Chapter 112 - 110: High Level Fog Beast
Bang!
Not far away, another Fog Beast, resembling a cat, swung its thick front paw forward with agility, repelling several disciples of the Sword Star Sect from the encirclement.
Only Teng Shan Hua managed to withstand the beast’s paw without stepping back.
Le Fenglin performed slightly worse, retreating just a step before lunging with his sword again.
As for the other young disciples, they fared poorly, sent sprawling like fallen leaves.
Among them was the rash Du Ling.
Even with his Fourth Realm Body Refinement strength, he might not match Le Fenglin, the descendant of the Sword Star Sect leader, but he was still outstanding among his peers.
Yet, facing this Fog Beast, a profound sense of defeat and helplessness enveloped him once more.
For some reason, the embarrassing scene of being kicked aside by Song Changming in public flashed in his mind, filling him with inexplicable agitation.
Steadying himself, he roared in anger and charged at the Fog Beast without hesitation.
"Du Ling, don’t act recklessly!" A fellow disciple cautioned as they witnessed Du Ling’s impulsive behavior.
However, Du Ling ignored the warning, seemingly determined to prove that he was not inferior to anyone else!
With Teng Shan Hua and Le Fenglin restraining the Fog Beast, he maneuvered to its side, thrusting his sword toward its abdomen, assuming it to be a weak point.
Yet the Fog Beast moved with extreme agility, its sense of danger incredibly sharp, dodging even before the longsword reached it, and opened its bloodthirsty maw.
Roar!
Like a tiger’s roar, the sound wave swept over, leaving Du Ling momentarily blank, unable to hear anything else.
When he came to his senses, he was flung through the air as if hit by a high-speed train.
Crashing hard onto the ground, blood poured from his mouth and nose, as if all his bones had shattered, sending sharp pain throughout his body.
The Fog Beast lunged at him again to bite, but he couldn’t move.
"Wretched beast!" Teng Shan Hua and Le Fenglin crossed their swords in its path, yet the beast, relying on its formidable physique, broke through the sword web.
Its fanged maw almost reached him.
This Fog Beast possessed some intelligence and was quite cunning, aiming to kill the easier prey first, absorbing their Essence Blood to grow stronger, and then tackling more formidable foes.
Du Ling, who had rashly approached, was evidently weaker than Teng Shan Hua and Le Fenglin, thus becoming the target.
"Finished!"
Lying on the ground, Du Ling felt despair as he recalled Teng Shan Hua’s earlier warning, realizing he’d pay for his reckless actions this time.
Even his sect background couldn’t shield him from this bloodthirsty maw.
However, just as this despair took hold, when his body felt icy cold, someone impatiently kicked him, sending him flying.
The kick added to his pain, reopening many wounds, but it pushed him out of the beast’s lethal reach, sparing his life.
In the corner of his eye, he saw a familiar back where he had just lain—none other than Song Changming, whom he had deemed overrated, timid, and cowardly.
Facing the pouncing Fog Beast, Song Changming remained calm, showing no sign of retreat, swinging his heavy saber without hesitation.
The Fog Beast’s massive body, larger than a typical tiger, possessed an impact force capable of breaking a martial artist’s entire skeleton.
Du Ling himself had suffered greatly from its might, which seemed unstoppable.
Yet, in the next moment.
A blur of silver light arced through the air as Song Changming’s saber precisely struck the Fog Beast’s fanged maw and front paws.
Bang!
The ground tiles shattered under Song Changming’s powerful step, forcibly resisting the beast’s terrible impact.
With his arms pulsing and surging with Giant Strength, waves of the Bull Demon Power erupted, pouring down like a waterfall, flipping the much larger Fog Beast to the ground!
Dust and rubble scattered in all directions.
The scene was a visual shock!
Compared to the Fog Beast, Song Changming seemed more like a rampaging humanoid beast!
The display of terrifying power, the relentless and overwhelming Sword Momentum, subdued the Fog Beast in just one encounter.
Lying semi-conscious on the ground nearby, Du Ling witnessed this scene, his mind blank.
Had Song Changming ignored his provocations out of fear? Had he declined Le Fenglin’s challenge out of cowardice?
Now, it dawned on him that these were merely his own misconceptions.
The stronger someone is, the more pride they hold within.
Perhaps, in Song Changming’s eyes, he was just a minor, jumping adversary, unworthy of his anger.
As these thoughts surfaced, Du Ling, too injured, slipped into unconsciousness.
"So strong!" On the other side, Le Fenglin was equally shaken by what he saw.
He knew well the strength of this Fog Beast; even he and Teng Shan Hua together hadn’t managed to stop it entirely, as evidenced.
"Fenglin, take Du Ling to the rear! I will hold the Fog Beast with Song Guard Captain!" Teng Shan Hua decisively commanded upon seeing this.
First, he needed to ensure the safety of the young disciples he brought for training, and then assist Liu Dingsheng’s safe retreat today.
On the ground, the Fog Beast bled from its mouth, proving Song Changming’s strike had indeed breached its defenses.
