An Eighth-tier Magical Beast

After finishing his ninth match of the day, Ling Mo stayed to watch Long Haochen's match. His opponent was also an assassin, and he likewise emerged victorious. Their styles were simply different: Long Haochen delivered precise, lethal strikes, while Ling Mo was more like carpet-bombing the field with nukes, smashing every pillar and forcing his opponent into close combat with him, a warrior.

After their matches, neither of them intended to watch the remaining bouts. Long Haochen went to the Mage Training Ground to see Sheng Cai'er, while Ling Mo returned to find Yae Sakura.

Perhaps because of this world's rules or something else, the fox ears on Yae Sakura's newly formed body could actually retract when she was not fighting. While Ling Mo had been competing today, she had gone out and bought a great many things. Besides daily necessities, she had even bought a thin fine-steel blade. Ling Mo could not help laughing when he saw it, and immediately used Herrscher of Reason Mode to create a fully upgraded Pulse Tachi Type 19 for her.

The next day was the second match of the finals round robin. Ling Mo's opponent today was somewhat special: Chen Ying'er, the Protagonist Group's signature summoner. At Fifth-tier, she could summon an Eighth-tier magical beast. Small and adorable, yet incredibly powerful. Moved by her? Why not hurry up and call... Ahem, ahem, got carried away there. Sorry.

She was an opponent who relied on luck. Fighting her took no effort at all, because either she surrendered, or you did.

Sure enough, the girl had already begun her summoning. Chen Ying'er held up both hands, and a crystal appeared out of thin air. Layers of spiritual energy spread outward like ripples, and the crystal lit up with blue radiance. A massive gate rose from the hexagram formation that appeared on the ground. It stood over forty feet tall and roughly twenty feet wide, with countless phantoms swirling around it. The cries of innumerable creatures drifted from within.

The Gate of Life was a summoning spell that originally could only be used by an Eighth-tier Spirit Emperor. Yesterday, Chen Ying'er had used it to successfully summon an adorable little sheep, "shocking" the entire audience. Today, she had used the same summoning spell again. What would it be this time?

The first things to emerge from the gate were dozens of long, black tentacles. They shot out like lightning, twisting the surrounding space as they writhed, before a spherical body squeezed its way out of the gate.

No way, my luck is really this bad? Ling Mo stared at the magical beast before him, his mouth hanging open.

An Eighth-tier magical beast, the Evil Eye Tyrant! No, I can't accept this. I don't understand. Why? Wasn't Chen Ying'er originally supposed to fail to make the top sixteen? That meant she couldn't have won many matches—three or four at most? And I just happened to run into this?

"Hehe, my luck is pretty good after all. You're Ling Mo, right? Hurry up and surrender. Don't waste everyone's time, okay?" Chen Ying'er was extremely pleased with herself after successfully summoning a high-tier magical beast. Winning was still something to be happy about. What? You said she had not won yet? Chen Ying'er's response was that against an Eighth-tier opponent, how exactly were you supposed to fight?

But Ling Mo really did want to give it a try. Under the same world rules, an Eighth-tier being should correspond to an eight-ringed Soul Douluo. Under normal circumstances, Ling Mo was roughly equivalent to a Soul Sage. There was no reason for him to have no ability to resist at all. Of course, if Ninth Tier corresponded to a Douluo god, then he could only admit his bad luck.

He drew Ksitigarbha Soul from Imaginary Space, raised the blade in one hand toward Chen Ying'er, and revealed a knowing smile. His meaning could not have been clearer.

He released his martial soul. Three purple, three black, and one blue soul ring emerged behind him, seven in total. The stigmata on his back blazed with light as massive amounts of Honkai Energy poured into Ksitigarbha Soul in his hand. He shouted at Chen Ying'er, "You think you're the only one who can use summoning magic? Fei Yu Maru, beat her up!"

