On the outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest, night lay thick as ink.
Xiao Chenyu leaned against the crown of an ancient tree three people could barely wrap their arms around.
A blade of grass dangled from his mouth as he gazed down at the forest below, bored out of his mind.
He'd been crouched here for a full day and night. His backside was about ready to grow calluses.
The flight ability of the Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone had let him easily avoid the Soul Beasts on the outskirts and land precisely on the "path Xiao Wu must take," as marked by the Will of Douluo Planet.
He was like a deliveryman who'd arrived early to stake out the place, just waiting for the package to deliver itself.
[Xiao Chenyu]: @Will of Douluo Planet, are you sure Xiao Wu will pass through here today?
[Xiao Chenyu]: I've been waiting a whole day and night, and I haven't seen a single rabbit. Three wild rabbits ran past, though, but they were all males.
[Will of Douluo Planet]: Absolutely, positively, definitely sure!
[Will of Douluo Planet]: I've repeatedly run through Xiao Wu's route after she takes human form eight hundred times. She'll definitely take this path out of the Star Dou Great Forest!
[Will of Douluo Planet]: Going by the timing, it should be today—unless she stops along the way to look for carrots. ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ
[Titan Giant Ape]: Avenger, I'm counting on you to look after Sister Xiao Wu.
[Titan Giant Ape]: She's only just taken human form and doesn't know anything. She'll definitely be scared, so don't frighten her.
[Titan Giant Ape]: Speak softly, move gently...
[Xiao Chenyu]: Don't worry. I've even prepared my lines. I guarantee she'll feel right at home and bask in the warmth of spring.
[Man Faced Demon Spider]: Warmth! Warmth! Warm her up, then take her home!
[Xiao Chenyu]: Little Spider, could you stop making us sound like kidnappers?
[Xiao Chenyu]: This is a rescue mission, not a human trafficking operation.
Just then, a rustling came from the bushes below.
The sound was faint, as if some small animal were carefully making its way through the undergrowth.
"She's here!"
Xiao Chenyu's gaze sharpened.
The Purple Demon Eye quietly activated, a faint violet light shimmering deep in his pupils.
At the Micro level, the Purple Demon Eye pierced through the layers of leaves and branches, clearly catching sight of a petite figure stumbling through the woods.
She was a little girl who looked about six years old.
Her long black hair was rather tousled, with a few dead leaves stuck to the ends.
She'd clearly been traveling for a long time.
Her features were as delicate as a porcelain doll's, but her bright eyes held a determination beyond her years.
It was the fierce resolve forged in a primeval forest where the strong preyed on the weak.
The instincts of a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soft Bone Rabbit were etched into her bones, even after she took human form.
Xiao Wu.
In the original story, the moment she stepped out of the Star Dou Great Forest, the wheels of fate began turning toward a predetermined destination.
She would meet Tang San at Nuoding Academy, accept him as her older brother, sacrifice herself for him, become his Asura Sword Sheath, and eventually wither away in a cold palace in the Divine Realm before being reborn.
A hundred thousand years of cultivation, all for the fate of becoming a high-level tool.
But this time, someone had arrived before the wheels began to turn.
Xiao Chenyu didn't show himself right away. He held his breath and continued watching.
He knew Xiao Wu had only just taken human form and was wary of humans.
In the Star Dou Great Forest, humans meant hunters.
If he rushed over to greet her, she'd probably mistake him for a Soul Master hunting Soul Rings.
He needed the right moment to appear.
A chance to go from "suspicious stranger" to "reliable helper."
And that chance came soon enough.
Fate was surprisingly cooperative in that regard.
Fifty meters behind Xiao Wu, a pair of scarlet beast eyes suddenly lit up in the dense forest.
Xiao Chenyu's Purple Demon Eye spotted the lurking shadow before Xiao Wu did.
A four-thousand-year Mad Tiger!
It was as big as a grown rhinoceros, and scraps of its last meal still clung to its fangs.
It had clearly set its sights on this lone "human cub."
Its thick limbs tensed, gathering strength for a pounce.
"Roar—!"
The Mad Tiger let out a deafening roar and shot out of the bushes like an arrow loosed from a bow.
A foul wind rushed toward them. Its claws, sharp as knives, aimed straight for Xiao Wu's back.
The ground trembled beneath its pounce, and the shockwave sent stones and fallen leaves flying in every direction.
