The Titan Giant Ape Was a Puppy?

The last glow of sunset vanished beyond the horizon. Night fell, and the stars lit up one by one.

Yi Yun and Xiao Wu sat beside the lake.

Xiao Wu leaned against Yi Yun's shoulder, already drowsy and almost asleep.

After eating too much and having far too much fun that day, this little rabbit had completely exhausted her energy.

"Xiao Wu, we should head back," Yi Yun said softly.

"Mmm... just a little longer..." Xiao Wu mumbled without even opening her eyes.

Yi Yun smiled and did not hurry her.

Moonlight spilled over the shimmering lake, and the valley was so quiet that only the chirping of insects could be heard.

Yi Yun really liked this feeling of tranquility.

In his previous life, in his rented room, what he heard every night was the arguing next door, the car horns downstairs, and the children crying upstairs.

When had he ever enjoyed anything like this?

Clear waters, beautiful mountains, and a beauty by his side-this was how a person ought to live.

Yi Yun turned his head to look at Xiao Wu leaning against his shoulder. Moonlight shone on her face, her skin fair and her eyelashes trembling faintly. She looked as sweet as a little rabbit in her sleep.

No, she was a rabbit to begin with.

A hundred-thousand-year soft bone rabbit who took human form. In the original story, Tang San took her into his harem, Yi Yun silently told himself. But now, she's mine.

As he was thinking this, his brow suddenly furrowed.

Something was approaching.

And it was no small thing.

Yi Yun did not move or even turn his head, but his senses had already locked onto the newcomer.

In the woods about three hundred meters away, an enormous figure was slowly approaching.

The figure stood at least five meters tall, its body covered in dark gold fur, its muscles knotted, and a terrifying aura radiating from it.

The Titan Giant Ape.

A hundred-thousand-year soul beast, the king of the forest, with boundless strength.

In the original story, he was Xiao Wu's good friend and was utterly devoted to her.

Now, he had clearly sensed Xiao Wu's presence and come looking for her.

As Yi Yun sensed the Titan Giant Ape's every movement, the corners of his mouth lifted slightly.

"Interesting."

The Titan Giant Ape stood behind a large tree, watching the scene by the lake from afar.

He saw Xiao Wu.

Xiao Wu was leaning against a human's shoulder and seemed to be sleeping soundly.

That human-the Titan Giant Ape's pupils contracted slightly-was the source of the terrifying aura he had sensed in the Star Dou Great Forest last time.

That human who was even stronger than the master of the Star Dou Great Forest.

A trace of hesitation flickered in the Titan Giant Ape's eyes.

He wanted to approach and make sure Xiao Wu was safe.

But that human's aura filled him with instinctive fear.

In all his hundred thousand years of life, he had never experienced fear like this.

The Titan Giant Ape clenched his fists, his knuckles cracking.

To hell with it.

If that human dared hurt Xiao Wu, he would protect her even at the cost of his life.

The Titan Giant Ape strode toward the lake.

His footsteps drew closer, and the ground began to tremble faintly.

The shaking woke Xiao Wu, and she raised her head groggily.

"What's happening? An earthquake?"

"Not an earthquake," Yi Yun said calmly. "A big fellow is coming."

"A big fellow?"

Xiao Wu turned her head toward the sound.

Then she saw the Titan Giant Ape.

The enormous Titan Giant Ape, radiating a terrifying aura, was walking out of the woods. With every step he took, the ground shook.

Xiao Wu's face instantly went deathly pale.

"T-T-Titan Giant Ape!!!"

Even her voice was trembling.

Of course Xiao Wu knew the Titan Giant Ape. He was Er Ming, her good friend from her days in the Star Dou Great Forest.

But she was in front of Yi Yun now. She could not expose her relationship with soul beasts.

"Don't be afraid," Yi Yun said softly.

But Xiao Wu was already scared out of her wits. How could she take that in?

She instinctively sprang up from the blanket and hid behind Yi Yun, clutching his clothes with both hands and curling into a ball.

"He... he... he's coming!" Xiao Wu's voice was so shrill it nearly cracked.

The Titan Giant Ape reached the lakeside and stopped about twenty meters from Yi Yun.

He lowered his head to look at Yi Yun and Xiao Wu, his enormous eyes gleaming gold in the moonlight.

Xiao Wu's heart pounded like a drum.

She knew the Titan Giant Ape would not hurt her, but Yi Yun did not!

If Yi Yun fought the Titan Giant Ape, her identity might be exposed.

"Y-Yun, let's run!" Xiao Wu tugged at Yi Yun's clothes.

"Run? Why should we run?" Yi Yun said unhurriedly.

"That's the Titan Giant Ape! A hundred-thousand-year soul beast! The king of the forest!"

"Oh."

"Oh? That's all you have to say?"

