Chapter 27: Seeking Mount (4)
The runes and symbols on the soul ring began to wiggle. The wheel rotated with mighty force, and the beast's wary gaze locked on it. Its expression resembled that of a child staring at an elder, fearful of being bullied but still refusing to retreat.
Even so, the beast roared and rushed forward with unmatched vigor, its will resolute—better to die than submit.
Wei Shiyan kicked the empty space beneath his feet. His body lunged forward, and small tears ripped open in the void with every step.
Man and beast clashed once more. Fists and claws collided, shaking heaven and earth with every blow.
BOOOOM~~
They separated violently.
The beast, despite its powerful regeneration, now suffered greatly. Blood streaked down from its open wounds. Yet, no matter how desperately its flesh quivered to mend, the injuries resisted healing. Every strike Wei Shiyan delivered had been infused with profound laws and will, cutting off recovery and leaving scars deeper than flesh.
The beast's scarlet eyes blazed with madness. A suffocating pressure spread through the battlefield as the world itself seemed to tremble.
Suddenly, the void warped.
A colossal phantom appeared above the beast's body—a ghostly apparition of an ancient Nine Rotation Abyssal god Tatom.
The image flickered faintly, as though the smallest breeze might dissipate it. Yet despite its fragile appearance, the very thought of its presence made all life retreat in terror.
For when the Abyssal god once walked the void, even the Heavenly Dao had yet to be formed. Creation itself was a meaningless joke before its gaze. All things, all worlds, all beginnings—none were worthy of its attention.
It hovered silently over the beast, its vacant, lifeless eyes betraying emptiness. The weakened bloodline of the beast was insufficient to awaken the true might of its ancestor.
Sensing this incompleteness, the beast howled. Its roar shook the heavens, forcefully igniting its bloodline to the very limit of its strength.
BOOM!
BOOM!
The eyes of the phantom flickered. A tiny spark of liveliness flashed within its hollow gaze. Instantly, the heavens darkened. Thunderclouds rolled, yet before lightning could descend, the beast lifted its head proudly toward the vault of heaven.
The sky stilled. Silence fell.
Then, with slow inevitability, the Abyssal phantom lowered its gaze upon Wei Shiyan.
BOOM!
Wei Shiyan staggered as his vision dimmed beneath the weight of that gaze. The neutral calm that had always lingered on his face vanished. His usual nonchalant aura, as though nothing in this world mattered, was crushed beneath the phantom's pressure.
Gritting his teeth, he stubbornly spat out,
"I just want you as a mount. It doesn't need to reach the point of life and death, right?"
The beast roared in response, its voice rumbling like thunder.
"Are you worthy?"
The phantom's pressure did not weaken. Instead, it hung there, waiting. Waiting for its descendant's will to command it.
Wei Shiyan's brows furrowed. Displeasure burned in his heart. He loathed it when others poked at his pride.
His voice turned cold.
"Fine. Since you've forced this into a matter of life and death… I withdraw my earlier intention. Now, you—will. Die. Here."
Anger surged within him. Neither Heavenly Dao nor phantom of the Abyssal god could sway his resolve. He feared no one.
Above him, the vast soul ring suddenly shrank at incredible speed. It halted mere meters above his head, glowing like a miniature sun.
Its rotation quickened, releasing crackling roars of destruction that echoed across the battlefield.
The beast's eyes narrowed with wariness.
But then—
Another soul ring manifested.
It circled the first, distinct yet connected in a mysterious harmony. The aura of the martial path poured from it, profound and boundless.
The beast's scarlet eyes widened slightly in astonishment.
This human… walks the dual paths?
"When… when did humans become this frightening?" the beast thought, shuddering faintly. Memories stirred—hadn't it seen another human brat who possessed such traits?
Even so, the beast remained indifferent. It simply stared at Wei Shiyan, as if he were nothing more than prey struggling beneath its paw.
Wei Shiyan's lips curled. He had never thought that the second soul ring would frighten the beast. Of course not.
He knew—if even he could sense that other human, the one who had made a deal with this beast before, walked the dual paths, how could this ancient bloodline not?
No, the beast knew very well.
And it was precisely because it knew that its wariness grew.
The Abyssal phantom above flickered, and the beast's bloodline resonated, whispering to it that this human was dangerous. Far more dangerous than most could ever understand.
Yet the beast roared and lunged forward anyway.
Wei Shiyan only sneered, his voice mocking.
"Your bloodline is still too weak."
Even if he unleashed the full force of his dual soul rings, he could perhaps defeat the beast but not overpower it. That wasn't enough for him.
No—Wei Shiyan wanted more.
He wanted to deal a severe, unforgettable blow.
He wanted to beat the beast into submission, force it to recognize despair, to know that what it saw was not his limit.
As the enormous body rushed at him, Wei Shiyan's grin widened.
"You think… that's my limit?"
A chilling chuckle escaped his lips.
"Hehehe… sorry to disappoint you, but I've never liked playing by the rules."
His foot pressed down.
Step.
The air rippled beneath him like solid ground. Waves spread outward, each ripple carrying the aura of water laws, spreading so fast they reached the beast in an instant despite the distance.
Wei Shiyan continued calmly, his tone sharp like a blade.
"I make rules. I don't follow them."
The ripples intensified, spreading endlessly, devouring space.
The beast's massive eyes reflected those waves, but its charge did not falter.
The battlefield quaked.
Heaven and earth seemed to tilt.
And just as the collision between the rippling water laws and the beast's abyssal might was about to explode—
BOOOOOM~~~
The void trembles.
A
nd from deep within that rippling space, something else began to stir…