The final day of the stage had come and Ye Xiu was busy resting. He had been resting so that he could rejuvenate his mind and body so that he wouldn't be tired when it came to the fight. Tian Bai was eating as usual since they knew that they still had a few hours before the opponent would arrive for the testing.

Ye Xiu had been shaving off the time needed for his transformation and he was now pleased with his achievement. Ye Xiu had been learning how to fight with his claws by doing similar training to what Shi Die had done when he had first come into his transformation.

Ye Xiu realised why Shi Die had never bothered trying to use weapons considering his claws seemed to be just as sharp as his own though not as durable.

The claws were a powerful tool and it felt much more natural to use the claws as part of an extension of their body. Sure, Ye Xiu had wielded his katana and whip for years on end but even then he felt that the claws were innately made for him to master. Which in this case, was the truth since his claws were part of his own body.

He particularly liked gouging holes into the room's floor that were promptly reformed in little to no time. This little piece of information was going to be a crucial part of Ye Xiu's plans. He had several different plans for several different scenarios and he was ready to take on his opponent.

After his meditation session, Ye Xiu took out his cauldron and began making a few pills. They were mainly pills to restore Qi and to heal injuries. Ye Xiu had been keeping up with his alchemy skills ever since he was shoved into the valley. He was lucky that the valley was abundant in materials otherwise he would've felt like his alchemy skills degraded.

He didn't mind that he was actually using some Qi now because it was technically a warm-up for him. He had finished making quite a few batches of pills before stopping. Ye Xiu had Tian Bai remember where each of the mechanisms was so that he could use that to his advantage when he was fighting the opponent.

Time was running out so Ye Xiu got up to stretch. He took out his katana and whip and held them in his hands. He had less than a few seconds left before his opponent would be announced.

"The participant has managed to reach the second stage of the Dragonoid Transformation technique and will now be assessed on his skill to use the technique in a combat situation. It is not necessary to use the technique to fight the opponent for the entirety of the match however the fatal blow must be dealt when the participant is transformed. There is no time limit to how long the fight will last and will only in the death of either fighter." The voice sounded out as he waited.

"I wish luck to the participants and let us hope that you pass the test. May the final portion begin!" The voice faded as it said its last words.

The opponent appeared in front of the Dragonoid warrior statue. Ye Xiu assessed his opponent. 'My opponent seems to also be able to use the transformation technique. That means that his defence would probably on par or stronger than mine. It also means that he'll be using his claws to fight. Wait... It seems like my opponent has the completed transformed state.' Ye Xiu noted the wings, tails, horns and a fully transformed head.

'I guess the horns and fully transformed head changes to look more like a dragon's. It definitely looks cool now that I can see it in reality. I mean I thought it was just a random detail on the statue but it definitely looks fierce.' He nodded his head in appreciation of the looks of the transformed state. Though he did also see that his opponent's transformation didn't quite look like his. There were differences especially when it came to their scales.

'His scales are of a completely different colour to mine, does it change according to the person or does it mean that his scales are stronger than mine?' It was when he was thinking about the differences that his opponent attacked. His opponent wasn't using his claws but was actually fighting by wielding two weapons, a dagger and sword.

It was an unusual combo to Ye Xiu but he could say nothing about the combination since he himself had an unusual combination with his whip and katana. Ye Xiu knew not to forget about his opponent's claws since that would simply be stupid. He was conflicted about staying in his untransformed state or his Dragonoid form. It seemed as if he would have to go into his Dragonoid form but he felt that he should test the waters with his normal body first.

Whip held in his left hand, he flicked it ferociously towards his opponent. He had his Qi thorns already formed on the whip to see whether he would even be able to pierce through the scales. Surprisingly, his opponent went to catch the whip in its teeth and it didn't even seem to be fazed by the Qi thorns. Ye Xiu's eyebrows rose since the mouth was supposed to be a rather unprotected part of a body.

His opponent didn't seem to have any intention of letting go of the whip and instead jerked his head, slightly pulling Ye Xiu towards him. Whilst Ye Xiu was stumbling due to the sudden pull, his opponent moved quickly and thrust his sword towards Ye Xiu's unprotected body. Tian Bai managed to redirect the hit in time and instead of hitting Ye Xiu, the sword struck the ground.

Tian Bai started to launch his own furious attack against the Dragonoid. Tian Bai knew. He simply knew. He knew that he wouldn't be able to penetrate past the defences but he had to stall Ye Xiu's opponent for long enough so that he could get his bearings back.

