SLAP!
Whatever taunt Firenze was about to make was cut off, as the force of Harry's blow snapped his enormous head against his thick neck. There was a snapping sound, and for a moment, Harry hoped that he had broken the ugly creature's neck. But the next second Firenze's head shot back up, and glared at Harry with furious rage.
The mace in Firenze's hand had twitched, but Harry kept it firmly locked down with his dagger. It could only block one attack at a time – so Harry's slap landed.
Around the arena, the spectators watched the fighting with rapt attention. Seeing James slap the invisible Selwyn across the face was shocking enough, but now seeing him slap Firenze, it was even more shocking. It was simply unbelievable! Even Draco Malfoy and Felix Rosier stopped what they were doing for a second to stare.
"That was for the bet you owe me," Harry calmly said, as if slapping Firenze wasn't a big deal at all.
Harry was referring to the bet they made during the test of strength, that the loser would slap themselves across the face. Of course, a proud creature like Firenze would never follow up on that bet. Considering everything else that happened since, some people even forgot about the bet – until James' slap brought it to the forefront of their memory.
Compared to being slapped, Firenze would almost rather be skinned. Though the slap didn't hurt him, it was a mental kind of pain. He, the noble centaur at the 8th level of the Qi Absorption Realm, was actually slapped in the face by a lowly human at the 2nd level of the Qi Absorption Realm! This kind of shame, for the proud centaurs, it was just unbearable.
Even worse, he had been slapped in front of all the heirs of the Sacred Clans. If he was slapped in private, or in front of some nobodies, it wouldn't be such a big deal. But these were the representatives of all the strongest powers of the empire, people he couldn't just get rid of. Once the competition was over they would surely spread the word to their clans. He'd become known all across the empire as the centaur that got slapped in the face by James Evans.
As these thoughts raced in his mind, and as he saw the spectators gawking at his face, he felt an incredible burst of rage and shame.
"James, fuck you! DIE!" Firenze screamed, then brought the mace crashing down on Harry's head.
It whistled through the air and landed right on the top of Harry's head. For a moment, Firenze allowed himself to believe he won. He expected James' head to be split open like a watermelon, with blood and brain spraying all across the arena. Instead, he felt like he smashed his mace into a rock. A huge force rebounded against his arm. The spikes stood against Harry's head, unable to pierce through, and then…
"Haha, too weak!"
Swish!
"AAAAIIIEEEEAHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Yet another strip of Firenze's hide came peeling off. Firenze let out a howl of pain, then retreated while clutching his arm. Harry was going to give chase, then movement caught his eye.
Draco Malfoy finished whatever it was he was doing. The three pearls from before, originally twice the size of a chicken egg, were now easily five or six times as large. They were like large white balls. Draco smashed them into the ground, where they shattered. Out of the shell fragments rose plumes of silvery mist, which formed into snarling beasts that towered over Draco. Three wolves appeared by his size.
Though they were unmistakably wolves, they were enormous. Logically, it was impossible for such a large creature to fit into one of those pearls, but Harry couldn't contemplate that now. These wolves were so large that just their legs were taller than Draco – standing in between, he was dwarfed. They were at the Core Formation Realm, but probably the low-level.
"Draco, I still need 30 seconds!" Felix called out.
"By that time, my beasts will already have killed that bastard! That's right! You three – kill him!" Draco commanded.
'These Sacred Clans sure have a lot of resources,' Harry scowled. Wouldn't it be nice if he could summon powerful Magic Beasts whenever he wanted?
"Haha, you're dead James!' Pansy Parkinson's annoying voice rang out. "Those beasts are at the 3rd level of the Core Formation Realm! Die!"
Harry had to give up on attacking Firenze, who retreated to the side to focus on healing his injuries. In turn, Harry focused on the incoming horde of beasts.
The first wolf crossed the arena in the blink of an eye, and pounced on Harry. Their long legs gave them the advantage in speed. Before Harry knew it, it was already here.
Harry stabbed upwards, just as the first wolf snapped its jaws and bit into Harry's neck. Its teeth clamped under Harry's chin, but it was as if the wolf had bit upon a rock, for not a single tooth punctured through Harry's flesh. Even as the wolf lifted its neck to shake Harry around, his knife was already deep in the wolf's chest.
