Chapter 817 - Twin-Headed Serpent
While this strike wasn't Liu Wuxie's most potent attack, it was formidable nonetheless. The powerful blade aura he created caused the Sabertooth Tiger to pause mid-step, momentarily stunned by Liu Wuxie's ferocity.
Liu Wuxie was far inferior in cultivation, and the Sabertooth Tiger had sensed the danger when the fight erupted.
Over the years, countless humans had ventured into Azure Dragon Mountain, but many had met their end beneath the Sabertooth Tiger’s fangs. Through these encounters, the beast had developed a general understanding of human combat prowess. Even so, this was the first time it had encountered someone like Liu Wuxie.
The bone spikes along its back bristled, which was a natural defense mechanism that could launch deadly ambushes.
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With a loud explosion, the blade aura surged forward with unstoppable momentum, slicing down with immense force. As Liu Wuxie's blade struck the beast, sparks erupted in all directions, but it felt like he had hit an impenetrable boulder.
The recoil nearly sent the Heretic Blade flying from his hand. From that alone, one could imagine how powerful the Sabertooth Tiger's defensive capabilities were.
Liu Wuxie didn't dare to be careless against the Sabertooth Tiger and retreated the moment his attack failed, as an open terrain would work to his advantage.
The Sabertooth Tiger roared in pain. Although the attack hadn’t injured it, the sheer force alone made it uncomfortable. Its eyes turned blood-red, its ferocity burning even brighter. As it exhaled, blasts of air shot out like arrows, striking the ground with the force of falling daggers.
Opening its massive jaws, the Sabertooth Tiger revealed rows of razor-sharp fangs. If Liu Wuxie were bitten, he would be torn apart instantly. Each fang was as long as a chopstick, wickedly sharp and deadly.
When it ground its teeth, it produced a piercing screech that sent shivers down Liu Wuxie's spine. With a sudden lung, the Sabertooth Tiger shot like lightning and appeared before Liu Wuxie.
The attacks from profound beasts were straightforward. There weren't any fancy moves as they sought to kill their opponent with maximum efficiency.
But Liu Wuxie had already anticipated it. According to cultivation standards, the Sabertooth Tiger's strength was comparable to human cultivators at the fourth-level True Profound Realm. He knew he had to be cautious when facing such an opponent.
The Sabertooth Tiger's attack pattern was straightforward and predictable, but the real challenge was breaching its defenses of bone spikes.
When the Heretic Blade descended, Liu Wuxie exerted even more force this time. He precisely targeted the same spot on the Sabertooth Tiger's back. If he couldn't break through the Sabertooth Tiger's defenses with one strike, he could keep attacking until he succeeded. He believed that Sabertooth Tiger's defenses would eventually crumble.
His blade danced with great precision, striking the same spot no matter how the Sabertooth Tiger dodged. With a sudden burst of agility, he propelled himself into the air and vanished, evading the Sabertooth Tiger's attack.
Regarding speed, the Sabertooth Tiger was inferior compared to Liu Wuxie.
When the Heretic Blade landed on the Sabertooth Tiger's back, it struck the same spot. This time, a bone spike shattered as it was severed cleanly by Liu Wuxie's blade aura.
The Sabertooth Tiger let out a painful roar. Blood dripped from the broken bone spike wound, dyeing its back in red.
Snarling in pain, the Sabertooth Tiger glared at Liu Wuxie with fury. Its eyes burned with hatred, and it wanted to tear the human before him apart. It had never encountered such a cunning human before—one who exploited its weakness repeatedly.
After seeing that his attack was effective, Liu Wuxie's lips curled into a smirk. If it were really at the fourth-level True Profound Realm, it wouldn't be easy for Liu Wuxie to injure the latter unless he resorted to using the Earth-Binding Chains or Heavenly Dragon Seal.
The Sabertooth Tiger's movements accelerated, leaving Liu Wuxie with no choice but to use his ice-attribute energy.
"Frost Ray Seal!" A terrifying chill descended and froze the Sabertooth Tiger in place, turning it into an ice sculpture.
Its eyes bulged as it struggled to break free from the ice encasing it. The ice-attribute energy Liu Wuxie wielded was nearing the level of a dao technique. If he advanced just one step further, he could manifest the Great Frost Divine Art, a technique hundreds of times more powerful than the Frost Ray Seal.
The difference was like night and day—the Frost Ray Seal could only encase the Sabertooth Tiger in ice, while the Great Frost Divine Art would freeze everything within a few hundred meters, turning the entire area into a frozen wasteland.
Bone spikes began to emerge on the Sabertooth Tiger, piercing through the layer of ice. The moment the Sabertooth Tiger broke free, a terrifying surge of demonic energy was released, enveloping a few thousand meters of radius.
Liu Wuxie knew there were profound beasts in the surroundings, and he had to end the battle quickly, as the Sabertooth Tiger was calling upon its companions. While low-level profound beasts lacked intelligence, tenth-grade profound beasts were a different story.
As the Sabertooth Tiger continued to roar, its cries traveled over hundreds of miles.
Liu Wuxie knew he couldn't waste any more time and began to channel his true essence into the Heretic Blade, unleashing an even more terrifying attack than before. This was his most potent attack, and the blade aura he released tore a spatial rift in the air, sending an overwhelming sense of danger upon the Sabertooth Tiger.
"Die!" Liu Wuxie combined the ice-attribute energy and True Strike in a final sprint to deliver a fatal strike.
Perhaps the Sabertooth Tiger finally felt fear as it stepped back hesitantly, no longer daring to face Liu Wuxie head-on.
