“Very well, I accept your challenge.” Zhang Xuan nodded.
While he wasn’t too sure whether he wielded the ability to tame the saint beast or not, he didn’t think that it would be too difficult for him to surpass the record of the young man before him.
Not to mention, the saint beast was captured by the father of the young prodigy. Perhaps, if he could tame that saint beast, he might just be able to lure the young prodigy out?
And what better way was there to exact vengeance for Jian Qinsheng than to pummel the son of his nemesis?
Well, if that young prodigy still didn’t dare to appear even after that, surely at least the father would appear? While it would be regrettable not being able to beat up the young prodigy, beating up the father would at least help alleviate some bit of his rage… After all, who asked him to bear such a shameless son? And as the saying goes, ‘the son errs, the father’s mistake1′!
“Let’s begin then!” Seeing that he had managed to obtain Zhang Xuan’s agreement, a hint of excitement flashed across Zhang Jiang’s eyes. With a wave of his hand, an elder behind him hurriedly left the area.
Not too long later, the elder returned back to the square, and with a wave of his hand, a massive black cage appeared before everyone’s eyes.
The cage spanned roughly forty meters in length, and mysterious-looking inscriptions marked its surface. It was apparent that some powerful formation had been cast on it so as to prevent the lifeform imprisoned within it from escaping.
WIthin the cage, a saint beast which bore some resemblance to a lion could be seen lying on the ground. It lazily scanned its surroundings for a moment before closing its eyes and returning back to sleep.
The saint beast wasn’t too large in size, spanning only four meters from head to tail. Its appearance wasn’t particularly frightening, and its aura wasn’t particularly overwhelming either, but for some reason, upon seeing the saint beast, the crowd in the area narrowed their eyes in astonishment.
“It’s the Inferno Qilin!”
“This is the legendary saint beast whose cultivation reaches Saint 9-dan at maturity! They are extremely rare beings, and even throughout the entire history of the Master Teacher Continent, there have been very few cases of them being caught and tamed… It’s no wonder why even a beast taming genius like Zhang Jiang would be helpless before it!”
“If I could tame a saint beast like that, I would instantaneously gain the prowess comparable to a Saint 9-dan expert!”
“Hah, easier said than done! The Ancient Qilin Bloodline runs through the veins of the Inferno Qilin, and its ego is much bigger than whatever you can ever imagine. Putting aside taming it, you would have difficulty just trying to approach it! If it’s really that easy, Xingmeng Sword Saint wouldn’t have to resort to imprisoning it in the Zhang Clan for three years straight!”
“That’s true…”
After the shock of seeing the Inferno Qilin with their own eyes, the faces of the crowd gradually turned grim.
“Third Elder, should we stop the challenge?” Elder Wuzhen hesitated for a moment before directing this question to Zhang Wuchen.
“It’s fine, let them be.” Zhang Wuchen shook his head.
“But… in order to tame the Inferno Qilin, Zhang shi would have to enter the metal cage. As soon as he does so, he would come under its frenzied assault! Over the past three years, the Inferno Qilin has already hurt thirteen 9-star beast tamer! Considering how Zhang shi is here to challenge our swordsmanship, if it were to get out that he was injured by our saint beast… I fear that this might reflect badly on our Zhang Clan!” Elder Wuzhen said.
He was not making a mountain out of a molehill. While others might not be aware of the circumstances surrounding the Inferno Qilin, he knew full well how vicious that fellow could be.
It was simply too difficult a fellow to deal with!
No matter what kind of delicious food or treasures one placed in front of it outside the cage, it wouldn’t even bother shooting it a second glance. And when one attempted to enter the cage to negotiate with it, one would swiftly come under assault too… It was precisely due to this that many 9-star beast tamers were injured by it over the past three years. Clearly, Zhang Jiang had malicious intentions in mind when he made such a challenge to Zhang Xuan. He was intending to make use of this huge fellow to teach the other party a lesson!
“I can tell what that fellow Zhang Jiang is thinking of. If it really comes to a precarious situation, I’ll step in.” Zhang Wuchen said.
How could he possibly have risen to his current position if he couldn’t even discern the intentions of a young lad? The reason why he chose not to say anything about the matter was because Zhang Xuan had simply brought too much shock to them. He wanted to let things run for the moment so that he could get a clearer gauge of Zhang Xuan’s abilities and determine a suitable course of action for dealing with that young man.
“This… Alright, I understand.” Hearing how even the Third Elder had already granted his implicit approval to the matter, Elder Wuzhen decided not to think too much into the matter anymore.
He turned his gaze to Zhang Xuan and saw that the young man was in deep contemplation, seemingly trying to figure something out.
Inferno Qilin…
In this moment, Zhang Xuan was standing motionlessly on the spot, gathering every piece of information he had regarding the saint beast from the Library of Heaven’s Path.
The saint beast’s vicious nature was described within the beast tamer books he had browsed through. All it took was putting a few links together for him to deduce Zhang Jiang’s ulterior motive.
