The gorilla stared into Hu Tao’s eyes and slowly beat his chest. Its fists were bleeding on each strike but it didn’t care. Each beat against its chest, seemed to shake the ground and air around it. The low-ranked spirit stone shards from the dead beasts Hu Tao killed slowly started to float towards it. The mournful pounding on its chest started to ramp up in speed.
‘Now this was getting exciting... This never happened last time I came here.’ Hu Tao could feel his blood rising.
The shards of the spirit stones stabbed into the flesh of the ape. Hu Tao watched as the sound of its roar and the power of its qi started rising. The fleshy hands of the spirit beast were being rapidly healed. Its cultivation rank was rising as well. Hu Tao had trouble following what was happening but he was excited nonetheless! Maybe this would turn out to become more than just a light stretch.
“ROARRR!!!!” All it took was a single blink.
And Hu Tao was suddenly sent flying through the air. Huh? What just happened? Why was the gorilla so far away from him now? Then it hit him all at once. The pain of having his neck nearly snapped, his shattered ribs stabbing into his soft inner bits, and the stretching grin on his face after realizing that he just nearly died! Hu Tao sent his chains to stab into the earth beneath him, stopping his airborne flight and placing him back on the ground with his body in a complete mess.
He grabbed his crooked head and with a sickening crack, placed his neck back in the position it should be in. The bell around his neck started softly ringing as it tried to repair and strengthen the injuries in his body but before it could finish... Hu Tao let out an air-blasting howl that multiplied his power by how much pain his body was in. Hu Tao would’ve loved to let loose right now but with the current state his body was in, it would be impossible to deal with that gorilla.
No matter how much qi and physical power was in his body after increasing his power, you couldn’t fight someone with a completely demolished rib cage and pierced organs. Hu Tao sent his increased qi reserves into the ringing bell, accelerating its refining process and fixing his internal damage. By the time the damage was fixed, all that qi he just got was used to fix himself back up. That monkey bastard landed a good hit on him. He could’ve just died right there without even making it a good last fight!
The ape skipped 2 small stages after taking in those spirit stone shards from its allies, giving it a one stage advantage over Hu Tao. Since it was so kind enough to give him such a loving tap that nearly killed him, he wouldn’t hold back in giving him a love tap of his own. Hu Tao wrapped his fists in his chains and disappeared with surprising speed. The gorilla roared as it accepted the challenge. The two nearly landed a blow on each other at the same time as both of them aimed to strike each other. It seems like it could keep up with him too.
The redback’s fist just slightly missed Hu Tao’s annoyingly handsome face while Hu Tao’s struck directly in the middle of its chest, sending it just as far as it sent him flying. The damage was similar to his as well. Hu Tao shaped the end of the chains on his fist into a drill and completely tore a large hole through the chest of the spirit beast. Seeing the wounds it suffered, enraged the beast even more than before. Hu Tao grinned as the real fight was about to start now. That little wound he gave it didn’t mean much since it was a beast created by the tower. The true source of its power was the spirit stone hiding somewhere in its body.
The two leapt a great distance towards each other and landed ground-shaking blows on one another. A jaw-shattering uppercut from below that launched it into the air. A double fist hammer punch down on Hu Tao’s spine that cracked all the bones in his back. Hu Tao dropped to the ground from the hit and flipped forward with his legs wrapped in his chains to kick the beast right in the face! Causing it to slide back with a broken nose and a pissed off expression. The two continued this type of slug off for minutes.
But as time went on, things only got worse for the redback. The injuries he needed to heal were taxing on the spirit stone within his brain. Despite having the support of its fallen allies' shards in him, it still wasn’t enough to heal like the human in front of it. No matter how hard it hit the human, it bounced right back up even stronger! Its body was getting tougher the more they fought when at first it only took one punch to nearly kill it before! If things continued like this, it would only spell the end for himself.
If punching the human wouldn’t work, then it only had one thing left to try. He only had one chance to try this. If this move failed then that would be it. The human’s body would be too tough for him to try and kill. He would have to retreat and ask for aid from its brothers. The human was coming! Now was his chance!
Hu Tao was putting his new movement martial art to good use as he slashed at the gorilla from all over. One second, he was in front of the beast clawing a deep chunk into its pecs, the next he was rending the flesh from its back, and after that laughing as it tried to catch him. But all of it sudden it stopped trying to catch him and let him attack. What was this stupid animal planning? It has already done him a favor by wrecking his body and letting his bell refine it to a better state than it was before. Maybe he should indulge it and see what it has in mind.
Hu Tao appeared in front of the ape and stuck his claws deep into its stomach. The beast grabbed his arm and firmly grasped his shoulder. He couldn’t move. That look in the beast’s eyes also told him that this was its final move as a fighter. Hu Tao grinned.
“Alright you hairy bastard, show me what you got.” He felt the grip on his arm and back tightening.
