Battle of Wits, New Anomaly

"Shit, I'm screwed," Di Tian's vanished immediately.

Without any energy influx to sustain his expenditure, he would no longer be able to maintain the present status quo for much longer.

Di Tian's estimate was ten more minutes at best. After that, his physical body would simply be unable to keep up.

"We're still in the Golden Eagle's Territory," Di Tian remembered. "I bet the Cloud Leopard's territory has some Spirit Herbs in it."

This was the only solution he could think of. If he could get his hands on more Spirit Herbs, his energy problem would be solved.

"The problem now is how to get there mid-battle," Di Tian had a cold gleam in his eyes as he eyed the Demon Beast which materialized a couple of metres away from him after a failed sneak attack.

But then he suddenly noticed a particular detail he had neglected so far. Unlike him, the Cloud Leopard hadn't consumed any Spirit Herb or energy-replenishing resource since the beginning of the battle, right?

Even though Demon Beasts could draw from their bloodline source, it was not an infinite reservoir. Besides, the activation of bloodline skills usually consumed a lot of energy.

Di Tian focused his territory radar to capture subtle details about the Demon Beast and confirmed his conjecture. He was right; the Cloud Leopard was almost out of energy, just like himself.

"Less energy means its next attacks won't be as hard to deal with as before," Di Tian analyzed. "I should stop dodging its attacks with all my strength and try to conserve as much energy as possible."

Di Tian intentionally started to show signs of fatigue, slowing his movements and reflex-acting only at the last moment now. By all indications, he was on his last verge of energy.

The Cloud Leopard was secretly relieved to see that the human did not have much energy left. 

It actually did not have much energy left. The fact that it was still holding on was just Wiillpower; it was only a first-stage Demon Beast after all and had been using bloodline skills from the very beginning of this battle.

More importantly, it was wary of the sunrise that was soon to happen. It was primarily nocturnal and typically had its combat prowess reduced by 10% in the daytime.

Even this miniscule percentage could make all the difference in battle. Even with its early stage intelligence, it knew this. The best course of action it could take was to eliminate the human right now before the conditions began to act against it.

The next moment, the Cloud Leopard stopped 'blinking' and drew from its energy pool to cast a bloodline spell again.

Baleful Wild Aura.

"As expected," Di Tian's eyes brightened and the lethargic expression on his face abruptly vanished, replaced by a calculated smirk.

Perhaps, it was because the Cloud Leopard was exhausted, but the baleful aura was not as quick as when it had been cast earlier. With his new Cloud Steps, Di Tian sidestepped and managed to avoid being enclosed by the bloody mist this time.

But the mist expanded and tried to close in on him. Di Tian chuckled as this was exactly what he wanted.

The larger the radius covered by the bloody mist, the more bloodline energy the Cloud Leopard would have to expend. Di Tian planned to extend this scheme for as long as possible so that the Demon Beast could completely exhaust whatever energy it had left.

But Di Tian was playing a dangerous game; he did not have much energy left himself and was rapidly exhausting what little he had to dodge with Cloud Steps.

"I only have four percent strength left," he calculated worriedly.

Luckily for him, the bloody mist subsided the next moment and the Cloud Leopard suffered a backlash.

It had completed exhausted its bloodline source.

Without wasting any time, Di Tian gathered the last energy in his body and dashed over to the Cloud Leopard's side. It was barely able to move at this point.

Di Tian didn't bother trying to stab its skin as he knew its defence could not be broken by a mere horn blade. Instead, he pierced into its head through its ear canals, calmly watching as warm blood flowed out of the orifice.

Eyes, nostrils, mouth, ear canals and the *ssh*le— these parts had become Di Tian's favourite places to finish off Demon Beasts with superior defences, particularly as they were relatively easier to pierce through.

To be safe, Di Tian proceeded to stab the Cloud Leopard in these spots several more times before he collapsed to the ground, completely devoid of energy himself.

It wasn't just the Cloud Leopard that had over exerted itself, Di Tian had too. As there was no Spirit Herb nearby he could consume, he gradually lost consciousness as his body entered an emergency state.

*****

Just before the sun rose, a beam of light beam suddenly shot out from an underground structure in Western Europe.

The exact location was the ancient Catacombs of Paris, France.

Immediately the light beam appeared, Elder Yi who was aboard the Nine Lights Void Ships became alert.

"It has finally revealed itself," she muttered.

At the same time, Shen Li, Chen Qingke and Fang Ao hurriedly made their way to the cabin where she was, meeting each other at the entrance. Apparently, they had all noticed the anomaly too.

"You two have been scarce these days," Chen Qingke said, looking at Fang Ao specifically.

Shen Li had been helping out Elder Yi a lot in organizing the tournament these past couple of days, so her absence was logical. But Fang Ao hadn't been seen in days.

Fang Ao noticed the pointed stare and ignored it. Turning to Shen Li, he asked.

"It matches, right?"

"I think," Shen Li replied hesitantly.

At this moment, the door to the cabin opened and Elder Yi's voice drifted through, "Come in."

The three cultivators trooped into the room. Elder Yi was seated on a grand chair, and behind her was a constantly flashing screen of many pixels.

These were the real-time videos captured and transmitted by the Remote Surveillance Array overlapping the makeshift battle realm where the tournament was presently holding.