Trial of the King (Part 1)

It was a pitch dark place.

With a flick of her finger, a pair of bright light appeared at the left and right of Mingyue. The ball of light was very bright, filling every corner of the place. But not eye-blinding and didn't have any heat on them.

If compared with the illumination in the Song Ronghua's group, it was akin to comparing a pair of the bright sun with three faint stars, incomparable at all.

If Song Ronghua knew about it, he might be pissing himself in fear of such an unheard feat.

Creating a fire for illumination was something standard for any mercenary, but there were a few points which must be remembered by every mercenary.

One, sustaining Elemental to create a fire for the prolonged time was very burdening, especially if he or she was not even a Spell User. Hence, it was suggested that the created fire had to be as small as possible to lessen the burden on the user's side. Of course, creating an illumination in turns was another way of lessening the burden on the user.

Two, even though it was a fire created from Elemental, it was still a fire. From the beginner mistake, most people would accidentally burn something in the progress, whether their own equipment or even their teammates. As long as one lost their concentration, the risk of burdening their own teammates was heightened.

And of course, Mingyue's case didn't have to see the two points above.

First, what Mingyue created was not a ball of fire, but rather a ball of light. With a better and wider illumination, she could see farther than creating a ball of fire. And also, Mingyue's ball of light was hollow in the middle, similar to a bubble.

In this way, she could sustain a pair ball of light in much longer duration.

Her Elemental manipulation was already top-notch, adding the fact that she was able to control any element as easy as breathing, she was literally walking in the park. She didn't have to fear the sudden incident.

"Sigh. I don't know whether to call it a good luck or a bad luck. But anyways, I am even scared of my own luck." Mingyue's pair of eyebrows were twitched when she was observing the surroundings. But, her lips were curled upward.

It was very similar to what Mingyue saw earlier from Xiao Jing.

Yes, it was the similar environment from the earlier group of bastard's whereabouts. A flattened flooring, wall, and ceiling, while some part of the wall and ceiling was destroyed. Even if it was not a 100% similarity, at least 80% of the surroundings were similar.

She was trapped in this place with only a small dark alley in front of her. Earlier, Mingyue and Xiao Wu arrived from above, from the broken ceiling. But not long after, many rubbles closed the hole earlier, as if forcing Mingyue to move forward in one direction.

Rubbing her chin, Mingyue contacted Xiao Jing, "Is there any good news over there? Those group of bastard should be still alive, right?"

". . . Yep, even though some of them are already dead."

"Oh?" Mingyue patted the dust all over her body. She had no immature aura from before, but only a faint cold expression. Not only that, but also her body exuded a faint cold breeze and it would leave trails as long as Mingyue moved from her spot. "Are they having fun? And their aim should be some precious thing, maybe some sacred weapon or rare herb? Wait, this place is not a cultivation world."

"Their leader seemed to talk about the four trials earlier. And counting this one, there is only the last trial left. Are you coming here?"

"Yep. Since my luck invited me, I will graciously accept it." Slight curve appeared at the tip of her lips. "And I am interested in their aim. Let's improve our knowledge while messing with them."

". . . Fine."

"Don't accidentally kill them, okay?"

Xiao Jing, ". . ."

Mounting on Xiao Wu, as usual, Mingyue took the first step toward the dark

…

"IMPALE IT! EARTH ELEMENT, STONE SPEAR!"

From the flat ground, three spears protruded and grew at a fast rate. In no time, the three stone spears aimed at the stoneman's legs.

Bam bam bam!

The three spears couldn't pierce it, utterly ineffective, but slowed the stoneman's movement.

"FALL BACK AND REGROUP! MOVE BACK TO THE EARLIER ROOM!" Song Ronghua made another command while he tried to disturb the stoneman.

He couldn't believe what he was seeing. No, it was something impossible and everyone in this room understood. There was no living being in the form of stone, or perhaps it was a living stone with humanoid's form.

It was something that was out of his comprehension.

No matter everything which was done toward the stoneman, there was nothing happened as if the stoneman was immune. Not even his attack, not even the simultaneous attack. The most that he could do was slowing the stoneman's speed.

As he gazed to see the fallen men, his expression grew solemn. Even though some of the fallen men were not his own people, he still needed additional strength.

With one person fell, that meant the team's overall strength dropped.

"BRING ALL OF THEM!" Song Ronghua called upon more Elemental, preparing for a big attack. "BRING THEM OUT AND DON'T LEAVE ANYONE! FALL BACK!"

The Elemental lingered around his body and began to grow. As a Grade 2 Spell User, Song Ronghua was capable to charge the Elemental and unleashed a stronger attack.

One by one, the fallen men was dragged. Of course, excluding the dead one as they were not interested in burdening themselves with unnecessary baggage.

"Big Tooth! Drag me faster! I don't want to die yet! F**k! don't pull my leg!" With both of his legs being held by Big Tooth, Old Dog's body was dragged on the rough floor. "Ah! Ah! It hurts! F**k! My face! You will make a mess out of my handsomeness!"

