The Five-Colored Dragon Hound, Panhu

At the edge of Black Cloud Marsh's black fog.

Xiluo and Li Boyang were not the only ones fighting those corrupted creatures.

As more and more corrupted creatures emerged from the black fog, virtually all the deities and spirits living nearby became aware of the approaching danger.

In the Hundred Lands Mountain Range, mountain gods as bullheaded as Xiluo were, after all, a minority.

When the mountains and rivers they inhabited were engulfed by the black fog.

The vast majority of mountain gods and river gods made the same decision as the spirits-stay away from the black fog.

Yet just as there were exceptions like Xiluo among the mountain gods, there was naturally no shortage of spirits who went against the tide.

Panhu, with his dog's head and human body, was one such unusual being.

As a spirit who could already sense Earth Vein Qi, Panhu was only one step away from transforming into a dragon hound and advancing to become a mountain god.

Unfortunately, with the appearance of the black fog, Panhu, unwilling to leave Cloud-Floating Mountain like the other mountain gods and spirits, could only choose to fight alone.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

Panhu wore a five-colored robe and wielded an axe as large as a millstone.

Even surrounded and attacked by multiple corrupted creatures, he displayed formidable fighting prowess unlike that of ordinary spirits.

Every swing of his axe could cleave open a corrupted creature's skull.

Those corrupted creatures, by contrast, aside from their lack of fear of death after being corrupted, were physically inferior even to normal beasts.

With one side weakening and the other strengthening, even the black fog within a hundred-meter radius seemed cowed by Panhu, unable to spread toward Cloud-Floating Mountain for a long while.

"Awooo!"

Just after splitting another corrupted creature's head open, Panhu abruptly threw back his head and let out a long howl.

The howl, resembling both a wolf's and a dog's, rang out in every direction. Immediately afterward, more howls from wolves and dogs rose from the nearby mountain forests and villages, answering Panhu's call.

"Roar!"

At that moment, a tiger's roar suddenly came from the black fog.

The next second, a pitch-black tiger, its entire body corrupted and its white bones exposed, suddenly sprang out.

Because it almost blended into the black fog, Panhu, who was calling to his kind, failed to notice it in time and was struck by its paw.

Riiip...

In an instant, its sharp claws left wounds on Panhu's body deep enough to expose bone.

Fortunately, Panhu had ample combat experience and immediately retreated and rolled, dissipating the force of the blow.

Otherwise, that single swipe would probably have shattered his bones and tendons and left him completely unable to fight, formidable as he was.

Even so, as he looked at the pitch-black tiger, its ferocity undiminished.

Panhu still tightened his grip on his millstone-sized axe, already prepared for a fight to the death.

"Awooo!"

For Panhu recognized this pitch-black tiger.

It had been a creature on the verge of transforming into a spirit in this mountain forest.

Yet now, because of the spreading black fog, it had been corrupted into this hideous form.

The gap between spirits and beasts was actually not as great as ordinary people imagined.

At the very least, as the overlord of a stretch of mountain forest, this pitch-black tiger was not something even those spirits that had already transformed dared provoke lightly.

Whoosh!

Just as the tiger was about to pounce on Panhu again, a crisp whistle suddenly cut through the air.

In the flash of a spark, the tiger sensed danger and tried to dodge sideways.

But it was still a fraction too slow. A streak of golden light pierced its neck, severing its head.

"Roar..."

Even as its head fell and rolled across the ground, the tiger was still trying to roar.

It was utterly unaware that its body and head were already in two different places.

"..."

At this sight, Panhu, who had witnessed everything, did not relax his guard.

Instead, he looked up into the sky with even greater tension, staring at the streak of golden light still circling overhead.

"..."

Only when Panhu noticed what seemed to be a scarlet figure in the direction the golden light was departing.

Did he finally settle down and lower the millstone-sized axe in his hands.

Faintly, Panhu seemed to hear that scarlet figure saying something.

"You're asking about that pup?"

"He's the adopted son of Old Madam Gao from Gao Family Village next door. Something of an oddity among spirits..."

Adopted son? Spirit?

Those two terms sound like they're eight bamboo poles apart, yet they've actually turned up in the same person.

To be honest, although Li Boyang had repeatedly overestimated just how outlandish this world was, he still had never expected a spirit to be a human's adopted son.

From Panhu's determination to fight to the death without retreating alone, Li Boyang could easily imagine the deep bond between him and his adoptive mother.

"What's so strange about that?"

"If you call that strange, didn't your parents also raise a freak like you?"

Glancing at the golden Sword Pill, which had no self-awareness whatsoever, Xiluo's barbed remarks were as sharp as ever.

"Aside from how you were born, there really isn't much difference between you and that pup."

As they threaded through the mountain forest one behind the other, Li Boyang finally gained a rough understanding of Panhu's origins from Xiluo's ensuing account.

Around twenty years ago, Old Madam Gao of Gao Family Village developed an ear ailment, and a blister swelled up.

Lacking even the most basic medical care and knowledge, Old Madam Gao had not taken her ear ailment seriously at first.

Not until it grew increasingly severe, swelling enough to affect her daily life.

Old Madam Gao then pierced the blister and picked out a hard-shelled insect about the size of a silkworm cocoon.

Perhaps out of curiosity, or perhaps simply because she was so unconcerned...

Old Madam Gao merely placed the hard-shelled insect in a gourd ladle at home and paid it no further attention.

Then, the following spring, that hard-shelled insect hatched into a puppy with fur in five colors.

At first, Old Madam Gao merely raised the puppy as an ordinary watchdog.

But as time passed, Old Madam Gao gradually discovered that this puppy was extraordinarily clever and could even understand what she said.

Naturally, the elderly Old Madam Gao, who lived alone, began raising this puppy as her own son.

For Old Madam Gao, who had no children.

The puppy's arrival undoubtedly filled the emptiness of her later years.

And so, twenty years passed in the blink of an eye.

The puppy from back then grew bigger by the day and began learning to walk on two legs, imitating Old Madam Gao.

Because the puppy had been born in a gourd ladle, Old Madam Gao simply called him "Panhu."

By now, Panhu had long since become a member of Gao Family Village, staying by Old Madam Gao's side year-round.

To be honest, had Old Madam Gao not been so advanced in years that she truly could not endure the hardship of leaving her home behind.

Panhu probably would not have appeared so frequently at the edge of the black fog, repeatedly stopping those corrupted creatures from advancing toward Gao Family Village.