Liu Wuxie's gaze fixed on the massive stone door, his brows knitting together. From behind it, a fierce, overwhelming aura surged outward, sweeping across the arena and pressing down until even the slaves in the stands struggled to breathe.
"It's the Bamboo Mountain Beast!" cries erupted from the crowd.
Liu Wuxie had never heard of this creature, but the slaves knew it well. They called it the God of the Arena, a beast with a record of hundreds of battles and not a single defeat. Each of those battles had ended with another corpse at its feet, proof of its unmatched combat power. Compared to this monster, the Silverthunder Ant Beast Liu Wuxie had just slain was nothing more than an appetizer.
The Heavenly Dao Book pulsed in warning, confirming the immense pressure closing in. At the exact moment, the Ancestral Tree stirred within him, and golden light flashed in his eyes.
"A divinekin!" he murmured.
The Ancestral Tree reacted only in the presence of a divinekin.
"Could there truly be a divinekin dwelling in the astral domain?" he wondered.
In the True Martial Continent, the divine race had all but vanished after his return from the Sacred Ground. Since he had slain the twelve fiends, they had learned he was too dangerous to target. The divine race, older even than the Witcher Clan, shrouded in secrecy, had no business appearing on barren Anlu Star. Yet one stood before him.
His surprise lay not in the Bamboo Mountain Beast itself, but in its true identity as a divinekin.
Before he could think further, another wave of boundless aura burst from behind the door. The divine race was renowned for their formidable physiques; in equal conditions, no human could match them. Worse still, human true essence was useless against them; their divine energy nullified it completely. Now Liu Wuxie understood why the Bamboo Mountain Beast had never lost.
He quickly masked his expression, hiding any hint that he knew their secrets. From Yu Wentai's expression, it was clear he was unaware of what the beast truly was, and that wasn't surprising. Even in the True Martial Continent, few in the Heaven Profound Realm had ever heard of the divine race. Back then, only Liu Wuxie and Han Feizi, heir to the Han Clan and keeper of ancient astral domain lore, had known.
The ground trembled as a towering figure stepped through the doorway, sunlight stretching its shadow across the arena.
"He's dead for sure. The Bamboo Mountain Beast shows no mercy. Let's see how long that kid lasts," the crowd muttered. Though they disapproved of Yu Wentai's methods, they couldn't resist the brutal, primal allure of the arena.
Yu Wentai tipped back his cup, drained it in one gulp, and asked Liu An, "How long has it been since the Bamboo Mountain Beast last fought?"
"It has been three months," Liu An replied carefully.
If even the Bamboo Mountain Beast weren't enough to defeat Liu Wuxie, it would prove that they were all inferior to a mere slave,
"Three months?" Yu Wentai mused. No opponent in recent months had been worth releasing the beast for, as most challengers had fallen in a single exchange.
Stepping into the open, the Bamboo Mountain Beast squinted against the sun and raised its arms to shield its eyes. Having lived too long in darkness, sudden light threatened to blind it. After half a minute of adjustment, it continued its slow, deliberate approach toward Liu Wuxie.
Two enormous horns shaped like bamboo stalks rose from its head, giving it, its name. As for its past, no one knew, not even Yu Wentai. When he had taken command of Anlu Star, the beast was already imprisoned there, likely by his predecessor.
The crowd roared, blood coursing hot through their veins in anticipation. Chen Gang nearly bounced with excitement, eager to watch Liu Wuxie die. He Yingwu's expression, however, was grim. Liu Wuxie had killed the Silverthunder Ant Beast only with great difficulty, and now he faced this. Over the past decade, He Yingwu had seen many die here, even cultivators in the high Transcendent Realm.
Just last year, they had thrown a guard at the high Transcendent Realm who had violated the rules into the arena, and the Bamboo Mountain Beast had slaughtered him in the most gruesome fashion imaginable.
Now, Liu Wuxie's range was cut to a mere twenty meters, barely enough to take a few steps. He would have no room to maneuver against the Bamboo Mountain Beast.
As the distance closed, the oppressive aura of the divinekin pressed against him. By its strength, Liu Wuxie judged it to be in the high Transcendent Realm. If he could refine it into a Divine Fruit, he would have a real chance of opening his third divine gate, making the Frost Mythical Art effortless to use. His other dao techniques had stagnated; only by comprehending more mythical arts could he progress further.
A gleam of satisfaction flashed in his eyes. With the Divine Fruit, he could significantly boost both his combat power and soul energy.
Ten meters away, the Bamboo Mountain Beast stopped, staring at him in silence. Beneath its divine aura, Liu Wuxie felt it probing the faint presence of the Ancestral Tree within him.
Without warning, the beast lunged, its fists crashing down like meteors. The Ancestral Tree was the nemesis of the divine race; no divinekin would tolerate its presence.
The impact sent a wave of energy sweeping the ground, throwing up clouds of dust that quickly obscured all sight.
It was precisely what Liu Wuxie wanted. Hidden in the haze, he could work to drain its power.
In raw strength, he could never match it. Even with his third-level Heaven Profound Realm cultivation, enough to fight those in the early Transcendent Realm, he stood no chance against a high-level opponent. Only cunning could win this battle.
The beast's appearance sent the arena into a frenzy. Even Yu Wentai stood, eager to see blood spill. Yellow sand swirled around them, sealing them in a shifting shroud.
The divinekin's aura bore down, pushing him to the brink. Retreat was meaningless now, and the chain limited him to twenty meters, and he was already halfway there. The beast's hands reached toward Liu Wuxie, its strength far stronger than its kind in the True Martial Continent.
The crowd screamed for blood, their minds warped by years of mining and captivity, driven wild by the thought of slaughter to vent their pent-up rage.
The wind from the beast's charge whipped Liu Wuxie's hair around him, the Divine Glazed Cloth on his body gleaming like armor of lightning. The situation was dire; if it continued, his death was inevitable.
He Yingwu shut his eyes, silently praying. Yu Wentai looked away, losing interest in the promise of more blood. The women at his side covered their eyes, unwilling to watch. Liu An's face twisted into gleeful madness, hungry to see Liu Wuxie torn apart.
Then, just as the moment of death seemed inevitable, the atmosphere changed.
Liu Wuxie's aura erupted, stirring the dust into a dense, swirling wall that hid both him and the Bamboo Mountain Beast from sight.
"What's Liu Wuxie doing? We can't see anything!" voices grumbled from the stands, dismissing it as a futile attempt to blind the beast.
Yu Wentai's expression sharpened, suspicion flickering in his eyes. He could feel something off, but he couldn't quite pinpoint it.
Suddenly, the clash within the dust ceased. The beast's assault stopped, and Liu Wuxie's power began to ebb away. Only the roiling sand remained, the echoes of their energy still humming in the air.
"Did the battle end?" whispers rippled through the crowd. By nature, the Bamboo Mountain Beast should have torn him apart. Yet no blood had splattered the dust.
The Bamboo Mountain Beast's ferocious nature should have driven it to tear Liu Wuxie apart.
Confusion settled in. They had to wait for the haze to clear; none of them could extend divine sense far enough to see through it. Even Yu Wentai, whose Origin Conversion Realm sense stretched a thousand meters, was too far away to risk probing through the turbulent air.
The two were eight hundred meters from him.
Gradually, the yellow sand began to settle, and the arena came into view.
What the crowd saw left them utterly stunned.