“The Demon-eyed Tiger King! It’s the headmaster, the headmaster is here!!”

Several of the Beast Taming School’s four Soul Kings cried out in recognition of the golden light pervading the skies. They were familiar to the light and were surprised to see it here.

“It’s the Demon-eyed Tiger King! It has to be the headmaster, did...did he send his medium here!?”

Shock filled the Wind Ape King, though it wasn’t for long. He knew the Demon-eyed Tiger King from long before, but two-hundred years had already passed since the Demon-eyed Tiger King was caught by the Beast Taming School and turned into a soulbeast puppet. What he didn’t know was that the Demon-eyed Tiger King was now a medium for the Beast Taming School to use. That was, until now.

“So the Beast Taming School sent a medium here? Are...they afraid that the Golden Roc King and I will betray them after this? Are they afraid of us killing their men?”

A thought that lasted for just a moment but the seeds of doubt had already started to bloom in him. He glanced over to the Golden Roc King who in turn gave him a slight nod of the head.

“What’s the headmaster here for? Wasn’t he searching for the Alchemy School in the Qimang Mountains?”

Duan Tianqing was confused. “Did they already find it?! It does make some sort of sense, the Qimang Mountains are relatively close by to the Soulbeast Forest. If it’s the headmaster, crossing the Qimang Mountains to get here shouldn’t take too long. He must’ve been worried about something and came here to assist us...”

“Very well then!! There’s no way we’ll lose if the headmaster is here!!”

His eyes shined brightly with joy. Taking care to covertly widen the distance between him and the two soulbeasts, Duan Tianqing waved his right hand to summon a miniature-mountain-sized figure in front of him.

“Mooo!!!”

Crying out loud, the yellow ‘mountain’ began to tremble and unleash a wave of extremely powerful energy!

Several features of this soulbeast could be seen straight away at a glance. It had four extremely thick pillars that extruded from its main body and a giant ‘sphere’ that was connected to said body high up in the sky. It...looked like a giant tortoise that had a mountain being carried on top of its shell!

This was a giant soulbeast! An early-stage class eight soulbeast and the medium of Duan Tianqing!

“This is the hillbeast’s ancestor!! I know it!! It was turned into a soulbeast puppet of the Beast Taming School?!”

The Wind Ape King cried out to himself at once; he knew this soulbeast.

A hillbeast is a particularly rare earth-type soulbeast. Bai Yunfei came across such a soulbeast before in the Soulbeast Forest when there was a wave, but that was only an early-stage class six hillbeast.

The one in front of them today was an ‘elder’, an elder hillbeast.

Several hundred years had passed since the Wind Ape King saw this specific hillbeast. He wasn’t even a class eight soulbeast then, but it was said the elder hillbeast hibernating in the depths of the Soulbeast Forest had disappeared without a trace. Rumors attributed its disappearance to the Beast Taming School, but no one ever had proof.

But it seemed today was proof of reality.

An early-stage class eight hillbeast is especially powerful. After thousands of years of existence, its defensive might was utterly terrifying to behold. Not even the mid-stage class eight Wind Ape King or Bloodhowl Wolf King would be able to do any harm to the elder hillbeast.

What a hillbeast excelled at was defense, not offense, so Duan Tianqing didn’t bother to use it to attack the Bloodhowl Wolf King earlier. The whole point of Duan Tianqing bringing it out now was to act as support for the Demon-eyed Tiger King, Golden Roc King, and Wind Ape King to bring down the Bloodhowl Wolf King.

And that meant the Bloodhowl Wolf King was basically a lamb waiting to be slaughtered. He was as good as the Beast Taming School’s property now, a soulbeast that would very soon become a soulbeast puppet!

Duan Tianqing’s heart quivered with joy at the thought.

𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

With the elder hillbeast in front of him, Duan Tianqing turned south to greet the incoming Demon-eyed Tiger King. “Headma—”

“Roar!!!”

His greeting was cut off as the roar of the Demon-eyed Tiger King exploded with ferocity into the sky!

“Ahhh!!!”

A pained shiver ran up Duan Tianqing’s body at once. His pupils dilated and his foam started to spill out from his mouth before he let loose a heart-wrenching roar!

He had been attacked by the Demon-eyed Tiger King’s strongest soul attack, the Wilderness Quaking Tiger’s Roar!!

Duan Tianqing hadn’t put up a defense against it. Why would he? He didn’t know such an attack would happen, but so it was!

“Whoosh...”

A golden streak of light flew through the air and struck Duan Tianqing squarely on his back!

His face went stark-white. The pain of having his soul be torn apart as it was right now was simply far too much for him to bear. Watching as the Demon-eyed Tiger King drew closer and closer to him, Duan Tianqing cried out in disbelief.

“Ahh!!! Headmaster, what is...”

He was cut off before he could finish speaking. The Demon-eyed Tiger King was already upon him and struck him on the chest with a glowing right fist!

“Bang!! Crack...pffttt!!”

Duan Tianqing’s chest cracked underneath the pressure of the Demon-eyed Tiger King’s punch. His ribcage buckled under the pressure and was caved in before he was sent flying away in the opposite direction, leaving only a trail of blood through the sky!

Everything went silent. Anyone that saw what happened could only stand there in mute shock at what had just transpired. Even the Wind Ape King and Golden Roc King were unable to do a thing. In one swift motion, Duan Tianqing was rendered unable to fight after being struck in the soul and chest!

“Roar!!”

The Demon-eyed Tiger King roared again. Rather than step down, it whipped around to dive straight for the Golden Roc King! The gigantic golden apparition of the tiger above the Demon-eyed Tiger King opened its mouth wide in an attempt to swallow the Golden Roc King whole!

“What is the meaning of this?!?!”

Shrieked the Golden Roc King. Golden light escaped from his body to form a giant four-winged roc. The moment it materialized, the golden roc flapped its wings and shot at the tiger apparition!

“Rumble!!”

The Wind Ape King snapped back to reality upon hearing the sound of the wind being rapidly displaced. Looking up, he saw a blood-colored wave of energy rain down from where the Bloodhowl Wolf King was!

“Master Duan!!”

One of the Beast Taming School’s Soul Kings cried out in concern for Duan Tianqing. Disappearing into a bolt of purple light, the Late-stage Soul King shot towards the area where Duan Tianqing fell.

“Swish!!”

A beam of crimson light broke out from the forest below towards the same area the Late-stage Soul King was flying. But this beam of light was flying even faster than the Late-stage Soul King was!

“No!!” The elder roared. Waving his hand, he shot a beam of violet lightning at the red light in hopes of stopping it.

It was a futile attempt, however. The figure within the red light responded with a beam of their own. It struck the lightning bolt with frightening accuracy, allowing for the person within the red light to fly off towards Duan Tianqing unobstructed!

Then, under the fearful eyes of the Beast Taming School’s four Soul Kings, the red beam of light caught up with Duan Tianqing and...spirited him away!

This was the sign of Duan Tianqing being sucked into a space ring, but only corpses could be taken into a space ring, not people that were still alive! Duan Tianqing wasn’t dead yet, so there was no way he should’ve been stored into such a ring!

“What is...what is going on here!!!??”