Chapter 120: Oh No! Look Who’s Here!
Chapter 120: Oh No! Look Who’s Here!
The illusory light and shadow, almost invisible, flew toward the Winged Tiger, and by the time the Winged Tiger noticed, it was already there.
The fur on the back of the Winged Tiger bristled in an instant, the sense of an imminent deadly threat making it dig out even the most deeply-hidden drops of its power.
The green Wind Astral burst forth again, poised to forcibly defend or at least mitigate some of the attack's potency.
However, when the Wind Astral was released, the Winged Tiger was shocked to find that the wind element around it had vanished and disappeared instantly. Indeed, the very energy that it was most proficient in controlling was nowhere to be found, and within a five-meter radius from it, there was none!
The next instant, however, it noticed a massively rich concentration of wind energy not far away. Unfortunately for the tiger...the water in a nearby well can't do anything to quench the immediate thirst.
From afar, Tang San's eyes flashed with a glimmer of pearly white light, a halo that flickered and vanished instantly.
The next moment, a shadowy, dark green streak had already penetrated the Winged Tiger's remaining eye.
The growls of the Winged Tiger stopped immediately; its throat produced nothing but a gurgling noise. Its robust body stiffened for a moment before crashing to the ground, blood gushing from all its orifices.
The shadow that had penetrated its eye had completely obliterated its brain, killing it instantly and leaving it dead beyond doubt.
Meanwhile, Wu Bingji had conjured a thick ice wall, and through the transparent barrier, he witnessed the Winged Tiger's collapse, though he was momentarily unaware of what he was seeing.
In the air, Cheng Zicheng managed to steady herself after much difficulty, but she was still dazed from the collision; she also hadn't quite grasped the situation.
Gu Li had just steadied himself from the onslaught of the fierce wind and rushed back. By the time he got back, however...the battle was over!
"Done!" Tang San's voice rang out, snapping everyone out of their shock. As they turned to look at Tang San again, their gazes couldn't help but change.
How did he do it? This was the question on everyone's minds.
Tang San explained, "I gathered energy and sent a compressed Wind Blade into its eye, and it shredded the tiger's brain. It was greatly weakened from the collision with senior brother Bingji and it couldn't dodge or defend itself."
Not that it could've dodged or defended anyway. What Tang San had used was not a Wind Blade but a new, personal development—a Wind Needle. The energy concentration of a Wind Needle was many times greater than that of an Ice Needle. Thus, even Tang San's spiritual power needed time to accomplish this.
Had his spiritual power not made a qualitative leap, this level of control would have been almost impossible. Even Tang San felt some fear when the Wind Needle took shape. Thankfully, as it was guided by his spiritual power, the Wind Needle was perfectly precise as it struck.
At the same time, he tried his spiritual control for the first time. After merging with the Celestial Fox Vision, he renamed his foremost white bloodline imprint the Discerning Eye of Heaven.
Unlike the Discerning Heart's Gaze, which offered him some vague awareness of the surroundings, and the upgraded Discerning Eye, which could see various elements in the air, the further-evolved Discerning Eye of Heaven could even control these identified elements within a certain distance, regardless of the element type.
Thus, in that instant, Tang San had used the Discerning Eye of Heaven to disperse the wind element around the Winged Tiger. This was followed by the piercing Wind Needle, which struck the fatal blow.
With the penetrating power of the Wind Needle, even the Wind Astral might not have been able to withstand it anyway. But for safety and as a little experiment, Tang San activated the Discerning Eye of Heaven for the first time. The effect was even better than he had imagined. A sixth-order Winged Tiger, dead in one shot!
Only now did Gu Li and Wu Bingji begin to breathe easier. The battle had been extremely tense for them. Only now could they relax.
He turned to Tang San and gave a thumbs-up. Because of the ice wall, he couldn't see how Tang San had done it. But regardless, the Winged Tiger was dead. There was no doubt about that. They had indeed taken down a Winged Tiger.
It was not a fully mature seventh-order one, true, but it also wasn't a fifth-order baby. Rather, it was an intermediate sixth-order Winged Tiger.
Every bit of this demonic beast was a valuable treasure. Although the exact value varied depending on the beast's order, the difference was not all that important. Its fur and most other parts had the same value regardless of the order. Moreover, this Winged Tiger's fur was almost intact, without any damage, which made it even more valuable—not quite ten naturae coins, but probably eight.
Damn, we've struck it rich! Even someone as composed as Wu Bingji understood this was a fortune.
Furthermore, their mission for this trip was completed, and the gains were immense.
"You've really killed it. Little Tang, you're amazing," Du Bai exclaimed in surprise, sitting on a tree branch.
He was the only one who had seen how Tang San had made his move.
He had watched from the tree as Tang San gathered his strength, even vaguely noticing concentric circles of green light converging toward Tang San's palm. The light was continuously compressed during the process. The final projection was a shadowy, dark green light, almost indistinguishable at night. Even with his excellent vision, he could only discern it as a vague streak of light.
At that moment, Du Bai had felt something special. Tang San had been facing away from him, yet when he had launched that attack, Du Bai had suddenly felt a weirdly familiar sensation emanating from him.
Then, the Winged Tiger had died.
Tang San approached Wu Bingji and Gu Li, asking, "Are you two alright?"
Wu Bingji smiled, "Apart from some energy depletion and nervousness, we're fine. I need to quickly deal with the body to prevent the scent of blood from spreading. Our mission is complete. This is the outer area of the Winged Tiger's territory. We should leave tonight and return once we've taken care of the body. We can't stay here any longer, just in case..."
Just as he was saying this, suddenly, a cry of alarm rang out, "Oh no!"
Everyone turned to look and saw that Du Bai had fallen off from his tree branch.
A flash of orange-yellow light, and the speed of the Golden Roc Transformation was fully exhibited for everyone to see. Almost immediately before Du Bai hit the ground, Cheng Zicheng caught him.
"What's the matter with you? Can't you even sit still?" Cheng Zicheng chided.
"It's not that..." Du Bai's voice trembled violently. Cheng Zicheng then noticed Du Bai's eyes emitting a faint white light, and tears streamed down his face.
"D-danger, t-there's danger," Du Bai said in a trembling voice.
Seeing this, Tang San's face turned pale.
The Celestial Fox Vision is an eye of fate; what does such a strong reaction mean?
Previously, when the sixth-order Winged Tiger arrived, the Celestial Fox Vision had not reacted this way, indicating no significant danger.
But at this very moment, Tang San felt a noticeable heat in his eyes, a sensation of tears about to emerge, his scalp tingled, and it felt like a cold breeze swept across his spine.
"Not good!"
Without hesitation, Wu Bingji immediately collected the corpse of the Winged Tiger nearby and shouted, "Zicheng, take Du Bai and leave; we need to retreat."
Just at that moment, a deafening roar erupted, blasting away the leaves of the trees in its path.
The five people who were preparing to flee the scene all felt their heart skip a beat when they heard this roar filled with rage and emotion. All of them, except for Tang San, felt their legs turn limp.
At this moment, they didn't need to guess to understand what was happening.
They had killed the little tiger and...the big tiger was here.