The Suanni had the body of a lion and the claws of a dragon. Fond of smoke and sitting still, it was a Desolate Beast with true dragon blood, ranked supreme-grade among Earth Rank creatures. Its cultivation and strength stood at the pinnacle of Earth Rank, making it both rare and powerful.
The rogue cultivators' leader was a man of some knowledge. In his decades of roaming the world, he had seen all manner of Spirit Creature catalogs, models, and illustrated books, and even actual Earth Rank Spirit Creatures.
Thus, he recognized the Desolate Beast before him at a glance.
No, it was not a Desolate Beast, but a Wild Spirit!
Desolate Beasts were living creatures of flesh and blood, born of the world itself. Wild Spirits, however, had already undergone Spirit Communion by humans and been brought under their control, transforming them into Spirit Creatures!
The two terms differed by only a single character, but to Spirit Tamers, they were entirely different.
Spirit Creature manifestations possessed forms comparable to physical bodies. At profound levels of cultivation, they could even turn the ethereal back into the material and condense true bodies, yet they still had many recognizable traits.
Once the rogue cultivators' leader recognized it as a Wild Spirit that had undergone Spirit Communion, terror and bewilderment filled his heart. His feet, however, had already instinctively filled with Spirit Essence. He leaped onto his tiger's back and frantically urged it into a headlong sprint.
He was so quick-witted and wary that he no longer bothered searching the treasure pouches of the surviving soldiers, which had been almost within his grasp moments earlier. Several members of the band were his trusted followers. They froze briefly at the sight, but once they reacted, they hurriedly snatched a few treasure pouches in passing,