It was clear that Yuan Tianxiu had something to hide, but whether it was Su Mo, Blake, Sato Mami, or anyone else, not a single person spoke up.
Lei Wu Yinov finally couldn’t hold back any longer and barked loudly, “Spit it out! What exactly is going on here?”
The moment he opened his mouth, Su Mo quickly chimed in, “Yeah, if you don’t make it clear, how are we supposed to trust you?”
Blake said coldly, “I never thought a so-called Chosen One would stoop to such cheap tricks. I’m ashamed to even be associated with you.”
Sakurai Mei sneered, “Pfft, shameless.”
……
Yuan Tianxiu was completely dumbfounded.
Everything had been arranged by the mastermind—he was just following orders. He never expected things to turn out like this.
There was no way he could out-argue eight people all by himself. Their words left him dizzy with rage.
“Stop, stop, stop…” He gritted his teeth helplessly. “What if I told you I don’t know anything either? Would you believe me?”
All eight of them shook their heads in perfect unison…
Yuan Tianxiu held back his temper, forcing himself not to explode. He recalled what his master had entrusted him with:
“Xiu, you must remember to have them drip their blood into the nine-square grid. What’s inside concerns the future of our temple—it must not be lost.
Don’t worry, it won’t harm them. We only need to borrow their power—especially the Chosen Ones; they’re absolutely vital.
To be honest, your master is doing this half for faith, and half for you. Although you’re a Chosen One, given Earth’s current level, breaking through to S-rank is no easy feat. But with what’s in there, reaching S-rank will take you no more than fifteen years at most…”
No. He couldn’t let his master down.
Even though he found this whole situation suspicious, he trusted that his master wouldn’t harm him. So he stopped hesitating, and his expression turned icy cold.
“Since the gentle approach won’t work, I’ll have to do this the hard way!” Yuan Tianxiu used the nail of his right index finger to slice open the space between his brows. A strange, dark purple energy instantly poured out and enveloped him.
“Oh no, he’s using a forbidden technique—he should be able to borrow Yamata-no-Orochi’s power. Stop him now!” Blake’s face changed, and Weil looked equally alarmed.
Yuan Tianxiu’s aura, already at B-rank, suddenly surged, and it seemed like he was on the verge of breaking into A-rank.
At Blake’s warning, Su Mo’s heart jumped, but then he let out a long sigh of relief: At least it’s not S-rank…
Kusanagi Red was the first to strike, with Lei Wu Yinov right behind her. She went in with her sword, but Yuan Tianxiu caught it barehanded. As for Lei Wu Yinov, he took a single punch to the face and was left seeing stars, dazed for a good while.
In truth, Lei Wu Yinov was already a top-tier C-rank, with almost no rivals except for monsters like Su Mo. But unfortunately, his opponent was just too strong—there was no room for him to even make a move.
“Everyone, attack together! Yuan Tianxiu right now is infinitely close to A-rank, and Yamata-no-Orochi is constantly feeding him power. If we go in one by one, we’re just asking to get beaten up.” Su Mo warned, then charged forward with Peach Blossom in hand.
Blake moved almost at the same time.
After Lei Wu Yinov got knocked silly, the only C-ranks left on the field were Su Mo and Ye Qingyi—everyone else was B-rank.
Even though their opponent was just a B-rank as well, everyone took him extremely seriously—precisely because this was Yamata-no-Orochi’s territory.
Seeing himself about to be surrounded, Yuan Tianxiu didn’t panic. He muttered an incantation, and seven identical copies of himself appeared behind him.
Divine Skill — Yamata-no-Orochi!
A divine skill granted by the eight-headed serpent, allowing him to summon seven doppelgangers, each possessing half the strength of his original body.
Blake, confident in his own strength, immediately declared, “I’ll take the main body. You guys handle the copies.”
Weil didn’t argue with him. She turned and targeted one of the copies. Without a word, she threw a simple, straightforward punch.
