Chapter 56: Tough beast
The creature snarled, its throat vibrating with a guttural, bone-chilling sound that reverberated through the desolate land.
Its elongated snout twisted upward, eyes gleaming with a strange intelligence, but the cultivator remained unfazed.
Hovering high in the air, he merely sneered, his grip tightening around his sword.
He did not waste his breath on words. Words were useless against a mindless beast.
Instead, his body blurred as he moved, and his sword flashed down from the heavens like a divine judgment.
A streak of light cut through the air, whistling with deadly precision.
Yet the ground beast below moved with an unnatural swiftness. Its monstrous form twisted and rolled, narrowly evading the strike.
The earth split apart where the attack landed, a deep fissure forming in the ground, but the creature was untouched.
The cultivator frowned slightly.
Again, his sword shot out, followed by a barrage of strikes, each infused with Qi, carrying a force capable of reducing mountains to dust.
Slashes of pure energy rained down like a celestial storm, the very air around them vibrating from the sheer pressure.
Yet the beast evaded, twisting and shifting in impossible ways, its muscular limbs propelling it at speeds no normal ground lizard should possess.
A dozen strikes.
A hundred.
A thousand.
And yet, the creature remained untouched.
The cultivator's brows furrowed in mild annoyance. "Fast."
He raised his left hand, forming a quick incantation, and suddenly, dozens of radiant swords materialized in the air behind him.
They floated momentarily, humming with barely contained energy, before shooting toward the beast like falling meteors.
This time, the attacks came from every direction, sealing all paths of escape.
The beast tensed.
Its pupils suddenly constricted.
And then—it moved.
With a sudden explosion of force, the creature twisted its body and lunged sideways, its form blurring momentarily as it narrowly avoided each sword.
The weapons crashed into the ground, detonating like divine thunderbolts, sending shockwaves rippling through the land.
Dirt and debris shot into the air, obscuring the battlefield in a dense cloud.
Yet, when the dust settled, the beast still stood, unharmed.
The cultivator's frown deepened. "This is no ordinary beast."
Still floating high above, he extended his fingers, his Qi surging violently as he channeled another technique.
The sky darkened.
A golden formation spread beneath his feet, expanding in the air as runes flickered into existence.
Then, with a sudden downward motion, he pointed toward the beast.
"Autumn Dragon's Wrath."
The formation activated instantly.
Beams of golden energy shot down from above, cascading toward the beast like waterfalls of divine punishment.
Each streak of light was dense, heavy with power, capable of melting steel and reducing flesh to ash.
For the first time, the beast reacted differently.
It did not evade.
Instead, it roared.
A horrifying, guttural sound erupted from its throat, sending ripples of shock through the air.
It braced itself, thick hide tightening, muscles flexing, before it leapt—straight into the oncoming attack.
BOOM!
The sky quaked.
A shockwave of energy exploded outward, sending waves of force through the air, knocking down trees in the distance.
The cultivator's robes fluttered violently, his eyes narrowing as he peered through the dissipating light.
The beast stood there, smoke rising from its scorched scales.
The attack had landed.
It should have been obliterated.
Any other peak Mortal Beast would have been reduced to a charred corpse.
But it still stood.
Though faint traces of burns marred its hide, the damage was nowhere near fatal.
The beast exhaled heavily, and then, with an eerie slowness, it lifted its head and… smirked.
The cultivator's expression darkened.
Then, he sighed.
"So, it's like this." He muttered, his voice barely audible over the howling wind. "You're not just a peak Mortal Beast, are you?"
His fingers flexed around the hilt of his weapon.
His patience had reached its limit.
He had wasted enough time.
Slowly, his body began to change.
His skin darkened, shifting from a natural hue to something else entirely.
A deep, earthen tone spread across his flesh, his arms and legs hardening, taking on a texture reminiscent of ancient scales.
His eyes gleamed with a faint, golden light, and an aura of pure, refined power surged around him.
This was the mark of his true lineage.
An ancient bloodline—one inherited from the depths of the great Autumn Dragons themselves.
The transformation was not drastic, but it was enough.
His presence became heavier, more overwhelming.
His Qi no longer simply flowed—it roared, pressing against the very fabric of reality.
