Seven-Day Limit

You couldn't blame the poachers for having weak nerves. The wild boar had been terrifying, unprecedentedly huge even, but it was still just a wild boar that could only charge around savagely.

Lions were different. Their hunting skills were ten times better than a wild boar's, and both their gaping jaws and sharp claws were deadly weapons. Not to mention a majestic White-haired Lion King like the one before them.

Those scarlet eyes were truly scarlet! They weren't bloodshot—they looked as though they had been dyed in blood!

No one would doubt whether this lion ate people.

Moreover, the White Lion had made an imposing entrance and let out a thunderous roar. That roar seemed to contain some kind of power, leaving everyone weak in the limbs, dizzy, and disoriented.

They did not know that this was one of Lan Mu's Innate Abilities after transforming. A roar fueled by the mysterious energy within his body was enough to kill small animals outright, even if they did not die—

Animals within a kilometer that heard the roar would flee in panic, which showed just how powerful it was.

While it could not shake large creatures like humans to death, it was enough to terrify them and send a shock through their fragile internal organs.

That young poacher had been so frightened by Lan Mu's roar that he lost control of his bladder.

Lan Mu did not want to reveal that he possessed human intelligence, so he had left all his clothes in the tree. He deliberately stayed on all fours, and with his White-haired Lion appearance, no one could tell. They only thought he was a real lion.

But where would a lion come from in the mountains? Weren't lions supposed to live on the grasslands?

The oldest Old Hunter reacted first. With a puzzled expression, he carefully observed Lan Mu and even suspected that he was a pet some important person had purchased from abroad at a great price.

Then he greedily stared at Lan Mu's fur. That white lion mane, brimming with wild beauty, was simply too beautiful.

A white lion! And such a huge one! So majestic! If he could sell it...

The Old Hunter sank into fantasy. His gaze changed at once, and he no longer looked at Lan Mu with fear, as if he were looking at a pile of cash.

The Old Hunter was their leader. Since he did not move, the other poachers did not move either. Besides, when facing savage beasts like lions and tigers, showing them your back would likely make them pounce immediately, so they did not dare move.

With the standoff continuing, Lan Mu grew frustrated. He had only intended to make an intimidating entrance and scare them off. If they left, that would have been enough. He had never planned to fight.

But he had not expected these poachers to remain so greedy that they would actually set their sights on him!

"Damn it! You bastards! Run already! Do you really want me to pounce on you?!"

Lan Mu could not afford to show weakness. He could only steel himself and advance step by step. His feline gait was instinctively perfect, the muscles and bones along his back flexing and shifting like a great dragon rippling beneath his skin.

But in truth, he was not confident either. He feared these poachers might go mad and shoot him outright.

Of course he understood the power of firearms. He did not know whether he could dodge them, so he stared fixedly at the people across from him, his attention more focused than ever.

Sure enough, these people were not so easily frightened away. The Old Hunter swiftly raised his gun and fired a bullet at him.

Fortunately, Lan Mu had been prepared. The instant the other man raised his hand, he reacted and sprang aside, actually dodging the shot!

"Ah!"

The poachers cried out in alarm, terror erupting in their eyes once more.

They had all seen Lan Mu dodge the bullet. He had moved too fast; a white blur flashed, and he appeared elsewhere. Their leader's bullet missed without a doubt.

The Old Hunter's eyes flickered. Unwilling to accept it, he fired another shot at Lan Mu.

Lan Mu dodged in advance again. His speed was naturally not faster than a bullet's, but his reactions were fast! The Old Hunter needed time to aim. By evading while he was aiming, Lan Mu could naturally dodge the bullets.

"We can't do this today. Slowly back away! Forget the prey. Little Hu, carry Little Cui. Don't turn your backs on the lion. Retreat!" He spoke in some local dialect, fast and urgent.

The Old Hunter was experienced and knew that today's situation was hopeless. The hunting rifle was useless, and he truly did not dare engage a lion in close combat.

