Against all odds, Harry had seen this block of wood before. Well, not this block, but an identical block. Back when he was living with Slughorn and the Exalted Cat, Slughorn had shown him a block of wood, asking Harry to identify it. Harry would never forget that treasure, which contained a seemingly endless amount of Wood Qi, nor Slughorn and the Exalted Cat's spooked reactions when he said it was the Profound Grade.
And this block of wood here was identical to it in every way. There was no mistaking it – the same size, the same appearance, even the same reaction from the Nameless Seed. His ability to identify Magic Plants was even telling him the same thing. Slughorn's block and this block were definitely related.
He was very curious to why this block of wood appeared here, and how Slughorn had gotten his, but now wasn't the right time for those questions. Now - it was time to refine!
Back then, Harry was able to use a tiny fraction of the Wood Qi in Slughorn's block to finish Strengthening Flesh. Whatever the Profound Grade was, it was an incredibly precious item. There was so much of Wood Qi that Harry knew he could even complete the medium accomplishment.
While Harry's eyes lit up in excitement and anticipation, the opposite was true for everybody else. They imagined some sort of magnificent treasure, a peerless weapon or cultivation technique, perhaps Rowena's Ravenclaw personal effects, anything other than this.
An ordinary looking, certainly useless, block of wood. This kind of thing – anyone could find a tree and carve one out themselves.
Was this a joke? What kind of inheritance was this?
"That's it?" Draco Malfoy's loud voice was first to sound out. "A block of wood?"
"What a waste," Zacharias Smith loudly proclaimed. Even though he was out the competition, he still felt the need to voice his opinion – an opinion that was echoed across the room. Why had Rowena Ravenclaw, one the greatest cultivators to ever grace the empire, left this useless thing as her inheritance?
"Dammit! Who wants this kind of trash?" Firenze spat on the floor.
Felix stared stubbornly at the block of wood, as if trying to see through its mysteries, but in the end, shook his head. To him, it just appeared to be a mundane block of wood.
"We'll figure out who gets the treasure later! But first, attack James!" Draco yelled. "But don't kill him, and cut out his tongue so he can't forfeit! We're going to make that cheater suffer first!"
Firenze and Felix Rosier both nodded – and Harry imagined the invisible man did too. But to Draco's words, Harry only threw his head back and let out a loud laugh.
"Draco Malfoy – haha! You – HAHAHAHAHAHA!"
It was a mix of joy and mockery – joy, because he would finally fill his infuriatingly-large Sea of Wood, and mockery, because the problem of this fight had also been solved.
He couldn't have asked for a better treasure if he tried.
"The countdown will now begin. 10!" Rowena Ravenclaw's voice sounded out.
"What are you laughing about?" Draco demanded.
Everybody was already in a fighting stance – Draco's and Firenze's weapons were drawn, Felix's Magic Spirit was out, their cultivation techniques or other tools ready to be used. The three visible opponents, and the probably the invisible one too, focused their killing intent towards Harry – who stood there completely relaxed, a wide grin on his face.
If they hated him for "cheating" on the staircase, well, they would hate him even more after this.
"Of course, I'm laughing at you!"
"9!"
"Ring of Elements, revolve!" Harry ordered.
The five-colored ring appeared behind Harry's back once again. The brilliant blue, green, red, brown, and gold lit up the Room of Requirement, displaying their splendor once more.
But this time, the ring began to spin!
Slowly at first, but quickly speeding up, turning into a multi-colored blur, and then... and then..
And then, a thick stream of Wood Qi rose out the innocuous-looking block of wood and shot straight at Harry!
These walls of light were extremely powerful, powerful enough to prevent any of the cultivators here from passing through. But Harry knew that his Ring of Elements was a peerless cultivation technique – and indeed, not even the barriers of light could block its suction force.
