Chapter 732: 732 Heavenly Hidden Beast
"In the face of absolute strength, all luck is in vain!"
Xi Shaoping maintained his composure and was not provoked by Yun Xiao’s words. Instead, he spoke indifferently, and his statement won slow nods from many others.
However, some people thought that although absolute power is fundamental, now it is the Spirit Fighting Conference, and Xi Shaoping’s Peak of Qi Seeking Realm strength might not be fully utilized.
If it were a battle in physical forms, no one would believe that Yun Xiao could win, as the difference of three minor realms between them makes them incomparable.
Strictly speaking, in a battle of Meridian Spirits with a difference of three minor realms, it is generally the superior who wins. However, having seen Yun Xiao’s tactics, the crowd does not unanimously predict the outcome of this battle.
It is known that Yun Xiao has successively defeated the Meridian Spirits of Jiang Nanchao, Ji Fu, and Lu Shiming, and thus he made it into this fifth round. The typical dominance of the superior seems inapplicable to this youth.
Not to mention just two hours ago, in a Meridian Spirit battle, Yun Xiao just defeated a Meridian Spirit of a Peak Qi Seeking Realm. Facing Xi Shaoping, also at the Peak of Qi Seeking Realm, the result might not be so predictable.
"You are wrong, sometimes, luck is also a part of strength!"
After Xi Shaoping finished speaking, Yun Xiao shook his head and responded with an argument hard to refute – sometimes, with a stroke of luck, even a higher level of Meridian Qi Cultivation might face a bitter end.
"You talk too much. Let’s see the truth in the battle of Meridian Spirits!"
With just a few sharp exchanges, Xi Shaoping felt slightly inferior, so he immediately switched from his weakness to his strength to overpower Yun Xiao.
Whoosh!
As soon as Xi Shaoping finished speaking, he slightly extended his right hand and an indistinct object burst out from his palm, but in the next moment, nothing could be seen in front of him.
"Did he summon his Meridian Spirit? Why can’t I see it?"
Below the arena, many turned to their companions to ask this, while some Meridian Refining Masters with powerful Soul Strength were staring thoughtfully at what was in front of Xi Shaoping on the arena.
These Meridian Refining Masters had much stronger sensing ability than ordinary cultivators, which made their expressions turn odd because they seemed to know what Xi Shaoping’s Meridian Spirit was.
"Could it be the legendary ’Heavenly Hidden Beast’?"
An elderly man surrounded by an invisible, mighty force, evidently a Meridian Refining Master of Earth Rank Low Level, sensed it very clearly and exclaimed in shock.
"A Heavenly Hidden Beast? Impossible, isn’t it said that this type of Vein Demon is extremely good at disguising itself, even blending seamlessly with its surroundings making it hard for the naked eye to see? How could it possibly be captured and then refined into a Meridian Spirit?"
Hearing the elderly man, another Meridian Refining Master exclaimed in shock, which ignited a notion among all present – some of them had indeed heard of that name.
The so-called Heavenly Hidden Beast is a very rare kind of Vein Demon in the Tenglong Continent, even rumored not to be a Vein Demon but a Strange Spirit because its abilities are too peculiar and elusive.
The Heavenly Hidden Beast inherently possesses a special ability to react uniquely with anything it touches.
For example, if it touches a large rock, its entire body would look like the rock, or if it touches a large tree, it would merge with the tree, making it indistinguishable to the human eye.
Especially those Heavenly Hidden Beasts that have evolved to the Seventh Rank or above, their camouflage ability would also evolve to be able to transform into anything they have touched, even humans.
Of course, when disguising as humans, Heavenly Hidden Beasts are still easy to spot as they don’t speak human language and their Spiritual Wisdom is not as high as that of humans. However, such ability has already made many human cultivators enviously wish they had it.
One might even say that the Heavenly Hidden Beast holds the top spot among Vein Demons in terms of survival ability; when you are pursuing them, their powerful ability to disguise often leads you to miss them completely, and there is a chance to get counter-killed by them, which makes it extraordinarily difficult to guard against.
Thus, everyone was intensely curious about how such a master of disguise and concealing its presence, the Heavenly Hidden Beast, was discovered and had its Spiritual Wisdom erased by Xi Shaoping, and refined into a Meridian Spirit.
Although the Heavenly Hidden Beast’s Spiritual Wisdom was erased, its capabilities did not vanish. Under Xi Shaoping’s control, this special ability to disguise would surely shine brilliantly in today’s Spirit Fighting Arena.
For example, at this moment, the Meridian Spirit of the Heavenly Hidden Beast summoned by Shi Shaoqing had already merged with the arena and even reacted with the air, making it completely invisible to the naked eye.
Without even seeing the shadow of the opponent’s Meridian Spirit, how can one fight it? Under Shi Shaoqing’s control, the Heavenly Hidden Beast Meridian Spirit can launch attacks at any moment—this battle seems to have truly become one-sided.
