One-on-One! Pegasus!

After flying for more than ten miles, the two landed in a clearing beside the forest.

Chen Yu smiled faintly and said to Chen Xiaojun, "Xiao'er, this Pegasus is around 1,500 years old. It's just right for you."

The Pegasus before them had a silver, diamond-shaped gemstone on its forehead. This was one of the Pegasus's defining features.

It was tall, with sturdy limbs and a coat of pure white, not a single stray hair out of place. Its body gleamed as if draped in silver silk, and a bundle of snow-white hair trailed behind it as a tail.

With the slightest flick, it flashed before your eyes like a silver bolt of lightning. It truly was elegant.

A Pegasus's age was fairly easy to determine. Every 500 years, it grew another golden stripe.

The stripes first appeared on its wings. This Pegasus had three golden edges along each of its pure-white wings. The third was quite faint, clearly a recent development, so it had just passed 1,500 years.

Once it reached ten thousand years, stripes would grow elsewhere, and its diamond-shaped gemstone would turn gold as well.

Chen Xiaojun looked at the Pegasus, whose eyes shone with defiance. Even while suppressed, even after suffering serious injuries, and even when faced with certain death, it kept staggering back to its feet. It fell, then struggled back up, its four legs stubbornly planted beneath it.

By the way, according to the human classification of horses, Pegasi were warmbloods. Though spirited, they had gentle temperaments. But at that moment, this one showed what it meant to have a proud and unyielding spirit!

Chen Xiaojun fell silent...

"Grandpa, can you let it go? I want to try on my own."

"Xiao'er, you're only a level-ten Soul Scholar!"

"Grandpa, only by doing what others cannot can I live up to your expectations. If it were unharmed, I might not stand a chance against it, but this Pegasus is already badly injured. Of course, I won't force it."

Chen Yu looked at the determination in Chen Xiaojun's eyes and didn't know what to say for a moment.

Chen Xiaojun said stubbornly, "Grandpa, after the twin-wolf battle the night before last, I haven't had a chance to challenge a thousand-year Soul Beast. I want to try!"

Chen Yu silently released his suppression. Sword Light after Sword Light sealed the sky and locked down the ground. The Sword Light Seals the Heavens skill transformed into an oval energy barrier over two hundred meters wide, enclosing Chen Xiaojun and the Pegasus.

Horses understood people. It understood what was happening, and with a series of "neigh, neighs," it raised its forelegs slightly and stared intently at Chen Xiaojun, who stood several dozen meters away.

Thin streams of blood still ran down its body. It had likely been thrown off balance and injured by the impact earlier, then repeatedly forced to its feet beneath Chen Yu's suppression. Its internal organs were clearly injured, its hide torn, and blood seeped from its wounds.

But horses had always been brave on the battlefield, charging into the fray without ever retreating.

Qi Vortexes slowly rose beneath its hooves, and its wings spread wide. Horse Treading Wind Vortex was a skill awakened by all White-Feather Horses.

As an Upper-ranked Soul Beast, the Pegasus had an even more advanced innate ability: Wind Vortex Heavenly Barrier. It spread the Wind Vortex over its entire body. This was practically the standard opening move of the Pegasus clan.

The distance of several dozen meters vanished in an instant. The Pegasus appeared in front of Chen Xiaojun and charged straight at him.

Chen Xiaojun began with his usual three moves. Holding the Wind Luan Sword, he used Sword Shadow Form and activated Sword Step, Lotus Sway in a Square Inch. He sprang backward, then flashed to the front right. His right hand followed through with a Swallow Skims the Water strike, the sword technique flowing like water as the Wind Luan Sword slashed at the horse's foreleg.

With a clang, the sword was knocked aside. It couldn't break through the wind barrier, and Chen Xiaojun's hand went numb.

Chen Xiaojun used the momentum to retreat, but the Pegasus's charge was also halted. It beat its wings and unleashed Winged Wind Slash. More than ten Wind Blades cut toward him, dense and fierce. Wind Blade was a basic skill possessed by almost all Wind Type Soul Beasts.

