The Good and Evil Centaur! (Two chapters in one)

The Dark Demon Tiger beat its wings fiercely, lifting its massive body into the air. At the same time, it opened its mouth and unleashed a black column of light straight at Ye Zhiqiu's face—a breath attack of dark energy.

Ye Zhiqiu twisted aside. The black beam grazed past his shoulder and struck an ancient tree behind him, blasting a hole nearly half a meter across in its trunk and spraying charred splinters everywhere.

But he did not slow down. Pushing off the ground, he used the momentum of his dodge to swing through a half circle, moving beneath the Dark Demon Tiger's flank.

The Dark Demon Tiger twisted in midair, bringing its right forepaw down toward Ye Zhiqiu through a shroud of black mist. Its claws were a full half foot long, gleaming with a dark metallic sheen.

Ye Zhiqiu did not dodge. The Absolute Blade in his right hand swept upward, its edge aimed directly at the center of the tiger's paw.

The descending paw carried tremendous force, weighing at least several thousand pounds. Infused with ten-thousand-year soul power, it could have flattened even a block of fine iron.

But the instant the Absolute Blade's edge touched its paw, the Dark Demon Tiger felt something it could not comprehend.

Its paw had been sliced open from palm to wrist, leaving a cut as fine as a strand of hair.

The cut extended from its palm all the way to the elbow of its foreleg, deep into muscle and bone. The incision was smooth and clean, without any tearing or shattering.

When the Dark Demon Tiger's forepaws hit the ground, its right foreleg suddenly buckled, pitching its entire body half a step to the right.

It lowered its head to look at its right forepaw. Blood seeped from the deep wound in its palm, and black mist spilled out through the cut—its soul power was leaking away with the injury.

That slash had carried no soul skill. It was merely the sharpness of the Absolute Blade itself.

And the Absolute Blade's true-damage effect had ignored the fur defense the Dark Demon Tiger took such pride in, physically slicing straight through its flesh and bones.

The Dark Demon Tiger let out an agonized roar. Driving off its hind legs, it shot diagonally backward, putting more than ten meters between them.

It stood at a distance with its right foreleg raised, its amber slit pupils fixed on the white blade in Ye Zhiqiu's hand, the weapon's outline reflected in its eyes.

That blade was far too sharp.

It had lived for so many years and fought countless soul beasts and human soul masters, yet it had never seen a blade cut through its defenses so easily.

The strength of a ten-thousand-year Dark Demon Tiger's fur and muscles was the genuine product of ten thousand years of growth. Even an ordinary Soul Emperor's full frontal slash might not break its skin.

Yet this boy had done it with a single slash!

Ye Zhiqiu did not pursue. He remained where he stood and tilted the Absolute Blade, flicking the blood from its edge into the air.

"Not bad. You reacted pretty quickly. You knew your paw couldn't stop it." He smiled and flexed his wrist before continuing, "But those wings of yours aren't much use either."

The Dark Demon Tiger's slit pupils abruptly contracted.

Ye Zhiqiu stepped half a pace forward with his left foot and raised his left hand. A silver-gray orb floated above his palm, and his first soul ring lit up.

Absolute Gravity.

The ground beneath the Dark Demon Tiger abruptly sank several inches. Its entire body dropped, its limbs bending under the pressure, its spine arching as its breathing grew labored.

It struggled to spring upward, but the pressure was too heavy. Its limbs gouged several deep claw marks into the ground before it barely managed to hold itself up.

Ye Zhiqiu was in no hurry to close in. He stood more than ten meters away, maintaining Absolute Gravity with his left hand while holding the Absolute Blade horizontally at his right side.

At this distance, the Dark Demon Tiger's energy breath could not reach him, but his soul skill had already trapped it in place.

The Dark Demon Tiger seemed to realize this. It opened its mouth and unleashed another black beam.

Ye Zhiqiu shifted his left hand slightly. The beam veered a few degrees in midair, flying past his side and striking the ground in the distance, where it blasted out a shallow crater.

"It's no use. My gravity field can bend the trajectory of your attacks. The harder you struggle, the more energy you waste. You might as well save your strength," Ye Zhiqiu remarked, not caring whether it could understand him.

A dark gleam flashed through the Dark Demon Tiger's slit pupils. Its wings suddenly spread wide, black mist pouring from between their feathers and gathering into a thick black shroud around its body.

The shroud enveloped its entire body. Purple light circulated rapidly through the black mist, and the shroud's surface churned constantly.

Then, pushing against Absolute Gravity, it began advancing toward Ye Zhiqiu one step at a time.

Every step was heavy and slow, but it was indeed moving forward.

Ye Zhiqiu raised his eyebrows at the sight.

It could still walk under fifty times gravity. The physical foundation of a ten-thousand-year Dark Demon Tiger truly far surpassed that of the soul beasts he had encountered earlier. Its bone density and muscle strength had reached another level entirely.

Still, all it could do was walk.

