Hundred Years Slumber Toad

"Don't worry, Li Zhu... since It's only one opponent, I can finally display the full power of my soul techniques!" announced Bo Ai, as she prepared to attack the toad.

Li Zhu only shook his head, though, before replying, "It isn't that simple, Bo Ai... the Hundred Years Slumber Toad is one of the spirit beasts with the strongest souls in the core consolidating realm's first few stages. This is because every time it goes in hibernation, it spends years in slumber, strengthening its soul. Although your skills will still be more effective than they were on the mosquitoes, I doubt they will inflict enough damage to kill the toad."

As she heard this, Bo Ai cursed under her breath, thinking, "It almost seems like this entire swamp is the perfect counter for my abilities!"

That was a reasonable suspicion, since all the beasts that they had encountered, excluding the Sword Tooth Alligators, had in some way been protected against Bo Ai's soul techniques, to the point that one had to wonder whether this was part of the trial.

"We'll just have to deal with it differently!" said Li Zhu, before planning, "If you could keep the toad occupied with your attacks, I could enter the mouth and kill it!"

Of course, this plan was in no way flawless, since he would need to find a way to avoid the poison in the mouth, or he would die. Furthermore, Bo Ai's strike might not even immobilize the creature, and could just lead it into a crazed state.

Still, it was the only plausible strategy, so Li Zhu was willing to try it, as he knew that if they did not kill the toad, it would kill them.

"It's too dangerous... there must be another way!" replied Bo Ai, who for whatever reason, be it the inheritance or just the fact that he had saved her before, did not wish for Li Zhu to die.

"No... there is no other solution, since the only way someone in the qi gathering realm can defeat the toad is by taking advantage of its major weakness. Don't worry, I have a few methods to protect myself while doing this!" said Li Zhu, since he understood the disadvantage that they had over the toad.

The gap between the qi gathering realm and core consolidating realm was not one which could simply be ignored, and this limited the options that they had to win this fight, since they did not have enough raw strength to kill the toad normally.

As for the methods that Li Zhu mentioned, he was not as confident as he may have seemed, since he would need to exit shadow lurk to damage the toad, and that could be enough time for the poisonous saliva to cover his body. He also thought about fusing with Blue, but he simply did not know whether the ice armor would be enough to protect against the poison, which had powerful erosive capabilities.

Furthermore, entering the mouth of the toad was easier said than done, since it only opened it when using its tongue attack, something which was only necessary in long ranged fights.

"First I need to see how tough its skin is!" said Li Zhu, before charging towards the toad, his shadow claws out.

He was not sure exactly how powerful the beast was, so before he attempted the dangerous feat of killing it from inside, he wanted to understand whether it was even possible, or if they would have to do the impossible and escape.

Seeing Li Zhu charge towards it, the toad jumped in the air, before slamming into the ground once more, causing massive waves of murky water to form. Just before he needed to retreat, though, Li Zhu managed to send a few shadow claws the toad's way, albeit from a less than ideal distance.

Shadow Claws were more powerful the closer Li Zhu was to his opponent, but this attack was just to test the waters, and was not meant to cause any actual damage, anyway.

As the shadow claws hit the toad, there was a small explosion, but the beast did not even move, clearly not feeling pain over the strike which was like a speck of dust when compared to its own size.

Still, when Li Zhu looked closer, he noticed six tiny cuts, barely visible, but still present. This brought a smile to his face, since it meant that beating the toad was possible, if he went through the mouth.

"I'll need to be caught by the tongue!" Li Zhu quickly told Bo Ai, before running away from the fight. For the toad to use its tongue, it needed to think he was really trying to escape, so he did not spare energy when running, giving the appearance that he had been frightened after failing his first attack.

Bo Ai nodded her head, as she had already predicted this. She then stopped her own soul attacks for the time being, so that the toad would fully focus on Li Zhu, rather than her. She had a few powerful skills that she had not yet used, but she was saving them for when Li Zhu entered the mouth of the beast.

Li Zhu did not get very far, before the pink tongue flashed towards him, having already healed from being cut previously.

Li Zhu did not even attempt to avoid the tongue, as he just let himself be grabbed and pulled back. He was currently fused with Buddy, so that the moment he entered the mouth he could go into shadow lurk. In the meantime, Blue was in his spirit ring, in case he needed to fuse with it for a while, too.

As he was being pulled into the mouth of the massive toad, Li Zhu looked at Bo Ai, nodding his head. If she did not attack and distract the toad, it could kill Li Zhu as soon as he entered the mouth, since it would actively create the poisonous saliva, which would make it impossible for him to exit shadow lurk without facing death.

Knowing this, Bo Ai moved her arms in front of her, before pulling an invisible string, on an invisible bow. She had the appearance of an archer, but there was no bow, making it seem as though she was simply messing around.

The expression on her face would show otherwise, though, as she looked deep into the eyes of the toad, before finally opening her right hand, releasing the invisible arrow which was her soul attack.

This was one of the strongest attacks which she knew, and was the only one which could be used even in the qi gathering realm. Since her cultivation had been restricted by the trials, she had very few ways to fight her enemies, and this was the most effective.

The moment she released her grip on the invisible arrow, the toad immediately froze, before beginning to shake violently, in an attempt to protect its soul. Bo Ai and the toad were now in a full out war of souls, something which only the two of them could even sense.

Li Zhu, in the meantime, had been thrown into the mouth of the toad, as he entered shadow lurk to escape the grip of the tongue.

He then did his best to exit shadow lurk for only split seconds at a time, before shooting his shadow claws into the toad's body. He made sure the moment the shadow claws were released, he entered shadow lurk, in order to avoid any incidents.

Fortunately, all went as expected, and the shadow claws all hit the same spot in the toad's body.

Having been hit, the toad began to tremble, something which worried Li Zhu greatly. 'I need to get out of here!' he thought in panic, knowing that the moment the toad died there would be a grand explosion of poisonous gas.

Realizing this, he went to exit the toad's mouth by using shadow lurk, but he noticed in horror that he could not break through. Usually he could move through objects with shadow lurk, but for some reason this was not the case with the toad, and he was now standing in what could only be described as a ticking time bomb, the force of which could potentially forcefully break his fusion with Buddy, which would then result in him being unable to defend himself.

'This is bad!' thought Li Zhu, racking his brain to find a solution to this issue. The only way he could exit the toad was if it opened its mouth, but to make that happen was close to impossible.

In the meantime, Bo Ai was starting to grow worried, since the toad was showing signs of exploding, but Li Zhu was nowhere to be seen.

'I can only hope he finds a way to survive the blast' she thought, with a confidence that surprised even herself. If anyone had told her that a young man from Crouching Tiger Kingdom could survive the dying explosion of a core consolidating realm beast only a few days earlier, she would not have believed them. For some reason, though, she was confident that Li Zhu would find a way to survive, one way or another.