An incredible amount of Wood Qi shot right towards the green section of the revolving ring. Once it connected with the Ring of Elements, it was drawn into Harry's body, through his meridians and into the Sea of Wood. Harry felt a massive amount of Wood Qi racing through his body. It was like a gorged dam after a flood, holding back a river's load of water. All of it burst into the Sea of Wood like a tsunami.
"8!"
"What the - !"
"What's he doing?"
Shouts of alarm rang across the room. Due to the barriers, it was difficult to sense there was any Qi in the block of wood. Some people thought it was just a block of dead wood. But once the Wood Qi was in transit, everyone could see it.
This block of wood actually contained such pure Wood Qi!
And somehow, defying all logic and common sense, James could refine it!
But worst of all... the most unforgivable thing was... the competition hadn't even started!
The competition hadn't started, but James was already taking the treasure!
"7!"
"Stop him!" Draco roared. He was wielding a long and sharp silver sword, which he stabbed at the wall of light with all his might. But it was useless. The sword bounced off, and the wall remained unaffected.
"6!"
"Stop him!" Firenze bellowed. He backed up, then charged forwards and smashed his body into the wall of light. But even his full strength made no difference. The wall of light didn't even bend the slightest, and the centaur was sent careening backwards, head ringing.
"5!"
"James, all you can do is cheat!" Felix spat. His hands were clenched into tight fists, and behind his back, the eyeball Magic Spirit fixed its unnerving stare at Harry.
"HAHA, HAHAHA!" Harry laughed wildly, freely and unrestrained. Within his body, his Sea of Wood was filling at an unbelievable rate!
First it had been 18%, but now it was almost 19%, and the rushing torrent of Wood Qi wasn't slowing down at all. This was the Profound Grade, the grade of cheat items!
By a quick estimate, Harry figured he was filling 1% of the Sea of Wood every 10 seconds!
"4!"
"Forget about making him suffer! Kill him, or else he'll take all the Qi!" Draco yelled in panic.
"3!"
"And don't let him forfeit, or he'll keep refining it!" Felix yelled back, every bit as urgently as Draco.
"2!"
"CHEATER!" Pansy Parkinson howled while trying to break down the walls of light. But she was resigned to a spectator, and could only helplessly watch as James shamelessly flaunted the rules.
"JAMES, STOP IT!" Zacharias Smith screamed, face twisted with rage from seeing James cheat so blatantly. Next to him, Anthony Goldstein and Ernest Macmillan wore furious scowls.
By their sides, Daniel and Sullivan were watching with their mouths agape. To their credit, at least they didn't appear angry. They just looked somewhere between awestruck and tongue-tied.
"1!"
"Cripple him, then we can take the Qi out his body!" Firenze yelled.
This sort of blatant cheating... it was absolutely unacceptable!
19%!
"0! Begin!"
The walls of light disappeared, and everyone sprang into action.
Felix Rosier was the first to act. He didn't move, but the two eyeballs behind him did. They floated in front of his body, taking positions to the left and right of his head, and fixed their unnerving stare at Harry. Once they did, a strange sort of locking power settled onto Harry. He felt like something within his body had hooked him into place, and suddenly, he was unable to move.
"I've trapped him, but not for long! Kill him now!" Felix shouted.
"James, die!" Draco roared. He ran straight at Harry, brandishing his sword, and slashed it through the air with all his might. He had been storing his energy during the countdown, and released it all at once. The room vibrated under his power, and a silver streak shot through the air.
"Damned human, die!" Firenze notched his bow, and faster than Harry could believe, shot an arrow out. The arrow flew right at Harry, winds howling around the tip, propelled by Firenze's Qi, reaching right in front of his face in less than a second.
The two attacks were streaking towards him, side by side. All across the room, people watched with anticipation, eager to see the cheater finally struck down. Centaur and human alike, from the laughably weak Pansy Parkinson and Zacharias Smith up to Crabbe, Goyle and Rowle who were just a step away from this final competition, all were looking forward to seeing James suffer. Only Daniel and Sullivan looked worried.
Under normal circumstances Harry could have dodged these attacks, but not now, with Felix's Magic Spirit locking him in place. But even then, he didn't need to.
