Anxious to find the most delicious magical beasts possible all of the disciples but two descended into the canyon in a flash. Dust kicked up from the rush of disciples causing Wu Jilong to frown as the dust cloud floated towards him. The two disciples who stayed behind were Wu Jilong and Su Ruiqi.

“Wu Jilong, you stayed behind as well?” Su Ruiqi was watching Wu Jilong while the Sect Head gave his speech, to her it seemed that not a single word the Sect Head spoke reached Wu Jilong. By chance she guessed that he would not leave with the others so she did the same. In life she enjoyed nothing more than the things that were exciting. The rush of battle and thrill of adventure were what drove her to aspire to be a strong cultivator.

“What idiot would enter the territory of magical beasts in such a large group? With that many cultivators entering at once the magical beasts will either go into hiding or leave the canyon from the southern rim,” Wu Jilong said. Compared to humans magical beasts have extremely fine tuned senses. When something lives in an environment with the constant threat of being eaten by stronger beasts, they grow to be more attentive.

Su Ruiqi nodded. She had never thought of the possibility that the magical beasts would leave from the southern rim but she agreed to avoid suspicion from Wu Jilong. “Wu Jilong, I can’t help but find myself agreeing with your words. I also thought the same things and stayed behind because of them. What do you say we travel to the southern rim together?”

“I am not going to the southern rim and if you attempt to follow me again I will kill you.” Wu Jilong’s words were like a knife pressed against her throat. Su Ruiqi came from the Su family, one of the most powerful families in the entire Grand Peak Continet, never once in her life had she been threatened before let alone offended.

Yet now she could tell this was not a threat, Wu Jilong spoke with the same confidence as when he said Tan Fang would form his Tsunami Grade Aura Sea. Wu Jilong’s words were not a threat but an edict! “You have mistaken my intentions, since you are not going to the southern rim I shall go alone,” Su Ruiqi said. She turned and headed towards the south without stopping to turn around once out of fear.

Wu Jilong hiked down narrow switchback after switchback, the ground was smooth from the constant use by mercenary bands who came to Grand Beast Canyon to hunt for magical beast cores. The alchemists of The Grand Peak continent used these beast cores to help create medicinal pills, so they sell for a generous price throughout the continent. When the Sect of Five Corners holds the Feasts of Magical Beasts Tournament not a single mercenary band dares to enter the valley out of fear of offending the Sect of Five Corners.

To the east of Wu Jilong a river snaked its way through the canyon, its clear water flowed fast and roared loudly as it echoed off of the canyon's walls. On both sides of the river thick vegetation grew giving the canyon floor a dense forest. Behind the river close to a hundred caves had been dug out of the bronze canyon walls. These holes were home to thousands of Moonlight Hornets.

Moonlight Hornets are magical beasts who hunt in packs for fun. They do not require food as they receive nourishment from the moon itself, this has lead to the Moonlight Hornet turning its stomach into an extra space to store a deadly neurotoxin. While a single Moonlight Hornet may not be hard to deal with, an entire hive of them would spell a death sentence for no small number of the cultivators who ventured out at night.

Switchbacks eventually gave way to a gradual sloping hill, at the bottom of the hill rows of ancient trees with yellowing leaves stood tall like sentinels guarding the entrance to the canyon. Layers of decaying underbrush and twigs crunched under Wu Jilong’s feet as he walked, the serenity and silence of the canyon was occasionally interrupted by the howls and roars of magical beasts off in the distance.

…

Wu Jilong snapped his fingers in order but nothing happened until he reached his index finger. A scarlet flame hung in the space above his hand, with a simple thought Wu Jilong split the flame into ten equally sized flames before making them disappear. “So the only Martial Art I can use is the Sovereign Creation Flame and my limit is ten separate flames, I disappoint myself.”

After confirming which of his Martial Arts he could use Wu Jilong continued deeper into the canyon, three hours passed before Wu Jilong saw another human or a magical beast for that matter. As he entered a clearing Wu Jilong found two disciples from the Sword Sonata Faction. Hung from their hips and fastened to their bright red robes were two pristine Martial Arms that looked as though they had never been used.

