I Wasn't Trying to Kill You, So Why Did You Faint on Your Own?

Heaven and earth were shrouded in darkness.

The moment the enormous black shadow came sweeping toward him, the Heaven-Splitting Hou's fur stood on end.

An overpowering sense of mortal danger surged wildly from the depths of his heart!

Too fast!

More precisely, the shadow covered far too vast an area.

The Heaven-Splitting Hou had just been darting back and forth around Lu Yuan's head, convinced he had identified the giant beast's weakness: his massive size and sluggish turns. But only now did he suddenly realize there was a grave problem.

Lu Yuan really couldn't catch him.

But that tail didn't need to chase him at all!

The colossal tail, tens of thousands of miles long, swept across the sky. Its sheer size left the Heaven-Splitting Hou nowhere to dodge.

"Damn it!"

The Heaven-Splitting Hou's pupils shrank. He could no longer afford to keep attacking, and his Taiyi Golden Immortal magic power erupted.

Boom!

Billowing, baleful Qi exploded behind him.

The Heaven-Splitting Hou pushed off with all four limbs, turning into a streak of dark red light as he shot madly toward the sky.

The fierce beasts watching from afar finally saw it clearly too.

A giant black-scaled python jerked his head up, his vertical pupils narrowing almost to slits as his enormous body instinctively tensed.

"Roar!"

He couldn't help letting out a low, horrified roar.

The expressions of several Golden Immortal fierce beasts beside him changed drastically as well.

How could that still be called a tail?

The black shadow sweeping toward them was like the vault of heaven collapsing. Clouds, baleful mist, and raging winds were all crushed into chaos in its path.

Even the void visibly warped in streaks.

The Heaven-Splitting Hou had pushed his speed to the limit.

Afterimages trailed behind him as he flew several thousand miles in an instant.

But he glanced back, and the faint hope that had just risen in his eyes vanished at once.

The black shadow was still growing.

The colossal tail was getting closer and closer to him!

"How can it be so big?!"

The Heaven-Splitting Hou roared in outrage.

For the first time, he truly experienced the despair brought on by a difference in size.

Ordinarily, the Heaven-Splitting Hou was thirty thousand feet long, enough to be considered a colossal beast.

Before ordinary beings of the Primordial World, he could crush countless cultivators with a casual step and swallow a mountain in a single gulp.

But compared to Lu Yuan,

his thirty-thousand-foot body seemed particularly tiny.

At that moment, the Heaven-Splitting Hou finally began to understand how those ordinary fierce beasts had felt when they first saw Lu Yuan.

Run?

Where could I run?

As thoughts raced through the Heaven-Splitting Hou's mind, the colossal tail arrived.

Boom—!

An earthshaking crash erupted!

The Heaven-Splitting Hou felt an indescribably terrifying force slam squarely into his side.

His protective Sha Qi collapsed the moment it touched the tail.

Even his powerful Taiyi Golden Immortal body shuddered violently at that instant.

"Aow—!"

A piercing beastly howl rang across the Northern Land.

The Heaven-Splitting Hou's entire body was sent flying like a stone struck with all one's might. He instantly became a long, dark red streak, hurtling across the sky and plunging madly toward the distant earth.

Ten thousand miles.

Twenty thousand miles.

Thirty thousand miles...

Several mountain peaks in his path exploded under the terrifying impact the instant they touched his body.

Debris was still tumbling down the cliffs when the Heaven-Splitting Hou crashed into a black mountain range farther away.

Rumble!

A cloud of dust erupted from the center of the mountain range, and the Heaven-Splitting Hou vanished from sight. Rocks on both sides flipped outward, exposing the broken strata beneath. Immediately afterward, the ground for several thousand miles around began to sink.

When the shaking finally eased, only a deep crater remained. The mountain range, which stretched for tens of thousands of miles, had been broken in two, and rubble continued to roll down the crater walls.

The giant black-scaled python held his head up, motionless for a long time. The six-armed fierce beast beside him had just taken half a step back when he stopped, braced two arms against the rocky slope, and craned his neck to search the dust.

He found nothing.

"Roar..."

A Golden Immortal Peak fierce beast called out twice toward the crater. He had followed the Heaven-Splitting Hou for many years and knew his presence better than anyone, yet he didn't dare approach now.

His calls carried out, but there was no answer from the crater, nor any sound from the beasts behind him. He glanced back and saw that the giant black-scaled python was still staring at Lu Yuan, so he swallowed the rest of his calls.

The Taiyi fierce beast king who ruled the surrounding territory for tens of millions of miles was buried at the bottom of a crater just like that. They hadn't seen Lu Yuan use a Divine Ability. He had merely swept his tail, and the Heaven-Splitting Hou had flown tens of thousands of miles.

