Xiao Wu Descends to the Human World, Captured!

Immediately afterward, a venomous snake as thick as a thigh, covered in emerald-green scales and bearing two triangular heads, slowly poked half its body out of the grass.

The snake flicked its scarlet tongue, its cold vertical pupils fixed tightly on Xiao Wu.

A second-rank demon beast, the Two-Headed Emerald Spirit Snake!

Feeling the oppressive aura emanating from the venomous snake, Xiao Wu retreated two steps in fright. Two yellow hundred-year spirit rings beneath her feet lit up instantly.

"First Soul Skill, Waist Bow!"

Though she was afraid, the instincts she had developed from years of surviving in the Star Dou Forest remained.

She knew that out here in the wild, retreating meant nothing but death.

Xiao Wu abruptly pushed off with both legs, her body leaping lightly into the air.

Then she flipped, her long legs snapping toward the Two-Headed Emerald Spirit Snake's vital point like a pair of scissors.

This was her greatest close-combat technique.

As long as she caught an opponent between her legs, combined with the explosive force of Waist Bow, even strength-type Spirit Masters at the same level would suffer badly.

Yet, as the Two-Headed Emerald Spirit Snake watched Xiao Wu pounce, a strangely humanlike glint of mockery flashed through its eyes.

It did not even try to dodge.

One of its heads suddenly opened its jaws and spat out a cloud of emerald-green venom.

The other rammed straight into Xiao Wu's legs.

Bang!

Xiao Wu's legs clamped around the snake's neck, and she violently exerted force through her waist.

But to her shock—

This snake's scales were as hard as steel, and their surface was covered by a slick protective barrier of demonic power.

The explosive force of her prized Waist Bow had failed even to break through its defense!

Instead, the venomous snake gave a savage shake, flinging her away.

At the same time, the cloud of venom grazed past her shoulder, corroding a large hole into her sleeve.

"Those scales are so hard!"

Xiao Wu rolled across the ground to bleed off the force, her eyes filled with horror.

The strength and defense of this unknown venomous snake were even more terrifying than those thousand-year defensive spirit beasts on Douluo Continent.

Douluo Continent, Shrek Academy.

Watching the battle on the light screen, Tang San's heart rose to his throat.

"Xiao Wu's physical attacks are completely useless against that kind of monster with a demonic power barrier!"

Tang San was drenched in anxious sweat, wishing he could fight in Xiao Wu's place.

Just as Xiao Wu was about to use her teleportation soul skill to flee—

A burst of unrestrained laughter suddenly rang out from the air.

"Hahaha!"

"Not bad luck today. I came out for a patrol and actually encountered such a peculiar little demon beast."

As the laughter echoed, a streak of yellow light descended from the sky and landed steadily between Xiao Wu and the venomous snake.

When the escaping light dispersed, it revealed a middle-aged cultivator in a yellow robe, several gray cloth bags hanging from his waist.

The middle-aged cultivator had a mustache, and his narrow eyes gleamed with shrewdness.

Spirit Beast Mountain, an early Foundation Establishment steward, Zhongwu.

The moment Zhongwu landed, the previously ferocious Two-Headed Emerald Spirit Snake cowered like a mouse before a cat, immediately flattening itself against the ground and not daring to raise its heads.

With a casual wave of his hand, Zhongwu opened one of the bags at his waist and directly collected the second-rank demon beast inside.

Only after doing all that did Zhongwu turn around and inspect Xiao Wu from head to toe with great interest.

His gaze lingered for a long while on the pair of rabbit ears atop Xiao Wu's head.

"Strange. Truly strange."

Zhongwu stroked the beard on his chin, his eyes full of confusion.

"She clearly retains the bodily traits of a demon beast, yet she possesses an entirely human form."

"That is something only shape-shifting great demons who have reached the eighth rank, equivalent to Nascent Soul ancestors, can achieve."

Hearing this, Xiao Wu was so frightened that she did not dare move at all.

Tang San and the others on Douluo Continent also held their breath.

Had this immortal cultivator mistaken Xiao Wu for an old Nascent Soul monster?

If so, perhaps Xiao Wu might escape this calamity.

However, Zhongwu immediately shook his head again and took a magic artifact resembling a compass from his sleeve.

He aimed it at Xiao Wu.

The indicator on the compass emitted only an extremely faint glow.

"Something's wrong."

Zhongwu sneered.

"There isn't even a trace of demonic power on you—only a weak, chaotic energy. At most, it's equivalent to the third or fourth level of the Qi Refinement stage."

"Looks like you aren't some great demon capable of taking human form."

"You're a rare mutated spirit beast—a half-human, half-demon!"

At that thought, Zhongwu's eyes suddenly lit up, his face full of greed.

In Spirit Beast Mountain, a cultivator's status and strength depended entirely on the spirit beasts he possessed.

A mutated spirit beast like Xiao Wu, one with a human appearance who could even speak.

If he captured her and properly raised her, or simply sold her to one of the Core Formation elders in the sect with particular tastes.