"What else?"

Xiao Wu was so anxious she nearly cried.

She thought that while Yi Yun was strong, surely he should take a soul beast on the Titan Giant Ape's level seriously?

But Yi Yun looked as though he had just seen an ant passing by.

The Titan Giant Ape looked at Yi Yun, a low growl rising in his throat.

Roar!

The sound shook ripples across the lake, and the birds in the woods scattered in fright.

Xiao Wu squeezed her eyes shut in fear.

Then she heard a sound.

Smack.

It was crisp, as though something had been struck.

Then came a heavy crash.

Boom!

The ground shook violently, as though something heavy had slammed into it.

Xiao Wu cautiously opened her eyes, then froze completely.

The Titan Giant Ape was gone.

No, he was not gone.

He lay on the ground thirty meters away, his head tilted to one side, stars swimming before his eyes, his limbs twitching, and aggrieved whimpers escaping his mouth.

As though... something had slapped him senseless.

Meanwhile, Yi Yun shook his right hand as though shaking dust off it.

"Don't make trouble, little puppy," Yi Yun said breezily.

Xiao Wu: "???"

A puppy???

He called the Titan Giant Ape a puppy???

And what had he just done?

A slap?

Just one slap???

He sent a hundred-thousand-year Titan Giant Ape flying with a single slap???

Xiao Wu's brain completely short-circuited.

She had lived for thirty thousand years and seen countless powerful people, but she had never seen anyone send the Titan Giant Ape flying with one slap.

This was not a question of being strong or not. This was absurd!

Utterly absurd!!!

"You..." Xiao Wu pointed at Yi Yun, her lips trembling too much to form a complete sentence.

"What's wrong?" Yi Yun turned around and looked at her innocently.

"You sent the Titan Giant Ape flying with one slap?"

"Yes. Is there a problem?"

"B-but that's the Titan Giant Ape!"

"I know. A hundred-thousand-year soul beast, the king of the forest," Yi Yun counted off on his fingers. "Strong, thick-skinned, and good at pounding the ground."

"You knew, and you still..."

"I knew. That's why I only used thirty percent of my strength," Yi Yun said seriously. "I was afraid I'd kill him if I used my full strength."

Xiao Wu: "..."

Thirty percent?

Thirty percent of his strength was enough to send the Titan Giant Ape flying?

Then could a full-force punch from him turn the Star Dou Great Forest into a basin?

The way Xiao Wu looked at Yi Yun changed completely.

Before, she had only thought Yi Yun was very strong. Now she wondered, Was this guy a monster?

No, even a monster wouldn't be this absurd!

"Yun," Xiao Wu took a deep breath, trying to make her voice sound a little more normal, "just who are you?"

"Me? An ordinary person."

"An ordinary person can send the Titan Giant Ape flying with one slap?"

"Hmm... a fairly powerful ordinary person?"

Xiao Wu wanted to hit him.

But she could not beat him.

The Titan Giant Ape climbed up from the ground, his head buzzing and his vision filled with stars.

He shook his head, trying to clear it a little.

Then he remembered what had just happened.

That human, with one slap.

Just one slap.

Had slapped him flying.

In all his hundred thousand years of life, the Titan Giant Ape had never been so humiliated.

He was the king of the forest!

He was someone even the evil tiger feared!

Yet some brat who did not even look grown had sent him flying with one slap?

The Titan Giant Ape's dignity had taken a severe blow.

He wanted to charge back and take revenge, but reason told him that human was not someone he could afford to provoke.

The Titan Giant Ape stood in the woods, watching Yi Yun and Xiao Wu by the lake from afar, a trace of complicated emotion flickering in his eyes.

That human was too strong, so strong that he could not even summon the thought of resisting.

But that human treated Xiao Wu very well, and Xiao Wu seemed to trust him.

The Titan Giant Ape hesitated for a long time before finally deciding.

Forget it. No more fighting.

If I can't beat him, I can't beat him. I'll accept my fate.

He turned around, dragging his enormous body away, and disappeared step by step into the depths of the forest.

As he left, his footsteps were much lighter than when he had arrived.

Not because he was afraid, but because...

Fine, it was because he was afraid.

"He's gone." Xiao Wu looked in the direction where the Titan Giant Ape had disappeared and let out a sigh of relief.

"Yes. He knows what's good for him," Yi Yun said.

Xiao Wu turned to look at Yi Yun and suddenly asked a question.

"Yun, what rank of soul master are you, exactly?"

"I told you. A rank 99 Peerless Douluo."

"Really rank 99?"

"Really."

Xiao Wu fell silent.

She had seen level-99 Peerless Douluos before, but they had all been old men in their seventies or eighties, each with a snow-white beard, struggling even to walk.

