The Origin of Skyfall Peak! Void-Devouring Hou!

On the Douluo Continent, it was not only those few great forests that were suitable for Spirit Beasts to inhabit. There were also perilous regions that were extremely dangerous to humans but ideal for Spirit Beasts to settle down and reproduce.

Skyfall Peak before this master and disciple pair was one such place.

Skyfall Peak was a steep mountain located in the western part of the Sun Moon Empire. The mountain as a whole was rather precipitous, while its summit was shrouded in dense fog, making it impossible to see what lay above.

As for why it was called Skyfall Peak?

It was because, a very long time ago, this place had been open ground, without any mountain. Then one day, lightning flashed and thunder roared, and the clouds of thunder seemed to carry the cries of dragons. After that, a portion of the sky collapsed here, and the dragons' roars stopped. The fallen sky struck the ground and formed this mountain. Although everything had returned to normal by the next day, the mountain on the ground remained proof that it had not been an illusion.

Afterward, spatial rifts would occasionally appear around Skyfall Peak, so no humans would approach unless absolutely necessary. After all, Spirit Masters could not live without food. Even Title Douluo, or even Ultimate Douluo, could not go without eating for two or three years straight.

Even among Spirit Beasts, only the suddenly appearing Void-Devouring Hou lived here. If not for the fact that Void-Devouring Hou could feed on and cultivate with the energy leaking from the spatial rifts here, this species would not have made its home in this place.

It was precisely because of this environment that Void-Devouring Hou possessed both spatial and destruction attributes, and were exceptionally powerful in battle.

Judging from the Sun Moon Empire imperial family's experience hunting this Spirit Beast, Void-Devouring Hou could be ranked among the first tier alongside Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bears. Therefore, for Spirit Masters of the imperial family who possessed the Purple Radiance Annihilating Heaven Dragon martial soul, at least one of their second, third, or even fourth Spirit Rings would normally come from a Void-Devouring Hou.

Fortunately, there were not many people in the imperial family who inherited the Purple Radiance Annihilating Heaven Dragon martial soul. There might even have been one or two generations without a single person possessing it, with all of them instead having Sun or Moon martial souls.

Otherwise, the Void-Devouring Hou would probably have been driven extinct.

The master and disciple proceeded up the mountain path toward the mountainside. Although Void-Devouring Hou were few in number, those with greater strength and age lived higher up according to their rank. The higher one went, the stronger the energy from the spatial rifts became.

Before leaving, Xu Tianchen had tested himself with a machine once more. Combined with Long Xiaoyao's estimate, they had ultimately determined that Xu Tianchen could absorb a Spirit Ring between roughly five thousand and eight thousand years old.

Thus, this pyramid-like structure instead provided Xu Tianchen with considerable convenience in obtaining a Spirit Ring of the appropriate age.

Before long, the master and disciple encountered a Void-Devouring Hou.

It had a lion-like body, covered in silver curly fur marked with deep purple patterns. Its head resembled that of a qilin, with a single horn growing from its crown. Its bright eyes spewed firelight. Its face was fierce, its mouth wide and teeth sharp. Its limbs were strong and powerful, with horse-like hooves and lion-like claws.

It looked incomparably savage, giving off an extremely dangerous feeling.

The age of a Void-Devouring Hou was not particularly easy to determine. One could only judge it through its size and the fluctuations of soul power emanating from its body.

This Void-Devouring Hou, whose soul power fluctuations suggested it was around a hundred years old, sensed Long Xiaoyao's unfathomable aura. It let out a "roar" at Xu Tianchen and Long Xiaoyao, then...

Ran away.

Yes, it ran away. Just as Long Xiaoyao had been about to slap this foolhardy Void-Devouring Hou to death for attempting to attack them, it actually turned around and fled.

"I didn't expect this Void-Devouring Hou to be quite intelligent. It even knows to avoid danger and seek benefit. I was already prepared to step forward and slap it to death."

As he sighed, Long Xiaoyao lowered the hand he had raised. Xu Tianchen said nothing and merely watched from the side.

After climbing for a while longer, the master and disciple encountered another Void-Devouring Hou. Although its soul power fluctuations indicated cultivation of around three hundred years, it was nowhere near as clever as the hundred-year-old one from before.

