Chapter 294: Battle of Giants (1/2)
The roar had the intended effect, as the ones who had been chasing Lin Xiao all faltered. Some collapsed, others kneeled and yet some—the stronger ones—were just stunned momentarily, but this moment was enough for the monk to retreat safely.
Seeing that Hei Gou, Lin Xiao, and Luoluo had reconnected with the army from the Gu and Yuan families, Xue Wei was feeling much more placated, so he got ready to face the grand elder.
Truth was that before this, he had not had much faith in his ability to survive. He knew that the grand elder had made the decision within the dungeons to kill him, but now it seemed that his luck had turned.
After seeing Xue Wei taking on the beastly shape and connecting it with the rumors about Lin Xiao’s ability to tame beasts, it was as if he had rekindled his notion of getting the information out of Xue Wei.
After all, if they could tame him, he would be at their beck and call, doing their bidding without any rebellion. He had just forgotten that Lin Xiao was on Xue Wei’s side. Would he really work together with someone else to enslave his friend?
Not to mention, Xue Wei was not a Primordial Beast. He was half a Sovereign Beast, a beast that could not be tamed anyway. So even if Lin Xiao did attempt it, he would fail. Unfortunately, the grand elder had never before heard about a Sovereign Beast.
Xue Wei was moving rapidly towards the grand elder. His body was flashing everywhere, leaving a trail of afterimages in the air. Although the body was massive, it was not difficult to move, neither was he slow or clumsy.
The grand elder dared not directly attack his soul as he feared that the soul would be destroyed. He was after all an Ordinary Saint, and if he accidentally killed Xue Wei, would he not lose this unique opportunity?
Instead, he materialized the spiritual energy in the air and made it take on the shape of swords. Fighting someone was different from sparring. Usually, when in a real fight, one would go for dispatching their opponent as fast as possible, which usually meant to aim for the soul. If they were sparring, they would aim for their opponent’s bodies instead.
Right now, the grand elder was treating the confrontation with Xue Wei as a sparring match. He was not being serious about fighting him; neither was the elder eager to kill him. All he wanted was to injure him enough to make him incapable of fighting back so that the taming would happen smoothly.
Xue Wei was relieved with this result. He felt a wave of thousands of blade come crashing down like a tidal wave towards him, threatening to drown him, but with a flick of his body, Xue Wei vanished from his location and appeared again twenty meters to the side, managing to avoid the majority of the spiritual energy blades.
Still, it was not enough to avoid them all. Blood started flowing from the scales that had been punctured, and the flesh beneath was showing ghastly gashes from the swords. The moment they came into contact with the flesh, they had detonated like small bombs, causing some serious injury to Xue Wei’s body.
He was surprised; he had not expected that a Saint was this powerful. It was clear his opponent was not using the full extent of his abilities, but even so, his attacks were devastatingly lethal. Although he had no intention of killing Xue Wei, if those swords had all landed on his body, then his body would have been completely torn apart.
Xue Wei felt a cold chill run down his draconic spine. He might have overestimated himself, but when he glanced behind, he saw that the two grand elders of the Gu and Yuan families had finally made an appearance.
From the look of them, it seemed they had also broken through to the Earth Saint rank; although it was clearly at a lower layer than the Baili grand elder as he had been at the rank for much longer and had better control over his strength.
The Baili grand elder had not noticed that the two other grand elders had appeared. All his mind could think about was pacifying Xue Wei, to get him tamed, and to claim all his strengthening methods for himself.
A manic smile appeared on the lips of the Baili grand elder, and he began laughing hysterically as if he had just imagined something glorious.
Xue Wei felt a shiver run down his spine as he saw this maddened expression, but he hardened his heart and advanced forward. He had various innate abilities that he had never tried before, and now was not the time to hold back.
So far, when in his dragon shape, he had mainly relied on the Azure Dragon Roar, an attack that reached a large number of people at once and caused them to be pressured by the Sovereign Beast’s aura.
Now he realized that this attack had its limits. Those with a strong soul were not as harshly affected as he wished. Back in Chang’an, he had seen people explode from the pressure, yet here in Yan Dalu, they had at most collapsed—and those who did collapse were all weaker than him. The rest had become disorientated but nothing more than that.
Azure Dragon Claws!
Xue Wei launched an attack that utilized his long and razor sharp claws to cut and slice at the Baili grand elder, but the attack was blocked by a protective layer of spiritual energy that the elder had formed in front of himself. It became clear that he would not even be able to puncture the elder’s protections. Xue Wei’s face darkened.
The Baili grand elder was not just a realm above him—Xue Wei was an Earth Knight while the Baili grand elder was an Earth Saint—it was akin to the difference between the Heavens and the Earth; it was simply not possible for him to retaliate.
Realizing this, Xue Wei changed his tactics. Since there was no use attacking back, he would just catch the Baili grand elder’s attention and try to distract him to buy time for his more capable allies to wound him. Unfortunately, if he could not touch the Baili grand elder even with his beast form, then his old plan of having them overwhelm him with sheer numbers was suicidal—his only hope now relied on the Gu and Yuan grand elders. Those two elderly men would be the only ones capable of matching up to the Baili grand elder.