Cloud Leopard, Bloodline Skills

In the dim lighting, Di Tian could barely make out the creature moving slowly towards him.

The dotted spots on its body gave it away. Di Tian instantly recognized it to be a Cloud Leopard, one of the animals native to the region.

Seeing it approach him, Di Tian tried to move but felt a resistance, almost as if his body was not following his mental order.

With his Introspective Vision, Di Tian could see that his body was not being restricted in any way, so he came to an instant conclusion.

"It seems to be some sort of psychological pressure that's restricting my mind-body link," he thought. There were a couple of Bloodline Skills belonging to Demon Beasts that fell under this category, including the notorious Beast Might.

Di Tian's guess was actually spot on. The Cloud Leopard was indeed using the bloodline skill, Beast King Might.

As a feline specie and by virtue of its distinct relation to the renowed Tiger King Beast, its skill repoirtore were all top-notch, apex abilities that boosted its strength, defence, control and stealth prowess.

"If it's psychological pressure....." Di Tian did not hesitate to divide a mental strand to approach the Grand Primordial Helix in his Sea of Consciousness.

As expected, a terrifying pain wrecked his mind immediately afterwards. As his Mind Space instantaneously regenerated and he was fred from the Cloud Leopard's pressure.

But Di Tian knew that this was only a temporary solution. Technically, the Demon Beast only needed to cast the skill again to restrain him once more.

As he wasn't a masochist and had no interest in experiencing his Sea of Consciousness fracture into multiple pieces once more, he chose a.... sacrificial plan. Reaching into his backpack, he hurriedly retrieved six aphrodisiac-type Spirit Herbs and crushed them into his mouth.

The plan was to rely on its hallucinogenic properties to balance out the psychological pressure of the Demon Beast. Genuinely, Di Tian didn't want to use this option, but it was the only one he could think of in the moment.

At the same time the effect of the Spirit Herbs began to kick in, he simulated the meditative tea ceremony in his mind to initiate Bone Marrow Cultivation. This way, the raging energy in his body could be exhausted bit by bit.

The Cloud Leopard saw the human move and was surprised. Its Beast King Might was ineffective?

It immediately cast the spell again, but Di Tian did not look like he was affected at all. Instead, he tightened his grip on the horn blade as he prepared to attack.

The energy raging within his body at the moment was too much. Even though it was rapidly being channeled to his Bone Marrow, and the hallucinogenic property didn't even get to manifest, he felt like he was on the verge of exploding. It was a good thing that he could use combat to vent it out.

The Cloud Leopard saw that its Beast Might skill had no effort and stopped using it, switching to another skill.

Baleful Wild Aura.

A bloody mist escaped from its pores and enveloped Di Tian. He couldn't escape it; it was as fast as wind and had a wide coverage.

It had a sharp, lacerating effect. Immediately, bloody wounds started to form on every part of Di Tian's body.

But these wounds started to close up immediately as his Accelerated Healing was automatically activated. A delicate balance was thus formed; new wounds formed on Di Tian's body just as quickly as the old ones healed and vanished.

"Shit, is this really a bloodline skill belonging to a low-grade Demon Beast?" Di Tian hissed. His healing talent did not include pain numbing, so he fully felt the effect of every cut. It was particularly worse as the lacerations were unavoidable as long as one remained under the coverage of the bloody mist.

Di Tian suspected that only someone who had entered the External Refinement Phase of Body Tempering at the very least could resist the effect of the baleful aura. Of course, his estimation only applied to a Baleful Wild Aura of this level; that of a second-grade Cloud Leopard for example would be far stronger.

The best course of action was thus to escape the mist, but the Cloud Leopard was lurking alertly outside it, preparing to unleash a wild combo of attacks in the event of its 'prey' trying to run away. From this, it could be seen that the Cloud Leopard's set of bloodline skills were very practical; all it needed to do to defeat an opponent was to cast the stun skill, followed by Baleful Wild Aura, then bide its time.

Di Tian decided to take a chance and dashed out of the baleful mist.

Thwack!

The next moment, he was smacked back in as the Cloud Leopard slashed at him with its right front paw which was equipped with sharp claws. The claws missed Di Tian's ribcage by a few millimeters, but the paw still made contact, propelling his body backwards.

By now, it seemed the Cloud Leopard was already impatient as it went on to enter the bloody mist right after.

But the lacerating mist did not manage to penetrate its body. Apparently, it's physical defence was not ordinary.

Within the baleful mist, the Cloud Leopard sighted Di Tian picking himself up. With a shake of its body, it vanished on the spot, merging into the darkness.

The next moment, Di Tian's radar detected a claw descending towards his head from the back. It was so fast that he barely had time to react in time.

Thankfully, Di Tian managed to tilt his head to the left at the very last moment. This approach worked as he ended up missing the attack narrowly.

"Damnit!"

From the look of things, the third bloodline skill of the Cloud Leopard seemed to be some sort of stealth ability that allowed it to move instantaneously without detection in the cover of the night.

Di Tian instantly disabled his physical senses, effectively doubling the radius of his external sensory radar and switching to it to instead.

Conveniently, the radius of Di Tian's enhanced radar was just enough to fully cover the baleful aura field. This way, it would be easier to guard against the Cloud Leopard's sneak attacks.

Another malicious claw came Di Tian's way once again, this time targeting his spine.