Zhang Junbao heard several angry beast roars behind him, but he paid them no mind. He couldn't understand them anyway, so he kept running.
He hadn't understood that those roars were commands from a One-Horned Wild Boar with the strength of a Junior Beast General, more than a hundred meters away. It had spotted this member of its own kind running around everywhere. As it had relatively few Beast Soldier underlings, it wanted to recruit him.
But to its surprise, after it issued the invitation, the One-Horned Wild Boar, which was only an Intermediate Beast Soldier, ignored it and went straight on its way.
It felt that its dignity had been challenged. With its other underlings watching, it had to establish its authority.
So the Junior Beast General One-Horned Wild Boar charged without hesitation, rushing toward Zhang Junbao.
Zhang Junbao spotted the One-Horned Wild Boar chasing him and thought this was bad. He didn't want a confrontation. Although he had become adept at controlling the One-Horned Wild Boar's body to walk, that didn't mean he could use it to fight.
Besides, the body of the One-Horned Wild Boar he controlled was originally two ranks below the attacker's in physical strength. In battles between demon beasts, physical strength was the foundation of everything.
To show its underlings its strength, the One-Horned Wild Boar put everything it had into the charge. Its bristles stood on end like black steel spikes, while its single horn was like a dagger, reflecting a chilling gleam in the sunlight.
Since I can't avoid it, I'll have to kill it and then escape quickly. Zhang Junbao made up his mind and began maneuvering the One-Horned Wild Boar's feet.
"Hrr! Hrr!"
The One-Horned Wild Boar let out a series of roars, its eyes sweeping over the surroundings with murderous intent.
"Damn it, I was just about to escape with my life! Why are you getting in my way?!"
As the One-Horned Wild Boar came charging at him like a speeding tank, Zhang Junbao unleashed a blast of Spiritual Force at it.
He had expected the blast to knock the One-Horned Wild Boar unconscious, but to his surprise, it entered a state of bloodthirsty frenzy, an ability common among porcine demon beasts. Its murderous eyes turned scarlet, and although Zhang Junbao's Spiritual Shock made it very uncomfortable, its bloodthirsty frenzy kept its instinct to charge intact.
Seeing that the Spiritual Shock had failed, Zhang Junbao had no time to consider why. He controlled the One-Horned Wild Boar to dodge the attack at a bizarre angle, and at the crucial moment, his horn dipped and slashed across the Beast General One-Horned Wild Boar's belly.
Even the horn of a Beast Soldier One-Horned Wild Boar could pierce the defenses of a Beast General One-Horned Wild Boar's belly, provided the angle was right.
With his reaction speed and fighting ability, even in another body, he wasn't someone a Junior Beast General One-Horned Wild Boar could bully.
Blood spilled across the ground, and a wound nearly a meter long stood out starkly on the One-Horned Wild Boar's belly. But demon beasts had tenacious vitality, and an attack like that wasn't enough to kill it.
"Hrr! Hrr!"
The Beast General One-Horned Wild Boar let out another frenzied roar. It would make this Beast Soldier that dared challenge its dignity understand that it was not to be trifled with.
But its roar caught the Sword-Beaked Dragon Eagle's attention.
Normally, a battle at this level wouldn't have earned a second glance from the Sword-Beaked Dragon Eagle. But just as its gaze happened to pass over them, it noticed the bizarre movement technique of the One-Horned Wild Boar under Zhang Junbao's control.
That aroused the Sword-Beaked Dragon Eagle's suspicion.
An Intermediate Beast Soldier had actually gravely wounded a Junior Beast General in a single strike while emerging completely unscathed.
More importantly, One-Horned Wild Boars had never been a species that fought with their brains, much less used movement techniques.
All they knew how to do was charge, charge, charge, smashing through every obstacle in front of them.
The Sword-Beaked Dragon Eagle was far from stupid. As a Lord-level demon beast, its intelligence far surpassed that of ordinary demon beasts.
On closer inspection, it spotted the outline of a human figure in the One-Horned Wild Boar's belly. At once, it understood everything.
"Damn human!"
With a furious roar, the Sword-Beaked Dragon Eagle beat its wings and shot madly toward Zhang Junbao.
In the midst of battle, Zhang Junbao suddenly felt an inexplicable surge of danger. Before the sound reached him, he burst out of the One-Horned Wild Boar's belly and fled madly, both feet planted on the spearhead.
He didn't need to think twice. Only the Sword-Beaked Dragon Eagle could give him such a deadly sense of danger.
He didn't know why the Sword-Beaked Dragon Eagle had discovered him, but now that it had, there was no point in continuing his disguise.
He looked back and saw the enormous Sword-Beaked Dragon Eagle, its body covered in multicolored feathers, transform into a peerless blade, cleaving through the sky as it swooped straight at him.
The Sword-Beaked Dragon Eagle's chilling eyes were filled with frenzied killing intent. It had discovered that what the human held was its mate's sword-beak. And in his backpack was the egg containing its child.
The Sword-Beaked Dragon Eagle was incredibly fast, its speed already beyond that of sound!
It's too fast. It'll catch me across more than ten kilometers in less than ten seconds. A Lord-level Sword-Beaked Dragon Eagle-a flying Lord-is even faster than a High Lord among land beasts!
Zhang Junbao's expression changed. He immediately turned in midair, tracing a graceful arc as he plunged into a cluster of nearby buildings.
Only by using the buildings as cover did he have a chance of evading the Sword-Beaked Dragon Eagle's pursuit.
Zhang Junbao's mind raced, and Spiritual Force poured out as though it cost him nothing. He became a blur, flashing between the buildings.
