Mortal Grade High-Rank Mental Power

Lu Chuan pounced like a fierce tiger descending the mountain.

It was the Tiger Descending the Mountain from the Five Elements Stance Training. He had already cultivated the Five Elements Stance Training to Perfection; every move and stance was long since etched into his heart.

The Five Elements Stance Training itself had evolved from the Ancient Martial Arts Xingyi Five Elements Fist. It was not only a training method, but also a combat technique.

Now that Lu Chuan unleashed it, he naturally carried a certain momentum.

"Kill..."

With a low roar, Lu Chuan rushed to the Ink Cloud Blood Leopard's side. The dagger in his hand stabbed at the beast's waist like lightning.

For a moment, sparks flew in all directions.

The sharp dagger was like it had struck steel—it did not even pierce the fur.

Roar...

The Ink Cloud Blood Leopard let out a thunderous roar, and rolling Blood Fiend Energy rushed into his nostrils. Its massive body swayed before it suddenly swung a claw straight towards Lu Chuan. It was unbelievably fast, carrying a piercing whistle through the air that exploded like firecrackers.

Crackle... Bang...

Almost instinctively, Lu Chuan raised his hand to block.

The Ink Cloud Blood Leopard's claw smashed viciously against the dagger in his hand, unleashing a powerful impact.

The next moment, Lu Chuan felt agonizing pain course through his entire body as he was sent flying.

While still in midair, sweetness rose in his throat, and he violently spat out a mouthful of blood. He crashed into a large tree dozens of meters away.

The powerful impact shook the tree, so thick that it took two people to wrap their arms around it, violently.

It was only because Lu Chuan had cultivated Internal Strength and possessed a physical body countless times stronger than an ordinary person's.

If it had been before, that single blow would have killed him beyond doubt.

But he was not faring well now either. His Vital Blood churned inside his body, and pain burned across him as though his organs had been shifted out of place. He spat another mouthful of blood, and his face instantly turned deathly pale.

"Damn it, am I going to die here today?"

Watching the Ink Cloud Blood Leopard slowly approach him, Lu Chuan's eyes instantly turned bloodshot, his face twisting in ferocity.

A First-Order Peak Fierce Beast was simply too powerful. It was completely beyond what he could contend with at his current strength.

He could not escape, and he could not win.

At this moment, he felt despair as never before.

"I refuse to accept this!"

Lu Chuan growled. Feeling the thick bloody stench billowing from the Ink Cloud Blood Leopard's gaping maw, his eyes grew even redder, as though they had been filled with blood, turning both pupils into blood-red gems.

Unwillingness, fury, and countless other emotions swelled within his heart.

Roar, roar...

The Ink Cloud Blood Leopard growled, bloodthirsty ferocity gleaming in its eyes. It strode closer step by step, and its eyes, large as bronze bells, seemed to hold a hint of mockery.

Its gaping maw opened, ready to swallow Lu Chuan whole in one bite.

Boom!

At that moment, a sudden change erupted.

Under the fury and unwillingness, Lu Chuan's mind had been stretched to its utmost limit. Within his Sea of Consciousness, the Bronze Ancient Tree unexpectedly bloomed with dazzling light at that very instant.

Lu Chuan only felt as though thunder had exploded within his Sea of Consciousness. Boundless, piercing pain instantly swept through his entire body, blurring even his consciousness.

At that moment, a terrifying wave of Mental Shock surged forth like a Mountain Flood.

Boom... Bang...

The next moment, a bizarre scene unfolded.

The massive head of the Ink Cloud Blood Leopard that had been biting towards Lu Chuan suddenly exploded with a boom.

Like a bursting watermelon, countless red and white fragments splattered everywhere.

Its enormous body toppled stiffly to the ground, stopping just over a meter in front of Lu Chuan.

"What just happened?"

As he looked at the Ink Cloud Blood Leopard's corpse crashing to the ground, the boundless pain vanished instantly. Lu Chuan felt as though his entire body had been drained, leaving him incomparably weak.

He panted heavily as he stared at the Ink Cloud Blood Leopard's corpse before him, utterly dazed.

