Luo Ao flew into the quiet, dense forest and swept his gaze toward an enormous creature in the distance.
Beneath the dark red light of the setting sun, the panther-type magical beast, over three meters long and covered in pitch-black fur, was tearing into the prey it had caught. Fresh blood streamed from its foul-smelling maw.
On the ground before it lay a mass of flesh and blood that was barely recognizable as human. Scattered nearby were pieces of armor and a sword.
Clearly, this unfortunate human warrior had already become the Shadow Demon Panther's meal.
Having thoroughly read the "Complete Compendium of the Continent's Magical Beast Races," Luo Ao naturally knew that panther-type, lion-type, and tiger-type magical beasts were all high-ranking magical beasts. Even the weakest panther-type and lion-type magical beasts were Level Seven.
The exceedingly rare Shadow Demon Panther before him was among the more powerfully gifted Level Nine Magical Beasts. Few prey escaped once it set its sights on them.
Although the strongest panther-type magical beast in Firefly Forest was the Saint-level Azure-striped Windchasing Panther, the most terrifying panther-type magical beast among its peers was none other than the Shadow Demon Panther.
The relevant books publicly available on the Boya Continent only briefly mentioned that such terrifying creatures existed in Firefly Forest. They rarely provided detailed information about Shadow Demon Panthers.
Most experts who encountered Shadow Demon Panthers throughout history probably died. Even Saint-level experts who truly knew their capabilities probably deliberately concealed that information. Luo Ao knew very well how tightly the upper ranks of the major powers guarded certain information.
Whether battle qi manuals or magic incantations, those fellows kept a tight grip on them. Detailed information about rare magical beasts such as Shadow Demon Panthers was naturally no exception.
Had his status not risen greatly after his earlier breakthrough in strength, giving him the good fortune to obtain the relevant information from the Church of the Fire God, he would not have known that such terrifying assassins existed in Firefly Forest.
Fortunately, he had not encountered this creature when he came here to train back then. Otherwise, he probably would have found it difficult to escape disaster.
Shadow Demon Panthers were natural assassins adept at lurking in shadows, and their greatest asset was the Shadow Transformation Technique.
As its name suggested, the Shadow Transformation Technique was the ability to merge one's body into shadows and move stealthily within them.
With the Shadow Demon Panther's strength and explosive speed, combined with its ability to lurk in the shadows before suddenly appearing to deliver a killing blow, it was no wonder the genius warrior Greet had been no match for it.
The Shadow Demon Panther was feeding greedily when it suddenly sensed a powerful life aura arrive nearby.
It jerked its head up. Set in its hideous, fiendlike head were a pair of cold, eerie green beast eyes. It swept its wide eyes over the area directly ahead, cautiously sizing up the other party-
There, in a clearing roughly a hundred meters away, a man carrying a longsword behind his shoulder had suddenly appeared.
By the dim light in the forest, the Shadow Demon Panther could see that a suit of grayish-blue armor protected the man from head to toe. What a foolish human. Did he think a mere suit of armor could stop its fangs and claws?
"Roar!" The Shadow Demon Panther let out a provocative roar at him, traces of fresh blood still clinging between his foul-smelling jaws and teeth. Despite coming upon the scene of the Shadow Demon Panther's killing, Luo Ao showed little expression.
It was not that he was cold-blooded, but that he had long since grown accustomed to such gruesome scenes. Far too many adventurers died in Firefly Forest every day. Some were academy students who came to train, but more simply came to hunt magical beasts for wealth. There were even despicable fellows who targeted other adventurers.
The Shadow Demon Panther turned its body sideways and raised its head, its eerie green beast eyes fixed on this unexpected intruder. "Roar!" It assessed him once more and seemed to detect no particularly powerful presence from this human, so it attacked him head-on without hesitation.
"They say Shadow Demon Panthers are brutal and bloodthirsty by nature. It seems the rumors really are true." Luo Ao knew very well that high-ranking magical beasts were no less intelligent than humans, while Level Nine Magical Beasts were even more intelligent than some humans.
Normally, upon suddenly encountering an unfamiliar enemy, the Shadow Demon Panther should have grown wary, hidden itself in the shadows, and then attacked cautiously. Clearly, however, having just been interrupted while feeding, it was now extraordinarily furious and had even lost its reason.
