Ten Thousand Year Shapeshifting Soul Beast

"What are you looking at?! Keep staring and I'll gouge your eyeballs out!"

Hu Liena could no longer keep up appearances under the stares of the three of them. Though she had not fully recovered yet, she still forced herself to glare back fiercely. Finally, her gaze landed on Xuan Hao, the culprit, and she threatened through gritted teeth:

"And you! If you dare use me to test a move like that again, I'll tell Teacher! I'll say you bullied your Senior Martial Sister! I'll make her put you under house arrest and spank your buttocks until they bloom!"

"Don't, don't, don't! I was wrong!" Xuan Hao instantly cowered.

He was genuinely afraid. When Bibi Dong became protective, she was utterly unreasonable—especially when it involved Hu Liena, her "own daughter." If Hu Liena really went to complain, his buttocks probably would not survive.

"Alright, we've got the Soul Ring. Let's get out of here," Xie Yue said. "The smell of blood here is too strong, and with that roar just now, the Spirit Beasts within several kilometers have probably all been alerted."

The four had just packed up and prepared to leave.

Suddenly.

Rumble—

A dense tremor came from deep within the forest. At first, it was faint, like an army of thousands charging forward, but in only a few breaths, it became deafening. Even the ground beneath their feet began to shake violently.

"This movement..."

Yan's facial expression changed. He dropped to the ground and listened. "Something's wrong! There are too many of them! And they're moving incredibly fast!"

Without another word, Xie Yue tapped off the ground and shot up a towering tree dozens of meters high, looking into the distance.

The next second, his pupils contracted sharply, and his face went deathly pale.

"Run! Run now!!"

Xie Yue leaped down from the tree. "It's a Beast Tide! A huge group of frightened Spirit Beasts is charging this way! They're all large Spirit Beasts over a thousand years old!"

"A Beast Tide?!"

Hu Liena and Yan cried out at the same time.

"It must have been that roar of yours just now!" Xie Yue grabbed Hu Liena and sprinted as he turned back to shout at Xuan Hao. "Golden Dragon Roar carries Dragon Might! Those thousand-year Spirit Beasts with inferior bloodlines were scared out of their wits and instinctively gathered together to flee for their lives, creating a chain reaction!"

"Once a small Beast Tide like this forms, even a Ten Thousand Year Spirit Beast standing in its path will be trampled into pulp! Run!!"

Hearing that, Xuan Hao took off running.

He knew how terrifying a Beast Tide was. It was a torrent formed from countless crazed beasts. They had lost all reason and knew only how to charge forward blindly.

When hundreds, even thousands, of thousand-year Spirit Beasts charged together, even a Soul Sage would have to flee, let alone Soul Grandmasters like them.

"Damn it! Where the hell did that freak Yue Guan run off to?!" Xuan Hao cursed inwardly. Wind rushed beneath his feet as he led the other three in a desperate sprint toward the edge of the forest.

However, two human legs could never outrun four-legged beasts.

The thunderous rumbling behind them drew closer and closer. They could even smell the suffocating scent of dust and the distinctive rank stench of Spirit Beasts.

When they looked back, they saw a vast black mass of beasts sweeping toward them like a devastating flood. Trees toppled and the earth split apart wherever they passed.

"There's no time!"

Xie Yue watched the beast horde drawing ever nearer, a flash of despair crossing his eyes. "They're too fast! At this rate, they'll catch us in less than half a minute!"

Hu Liena's face was even paler. Her Martial Soul, affected by Golden Dragon Roar earlier, had yet to recover.

Xuan Hao took a deep breath. "Xie Yue! Take them and go first! Head for the cliff on the left! I'll draw them away!"

"Are you insane?!" Hu Liena screamed and tried to rush back. "That's a Beast Tide! You'll die!!"

"I won't die! I have the Golden Dragon Body—I'm tough as nails! Besides, I have Dragon Clan bloodline. I can hold them back for a while!"

"More importantly, this was my fault."

"Run!"

Xuan Hao let out a roar, not giving them any chance to argue. Golden light surged from his body. Rather than retreating, he charged forward, directly activating the Golden Dragon Body. Like a golden nail, he drove himself fiercely into the black torrent of the Beast Tide!

Roar—!!!

Another earth-shaking Dragon Roar rang out!

Golden Dragon Might erupted as though it had substance, forcibly halting the steps of the dozens of Spirit Beasts at the front. The beast horde, which had been charging straight ahead, was forced apart by that instant of hesitation and terror, splitting toward both sides.

"Go!!"

Xuan Hao's voice was swallowed by the deafening roars of the beasts.

"Xuan Hao!!"

Who knew how much time had passed.

A cool sensation brushed across his face, carrying a faint fragrance of grass and trees.

Xuan Hao struggled to move his eyelids. His entire body felt as though it had been torn apart, every bone protesting.

"Hiss..."

He sucked in a breath of cold air and slowly opened his eyes.

What met his eyes was not a grim, terrifying hell, nor a bloody Beast Tide battlefield, but a tranquil little lake.

Sunlight filtered through the leaves and scattered across the lake, making its surface shimmer.