Ye Xiu managed to stabilise himself and was thankful that Tian Bai managed to distract his opponent. Since Tian Bai was distracting his opponent, Ye Xiu had enough time to retrieve his whip. He placed his whip back into his dimensional storage for when he needed it to bind his opponent.

He had a feeling that he wouldn't need the whip anymore in the fight since he could see the devastating power behind the attacks that his opponent was throwing out. Tian Bai was dodging all the attacks easily but all it could take was a single fatal mistake before they were heavily injured. Ye Xiu was very unsure about Tian Bai's defence which made him partly worried about him getting injured.

He moved closer and looked for any weak spots that he could attack. Tian Bai was definitely doing a good job annoying his opponent seeing as he kept trying to stab him from either one of his weapons. Ye Xiu had spotted no weak spots on his opponent's body which was a let-down.

Knowing this to be the case now, he started to attack the back of the Dragonoid. He struck the spine and grimaced when he noticed that the attack barely made a mark and that was with 'The Solitary Stand'. Knowing that he wouldn't get anywhere with just standing around, he continued to strike the same spot over and over.

This method was obviously Ye Xiu's strongest method of attacking since it was one of his primary offensive styles. Not that he had any defensive styles in the first place. In combination with 'The Solitary Stand' and 'Tyrant's Physique,' Ye Xiu would've usually been able to break past most fighter's defence after a few hits.

It proved to be a different matter to the opponent he was currently fighting. He had managed to get through one of the scales on the opponent before the scale regenerated quickly. Ye Xiu was obviously confused by what happened because he had never seen anybody regenerate that quickly other than Shi Die. Shi Die's injuries were for his body and Ye Xiu knew that scales would definitely take months if not years to regrow which is why it surprised him.

He continued his piercing assault on another location to see whether it was the same for the entire body. The most shocking thing about the entire fight was that his opponent hadn't actually started attacking him. His opponent had been purely focused on its attacks towards Tian Bai which made absolutely no sense since it would've felt Ye Xiu's own attacks on his back.

Keeping that thought in his head, he continued to chip away at the scales of his opponent. After realising that no matter how many times he managed to break past a scale, it was quickly regenerated. It was obviously confusing him and Ye Xiu was trying to figure out a way to beat his opponent.

He realised that in the entire of the fight, the only sounds he could hear was the sounds of weapons striking or moving. He hadn't actually seen his opponent take a breath. Ye Xiu quickly used his observation technique. He cursed himself since he had forgotten to activate the technique from the beginning of the fight.

With his observation technique, he could finally see what on earth was going on. He noticed that his opponent didn't actually have any Qi pathways in his body and the majority of his opponent's Qi was gathered in the middle of the body. Ye Xiu knew that his opponent wasn't human. It probably wasn't even a living being in the first place. It was a statue. Every time the statue got injured, the core in the body would automatically supply Qi to regenerate.

It didn't help that the core that he could see had a huge amount of Qi. It probably had more Qi than Tian Bai did and Tian Bai certainly had an abundance of Qi. He supposed that his goal currently was to destroy the core in order to win the battle but he had no idea how long it would take for him to whittle down the statue. The statue felt no pain or fatigue which meant that it would definitely kill him if he tried to rest.

He used his bond with Tian Bai to talk to him. "Tian Bai, you're fighting a statue which means that it won't get tired. I want you to keep on fighting the statue whilst I rest and when I attack, you'll rest. The statue will wear us down before we even finish denting the statue considering that it regenerates using the Qi it has inside of its core. I suggest you to start using whatever Qi techniques that you have so that we can shave down the amount of Qi the statue has!"

Tian Bai didn't answer him but his actions spoke for him. Tian Bai had switched to attacks that consumed his Qi. Ye Xiu sat down to meditate as he had used a considerable portion of his Qi reserves due to him using 'The Solitary Stand' over a hundred times. Ye Xiu could slightly feel the feeling of weakness in his muscles but used his Qi to soothe it. He remembered something that he had to say to Tian Bai as well.

"Tian Bai, make the density of the Qi higher. I don't think that the statue can absorb Qi from its surroundings. It'll help us recover faster so we should take the chance." Tian Bai stopped his attacks and lured the statue towards the mechanism. He quickly jumped up onto the palm to activate the mechanism before returning to his speedy assault.

Ye Xiu took a pill out of a pill bottle, fingering and palming it before placing it back into the bottle.