'Strengthening Flesh!' Harry activated without any hesitation.
The power of wood sprang to life! Harry felt his flesh stiffen, like he donned an invincible set of armor – and the next second, the two attacks landed on his body!
Firenze's arrow actually hit his face first, right in the center of his forehead. For a normal human, it would have pierced clean through his brain and out the other end – but for Harry, all it did was knock his head backwards an inch.
A fraction of a second later, Draco Malfoy's sword slash arrived in front of Harry. It was even more powerful than Firenze's arrow, easily capable of splitting a human neatly in half, but for Harry, all it did was leave another cut in Harry's robes. The strength behind the blow collided with Harry's body – and bounced right off.
Harry took a few steps backwards to stabilize himself. Raising his head, he took in the roomful of shocked expressions.
"Is that all you have?" Harry grinned.
"Y-y-y-you!" Draco's face went even paler than usual. His grip on his sword loosened, and it almost fell out of his hands.
Felix and Firenze were both frozen stiff out of fright. Harry felt his body loosen as whatever Felix's Magic Spirit had done wore off, while Firenze just looked at Harry with a blank expression, holding his bow loosely. How... how was it possible James survived his attack?
Thinking back to the test of strength on the staircase, a discomforting thought rose in their minds. Was it possible, James hadn't cheated?
"I knew it!" Sullivan exclaimed triumphantly. "See, I told you all James didn't cheat!"
Other had similar thoughts, but were just too dumbfounded to voice them out. If they were in James' place, they would definitely have died. Why... why didn't James get injured at all?
For just a few seconds, though it felt like much longer, Harry, Draco, Felix, and Firenze stood like that, none of them making a move. It was like they couldn't even find the words to say, and Malfoy kept fingering his blade, as if he was wondering if someone had swapped it out with a defective one.
The only motion in the arena was the spinning of Ring of Elements, along with the Wood Qi pouring in Harry's body.
"A hand has been placed on the barrier. The one minute countdown will start now," Rowena Ravenclaw announced, jolting them out of their shock.
All four heads whipped over to the block of wood, still surrounded by the barrier of light. There was no one to be seen.
Which meant...
"Selwyn, don't you dare!" Malfoy shouted in sudden rage.
"Selwyn, we agreed to take care of James first!" Felix yelled at the same time. "Or do you want us to target you?"
"Hand was taken off. The countdown has been reset."
'Selwyn? Who is – oh, that must be the invisible man!' Harry suddenly realized. Being invisible, it was natural he'd try sneak away with the treasure while everyone else was fighting. Harry had even been expecting a move like that, and was wondering how to counter it. Thankfully, Rowena Ravenclaw had made an announcement about it. Once Selwyn's deception was brought to light, he had no choice but to stop what he was doing. Unlike Harry, he wouldn't be able to survive the fight if the others all ganged up on him.
Actually, that was true for any one of Harry's opponents. Though they all wanted the treasure, and all wanted to grab it so at least James would stop refining, they just couldn't. They were each selfish individuals, unwilling to allow the treasure to fall into someone else's hands. If they tried to take it, they would become the targets of everyone else. So in that manner, the five of them were in a stalemate over the treasure.
Because of this strange stalemate, it ended up benefiting Harry! If these four could put their differences aside, three of them could hold him down while the fourth took the treasure, thereby stopping Harry from refining. They could discuss splitting it up after the competition. But the key issue was they didn't trust each other. They would never be able to decide who intercepted James and who took the treasure – and theyknew they would never be able to decide – so that strategy was doomed to fail. And Harry was allowed to keep refining.
20%!
"Attack again!" Draco finally ordered. "He must be wearing some kind of armor, or he has a defensive treasure on his body. We have to kill James first!"
"You idiots just won't accept the truth, will you?" Harry sneered. "Well, who cares what you think? The treasure is mine!"
Harry sprinted to the pedestal, and slapped his palm onto the barrier. All he had to do was keep it there for one minute!
