Chapter 89: The Phantasmal Cloud Leopard’s Fury

The first rays of dawn had barely pierced through the treetops when the group hastily rose, immediately setting out to track down a Gold-tier magical beast.

After all, they were here for combat training, not a leisurely vacation.

It was already the third day, and if they didn’t seize the opportunity, they might run out of time to uncover the secrets of that auspicious land.

“Brother Ye and… Chief Su, did you not sleep well last night?”

Chixiao, who was leading the way, couldn’t help but glance back, observing their identical expressions of weary sighs and listlessness, as though they had been tormented by some unspeakable entity throughout the night.

What was even more striking was Su Liyue, typically so aloof, now displaying such a fatigued expression.

Ye Xingchen, on the other hand, appeared utterly drained, as if his very essence had been siphoned away, further fueling suspicions about what transpired last night.

After all, Chixiao himself had witnessed Ye Xingchen holding Chief Su securely in his arms that very morning, sleeping in such close proximity that the scene was undeniably intimate.

“Don’t even mention it…”

Ye Xingchen rubbed his temples, his voice sounding as if it had been scorched by ten fire-element spells.

“To speak more would only invite tears…”

Su Liyue silently nodded, her hand instinctively touching her tender waist.

Last night had been nothing short of a disaster.

Not only had Ye Xingchen spent an eternity explaining himself amidst Lin Yueyao’s relentless gossip, but Su Liyue had also endured Mu Wanqing’s ‘interrogation of the soul’.

Recalling it now, it felt like a double torment.

Indeed, these two bodies could not only experience double the pleasure but also double the pain.

The mere thought of the impending marriage questions after graduation—the incessant ‘When are you having children?’ and ‘What style will your wedding be?’—began to echo in their minds in stereo, as if urging them to marry immediately.

Although Chixiao still harbored his suspicions, a second thought led him to wonder if he was overthinking things.

After all, with so many people sleeping together in the wilderness, things couldn’t have gotten that wild, could they?

“Brother Ye,” he said, patting Ye Xingchen’s shoulder, “Cheer up! We should be reaching the Gold-tier magical beast’s territory soon.”

Upon hearing this, Ye Xingchen and Su Liyue, in an uncanny display of synchronicity, both lifted their heads.

This once again piqued Chixiao’s curiosity: ‘Your level of tacit understanding is simply too high, isn’t it?’

Even he and Lin Yueyao, a couple, felt a pang of inferiority.

***

However, they hadn’t ventured much further.

As Chixiao had predicted, the air was already thick with a suffocating sense of oppression.

Turbulent wind-elemental energy, like invisible blades, scraped against their skin, causing a fine, prickling sensation.

Such formidable power could only emanate from the Gold-tier magical beast, the Phantasmal Cloud Leopard; it was unlikely any other creature could match it.

Regarding the other Gold-tier magical beast, the Saber-toothed Thunder Tiger, Ye Xingchen found himself pondering a particular enigma.

While mages in this world only wielded the four elements of earth, water, wind, and fire within their five-pointed star system, why did magical beasts possess attributes like thunder?

Could it be that magical beasts perceived and interacted with energy differently from mages?

Perhaps it was akin to the Five Elements natural power he cultivated.

“Careful!”

As they delved deeper, the surrounding wind elements suddenly grew agitated.

Dead leaves danced wildly within unseen cyclones, and fine scratches continually appeared on the tree trunks.

Ye Xingchen almost instinctively shielded Su Liyue behind him, ensuring she wouldn’t be caught by the mysterious energy.

Clang!

Mu Wanqing and Lin Yueyao simultaneously drew their staffs, brandishing their tips to carve arcs of warning light in the air.

Chixiao, meanwhile, slowed his pace, meticulously surveying their surroundings.

As for the two NPC-like wind mages…

In that moment of heightened tension, a blurred azure figure flashed through the tree canopy, moving so rapidly that it left afterimages on their retinas…

“So fast!” Chixiao instinctively cried out.

The moment the azure afterimage streaked past, the ferocious wind pressure nearly suffocated him.

It was utterly incomparable to the Silver-tier magical beast, the Rock-Armored Lizard, they had defeated yesterday.

The mere wind-elemental energy emanating from that fleeting figure instilled in him an inexplicable sense of oppression; indeed, if he had to quantify it, it felt like the combined might of four or five Rock-Armored Lizards.

He finally understood why their instructors had repeatedly emphasized that at least four fully-staffed teams were required to hunt a Gold-tier magical beast.

For students like them, who lacked practical combat experience, their skill and expertise paled significantly in comparison to their senior peers.

Chixiao’s gaze unconsciously drifted towards Ye Xingchen and his two companions.

Recalling the Gold-tier magical core from yesterday, he involuntarily tensed.

How had they managed it?

Facing such a powerfully oppressive magical beast, could those three women alone have defeated it?

To what exaggerated extent, then, must their true strength reach?

“Look out!”

The instant Lin Yueyao’s shriek pierced the air, Chixiao snapped back to attention, the hairs on the back of his neck involuntarily rising.

He was half a beat late in realizing that the surrounding airflow had, in a mere instant, transformed into countless transparent nooses.

The previously calm forest clearing had become the eye of a storm in the span of a breath!

That swirling, cerulean whirlwind, exceeding three meters in diameter, surged towards them, devouring everything in its path like the gaping maw of a colossal beast.

The swirling debris of shattered rocks and broken branches formed a serrated wheel of death at the vortex’s edge, moving so swiftly that their retinas couldn’t even register afterimages.

Chixiao’s eardrums throbbed painfully from the wind pressure, and his nostrils filled with various dust particles carried by the gale.

Only then did he truly grasp the profound meaning behind his instructors’ words: when facing a Gold-tier magical beast, if one lacked confidence, immediate retreat was the only option.

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