"Shut your crap! Or else I will throw you!"

"Just say that you envy my handsomeness, and this is your revenge, right? I will make you pay if my handsomeness is reduced! Owch! Damn! Damn! Screw your daddy!" With a bloodied face, Old Dog screamed while shot his glare toward Big Tooth. But it was clear that the latter disregarded the former's swearing. "F**k! Dear my elder brother, no, my father, my dear father, please forgive this stupid son and stop bullying me! Aw! Ah! Ah!"

Not caring what happened behind him, Song Ronghua kept his focus toward the incoming stoneman. A bead after bead of sweat slid past his head, drenching his back. Each of his breaths grew rougher, but the determination in his eyes grew brighter.

"NOW! EARTH ELEMENT SPELL COMBINATION! PIT HOLE! EARTH SPIKES!"

The ground trembled a little, but returned to before as if nothing happened. The stoneman didn't care about anything and kept moving forward.

Step, step, step, step, BUMP!

All of sudden, the ground was split open, no, a hole was created when the stoneman was right above the hole. Without any further ado, the stoneman nosedived.

The hole was not too deep, but there was another layer of a trap waiting below. By adding the Earth Spikes, the non-lethal Pit Hole became a lethal spell.

Song Ronghua understood that his Earth Spikes were useless for this stoneman, thus he altered the spell a little. Rather than piercing, he dulled the end of the spikes and bound it into the stoneman.

Bump bump bump bump. . .

After making sure that his spell worked, Song Ronghua didn't waste any time and fell back. His breathing was rough and his vision was fuzzy because he overexerted himself.

He made a big gamble earlier.

If the earlier trap didn't work at all, his life would be in danger. But fortunately, he won the gamble. Even if the combination spell was useless in front of this invulnerable stoneman, it was enough to delay it for some time.

"De- deputy Leader! We can win! We can gank on that stone bastard from above the pit hole!" Someone exclaimed when he turned his head and saw the stoneman's situation. With its body in the pit hole, he believed that they would be able to gank on it at the same time and the stoneman wouldn't be as invulnerable as earlier. No matter how invulnerable one was, it was impossible to be forever untouchable. There must be some weak point, and little Three believed so.

Song Ronghua identified him someone under San Wuji, called little Three. He was called such because there were three big moles under his eyes, making him very ugly to the core. Of course, no one would mention it since the bad-tempered little Three would fight that certain person to death.

You could say that man could be killed, but must never be shamed.

But Song Ronghua didn't care about such a thing. All he could think was the stupidity of the person in front of him.

"No! Fall back!" said Song Ronghua with the stern voice, not accepting any objection.

"But, Deputy Le-"

"FALL BACK!" Spits flew everywhere along with bad breath. But not long after Song Ronghua shouted, the head of the stoneman appeared from the pit hole.

Not trying to persuade Song Ronghua anymore, little Three dashed. "F**k! What kind of s****y game is it!"

One by one, all the survivors left the third trial's room and returned to the second trial's one. Even though Song Ronghua had told them that it was safe, no one dropped down their vigilance as they stared at the alley which was connecting the second and third trial's room.

Silence engulfed all of them as they were prepared. But after some time, there was no sign from the next room - they should be safe.

As they finally could drop their vigilance, little Three came forward at Song Ronghua. With displeased face, little Three didn't hide his disrespectful attitude toward Song Ronghua, as if taunting the latter.

"Deputy Leader! Isn't it about the time you tell us what kind of place this is? Even though you were being appointed as our leader, that doesn't mean that we are all willing to die here!"

Little Three's face darkened while he didn't realize that the man he helped fell.

"Ouch! Damn you little Three! Don't f****n throw me!" A scrawny man hugged his bloodied right leg.

"Later, Big Foot! This one is important!" After taking a glance at the man called Big Foot, little Three glared back at Song Ronghua, "Deputy leader, it's better for you to explain everything. Even though you are this mission's leader, but that doesn't mean that we will allow you to do everything as you wish without explaining anything to us!"

"Look around! From twenty men, only four safe and sound while the other six are all dead! Dead, you know? And all of that was because we don't know what we are fighting!"

"He- hey, I'm not dead yet. . ." A bloodied man raised his head while glaring at little Three. "Don't go around and kill me like that. I, Big Foot, am not that weak. I will not die before impregnating some princess or perhaps the queen, hahaha!"

Not sparing any glance at Big Foot, little Three pointed his finger just continued, "Fine, five are dead, while the other six are heavily wounded! I don't want to risk my mates and my lives for such a thing, especially when you yourself aren't being truthful at all! The hardest is not fighting some strong and unknown enemy like that humanoid stone, but rather an untruthful person like you! I don't need such pig-like teammates, no, a pig-like mission's leader!"

"F**k. Can't you answer me. . ." Big Foot snorted, but he lost his consciousness not long after that.

Song Ronghua sat on the ground. After creating water out of Elemental, he drank a mouthful and then sighed.

He understood that he had no other choice

Everyone's attention was nailed at Song Ronghua's slouched figure.

". . . Trials of the King."

…