So much so that it had forgotten: how could a human who could reach this place possibly be weak?
Sure enough, magical beasts were ultimately nothing more than somewhat stronger wild beasts.
"Hiss! Hiss!" The Shadow Demon Panther had a three-meter-long body, yet its agility was no less than a Shadow Cat's. It suddenly rushed toward Luo Ao at an utterly astonishing speed, moving so fast that a series of sonic booms rang through the forest.
Although its innate ability was the Shadow Transformation Technique, that did not mean it was weak in a frontal fight. In fact, the attacks of most humans at the same level fell far short of his. This was also why it dared to attack head-on.
"Roar!" The Shadow Demon Panther moved as swiftly as a bolt of black lightning. While still airborne, it had already opened its fanged maw. Its weapons were its own sharp fangs and claws, enough to easily tear apart a human's protective armor.
It leaped seven or eight meters high, then kicked off a tree as thick as a bucket, hurtling forward and diving straight at the blue-armored man!
It could hardly wait to gouge out his heart with its claws!
Amid the whistling wind, the Shadow Demon Panther saw the man's face clearly. He was a very young human who looked as though he had only just reached adulthood.
So it was nothing more than a human brat! As a Level Nine Magical Beast, the Shadow Demon Panther was every bit as intelligent as an ordinary human. From its past experience, humans like this were usually very weak.
It seemed that the sudden hint of danger it had sensed earlier really had been nothing more than an illusion.
The blue-armored man's figure was reflected in the Shadow Demon Panther's eerie green beast eyes. He suddenly drew the red longsword he carried on his back.
"A Level Nine panther-type magical beast. Even without a sneak attack, Greet's defeat would have been no disgrace. Unfortunately, you ran into me." Luo Ao's black eyes watched quietly ahead. Although the Shadow Demon Panther was clever, approaching along a highly winding path rather than a straight line, none of it escaped Luo Ao's soul perception.
"Die!" Faced with such a brutal magical beast, Luo Ao naturally would not show the slightest mercy. With barely a thought, the terrifying power hidden within his body erupted like a fierce tiger released from its cage, bursting forth in an instant with the force of roaring mountains and surging seas!
Crimson fire-type battle qi poured into the blade of the red longsword. A closer look would reveal that a few black patterns on the blade had also lit up.
This human! Sensing the terrifying might that had suddenly erupted from him, the Shadow Demon Panther's beast eyes filled with horror. But it was already too late for regret!
Luo Ao's image was reflected in its terrified eyes. In its final moments, it saw him clearly: by human standards, this was a man whose beauty was almost excessive.
"Pfft!" In the next instant, the Shadow Demon Panther's enormous head parted from the rest of its body.
By now, he could dispatch a mere Level Nine Magical Beast with a casual stroke of his sword. It was just a pity about Greet. He had been a very gifted warrior, breaking through to Level Nine in his forties. He had every hope of reaching Saint-level in the future and enjoying a long lifespan.
"I should leave Greet's remains and belongings to his family to deal with." Luo Ao placed both Greet's remains and the Shadow Demon Panther's corpse into the Space Ring, his feelings difficult to put into words.
"Luo Ao, remember this. Only a living genius deserves to be called a genius. Once you die, you'll be nothing." At this moment, Luo Ao gained a deeper understanding of his father's teachings once again.
"That's right. The prerequisite for being a genius is staying alive." That was precisely why, not long after reaching Saint-level, he had chosen to join the Church of the Fire God, with its deep foundations.
Others might not know, but Luo Ao knew that, strictly speaking, both the Church of the Fire God and the Church of the Earth God had Sovereigns behind them.
Although the Boya Continent was only a material plane, and the Church of the Fire God did not necessarily possess strength unrivaled across the continent, there was no doubt that a church capable of commanding several hundred kingdoms and duchies was no weakling. Moreover, at least its legacy of fire-type magic would be more complete.
As for why Luo Ao knew all this, his family background accounted for part of it, but the main reason was actually-he was a transmigrator.
He had transmigrated to the Boya Continent twenty years ago. Strictly speaking, of course, he had actually transmigrated to the Boya Material Plane, one of the countless material planes in the Coiling Dragon World.