Chapter 53: Instant Kill!
Translator: Strivon / Ash Editor: Geoffrey / Lancent
Li Yao’s heart froze in an instant! But he recovered in the next second; he was still intoxicated in the illusion produced by the Delusion Vine.
Biting down ferociously on his tongue, he awoke from the stimulating pain in a flash. Then he felt a gale blasting at his face!
Li Yao did not have time to dodge, forming a fist instead that bombarded against something unknown. The enemy let out a shrieking cry, pushing Li Yao five-to-six meters away with a strange force and causing Li Yao to crash into some shrubs.
After shaking his head, Li Yao glared ahead. Ou Yezi’s illusionary form had disappeared without a trace. In front of him was an enormous, green-covered ape with bizarrely long arms hanging from the giant tree.
There was a mutation growing on the forehead of this ape — a strange eye with a dirty-yellow iris that flickered with fiendish glow.
“Three-Eyed Ape!”
Li Yao searched at lightning speeds in his mind and quickly found the data on this Demon Beast.
The three-eyed ape was one of the more difficult of the low-level Demon Beasts. Besides its nimble body and its expertise in jungle hunting, the third eye on its forehead can discharge a special mental attack to cause its prey to have splitting headaches and give birth to a cluster of illusions.
However, today, this ape had chosen the wrong opponent. Although Li Yao’s true strength wasn’t considered to be spectacular, in the mental realm, his mind had undergone the tempering of Ou Yezi. His mind was incomparably strong and unyielding. A typical mental attack would have absolutely no effect on him.
That was why he was able to awaken from the illusion this quickly.
“HSS!”
The three-eyed ape let out an ear-piercing hiss. The third eye on its forehead suddenly opened wide, and the eye’s color also turned bright in an instant, like a piece of iron heated until it was red. And Li Yao felt a piercing pain burrow deep inside his mind.
Li Yao knew that this was the mental attack from the three-eyed ape. He let out a blood-curdling shriek on purpose and was trembling all over in an “uncontrollable” manner.
The three-eyed ape let out squeaking shouts, as it thought that its trick was a success. The ape swung on the branch a circle, borrowing the elastic force as it rushed and pounced at Li Yao. Its pair of arms opened up, leaving it wide open.
It hadn’t noticed that early on Li Yao had his right leg thrusted deeply within the spongy rotten growth below, clenching the bone of a dead Fiend Beast.
When the ape approached near, Li Yao’s right leg kicked out like lightning and the bone pierced straight into the ape’s third eye!
This bone was probably the fibula of a certain Demon Beast; it was incomparably hard. The bone delved inside in an instant, without resistance, through the third eye and pierced the brain of the ape.
A giant mass of brain matter shot out suddenly from the hollow bone.
No matter how powerful the three-eyed ape was, it would die on the spot if it took critical damage to its brain. The massive and strong body suddenly trembled, collapsing over. After a fit of unusual twitching, it ceased moving completely.
Similar scenes of slaughter occurred simultaneously all throughout Devil Flood Dragon Island. The portion of cultivation geniuses with resolute willpower awakened from their respective illusions one by one. They unleashed their terminating techniques, proceeding with bloody slaughter.
Quite a few of the youths’ had bad luck though. They were not able to shake the illusion in time and were targeted by Demon Beasts.
The instant the Demon Beasts unleashed what would be fatal attacks, the Puji Critters spouted giant blobs of pink gel like that of jello. The gel safely encased the youths within while the attacks of Demon Beasts were unable to do any damage whatsoever.
At the same time, the sky patrolling cultivators flew over at lightning speed. They took these failed competitors out from Devil Flood Dragon Island.
In the annual Limit Challenge Competition, the first 10 minutes was the hardest. A large portion of competitors were dazed in the illusion and forced to eat defeat.
This year was the same. Within the first 10 minutes, 725 competitors left Devil Flood Dragon Island with broken hearts and returned to the Distant Expanse.
And at the monitor center within the Distant Expanse were scouts of the Nine Elites, teachers of the various high schools, and high ranking military personnel. They were all gathered together here and were staring fixed with great interest at the incessantly flickering holograms.
To the side was also a large flickering list of names that displayed the top 100 ranking competitors in order.
Li Yao killed a three-eyed ape in an instant, receiving quite a few points, and had actually slaughtered his way into the top 100. At the present, he ranked number 98.
“The quality of this year’s batch of new talent is quite decent. Only 720 people left the island within the first 10 minutes. I remember last year that over a thousand people failed within the first 10 minutes!” a high ranking military personnel laughed as he spoke.
“Magnify the top 100 competitors. We need to observe them very closely,” said a scout.