This fellow doesn’t possess the Dragon Bloodline, and the strength it wields is far beyond my ability to deal with either. It really won’t be easy for me to tame it… Zhang Xuan rubbed in glabella in frustration.
To be honest, if he knew that he had to face a saint beast of the Inferno Qilin’s caliber, he would have never accepted the duel in the first place. While his Beast Pummeling Taming Method was indeed formidable, it didn’t seem too likely that it would be effective against such a powerful fellow.
Would the Inferno Qilin even be willing to allow him to approach it?
Given his current strength, it was much more probable for him to be roasted to crisp before he could even get close to it!
How was he supposed to tame the Inferno Qilin like that?
“Roasted to crisp?” At this point, Zhang Xuan glanced at the fearsome flames burning on the Inferno Qilin and abruptly froze on the spot, as if a sudden epiphany had come to him.
“Are you ready yet? Can we start now?” Seeing how Zhang Xuan was frozen on the spot as if a block of ice after seeing the Inferno Qilin’s prowess with his own eyes, a gleeful smirk inconspicuously emerged on Zhang Jiang’s lips as he urged impatiently.
“Sure, let’s start.” Zhang Xuan raised his head and nodded without any hesitation. “Open the cage.”
Seeing how swiftly the young man had replied to him, Zhang Jiang was slightly taken aback. He was expecting the young man to be hesitant from fear.
Nevertheless, he soon burst into laughter and nodded, “Very well!”
No matter whether Zhang Xuan really had a plan in mind or it was all false bravado, everything would eventually come crumbling before the superior prowess of the Inferno Qilin!
Zhang Jiang waved his hand, and the elder who had brought the metal cage over previously quickly walked forward and pressed his palm against the cage. In an instant, a door appeared on the cage. It wasn’t too big nor too small, perfect for a grown man to pass through. Naturally, a saint beast of the Inferno Qilin’s size wouldn’t be able to pass through it.
Taking a deep breath, Zhang Xuan began walking toward the door.
“Zhang shi…” Jian Qinsheng hurriedly stepped forward to dissuade the young man against participating in this challenge.
He might not know too much about beast taming himself, but he did have a clear understanding of what kind of person Sword Saint Xing was. That fellow was a particularly boastful and haughty person, always wanting to show off at every turn. However, that fellow did wield abilities was indeed able to match up to his boasting… and if even that fellow was unable to tame the Inferno Qilin, it must truly be a difficult saint beast to deal with then.
To walk in and confront such a fearsome saint beast straight on… That was simply too dangerous!
“Rest assured!” Zhang Xuan turned around and directed a confident nod at Jian Qinsheng. “I’ll use my sword to make them learn of the greatness of the Sanctum of Sages’ swordsmanship!”
“What?” Jian Qinsheng was taken aback by Zhang Xuan’s reply. He waved his hand in a fluster and said, “No, that’s not what I mean…”
It was just a moment ago that he thought the other party was dabbling in too many things, diluting his identity as a sword practitioner of the Sanctum of Sages, so he stepped in to remind the other party of the matter previously…
But this time, he was stopping the other party because he was truly worried!
A saint beast of that caliber was already frightening enough when motionless; if Zhang Xuan were to execute his swordsmanship before it, wouldn’t he be killed?
“It’s fine, it’s fine. I understand.” Zhang Xuan waved his hand perfunctorily before leaping right into the cage.
Hu hu hu!
As soon as he stepped into the cage, it was as if he was transported into another world. Waves of searing heat gushed at him relentlessly, seemingly vowing to burn him down into cinders. The blistering heat accumulated within this cage distorted the space so much that there was nothing one could see that wasn’t warped, making it hard to perceive size and distance.
The Inferno Qilin thrives off earth flames. Its body is able to produce a massive cloud of flames on thought and reduce everything within a three hundred li1 radius into ashes. Due to its high aptitude for destruction, not even the powerful Sage Clans dare to offend it easily… Recalling the description concerning this saint beast, Zhang Xuan nodded.
To be perfectly honest, it seemed like the only clan that wielded the power and resources to trap this massive fellow for three years straight was the Zhang Clan. Had it been any other clans, whatever artifact that they were using to imprison it would have been burned down into ashes by now.
Hu!
While Zhang Xuan was deep in thoughts, he suddenly felt the surrounding temperature growing higher and higher. Upon realizing that there was a foreign intruder, the Inferno Qilin, which had been lying lazily on the ground all this while, suddenly revealed a hint of savagery in its eyes, and it began making its way over slowly.
“Inferno Qilin, I believe that you should be able to tell that I’m not from the Zhang Clan.” Watching as the Inferno Qilin made its way over threateningly, Zhang Xuan showed no signs of fear. Instead, a warm smile formed on his lips as he said, “An esteemed like saint beast like you have been imprisoned in a cage for three long years by the Zhang Clan, stripped of your honor and dignity. At this point, I only have a single question for you…
“Do you want to exact vengeance?”
