After flying for more than a dozen li, the two of them landed in a clearing at the edge of the mountain forest.
"Xiao'er, this Pegasus is around 1,500 years old. It's perfect for you," Chen Yu said to Chen Xiaojun, a faint smile appearing on his face.
The Pegasus before them had a silver diamond-shaped gem on its forehead, one of the symbols of a Pegasus.
It was tall and powerfully built, with strong limbs and a coat of pure snow-white without a single stray hair. It gleamed as if draped in silver threads, and behind it trailed a bundle of white tail hair. With just a light flick, it flashed before your eyes like a streak of silver lightning. It truly was extraordinarily elegant.
A Pegasus's age was relatively easy to distinguish. Every five hundred years, a Pegasus grew one golden stripe, first on its wings. This horse's pair of white wings had three golden edges, and the third was rather faint, clearly having only just appeared not long ago. So it was a little over 1,500 years old.
If it had reached ten thousand years, stripes would grow elsewhere, and its diamond-shaped gem would also turn gold.
Chen Xiaojun looked at the Pegasus, whose eyes shone with unyielding light. Even while suppressed, even while badly injured, even while facing certain death, it kept staggering to its feet. It fell, then struggled back up, all four limbs stubbornly standing firm.
Speaking of which, according to humanity's classification of horses, Pegasus belonged to the warmblood type. Though spirited, it had a gentle temperament. But at this moment, it embodied what it meant to have pride in its bones!
Chen Xiaojun fell silent...
"Grandpa, can you let it go? I want to try on my own."
"Xiao'er, you're only a rank 10 Soul Scholar!"
"Grandpa, only by doing what others cannot can I live up to your expectations. If it were completely uninjured, perhaps I wouldn't have a chance of winning, but this Pegasus has already been badly hurt. Of course, I won't force it recklessly."
Chen Yu looked at the persistence in Chen Xiaojun's eyes and, for a moment, did not know what to say.
"Grandpa, because of the two-wolf battle the night before last, I still haven't had the chance to challenge a Thousand-Year Spirit Beast. I want to try!" Chen Xiaojun insisted.
Chen Yu silently released the suppression. Streaks of Sword Light Seals the Sky locked heaven and earth, and the sword light of Sword Light Seals the Sky transformed into an oval energy shield more than two hundred meters wide, enveloping Chen Xiaojun and the Pegasus within it.
Horses understood human nature. It understood. With a "neigh... neigh..." it raised its front hooves slightly and stared tightly at Chen Xiaojun dozens of meters away.
Quite a few bloodstreaks faintly flowed across its body. It must have been blasted away and shaken down earlier, then kept forcing itself up under Chen Yu's suppression. Its internal organs were clearly injured, its hide split open, and blood seeped out.
But on the battlefield, horses had always been that brave, charging into enemy lines without ever retreating.
Cyclones beneath its hooves slowly rose. Its wings spread. Horse Tramples Wind Swirl was a skill awakened by all members of the White Feather Horse clan. As their superior spirit beast, the Pegasus had elevated that innate talent into Wind Swirl Heavenly Shield, covering its entire body with the wind swirl. This was practically the opening move of the Pegasus clan.
The distance of several dozen meters vanished in an instant. It appeared before Chen Xiaojun and rammed straight toward him.
Chen Xiaojun opened with his three-piece set. Holding the Wind Phoenix Sword, he used Sword Shadow Body, activated the sword step Square Inch Lotus Sway, sprang backward, then flashed forward to the right. His right hand followed the momentum into Swallow Skims Water, his sword technique flowing like drifting clouds and running water as the Wind Phoenix Sword chopped toward the horse's front leg.
With a "crack," the sword was knocked away. It could not break through the wind astral light screen, and the web between his thumb and forefinger went numb.
Chen Xiaojun used the force to retreat, while the horse's speed was also halted. The Pegasus's wings danced—Wing Wind Cut. More than a dozen wind blades sliced over, dense and sharp. The skill Wind Blade was something almost all wind-type spirit beasts knew, a basic skill.
Chen Xiaojun continued swaying left and right with Square Inch Lotus Sway, like Lingbo Steps, dodging the wind blades. Starfall Thunder Strike erupted as he gripped his sword with both hands and slashed at the horse's neck. His sword move was like the wind, swift as Thunder.
