The legendary warrior

"The reason is quite simple. We need to get more black dots!" Heather explained calmly, as if she had anticipated Ricky's puzzle
in this respect.
"If we invite someone at the eighth grade of Skin Refinement to join us to do it, we will have to divide the five hundred black dots
into four equal shares. That's only one hundred and twenty-five for each one of us. If we join forces with someone at the seventh
grade, we will get more dots. Does that make sense?"
"Of course, yes. I understand!" Ricky replied, nodding.
"So, here is my second question. How many dots do I get if I join you?" he asked pointedly.
At hearing this question, Heather exchanged looks with the two men, before telling Ricky the maximum share they were willing to
give. "Fifty. That's the highest we can go!"
"Fifty? That's all you're offering?" Ricky asked, scratching his head at this.
For a warrior at the seventh grade of Skin Refinement, fifty-black dots was a pretty generous offer. After all, the seventh grade
warrior would only have to help pin down the beast during the whole process. He didn't need to attack it up close. Ricky was not
a stupid man. He knew that it would be greedy for him to ask for more dots.
While Ricky was weighing the benefits in his head, one of the men, Finn Zhang stepped forward and tried to persuade him with a
smiling face. "Hey, buddy. I think fifty dots are pretty fair for you. Don't you think so?" He continued, "I'm sure that you know well
about your current state. It's near impossible for you to hunt fifty beasts in thirteen days."
"Alright. I'm in!" Ricky said, deciding to not hesitate anymore because what Finn Zhang just said was exactly what he had been
worried about.
"Great! You just made a wise decision!" Waylon nodded in excited praise for Ricky's final decision.
The four, thus having made the agreement, began on their journey together.
They made their way to the spot where the injured beast had been tracked to.
Finally, they were near. It was a large marsh where the carcasses of both warriors and beasts were rotting. Needless to say, a
horrible smell permeated the air.

The three men were fine with it and didn't express their disgust at this place. They were men, who were brought up used to
stinky smells. Heather, however, furrowed her delicate brows the entire trip. Obviously, this kind of place repulsed her more
civilized tastes.
If it were not for the quest to hunt the beast of Blood Purification to earn more black dots, she would never have gone here, not
even for one second.
Finn Zhang and Waylon Wang scrambled to impress Heather all the way by exploring the way for her. It could not be more
obvious that both of them had feelings for the beautiful lady.
Before long, they came upon a pool of black water. In the middle of the pool stood a gargantuan tree. Everything was ominously
still. They could not even breathe freely in the strange atmosphere.
A howl!
Just as they got closer to the pool, a tiger's roar resounded through the air. A giant black shadow dived down sharply and then
sped wildly on the surface of the water. In the blink of an eye, it had nearly reached them.
"It's an Anaconda-tailed Tiger!" Ricky told them with a low, calm voice.
It was a giant tiger, about thirty feet long; as tall as two adult men. Its whole body was covered in pure black fur with no other
colors. It looked like a ghost beast from Hell.
It had a long black tail, which was a real anaconda. There was a snake's head at the end of it, looking around savagely with its
gigantic, mesmerizing eyes, and its black tongue flickering in and out.
"Yes, you are right! An Anaconda-tailed Tiger!" Heather confirmed in a low voice, nodding. She was afraid that their voices might
catch the attention of the ferocious monster.
At birth, an Anaconda-tailed Tiger had advanced-stage power of Skin Refinement. An adult Anaconda-tailed Tiger was even
more powerful and dangerous. It had the enormous power of Blood Purification.
Clearly, the size of the Anaconda-tailed Tiger in front of them was that of an adult tiger. They felt the aura which exuded from it.
This meant that it had already been a beast of Blood Purification.
However, it didn't behave as they had expected. Usually, a beast of Blood Purification was supposed to act more destructively.
They noticed that there was a deep cut on its back, the wound not having healed yet.