Behind him, the Sword-Beaked Dragon Eagle came charging after him. It didn't dodge, instead using its powerful sword-beak to punch straight through the buildings in its path.
The Sword-Beaked Dragon Eagle was like a flying sword in the hands of a legendary immortal, splitting bamboo in its path and piercing everything before it!
Its incomparably sharp sword-beak skimmed past Zhang Junbao's ear, the air it stirred up making his ear sting. But Zhang Junbao's feet turned with the grace of a roaming dragon, carrying his whole body off at a ninety-degree angle and evading the Sword-Beaked Dragon Eagle's fatal strike.
"Roaming Dragon Startled Swan Steps!"
Only when Zhang Junbao applied this movement technique to flight did its tremendous advantage truly come into play. Perhaps the technique had originally been intended for dodging in flight, but later generations, unable to fly, had adapted it for movement on foot.
The Sword-Beaked Dragon Eagle kept its eyes fixed on Zhang Junbao, but it discovered that at every crucial moment, he managed to evade its attacks.
This vexing movement technique made the Sword-Beaked Dragon Eagle feel as though it faced not a human, but a divine dragon roaming at will.
When it came to accelerating in a straight line, the Sword-Beaked Dragon Eagle could easily outpace Zhang Junbao.
In an open place like the sky, no matter how strong Zhang Junbao's movement technique was, he couldn't escape its pursuit.
But Zhang Junbao had chosen to plunge into an area packed with buildings. Though these structures of concrete and brick couldn't withstand a single blow from a Lord-level demon beast, the instant they obstructed it allowed Zhang Junbao to evade its attacks.
Zhang Junbao had pushed his movement technique and close-quarters fighting skills to their limits, and the Sword-Beaked Dragon Eagle's fury erupted completely.
Its five-meter-long tail feathers became a multicolored blur, whipping fiercely at Zhang Junbao, while its sword-beak struck at the same instant.
Attacked from front and back, Zhang Junbao was given no chance at all.
Forced away from the buildings he had been using as cover, Zhang Junbao found himself in the Sword-Beaked Dragon Eagle's embrace. If he chose to smash through a floor to escape, the Sword-Beaked Dragon Eagle would strike him in that instant.
The Sword-Beaked Dragon Eagle flew faster than sound, and its tail feathers lashed even faster than it flew. To make matters worse, its two talons waited for Zhang Junbao below.
A certain death trap!
To kill Zhang Junbao, the Sword-Beaked Dragon Eagle had used every weapon on its body to set this deadly trap, showing just how resolute its intent to kill him was.
Hmph, you underestimate a Taiji grandmaster!
Zhang Junbao snorted inwardly. He held the Dragon Roar Sword in his right hand to block the Sword-Beaked Dragon Eagle's sword-beak, while his left hand assumed a push-hands stance and met its tail feathers, backed by Spiritual Force.
The lashing of the tail feathers is a whip technique, and whip techniques use the principle of transforming Taiji's yin and yang forces to concentrate all their yielding force in the tip of the whip, releasing it in an instant to produce snapping force.
You're far too green to use Tai Chi Force against me!
At that moment, the confidence of a Taiji grandmaster burst forth from Zhang Junbao. His eyes seemed to flash with light as he met the Sword-Beaked Dragon Eagle's murderous gaze without the slightest retreat.
The Sword-Beaked Dragon Eagle found itself suppressed by a human's gaze. For the first time, it sensed that there was something unusual about this human, and its aura weakened somewhat.
Zhang Junbao covered his entire body in Spiritual Force. The instant they made contact, he spun like a top, and the force of the Sword-Beaked Dragon Eagle's sword-beak and tail feathers was drawn along by his own, shifting them out of position.
The Sword-Beaked Dragon Eagle's sword-beak and tail feathers inevitably collided in midair, while Zhang Junbao, who should have been caught between the two forces, used the force of their collision to break free.
After the Sword-Beaked Dragon Eagle's sword-beak and tail feathers collided, even it couldn't control the force of the impact, and they crashed into and broke two load-bearing pillars, each more than a meter in diameter.
Zhang Junbao also used that force to fly backward, and he was about to escape through a window.
As he escaped, the Dragon Roar Sword in Zhang Junbao's hand swept across a load-bearing pillar, and he vanished from the Sword-Beaked Dragon Eagle's sight.
The Sword-Beaked Dragon Eagle still wanted to pursue him, but it saw the entire building overhead begin to collapse.
After the damage they had wrought on the thirty-something-story building, all its load-bearing pillars had broken.
And in the final moment of his escape, Zhang Junbao had severed the last load-bearing pillar as well.
The building could no longer bear the weight of its upper floors and finally collapsed.
The Sword-Beaked Dragon Eagle's enormous body was buried in the rubble, unable to move, and Zhang Junbao took the opportunity to flee madly.
"Human!"
From the ruins, the Sword-Beaked Dragon Eagle let out a furious, bloodcurdling cry and forcibly broke free from the wreckage of the thirty-something-story building.
But both its wings were injured now, and its right wing was even bent at an unnatural angle. It could no longer fly.
Clearly, the tens of thousands of tons of floors that had come crashing down were more than the small frame of a flying demon beast like the Sword-Beaked Dragon Eagle could withstand.
The Sword-Beaked Dragon Eagle tried to resume its pursuit, but Zhang Junbao was already nowhere to be seen.
"Human, human..." The Sword-Beaked Dragon Eagle was furious. It roared again and again as it looked around.
It had lost Zhang Junbao. That hateful human had escaped openly, right under its nose!
A group of demon beasts arrived afterward and looked at their lord, at a loss...