Too salty

A beast that excels in stealth and speed with physical strength above ordinary cultivators at the mana body stage. This Blue night leopard was an all-round unit with few weaknesses.

Vasari did not panic after managing to avoid getting his head lobbed off. All beasts had a weakness and exploiting that weakness is the key to victory. He knew that blue night leopards were amazing at stealth, they were quick and powerful but they were not that good at fighting head-on. They were feared due to their amazing hunting skills and ability to catch their prey off-guard.

However, you would be a fool to underestimate them if you thought it would be an easy victory. Normally 3-5 cultivators at the mana body stage would team up to take one blue night leopard down and Vasari was planning to do it by himself.

'Savage shadowless steps: tiger eating mountain and forest'

Vasari abruptly dashed towards the leopard, like a wild tiger on all 4s.

The leopard didn't back down from the challenge and sprinted towards Vasari.

When the human and leopard were 5m distant from each other, the leopard leapt into the air and slashed its sharp razor-like claws aimed at Vasari's neck and head. Vasari pushed off the ground with his legs and leapt slightly to the side to avoid the deadly claw.

The leopard missed its attack but quickly landed on the ground before pouncing back in Vasari'a direction.

The leopard's eyes gleamed in delight as it suddenly spotted a weakness in Vasari's stance and slashed towards that part of his body.

Unexpectedly the glaring weak point that the leopard was aiming for disappeared. On instinct, it tried to stop its attack and retreat but the momentum was too strong to suddenly stop. Vasari easily dodged the attack and counterattacked with his own punch. The yang in his body flared and an abrupt rise in strength fuelled his punch.

*Pah!*

*crack*

The sound of flesh impacting flesh sounded before the cracking of bones right after.

The leopard went tumbling backwards and only stopped after skidding away for 50 metres.

"You're a strong kitty I'll give you that, but you're out of your league."

Vasari praised and mocked the beast after it managed to get back to its feet. It had some bones broken but nothing too serious, just slightly uncomfortable.

The only thing on this leopard's mind was to kill this human in front of it and keep its bones as a trophy. Its animal instincts told it to retreat and live to fight another day but its pride wouldn't allow it to lose to a mere human.

GROWL. Ignoring the pain in its abdomen, the leopard got back into the fight.

The human and leopard fought like two wild cats in the jungle as they constantly exchanged moves. Vasari used this fight to practice the second movement of the Savage Shadowless steps. Vasari's leg movement resembled that of an experienced tiger hunting down its prey.

The human and leopard fought for 10 minutes before a victor was decided.

Vasari carried the headless corpse of the leopard on his shoulder as he walked back to his cave.

Although winning the fight, Vasari was not unharmed which was quite evident due to the cut on his right cheek that was still bleeding slightly. Letting your guard down, even slightly, in a fight to the death can lead to tragic consequences and Vasari duly learnt his lesson.

A cornered beast is often the most dangerous.

–––––

'Hmm not bad. A bit chewy and kinda salty. 5.5/10'

Vasari rated the meat from the left hind leg of the blue night leopard. After eating, he reflected on the battle earlier and what he could do better. It's a pity he couldn't watch how the leopard moved, he could imagine his comprehension over savage shadowless steps would've improved leaps and bounds if he saw how a real big cat moved.

With his tummy now filled, Vasari decided to take a light nap to rest his body. He didn't fall into a deep sleep as he was still wary of his surroundings. How embarrassing would it be if he was killed in his sleep?

Waking up sometime later to the sounds of birds chirping and waves crashing against rocks was a nice feeling. It gave him disillusioned peaceful vibes however he knew that this area was anything but peaceful with powerful beasts roaming about. In the small area he covered, he already managed to run into 2 adult stage beasts who were not pushovers by any means and other students would definitely struggle against them.

For the first time in a long time, Vasari found himself worrying about others. His friends and Witney were somewhere on this planet and there was nothing he could do to help them.

He didn't know if Miss Covington was watching over them like she did in Mammoth Grove or if they were truly alone.

'Sigh forget about it for now. Let's concentrate on myself, you're not their babysitter.'

He started a fire and prepared to cook breakfast. Leopard meat was on the menu for today's breakfast.

