Thousand-Year Spirit Beast

As Juhua rose to its feet, its body began to expand. By the time Li Yuan reacted, it had already turned into a gigantic Spirit Beast six or seven meters long.

The next moment, the beast opened its massive jaws and picked Li Yuan up in its mouth.

"Ah~~~~" Li Yuan's scream pierced the night sky as Juhua's enormous body soared into the air, then vanished from the spot.

"Alright, stop howling. Look at you, scared out of your wits. It's not like I'm going to eat you. Your meat doesn't even taste good!"

Amid Juhua's contemptuous voice, Li Yuan opened his eyes with an embarrassed look on his face.

Alright, he had indeed been scared just now. He had thought Juhua was going to eat him.

Fortunately, he quickly realized he had misunderstood, because before long, Juhua simply tossed him onto the ground.

When Li Yuan opened his eyes again, he discovered that he had left the previous location. Judging by his surroundings, they had probably reached the depths of the Sunset Great Forest.

Good grief! I never expected Juhua to be this fast. As expected of a Netherlight Orange Cat—it covered so much ground in such a short time. Good thing I didn't really try to run away, or I definitely couldn't have outrun it.

"Little Slave, get up already. We're here. The Savage Baboons' habitat is just ahead. Be careful—there's a ten-thousand-year Savage Baboon here. I don't want to fight it."

Li Yuan climbed up from the ground somewhat awkwardly and dusted himself off. Meanwhile, Juhua had already returned to its kitten form and climbed onto Li Yuan, looking utterly listless.

No one would have guessed that this incomparably adorable little creature was actually a terrifying Spirit Beast with cultivation nearing a Hundred Thousand Years.

"Tiger Boss, can we talk?" Following Juhua's directions toward the forest ahead, Li Yuan said ingratiatingly, "Well, next time, could you take me somewhere another way?"

"Meow?" Juhua looked at Li Yuan in confusion and let out a cry.

"Next time, could I ride on your back?"

"Tiger Boss, I don't mean anything by it. I just think it'd be more convenient. What do you think? If you don't say anything, I'll take that as agreement!"

Honestly, having such a huge cat as a mount would be incredibly imposing. Forget ordinary Soul Masters—even Titled Douluo probably did not receive such treatment.

Thus, Li Yuan was tempted. He wanted to persuade Juhua to let him ride it.

"Little Slave, you're dreaming!" Unfortunately, Juhua was not so easy to fool. The moment Li Yuan opened his mouth, it saw through his intentions.

It rolled its eyes at him and refused his request without hesitation. Then it instantly released the pressure of a Ninety Thousand Year Spirit Beast, crushing Li Yuan flat onto the ground.

After quite a while, Li Yuan crawled up from the ground, filthy and disheveled. He said resentfully, "Fine, if you don't want to, you don't want to. Why are you getting mad? Can't you take a joke?"

"Little Slave, what are you muttering about?"

"Nothing, Tiger Boss. I was praising your wisdom and might. My admiration for you is like the surging river, endless and unceasing, and like the flooding Yellow River, utterly unstoppable."

"Heh, you really are a talented Little Slave. You sure know how to talk. Go on, keep talking. It actually sounds pretty convincing!"

Say that to your uncle. Who knew this Idiot Orange Cat liked flattery so much! Li Yuan cursed Juhua inwardly, but he did not dare voice his anger.

"You are light, you are lightning, you are the one and only king—the Spirit Beast King of the Sunset Great Forest, the most handsome Orange Cat on the Douluo Continent..." To placate Juhua, Li Yuan had no choice but to rack his brains for every flattering phrase he could think of.

He was so disgusted with himself that he nearly threw up, but Juhua listened with great delight, its little tail swaying back and forth.

Fortunately, Li Yuan was freed before long.

As he led Juhua into the woods, a strange feeling suddenly surfaced in Li Yuan's heart. Instinctively, he stopped flattering Juhua.

He circulated the little Soul Power he had left in his body and assumed a defensive stance.

As a hunter who had begun hunting and foraging in the Sunset Great Forest at the age of five or six, Li Yuan was exceptionally sensitive to danger.

After all, the Sunset Great Forest was an extremely dangerous place. Even around its outskirts, Spirit Beasts often appeared. Without such skills, he would have been eaten by a Spirit Beast long ago.

Just now, he had sensed a trace of danger. It was not particularly strong, which meant the source of the danger was not especially powerful, but it could still threaten him.

Sure enough, just as Li Yuan went on full alert, a black shadow flashed out from the forest in the next instant.

"Roar!" Accompanied by a thunderous roar, the black shadow descended directly from above, smashing toward Li Yuan.

The beast's roar was filled with power. Before it even landed, a faint pressure swept toward Li Yuan.

It made Li Yuan feel a lingering sense of fear.

Fortunately, the feeling was not especially intense. Moreover, Li Yuan had noticed that something was wrong and had prepared himself, so the ambush did not affect him.

As the black shadow descended from above and lunged at Li Yuan, a black keyboard appeared in Li Yuan's hands.

The next moment, Li Yuan gripped the keyboard with both hands and viciously smashed it toward the black shadow's head.

"At the pinnacle of keyboards, I stand above the world; with my keyboard, there is heaven! You beast, take this keyboard strike!"

With a furious shout, the keyboard in Li Yuan's hands slammed heavily into the black shadow's head. At the same time, Li Yuan felt an enormous force crash into him.

Its strength was not inferior to his own in the slightest.

Struck by that tremendous force, Li Yuan retreated with the momentum and slammed heavily into a tree behind him before managing to steady himself.

"Roar!"

At that moment, another roar rang out, and Li Yuan finally saw the appearance of the giant beast that had attacked him.

It was a gigantic Curly Baboon, over three meters tall, covered in red curly fur. Its arms were extraordinarily long, its claws tipped with sharp nails, and it looked immensely ferocious.

"Little Slave, this is the Savage Baboon you wanted to find. This one is just right for you. It should be around twelve hundred years old. The rest is up to you. Kill it, and you'll have your Soul Ring!"

As Li Yuan faced off against the giant beast, Juhua's voice sounded. When the Savage Baboon had charged at Li Yuan earlier, Juhua had already slipped away.

With a single leap, it sprang onto a large tree nearby, where it now looked down at the two sides confronting each other.