Book 8, The Ten Thousand Kilometer Journey – Chapter 6, Another Transformation


    “Boss.” Bebe’s voice rang out in Linley’s mind.


    Holding the adamantine heavy sword with one hand, Linley leapt backwards in an arcing dodging pattern. At the same time, he mentally said, “Bebe, don’t panic. Let me first have a good fight with this mysterious ck panther. If I can’t beat it, you can make your move against it. You are my secret weapon.”


    Bebe, understanding, rapidly retreated to one side.


    Right now, Linley had been filled with a growing urge to do battle. Despite having spent this much time in the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts, he hadn’t yet encountered an opponent who required him to truly use all of his power. Saint-level beasts were too powerful, while Linley could now totally dominate ordinary magical beasts of the ninth rank through his higher speed.


    Only, this mysterious ck panther was even faster than Linley.


    “Growl!” The enormous ck panthernded on the ground, cold gaze fixed upon Linley.


    But Linley only had a hint of a smile on his lips.


    “It increased in size, but no doubt its speed is now slower.” Linley could clearly tell that this ck panther’s speed had dropped by 20% to 30% just now. With the support of the wind-style Supersonic spell, Linley was totally confident in his ability to deal with it.


    But Linley also understood something.


    With greater size came lesser speed...but most likely, the ck panther’s offensive abilities had just greatly increased. Even in its normal form, the ck panther had been able to rip open two of Linley’s scales. Linley no longer dared to allow the ck panther tond any more w attacks against him.


    With a ‘swish’, that mysterious ck panther once more pounced towards Linley at high speed, arriving in front of Linley in mere moments.


    “Whoosh.”


    Right at this moment, Linley suddenly slid down on the snow beneath the ck panther, passing below it while simultaneously stabbing at the ck panther’s chest with his adamantine heavy sword.


    “CLANG!”


    Linley’s heavy sword once again mmed against the sharp ws of the panther. Although the ck panther’s speed had decreased with its increased size, the attack speed of its paw strikes was still astonishingly fast.


    “Swish!” That seven or eight meter long ck panther tail ripped through the air, viciously shing towards Linley.


    Linley kicked off powerfully against the ground with his right foot,unching himself towards an enormous nearby tree. As he arrived, Linley kicked viciously against the massive tree with both legs.


    “CRACK!” The tree was broken in half and fell down, while its dense array of branches also smashed everywhere.


    With astonishing speed, Linley used the bounce-back force to dive back towards the mysterious ck panther, while at the same time, gripping the adamantine heavy sword with both hands in a vicious downward stroke against the ck panther.


    “sh!” The adamantine heavy sword moved so fast that it ripped through the air, creating an ear-piercing, howling sound.


    But right at this moment, the ck panther turned its head to stare at Linley, staying there without moving, allowing Linley to strike it at will. Clearly, this ck panther understood that after having transformed to arger size, it would no longer be able to rely on its speed to suppress Linley.


    “Swish!”


    The adamantine heavy sword in Linley’s hands suddenly seemed to lose all weight and force, floating gracefully downwards at an astonishing speed. The tip of the sword, however, was beginning to tremble.


    “Bam.” The adamantine heavy sword collided against the ck panther’s body.


    A look of surprise appeared in the cold, arrogant eyes of the ck panther, because this sword blow seemed to have no force behind it at all. Without hesitating in the slightest, it sent its seven or eight meter long tail shing fiercely towards Linley.


    “Thunderbolt.” Linley’s formerly calm eyes suddenly seemed to spit lightning bolts.


    The ck panther suddenly felt as though that adamantine heavy sword which had just touched its back suddenly exploded with a terrifyingly powerful st of force. The force was like the eruption of a volcano, sting out power wildly and at high speed.


    “BAM!”


    The ck panther felt its limbs grow soft, and its body was pressed down by a significant amount. Its glossy ck fur suddenly began to ripple like the waves of the sea.


    “Growl!!!!” A small amount of blood leaked out from the corner of the ck panther’s mouth.


    This level of ‘wielding something heavy as though it were light’ required perfect coordination between physical strength and battle-qi. It wasn’t just raw, brute force; rather, it was concentrating all of the rushing power and unleashing it at one blow. Although the ck panther possessed astonishing defensive capabilities, with its fur neutralizing more than half of the offensive power, a significant amount of power still entered its body, causing the ck panther some internal injuries.