He cooked and ate the right hind leg. Vasari found himself in a dilemma, he didn't know what to do with the rest of the leopard meat. He couldn't leave it in the cave since it will attract other beasts, so he only had a few solutions. One was to throw the meat away, far from the cave, or put it in his eyes sub-space but he would be taking a risk revealing his eyes with Miss Covington potentially watching over them.

'The meat is not that good anyway.' Vasari made his decision and went with the safer option.

'Let's hunt for some cloud points.'

Imagining all the potential cloud points he could get made him lick his lips in anticipation. The poor beasts in the area were going to have a nightmarish time for the next couple of days as Vasari went full-on predator mode.

––––

While Vasari and his classmates were playing survival on a different planet, the rest of the sect carried on as normal.

Well, that would be the case if the news that Core disciples of the Glacier Bay Sect and the Heavenly Sword Sect would be coming to the sect didn't throw everyone's standard routine schedule out the window.

The sect announced that the friendly competition is a sort of warm-up for the upcoming Westernord Sect Tournament.

The sect also announced that the venue for the competition will be HavenField Stadium which was currently under renovation to be able to seat more spectators.

The disciples in the sect were going crazy to complete more missions to earn cloud points just to buy a ticket for the friendly competition or sell anything of value that they owned for extra cloud points.

It was truly a spectacular sight to see hundreds of mounts and cultivators litter the streets and airspace of Outer Haven.

BANG!!!

"What do you mean Hannah Cloudwater is not going to participate in the competition!?!?"

A large handsome man with medium length luscious blonde hair and ocean-blue irises smashed the wooden tea table in front of him in frustration.

"It's exactly as I said. Hannah Coldwater has just returned to the Glacier Bay Sect after completing a difficult mission and is taking a break to recover, that's what I got from my sources."

Another young handsome man with short silver hair shaved on the back and sides answered the man sitting opposite him.

"Damn it and I was looking forward to kicking her ass to get redemption." The blonde-haired man said which earned a chuckle from his silver-haired friend.

"Correct me if I recall incorrectly, but last time you fought against Hannah Coldwater in the Westernord Sect Tournament you barely survived 10 exchanges before she nearly killed you."

"That only happened because it was my first tournament and I underestimated my opponent. It won't happen again."

The silver-haired man rolled his eyes after hearing his friend's excuse.

"Never mind that girl, she isn't even in the top 10 Core Disciples of her sect. Beating a disciple ranked higher than her would technically mean that you could beat her as well."

"Hmm…you're right." The blonde-haired man nodded before standing up and straightening the black robe with red clouds neatly embroidered on it. "Kai let's go or we are going to be late and get an earful again."

Kai, the silver-haired handsome young man, sighed before standing up and straightening his black robe with beautiful red clouds.

The duo calmly walked out of the small tea room. Once their bodies completely left the room they disappeared into thin air leaving behind nothing but a cool breeze.

––––

"You two are late as always. Why can't you ever just be on time for a change."

That was the first thing Kai and the blonde-haired man next to him heard when they entered a luxurious and beautifully decorated hall.

Kai and his friend gazed at the 18 other people in the hall who were all wearing similar robes to themselves with a neutral look.

"Kade and I were talking about the upcoming friendly competition and got carried away. I apologise for any inconvenience we may have caused."

"Tch let's just get this meeting underway." A large man standing over 2.5m tall, leaning against one of the many sturdy and well-decorated pillars connected to the ceiling, said. He had spiky brown hair and brown eyes, his lips were coated in a light shade of brown and his skin was also an amber tone.

"No need to be so impatient Chester Brown, your dirt isn't going to grow legs and run away hehehehehe."

Kade mocked the large man causing a dense killing intent to hurtle towards him but the two men just looked at each before harrumphing and shifting their attention to the woman who called for this meeting.

Long fiery red had cascading her back and her red irises that perfectly matched her red hair were the two most eye-catching features that one would notice after seeing her for the first time.

It was only after that would one see the pulchritudinous beauty of the woman and the succubus-like body that even her multilayered black robes couldn't fully conceal. However, none of the men had any lustful thoughts about this woman. The reason?

Her name alone deterred men because it was the name that everybody in the Cloud Haven Sect had come to admire and aspire to be like.

Scarlet Glowflare. Leader of Scarlet Phoenix: rank 1 on the league rankings.