Alex and the rest stared at the pockets of lava that covered the island, quickly gaining a new understanding of what the next trial was going to be.

The master of the trial, the fiery bird, returned as it began its explanation of the 7th trial.

"Reach the center of the island while avoiding the attacks of as many of the fire birds as you can. Beware! Each bird will be strong enough to kill you no matter how strong you are. The only way to avoid them is to hide from their senses. You may quit at any time. Only the first 5 to reach the center will pass. Good luck."

Having said as much, the bird vanished, leaving them with not another word.

Alex turned around, looking at the 12 other beasts that had passed. Each one seemed quite a bit more nervous than the last one. Two even looked as if they were going to give up before the trial even started.

Fire birds emerged from all around the island, not one at a time, but rather hundreds at once, covering the sky. The sight alone made many more want to give up.

Unlike the last time, everyone could sense pulses of what felt like a weak Divine sense spreading throughout the land, searching for them.

Alex frowned. "This is troubling."

A beast stepped forward, a Divine realm horse, upon whose body aura vanished. Flames that had been covering its body until now were snuffed out, leaving a regular horse with no aura at all. Once it appeared nothing more than a regular horse to most of them, the horse moved.

Its speed was one that far surpassed anything Alex could ever produce, short of teleportation itself. He could barely even follow the beast thanks to his Demon Eyes.

However, when the horse was only halfway through the land, a single fire bird came down upon it.

The speed the bird reached was faster than the horse itself, leaving behind a trail of fiery afterimages that even Alex couldn't follow. The horse reacted in time, sending out a blast of fire toward it, but the attack did nothing to the fire bird at all.

The fire bird seemed to be empowered by the attack, instead getting stronger and striking the horse in its back. The horse's back turned to ash, revealing charred innards that reached deep within its body. Thankfully, the damage itself was localized, so the horse wasn't dead, only in unimaginable pain.

But then, from the smoldering fire surrounding it, the fire bird emerged back, soaring into the sky. And this time, it came down with a friend.

"I give up!" the horse shouted, at the same time turning around. The birds slowed almost immediately, turning back around to get back into the sky.

Others could only watch in horror at how easily the Divine beast had failed. Some considered the beast stupid for not bringing out its Creation during the fight, while some considered it smart.

Had its Creation been damaged, it would've lost consciousness, likely never getting a chance to give up.

Pulses of Divine sense came back from the fire birds, as if telling everyone there that they were staring right at them.

Pearl gulped as he sensed the strong sense on his body. "Hiding Qi won't help us this time, will it?" he asked. "It will find us. It will find our body."

Alex couldn't help but nod. These weren't like the birds from a few trials ago that could be duped with a simple concealment of aura. These ones would come down for them no matter what.

"What should we do?" Scarlet asked, sounding worried. "Do you think we can kill them with our spiritual attacks?"

Alex narrowed his eyes, thinking back to what the bird had said during the announcement.

The master of the trial had given them the answer. The only way to succeed here was to hide from the beasts' senses. It did not mean that he had to hide just his aura, but rather his entire self.

He made a decision.

Before he could act on the decision he made, however, someone moved. Everyone's eyes turned toward Wu Tanglan, whose body radiated with a strange aura.

No one could tell exactly what it was that he was doing, but Alex thought he sensed a strange bit of Water aura around him, some sort of dao.

One fire bird came down at him, striking like a meteor. Wu Tanglan stood where he was nonchalantly, taking a deep breath as the bird crashed onto him. A small explosion erupted from where the bird landed, a localized area on the ground melting into a pool of lava from the bird's attack.

However, Wu Tanglan was unhurt, standing with not a fur on his body harmed, just a meter away.

Many of the beasts realized that he had done something, but not everyone could understand. Even Alex struggled to realize what had happened.

"What did he do?" Pearl asked.

Alex quickly went through the list of Water Daos he was aware of, figuring it out just a second later. "Ah! It's the Dao of Refraction. Like the image of an object bending when it passes through water, the fire bird's trajectory also changes when it goes inside the bubble. He's not really dodging the attacks, but rather the birds are missing him entirely."

That was quite a way to counter the birds. Considering how rare it was for someone to learn the dao, the beast truly deserved to pass the trial. Alex could see how it had passed the 8th trial the last time around.

"You have many daos. Do you have a Dao of Refraction too?" Scarlet asked.

Alex laughed a little. "No, but we can try and see if spiritual attacks can deal with these birds. Just wait here and let me test it out."

Since he was going to have to place himself in danger now, Alex figured that he might as well test the next thing at the same time as well.

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