A Close Call

Li Zhu hopped from shadow to shadow, following some voices he heard in the distance. It was not a single voice, meaning there was probably a fight going on, which was a perfect opportunity for him to defeat two weakened enemies at once.

Li Zhu could easily pass this preliminary round by simply hiding in shadow lurk, but he wanted to warm himself up for the upcoming fights, which would be quite challenging.

He quickly reached a clearing, where two disciples where in the midst of a fierce fight. They both used swords, and lights flashed as their fancy skills were used.

"Meteor Sword!"

"You think that can defeat me? Dream on! Take my Triple Lightning Slash!"

The two disciples seemed to know each other, and it seemed as if they were using this tournament to compete with one another, showing off their precious sword skills, oblivious of Li Zhu's presence, lurking in the shadows.

The two bitterly fought for minutes, each exhausting themselves, using all of their heavenly energy. Finally, they reached the end of their strength, as they both used one last powerful attack.

The young woman on the right was engulfed by flames, as her sword turned bright red, flying towards her opponent. the young man on the left, instead, was surrounded by yellow lightning, his sword releasing hundreds of little sparks, as it slashed towards the young woman.

The two attacks met each other, causing a violent explosion of flames and lightning, which created a large crater in the ground.

'Fortunately I didn't decide to attack them earlier on!' thought Li Zhu, sensing the power of the explosion, which would have placed him in danger if he had not been as far as he was from the two disciples.

"You two, give up or I will have to eliminate you myself" he spoke up, walking towards the two disciples, lying silently in the crater.

They had been very well matched, and their last attack had placed them both in a state of complete exhaustion, unable to fight any longer.

Seeing Li Zhu, walking towards them, the two disciples cursed, realizing their time in this tournament had come to an end.

"We give up, We give up!" they both scrambled to say, not wanting Li Zhu to attack them, since they would only be able to take the hits, without fighting back.

"At least you didn't do better than me, Lin Huan. Since we both lost at the same time, we will have to settle our rivalry another time. Do not think that you are better than me, though, since I still had some energy left!"

The two began to bicker about who was better, ignoring Li Zhu, who simply decided to move on. They had said they gave up, so elders would soon come to take them out of the illusion world.

Just as he was about to move further into the forest, Li Zhu had a sudden feeling of danger, to which he reacted instinctively, dodging to the side.

He was a bit too slow, though, as a pitch black arrow pierced through his back, violently launching him into a tree.

'There's someone in the trees!' was Li Zhu's first thought, as he ran towards Buddy, in order to enter Shadow Lurk.

A small arrow was stuck in his back, but he did not dare stop to remove it, since he still had no idea where his attacker was, and he risked getting heavily injured if he was careless again.

As he launched himself towards Buddy, three more arrows all flew towards him, silently but deadly. Although Li Zhu could take the arrows without dying because of his cultivation, each attack would injure him greatly, and he would need to give up.

Fortunately, just as the arrows were about to pierce through him, his body vanished, having fused with Buddy, and entered the shadows.

'That was close! Although his attacks are weak, his ability to stay hidden is not much lower than my own when I use Shadow Lurk.' realized Li Zhu in shock.

Of course, regardless of which stealth skill his attacker was using, it could not defend him from attacks like Shadow Lurk did, but it did allow him to launch sneak attacks on unsuspecting disciples.

'Now let's find this man!' thought Li Zhu, hopping around the shadows, in search of the disciple who had attacked him.

'There he is!' at that moment, Li Zhu sensed a surge of energy in a nearby tree, probably the enemy moving to somewhere safer, now that Li Zhu was invisible.

Li Zhu, not wanting to miss the opportunity, charged towards the tree, exiting shadow lurk with his fist extended.

As he was about to reach the spot where he had felt energy flow, though, Li Zhu's eyes popped wide open, as he realized he had been tricked.

Since he was already fused with Buddy, he instantly activated shadow lurk, just as a sharp pain came from his back.