"Tsk tsk, a Heavenly Hidden Beast? This guy is quite lucky!"
Yun Xiao, who possesses the memories of the Dragon Cloud Battle God from a previous life, naturally recognized the true nature of Shi Shaoqing’s Meridian Spirit at first glance and couldn’t help but remark.
He also knew that for a cultivator at the peak of the Qi Seeking Realm like Shi Shaoqing, capturing a Seventh Rank Advanced Heavenly Hidden Beast required a great deal of luck.
Heavenly Hidden Beasts are extremely difficult to capture even for the Dragon Cloud Battle God of the past. Despite their modest combat power, their ability to disguise is admired by many cultivators of the Nine-layered Dragon Cloud at the Holy Rank.
In Yun Xiao’s memory, there were still some strong cultivators of the Nine-layered Dragon Cloud who, desiring the Heavenly Hidden Beast’s extraordinary disguising abilities, spent decades studying it, but alas, only one succeeded.
That person later became the most infamous assassin in the Nine-layered Dragon Cloud, under whom even cultivators at the Holy Rank Third Realm had no chance of survival, which was truly terrifying.
When it comes to understanding the Heavenly Hidden Beast, perhaps even its master, Shi Shaoqing, can’t compare to Yun Xiao, but now his own power is far from what it was in his past life, and facing this Seventh Rank Advanced Heavenly Hidden Beast might be troublesome.
"Since it’s a Heavenly Hidden Beast, let’s have Xiao Wu take action!"
The reason Yun Xiao did not summon his own Meridian Spirit immediately was he wanted to see what the opponent’s Meridian Spirit was. This would allow him to tailor his approach, much like using the Three-legged Ice Crystal Toad to deal with the Two-headed Flame Killing Wolf.
Now, knowing the prowess of the Heavenly Hidden Beast, Yun Xiao does not believe his Three-legged Ice Crystal Toad can easily win, but the self-proclaimed Five-Clawed Golden Dragon, Xiao Wu, is different.
"Making me do the hard work again!"
Upon receiving Yun Xiao’s mental message, the Golden Snake Worm Xiao Wu was somewhat reluctant. However, when a subtle aura was emitted, he immediately fell silent, knowing it was the Dragon Tree Spirit Little Dragon warning him.
The Dragon Tree Spirit Little Dragon could be considered as the Golden Snake Worm’s greatest weakness. He might disdain Yun Xiao but could not ignore Little Dragon.
Since Little Dragon always listened to Yun Xiao, it really was a case of one thing overcoming another. Thus, under Little Dragon’s urging, a flash of golden light revealed a tiny golden insect, less than three inches long, appearing before everyone’s eyes.
"Ah, it’s that grass threadworm Meridian Spirit!"
When the Golden Snake Worm Xiao Wu appeared, an exclamation erupted from under the arena, but this sound immediately drew numerous disdainful glances.
If three days ago, when Yun Xiao first summoned the Golden Snake Worm, most people mistook it for a grass threadworm, after its overwhelming victory over Jiang Nanchao that day, no one thought so anymore.
The person who exclaimed had spontaneously shouted out and, sensing the unusual looks from the surrounding crowd, felt somewhat embarrassed, because it was clear that it was not a common grass threadworm, but a Strange Spirit Meridian Demon.
The embarrassed person did not receive much attention from the crowd, as their gaze quickly returned to the Golden Snake Worm, intrigued to witness its prowess again, as most had only caught a fleeting glimpse that day.
These past two days Yun Xiao had been using the Three-legged Ice Crystal Toad, and now that he had suddenly summoned the Golden Snake Worm again, it filled everyone with anticipation to witness the formidable abilities of the Golden Snake Worm once more.
Especially for the special envoy Xia Yong from the northern high platform, his eyes were glued to the Golden Snake Worm Xiao Wu, not blinking even for a second. That unique sensing ignited the greed in his heart once again.
"What exactly is that?"
No matter how much Xia Yong observed or how experienced he was, he still could not identify the Meridian Spirit that looked like a grass threadworm.
Xia Yong came from the headquarters of Spirit Fighting Commerce, and although not one of the top influential figures, his experience was far superior to that of many, even compared to the branch chairman Xu Huang.
Xia Yong had spent much of his life dealing with Meridian Demons and Meridian Spirits. Many of the Meridian Demons he hadn’t seen in person, he had read about in ancient texts of the Commerce.
But no matter which kind of Meridian Demon it was, none matched the Golden Snake Worm on the arena. Perhaps the only match would be an ordinary grass threadworm.
However, even if beaten to death, Xia Yong wouldn’t believe that the Golden Snake Worm was just a grass threadworm. After all, could a grass threadworm that even children play with defeat Jiang Nanchao’s Seventh Rank Intermediate Meridian Spirit, the Three-Pincered Black Poison Scorpion that day?