The moment it saw the two of them, it roared and tried to charge forward and attack.

Just as Long Xiaoyao was about to bring down his palm, Xu Tianchen interrupted him with a single sentence.

"Master, I want to try fighting it."

After Xu Tianchen's words reached Long Xiaoyao's ears, he only hesitated briefly before agreeing.

"Fine. You'll be fighting Spirit Beasts in the future anyway, so consider this an early exercise. Don't worry, I'll watch over you from the side."

With him watching over Xu Tianchen, nothing could possibly happen.

Surely no one would fail to look after the student they had brought out to hunt Spirit Beasts, right?

Isn't that right, Chicken Leg Douluo?

After seeing Long Xiaoyao agree, Xu Tianchen immediately possessed his martial soul and activated his first soul skill.

At once, the Destruction Force Field spread out from Xu Tianchen as its center and enveloped the three-hundred-year Void-Devouring Hou. The Void-Devouring Hou immediately felt as if its cultivation had dropped to only around a hundred years. It let out a furious roar at Xu Tianchen, then charged straight at him without a second thought.

Xu Tianchen directly unleashed the offensive soul skill among his right arm bone's two abilities.

Grand Void Annihilating Dragon Calamity!

Xu Tianchen immediately felt all the destruction-attributed energy in his body gather in his right arm. At that moment, the Void-Devouring Hou had also pounced right in front of him, and Xu Tianchen directly slapped down with his palm.

The palm strike Long Xiaoyao had not gotten to use was instead used by Xu Tianchen.

In truth, Grand Void Annihilating Dragon Calamity could be used for ranged attacks. According to Xu Tianchen's original estimate, he had intended to fire it from a distance, in which case the attack would have been released in the form of a beam of light. However, the charge-up took a little too long, and the Void-Devouring Hou charged too quickly. In the end, he could only make contact with his palm and directly blast all the destruction energy into the Void-Devouring Hou's body.

"Boom!"

The Void-Devouring Hou collapsed to the ground. Yellow light then emerged from its body and eventually gathered above the corpse into a yellow hundred-year Spirit Ring.

Upon seeing this, Xu Tianchen directly slumped to the ground. That soul skill from before had completely drained the soul power from his body.

"So this is the soul skill of your right arm bone. But your use of it was far too crude. You simply used brute force to solve the problem, like using a cannon to kill a mosquito. Once we return, I'll properly teach you how to control soul skills and some combat techniques."

Long Xiaoyao dispersed the soul power in his hand that had been prepared to rescue Xu Tianchen, then evaluated Xu Tianchen's battle just now.

Xu Tianchen, slumped on the ground, did not say a word and merely nodded.

Seeing this, Long Xiaoyao said nothing further. He only told Xu Tianchen to recover his soul power properly before continuing their search for a suitable Spirit Beast.

Before long, Xu Tianchen's soul power had mostly recovered. He opened his eyes, and a glint of golden light flashed through them, making them appear bright and spirited. Long Xiaoyao, who had been standing guard beside him, also rose to his feet and stored the book in his hand within his soul tool.

"Let's go. We'll search a little longer. There is still some time before nightfall."

Along the way, the master and disciple encountered several more Void-Devouring Hou. Yet even when they bared their fangs at Long Xiaoyao, he did not kill them. He merely drove them away.

There were simply too few Void-Devouring Hou. Although they had no natural enemies, their numbers remained scarce. So that no one would be unable to obtain a Void-Devouring Hou Spirit Ring in the future, the master and disciple tried to kill as few as possible.

Just as the sky was about to darken, the master and disciple climbed to a point on the mountainside relatively close to the summit. There, they discovered a Void-Devouring Hou whose soul power fluctuations indicated an age of more than seven thousand years, nearly eight thousand.

"How about this one?"

Long Xiaoyao looked at Xu Tianchen and asked. Xu Tianchen nodded as well, indicating that it would do.

Seeing this, Long Xiaoyao immediately flew forward and seized the Void-Devouring Hou that had been cultivating beside a spatial rift. He brought it before the two of them.