It was a bright, sunny day.
At a spot beside a small waterfall, the river ran clear enough to see the bottom, with fish playing among visible sand and stones.
Lush green trees surrounded it, flowers vied for splendor and filled the air with fragrance, and occasional birdsong and low beast growls made it a paradise beyond the mortal world.
On a bluestone by the river, a handsome young man sat cross-legged in meditation, drawing streams of Dou Qi into his body as visible vortices of Dou Qi swirled around him.
This was none other than Xiao Yu, and it was time for his scheduled cultivation.
To advance to Dou Ling as soon as possible, Xiao Yu spent a full four hours cultivating every day.
As soon as he got up in the morning, he began reading the various books he had brought, spending an hour on them each day. Then he ate some breakfast and began cultivating, only stopping four hours later.
Afterward, he went out to search for medicinal herbs and food, refined pills in the afternoon, studied the Divine Thunder Origin Flame at night, and then went to sleep. Every day was packed.
"Whew..."
As Xiao Yu exhaled a breath of stale air, that day's cultivation came to an end.
Coming out of meditation, Xiao Yu felt the explosive strength in his body and the abundant Dou Qi in his dantian, and smiled faintly.
"I'm already at the peak of Nine-Star Great Dou Master. Looks like it won't be long before I advance to Dou Ling."
"Ahh..."
Flexing his hands, Xiao Yu stood up and stretched. Honestly, sitting cross-legged for four hours every day was miserable. His body always felt a little sore after cultivation.
Even with the strength of a peak Nine-Star Great Dou Master, staying motionless for so long left Xiao Yu mentally drained, regardless of whether his body could withstand it.
Glancing around, Xiao Yu hopped off the bluestone and rolled his shoulders. "Everyone says high-tier magical beasts run rampant deep in the Magical Beast Mountain Range. I've been here for days, so how come I haven't seen a single one?"
After killing the Crimson Flame Python last time, Xiao Yu had decided there was no reason to remain at the boundary between the outer and inner regions, so he had ventured deep into the Magical Beast Mountain Range a few days earlier.
This place was much like the previous one. The surroundings were lovely, and medicinal herbs were plentiful. There just weren't many magical beasts.
Xiao Yu found that rather dull. It wasn't that he loved fighting, but surely there ought to be a few beasts around. At least then the place wouldn't feel so lifeless, and he could tease them whenever he got bored.
Back in the outer region, whenever he was bored, he would run into a magical beast's territory and make a nuisance of himself. He did nothing, neither stealing nor robbing nor fighting. He simply watched the beast.
What magical beast could put up with that? Naturally, none could, and so one chased while the other fled. It was great fun.
That had been Xiao Yu's only amusement while gathering medicinal herbs.
Unlike here in the inner region, where he had spent days without seeing a single magical beast-not a high-tier one, not even a low-tier one.
As a result, Xiao Yu had spent the past few days talking to himself, bored out of his mind.
He found it strange, too. Why had he been able to endure the solitude when living alone on the Back Mountain behind the Xiao Clan, yet couldn't do so here? Without finding something fun to do, every day was unbearably dull.
This didn't fit his homebody nature at all.
Actually, it was easy enough to understand. Before, he had been a homebody at home. Now he was out in unfamiliar beast territory, without a single member of his own kind around.
He checked the sky. It was time to head out and look for medicinal herbs.
Xiao Yu picked up a water flask beside the bluestone and left.
Strolling through the forest, Xiao Yu scanned everywhere with radar-like eyes, afraid of missing anything good.
"Oh? Something good!"
Xiao Yu spotted a plant glowing with a faint light. Although he didn't recognize it, one glance told him it was something good, so he put it away.
Now, the joy of finding medicinal herbs was his only amusement.
"Scree!"
Suddenly, a piercing eagle cry rang out overhead, and fierce winds rose with a furious howl!
Sand and stones skittered across the ground, trees bent, and leaves flew everywhere.
The sudden gale made Xiao Yu squint as well.
"What the hell is that? Why is the wind so strong?"
Raising a hand to shield himself from the wind, Xiao Yu looked closely. A huge eagle was flying ahead and above him, its sharp eyes fixed on him as though he were food.
Xiao Yu's hand froze. He immediately turned and ran!
