34: Chapter 34 Killing Someone Above Their Level

"This is actually a Silver 3-Star beast!"

"How could you possibly have a Silver 3-Star beast by your side, kid? Could you already be a Silver-Rank Beastmaster?"

"No, that's not right, it's impossible!"

"This beast definitely isn't yours; someone must have arranged for it to follow you beforehand to protect your safety!"

Across from them, a detector suddenly appeared in Shadow Wolf's hand. He scanned the Dark Blade Mantis, and looking at the beast grade displayed on the detector, shock flickered in his eyes as he stared at Chu Xiu in disbelief.

In his understanding, anyone capable of cultivating a Silver Grade beast before the college entrance examination was without exception a genius with an illustrious family background and peerless talent.

Such a genius and family background were definitely something a tiny Linjiang City could never possess.

Therefore, he would rather believe that the Dark Blade Mantis was ordered in advance by a Silver-Rank Beastmaster from Linjiang No. 1 High School to follow and protect Chu Xiu than admit that the Dark Blade Mantis was Chu Xiu's own beast.

Especially after seeing that Chu Xiu only had a single beast-taming bracelet on his hand, he became even more certain of this notion.

"Xiaodao, kill him."

Chu Xiu paid no attention to Shadow Wolf's exclamation. Regardless of what thoughts Shadow Wolf held in his heart, Chu Xiu directly ordered the Dark Blade Mantis to attack.

Hearing Chu Xiu's command, a trace of cold light flashed across the Dark Blade Mantis's compound eyes. With a flap of its wings, it shot straight toward Shadow Wolf, who was still in shock, like a cannonball.

The blade sliced through the air, carrying a bone-chilling white gleam as it suddenly assaulted Shadow Wolf's neck.

"Hmph, so what if you have a Silver Grade beast guarding you? It's just a Silver 3-Star beast! Today, I must kill you!"

Facing the charging Dark Blade Mantis, Shadow Wolf had no time to think further. He let out an angry shout, and the magic power within his body surged wildly, stimulating the Shadow Wolf bloodline to its absolute limit.

In an instant, his entire body transformed into an upright black wolf, and his sharp claws lengthened further, bearing a striking resemblance to a werewolf from Western legends of the night.

"Awooo!"

Accompanied by a resounding wolf howl, Shadow Wolf rushed toward the incoming Dark Blade Mantis without showing any weakness, thrusting a pair of sharp claws forward.

Clang!

Sparks flashed. After exchanging blows for a split second, both the Dark Blade Mantis and Shadow Wolf took a step back, but immediately clashed again.

Having fully driven his internal bloodline and undergone complete monster-transformation, Shadow Wolf's physical attributes received a significant boost, allowing him to fight almost evenly with the Dark Blade Mantis now.

"Damn it, the detector clearly detected a Silver 3-Star grade, so how can this beast's strength be so formidable?!"

"At my Silver 4-Star grade, fully driving the Shadow Wolf bloodline to undergo monster-transformation, I can actually only fight this beast to a draw?!"

After exchanging dozens of blows, seeing that he still couldn't do anything to the Dark Blade Mantis, Shadow Wolf couldn't help but feel irritated.

Right during his moment of distraction, a cross-shaped cold gleam suddenly erupted, assaulting him.

A bone-penetrating chill instantly made Shadow Wolf's heart tighten, and he hurriedly moved to block it.

However, because their strengths were comparable, Shadow Wolf's split-second distraction was seized by the Dark Blade Mantis. Even though Shadow Wolf made a timely defense, this attack from the Dark Blade Mantis still wounded him.

The blade light carrying a faint trace of black radiance brushed past Shadow Wolf's sharp claws and landed on his chest, tearing open a half-foot-long wound. Fresh blood instantly dyed Shadow Wolf's chest red.

With this strike, the Dark Blade Mantis successively activated the two skills 'Cross Slash' and 'Dark Devouring Toxin', successfully injuring the monster-transformed Shadow Wolf.

Under the influence of the Dark Devouring Toxin, wisps of black mist lingered around Shadow Wolf's wound, constantly burrowing deeper into his flesh and blood.

"Damn it, this beast's blade actually has poison on it!"

"I can't keep dragging this out!"

Feeling the heart-piercing pain coming from the wound on his chest and that black toxin rapidly burrowing into his flesh and blood, Shadow Wolf's face turned dark as he let out an angry curse.

Then his figure flashed, and his entire person disappeared on the spot, once again employing the concealment ability of the beast 'Shadow Wolf' to hide within the dark night.

"Showing off your slight skill before an expert, Xiaodao! Use Shadow Strike!"

Looking at the vanished Shadow Wolf, Chu Xiu let out a sneer and called out to the Dark Blade Mantis.

Hearing Chu Xiu's call, the Dark Blade Mantis quickly nodded in response.

Immediately after, under Zhang Daxian's dumbfounded gaze, it directly transformed into a patch of black shadow and landed on the ground.

Then, at an extremely fast speed, it rushed toward a certain direction, covering a distance of several dozen meters in the blink of an eye.

Rip—

Accompanied by a ripping sound like a blade cutting leather, a spray of blood splattered out. Immediately following, Shadow Wolf's figure reappeared in the line of sight of both Chu Xiu and Zhang Daxian.

However, there was another bone-deep wound on his waist and abdomen, which had almost cut him in half at the waist.

"Awoo—"

Along with a miserable shriek, Shadow Wolf could no longer maintain his monster-transformed state; the fur all over his body receded, and he returned to human form.

However, the wound on Shadow Wolf's waist and abdomen looked even more gruesome, with his internal organs threatening to spill out from it.

He could only tightly cover the wound between his waist and abdomen with both hands, trying his best not to let his internal organs slip out. Then, with a look of terror, he gazed at the Dark Blade Mantis before him, which had reverted to its true form from the shadow, and his lips trembled slightly: "You... you beast can actually see through my movements as well. How... how is this possible?"

However, the Dark Blade Mantis paid no attention to his thoughts. With a raise of its blade and a flash of cold light, Shadow Wolf's huge head was immediately separated from his body.

"Squeak squeak—"

After decapitating Shadow Wolf with a single blade, the Dark Blade Mantis did not forget to emit two hisses toward Shadow Wolf's fallen headless corpse, a look of contempt flashing within its pair of compound eyes.

Under normal circumstances, the Shadow Wolf was merely an Elite-quality fierce beast, and its innate skill was Stealth.

But the Dark Blade Mantis was already a Rare-quality fierce beast before being contracted by Chu Xiu, and it likewise mastered the Stealth skill.

Now that it had become Chu Xiu's beast and undergone another evolution, turning into an Epic-quality beast, its dark-attribute talent was even more formidable. For a Shadow Wolf to use Stealth in front of the Dark Blade Mantis was like showing off one's slight skill before an expert.

Even without the display of Chu Xiu's divine pet evolution system, the Dark Blade Mantis was still able to discover the Shadow Wolf in its Stealth state.

After softly spitting twice at the headless corpse before it, the Dark Blade Mantis began waving its dual blades to rummage through the corpse.

Slashing open Shadow Wolf's chest and digging out the heart, the Dark Blade Mantis sliced the heart in half with a single blade, scraping out a blood-red crystal.

Carrying this thumb-sized blood-red crystal, the Dark Blade Mantis excitedly returned to Chu Xiu's side, presenting the blood-red crystal before Chu Xiu as if offering a rare treasure.

"Xiaodao, what is this thing that can make you so excited?"

Seeing the Dark Blade Mantis so excited, Chu Xiu said with curiosity, his gaze landing on the blood-red crystal held in the Dark Blade Mantis's hands.