Chapter 817 A Trick

There was a boom as a dark gold torrent burst into the still air.

It was headed straight toward Finley.

Not a second later Darren was moving, positioning himself before Finley.

He gathered the power of Shura Force until his body was suffused with a red glow.

'Huh!' thought Finley. 'It seems like Darren thinks I'm somebody else. He's more hostile to me than he'd be to the Fire Kylin or the monkey! Well, this is the only way I can test the real limits of my strength.'

With his mind made up, Finley smiled, knowing he would get what he was after. He felt his opponent's brutality and strong fiendish nature. He made a move which was identical to the one he'd made before.

Its result, however, was different.

A ripple of golden light, formed by many rings of energy, flew toward Darren.

The dark gold internal force was surging inside the ripples, but it was unable to penetrate them.

Frustrated, Darren had his scarlet blade and sword slice through the air toward Finley.

Finley extended one open palm. Simultaneously, a massive, glowing golden shadow of the same shape flew out at Darren.

A thunderous sound came with it, like a voice from the heavens chanting in Sanskrit.

When the palm shadow closed in on Darren, Finley bent his fingers inward. The shadow mimicked his movement, its fingers closing around his victim.

Then, Finley murmured a few words, perhaps an incantation.

A giant hieroglyph, meaning "suppress," ejected from his mouth and landed on Darren's immobilized form.

Pain surged into Darren.

He thrashed and strained against the uncanny grip, screaming uncontrollably.

Blood flecked and splattered from his mouth.

But as he continued to struggle, the agony only increased.

When he was certain it was about to become unbearable, it began to ebb.

The "suppress" glyph and the palm shadow gradually faded away.

"Whew!"

Darren shuddered and gasped in relief.

"What a strange force!" he murmured. "The more violent I am and the harder I struggle, the more powerful it is.

The pain is almost equal to the soul attack."

"You are right. My cultivation method aims at creatures with strong fiendish nature.

In other words, it's designed to suppress the fiends," Finley explained. At that moment, he totally understood the skill he had cultivated.

"No wonder the bald man said he wanted to suppress a fiend after he had a sudden 'epiphany'," Darren remarked, nodding in agreement.

"It's very effective," Finley went on. "If I can attain more levels, I might be able to deal with the Fire Kylin."

Although the Fire Kylin was not a fiend, he was much more ferocious and had a stronger fiendish nature than Darren had just demonstrated.

Fighting him with this skill would truly be something to witness.

"Then you need to make sure that you cultivate hard," Darren urged him. "That way, you'll really be able to help the clan of the Water Kylin."

"Well, in that case, I'm going to go cultivate right now

tle choice.

For example, it was already taking most of Darren's strength to just remain conscious while caught in the monkey's choke-hold.

All of the top senior holy warriors were far stronger than Darren, and this creature was one of them.

Fortunately, the monkey had some strong interest in the Inner Fiend. So as long as Darren didn't tell him where the Inner Fiend was, he would never kill him.

At least, that was what Darren was betting on.

The monkey drew Darren closer and hissed, flecking his face with spittle.

"Tell me where he is, or I'll kill you," he snarled.

"Are you kidding me?" Darren gagged. "Without me, you'll never learn where the Inner Fiend is. Go ahead and kill me, I dare you."

With a sound like a cannon going off, the monkey struck Darren with his other fist, then flung him away.

Darren fell to the ground in a heap and did not move for a minute.

"You dare try to bluff me?" the monkey demanded. "Even if I kill you, there will still be another human who knows where the Inner Fiend is."

As Darren tried to sit up, he convulsed as a sharp pain went through his chest. Turning aside, he spat up blood several times.

When he could finally speak, he propped himself up on one elbow. "Finley doesn't know," he lied. "All you heard from him was what I told him."

"Really? Even if what you say is true, I think I still want you dead.

It might've gone better for you, if you'd cooperated. Too bad you decided to be the tough guy instead!"

With that, the monkey lifted his stick again, holding it high overhead as he stalked toward Darren. When he brought that weapon down, it would fall with absolutely explosive force.

Darren's heart sank. Sure that there would be nothing left of him in a few seconds but a red stain on the ground, he cursed the monkey over and over again.

But just as the monstrous creature began to swing the stick downward, Darren blurted out, "He is in the relic, under guard by a strong man called Fris!"