The Primal Fire: Book 1 of Starchild Escapes Arranged Marriage

by Fat Bread

  "This is... Hua Huo's power." Yun Xi himself didn't even have the thought that his attack was as perfect as nature itself.

  If he only practiced on his own, he would never have such a wonderful skill.

  In the real world, the fight between the green hippo and himself was worse than the dilemma he faced in the trial.

  Not simply because the green hippo was controlled by Ashen, but the more important fact was the difference between the two weapons he used.

  In the star trial, though the iron sword he found aside the bonfire was ugly in its appearance, it had a magic-like property that made it never get worn. Its blade would never get bent no matter how many times he cut the green hippo's body.

  But in reality, as the only weapon he could hurt the green hippo with, the wood chopper he found in the cave had slightly bent after attacking the green hippo twice.

  However, the two attacks gave him a victory far beyond the victory he achieved in the trial.

  Everything was due to Hua Huo's Seed.

  He had only mastered 20% of Hua Huo's sword skill, so naturally, he couldn't be compared to Hua Huo.

  However, compared to the green hippo, even if Yun Xi had only 20% of Hua Huo's sword skill, he didn't think that he would lose.

  The world in Hua Huo's eyes was completely different to the world in Yun Xi's eyes.

  The rhythm of breathing, the abrasion of the weapon, the premonition of enemy's sprint, the trace of attack, and Ashen's exasperated mental state.

  Observing and feeling every detail, then attacking to obtain victory.

  It was just a 3rd-ranked Hippo. Even if it had Ashen's help, and though he had only a wood chopper which wasn't even able to be used ten times, the hippo was still not a huge threat.

  "Hoo... Ha..." Clearly, Yun Xi was in a fierce battle, but by running the special breathing method his spirit had naturally raised to the highest state.

  As the proverb goes, "Do one's utmost even when dealing with a minor problem". He would do his best to kill the hippo!

  Mercy? There wasn't such a thing.

  Between life and death, everyone who hesitated to show mercy was already dead.

  "Three times." After adjusting his breathing smoothly, Yun Xi lifted three of his fingers to Ashen. It was also the last order he gave his body.

  Three attacks. If he didn't kill the green hippo after that, he would never be able to hurt the iron-skinned 3rd-ranked monster.

  "Wahahaha, who do you think you are?"

  "Even Hua Huo taught you how to roll and escape, but you want to beat down my hippo with three attacks? Even Hua Huo herself wouldn't be able to do that!" Ashen looked at Yun Xi as if he was looking at a clown.

  As a disciple of the Celestial Palace, he naturally had found what Yun Xi had found.

  The wood chopper, which was already a little blunt, was the key to determining who was the last winner.

  Fortunately, this kid didn't have a decent weapon. Otherwise, perhaps he would have already been killed. Ashen wiped away the sweat from his forehead and announced his victory in his mind.

  "If I were Hua Huo, I would need to brandish the wood chopper just one time..." Yun Xi looked at Ashen with pity. If Hua Huo were here, she would teach him what was the right way for a fool to survive in the world.

  Even if there were ten green hippos attacking Hua Huo together, they would have no future but to be killed by Hua Huo one by one.

  Though Ashen was known as the best genius of the village in the decade (since Hua Huo was an exception), however, he was still that frog sitting in the hole, thinking it owned the entire world.

  Hua Huo's talent had already gone beyond Ashen's imagination. He didn't understand what realm Hua Huo had reached.

  Through all of Yun Xi's experience, Hua Huo was the only genius who was able to master a God's Sword Skill. Even the sleeping beauty, whose power was able to shake the heaven and earth, and burst the void didn't have such an ability.

  "Hippo, Big Wheel Sprint!" Ashen reached out with his left hand, then his right hand tightly held his left wrist, starting the siamese juggling.

  This was a secret art from the Celestial Palace. It could temporarily combine two different creatures' energies and spirits.

  "Hoo!"

  The green hippo curled up its four limbs, rolling itself into a huge ball-like shape. Afterward, it suddenly jumped up. Its body turned into a green wheel-like shape and rushed towards Yun Xi.

  As Yun Xi expected, it had a new skill!

  Seeing the green hippo use a new killing skill which it never used in the trial, a cold light flashed through Yun Xi's eyes.

  Chapter 25: Instant Kill

  The green hippo rolled itself up like a big wheel. If Yun Xi was still how he was before the star trial, it would undoubtedly be a one-hit KO.

  Its huge body, the terrifying explosive force, and its invulnerable tough skin made it a perfect killing machine.

  As Ashen casted a secret spell, the hippo's fighting force grew to at least ten times stronger than the one he met in the trial.

  You don't have a horn on your head and you are not red, so even if you are three times more powerful, you are still gonna die!

  As a reply to facing the green hippo's wheel-like rolling attack, Yun Xi inclined his body, taking two steps to the right. By using this seemingly simple but useful method, he made it charge into a giant rock.

