Amber Beast

With the two's cultivation, their speed was naturally nothing to scoff at. After only a minute or so of running, they arrived near the creature.

Jumping up into the trees, they used the foliage as cover as they peered down onto the animal. There at the center of a small opening in the forest was an Amber Beast, calling out loudly.

The Amber Beast had yellow-orangish scales that matched the surrounding environment, making it blend perfectly with its surroundings.

It walked on four limbs, each limb having five fingers with incredibly sharp and narrow claws at the end, seemingly for drilling into trees to get to their sap.

Their noses were also long and thin, similar in size to their claws, which would allow them to fit their noses into the small holes so as to extract sap, acting as a mouth.

The Amber Beast was nearly perfectly adapted for its environment, so it was no wonder it was so successful.

Unfortunately for this sole Amber Beast, it had no idea that its perfect adaptations would be worthless soon enough.

Minos and Venix looked at each other from the tree branches they were standing on top of, before nodding to one another.

With the nod as the signal, the two jumped down from the trees, surrounding the Amber Beast from both sides.

The animal was clearly startled by the sudden appearance of these two-legged creatures, but it wasn't afraid, standing up tall and growling as it flared its scale in an attempt to intimidate them.

Naturally, its attempts were meaningless, and both Minos and Venix ignored it as they continued circling the beast.

After pressuring the beast some more, Minos decided to make the first move. Jumping forward, he swung his sword out.

Of course he was using a regular sword at the moment, otherwise if he used the Heaven-Sundering Sword, he'd end up killing the Amber Beast in a single swing.

After fighting with the Amber Beast for a moment, Minos realized its strength was around the Sixth Layer of the Mortal Renewal Realm.

His goal wasn't to kill it however, so he purposely held back, and even made it seem as if he was struggling against it.

Venix also joined in at this point, as if trying to help Minos in his disadvantaged fight. Like that, the two put on a show of a 'tough' fight.

They also went out of their way to make a lot of noise, which in turn attracted some people over.

These were also cultivators who had come over to try and obtain some Amber Beast Blood for their cultivation, so if they could steal it from someone else, they naturally would.

However most cultivators decided to give up after watching Venix and Minos fight for a while, realizing they didn't have the strength to get involved.

Only a few more groups stayed behind, much stronger than those solo-cultivators. It seemed they all had the same idea in mind and were waiting for Minos and Venix to completely exhaust themselves before they jumped in.

Before their goals could come to fruition, however, two cultivators in purple robes with a sword-symbol on their left chests showed up.

The two held their heads high, their eyes filled with arrogance and disdain. After looking towards the other groups in a threatening manner, the others could only grit their teeth before retreating.

Even though some of those groups had the strength to defeat these two, they still retreated in anger. The people who made a living in this area weren't stupid, and they were well aware of the Thousand Split Sword Sect which dominated this area.

While they could defeat and even kill those two, they would just end up targeted by the Thousand Split Sword Sect, and even if they could escape, they could say goodbye to ever making a living in this place ever again. It simply wasn't worth it, so after thinking for a moment, they all left, only leaving the two behind.

"These loose-cultivators really are cowards, aren't they?" Merth said with a sneer. He was the younger of the two, and was also the Ninth Son of the Sword.

"Can you blame them? Our Thousand Split Sword Sect is the well known ruler of this place, they would be stupid to challenge us." Ikki responded with a laugh. He was the older one, and was the Seventh Son of the Sword.

"That's true. Alright, since those fools are gone, let's go 'help' those two take care of that Amber Beast." Merth said with an evil laugh.

"Of course, since they are struggling so much, they should naturally be more than happy to have our 'help." Ikki responded, laughing as well.

While the two were on the verge of jumping in, Minos and Venix were already 'exhausted.' The Amber Beast was also in bad shape, panting heavily as it stood guarded against the two.

While the three were all standing defensively, taking a moment to catch their breaths, two new people jumped out, catching all three by surprise.

"Hahaha, you two seem to be struggling. How about my brother and I help you?" Ikki said, as he drew his sword out from its sheath.

