself. He was extremely jealous of the Xiao Yu kid.

.....

Almost everyone in Backwater City had attended the tournament, so naturally the upper echelons of the major clans were also there.

The Zhou clan head was the main organizer of the event, so he was to be obeyed whenever he made a demand regarding the tournament.

Zhou Gang walked to the center of the stage where Xiao Yu and the two elders were, along with the Yang fellow that is almost dead.

He used his latent energy to suppress both the two elders and Xiao Yu, who was presumed to be controlling the blood.

"Mister Zhou Gang, I cannot control the blood, you have to suppress it directly!"

Zhou Gang was not overbearing and arrogant, so when he heard Xiao Yu's words, he detected no sign of him lying and suppressed the blood easily.

The blood sensed the danger coming from this man and retreated back into the body of Xiao Yu. This blood was not in its original state due to its pummeling from a warrior with a high cultivation level.

Xiao Yu's father found the blood laying dormant in the forest. It had no strength left and needed to recover, so it quickly jumped over to him without him knowing.

After he went home, the blood detected someone with a higher latent potential and jumped off of Xiao Yu's father.

Xiao Yu himself witnessed this, and so he thought that the blood was deliberately given to him by his father.

Eventually, it jumped onto Xiao Yu and went into his body.

Because of the beating it got from the warrior, it was no match for Zhou Gang. If it was in his original state, it would be able to kill Zhou Gang instantly, or more so, even if several Zhou Gangs ganged up on him, it would be able to kill them all.

Now, in this blood's weakly state, it didn't have the strength to even scratch this Zhou Gang. It had no choice but to retreat into this kid's body.

Zhou Gang stared at the blood until it was fully inside Xiao Yu. He then retracted his energy so that the two elders and Xiao Yu could move.

Zhou Gang breathed in and prepared to shout the results of the match.

"Xiao Yu wins."

Only one or two people heard the Zhou clan head's voice due to the extremely quiet way he said it.

One of the commoners couldn't hold back asking the Zhou clan head.

"What?"