CHAPTER 509: CHAPTER 509. EVIL DESTROYING LIGHT

Wu Di used Saintly Ape. He didn’t dare to be careless. The aura he sensed from the fire hound was that of a lower mythical beast. He punched forward as the fire hound leaped toward him.

"Taste my fist!" Wu Di exclaimed. His fist was filled with the explosive energy from the Ignition Fist. He was ready to blow this beast to smithereens upon contact.

However, when the contact happened, he felt nothing. It was as if he was punching the air. He went through and was engulfed by the fire hound. He realized then that despite taking the form of a hound, it was not a true spirit beast. The being assailing him was still pure flame.

He moved to one side, but the fire hound stayed with him. It continued to burn him without his being able to fight it. None of his punches affected the flames.

"Rarrhhh...!" He endured the searing heat and crouched down. With a powerful explosion that broke the ground, his body shot up into the sky. His Jet Dash gave him a speed boost faster than the fire hound could keep up with. He finally left the flames blanketing his body.

The fire hound flew up to catch him again, but he wasn’t going to let it. He flew away while executing Light Blade. The energy from the Light Blade split the hound’s legs, which almost touched him, but the fire forming the legs converged again and reformed as if nothing had happened.

Wu Di continued flying to avoid the fire hound. He was not keen on experiencing being imprisoned inside a fiery cage again. His body was full of burning wounds but nothing serious. Under the effects of Saintly Ape, those superficial wounds quickly healed themselves.

Wu Di couldn’t damage the fire hound, so he kept dodging. He was confused about what to do until he found the fire hound had stopped moving. So, he also stopped and observed the fire hound. The two stared at one another without any sign of advancing.

After a while, Wu Di realized the reason. His constant dodging caused him to move away from the wooden statue. The fire hound seemingly had a limit to how far it could venture away from the statue.

Wu Di tested his hypothesis by walking to the side. The fire hound followed. This showed the hound still targeted him. It simply couldn’t advance. The two of them moved in a circle with the wooden statue as the center.

Wu Di stopped. Since the fire hound couldn’t advance, he thought it was the chance to test his new arcane art.

He learned this new arcane art from a tome, which was already in his possession for quite a while. He discovered the tome during a mission while he was still a Royal Academy student. Like the Saintly Ape, the art inside this tome was categorized as a low-tier profound grade and used the element of light.

But different from the Saintly Ape, he failed to learn this art until recently. Even now, he was still at the Beginner mastery. At this mastery, it took him some time to execute the art. That’s why he hadn’t used it in a confrontation. His current opponent could be said to be unable to move, so it was a perfect opportunity to practice using the art.

He took a pose and performed the art’s executing moves. His aether flowed following his movements. They transformed into light-element energy and converged before his chest, where his two hands formed a diamond shape.

The converged energy intensified into a blinding light. He then pushed this shining light forward. At the same time, he exclaimed, "Let’s see how you fare against this. Taste my Evil Destroying Light...!!!"

The blinding light exploded into a pillar of beam. The beam traveled forward and crashed into the fire hound.

The hound gave off a strange sound upon contact. The sound was unlike anything uttered by spirit beasts. It was not strange, considering the fire hound wasn’t a living creature. Yet, the sound unmistakenly contained painful emotion, as if the fire hound was hurt upon contact with the light beam.

As Wu Di’s light showered the fire hound, its flames slowly evaporated. If flames could be burnt, this was what it looked like.

Finally, the beam ran out of energy. It dimmed before dissipating into nothingness. Wu Di felt himself drained. He didn’t expect a single art to consume so much energy. If he was to use this arcane art in a fight, he needed to save it for a final attack. Otherwise, he would be vulnerable after using it.

Wu Di watched the fire hound. It was much smaller compared to before. He expected it to conjure flames and reformed itself to its original size, but it didn’t. It remained the same.

"Hm...," Seeing that. He consumed an aether pill. This pill was among the pills from Yang Li. It was a pill that helped a cultivator recover their stored aether faster, allowing them to execute arts again.

He could feel his energy core revitalizing, but it was not enough for another execution of the Evil Destroying Light. So, he sat down and meditated to absorb the aether around him and speed up his energy refill. He continued to watch the fire hound, wondering if it also recovered with time. Its size remained the same even after two minutes passed.

Wu Di stood and executed another Evil Destroying Light. After getting hit a second time, the fire hound dissipated completely. By the time the light beam was gone, the fire hound was no longer visible.

Wu Di carefully approached the wooden statue. Nothing happened even after he stood right next to it. The occasional fire burst still came out of the ground, but not the one forming the fire hound.

He thought it should be safe now. He moved away from the statue. He had learned his lesson not to touch it.

Amon had sent him multiple telepathic messages when he was scuffling with the fire hound. He only had the time to reply now.

"What happened?" Amon asked after receiving Wu Di’s reply.

"A crazy dog made of fire happened," Wu Di answered. "I have taken care of it. Why didn’t you tell us before not to move the things we found?"

"Because my assumption of an exit point is something large that looks like a gate. I didn’t expect it to be something small that can be moved. You should have thought about it before doing anything. An exit point is supposed to be static. It marked the gateway to another sub-space. Of course, there will be retaliation from this pocket world if you try to mess with it."

Wu Di wanted to say, ’How do I know all this crap? There is no manual for this place, and you didn’t mention this yesterday!’ But he knew he would just receive more scoldings if he did, so he just took the admonishment silently.

"So, what should I do with this exit point?" Wu Di asked.

"Stay near it," Amon instructed. "We will use you as a marker. Yang Li has found the water element. I will go there now and figure out a way to bring this water to your place."

"Okay," Wu Di said. He sat down cross-legged. Since he didn’t need to do anything, he decided to spend his time cultivating while he waited for the others.

*

On the other side of the trial stage, Yang Li was standing beside a pedestal that seemed to grow out of the ground. The pedestal had a bowl-shaped top. Inside this bowl was clear water.

"What have you tried?" Amon asked after arriving at the site.

"I tried removing the water, but it refused to leave this pedestal," Yang Li informed.

To demonstrate, she cupped her two hands into the water and removed a handful. As her cupping hands left the pedestal, the water flowed out of her hands and floated in the air. The water slowly made its way back to the pedestal.

"I have also tried using a concealed container," Yang Li informed. "It didn’t work."

She showed her waterskin. She normally carried her drinking water in it. Earlier, she emptied the waterskin and filled it with the water from the pedestal. She thought at first it could work, but she later noticed a tiny amount of water sipped out little by little. At this rate, her waterskin would be long empty before she arrived at Wu Di’s location.

"Are you sure that waterskin is tight?" Amon asked.

"Yes. This water is not normal. It finds the smallest gap and eases its way through," Yang Li answered.

"Hm," Amon put his hand into the water. It felt and looked like normal water.

He turned his attention to the pedestal that housed the water. It looked to be made of black stone, the same material as the ground. There were no distinctive features on the pedestal. Its surface was smooth, so smooth that no defect could be perceived on it. It was too artificial for something that appeared to grow out of the ground.

But then Amon found that this was not true. After a closer inspection, he noticed a tiny imperfection near the top. A fine crack was at the edge of the bowl.