“Haha! Brother Tianyi, you are a genius! She can’t leave her cubs behind or I’ll kill them! Who would have thought that killing an Autumn Tiger would be this easy?”

“See, brother Kuo. Just listen to me and we will win this competition easily.” The two disciples stood equal distance apart from the mouth of a bronze stone cave. Inside the cave was a severely injured Autumn Tiger shielding her cubs from the ranged attacks of the two disciples with her body. Normally neither of the disciples from the Sword Sonata Faction would be a match for her, but because of their positioning she was not able to leave the cave unless she was willing to sacrifice her cubs to Ni Kuo’s ferocious attacks.

Ni Tianyi raised his hand ready to deliver the final blow when he sensed Wu Jilong approaching from behind. The fact that Wu Jilong was able to get so close without Ni Tianyi sensing him earlier shocked him because this entire time Ni Tianyi had been observing the surrounding area to make sure no cultivators or magical beasts were waiting to ambush them from the shadows. “Ni Kuo turn around someone from another faction is coming. I’ll keep watch on the tiger.”

Ni Kuo obeyed his brothers orders without question as he always did and turned his body to face Wu Jilong. “You stop right there. What is a disciple from the Golden Gamble Faction trying to do by sneaking up on us? These Autumn Tiger Cubs are ours and so too is the magical beast core of their mother.”

“I want to help,” Wu Jilong said while grinning. The sunlight that shone overhead made his crimson hair glow even brighter as sparks drifted off of it.

“We don’t need the help of a disciple from the Golden Gamble Faction,” Ni Kuo spit out. Long before Ni Kuo joined the Sword Sonata Faction his father and grandfather had attended the Sect of Five Corners also joining the Sword Sonata Faction, from an early age both Ni Kuo and Ni Tianyi were taught to hate all members of the Golden Gamble Faction.

“Not you, the Autumn Tiger. The act of a mother protecting her cubs at the expense of her body is a beautiful act. I won’t let trash such as yourselves defile such beauty,” Wu Jilong said. The grin he previously had was replaced by an completely calm face and an indescribable coldness.

Wu Jilong snapped but after a minute nothing happened as far as Ni Kuo could tell. At the sight of this Ni Kuo burst into laughter. “Haha! Brother Tianyi forget about the tiger for a minute. She is fatally injured, she is not going anywhere. Look at this idiot, he comes forward to help a magical beast, snaps and nothing happens. Do you think his Martial Art failed?”

Ni Tianyi turned to look behind him and his eyes grew wide. “Brother Kuo, on your forehead! There is a flame on your forehead can you not feel it?”

“What?” Ni Kuo quickly used his hands to try and put out the flame but to no avail, it remained on his forehead burning so gently that Ni Kuo could not even feel it. If Ni Tianyi didn’t point it out to him Ni Kuo never would have known it was there.

“Ni Kuo the flame is spelling something! Be careful this must be part of his Martial Art.” On Ni Kuo’s forehead the flames transformed into two characters: 爆炸. The two scarlet characters continued to burn dimly on his forehead causing no harm to Ni Kuo.

Wu Jilong snapped his fingers again and yet again nothing happened. “You bastard! What have you done to me? If you do not remove this mark now, I will kill you,” Ni Kuo said, his voice full of fury. Earlier he claimed that Wu Jilong’s Martial Art failed but now some strange flame appeared on his forehead before he could even notice it.

“Kill me? You are already dead,” Wu Jilong said coldly. He snapped his fingers again but this time a deafening explosion followed. BOOM! The characters on Ni Kuo’s forehead meant explosion and that is exactly what happened after Wu Jilong snapped. Where Ni Kuo’s head once rested a fountain of blood and gore appeared. Blood erupted from his neck with such force that it showered down upon his brother dying his robe a deeper shade of red. From head to toe Ni Tianyi was covered in the warm blood of his younger brother.

