The southeastern slope of the Beast Ridge Mountains.
As Yi Yang led the Pacification Guards through a stretch of waist-high shrubs, a disturbance rose from the woods ahead.
The mutant beasts' roaring shrieks were deafening, mingled with the sharp cracks of snapping trunks and the whistle of weapons cleaving the air.
Hearing the commotion, Yi Yang stopped and extended his mental power ahead.
Within its reach, the distant scene appeared clearly in his mind.
Two people were fighting.
A man and a woman, both desperately fleeing southeast.
The man was in his early twenties, slender and handsome. A claw wound on his left arm was still bleeding, and half his sleeve had been shredded, exposing the bruised flesh beneath.
The woman was a few years older, tall, with long hair secured behind her head by a black iron hairpin. She clutched a slender longsword. Every few strides, she turned to strike, a layer of silvery-white Inner Energy coiling around her blade. Each slash drove the mutant beast behind her back two steps.
But only two steps.
Because the creature at the head of their pursuers was no ordinary mutant beast.
It was a Black-Maned Leopard half a zhang tall, pitch-black from head to tail. Every hair along his spine stood on end, and his four paws made almost no sound as they touched the ground.
His eyes glowed dark red, saliva hung from the corners of his mouth, and a low rumble sounded in his throat.
A demon beast of the mid True Astral Realm.
Yi Yang swept his mental power over the Black-Maned Leopard and took full measure of his condition.
The Black-Maned Leopard had six smaller mutant beasts following behind it, all Gray-Furred Badger Hounds, each giving off an aura between the second and third levels of inner