A fierce beast in the rear suddenly turned and fled, sending loose stones clattering underfoot.

Several more followed. Thousands of fierce beasts crowded together as they retreated. Those who had been scrambling for a better view moments ago were now unwilling to fall behind. The giant black-scaled python uncoiled his body and slithered down the slope after them.

Lu Yuan paid them no attention. He slowly drew back his tail and gazed at the distant crater, saying nothing for a long while.

How did he fly so far?

He had already tried his best to control his strength just now.

After all, the Heaven-Splitting Hou was the first native being he could properly communicate with since arriving in the Primordial World.

It would be a waste to smack him dead.

He still had questions to ask.

"He shouldn't be dead, right?"

Lu Yuan raised his head and looked tens of thousands of miles into the distance.

Dust billowed there.

His presence was still there.

It was just noticeably weaker.

Lu Yuan felt a little relieved.

The next moment, his enormous body slowly moved.

Rumble!

The earth shook violently once more.

Several fierce beasts heard the commotion behind them and looked back as they ran. Seeing Lu Yuan move, they hurriedly picked up their pace.

Lu Yuan's gaze, however, was fixed on the distant crater. He extended his giant fin, and the shadow beneath it moved across the shattered mountains, quickly covering the crater's opening.

The Heaven-Splitting Hou had just come to.

He braced his forepaws against the soil, but pain immediately shot through his flank, leaving him unable to muster any strength. A large patch of fur had been stripped away, and the flesh beneath was badly swollen. The slightest movement sent pain stabbing through his insides.

Gasping, he shifted his strength several times before managing to pull his head out of the earth and rock. His neck bones and ribs all hurt, and for a moment he couldn't tell how many bones he had broken.

"This monster..."

The Heaven-Splitting Hou shook the dirt from his mouth, raised a paw to touch his flank, then hastily put it down again.

When he had blasted him with divine light, Lu Yuan had simply opened his mouth and eaten it. He had switched to close combat and managed to tear open a few wounds with great difficulty. He had thought he could slowly wear Lu Yuan down with his speed, but who would have thought that after taking just one hit, he could barely even stand?

I have to get out of here first.

He had just raised his head when he saw the crater's opening darken. A huge, dark golden fin was descending. Its edges extended beyond the dust, with no end in sight.

"Wait!"

The Heaven-Splitting Hou hurriedly pushed against the ground, but his flank gave way, and he failed to move aside.

Boom!

The giant fin pressed against his body, and the loose earth beneath him collapsed. He felt himself sink farther down, then found himself unable to move at all.

Lu Yuan sensed that the tip of his fin had touched him and immediately checked his strength, pressing no farther. Only after the dust had settled somewhat did he lower his head and look at the Heaven-Splitting Hou beneath the tip of his fin.

"Don't move. I want to ask you something."

The Heaven-Splitting Hou was pinned so tightly he could hardly breathe.

He struggled twice with all his might, but Lu Yuan's giant fin didn't budge. The horror in his eyes deepened.

In all his years of life, this was the first time he had felt his body was so weak.

Sensing that he had finally quieted down, Lu Yuan continued.

"What is this place?"

The Heaven-Splitting Hou was taken aback.

He hadn't expected Lu Yuan to ask that.

But with his life pinned in Lu Yuan's hands, the Heaven-Splitting Hou didn't dare continue putting on the airs of a fierce beast king.

He took several ragged breaths and answered hoarsely, "The Northern Land... This is the Northern Land of the Primordial World."

"Can you be more specific?"

Lu Yuan pressed on.

The Heaven-Splitting Hou looked up at his enormous head, his doubts growing.

The monster before him was so powerful.

How could he seem to know nothing about the Northern Land?

The Heaven-Splitting Hou didn't dare ask.

"I rule this region. Ten million miles to the north lie the territories of the kings under the Beast Emperor."

"The Beast Emperor?"

Hearing that title, Lu Yuan already had a guess.

"Shen Ni?"

The Heaven-Splitting Hou's expression changed instantly.

A clear look of reverence appeared on his face.

"His Majesty the Beast Emperor himself!"

Shen Ni.

Lu Yuan finally knew for certain what time period he was in.

The Fierce Beast Calamity.

This era was even earlier than the Dragon-Han Great Tribulation.

Hongjun, Luohou, and the others probably had yet to reach the true pinnacle of the Primordial World.

The three races were likely gathering their strength as well.

As for later great powers like the Three Pure Ones, Dijun, Taiyi, and the Twelve Ancestral Witches, it was hard to say whether they had even taken form yet.

