Luring the Tiger, Reaping the Harvest
The forest became a blur of streaking emerald and bronze as Yao Xuan wove through the ancient trees. The thunder of pursuit—a dozen massive predators driven by fury—vibrated through the earth at his heels. Yet, his heart was a drum of calm strategy, not panic.
'Speed. Maintain just enough distance. Let them taste the chase, let their rage cloud what little reason they possess.'
His blood energy hummed, the first layer of his nine-colored circulation glowing like a faint aurora beneath his skin. With its activation came a whisper of spatial power, a subtle distortion that clung to him. Each footfall seemed to gain an extra inch of purchase from the world itself, each pivot sharper, his agility elevated beyond pure physical limits. The Ancestral Dragon Shattering Void Step, even in its passive infusion, made him a ghost in the foliage.
Behind him, the lead Flame Lion's roar was a promise of evisceration. It led the pack of adult males in a relentless, earth-shaking gallop, their combined demonic flames casting a hellish, flickering light through the woods.
A faint, cold smile touched Yao Xuan's lips. 'Perfectly on script.'
He deliberately checked his top speed, ensuring the glowing eyes and heated breaths never faded entirely from his spiritual sense. He led them on a wide, arcing route, a great circle that carved through the Spirit Ascension Platform's simulated wilderness. The goal was not escape, but repositioning.
After a long, tense minute, the geometry of the hunt shifted. Yao Xuan, completing his loop, now sprinted back toward the original clearing. Ahead, through the trees, he sensed the cluster of weaker energies—the lionesses and cubs, left vulnerable. Behind, separated by the distance of the circuit, the enraged males still followed.
"The harvest begins," he whispered, and the calm in his eyes crystallized into sharp intent.
He stopped holding back. Blood energy surged, and his form exploded forward, leaving a phantom afterimage that was promptly obliterated by a wave of fire. He shot like a nine-colored arrow straight toward the heart of the remaining pride.
The lionesses reacted with fierce, protective instinct. Led by the sole thousand-year female, they fanned out, manes bristling with less intense but still deadly flames, issuing growls that vibrated with maternal fury. They pounced as one, a coordinated wave of claws and fangs aimed to tear the invader apart.
Yao Xuan did not break stride. "Commendable courage," he stated, his voice flat and carrying over the snarls. "Unfortunately, too weak."
His assessment was mercilessly accurate. To the Ancestral Dragon's senses, their auras were like candles against a bonfire. Only the leader presented a flicker of meaningful threat.
His focus narrowed on her. "Let's start with you! Ancestral Dragon Sky-Splitting Strike!"
The first purple soul ring blazed. Primal, majestic power surged from his core, converging on his right arm. His hand seemed to blur, the fingers elongating slightly, sheathed in condensed, shimmering nine-colored light that held a terrifying sharpness. He met the leading lioness's fiery pounce not with evasion, but with a devastating thrust.
Bang!
Claw met Dragon Claw in mid-air. The lioness's demonic flame met the Ancestral Dragon' sovereign energy. For a split second, they held. Then, with a sickening crack-crack!, the Absolute Armor Penetration property of the Sky-Splitting Strike took effect. The lioness's claws, infused with fire but not infinite soul power, shattered against the higher-order draconic force.
Yao Xuan's strike did not stop. It powered forward, a spear of light and intent. It tore through the dense fur, past the sternum, and found the fiercely beating heart within.
Bang!
A second, deeper sound, muffled and final. The ancestral dragon energy erupted internally, a silent cataclysm that extinguished life in an instant. The light fled the lioness's eyes. Her proud, flaming form went limp and crashed to the forest floor, raising a small plume of ash and dust.
[Slayed 1 Thousand-Year Flame Lion. Gained 22 Gold Evolution Points.]
The notification was a secondary echo. The primary reward was the surge of rich, purple spiritual energy that streamed from the corpse, eagerly drawn into and absorbed by the Ancestral Dragon Soul Spirit coiled within Yao Xuan's soul sea. It trembled with growth.
