Maiden Of The Splitting Moon

Chapter 48 - The Three Trials (3)

The following day, Ming Yue woke up, brimming with energy. In fact, she felt even stronger than before, sensing that she was close to breaking through. Those trials had truly pushed her beyond, bringing out much of her latent potential.

After studying the state of her body, she left the inn and arrived to the arena quite early. The second day of the tournament had yet to start but many people were seated and waiting. Furthermore, many of the remaining participants were already on the arena, claiming a space to sit. Following their behavior, she found a empty spot in the farther end of the arena and sat down.

"Ming Yue! Its so great to see you here!" a cheerful voice entered her ears.

She looked up, finding Yu Yao Xian standing in front of her. She had a happy look on her face and seemed have recovered from yesterday's ordeals. In addition, Ming Yue sensed that her strength had vastly improved.

"It's good to see you too", she said with an amiable tone.

"I should thank you for before. If it wasn't for your help, I would not be here right now. I'll tell you everything that happened later, looks like the announcer is coming out", Yao Xian then looked up with Ming Yue and waited for the announcer to officialy begin the third trial.

Ming Yue felt content knowing that she and her brother were doing well. Especially now that they met in the tournament, she had been wanting to speak with her since seeing her in the second trial. Then she remembered seeing Fei Xian, Elder Fei's nephew during the second trial as well. She looked around but could not find him, guess that he did not pass the trial.

This little exchange between the two did not go unnoticed. After all, Yu Yao Xian was the representative of the Yu Family and she had come from a branch family. With such a background, she had many eyes on her. Many onlookers as well as those in the arena looked at Ming Yue, curious as to who she was to have such a friendly relationship. But it was pushed to the back of their minds, as the announcer made herself known.

"Welcome to the Youth Dragon Tournament, the third trial will commence immediately!" she said, "This one is going to be a bit unique. In order to qualify for the second half of the tournament, you will all be fighting this rank 4, Thunderhide Ape, together."

Everyone was slightly confused, 400 young geniuses would make this fight rather one sided, even if it was rank 4. Exactly how could this be even considered a challenge?

But the announcer did not stop there, "This ape is no normal ape but the pet of the head administrator of the Jade Dragon Pavilion and the Emperor's sworn brother, Lord Tang Guang. As his pet and partner, this Thunderhide Ape is quite formidable. Those who are knocked out by him are immediately disqualified, you are to work together to defeat him. Good luck!"

After speaking, a giant golden ape entered the arena. Small amounts of electricity discharged as he walked up to the small figures, standing at almost two stories tall. It stared at them and roared with enough power to stun several of them.

Almost immediately, it charged forth, crashing into the crowd and pummeling its lightning clad fists at them. Not even ten seconds have passed and already there were losses.

"Everyone evade him! We can't beat the ape in a direct fight!" Yu Yao Xian screamed out, warning everyone to avoid the Thunderhide Ape.

Many did as she told, understanding that blindly attacking it would not end well. However there were those who didn't listen.

"What should we be afraid of?! It's just one giant monkey and there are several hundred of us. Let's just attack it all at once", the arrogant voice of Young Master Shao spoke out.

His confident demeanor had convinced some to join him and charged towards the ape. However, this small group started to feel fearful as the Thunderhide Ape grinned from their actions, as if they were just a meal running to him. They did not know what to do and turned to look for Young Master Shao only to see him dashing away.

"Idiots! Did you think I really wanted to attack a Rank 4 beast directly?" he ridiculed them before leaving the scene, "I have to thin out the competition after all."

"Despicable!" everyone thought the same thing except for his father, Shao Jin.

"Hahahaha, That's my boy. Good work, Shao Huang", he laughed loudly, obviously proud of his son.

As for the unlucky souls who believed in Shao Huang, it was too late for them to turn back. The Thunderhide Ape started glowing, covering itself in electricity and emitted a large ring of electricity. The golden hue was mesmerizing and shined brightly but as soon as it touched the closest body, cries of pain showered the arena as bodies spasmed on the ground unable to move.

The remaining competitors felt their bodies go cold, the sight of such a thing was enough to scare them. They were extremely vigilant watching the ape from afar, waiting for its next move. The ape turned around, facing them, it looked at them with ridicule earning hostile glares from many of them.

"Let's just charge now!" one of them readied their weapon but was stopped by others.

"Did you not just see what happened to the other? Just charging in will lower our chances of winning. We need a plan."

Everyone understood this and tried to figure out a way to take down the ape. However, it did not give them the time to think. Leaping into the air, a bolt of lightning manifested in its hand and the ape threw it down from the sky sending shock waves all throughout the arena.

They shielded themselves together and managed to stop the shock wave from hurting them. After blocking it, a shadow ran out and leaped into the air, grabbing the ape and throwing it down onto the arena. It was the farm boy that had just done it, shocking many. This was a rank 4 beast, how could it be possible for some unknown cultivator to have that type of strength?

He was definitely not ordinary after displaying such power.

"A body cultivator!" Everyone realized at this moment, understanding why he was barely fazed by the second trial.

As a body cultivator, his physical state is much stronger than that of a normal cultivator despite losing out in terms of inner force. Even at human realm, body cultivators have a much stronger body, often facing worse tempering than normal cultivators.

After throwing down the ape, he dropped to ground and began wrestling the ape. His body emitted a scarlet hue as he kept the ape in place.

"Attack him now! I can only hold this state for thirty seconds", he yelled out, struggling to keep an even ground with the ape.

Following his advice, all of the young cultivators sent out a flurry of attack at the ape. From launching icicles to earthen spikes, there was even a cultivator of poison, throwing darts filled with strong poison. Ming Yue had positioned herself behind the ape, sending out blades of wind. Even Shao Huang contributed as well, after tricking some of the participants in front of everyone, no one would fall for his tricks anymore.

The Thunderhide Ape could do nothing but take the attacks, it could not escape the grasp of the farm boy and tried its best to break free. The farm boy tried his best to keep the ape down but his technique was almost finished, the scarlet hue on his body had lost its luster. In a desperate attempt, he thrashed the ape around, slamming it onto the floor with as much force as he could muster. The sheer impact caused cracks into the arena and had knocked the ape out for only a seconds. Unfortunately, it was still recovering from the impact and could not move away from the others, suffering a few more strikes.

After regaining its consciousness, it roared in anger, realizing that it was losing to these weak humans. It jumped away from their attack before holding its hand up into the air. Letting out a defiant roar, a great bolt of lightning struck its body leaving a sword in its palm.

"Was the ape just playing with us?" the farm boy thought.

Even after sending out their strongest attacks, the ape was still moving as if it had never been hurt. After obtaining its weapon, the ape grinned with glee.. Now, it was truly time to test them.