Two black tendrils wrapped around the Flame Griffin’s beak. This wasn’t enough to force it closed, but then six more suddenly shot from the ground and tightened. The beak snapped shut with barely a second to spare.

A massive explosion went off inside the Flame Griffin’s mouth. The shockwave it produced slammed into Wu Jian, who groaned as he was pushed further into the rock wall. He groaned as the rocks around his shattered, sprinkling his body with fragments. Blood welled up inside his chest. He coughed once, spitting out several crimson globs.

He looked up to see the Flame Griffin writhing on the ground, a giant black cat biting into its neck. Yōuměi had a fierce grip on the creature. Her fangs dug into its flesh. Blood gushed from the puncture wounds and flowed down the Flame Griffin’s feathers, though it was hard to tell because they were already crimson.

Wu Jian thought Yōuměi could maybe even kill the magical beast, but then the creature screeched, and flames burst from its body like a torrent. Yōuměi howled as she flew backward. She struck the ground, rolled across it, and came to a stop quite far from the Flame Griffin. Smoke rose from her body.

“Yōuměi!!” Wu Jian shouted.

He ignored the pain wracking his body, stood up, and rushed toward the Flame Griffin. He threw several punches before even reaching it. Chi flowed through his body, space warped around his fists, and his attacks struck the magical beast where Yōuměi had bit into it. The Flame Griffin shrieked in surprise and pain. It was distracted enough that Wu Jian reached it before it could take to the sky.

The moment Wu Jian reached the Flame Griffin, he lashed out with a kick that contained all the power he could muster. A loud noise like something bursting echoed around the clear. His attack produced a shockwave that launched him and the Flame Griffin back. The magical beast was forced back to the ground while Wu Jian stumbled several steps back.

Despite the damage done to it, the Flame Griffin was still a creature at the peak of the Asura Realm. It shrugged off its injuries and stood up.

Wu Jian felt paralyzed the moment it turned a glare on him. Every muscle in his body felt like it was seizing up. Perhaps it was because he was the sole focus of its hatred, but he felt infitismally small, like a speck of sand caught in a dust devil.

What is this? It feels like I’m going to die!

This was different than killing intent. Wu Jian had felt illing intent before. The cultivators he had fought in the past could all produce killing intent, but this was something else entirely. It felt like he was already dead and his body just hadn’t realized it yet.

I… I have to do something!

Wu Jian gritted his teeth as he struggled to move his unresponsive body, but nothing he did seemed to work.

Just as the Flame Griffin began to move, Huǒ Shuchang appeared in the air above it, a gleaming red sword in his hand.

“You damn bird! Take this!!”

He swung the sword faster than a regular person could blink. His attack was the Flame Griffin’s neck. Sadly, the Flame Griffin leapt away before his attack could hit.

This beast has an incredible sense of spatial awareness. It must be some kind of animal instinct. There’s no way a pair of inexperienced cultivators can keep up with that kind of instinct.

Since Huǒ Shuchang was attacking the Flame Griffin, Wu Jian couldn’t very well do nothing. He launched a punch. Space folded around his fist. Then he struck the Flame Griffin in the side. The magical beast turned to see the source, but there was nothing there.

Huǒ Shuchang swung his sword while it was distracted. Once more, the Flame Griffin responded like it had eyes in the back of his head. Yet even though it moved quickly, fresh blood poured from a shallow cut on its skin.

The Flame Griffin roared and made to attack Huǒ Shuchang, then a shadow wrapped around its left hind leg and tugged. It released a startled cry as it fell. Wu Jian then used his space folding abilities to claw out its right eye.

For the first time since the battle started, the Flame Griffin released a cry of pain instead of anger. Wu Jian’s fingers tore into the flesh of its eye. Fluids burst from the socket as the eye exploded.

Huǒ Shuchang tried to use this opportunity to finish it off, but though injured, the beast refused to be bested so easily. Flames exploded from its body. The shockwave sent them all back. Wu Jian cried out as he slammed into the ground, while Huǒ Shuchang was at least able to flip through the air and land on his feet.

The fire blazing around the Flame Griffin sputtered. It was growing weaker.

Huǒ Shuchang let loose a battlecry as he charged toward the Flame Griffin, and Wu Jian followed suit. The creature swiped at Huǒ Shuchang. It missed when he jumped over it. Before it could retract its claw, Wu Jian grabbed onto it, bent his knees, and grounded himself.

The Flame Griffin was strong. Its muscles bulged as it tried to remove itself from his grip. But Wu Jian was stronger. He had reached the peak of physical strength thanks to his grueling training, and without the chi necessary to enhance itself, the Flame Griffin was not as strong as him.

“Let’s see you dodge this!!!”

Huǒ Shuchang roared as he swung his sword. The blade flashed as it passed through the Flame Griffin’s leg. Wu Jian had been so focused on keeping it pinned in place that he was unable to react when the leg was severed. He stumbled back and fell onto his bottom. The Flame Griffin, on the other hand, released a furious screech of agony.

Wu Jian thought this would be the end of it, that they would soon be able to kill it.

He couldn’t have been more wrong.

Chi suddenly burst from its body. It gushed out like a tidal wave that slammed into him. The pressure being released from all that power caused chaos within his body. His own chi seemed to respond and ramped inside of him, causing him to hack up blood.

Huǒ Shuchang wasn’t much better. He stumbled to a knee, vomiting enough blood to produce a puddle beneath him. The older man pressed a hand to his chest and grimaced.

