Writer's Note11) will still release on Monday. My side story is still normally released every two days as I already wrote several chapters long ago. I actually started writing The Night Hunters before this story, but I liked straight up xianxia novels than a mixed-genre. Hope you enjoy the chapter.

Chapter 10: Duel between Element Adepts

A large explosion of spirit energy erupted as a trail of sand colored spirit energy and gold spirit energy collided as the two weapons connected. The ground cracked beneath Guo Yang's feet as he blocked Shen Dong's great sword. Great swords were also called heavy swords because they were mainly used with two hands due to their immense size and weight. These were weapons designed for overwhelming power, not the speed and finesse of a light sword.

"Impressive! You might be the first to block my sword besides my brother," Shen Dong praised as he slashed again, the wind propelled forward due to the force. Guo Yang's eyes narrowed as he used the Snake Specter Art to appear behind Shen Dong, his spear thrust forward. However, Shen Dong actually let go of his sword, turned back, and slashed downward with the heavy sword with extremely fast reflexes.

Guo Yang narrowed his eyes and used a poison practitioner art: Paralysis Mist Breath Art. It was a practitioner art used to temporarily paralyze the enemy to escape a sudden death. This was one of the few practitioner arts he created for his human body, an original practitioner art of his own mimicking the innate abilities of the prey who had used similar methods to escape him. When it came to poison practitioner arts, only one was a true snake practitioner art while the rest were his own original he created after so many years of studying poisonous herbs and magical beasts in both lifetimes.

"Ugh," Shen Dong said as he forcibly broke the paralysis but Guo Yang was already out of range. "What element practitioner art was that?"

"None, but not a basic practitioner art either. It is a poison practitioner art," Guo Yang grinned. "I can't kill you, but I can defeat you without resorting to my lethal practitioner arts.

"He finally used one," Guo Jing muttered.

"What's a poison practitioner art?" Ji Ting asked, many in the audience also straining their ears as the two boys circled each other and imagined each others next moved.

"Only those who practice a poisonous cultivation method can use such practitioner arts. Each one who can is said to be a peerless genius. It is very difficult to make your own practitioner art, but it is much easier to make poison practitioner arts. However, it is very dangerous as you can poison yourself. One must eat and develop immunity, or enough resistance, against several types of poison. It is the most flexible of practitioner arts, with many various ways they could be used. However, it is not the most powerful and has restrictions," Guo Jing said. "You saw what he used, right? He called it Paralysis Mist Breath Art. It is creates a small mist cloud that could be countered by wind practitioner arts. In short, each poison practitioner art can be countered by an element based on what it is. Poison practitioner arts have as many strengths as it does weaknesses, but there is no denying it is the most lethal. Even the spirit energy of the practitioner is poisonous in nature."

"So it's like that," Ji Ting said, the rest of the crowd nodding as they heard it. "Have you seen him use many of them?"

"I have and it...scares me. He uses poison practitioner arts more so than his three element practitioner arts, but no one can survive them so he lacks a suitable opponent," Guo Jing said, a trace of fear and awe in his voice.

"Why cultivate down that path?" Shen Dong asked.

"Let's just say that I was once a being above the elements and leave it at that. Prepare yourself. Since you overpowered even me, you must be at middle Element Adept stage. I'll show you why I chose poison cultivation," Guo Yang said.

"Sorry, but I don't take chances," Shen Dong grinned and lifted his hand into the air, a gold symbol appearing from between his eyes. Guo Yang looked up and saw something that he hadn't seen in centuries.

A golden phoenix emerged from a bright rune circle that appeared in the sky. It was over twenty feet high and had a azure feathers on its head that appeared as if it were a crown. It's beak and talons were as white as snow and it radiated an aura of majesty and power. Red Death could not help but shrink back as it recognized the phoenix, slithering behind Guan Hai.

"Behold my magical beast: the Heaven Swallowing Phoenix," Shen Dong said and paused as he saw a complete opposite reaction from Guo Yang than he expected.

"YOU! YOU FUCKER! Kill! I must kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill!" Guo Yang roared with rage, expelling jade spirit energy from his body as his blood lust skyrocketed. Concerned, Guan Hai stood in front of Shen Dong and stared at Guo Yang.

"Come! Come to your master!" Guo Yang roared, four snake magical beasts appearing as Red Death slithered to him. The crowd was in utter chaos. Guo Yang controlled four magical beasts without a contract. How could he have tamed so many and there were all more powerful than Guo Lin!

"Restrain him and make sure he stays out of my way. I...will kill that fucking bird!" Guo Yang roared as he ordered his snakes to attack Shen Dong.