Boom! The copy was sent stumbling back several steps, its expression one of utter disbelief. But Weil didn’t stop—she followed up with a second punch.
At this point, Yuan Tianxiu’s main body had reached peak B-rank, and each copy was at least mid-B-rank.
But Weil’s physical prowess was just overwhelming. She was lightning-fast, and every single strike was devastating. The copy had no chance to fight back—it was just getting pummeled. Since Lei Wu Yinov was unconscious, she even took on two copies at once, beating them so badly they probably started questioning their existence…
For Sato Mami and Kusanagi Red, while they couldn’t take on Yuan Tianxiu’s main body, they had no problem trading blows with the copies. The fights were fairly even.
Sakurai Mei, however, was struggling. She could only rely on clever techniques to barely hold her ground.
This was also thanks to the copies’ weakness—they couldn’t use spells and could only fight hand-to-hand. Otherwise, not just her, but even Sato Mami and Kusanagi Red might not have been able to match them.
Compared to Sakurai Mei, Su Mo and Ye Qingyi actually performed a little better.
Ye Qingyi was only at the Snow Mountain Realm, but she possessed seven snow mountains—something never recorded in the Beidou chronicles of transcendents.
To put things in perspective, Qin Xun had only four, Nangong Xuan had five, and even a genius like Ye Qingyu had only six.
Seven—that only existed in legends!
Ye Qingyi started with a Grand Destiny Art, boosting her side’s fortune while weakening the enemy’s. Although its effectiveness was strangely diminished, its power was still not to be underestimated.
For example, Sakurai Mei, despite being outmatched, kept landing successful sneak attacks. Or Blake, who was getting pummeled by Yuan Tianxiu’s main body, but kept miraculously dodging a few of his opponent’s strikes.
Her role wasn’t just support—her own combat strength was nothing to sneeze at. Unlike Lei Wu Yinov, she didn’t get knocked out. Instead, she held off one of the copies, trading blows back and forth for a good while.
Su Mo had been worried about Ye Qingyi at first, but seeing how fierce she was, he quickly relaxed and started swinging Peach Blossom with all his might.
In terms of raw physicality, he wasn’t far behind his opponent. But since some of his spells weren’t convenient to use at the moment, he was slowly starting to get overwhelmed.
Because of that, Ye Qingyi even teased him about being weak…
He’d thought about using Heavenly Demon Eye — Soul Capture for a wave of crowd control, but considering the copies probably had no souls, and the main body… yeah, never mind. Let’s just stick to brawling.
No way!
If Weil was crushing, and Blake was getting beaten, then Su Mo was clearly teasing.
It couldn’t be helped. The copy he was fighting was crying like it had just lost its parents—sobbing heartbreakingly. And even weirder, every now and then, it would burst into creepy, hysterical laughter.
Ye Qingyi and Sakurai Mei, both of whom had experienced his Jade Maiden Flicking Finger technique, twitched at the corners of their mouths at the same time, though it was hard to tell what they were thinking.
Weil finished her fight first. The two copies she’d faced had not a single intact bone left—broken or shattered, all over. A truly brutal sight.
She glanced around and saw that only Blake was still getting pummeled. Without hesitation, she charged over.
Blake, still stubborn, insisted, “Don’t help me—I can—OW—”
Weil frowned and snapped, “Saving face while suffering? Get out of my way. I’m taking over!”
Maybe it was because it was daytime, but Blake hadn’t been able to use his full strength, and was getting thoroughly thrashed by the powered-up Yuan Tianxiu. Just as he was about to reveal his trump card, he suddenly shouted in panic, “Damn it—my Divine Bloodline is sealed!”
At the same time, Su Mo and Weil realized they were facing the same problem. As for Ye Qingyi, she could still use her Grand Destiny Art, but that was it—and its power was far weaker than before.
Everyone’s hearts tightened at once: So this is where the problem lies!