"A hand has been placed on the barrier. The one minute countdown will start now," Rowena Ravenclaw said once again.
60… 59… 58…
"James, die!" Malfoy screamed, then rapidly slashed his sword through the air. Each time the blade went down, a streak of silver light shot at Harry. In just a few seconds, the air was filled with glittering X shapes, each one streaking across the arena at Harry.
They shot towards Harry, each one a silver slice of death, only to shatter off of Harry's body. Harry didn't even feel them, and just counted.
57... 56... 55...
"James, go to Hell!" Firenze roared. Knowing his bow was useless, he dropped it and charged straight for James. Harry braced himself for impact, but underestimated Firenze's strength. The centaur barreled into Harry, sending him skidding across the arena, and he lost contact with the barrier.
"Hand was taken off. The countdown has been reset."
Even if Strengthening Flesh prevented him from being injured, it didn't make him immobile. If someone ran into him then he'd still be knocked aside. But though his hand lost contact, the Nameless Seed hadn't. The thick stream of Wood Qi continued flowing into Harry's body.
And as for Firenze, he too bounced back from the impact, and stared at Harry with wide eyes. Having experienced the toughness of his body, he also began to wonder… perhaps, James hadn't cheated on the staircase?
"Well, I didn't expect that would work. I'll just have to take the four of you out... starting with you!" Harry glared at Firenze, the one he hated the most. Once the centaur saw James' cold eyes, like two green glares of death, he inadvertently backed up. Though he no longer believed James was a cheater, he still couldn't understand how this kind of strength was possible!
He knew very clearly, his arrow, when shot at full power, had the ability to injure even someone at the Core Formation Realm. Though he was just at the 8th level of the Qi Absorption Realm, he could fight evenly with someone at the 1st level of the Core Formation Realm. On a few occasions, he had even defeated Core Formation Realm cultivators.
Yet, his arrow failed to even penetrate James' skin – James, the person only at the 2nd level of the Qi Absorption Realm!
"I recall you said, you would peel the skin off my flesh," Harry grinned at Firenze, a large Cheshire grin that showed all of his teeth. Harry bent down, and picked up the arrow that Firenze had left behind.
Though it was an arrow, it was made for a creature of Firenze's size. The shaft was as long as Harry's arm, and the arrowhead was three inches long, more like a dagger or short sword. It had a serrated edge, all to make it more painful to pull out. In Harry's hand, this arrow was just the right size to act as a knife.
"Have you felt that kind of pain before, centaur? I suspect if you had, you wouldn't make such threats so easily."
Five Element Battle Body!
Without any delay, Harry activated his strongest move!
With a single mighty leap, fire in his veins and earth in his muscles, he bounded across the room and slammed into Firenze. Firenze charged forwards, intent on trampling James over, but instead felt like he ran into a rock wall. Then he heard a whistling noise, and felt something slide along his arm, from shoulder to elbow, and then –
His arm erupted into pain.
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" he screamed. It felt like someone drenched his arm in acid. He risked a look, and found a huge swath of skin was peeled clean off, exposing the glistening red flesh. The contact of flesh to air was pure agony. Firenze wildly flailed about, managing to break free from Harry's grasp, and clutched his arm like it was on fire.
"What's wrong?" Harry asked in mock concern. "Does it hurt?"
It hurt, of course, but more than that, there was the disbelief, the shock that this lowly human actually dared to hurt him. He was a centaur, destined to trample over the weak human race. How dare the human attack him?
"You dare?" he roared through the pain. "HOW DARE – AAAAHHHHH!"
The blade in Harry's hand flashed once more, tearing another strip of skin off Firenze's arm.
"Why don't I dare?"
"A human dares to attack a centaur? My centaur clan –"
"One day, I'll kill your whole centaur clan! But today, I'll have to settle with you!"
Harry slashed the knife through the air again, but Firenze managed to twist away, and bucked Harry with a hind leg. It knocked the wind out Harry's body, but Harry spun in place and slashed off another strip of Firenze's skin. The centaur let out another wail of pain.
