Wang Xiong and the others looked around and felt their hearts drop. There were now only him, Su Wen, and the late stage core condensation realm woman left alive. The others had been killed in the surprise attack which was overwhelming for them.

Counting the beast's, Wang Xiong discovered that there were about twenty Shadow dread beasts that were surrounding them. The ones that were covered with the shadow tide had brought more of them with him which made him grit his teeth in frustration.

He didn't know if there were more trials left but seeing as their numbers had been decreased by more than half now, he doubted he would be able to survive till then.

"What do we do now senior brother?" Su Wen questioned.

"Attack! Use all that you got, even if this is the only trial we are able to complete, give it your all!" Wang Xiong said before a chilling air appeared around his body.

Seeing that their senior brother was now like this they couldn't hold back either. A bow made of a bluish wood appeared in the hands of the woman while Su Wen's sword started to shake.

"DIE!" Wang Xiong shouted as he swung his Guan Dao at the Shadow dread beasts.

A wave of frost came out of it and froze the bodies of the beasts. The woman on the other hand shot out arrows made of ice that pierced the bodies of the beasts and slowed them down. The strangest one was Su Wen though, his sword had shattered into multiple pieces and was now floating around him like a cyclone.

He then directly lunged towards the beasts and the sword fragment cyclone started shredding the beasts as it came in contact with them. In less than two seconds, the beast he had come in contact with had been reduced to a pile of black blood and gore. Their flesh let out a pungent and foul smell that almost made the cultivators flinch in revulsion.

Had it not been for their sheer will, they would have already vomited here. But doing that would cause them to lower their guard and then death. Which was not something they definitely wanted after coming all this way. Even if they were not going to die in real life, they still wanted to avoid it.

With the shadow tide behind them and the beasts in front, they had few choices left. They bore injuries as they killed the beasts one by one but still were getting weaker. Eventually, they were able to kill all the beasts but in return, Su Wen had been touched by a sliver of the Shadow Tide.

"ARGH!" he shouted.

There were black veins appearing on his body and he started to convulse.

"Hold him down! We don't know what would happen from now on." Wang Xiong said as he took out a rope.

He gestured towards the injured man, and the rope automatically flew towards him, coiling around him.

"You can let go off him now." Wang Xiong said to the woman who had been holding down Su Wen.

The man was still struggling and convulsing but now there were changes occurring in his body. His skin became a pale Grey and his hair started to fall. His nailed gained a metallic sheen and his clothes started to corrode. A smoky aura appeared out of his body and his eyes turned completely white with no pupils.

"GRR!" Su Wen growled as he looked at his companions.

"What do we do now?" The woman asked with concern.

Su Wen's transformation conditioned as now his skin started to flake and fall off. Beneath that, a slimy layer could be seen and a leathery ashy skin had appeared.

"It can't be…. He's… he's becoming like those beasts!" The Woman said with a hint of fear in her voice.

Wang Xiong hesitated for a bit before making up his mind. He lifted his Guan Dao and swung it at Su Wen.

~thud~

His head rolled on the ground as the woman looked on in horror.

"You! You killed him!" The woman shouted.

"It had to be done! Or we would have had no chance of completing the trial. He's a lost cause already, better to not let him experience this and return to the real world peacefully." Wang Xiong replied.

~shua~

And just as he said this, the shadow tide started returning and the cries of more beasts could be heard from afar. The woman nodded her head as she understood the reasoning and looked at the shadow tide before determination appeared on her face. Seeing this change on his junior sister's face, Wang Xiong felt a bit happy.

'At least they are losing their naiveness…' Wang Xiong thought as he flew upon his Guan Dao.

The woman did the same and her bow returned to the spatial storage treasure. Lin Wu watched the entire thing with interest, as he had not seen a transformation like that before.

'Hmm interesting, not only did his form start to change but I could also tell his power was increasing. This shadow Calamity… I need to research more about it.' Lin Wu thought.

"System, see if you can extract more information about the shadow calamity from the formation array here." Lin Wu ordered.

~Ding~

——

TASK ASSIGNED: Analyze Shadow Calamity

SEARCHING DATA NODES: 105 Data nodes found

FILTERING: 9 Relevant Data nodes found

——

"Alright, that's a good start, hopefully it can be done quickly." Lin Wu muttered as he looked back to the screen.

The two contenders were flying towards the other end anxiously, with a horde of beasts following behind them. The ones on the ground were still easy to escape, but the flying ones were annoying to no end and would attack them in a suicidal way.

"Time for the big boss to appear…" Lin Wu chuckled.

~ROAR!~

A piercing roar went across the skies as the two contenders almost fell from their spirit weapons.

"What in the heaven's name is that!"