...
"What are you looking at! Look again and I'll gouge your eyes out!"
Hu Liena felt embarrassed by the three people staring at her.
Although she hadn't fully recovered, she still forced a fierce glare back, finally fixing her gaze on Xuan Hao, the instigator, and threatened through gritted teeth:
"And you! If you dare try this on me again, I'll tell the teacher!
I'll say you bullied your senior!
I'll have her put you in solitary confinement and spank you until your bottom is a bloody mess!"
"No, no, no! I was wrong!" Xuan Hao immediately backed down.
He was genuinely afraid. Bibi Dong was incredibly protective of her own, especially when it came to her "daughter," Hu Liena.
If she really went to complain, he was afraid he would lose his job.
"Alright, we've got the spirit ring, let's get out of here quickly," Xie Yue said.
"The stench of blood here is too strong, and with that shout just now, it's likely that all the spirit beasts within a few kilometers have been alerted."
The four of them had just finished packing their things and were preparing to leave.
Sudden.
"Boom!"
A series of dense vibrations came from the depths of the forest.
At first, they were very faint, like thousands of horses galloping, but in just a few breaths, the sound became deafening, and even the ground beneath our feet began to tremble violently.
"That commotion..."
Yan's expression changed. He lay down on the ground and listened carefully.
"Something's wrong! There are too many of them! And they're moving extremely fast!"
Without saying a word, Xie Yue leaped up a giant tree tens of meters high and gazed into the distance.
The next second, his pupils suddenly contracted, and his face turned deathly pale.
"Run! Run!!"
Xie Yue leaped down from the tree. "It's a beast tide!
A huge horde of frightened soul beasts is charging this way!
They're all large soul beasts over a thousand years old!"
"A beast tide?!"
Hu Liena and Yan exclaimed in surprise at the same time.
"It must have been your voice just now!"
Xie Yue shouted back at Xuan Hao as he dragged Hu Liena along.
"The Golden Dragon's Roar carries its own dragon might, and those inferior thousand-year-old soul beasts were terrified.
They instinctively huddled together to escape, which resulted in a chain reaction!"
"Once this small-scale beast tide forms, even a ten-thousand-year-old soul beast will be trampled into mincemeat! Run!!"
Upon hearing this, Xuan Hao turned and ran.
He also knew the terror of the beast tide. It was a torrent of countless mad beasts, who had lost their minds and only knew how to run wildly.
The charge of hundreds or even thousands of thousand-year-old soul beasts would make even a Soul Saint flee, let alone these few Great Soul Masters.
"Damn it! Where did that freak Yue Guan go?!"
Xuan Hao cursed inwardly, then dashed off with the three of them towards the edge of the forest.
However, a person's two legs can never outrun a four-legged beast.
The roar behind them grew closer and closer, and they could even smell the suffocating dust and the pungent stench unique to soul beasts.
Looking back, they saw a dark, overwhelming horde of beasts sweeping in like a raging flood, felling trees and cracking the earth in their wake.
"It's too late!"
Xie Yue watched the approaching horde of beasts, a flicker of despair in his eyes.
"They're too fast!
At this rate, we'll be caught in less than half a minute!"
Hu Liena's face turned deathly pale; her martial soul had not yet recovered from the effects of the Golden Dragon's Roar.
Xuan Hao took a deep breath.
"Xie Yue! You take them and run towards the cliff on the left! I'll lure them away!"
"Are you crazy?!"
Huliena screamed, trying to rush back.
"That's a beast tide! You'll die!!"
"I won't die!
I have a golden dragon body, thick skin and tough flesh!
Besides, I have dragon blood, so I can keep them in check for a while!"
"Besides, this is my fault."
"run!"
Xuan Hao roared, giving them no chance to refute. His body blazed with golden light, and instead of retreating, he advanced, activating his Golden Dragon Body.
Like a golden nail, he plunged fiercely into the black tide of beasts!
"hold head high--!!!"
Another earth-shattering dragon roar!
The golden dragon's might erupted as if it were a tangible force, causing the dozens of soul beasts charging at the forefront to halt in their tracks.
The beast horde, which had been charging straight ahead, was forced to split up and scatter to the sides due to this momentary pause and fear.
"Run!!"
Xuan Hao's voice was drowned out by the deafening roar of the beasts.
"Xuan Hao!!"
...
I don't know how much time passed.
A cool sensation brushed across my face, carrying a faint fragrance of grass and trees.
Xuan Hao struggled to move his eyelids, his whole body felt like it was falling apart, every bone in his body was protesting.
"hiss..."
He gasped and slowly opened his eyes.
What came into view was not a gloomy and terrifying hell, nor a bloody scene of a beast tide, but a peaceful and tranquil little lake.
Sunlight filters through the leaves and dapples the lake's surface, creating a shimmering effect.
On the grass not far from him sat a woman who looked to be in her twenties.