This piece of shit was trying to crush him like a grape! His chains moved like flying daggers and stabbed through the ape’s body. The serpent-like steel weaved in and out of the beast’s body as if it was an immortal seamstress’s needles, knitting divine fabric itself. The gorilla didn’t bother wasting its energy trying to repair itself either. This big fucker wanted him dead! Hu Tao’s bones were slowly snapping and breaking under the final resolve of the animal.
“Ha, really? Now this is not as fun as earlier. It would’ve been better if you used up all your strength in a final attack that wasn’t something like this. Like a final punch or kick. That would’ve been fun to fight against.” Hu Tao casually chatted as his body was being crushed.
“Bastards like you never have good ends you know. Suicidal tactics don’t work on me anymore. AWOOO!!!!!” Hu Tao howled, increasing his strength from the pain.
He grabbed the wrist of the ape and snapped it, the animal continued to try and kill him with its one good arm on his back but Hu Tao had enough. It obviously had nothing left to show him. The desperate look in its eyes as things were falling apart all around it. It was so realistic that Hu Tao couldn’t help but smile at that face!
“Hahahaha! Holy shit is that a pathetic fucking look! The tower makes a damn good copy of real spirit beasts.” He grabbed the monkey by its throat with both of his hands and lifted it into the air.
He squeezed and squeezed, taking the breath out of the amusing bastard. It couldn’t resist even if it wanted to at this point. Hu Tao’s strength was too much. With a splattering gush of blood, Hu Tao’s chain pierced through the spirit stone hiding in its brain, killing it. The floor ended soon after and now it was time for the tower to tally up the scores.
Up in the sky, laid the results of the first floor’s participants. There was a picture of himself in first place. The results showed the number of kills he got, how much he participated in the overall event, and if he passed or failed. Seeing that shiny golden #1 next to his face was satisfying. The rewards when he gets to the second floor are no doubt going to be quite gracious and plentiful. The tower is known to reward those based on their achievements.
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The xianxia things I would like to see aren't really for the things themselves as much as watching how the MC and her subordinates handle them. I like how you've made her make some of the more specialized 'jobs' of xianxia (alchemist, blacksmith/magic item producer, formations expert) seem trivial, so yeah more of that please. In fact she's only show some low key talents with formations so far but is probably hiding those. An auction would probably be an interesting event. Also an elder who likes to steal things from weaker juniors would be good. Maybe he becomes suspicious of where Jing's people get their stuff and when he figures it out tries to take advantage in some way. A lot of xianxia has strong story elements to the four mythical beasts. Also there's a lot of stories with 'righteous' sects and 'evil' sects. Seems interesting because Jing seems very morally grey instead focusing on brutal efficiency above all else. I initially thought about an inter-sect competition but that would probably be boring since Jing is trying to be low-key and as a result may not even be able to attend. I really want to see Jing train her people though. To start I think she would probably force the qi only cultivators to be body cultivators as well and probably vice versa while she's at it. Most xianxia the reason people often don't go both paths is primarily a lack of resources which shouldn't be a problem. Then there's that it slows down progress but once again that can be solved with sufficient resources. Plus they can't speed through cultivation anyways since they need time to consolidate as well. I can't see Jing being satisfied with sub-par pieces on her board. And to top it all off, body cultivation often involves pain and suffering. I just can't see Jing passing up on that.
Why the auction? That's like the most generic element of xianxia...
It is generic but the MC is pretty far from any xianxia character I've seen. So while yes it would be generic I don't see her approach to it being generic. Most boring route would be to disguise and buy out the best crap. Been there done that right? She could get in before hand and steal said items or mark the people who get want she wants and steal and maybe kill them later. Or replace high value items with fakes that aren't caught immediately to piss off buyers and induce chaos. Use it as a sneaky way to sneak suspect items into the possession of high value targets by selling them what they think they want. Use the fact that you have a whole lot of big figures in one location to your advantage. (ITS A TRAP!) Maybe even some networking both normal and Jing style. (as in be my b**** or die) That way she starts spreading her influence elsewhere. That's what I find to be the charm of this story. It takes very generic scenarios that we've seen played out so many times that it's kind of dull, and then corrupts and twists the tired narrative into something quite new and fresh.
As a side note talking about auctions turning out differently than normal reminded me of another called Apotheosis of a Demon. Story has a slow start but got really good after what I would consider the prologue. Another one I just remembered that did an auction scene bait and switch for an action scene was a Korean novel called Breakers. Both are very entertaining stories.
@GreyWolf I quite like your idea, letting them sell a bunch of counterfeits? haha that is brilliant!
I wonder if author can think of something to create even more chaos at the auction.
With how many generic protagonists there are in this novel, i think it would be weird if there is no auction scene after the treasure plains arc or after the next one.
These are a lot of damn good suggestions i could easily implement into this story. Some of them can be added right after this Treasured Plains arc.
I'll make sure to credit you in the Author's note when i write them!