Three Great Passions

In the darkness, pearly moonlight shone on Qing Wu's face, while the wind kept whistling and rustling through the trees...

Boom!

A cloud of dust suddenly rose from the battlefield. Waves of air surged, leaves flew, and an enormous crater appeared in the ground. The Titan Giant Ape lay inside it, his black fur already covered in blood. Blood poured ceaselessly from his massive mouth, and both his arms hung limp, with torn muscles and exposed white bones clearly visible.

Beside him lay the Sky Azure Bull Python. Half his serpentine body had been severed, and almost all his scales had fallen off. Horrific frostbite and corrosion covered him. He lay motionless, breathing out far more than he breathed in.

The two Soft Bone Rabbits were covered in dust as well. Blood stained their pink fur, giving them an even more lurid beauty. Qing Wu's scarlet rabbit eyes stared fixedly at the young man nearby, whose black hair cascaded like a waterfall and whose expression was languid.

"What exactly do you want?"

For more than half an hour, all four soul beasts had endured Qian Chongling's brutal beating. What puzzled them, however, was that he only wounded them, never killing them!

"I have three great passions in life: beautiful women, fine wine, and good food! I've developed a bit of a craving for hundred-thousand-year soul beast meat!"

All four soul beasts froze. Then uncontrollable fury surged and churned through their veins, their rage gushing forth without the slightest restraint.

He had attacked four soul beasts over 100,000 Years old, not for the Hundred Thousand Year Soul Rings that soul masters dreamed of, but merely to satisfy his appetite?

They had never seen a human who held soul beasts' lives in such contempt, someone as cold as a devil.

"You may be powerful, but we can self-destruct! Don't even dream of eating us!"

Qing Wu's eyes dimmed. Suddenly, a flash of light flickered through them like lightning, then they darkened again before blazing with irrepressible fury.

"I think you've misunderstood something."

"I might not be able to stop four soul beasts from self-destructing at once, but stopping one doesn't seem to be a problem!"

"I can promise you this: whichever soul beast fails to self-destruct, I'll carve its flesh off slice by slice."

Qian Chongling spoke coldly. His black eyes, glinting with a sharp, icy light, locked onto Qing Wu as an inexplicable pressure gradually radiated from him.

That inexplicable pressure and murderous intent bore down on the four soul beasts like a mountain, making them realize that Qian Chongling's words were no empty threat.

"Still, I'm not someone who delights in slaughter. Give me one rabbit leg in exchange for all four of your lives!"

"Well? Isn't that a bargain?"

Seeing the four soul beasts fall as silent as cicadas in winter, Qian Chongling spoke with a faint smile, though to them that smile was no different from a devil's.

"Roar! Qing Wu, you can't trust a human's words!" How could the Sky Azure Bull Python allow Qing Wu, who had once saved him and whom he regarded as an elder, to mutilate herself to save them?

As a soul beast more than two hundred thousand years old, he had plenty of stories behind him. The word "human" truly carried extreme associations in his heart.

His expression cold, Qian Chongling covered several yards in a single step and appeared before him in an instant. With a sharp crack, he swept out a leg like a flood dragon lashing its tail, making the very air twist and shudder.

The kick struck the Sky Azure Bull Python, sending his enormous serpentine body rolling helplessly across the grass. Yet Qian Chongling had held back with this blow; otherwise, the Sky Azure Bull Python would certainly have died.

"One rabbit leg, or the whole family goes to hell together. That doesn't seem like a difficult choice, does it?"

Qian Chongling's cold, merciless words tore through Qing Wu's already crumbling defenses like a storm sweeping away rotten wood. Could she watch Da Ming and Er Ming, who were as dear to her as younger brothers, and Xiao Wu, who was still only a child, die before her eyes?

The answer was obvious: she could not. Besides, the four of them were now like fish on a chopping board, helpless beneath the butcher's knife. Her only choice was therefore to obey this young man and hope he would keep his word.

"I... I agree..."

With that, the Old Rabbit prepared to tear off her leg, but Qian Chongling stopped her. The reason was simple: in his view, it was better to collect the ingredient himself, so its flavor would not be spoiled.

Light flashed from the soul tool on Qian Chongling's right hand, and a large kitchen knife, roughly a meter long and wrapped in a leather sheath, appeared in his grasp.

When he removed the leather sheath and gripped the handle, a familiar sensation traveled through the muscles and nerves of his right arm. It came from his god-level culinary skills.

Before the Old Rabbit could react, a silvery blade flashed through the moonlight and vanished.

With a soft snap, the Old Rabbit's right foreleg separated from her body in that instant. Qian Chongling swiftly caught it and stored it in his soul tool.

"Aaaah!" Only then did the Old Rabbit scream. It proved that, as long as your blade was fast enough, you could dismember someone before their nerves registered the pain.

"Qing Wu!" Da Ming and Er Ming's voices were not sobs, but the choking sounds of those trying to hold their tears back. Unable to suppress them, they began coughing and choking, and with each cough, their cries burst from their throats, turning into mournful wails almost like screams-the cries of a dying bird on a bitter winter night, filled with desolate sorrow.

No matter how bitterly Da Ming and Er Ming wept, Qian Chongling's heart remained as still as an unruffled lake. Humans eating soul beasts was perfectly normal.

Hundred-year soul beasts were food, thousand-year soul beasts were food, and hundred-thousand-year soul beasts were still food. The only difference was their rarity.

Hundred-thousand-year soul beasts were actually much like protected animals on Blue Star. The difference was that eating rare animals on Blue Star would earn you an invitation to "have coffee" with the authorities, whereas on the Douluo Continent, nothing would happen.

With his goal accomplished, Qian Chongling naturally wanted to leave and find somewhere to properly cook this rare ingredient.

But just then, Da Ming's words stopped him in his tracks.

"Who exactly are you?"

Looking at Da Ming's eyes, filled with hatred and fury, Qian Chongling could not help smiling faintly. "Qian Chongling, Pope of Spirit Hall."

After a pause, perhaps feeling that he had phrased it incorrectly, Qian Chongling continued, "To be precise, Spirit Hall's seventh Pope."

"If you want revenge, you're welcome to come find me anytime. Of course, next time it won't be a matter of just one leg. Spicy Rabbit Head seems pretty tasty too."

With that, Qian Chongling's figure gradually faded before the four soul beasts, leaving them to lick one another's wounds.

A long while later, the most simpleminded of them, the Titan Giant Ape, suddenly asked, "Why did that man say he was Spirit Hall's seventh Pope?"

The Sky Azure Bull Python, who knew comparatively more about human society, answered, "I remember that human soul master I ate thirteen hundred years ago saying that the Pope of Spirit Hall in his era seemed to be called Qian Chongling."

As his words fell, the four soul beasts felt as though a flock of crows had flown overhead, all but calling them complete idiots.

They had never seen a human who could live for more than thirteen hundred years. That was a privilege reserved for soul beasts!

In other words, they had been duped. They did not even know who their enemy was!