When Lin Xiao returned to the riverbank cradle carrying the trembling black pup in his fluid embrace. The campsite was glowed with the amber light of the hearth fire. The cedar lid on the five-foot bronze wok rattled gently, puffing fragrant plumes of caramelized ginger and braised pork into the cool night air.
Tie Shan looked up from his seat by the fire, his amber eyes widening. He saw the tiny bundle resting against Lin Xiao’s azure chest.
“Lord Xiao,” Tie Shan rumbled, his massive nine-foot frame leaning forward with gentle concern. “What creature is that? A hound pup?”
“Found him trapped in a rusted wire snare two hundred yards up the ridge,” Lin Xiao explained, gently lowering his fluid body onto a clean cedar mat. He set the shivering pup down on the polished wood. “His hind leg was cut to the bone and soaked in corpse-rot rust. I stopped the wire and cleansed the venom, but the little guy is severely half-starved. He hasn’t eaten in days.”
Old Ba waddled over, his ancient snout sniffing the pup’s matted black coat. The old tortoise’s brow furrowed.
“A Shadow Hound,” Old Ba observed gravely. “Born in the misty hollows of the Grand Desolate Forest. Human hunting bands prize their pelt for night-hunting stealth robes and slaughter their mothers for core stones. To see one so young, discarded like trash in a rusted snare... It sickens this old shell.”
The pup huddled on the cedar mat, shivering weakly. His dark fur was matted with dried mud, his ribs showing through his skin, and his torn ear twitching at every crackle of the hearth fire. But when his nose twitched. It caught the overwhelming, intoxicating scent of braised pork belly floating from the wok, his silver eyes fluttered open.
Lin Xiao smiled. “Hungry, aren’t you? Let’s fix that.”
Extending two azure tendrils, Lin Xiao lifted the cedar lid from the bronze wok. A amazing cloud of savory, dark wood-tinted steam billowed into the night. Inside, the thick-cut cubes of marbled pork belly were simmering in a rich, glistening glaze alongside golden rounds of sweet mountain yams and winter turnips.
Lin Xiao dipped a shallow stone bowl into the broth, skimming off the rich, nutrient-dense bone marrow stock. He shredded a tender chunk of pork belly into delicate, bite-sized ribbons. That let the meat soak in the warm broth until it was soft enough to melt on the tongue. He placed the bowl directly in front of the pup’s nose.
The little pup didn’t hesitate.
With a desperate, hungry whimper, he plunged his muzzle into the bowl. He lapped up the warm broth with furious thanks, his tiny pink tongue working with wild speed. The rich, jelly-like marrow stock, enriched by the ancient chaos life-force of Lin Xiao’s cooking, flooded the pup’s starved body like liquid life. Every swallow sent waves of healing medicine warmth through his shriveled spirit veins.
Slurp, slurp, gulp!
In less than twenty seconds, the bowl was licked so clean that the granite shone in the firelight. The pup looked up at Lin Xiao, his tail giving a hesitant, tentative wag, his silver eyes wide and pleading.
“Still hungry?” Lin Xiao chuckled. “Eat as much as you like, little friend. We have forty pounds of it.”
Lin Xiao filled a second bowl, then a third.
By the time the third bowl was empty, the pup’s belly had swelled into a round, taut little drum. He collapsed onto his side on the cedar mat. That let out a tiny, contented burp that puffed a small bubble of pork-scented steam. He rolled onto his back. He exposed his soft belly, and gently brushed his black paws against Lin Xiao’s squishy blue side.
Lin Xiao felt a deep, gentle warmth bloom at the center of his origin core.
Extending a soft azure slime arm, Lin Xiao stroked the pup’s silken black ears and scratched him beneath his chin. The pup closed his eyes, purring with the deep, rhythmic contentment of a creature that had finally found safety.
“A loyal heart wrapped in midnight shadows,” Lin Xiao murmured softly. “You survived the cold thorns and the rusted iron. From this night forth, you have a home, a pack, and all the warm broth you can drink. Under the twin moons of the azure sky, your True Name shall be Xiao Hei—Little Black!”
The simple words fell like sky decrees upon the riverbank.
BOOOOOOM!
The night sky directly above the bamboo arbor parted! A blinding pillar of midnight-blue starlight dropped from the heavens, piercing through the canopy and wrapping the sleeping pup in a roaring vortex of dark wind and silver astral flame!
Tie Shan instantly raised his golden titan arm to shield his face. Meanwhile, Old Ba pulled back half into his shell in awe.
Within the pillar of sky starlight, Xiao Hei’s tiny body levitated into the air. The ancient, ancient shackles of the Shadow Hound bloodline were burned up by the influx of Lin Xiao’s chaotic origin qi!
His skeletal structure swelled with astonishing speed. His muscles surged with condensed wind-element marrow. His razor-sharp claws extended, turning into gleaming talons of liquid silver. And his coarse puppy coat transformed into a flowing, amazing mantle of pitch-black silk that seemed to drink in the surrounding darkness. Along his muscular flanks, fine, detailed silver star-pattern runes ignited, swirling like living storm clouds!
