In her searore Pikeakes, she stumbled on a Pikeake that was so determio tis movement towards somewhere it was the first Pikeake she had seen that didn’t attack her on sight.

  Sensing an opportunity, she decided to pursue it, curious about its destination.

  Tara was a bit slower than the fish but could keep the fish in her sight long enough that she stumbled upon where it was going.

  ‘I’m fortu didn’t go far; those Pikeake are swift when they want to be.’ Tara thought it was only then that she realised the gulf in the speed between her and a Pikeake and that she was fortuhat they seemed so aggressive towards other species.

  Otherwise, her hunting of them wouldn’t have gone down as favourably. Many of the kills she made were signifitly enhanced by the momentum of their charge, with the Pikeake assuming she did not have the type of means of attack that {Metal Manipution} provides her.

  Now, being able to observe her surroundings properly, she saw a shog sight.

  Tara found peared to be sizeable rocky terrain that had tless caves, f an uer cave system.

  Biolumi mushrooms lit up the area with an eerie blue glow as she sapeared to be tless familiar-looking samanders' eyes twinkling.

  ‘Is that a load of Iron Samanders?’ Tara thought, realising she saw a massive group of more promi, rger versions of the samander hatgs she saw upon birth.

  ‘Is that what I look like?’ She thought, reising a few Samanders with a simir cultivation to her.

  Yet despite the familiarities, she reised that she was slightly bigger than her terparts and that her smooth, moist, tough skin was darker and more metallic grey thaher samanders'.

  Tara realised that only the real rge ones of the group, who were of signifitly higher cultivation stage thahers, had a skin tone simir to hers; she thought this must be reted to her advaraits, with her likely being advantaged pared to an Iron Samander on a simir cultivation level and parable if not better than Iron Samanders who are multiple cultivation stages higher in regards to her traits development.

  Tara also noticed that the Samanders grew out of their tadpole features as they matured, with the older ones with higher cultivation appearing like another species.

  Though retaining their gills and the meics that made them excellent swimmers, they seemed far more lizard and amphibian-like. They were thicker and far bulkier, appearing more like a strange version of a Komodon rather than Samanders.

  The skin on these Samanders was as smooth as the others, but the tone of grey was far darker, gleaming like shial.

  ‘The stro of the Samanders, ’ Tara thought, unsciously utilising {Insight}.

  [Species: Elder Iron Samander

  Cultivation: Qi Gathering 6]

  Then she felt a sudden sharp pain in her mind as the information disappeared.

  The Elder Samander fixed its rge head on her and stared at her intensely.

  Even from the fair distaween them, she felt pressure from a being many times stronger.

  ‘Dangerous,’ Tara thought. Fortunately, the Elder Samander's fixated gaze seemed to soften as it reised her as one of its kind, yet its eyes widened as she felt fear from it.

  ‘Fear? What make something that strong scared?’ Tara thought, suddenly remembering why she had even gotten here.

  ‘The Pikeakes.’ She thought as she saw a rge horde beginning to gather; the Pikake she was initially following had already joined up with them as more and more began to gather, surrounding the Samander's habitat with clear, hostile i.

  However, even with the legion of Pikeakes, that wasn’t enough to make a creature of the Elder Samander's strength shudder; it was the thing leading them.

  She saw a creature resembling a giant shark, over four times bigger thaypical Pikeake. Though retaining its torpedo-shaped body, it had an enormous head different from the other Pikeakes. Looking like a hammerhead shark, it had a thick, rigged, bone-like structure like a cephalofoil with its beady red eyes spaced out oher end.

  On the tre of that hammer-like head sat a rge, beautiful, glimmering ceruleaone, which mesmerised her.

  Though she was wary after what occurred with the Elder Iron Samander, she was still too curious about the thing to resist utilising {Insight}.

  [Species: Sphyrna Sikeake

  Cultivation: Qi Gathering 6]

  Uhe Elder Iron Samahe Sphyrna Sikeake looked at her loftily with an arrogant, prideful gaze.

  It didn’t even bother to rebut her, which she felt it could do. It was as if it was staring right through her like she was nothing.

  Feeling her pride yet again trodded on, she felt strangely defehat familiar hot-bloodedness began to pour through her body as the stupidly suicidal thought of charging straight at the thing came across her mind.

  ‘Seriously, what is happening to me?’ Tara thought she knew she retty reckless as a human at times, though Tara always thought she ractical and pragmatic regarding essential life decisions.

  Charging at a colossal shark monster was her rational nor wise, though, and she o snap out of this hot-blooded attitude she had going before it ended her new life prematurely.

