Hunting the Titan Giant Ape

The enormous blade collided with the Titan Giant Ape's fist, sending the ape crashing to the ground. A ghastly wound opened across its fist, spilling blood.

Li Changqing moved to press his advantage, but a sudden sense of danger surged from behind. He immediately steered his golden bone wings to one side.

A massive blue beam swept through the spot where he had just been and struck the distant woods. An explosion roared, blasting dirt and trees into the air.

The attack had come from the Sky Azure Bull Python. Li Changqing had known that it lived in the Lake of Life alongside the Titan Giant Ape, so he had kept his spiritual senses trained on the lake.

The Sky Azure Bull Python looked at the wound on the Titan Giant Ape's fist, anger flashing in its eyes.

The injury roused the Titan Giant Ape's primal savagery. It was about to charge Li Changqing and fight to the death, but the Sky Azure Bull Python blocked it with its enormous, slender body.

Confused, the Titan Giant Ape asked, "Big brother, with the two of us fighting together, are we really afraid of one human?"

The Sky Azure Bull Python ignored it. It stared at Li Changqing hovering above the lake and spoke in a deep voice edged with anger.

"Human, I know you've worked hard to reach this level of cultivation. Leave at once."

Li Changqing's lips curled. He had already wounded the Titan Giant Ape, yet the Sky Azure Bull Python was still urging him to leave while he could. Clearly, it was afraid.

His voice turned provocative. "I told you, I came for a Soul Ring. Have the Titan Giant Ape sacrifice itself to me, and I'll leave the moment I obtain my Eighth Soul Ring. I won't stay a second longer."

Fury surged through the Sky Azure Bull Python. "Human, do you truly think I can't kill you?"

Li Changqing snorted. "Enough talk. If you can kill me, why not try?" With that, he raised his sword and charged again.

Relying on his superior speed, Li Changqing evaded the Titan Giant Ape's and Sky Azure Bull Python's attacks, weaving between the two beasts.

Whenever an opening appeared, he left a sword wound on one of them.

The two beasts' attacks were powerful, but against Li Changqing's absurd speed, they were useless. After more than ten minutes of fighting, neither had managed to touch him.

With the support of his Soul Core, Li Changqing's aura showed no sign of weakening even after such a long, intense battle. It remained as strong as ever.

The two beasts, by contrast, were covered in wounds large and small. None were fatal, but their steadily flowing blood had stained a vast stretch of the lake red. The once-beautiful Lake of Life had been left riddled with scars by the aftermath of their battle.

"Human, is dodging all you can do?" the Titan Giant Ape roared.

Li Changqing dodged another attack and taunted it. "I'd be an idiot not to use my speed. Do you think I'm like you, you stupid monkey—all muscle and no brains?"

The Titan Giant Ape was drenched in blood and visibly weakened. The Sky Azure Bull Python was different: it had far fewer sword wounds, and apart from some depleted Soul Power, it was largely unharmed.

Most of Li Changqing's attacks had landed on the Titan Giant Ape. He had done that deliberately.

The reason was simple. The Titan Giant Ape was his target on this trip, while the Sky Azure Bull Python was his choice for his Ninth Soul Ring.

If he wounded the Sky Azure Bull Python too badly and left it too weak to fight, another Soul Beast or Soul Master might kill it. Then he would have to search the vast seas for his Ninth Soul Ring.

As for the Ferocious Beasts hidden deep within the Star Dou Great Forest, Li Changqing had no intention of provoking them yet.

Just then, terrifying waves of Soul Power erupted from the Titan Giant Ape and the Sky Azure Bull Python. Li Changqing hurried away.

Frustration and fury filled the beasts' eyes as they watched him. Both let out a furious roar, and two invisible waves spread from their bodies, quickly enveloping Li Changqing.

Li Changqing felt an immense weight bearing down on him. Even his movements slowed.

These were the effects of the Titan Giant Ape's Gravity Control Domain and the Sky Azure Bull Python's Slow Domain.

"Let's see you dodge now, human!" the Titan Giant Ape roared.

The Titan Giant Ape gathered all its Soul Power into its fists, compressing it into a dense, earthen-yellow sphere of energy. A massive wave of energy shot from the sphere straight toward Li Changqing.

This was the Titan Giant Ape's Titan Sky Shatter, a technique of terrifying power.

In the original story, the Titan Giant Ape had killed a Titled Douluo instantly with this move alone.

The Sky Azure Bull Python raised its head. Countless bolts of annihilation thunder gathered in its mouth before it unleashed a thick azure-blue column of lightning at Li Changqing.

This was the Sky Azure Bull Python's Sky Azure Annihilation Thunder. The beam held immense thunderous power.

Li Changqing watched the earthen-yellow and azure-blue beams rush toward him without a trace of panic.

An instant before the beams struck him, a black-and-white barrier spread outward from his body.

The moment it appeared, the barrier suppressed the Titan Giant Ape's and Sky Azure Bull Python's domains. Li Changqing's speed returned at once—and became even faster.

Li Changqing flashed aside, avoiding the attacks. "See that? That's a real domain. Yours are too weak."

Inside Li Changqing's Yin-Yang Domain, the Titan Giant Ape and the Sky Azure Bull Python were gripped by terror. Their strength had been severely suppressed, and they felt the balance of yin and yang within them unravel.

One moment, bitter cold seized their bodies, as though even their blood and Soul Power had frozen;

the next, scorching heat consumed them. It felt as though their entire bodies were burning, the fire spreading from the inside out in unbearable agony.

The Sky Azure Bull Python fared better and suffered little harm. After all, Li Changqing had not targeted it deliberately.

The Titan Giant Ape was another matter. Tormented by the imbalance of yin and yang until it could neither live nor die, it howled in agony. "Big brother, it hurts! Save me!"

The Sky Azure Bull Python wanted to help the Titan Giant Ape, but it could not move an inch. It could barely summon its Soul Power and could only watch as Li Changqing drew closer.

At last, weakened beyond endurance, the Titan Giant Ape fell completely unconscious.

"Second brother!" the Sky Azure Bull Python cried in anguish.

Li Changqing paid the Sky Azure Bull Python no mind. He shaped his Soul Power into a vast net, carried the unconscious Titan Giant Ape away from the Lake of Life, and went to find a secluded place to absorb the Soul Ring.

After Li Changqing left, the Yin-Yang Domain vanished. The Sky Azure Bull Python could move again, but there was nothing it could do.

It knew all too well that it lacked the strength to save the Titan Giant Ape. If Li Changqing had wanted to kill it today, it would have died too.

The Sky Azure Bull Python stood motionless, gazing at the ravaged Lake of Life in utter grief. Then it sank to the lakebed once more to recover from its relatively minor wounds.

After putting some distance between himself and the Lake of Life, Li Changqing found a small valley ringed by mountains. The Soul Beasts there were not particularly strong. When they sensed the Titan Giant Ape's aura as a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, they fled in terror.