Third Elder disappeared from the spot he was standing in, and a huge boom erupted in the distance. Akata could feel the pressure in the area increase by tenfold and it was all focused on him.

“What kind of beast did he send after me?!” Akata’s eyes went wide and his mouth gaped open as he felt the tremendous amount of pressure coming from in front of him. “Considering the pressure it’s not totally out of my league, I should be able to stand against it for a time. Time to test my skill.” His eyes blazed with a fierce fighting will and before he could take his second step a voice rang out.

“This beast isn’t so simple either, be wary.” The voice obviously belonged to Third Elder. He was still there watching from a different location. Of course Akata wouldn’t be in any real danger of dying because he could control the whole simulation.

As Third Elder finished his sentence a roar rang out from the forest ahead of Akata. Trees toppled over and the ground shook. The pressure continued to increase as the beast made its way to Akata.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The beast appeared before Akata with a loud roar. It had a black shell that covered its whole body with tiny spikes that protruded out from it. Its snout extended from its face. The tail it had flailed about causing the nearby trees to fall. Its feet had sharp claws that dug into the ground with each step it took.

“A giant… armadillo? But the pressure it brings is enormous so it can’t just be a regular armadillo even if it is giant.” Akata prepared himself to launch an attack on the giant armadillo.

The giant armadillo looked at Akata with its bloodshot eyes and let out another roar. The roar caused the land to quake and the leaves on trees to fall to the ground. Then it curled up in a ball and charged straight ahead towards Akata.

Akata stood in the same space and pulled his arm straight back and waited for the armadillo to come closer. He rotated the red rune in his soul region and when the armadillo was within reach he punched out. The punch was backed by the full power of his cultivation base as well as the red rune. Although he didn’t know the use of the red rune, he found that it increased his strength by a lot depending on how fast he rotated it.

This time Akata didn’t hold anything back as he unleashed his full power blow. The punch he let out was truly amazing, it was on the level of someone that had a cultivation base at the 4th Grade of the Mortal Rank.

The wind howled as it was thrown into disarray, and the trees bent over. The punch landed on the shell of the giant armadillo and it caused the shell to bend inwards slightly. The giant armadillo was thrown back and it crashed through a tree before it came to a stop.

The armadillo unfurled itself and looked at Akata with mad eyes and let out an earth shaking roar. It didn’t seem to be injured in the slightest but instead even more enraged. It rolled back into a ball and charged towards Akata once more, this time with an astonishing speed.

Akata sucked in a cold breath breath as he watched this unfold. His punch just then could injure those at the 3rd Grade of the Mortal Rank and compete with those at the 4th Grade. But the giant armadillo could withstand it like it was nothing at all.

“What kind of cultivation base does this beast have? It’s able to take on the full power of my punch and not be injured at all?” Akata was at a complete loss of how to deal with this beast. He used his full strength just then but it didn’t do a thing to the armadillo.

“Humph so that doesn’t work then I guess I’ll try to back it up with the power of my gold rune also.” A gold light flashed in his eyes as he rotated his golden rune in his soul region. A gold glow appeared alongside his red glow. He pulled his arm back and the glow of gold and red could be seen on his fist.

Soon an illusory rock the size of a fingernail could be seen in front of his fist. Akata charged towards the giant armadillo and unleashed his punch.

Boom!

Trees toppled over and the ground was ripped up as the blast sent an illusory rock hurdling towards the giant armadillo. The illusory rock seemed to absorb the surrounding energy as it grew in size as it approached the armadillo.

By the time it was in front of the armadillo it was the size of Akata’s body. Wham! The rolled up armadillo and the illusory rock collided. The collision pushed Akata back a few meters. The armadillo was thrown back and crashed through multiple trees. After it unfurled itself a light wound could be seen with blood dripping out.

“So it was sort of affective? Ugh… maybe I can try this meteor magic once more. Although I don’t know if it will succeed.” Akata wasn’t that good with magic and divine abilities, so when he unleashed his Astral Obliteration he didn’t actually know if it was going to work. “When I use this magic I have a one in five chance of it succeeding.”

Akata’s crimson red eyes glowed with determination as he pointed his finger in the air and rotated the golden rune in his soul region. His eyes flashed with a tint of gold and a golden aura spread out over his finger. The land in the area started to shake and the ground broke apart, crumbling, and flew towards his finger. The rock at his finger compacted together, condensing and making the rock turn into a ball with a dense amount of energy.

“This is a lot of energy to handle. I don’t think I can maintain it anymore. It feels different from when I first casted this magic.” Akata’s face went pale and the ball of rock suddenly burst apart and blasted in different directions. The blast sent Akata flying backwards with blood spurting out of his mouth. He landed hard against a boulder and coughed up multiple mouthfuls of blood.

The giant armadillo was hit by the blast too as it was equally thrown back and crashed through multiple trees before coming to a stop. As it unrolled it showed that its body was bloody in some places, but didn’t seem to be too badly injured.