He could definitely exchange her for a huge number of Foundation Establishment pills and high-grade magic artifacts!

"Little one, you're quite lucky. You just happened to run into this steward today."

Zhongwu rubbed his hands together and slowly advanced toward Xiao Wu.

"Be good, don't resist, and come back to Spirit Beast Mountain with me."

"As long as you behave, this steward guarantees you'll get delicious pills every day. I'll raise you nice and plump."

His tone was like that of someone coaxing a stray kitten or puppy.

A mighty hundred-thousand-year soul beast.

An existence revered as a king by countless soul beasts in the Star Dou Forest.

Yet in the eyes of this Foundation Establishment cultivator, she was merely a mutated pet that could be traded for resources!

A sense of humiliation instantly surged through Xiao Wu's heart.

"Who wants to be your pet?!"

Xiao Wu shouted angrily as the third purple soul ring beneath her feet suddenly lit up.

"Third Soul Skill, Teleportation!"

Xiao Wu's body vanished from where she stood and appeared directly behind Zhongwu.

Her slender right leg sliced through the air as it fiercely chopped down toward the back of Zhongwu's head.

The attack came without warning and was incredibly fast.

Tang San couldn't help clenching his fists outside the light screen.

"That's it, Xiao Wu!"

"Catch him off guard and strike his vital point!"

However, Zhongwu did not even turn his head in the face of the attack at his back.

He merely gave a cold laugh.

"A spatial innate spell? Looks like the bloodline of this mutated spirit beast of yours isn't too low."

"Too bad this little bit of strength isn't even enough to scratch an itch for me!"

Just as Xiao Wu's right leg was about to strike Zhongwu, the yellow robe on his body suddenly flashed with an earthy yellow light.

A palm-sized earth-element turtle-shell magic artifact automatically appeared behind his head.

Bang!

With a dull impact, Xiao Wu felt as though she had kicked an impregnable mountain.

The tremendous recoil numbed her right leg, throwing her off balance and forcing her several steps back.

Zhongwu turned around and looked at Xiao Wu's face, which was full of disbelief.

He casually patted the turtle-shell magic artifact behind his head.

"A mid-grade defensive magic artifact—the Mystic Origin Turtle Shell."

"With strength equivalent to the early Qi Refinement stage, you couldn't break its defenses even if you attacked it for a hundred years."

Having said that, Zhongwu seemed to lose his patience.

He removed a gray cloth bag from his waist and tossed it into the air.

"I'm done playing with you. Get in there obediently!"

Zhongwu rapidly formed hand seals and launched a spell.

The gray cloth bag instantly expanded in the wind, transforming into a massive vortex.

An irresistible, immense suction force locked directly onto Xiao Wu below.

Xiao Wu desperately tried to stir her soul power and resist, but under the suppression of a Foundation Establishment cultivator's magic power, her soul power seemed frozen solid, completely unable to circulate.

"Brother!"

Xiao Wu let out a desperate cry.

The next second, her entire body was uncontrollably sucked into the gray cloth bag.

With a beckoning gesture, Zhongwu shrank the bag back down and caught it in his hand.

He patted the bag in satisfaction, then hung it from his waist.

Turning into a streak of yellow light, he flew toward Spirit Beast Mountain with a loud laugh.

Shrek Academy.

Tang San watched Xiao Wu being stuffed into the cloth bag and taken away on the screen.

He stood there blankly, as though his soul had left his body.

"Xiao Wu..."

A tearing pain surged through his chest.

On Douluo Continent, he had sworn to protect Xiao Wu for the rest of his life.

Whoever dared hurt her, he would make them pay.

But now, Xiao Wu had been seized like some piece of merchandise by an immortal cultivator whose name he did not even know.

And she had been stuffed into that bag used for storing demon beasts!

In an instant, an unprecedented sense of helplessness filled Tang San's chest.

He turned around, his eyes bloodshot as he looked at Yu Xiaogang.

"Teacher... didn't you say soul masters could hold their own in the human realm?"

"Why?"

"Why did Xiao Wu's soul skills not even get a reaction out of that man?"

Tang San's voice was frighteningly hoarse, carrying even a hint of accusation.

Yu Xiaogang opened his mouth.

Looking at the deeply shaken Tang San, he found himself unable to utter the explanation he had prepared.

What could he say?

That the other man possessed a protective magic artifact that activated automatically? That his spiritual power was of far higher quality than soul power?

Before such an absolute disparity in strength, those reasons seemed so pale and powerless.

"Roar!"

At the edge of Lake of Life, in the core region of Star Dou Forest.

An enraged roar shattered the silence of the entire forest.

The towering ancient trees around it, each requiring more than a dozen people to encircle, snapped across their middles in swathes like fragile matchsticks under the shockwave.

The earth shook violently.

The Titan Giant Ape, Er Ming, whose body was as massive as a mountain, suddenly leaped up from the lake's edge.

Its eyes, each originally the size of a lantern, had now turned a terrifying crimson, filled with crazed blood vessels.

