Gradually, the sky grew dark. Shen Yuanzhou rose, signaling to Yan Yu’an that it was time to leave.
Holding the flowers Shen Yuanzhou had given him, Yan Yu’an followed closely behind him, never leaving his side for a step.
The forest at night was always a little unsafe. Yan Yu’an kept feeling this place was too quiet—so quiet it made one’s heart pound.
“Shen Yuanzhou, don’t you feel something’s off?”
Shen Yuanzhou silently took Yan Yu’an’s hand. Off—he’d noticed it long ago.
But he shook his head. “Don’t be afraid.”
Just as the words left his mouth, a gust of wind blew up, the treetops swaying wildly, leaves falling all over the ground.
“Is it going to rain?” Yan Yu’an looked at the gradually gathering dark clouds, a trace of worry appearing in his eyes.
He wondered how Xie Ji was doing.
“Yeah.” Shen Yuanzhou nodded, his eyes narrowing slightly. “Come out. What kind of thing hides and skulks about?” He squeezed Yan Yu’an’s hand.
Yan Yu’an followed his gaze and, after quite a while, finally saw a middle-aged woman emerge from the bushes.
The moment she emerged, she suddenly transformed into a giant tiger, its sharp fangs still dripping saliva.
“You’ve been following us for a while, haven’t you?” Shen Yuanzhou looked at her expressionlessly, not taking her to heart in the slightest.
The tiger let out a roar, a trace of despair flashing through her eyes.
How could she not know Shen Yuanzhou? She had come today with the resolve to die.
This man had killed her only child.
Yan Yu’an froze and couldn’t help stepping back half a pace.
It wasn’t that he’d never seen a tiger before—but that had been at a zoo, where the tigers had already been tamed and were as docile as big cats.
Nothing like this ferocious, vicious sight before him.
“Be careful.” Shen Yuanzhou was still as unruffled as ever. He pulled Yan Yu’an behind him.
“I’m going to avenge my child.” The tiger let out a desperate, sorrowful roar, a sound that seemed to spread through the entire forest.
All the animals knew there was definitely a hard battle to be fought here, and by tacit agreement not a single one made a sound.
“I’ve eaten countless tiger cubs.” Shen Yuanzhou looked at her calmly, not even shifting back into snake form.
Hearing this, the tiger pounced at him at once.
But no matter how fast the tiger was, she couldn’t match Shen Yuanzhou.
Shen Yuanzhou swiftly flashed behind the tiger with Yan Yu’an and said: “Today we eat tiger meat.”
In an instant, Shen Yuanzhou’s fangs appeared, biting hard into the tiger’s back.
The tiger growled low, trying to turn around and pull Shen Yuanzhou off—but unexpectedly, her movements only accelerated the spread of the poison in her body. In just two seconds, she collapsed to the ground.
“Overestimating yourself.”
Yan Yu’an hadn’t even reacted before the fight was already over.
He saw Shen Yuanzhou standing coldly before the tiger, saying to her: “Did no one tell you not to challenge a mutant?”
But the tiger could no longer answer him.
Yan Yu’an was startled inside—in this fight, Shen Yuanzhou hadn’t even shifted back into his true form and had easily hunted and killed a tiger.
An adult tiger’s attack power was definitely stronger than a python’s, yet Shen Yuanzhou had killed her in but an instant. Yan Yu’an couldn’t help wondering who among him, Xie Ji, and Ning Bingque was actually the strongest.
The tiger’s eyes had already turned gray-white. Yan Yu’an remembered how this tiger had said before dying that she wanted to avenge her child, and as if thinking of something, he couldn’t help turning his head away.
“How about we eat tiger meat today?” Shen Yuanzhou said to Yan Yu’an.
Yan Yu’an pressed his lips together and paused before saying: “Won’t it be poisonous?”
“Of course not! The poison has no effect on us.”
Yan Yu’an shook his head. “I don’t want to eat tiger meat today.”
Shen Yuanzhou seemed to sense that Yan Yu’an was feeling a little down. He tilted his head in confusion, but obediently didn’t bring up eating tiger meat again.
They returned to the cave in silence. Since they didn’t eat the tiger, no animal dared to either—after all, Shen Yuanzhou’s poison might have no effect on the two of them, but that wasn’t necessarily true for other animals.
“Are you unhappy?” Only after returning to the cave did Shen Yuanzhou finally ask. “Why?”
That tiger had wanted to kill them, and he had protected Yan Yu’an—yet Yan Yu’an was unhappy, not even eating the tiger meat.
“Are you feeling sad for that tiger?”
Yan Yu’an shook his head slightly and slowly sat down on the pile of dry grass against the wall. His voice was very soft: “No, I’m not feeling sad for her.” It’s for myself.
No matter where you went, the law of the jungle was always followed. Today that tiger mother had come to find Shen Yuanzhou with the resolve to die—yet she hadn’t even managed to harm a single hair on Shen Yuanzhou.
Shen Yuanzhou felt a trace of confusion. He looked at Yan Yu’an in puzzlement, wanting to hear more—but Yan Yu’an fell silent.
After waiting a long time and still not seeing him speak, Shen Yuanzhou silently walked out of the cave.
Not long after, he dragged a roe deer back into the cave. Seeing Yan Yu’an still leaning there, he somewhat at a loss pushed the roe deer in front of him. “Roe deer meat is good. Don’t be sad.”
In all his life, Shen Yuanzhou had never comforted anyone. Yan Yu’an was the first.
Seeing Yan Yu’an still looking glum, he paced anxiously in a circle on the spot.
“It’s not your fault.” Yan Yu’an had never seen Shen Yuanzhou like this and couldn’t help laughing.
“I’m hungry.” He stood up and patted the dust off himself, then walked to the other side and started a fire.
Seeing him finally smile, Shen Yuanzhou hurriedly took over the work from his hands.
Yan Yu’an watched the flustered Shen Yuanzhou and couldn’t help secretly smiling—then he saw that Shen Yuanzhou’s face had actually taken on a thin layer of red, his earlobes redder than anything.
…
Ning Bingque stood at the edge of a sheer cliff ten thousand zhang high, his enormous wings wrapped around his whole body. He squeezed his eyes tightly shut, yet fine cold sweat broke out on his forehead, and the mole behind his ear flickered with light.
After a long while, he suddenly opened his eyes—but what was unexpected was that above his forehead, a tear had split open, and out of nowhere a blood-red eye had grown.
“He’s very interesting.” He seemed to be talking to himself, but his voice wasn’t like his usual flippant tone.
“You’d better not get any ideas about him.”
“Heh…”
The voice cut off abruptly. That eye slowly closed, and then Ning Bingque’s forehead returned to its original appearance.
He looked down at the vast height below, then without hesitation jumped down. His enormous wings immediately beat and carried him high into the air.
“You’d better not get any ideas about him.” He repeated this sentence, and his pale golden eyes took on a tinge of blood red.
“God-Slaying Grass…” He frowned, planning to quietly follow behind Xie Ji.
He needed God-Slaying Grass. The thing inside his body was about to become impossible to suppress—he could only use God-Slaying Grass to destroy the monster parasitic within him.
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