A large, reptilian creature emerged from the shadows, emitting a terrifying aura that locked Qian Feng in place. Something deep and primal within the boy emerged, his heart palpitating vigorously and sweat emerging from his body as Qian Feng stared the dragon in its crimson eye.

No matter how strong he was, Qian Feng was still an inexperienced fighter, someone who had never undergone the feeling of walking the line between life and death. As such, when he saw the powerful beast now in front of him, that inexperience was brought out and Qian Feng was absolutely petrified.

Cruel Shadow Dragon. The name emerged unbidden in Qian Feng's mind. A king among grade 3 beasts, the Cruel Shadow Dragon was famed for its sadistic mentality(it was a rare beast who had develoepd high levels of intelligence) and its Shadow-attribute Qi.

Back on the mountain, the eyes of the Iron Fox opened in shock and disbelief. There's no way such a beast could pass through my Spirit-Repelling Formation, he thought. It's bloodline is simply too high-grade, even if its power is low at the moment. Oh, now my student is in trouble... Well, I'll simply watch and interfere if it truly becomes too much for him to handle.

Listen up, kid, the voice of the Iron Fox sounded out in Qian Feng's head, this opponent is a bit of trouble, but I'm still expecting you to restrain from using your Qi. I'll help you out, okay? Here's a wooden weapon.

Upon hearing this, Qian Feng dropped his half-formed bone weapon and caught the wooden weapon that appeared in midair, his honed reflexes proving useful as he got ready for battle with barely any delay.

As he grasped that wooden weapon, Qian Feng's demeanor completely changed.

Qian Feng lost all his fear, his body and mind becoming steady and focused on one thing: victory. Anger and some disdain seemed to flow from something deep inside of him, steadying him and enabling him to burst forth with his full battle power. It seemed to come from his Earth and Force martial spirits as they roared in fury, even as Qian Feng suppressed them, even his Life martial spirit stamping its hoof in anger despite its calm and peaceful demeanor.

Seeing this, the Iron Fox's expression changed slightly and betrayed slight pride in the boy he had come to accept as his disciple, but that quickly melted away back into the stone-cold visage always present on the jaded man.

Qian Feng struck forward with an overhand chop, taking the initiative and trying to catch the beast off guard, but the Cruel Shadow Dragon quickly dodged the strike with a strange leap(the Shadow affinity was famed for its speed and agility, not to mention its unpredictability) and returne the favor with a bite headed straight for Qian Feng's throat.

He squatted down and dodged the attack, sending another attack towards its exposed neck. This hit landed, but drew only a thin line of blood. This was actually quite impressive in itself, given the weapon Qian Feng had and the fact that he could not use any Qi, but it would not be enough.

As the dragon backed off, Qian Feng did the only thing that would give him even a chance, and dropped the wooden guan dao while picking up his previous kill's far sharper teeth, one in each hand. This would allow him to penetrate the dragon's scales enough to deal actual damage, whereas with the guan dao, he would never be able to kill the beast before succumbing to exhaustion.

Qian Feng had very few advantages in this fight. He was severely behind in terms of speed(the only reason he was able to dodge that attack was because his instincts and reaction speed allowed him to do so). The Cruel Shadow Dragon's offensive might was also high, given its incredibly sharp teeth and claw, as well as the tail which could defend it from attacks from behind using blistering smashes. Luckily, Qian Feng's training so far had focused primarily on defense. The nine pits had employed various agonizing methods to strengthen Qian Fengs skin beyond the point of a normal human, and his work in the Tian Mountain Art had furthered that advantage. His skin was now far stronger than his enemy's scales, and Qian Feng could use that.

He would have to trade blow-for-blow. His daggers could penetrate the dragon's defense far better than his guan dao, and would be able to deal fatal wounds. If he could fight without regard for his life, then the dragon would have no choice but to either give up on its prey because of the danger involved in killing it, or die.

The next time the Cruel Shadow Dragon attacked, with a claw swipe covered in shadows, Qian Feng moved closer and sent a thrust right at where he presumed the dragon's heart would be. As the claw swipe continued downwards, Qian Feng's thrust also traveled forwards. The way things were going, if both parties continued with their attacks, they would both be greatly wounded, if the dragon backed off, it would lose its chance to hurt its prey but save itself from the knife, and if Qian Feng stopped attacking, he would lose his chance to counterattack and get hurt by the claws speeding towards him.

However irrationally, just as Qian Feng was about to get struck by the shadow-emroiled claws, he hesitated in his strike, prompting the worst-case scenario, in which he got hit by the dragon and didn't manage to score something in return.

Now sporting a large gash in his shoulder, Qian Feng backed off. No matter how good a decision it was, death was not so easy to face, which had cuase dhim to hesitate and pay for the mistake.