Chen Xiaojun continued Lotus Sway in a Square Inch, swaying from side to side like someone gliding over rippling waves as he dodged the Wind Blades. Then he unleashed Starstream Thunderstrike, gripping the sword with both hands and slashing at the horse's neck. His sword moved like the wind, swift as thunder.

The Pegasus rose onto its hind legs and brought its front hooves down heavily, as though Mount Tai were bearing down on him. With a bang, Chen Xiaojun was knocked back several meters.

A thousand-year Soul Beast was still too much for him. Even though the Pegasus was badly injured, the gap in Soul Power and physical strength remained considerable. Chen Xiaojun's older brother, Chen Jianjun, was level thirty, yet he had still been at a disadvantage against the 1,500-year-old Lightning Windshadow Peng.

The Pegasus pressed its advantage and charged again. Chen Xiaojun hurriedly dodged to the side. Though the hooves missed him, they left a hollow two meters wide, with shattered stones splitting outward in rings.

As the Pegasus's hooves shook the ground, Chen Xiaojun used the tremor to spring diagonally over its back. He turned three times in succession, bringing the sword down with the force of his rotation in a Giant Serpent Turnover Downward Slash Sword.

The Giant Serpent Turnover Downward Slash Sword was a killing move Chen Xiaojun had learned from Gai Nie in The Legend of Qin, which he remembered.

Back when he watched the anime, he had thought the move was incredibly fierce and powerful. It had knocked Wei Zhuang's Shark-Tooth from his hand, leaving a deep impression on him.

In this world of Soul Masters, Chen Xiaojun was indeed capable of using the Giant Serpent Turnover Downward Slash Sword.

Though he still couldn't perform five consecutive downward slashes, he could link three together smoothly. His sword technique flowed like water, yet struck like a beast pouncing, making it difficult to defend against.

One slash, two slashes... The Wind Vortex Heavenly Barrier shattered!

The third slash sent blood spraying. With a hiss, the Pegasus turned slightly at the last instant and dodged the blow to its neck, but a wound dozens of centimeters long and deep enough to expose bone opened on its right side.

In pain, the Pegasus twisted around, its left wing turning into a blade as it slashed at Chen Xiaojun. It was worthy of being an Upper-ranked Soul Beast: its combat strength, experience, and reactions were all exceptional.

But in the blink of an eye, Chen Xiaojun turned his sword around and blocked the wing.

Seizing the opportunity, he used Swift Body, Flying Wild Duck to keep up his assault. He unleashed a downward slash, Dragon-Sweeping Stance, Turning Thrust Sword, Face-Splitting Stance, and Reverse Rising Slash, raining attacks on the wound.

His sword moved faster and faster, like a silver dragon darting up and down around the Pegasus, coiling from side to side and giving it no chance to catch its breath.

His swordsmanship and Sword Step worked together perfectly. His moves were both forceful and domineering, yet pleasing to the eye.

Against an enormous Soul Beast like the Pegasus, once Chen Xiaojun closed in, the situation quickly turned against it. Clang, clang, clang-the blows rang out without pause, opening several more crisscrossing wounds.

His final move was a fierce horizontal slash, which sent out a crescent-shaped Sword Qi.

The Pegasus wrapped its wings around its body. Risking another serious injury, it sent more than ten spirals of wind whirling around itself like Wind Chains, circling to dissipate the force as it took the full blow of the Wind Luan Sword.

This was its innate skill, Fierce Wind Rebound.

It deflected the crescent-shaped Sword Qi and opened up some distance. The Pegasus slowly retreated until it stood more than a hundred meters away.

Its Wind Vortex Heavenly Barrier had been reduced to fragments, and it was drenched in blood. It knew it couldn't go on like this and had to end the fight quickly.

It launched another resolute attack. This time, it no longer used the Wind Vortex Heavenly Barrier to cover its entire body.

It had run out of Soul Power. It was badly injured, and its body was extremely weak.

Beneath the Sun, as it sprinted at top speed, blood fluttered in the air and its wounds tore open.

The diamond-shaped gemstone on its forehead shone with a milky-white glow, and its milky-white coat reflected the light.

It split into two horse-shaped bodies, using its innate skill, Light-Splitting Shadowless Form. One horse charged with the force of a landslide and a tsunami, concentrating its Soul Power in its wings and displaying its ability to cut through all things.