A hundred holograms metamorphasised immediately, transforming larger, clearer, and brighter. And flame decals were now on the perimeter of the holograms’ frame.
“Huh?”
The Artificing Expert from Deep Sea University, Xie Tingxian, went slightly blank. He saw the entire sequence of events of Li Yao slaying the three-eyed ape.
He never thought that this youth who possessed such a high gift for artificing would actually possess such a proficiency for battle.
“I knew it! My eyes weren’t mistaken!”
The scout from the Grand Desolate War Institution, Ding Lingdang, waved her fist in excitement!
“But, what the hell is he up to now?”
On the hologram, Li Yao performed a bizarre action that caused Xie Tingxian and Ding Lingdang to simultaneously have a feeling of bewilderment emerge in their hearts.
As seen on the hologram, Li Yao did not leave after killing the three-eyed ape, but instead he removed the Fiend bone from the ape’s forehead. Using the bone as a blade, he cut the neck artery of the three-eyed ape in a completely skillful fashion and smeared the incomparably noxious Demon Beast blood all over his body.
He smeared the blood completely even all over him, not even missing a single toe for exposure. And in the end, he even soaked all the hair on his head in the blood before he clapped his hands in satisfaction. He grabbed the Fiend bone with his mouth and leapt onto a branch.
Li Yao took a deep breath, and it was as if he had returned to the Artifact Graveyard.
The crisscrossing tree branches formed narrow pathways and were quite similar to the narrow pathways among tottering towers of garbage in the Artifact Graveyard.
Sweeping a glance at lightning speed, Li Yao unleashed his calculating ability to the limit. And emerging into his mind were countless coordinates, wind vectors, and digits. An incomparably clear and transparent pathway appeared and spread before his eyes.
“Small Ji, help me locate the closest supply point!” Li Yao spoke to the Puji Critter on his head.
A moment later, the translucent map of Devil Flood Dragon Island was cast before his eyes, clearly marking his present location and the positions of several dozen supply points.
Chuckling lightly, Li Yao jumped from branch to branch lithely, shooting towards the closest supply point.
Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!
Li Yao passed unhindered between the branches through what seemed to be dead ends. It was as if Devil Flood Dragon Island was made just for him — a corridor in the air that let him move as fast as lightning!
It wasn’t that there weren’t any Demon Beasts encountered on the way there. It was that every time he felt the existence of a Demon Beast, Li Yao would stop at once. He would enter into a state of deep concealment on the branch.
The Demon Beast blood on his body let out a strong Fiend Aura. And in addition, he was used to concealing himself since young in the garbage heaps of the Artifact Graveyard. He was unable to be discovered and distinguished by all the other Demon Beasts.
Sometimes, Demon Beasts would even attack amongst themselves. But presently, there were several thousand new arrivals of fat, tender, and extra-juicy “small fresh meat” on Devil Flood Dragon Island. So all the Demon Beasts were busy hunting for the smell of humans; they had no intention of eating the bitter and stenchy meat of their own kind.
Li Yao used this sort of method to arrive at the supply point, traumatised but unharmed.
His strange behavior also excited the curiosity of numerous cultivators in the monitoring center on the Distant Expanse. Everyone was making conjectures on his intentions.
“The movement technique of this competitor is quite nimble. It seems that he grew up in the mountains and woods. And his aura concealment skill is on a rather high level. Come look. Two Demon Beasts who were 3-5 meters away from him already went past him, not discovering him in the least.”
“You’re right. This competitor possesses an abundance of actual battle experience, not at all like a newbie entering the battlefield for the first time. And his mental strength is also very strong to be able to let Demon Beasts pass by him without actually moving a single whisker. Even his eyes didn’t even blink. This piece of material, after going through some education, can become an outstanding assassin!”
“However, why doesn’t he lift a finger? There were clearly several opportunities for him to kill a few Demon Beasts with little to no effort and receive a great amount of points. Why did he cock his bow, but not release the arrow? What’s he up to?”
Other than killing the first three-eyed ape, Li Yao had not dealt with any beasts for half an hour. His ranking was dropping down, soon entering the end of the 2000s ranking.
It should be known that the competitors that still remained on Devil Flood Dragon Island had killed 3-5 Demon Beasts on average by this time. Some of the experts with tyrannical strength were able to slay over a dozen Demon Beasts in a single breath.
At the moment, the name placed number one in the rankings was… Helian Lie!
“Small fellow, so you want to be the first to reach a supply point to show off the artificing side of your talents? Okay then. I will pay close attention to you. To see in the end what sort of tricks you have up your sleeve!” Xie Tingxian chuckled as his pair of eyes glistened and brightened.
With a light leap, Li Yao jumped into the supply point.