This wasn't a real wolf, instead, it was created through some unknown magical means. It didn't bleed, nor did it cry out in pain. It was almost like a puppet, likely commanded to obey Draco's orders. Out of the stab wound, blood didn't flow out, rather, what came out was the same silvery mist that had been in the eggs.
The wolf didn't give any indication it had been stabbed, and tossed Harry high into the air with a flick of its head. Harry landed on the ground, skidding right to the feet of the other two solves. They immediately set themselves upon him, one wolf tearing at each of his arms. The third one, with a faint trail of silver mist pouring out its stab wound, came pouncing over.
'Dammit, how can I kill these?' Harry swore. If these weren't real creatures, then were they unkillable?
With great effort, Harry tore himself away from their grasp. His dagger moved like flashes of light, stabbing into one of the wolves legs and turning it into a mass of rent flesh. Though such an assault would have crippled any normal wolf, Draco's summoned beast barely felt it. It roared and snapped its teeth – Harry dodged just in time – even as the silver mist left its body through its dozen wounds.
"Stop messing around and kill him!" Draco yelled. "I don't believe he can withstand the 3rd level of the Core Formation Realm!"
The wolves renewed their assault. Harry weaved in and out, relying on his better battle senses and smaller frame to dodge attacks. When there was an opening, he struck. Whenever he could, he would sink his knife into a wolf's body, leaving a hole where silver mist started emerging. But no matter what he did, the wolves didn't seem affected at all.
But as he fought, Harry gradually noticed that because the wolves weren't real, they reacted slowly. They were definitely puppets, without life. Their attacks were slower than real beasts, and they didn't bother to defend themselves. All they did was follow Draco's orders – which was to attack Harry.
35%!
As the fight dragged on, with Draco becoming increasingly furious, one of the wolves abruptly collapsed. It was like a balloon that lost all the air – the body deflated as mist poured out of the dozens of wounds Harry left behind, becoming nothing more than a bag of skin which too turned into the silver mist and dispersed.
Harry looked over in surprise, and then his face lit up in understanding. As it turned out, the mist formed the substance of the beast! Once enough of it was lost, the beast was gone too.
Armed with this knowledge, Harry redoubled his assault. He didn't pay attention to his personal defense at all, only looking for ways to injure the two remaining wolves.
Next to Felix, the bear finally took shape, and disappeared from the scroll. It was easily as large as two of the wolves put together, and prowled around on four limbs. It got on its hind legs, head brushing the tall ceiling, then bared its teeth at Harry and charged.
"You won't kill this one as easily!" Felix called out. "Unlike Draco's wolves, this beast is at the 5th level!"
Hearing that, Harry ignored Draco's wolves, and assessed the bear. Even if he stopped attacking the wolves, he already left enough wounds so that they'd collapse in a matter of seconds. The priority now was Felix.
Each step the bear took shook the Room of Requirements, sending a tremor across the arena. Harry almost his balance, as he rapidly tried to think of a way to deal with this new threat.
The bear reached him impossibly fast, faster than Harry thought a beast of that size could move, and sent one massive paw swinging. Harry ducked and rolled out the way, but the paw was too large to be dodged. It was practically the size of his chest. It struck him on the side, then Harry was flung across the arena, smashing against the barrier.
By coincidence, he landed right by the group from Yellow Hero City. When Harry got up and regained his bearings, he found himself face to face with Zacharias Smith.
"Haha, James, you're dead now!" he laughed with glee. Finally, there was something in the arena that could kill this cheating bastard!
"Don't listen to him James! Go and beat that bear!" Sullivan encouraged from the side.
"Thanks – oof!"
The bear smashed its entire body into him. A wall of flesh crushed him against the wall of the arena, sandwiching him between the barrier and the bear. Even with Strengthening Flesh, the bear was powerful enough to cause pain.
40%!
Harry thrust his dagger into the bear, but it only sank about an inch before it was stopped by the bear's thick muscles. Compared to the massive bear, the dagger was like a bee stinging a human. All it did was annoy it.
"RRROOOOOOAAAARRR!"
