Both Suffer Losses

With a Divine Bird sealing the sky ahead and a pride of lions guarding the earth behind, Xiao Yan's current predicament was exactly like that old saying from his past life: wolves in front, tigers behind, and a complete idiot stuck in the middle.

Though he was loath to admit it, he was currently that idiot.

The golden torrent halted at the edge of the forest clearing, where nearly a hundred Flame Lions and over a dozen Blazing Demon Lions surrounded the massive beast like stars circling the moon.

The Golden-Haired Blazing Lion King.

It simply stood there, its scorching aura distorting the air, the kingly pressure it radiated making one instinctively want to kneel in submission.

The Lion King paid no heed to Xiao Yan; in fact, it barely registered the weak human at all.

There was no need for it to personally deal with a fellow who might not even be able to defeat the century-level soul beasts under its command.

Its gaze drifted past the insignificant Xiao Yan, fixing directly upon the Great Sun Rainbow as it slowly descended.

The hegemon of the sky and the king of the land locked eyes in the air.

The Great Sun Rainbow... not content with occupying the airspace of the entire Sunset Forest, it actually wanted to encroach upon the lion pride's territory now?

Greed, greed, and more greed!

"ROAR—!"

The Lion King let out a furious bellow. Instantly, the surrounding century and millennium-level soul beasts, no matter how ferocious they had been moments before, prostrated themselves on the ground, trembling, lacking even the courage to twitch.

This was the aura of a top-tier predator; any weakling would be forced into submission under such pressure.

The Great Sun Rainbow narrowed its eyes. It's just a millennium soul beast, yet it dares to provoke me? I gave you a few patches of territory and you really think you're the boss? Go to hell!

"Coo-gaga!"

How could the king of the skies tolerate such an insult? It immediately unleashed its Rainbow Feather Shot, each razor-sharp feather carving rainbows through the air as they streaked toward the lion pride.

Xiao Yan watched both sides. Both were powerhouses of the Sunset Forest, yet without exception, they ignored him, just as two elephants would never concern themselves with an ant at their feet.

This realization made Xiao Yan's heart lighten, his tensed muscles instantly relaxing.

In the battle to come, he was not the protagonist—at least, not yet.

Without a moment's hesitation, the Dragon Scale luster on his skin quickly receded, and he suppressed his soul power fluctuations to the absolute minimum using a technique akin to a tortoise's hibernation.

Fight however you want, I'm going to play dead for a while.

Xiao Yan silently slipped into a shadowed crevice squeezed between massive tree roots and rocks. It was a perfect spectator's seat, offering both concealment and a clear view of the entire battlefield.

"ROAR—!"

The Golden-Haired Lion King struck first. It threw open its blood-red maw, unleashing not a mere sonic attack, but a visible golden torrent—a sweeping shockwave of flame that surged toward the low-flying Great Sun Rainbow!

Trees along its path were instantly reduced to charcoal, the earth was plowed into a deep ravine, and rocks melted into molten lava under the intense heat.

"SCREECH!"

The Great Sun Rainbow let out a piercing cry that could shatter gold and crack stone. It did not dodge, instead flapping its massive wings with a violent force!

In an instant, hundreds of feathers shimmering with seven-colored light detached from its wings, raining down like a brilliant yet lethal storm.

Each feather blade tore through the air with a sharp whistle, carrying radiant rainbows as they collided head-on with the golden shockwave of fire.

BOOM—!!!

A deafening explosion erupted, and the violent energy shockwave formed a destructive circular blast, crazily expanding in every direction from the point of impact.

The rock crevice where Xiao Yan hid shook violently, sending debris raining down.

He peeked out, his scalp tingling.

The previous battlefield—the Blazing Fire Ant nest that had been lured into mutual destruction by the Purple Sun Flower Dew—had been wiped off the map.

Whether it was the nest, the worker ants, the soldier ants, or even the Ant Queen he had pinned his hopes on, all had been completely vaporized in this first exchange, leaving nothing behind.

Xiao Yan held his breath, unwilling to miss a single frame of the battle. Watching two beasts fight at such close range was even more shocking than any movie from his past life.

The Lion King's fighting style was bold and unrestrained, relying on pure fire and brute force. It pursued ultimate destruction, with every move being a cataclysmic area-of-effect strike, fierce to the extreme.

The Great Sun Rainbow, however, was slightly more agile. Its Rainbow Feather Shot was not merely a physical attack; the trailing rainbow light could continuously erode its opponent.

In the previous collision, a significant portion of the Lion King's flame shockwave had been directly "dissolved" by that rainbow light, a testament to the bizarre nature of its attack.

Furthermore, the Great Sun Rainbow's range was immense. The volley of feather blades didn't just cover the Lion King; it engulfed the entire pride behind it.

For a time, the pride echoed with miserable wails as many century-level Flame Lions were pierced through by the rainbow light, turning into ash on the spot.

"ROAR!"

Seeing its offspring slaughtered thoroughly enraged the Golden-Haired Lion King.

It roared at the sky, and golden flames erupted from its body, surging toward the heavens. Above its head, several golden fire meteors the size of houses coalesced, dragging long tails of flame as they smashed fiercely toward the Great Sun Rainbow in the sky!

