48 Black mantis (1/2)

Bai Yun looked through the entrance for a moment. He then pulled back his head almost immediately. He nearly banged his head against the wall after seeing the thing inside the cave.

In the middle of the cave, a ten-foot tall black mantis stood still before the black flag. Its entire body was covered in black scales, which gleamed in the light. At the end of its forelimbs were two sharp sickle-like projections.

The mantis was not recorded in the book that Gong Ming gave, which meant that this was a variant. This meant that he had no idea what its abilities were or how to fight the beast. Generally, mantises were more geared toward attack and speed, and their defense was a bit weaker. But the black mantis could be quite different. Without knowing its abilities, it would be quite dangerous to attack the mantis, especially considering its cultivation. This was the worst enemy he could have asked for.

Bai Yun peeked out from his cave and stared at the mantis for a while, trying to find out more about it. The beast would only attack once he stepped into the cave, so he was safe for now. Bai Yun was staring at the beast when he noticed some movement from the corner of his eyes.

The cave was a large circular room, with a hemispherical roof. There were four entrances into the cave, all at right angles to each other. As Bai Yun watched, Zhang Zi entered the cave from one of the other entrances.

Bai Yun's jaw dropped when he saw this. He had relied on his god sense and had run into the cave very quickly. He even dispatched the guardian beast in record time. And yet Zhang Zi was only a few moments behind him. This meant that he must have had incredible luck in his path, possibly taking an even shorter than him.

Since he was hiding in the shadows of the entrance, neither Zhang Zi nor the black mantis had noticed him. But the mantis did notice Zhang Zi the moment that he entered the cave. With a roar, it turned towards Zhang Zi and attacked him in an instant.

The large sickle-like hands of the mantis thrust forward at Zhang ZI incredibly fast. Zhang Zi immediately parried the thrust with his spear, but it caused him to take a few steps back. Bai Yun frowned when he saw that. The attack was too fast. He was not sure if he could dodge it. And if he was to be struck by it, the force he would have to bear would be considerable. He might not be able to withstand it. He decided to let Zhang Zi handle the back mantis for now.

After watching them for a while, Bai Yun decided to prepare to intervene in their fight when a chance arose. The objective was not to defeat the mantis but to destroy the flag. He was sure that an opportunity to do so would arise in the middle of their fight. Once he was ready he turned back towards the fight, ready to take action in a moment's notice. He watched the two combatants exchange blows rapidly without either of them taking a step back. He had to admit that Zhang Zi's spear technique was rather impressive for his age.

Zhang Zi suddenly took a few steps back. He then charged towards the mantis with his spear raised above his head. He then leaped up with a roar and brought the spear down on the mantis. As he did so, a glow appeared around the spear tip. The mantis saw this glow, and its eyes narrowed. It then crossed its arms to defend itself against it as a precaution.

But what happened afterward surprised everyone but Zhang Zi. The moment the spearhead collided with the mantis's arms, it created a shockwave from the point of impact. The mantis, who was not expecting that, was thrown backward, and it took a moment to stabilize itself. But even then, it's arms were still shaking slightly.

Zhang Zi did not miss this chance. He ran up to the mantis once again and continued to attack repeatedly. But it had learned its lesson. It no longer tried to block Zhang Zi straight away, instead choosing to dodge the attacks that were filled with the white glow.

When he saw this Bai Yun stared at Zhang Zi thoughtfully. There was no way the shockwave could be the result of a battle skill. It was not that there were no such techniques, but the control over qi one needed for such techniques would be much higher than what one could get at the qi step. In the qi step, most of the techniques one could use were simply ones that increased the strength or speed of the attacks. The more complex techniques would require one to reach the soul step. Even Bai Yun with his terrifying control would be unable to utilize such techniques before reaching the core formation stage at least.

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Which meant that there were only two options left.

The first was transcendent elements like a transcendent earth. There were many transcendent earths that had this ability to create vibrations or shockwaves. The most famous of them was the Pulsing Earth, a transcendent element that was in the top ten of all transcendent earths. Even some other transcendent elements could bestow vibration to the user.

But Bai Yun could sense no transcendent element in Zhang ZI's attack. It was impossible to use a transcendent element without bringing it out. And Zhang Zi was not at a level to hide them from Bai Yun yet.

Thus the only choice was an Innate ability.

An innate ability was a special ability that a person could have. For example, the seamless body that Long Tian was born with was a case of such ability. There were many variants of such abilities, like the all-seeing eye, the immortal heart and so on. Most of these abilities were gained when a person was born, but if the conditions were right, it was possible to create an innate ability artificially. But people artificially gaining innate abilities were incredibly rare, and only made up of a minority of all innate abilities.

The ability that Zhang Zi had seemed to be a shockwave type of ability. It would be quite a strong ability in this world, all things considering.