146 Pearl's Ferocious State

Julios gritted his teeth as he saw the Souther Edge hold onto their swords. He then faced his fear. He feared Southern Edge's profundity in swords, and as he knew that they were good at mind strategies, deceiving their enemies, he knew that each of them was good at swords.

The most common strategy they have is confusing their enemies. That is why they spoke in unison earlier to hide the leader. That is, their strategies don't hold positions; hence, they have equal positions and they only need one, a swordsman.

It was a complex type of strategy, but in simple terms, the Southern Edge only had swordsmen participants.

"Hey... Isn't this bullying?" On the other side of the monitor, the audience expressed their sentiments as they looked at the encounter between the top one sect in the Southern Region and the top five.

Also, the audience knew that the Southern Link was facing some internal predicaments.

"It is just bad luck... They could just recover themselves in the next round. I pity them..."

There were different sentiments. However, in these sentiments they had, what surfaced in the audience was cheering as they watched the focused fight, the fight between Southern Link and Southern Edge.

All of them were now anticipating the fight between them, and their gazes gradually locked on them.

***

Pearl's tentacles appeared once again, and as her teammates saw it, only agitation was what they could feel. Their formations were already disasters, and now that Pearl had turned into an untamed beast again, they feared that it would be the end of them.

"This fucking bitch, again!" The one who faced Pearl was the one who cut her tentacles before. He was about to attack Pearl with his sword technique, but before he could, Pearl launched two tentacles at an intense speed.

Pearl's total tentacles had reached 16 before it was only eight. And as her teammates looked at how she was aggressively controlling her tentacles, they were agape.

The person who was targeting Pearl disappeared instantly as he tried to defend himself, but he failed, and just like that, two launched tentacles, Pearl had made a grin on her face.

They couldn't understand her. She was indeed ferocious. Even they don't know what really was happening, at least, the heaviness they had plunged a little bit. It eased slightly, but not enough as the Southern Edge immediately eyed Pearl.

She became the participant of the Southern Link who had the most prowess, and so, among the 14 remaining participants of the Southern Edge, the leader commanded.

Just after he said it, they all moved in unison and targeted Pearl. However, even with the small arch of lights flying straight at her because of their sword techniques, Pearl can defend herself using the tentacles.

This feat, Julios noticed, and using it as an opportunity, he ordered the team to regroup. At least they still haven't lost a member. But even so, the Southern Edge wasn't thinking of them as a threat as they were concentrating on Pearl.

Julios continued assessing things. It was what he could finally do before taking action, and just as his eyes were inspecting Pearl, he knew deep inside that there was something that had changed in Pearl.

'She is getting uncontrollable, but her prowess is increasing, unimaginably putting the Southern Edge tense.'

The Southern Edge was still on Pearl and the Southern Link let them go. They knew that they couldn't handle Pearl, and instead of helping her, they would just get hurt by her tentacles.

So, as a decision made by Julios, they moved backward, making distance, as if putting all their hopes on Pearl. Was it wrong? Of course, it is, but what can they do? They were unprepared to meet the Southern Edge at the very beginning of the first round.

"Don't worry, she's only one!" They all shouted in unison, still using their strategy of hiding their captain.

Cultivators moved to the side, slowly surrounding her. They all looked at Pearl intensely, and as for Pearl, she didn't make any expression. Her face was blank, as were her red eyes. Her tentacles were purple, as was her default color, but her body was secretly changing.

There were drawings of flowers appearing on her body, even getting out of the robe that she wore, exposing it to the light.

Her fair skin also becomes more white, and her slim body becomes more recognizable as her robe becomes tighter. 

Her thigh flickered a reflection of the light as her robe, with the tentacles, was ripped off of her robes.

The males looked at Pearl with admiration, slightly off with their determination. And just as the other females noticed it, they all hissed to bring back their concentration on erasing Pearl.

"Perform Blazing Inferno!" All of them shouted, and as Pearl was at the center of the circle they made of their formation, she looked at each direction with a still unbudged expression.