As a shrewd hunter, fighting head-on was absolutely the lowest form of hunting. Usually, one selected a target, made thorough preparations, used traps or ambushes, and employed different methods for different prey. Hunting relied on brains, never brute force.

Finding the wild boar today had already been an unexpected delight. He had never imagined they would encounter this exceptionally rare White-haired Lion, one that could even dodge bullets!

In fact, many prey animals could dodge bullets, but that was because they had grown accustomed to hunters' guns and remembered both gunshots and the appearance of guns. Such prey were usually wolves whose first hunt had failed. Once wounded, wolves remembered the people who hurt them forever. If you wounded a wolf with a gun the first time, do not expect to hit it easily the second time. The instant you raised your gun, they would dodge or strike first.

But this lion was too strange. It had dodged his very first shot in advance. The Old Hunter had great confidence in his marksmanship. Animals did not understand the power of guns, so his first shot always hit! If it could dodge the first shot, that meant this White Lion had seen real guns being fired before.

Combined with the fact that lions should not exist in these mountains at all, the Old Hunter became even more convinced that this lion had an owner.

As the leader of a poaching team, he had captured rare animals before and sold them as pets to wealthy people. But he had never seen a fellow countryman keep a lion.

No matter what, though, he had set his sights on this lion. He had to catch it!

All six men held their guns on Lan Mu warily. The Old Hunter stood at the very front, his muzzle constantly aimed at Lan Mu, yet he did not fire.

Lan Mu dodged left and right but did not hear a bullet leave the chamber. Feeling that he was being toyed with, he flew into a rage.

"Damn it, rather than stay passive, I should strike first!"

"Those bastards shot at me and still want to walk away unharmed?"

Lan Mu's muscles tensed throughout his body, and with a whoosh, he launched himself forward like a bolt of white lightning.

The instant he pounced, a rapid series of gunshots rang out from the other side.

"One, two, three, four, five, six... Damn! There's one more shot!"

Lan Mu was already airborne. Seeing the Old Hunter's excited eyes and faintly upturned lips, he knew he could not dodge this shot.

Bang!

The bullet struck his soft abdomen. A burst of searing pain hit him as it tore through his skin and burrowed into his muscles, blood staining his snow-white fur.

After taking the shot, Lan Mu was not afraid—he only grew angrier. He roared, leaving everyone dizzy and their vision blurred.

His bloodlust had been roused. In a furious pounce, he knocked the Old Hunter straight to the ground, his claws sinking deeply into the man's shoulder blade.

He was just about to bite down when he saw the Old Hunter's terrified, panicked eyes and hesitated. In that brief hesitation, he heard the other hunters chambering bullets nearby. He hurriedly rolled away and dodged to the side.

As he left, he casually swiped at the Old Hunter's face, tearing it into a bloody mess. The man's face was probably ruined.

The Old Hunter clutched his face and screamed in pain. "Kill it! Kill it!"

Hearing the gunshots, Lan Mu did not slow down. He leaped into a large tree like lightning.

Then he activated Invisibility State, circled around to a tree behind them, and pounced down from above, attacking another poacher.

His tremendous strength knocked the man to the ground, and his claws raked him into a bloody mess.

By the time the others reacted, he had already hidden behind a tree.

With this method, combined with his Innate Ability, he came and went like a ghost. These people could not find him at all.

Every lion's roar was followed by a scream. Every time, one of their companions would be knocked down and clawed.

The poachers had never encountered such a situation. Their nerves collapsed instantly.

After injuring five of them in succession, Lan Mu finally stopped. Standing in a tree, he watched the poachers support their wounded companions and flee while crying for their mothers and fathers. His anger subsided as well.

"Hmph, a bunch of rats!"

Lan Mu cursed under his breath, then clutched his stomach and cried out in pain. The bullet had still injured him. It was lodged in the flesh of his abdomen, and the pain pierced deep into his heart.