Lu Yuan quickly sorted through the information he knew.

The age before him was indeed dangerous.

Fierce beasts were everywhere.

Shen Ni reigned as emperor.

But it also meant that all kinds of resources had yet to be divided up by the great Divine Ability wielders of later generations.

The entire Primordial World was in a true pioneering age.

At that thought, Lu Yuan's mood improved instead.

Arriving early was always better than arriving late.

Most importantly, during the Fierce Beast Calamity, Sha Qi, residual Chaos Qi, and demonic god remnants were present in astonishing quantities.

For other beings, most of these things were troublesome.

For him...

There was plenty of food.

Lu Yuan pondered for a while, then looked at the Heaven-Splitting Hou again.

"Are all you fierce beasts under Shen Ni's rule?"

The Heaven-Splitting Hou nodded. "All the kings of the Northern Land acknowledge the Beast Emperor as their sovereign."

"What cultivation level is Shen Ni at now?"

The Heaven-Splitting Hou's expression changed slightly, and a hint of wariness appeared in his eyes.

A question like that concerned the Beast Emperor.

Lu Yuan noticed his misgivings and didn't press him.

"Forget it. You don't have to answer that."

The Heaven-Splitting Hou was somewhat surprised instead.

He had already prepared himself for Lu Yuan to keep pressing him.

Yet the giant beast before him really did let it go.

Lu Yuan asked a few more questions about the general situation in the Northern Land.

The Heaven-Splitting Hou told him everything he could.

The Northern Land was now full of fierce beasts, with fierce beast kings of all sizes occupying territory everywhere.

The farther north one went, the denser the baleful Qi became.

Most of the truly powerful fierce beasts had submitted to Shen Ni.

Over the years, Shen Ni had also been steadily gathering the forces of the Northern Land under his command, and there were signs that he was preparing to expand into the other continents.

Hearing this, Lu Yuan grew more certain.

The Fierce Beast Calamity was already brewing.

There might still be some time before it truly erupted.

Still, he remembered how Shen Ni ended up.

So many great masters of Divine Abilities in the Primordial World had joined forces to attack him.

The fierce beast race had ultimately declined as well.

No matter how large a force like that grew, it would be hard for it to last.

Lu Yuan was even less interested in contending for supremacy over the Primordial World.

"All right."

Lu Yuan slowly raised his enormous fin.

The pressure bearing down on the Heaven-Splitting Hou vanished in an instant.

It lay in the deep pit for several breaths before finally raising its head in disbelief.

"You're letting me go?"

Lu Yuan glanced at it.

"I've asked everything I wanted to ask. Why would I keep you here?"

The Heaven-Splitting Hou wore a complicated expression.

In the Primordial World, the weak were prey to the strong.

That was especially true among fierce beasts.

After winning a fight, devouring the loser was the most natural thing to do.

Just moments ago, it had been planning to tear Lu Yuan apart and eat him.

Now it had lost, yet its opponent was actually prepared to let it go.

The Heaven-Splitting Hou fell silent for a moment, then could not help asking, "Why won't you kill this king?"

Lu Yuan thought for a moment.

"You have a lot of Sha Qi in your body. You probably don't taste very good."

The Heaven-Splitting Hou's face twitched violently.

It opened its mouth, but in the end, it swallowed back what it had wanted to say.

It couldn't beat him.

It would endure.

The Heaven-Splitting Hou struggled out of the deep pit.

Lu Yuan did not stop it again.

The colossal, thirty-thousand-foot Hou took a few steps, then looked back and gave Lu Yuan a long, searching look.

Then.

Boom!

A dark red light rose.

Dragging its injured body along, the Heaven-Splitting Hou swiftly departed into the distance.

Lu Yuan watched it disappear, then prepared to go back and finish eating that Sha vein.

Just then.

He suddenly raised his head.

Farther to the north, a fierce, savage presence far more powerful than the Heaven-Splitting Hou's had already locked onto this place from afar.

Lu Yuan's golden eyes narrowed slightly.

"Another one?"

Deep in the Northern Land.

Billowing clouds of Sha stretched across the sky.

A massive figure sped between the black clouds.

Its appearance was utterly ferocious. Shaped like a giant tiger, it had wings on its back and dark red scales covering its body. Whenever its four limbs stepped through the void, rings of black ripples spread beneath its feet.

Most striking of all was the fierce presence it made no effort to conceal.

A Daluo Golden Immortal!

After sensing that oppressive might, countless fierce beasts along the way swiftly prostrated themselves.

Even some fierce beast kings that had reached the Golden Immortal and Taiyi levels reined in their own presences, not daring to stand in its way.