Chapter 53: Chapter Fifty-Three: Roar of Domination

The Fire-Thunder Leopard roared, and as it ran, wind, fire, lightning, and thunder coalesced into afterimages that warped the space around it.

It could no longer hold back—now it had to enter the fray!

The current situation left no room for it to remain a passive observer.

“You are strong, human!”

The Fire-Thunder Leopard halted ten zhang from Lu Fang, gazing at him coldly. “I never imagined you could kill so many beasts on your own, even while I harassed you.”

“This ends here!”

“Even if you are strong, you’ve drained vast amounts of righteous qi—you must be utterly exhausted by now.”

“You hid it well, but I’ve seen through your act.”

The Fire-Thunder Leopard had watched Lu Fang the entire time, waiting for him to show fatigue. It had felt he should have collapsed long ago, yet kept misjudging him—this had already astonished it.

It had waited so long!

It had even sacrificed its own kin as cannon fodder.

All just to wait for this moment—to crush Lu Fang with absolute dominance!

“I’m so tired! Cough, cough, cough…”

Lu Fang obediently gasped for breath. “You saw through me! Oh no, oh no! What do I do now!”

The beasts exchanged uneasy glances.

“Be careful—this human is too cunning.”

“He’s still feigning weakness!”

“He’s clearly mocking us—there must be a trick!”

The Fire-Thunder Leopard sneered. “He’s just putting on a show. Attack together—tear him to shreds!”

The five remaining beasts, hearing they were expected to fight, all stepped back in unison.

None of them were fools!

Any beast still alive by now was surely a coward who feared death.

If it came to other skills, they admitted they were inferior—but when it came to slacking off and pretending obedience, they were masters.

They had only gathered temporarily under the temporary leadership of the Clan’s Great Whale.

They followed the Fire-Thunder Leopard only because its power was superior.

But to ask them to fight to the death? Impossible!

Boom!

A bolt of lightning split the sky.

With thunder rolling, the first raindrop fell.

The Fire-Thunder Leopard moved. It knew that if it didn’t strike first, the remaining beasts would never obey its orders again.

Roar!

From the Fire-Thunder Leopard’s body rose the sounds of tiger, leopard, and dragon roars—it suddenly became a black lightning bolt, flashing everywhere as if multiple copies of itself existed at once.

The wind turned into claws, suddenly forming claw marks above Lu Fang’s head; sharp sonic booms exploded as the claws slashed down upon him.

Lu Fang barely avoided them—the cuff of his robe was torn into a long strip. He retreated rapidly to evade the assault, then suddenly realized the Fire-Thunder Leopard had used its fire talent to turn the surroundings into walls of flame.

Wherever he tried to flee, the flame wall there blazed fiercer, blocking his escape.

He was trapped!

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Wind-formed claws appeared repeatedly above Lu Fang’s head; he seemed frantic, struggling to respond.

He had just received a hint from the Ink Brush’s realm spirit, and someone had just read Romance of the Three Kingdoms, gaining a supernatural power—he’d momentarily lost focus, letting the Fire-Thunder Leopard seize the initiative and leaving him on the defensive.

“You’ve fought so long and still evade my attacks—you’re truly an extraordinary human. Especially your speed—it’s even faster than before. Had I not been here today, you might have escaped.”

The Fire-Thunder Leopard growled. “But you’ve met me. No one has ever outpaced me.”

The moment it finished speaking—

As petals of peach blossoms drifted down from the sky, they formed a circular ring around the Fire-Thunder Leopard.

Shhh!

Lu Fang vanished from his spot!

The Fire-Thunder Leopard’s expression darkened. At the moment the peach blossoms appeared, it had clearly felt bound—and now, the worst part: it could no longer locate Lu Fang’s figure.

Where was he?

How could a human vanish into thin air?

Not just the Fire-Thunder Leopard—the other beasts hovering beyond the flame walls also scanned frantically for Lu Fang’s whereabouts.

“He’s above!”

One beast shouted, looking upward.

“No, no! He’s below!”

Another beast cried out.

The Fire-Thunder Leopard grew irritated—was he above or below? It heard movement in both places and couldn’t determine his position.

Forget it!

Relying on years of battle experience, all it needed now was to move from its current spot.

“Soul of Power—Roar of Domination!”

Lu Fang appeared like a phantom; behind him loomed a spectral figure, eight chi tall, with a leopard’s head, round eyes, a swallow’s jaw, tiger’s whiskers, and holding a spear eight feet long.

It was Zhang Yide, the famed general from Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Lu Fang opened his mouth and roared: “Taaai!”

The spectral Zhang Yide roared in unison: “Taaai!”

The moment the massive soundwave erupted, the Fire-Thunder Leopard’s mind exploded like thunder—it froze for an instant.

Lu Fang vanished again before it could react.

“Ten Thousand Swords Art—One Hundred Swords!”

Yan Chixia’s voice rang out from the sky—a hundred blades shot downward with unstoppable force, piercing straight toward the Fire-Thunder Leopard’s head.

The Fire-Thunder Leopard couldn’t dodge. Its demonic aura surged outward, forming a leopard ten zhang tall that blocked ninety-nine of the blades.

The final blade—the tiny moonlight sword—pierced through the aura and kept driving toward its head. It twisted in panic—its leopard ear was sliced clean off.

The Fire-Thunder Leopard had no time to rage, for it suddenly sensed overwhelming pressure erupting behind it; every hair on its body stood on end.

Was it an illusion?

It felt an inescapable dread.

Indeed, just as the Fire-Thunder Leopard began to flee, a flash of cold light split it cleanly in two!

“The Fire-Thunder Leopard is dead!”

“How can this human be so strong!”

“Run!”

The beasts scattered in panic at the sight.

Lu Fang swallowed a bit of bookish qi but did not pursue. He tossed the severed corpse of the Fire-Thunder Leopard into his storage pouch and prepared to leave.

The intimidation had been achieved!

He had stayed here too long!

“You’re even stronger than I imagined.”

Shui Yao’s emotions were complex.

She no longer compared herself to Lu Fang. Though he was only a seventh-rank, second-tier Confucian scholar, their combat power was not even on the same level.

“What are you doing now?”

Shui Yao had barely finished her thought when she realized Lu Fang wasn’t leaving—he was racing swiftly toward the heart of the Beast-Man alliance. She was utterly baffled.

Was he going to kill more beasts?

“We’ve stayed too long—we’re surrounded by Beast-Man elites!” Lu Fang explained hastily, dashing toward the field of jagged stone pillars.

“Surrounded?”

Shui Yao was confused.

But she quickly understood: to the east, south, and north of the bald mountain, powerful demonic auras and barbarian malice surged skyward.

To the east, the barbarian malice formed a shadow over ten zhang tall, with four arms like a giant, advancing rapidly.

To the south, a tiger’s roar shook the forest and shattered the rocks.

To the north, a woven sun blazed—a tiny sun too brilliant to look upon directly.

To eliminate Lu Fang, the Beast-Man alliance had deployed its highest-tier warriors to surround and kill him.

“The Great Zhou’s Marquis of the Literary Crown—Lu Fang—we’ve finally caught you!”

A mocking voice rang out from the north.