Time passed quickly in the Star Dou Great Forest.
Over the past few days, amid the abundant life energy, Qian Daoliu had been searching for a new way to break through. Yet he always felt something was missing, something he simply could not grasp.
On the seventh day,
the morning mist had yet to disperse, wrapping every blade of grass and patch of bark like a cold, damp veil.
In the clearing where Qian Daoliu and the others had made camp, Jiang Mo was shaving firewood with a blade. Sparks flickered in the mist. These past few days, they had been waiting every day for Xiao Wu’s Mother to give her answer about the "god-making plan."
"Has that little rabbit made up her mind yet? If we wait any longer, the mist will soak all our dried vegetables."
Jiang Mo tossed the shaved wood into the fire, sending sparks scattering beside him.
Golden Crocodile warmed himself nearby, the firelight illuminating his furrowed brow.
"She is a hundred-thousand-year soul beast, after all. This decision will affect her entire life."
Up in a tree, Guang Ling suddenly raised his eyes toward the depths of the forest.
"Listen."
At first, there was only a distant rustling, like countless claws racing over fallen leaves. It soon swelled into a rumbling tremor that shook the ground itself. Several frightened soul beasts burst out of the mist, blood still clinging to their fur.
"It's a beast tide!"
Guang Ling flew up to the canopy and gazed solemnly at the dark mass of maddened soul beasts filling the forest.
Purple-black soul power gathered around Bibi Dong. Her nerves taut, she frowned toward the commotion and said,
"It's coming from the northwest. Isn't that the direction Da Ming and Er Ming left in earlier?"
"Could Xiao Wu and the others be in danger?"
On a towering tree, the blue-green scales of Da Ming, the Sky Azure Bull Python, flashed through the mist as his enormous body slid down the trunk. On the other side, Er Ming, the Titan Giant Ape, was already pounding his chest and unleashing deafening roars.
For the past few days, they had lain atop the canopy, watching the movements in Qian Daoliu's camp: Guang Ling practicing archery in the forest, Jiang Mo occasionally heading to the outskirts to catch a few Pipi Pigs, Bibi Dong feeding roasted jerky to passing spirit cats...
As kings among beasts, they should have detected the unusual movements of the beast tide beforehand, but observing Qian Daoliu's group these past few days had distracted them.
Bibi Dong and the others looked at Da Ming and Er Ming in the distance, unsurprised to see them there. Golden Crocodile had already spotted them on the very first day they came to observe the camp.
"But our eldest brother is still in secluded cultivation. If the beast tide comes, we must resist with everything we have. We cannot let anything happen to him."
"Roar!"
Er Ming's huge palm slammed into a maddened thousand-year Demon Wolf. The tremendous force sent the wolf flying into a tree. A flash of spectral green appeared, followed by a purple soul ring.
"Da Ming, that seems to be the evil tiger's aura."
"Xiao Wu and her mother could be in danger. We need to hurry back."
As soon as those words fell, Da Ming and Er Ming charged frantically toward their territory.
In the woods near the Lake of Life,
Xiao Wu and her mother stood beneath a tree.
Not far from them, in the shadows beside another tree, a pair of red beast eyes stared at them.
The tiger was pure black, without a trace of any other color. It measured more than eight meters long, with bulging muscles all over its body, and likely weighed over fifteen hundred kilograms. A marking shaped like the character for "king" adorned its forehead.
A pair of black, batlike wings grew from its back, while its upraised tail consisted of multiple segments of bony spikes. At its tip was a massive barbed hook that glimmered with an eerie light.
This enormous tiger had eighty thousand years of cultivation. Its fur resembled silk steeped in ink as it silently arched its body, its claws carving three deep grooves into the ground.
"It's the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger!"
Xiao Wu’s Mother stared at the huge tiger and cried out its name.
Legend had it that this creature was born when the Evil God descended upon a White Tiger and mutated it, transforming its light attribute into darkness and causing it to grow black bat wings symbolizing its fall, along with a scorpionlike Evil God Hook.
The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger was extraordinarily powerful. Its true attribute was not darkness, but the supreme evil attribute left behind by the Evil God. It also possessed an extremely overbearing innate gift: it increased its strength by devouring the soul power of other soul beasts or soul masters.
Thus, whenever this kind of soul beast appeared, other soul beasts would band together to hunt it down, determined to destroy it before it grew powerful.
Ordinarily, sixty thousand years of cultivation were enough for one to rival a hundred-thousand-year soul beast. Yet the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger before them had already reached eighty thousand years. Even Da Ming and Er Ming together might not be its match.
"Xiao Wu, get behind Mother!"
Xiao Wu’s Mother’s voice trembled slightly. She drew Xiao Wu into her arms as the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger lunged at them, its claws sweeping in on a blood-reeking wind.
Pale pink soul power instantly condensed around Xiao Wu’s Mother, forming a translucent barrier.
It was the Soft Bone Rabbit clan's Life-Saving Divine Ability,
Invincible Golden Body!
It could only be used three times a day.
Including Xiao Wu's uses, mother and daughter had six chances between them.
Clang!
A sharp ring sounded. Ripples spread across the Invincible Golden Body, but it held firm against the blow.
The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger clearly had not expected such a seemingly frail soul beast to possess such defenses. Upon landing, it shook its claws, its muscles tensing slightly beneath its dark purple fur.
Three seconds later, the Invincible Golden Body wore off.
The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger lunged, its claws slamming toward the barrier with a shrill sound that tore through the air.
"Roar!"
A low growl rumbled in the Evil God Tiger's throat. Suddenly, it became a black shadow circling the mother and daughter.
It moved faster and faster, trailing layers of afterimages through the mist as its claw tips continually scraped sparks from the golden body.
The second time, the third, the fourth... each use of Invincible Golden Body left Xiao Wu’s Mother a little paler.
Could they hold out until Da Ming and Er Ming returned?
"Just a little longer!"
Xiao Wu’s Mother gritted her teeth. By the time the fifth golden body activated, her nails had already dug into her palms.
The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger seemed to see through their limits. It abruptly leaped backward, its long tail snapping straight-the enormous Evil God Hook at its tip glowed an eerie blue, like a curved blade tempered in deadly poison.
The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's tail lashed out like a whip. Rather than striking the golden body head-on, it skimmed the edge of the barrier and suddenly whipped around.
"Roar!"
"Mraa!"
Da Ming and Er Ming's furious roars came from another direction.
"The sixth time!"
Xiao Wu tried to raise the golden body, but failed to notice the Evil God Hook slipping through the fleeting gap as the fifth barrier faded.
The sharp hook brushed past Xiao Wu’s Mother’s hair and buried itself deep in her shoulder blade. Eerie blue soul power instantly spread from the wound.
That blood-drenched Evil God Hook-like an icy needle, it pierced every defense, and pierced the tranquility of the Star Dou Forest's morning as well.
"Mom!"
Xiao Wu's cry was like a lute string snapped short.
Xiao Wu’s Mother swayed, her pink soul power abruptly collapsing. Looking at the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger, blood dripping from the tip of its tail, she suddenly summoned all her strength and shoved Xiao Wu toward Da Ming and Er Ming.
"Run!"
The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger was about to pursue her when a massive golden sword imbued with Divine Power and a black-and-gold Coiling Dragon Staff descended from the sky, forcing it back.
Jiang Mo's furious bellow shook droplets loose from the mist:
"You dare hurt them? I'll cleave you in two!"
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