Qian Feng would have to change, and quickly.

Droplets of blood splattered on the ground. Thankfully, Qian Feng's tough skin had softened the blow, and it had only cut into his muscles, not reaching the bone. He could still use the arm.

Moving back in and ignoring the pain - he had felt much worse in his training - Qian Feng began to dance with his foe.

His movements becoming more direct and skillful, Qian Feng sharpened his technique using the Cruel Shadow Dragon as a whetstone. They exchanged meaningless, weak attacks, until Qian Feng saw an opening and slashed downwards, changing his hand position to a reverse grip for added power. The dragon, seeing this, spat a ball of squirming Shadow Qi at its struggling prey. The situation was the exact same as last time, with both parties having a chance of getting hurt.

And the outcome was the same too. When looking death in the eye, Qian Feng's body ignored his rational mind and jumped back, getting hit in the chest by the Shadow Qi attack.

The initial force was nothing much, just barely enough to push him back, but the after effects were what terrified Qian Feng.

The Shadow Qi, instead of dissipating, seemed to spread, draining his energy and sapping his life force. This also brought with it an intense pain, causing Qian Feng to grimace, but he soldiered on.

He knew he could not afford to make the same mistake again, for his third time. If he did that, he would die.

So Qian Feng went back to his previous strategy, dancing with the dragon and exchanging glancing blows, stalling until an opportunity revealed itself.

In the meantime, though, Qian Feng knew he would have to be as skillful as possible, as he didn't have much energy to spare thanks to the Shadow Qi. His dagger attacks started becoming faster, more natural, and the course they took became harder and harder to dodge.

Even as Qian Feng lost more and more energy, his eyes became sharper in their search for weaknesses and openings. As he was experiencing a battle that could really kill him, the warrior became pressured. Thankfully, where some people might snap, Qian Feng persevered and improved under the strife.

His footwork became lighter and faster, but it didn't develop in speed. Instead, he began focusing on carrying momentum through his feet and using his footwork in order to apply the most force possible. Even if he planned on being able to take a hit in the future, Qian Feng still wanted to be able to dodge, and his footwork reflected that.

Although it was still nascent, and not formed enough for ordinary people to see it, the Iron Fox who watched from far away saw traces of the boy's battle style in that footwork.

Solid, rooted to the ground and heavy, but still allowing for quick last-minute dodging. The powerful base it provided lent even more power to Qian Feng's strikes, and the footwork only improved by the second. He could see the drawbacks of what was going on at that time, as well.

Qian Feng focused on defense and power, something that the dagger could not supplement. As a light weapon, it focused on multiple, quick attacks that would add up to kill the opponent over time, or a single well-placed strike that could end the fight. This was in opposition to his fighting style, but Qian Feng still had to go along with that.

This would cause his foundation to grow unsteady - even if Qian Feng's inherent disposition towards his own fighting style showed in his footwork, it was still affected by the weapon he wielded and the way he had to fight. Essentially, he was developed his footwork the wrong way - that agility he had was being wasted on him whereas he could make more use of a little extra solidity or power. The Iron Fox saw this and knew he would have to change something, lest his student develop the wrong way(this could be fixed, but it would be time-consuming to completely rebuild his footwork from the ground up. As it was, it wasn't developed enough that changing it would be so difficult). After this fight, if Qian Feng didn't give himself a proper guan dao, allowing him to develop in the proper direction technique-wise, the Iron Fox would have to.

Finally, the Cruel Shadow Dragon revealed an opening when it lunged towards Qian Feng with a savage look in its eye - it had grown tired of the persisting battle, and all those little injuries were starting to add up for both parties.

This would be the killing blow if Qian Feng could pull it off.

An upwards thrust as the cruel Shadow Dragon's head approached his thrust... His body rebelled against him, almost pulling back in a desperate attempt to avoid the attack, but Qian Feng steeled his heart and continued.

If he was fighting against a human, perhaps they too would have backed off, making them go through what Qian Feng had twice before, but as Qian Feng was fighting a spirit beast, the inherent berserk nature inside it granted the Cruel Shadow Dragon absolutely no fear of death. This would be a trade.

The Bone-Rending Tiger's tooth penetrated through the soft part under the skin of its foe while the beast in question savagely bit into Qian Feng, the upper jaw piercing his chest and the lower piercing his back. They spent half a second like this, both parties in agony, when the Cruel Shadow Dragon went limp and fell to the ground, its still-present ball of Shadow Qi dissipating along with it.

All the repressed exhaustion Qian Feng had swept forth and he too fell to his knees, just barely managing not to let out a scream of terror as the previous boon his martial spirits gave him disappeared, prompting a complete panic attack at his many, many wounds.

His brain, suffering feedback from these intense emotions of pain and fear, shut itself off as Qian Feng collapsed, unconscious.