On the grass not far from him sat a woman who appeared to be in her twenties.

She wore a simple pale pink dress, her long hair cascading down to her waist like a waterfall. Her features were gentle and graceful, carrying a maternal warmth that put people at ease.

At that moment, she held a damp handkerchief, seemingly having just wiped the blood from his face.

"Awake?"

Xuan Hao warily tried to sit up, but the movement tugged at his wounds, making him grimace in pain.

He instinctively activated Golden Dragon Perception to inspect his surroundings.

Yet in the next second, his pupils abruptly contracted.

From this woman, he could not sense the Soul Power fluctuations unique to human Soul Masters. Instead, he sensed an aura of extreme purity and vastness, one that blended perfectly with nature.

He had seen a description of that aura in the illustrated guide Bibi Dong had given him...

A Soul Beast?!

And a humanoid Soul Beast?!

A hundred-thousand-year Soul Beast that had taken human form?!

"Don't move around. Several of your bones are broken. Your recovery ability may be strong, but even you can't withstand this kind of strain."

The woman seemed to see through his wariness. She did not mind it, merely smiling as she rose and walked over to him.

"Who are you?" Xuan Hao asked doubtfully.

"You can call me Ah Rou." The woman crouched beside him, her gentle eyes quietly watching him with a trace of curiosity and confusion.

"But you, little one."

"You're so young. How did you end up running alone into the depths of the Mixed Zone in the Star Dou Great Forest? And even get caught up in a Beast Tide of that scale?"

"If I hadn't been drawn over by the commotion there, you'd probably be fertilizer for those Soul Beasts by now."

Xuan Hao rubbed his still-throbbing temples as his chaotic memories flooded back.

Back then, he had activated Golden Dragon Body and faced the Beast Tide head-on. Although he had used Dragon Might to scatter the beast horde for a short time, the ceaseless impacts had still exceeded what his body could bear.

Just as his consciousness was about to fade, and the violent powers of the Golden Dragon and Silver Dragon within him were about to lose control like they had in Lan Yun Village...

He had felt a hand seize the back of his collar and forcibly drag him out.

At the time, he had been half-conscious and thought that unreliable Yue Guan had finally found his conscience and come back to save him. His taut nerves had loosened, and he instinctively suppressed the restless power within his body before falling unconscious.

He had not expected the one who saved him to be this woman before him.

"Thank you."

Xuan Hao took a deep breath, endured the agonizing pain that made every bone in his body feel misplaced, and struggled to his feet, brushing the dust from himself.

"But I have to go."

"Go?" Ah Rou froze slightly and hurriedly rose to support him. "Your condition is terrible right now. Your internal organs have been shaken, and your ribs are broken. You need to rest and recover..."

"There's no time to rest." Xuan Hao shook his head. "The people looking for me should be here soon."

As he said this, he turned and gave Ah Rou a deep look.

"If I stay here, you'll be in danger."

Ah Rou's hand froze in midair, her expression confused. "Danger? I'm not afraid of that Beast Tide..."

"Not the Beast Tide." Xuan Hao cut her off. "The people looking for me."

"This place isn't safe, whether it's the Mixed Zone or the outer region."

"For your sake, and for that little one hiding behind the tree..."

"You'd better leave as soon as possible and hide in the Core Zone. Don't come out."

After saying that, Xuan Hao did not linger.

He took out a handful of Soul Power-restoring pills from his Storage Soul Tool and shoved them into his mouth. Relying on his last bit of strength, he rushed toward the outskirts of the forest.

He had to leave. Yue Guan was surely nearby, looking for him.

As a Titled Douluo, Yue Guan's senses were exceptionally sharp.

If Yue Guan found him here...

He did not owe anyone favors, especially not Life-saving Grace.

Watching Xuan Hao's back vanish into the depths of the forest, Ah Rou remained where she was, unable to come back to herself for a long while.

"Mom..."

From behind a towering tree in the distance, a little head peeked out.

It was a little girl wearing a small pink outfit. She had a delicate, doll-like face, with two rabbit-ear decorations in her hair, and looked only five or six years old.

She cautiously shuffled over to Ah Rou's side, both hands tightly clutching her mother's skirt:

"That human... the aura around him was terrifying..."

Ah Rou came back to her senses and gently stroked her daughter's head, soothing her frightened emotions. Yet her gaze remained fixed on the direction Xuan Hao had disappeared in, unable to look away for a long time.

That child... saw through me?

How was that possible?

Although she was a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast who had taken human form, she had already cultivated to level seventy and entered the mature stage.

Once a Soul Beast entered the mature stage, even a Titled Douluo standing face-to-face with it would be unable to see through its true form unless they deliberately used Spiritual Power to carefully probe its origin.

But that child was clearly only a little over level twenty. How had he discovered it?

"Mom, are we still going to the human world to play?" Xiao Wu asked, lifting her head.

Ah Rou fell silent.

She had originally planned to take Xiao Wu to the human world to experience life. After all, taking human form and cultivating anew required exposure to human auras in order to continue growing.

But now...