Up in the air, his voice carried with a profound weight.
"It's time to get serious."
…
Meanwhile, Wei Long's consciousness was speechless.
So it wasn't him. It wasn't his struggling that weakened the Bio-engineered instinct.
It was the cultivator. But that was fine.
That could do.
The cultivator had saved him, whether intentionally or not, and for the first time in what felt like an eternity, Wei Long had a sliver of hope.
If he had a body, he would have sighed in relief. But even without one, he could feel his emotions surge like a crashing tidal wave, raw and unrestrained.
The Bio-engineered instinct, the monster that had tormented him and stolen his control, was finally being brought down.
That sadistic lizard was no longer the predator. It was the prey.
Wei Long wanted to cheer the cultivator on.
Even if his voice could not be heard, he wished, more than anything, that the cultivator would continue attacking without pause, without mercy. And the cultivator did.
This time, however, something had changed.
The cultivator, having transformed into his temporal cultivation form, was no longer simply launching attacks at random.
No, his movements were precise.
His strikes were relentless, refined, and devastating.
The sheer speed at which he moved was unlike anything Wei Long had seen before.
The Bio-engineered instinct had once easily evaded before, slipping through strikes, twisting and maneuvering through the endless onslaught.
But now?
Now it had no chance.
It was being bombarded, overwhelmed from every angle, battered by the cultivator's sharpened techniques.
The beast let out a painful, guttural cry, a sound that resonates deep within Wei Long's being.
"Ha! Serves you right, you damn Bio-laboratory lizard!" Wei Long spat, his rage bleeding into his words. "What's the matter? Not so tough anymore, huh? You were laughing before! Where's that smugness now? Where's that sick, sadistic thrill you enjoyed so much?! You're nothing but a cowardly reptile with an overinflated ego!"
The Bio-engineered instinct thrashed, its body trembling, its once fluid movements becoming sluggish, its strength waning.
Each hit from the cultivator sent waves of agony through the beast, and Wei Long relished in its suffering.
"C'mon, fight back! Oh wait, you can't! That's right, you're getting your ass kicked! And you deserve every second of it! Do you think I'll ever forget what you did? The way you tormented me? The way you toyed with your prey, laughing as you killed?!"
The creature faltered. It stumbled, limbs shaking, blood dripping from countless wounds.
Wei Long had never felt such vindication before.
A laugh bubbled up from within him.
He had spent so long feeling powerless, so long being trapped in a body that wasn't his own, forced to witness its atrocities without being able to stop it.
But now, he was seeing justice.
Even if he wasn't the one delivering the blows, even if he had no control over the situation, he didn't care.
All that mattered was that the Bio-engineered instinct was losing.
Finally, the beast let out a pained, guttural growl before collapsing.
Wei Long's triumph was instant.
"Yes! That's it! Fall! Die, you wretched creature! This is what you deserve!"
But as the laughter of victory escaped him, something else followed.
A creeping, sinking sensation that began to settle in the depths of his consciousness.
A long silence fell.
Wei Long's triumph faltered.
His exhilaration dimmed.
The battlefield was unnervingly still, eerily quiet. His mind, once alight with the joy of victory, now buzzed with a strange unease.
Something wasn't right.
The silence stretched on. It was unnatural, suffocating.
The kind that sent a chill crawling down the spine.
Wei Long wanted to ignore it. He wanted to bask in the moment. But the feeling was eating his brain directly inside its skull.
And then he saw it.
The cultivator descending.
Wei Long's heart nearly stopped.
"No… No, no, no, no!"
Panic surged through him like wildfire. He couldn't hear himself, couldn't physically speak, but if he could, he would be screaming at the top of his lungs.
"Don't come down! Stay in the air! You don't know what you're doing!"
The cultivator didn't stop. He was coming closer. Closer.
Wei Long's panic grew to hysteria.
"LISTEN TO ME! DON'T LAND! STAY AWAY FROM IT! IT'S NOT DEAD YET! IT'S NOT OVER!"
But the cultivator could not hear him. Could not see the warning that Wei Long was desperately trying to convey.
Wei Long could do nothing but watch, helpless and trapped, as the cultivator finally landed.
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