It looked even more mad and this time ran towards Akata while brandishing its claws. It let out a roar as it sped towards Akata seemingly bent on tearing him apart. A faint black aura started to spread out from the armadillo as it charged at Akata. Although Akata couldn’t see it, Third Elder saw it perfectly and he gave a slight smile.

Akata finally got up after coughing up 8 mouthfuls of blood. He looked dazed and his face was pale, but he hadn’t lost focus on the fight. He had kept his eyes open and staring at the armadillo the whole time not letting it out of his sight. He knew that if you let the opponent do something without you looking, you would be in a very bad situation. He saw the armadillo charging at him and he couldn’t help but smile.

“Now this is a life or death fight!” He yelled out and activated his [Shadowfeet] skill. The skill wasn’t a magic technique but was a movement skill. Anyone could use it whether they practiced cultivation or not. But in the hands of Akata who could connect with nature and practiced body cultivating, the skill was brought out to its full potential.

Akata’s feet seemed to merge in with his shadow and he sped to the side to dodge the oncoming armadillo. The defense of the armadillo shell was just too tough and he knew that he couldn’t penetrate it with the power he had now. Therefore he came up with a plan to deal with it.

“The armadillo isn’t fully protected by its shell. When it was still rolled up in the ball and was blasted away it came out with injuries. Those injuries came from the inside suggesting that under its shell is its weak point.The only hard part is trying to get to there to attack it and also gathering enough strength to damage it.” Akata immediately analyzed their previous exchange and came to this conclusion.

“It’s speed is a bit slower than mine and when I use [Shadowfeet] the gap becomes even greater. If I’m able to draw its attention up in the air and then attack its belly when it is exposed I should be able to defeat it.” Akata was a fighting genius after all so it only took two breaths of time to come to his conclusion and make a strategy for dealing with the armadillo.

Akata kept on dodging the armadillo’s attacks waiting for the best opportunity. Even though he was injured he kept dodging the attacks not letting up at all. The armadillo couldn’t touch him and it looked as if it was getting severely frustrated as its attacks became more relentless. It let out a roar and the faint black aura surrounding it became more pronounced, Akata could even see it by now, he couldn’t help but fall back a bit because he was being cautious.

“What’s that black aura? It doesn’t look like it's doing anything but it is giving me a bad feeling. I’ll probe it some and see if I can get it to use it, then I can make a plan for it accordingly.” Akata stopped edging back from the armadillo and grabbed a nearby stick from the ground.

“Time to practice my spear arts again.” He pulled his arm back and threw it forward towards the armadillo. The stick flew through the air and approached the armadillo. Given the size of the armadillo it would’ve been harder to miss than to hit it. The stick spear was upon the armadillo in an instant and just when it was about to land on it, the air around it twisted and caused the stick spear to bend away. The speed of the stick spear also slowed down and it hit the armadillo shell with a tap.

“Huh? That aura alters the surrounding space? How am I supposed to fight against that?! This thing is overpowered! I don’t even want to fight it even more! This is just unfair!” Akata seemed to be throwing a temper tantrum as he yelled out.

All of a sudden laughter rang out and the space in front of Akata distorted as Third Elder appeared. His laughter rang out through the whole forest and shook the trees. It even caused the giant armadillo to edge back and have blood ooze from its mouth. It didn’t have any intentions of moving forward anymore as it began to turn pale with fear.

“Ahahaha! So you do know when to realize when you're weak, that is very very good. It is okay to retreat sometimes so that you’ll be able to fight again later. This first part of testing was meant to discourage you and make you realize that no matter what you do, you won’t win against it.” Third Elder spoke with laughter and joy.

Akata looked at Third Elder for a moment lost in thought and then turned his head towards the giant armadillo. “So just how strong is that beast then?” Akata truly wanted to know the answer to this. Even though he couldn’t face it head on, he felt like it was close to his level. Yet he couldn’t figure out the cultivation base of it.

“Oh, the Mud Armadillo?” Third Elder put on a weird smile that caused Akata’s heart to quiver. “It merely just stepped into cultivation. It’s at the Docile Rank Grade 2.” He spoke with indifference yet Akata could instantly got the meaning behind his words.

The Mortal Realm was a path of cultivation for mortal people who wished to practice cultivation. The first level of the Mortal Realm was called the Mortal Rank. Beasts on the other hand have their own path to cultivation called the Creature Realm. When a creature first steps into the path of cultivation they reach the level of Docile Rank.

Beasts had tough bodies which made their cultivation path stronger than mortals. A Docile Rank Grade 1 creature was equivalent to a Mortal Rank Grade 2 human. But Akata’s body strength was equivalent to a Mortal Rank Grade 3 without using his full power. Yet the creature was still able to outclass him.

Third Elder could see the look on Akata’s face and couldn’t help but laugh out loud again. “Hohoho, this creature is very special. Given enough time you’ll be able to beat it effortlessly with just your body alone. I shall train you well indeed. Well, I think now is a good as time as any to start your second part of your testing.” Third Elder flashed another incantation in the air and the area started trembling and disappearing.