    “Whap!”


    That whip-like ck tail of the ck panthernded viciously on Linley’s body, smashing apart the armored scales on Linley’s waist and sending Linley flying.


    Just as Linley was about to smash into the top part of the trunk of anotherrge tree, Linley suddenly stretched out his right hand and plunged his ws into the tree trunk like a grappling hook. Hanging onto the trunk, Linley looked down from his position at the upper trunk of the tree.


    “As I thought. Once it transforms to arge size, its offensive power increases greatly.” Linley looked at the shattered scales on his waist and the fresh blood leaking from beneath it. He now understood much more about this mysterious ck panther. “As for its defense, however, it didn’t increase that much.”


    When it transformed to arger size, the ck panther’s defense didn’t change much. Its speed dropped, and its attack power increased.


    “It seems as though my ‘Thunderbolt’ technique is still effective against it.” Linley was very satisfied with the effect of his ‘Thunderbolt’ attack.


    This ck panther possessed a terrifyingly powerful defense. Even the explosive power unleashed by ‘Thunderbolt’ wasrgely blocked by its extremely tough ck fur, and the fur itself seemed to be totally undamaged.


    If Linley were only to use raw, brute force and battle-qi against this ck panther, he probably wouldn’t be able to wound it at all.


    “Time to use my magic.”


    Linley began to mumble the words to a magical incantation. Right now, Linley was hanging around thirty or so meters up above the ground off that tree trunk, while the ck panther was staring up at him coldly from below. Seeing that Linley didn’te down, this peak-stage, highly intelligent magical beast of the ninth rank, came to a snap decision.


    If you aren’ting down, I’ming up!


    “Swoosh!” That five-meter tall, enormous ck panther suddenly flew into the air, leaping directly towards Linley. With its astonishing springing force, it cleared thirty meters with a single bound.


    Linley’s heart was as tranquil as water.


    Despite seeing the enormous ck panther fly upwards towards himself, he still continued to chant the words to his spell. Only, he pped the trunk of the tree with his right hand, sending himself flying upwards at an incline at high speed.


    The tree which Linley had just pped instantly split apart by the force of that blow.


    “Crash!” The tree toppled to the ground towards the panther.


    This tree was enormous enough that when it was falling, it took up half of avable space. To the physically small Linley, it didn’t prove a problem at all, but the enormous panther was forced to sh at it with its paws and rip it in half.


    Seizing this moment, Linley finallypleted the magical incantation he was chanting.


    “Swiiiish.” On Linley’s back, a pair of translucent, blue wings suddenly appeared. shing with azure light, the translucent wings seemed extremely beautiful. With a gentle p of the wings, Linley’s body rocketed into the air.


    Wind-style spell of the eighth rank: Airwings!


    Seeing this, the enormous ck panther instantly howled with fury. It actually pounced once more towards Linley at high speeds, as Linley flew higher.


    “Bam!” Although the ck panther had increased in size, it was still extremely dexterous and agile, capable of leaping dozens of meters at a single bound. Borrowing force against the tree trunk, it continued to leap higher and higher up the trees.


    But after five or six leaps, the enormous ck panther had reached the top of the tallest tree, while right now, Linley flew high above the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts with his translucent wings.


    “Now, time for me to thrash you.” Linley saw that the enormous ck panther had already leapt towards him from the top of the tallest tree. But now, with nothing to grab on, the ck panther had no choice but to allow its body to fall down.


    Just as its body began to fall...


    “Whoosh!” Linley suddenly spread his wings and rocketed downwards at an astonishing speed.


    Through using the astonishing downwards speed granted to him by the Airwings spell, Linley quickly arrived next to the falling enormous ck panther. The enormous ck panther red angrily at Linley, but in mid-air, it had nothing totch onto.


    “Haaaaaaaaargh!” Linley suddenly activated all of the Dragonblood battle-qi in his body.


    Reaching the absolute maximum limit of Dragonblood battle-qi power in an instant, and with both hands gripped tightly around the adamantine heavy sword, Linley delivered a vicious mid-air chop against the falling ck panther, which had nowhere to dodge.