A flicker of human-like disdain crossed the Great Sun Rainbow's eyes. It spread its wings, seven-colored brilliance flowing as a massive domain instantly unfolded.

"Divine Punishment!"

Though he couldn't understand beast-speak, Xiao Yan could sense those two words within the mental fluctuation.

Within the domain, dense rainbow light transformed into countless spears and swords of light, raining down like the wrath of a god.

The flaming meteors were shattered mid-air by a dense barrage of rainbow light, transforming into a rain of fire across the sky.

More rainbow beams pierced through the fiery blockade, aiming directly at the pride of lions and the Lion King below.

Squelch!

The Golden-Haired Lion King failed to dodge in time, and its left eye was pierced by a beam of rainbow light. Golden blood sprayed out, and it let out a muffled roar of agony.

As for the pride behind it, they were mowed down like grass under this "Divine Punishment," falling in droves.

In just a few breaths, aside from the dozen or so powerful thousand-year-old Blazing Demon Lions still struggling to hold on, nearly a hundred Flame Lions had been completely wiped out.

However, the Great Sun Rainbow was not unscathed either.

At the same moment its eye was struck, the Lion King, despite its grievous wounds, forcibly spat out a beam of fire condensed to the extreme. It tore through the blockade of rainbow light, leaving a massive, bone-deep gash on one of the Great Sun Rainbow's wings, sending seven-colored feathers and blood drifting through the sky.

The battle had reached a fever pitch.

Both sides were truly enraged, and their injuries were growing increasingly severe.

Finally, the Great Sun Rainbow seemed to run out of patience. It let out a desperate, mournful cry, and every feather on its body lit up, the radiance so intense it even eclipsed the sun in the sky.

Damn it, I'll blow you to hell!

It tucked in its wings, its entire body transforming into a seven-colored pillar of light that pierced the heavens. Like a spear of the gods, it plummeted toward the Golden-Haired Lion King on the ground!

The Golden-Haired Lion King sensed a lethal threat, and a crazed light erupted in its single eye. It did not retreat; instead, it poured all its remaining soul power, along with its very life essence, into its maw.

A golden orb, condensed to the extreme and appearing to contain the flickering birth and death of stars within, was slowly spat out to meet the world-destroying pillar of seven-colored light.

Blow it up then, who's afraid of you, you multicolored chicken!

BOOM—!

A flash of white light swallowed the entire world. Xiao Yan felt as though his vision had turned into a vast, white void; he could see nothing and hear nothing.

The terrifying shockwave uprooted the boulder he was hiding behind and tossed it high into the air.

It was unknown how much time had passed when Xiao Yan regained consciousness from his daze and scrambled out of the pile of rubble in a disheveled state. The sight before him made him gasp.

A massive crater over a thousand meters in diameter had appeared in the center of the forest, and everything within it had been reduced to powder.

At the edge of the crater, the Great Sun Rainbow lay covered in blood, most of its beautiful feathers shed, its body riddled with charred wounds, its aura weak to the point of extinction.

On the other side of the crater, the Golden-Haired Blazing Lion King knelt half-upright, its golden fur turned dull and gray like burnt firewood. Its once-proud head hung powerlessly, its life force also fading to the point of freezing.

Both sides were crippled.

"Goo... gaa..."

The Great Sun Rainbow struggled, flapping its tattered wings, and managed to shakily take flight once more. Although its injuries were severe, its instinct for survival remained, driving it to ascend and flee this dangerous place.

After taking to the air, it cast a venomous look at the dying Lion King, then swept its gaze toward the pile of rubble where Xiao Yan had just crawled out.

I'll remember you! Next time, I will definitely take your life!

In the end, it did not linger. Dragging its heavily wounded body, it beat its wings with great difficulty and vanished into the horizon.

Xiao Yan's heart stirred; the greatest threat had departed.

He slowly walked out from his hiding spot, his gaze fixed on the Golden-Haired Lion King, which was kneeling on the ground, lacking even the strength to stand.

The opportunity had arrived.

A nearly ten-thousand-year soul ring was within his grasp.

He walked toward the Lion King step by step, his Charmeleon martial soul ready. A single Buddha Fury Fire Lotus would be enough to finish off this former king of the forest.

The Lion King seemed to sense his approach and lifted its head with great effort. In its remaining eye, there was no longer the arrogance of the past, only self-mockery.

It had lived a glorious life, only to die at the hands of a human brat—it was truly lamentable.

When it had awakened the bloodline of the ancestral Golden Lion Mastiff, it had thought it could shoulder the heavy responsibility of its race's revival, yet...

The entire tribe had been decimated in the conflict with the Great Sun Rainbow, with barely one in ten surviving.

You bastard, Golden-Haired Lion King, what exactly did you protect!

It felt as if it could hear other soul beasts cursing it, but it didn't matter anymore.

Its journey had reached its end. It was about to be killed by this brat, and its soul ring would be offered up.

Xiao Yan reached its front and stopped.

The Lion King closed its eyes, waiting for death to descend.

However, the expected lethal blow did not come.

A medicinal pill, emitting a rich, fragrant aroma, was gently brought to its mouth.

The Lion King snapped its single eye open, its pupil filled with incredulous confusion.

This human... instead of killing it to take its soul ring, he was feeding it a healing pill?

What, exactly, was the meaning of this?