Under Three Minutes

If the high beasts knew they were being looked down on to this degree, they would have surely erupted in fury. However even without knowing, they could discern something from the disdainful smirks on their faces.

'We'll make them pay for looking down on us.'

With all five of them having the same thought, they pounced at their respective targets. Since they were told about how powerful Shui was, the decay snake and giant tarantula spat out poison once they were in range. Naturally, they expected for him to already be guarding against poison, but the venoms they spat out were different from what was in the air.

The poison mist was made to harm living things, but their venom could work on energy as well. It wasn't strong enough to corrode the pure nature energy around them, but it would definitely work on whatever barrier or self-defence method Shui was using.

Indeed, when the venom reached his barrier, Shui could tell that it was slowly dropping in volume. While he could use this as a chance to test his body's poison resistance, Shui still didn't see the need to take such a risk. With a simple change in his barrier, the poison could no longer affect it.

"What?!"

Both the high beasts couldn't understand how his barrier suddenly stopped corroding when they were certain they saw the venom being effective, but of course this would happen. After all, how could the venom of mere high beasts corrode a barrier made of divine energy?

"How are you resisting our venom?" asked the decay snake incredulously.

"What? Do you expect me to just tell you my secrets?"

Instead of giving them the answer they wanted, Shui stretched out his hands to make his move. While he had begun studying how to make a flame more powerful than his heart flame, he had never actually used his heart flame on a living creature. Therefore, he decided this was the perfect time to see how much damage it could do. He put his palm on the barrier wall and summoned his heart flame outside of it. When the two high beasts saw the deep blue flame that appeared, they were instantly mesmerised by far more than its mystique beauty.

Although this was the first time he had used it, Shui was already aware of this property of his heart flame. Due to both his high soul cultivation and his divinity, the flame applied the status of charm to whoever looked at it. It may seem odd to be fascinated by a flame, but it wasn't unusually for people to see the beauty of fire as long as it wasn't endangering them.

With their attention focused on the flame that was barely a foot tall, they only become more engrossed as it drifted towards them. Even as the flame touched the decay snake and swiftly engulfed its body in fire, the serpent didn't scream. Though pain tortured its body, it was as if this was a blessing. Watching the decay snake being burnt alive also didn't make the giant tarantula afraid. It voluntarily touched the flame with one of its legs and also ended up in the same condition. Less than a minute after they pounced at him, all that remained of them was a pile of ash, and Shui smiled at this result.

"Huh? Wha- what happ-"

"Oi! Don't lose focus!"

The flail lizard that glanced in their direction since it was unusually quiet, received a slap from Cin's tail. Cin grew to the same height as the stonehide lion so a swing of its tail was enough to knock the flail lizard back.

'As expected of my lil' bro.'

Cin expected for Shui to quickly take care of his opponents, but even he was surprised by how he did it.

'Even so, I can't be shown up either.'

After knocking back the flail lizard, Cin spat scorching light at the stonehide lion and waning moon bar. They narrowly dodged the lasers, but not without a patch of burned fur remaining. The waning moon bear swung down its paw on Cin's head but it didn't try to dodge. In fact, Cin rammed itself into the paw.

"Idiot!"

The waning moon bear was sure that the horn on Cin's head would be easily broken in the face if its strength. Furthermore, with the destruction of his horn, Cin would surely lose much of his power since the horn appeared to be an important feature of his bloodline. However, the waning moon bear was swiftly proven wrong.

"Grrrahhh!!!"

Unlike how it went in his head, when Cin's horn made contact with the bear's paw, it pierced right through it. The waning moon bear quickly tried to remove its paw, but it had already committed a fatal mistake. While blinded by pain, it didn't notice the small ball of light that was concentrated at the tip of Cin's horn.

"Take this!"

A beam of light fired from its horn and passed straight through the waning moon bear's head. With its face dyed in horror, the beast dropped to the ground with two fresh bloody holes in its body.

"Nooo!!!"

Both the flail lizard and stonehide lion were angry and shocked by the waning moon bear's death. Rather than friends, the three of them considered each other as rivals and only teamed up because they had a mutual enemy. Once Cin died, they would surely war over who would get his territory, but now that future disappeared.

As the two were still shaken, Cin took slow but bold steps towards them.

"And then there were two."

Before, they had believed they would hunt him down with superior numbers, but now there was the same number on both sides. The flail lizard and stonehide lion, followed their instincts and started to inch away, but how could Cin allow them to leave?

Cin spread out his paws and got a firm hold on the ground. He then took a moment to inhale before releasing a howl that stopped them in place.

"Awoo!"

A couple years ago, Cin could only use his bloodline to suppress the opponent's use of nature energy, but like Shui, now he could intimidate anyone who used nature energy.

The flail lizard and stonehide lion suddenly found themselves to be stuck in place. Even though their instincts told them to run, they were paralyzed by fear, only able to wait for their fate.

"Hahaha! See what happens when you mess with the wrong people."

While he mocked them, Cin charged another beam of light at the tip of his horn. Although this ability took time, it could easily pierce through any high beast unless it was one with an inferior bloodline.

Once the beam was finished charging, it simultaneously shot at both the flail lizard and stonehide lion. The two lasers made clean holes through their skulls, easily ending their lives.

"Yeah! How was that lil' bro?"

"Only ten seconds left. Didn't seem like much of a challenge though."

"Well, of course. How could these guys compare to me and my little brother?"

Cin laughed as he mocked the ones that provoked them but were now dead. As he continued looking at their corpses and sniffed the scent of burnt flesh, Cin's stomach rumbled.

"Hmm, looks like it's lunch time. Let's roast these up lil' bro."

Shui was also rather intrigued by the notion of eating high beasts so he didn't raise any objections and quickly set up a space for them to eat. He didn't know what could happen if he cooked inside the poison mist, so he used 'Protect' and 'Purify' to make his kitchen area. Although he only used a few spices and salt, within a short time a mouth-watering scent filled the barrier.