Before Ni Tiyani could attack he noticed Wu Jilong pointing towards his arm, it was as though time stopped as he turned his head slowly to look at his arm. And sure enough on his wrist a single character was written in scarlet flames. 劍, the character for sword. The flame itself did not hurt him at all but the mark filled him with despair.

“From the way he stood I could tell that he was a poor swordsman. You seem decent enough, attack me I could use some warming up. If you manage to scratch me I will spare your life and only take both of your hands. If you do not scratch me I will let you die by the sword that you cherish so.” Wu Jilong approached Ni Tianyi slowly, each step he took seemed to make the earth around them tremble. Facing such an insidious aura the injured Autumn Tiger whimpered softly while trying to calm her cubs as they cried out in fear. Earlier Ni Tianyi had been the superior predator standing before an injured prey but now he felt that he was in a far worse position than the Autumn Tigers ever were.

The technique that Wu Jilong used earlier is known as the Sovereign Creation Flame. It is an extremely unique Martial Art that acts out whatever action the character spelt with its scarlet flame denotes. Earlier Wu Jilong snapped which summoned the flame, however, to catch Ni Kuo by surprise he had the flame run up his arm and down his back and across the forest floor so that it would be able to approach Ni Kuo from his blind spot. In the same fashion as when the flame was on Ni Kuo’s forehead the Sovereign Creation Flame does not actually burn anything that it touches, unless if Wu Jilong were to have it write out the character for burn.

Just as the flames in a furnace use metal to forge weapons, the Sovereign Creation Flame uses World Qi to form whatever is spelt out with the scarlet flame. Before Wu Jilong activated the Sovereign Creation Flame to kill Ni Kuo he had snapped again, he did this to split the flame on Ni Kuo’s forehead into two and sent the second flame down Ni Kuo’s body towards Ni Tianyi from his blind spot.

It is said that experienced cultivators can determine the level of an opponent after seeing them perform a single attack, this is known as the warrior's soul, while walking the path of cultivation one must fight many battles against those both weaker and stronger than themselves. In a world where the strong rule and the weak are surpassed knowing when to fight and when to flee is an important skill.

After seeing Wu Jilong’s technique Ni Tiyani knew he had to run, deep within his soul he knew that fighting with Wu Jilong was the same as suicide. Although he was not confident in fighting him Ni Tianyi was confident in fleeing, he drew his Martial Arm and stood on the blade preparing to fly away when from the corner of his eye he spotted a fist.

Unbeknownst to Ni Tianyi, Wu Jilong already closed the distance between them and threw a fierce fist towards his head, without the time to react Ni Tianyi had no chance to surround himself with Protective Qi. Under the force of Wu Jilong’s fist Ni Tianyi’s jaw shattered like glass. “I know that you do not dare think of fleeing when I have been cordial enough to spare your life thus far,” Wu Jilong said coolly.

Ni Tianyi forced himself to stand and hobbled over to his Martial Arm which was sent flying by Wu Jilong’s punch. Each time he slid his feet across the ground his body started to shake to the point of collapse, once he bent over to pick up his Martial Arm his vision faded and he passed out never to awaken again. This caused Wu Jilong to sigh in disappointment.

“It’s a good thing I hit him from the side, otherwises he may have stained my robe with his blood,” Wu Jilong said evenly. At the end of the fight he was just as well put together as he was before the fight started. His hair was neatly tied up and his robe had not even a single drop of blood on it. “It’s a shame that earlier only his head exploded, I was trying to make his entire body explode but the Upper Realm of The Shamanic Foundation Stage is too weak for that.”

Wu Jilong approached the wounded Autumn Tiger and snapped. A soothing scarlet flame surrounded her body providing her with a comforting warmth, its brilliance illuminated the entire clearing where they were with a bright scarlet light. On the forehead of the tigress the scarlet mark ( 治療 ) denoting heal shone. Wu Jilong left the tigress and her cubs shortly after in search of more cultivators to reawaken his fighting spirit.