When the light faded, an eight-foot-long, four-foot-tall Celestial Shadow Gale Hound landed softly on the quartz stone floor with zero sound!
His ruby-red eyes burned with piercing, sovereign intelligence. From his paws drifted faint wisps of silver mist that whispered with the voice of the mountain wind. The spiritual pressure streaming from his massive frame radiated at the peak of Tier-2 Beast King—a presence tough enough to make mortal Foundation-stage fighters flee for their lives!
A crisp bronze bell chimed within Lin Xiao’s mindscape:
Yet despite this terrifying, world-shaking transformation, the huge shadow wolf right away turned his massive head toward Lin Xiao.
His ruby eyes softened into pools of pure, undying devotion. Xiao Hei dropped his front quarters to the ground, bowing his amazing wolf head until his cold, wet black nose gently nudged Lin Xiao’s squishy azure cheek. He gave a soft, high-pitched canine whine of total affection, his huge tail wagging with such ferocious joy that the wind generated nearly blew the cedar lid off the hearth!
“Who’s a good boy?” Lin Xiao laughed, extending two broad pseudopods to scratch behind the wolf’s silken, star-pattern-etched ears. “Look at you! You went from a scruffy stray to an eight-foot majestic shadow dog in five seconds! Your fur is softer than cashmere.”
Xiao Hei closed his eyes, leaning his entire four-hundred-pound weight affectionately against Lin Xiao’s jelly body, shaking with a thunderous canine purr.
Suddenly, Xiao Hei’s ears snapped forward. His ruby eyes flashed with icy, lethal malice.
Through the Primordial Soul Circuit that had just formed between them, Lin Xiao received an instant tactical ping:
Hostiles approaching from the western tree line. Three human scouts. Weaponry: barbed iron nets, soul-tracking magic charms, poisoned crossbows.
Fifty yards away, creeping through the bamboo shadows, were three men dressed in the crimson-and-black robes of the Crimson Flame Pavilion’s outer mercenary division. They had been tracking the miraculous scent of braised meat for miles, expecting to find an isolated mortal family or a weak spirit beast to butcher.
“Look at that fire,” the lead mercenary whispered greedily, clutching a heavy iron crossbow. “The aroma alone cleared my spirit veins! There must be an ancient treasure cooking in that cooking pot! Slaughter whoever is at the camp and take the—”
The man’s voice died in his throat.
Before he could finish his sentence, the shadows beneath his boots detached from the ground.
Whoosh!
A silent vortex of silver mist erupted from the forest floor. Xiao Hei materialized directly behind the three hired blades with faster-than-sound speed. Zero air shifted weight, zero sound footprint, and total hungry perfection.
SWISH! SNAP! THUD!
Moving faster than the human eye could track, Xiao Hei lashed out with two silver wind-cleaver claws. In a single fluid sweep, he cut the strings of all three crossbows, sliced the straps of their weapon belts. Then he swiped their legs out from under them.
Before the three men could even scream, Xiao Hei’s huge, eight-foot shadow frame dropped upon them. He planted his massive front paws firmly across the chests of two scouts. At the same time, his bared fangs—glistening with dark wind qi—hovered half an inch above the throat of the third.
“Move a single finger,” a low, telepathic growl echoed directly into the minds of the scared humans, “and I’ll tear your souls from your throats before your blood touches the grass.”
The three hired blades froze in stone-hard, bladder-loosening horror.
They were hardened Foundation-stage hunters who had trapped hundreds of beasts. But never had they met a creature like this. This was not a savage woodland beast. This was an ancient, sovereign hunting beast of the high astral realms, streaming the icy chill of the sky void!
“Mercy! Mercy, Beast King!” the lead scout whimpered, his teeth chattering so hard they sounded like dice in a cup. “We... We were only following the smell of the meat! We meant no offense!”
Back at the campsite, Lin Xiao hopped over on his floating blue form. He was flanked by the towering nine-foot form of Tie Shan and Old Ba.
Lin Xiao looked at the three trembling hired blades pinned in the mud beneath Xiao Hei’s massive paws. He glanced at their dropped poisoned crossbows, their barbed nets, and their scared, sweat-drenched faces.
“Well now,” Lin Xiao said in a pleasant, conversational tone, his azure surface wobbling cheerfully under the moonlight. “It seems we have unexpected dinner guests. Tie Shan, grab some bamboo cords and tie their hands behind their backs. Xiao Hei, good boy. Come off them. You’re crushing their ribs.”
Xiao Hei lifted his paws, trotting back to Lin Xiao’s side and sitting down with spotless military stance, though his tail couldn’t resist giving two happy thumps against the earth.
“Now then,” Lin Xiao said to the trembling prisoners. He extended a tendril to point toward the bubbling bronze wok by the river. “Nobody gets eaten tonight unless they behave badly. But you three are going to sit by that fire, eat a bowl of cabbage stew, and answer a few simple questions about who sent you into my forest.”