Mortal: Junior Sister Song Yu

After getting away from Bai Haozhi and his group, the two headed towards the northeast corner of the secret realm.

According to the map compiled by Song Yu, the area of ​​the Cold Pool was marked as "extremely dangerous" and blood-red. The annotation was: not fully explored, there are records of high-level demonic beasts appearing there, but in the past, disciples of the three sects who could come out of there alive would gain great rewards.

Risks and opportunities coexist.

"Senior brother, this place... are we really going there?"

Song Yu looked at the blood-red markings on the map with some worry.

Fortune favors the bold.

Li Xiao's eyes were firm. "If we want to stand out in the secret realm, we can't take the usual path. But don't worry, we'll be careful. Junior sister, you can set up two concealment formations along the way in advance. If we encounter a danger that we can't defeat, we'll retreat into the formations and use the terrain to our advantage."

"Um!"

As the two were talking, they had already stepped onto the edge of the northeastern region.

The terrain here is complex, with towering mountains that rise and fall like a dragon's spine, and dense forests that almost block out the sun.

Sunlight struggled to penetrate the layers of branches and leaves, casting fragmented and eerily mottled shadows on the ground.

A faint, malevolent aura permeated the air, mixed with a faint smell of blood and decay, like a lingering infection, causing even the flow of magical power to become slightly sluggish.

Li Xiao's divine sense was raised to its limit, and no movement within a half-mile radius could escape his perception.

He keenly noticed that there were some huge claw marks on the trees, deep in the wood, which looked ancient but still exuded a fierce aura.

"Be careful, there are signs of a large creature here," he whispered a warning.

Sure enough, after traveling no more than five miles, they encountered a Shadow Leopard at the peak of the first tier.

This beast was ghostly in appearance, perfectly concealed in the shadows, but to Li Xiao, whose divine sense was powerful, its stealth was full of loopholes.

He didn't even have to let Song Yu make a move. The Gale-Splitting Golden Blade swept up a sky full of blade light, like a golden storm passing by. The Shadow Leopard had just pounced out of the shadows when it was shredded into fist-sized pieces.

"Senior brother's sword is getting faster and faster," Song Yu praised, his eyes shining with admiration.

"Practice makes perfect." Li Xiao sheathed his sword, but his brows furrowed slightly.

As they ventured deeper, they encountered two more swamp crocodiles and a saber-toothed tiger cub.

Li Xiao was in charge of the main attack, while Song Yu used water-based magic to assist. Their coordinated efforts were so smooth that they quickly killed the monster.

But Li Xiao's expression changed when he dealt with the carcass of the saber-toothed tiger cub.

He discovered that beneath the young beast's fur, there was a faint flow of extremely pure spiritual energy, somewhat similar to his own spiritual energy attribute.

"Something's not right," Li Xiao said in a deep voice. "A first-tier demonic beast shouldn't have such pure and condensed spiritual energy. This cub's bloodline... is extraordinary. Its parents... are probably..."

Before he finished speaking, a terrifying pressure, seemingly from the ancient primordial era, suddenly descended from the sky!

The spiritual pressure was like a mountain pressing down, so heavy that it seemed to freeze the air. Li Xiao and Song Yu's breathing caught in their throats for a moment, and their bones creaked under the weight.

"Run!" Li Xiao's pupils shrank suddenly. Without thinking, he grabbed Song Yu and activated the Wild Goose Technique to its limit. His figure transformed into an arrow released from a bow and rushed forward desperately. Every step he took left a half-foot-deep footprint on the hard ground.

Almost the instant they left their spot, a blinding white light tore through the sky, like a divine blade descending upon the world, accompanied by a piercing shriek, and struck precisely where the two had just stood!

"Boom—!"

With a deafening roar, a terrifying trench, several meters deep and over ten meters long, was cleaved through the ground!

The edges of the ravine were as smooth as a mirror, and the soil and rocks were instantly scorched by the high temperature into a glassy state, still emitting wisps of white smoke.

"It was...it was a level three peak saber-toothed tiger! We killed its cubs!"

Song Yu glanced back and was immediately startled, gasping for breath and losing all color in her face.

It was a colossal creature nearly five zhang long, its entire body as white as frost, without a single blemish.

Only on its broad back grows a row of sharp, upright bone spurs, each three feet long, gleaming with a chilling, terrifying light.

Its eyes were a deep, abyssal blue, its fangs were exposed, and the terrifying spiritual pressure emanating from its body was many times stronger than the demonic ape it had encountered before!

Even more terrifying is that the bone spurs on its back can detach from its body and fly off, each one comparable to a full-force strike from a high-grade magic weapon, so fast that even divine sense cannot catch them!

"roar--!"

The saber-toothed tiger let out a roar filled with the pain of losing its cub and boundless rage.

The sound waves were no longer invisible, but transformed into visible white ripples that swept across all directions!

Li Xiao and Song Yu were both struck as if by a heavy hammer, letting out muffled groans. They felt as if a huge rock had been thrown into their sea of ​​consciousness, stirring up huge waves. A tearing pain shot through their brains, and stars flashed before their eyes.