In truth, he had no idea what had happened just now.

Because in that instant, his consciousness had been wracked by unbearable pain. His mind had gone blank, as though he had lost all awareness, leaving him completely unaware of what had happened.

He merely vaguely felt that it should have something to do with the Bronze Ancient Tree.

With a thought, Lu Chuan immediately entered his Sea of Consciousness.

"Huh..."

Lu Chuan exclaimed in surprise. The bud on the Bronze Ancient Tree had actually grown into a branch as thick as a finger and about a meter long.

This should have been the result of killing the Ink Cloud Blood Leopard.

Worthy of being a First-Order Peak Fierce Beast—it had allowed the second branch to grow so much In an instant.

Yet other than that, Lu Chuan noticed nothing else out of the ordinary.

"What exactly is going on?"

Lu Chuan muttered to himself, glancing at the System Panel on the first branch.

[Name: Lu Chuan]

[Martial Dao: Ninth Rank Skin Refining Realm (Beginner)]

[Mental Power: Mortal Grade High Rank]

[Martial Arts: Five Elements Stance Training (Perfection, 390/2000), Basic Archery (Perfection, 219/1000)]

...

The entire System Panel had changed. Cultivation Methods and Martial Skills had been combined into Martial Arts.

At the same time, an additional Mental Power entry had appeared.

"Mental Power... that should mean spiritual power, right? Mortal Grade High Rank... Is that the rank of mental power? I wonder whether this level is high or low?"

Lu Chuan suddenly came to a realization. "Could the abnormality just now have happened because I awakened mental power, or because my mental power broke through?

"But how did the Ink Cloud Blood Leopard die? Could it be related to my mental power?"

Lu Chuan frowned slightly, unable to make head or tail of it.

"Forget it. If I can't figure it out, I won't think about it for now. I'll naturally learn the truth in the future."

Shaking his head slightly, Lu Chuan stopped dwelling on the matter. After inspecting his Sea of Consciousness once more and finding nothing else, he withdrew from it.

After resting for the time it took to drink a cup of tea, Lu Chuan recovered a little. He immediately picked up his dagger and began dissecting the Ink Cloud Blood Leopard's corpse.

Fortunately, after a Fierce Beast died, the Fierce Fiend Power inside its body dispersed or fused into its Crystal Core.

That made their flesh and hide far less tough than when they were alive. Otherwise, Lu Chuan feared he would not even have been able to dissect it.

Even so, it took him over an hour before he finally extracted the brute's Crystal Core.

The Crystal Core was the size of three fingers and radiated a dense Blood Glow.

It was crystal-clear and translucent.

"Worthy of being a First-Order Peak Fierce Beast. Even its Crystal Core is different—it is clearly not on the same level as the Rock Wolves I killed before."

After playing with the Ink Cloud Blood Leopard's Crystal Core for a while, Lu Chuan put it into his backpack.

Then he began extracting the Ink Cloud Blood Leopard's gallbladder.

As the saying went, a bear's heart and a leopard's gallbladder were great tonics. This Ink Cloud Blood Leopard was especially a First-Order Peak Fierce Beast, so its gallbladder was even more extraordinary. It would be of great benefit even to Martial Artists.

"What a pity. Fierce Beasts contain violent Fierce Fiend Power, and this leopard gallbladder is no exception. It can't be swallowed directly and can only be sold to those pharmaceutical companies.

"Otherwise, the gallbladder of a First-Order Peak Fierce Beast would definitely be a tremendous help to me."

Lu Chuan muttered to himself, secretly lamenting the waste.

He knew very well that selling Fierce Beast materials to the pharmaceutical companies in the Inner City meant suffering a huge loss.

After all, once those people removed the Fierce Fiend Power from the leopard gallbladder and resold it to Martial Artists, they could sell it for several times the price.

If they refined it into medicine, the profits would be even greater.

Unfortunately, methods such as removing Fierce Fiend Power were generally monopolized by the Inner City's pharmaceutical conglomerates. They were not something commoners like him could meddle with.