The Pegasus reared up on both hooves and stomped down heavily, like Mount Tai crushing down from above. With a bang, Chen Xiaojun was knocked back several meters.
A Thousand-Year Spirit Beast was still too much for him. Even with the Pegasus badly injured, the gap in Soul Power and physique was still rather large. His elder brother Chen Jianjun was rank 30, yet against a 1,500-year Lightning Wind Shadow Peng, he had still fallen into a disadvantage.
The Pegasus pressed its advantage without mercy and continued stomping over. Chen Xiaojun hurriedly turned sideways. Though he was not stomped on, a two-meter-wide pit was left behind, broken stones cracking outward in rings.
As the Pegasus's shockwave rippled out, Chen Xiaojun borrowed the force of the Horse Tramples Wind Swirl vibration through the ground and flipped diagonally behind the horse's back. Great Serpent Turns Over and Chops Down Sword flipped three times in succession, carrying the force of rotation as he chopped downward with the momentum.
Great Serpent Turns Over and Chops Down Sword was a killing move Chen Xiaojun had learned from his memories of Gai Nie in Qin's Moon. Back when he watched the animation, he had felt this move was extremely sharp and ferocious, directly knocking Wei Zhuang's Sharktooth from his hand, and it had left a deep impression on him.
As for Great Serpent Turns Over and Chops Down Sword, in this soul master world, Chen Xiaojun truly had the ability to execute it.
Though he still could not manage five consecutive downward chops, three connected smoothly. The sword moves flowed like water, yet also resembled a fierce beast striking, making them difficult to withstand.
One slash, two slashes... Wind Swirl Heavenly Shield, broken!
On the third slash, blood sprayed. "Neeeigh..." In that instant, the Pegasus turned slightly sideways, avoiding its neck, but a wound dozens of centimeters long and deep enough to show bone was left on the right side of its body.
Under the pain, the Pegasus spun its body, but its left wing turned into a blade and slashed toward Chen Xiaojun. It was worthy of being a superior spirit beast; its combat power, experience, and reactions were all outstanding.
Unfortunately, in that split second, Chen Xiaojun reversed his grip and swept his sword back to block the wing, taking the chance to use Swift Body Flying Duck and continue his assault. Downward Chopping Sword, Sweeping Dragon Form, Turning Body Sword Raise, Face-Splitting Form, Reverse Rising Sword—he stared at the wound and attacked madly. His sword danced faster and faster, like a silver dragon circling around it, flipping up and down, coiling left and right, not giving the Pegasus the slightest chance to catch its breath.
His sword technique and sword steps combined perfectly, the moves fierce and domineering yet pleasing to the eye. Once a massive spirit beast like the Pegasus was forced into close quarters, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse. The clanging sounds rang out without end, and several more crisscrossing wounds were added.
The final move was a wild horizontal sword slash, cutting out a crescent sword qi. The Pegasus wrapped its body with both wings, risking even heavier injury as more than ten spirals of wind coiled around its whole body like chains of wind, circling to dissipate the force. It forcibly received the Wind Phoenix Sword. This was its innate skill, Fierce Wind Rebound. It bounced away the crescent sword qi and pulled open the distance.
The Pegasus slowly retreated until it was more than a hundred meters away. Its Wind Swirl Heavenly Shield had already been shattered to pieces, and it was drenched in blood. It knew it could not go on like this. It had to end the fight quickly.
Once more, it launched a resolute attack. This time, it no longer used Wind Swirl Heavenly Shield to cover its entire body, because it did not have enough Soul Power left. Its injuries were severe, and its body was extremely weak.
Beneath the Solar Yang, blood scattered through the air during its high-speed charge, its wounds tearing open. The diamond-shaped gem on its forehead shone with a pale white glow, and the Pegasus's lustrous white fur also reflected white light.
It split into two horse bodies. Innate skill—Light Splitting Shadow Severing. One horse ran with the momentum of mountains collapsing and seas surging, Soul Power concentrated in both wings, fully revealing a posture that could cut through all things.
As for your Recommendation Tickets and bookmarks, I'm rubbing my hands in anticipation, hehehe.
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