  As he observed the world via Hua Huo's sight, even if the beast was twice stronger, it was still a stupid animal.

  Boom! It tumbled, flying to the sky.

  "Eat him!" Ashen was in extremely high spirits.

  In the sky, the hippo curled up its huge body then one part of its body suddenly grew bigger.

  Here it was! Its ability "Body Bulk-Up"!

  Yun Xi knew it was the monster's hidden talent.

  However, the hippo only bulked up its head. Now, it opened its bloody mouth so big that it was even able to swallow Yun Xi's body whole.

  The hippo's bite was a new skill Yun Xi didn't see during the entire trial. Because at that time, Yun Xi was just a not-delicious-at-all mummy in the eyes of the beast. It had no appetite to eat him.

  Green hippos only used this skill to hunt delicious, fresh prey.

  Now, Yun Xi was qualified. Even Ashen could feel that his hippo was very interested in Yun Xi.

  "My first hit!" Facing the huge creature's bite, Yun Xi didn't dodge but took the initiative to attack.

  With a flash of the blade, the green hippo's tongue was cut off. To cut off its softest part, its tongue was the essence of what Yun Xi learned from Hua Huo's sword skill.

  "Noargh!?" At the same moment his contract beast's tongue was cut off, Ashen covered his lips as there was blood flowing down.

  The green hippo suffered a fatal injury, and as a result, the same wound also appeared on Ashen's body.

  It was the effect of Life Tap; they were sharing damage. This was one of the prices he had to pay in order to control the 3rd-ranked green hippo.

  "My second hit!" After he successfully injured his opponent, Yun Xi didn't hesitate for the slightest moment, because Hua Huo's sword skill had let him find the creature's weakness.

  In fact, there were gaps in the green hippo's seemingly tough skin.

  Because its joints had to stay nimble, there were line-like gaps on the connecting parts of its neck, legs, and hands.

  These lines were unavoidable crucial points for any creature.

  In the trial, Yun Xi didn't find these weak parts, so he had to cut it twenty-one times in order to make the green hippo die due to blood loss.

  If it was Hua Huo, even if she used only 20% of her power, she would only have to brandish her sword once.

  As for Yun Xi, he needed to attack twice!

  The first attack cut off half of the green hippo's neck along the gap between its head and body.

  And along the line on the green hippo's right side, the second attack cut off two of its limbs in one breath.

 
Maybe this was the feeling of dismembering an ox as skillfully as a butcher. Although, after cutting off these weak connection parts the wood chopper was blunted, the spewing blood declared Yun Xi's victory.

  Seeing, listening, and feeling Hua Huo's world; made killing the green hippo much simpler.

  "This is my last hit. Ashen, don't keep going in the wrong way." Yun Xi turned his body flexibly and threw out the wood chopper with all his strength. It stabbed into somewhere below the green hippo's ass.

  "Noargh!" Yun Xi's fatal attack made Ashen's mouth foam as he laid on the ground, holding onto his ass with his hands in a weird way.

  Boom! The gigantic body collapsed. An item, which Yun Xi felt a little familiar with, flew out from the corpse.

  "This is... a seed?" Yun Xi felt incredible as he watched the seed fly into his palm.

  It wasn't the same as the seed rewarded in the star trial. In the real world, the seed the green hippo left after being killed by Yun Xi was a transparent seed, which emitted a pale white light and was seemingly so fragile that it couldn't even sustain a pinch.

  Inside of the seed, there wasn't some special instructions such as "Body Bulk-Up", "Super Strength", and "Overwhelmingly Power". It only contained a ball of "The Power of Blood".

  "The seed of blood?" As Yun Xi read the meaning of the seed, he naturally understood what was different between it and the several seeds he got as the last reward in the newbie trial.

  This seed simply gathered the dead green hippo's life energy. It didn't contain any special talent or ability. Its only effect was to provide Yun Xi with the power of blood, to replenish his life energy.

  If Yun Xi once again suffered from exhaustion, he could use the seed of blood to restore his physical strength and energy.

  The seed would disappear after being used. In other words, it was just a one-time consumable.

  "Well, it's not that bad." Yun Xi vaguely imagined several methods about how to use the seed, then his face slightly turned red.

  "My hippo! No, this can't be true..." After he lost his strongest trump card, Ashen felt as if his life had lost its color.

  In order to obtain such a strong contract beast, he had paid a lot of terrible and humiliating prices. Even he himself didn't believe he could endure all those dirty things.

  Everything he did was in order to go back to his village with glory and marry his beloved girl!

  But now, everything had gone to ruin.

  "Ashen, you still don't realize it. You are not the only one who is worthy of Hua Huo." Walking to Ashen's side, Yun Xi sympathetically looked at the son of the mayor who had just lost his most important thing.

  "No, I don't believe it! I'll kill you!" Ashen's eyes turned blood red.

  It was not the end. He was a 2nd-ranked Daoist Priest. Even without the green hippo's help, he could also win against this bread shop's kid, because he was only at the 1st Rank.