He drew back his left hand, abruptly releasing the gravity. The Dark Demon Tiger's body bounced upward in that instant. Seizing the opening, it beat its wings and lifted its massive body into the air. At the same time, it opened its mouth, compressing the black beam within into an energy sphere that it hurled down at Ye Zhiqiu.

Ye Zhiqiu raised his left hand and activated Absolute Traction.

The energy sphere veered in midair, pulled sideways by an invisible force. It slammed into the stream more than ten meters away, sending up a huge spray of water and shattered stones.

The Dark Demon Tiger's pupils contracted. Its strongest ranged attack had been deflected yet again.

And in that half second of distraction, Ye Zhiqiu had already rushed directly beneath it.

He pushed off a protruding rock and leaped into the air, sweeping the Absolute Blade diagonally upward, its edge cutting straight toward the Dark Demon Tiger's abdomen.

That was the most poorly defended part of its body. Its fur was far thinner there than on its back, and its abdomen had no bones to protect it.

The Dark Demon Tiger twisted in midair to dodge, but its abdomen presented too large a target. Ye Zhiqiu's blade sliced across the junction between its left hind leg and its belly. The hair-fine incision extended from its abdomen to the inside of its left hind leg, cutting deep into muscle and fascia.

The Dark Demon Tiger let out a piercing howl in midair. Its wings beat furiously as it barely steadied itself and landed back on the ground.

But its left hind leg could no longer exert any strength.

Two of its four legs were injured. The Dark Demon Tiger had lost most of its mobility.

It landed on the ground, barely supporting itself on three legs. Lowering its head, it stared at Ye Zhiqiu with its amber slit pupils. Alongside the savagery in its eyes was an emotion it had never experienced before.

Fear.

From beginning to end, this boy had used no flashy soul skills. He had simply taken that blade and cut its body open, slash after slash.

Its fur was useless. Its muscles were useless. Even its bones were useless.

That blade ignored every defense it had.

The Dark Demon Tiger let out a low growl and beat its wings fiercely, lifting its massive body into the air once again as it tried to escape overhead.

Ye Zhiqiu stood on the ground and looked up as it ascended. Its left hind leg hung limp, while its right foreleg remained curled up. Both wounds seeped blood, black mist spilling from them, and its speed was considerably slower than before.

He closed his eyes and spread out his Gravity Wave.

The Dark Demon Tiger's flight path, the frequency of its wingbeats, and the direction of the soul power circulating within it all appeared clearly in his perception.

Its soul power was rapidly leaking through those two wounds. It was flying only a little over ten meters high, and it was still losing altitude.

Ye Zhiqiu opened his eyes and pushed off with his toes, launching himself forward. Using the trunk of an ancient tree beside the stream as a foothold, he reached the canopy in just three steps.

The Dark Demon Tiger was a little over ten meters above him, its wings beating laboriously and its body already listing to one side.

Ye Zhiqiu leaped from the canopy, raising the Absolute Blade overhead with its edge pointed down. Using the acceleration of his fall, he brought a slash down onto the Dark Demon Tiger's back.

The downward slash cut through its back, penetrating fur and muscle to reach its spine.

A long wound opened across the Dark Demon Tiger's back, stretching from its neck to the base of its tail. Beneath the blade's edge, its spine was severed outright.

Its massive body froze in midair for an instant. Its wings stopped beating, and then it began to fall.

The four-meter-long tiger crashed onto the rocky ground beside the stream, throwing up a great cloud of dirt and broken stones. Black mist gushed from the wound in its back and swiftly dispersed into the air.

The Dark Demon Tiger's limbs twitched a few times. Its amber slit pupils gradually lost their luster, until at last it lay completely still.

Dead!

Over the next few hours, he encountered several more soul beasts, ranging from three thousand to six thousand years old. He dealt with them all alone, pinning them down with gravity before finishing them off with the Absolute Blade, cleanly and efficiently.

He gradually worked out the pattern of soul beast distribution in this area. The closer he came to the forest's center, the older and more densely concentrated the soul beasts became.

When he had been traveling for around twenty hours, Ye Zhiqiu's Gravity Wave perception suddenly picked up an unusual signal.

About two hundred meters ahead, a faint fluctuation of soul power lay hidden within the canopy of an ancient tree. It was so slight that it almost blended into the surrounding plants.

He turned his head to glance in that direction.

Within the dense canopy of an enormous ancient tree, he could vaguely make out a slender figure huddled where two thick branches met, pressed close to the main trunk. A small lock of long black hair hung through a gap between the branches. Had Gravity Wave not pinpointed her location, she would have been very difficult to spot with the naked eye.

Ye Zhiqiu could not help smiling at the sight.

She went straight up a tree.

Lan Xuan Yu had clearly hidden in the tree before he arrived, and she had suppressed her soul power aura by some means. Had Ye Zhiqiu's Gravity Wave perception not been sharp enough, he might genuinely have failed to find her.

It certainly fit Lan Xuanyu's style in the original story, too.

