After he took a glimpse at Ricky and Claire for a few quick seconds, Michael's lips began to curl
upward into a malicious smile.
At that moment, Michael believed that he could defeat the duo without breaking a sweat, for they were
far too weak to be his opponents.
"Ha-ha! I can't believe that Peter can be such a fool! He even gave up the opportunity of acquiring the
inheritance because of you! By the looks of it, you enjoy a very high position in the Mu Clan," Michael
said as he looked at Claire scornfully. At the same time, the cruel smile slowly disappeared from his
lips.
Not long after, he glanced at Ricky from his peripheral view disdainfully.
"However, he didn't expect that I would be here," Michael continued.
"That's true. No one had ever expected that you would be able to pass the test of the Illusionary Pool—
not even the queen's will. You've made it up to this point, but I just know that you would not get your
hands on the inheritance,"
Claire replied coldly.
"Oh, really? Do you think so?" Michael responded sourly.
Soon after, just above the two old altars at the center of the palace, the power of illusion started to
manifest and emerge in front of them, followed by two beams of blinding light.
Undoubtedly, these lights contained the treasures that they sought after—inheritances of the king and
the queen.
"That's the inheritance of the illusion!" Michael exclaimed as his eyes were caught by the two glaring
rays of light.
"I may have never been exposed to the illusion power, but if I can get my hands on the inheritance,
controlling the palace will be at the tip of my fingers. When this happens, I will surely be able to acquire
lots of pills and Treasures from Heaven and Earth."
As these words left his lips, his eyes sparkled with nothing but greed.
But before he could fulfill his quest on getting the inheritance, he must first deal with Claire and Ricky.
"Claire, I am giving you a chance to change sides. If you agree to be my woman, I will keep you alive
and give you the queen's inheritance. Otherwise, you will leave me with no choice but to send you and
this guy to your deaths," Michael threatened as he turned to the alluring woman.
And because Claire was a gorgeous woman from an influential clan, he wanted to own her to have the
advantage of power. That was why he was willing to make a deal with her.
But of course, this matter was not as important to him as the martial arts.
Therefore, he wouldn't care if Claire agreed or not.
The next moment, Ricky met eyes with Claire.
"I think that you're giving yourself too much credit. You should know that you are not good for me,"
Claire sneered.
"Humph! You can refuse me all you want, but I would still like to see what you are capable of," Michael
huffed. Afterwards, he took a step forward, and in the blink of an eye, he was already right beside
Claire. At the same time, he lifted his clenched fist and punched her.
Despite this strike looking simple and light, this punch apparently contained all of Michael's strength.
In fact, the blow was so strong that even Peter would at least try to resist it with all his might if he were
in Claire's position.
Seeing what had just happened, Ricky intended to give Claire a hand, but the Dragon Intent Grass
intervened to stop him.
"Calm down, lad. Claire has something up her sleeve. I'm sure she can handle it. Just trust me on this
and back off," the Dragon Intent Grass advised.
"Okay, I just hope that you are right about this!" Ricky replied in a hopeful tone.
Initially, he didn't want to meddle in this fight. But once he saw Claire was in danger, he would
immediately come to her aid.
Meanwhile, in the face of Michael's upcoming strike, Claire seemed dauntless. Instead of being scared,
she spread her palms wide and released her power.
Aside from the mist power, she had also unleashed the illusion power, the rain power, and the wind
power. Soon after, the four powers had fused together and transformed into a vortex to meet Michael's
blow.
'Wow! Four kinds of power at once! But somehow, the wind power and the rain power are quite
familiar,' Ricky thought to himself as he witnessed the fight.
Because of the impact, Claire took a few steps back.
"You! You are a middle spiritual emperor," Michael shouted with knitted eyebrows as he stood still.
As it turned out, Claire unleashed the power that was equal to the power of a middle spiritual emperor.
If she wasn't a middle spiritual emperor, she wouldn't have been able to withstand Michael's blow at all.
"I knew you were here. Do you really think that I would come here to face you if I were weaker than a
middle spiritual emperor?" Claire made her point after she managed to steady herself.
However, she said this with all seriousness.
The minute she resisted Michael's blow, it dawned on her how strong he really was. Now, she could
understand why he was recognized by the Misty South Palace as one of its top ten geniuses.
"However, you are still weaker than me," Michael growled coldly.
Soon after, black water whizzed all over his body. In the next moment, he was able to send out his
momentum that was stronger than Claire's by a mile.
"What is this black water? Is it some kind of power? Didn't the queen say that Michael passed the test
in the Illusionary Pool by crafting dark power using his mind?" Ricky asked the Dragon Intent Grass the
minute he laid eyes on the strange black water that covered Michael's body.
"Beats me. I have no idea what that is," the Dragon Intent Grass replied. "But somehow, I am able to
sense the power of ruthless blood inside the black water."
"But it can't be the ruthless blood. Moreover, I can feel that Michael is not that eager to go for the kill.
As far as I can see, he is not a cold-hearted man. Otherwise, he wouldn't have saved George in the
first place," Ricky said as he tried to make sense of what he was seeing.
"Then I guess we have to wait until he shows us more of his tricks," the Dragon Intent Grass remarked.
On the other hand, Michael clapped his hands with utmost force as soon as he was able to gather his
strength.
At that moment, Claire was looking straight at the ball of light coming at her.
"Light ball, show me your power!" Michael shouted.
Just before reaching its target, the light ball emitted several rays of black light.
Afterwards, this black light released the cold power which surrounded Claire.
Claire arched her eyebrows after seeing the attack. She gave Ricky a glance, but she was a little
baffled when she noticed that he had no intention of helping her at all.
Without thinking twice, she transformed into a humongous bird and released four kinds of power.
This bird that stood tall among them had talons that were shrouded in grey and white flames. As it
flapped its wings, the giant bird began to merge the four powers.
Quickly, the four kinds of power integrated with the grey-white fire, morphing into a claw that resisted
Michael's attack.
Boom!
Shock waves vibrated all throughout the area as the two kinds of forces collided with one another.
Once again, Michael and Claire were forced to retreat due to the impact.
Michael took a few steps back, while Claire took several hundred steps backwards. She tried to resist
it, but soon after, she spat a mouthful of blood.
Clearly, Claire was no match for Michael when he unleashed all his power.
On the other hand, Ricky didn't pay much attention to what was happening. Instead, he looked at Claire
and murmured to himself, "Wind Benu, Gale Fire!"
After his voice trailed off, Claire began to display her true beast form. She had transformed into a holy
beast—Wind Benu, which summoned the Gale Fire.
Upon seeing the Gale Fire, Ricky was certain Claire's fire came from him, for it had the aura of the
Gale Zone.
As far as he could remember, he had just given the Gale Fire to one person—Edie of the Wind-
Mountain Alliance.
Moreover, Edie's beast form was the Wind Benu too.
However, this brought him confusion, for Edie was clearly a man while Claire was a woman.
Using the Golden Spirit Eyes, he tried to confirm their respective genders, which eventually confirmed
his initial guess.
When he first met Claire, Ricky was able to sense that she had the same aura as Edie by using his
zone. Regardless if Edie and Claire were the pigeon pair, it was still impossible for them to have the
same aura.
Therefore, Ricky thought that they were the same person.
However, he still could not wrap his head around the fact why a person would suddenly change from a
man to a woman.
While he stared at Claire thoughtfully, she began to turn to him for help.
"Hey, Ricky! What are you waiting for? Take action now," Claire urged him through telepathy.
"Oh, right. I'll figure out a move against Michael. But before I do that, I need to know the truth. Are you
Edie, or not?" Ricky inquired with brimming curiosity.
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