The two front paws of the bear smashed downwards, crushing Harry to the ground. Harry let out an oomph as all the wind was forced out his lungs. He struggled to get up – but simply couldn't, not with the weight of the bear on him. However, the same could be said about the bear – no matter how it tried, it couldn't tear this human's body apart.
'Dammit, this can't keep going on!' Harry cursed. Though his defense was getting stronger, his offense wasn't. There wasn't much he could do against this Magic Beast that Felix had summoned.
This whole time, Felix was rapidly swallowing pills. Harry took a glance and found they were a type of pill that restored Qi – obviously, summoning that bear had taken a lot out of him. As Felix gulped pills down, he stared at James with nothing but disbelief. How could even this bear, with the strength of the 5th level of the Core Formation Realm, fail to kill James?
Draco though, Draco was staring at Harry with an expression of pure frustration, unable to believe his wolves hadn't hurt James at all. They were equivalent to the 3rd level of the Core Formation Realm – if they had attacked him, and without all his defensive treasures, he would be killed in a matter of seconds!
Sure, they weren't as powerful as the real wolves, but they were still deadly beasts. How could that Spiritless bastard survive all those attacks? Finally, a nagging thought was taking root in his mind… what if, by some impossible chance, James hadn't been cheating earlier? What if that was just his actual strength?
Could it be… he was wrong about James?
The worst part was, Jame's ring was still active, still sucking out that treasured wood's Qi! Every second they delayed was a second that James took the treasure away.
For the sake of Rowena Ravenclaw's treasure… for the sake of killing James… even if he used all his treasures and items, it would be worth it!
Those were the thoughts running through Draco Malfoy's mind, and gritting his teeth, he pulled even more items out of his Space Ring. Since things had come this far, he could only take things to the end.
First came five long swords, each inscribed with hundreds of runes. The blades glinted and flashed in the light. Draco poured his Qi into the swords, lighting up all the runes along the blades. They shot into the air, with minds of their own, and streaked towards Harry.
Then Draco Malfoy summoned his Magic Spirit, the majestic silver peacock. The brilliant bird took shape above his head, screeching and cawing in circles. Then it fixed its eyes at Harry and shot towards him, claws and beak outstretched.
Then there was a large net, like a fishing net but much larger. It was made of precious materials that would require a high-level Core Formation Realm cultivator to break. This was one of the most precious treasures of the Malfoy Sacred Clan, able to catch nearly anyone under the Spirit Fusion Realm. The most sinister part was that once it got the target, it would shrink and squeeze until they suffocated. The ropes even had the ability to turn into thin wire – which would result in the victim begin chopped into tiny pieces. Draco controlled the net using his Qi, and sent it to entangle James.
After the net was a pitch black sphere, made of something compressed into a small ball by Draco's Qi. Draco lobbed it towards Harry, then once it got close, Draco released his Qi. The small ball instantly decompressed into a cloud of black vapor that spread to cover a wide area – with Harry at its center.
Then a pair of short drums, like bongos, fell out his Space Ring and onto the floor. In Draco's hands were two wooden mallets, which he used to furiously pound on the drums. For a moment, Harry thought Draco was about to give a music performance – and then a bolt of lightning came out the drums, crackling towards James.
'Damn, that guy sure has a lot of treasures!' Today, Harry's horizons were surely broadened.
50%!
The lightning actually reached him first, too fast to be dodged. It struck Harry right in the center of the face – and then sizzled off.
"Huh?" Harry paused, staring dumbly at Draco Malfoy's bongos. Were the drums defective? But no, Draco Malfoy was standing there too, with a similar dumb expression on his face.
"Dammit, James, why won't you just die?" he howled. With renewed vigor, he began drumming.
Bam! Bam! BAM BAM BAM!
Each strike was accompanied by a bolt of lightning. The next one hit Harry in the chest, but once again, it landed on his body and disappeared.
Then the bear was there again, with its snapping jaws and teeth, and Harry was struck aside with a single bat of its paws. Harry slammed into the floor, out of breath, and then the bear roared and pounced at him.
Harry rapidly rolled away, just in time to dodge the autonomous swords. They sank into the ground, where he had been a second earlier, then lifted themselves out and shot at him again. Right behind them was the silver peacock – and from the other side was Felix's bear.
