Wind-Howling Ferocious Tiger?
This wasn't an ordinary tiger, but a powerful Ferocious Beast that could reach Tier Four once fully grown!
Its opponent, the Crimson Flame Ferocious Lion, was no pushover either. Its strength was on par with the Wind-Howling Ferocious Tiger.
Someone had actually filmed their battle and posted it online for free!
With so many views, the video couldn't be fake. Chen Mochuan's spirits lifted, and he immediately entered the immersive video, whose title was powerfully striking.
The instant his consciousness merged with the scene, the view before him shifted rapidly, and all five senses sprang to life.
Hot, dry air carried the stench of sulfur and scorched earth into his nostrils. Waves of heat shimmered above the crimson, cracked ground. Gravel snapped and crackled under the scorching temperatures, as if letting out tiny cries of anguish.
At the edge of his vision, jagged black mountains wavered in the distorted heat.
This was the Scorching Wind Rift Valley near Black Rock Volcano, a high-risk Wilderness Zone often mentioned online.
Chen Mochuan looked around and quickly spotted the silhouettes of two enormous figures facing off in the distance.
He immediately zoomed in and moved to the center of the valley. Only then could he make out the two colossal beasts clearly.
The Wind-Howling Ferocious Tiger stood tall, its blue-gray fur gleaming with a cold, metallic sheen. Gravel rose at its feet, swept up by invisible currents of air into a shrieking, swirling vortex.
Its opponent, the Crimson Flame Ferocious Lion, had a thick mane like surging lava, radiating fiery light. Its amber, slit-pupiled eyes fixed on the tiger, and with every breath, sparks burst between its teeth, hot enough to set the air alight.
The battle began with a deafening roar from the lion!
Chen Mochuan saw only two blurs of light collide and cross. He couldn't make out any of the fight. He immediately realized that the two beasts were simply moving too fast for someone of his meager strength to follow.
He hurriedly slowed the video playback by a great deal and dragged the progress bar back to the start of the battle. Only then could he see the fight in full.
The Crimson Flame Ferocious Lion became a blazing white-hot fireball and pounced. The Wind-Howling Ferocious Tiger retreated swiftly on the wind, but the wide-ranging flames still scorched its shoulder. The stench of burning fur, mixed with its crackling and popping, pierced Chen Mochuan's ears.
The lion pressed its advantage, jaws gaping as it unleashed another pillar of white-hot flame. The tiger evaded by the narrowest margin. The fire shot past it and melted the rock, plowing a boiling trench of glass through the ground.
Darting and weaving, the tiger also commanded the wind, seizing an opening to send a blade of wind at the lion. It sliced a gash into the beast's flank, but no blood flowed.
The tiger could command the wind and had a more agile fighting style. It refused to engage the lion at close quarters, instead keeping it at a distance and occasionally striking back with a blade of wind. Though it seemed to be at a slight disadvantage, only a small amount of fur had been scorched.
The lion was in much the same state. Fine cuts from the wind blades marked its flesh, but with its protective flames around it, these were only surface wounds.
The beasts had traded hundreds of blows, but neither had used a killing move. The battle had settled into a stalemate.
Just as Chen Mochuan began to think this was a drawn-out contest of endurance, the tide of battle turned.
The Crimson Flame Ferocious Lion, which had been wary of the wind blades until now, suddenly changed its strategy. It ignored three blades rushing at its flank, adjusting its posture just enough to keep them from striking vital points. Then it powered through them, lunged straight at the tiger, and swung a forepaw wreathed in scorching flames, slamming it into the tiger's massive head.
The tiger let out a miserable howl from the blow and hurriedly retreated on the wind. But most of the fur on its face had already been burned away, and even the character "王" on its forehead was left incomplete.
The wounded Wind-Howling Ferocious Tiger flew into a rage. Its tail, like an iron whip, smashed a massive black boulder three times a man's height to pieces. The currents around it shrieked as they condensed into blades of wind, hurling countless shattered rocks at the Crimson Flame Ferocious Lion in a storm of debris.
The Crimson Flame Ferocious Lion showed no fear. Blinding flames erupted around it, melting the incoming rocks and wind blades one after another as it roared and charged the tiger again.
But suddenly, it seemed to sense something was wrong. Its advance halted at once, and it rolled across the ground. An almost impossibly swift, invisible blade of wind swept in from behind, grazing its scalp before tearing a deep gash across the earth.
Whoosh!
The lion's proud lava-like mane was sliced off at the roots. A line of blood burst open along its neck, and the wind blade cleaved through its protective flames. Blood sprayed across half its face in an instant.
The furious lion blazed with dazzling white light. Ignoring the many wind blades attacking it, it transformed into a falling star and hurtled through the air at the tiger.
Just as the Crimson Flame Ferocious Lion's lethal flames came within three meters of the tiger's head, a sudden change erupted!
"Roar—Vmmm!!!"
The muscles in the Wind-Howling Ferocious Tiger's throat twisted like steel wires, sending a shockwave of sound and fierce pressure sweeping across the battlefield!
Where the sound wave passed, sand and stones flew. The flames covering the Crimson Flame Ferocious Lion collapsed with a boom, and its attack froze in midair. It crashed to the ground like a statue.
The tiger sprang forward and tore into the lion, grievously wounding it.
At last, the Crimson Flame Ferocious Lion fled in disarray, howling in pain. The Wind-Howling Ferocious Tiger raised its head and roared at the sky, proclaiming its victory to every living thing nearby.
Yet as the tiger lowered its head to lick its wounds, it suddenly looked up. Its amber eyes locked onto the spot where Chen Mochuan was!
The gaze carried the savage Killing Intent of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood. The instant Chen Mochuan was targeted, a chill shot from his spine to the crown of his head. His body seemed bound by an invisible force, and he couldn't move a muscle!
But in the next second, the Killing Intent in the tiger's eyes gave way to utter terror. A plaintive mew, like a kitten's, squeezed from its throat, and it tucked its tail between its legs and fled in panic...
The scene froze there and abruptly ended.
Only after that dizzying plunge from one extreme to the other did Chen Mochuan come back to his senses and realize he was inside an immersive video.
The experience had felt far too real. For a moment, he'd been under the illusion that he was actually there, and mistakenly thought the Wind-Howling Ferocious Tiger had truly fixed its gaze on him.
He immediately understood that the Wind-Howling Ferocious Tiger hadn't been looking at him at all, but at the powerful figure hidden nearby who had filmed the immersive video.
He hadn't expected the person behind the camera to be so powerful. The Wind-Howling Ferocious Tiger had just defeated a mighty enemy and was at the height of its ferocity, yet that person had still made it so terrified that it fled with its tail between its legs!
By the looks of it, this person had to be a Martial Artist at least in the Core Formation Realm, or perhaps even stronger.
Chen Mochuan looked again at the battle scene, now frozen in place. Countless enormous rocks lay shattered, and the once-hard ground was a wasteland, scarred with deep furrows and traces of scorching flames. Every mark testified to the terrible destructive power of Tier Four Ferocious Beasts.
Remembering how a mere glance from the virtual Wind-Howling Ferocious Tiger had left him so terrified that he'd gone stiff and unable to move, Chen Mochuan felt his face grow hot.
It was understandable, but that bone-deep sense of helplessness burned into him like a brand, and a powerful surge of resentment rose in his heart.
Shame could spur him forward. He knew he had to keep growing stronger—strong enough to face any danger head-on, strong enough to have the confidence and power to hold everything together!
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