Someone as young as Yi Yun-never mind seeing one, she had never even heard of one.

"You don't believe me?" Yi Yun asked.

"I do." Xiao Wu nodded earnestly. "After that slap of yours, I'd have to believe it even if I didn't want to."

Yi Yun smiled.

"Let's go. It's getting late. Time to head back."

"Mm."

Xiao Wu walked over to Yi Yun, hesitated, then took his hand of her own accord.

Yi Yun glanced down at her hand holding his. Xiao Wu blushed slightly, but did not let go.

"I'm afraid you'll fly too fast and I'll fall," Xiao Wu explained quietly.

Yi Yun smiled without exposing her excuse.

He held Xiao Wu's hand, wrapped his other arm around her waist, and shot into the sky.

This time, Xiao Wu did not scream.

She nestled against Yi Yun's chest, watching the Star Dou Great Forest below look like a dark-green ocean under the moonlight, and a strange feeling suddenly welled up inside her.

The feeling of being protected.

It felt good.

"Brother Yun."

"Hmm?"

"Why didn't you kill that Titan Giant Ape just now?"

"Why would I kill him?"

"He's a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast. Killing him would get you a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring."

Yi Yun looked down at Xiao Wu in his arms and smiled.

"I'm not interested in Soul Rings. Besides, he didn't hurt us. Why would I kill him?"

Xiao Wu froze for a moment, then lowered her head, her voice very soft.

"You're different from other people."

"How am I different?"

"When other humans see a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, their first reaction is to hunt them down for their ring. You wouldn't."

"That's because I'm kind."

Xiao Wu burst out laughing. "You really aren't modest."

"I'm just telling the truth."

As Xiao Wu laughed, her eyes suddenly grew a little red.

She thought of her mother.

If all humans were like Yi Yun, perhaps her mother would not have...

"What's wrong?" Yi Yun sensed the change in Xiao Wu's mood.

"Nothing." Xiao Wu shook her head and buried her face in Yi Yun's chest. "I just think it's wonderful that I met you."

Yi Yun paused, then smiled.

He held Xiao Wu tighter, his voice gentle.

"Me too."

Moonlight spilled like water over the two figures flying through the sky.

In the distance, the lights of Nuoding City flickered in and out of view.

Tang San was still practicing pole vaulting on the training grounds.

He did not know that his Xiao Wu was already drifting farther and farther away.

Tang San completed his hundredth pole vault and collapsed on the ground, gasping for breath.

"Why aren't Yi Yun and Xiao Wu back yet..."

He looked up at the stars in the sky and suddenly felt that they were especially bright tonight.

One in particular was especially bright, and especially large.

No, that was not a star.

It was a person.

Yi Yun descended from the sky with Xiao Wu in his arms and landed steadily on the training grounds.

"Oh, Little San, still practicing? How diligent," Yi Yun said with a smile.

Tang San got up from the ground, looked at Yi Yun, then at Xiao Wu, feeling that something was off.

Xiao Wu's face was flushed, her hair a little messy, and her clothes a little wrinkled.

And her hand was still holding Yi Yun's.

"What... were you two doing?" There was a sour note in Tang San's voice.

"Going on a date," Yi Yun said as though it were perfectly natural.

The corner of Tang San's mouth twitched.

"A date? With whom?"

"With Xiao Wu, of course."

Tang San turned to look at Xiao Wu.

Xiao Wu lowered her head, her face growing even redder, but did not deny it.

Tang San felt as though something had stabbed his heart hard.

"You two..." Tang San opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but could not get anything out.

"All right, it's getting late. Go back and get some sleep." Yi Yun patted Tang San's shoulder and said earnestly, "You still have pole vaulting practice tomorrow. A hundred times a day. Don't forget."

Tang San: "..."

He suddenly felt that today's hundred pole vaults had not been all that exhausting.

At least they were better than an exhausted heart.

Tang San lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, unable to fall asleep for a long time.

The image of Xiao Wu holding Yi Yun's hand replayed over and over in his mind.

Xiao Wu... and Yi Yun...

Tang San clenched his fists.

No, I can't just admit defeat like this.

He sat up in bed, picked up the pole beside it, and gripped it tightly.

"Xiao Wu, I'll prove that I deserve your affection more than Yi Yun does!"

Yi Yun's laughter drifted over from a distance. He seemed to be joking with Xiao Wu, flirting and teasing, their love stronger than gold.

Tang San's heart shattered once again.

He was like a clown, a clown who both eavesdropped and peeped.

No one was as unlucky as he was. His Martial Soul had turned into pole vaulting, and the girl he liked had been taken away too.

He wished he could craft a Hidden Weapon and kill Yi Yun, but unfortunately, he lacked the ability, because he was no match for Yi Yun at all.

So, in a fit of rage, he got angry all over again.