Chapter 10

Seeing the activation of the formation all the participants inside heaved a huge sigh of relief.

With the Beguilement Formation veiling their sight and confounding their senses, it was impossible for the profound beasts and participants to continue battling. At least, until the formation was inactivated, the 200 participants inside were safe.

"It seems like we are safe for now." One of them said.

"Yes, it was out luck to find Master Teacher Sizu in this time, huh." Another said with respect in his eyes only for another to shake his head and speak up.

"Master Teacher Sizu? Sorry, but that one isn't him at all. I have seen Sizu before and he had short black hair and used special glasses, how can he be the same as the one who just came? Besides, I know a thing or two of formations and I have never seen or heard of a formation expert being able to set up a formation this way." Another, more experienced person, said.

"But, if not Sizu who is known as the best formation expert in our generation, who else can it even be?"

"Who knows, maybe a disciple of some secret master who no one knows about?"

This began a round of discussion amongst everyone there as they wondered what sect of clan sired such a monster in formations, that was not a skill that one could learn by oneself so easily and only by studying the works and inheritances others used could one really grow in this sort of technique.

Just as everyone had begun to get excited about this gossip with ore and more wild speculation flying around (some even mentioning Enkidu as they had seen him before, but discarded him since he was not known to have any experience in formations nor did he cultivate as far as most of them knew), a deafening reverberation suddenly sounded in the formation, and the mist billowed furiously.

"Shit. It seems like the profound beasts are intending to break the formation using brute force!" the son of the sect master of the Fleeting Vila exclaimed in horror.

If the formation were to fall then they would still be encircled by the profound beasts, but they couldn't really leave as they could easily end up face to face with the profound beasts.

It was no easy feat for an amateur to break a formation, but with sufficient strength, it was still possible to do so through simple brute force! It, however, required one to have sufficient strength and was the worst method to break a formation.

No matter how powerful a formation might be, there would surely be a limit to its durability. If it were to suffer damage beyond its durability limit, it would instantaneously collapse. That was just the reality of formations.

Before supreme power, everything else was fleeting.

Of course, this demanded one to have such supreme power.

"Break the formation using brute force?"

Hearing those words, the faces of the crowd turned pale.

It was just a moment ago that they'd thought that they would be able to leave this place safely. But, in the next moment, the formation was already on the verge of breaking. What should they do now?

Of course, the participants inside could try leaping up onto the floating platforms and attempt to escape from the Beguilement Formation this way, it was a viable option afterall.

However, under the circumstances where their sense of direction and sensorial senses was confounded, it would be difficult for them to differentiate between up and down, much less a correct angle to reach the floating platforms, no one wanted to die because the hit their head on a rock too hard out of their own volition.

There were less humiliating ways to die than this type of suicide.

On top of that, to truly escape from the formation, they would have to find the Life Gate (safe exit) first or the formation would just make them confused and roam right back in.

The Illusory Steps Beguilement Formation wouldn't be called a grade-2 pinnacle formation if it were so easy to escape from.

In the end, the Beguilement Formation was just a means to buy some time for those inside.

.

.

After a momentary discussion, the crowd turned their gazes back to the area around the. The person who had set it up the formation was there amidst the thick layer of mist.

It was impossible for him to fight against so many profound beasts single-handedly, but he was still their best hope. The only possible solution for them all to survive would be if he were to circumvent the profound beasts and guide all the participants out safely.

However… there were several hundred profound beasts in the Beguilement Formation. Even if the person who had set up the formation knew how to navigate around the formation (he set it up, he would know everything about how it works in action), was it really possible to circumvent all of them?

Roar! Roar! Roar!

While everyone was tense, ferocious roars abruptly sounded from the midst. It seemed like their 'hope' had encountered some of the profound beasts and it was probably not going so well.

"Did he encounter the spirit beasts?"

If that was really it, he would be in grave danger!"

"What do we do?"

Anxious, everyone was tempted to rush in to help him, he was clearly risking his life to save them in this life or death situation so how could they not be moved? However, before they could even move, another wave of roars sounded. However, it wasn't ferocious roars this time. Rather, it seemed like the profound beasts had encountered something sinister and terrifying.

It was a fearful howl that made the participants inside look in confusion about what was going on.

These howls were tinged with fear and apprehension.

Following which, screams of agony reverberated throughout the gorge, threatening to burst one's eardrum. Rather than a human's howls of pain, it seemed like it was the profound beasts who were in danger…

"What is going on?"

Everyone stared at one another bewilderedly as more and more of such howls sounded, all different and in short intervals, some times the howls would take 10 seconds to change from one type of profound beast to another, sometimes less and some times more, but the most it ever took was 3 minutes.

By the end of four hours the mist lowered, the formation deactivated and the participants inside could only look at their surroundings with a wide 'O' mouth and clearly shocked.

'Is this for real?!'