Suddenly, Harry felt a sense of danger behind him. He whirled around, acting purely on instinct, and lifted his arm to block an attack he felt rather than saw.
Thud!
Harry saw a lone dagger appear out of thin air and strike against his arm. It bounced off his toughened flesh, and by instinct –
POW!
Harry's other arm flew in a magnificent arc, landing right where the man's face would be. Even though it looked like there was no one there, Harry instantly realized this was the invisible man, the one who refused to show his appearance on the staircase and earlier tried to sneak away with the inheritance. Harry had been waiting to see if this person was going to make a move – and here he was.
Once Harry's hand struck the man's face, his entire figure flickered into view. He was dressed in strange clothes, tight-fitting and completely black, while a solid black mask covered his face. The dagger was held in one hand – the same dagger he displayed during the test of talent.
The next moment, the man was sent flying across the room, soaring like an arrow until he smashed into one of the walls of light. There was the sound of an explosion as he bounced off, but he managed to twist his body in midair and land on his feet.
In the struggle, the mask on his face had been slapped off, revealing the appearance of a young man, perhaps a few years older than Harry. He had ordinary features – if Harry had passed by this person on the street, Harry would never have guessed he was actually such a powerful cultivator. Once the man realized his mask had fallen off, his face warped into a murderous scowl, and then he vanished again.
'That's a cool trick,' Harry couldn't help but be impressed. It was very useful in battle.
Harry glanced around the room, but couldn't see or hear the invisible man at all. Even when Harry tried to use his Qi, he couldn't sense any trace of the man. For all intents and purposes, he had disappeared.
"Selwyn? Where are you from, a clan of thieves?" Harry sneered.
From Harry's behind and slightly to the left, the black dagger appeared once again and shot towards Harry's neck. It appeared and moved like a flash, so fast that nobody could even react. By the time they realized it, it was already at James' neck!
And then –
POW!
Right before it was about to slice Harry's neck off, Harry's hand traced the same magnificent arc. Almost like deja vu, it whistled through the air and landed solidly on the invisible man's face. Selwyn, his face now sporting two large handprints, became visible once more as he flew across the arena.
"What the –" everyone's mouth went dry as they witnessed the scene.
Selwyn's stealth ability was so great, and his attacks so sudden, that none of them could have defended against it. If they were in James' place, they would definitely have died just then. So – how in the world did James react to it?
In reality, there was no mystery. It was due to all of Harry's fighting experience. Ever since he could remember, his life was one of constant fighting and conflict. Over the years, he had developed an acute sense of danger and knew how to read his enemies. If he hadn't – he would have died long ago.
The moment before Selwyn launched his attack, Harry instinctively knew where it would come from. It was like a sixth sense. Even though Selwyn was invisible, once he acted, Harry immediately sensed him. From there, his habit of slapping people took over.
Harry's hand had already been in position, and it began moving as soon as Selwyn acted. And the moment Selwyn's frightening dagger was in position, Harry's hand was just an inch from his face.
To everyone else, it actually looked like Selwyn stuck his face out so that James could slap it. It looked like a perfect collaboration between two parties. It wasn't that James slapped Selwyn – it was that Selwyn's face ran into James hand!
Selwyn was smashed into the barrier of light once again, this time landing in a crumpled heap on the floor. When he finally got back up, everyone could see both his cheeks were bright red. If it weren't for the tense life-and-death battle going on, it would have been rather comical. Staggering, then shooting Harry a glare, Selwyn vanished again.
While Selwyn was attacking, the other three hadn't been idling. Firenze took out a pill, which he swallowed. Harry didn't manage to see what pill it was, but based on how Firenze stopped groaning in pain and readying himself to fight again, it was either a potent healing pill, or some kind of pain-relief. Both Felix Rosier and Draco Malfoy brought out their Space Rings.
