Below Black Wind Ridge, in Wedge Valley, a rank wind suddenly howled. A black-striped figure flashed past as Black Tiger leaped across a ravine and dropped from a small cliff several dozen feet high.
The tiger was over ten feet long, with forelegs as thick as an adult human's torso. Yet she moved without a sound, like a phantom, displaying the agility of an apex predator.
After landing, the black-striped tiger swayed. Light rose around her, and she transformed into a powerfully built, beautiful woman in a black leather coat.
She braced one hand against a nearby rock and pressed the other to her forehead, her face contorted with pain.
"That damned pretty boy! How is he so powerful?"
Hu Ze's Avatar was far stronger than she had expected. The corrupting shadow had not struck her directly, but the destruction of her chang ghosts had implicated her innate abilities, transmitting a flood of chaotic information that dealt a tremendous blow to her mind.
This was the prototype of soul-shaking divine thunder. Fortunately for her, Li Chen had not mastered the power of law. Otherwise, she would not merely have suffered a shock-she would have mutated on the spot.
She dared not linger. Shaking her head, she continued onward.
Before long, a streak of traveling light flew over and landed where the tigress demon had stood.
It was Hu Ze's Avatar, controlled by Li Chen. Seeming to sense something, he surveyed his surroundings with his primordial spirit dharma eye and said, "She seems closer now."
The gorge was deep and secluded, like a road leading to the Yellow Springs. Suddenly, an unbearably nauseating stench of decay drifted through the air. Li Chen looked ahead through the hazy gray mist, his gaze sharpening.
Before him lay a small mound of piled skulls.