Yao Xuan landed lightly, his gaze sweeping over the remaining, now leaderless lionesses and yowling cubs. There was no cruelty in his eyes, only the necessity of the hunt and the calculation of survival. "Your turn."
What followed was not a battle, but a swift, efficient reaping. Without their millennial anchor, the hundred-year soul beasts were utterly outclassed. His movements were a blur—a flash of a dragon-clawed hand here, a spatial-step-enhanced kick there. Each strike was precise, final. The forest clearing, once a place of rest for the pride, became a silent monument to his overwhelming power.
[Slay 16 Flame Lions. Gain 195 Gold Evolution Points.]
[Completed Temporary Mission: Slay the First Stage of Flame Lions (Second Stage Progress: 18/20). Gain 50 Gold Evolution Points.]
The chorus of system chimes was satisfying, but more profound was the torrent of spiritual energy. Multiple streams of purple light flowed into him, causing his soul spirit to visibly thrum and expand within his consciousness. Its cultivation rocketed upward, breaking past another century mark, solidifying its journey toward the next major threshold.
But the moment of harvest was cut short. A wall of palpable, scorching hatred crashed into the clearing.
The dozen male lions had arrived.
They skidded to a halt, their furious charges dying as they beheld the carnage—their mates, their young, lying motionless. The demonic flames wreathing their bodies flared violently, turning from orange to a searing white-hot. Their roars were no longer just of anger, but of soul-deep grief and an agony that promised only reciprocal destruction. Every bloodshot eye locked onto Yao Xuan, the architect of their desolation.
"These tough nuts to crack," Yao Xuan murmured, his body already assessing his depleted state. The swift slaughter had cost soul power; the sustained high-speed chase had drained blood energy. He was far from exhausted, but to face twelve enraged千年魂兽 at anything less than optimal was suicide. "However, my reserves are insufficient. Time for an investment."
He focused inward, touching the system interface with a thought.
[Replenishing blood energy and soul power to restore optimal condition requires 50 Gold Evolution Points. Restore?]
A pang went through him—50 Points was a substantial chunk of his recent gains. But it was capital for a greater return. "Yes!"
The Points vanished from his mental ledger. In their place, a warm, profound surge flooded his meridians and infused his muscles. It was like drinking from a spring of pure vitality. Fatigue melted away; his soul sea, slightly dimmed, refilled with luminous, nine-colored energy. In a breath, he was restored, peak condition reaffirmed.
Just in time.
"ROAR!"
The lion leader, a beast of particularly immense size and a mane like living lava, threw its head back and screamed its wrath to the artificial sky. In unison, the pack acted. Their maws gaped, and the surrounding heat warp condensed into spheres of devastating power—dozens of fireballs, each capable of cratering stone, hurled forth in a blinding, overlapping barrage aimed to saturate the entire clearing and erase Yao Xuan from existence.
Yao Xuan's lips curled, not in fear, but in cold recognition of a predictable pattern. "Useless! Too slow!"
As the incendiary storm descended, he became a phantom. Activating the Ancestral Dragon Shattering Void Step fully, his body seemed to fragment and reform a dozen paces away, leaving only a heat-distorted afterimage. The fireballs impacted where he had stood, erupting in a concatenation of deafening roars. The earth heaved, trees were vaporized into splinters and ash, and a mushrooming cloud of fire and debris bloomed, scouring the area with a superheated shockwave.
Yao Xuan, already outside the primary blast zone, felt the hot wind tear at his clothes. The raw power was impressive, but it was wasted against the void.
The real battle—the deliberate, grinding hunt against the separated, furious males—was about to begin. He had his strength back, his targets were before him, and the system's quest for a greater reward beckoned. He met the gaze of the Flame Lion Leader across the burning scar in the forest.
The silent message was clear: Your turn to chase. My turn to win.