Beast let out a furious roar as his front paws swung out toward Xue Chang. Unfortunately for him, Xue Chang's speed out trumped his.
It wasn't even difficult to evade the attack much less counter it. His saber, covered in blazing intent, screamed through the air as it approached its target.
Beast pounced forward and met his blade head on.
The two forces crashed together, releasing a formidable burst of energy.
Succubus held her hand out to cover herself as she felt the force of both Xue Chang and Beast's attacks clash together.
In the past she had already been slightly traumatized by Xue Chang's mysterious strength and weird regenerative abilities. But now she was even more frightened than before.
"Beast had just broken through to the eighth level of Qi refinement. Although his strength hasn't fully consolidated yet, his natural physical strength should still outclass normal human cultivators. Yet Yong Heng is still fighting him in equal grounds!"
Although she didn't want to admit it, Beast might not be able to take him on by himself.
"I need to assist him."
Forming symbols and signs out with her hand, Succubus slightly closed her eyes as she felt her soul begin to tremble.
When she first followed her new master, he found that she had the shocking talent to practice soul attacks.
Although she wasn't great at it, he talents in soul attack still surpassed her talents in normal cultivation.
As such she spent the years focusing soul in cultivating her soul.
And as a bonus, every once in a while she would even slip a single soul into her belly whenever the master or Leader weren't looking.
As such while she couldn't compare to most cultivators in close combat, she could still easily trap level five qi refiners in illusion.
Letting out a breath of turbid air, she flicked her wrist as the surroundings around Xue Chang and Beast changed.
Beast grunted a bit in confusion as he looked back to his compatriot.
"Beast, work with me. We need to settle this quickly!"
Giving off a decisive gaze, he charged over to Succubus and bent his head lower.
She didn't even hesitate as she climbed onto his back and held up the knife in her hand, which had now lengthened itself to be a short sword.
"Let's go!"
Beast revealed its mouth full of razor sharp teeth as it charged forward to battle.
Although the illusions affected everyone, due to Succubus' low mastery keeping her from fully focusing on one target, but the brunt of it was still on Xue Chang.
His surroundings drastically changed as darkness began to invade his vision.
Suddenly from the shadows a figure leapt out with its jaw wide open ready to bite down on him.
Reacting quickly, Xue Chang stepped out of the way. But to his surprise, what met him when he stepped back was another shadowing figure without any physical appearance other than it's maw.
As his eyes scanned, Xue Chang realized that he had been surrounded by these mysterious beasts.
"What the- illusions?"
Although his soul was weak and susceptible to illusions, he was still able to tell immediately.
His eyes shined gold as the darkness became slightly distorted and diminished a little. Although he couldn't completely clear away the scene, it was much better now.
Flicking his eyes from side to side, he watched every shadow that pounced at him.
Suddenly he raised up his arm and swung toward an unsuspecting figure.
Beast's jaw clamped onto Xue Chang's saber as a short sword slashed at his cheek.
Blood trickled out of the wound as Xue Chang glared at the figures before him.
With a howl, he pushed all of the muscles in his body to their limits and pushed the two figures away.
Leaping back, Xue Chang wiped the blood from his cheek as he watched the two figures carefully.
Both sides circled around each other, neither one showing any sign of weakness.
And in unison, they both charged forward and clashed together once more.
The two sides traded several blows as Xue Chang was forced into the defensive.
Although his strength was slightly stronger than Beast's, the illusions and sudden stabs and slashes from the short sword diverted his attention constantly.
And although they never distracted him for more than a second, in such a battle like this every second counted.
Xue Chang did not fear Beast's attacks, but he worried that if he was injured enough and Succubus landed a deadly blow on him then his regenerative abilities would be put under too much strain.
Especially as Succubus' attacks also injured the soul slightly.
As someone who wasn't supposed to live very long due to his own soul's weakness, Xue Chang was quite alert when it came to his own soul.
And all of these factors put together caused him to be forced onto the defensive.
But not for long.
As the battle waged on, Beast and Succubus both simultaneously noticed something.
Yes, Xue Chang's wound didn't heal as quickly as the other time they faced him. And as the battle waged on more and more injured were accumulated.
But to their surprise, despite spending more stamina and accruing more injuries, Xue Chang appeared to be getting hit less and less.
Slowly but surely he was becoming more adept in the battle. Until the point where no matter how many illusions were thrown at him nor how many swings Beast took, they couldn't even lay a scratch on him.
And as the battle progressed in even further, they began to notice that Xue Chang was slowly but surely starting his offense!
Unfortunately for Succubus and Beast, while they understand who they were fighting they did not know WHAT they were dealing with.
There was no doubt that Xue Mei and Zhao Wei bloodline was extremely blessed. Each and every one of their children was extremely gifted in some way.
Xue Hai, while seemingly cursed at first, was granted a new lease on life and obtained the ability to cultivate as a heavenly fate.
Xue Ai was a martial arts prodigy who could master and learn everything with little to no effort.
And as for Xue Chang? While he displayed talents in both fields, they could not be compared to his siblings.
So what was he the best at?
It was fighting.
Xue Chang could spend years practicing martial arts, cultivating, or even learning different secondary skills such as forging or medicine like his uncle.
Yet no talent of his would ever exceed his fighting talent.
Although not obvious at first, when faced with an opponent of equal or greater strength, in just minutes Xue Chang's fighting capabilities will advance leaps and bounds.
And now with his unique body and mind for martial arts, this talent was displayed to the extreme.
More and more his fighting capabilities rose, until they completely outclassed Beast and Succubus.
The two who were under Xue Chang's assault were completely frightened by the change. Even with his numerous wounds Xue Chang was only improving.
This was just impossible!
'Yong Heng' had always been an opponent they were wary of.
His sudden appearance and shocking powers were bad enough, but he also impeded their plan several times.
Due to this, when they formulated this ambush the already calculated his power to a certain extent. And with the help of Guardian, they had a decent image of how strong he was.
Yet he surpassed their expectations several times over!
Succubus grimaced seeing how Xue Chang was basically using them to sharpen his own skills.
If this continued on, then they would undoubtedly lose this battle. And it would be a complete defeat.
Looking down at her hand, Succubus' brows scrunched together as her eyes glanced toward her palm with the vial once more.
"Must I do it? Do I have to use the Soul Condensing Pill?"