This is the innate divine power contained in the bloodline of a level three peak demon beast—Tiger Roars Through the Mountains and Forests, which can directly attack the soul and cause the enemy to lose their senses in an instant!

"Damn it! I was too careless!" Li Xiao was filled with regret. Although he had sensed something was wrong, he hadn't expected his opponent to arrive so quickly and be so strong!

A level three peak demonic beast is equivalent to a mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, and they are simply not capable of contending with it at present.

In that brief moment of distraction, the saber-toothed tiger unleashed tremendous power from its limbs, its massive body transforming into a streak of white lightning, leaping tens of feet with each step, instantly catching up to the two.

The bone spurs on its back emitted a buzzing sound, and three of them shot out simultaneously in a triangular shape, blocking all of Li Xiao's evasive routes. They were so fast that only three white afterimages remained.

"Junior sister, split up and run! I'll lure it away!" Li Xiao's eyes were bloodshot as she shoved Song Yu, trying to use herself as bait.

"No!" Song Yu shook her head resolutely. She grabbed Li Xiao with her other hand, and with a turn of her magic, she instantly created thirteen layers of thick water curtains in front of her.

As the bone spikes shot in, the water curtain shattered like fragile glass, from the first to the thirteenth layer, one after another with a series of "bangs," but ultimately bought Li Xiao a critical moment to catch his breath.

Li Xiao's eyes were bloodshot, and the remaining spiritual energy within his body burned wildly in his meridians as he let out an indomitable roar: "Golden Blade of Gale - Golden Flame Piercing the Sun!"

An unprecedentedly condensed blade of light, like a burning golden rainbow, tore through the air and slashed straight at the saber-toothed tiger's head.

This strike consumed sixty percent of his magical power; it was a desperate gamble!

However, the saber-toothed tiger's deep blue eyes were full of contempt. It didn't even bother to dodge, but simply raised its paw and slapped forward.

"Bang!"

That blade of light, powerful enough to split mountains and shatter rocks, was pulverized by a single claw!

Golden-red flames splattered everywhere, landing on its snow-white fur, but not a single hair was scorched. Instead, it opened its mouth and sucked in all the flames, turning them into a stream of fire, which it swallowed whole, as if it had only eaten an appetizer.

"The gap... is too big."

A deep sense of powerlessness welled up in Li Xiao's heart. This was the first time in his two lifetimes that he had so clearly felt the despair brought about by the crushing power of his cultivation level.

This strike seemed to have thoroughly enraged the saber-toothed tiger. It abandoned its attack on Song Yu, turned its massive body, and pounced straight at Li Xiao.

In its eyes, this human cultivator with the golden fire spiritual root and sharp aura was the culprit who killed its child and posed a far greater threat than the female cultivator with the water spiritual root.

"Senior brother!" Song Yu cried out in alarm. Just as he was about to cast a spell to save him, a white whip-like shadow swept across with a piercing sonic boom. It was the saber-toothed tiger's steel-like tail! Song Yu was forced to dodge in a sorry state.

In that brief moment of hesitation, the saber-toothed tiger pounced on Li Xiao, its gaping maw snapping open, a stench wafting towards him, its gleaming white fangs aimed at his neck, and it bit down hard!

At the critical moment, Li Xiao activated the heavy water that his master had given Song Yu to save his life.

After entering the secret realm, Song Yu, worried about his safety, insisted on giving him half of his own.

hum!

A deep blue light shield instantly rose up, barely blocking the saber-toothed tiger's fatal bite.

But with a crisp "crack," the light shield was instantly covered with spiderweb-like cracks, groaning under the strain.

At the same time, a terrifying recoil force traveled back along the heavy water, causing the saber-toothed tiger to feel excruciating pain in its mouth and let out an angry growl.

But this light shield obviously couldn't withstand a second attack.

"Junior sister, run! Don't worry about me!"

Li Xiao roared sharply, his voice hoarse from the exertion.

Song Yu gritted her teeth, a poignant yet resolute glint in her clear, beautiful eyes: "No! I said, if we die, we die together!"

Her magical power erupted without reservation, and a drop of crimson life essence blood was forced out from between her eyebrows, with the magical power surging upwards along her meridians.

She actually planned to burn her life essence and forcefully activate her most treasured talisman, even at the cost of her cultivation regressing and her foundation being damaged, to deliver a fatal blow to this beast!

The saber-toothed tiger, with its keen senses, immediately perceived the deadly threat emanating from Song Yu. It temporarily abandoned Li Xiao, turned its head and stared intently at Song Yu, its deep blue eyes revealing a look of solemnity for the first time.

At this critical moment of life and death, Li Xiao, who was pinned under the tiger's jaws, suddenly caught a glimpse of an extremely subtle spatial distortion not far behind the saber-toothed tiger.

The distorted area was only three feet square, like ripples in the hot air of a summer afternoon; if you didn't look closely, you wouldn't notice anything unusual.

Li Xiao's heart skipped a beat. He remembered that when he was running for his life, his divine sense seemed to have detected this anomaly, but at the time the situation was critical, so he just thought it was an illusion caused by fluctuations in spiritual energy!

Now it seems that it was not an illusion at all!

"That's... a trapping formation left behind by ancient cultivators?!" A crazy thought exploded in his mind.