Chapter 154 - Start of the qualifiers

“Roar—”

Another roar bellowed across the sky, the deafening anger resonating throughout the valley for a long, uninterrupted time.

“Boom, boom, boom.” Deep and low tremors sounded out from within. Sounds of falling fragmented rocks and debris followed soon after.

Lan Xuanyu glanced over. To his shock, he saw countless lifeforms come out of nowhere within the valley and charge towards them from all directions. He focused, and to his shock, countless skinny lizards that varied in size, with the smallest being over a meter in size, were moving at rapid speeds. Their skin was brown with faint red stripes that glowed and circulated like magma.

“Ground Fire Lizards.” Lan Xuanyu immediately recognized the soul beasts. “How many of them are there?”

Ground Fire Lizards were fire attributed soul beasts that thrived in large groups. Ordinarily, a pack would consist of only 20 to 30 lizards. They possessed extremely strong defenses and lived near volcanoes. They had their own fire element abilities and were said to be able to transform into Ground Fire Dragons when they surpassed ten thousand years in cultivation. Ground Fire Dragons were of the Eastern Dragon species and were considerably strong soul beasts.

The number of Ground Fire Lizards that appeared within the valley swelled to over a few thousands as they charged outwards in all directions. There was no doubt that the Elite Junior Class students that were situated at the waist of the mountain would encounter them.

Lu Qianxun made a prompt decision and ordered without hesitation, “Retreat upwards to the peak of the mountain.”

While saying that, he had already turned and taken the lead to charge upwards.

Around them, there were only precipitous walls without any roads, but it was an easy feat for the members of the Elite Junior Class.

Everyone also knew that heading to the peak was the right choice. If the exterior terrain of the valley opened up, escaping would be much easier. The Ground Fire Lizards’ only flaw was that they were not very fast.

They finally felt that Ji Hongbin’s classes were not for nothing. They were able to recall their lessons and the characteristics of the soul beasts in front of them.

“Roar—” A furious roar came out once again. Upon hearing the roar, the Ground Fire Lizards at the bottom of the valley increased their speed. After that, Lan Xuanyu and the rest witnessed a shocking scene.

A gigantic shadow gradually walked out from within the valley. The ‘boom, boom, boom’ sounds from earlier were actually its footsteps.

It was a…

Everyone focused their eyes on the gigantic shadow. What scared them further was that upon lifting its head, the gigantic eyes looked straight at them.

“What is that thing?” Qian Lei could not help but scream in a shrill voice.

It was a gigantic soul beast. It towered over 30 meters and dragged along a huge tail. It stood upright, its pair of thick, strong legs and its tail supporting its body, making it look as though it was capable of running extremely fast. And there was even a pair of small wings on its back. The wings were not large and were obviously insufficient in supporting it to fly. Regardless, they continued to flap as it moved. This movement reduced the sluggishness of its movements by lessening its body weight to a certain degree and allowing it to move at its current speed.

It had a gigantic mouth, a slender body, and spikes that extended from the back of its head all the way down to the end of its tail. It was covered with dark red scales that caused the air around a 10 meter range of its body to be distorted with ripples. One could only imagine the high temperature emitted from its body.

No one had ever seen such a soul beast before, not even Lan Xuanyu, who was the most knowledgeable about soul beasts, but from the aura it emitted, everyone knew that they were in huge trouble.

Previously, when they trained in the Elite Junior Class, they were frequently arranged to fight against such lifeforms, except that the arrangements were always with lifeforms that were directly opposed to their own cultivation. That meant that they were always against soul beasts that were slightly stronger or on par with them. They had never fought against an unbeatable existence like the beast before them.

Anyone could tell that the gigantic soul beast was over ten thousand years old. Furthermore, it was definitely not any ordinary ten thousand year old soul beast.

Without giving them a chance to think, the big chap that had its eyes on them opened its mouth and unleashed a gigantic fireball at them.

The fireball flew towards them like a shooting star. It was not only extremely fast, but it also had a long blazing tail as it flew. The terrifying flame aura from it felt as though the entire world was burning. The gigantic fireball increased in size as it flew downwind to almost within five meters of reaching the wall.

It was equivalent to a shell unleashed by a small scale spaceship.

“RUN!” No one knew who shouted, but all the Elite Junior Class members immediately scattered with all their might.

No one cared about their formations anymore and only focused on avoiding the large fireball.

Lan Xuanyu reacted extremely quickly as he grabbed Qian Lei with his left hand and Liu Feng with his right. The golden patterned Blue Silver Grass immediately appeared in his right hand, but instead of coiling around his arm, it coiled around Liu Feng’s.

After gaining his second soul ring, Lan Xuanyu realized that when supporting Liu Feng or Qian Lei, he now only needed to coil his blue silver grass around them. There was no longer a need in touching them physically anymore. So long as the blue silver grass touched their bodies, the support would still work.

Liu Feng had long summoned his white dragon spear as two yellow soul rings surged from beneath his feet. When the base of the spear touched the wall of the mountain, he shot forward.

Like a white flicker of light, he brought Lan Xuanyu and Qian Lei straight out of the waist of the mountain. With Lan Xuanyu’s support, his speed not only increased exponentially, but he was even capable of controlling it.

They performed a graceful shift and instantly advanced seven to eight meters upwards before circling around the mountain. With a tap of his white dragon spear, he led the two and sped forward again.

“Bang—”

A loud rumble shook the entire mountain. The gigantic fireball had smashed right into the place they were originally standing.

Immediately, a terrifying heatwave accompanied by a clamor of flying debris came out.

Lan Xuayu’s body emitted a layer of icy mist as he controlled it to cover Qian Lei and Liu Feng to resist the sudden increase in temperature.

But the powerful shockwave sent the three flying.

Lan Xuanyu pulled onto Qian Lei while simultaneously protecting his front as a layer of ice congealed behind him. He used his own body to protect Qian Lei while also assisting Liu Feng in defending against the powerful shockwave.

A layer of gold light flickered on his body. When the shockwave struck him and sent them flying, Lan Xuanyu actually felt a burst of strength growing within his body. It even sharpened his senses.

It was his golden patterned Blue Silver Grass second soul skill, Hegemonic Body!

Upon entering the hegemonic body state, Lan Xuanyu was capable of neutralising a large amount of attack, while at the same time transforming a portion of it into his own body.

At this point, they were no longer able to find any of the other Elite Junior Class members. They were also unaware of how the others had dealt with the gigantic fireball.

Liu Feng continued to speed forward. By relying on the amplification from the golden patterned Blue Silver Grass, his control over his speed became extremely powerful. As though the white dragon spear had come alive, he was able to shoot forward seven to eight meters each time.

After resisting the powerful shockwave, Lan Xuanyu turned back and looked down.

The gigantic soul beast had lowered its head and had bitten onto a Ground Fire Lizard. After a few chomps, it swallowed its prey. With a swing, it used its gigantic tail to sweep the floor of Ground Fire Lizards.

It then ran towards them.

At this time, Lan Xuanyu noticed a few other Elite Junior Class members.

They were advancing upwards as well; in particular, Jin Xiang’s team, which was proficient in flighting, as well as Lu Qianxun’s team, which was strong in terms of physique. However, a few other teams chose to descend.

That’s right. When a fireball appeared and they didn’t think they would be able to avoid it, what was the fastest way to create a distance? Freefalling!

Thus, four Elite Junior Class teams chose to drop down the mountain immediately. They were able to avoid the aftermath of the fireballs and just needed to control their freefall. However, by doing so, they not only decreased the distance between them and the gigantic soul beast, but were also even closer to the incoming Ground Fire Lizards.