  Tara had no iion of dying and giving that smug Immortal the satisfa of seeing her as some fotten failed upstart.

  She will not pathetically throw her life away when she eventually has the means to return to Earth.

  All she had to do was grow strong enough, and this dumb, arrogant shark would not be the oo take that from her.

  Cooling down, she rationalised that fighting an upfront battle with such a superior oppo was not the best idea.

  However, that did not mean she could not find a means to intervene somehow; looking at the Elder Iron Samander, she knew despite the simirities in cultivation level, the Sphyrna Pikeake eriical beast.

  Tara felt that the aura radiating out of the Sphyrna Pikeake was denser, stronger, and more intimidating than that of the Elder Iron Samander.

  Tara did not realise that what she felt was a differen bloodlines; not all species are born equal, especially magical beasts.

  A bloodline was essential to a magical beast and could determine your limit and strength in stages. If humans had a differen their Qi quality due to talent and teiques, thes with a more potent bloodline have more substantial, pure Qi, strengthening their traits. The likelihood of them having abilities that ehem to utilise Qi externally increases, and their all-around bodily attributes are enhanced.

  The Sphyrna Pikeake was superior to the Elder Iron Samanders, and both k. Even if they were simir in cultivation, the Sphyrna Pikeake outcssed them, simir to how not all dragon species possessed identical strength, with some having a superior bloodline.

  As tension increased between both sides, the Pikeake finally initiated the csh, and the tense face-off filled with killing i began to overflow across the rocky terrain.

  Tara noticed among the Samanders, most were simir in cultivation to her, with a fair amount in the fourth and fifth Qi gathering stages and three other Elder Iron Samanders alongside the one she utilised {Insight} on.

  The Pikeakes, oher hand, were far superior in cultivation on average, most being in the fourth like the oppos she had been dealing with, a great deal more in the fifth, and the Sphyrna Pikeake was not alone in the sixth either, with their being two more alongside it. These were also no ordinary Pikeakes, being another version of the species.

  [Species: Greater Sikeake

  Cultivation: Qi Gathering 6]

  At least these seemed far weaker than the Sphyrna Pikeake, with their aura feeling more or less simir to the Elder Iron Samanders. They didn’t even notice her cheg their cultivation levels, being too i on the Elder Iron Samanders in front.

  Yet despite the Pikeake horde being superior in cultivation level, surprisingly, the Iron Samanders had the numbers.

  There was an absurd amount of Samaravelling through the cave system in preparation to battle the Pikeakes, with them p out in droves.

  She thought the Samanders would flee at the sight of the bloodthirsty shark-like fish that came to storm their territory. Yet, the Iron Samanders seemed more eager for a fight than the Pikeakes and stared ba plete defiand unwillio lose any ground ierritory.

  She khis was the Samander's territory, but it made her realise they were not as disadvantaged in the csh as she had initially assumed.

  The Iron Samanders were crazy creatures who stantly fought with their lives on the line, refusing to back down against anything; this absurd recklessness almost made them as admirable as they were foolish.

  Yet the Sphyrna Pikeake regarded their bravado and aggression pletely and utterly indifferently.

  It was then it began to make its move. Before the Elder Iron Samander could react, a glow came from the gemstone on its forehead. Its glhtened even further, and w what it pnned on doing, Tara was fbbergasted as she saw a storm of ice begin to erupt; ses of the water in the surroundings started to freeze as spears of ice began rapidly f firing like a rapid-fire mae gun towards the samanders.

  The attack did not st long, with even a beast with a reasonably strong bloodline like the Sphyrna Pikeake limited at the Qi Gathering stage; however, even this was enough to end the lives of tless Iron Samanders who were stages below it.

  Thus begaage that set the start of the battle, with the Pikeake and Iron Samanders beginning to throw themselves at each other in a fury of teeth and cws.

  Tara stared on in shock, close enough that Pikeakes took notid began to approach her.

  ‘Looks like I ’t stay uninvolved even if I wao…’ Tara thought, yet deep down, she felt she could not abandon the Iron Samanders even if they shared no sense of kinship as Tara had no iion with the Samanders since she was reborn.

  Tara couldn’t hide the bloodthirsty gleam as the Pikeake approached her after all the things were disadvantaged against her in an upfront fight; they were nowhere near as durable but packed a strong bite.

  Despite the situation, she also saw it as a big opportunity. There was more Pikeake here than the eyes could see, and Tara's eyes just saw fish-shaped bags of EXP.

  ‘A girl will go far just to keep up the grind.’ Tara thought again as she tangled with the Pikeake in a mess of tangled limbs and gore.