Then the ball of black powder exploded. Without any warning, the room turned pitch black, as if someone had turned off the lights. Not even the light from the Ring of Elements could reach his eyes, that was how dark it was. Blindly, Harry fumbled around in the dark -
BANG!
Another bolt of lightning struck his neck. Harry only noticed it at the last second, and couldn't dodge. But once again, it harmlessly splashed against his body.
BAM! CLANG! ROOOOAAAAAAARRRRRRR!
The black powder didn't just blind Harry, it also prevented everyone else from seeing what was going on. They only saw an inky cloud of blackness, obscuring part of the arena. But they could see the outer edges of James' ring, still spinning rapidly, and could definitely hear the sounds of battle.
Clang! Clang! Ring!
Those were Draco's swords.
ROARRRRRR!
That was the bear.
BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!
Those were the lightning bolts Draco was shooting into the black mist, randomly hoping to hit James.
CHIRP! CHIRP! CHIRP!
That was the peacock.
"Draco, screw you! If you have guts, fight like a real man!"
That was Harry, cursing his enemies for using these kinds of tactics.
Clang! Clang! ROAAARRRR! BAM! BAM! CHIRP! BAM!
ROARRR! BAM! CLANG! RING! BAM! CHIRP! CHIRP! BAM! BAM!
"James, just die!"
ROARRR! BANG! BANG!
The battle echoed across the Room of Requirement.
"Is he gonna be alright?" Sullivan nervously asked, biting his fingernails.
"I – I can't say," Daniel admitted. Just what kind of person, at the 2nd level of the Qi Absorption Realm, could survive that assault?
"He's definitely dead!" Zacharias sneered at the two. "That's what a piece of trash like him deserves!"
"Right, that lowly human is definitely dead! After that, it's time for the real talents to fight!" one of the centaurs proclaimed.
60%!
Then the black powder settled to the floor, and everything became visible again.
And when they saw the sight in front of their eyes, their mouths dropped open in shock.
The bear had stopped attacking, because it was tangled up in the net. Also inside the net was the peacock. The bear's four limbs were caught, as were the tail feathers of the peacock, and in their entanglement, neither of them could move, much less break free. Four of Malfoy's swords were stuck in the bear's body. In the grapple between Harry and the beast, they had accidentally stabbed into the beast.
Once the net wrapped around something, it tightened itself and couldn't be loosened. Even though the bear struggled, it was useless. It couldn't free itself at all.
The other sword was inches from Harry's neck, and Harry was just barely blocking it with his dagger. It was almost like an invisible executioner was holding the hilt, pressing it closer and closer to Harry.
And the entire time, bolts of lightning were shooting at Harry, like he was caught in a rainstorm. But each one landed on his body then inexplicably disappeared without a trace.
"You – you – dammit Draco, look at what you did!" Felix yelled.
"Your bear got in the way! Without it, my net would definitely have captured James!" Draco Malfoy let out a howl of frustration. All those treasures… all of them were wasted!
Though Harry didn't know it, Draco and Felix were actually bitter rivals, constantly competing for the top spot among the junior generation. Their rivalry was well-known and well-discussed among those who lived in the Scarlet Phoenix Capital. Whenever they met, they compared their strength, or mastery over their cultivation techniques, or held some other form of contest. They always tried to outdo each other, and had never gotten along.
The two of them definitely were not friends. They were teamed up now, due to their mutual hatred for Harry. But though they teamed up, this was their first time working together. That was why their cooperation was so atrocious that it actually ended up saving Harry.
"James, fuck you! I'll kill you myself!" Draco screamed. He raised his sword and directly charged towards James!
As he ran, the silver armor reappeared to cover his body. He was dressed in his robes at the start of his charge, but by the time he reached Harry, he was completely encased. Draco grabbed the floating sword, and with both weapons, launched a furious assault. With a thunderous CLANG!, Harry lifted his dagger to intercept Draco's swords.
Clang! Clang! Bang!
The two of them fought like that, Draco crazily swinging his blades while Harry parried every single move. It had been a while since he held a blade, but his old battle instincts, refined over the months with the Exalted Cat, came into play. The arrowhead, more like a dagger, fit just right into his hands.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Despite the huge gap in cultivation, Harry didn't fall behind a single step. With the Five Element Battle Body, his physical strength was only a level or two behind Draco. And because his dagger was shorter, he had an easier time maneuvering it around to block Draco's attacks. Draco's moves were also rather sloppy – perhaps a result of his insurmountable frustration.