"What are you doing?" Shen Dong cried, Guo Lin and Shen Hua staring at them in shock.

"You shut up! You've no idea why I hate that particular bird. That....feathered freak! Vengeance. I must have vengeance," Guo Yang roared and the ground beneath him trembled under his immense spirit energy.

"I cannot interfere," Guan Hai said and stepped aside as the five snakes attacked Shen Dong.

"Cousin!" "Yang!" Shen Hua and Guo Lin cried simultaneously as they ran to them.

"Stay out of this!" Guo Yang roared and stomped on the ground, unleashing a giant wave of earth and rock at the two. It was the earth practitioner art: Pulse Rock Wave Art.

"You know human practitioner arts!" Guo Lin cried, shocked as the wave overwhelmed and crashed into him and Shen Hua. As Guo Lin was at a lower cultivation than Shen Hua, he was further back and was able to avoid most of the earth and rock wave as he and Shen Hua ran to them. He was hit after Shen Hua but was still knocked unconscious.

"Shen Hua is defeated. She is rank 4. Guo Lin is defeated. He is rank 3," Guan Hai said as he observed what happened and was able to judge the outcome accurately.

"You hurt your own brother?" Shen Dong cried as he fought back against the snake, the snakes unable to overwhelm his as the phoenix soared toward Guo Yang.

"Silence, human! You know not the power I possess! I'll finish with you after I kill that thing!" Guo Yang snarled and toxic jade mist seeped from every pore in his body. Slowly, it turned into a jade armor that covered him from head to toe.

"Spirit Armor!" Guo Jing cried, rising to his feet as many other powerful practitioners also rose to their feet in shock. Who was Guo Yang? How was he able to make spirit armor? Who was his master? Many powerful practitioners decided it would be best to slay the boy before he made the Guo Clan rise even higher.

"I don't care if my body cannot handle making this, I will kill you!" Guo Yang roared, a memory flashing through his mind as he leaped at the phoenix with his spear covered in poison spirit energy.

"I did it, mommy! I killed my first prey," an adorable little gold snake with jade eyes and sand colored feathers on the back of its head hissed as it returned, a bulge protruding in its body.

"Good job, little one. Remember, hunting your prey requires patience and exploding your strength into a focused motion. Life and death is determined with that one move," a bigger snake about three hundred feet long hissed, its black forked tongue tapping the smaller snake on the head. Its eyes widened as it heard a loud shriek, turning its head to see three phoenixes as large as a mountain.

"This snake is giant. Fit for the three of us to eat for days. We can also feed the fledglings with its meat!" one of the Heaven Swallowing Phoenixes cried.

"What about the tiny one?" another cawed.

"Forget it. I bet my beak will crush it just by touching it. I also detect other snakes similar in size. No use hunting trash," the largest of them answered.

"Slither away, little one. Escape!" the mother hissed and turned to the cave behind it. "Take your kin and escape!"

"No," the tiny snake hissed as one double its size bit into the small snake and joined dozens others as they fled. Dozens of snakes of all kinds of species slithered as their guardian fought against the giant phoenixes. Many were killed by the backlash of energy that surged from the battle. The tiny snake crashed into a tree and lost consciousness. As it awoke, all it saw were broken trees and giant boulders of flesh everywhere, gold scales on some of them.

This was the true reason Guo Yang hated phoenixes above all other birds. True, he hated Blue Heart String Phoenixes, but he hated Heaven Swallowing Phoenixes the most. He lost his mother and never knew the feeling of love after that, also closing off his own heart. In his life, he killed the other two but the leader already ascended to the Immortal Realm. He killed each and every phoenix of that species, and stopped when he thought he killed them all.

"I can't allow it to happen!" Shen Dong cried, blasting the five snakes into the walls with the side of his heavy sword and charged at Guo Yang's left flank as the phoenix and Guo Yang clashed. The phoenix was also an initial Element Adept, like Guo Yang, and both were pushed back. Guo Yang snarled angrily and used his Moon Slicer Art to sends moon blades of water at the approaching Shen Dong as he ran to the phoenix.

The phoenix spread its wings, feathers made of light spirit energy surging toward Guo Yang like a storm of arrows.

"Fuck you!" he roared, using his Viper's Dominance Art to destroy the feathers with the shock blast of light spirit energy. Some of the crowd cried out at the explosions of energy pushed some of them back.

"Stop!" Shen Dong cried as his heavy sword was covered in flames as it slashed down at Guo Yang as the latter readied his spear for a throw. Spirit energy swirled into the spear, making it a giant spear of jade. The air around it seemed to shriek and even the ground and his own clothes turned to stone and shattered into countless pieces under the spirit energy.

