Chapter 89: The Musou no Hitotachi Reborn

"Is that it?" Looking at the spiritual consciousness of the Sixth Elder, which had been thoroughly defeated due to its own carelessness, and the Purple Thunder Eagle struggling to rise, Chen Qi could not help but swallow hard, tightening his grip on the long blade in his hand.

Indeed, in this world of the jungle, if you want to survive, you have to rely on yourself.

The Purple Thunder Eagle let out a weak cry toward Chen Qi; the arcs of electricity on its body trickled down its feathers to the ground, creating a crackling sound. Its wounds were gradually clotting, and its feathers were curled and patchy. Aside from the difference in its cry, it looked as bedraggled as a wild pheasant.

At this moment, the Purple Thunder Eagle was straining its neck, screeching at Chen Qi in an attempt to drive him away, but it felt like a fallen hero, all bluster and no substance.

Chen Qi did not dare to be careless. He approached, circling the eagle with his blade, looking for the perfect moment to strike. This clear intent caused the eagle to rotate its body, ignoring the tearing of its wounds, to maintain a defensive posture facing him.

Chen Qi took a few cautious steps forward. At this distance, the reconnaissance skill inherent to his bone chain finally proved useful. As a faint light shimmered along the chain, lines of data appeared in Chen Qi's field of vision:

Name: Purple Thunder Eagle
Health: 21%
Mana: 81
Strength: 17
Agility: 32
Constitution: 19
Intelligence: 16
Charisma: 13
Tip: This creature is as fast as lightning and as fierce as thunder. Its blood energy possesses an electrical attribute, and its attacks can paralyze enemies.

Skill 1: Power of Violet Lightning (Passive, Lv.5). Each attack by this creature has a 30-60% chance (depending on the depth of the strike) to paralyze the target for 1.2-3.5 seconds (based on the target's constitution and resistance to abnormal status), with an additional 20 points of lightning damage.

Skill 2: Thunder Drive (Active, Lv.3). Upon activation, the passive Skill "Power of Violet Lightning" is enhanced by 30%, and a layer of invisible, fine lightning screen is constructed in front of the body, causing enemies within to fall into a 0.5-second paralysis state while their nerve reflex speed drops by 30%.

Skill 3: Eagle's Thunder Brilliance (Active, Lv.4): ???
Skill 4: Lightning of Energy Devouring (Active, Lv.2): ???
Skill 5: ???
Skill 6: ??? (This skill is disabled due to external energy impact within the creature's body.)

Notice: The creature is suffering from massive internal hemorrhaging; all attributes are reduced by 15%.

Compared to the Purple-Scaled Pangolin King that Chen Qi had fought before, this Purple Thunder Eagle was faster and possessed more luxurious skills. If it weren't for its heavy injuries, weakness, and the fact that it was grounded, Chen Qi would have had no chance of defeating it. Well, unless another one of those tokens appeared.

Despite the seemingly high odds of victory, Chen Qi remained cautious, not daring to breathe freely for fear of revealing a flaw. He had seen too many examples of people losing everything due to carelessness.

Several high-pitched eagle screeches rang out. Chen Qi’s expression hardened, and he rushed toward the eagle with his blade.

The moment he moved, a condensed burst of blood energy erupted from where he had been standing, shooting toward the eagle even faster than he did. It was the skill: Blood Energy Impact.

Faced with the double attack, the Purple Thunder Eagle did not dare to be careless, but it seemed to lack a better means of response. It simply blocked with its claws, grabbing the incoming streak of blood energy and grinding it into wisps of red mist. However, it paid a price: its claw became stiff from the impact, clearly rendering it useless for immediate defense.

Seeing this, Chen Qi felt a surge of joy. He unleashed his remaining strength, his blade moving three times faster as he slashed toward the eagle’s neck.

Just then, he felt a familiar numbness surge through his body. This sensation spread instantly to his entire frame, causing his swing to stall in mid-air.

Chen Qi knew something was wrong. He reacted decisively, struggling to pull back the half-committed blade. He did not believe the eagle’s skill was meant only to stiffen him; the beast surely had a follow-up move.