"Sister Xiao Wu!"

Er Ming let out a grief-stricken, furious howl.

It had watched with its own eyes as Sister Xiao Wu, who usually rode on its neck, tugged its ears, and smiled like a flower, was forcibly sucked into a ragged cloth bag by a lecherous middle-aged human and carried away at his waist like an animal.

That sight directly ignited the most primal savagery in the Titan Giant Ape's bloodline.

Er Ming hammered its chest, hard as refined steel, like a madman, producing thunderous booms.

It raised its head to look at the enormous screen in midair, then violently kicked off the ground with its two thick hind legs.

Boom!

The ground beside Lake of Life instantly collapsed into a massive crater dozens of meters deep.

Carrying the Titan race's unique gravity domain, Er Ming's enormous body shot into the sky like a cannonball, smashing toward the screen overhead.

It wanted to shatter that screen.

It wanted to charge into that world, tear that yellow-clothed bastard to pieces, and rescue Sister Xiao Wu!

"I'll kill you! Give Sister Xiao Wu back to me!"

In midair, Er Ming swung its gigantic fist, powerful enough to split mountains and shatter rocks, and viciously smashed it toward the screen.

Yet the canopy had no physical form at all.

Er Ming's earth-shattering punch merely passed through the air and struck nothingness.

Its massive body lost all leverage in midair, then came crashing down from a height of several hundred meters.

"Bang!"

The earth trembled, and dirt flew everywhere.

Er Ming slammed into a small hill, flattening it completely.

But it could not feel any pain at all.

Like a madman, it climbed back up and began wildly smashing its fists into the surrounding ground and innocent trees.

Rubble shot through the air, and dust filled the sky.

The ten-thousand-year soul beasts within the core region—even some high-ranking soul beasts with tens of thousands of years of cultivation—were so terrified by the Titan Giant Ape's rampage that they all lay trembling on the ground, too frightened to even flee.

"Why?!"

"Why can't I touch that world?! Why?!"

Er Ming knelt amid the ruins, its enormous fists covered in dirt and blood from its own blows.

This hundred-thousand-year beast that had run rampant through the Star Dou Forest—

Now, like a helpless child, it shed huge tears from its scarlet eyes. They struck the ground, leaving little pits behind.

It hated this.

It hated that it possessed such immense strength, yet did not even have the right to protect Sister Xiao Wu.

Just as Er Ming prepared to leap up again and continue venting its rage at the sky—

A huge, incredibly thick tail covered in azure dragon scales swept out from the Lake of Life, wrapped around Er Ming's waist, and forcibly dragged it back to the lakeshore.

"Er Ming, calm down!"

The Sky Azure Bull Python, Da Ming, raised its enormous bull head from the water and let out a deafening rebuke at the Titan Giant Ape.

"Let me go! I'm going to save Sister Xiao Wu!"

Er Ming struggled desperately, grabbing Da Ming's tail with both hands as it tried to tear it away.

"What are you going to use to save her?!"

Da Ming suddenly tightened its tail. Its enormous eyes were likewise filled with bloodshot veins and mist.

"Even if you tore apart the entire Star Dou Forest, could you touch so much as a blade of grass in that cultivation world?"

"Can you pass through this light screen?"

How could it not be heartbroken?

Xiao Wu was the little sister they had watched grow up. After a hundred thousand years together, their bond was deeper than that of blood siblings.

Back when Xiao Wu had decided to take human form and enter the human world, they had repeatedly warned and reminded her, terrified that she might suffer even the slightest grievance outside.

But now, Xiao Wu had been sent to a place countless times more terrifying than the human world of Douluo Continent.

Da Ming took a deep breath and forced itself to calm down, but its massive body coiled in the lake water continued trembling uncontrollably.

At the same time, the image shifted.

Xiao Wu only felt the space around her violently twist and compress.

Everything around her was pitch-black. The air was thick with the stench of blood and all kinds of beast droppings, making her nearly vomit.

She knew that she had been stuffed into that gray cloth sack.

Within this cramped space, her soul power was suppressed by some invisible law, making it extremely difficult to circulate.

Xiao Wu hugged her knees and curled up in a corner, her body trembling slightly.

Yet fear had not completely consumed her eyes.

As a soul beast that had lived for a hundred thousand years, she had experienced countless life-and-death crises. Her mind was far more mature than her appearance suggested.

I can't panic. I have to find a way to escape.

Xiao Wu bit her lip and forced herself to calm down.

She did not know how long she had been jostled through the darkness.

Then suddenly, a light appeared above her.

Accompanied by a powerful suction force, Xiao Wu was dumped out headfirst.

"Bang."

She hit a hard bluestone slab heavily.

Xiao Wu quickly rubbed her aching shoulder, climbed to her feet, and warily surveyed her surroundings.

It was a spacious open-air courtyard.

Tall stone walls surrounded the courtyard, their surfaces covered in faintly glowing spiritual power runes.

But what made Xiao Wu's scalp tingle was what had been placed within the courtyard.