"Young master, young ladies, leave this place first! We'll hold this beast back!"
As those people drew closer, Ye Tian saw seven or eight people who appeared to be guards clustering around a young man and woman in the middle. Most of their faces were filled with panic.
"No! Guard Li, Guard Zhang, we'll leave together. We can't leave you behind!" the protected young lady shouted. Yet the heavy footsteps of the enormous creature were drawing ever closer. There was no time for them to delay any longer.
"Let Guard Li and the others hold it off for a while! We'll go back for reinforcements, then return to save them," the man urged, staring in terror toward the direction from which the enormous creature was pursuing them.
Ye Tian could not help but sneer inwardly at those words. Wasn't he simply using others as cannon fodder in exchange for the lives of the two of them? Yet he made it sound so noble, talking about going back for reinforcements.
However, Guard Li, as they called him, remained composed, his eyes revealing unwavering resolve. Ye Tian could see the determination in his gaze to protect these two people.
Ye Tian had always held people like this, people of loyalty, in especially high regard. Such people could be said to follow the cycle of karma from another angle; the causes of the past had led to his determination to protect these two today.
In that instant of thought, the enormous creature slowed its steps and slowly emerged from behind the forest.
It looked like a tiger-type Magic Beast. Its fangs were exceptionally long, and it stood roughly twenty zhang tall. Four pairs of pitch-black wings grew from its back, dotted with faintly glowing specks that resembled stars in a dark night sky.