"Vengeance is mine! Take my current ultimate, poison spear, practitioner art, Jade Poison Desolation Spear Art!" Guo Yang shrieked and threw his spear. Because of the wind being propelled as Shen Dong slashed his flaming heavy sword, the trajectory of the spear changed. Guo Yang used his ice practitioner art, Frost Snake Prison Art, to shield himself within a sphere of ice. It suffered many cracks, but did not break as Shen Dong slashed at him. The practitioner art was mainly used to capture prey, but it was used to defend himself instead.

"NOO!" Shen Dong cried as he turned to his magical beast. As if sensing impending doom, the phoenix flew upwards. Because of Shen Dong's interference, the trajectory meant to run through the phoenix's chest area by the neck was changed to beneath the left wing as the phoenix flew, taking several feathers with it and turned the wall into stone. Several cracks formed around the spear and some of the feather of the phoenix turned to stone and fell off. However, the spear missed the flesh in the wings and the feathers could easily be replaced over a few days.

"You piece of shit! You saved it!" Guo Yang roared as he broke through the ice prison and saw the result. He covered his own fist with the Stone Breaker Art and expelled the rocks to form a small boulder that shattered on the back of the relieved Shen Dong. Shen Dong cried out as he fell to the ground and Guo Yang prepared an axe kick to smash the fallen Shen Dong's head into a meat patty.

"This tournament is over! Shen Dong is defeated and is ranked second. Guo Yang is the victor," Guan Hai said, making Guo Yang pause as the latter felt the spirit energy of Guan Hai. The crowd roared with applause. Many relished the excitement and large scale practitioner arts. Some received insights and immediately left to meditate on them as others stared between the spear in the wall and Guo Yang.

"Yang'er!" Guo Jing cried as Guo Yang sprayed blood into the air as his spirit armor vanished. Clearly, Guo Yang used a forbidden technique to form the spirit armor that augmented his spirit energy. He was willing to risk his very life to kill the Heaven Swallowing Phoenix. Guo Jing caught Guo Yang as he fainted and started to fall backwards.

"Quick, grab Mei'er and Lin'er! Get their weapons and let's leave with the snakes," Guo Jing ordered as several powerful practitioners moved forward.

"A forbidden technique to make spirit armor! I must have it!" one cried as he surged forward. However, Guo Li stopped him as she was at the peak of the Meteor Vessel Stage.

"You dare to commit crimes in front of me, Guan Hai!" the Earth Mortal roared, causing the greedy practitioners to stop as none of them could face such a man. Many were in clans with many elders at the Meteor Vessel Stage, but Guo Lin was at the peak, like their patriarchs, and Guan Hai was an Earth Mortal. None of them dared to fight now as it was different than just Guo Li fighting.

"Thank you, Ancestor, and we apologize for the mayhem my grandson caused," Guo Jing said and they all left.

"I'll take your head for assaulting my grandson," Guo Li snapped and ripped off the man's head with her bare hands, taking the weapon and spirit ring of the greedy practitioner who was the first to make a move to Guo Yang.

"That's acceptable," Guan Hai nodded and helped Shen Dong up as the phoenix struggled to land on the ground. "Prince Shen Dong, I think it's best to leave your giant phoenix out of the academy for a time. This Guo Yang obviously has a deeper grudge against this particular race of avian magical beasts even deeper than the rumors and reports."

"It has lost some of its feathers and won't be able to fly. A grounded bird is a dead one," Shen Dong nodded and sent the phoenix back where it came from. "Guan Hai, did I really lose?"

"If Guo Yang were not consumed with rage and did not use lethal practitioner arts, it would have been your victory as you clearly had the advantage. If you kept your distance, instead of summoning your magical beast, victory was already yours. However, you can't change the past. You made it into the top eight. That is what matters most," Guan Hai nodded. "Go check on your cousin and the third member of the imperial clan in your dorm. I ensured it to be guarded by retired imperial guards. I'll also send some to secretly protect the Guo Clan. Imperial Majesty is interested in Guo Lin because of the Yin Yang divine tattoo and Guo Yang supplies poisonous herbs to the Alchemist Foundation that also supplies our own army with their elixirs and poisons. Guo Yang has already saved many lives and killed many more, indirectly, by supplying the poisonous herbs or ground poison powder. Their safety will be assured for the competition."

"Good. I need to defeat my elder brother and sister. I know I can't win one-on-one. Let's take Shen Hua back," Shen Dong said and the duo left the chaos for the remaining staff of Tang Arts School for Practitioners to resolve.