The monster let out a shriek, swinging its entire body toward Xueling.
"~Don’t dodge. It’s not acting rationally at the moment. Enhance the tip of your sword with qi and stab it," Yu Tian said.
As the monster’s body came toward her, she injected the tip of her sword with qi and stabbed the incoming body of the monster. When she did so, the monster let out another shriek and began shaking its body, trying to throw her off.
"~Now enhance the entire sword with qi and run through it," Yu Tian said.
She smiled as she understood his plan.
She put even more qi into the sword, coating it in a blue glow.
She then started running along the monster’s body, going toward its head.
Although the monster was slippery, she used her qi on her feet to hold on. As the monster spun its body around, trying to shake her off, she would just drag herself and her sword to the upper side of the monster, maintaining balance through the qi on her feet.
She then reached the head of the monster, where the monster lay on its back, exposing its neck where it had fewer scales.
"~Do I need to tell you about this?" Yu Tian asked.
"~No," she replied before proceeding to cut the monster’s head clean off.
Yu Tian smiled as he watched from afar. He thought to himself that he hadn’t expected it to go so well. His expression then turned serious. He remembered the words of the monster before it was killed - it had used voice transmission to communicate with him.
"~Help me. We are the same kind. Will you let this outsider kill me?" the monster had said.
"The same kind?" he wondered what that was about. Well, he would think about it later, he thought as he walked toward the center of the clearing.
"What are you doing?" Yu Tian asked, approaching Xueling who was covered in blood, diving into the monster’s corpse. She dug half her body in before coming out, holding a round crystal-like object.
"Looking for this, of course," she said before tossing it to him.
He caught it. "What is this?" he asked as he inspected it.
"A monster core," she explained.
"A core? But you said it hadn’t reached the fourth level yet," he asked.
"Do you know why the realms of monsters are labeled differently?" she asked.
"It’s because they have a different form of progression," she explained. "Although we say that each level of a monster corresponds to a level in the human realms, that’s just in power. Apart from that, the progression is completely different."
Yu Tian nodded his head in understanding. Since the progression wasn’t similar, monsters didn’t need to enter level four to form a core.
As he thought of this, he suddenly paused.
"The core. That’s it," he thought, remembering how the monster had thought they were the same. It was because he had an inner core.
This is dangerous, he thought, turning to look at Xueling. If the monsters could tell he was "their kind," then humans could definitely tell this too.
He sighed. This meant that she could also tell this.
He wondered why she wasn’t saying anything about it. Was she choosing to ignore it since he had helped her?
This was really bad, he thought. Although he had helped her and she knew he wasn’t a bad person, the others wouldn’t feel the same. They would instantly attack him the moment they saw him, as monsters and humans didn’t get along at all.
Xueling jumped out of the monster, her body entirely covered in monster blood.
She approached him. "What do you think? With a monster core, you should be able to increase your cultivation. If you’re lucky, you could even use it to enter the peak of Body Refining," she said.
"I see. Thanks for the reward," he said, bowing slightly.
"It’s not a reward," she said, shaking her head. "It’s your share for your contribution."
"Contribution?" he asked.
"Since we worked together to defeat the monster, it’s only fair we split the benefits. You take the monster core, and I take the flower," she said. "I still owe you the two rewards."
He smiled. "Then I won’t be polite," he said, using his spatial ring to store the monster’s body and core.
She looked at him. "Anyway, how did you do that?" she asked.
"You mean the predictions?" he asked.
"Of course," she said, looking directly at him.
He smiled nervously. He had already come up with an explanation for this. From his calculations, she had a ninety percent chance of believing it. He didn’t know why, as it didn’t sound all that good of an explanation, but he guessed her trust in him had a part in it.
"Yesterday when I was going to get herbs, I encountered a monster. During the fight, I was suddenly able to predict its movements and turned the situation around. I really don’t know how it works," he said.
Hearing this explanation, she held her chin in thought. "I see. It all makes sense now," she murmured.
"It does?" Even he was surprised.
"That’s right. You might not know it, but you have awakened battle instinct," she explained.
"It’s said that battle instinct is related to the mind. Seeing as you were able to enter the mind realm this early in your cultivation journey, it’s not surprising that you can unlock battle instinct."
"What’s battle instinct?" he asked.
"Hard to say. Just think of it as some sort of ability that allows one to predict an opponent’s moves during a fight," she said. "I heard it’s unlocked through combat, but I’ve never unlocked it," she added.
She thought to herself that probably only the elders in the sect had it. Even so, it’s not this strong, it’s just a little instinct of incoming attacks, not really prediction. It also didn’t work when you weren’t personally facing the opponent as it relied on killing intent.
That’s why it was easy to trick if you’re a human or a highly intelligent monster, as you could hide your killing intent. She looked at Yu Tian, then sighed. Maybe what he had was an advanced form of that.
"We should head back now. I’ve already taken what we came here for," she said. ᴛhis chapter is ᴜpdated by NovᴇlFirᴇ.ɴet
"Why don’t we take a shower first?" Yu Tian said, pointing at her.
She looked at herself, only then did she realize that she was covered in blood.
"Ah, yes. Let’s do that first."
A/N: A highly intelligent monster can be considered a demon. Of course, there are protected species, like a dragon will be considered a divine beast rather than a demon.