But Harry wasn't worried at all. This entire time, his Ring of Elements was still spinning, still diligently refining the Wood Qi out the block of wood. The longer this fight dragged on, the more powerful he'd become.
"Felix, stop holding back!" Draco yelled, a sense of urgency in his voice.
"If we don't kill James, then he'll actually steal the inheritance! Take out your strongest items, and we'll deal with him together!"
"Very well," Felix scowled. An item appeared in his hands – a scroll. It unfurled to reveal drawings of dozens of ferocious beasts. Felix poured his Qi into the scroll, while placing his palm over the picture of a large bear. Immediately, the outline of the bear appeared in real life, standing next to Felix, though its body was still translucent and not fully formed.
As for Draco Malfoy, he was holding a trio of strange, milky pearls, which he was also pouring Qi into. They were shaped like chicken eggs, though each one was about twice the size. Harry wasn't sure what they did, but didn't want to find out.
Up until now, the two of them didn't want to use their treasures. They still subconsciously saw each other, and Firenze and Selwyn, as the true enemies. They thought they would take care of James in a few seconds, and then the real battle would begin. But they had failed, Firenze had failed, even Selwyn had failed! Once they realized just how horrifying James was, and that he really might take the whole treasure away, they had no choice. The new priority was to kill James.
"I need one minute!" Felix called out.
"I just need a few seconds! Firenze, just block James for a few seconds!" Draco commanded.
Harry ran towards Malfoy, intent on stopping whatever he was going to do. But halfway there, he found his way blocked by Firenze, who was now holding two items. In one hand, a metal rod with runes inscribed appeared. It was some kind of truncheon, but with spikes on a rounded end, like a mace. Then in his other hand, Firenze held a strange device. It was made of bronze, shaped into a disk, kind of similar to a compass, though Harry didn't get a good look. There were planets and stars engraved onto it, along with a few needles that spun around a central axis.
"Leave this cheating bastard to me! Bloodline power – activate!"
Firenze displayed the technique from the staircase once again. His body ballooned in size, doubling, forming an impassable wall of flesh between Harry and Felix and Draco.
"James, you son of a bitch, you're definitely going to die today!"
30%!
"The one dying today is you," Harry sneered at the presumptuous centaur. He charged in, stabbing towards Firenze with his makeshift-knife, intent on peeling off another strip of the beast's hide.
But this time, Firenze made no effort to dodge. The compass in his left hand glowed – then the mace in his right hand glowed – and suddenly, the mace turned at an impossible angle and collided with Harry's dagger.
Clang!
Harry staggered back as the dagger was almost torn out of his grip. The mace blocked the dagger at just the right angle, with just the right timing, that it could be said to be a perfect counter. If Harry hadn't been gripping the arrow shaft so tightly, he may very well have lost his weapon. That last move… how had Firenze blocked that?
Harry stabbed again, but right before the dagger would land, he twisted his hand to strike Firenze from the back. Considering Firenze's large body, it would be very difficult for him to block this strike. But once again – the compass glowed, the mace glowed, and then the mace moved of its own accord and stopped Harry's dagger right in its tracks. Firenze barely even moved his arm.
'This… it's the compass! It predicted my move? And it's linked with the mace?' Harry came to a sudden realization.
He had no idea that this sort of formation was possible. Whether it was the ability to link two items, or the ability to counter an attack, both were fantastic abilities. In his opinion, it was almost like cheating. Without any effort of his own, Firenze had gained a perfect defense!
"Haha, finally realized it?" Firenze laughed at Harry's stunned facial expression. "I'm just keeping you occupied, then the other three will kill you!"
"Let's see you block my next move then," Harry thought of a plan.
Firenze swung the mace at Harry, who ducked then stabbed towards Firenze for a third time. And for the third time, both his items glowed, and the mace moved on its own to intercept the dagger.
Clang!
"See, lowly human? I blocked –"
SLAP!
Like a flash of light, Harry's free hand whipped through the air and struck Firenze right on his exposed cheek.