Hundred Beast Mountain, a place where nature never rests. Flowers were everywhere, emitting scents pleasant to the nose. Grasses and herbs were scattered all about, filling the air with medicinal fragrance.
Inside a forest, a youth was battling a small demonic beast. The creature he was battling was a pangolin, a demonic beast on the cusps of reaching Intermediate Demon Realm. The scales on its back were extremely thick; normal blades would find it hard to cut into its skin.
This youth was carrying the Heavy Cleave Saber, sending out slash after slash. Every single slash contained more than 500 kilograms of raw power, slowly cutting through the scales of the pangolin. Knowing that it had met its match, the pangolin was constantly retreating, heading straight for a mountain to escape.
“You wish to run? Not a chance! You’ve been chasing me for a long time now! Eat my saber!” Seeing the intention of the pangolin, Xiang Shaoyun yelled as his entire body poised itself, the almost 150-kilogram Heavy Cleave Saber furiously slashing downwards.
Phew!
Peng!
A bright flash of light rushed out from the blade, quickly forming a meter-long string of saber qi that rushed towards the fleeing pangolin, cleanly splitting it into two. This was a pangolin on the brink of becoming an Intermediate Demon. However, even if its scales could withstand the all-out attack of a peak tier-1 weapon, it could not withstand the full strength of this Basic Realm boy. This youth was none other than Xiang Shaoyun, who had entered the Hundred Beast Mountain Range three days ago.
There were numerous demonic beasts within the Hundred Beast Mountain Range. Xiang Shaoyun had lost count of how many times he had been forced to flee demonic beasts over the past three days, even more so of the number of times he had fought with smaller demonic beasts. His entire body was ragged and covered with wounds, and there was an especially large claw mark streaking across his back. This was gotten on the very first day when he had encountered a wolf pack.
If he had not activated the Overlord’s Nine Nether Steps in time, he would’ve become wolf feed a long time ago. Although the past three days had not been kind to him, he started to get used to living within the forest. Furthermore, his foundations had also grown more stable over that period. It would not be long before he could attempt to break through to the eighth stage of the Basic Realm.
After killing off the pangolin, he found several stalks of medicinal herbs nearby. Combining them with a few of his own herbs, he quickly ground a paste to wrap his own wounds with.
“Battle experience truly is the fastest way to temper oneself. In just three days, I can feel that my combat power has significantly risen. Although this isn’t an increase in my cultivation, I feel like my combat senses have increased—a change in terms of my sensitivity and instincts in a life-or-death battle,” Xiang Shaoyun muttered to himself as he sat on the ground and rested.
Bitterly training was not the only way to raise one’s strength. Sitting down once in a while to ponder one’s direction and aim could yield unexpected benefits for one’s cultivation. After sitting down in meditation for two hours, he once again ate dried monstrous beast meat. His condition began recovering to peak condition. Furthermore, the blood within his body was more vigorous than before, making him feel extremely comfortable.
This was the benefit of consuming large amounts of monstrous beast meat. It helped to strengthen his physical body. Just as he was preparing to move out again, he heard a rustling noise not far from his current position. Without even taking a moment to ponder the situation, he immediately ran up the closest tree.
Soon after, he saw a man running over completely covered in wounds, seemingly being pursued by a monstrous beast. Sure enough, Xiang Shaoyun heard a fearsome roar from nearby.
Roar!
This was the roar of a tiger prowling through the woods, seemingly invigorating the heavens and the earth.
“This strong tiger is at least a Great Demon.” Xiang Shaoyun shuddered in the tree. If he were to encounter a high-tier monstrous beast with his current strength, the only result for him would be death. He could only hope that the man being chased quickly got lost. Instead, the man directly fainted near him.
“F*ck! Of all places, why here?” Xiang Shaoyun could not help but curse. Without hesitation, he directly jumped down from the tree and began running as fast as he could. He was very clear that that male had somehow offended the tiger, resulting in that tiger chasing after him. Furthermore, if he himself couldn’t get far away enough, the tiger’s next target would undoubtedly be him! However, as he was running, he felt as though there was something on his back holding him down.
“Dammit, what the hell is going on?! Get lost!” Not daring to turn around, Xiang Shaoyun shook his backpack as he ran, to the point where his belongings began spilling out. However, no matter how hard he shook, whatever was holding onto him was stuck onto him like glue, refusing to budge.
Luckily for Xiang Shaoyun, the creature did not seem to have any evil intent towards him. In the end, he decided to just run as fast as he could while carrying the creature on his back. As he ran, perhaps because of the Great Demon that had appeared, he did not encounter any other demonic beasts along the way.
After running for a long period of time, Xiang Shaoyun finally felt safe after determining that the demonic beast would not continue chasing him this far, and he stopped. Grabbing his backpack firmly with one hand, he grasped the creature with his other hand and pried it off.
“Meow.”
The creature he held emitted a soft and delicate cry. Taking a closer look, Xiang Shaoyun found that the creature he was holding was actually a striped tiger cub. Apart from a few black stripes, it was covered with white fur from head to toe. Its round eyes glistened, cutting a very sorry figure, making it so that anybody who saw it could not bear to hurt it.
“So you’re the brat that was holding onto me! You couldn’t be the child of that large beast, could you? Now this is troublesome,” Xiang Shaoyun bitterly chuckled while holding the striped tiger cub.
This tiger cub was a newborn. That man had probably kidnapped it and unintentionally aroused the ire of the large beast, leading to a life-or-death escape attempt. The cub had probably escaped when the man fainted and found Xiang Shaoyun running away, thus grasping onto him.
Any martial cultivator would love to have a demonic beast as a mount. Typically, one would usually tame a weaker demonic beast. This way, they would be able to obtain a mount in the fastest way possible. The other method commonly used would be to raise a beast from young. Once the beast reached maturity, it would naturally be able to become a mount with high affinity to its owner. That man from just now was probably catching the cub to either raise it himself or sell it off.
Xiang Shaoyun clearly understood this concept, but he also did not wish to become the target of a full grown demonic beast at the Great Demon Realm, especially one nearing the realm’s peak. As soon as it finished off that man, it would definitely follow the scent of its cub over to him.
Xiang Shaoyun immediately made a resolute decision.
“Little one, you’d best stay here. This young master cannot look after you,” Xiang Shaoyun looked down at the tiger and said. Although he would’ve loved to raise a tiger cub, the striped tiger’s lineage was not as noble as he would’ve liked and would at most grow to a Great Demon.
This was a far cry from his ambitions. As such, he put down the tiger cub and once again made a run for it. Only, before he had even run a few steps, he once again felt a weight on his back! The cub had once again jumped onto him.
“Damn it! Do you actually want to get me killed?! Do you want me to just tie you here right now?!” Xiang Shaoyun cursed at the cub as he grabbed it off his back.
“Meow!”
The tiger cub softly mewed as it snuggled up to Xiang Shaoyun’s arm, as if trying to get on his good side. Just as Xiang Shaoyun wanted to ditch the creature once and for all, in a rare moment of softness, he begrudgingly said, “Forget it then. I’ll keep you by my side first, then give you back to your mother when she comes. I just hope that you don’t get me swallowed alive!”