They easily deduced that this giant beast was hurt badly. It must have been suffering greatly from the pain.
"Let's get cracking! When we start the attack, Ricky, you will get its attention, and the rest of us will focus on attacking it.
Hopefully, this diversion tactic will work!" Finn Zhang proposed, delegating the tasks.
"Understood!" Ricky nodded.
Just then, the Anaconda-tailed Tiger launched an offensive attack towards them. It roared and jumped high in the air. Meanwhile,
it focused its spiritual energy onto its two sharp claws and waved them in the air fiercely. Immediately, the spiritual energy turned
into thousands of sharp black blades, hurtling towards them.
'Now that I'm only responsible for catching its attention, I can just pretend to be weak. In that case, I would be extremely eye-
catching for the tiger and it will definitely notice me," thought Ricky. He was smart enough to come up with this idea to attract a
brute beast with no intelligence.
And so, when they were fighting against the beast, Ricky only showed his abilities at the sixth grade of Skin Refinement to
distract it.
"Bang!" The four fought back at the same time and barely defended themselves against the tiger's powers.
Even though this Anaconda-tailed Tiger had been hurt badly, it was still powerful and they were unable to deal with it easily. They
had to use a special tactic.
As expected, Ricky's weakness caught the tiger's attention. For beasts at the low stage of Skin Refinement or Blood Purification,
they were not particularly intelligent and would usually pick weak targets to attack.
"Roar!"
The tiger locked onto its prey. Then it growled menacingly at Ricky and directly leaped at Ricky to bite him.
Ricky was agile and ran at once to avoid its ferocious attack. He knew clearly that this was his best move for now. After all, there
was no way for him to survive such a ferocious beast's violent attack.
"Kill it! Now!" he shouted at the other warriors as he ran, reminding them to grab this excellent chance.
Ricky was sure they would follow through, as killing this beast was their priority at present. Even if they might have some
deceptions in mind when they invited him earlier, Ricky decided not to think about it at this critical time.

Things went as Ricky expected. The moment the gigantic tiger leaped at Ricky, Heather and her companions clutched their
weapons in hands, transferred their strength to their weapons, and ejected their sword energy towards the wound on the
monster's back.
"Bang!"
An earsplitting sound resounded through the air again. They successfully hit the ugly wound on its back with force.
The tiger screamed in agony. The wound at its back had been healing. But it split open again and the blood gushed out, as the
tiger fell to the marsh heavily.
"Now!"
Heather, Finn, and Waylon exchanged looks with each other again and agreed on their next move. They re-generated their
strengths and launched another violent attack at the tiger's stomach.
Even though this Anaconda-tailed Tiger had a body of the first grade of Blood Purification, it was unable to resist the two fatal
attacks. It was doomed to die when its weakened, wounded body encountered wise human beings.
After they were finished with the beast, Finn collected its blood and let a drop fall on his ironwood piece. In an instant, five
hundred black dots appeared on it. It was just incredible. Everyone thought so.
"Hey, guys. I have a question. When the beast's blood is dripped on a piece of ironwood, black dots show up. Why, then when
the blood is dripped on another piece, no black dots appear? That doesn't make sense," Ricky suddenly asked, disrupting the
thrilled reverie they had all been in. Both Finn and Waylon were dumbfounded by his words.
They stared at him in surprise as if they were asking, "Seriously? You don't even know this? What an idiot!'
Ricky sensed the unkindness in their eyes. He suddenly began to feel that both Finn and Waylon started to dislike him.
Heather, on the other hand, chuckled and explained patiently with a smile, "Ironwood is amazing and smart. Even if an ironwood
is cut into thousands of pieces, those pieces connect with each other. As long as one of these pieces absorbs the blood of a
beast, the rest of the pieces can feel it and will not react to the blood from the same beast."
She added, "Unless the piece you have is from another ironwood.

However, there are very few ironwoods around. I'd say, the probability is about one in hundreds of thousands. Even if you can
find two ironwoods, they are still different when they have different ages. So it's almost impossible for us to cheat." Considering
that Ricky was virtually a stranger, Heather did not have to explain this to him, and yet in her kindness she did.
"Oh, I understand! Thank you," Ricky replied with a nod.
Then he glanced at Fin and Waylon in askance, and could almost confirm his feeling earlier that they were dangerous to him. He
became more sensitive after all the things he had gone through in the past few days.
"Finn, it's time to fulfill our promise. Transfer fifty black dots to Ricky, please, as what we have agreed upon!" Heather suggested
to Finn with a smile.
"Yes, sure!" Finn replied, but with a malicious smile. He didn't do as what he said. Instead, he walked to Waylon with his
ironwood piece in his hand.
Waylon, on the other hand, acted as if he had already anticipated Finn's intention. He took his ironwood out, and then Finn
activated the spiritual energy in his body and transferred two hundred and fifty black dots to Waylon's piece.
Seeing what they just did, Heather realized that something had just gone very wrong. The look on her face changed suddenly
and she asked coldly, "What the hell did you just do?"