Another quarter of an hour of savage fighting had reduced the entire woodland to ruins. The combat power unleashed by both sides surged toward the eighth level. Shock waves hurled shattered stones into the air and snapped the surrounding trees, yet the Swift Raptor grew more alarmed with every exchange. Its scarlet eyes remained fixed on the seemingly frail human before it, and unprecedented fear churned within its heart-it finally realized that it could not shake this human in the slightest.
Its survival instinct instantly overwhelmed its fighting spirit. Without further hesitation, the Swift Raptor swept its thick, powerful tail across with a fierce rush of wind, trying to force Shiheng back. Then its four limbs thrust hard against the ground, and its body became a gray-black gale as it fled desperately into the depths of the forest without looking back.
Yet not a single movement escaped Shiheng's gaze.
Shiheng's eyes were cold as ice, locked firmly on the fleeing beast. Only one obsession surged within his heart: Today, this vile beast must die.
Without the slightest hesitation, he moved and immediately gave chase. A heart-stopping pursuit of life and death began.
Shiheng was no slower than the Swift Raptor fleeing at full speed. The two humans and one beast streaked through the wilderness like two afterimages. Rather than widening, the distance kept shrinking. The Swift Raptor ran for its life, and Shiheng pursued relentlessly; neither showed the slightest intention of giving way. Along their path, they passed through dense forests that blotted out the sky, crushing dead branches and loose stones underfoot and sending fragments flying. They crossed raging, roaring rivers, their hurtling momentum throwing spray high into the air. Even when they entered the rolling Mountain Range of Magical Beasts, whose peaks towered into the clouds, neither the sheer cliffs nor the rugged mountain paths could slow their headlong rush.
This long, brutal hunt brought devastation wherever it passed. Ancient giants of trees that had stood tall through a thousand years of wind and rain were snapped at the waist by the savage impacts, their thick trunks and branches crashing to the ground. Level five and six magical beasts that happened into their path had no time to react before the two terrifying auras crushed them. Some were trampled to pieces, while others were killed by the shock waves. All became innocent casualties of this bloody pursuit, and mottled bloodstains gradually spread across the earth.
Just as the pursuit reached a fever pitch, three figures dressed in fitted black outfits embroidered with the Shadow Alliance's insignia quietly appeared in a clearing ahead.
The man at their head exuded a dense, brutal aura. He was unmistakably an early-stage seventh-level warrior. The auras of his two attendants were somewhat weaker, but both were firmly at the level of sixth-level warriors. At that moment, the seventh-level warrior leading them wore a sinister smile, his eyes brimming with smug arrogance.
"Heh heh heh!" He threw back his head and laughed with unbridled abandon, his voice filled with certainty of success. "With one little trick, I lured that vicious Swift Raptor to the Radiant Church's camp. Those Church scum are bound to suffer heavy losses there! Once all their high-level warriors are drawn over to reinforce it, the forces guarding the level nine magical beast cub will be greatly weakened! Then that exceedingly rare level nine magical beast cub will be ours for the taking, falling right into our Shadow Alliance's hands!"
After speaking, he even made an arrogant, provocative gesture toward the sky, his face filled with satisfaction at his own scheme.
One of the sixth-level warriors beside him immediately stepped forward, cupped his hands, and flattered him with a fawning expression. "Brilliant, my lord! Your schemes are without equal-you are truly a peerless talent! The people of the Radiant Church could never see through this little trick!"
The other hurried to echo him, sparing no effort in his praise.
Immersed in wild delight at their imminent success, the three completely failed to notice a rampaging black shadow charging toward them with thunderous force.
The next second, the Swift Raptor was upon them. Intent only on escaping alive, it completely ignored the three people before it. Its enormous body hurtled straight ahead with the terrifying impact of nearly eighth-level combat power.
Two piercing screams rang out almost simultaneously. The two unprepared sixth-level warriors had no chance even to resist before the Swift Raptor's hard skull struck their chests. Their bodies shot away like kites with severed strings. By the time they landed, they had already stopped breathing, killed on the spot.
The seventh-level warrior leading them reacted slightly faster and hastily summoned his battle qi to defend himself. Even so, the residual force of the Swift Raptor's charge struck him hard. He spat blood and flew backward several meters, slamming heavily into a tree trunk. Gravely wounded in an instant, with his battle qi thrown into chaos, he could no longer muster the slightest fighting strength.
He raised his head with difficulty, his eyes filled with terror and bewilderment. Before he could even make out his attacker, another figure arrived in a flash.
It was Shiheng, who had caught up in pursuit. When he caught sight of the Shadow Alliance uniforms on the three men, his gaze instantly turned piercingly cold. The Shadow Alliance had always committed countless evil deeds, and he was already its irreconcilable enemy. Facing this gravely wounded seventh-level warrior, he did not hesitate in the slightest. With a slight movement of his wrist, a sharp surge of power shot toward the man's vital point, and a casual stroke of his blade ended his life.
The seventh-level warrior's eyes remained wide open even in death, his face filled with grievance and disbelief. He had meticulously planned the entire scheme, and success had been within sight. Yet, inexplicably, the magical beast he had lured there had grievously wounded him, and a strange human had casually cut him down. From beginning to end, he had died without understanding why.
Even in death, he never understood that before absolute strength, every conspiracy and scheme was nothing but passing clouds. Truth in this world had always stood only at the pinnacle of the strong; cunning and calculation were ultimately unable to withstand a single blow.
Shiheng withdrew his attack without so much as glancing at the corpse on the ground. His gaze locked ahead once more. The frightened Swift Raptor had not stopped and was still fleeing desperately.
Without pausing for an instant, Shiheng set off in pursuit again. Their figures vanished once more into the depths of the forest. One fled and the other chased, until, unexpectedly, both arrived at the edge of a towering precipice.
Below the cliff, clouds and mist churned over a bottomless abyss. The howling mountain wind swept up loose stones, producing a grating noise.
There was nowhere left to retreat, nowhere left to evade.
The Swift Raptor stopped abruptly and turned around. Its beastly eyes brimmed with the madness and ferocity of a creature at the end of its rope, and it let out a deafening roar at Shiheng.
Shiheng slowly stepped forward, his aura gradually rising, his eyes cold and resolute.
This life-and-death struggle that had begun in the woodland would finally reach its decisive battle beside this towering precipice.
Before you continue