Huodou

Li Qi stood face-to-face with Huodou.

It was noon, yet the sky was somewhat overcast.

Although Burning the Daylight had not been completed, it seemed to have achieved some effect nonetheless, leaving the current Azure Heaven looking utterly bleak.

The Gale Layer in the sky had fallen completely into disorder, and... the surrounding Yang Energy seemed to have been ignited ahead of time, consumed at a terrible rate. Yin Energy swept across the area, with yin flourishing and yang declining completely.

Because of this, the distant scenes occasionally visible to the naked eye showed with perfect clarity that the same chaos lay everywhere. The same Yin Energy came rolling in, throwing the yin-yang balance of all things entirely out of order and making their bodies ache involuntarily. This chaos and violence stretched all the way beyond the far side of the boundless, empty horizon—an endless terrifying sight, while all living beings hung alone within it.

Still... this suited Huodou's divine ability perfectly well.

South of the Fire-Hating people was a black beast with the body of a dog. Fire was born from its mouth. It was called Huodou; it spewed fire and wrought calamity, most inauspicious indeed.

Huodou was a beast of calamity. One could tell from its name alone—the character for "calamity" was right there in it. At a glance, it was clear that it was no auspicious or blessed beast.

Its arrival brought Fire Calamity.

Yet Huodou was also a follower of the ancient great gods.

Follower was not quite right. More precisely, it was a Wild Dog secretly trailing along behind them.

Though that sounded rather unpleasant, that was roughly what it was.

Huodou's sense of taste was extraordinarily peculiar. Ordinary food had no flavor whatsoever to Huodou, as tasteless as chewing wax. What it loved most