However, he had also learned just how powerful he was. He felt that what he excelled at most was acting like a hunter—hiding in the shadows, pouncing in an instant, and killing with a single blow.

Like a Shadow Predator, appearing and vanishing unpredictably, killing everything in an instant.

At the same time, he understood that he did not possess a huge wild boar's thick hide and tough flesh. Although he could kill any animal in one strike, he could also be taken down easily by a single bullet.

If the hunting rifle had not been so weak, and they had used proper Standard Rifles instead, he would probably have already died.

"Sigh... So I'm a high-damage, high-agility... Glass Cannon!"

Lan Mu sat on a tree branch, tied his clothes up, and used his claws to dig the bullet out of his flesh, the pain nearly killing him.

After much difficulty, he dug the bullet out. He did not know whether the wound would become infected, so he copied what he had seen in animal documentaries, licked up some saliva, and smeared it over the wound.

But his worries quickly vanished because he discovered that the wound on his stomach had mysteriously disappeared, while the white fur rapidly faded away as well.

"Huh?"

He felt his entire body transforming from the inside out. First, it was as if some chemical reaction had begun within his body. His calm cells became active again, his genes crazily renewing themselves like falling dominoes. His sharp senses swiftly dulled, and the surging power within him vanished.

"I... I-I..."

Lan Mu jumped up in shock, lost his footing, and fell from the tree, the impact sending pain through his entire body.

"I changed back!"

To his astonishment, he had returned to human form. His eyesight had weakened, his perception was gone, and he had lost his immense power, leaving him feeling hollow inside.

Yet he was still overjoyed. Being able to become human again and return to society as a normal person meant everything. He was not the sort to wallow in self-pity, so he did not feel too strongly about losing that power.

Still, he felt a trace of melancholy. After all, he had spent seven days as a monster. Not everyone could have such an experience.

After changing back, Lan Mu's mindset changed immediately. He began to view the past seven days with a more reflective eye and gradually came to see them as an extraordinarily precious part of his life, something worth cherishing and remembering.

"Ah! It feels just like a dream! Who could have had a more bizarre seven days than mine?"

"The transformation... and changing back, both happened so suddenly!"

If the enormous wild boar and dense forest before him had not proven it all, he would not have dared believe that he had truly become that White-haired Lion.

"Fortunately, that White Orb only turned me into one for seven days. If I had to be a lion for the rest of my life, I definitely wouldn't want that!"

Returning to being human was an incredible surprise. Lan Mu was delighted as he pulled on his pants, grinning foolishly.

But the gigantic wild boar not far away suddenly crashed to the ground. Its strength had finally run out, and it died.

"Uh..."

Lan Mu hurried over and saw that the boar's pupils had already dilated. There was no sign of life left.

"Sigh, it just died like that?"

Lan Mu suddenly felt somewhat guilty. Why had he not appeared earlier? If he had, perhaps he could have saved this wild boar that had lived for who knew how many years.

For a wild boar to grow this large could not have been easy.

If he had known he would change back so soon, he definitely would have revealed himself openly and let those people come looking for him!

Perhaps a legend would spread through these mountains in the future—a legend about a White-haired Lion. As for catching him? That was impossible. By then, he would probably already be at home, drinking juice, enjoying the air conditioning, and watching the news about his peers chasing the White-haired Lion.

"What a pity there's no medicine for regret."

Lan Mu quickly stopped feeling sad and pulled his phone from his pocket.

His phone had automatically shut off after he fell from the cliff. He did not know whether it had been damaged. Earlier, his claws had been too sharp for him to dare fiddle with it, but now there was no problem.

He pressed the power button, and the screen lit up. The phone actually turned on.

"Great!"

Before Lan Mu could celebrate for long, a series of notification sounds rang out. Looking closely, he saw forty-five missed calls and twenty-one text messages.

"Oh my god... I'm screwed!"