“D-Dammit! It’s trying to self-destruct!”

“What?!”

“It’s trying to overload its monster core and blow itself up!”

Wu Jian had never heard of such a thing. He didn’t even know that was possible! What should they do? What could they do?

While Wu Jian and Huǒ Shuchang knelt on the ground, unable to move, a gigantic claw-shaped shadow erupted from underneath the Flame Griffin. It dug sharp claws into the creature’s soft underbelly. The Flame Griffin’s surprise was so great that it lost its concentration. The chi it had been releasing sputtered out.

“Now’s your chance, Huǒ Shuchang!” Wu Jian shouted.

“I’ve got this!”

Huǒ Shuchang leapt into the air, reversed the grip on his sword, and plummeted toward the Flame Griffin.

“This is the end for you!”

The Flame Splitting Sword sank into the Flame Griffin’s head and emerged from the bottom. Blood spurted from both wounds. Its body twitching erratically, the Flame Griffin fell onto its stomach.

Huǒ Shuchang waited until the twitching subsided to pull his blade from its head. He stumbled off the carcass and sank to his knees, releasing a slow breath as all the tension drained from his body.

Wu Jian stumbled to his feet as Yōuměi limped over to him. Blood ran down a wound on her leg. He slung an arm over her body and leaned against her as the two walked over to where their comrade was sitting.

“Well… we did it,” Wu Jian said.

Huǒ Shuchang looked up and smiled. “Yeah… we did, but damn, that was closer than I would have liked. Ha ha. I guess that’s what it means to fight against a creature several times stronger than us. I’ve never felt closer to death than I did today.”

Wu Jian said nothing, but that was because this wasn’t the closest to death he had come. The attack on the Wu Clan had honestly been more terrifying than this. At least in this battle, Wu Jian had been able to contribute. He hadn’t been able to do anything when his clan was decimated in a single night.

“You gonna get that monster core?” asked Wu Jian.

“Ugh… I guess I should.”

Huǒ Shuchang groaned as he stood up. He went over to the creature, studied it for a moment, then made several incisions along its stomach. Blood gushed out as its insides were revealed. Huǒ Shuchang didn’t hesitate to stick his hand inside, pushing aside the intestines and other organs to reach the prize.

“Here it is.”

A bright red monster core glowed as it rested on Huǒ Shuchang’s palm, whisps of fire wafting off the surface. Wu Jian could feel the power coming from it. Heat emanate from the glowing orb in waves.

“All right. I need to refine this now. Let’s head into that cave. It would suck if I tried to absorb the monster core only to be attacked by an opportunistic magical beast,” Huǒ Shuchang said.

“All right.”

Wu Jian, Huǒ Shuchang, and Yōuměi wandered into the cavern. They walked through a tunnel that eventually opened into a cave that was much larger than he expected. Not only was it spacious, but there a large patch of bright red flowers were blooming in the center. Among them, one flower in particular was much larger than the others.

“Well, damn. No wonder that Flame Griffin decided to settle down in this cave. There’s a 1,000 year old Yang Fire Flower here,” Huǒ Shuchang said with a chuckle.

“What’s that?” asked Wu Jian.

Huǒ Shuchang walked around the patch of flowers with a contemplative gleam in his eyes. He looked like a man eying a piece of prime beef at a butcher’s store.

“Yang Fire Flowers are very rare and powerful natural treasures that can enhance a magical beast’s cultivation once they reach maturity. It looks like this thing is actually close to reaching maturity too. If the Flame Griffin had been able to consume this, it would have ascended to the Human Limit Realm. I’ve heard magical beasts that reach this realm gain intelligence on par with humans and can even begin working to gain a human form.”

Wu Jian grimaced. Had the Flame Griffin consumed that flower, they would have stood no chance against it.

“Anyway,” Huǒ Shuchang continued, “Since you helped me acquire the monster core, you can get these flowers. Consider it my thanks.”

“You say that like you’re giving them to me,” Wu Jian mumbled.

“Of course. You might be a freak of nature, but I’m still stronger than you.”

“This freak of nature also has a panther who’s not much weaker than you are. Don’t forget that.”

“Ugh. Right. Well… I’m still stronger.”

“You won’t be for much longer.”

“Hah! Just watch! I’m about soar through the skies like a Phoenix! Anyway, you should wait until that flower matures before taking it.”

“How will I know it’s mature?”

“It will begin emitting fire along its petals. Now, you and Yōuměi should consume these pills and cultivate. That’ll help you recover your strength.”

Huǒ Shuchang removed a bag from his storage ring and tossed it to Wu Jian. There were several crystal clear pills inside. Wu Jian had never seen their like before. He took one out and studied it for a bit before popping it into his mouth.

“Oh!”

Wu Jian blinked several times as his body was infused with energy. It rushed through his meridians and fed into his dantian, replenishing the lost chi he had used during the battle against the Flame Griffin.

“Yōuměi, come over here and take one of these,” Wu Jian said.

Yōuměi wandered over, sat down, and opened her mouth so Wu Jian could place a pill inside. She closed her mouth around the pill. While Yōuměi’s face gave no reaction to the energy rushing through her, the way her tail wagged from side to side told him all he needed.

Wu Jian crossed his legs and formed a hand seal. He closed his eyes and began cultivating to replenish his lost strength.

The battle they just fought had been harsh, but they had come out victorious, and now it was time to reap the rewards.