    “CLANG!” The ck panther’s sharp ws once again shed against the adamantine heavy sword.


    But Linley only confidently swung his adamantine heavy sword against it again at high speed. At this moment, the dancing adamantine heavy sword in Linley’s hands had seemed to be one with the wind, shing down more than ten times against the falling ck panther in the space of one second.


    With each sword blow, he executed the ‘Thunderbolt’ technique.


    “Bam!” “Bam!”


    After blocking the very first strike, the ck panther’s body had begun to elerate its downward falling speed. But using his Airwings spell, Linley was still able to match the ck panther’s rate of descent. One sword, then another, then another...


    The ck panther felt as though each sword stroke of Linley’s was more forceful and heavier than thest, and each sword stroke unleashed the same explosive, flood-like burst of power, causing its internal organs to shake.


    After taking over ten blows, the body of the enormous ck panther was smashed all the way into the ground by Linley.


    “BOOM!”


    An enormous crater appeared, and cracks appeared in every direction on the ground. The roots of the massive trees around them began to emerge from the ground, uprooted from the force of this collision.


    In the middle of the crater, the enormous ck panther spat out arge mouthful of fresh blood, and even a hint of blood could be seening out of its fur. These repeated blows by Linley’s heavy sword had caused even the ck panther’s fur to be unable to withstand all of the attack force.


    “ck panther.” Linley stood in midair, over ten meters above it. His translucent wings fluttered. “I know that you understand the human tongue. I’ll give you a chance. As long as you submit to me, I’ll spare your life.”


    Right now, Linley really wanted to tame and acquire this magical beast.


    Linley had been in sore need of a good mount this entire time. And, even more importantly, this ck panther was an extremely superior creature, especially after it transformed in size. Its enormous, two-story tall body,bined with its astonishing speed and defense made it an absolute war machine.


    “Growl!”


    The enormous ck panther stood up, staring coldly at Linley. Its deadly eyes were filled with boundless wrath. Its head was still raised proudly. How could it possibly submit so easily? But right now, the ck panther understood that this human warrior in front of it wasn’t the prey it had thought he was. For a warrior to possess such terrifying power and also be able to use a high level wind-style spell such as ‘Airwings’ was an expert which was extremely rare in the human world.


    “Are you willing to submit?” Linley shouted from up high.


    As far as magical beasts were concerned, only martial force could make them submit and subdue them. And the higher the rank of a magical beast, the more difficult it was to make them submit.


    “Groooowl!” The enormous ck panther let out an angry roar.


    “If you won’t submit, then I’ll beat you until you do!” Linley was very confident.


    Whenbining his magic with his warrior abilities, his power could rise to an astonishing level. Right now, due to the pair of translucent Airwings on his back, Linley was in total control of the battlefield.


    “Swish!” Linley once more dived downwards.


    The movement speed of the pair of translucent wings was higher than that which four limbs provided. In the blink of an eye, Linley appeared in front of the enormous ck panther as he once more smashed downwards viciously against it with his adamantine heavy sword.


    But the ck panther only retreated over ten meters at high speed, then pounced forward again.


    Flexing his translucent wings, Linley began to dodge about very agilely in the air while constantly chopping downwards with his adamantine heavy sword. Every sword carried with it a terrifying force, capable of ttening a hill.


    “Bam!”


    The enormous ck panther’s body was once more struck by the adamantine heavy sword and knocked flying. Blood had matted its glossy ck fur with a red color. Linley stood confidently in midair, ready to strike another blow at the ck panther at any moment with his adamantine heavy sword.


    “Will you submit?” Linley said in a solemn voice.


    The ck panther once more rose to its feet, staring coldly at Linley. Suddenly...the ck panther’s body began to shrink. It once more shrunk down to a height of two meters and a length of four meters...but the strange thing was, this time, the ck panther’s entire body began to glow with a hazy ck and white light.


    “What on earth?” Sensing danger, Linley quickly flew a bit higher using his translucent wings, cautiously staring down.


    That ck and white light disappeared. The ck panther’s body, previously covered with arge, dense amount of ck stripes, now only had a few thick ck stripes on its upper body, while the fur on its four limbs had turned as white as snow.


    Seeing this, Linley sucked in a cold breath. “ckcloud Panther? The legendary ckcloud Panther?”