Cruel Sun
The spirit beast that had anointed itself as the group's first opponent was a large lion, fire growing from its main and crimson eyes glaring at them in somewhat sentient rage. It was over five meters tall and broke trees and shattered the earth with every step.
"Already?" Xie Xie groaned in annoyance. The beast from before them was a Flame Lion that was at least ten thousand years old. Since they were still on the outer edges it was likely that some kind of action was taken by the Spirit Pagoda and now they'd have to deal with it.
"Don't complain already. It makes you seem weak." Gu Yuena warned or rather taunted her teammate as the elements swarmed around her. Part of this trial was for her to show off and Wulin to sink into the background, the opposite of their normal arrangement. But, to be the Pagoda Master such an action was necessary albeit annoying since it limited her other half.
"I wasn't complaining." Xie Xie rebutted calmly, his figure vanishing from sight as he fully entered the reverse world making him not only untouchable but also invisible to everything but spiritual power. As usual, his role was one of an assassin.
"I thought you were complaining." Mu Xi declared, an amused grin on her face as the flames of the sun danced around her palm, her third ring glowing behind her. Flames by themself wouldn't be very helpful but her martial soul wasn't just fire so she'd be fine.
"I wasn't!" Xie Xie assured her loudly, his voice echoing endlessly due to the dimensional gap between them all. It was actually quite impressive he could talk at all considering his lack of experience in his newest abilities even if he had trained quite hard.
However, their downtime ended when the Flame Lion charged forward like a bull, everything in his path destroyed with the utmost ease. Really, Wulin could stop the beast's momentum easily but today wasn't his time to show off.
A wall of clear ice rose from the ground, effortlessly stopping the charge of the lion despite its thin frame. Unlike the panther, however, the ice was cracking ever so slightly and its corners were slowly melting from the lion's innate heat.
It would soon break, that was obvious to anyone who saw it, but the momentary gap it created was more than enough. Appearing from the reverse world, Xie Xie's jade green claws cut through the virtual beast's ligaments and tendons however he only managed to completely remove one leg from the equation before a blast of fire emerged from the Flame Lion.
The flames were immensely hot, so much so that they could melt the skin off the bones of a normal human in an instant. Yet they only lasted for a brief moment before the flames were stolen from the beast, the immense heat gathering and compressing into the small ball of fire in Mu Xi's hands.
Ball of fire may be understating it as well. It was closer to a small sun that produced its own gravitational field. It was small and artificial but it certainly existed and each time any flames were used, it would be instantly drawn in to empower the faux sun.
A spirit beast of lesser age would have continued to utilize the flames however the Flame Lion before the group was ever so slightly smarter than that. Dismissing its flames before it continued to empower the enemy, the beast raised its claw and swung down.
From its claws an intense burst of wind emerged that destroyed the earth and uplifted dozens of trees while the force behind its palm struck the ice walls that had surrounded it at some point, completely shattering them in an instant.
Stomping on the ground powerfully, it shattered beneath Wulin's feet as he propelled forward to stop the beast before it could truly build up momentum. Grasping the lion's legs he barely struggled despite his opponent being a multi tonnes lion dozens of times larger than him.
In truth, the wrestling match between Wulin and the Flame Lion lasted hardly three seconds before thick chains of ice wrapped around the beast's body and space shimmered above it, Mu Xi's miniature sun appearing from the warped space.
'That's too much.' Wulin thought to himself, quickly dashing forward to grasp the figure of Xie Xie in the reverse world before teleporting over to Gu Yuena and Mu Xi in a showing of pure speed before the ball had fallen even half the distance.
Smirking playfully, Gu Yuena gathered the space around them to increase the volume of the space surrounding them. In essence, it meant that she was increasing the amount of distance between them and the sphere of destruction while retaining their position. It was rather complex.
Time returned to normal as the compressed ball of fire and gravity quickly yet slowly fluttered to the earth, gingerly landing on the Flame Lion's back. As soon as the ball made contact, the barely stable ball lost that stability and exploded outward.
For a moment, the world turned crimson as intense heat well into the realm of absolute spread into the surroundings, space itself shaking and compressing from the intense gravity within the sphere.
The explosion lasted for no longer than two seconds yet when it had ended, a crater over a kilometer in diameter and dozens of meters in depth was revealed to their eyes. In the midst of the crater's barren earth, no traces of life could possibly be found.
"You went too far." Wulin scolded his other half, clearly not amused by her playful nature that allowed her to test things even in a situation like this. He trusted her decision making and he understood the risks were minimal but it was still dangerous. He wouldn't be able to protect them all from that, his body was too small.
"I completely agree." Gu Yuena agreed with a dumbfounded chuckle. Mu Xi's third ring was called Condensation of the Sun and created a miniature sun from the actual sun's heat and the heat surrounding the area, it was why the area was cold despite the Flame Lion's best attempts.
After hearing about it, Gu Yuena had obviously intended to try to empower it. It wasn't every day that a powerful yet very situational ring ability could so easily be strengthened. To that end, she determined this place would be the safest.
She will admit, she may have gone overboard with how much gravity she put into it though. She rarely used gravity as its higher element of space was simply much more useful to her but it seems she underestimated it as a result.
It wasn't the fire that created the crater, it was gravity. The sheer weight of the immense gravity she allowed the miniature sun to hold crushed an extremely large area when it ruptured from its vessel and expanded outwards. For that reason, the center was deeper than the edges.
Regardless of her mistakes, energy quickly began filling their beings from the plethora of spirit beasts such an attack had killed inadvertently. It was fine after the first dozen passed through, acceptable when the next twenty arrived, yet when the number reached the thousands…
"You went too far." Wulin repeated, an unamused look on his face.
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Hey there, hope you liked the chapter.
Big boom, huh? This isn't really a soul fusion skill but it kinda sorta is the same thing. Sorta. As far as I can tell, soul fusion skills work by merging two people's soul power into one stronger power whereas this was just Gu Yuena funneling as much of the fire element as she could into it. It basically boils down to two paths to similar results.
If you want more chapters, head to patre*on.com/TrapOverlord for up to 25 extra chapters. It isn't required but it'd be much appreciated.