The next moment, the already-destroyed Fiend Mountain trembled.
The ground split open with countless cracks.
After the cat’s cry, the roar of a tiger rang out, ferocious, shaking the mountains and forests.
Amidst the gray dust, a colossal figure rose up with world-shattering might.
Two eyes, glowing with eerie dark light, pierced the heavens and locked onto Xu Zimo.
“Ancestor, this is the man who destroyed our Fiend Mountain and slaughtered so many of our kin,” the King Scale-Rat shouted at the side.
The two Immortal beasts beside him quickly tried to dissuade him.
“Great King, this man is not on our level. Best not to speak rashly.”
“With Ancestor here, what do I have to fear?” the King Scale-Rat snorted coldly, though his body still instinctively retreated several steps.
As the dust settled, the massive shadow revealed its true form, and Xu Zimo finally saw its appearance clearly.
It was a tiger, with two heads.
One head was a ferocious tiger’s, savage and menacing; the other was like that of a tabby cat, striped and sharp-eyed.
“You are the Elder Fiend?” Xu Zimo asked.
“The Ancestor is absent. I am only his mount,” the tiger shook its head, its voice rumbling like thunder.
Just a mount, yet already at the first realm of Grand Emperor, Yin-Yang Stage.
That meant the Elder Fiend himself was, if not a Saint Sovereign, at least at the peak of the five stages of a Grand Emperor, nearing Saint Sovereign Realm.
“Where is the Elder Fiend?” Xu Zimo asked.
“The Ancestor’s whereabouts are ever unfathomable. He need not report to us,” the tiger shook its head again.
“Ancestor, you are also a Grand Emperor. Why waste words with him?” the King Scale-Rat shouted, itching for revenge.
“Noisy,” Xu Zimo’s cold snort shook the void itself.
The sound rippled like thunder. The void shattered. Heaven and earth darkened. Lightning tore through the sky.
King Scale-Rat collapsed instantly, his face pale, unconscious on the ground.
“Great King!” The two Immortal beasts rushed to support him, examined him, then looked back at Xu Zimo with grim faces.
“His soul is shattered.”
“Quite the domineering method you wield,” the tiger coldly said.
It breathed out a surge of true essence, wrapping around King Scale-Rat’s broken soul to stabilize it.
“Domineering?” Xu Zimo chuckled softly. “Compared to your lot, who casually exterminate entire sects, what I did is child’s play.”
“You’ve come to seek justice for Immortal Brew Island?” the tiger asked, eyes narrowing.
“Immortal Brew Island has nothing to do with me. I was merely passing through, when your men stopped me,” Xu Zimo said. “Since you wouldn’t let me leave, I thought we might as well reason this out properly.”
At this, the tiger had a rough idea of the truth.
It was most likely his “children,” emboldened by the Elder Fiend’s name, who regularly robbed travelers. Normally, others dared not challenge them. But this time, they had picked on someone unyielding.
“Fellow Daoist, bring out some compensation and offer us an apology, and today’s matter can be forgotten. What say you?” the tiger suggested.
“Forgotten?” Xu Zimo laughed. “You’d like to forget it. I wouldn’t.”
“What do you mean?” the tiger asked, its tone tightening. “The Ancestor is absent today. Otherwise, even as an Emperor, you would have to bow. Surely you’ve heard his name.”
“Sorry, I really haven’t,” Xu Zimo smiled.
“The Ancestor is at the peak of Grand Emperor, one step away from Saint Sovereign,” the tiger said coldly.
“He may become the second Saint Sovereign of the Mortal Ascension Heaven, after Brahma.”
“The second Saint Sovereign? Phew, I’m so scared,” Xu Zimo laughed mockingly.
“Fellow Daoist, I counsel you kindly, don’t be ungrateful,” the tiger said evenly.
“I’m a little hungry. Just wondering whether you’re truly a tiger… or just a fat cat,” Xu Zimo tilted his head, smiling.
“Courting death!” the tiger roared, wings tearing through the void as it charged at the Airship.
The gale of its wings shredded the air. The massive Airship crumpled like paper and was obliterated in an instant.
Xu Zimo and his companions stepped into the void, evading the strike.
The tiger’s two heads roared, especially the tabby-cat head, shrieking sharply.
Its speed was incredible. Fiend Mountain’s Dao Source wasn’t even its master’s, it was this beast’s own.
No wonder so many feared to provoke them. A mountain with two Grand Emperors, its underlings had reason to be arrogant.
The tiger’s speed tore the skies apart, its massive body causing sonic booms, thundering across the heavens.
“Down kitty!” Xu Zimo shouted.
He descended, his right palm bursting with overwhelming might. With a thunderous crash, his strike landed on the tiger’s back.
The void shattered. Spatial currents whipped wildly like arrows.
The two of them crashed downward like meteors, plummeting through the sky.
Xu Zimo gripped one of its heads with one hand, pummeling its back with the other.
Fiend Mountain’s Dao Source surged, manifesting the form of an ancient White Tiger.
The White Tiger roared to the heavens, opened its bloody maw, and swallowed both Xu Zimo and the tiger whole.
The next moment, the White Tiger’s colors began to change.
The Dao Source fused into its body, transforming it into a real, living tiger.
Its form grew even larger. It licked its lips, eyes turning toward Miss Jing and the Moon-Pluck Fairy in the sky.
“Go!” Miss Jing’s face changed. She shouted urgently.
“What about him?” the Moon-Pluck Fairy asked.
“He won’t die so easily, he’s only trapped for now,” Miss Jing said.
“Then shouldn’t we help him?”
“That tiger is a Grand Emperor. If you stay, you’ll never leave,” Miss Jing snapped. She tore through the void, preparing to escape.
But the tiger had already fixed its gaze on her, charging forward at terrifying speed.
She had no time to react, an explosion shook the air, and she was blasted hundreds of meters away.
The tiger stalked forward, step by step, looming over her.
Covered in blood, she lay on the ground, staring up at the beast towering above.
It looked down on her, then opened its maw wide, ready to swallow her whole.
At that critical moment, a burst of radiance erupted from Miss Jing’s body.
Within that light was the terrifying power of the Dao itself.
Not a Dao comprehended.
But the Dao itself.