Thump!
The giant golden chicken's left wing beat the air, deflecting Xu Gang's heavy iron hammer to the side, while its other wing lashed out directly toward his chest.
This spectacle left Su Bai utterly dumbfounded.
The giant golden chicken actually knew martial arts!
Even if you are a fierce beast, isn't this going a bit too far?
Immediately afterward, however, an even more shocking sight unfolded before Su Bai.
The giant golden chicken's wings moved like whips, striking five times in rapid succession with lightning speed.
With a loud thump, a flash of lightning illuminated the air.
Xu Gang had been careless and failed to dodge; he was sent flying more than thirty feet away, crashing heavily into a tree. As he slid down the trunk, a mouthful of blood sprayed from his lips.
"Despicable! You and I are both at the Qi Refinement 6th Layer, but your beast is actually at the Qi Refinement 7th Layer!"
Xu Gang's chest was caved in, and he was clearly seriously injured. If he hadn't also practiced an external body-refinement technique, that single blow would likely have cost him his life.
Hearing Xu Gang's insults, Ji Kun became even more smug.
"You can only blame yourself for being blind! If you had realized earlier that my golden chicken was at the Qi Refinement 7th Layer and conceded defeat sooner, you wouldn't have gotten hurt!"
Ji Kun clambered back onto the golden chicken's back, a smug smile plastered across his face. His demeanor was exceptionally arrogant as he unreservedly mocked the disciples of the Qingyun Sect.
"For all its boasting as a millennium-old sect, it seems each generation of the Qingyun Sect is worse than the last!"
"If you ask me, you might as well just shut your doors now!"
"The dignified head senior brother of the outer sect can't even defeat my beast. Tell me, how do you expect to survive in the future?"
Ji Kun's attitude was swaggering and supreme.
At that moment, several inner sect disciples had also rushed over to provide support.
Although these Qingyun Sect inner sect disciples possessed formidable strength and plenty of them could easily slay this beast, they could not make a move.
Ji Kun was the outer sect's head senior brother of the Beast Taming Sect. No matter how powerful his beast was, he remained merely an outer sect disciple.
If Qingyun Sect inner sect disciples were to bully a junior with their superior status, it would become a laughingstock if word got out, and even a victory would lack honor.
Now, they could only pin their hopes on the talented elites of the Qingyun Sect's outer sect.
Yet who among them possessed the strength to slay a Qi Refinement 7th Layer beast?
They looked at one another in dismay, all trapped in a difficult predicament.
Just then, a massive eagle soared across the sky.
The eagle was enormous, its wings spanning more than thirty feet.
The giant eagle descended from the heavens, kicking up surging shockwaves. When it was thirty feet above the ground, a red figure leaped down from its back.
It was a young girl of sixteen or seventeen, dressed in fiery red robes with an ancient sword slung at her waist. Her pretty face wore an expression of peerless arrogance.
Hiding within the crowd, Su Bai secretly nodded to himself.
"Lin Xiaoyue, she really is here!"
Having served as Lin Xiaoyue's chief steward for so long, Su Bai understood this woman's temperament and character thoroughly.
She was incomparably arrogant and also cared deeply about saving face.
With someone crashing into the Qingyun Sect to stir up trouble, as the top expert of the outer sect, she naturally had to step up and defend the sect's honor.
"Ah, it's Senior Sister Lin! We're saved!"
"With Senior Sister Lin making a move, she'll definitely take down that hateful golden chicken!"
"This Ji Kun won't be arrogant for much longer!"
"These scum from the Beast Taming Sect actually dare to cause trouble for us, they're asking for a beating today!"
Whether outer or inner sect disciples, everyone in the Qingyun Sect was brimming with confidence in Lin Xiaoyue.
Yet Ji Kun wore an inscrutable smile.
"Lin Xiaoyue, are you really that formidable?"
Ji Kun sneered, imperceptibly sticking a talisman onto the back of the golden chicken.
Once the talisman was attached, the golden chicken trembled slightly all over. Its previously clear eyes turned blood-red, and the golden feathers across its body began to shimmer with a bloody luster.
"Whether I am formidable or not is not for you to ask... you should ask my sword instead!"
Lin Xiaoyue was not someone who enjoyed idle chatter. Her way of answering enemies was almost always with her sword.
This time, she drew her blade with blistering speed.
A flash of sword light later, she had already closed the distance, the tip of the longsword in her hand pointing straight at the chicken's eye.
At that moment, a layer of golden-red flames blazed along the length of her blade.
"Could this be... the Fire Luan Swordsmanship?!"
"It has to be!"
"Who would have thought Senior Sister Lin actually managed to inherit the Fire Luan Swordsmanship!"
The disciples were filled with intense envy, all convinced that Senior Sister Lin had already won.
Only Su Bai in the crowd shook his head slightly.
He could see that Lin Xiaoyue's talent was indeed exceptionally strong.
It was just that she had only grasped the form, failing to comprehend the true intent of the Fire Luan Swordsmanship.
This sword technique was nothing more than an empty shell.
Against a standard Qi Refinement cultivator, boosted by the flames of the Fire Luan, this single strike would have been enough to instantly kill any opponent.
However, the opponent Lin Xiaoyue was facing today was a beast enhanced by a talisman, standing merely a step away from Foundation Establishment!
Crack!
To her astonishment, Lin Xiaoyue watched as the golden chicken twisted its neck and clamped its razor-sharp beak onto her longsword, snapping her precious blade clean in two!
"Qi Refinement 9th Layer!"
Before Lin Xiaoyue could even react, the golden chicken lunged forward with ferocious intent!
Her face turned icy as she brandished the broken half of her sword to parry, but the beast was simply far too strong for her. Fighting and retreating simultaneously, Lin Xiaoyue found herself stretched to her absolute limits.
Even so, her performance deeply shocked every Qingyun Sect disciple present.
One had to remember that Lin Xiaoyue's cultivation was merely at the Qi Refinement 6th Layer, while this golden chicken's cultivation had already reached the Qi Refinement 9th Layer!
Razor-sharp talons raked across Lin Xiaoyue's arm, instantly tearing through her flesh and leaving it dripping with blood.
"Hmph, what outer sect genius? Utter trash, you can't even beat my beast!"
Ji Kun sneered as he fished a rope from his waist. "Today I'm going to capture you and hang you from the mountain gates of the Beast Taming Sect, so everyone can see just how pathetic the disciples of the Qingyun Sect really are!"
He urged the golden chicken forward, hurtling directly toward Lin Xiaoyue.
Deep within the crowd, Su Bai's expression darkened with displeasure.
You can fight over people all you want, and you can brawl as much as you like, but what kind of nonsense is dragging someone away as a captive?
I've only managed to discover two Daughters of Fortune in total, and you're about to snatch one away while kidnapping the other—are you trying to wipe out my entire stock in one go?!
A surge of anger rose within Su Bai. He was about to make a move when he realized that if he exposed his strength in front of such a massive crowd, wouldn't he be giving away all his secrets?
Although both his Cloud-Piercing Sword and the Samadhi True Fire Talisman could easily obliterate this fellow, he had no intention of doing so just yet.
"Senior Sister Lin, your sword diagram!"
Panicking, Su Bai scrambled out from the crowd. Leaning on a cane and trembling with age, he hurried to Lin Xiaoyue's side and helped her up.
Seeing Su Bai's elderly and decrepit appearance, the onlookers instantly burst into a wave of mocking laughter.
Yet Su Bai did not care in the least.
He broke into a smile, his aged face covered in wrinkles like a chrysanthemum blossoming in the wind.