The situation had completely exceeded Zeng Mu's expectations. He had never imagined that elemental power would actually manifest on Xuanzi's body. He had thought it was merely a hazy illusion.
Right, he thought. This little fellow sprang out of a rock. Nothing that springs out of a rock could be ordinary, could it?
Boom! Just as he was thinking this, a crash rang out and the soil beside him burst apart. Xuanzi pulled free of the ground, then curled up and raised a sharp little paw. Black light clung to it, a dark radiance that was deep and endlessly cold.
The six-eyed raccoon froze at this sudden turn of events. Only when the black paw drawing ever closer was about to strike its face did it finally react. Its feet shifted, carrying its body sideways, and its round, drumlike head swung aside, narrowly avoiding the blow.
At the same time, black light radiated from its own paw. Like a river flowing unseen through a pitch-black night, the light gave off bone-chilling energy. Even the ripples spreading from that energy were enough to make his pores contract. Zeng Mu had no choice but to treat this energy cautiously-this mutated elemental power that Yao Chun called "yin earth."
"Xuanzi, watch out!" he shouted in warning.
The instant the paw fell toward Xuanzi, the cat performed a perfect feline roll, twisting through the spine to move all four limbs. Xuanzi actually shifted position in midair, deftly evading the attack.
Cat and raccoon both landed. The energy radiating from each was different. Had an independent hunter happened to pass by just then, the sight would certainly have terrified them. After all, who ever had a chance to witness something like this?
Zeng Mu, still buried in the ground, had that chance, though more precisely,