The spectators saw a red flash from Ling Mo's slender blade, and a seven-tailed white fox several dozen feet tall appeared in the training ground. A red three-tomoe pattern marked the fox's forehead, while red fur grew around its four paws and the tips of its tails. Red shimenawa ropes were tied around its body. Although most of the power of the nine-tailed fox Feiyumaru had been consumed in creating Ksitigarbha Soul, causing her to eventually become Fei Yu Maru, she had recovered quite a bit over the decades. At the very least, she could handle a Seventh-tier opponent. An Eighth-tier opponent was harder to say, but it was enough!

Fei Yu Maru threw back her head and roared. Several pillars of fire shot into the sky across the arena with tremendous force. However, the fire pillar beneath the Evil Eye Tyrant was blocked by its tentacles. When the attack ended, wisps of smoke rose from its tentacles, but it was obvious that it had not suffered much damage.

Fei Yu Maru gave a low growl, and a purple Killing Life Orb appeared in the air, periodically firing fireballs. Faced with all this, the Evil Eye Tyrant could only passively endure the attacks. As a spiritual-type magical beast, the Evil Eye Tyrant primarily possessed mental attacks. Unfortunately for it, while the Erosion Authority was inferior to the Knowledge Authority in matters of consciousness, it allowed Fei Yu Maru to become completely immune to paralysis, dizziness, and a whole series of abnormal conditions, as well as the vast majority of mental attacks.

Although ninety percent of the Evil Eye Tyrant's attacks were negated, it had to be said that it was indeed stronger than Fei Yu Maru at present. It could also neutralize most of Fei Yu Maru's flame attacks. Thus, the two magical beasts fell into a subtly similar situation: I can't beat it, but it can't hurt me either.

Just as the spectators assumed they would have to slowly wait for the two sides to wear each other down and compete in endurance, Ling Mo made his move as well. Do not forget that Ling Mo belonged to the Warrior Temple. Chen Ying'er could only watch from the sidelines, but Ling Mo was not like her.

He planted Ksitigarbha Soul beside him. One purple and one blue soul ring behind him lit up, and the familiar Black Abyss White Flower appeared in his hand. Rather than using Honkai Energy, he used the Soul Power belonging to his martial soul—the spiritual energy visible to everyone else. He drove the tip of Black Abyss White Flower into the ground, bent down onto one knee, gripped the shaft with both hands, closed his eyes, and softly chanted:

"I am the black that journeys to hell. I am the white that comes from heaven."

That was all. Ling Mo suddenly opened his eyes and raised Black Abyss White Flower overhead in one hand. "Divine Key: Black Abyss White Flower, Second Rated Power—Holy Lance Reversal!"

He hurled the lance with all his strength. A flash of black-and-white light streaked through the air, and the weapon pierced the Evil Eye Tyrant's body without resistance. A shrill, miserable cry instantly filled the entire training ground.

"Fei Yu Maru, quick, Skyfire Barrier!" In the end, Ling Mo was only level fifty. Without soul rings, he was not even a Soul King, and Soul Power naturally could not compare to Honkai Energy. But he was not the main force in this match. Death Herrscher Mode combined with Black Abyss White Flower was not so easy to withstand.

As soon as Ling Mo spoke, blazing heat enveloped the arena. The Evil Eye Tyrant opposite him ignited like firewood, and its miserable cries grew ever more intense. Before long, it fell from the air and collapsed on the ground, motionless.

"..."

The spectators stared blankly at the Evil Eye Tyrant lying on the ground. The appearance of an Eighth-tier magical beast had already been enough to make them tremble in fear. The appearance of another magical beast nearly at the Eighth-tier had almost caused the minds of these Fourth- and Fifth-tier youths to shut down. If the training ground had not been spacious enough, they would have already fled without a trace. Even so, they would need quite some time to recover.

Over the following days, Ling Mo did not compete again. His reason was that he had consumed too much energy and needed to recuperate. Although Ling Mo did not look as though anything was wrong with him, he had fought an Eighth-tier opponent at Fourth-tier. They had no choice but to believe it. In the end, the referee said nothing and even earnestly urged Ling Mo to rest properly.

Thus, Ling Mo ultimately failed to enter the top sixteen with a record of two wins and eight losses.

Ling Mo: Everyone was happy. Hehe~