"A Yi, what happened to your tail?" Jin Xiaoyu asked, grabbing Huang Tieyi's tiger tail.
"Right, A Yi! And your ears? How did you grow a second pair?" Xiong An'an asked, curiously reaching up to touch the tiger ears atop his head.
"Well, I went deep into the Sunset Forest to investigate the Demonic Qi and ran into a Dragon-Patterned Demon Tiger on the way. It was a Soul Beast nearly a hundred thousand years old, corroded and controlled by Demonic Qi. It tried to stop me from going deeper into the forest, but I refused to leave."
"We fought right there. When that Ferocious Beast couldn't beat me, it resorted to a dirty trick. It secretly slipped its heart's blood into my veins, hoping to forcibly turn me into a Half-Beast. Luckily, I reacted fast enough to activate my Martial Soul Avatar and purge the Demonic Qi from my blood. That's how I ended up like this..." Huang Tieyi waved a hand, speaking as casually as if it were nothing.
"A Soul Beast nearly a hundred thousand years old? Then it must have had a Soul Bone!" Xiong An'an said excitedly. "Where is it? Take it out and let me see."
"No Soul Bone. The Demonic Qi forced it to grow into a fake Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, so it didn't have one at all. Besides, even if it had, I wouldn't dare take it. Its Soul Bone would have been corroded by Demonic Qi. Putting that in my body would be dangerous." Huang Tieyi shook his head.
"That's true." Jin Xiaoyu looked at the Golden-Crowned Falcon on Huang Tieyi's shoulder. "Is this a present you brought back?"
"I'm not a present. I'm Eagle Skystrike, a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast and Golden-Crowned Falcon—Master's personal mount..." The falcon held his head high,