"Of course, we can't help for free, but we can talk about payment later." Merth said, as he joined his partner in pulling out his sword.

"No need, we can handle this Amber Beast ourselves." Minos said as he panted, in an attempt to stop the two.

"Yeah, we are fine by ourselves." Venix added.

"Just look how hard you two are breathing. No need to act tough, we can help." Ikki insisted, clearly not caring about their opinions.

"Shut up, if you two say one more word, it won't only be this Amber Beast we kill." Merth said menacingly as he saw Minos and Venix open their mouths as if they wanted to keep arguing.

After hearing Merth's threat, both Minos and Venix quickly shut their mouths, as if terrified by Merth's threat.

"Good, since you've 'agreed,' then let us help you." Ikki said with a gentle smile, as he ignored the two and focused back on the Amber Beast.

Merth also joined him, glaring at Minos and Venix for a moment longer before ignoring them and joining Ikki in his fight.

Seeing the two distracted, Minos and Venix looked at each other, sending signals with their eyes.

Venix looked at Ikki before nodding to Minos, Minos nodded back, accepting the distribution.

Having decided their enemies, Venix began blinking, once, twice, thrice. On the third blink, Minos and Venix bursted out with full speed, attacking their chosen opponents.

Ikki was at the Seventh Layer of the Mortal Renewal Realm, whereas Merth was at the Sixth Layer, being much weaker then Minos and Venix.

The difference in cultivation made things easy, with Minos sending his sword through Merth's back, piercing right through his heart.

He could only cough out a mouth full of blood as he gripped the blade that jutted out from his chest. He could only look back at Minos in shock and anger, before his eyes went completely black.

Ikki had similarly gotten crushed by Venix, who was only one step from the Inner Heaven Realm. His lifeless body collapsed, landing right next to the Amber Beast he had just managed to kill.

Had the two raised their guards even slightly against Minos and Venix, they might have been able to put up a bit of a fight, but unfortunately, their arrogance and dependance on their backgrounds wore out their defenses.

They were used to people just avoiding them for fear of angering the Thousand Split Sword Sect, so they had no protection in place for people like Minos and Venix.

Looking at their lifeless bodies, Minos couldn't help but take it as a lesson to never get too comfortable, their corpses a reminder of how quickly death can come.

"That turned out way better than expected. I thought they would put up at least a bit of a fight, but who knew their vigilance was so bad." Venix said with a laugh as he cleaned his bloody sword.

"They became too dependent on the Thousand Split Sword Sect. The same force that raised them inadvertently became the thing that killed them." Minos said with a sigh as he inspected their corpses.

"Sect-cultivators like them always look down on loose-cultivators like us, so I suppose it was just a matter of time for them." Venix said, as he grabbed the badge Minos had tossed to him.

"That's Ikki's badge, I assume you're going to disguise as him." Minos said, as he took Merth's badge into his hand.

"Naturally, after all, doesn't it make more sense for the Seventh Son of the Sword to win the grand competition then the Ninth?" Venix said.

"You're right." Minos said, as he finished his inspection.

"Here's the Blood Masquerade Mask, just soak his blood in it and it'll be good." Venix said, as he tossed the mask to Minos.

Doing as Venix said, Minos put the mask on Merth's chest, right above his chest wound. The attack had pierced his heart, so a copious amount of blood was flowing out of the wound, soaking the mask completely.

The second the mask touched blood, it seemed to come to life, twisting and shifting as it absorbed the blood like a sponge in water.

The mask's twisting started to become more and more extreme as it devoured more blood, and soon its appearance started to change as well.

It slowly took on the appearance of Merth, appearing more life-like with each passing second. After waiting for five minutes or so, the transformation was complete, and an exact replica of Merth's face appeared in place of the Blood Masquerade Mask.

Picking it up, Minos couldn't help but inspect it with curiosity. After fully exploring the mask's wonders, he placed it on his face, causing it to latch on tightly to his face, catching him off guard.