Still, this also showed that her judgment was correct. The soul beasts in the supplementary exam's map were too old for a head-on fight to be a wise choice. Finding a concealed spot to hide and waiting out the twenty-four hours was the safest survival strategy.

Ye Zhiqiu walked beneath the ancient tree and glanced up.

"Little Xuan Yu, what are you doing up there?"

The figure among the branches visibly stiffened. Two seconds later, a head poked out through a gap in the canopy.

A few scraps of leaves clung to Lan Xuan Yu's black hair, and a faint gray smudge marked her face, probably from rubbing against the bark. She looked down at Ye Zhiqiu beneath the tree, her eyes widening in surprise.

"Ye Zhiqiu? Why are you here too?"

"Supplementary exam." Ye Zhiqiu leaned against the trunk with his hands in his pockets, looking up at her as he continued, "Probably because I helped you fight Bing Tianliang earlier. They decided I'd broken the selection rules, so Shrek sent me a supplementary exam notice."

At that, Lan Xuan Yu's expression suddenly grew complicated. Her lips moved, but it took her a long while to speak.

"I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what?"

"If I hadn't asked you to help, you wouldn't have had to take this supplementary exam."

"It's just an extra exam, not elimination." Ye Zhiqiu waved a hand. "Besides, I didn't lose out. I ran into a ten-thousand-year Dark Demon Tiger on the way here and took care of it while I was at it. Consider it training."

Lan Xuan Yu froze at his words. Then her mouth fell open and stayed that way for a long time.

A ten-thousand-year Dark Demon Tiger?

"You... fought a ten-thousand-year Dark Demon Tiger by yourself?"

"Yeah."

"And you just took care of it while you were at it?"

"More or less." Ye Zhiqiu tilted his head to study her expression, then added, "It was actually pretty strong. My blade just happened to counter it."

"Who doesn't that blade of yours counter..." Lan Xuan Yu muttered.

Ye Zhiqiu laughed and pushed off the tree trunk with his toes, using the recoil to leap onto a nearby low branch. Then he climbed to the branch beside Lan Xuan Yu in a few quick steps and found a spot to sit.

Lan Xuan Yu shifted aside to make room for him. They sat shoulder to shoulder in the middle of the canopy, the surrounding leaves concealing them completely.

"How long have you been in here?" Ye Zhiqiu asked.

"Almost twenty hours," Lan Xuan Yu said.

"Hiding the whole time?"

"Yeah. As soon as I came in, I picked a direction and ran. After running for a little over half an hour, I found this tree and climbed up. I haven't gone down since."

"Smart." Ye Zhiqiu nodded and continued, "The soul beasts in the supplementary exam's map are all over ten thousand years old. In your current condition, fighting them head-on isn't worth it. Hiding is your best option."

Lan Xuan Yu gave him a somewhat surprised look. "You don't think I'm being cowardly?"

"What's cowardly about it? That's being practical," Ye Zhiqiu said casually, then continued, "A survival exam tests the result, not the process. As long as you survive twenty-four hours, you qualify. How you do it doesn't matter."

Lan Xuan Yu fell silent for a moment at his words, then turned to look at the forest through the gaps between the leaves. There was no telling what she was thinking.

For some reason, though, her earlobes turned faintly red.

A little while later, the air around them changed in an instant.

Ye Zhiqiu felt it too. Within his Gravity Wave perception, everything for several hundred meters around them froze in that instant.

He found his body locked in place, as though something had frozen him. His mind still worked, but he had lost all control of his body.

It was not just him. Lan Xuan Yu beside him was the same, as though someone had pressed pause on her.

What is this? Could it be...

Ye Zhiqiu's mind raced. Though he stood frozen in place, his thoughts were clearer than ever.

The surrounding trees, stream, rocks, and sky all lost their color in an instant, becoming a expanse of absolute darkness.

Only overhead did an eerie red light descend from the sky.

The red light shone on him and Lan Xuan Yu. It felt warm and carried no aggression, yet there was an oppressive force to it that allowed no refusal.

Lan Xuan Yu's body slowly floated upward within the red light, rising until she was level with Ye Zhiqiu before stopping.

Her eyes were closed, and she remained motionless. Her consciousness had clearly been cut off.

Then a figure slowly walked out of the darkness.

It was an extremely strange soul beast. Its lower body resembled a horse, its four hooves treading on empty space, while its upper body rose upright like a human's. It looked somewhat like a centaur from legend.

But it had two heads.

One head was hideous and male in appearance, with a brutish face, protruding fangs, and eyes that glowed an eerie green.

The other was kind and dignified, female in appearance, with a benevolent face and a gentle smile at the corners of its mouth.

Ye Zhiqiu recognized it at once.

The Good and Evil Centaur.

It had also appeared in Lan Xuanyu and Dong Qianqiu's soul trial in the original story. This form had been conjured jointly by two old demons: Sloth Old Demon and Desire Old Demon.

The strange soul beast's hideous head let out a harsh, cackling laugh that echoed through the pitch-black space.