"Attack!"

One abrupt attack, an image of fire, and 14 total in every direction flew straight at Pearl. Her tentacles were raised above, defending herself. The flame drowned her inside, but her tentacles were still on her.

"..." A few seconds had passed, and a few clouds of smoke appeared as their fire almost evaporated the wetness of their area. And as they waited for the result, they all let out a sigh.

"What the heck was that? Those tentacles, those weren't illusions, right?" One female cultivator from the Southern Edge complained.

Others let out an awkward chuckle, especially those who had received an impact from the tentacles. They definitely knew that it wasn't a simple technique.

"It felt physically present to me. I honestly took quite a hit from that. It was even clean."

"Pfft. Do you think it is something to be proud of?"

"I am only saying that her technique isn't your normal illusion art. It is impossible for her to have something like that. Isn't she a human?"

They were starting to have a smooth conversation. However, without their knowledge, inside the smoke, Pearl was still standing. And as the smoke dissipated, bringing back the previous wet place, they all looked at Pearl with shock.

She was still standing, but she was harmed. A few wounds were present on her skin and blood was also dripping from her wounds.

"What the hell?!"

This event didn't only surprise the disciples of the Southern Edge, but also her teammates. It's supposed to be enough to reject her out of the field, however, and yet she's here, standing and enduring the pain from her wounds.

Pearl was still in her berserker mode. The tentacles had disappeared, but her eyes were still darting red and her face was still blank. 

"What do you call this kind of human?" One of the Southern Edge's disciples mumbled. However, from then on, they also laughed.

"Hahahaha! Look at this. I hadn't thought that there was a cultivator in the Southern Link that could endure attacks from 14 elite disciples of the Southern Edge. Funny, right?"

There was no way she would not expose herself. However, yet, the captain of the team of the Southern Edge revealed herself, looking at Julios with an intrigued face, grinning.

"Captain!" Her teammates called her out, but this lady, their captain, only hushed them as she slowly stepped forward to unwell Pearl.

"Hmmm... You seem to be surprised as well." The captain asked, then, as she stood up before Pearl, she shifted her head to Julios.

Meanwhile, Julios just calmed himself, clenching his fist as he also stopped his teammates to retaliate against them. They still don't have the ability to fight. After all, he was thinking of escaping her to stay alive in the round.

"But..." The captain of the Southern Edge faced back to Pearl. "You seem already tired..." she continued, then put her index finger on the forehead.

Pearl wanted to attack her, but she didn't have enough energy to do so. She was only able to stand up. 

On the other hand, the captain pushed her finger on Pearl's forehead, making her lose her balance and go down to the ground. If Pearl had already collapsed, then this would mean... "Finish the Southern Link off."

Boom!

Suddenly, tremendous energy appeared, causing an explosion, and the epicenter of it was Pearl. They all went flying backward, even the captain of the Southern Edge. And as this happened, the Southern Link could only look at them with dumbfounded expressions.

They still haven't moved on from Pearl's prowess, but now, a sudden explosion?

The water from the swamp went upwards, making rain from the explosion as an effect of it.

"Fuck!"

As the captain of the Southern Edge, as she flew backward, her defense was already raised, and she was able to survive that explosion. The sudden explosion of energy was so abrupt that she wasn't able to fully escape the injuries.

As the situation started to settle slowly and the epicenter of the explosion appeared slowly, they all turned their attention to it. The pain was still bearable, but they were all dying to know what happened.

The anticipation was raised, and even the audience outside turned their attention to them. And just as the smoke dissipated with the epicenter totally appearing, they all just saw two people—a man and a lady wearing a certain disciple robe of a sect.

"Hmmm... It seems we were able to save the essence. Look at her; she's starting to explode with the essence." The man said, looking down at where the lady was kneeling down, putting her hand above Pearl as if doing something.

"Right... We were just on time, Brother Ureff. I finally drained some of the essences and now I know why this essence is too familiar."