That'll teach you to run your mouth! That'll teach you! You finally found one, and it's a monster!
Xiao Yu clearly knew what magical beast he had encountered, which was why he had turned and fled at once.
When he had encountered the Crimson Flame Python, he had still found time to crack a couple of jokes. But with that enormous creature overhead, he really might die if he didn't run!
The Wind-Piercing Eagle was a mid-tier magical beast, born as a Tier 2 Magical Beast. Most adult Wind-Piercing Eagles were Tier 5 magical beasts.
Wind-Piercing Eagles were renowned for their speed throughout the Magical Beast Mountain Range. As wind-attribute magical beasts, their mastery over the wind was second to none, making them the fastest among most beasts of the same tier.
An adult Tier 5 Wind-Piercing Eagle could rival a Tier 6 magical beast in speed.
Such a creature was clearly beyond what Xiao Yu, a mere Da Dou Shi, could handle.
Seeing its prey flee, the Wind-Piercing Eagle calmly remained where it was.
Only when Xiao Yu's retreating figure was almost out of sight did it flap its wings.
Boom!!
The instant its wings beat, the Wind-Piercing Eagle became a streak of black light and shot toward Xiao Yu.
It moved so fast that a sonic boom rang out. Xiao Yu's figure grew steadily larger in its view, and soon the Wind-Piercing Eagle caught up, reaching for him with its razor-sharp talons.
With his powerful Soul Power, Xiao Yu immediately sensed the danger behind him. He stopped dead and bolted in the opposite direction.
The Wind-Piercing Eagle hadn't expected Xiao Yu to pull such a move. Unable to stop its momentum, it swept another hundred meters through the air before coming to a halt.
Yet it wasn't angry. Instead, its eyes filled with mockery, as though it were playing cat and mouse-which, in fact, it was.
A Tier 5 magical beast's intelligence was already equal to that of an adult human. It simply couldn't speak human language yet.
In its eyes, the fleeing Xiao Yu was merely food that could run rather well. If it wanted to catch him, it would only take a few seconds. But it insisted on toying with its prey before eating, as Wind-Piercing Eagles had always done.
It thoroughly enjoyed its prey's struggles, and the chase also let it savor the pleasure of soaring through the air.
Once Xiao Yu had run far away again, the Wind-Piercing Eagle leisurely followed.
Sensing the talons about to strike again, Xiao Yu broke into a cold sweat.
He was still only a Da Dou Shi. His chances against a Tier 5 magical beast comparable to a Dou Wang were slim.
Never mind whether his attacks would work; the sheer consumption of Dou Qi alone meant he couldn't sustain a prolonged battle.
If he were a Dou Ling now, he wouldn't be running at all. He would turn around and go head-to-head with the Wind-Piercing Eagle.
The gap between a Da Dou Shi and a Dou Ling was enormous, especially in their reserves of Dou Qi. Even a one-star Dou Ling possessed more than five times the total Dou Qi of a peak Da Dou Shi.
Moreover, a Dou Ling could freely release Dou Qi from their body and shape it into objects to attack, while a Da Dou Shi could only form Dou Qi Armor.
It wasn't that Xiao Yu feared all Tier 5 magical beasts. That depended on the species.
Against an ordinary Tier 5 magical beast, Xiao Yu only needed to do his best to get out of its sight. Then he could use the Myriad Transformation Flame to conceal his aura completely, leaving the beast unable to find him again.
But the Wind-Piercing Eagle was different. Xiao Yu still had to escape its line of sight for concealing his aura to work. If it was looking right at him, what good would hiding his aura do? It wasn't invisibility. How could it fail to see someone that big?
It wasn't that the Myriad Transformation Flame couldn't make him invisible, but Xiao Yu lacked both the strength and the comprehension to achieve that with it.
Feeling the fierce rush of wind behind him, Xiao Yu wanted to pull another sudden reversal, but it was already too late.
The talons sank squarely into Xiao Yu's back and raked downward. Agony tore through him, and cold sweat poured from his forehead.
Fortunately, Xiao Yu had been eating Body-Tempering Pills like candy lately, greatly improving his physique. His skin was tough enough to resist blades, so the eagle's talons only opened a long gash across his back without injuring his internal organs.
Otherwise, that strike might already have pierced him clean through.
Before you continue