Xiao Wu whirled around. The instant she saw that gaping maw bearing down on her, all the color drained from her little face.
Her hundred thousand years of cultivation were gone. Now she was just an ordinary six-year-old girl.
Against the pounce of a thousand-year Soul Beast, even trying to run was a pipe dream.
In that instant, Xiao Wu regretted it deeply. She should have let Da Ming and Er Ming escort her out of the forest.
Xiao Wu closed her eyes in despair.
At that very moment,
a dark-purple figure dropped from the sky like a meteor, slamming down between Xiao Wu and the Mad Tiger.
The shockwave from the landing flattened the surrounding bushes. Fallen leaves spun into a vortex and burst outward, while the impact left a shallow crater in the ground.
"Get lost!"
Xiao Chenyu swept out a claw behind him.
Five beams of cold light from the Dark Gold Terrorclaw carved five arcs through the night.
The Mad Tiger's massive body went flying. It smashed through two trees as thick as bowls before finally coming to a stop.
"Crash!"
The sound of the trunks snapping rang out sharply through the silent forest.
Xiao Wu stared blankly up at the towering figure before her.
He wasn't just tall.
The man before her was in a strange battle stance.
He was more imposing than most human Soul Masters she'd ever seen.
Dark-purple fur covered his limbs, and the werewolf form radiated an oppressive aura of destruction and savagery.
Dark-gold claw-mark patterns ran up his arms to his shoulders, violet lightning of destruction flickering between them.
But what shook her most was the third set of markings intertwined with the purple and dark-gold patterns: a crimson design as red as blood.
Three lights interwove.
The figure seemed both majestic and eerie, like a demon god who'd emerged from an ancient battlefield.
That streak of red was the manifestation of Xiao Chenyu's second Soul Skill—Blood Demon Wolf Soul.
As his core Soul Skill, gained after absorbing the Soul Ring of a thousand-year Blood Demon Wolf he'd killed, it had two levels.
In its normal state, it summoned the Blood Demon Wolf Soul to possess him, boosting all his attributes by fifty percent for half an hour.
But if he deliberately activated the "Blood Rage" state, as he had now, the boost increased by an additional fifty percent.
His attack, defense, and speed all doubled. Combined with the Destruction Demon Wolf King's innate potential to fight above its level, Xiao Chenyu could now hold his own against this four-thousand-year Mad Tiger.
Of course, once Blood Rage ended, he'd be left in a weakened state.
However, deliberately ending it could lessen some of the aftereffects. That was what he'd learned through repeated testing.
In short: once you've made your dramatic entrance, stop while you're ahead. Don't get greedy.
"Roar..."
The Mad Tiger struggled to rise from between the broken trees, a flicker of wariness in its scarlet eyes.
It shook the wood chips from its head, its low growl clearly hesitant.
But its intelligence was only just beginning to develop, and the instinct to hunt quickly overpowered its urge to retreat.
"Roar!"
It growled and lunged again.
Its four claws dug four deep furrows into the ground as its massive body barreled forward on a wave of foul wind.
Xiao Chenyu didn't move.
He didn't even use the Dark Gold Terrorclaw. There was no need to use a cleaver to kill a chicken.
He raised his claws and pointed them toward the Mad Tiger.
As he drove his Soul Power, the veins in his fingertips bulged slightly,
and dark-red blood could faintly be seen speeding beneath his skin.
"Shhk!!!"
Ten bright-red threads shot from his claws.
They were as fast as lightning and as fine as steel needles,
their paths almost invisible in the night.
Only the shrill whistle of air being torn apart could be heard.
"Pfft!!!"
The ten blood threads pierced the Mad Tiger's leg joints, throat, and heart with deadly precision.
The Mad Tiger didn't even have time to let out a final scream.
Its scarlet eyes quickly glazed over. Its massive body lost control mid-charge and crashed to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.
This was the Blood Demon Wolf's innate ability—"Blood Manipulation Art."
A bizarre technique that let him attack from a distance by manipulating his own blood.
He used his own blood as a medium, condensing it into threads with tremendous penetrating power.
In his Blood Rage state, Xiao Chenyu's blood flowed twice as fast, allowing him to use Blood Manipulation Art as well.
Its power doubled right along with it.
He named the move "Blood Piercing Claw." The name was plain, but the results were outstanding.
A four-thousand-year Mad Tiger hadn't lasted three rounds against him.