The instant the glistening black sword struck the green shadow, Jing Yan shifted his body one meter to the left.
Jing Yan's movements, both the sword strike and the sudden dodge, happened with an unfathomable speed that could only have come from precognition.
The sound of the longsword stabbing through its target resounded around him.
The Shadow Gale Wolf screamed.
Blood splashed as the Shadow Gale Wolf's poisonous claws whistled right past Jing Yan's chest. The creature's attack had come extremely close to landing.
The Shadow Gale Wolf was unbelievably fast. If it hadn't been for Jing Yan's ability of prediction that allowed him to be prepared ahead of time, Jing Yan would have gotten injured instead of the Shadow Gale Wolf.
Jing Yan took a deep breath as his blade connected with the Shadow Gale Wolf. He slightly shook his head before he dashed forward.
Although anticipating the creature's movements had allowed him to land a blow, his Vital Qi wasn't strong enough to bring down the Shadow Gale Wolf in one hit.
"If I were at the Fifth Heaven Rank, that one hit of my sword would have immobilized the Shadow Gale Wolf."
"You want to run?"
Jing Yan stretched his lips into a smile. At that point, there was no way he would let the Shadow Gale Wolf go. He dashed forward to attack again.
The first strike had hit one of the Shadow Gale Wolf's rear legs.
For regular Spiritual Beasts, sustaining damage to a rear leg wouldn't hamper them too much. But for a Shadow Gale Wolf that relied heavily on speed, a crippled leg was a serious disability.
The Shadow Gale Wolf screamed like crazy as its green figure streaked away from Jing Yan.
It belatedly realized that the ghost-like sword was approaching its throat. The Shadow Gale Wolf then did something impressive. It adjusted its position in the air and prevented itself from taking a fatal hit. Its body seemed to possess rubber-like flexibility.
Jing Yan's longsword once again left a long wound on the wolf's body but failed to kill the creature.
"I can't believe this!" Jing Yan laughed grimly. He didn't stop attacking. If one hit didn't do the job, he would keep swinging.
A regular warrior might think that his second strike with the sword would be a guaranteed hit. Then when things turned out differently, he would be unable to make the third strike. Even with one leg injured, the Shadow Gale Wolf still moved at incredible speed. If a Fourth Heaven warrior couldn't make a third strike in time, the Shadow Gale Wolf would escape. But Jing Yan was no ordinary warrior. As confident as he was in the second strike, he didn't put all his hope into it.
As the second sword strike failed to kill the Shadow Gale Wolf, Jing Yan flowed seamlessly into a third strike.
No matter how spectacular the Shadow Gale Wolf's speed was, it stood no chance against the three consecutive strikes.
Thump!
As Jing Yan withdrew the sword, the Shadow Gale Wolf's green body hit the ground.
"I finally got this b*stard!" Jing Yan felt relieved at last.
Yet he didn't risk getting close to the Shadow Gale Wolf. Instead, he brought his sword down across its neck to cut off its head. Due to the fact that Shadow Gale Wolves were quite sly, Jing Yan was afraid that it was faking its immobility. It might attack him with its last bit of energy if he got too close. But cutting its head off would undoubtedly prevent that from happening.
"Time to loot!" Jing Yan let a slight grin cross his mouth. He knelt to skin the Shadow Gale Wolf.
Suddenly, the Shadow Gale Wolf's body started to change.
"What?" Jing Yan paused. His Moonbeam Sword glistened as he instantly rose into a combat stance.
Yet the alertness on his face soon gave way to a look of ecstasy.
There was a yellow halo rising from the Shadow Gale Wolf's body. The halo didn't fade away in the air. Instead, it condensed into a ball the size of a fist.
"A Soul Crystal! Unbelievable! It's a Soul Crystal!" Jing Yan couldn't even calm himself down. He would never have expected that the Shadow Gale Wolf would produce a Soul Crystal.
Jing Yan was no stranger to Soul Crystals. He'd seen them before. He'd even obtained them himself, and that was why he was familiar with their use and value.
Soul Crystals were special items created inside Spiritual Beasts, but very few Spiritual Beasts were able to produce them.
It was said that the percentage chance of gaining a Soul Crystal was 0.01%. That meant that among 10,000 Spiritual Beasts, only one might produce a Soul Crystal. That suggested how rare Soul Crystals were.
Of course, not all Soul Crystals were created the same. There were Low-ranking, Middle-ranking, and High-ranking Soul Crystals. Yet even Low-ranking Soul Crystals were unbelievably valuable. Soul Crystals had particular values to warriors that were hard to put into words.
In other words, now that Jing Yan had obtained a Soul Crystal in the Blackrock Mountains, if other warriors in the mountains found out, they would try their best to hunt Jing Yan down. Jing Yan wouldn't be safe until he made it back to the Jing Clan. And even after he got back to the Jing Clan, he still couldn't keep the Soul Crystal. The higher-up members of the Jing Clan would force him to give the Soul Crystal to the family. Of course, if Jing Yan was still the No. 1 genius of Dong Lin City, the family might not have made him give up the Soul Crystal.
That was how appealing Soul Crystals were.
"My luck is just insane!" Jing Yan had to take several deep breaths in a row to calm himself down.
He looked around with narrowed eyes to make sure there was nobody nearby. Jing Yan then put away the yellow Soul Crystal as fast as he could.
He skinned the Shadow Gale wolf and cut off its front paws with their pitch-black claws. He took both the fur and the claws with him.
Jing Yan left the spot as soon as he could. He didn't want to stay there any longer.
Jing Yan didn't relax until he was about three miles away from where he had killed the Shadow Gale Wolf. His eyes were glowing brilliantly with excitement.
He quickly recalled the whole process of the fight between him and the Shadow Gale Wolf to learn from the experience. Next time he came across a Shadow Gale Wolf, he would be able to kill it more quickly.
A warrior at the Fourth Heaven had killed a Shadow Gale Wolf all by himself. Even if this news spread, nobody would believe it. They would all laugh and call it some made-up story that was impossible.
Jing Yan was probably the only one who could have pulled it off. If it had been any other Middle-ranking warrior, they wouldn't possess Jing Yan's terrifying prediction ability.
The fight with the Shadow Gale Wolf didn't take Jing Yan too much time. But he knew the risks hidden in that fight. He knew that the main reason he was able to kill the Shadow Gale Wolf was that he had cultivated the Arch of Heaven. Otherwise, today would have been the day that he died under the claws of a Shadow Gale Wolf.