In the dark, dense forest some distance away, a pair of golden vertical pupils watched from between the leaves.
Mu Tianyi ate dragon meat, his mouth gleaming with grease as he wondered when that old man Xuan Zi would finally return.
Then, the bronze mirror above his head suddenly trembled.
Buzz—
The pale golden barrier abruptly flickered. The runes that had been circulating steadily suddenly spun faster, emitting a shrill hum as though something had triggered its highest level of alert.
With a steak clamped between his teeth, Mu Tianyi froze.
Slowly, he raised his head and looked beyond the barrier.
At some point, a Soul Beast had appeared near his territory.
The golden-furred Soul Beast, shaped like a male lion, stood at the edge of the barrier with one forepaw raised, as if it had just slapped the pale golden shield.
Its size was not particularly imposing. It stood about one and a half meters at the shoulder and was a little over three meters long. Compared to those ten-thousand-year Soul Beasts that were easily more than ten meters in length, it was practically petite.
Yet the aura emanating from its entire body instantly broke Mu Tianyi out in a cold sweat.
Every strand of its golden fur was distinct, gleaming beneath the sunlight as though each one had condensed from pure sunlight.
Pale golden flames burned beneath its four paws. It made no sound when it stepped down, yet the grass and plants beneath its feet instantly withered and charred.
A cluster of flame flickered endlessly at the tip of its tail, radiating scorching heat.
The most striking feature was the vertical eye in the center of its forehead.
That eye was half-open, its pupil seemingly reflecting the profound depths of an entire starry sky. Whenever it opened or closed, a ray of golden light spilled from within, sharp enough to pierce through anything.
She tilted her head and stared at Mu Tianyi inside the barrier, curiosity in her golden vertical pupils.
More precisely, she was staring at the half-eaten, sizzling dragon steak in Mu Tianyi's hand.
"What is that?" the Three-Eyed Golden Lion asked.
Her voice was clear and carried the youthful innocence of a young girl, her tone holding the natural expectation of an answer.
Mu Tianyi instinctively took a step back, alarm bells blaring in his mind.
Holy shit, are you kidding me, heavens?
A Soul Beast that could speak—didn't that mean it was at least a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast?!
His heart skipped a beat, and he was just about to assume a defensive stance.
The next moment, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion seemed to run out of patience.
She raised her forepaw and slapped the pale golden barrier again.
Golden light scattered where her claw landed!
The ancient defensive Soul Tool passed down from Sea God Pavilion shook violently under that strike. The runes across the bronze mirror flashed madly, and cracks spread inward from the edge of its surface.
Mu Tianyi's pupils contracted.
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion seemed to be getting impatient. Her forepaw came down several times faster than before, while a hair-thin ray of golden light shot from her vertical eye and struck the barrier alongside her claw.
Boom—
The bronze mirror exploded.
Fragments scattered in every direction. Mu Tianyi tilted his head to avoid a shard that grazed past his ear, leaving his ears ringing.
That ancient Soul Tool, capable of withstanding a full-force attack from a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, had lasted less than three breaths before this "Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast."
Mu Tianyi stood still, looking at the bronze mirror fragments scattered across the ground, the corner of his mouth twitching.
Damn...
Am I really done for already?
Still, waiting around to die was not Mu Tianyi's style.
He took a deep breath and rapidly calculated his chances of escape.
Yin-Yang Divine Dragon Transformation: a three-hundred-percent boost to all attributes and a five-hundred-percent damage bonus to light and dark attributes.
With his current Soul Power foundation, he could barely contend with an opponent at the Soul Emperor level if he went all out.
But against a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast?
Well, Mu Tianyi had absolutely no confidence.
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion, however, did not seem eager to attack.
She withdrew her paw, lowered her head, and stared straight at the steak in Mu Tianyi's hand through the shattered barrier. Her nose twitched slightly before she spoke.
"Did you make that thing that smells so good?"
Mu Tianyi paused.
He looked down at the steak in his hand, then at the Three-Eyed Golden Lion's expression—obviously craving it, yet trying hard to remain calm.
"...Yes."
"How did you make it?" The Three-Eyed Golden Lion tilted her head.
Mu Tianyi fell silent for a moment, and an absurd thought suddenly flashed through his mind.
He raised his head and carefully examined this "Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast."
Wait.
Golden fur all over, shaped like a male lion, a vertical eye on her forehead, flames beneath her paws, fire at the tip of her tail...
The more he put those traits together, the more she resembled...
Mu Tianyi's pupils shrank slightly.
No.
She was not an ordinary Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast.
She was—the Three-Eyed Golden Lion.
The Emperor Auspicious Beast of the Star Dou Great Forest.
Which meant she was not some Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast.
Mu Tianyi let out a breath of relief.
Compared to those scheming old male and female Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts—
Clearly, the Emperor Auspicious Beast before him, who had only ten thousand years of cultivation and was as innocent as a blank sheet of paper, would be easier to fool—no, easier to talk to.
As for why she could blow apart that seemingly overpowered defensive Soul Tool—
Mu Tianyi guessed it was most likely not because her cultivation had utterly overwhelmed it.
It was because of the ultimate attributes she had been born with.
Ultimate strength, ultimate fire, ultimate spiritual power, along with the blessing of heaven and earth's fortune granted by her identity as an Auspicious Beast.
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion watched Mu Tianyi's "thoughtful" expression and suddenly became a little unhappy.
"Were you afraid just now?" she asked.
Mu Tianyi blinked. "...Huh?"
"No. You were clearly afraid, but there was no fear in your eyes." A faint, almost imperceptible disappointment flashed through the Three-Eyed Golden Lion's vertical eye. "Human, you were pretending."
The corner of Mu Tianyi's mouth twitched.
This big cat... was pretty observant.
He simply stopped pretending and sighed. "Fine, I admit it. I really was wondering whether I should run just now."
"But now I can see that you're not a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast. You're just a slightly bigger cat."
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion's pupils abruptly contracted, and all her golden fur stood on end.
"Who are you calling a big cat?!"
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion wanted to hiss, proving that there was a fundamental difference between her and ordinary Hajimi.
Mu Tianyi did not answer her question. Instead, he did something the Three-Eyed Golden Lion had never expected.
He bent down, picked up a half-eaten dragon steak from the grill, and held it out to her.
"Want some?"
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion blinked her vertical eye.
"Can I?"
"Uh, what do you think?"
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion fell silent for two seconds.
Then she lowered her head, brought her face close to the steak in Mu Tianyi's hand, flared her nostrils, and deeply inhaled the rich scent of charred meat.
"Then I won't stand on ceremony."
She took a bite.
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion's eyes lit up.
In that instant, she felt as though even her soul was trembling.
This flavor—
For over ten thousand years, from childhood to maturity, she had only ever eaten raw meat.
Having spent her whole life eating raw flesh and drinking blood, she had never known what the words "cooked food" meant.
But now, as the dragon meat—charred on the outside, tender within, rich with fat and carrying a faint salty taste—exploded in her mouth, only one thought remained in the Three-Eyed Golden Lion's mind:
What kind of miserable life had I been living before this?
She even forgot to maintain the dignity of an Auspicious Beast and swallowed the steak in two bites.
Then she raised her head, an unprecedented eagerness in her vertical eye as she stared fixedly at Mu Tianyi.
"...Is there any more?"
Before you continue