"After a full month, I finally caught you, Dark Demon Evil God Tiger."
Wu Ling stood alone on a towering ancient tree in the Star Soul Forest, looking down at the black tiger below.
The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger looked like an enormous tiger, pure black from head to tail without a single stray color. Its red eyes were filled with a sinister aura. Its body was more than eight meters long, its muscles bulged across its frame, and its weight was likely over 1,500 kg. The king character on its forehead was also black, but unlike the black of its fur, it was a gloomy black like mist.
The strangest part was its tail. Compared with ordinary tiger-type Soul Beasts, its tail was much longer and stood upright. It was made of countless bony segments, and at the end was a huge reverse hook that shimmered with cold light, like a life-reaping scythe from hell, always ready to harvest its prey.
A month earlier, after Wu Ling learned from Bibi Dong that someone had sighted the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger, he had come to the Star Soul Forest alone. Through constant contact with Spirit Hall's informants, he gradually narrowed down the tiger's range of activity.
Although this beast was a Soul Beast, its intelligence was not low at all. It seemed to have discovered that someone was searching for it. Because of that, it had not only killed several people who came looking for it because of Spirit Hall's commission, but had also kept moving among three areas. That both protected its tracks from discovery and again and again turned its pursuers into food.
Unfortunately, a beast was still a beast. One form of human wisdom was inverse reasoning. By comparing when those cannon fodder died and roughly where they died, the searchers kept narrowing its location and route until Wu Ling finally ran into it head-on.
"Grrr..."
The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger gave a low growl. Its eyes watched Wu Ling with caution, excitement, and greed.
It already understood that the human before it was the one who had been searching for it recently. More than that, inside this human's body was a bloodline not weaker than the serpent and ape from the depths of the Star Soul Forest. It might even be stronger. The concentration inside him was almost catching up to its own.
The greed and excitement in its eyes came from that. It roughly estimated that if it could eat this human, then with flesh and blood comparable to a hundred-thousand-year Soul Beast, it would have a high chance of breaking through to the hundred-thousand-year realm within twenty years. When that time came, even if the serpent and ape returned, it would have the confidence to kill them one by one.
At the same time, it remained extremely cautious. Because it had often avoided pursuit from the Titan Giant Ape and Sky Azure Bull Python, it had also come into contact with, or rather devoured, many humans. That had taught it a rough rule: every tasty human would almost certainly have an even tastier, but stronger, human nearby. It had once been ambushed by such humans and suffered for it, so the memory was deep.
"Grrr... Evil God's Protection."
With another low growl from the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger, a dense gray airflow instantly erupted from the tail behind it, the part known as the Evil God Hook. Then that airflow gradually spread over its whole body.
Because of the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's special nature, Wu Ling had long since asked Rose to extract every move he remembered about it. Because of that, he recognized Evil God's Protection, the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's strongest defensive skill, at a glance.
"Its defensive effect can even compare to that rabbit's Absolute Defense. Its limit is a little lower than Absolute Defense, but it lasts much longer and does not restrict the user's movements."
"Opening with defense. What a steady big cat. I am almost starting to like you."
"But..."
As he spoke, five Spirit Rings appeared at Wu Ling's sides: two purple, two black, and one red. Wu Ling reached his hands into the two black Spirit Rings. The lightning-shaped Rule Breaker appeared in his left hand, while the pitch-black Arondight appeared in his right.
"I do not care whether it is the protection of an evil god or a demon god. As long as it is formed from Spirit Power, there is nothing Rule Breaker cannot break."
"And since this is a fellow that could repeatedly escape from two hundred-thousand-year Soul Beasts while only at sixty thousand years, its difficulty can fairly be called hundred-thousand-year class. So this time, I will take it seriously."
While Wu Ling drew his weapons, the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's attention turned toward the blood-red Spirit Ring. With intelligence no lower than a human's, it naturally knew what that was. It also sensed a trace of familiar Spirit Power from that ring.
"So the monkey died. In that case, that snake should be dead too. And the ones who acted were this human, no, the people behind this human."
Logically, since Wu Ling possessed the ability to kill the Titan Giant Ape, the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger, which had lost to those two before, should have fled immediately. But as the Spirit Rings appeared, the "fragrance" from Wu Ling became even more obvious. Faced with such ultimate deliciousness, escape no longer existed in the tiger's mind. It had only one thought.
"Eat him!"
The evil power around the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger erupted. In a flash, it opened its bloody maw and rushed forward, intending to swallow Wu Ling in one bite and flee at full speed.
Because this move was similar to a charge, its side effect was that it could only move in a straight line. Between it and Wu Ling were many branches, and even the smallest of those branches was as thick as a person. Yet they could only slow it slightly. They could not affect the result at all.
Leaving a trail of shattered branches behind, the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger arrived before Wu Ling. Wu Ling could even smell the foul stench from its mouth. Facing that terrifying bite force, Wu Ling had no interest in testing whether it had B-rank, meaning Spirit King-level or higher, attack power.
The place where Wu Ling stood suddenly flashed. Azure had already appeared in Wu Ling's position.
"Tch. Getting bitten hurts, you bastard main body."
In that brief moment, Azure swung his blade and left a wound, neither large nor small, across the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's eye. At the same time, once he sensed that his skin had touched the tiger's teeth, Azure directly dispersed himself.
After all, Azure could still accept being killed by other techniques. But this time, dying inside a tiger's mouth was different. If his luck was poor, he would feel his body being torn apart from every direction. Most importantly, the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's mouth was wet, sticky, and disgusting. Azure simply refused to die in that kind of place.
While the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's pounce struck empty air, it finally forced its body to a stop. Wu Ling seized that brief delay and instantly appeared above it, Arondight in hand, bringing the sword down viciously toward the tiger's neck.