It’s no easy feat for a martial artist to break through a fog beast’s defense during a battle.
Only by causing effective harm can one truly have a chance to slay the beast.
The fog beast on the ground was frantically struggling and rolling, while Song Changming wielded his saber with both hands, slashing downward with the Dragon Pattern Saber.
Bang!
Just in time, the fog beast rolled away like a spring, and Song Changming’s strike missed, leaving a deep saber mark in the ground.
The fog beast lunged back to bite, but Song Changming nimbly dodged the attack using his light body skill.
He swung the saber with one hand, employing the Soul-breaking Saber Skill, striking fiercely at the beast’s neck.
Even though he channeled 80 to 90 percent of his strength into this strike, the imagined scenario of the beast’s head separating did not occur.
The fog beast was merely knocked into a few more rolls on the ground before shaking its head and standing back up.
There was a saber mark and a dent on its neck, but that was all.
"It’s really tough!" Song Changming couldn’t help but click his tongue.
If it were against a martial artist, it’s hard to imagine anyone surviving this saber strike.
Fighting the fog beast was vastly different from battling a martial artist.
Meanwhile, Teng Shan Hua also joined the fray. His sword skill was equally potent, but its damage on the beast was still quite limited.
The crucial point was that the fog beast could absorb the surrounding blood qi, and the hard-earned injuries would quickly heal after absorbing the qi.
This made the beast particularly troublesome.
With its extraordinary self-healing ability, if it couldn’t be killed in one blow, one would easily be forced into a prolonged bitter fight.
Once the martial artist is exhausted, their only options are to flee or become food for the beast.
In the courtyard, martial artists from Jianghu battled the fog beast; so far, there weren’t many casualties, limiting the blood qi available for the beast to absorb.
Song Changming took a deep breath and moved towards the fog beast, his saber skill altering accordingly.
Since the Soul-breaking Saber couldn’t kill the beast, he didn’t intend to hold back his strength; he directly used the Top level Blade Skill, the Flying Swallow Technique he had perfected.
The sharp saber directly sliced through layers of air waves, tearing through the atmosphere.
In the whistling winds, it was as if the sounds of a hundred birds and chimes interwove.
Song Changming, with an elegant posture, avoided the fog beast’s claw, bent forward, and sliced with the long saber, cutting at its hind leg bone.
A blood mark instantly appeared on it, dyeing the thick fur red.
"Great sword skill!" Teng Shan Hua was nearby, seeing it clearly, his eyes lit up.
Though this strike didn’t severely injure the fog beast, it was enough to impress him!
Just this saber strike alone justified Song Changming’s renowned reputation!
Though he hadn’t competed against Le Fenglin, Teng Shan Hua introspectively realized that the current Le Fenglin was likely no match for Song Changming!
Indeed, it’s no wonder Song Changming refused; besides being of similar age, their strengths were simply on different levels.
Even Teng Shan Hua, upon seeing Song Changming’s exquisite saber skill, felt somewhat inferior, not confident in defeating him, let alone his fellow disciples from the Sword Star Sect.
The fog beast’s body was imbalanced from this strike, toppling over to one side.
Song Changming, like a spinning top, nimbly spun twice, instantly delivering several more strikes, all landing on the beast’s hind leg.
No matter how the fog beast moved, he maintained the exact same striking point for each blow.
If one strike couldn’t sever it, he’d deliver five, ten, dozens of strikes!
The fog beast, despite its formidable defense, was ultimately flesh and blood; he refused to believe it couldn’t be cut!
Under the impactful Flying Swallow Technique, after over ten strikes, the fog beast’s hind leg was almost mutilated by Song Changming.
His light body skill complemented the Flying Swallow Technique, mutually enhancing each other’s power.
During the process, whether the fog beast tried to counterattack Song Changming or escape his grasp, it found it hard to succeed.
A few breaths later, Song Changming successfully chopped off one of the fog beast’s hind legs.
With this leg gone, the beast lost its speed and half of its threat, becoming just prey before Song Changming and Teng Shan Hua.
At a corner of the courtyard wall, the red-robed man holding Mist gold also noticed the severely injured high-level fog beast on Song Changming’s side.
"Such a shame for a high-level fog beast to die here; it still has potential for growth..."
Underneath his hood, his voice came, then he raised his hand, and from the Mist gold, more scorching mist dispersed, transforming into smoke arrows and shooting toward the injured fog beast.
"Hmm?!" Song Changming sensed something, abruptly turning his head to look at the red-robed man.
Seeing the incoming smoke arrows, his long saber swept out fiercely, stirring up a violent saber wind.
Under the saber wind, the smoke arrows showed signs of scattering, but eventually still turned into wisps of smoke, bypassing Song Changming’s saber and merging into the fog beast’s body.
The fog beast roared repeatedly, its eyes emitting a red-yellow glow, as if flames danced within.
Simultaneously, the saber and sword wounds on its body quickly healed.
Even the hind leg severed by Song Changming gradually began to reform under the scorching mist.
...