Beast Tamer

On a dark, windy night, it was the perfect time to kill and plunder.

A strand of Sword Qi came flying through the air, as pure and flawless as a white crescent moon, yet the energy contained within it was not the slightest bit weak.

Although Beast Armor retained only a trace of self-awareness in his berserk state, what he gained in exchange was a leap in physical prowess. Facing the Sword Energy Moon Blade shooting toward him like a startled swan, he leaned backward directly, planting all four limbs on the ground in reverse. This incomprehensible movement helped him evade Ling Mu's supposedly certain strike.

Ling Mu had long anticipated the enemy's strength. He was not discouraged when that attack was perfectly evaded. His footwork shifted in rapid succession as he flashed forward like lightning, intending to rely on the sharpness of the Shadowless Sword to break through this strange opponent's defenses.

"Brother Mu, I'll help you!"

Seeing Ling Mu choose close combat, Nie Xiaoyu immediately understood. Her golden-thread whip danced without pause, attacks coming from all directions steadily compressing Beast Armor's room to dodge. In the back-and-forth, Ling Mu had already closed to within three steps of him.

Only then did Ling Mu finally see the mysterious pursuer's true face. Terrifying scars crisscrossed his face like ravines, his blood-red eyes glinting with ferocity. He stood hunched over, like a genuine wild beast.

"Good heavens, what did he eat to become like this? I thought he was relying on pills like the Blood Demon Pill, but now it looks like he used some special method to bestialize himself, sacrificing part of his original consciousness in exchange for greater physical strength."

In a very short time, Ling Mu roughly analyzed the assassin before him. The Ancient Thorn Armor was still on cooldown, while the enemy's physical body was exceptionally overbearing. If he wanted to win, he could only exploit the weakness of his deficient consciousness and simple mind.

"Never thought there'd come a day when I'd have to crush my opponent with intelligence."

His mouth showed no mercy, and neither did his hands. Ling Mu's sword thrust out without pause, black sword blossoms repeatedly striking Beast Armor's body and splashing up flowers of blood.

But Beast Armor, after his berserk bestial transformation, clearly did not care about such wounds. Instead, he fearlessly seized the instant Ling Mu struck, turning his hands into claws and leaving two bloody, mangled wounds across Ling Mu's abdomen and arms.

For a time, the two were evenly matched, locked in a battle neither could break away from.

Beast Armor's moves appeared chaotic and disorderly, but every strike actually followed the most primal hunting instincts, each one aimed straight at vital points. His hands were like the claws of a fierce tiger or hungry wolf, terrifyingly powerful.

Ling Mu flashed aside, barely avoiding another claw strike. The trees behind him were not so fortunate. Under that claw, a thick trunk instantly shattered, and the falling branches crashed heavily onto the ground, raising enormous clouds of dust.

A black shadow shot out from the dust filling the sky and landed beside Nie Xiaoyu. It was Ling Mu, now disheveled and somewhat bedraggled. Although the wounds on his body had temporarily stopped bleeding under the effects of emergency Healing Pills, he still could not move freely anytime soon.

"Too careless, too careless... I thought this guy could only act on instinct after bestializing, and that getting close and relying on the advantage of a weapon would let me break his defenses. Never expected his hands to be as hard and sharp as alloy steel claws. I can't gain any advantage at all."

Ling Mu's mind raced at top speed. This half-man, half-beast pursuer seemed to have no weaknesses. His agile movements, coupled with a pair of indestructible iron claws, truly left one at a loss.

"Brother Mu, have you noticed that every time your sword hits him, his eyes shrink? It only lasts for an instant, but it happens every single time he's struck."

Xiaoyu's words awakened the dreamer. Only such a meticulous girl could notice such an inconspicuous detail, and it caused a bold conjecture to surface in Ling Mu's mind.

"Could it be that he didn't lose consciousness because of bestialization at all? Could he be sharing one body with the consciousness of a beast? So every time he's injured, his original consciousness reacts to the pain?"