Indeed, the Purple Thunder Eagle raised its head, its prominent eyes showing a flash of human-like disdain. Then, its broken beak opened wide, spitting out a dim, dark-colored lightning sphere.

The moment the sphere was expelled, it was only the size of a ping-pong ball, but it seemed to attract all the surrounding energy, quickly expanding to the size of a basketball. Even Chen Qi, three meters away, felt the blood energy on his skin become active, as if it wanted to throw itself into the sphere to become fuel for its expansion.

Seemingly convinced the outcome was sealed, the Purple Thunder Eagle hoisted itself up and struggled into the air. Its demeanor had swept away its previous lethargy, replaced by pride and confidence. It didn't even look at Chen Qi, flying off toward its distant nest. It was as if Chen Qi were already a dead man.

Chen Qi had no energy to be distracted by this. Or rather, even if he saw it, his heart remained calm. Faced with this fatal crisis, his eyes showed no panic. On the contrary, they were fixed entirely on the lightning sphere. He simulated the subsequent swing in his mind, his face showing an expression of eagerness! Even though his strongest focus-burst skill was on cooldown and his figure appeared thin and weak, he, Chen Qi, remained confident.

Finally, watching the approaching dark lightning sphere, Chen Qi swung his blade to meet it in the posture he felt most comfortable with.

Unlike the "thoughtless" strike he had executed before, this strike was filled with focus, with the piety of a craftsman, and mingled with his yearning for the beautiful things of this world, just as he longed to return to Yun Tianxin’s side.

As soon as the blade touched the dark lightning sphere, the blood energy and scorching aura upon it were absorbed. The blade instantly turned plain and dull, reverting to its original light red color, appearing to contain no energy at all.

Yet the dark lightning sphere became increasingly unstable. The energy adsorbed onto it displayed a restless tendency, as if it would explode the moment it encountered resistance, releasing all its contained power.

Looking at the sphere touched by his blade tip, Chen Qi had a flash of inspiration. He closed his eyes and began to retract all the intense emotions he had just unleashed, attempting to simulate that "thoughtless" strike. He had vaguely found a trick: with his current level of swordsmanship, he could never achieve "thoughtlessness" directly, but by erupting with intense emotion and then retracting it in an instant—even briefly forgetting it—it seemed... possible to reenact the realm of that "thoughtless" strike.

A mere instant later, Chen Qi opened his eyes. Because the sphere was so close, the time taken to close and open his eyes was extremely short, like a normal blink, but his pupils had become devoid of color, as calm as a pool of stagnant water without a ripple.

Once again, Chen Qi reenacted that near-thoughtless strike!

The blade shadow, devoid of blood energy, linked together like a wisp of faint, faint red clouds. It looked as if it were about to be crushed by the dark lightning sphere and evaporated into nothingness.

Yet, when the blade was seen again, it had inexplicably appeared in the center of the sphere, as if it had been born there—seeming perfectly natural, without a hint of abnormality or discord.

The dark lightning sphere seemed to perceive the foreign object inserted into its center, using the viscous, black energy—transformed like a millstone—to grind continuously against the blade’s position, wishing to crush the blade into nothingness within.

But the blade moved forward unstoppably, slicing the dark lightning sphere perfectly in two, seemingly without encountering any resistance. It was so fast that the sphere didn't even have time to explode!

In a fleeting second, a gap appeared in the middle of the dark lightning sphere. The two hemispheres separated, moving into an inverted-V shape, brushing past Chen Qi’s body as they flew into the distance.

"BOOM!"

A deep pit several yards wide appeared in the forest. The surrounding vegetation and trees were reduced to nothing. At the bottom of the pit, a residue of dark purple energy remained, and the terrifying sound of energy annihilation continued to echo; every living thing in the soil had been slaughtered.

As soon as Chen Qi heard the energy explosion behind him, an irresistible shockwave swept over, knocking him and his blade forward, causing him to fall face-first into the dirt.

But his eyes were filled with excitement and pleasant surprise.

The dark lightning sphere had finally been unable to suppress its explosion, but the point of impact was no longer by his side!

At this life-or-death moment, he, Chen Qi, had done it again!