The spectators only saw three blurs of metal, afterimages of the blades whistling through the air. For those not trained in sword fighting, they weren't even able to follow this rapid battle.
Using his free hand, Harry closed it into a fist and wrapped a layer of Qi around it. He punched Draco in the head as hard as he could –
BANG!
His fist bounced off the silver armor, and Draco continued attacking, unaffected.
"Haha, you can't hurt me in this armor! And once I figure out your defensive trick, you're dead!" his muffled voice called out.
'Dammit,' Harry scowled. As he knew, the armor was a Heaven Grade technique and could withstand up to the 1st level of the Core Formation Realm. He simply didn't have that sort of offensive power.
'He has to have a weakness,' Harry analyzed even as he focused on parrying all of Draco's attacks. But the armor covered every inch of Draco's body. Further, though it was made of metal, and felt like metal, it didn't behave like metal. It behaved more like water, freely flowing around his body while providing an insurmountable defense.
Draco's blade came down again, but this time, Harry let it strike his shoulder. Though it failed to injure him, he felt like an enormous weight was pounded into his body – and just one side of it. He staggered and fell to a knee.
As quick as lightning, before Draco could defend, his dagger flashed in an arc of light and stabbed towards Draco – but it too bounced off his armor, leaving nothing but a slight scratch on the silver surface.
"James, what kind of trick is this? Are you wearing armor?" Draco's enraged howl could be heard.
"That's ironic, coming from you," Harry sneered.
"James, fuck you! How dare you steal that Wood Qi! DIE!"
Each scream was punctuated by a slash of his blade, backed by all the physical strength Draco could muster. Qi poured out his body, forming the shape of a third blade which Draco wielded in conjunction to his two real ones. But all three of landed on Harry's body with no effect.
70%!
His defensive strength was already far beyond the meager offense Draco could put out.
Out of the corner of his eye, Harry saw both Felix and Firenze recovered at around the same time. Harry let out a curse. As long as they all teamed up against him, he couldn't focus on any one of them.
Felix drew a sword of his own, then rushed in. Now Harry was pressed on two fronts, blocking Draco with his dagger and Felix with a bare arm.
Bang! Bang! Bam!
The spectators just saw Draco Malfoy and Felix Rosier, two of the strongest cultivators of their generation, furiously trying to attack James, caught in the middle. James was jumping around, using the tiny dagger and his bare arm to block the attacks, but succeeding. Somehow, James was holding his own against both of them!
Then from behind, Firenze came galloping. The arm that Harry had partially skinned was now encased in some sort of paste, a medicinal formula that must have restored the arm's functionality, because the centaur acted as if his wounds didn't bother him at all.
"Lowly human, I don't believe your defense can be stronger than my offense. Die!"
A spear, thick and easily as long as Harry was tall, appeared in his hands. Firenze spat out a mouthful of brightly glowing blood, which was absorbed into the spear. The spear shined, seeming to gain extra power, while Firenze seemed to weaken slightly. Nonetheless he charged at Harry at full speed, the spear held like a battering ram.
"The weapon accepted Firenze's essence blood!" one of the centaurs excitedly shouted.
"Firenze, kill that bastard!" another encouraged him.
"In the end, the centaurs are the strongest!" a third proudly proclaimed.
Harry had no choice but to ignore Draco and Felix's attacks to deal with the new threat. Their four swords harmlessly slammed into his back, sending him careening forwards a few steps but otherwise not injuring him, and he got into a defensive stance. As the centaur charged forwards, Harry prepared to grab onto the spear and wrestle it away. And then –
Danger!
A voice in his mind screamed, and without hesitation, Harry lifted his left arm and pushed outwards, hand outstretched, into the seemingly empty air. A moment later, a dagger appeared out of nowhere and stabbed into his left palm – and out through the back of his hand!
Harry hissed in pain, and closed his left fist around Selwyn's invisible hand. Once he did, Selwyn's entire body flickered into view. Harry was just about to give him another slap in the face –
WHAM!