  He hadn't lost yet. He would turn the tide. He would strike back!

  Burning, my cosmo!

  "Oh... do you have to do that..."

  After dodging Ashen's frenzied counterattack, Yun Xi watched this young man who was once called "The village's Gemini" with Hua Huo -helplessly grow old, perishing. In the end, he became a mummy-like corpse, heavily dropping down to the ground.

  Ashen's death was inevitable the moment his contracted beast died.

  Life Tap - Live and die together. This was the contract between the green hippo and himself.

  Chapter 26: The Twin Witches

  "Ka! Ka!" Yun Xi was burying Ashen with a shovel. Nobody would be able to see any remnants of the human corpse - Ashen - that was buried in the place which the green hippo had fallen.

  Actually, he had no intention to kill Ashen, but fighting the green hippo gave him no choice - it was either he died or the other died. He didn't have any other choice.

  When he noticed that the green hippo and Ashen had an unusual relationship, he had long been aware that there was no medicine that could possibly rescue him.

  "Ashen, when you reincarnate, I know that you'll certainly hate me. But I must say one thing, you are truly mistaken."

  Having filled the soil, Yun Xi plugged it with several branches. Putting the village's "once in a lifetime" genius who had unfortunately fallen astray - Ashen, into eternal slumber in the corner of a small forest.

  "Goodbye, Ashen."

  Nobody would have known that in this place there had been a soul-stirring battle of life and death.

  After walking quite far, Yun Xi didn't notice that the pool of blood left by the dead green hippo vanished in the wilderness as soon as a blue light flashed.

  ****

  White mist slowly filled the air in the warm spring water as the exhausted Yun Xi collapsed in the spring, unable to even move a finger.

  "That guy Ashen really got a fearful thing." Lying down in the familiar hot spring, the deathmatch struggle a moment ago reappeared in Yun Xi's mind once again.

  Only by recalling the last three moves he used to solve the green hippo did he see that the moves had contained a transition movement, route lines, as well as the limit use of the blade's edge.

  Hua Huo, you are rather too strong.

  Without having experienced an actual battle by himself, Yun Xi was simply unable to imagine how fearful his childhood sweetheart Hua Huo was in the Sword Arts Realm.

  Ashen was in fact, not weak. That green hippo had a roller compaction move which could overwhelm all under the 3rd-ranked powerhouse.

  But in Hua Huo's eyes, this green hippo was not that different than a piece of meat on the chopping block; so long as there was a knife, it would fall in seconds easily.

  To think that between people a gap this big of a degree existed.

  While his whole body was immersed in the hot spring, Yun Xi unconsciously used the breathing practice technique he got from Hua Huo.

  Until now, he didn't know the name of this Secret Breathing Technique. According to Hua Huo, this technique was seemingly as simple as the basic Breathing Practice method.

  But Yun Xi also knew even before he learned his half-baked Breathing Practice method from Hua Huo, that this was absolutely very extraordinary.

  Not only was this breathing practice method amazing for a beginner, but his Novice Iron Sword was also the same. When he recalled vividly in mind the green hippo's moves, even if he wished to kill that green hippo, it was absolutely impossible for him to do so.

  "Hua Huo, in the end, you..." Yun Xi was very sure that there was no one in the village's school that could teach this kind of thing.

  Neither in the Heavenly Sword God's Domain nor the Western God's Domain, this kind of secret technique's level belonged only to the richest and powerful aristocrat family and had never been passed on to unauthorized people.

  Even a half-completed Breathing Practice method was so powerful, and through Hua Huo's Seed, he could learn the complete edition of this Breathing Practice method. For Yun Xi, it had opened a new door.

  Regarding Mortal Grade cultivators, a formidable Breathing Practice method was the most important foundation. The reason for Yun Xi's, was that he easily accepted Hua Huo's Seed and had the highest compatibility since Hua Huo had laid the foundation for him to have lasting achievements.

  "Originally... I had received such care..." With every breath he took, Yun Xi could clearly feel that his body was changing.

  Unlike the absorption of the hippo's soul that gave quick results and eruption-like changes, this seed was silently and smoothly promoting the most fundamental part of his physical quality.

  "Exhale... inhale..." While practicing the secret Breathing Practice technique from Hua Huo, Yun Xi's heart slowly became tranquil.

  The sound of the surrounding water, the wind blowing from the distant trees, and his heartbeat were slowly connected together. Forming one kind of special rhythm.

  This was breathing, the most important vital activity for mortal life. It was also the beginning point for secret techniq
ues practiced by all sects.

  Hua Huo's secret technique was absolutely that of the highest-level. It tempered the most basic part to quench the body into perfection and laid the most perfect foundation for all steps taken in the future.

  In many people's eyes, even geniuses such as Ashen when they were in Mortal Grade, they would pursue pure battle efficiency only. And for this reason, they didn't even hesitate to do dishonest things.