The Almighty Ring

It took Jiang Fei less than a minute to defeat all the stone statues. Nothing but destroyed rocks, fine and rough, remained at the entrance to the altar.

“Hope that nothing else will come out…” said Jiang Fei as he dusted himself off before proceeding to the altar.

“How naive can he be?!” Alexis groaned angrily as he spectated Jiang Fei from outside the training room. He had always known that Jiang Fei was a soft-hearted being. To make things worse, he had not taken any real mission in space, which was why he did not feel the need to be on guard at all times. Then again, it could not be helped. He was just a trainee after all. As a greenhorn coming from a distant planet from a rarely visited quadrant of a faraway galaxy, not facing any sort of lethal threat was only normal. That was Alexis’ assumption of Jiang Fei even though he did not know what he had already been through.

Be it luck or someone in the higher dimension looking after him, he did not trigger any of the traps that were so clearly planted. Jiang Fei was completely fine as he arrived at the edge of the altar.

“This must be the weapon I need to acquire,” he said as he gripped the dagger’s hilt and withdrew it from the box.

“Let’s complete the mission,” he said after the dagger was put away.

“Hahahahahaha…”

“What was that?!” Jiang Fei barked as he heard a faint laugh coming from behind him, where the box was.

“The heck?” he said, approaching the now empty box slowly. However, as soon as he realized something was wrong, he stopped and turned away instead.

Creak… Crack… Thud.

The box that housed the dagger disappeared into thin air, revealing another box with seals all over. The box, appearing to be made of a wood-like material, cracked as if something inside was pushing outward. The seals on the box glowed and, for a second there, seemed to be keeping whatever was inside the box in. However, the seals were quickly overpowered and the box broke open. A small doll made of straw-like material dropped out.

From afar, Jiang Fei examined the doll with his scope and saw that it was attached with many kinds of paper seals. Even though he had no idea what it was, he had a bad feeling about it.

“Hahahahaha…”

The same eerie laughter was heard again and this time, he clearly heard it coming from the doll. As a cold wind swept by, the doll moved and stood up on its own, as if it something was controlling it.

“Oh jees…”

Jiang Fei was strong yet he was still afraid of that sort of thing.

All of a sudden, the doll glowed with a powerful sunset yellow hue. Jiang Fei was so taken aback that he unleashed a Qi barrier in front of him with so much energy that it glowed equally bright as the doll.

Whoosh!

When the yellow light dimmed to nothing, a humanoid figure emerged. It was an enlarged version of the doll. Another flash of yellow light was released and this time, the doll morphed into a being of flesh and blood, sharing the same hideous and eerie appearance that was almost identical to the straw doll.

Grundel

Combat Level: 2,100,000

Note: A cursed life form possessing enormous power. Its toxic corrosive blood contains potent poison powerful enough to kill and erode anything.

“F*ck.”

Jiang Fei took several steps back. Even though he had never fought this monster before, he realized that its blood was dangerous and lethal. As such, he could not afford to rely on his fists and kicks to fight.

Before he could react, the Grundel zoomed across the room, effortlessly, almost like a ghostly apparition. A fist was hurled toward Jiang Fei’s face but he blocked the attack with the Chengying Sword he withdrew from the ring with speed.

Jiang Fei was pushed several feet back but after a few adjustments to his footing, it was his turn to attack.

Halfway through sending his sword across the air, the Grundel roared. A loud, high pitched noise was made, annoying Jiang Fei. Without the need to guess, he knew that it was a psychic attack, a weaker version of the an attack from a massive planet-size beast he had faced before. If any other trainee were to face this monster, he or she would surely be killed instantly.

“Die, spooky sh*t!” Jiang Fei grunted as he sank his sword into the Grundel’s ribs.

He had mastered the art of the sword. Be it a veteran fighter or a mindless beast like the Grundel, it would be difficult, almost near impossible, to evade Jiang Fei’s surefire attack.

Slash!

Jiang Fei pulled his sword horizontally, trying to cut the monster in half, hoping to end the fight right there and then.

However…

“What the f*ck!?” Jiang Fei barked as he felt the sword in his hands become lighter.

“Sh*t!”

The sword in his hands was now halved. The top half of the sword was gone while what’s left of the sword was slowly melting away from the residue of the black-green blood dripping down from the top.

The Grundel roared maddeningly as he stomped toward Jiang Fei, spilling blood from its open wound everywhere.

“How am I supposed to fight this thing!” Jiang Fei bellowed. He could not punch it for fearing its blood would harm him. The corrosive ability of the monster’s blood was nothing like he had ever seen before. Although the Chengying Sword was not as strong as the Zhanlu Sword, it was still made with the best metal ever invented by the Namekians. Having it melt in an instant was just unbelievable!

With every bit of effort he could muster, Jiang Fei made sure to avoid every tiny drop of blood what was on the ground and that was being “sprayed” out by the Grundel. With speed, he moved a good ten meters away from the doll, fearing that it might try to project its blood out at him.

“BWAAAAAAA!” The Grundel roared, like a greatly aggravated beast. Being a veteran fighter, Jiang Fei knew that the beast was ready for a fight to the death.

“0541, any thoughts on this?” Jiang Fei asked as he dodged every possible attack coming from his opponent. Defeating this beast would be easy with a single punch but if it meant losing his hands, it would be a no go.

“Well… You could try and attack it with ranged attack. Even though the efficiency is low, you wouldn’t be hurting yourself. Using the Zhanlu Sword against this thing would be unwise as it will end up like the Chengying Sword,” said 0541 helplessly. The Zhanlu Sword would be able to kill the beast with its poison. However, the sword itself would not survive.

“Unwise huh…” Jiang Fei repeated.

After creating a larger gap between the two, Jiang Fei started to unleash a barrage of energy bursts to strike the manifestation of poison itself.

Splat! Splat! Splurt!

Parts of its body were scattered everywhere, like pudding being shaken wildly by a kid. It was obvious that the Grundel was weak in defense as a simple energy burst would puncture through its body. However, unlike any other foe Jiang Fei had fought before, the more it was injured, the worse it became for him. Splattering blood all over the place created tiny craters, reducing his standing ground.

At one point, the gravely injured Grundel started acting more crazily. Instead of charging toward Jiang Fei mindlessly, it started waving its arms, splattering blood all around like rain. The ground, the pillars, basically anything that came in contact with the blood started rotting!

Somehow, perhaps due to negligence, Jiang Fei missed one drop of blood. It landed right next to his feet, immediately melting the ground, making a small pothole.

Since there was very little space left for him to step on, Jiang Fei unconsciously moved his feet slightly. As he did not notice the small hole next to him, he lost his balance and stepped on the drop of blood.

“F*ck,” he said after noticing it. Not one second later, he felt a piercing, burning sensation coming from the bottom of his left leg!