Another six hours passed. Suddenly, black Qi began drifting up around the Dark Night Bodhi Fruit, surging into the fruit all at once.
"It's almost fully ripe!"
Seeing the unusual change before him, Yu Tianling's heart stirred sharply. The Soul Core within him spun at high speed, ready for him to act at any moment.
Now, seeing that the one and only Dark Night Bodhi Fruit was about to ripen, the Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts still guarding the area and secretly vying with one another began losing their patience.
The thirty-thousand-year Ghost Tiger attacked first, lunging to bite the neck of the forty-thousand-year Dark Night Ink Crow closest to it.
Every Soul Beast present was on guard against the others, so the Ghost Tiger's sneak attack was doomed to fail. The Dark Night Ink Crow flapped its wings fiercely, its body abruptly leaving the ground as a cloud of black Qi suddenly appeared in the Ghost Tiger's path. The Ghost Tiger twisted sharply in midair, finding leverage in the air to dodge the black Qi.
Even from far away, Yu Tianling and Zhu Zhuqing could sense the ominous presence within the black Qi. The portion clinging to the ground actually stained the ground completely black and did not dissipate for a long time.
The fight between the Ghost Tiger and the Dark Night Ink Crow seemed to serve as a signal, and the other Soul Beasts began attacking the enemies beside them in turn.
Their thinking was remarkably consistent: first eliminate the weak and those nearby, then let the powerful ones remaining compete until a winner emerged, thereby deciding who would claim the Dark Night Bodhi Fruit.
During this chaotic battle, not a single Soul Beast had an opportunity to approach the Dark Night Bodhi Fruit, or all the others would attack it together.
As time passed, the Dark Night Bodhi Fruit grew increasingly ripe, and participants dropped out of the Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts' chaotic battle from time to time.
Of course, none withdrew willingly. Their struggle only ended when they were beaten until they could no longer rise, or killed outright.
After another hour of fighting to the death, only one Soul Beast remained standing. It approached the Dark Night Bodhi Fruit, waiting to savor the fruit of victory once it ripened.
Logically, all the Soul Beasts had now suffered severe injuries, with some dead and others crippled, so Yu Tianling should have acted at this point. Yet, for some reason, a flutter of unease in his heart made him decide to wait a little longer and see what happened first.
Looking at the sole Soul Beast still standing, a member of the lesser dragon category, Yu Tianling recalled the information about it based on its physical characteristics.
The Dark Demon Dragon King possessed powerful darkness-attribute power, and its physical strength was particularly formidable as well. It took the form of a two-headed dragon, its entire body covered in pitch-black scales. For this Soul Beast, fighting and killing above its level was as easy as splashing a little water. Usually, at fifty thousand years, it could put up a fight against a Titled Douluo. Moreover, the Dark Demon Dragon King was extremely bloodthirsty, often stubbornly attacking any creature it saw. It could be counted among the Soul Beasts that Soul Masters least wanted to encounter.
After analyzing its many characteristics, Yu Tianling determined that the Dark Demon Dragon King before him was merely a twenty-thousand-year Soul Beast. With its current severe injuries as well, he thought dealing with it would not be much of a problem.
"Shing..."
Just as Yu Tianling was still considering things, the Dark Night Bodhi Fruit suddenly changed. Along with an invisible fluctuation that abruptly spread in every direction, its pitch-black fruit gradually began turning a brilliant white.
The unusual phenomenon did not last long, disappearing once the Dark Night Bodhi Fruit had turned completely brilliant white.
After such a long wait, the Dark Night Bodhi Fruit was finally fully ripe!
It was quite apparent that the Dark Demon Dragon King closest to the Dark Night Bodhi Fruit gave a sudden jolt, then immediately moved to swallow the fruit in one gulp.
"Roar!"
Sure enough, just as Yu Tianling had expected, while the mantis stalked the cicada, the oriole waited behind. Now, the oriole had given itself away. Just as the Dark Demon Dragon King was about to succeed, the hidden oriole revealed itself.
Accompanied by an imperious roar, a mighty, imposing giant tiger slowly walked out of the woods, staring fixedly at the Dark Demon Dragon King.
Yu Tianling and Zhu Zhuqing once again looked in some shock at the Soul Beast that had appeared before them. It was a giant black tiger, pure black all over without a trace of any other color, its red eyes filled with a sinister air. Its body was over five meters long. Even dozens of meters away, the two could feel a savage presence carrying an extremely dense sense of evil rushing toward them. If that were all, however, they would not have reacted this way.
Even more astonishing was that this tiger's tail resembled a scorpion's, composed of countless bony segments and raised upright. At its tip was a barb that looked exceedingly sharp, glinting with an icy light.
"Dark Demon Evil God Tiger!!!"
After confirming the Soul Beast's identity, Yu Tianling hurriedly examined the features that indicated this Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's age.
A Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's age could be judged from the bony segments of its scorpion tail and the pale purple markings on its body. After making an estimate in his mind, Yu Tianling could not help letting out a long breath of relief.
The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger before him had only six bony segments in its scorpion tail and merely twenty markings on its body. Each segment represented a thousand years, and each marking five hundred years, proving that it was only sixteen thousand years old.
Of course, what truly relieved Yu Tianling was not its relatively young age, but the fact that it was not the seemingly cheat-powered Dark Demon Evil God Tiger Tang San encountered later. In that case, Yu Tianling did not need to worry too much.
The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger Tang San encountered had possessed a domain, a requisite of Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts, with only sixty thousand years of cultivation. It had also cultivated an exceptionally invincible skill: Evil God's Protection.
One of the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's most powerful skills allowed it to create a black hole that sucked both itself and its opponent inside, reverting them both to their younger selves. When Tang San, who was obtaining Soul Rings for his Second Martial Soul at the time, encountered the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger with sixty thousand years of cultivation, he had been turned into a six- or seven-year-old.
Unexpectedly, after fighting Da Ming and Er Ming, that Dark Demon Evil God Tiger had cultivated the Evil God's Protection skill.
Originally, using the skill turned both itself and its opponent into their younger selves, but this skill had a major drawback. Against a human Soul Master, it was manageable, but against another Soul Beast, with both reduced to their younger selves, it could not gain much of an advantage either. Thus, it cultivated this defensive skill, which could reduce its opponent to their childhood strength within the black hole while allowing it to retain its current strength.
Across the entire Douluo Continent, who could defeat a Dark Demon Evil God Tiger with sixty thousand years of cultivation at six or seven years old? Even a powerhouse with Demigod cultivation like Tang Chen, once struck by the skill, probably could not deal with the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger as a six- or seven-year-old.
Unfortunately, when it fought Tang San, he shattered its defensive skill, Evil God's Protection. As a result, after they were sucked into the arena within the black hole, both reverted to their younger selves. Tang San, however, had cultivated the Mysterious Heaven Skill as a child and also possessed hidden weapons, ultimately leading to the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's defeat.
But although Tang San ultimately defeated the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger, it was only a pyrrhic victory. In the end, he obtained only its Soul Ring, while everything else it left behind turned into a pearl and entered the black hole. Even in death, it did not let Tang San obtain everything it had. If Tang San had not shattered its defensive skill, he would have been done for, and the original story would probably have ended right there.