Ling Mu was greatly startled. Such a situation was indeed unheard of, but given the current circumstances, only this explanation made sense.

"I feel like I've seen this situation somewhere before. Let me think... Right, I remember now. This isn't a cultivation technique, nor a pill, much less a bloodline talent. It's soul symbiosis achieved through the sacrifice of a Bloodthirsty Rat. He's a Beast Tamer!"

Nie Xiaoyu frowned and carefully thought about where she had encountered this unusual situation. At last, she remembered reading about this bizarre fighting method in an academy book that recorded ancient schools of practice.

"Beast Tamer? What kind of profession is that?"

Ling Mu had no concept of this unfamiliar term. In his impression, the Monster Beasts of the Immortal Realm were mostly savage and violent, utterly impossible to tame. Even the occasional tamed Monster Beast was used by large sects as a mount. He had never heard of anyone fighting through Monster Beasts.

"It's normal that you don't know, Brother Mu. This school of combat disappeared centuries ago. Nowadays, the most orthodox path in the Immortal Realm is undoubtedly people like us, cultivating World Origin Energy and gaining power through the transformation of the dantian. But over countless years, many cultivators have blazed a different trail and likewise obtained formidable strength. Beast Tamers are one of them."

After hearing Xiaoyu's explanation, Ling Mu nodded in agreement. The great world was vast, and the Dao's methods were countless. Although the current cultivation path was the mainstream, it was by no means the only road leading to the Great Dao. The Monster Beast race and the Outer Realm Devils, for instance, both had their own cultivation systems. Seen that way, the existence of Beast Tamers was nothing strange.

"That ancient book did not have detailed records of Beast Tamers. It only said they could use various methods to control Monster Beasts, or even share bodies with them in battle. The Storm Wolf from before must have been controlled by him, which was why it came to the outskirts of this mountain range."

The two had no further information about Beast Tamers, so for now they could only take one step at a time. After exchanging a glance, Ling Mu drew his sword again and charged at the Beast Tamer, while Nie Xiaoyu continued trying to use her long whip to seal off his movements.

The two humans and one beast erupted into fierce battle once more. Ling Mu brought the Lineage swordsmanship to its utmost limit, displaying the full strength of the Half-step Core Formation Realm. Nie Xiaoyu seemed to share a telepathic understanding with him, and every one of Beast Armor's evasions met with the obstruction of her whip.

Gradually, the two began to find the knack for fighting berserk Beast Armor. Since their souls coexisted, the sacrificed Monster Beast was simply taking temporary control of the body. As long as the human's primary consciousness remained, its sensitivity to pain would still affect the execution of its combat techniques.

Having grasped the crux of the problem, Ling Mu swiftly adjusted his tactics. He no longer sought a one-hit kill. Instead, he struck again and again and again, refusing to miss any chance to injure his opponent. His all-out assault left Ling Mu with no time to care about his own defense, but fortunately, he was not fighting alone. Whenever Beast Armor's iron claws came at him, a whip shadow would always come to his rescue.

The two worked together with perfect tacit understanding, as though they had fought side by side countless times before. As time dragged on, Beast Armor's wounds increased. Blood streamed uncontrollably over his entire body, making him look like a figure of blood, horrifying to the extreme.

"Roar!"

Finally realizing that this could not continue, Beast Armor forced Ling Mu back with a claw strike, flashed backward, and widened the distance between himself and the two of them. The blood-red color faded from his eyes, and he straightened upright.

"I never expected that even after sacrificing the Bloodthirsty Rat and completely handing my body over to it, I still couldn't deal with you. I have to say, you've made me very satisfied."

This was the first time Beast Armor had spoken. At this moment, he had fully recovered his original consciousness. Bathed in blood, he looked at Ling Mu and Nie Xiaoyu as though they were prey to be toyed with, making people shudder even more than his previous berserk state.

"But next, I won't give you another chance. If you want to blame someone, blame yourselves for offending someone you shouldn't have!"