She wore a simple light pink dress, her long hair cascading down to her waist like a waterfall, her features soft and gentle, radiating a reassuring maternal glow.
At that moment, she was holding a damp handkerchief, as if she had just wiped the blood off his face.
"woke up?"
Xuan Hao tried to sit up warily, but the movement aggravated his wound, causing him to wince in pain.
He subconsciously activated his Golden Dragon Perception, wanting to investigate the surrounding situation.
However, the next second, his pupils suddenly contracted.
He couldn't sense the unique soul power fluctuations of a human soul master from this woman; instead, he felt an aura that was extremely pure, vast, and perfectly integrated with nature.
He had seen a description of that aura in the illustrated guide that Bibi Dong had given him…
Soul Beast?!
And it's a humanoid soul beast?!
Transformation after 100,000 years?!
"Don't move around. You have several broken bones.
Although you have a strong ability to recover, you can't withstand this kind of abuse."
The woman seemed to sense his wariness, but she didn't pay it any mind. She simply smiled, stood up, and walked towards him.
"Who are you?" Xuan Hao asked, puzzled.
"You can call me Arou."
The woman walked over and squatted down beside him, her gentle eyes looking at him quietly, with a hint of curiosity and confusion in them.
"But you, little one."
"You're so young, how did you end up deep in the mixed zone of the Star Dou Great Forest all by yourself?
And you even got caught up in that kind of beast tide?"
"If I hadn't been drawn over there by the commotion, you would probably be fertilizer for those soul beasts by now."
Xuan Hao rubbed his temples, which were still throbbing slightly, as a jumble of memories flooded back into his mind.
At that time, he activated his Golden Dragon Body to confront the beast tide head-on.
Although he briefly dispersed the beast horde with his dragon might, the continuous impact still exceeded his body's capacity.
Just as his consciousness was about to fade and the two violent forces within him, the golden and silver dragons, were about to spiral out of control just like they had in Lanyun Village...
He felt a hand grab the back of his collar and forcefully pull him out.
At that time, he was in a daze and thought that the unreliable Yue Guan had finally had a change of heart and come back to save people.
So his tense nerves relaxed, and he instinctively suppressed the restless power in his body and fell into a deep sleep.
Unexpectedly, it was this woman in front of him who saved him.
"Thanks."
Xuan Hao took a deep breath, enduring the excruciating pain as if his bones were dislocated, and struggled to stand up, dusting himself off.
"However, I have to go."
"Go?" Arou was slightly taken aback and quickly got up to help him.
"Your physical condition is very bad right now. Your internal organs have been damaged, and your ribs are broken.
You must rest..."
"I don't have time to rest."
Xuan Hao shook his head. "The people looking for me should be arriving soon."
At this point, he turned his head and gave Arou a deep look.
"If I stay here, you will be in danger."
Arou's hand froze in mid-air, somewhat puzzled: "Danger?
I'm not afraid of that beast tide..."
"It's not a beast tide," Xuan Hao interrupted her.
"It's people looking for me."
"It's not safe here, whether it's the mixed zone or the outer area."
"For you, and for that little guy hiding behind the tree..."
"You'd better leave as soon as possible, hide in the core area, and don't come out."
After saying this, Xuan Hao didn't linger.
He took out a handful of pills to restore his soul power from his storage soul tool, put them in his mouth, and with his last bit of strength, rushed towards the edge of the forest.
He has to leave.
Yue Guan is definitely looking for him nearby.
As a titled Douluo, Yue Guan possesses extremely keen perception.
If Yue Guan finds him here...
He owes no favors, especially not those who saved his life.
Watching Xuan Hao's figure disappear into the depths of the forest, A Rou stood there, lost in thought for a long time.
"Mother..."
A small head peeked out from behind a towering tree not far away.
It was a girl wearing a pink dress, with a delicate and pretty face, and two rabbit ears on her head. She looked to be only five or six years old.
She cautiously sidled up to Arou, her hands gripping tightly the hem of her mother's skirt.
"That human... the aura emanating from him is terrifying..."
Arou came to her senses and gently stroked her daughter's head to soothe her frightened emotions, but her gaze remained fixed on the direction where Xuanhao had disappeared, unable to look away for a long time.
That child...saw it through?
How is that possible?
Although she was transformed from a 100,000-year-old soul beast, she has now cultivated to level 70 and entered the mature stage.
Once she reaches maturity, even a titled Douluo in person cannot see through her true form unless they deliberately use their spiritual power to carefully probe her origin.
But that kid was only in his early twenties, how did he figure that out?
"Mommy, do we still want to go to the human world to play?"
Xiao Wu asked, looking up.
Arou fell silent.
Originally, she planned to take Xiao Wu to the human world to experience life, since she needed to come into contact with human energy to grow again after transforming and cultivating.
But now...
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