Firenze's spear slammed into his body with the force of a rushing bull. Harry felt a massive force dig into his chest, even managing to pierce through an inch of flesh, and knocking all the breath out of him. He sailed through the air, then collided with one of the barriers of light.
BOING!
It felt like rubber, and didn't hurt at all. Harry bounced right off and leaded on the floor, thankfully on his feet. Grimacing, he looked at his injuries.
The one on his left hand was the worst. The dagger had been torn out of his palm, leaving a messy exit wound and shredding his hand further apart. Harry could see his glistening muscles, and even the pale bone. A trail of blood splattered on the floor – Selwyn was actually able to draw blood!
The one on his chest looked bad, and out of it came a river of blood. But though there was copious blood, it wasn't a severe injury. Firenze had missed his heart.
'Those two weapons… that dagger and that spear… damn, they must be high-quality Heaven Grade weapons!' Harry swore.
That dagger wasn't Selwyn's Magic Spirit, rather, it was longer, with a curved and serrated blade. Harry hadn't gotten a good look, but he thought he saw runes carved on both sides of the blade. For it to pierce through his defense so easily, it must have been made of high-quality Heaven Grade materials.
Though Selwyn's Magic Spirit was Rank 4, equivalent to a Spirit Grade dagger, he himself was just at the Qi Absorption Realm. He didn't have the strength to use its full abilities – and wouldn't have that strength until he got to the Spirit Fusion Realm. Therefore, Harry wasn't worried about his Magic Spirit. It couldn't injure him, and wasn't much more than an Earth Grade dagger.
But this dagger was different – a real threat to Harry's life.
As he got back up from the floor, Harry thanked his fast reflexes. If he hadn't blocked Selwyn with his hand just then, the dagger may very well have pierced through his neck.
"Haha, they got him!" Draco Malfoy laughed. For the first time, there was hope in his voice.
"He can be injured with a peak Heaven Grade weapon," Firenze stated, while brandishing the spear.
'Damnit, it's not just high-quality… it's peak Heaven Grade! This… this is just bullying now!' Harry internally fumed. "Peak" meant that the weapon was very close to reaching the next realm – in other words, they could almost be considered low-level Spirit Grade weapons! How could he, a rogue cultivator with no backing to speak of, compete against these cultivators who got precious treasures and weapons from their clan? If he had a similar background, or a similar weapon, then he would have killed the four of them a hundred times over by now.
"James is done for!" Firenze shouted. "He'll die of blood loss soon, and his hand is crippled –"
Firenze's voice abruptly cut off.
With the Five Element Battle Body activated, the healing power of Water Qi was continuously flowing through Harry's body. Even as everyone watched, the flesh on Harry's palm knitted itself together, and the hole in his chest closed. Within 10 seconds, not even a scar could be seen.
"Crippled?" Harry smiled. "I'm afraid not."
80%!
"…"
"…"
Three stunned expressions looked back at him.
"NO!" Draco roared. "I won't accept this!"
For the second time, he witnessed James' abnormal healing power. And for the second time, he refused to believe what his own eyes saw!
"You – you – dammit, get him!" Firenze hoisted his spear again, and made a mad dash for Harry.
The fighting continued for two more minutes, the most intense fight Harry had ever been in in his life. He ducked, weaved, blocked, defended, struck, dodged, twisted, rolled, leapt, traded injury for injury, used every trick and fighting technique he knew to just barely fight to a standstill. Against four vicious opponents hellbent on killing him, it was all Harry could do to just remain unscathed. He allowed himself to be struck by Draco or Felix's weapons, while doing all he could to avoid Firenze's spear or Selwyn's dagger. He dodged some attacks by the skin of teeth, others, he took and then healed himself afterwards. Anything to buy him time until his Sea of Wood was full.
The worst part was, Harry found he was unable to injure any of his opponents. Draco's armor was too tough for him to pierce, Firenze's body cultivation technique was too powerful, not to mention his ability to predict all his strikes, and as for Felix Rosier, Harry simply didn't have a chance to strike him. The others kept him busy. Selwyn remained invisible, and Harry was only able to sense him at the last second, just before he struck. He didn't have any way to target Selwyn.
90%!