In the shadows, Li Zhu was catapulted backwards, another arrow stuck in his back. In the spot where he had been three more arrows ripped through the air, which would have hit him had he not realized his mistake in time.

His enemy had somehow created a flow of energy in the tree, trying to bait Li Zhu out of hiding. This plan had worked flawlessly, and Li Zhu had fallen for the trap, though at the last moment he had realized the trick, escaping just in time to avoid most of the arrows.

'I have to be more careful in the future! At least this disciple can't attack me in Shadow Lurk!' Li Zhu thought, realizing that he had been far too impulsive, and he was dealing with a dangerous enemy.

As he was slowly healing his wounds, not worried about the enemy, Li Zhu began to feel a bit dizzy. At first, he simply thought it was from the pain of having two arrows hit him, but the feeling increased at an alarming rate, making it hard for Li Zhu to stay clear minded.

'Wait a second... was it poisoned!?' Li Zhu suddenly understood the source of the dizziness, as he cursed under his breath.

He needed to use his soul power to maintain the fusion with Buddy, and stay in shadow lurk. However, he had been poisoned by the second arrow, making it tough to control soul power, which would eventually result in him being unable to stay in shadow lurk any longer.

'This guy really thought it through!' thought Li Zhu, preparing himself to retreat. His attacker had seen him touching Buddy before disappearing, which would have revealed his identity as a summoner. This allowed the disciple to choose a specific arrow, which would make it hard for summoners to communicate with their beasts, and in Li Zhu's case, maintain the fusion.

Li Zhu knew he couldn't idle here, and since shadow lurk was about to be interrupted, he decided to retreat as far away as he could.

This had been a losing battle from the moment he was sneaked up on, so Li Zhu was not too worried about having lost the fight, as he ran with all his might.

He underestimated the potency of the poison, though, and after only a few seconds, his fusion with Buddy had already interrupted, making Li Zhu stumble, falling to the ground.

Before he knew what was happening, a dark robed figure appeared above him, slamming down towards his chest, wielding a large pitch black blade.

'He's actually attacking me from up close!' thought Li Zhu, in surprise. He had not expected an archer that specialized in stealth to reveal his position so soon, giving up his advantage for the chance to launch a finishing strike with his blade.

As strange as it was, Li Zhu had no way to defend against the strike, since he did not even have the time to form a fist.

Just as he was about to admit defeat, though, he noticed a blue speck of light flying towards the dark figure, whose blade was now only a few inches away from Li Zhu.

Just as the blade was about to hit Li Zhu's chest, it suddenly froze, ice covering the attacker's body.

Li Zhu took this chance to grab the man's hand, before pushing it forwards, stabbing the disciple with his own blade.

He put all of his strength in this attack, and the sharpness of the blade caused his opponent to spit out blood, unable to fight back.

An elder instantly appeared between Li Zhu and the dark robed disciple, breaking the two up.

'You have already defeated this disciple, now move it, kid!" the elder seemed quite mad about the heavy injury that the defeated disciple had received, snapping at Li Zhu.

The elder removed the hood from the attacker's head, revealing a black-haired young woman, with bloodshot eyes.

Fortunately, the elder had spirit pills on her, and she threw them all in the young woman's mouth, slowly helping her recover.

'I guess she was the disciple of that elder!' he thought, surprised that his attacker was actually a woman.

'I better watch out in this competition... just as I have incredible skills, so do others! I believe I can enter the top ten, but everyone I encounter must be treated with the utmost respect, because many of them have the skills required to defeat me, if I don't give these fights my all!' thought Li Zhu, once again being reminded that his power was not what it used to be, when he was the crown prince.

If it had not been for Blue, using Frost Touch on the young woman at the last moment, LI Zhu would have been the one eliminated, not her. Although this was due to her skills at stealth, it could have been prevented if Li Zhu had treated his enemy more seriously, and predicted the use of traps, such as the one he had fallen for.