Battle with the Blood-Eyed Mane Lion

At the sight of this Saint Realm magical beast, Moke instantly tensed up. "A Blood-Eyed Mane Lion? And judging by its appearance, it definitely isn't a Blood-Eyed Mane Lion that has only just entered the Saint Realm!"

Moke was confident that, after transforming, he could crush nearly all Ninth-Level Magical Beasts.

But the gap between Saint Realm magical beasts and Ninth-Level Magical Beasts was unimaginably vast. If it were a magical beast newly entered into the Saint Realm, he would still have confidence in fighting it.

Yet judging by this Blood-Eyed Mane Lion's size, it had clearly been in the Saint Realm for many years. It might even have reached the Saint Realm Peak.

Fu Gui in Moke's arms was also tense. For the first time, its fur stood on end in fear. It bared its tiger fangs, revealing its sharp teeth as it growled.

"Run!"

With a fierce stomp, the powerful force instantly blasted apart the soil beneath his feet. Borrowing the rebound, Moke shot toward the outskirts of the Magical Beast Mountain Range.

"Hahaha, kid, if I let you get away, then your Uncle Prust might as well stop roaming the Magical Beast Mountain Range." The enormous golden lion actually began shrinking, then shot into the towering ancient forest with a whoosh.

Moke was immensely strong, and his running speed was correspondingly swift. Even Ninth-Level Magical Beasts that specialized in speed, such as Golden-Patterned Thunder Ants, were only on par with him.

But at that moment, he could clearly feel the fierce wind rushing from behind him. The Saint Realm Blood-Eyed Mane Lion had caught up in an instant.

"A Saint Realm magical beast's flying speed really far surpasses a Ninth-Level Magical Beast's running speed!"

As Moke thought this, his lips moved slightly, and he cast a Seventh-Level Wind Shadow Technique on himself, increasing his speed somewhat.

"A mage too? A kid from the Dragonblood Warrior Family became a mage?"

The Blood-Eyed Mane Lion behind him laughed loudly. Then it opened its pitch-black maw, and a massive fire dragon came howling forth. The towering ancient trees along its path were roasted into charcoal by the searing heat, and even the air twisted.

The fire dragon roared, engulfing Moke almost instantly.

"Hm?"

Yet what surprised the Blood-Eyed Mane Lion was that the Ninth-Level Dragonblood Warrior seemed entirely unaffected and continued charging forward with his head down.

"My instant Ninth-Level spell shouldn't leave him completely unaffected even if it can't kill him, right?" The Blood-Eyed Mane Lion was astonished.

Driven by curiosity, it suddenly accelerated, opened its mouth, and unleashed another fire dragon. It was once again an instant Ninth-Level fire spell.

But just as before, the fire dragon quickly vanished after entangling Moke, as though something on his body had swallowed it.

"This... what kind of treasure is that?" The Blood-Eyed Mane Lion had clearly misunderstood.

It stopped flying and began charging wildly across the ground instead. Every heavy step made the entire area tremble as if an earthquake had struck.

Saint Realm magical beasts could fly very fast, but supported by their immense strength, their running speed was even faster than their flying speed.

Thus, in mere seconds, the Blood-Eyed Mane Lion caught up to Moke.

A chill ran down the back of his head. An image of the Blood-Eyed Mane Lion tearing at him with a claw vaguely flashed through Moke's mind, making him roll sharply to the side.

Boom!

The Blood-Eyed Mane Lion's claw missed, directly detonating the air. Then its steel-like tail whipped toward him almost immediately afterward.

With a smack, Moke had no time to dodge and was instantly sent flying.

"Pah!"

His body flew uncontrollably for hundreds of meters. Moke felt pain all over, especially where the Blood-Eyed Mane Lion's tail had struck him. Several golden scales had cracked, though fortunately they had not shattered outright.

He scrambled to his feet, clutched Fu Gui in his arms, and continued running.

"Not hurt?"

The Blood-Eyed Mane Lion was truly shocked. "He's only Ninth Level, yet his defense rivals that of an ordinary Saint Realm magical beast? The dragon scales on this kid from the Dragonblood Warrior Family are golden rather than green. Could he really have mutated?"

"And after mutating, he became even stronger?" The Blood-Eyed Mane Lion had lived for several thousand years and had personally seen a Dragonblood Warrior before.

But that Dragonblood Warrior had been far weaker than the first-generation Dragonblood Warrior of legend, who had defeated the Black Dragon, the Frost Dragon, and the Hydra Emperor.

He had even needed to expend tremendous effort to defeat an ordinary Saint Realm Peak magical beast.

Still marveling inwardly, the Blood-Eyed Mane Lion intercepted Moke again in an instant. Though it had shrunk, it was still over ten meters long. As it swatted down with one paw, the fierce wind alone snapped a swath of ancient trees around them.

"Since you want to fight, I'll fight you!" Moke hardened his resolve. This Blood-Eyed Mane Lion was far too fast for him.

If it truly intended to stop him, Moke had no chance of escaping.

His body curled rapidly, narrowly dodging the Blood-Eyed Mane Lion's claw. With a flick of his wrist, Moke drew the Iron Leaf Sword, then charged into the Blood-Eyed Mane Lion's embrace from the opposite direction.

With a whoosh, amid a piercing shriek, the Iron Leaf Sword became like a dull gray thread and instantly slashed toward the Blood-Eyed Mane Lion's neck.

"Hm?" The Blood-Eyed Mane Lion instinctively tried to dodge, but that piercing, grating shriek strangely drilled into its ears.

Caught unprepared, the Blood-Eyed Mane Lion's body stiffened in an instant. By the time it regained its senses, that gray thread was already about to cut across its neck.

This sword strike was Moke's most powerful move, Sword Cry, which he had comprehended from the laws of wind. Its strange sound could affect even Saint Realm experts!

At the critical moment, the Blood-Eyed Mane Lion tilted its head and took the strike with its skull. With a whoosh, the Iron Leaf Sword seemed to cut into rubber, struggling to carve a bloody gash across the top of the Blood-Eyed Mane Lion's head.

But the Blood-Eyed Mane Lion's head was as large as a small car. This strike had merely grazed its skin and was nothing to it.

"It's definitely a Saint Realm Peak magical beast!" Moke roared inwardly.

His strongest sword strike, born from his comprehension of the laws of wind, had only managed to graze its skin!

Even so, the Blood-Eyed Mane Lion was enraged. It roared, "Kid, you've made me very angry. The consequences will be severe!"

Its body shrank again, becoming only as large as an ordinary sports car.

With a whoosh, it became even faster, its steel-whip tail lashing out first.

Moke pushed his speed to the limit and barely evaded the blow in advance. At the same time, he unleashed another Sword Cry-infused strike toward the Blood-Eyed Mane Lion's swiping claw.

With a pfft, Moke tore open a wound on the Blood-Eyed Mane Lion's forepaw, while he himself felt as though he had been struck by a moving mountain.

The scales around the web of his thumb shattered outright, and his body flew backward uncontrollably.

The earth trembled as the Blood-Eyed Mane Lion launched a frenzied assault on Moke. Its claws, tail, and even its body became weapons. Man and beast collided continuously like two intertwining streaks of golden light.

The towering ancient trees around them snapped one after another, and the ground became riddled with pits. In some places, the weeds and even the topsoil were ripped away.

The magical beasts nearby had long since fled in terror to more distant places.

No one dared approach this area.