///---///

Three hours ago

Within the mist, Enkidu advanced calmly.

As he had set up this formation he could move inside without any issue whatsoever as he knew it inside out. Not only that, due to his innate connection with nature in all it's aspects he long since been able to easily detect any and all presences around him, this was due to his body's skill 'Presence Detection' in which allows him to sense the flow of nature and, through it, were there were other beings around. The Profound beasts and participants in the formation might be unable to see or detect him until he was quite close, but he could see every single movement they were making as clear as day.

With a swift motion, he silently snuck up to a profound beast and struck it with his palm at a weak point!

In his studies about Beast Taiming, he came to have a deep understanding of more than 20000 types of profound beast and where it's weak points are. For him, this was quite easy.

The profound beast tried to struggle to its feet in order to fight its assailant, rage at being attacked and the situation dictating it to destroy the offender, but at that moment, a voice sounded by its ear.

'Submit or die!'

These words were spoken in a clear way that the beast could easily understand as if it was from another beast's mouth. That was due to Enkidu's natural ability to communicate with animals.

Truthfully speaking Enkidu did not want to kill even these beasts known for their violence. He considered everyone as being able to change, even beasts, and thus he gave it a chance. If a beast submitted he could give it an absolute order as it's master, the order being to never again hunt or kill a human unless it was due to revenge (in which case the beast can only aim at the offender and no one else), to eat for survival if necessary (it was a beast, if it needed to eat and it could only do so that way when in desperation then so be it but only enough for it to survive and nothing else while also should look for other ways to live), or in self-defense (humans hunt profound beasts, it is only fair that they can defend themselves).

If the profound beast refused, then Enkidu could only continue on and deal with the beast, he would not leave a dangerous creature to roam and kill others when he could have a say in it.

The profound beast hesitated, it could choose to fight its assailant to the death, but having been hit at it's weak point it was entirely possible for the other party to do it again and this would spell their death for sure of the other part would not show any leniency. After a short moment of contemplation, it gritted its teeth and kneeled down in defeat.

As soon as it submitted, it felt a warm surge of energy flowing into its body. It was Enkidu's pure profound energy. In an instant, not only did the beast recover from its injuries, its bloodline also became purer under the nourishment of the energy. That was an effect of Enkidu's pure energy, it could purify a beast's bloodline and make it evolve.

Ji Ji and Da Ming, despite being still quite small, actually had already been purified many times over by Enkidu and their bloodlines were already quite noble to begin with. Their future accomplishments were hard to predict and it was even possible for them to one day be able to transform into a human form like those beasts with their clan's Royal Bloodline or Emperor Bloodline sometimes managed.

Beast's bloodlines can be divided in tiers, they being:

Common

Uncommon

Rare

Noble

Royal

Emperor

Ancient

Divine

God-beast

Even beasts with the same cultivation could not be considered equal in the slightest if there was even one tier of difference between their bloodlines.

"Roar?" The spirit beast's eyes reddened in agitation. It knew that this was a hard-to-come-by opportunity for it to raise its cultivation from Uncommon to Rare and raise it's potential for growth, so it immediately bowed earnestly to express its submission in hopes of Enkidu to continue giving it more Profound Energy.

"Un."

Seeing this Enkidu did not know if he should feel happy this worked or disturbed at how a beast that looked like the terrifying mix of a hippo and a hedgehog was now acting like a dog with it's belly turned up, he closed his eyes to remove this image from his mind and instructed the profound beast to stay put before advancing ahead.

That scene repeated itself many times over, some of the beasts would choose to fight it and it would not be easy but with his many pills he could easily recover from injuries and the chaotic profound energy reminiscent from the battle just now was absorbed by his body, or to be more precise the Purple Card, and turned into pure energy for him to absorb and use.

Thus, by the time three hours passed he finished his plan and could now dispell the formation.

Normally, dispelling a formation would require one to remove the formation flags carefully one by one in a specific order or risk have the energy in the formation explode in his face.

That, however, was not something Enkidu worried about as he simply threw a rock at a specific point in the formation, dispelling it's flow and making the energy of it break apart, thus releasing the formation.

To the survivors the scene for when the formation breaks should have been of a hard battle or hundreds of corpses laying the ground while Enkidu stood atop the beasts. That was the normal, either a bloody death or a glorious hero.

What they did not expect was to see Enkidu close to them while having a calm smile with more than 300 profound beasts bowing to him as if he was a god, no, as if he was their master.

What he did next was even more surprising.

"Are any of you injured? I am a doctor you see, so I would like to know if any of you needs my services." Enkidu offered and the people there wanted to spill blood.

'A doctor? The hell you are a doctor! How could someone be a doctor and still have such accomplishments in formations and Beast Taiming, that is just not natural! It is impossible!'

Such were the thoughts of the people there, none realizing that this would just be the first of many impossibilities Enkidu was going to be making in this tournament.