But Liu Wuxie wouldn't let the Sabertooth Tiger leave in this manner. He wouldn't have bothered with it if it hadn't come after him. Since it had dared to launch a sneak attack on him, it would have to die.
The Heretic Blade produced a series of rumbles, exploding the surrounding trees and rocks with devastating energy. The energy rippling outward was like a tidal wave, each tide stronger than the last.
In this strike, Liu Wuxie had consumed seventy percent of his true essence. His attack had landed where the Sabertooth Tiger was injured—three consecutive strikes in rapid succession. The second had already shattered the bone spike, exposing the raw flesh beneath, and the third strike plunged into the wound.
When low-level profound beasts fought humans of the same cultivation level, they held the upper hand due to their superior physique. However, this advantage diminished when high-level profound beasts faced human cultivators of equal strength, as cultivators at higher levels were able to overwhelm them with their mastery of martial and dao techniques.
When the blade aura penetrated the Sabertooth Tiger's body, it released a guttural roar in pain and collapsed to the ground, unable to rise. The blade aura had destroyed its internal organs, immobilizing it, though it was still alive.
Liu Wuxie stood still, breathing heavily. That strike had consumed seventy to eighty percent of his true essence. He didn't hesitate to pour one-third of the liquified spiritual energy from Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron into the desolate world to recover his true essence.
But just as Liu Wuxie was about to turn to leave, a foul stench of blood blasted over from the distant bush as a Twin-Headed Serpent lunged from the underbrush, baring its fangs.
"What the fuck!" Liu Wuxie didn't hesitate to run for his life.
The Twin-Headed Serpent was a spiritual beast, and its aura suffocated Liu Wuxie. He knew he wasn't a match for it and would die if he stayed to fight it.
The Twin-Headed Serpent glanced at the fallen Sabertooth Tiger, a sinister red light glowing in its eyes. As it turned to look at Liu Wuxie, a crimson stench spread out, causing the surrounding trees to wither and decay.
That was the lethal poison belonging to the Twin-Headed Serpent, instantly turning tens of thousands of miles in radius into its territory.
The Sabertooth Tiger's territory was within its rule. By the hierarchy of profound beasts, all profound beasts in the Twin-Headed Serpent's territory were considered its subjects.
Liu Wuxie panicked as he fled at his top speed, and his mind worked frantically, searching for any knowledge of the Twin-Headed Serpent. Typically speaking, serpents only had one head, and having two heads could only mean one thing—it was a mutated species.
The presence of a second head suggested it had a hybrid bloodline, and it wasn't surprising Liu Wuxie had never encountered one before. After all, new species of demonic beasts appeared daily. Liu Wuxie had no knowledge of how the world had developed after his death as an Immortal Emperor—his understanding was limited to the memories he had retained from his previous life.
The Twin-Headed Serpent looked in the direction Liu Wuxie had vanished and shot out with a single undulating motion, covering dozens of meters in the blink of an eye.
When Liu Wuxie heard the rustling sounds coming from behind, he knew the Twin-Headed Serpent had chased after him, and he didn't even need to look back to verify. He increased his speed and darted toward the scorched mountain peak.
By now, many cultivators had gathered at the peak, and the best option was to lure the Twin-Headed Serpent into the crowd. There might be a cultivator at the Spirit Profound Realm among the crowd.
Only an expert at the Spirit Profound Realm could slay the Twin-Headed Serpent.
Liu Wuxie fled with all his might while the Twin-Headed Serpent chased him. He could feel an eerie pressure against his back, an unsettling sensation that made his hair stand on end.
The left head of the Twin-Headed Serpent suddenly shot out multiple ice arrows aimed at Liu Wuxie. After reaching the rank of spiritual beasts, demonic beasts would awaken their elemental attributes, similar to the dao techniques used by humans. They would harness the power of elemental forces to make their attacks more lethal.
The onslaught of ice arrows was more potent than Liu Wuxie's Frost Ray Seal. There was a massive gap of power between the two.
"Break!" Liu Wuxie manifested a barrage of ice arrows to intercept the incoming projectiles. But he only managed to neutralize some of the attack as several ice arrows slipped through his barrage, streaking toward him.
Though they both used ice-attribute energy, Liu Wuxie was inferior to the Twin-Headed Serpent. He performed the Nine Heavenly Crane Dance and executed several nimble evasions to avoid the deadly assault.
Those ice arrows struck the nearby trees and shattered them.
Like that, the man and beast continued their relentless chase through the dense forest.
However, as the distance between them began to shrink, Liu Wuxie knew this wasn't a permanent solution. At this rate, he had no hope of outrunning the Twin-Headed Serpent.
His mind began to race through his options. Though he had considered resorting to the Heavenly Dragon Seal, he knew his chance of success was slim, and he might've taken the risk if the Twin-Headed Serpent was a pinnacle tenth-grade profound beast. But it was a spiritual beast.
As for the Annihilation Fist? He only had a ten percent chance of inflicting severe injuries to the Twin-Headed Serpent, and there was no hope of killing it. If he couldn't kill the Twin-Headed Serpent, he would be the one to die.
However, the Annihilation Fist was accompanied by severe backlash, and there might be dangers lurking in the surroundings. With no allies to rely on, executing Annihilation Fist would be a death sentence.
The situation grew increasingly dangerous for him, and he would be killed by the Twin-Headed Serpent before he could reach the mountain peak.
He finally realized what had killed the Jagged-Tooth Beast he had come across earlier.
The fact it couldn't chase up to the human before it after such a long pursuit only fueled the Twin-Headed Serpent's fury. With a loud hiss, the other head opened its massive jaws.