"My generous treatment of you wasn't wasted."
Seeing the red fox's and the Peregrine Falcons' reactions, Yu Ziyu smiled, feeling reassured.
Young.
Such behavior in protecting their master was proof enough that his recent efforts had not been wasted.
With that thought, Yu Ziyu slowly sank his consciousness back into his body.
Faintly, a deeper transformation had already begun.
Meanwhile, at the entrance to the canyon.
"Tap, tap, tap..."
Accompanied by footsteps, two slender figures slowly approached.
Yet He Qing'er and her younger sister, He Ling'er, were pale.
Following their gazes, the entire canyon glittered as though dotted with starlight.
"Sis, am I seeing things?"
Her younger sister, He Ling'er, pulled her clothes tighter, staring blankly at the Golden Giant Eagle not far into the canyon, its wingspan well over five meters.
Blood flowed continuously down its golden wings, and the sight of one hideous wound after another made their pupils contract.
But even more horrifying were the nine black spears impaling the Golden Giant Eagle.
No, those were not spears.
Looking at those tangled roots, tightly entwined to resemble black spears, He Ling'er fell silent.
After a long while, she turned to look at her older sister, He Qing'er, whose face bore the same disbelief as hers, and He Ling'er asked uncertainly:
"A Tree Demon?"
Yes, a Tree Demon.
A monster from ancient myths and legends, a tree that had succeeded in cultivation.
"I... I don't know."
Shaking her head, He Qing'er, who usually made the decisions, was at a complete loss now.
Only her faintly pale cheeks betrayed the fear within her.
She had only come with her sister to bathe. How could she have expected to encounter something so shocking?
A Golden Giant Eagle battling a willow tree.
And the willow tree had even lashed out, impaling the Golden Giant Eagle.
Heavens, was this really the world she knew?
Or was it really as the television reports said?
Over the past month or two, He Qing'er had seen plenty of unbelievable news on television.
For instance, currents had surged deep in the Pacific Ocean, followed by a dark shadow swallowing a luxury cruise ship.
Or a passenger plane had encountered a storm of crows in the sky and vanished without a trace before it could land.
Even He Qing'er, who had come from deep in the mountains, found these things hard to believe...
Admittedly, the past month or two had been rather strange, but surely not to such an outrageous extent.
At most, some wild beasts had rushed out of the mountain forests and attacked passersby.
Experts from every field had volunteered to step forward on the matter...
Of course, the most convincing claim these experts made was that an unknown substance had appeared in the air, and its influence had caused animals to mutate to varying degrees.
In the East, this unknown substance was called "Spiritual Energy."
In the West, it was called "Magic Power."
And this was the recently popular "Theory of the Rise of the Supernatural," or what some people proclaimed as "the approaching supernatural age."
But reports were reports; He Qing'er had not believed a single word...
What a joke.
They preached "atheism" every day, and now a "supernatural age" had suddenly popped up?
Yet now, looking at the scene at the far end of the canyon, He Qing'er could not help wavering.
Yes, wavering.
It seemed this truly was no longer the age she knew.
A willow tree becoming a spirit, a golden eagle shedding blood...
Survival of the fittest in the food chain was displayed here in all its starkness...
"Sis, Sis..."
Hearing her sister's deeply uneasy voice, He Qing'er grabbed her hand, swallowed, and reassured her:
"Don't worry. We'll go back right now and report this to the village official."
As she spoke, He Qing'er seemed to remember something. A sudden gleam flashed in her eyes, and she said delightedly:
"I think the village official said that anyone who discovers anything unusual and reports it right away gets a reward."
"Mm..."
He Ling'er nodded firmly but said nothing more.
It was not that she did not want to speak, but that, at some point, her legs had gone weak, and a strange odor was coming from between them.
"Gulp."
Unable to stop herself from swallowing again, He Qing'er took a long look at the willow tree in the canyon, then grabbed her sister's hand and ran back without another glance.
However, shortly after they turned and ran away.
"Ah..."
"Help..."
Screams of terrifying volume pierced the skies.
"What's this?"
Abruptly roused by those two piercing voices, Yu Ziyu slowly raised his branches and looked toward the horizon.
Moments later, what came into view were masses of dark shapes surging from every direction like a tide.
There were black wild boars as large as cattle, their eyes blazing crimson.
There was a green snake several dozen feet long, shooting forward like an arrow loosed from a bow.
There were also... packs of wolves with eyes gleaming an eerie green, as well as the bees Yu Ziyu hated most, accompanied by their buzzing.
Of course, most conspicuous of all were the two girls sprinting several hundred meters ahead of the Beast Tide.
Their hair disheveled, they looked like madwomen...
Thank you, truly. Crimson will definitely work hard on writing.
There are still one or two more updates, and I'll post them all.
(*^▽^*)
(Event period: June 12 to June 14)
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