Suddenly, Selwyn appeared, on the far side of the arena. His mask was back on, but Harry could tell the man was frustrated. His invisibility technique was powered by his Qi – and it lasted a finite amount of time. He had used it during the entire test of the staircase, and now, during the fight, he expended even more of his strength. He could no longer maintain his invisibility.
With Selwyn visible again, the other three stopped and backed up a cautious distance. The four enemies stood there, catching their breath, all warily staring at James. And around the room, the spectators found themselves short of breath too, unable to believe the fight they had just witnessed.
James – he was fighting against four others at the same time – four of the strongest juniors of the entire Scarlet Phoenix Empire – and he was actually tied!
They all thought James was going to die, die after the very first attack. They didn't even think he'd survive five seconds. Most of them believed James had cheated on the staircase, so his actual strength was at the 2nd level of the Qi Absorption Realm. He had gotten to the 19th step using some despicable methods, but they wouldn't help in a physical fight.
Now, all those earlier accusations of cheating were stuck in their throats. Time and time again, James had proved his abnormal defensive ability and tolerance for pain. There wasn't anyone who still believed James was cheating.
Harry was mostly alright, while the other four were dead tired. The test of the staircase, followed by such a long period of continuous fighting, left them exhausted. But somehow, James looked like he was still in his peak condition.
The five of them stood like that, panting and recovering their strength. Minutes passed, no one knowing what to do next, while they helplessly watched the ring continue to spin and spin and spin. Time trickled away as the five of them stood in a stalemate.
100%!
A wide grin stretched across Harry's face.
His Sea of Wood was 100% full!
Once it was full, the Ring of Elements stopped revolving, unable to take in any more Wood Qi. The stream of Wood Qi disappeared, and the expressions on Firenze, Draco Malfoy, and Felix Rosier turned beyond ugly.
Though logical, they wrongly assumed that James being done refining meant that there was no more Wood Qi in the block of wood. Based on the amount of Wood Qi, the block was probably equivalent to a high-quality Heaven Grade tree – and James had taken the whole thing away, safely secreted the Qi into his own body!
It was blatantly against the rules of the competition!
If they knew there was still much more Wood Qi, perhaps they wouldn't have been furious. But they had no way of sensing that, especially not with that barrier of light around the treasure, so they made an incorrect assumption. To them, James had already taken the treasure!
A part of them even felt there was no point in fighting anymore, what with the treasure dried up. But there was something more important on the line – their pride!
Right, their pride! They were the juniors of the most powerful clans of the Scarlet Phoenix Empire. In their whole entire lives, they had never been defeated. How could they allow some unknown rogue cultivator to take away the treasure that should have been theirs? Even if the treasure was gone, they still had to defeat James to reclaim their pride!
But... how could they defeat him? Even with their strongest attacks and weapons, they didn't even leave a scratch on his body!
And similarly, James couldn't defeat them either. Though his defense was absurdly strong, his offensive strength wasn't high enough. Therefore, the five of them were in a stalemate.
They stood like that for a while, glaring at each other, until Draco Malfoy raised a hand above his head. On his palm, a silver-colored flame burst into existence. Its temperature was so high that the small room instantly became scorching hot.
"I should have thought of this earlier!"
"James, you may have an abnormal physical body, but I have other ways to kill you! I control this Natural Flame to refine pills, but today, I'll use this to refine you! Burn to a crisp!"
A/N: In the next few weeks, I will make revisions to some of the earlier chapters, where the writing and plot were rougher. The changes are mainly for fixing typos and grammar errors, along with a few larger changes, summarized below. Nothing major will change.
- Dudley had a Rank 2 Magic Spirit, not Rank 3.
- A few plot points that went nowhere will be removed. They represented poorly planned out decisions and slowed down the story.
- Some of the shorter chapters will be combined together for a better reading experience.
- Slughorn's block of wood, and Ravenclaw's, is from a willow tree. It was always meant to be from a willow tree.
None of these changes affect the overall plot, and there's no need to reread anything. By reading this A/N you are up to date with all the changes that will be made. My hope is that Act 1 will flow better for new readers.
As a result of these changes, the number of chapters will decrease. Don't be surprised if you see fewer chapters one day – the story is still the same.