Chapter 229: Suppressing Wang Qiu'er, the Auspicious Beast Revealed
The atmosphere at the edge of the jagged cliff had already been stretched taut, but now, the temperature plummeted.
A faint, icy sliver of killing intent leaked from the depths of Wang Qiu'er's heart—a primal hostility she hadn't even consciously realized she was projecting. Yet, in the suffocating silence, this nearly imperceptible ripple acted like a heavy stone hurled into a stagnant pond. It instantly shattered the calm.
Du Busi was the first to react.
His piercing gaze had originally been locked onto Huo Yuhao, assessing the Shrek Academy student. But in that split second, his monstrous perception caught the anomaly radiating from the slender figure standing just behind the boy. The fluctuation was incredibly faint. Anyone beneath the absolute apex of cultivation would have brushed it off as a trick of the wind. However, Du Busi was a Level 98 Super Douluo. Even with the lingering injury plaguing his left shoulder, his senses remained razor-sharp. He tilted his head a fraction of an inch, his eyes sliding past Yuhao to fixate entirely on Qiu'er.
Long Aotian caught it a heartbeat later.
While his cultivation base couldn't compare to his sect master's, his Body Martial Soul granted him an innate, terrifying sensitivity to the ambient energy in his surroundings. The fleeting killing intent pricked at his skin like a poisoned needle. His brow furrowed deeply as he shifted his stance, the muscles in his arms coiling tight beneath his sleeves, entirely prepared for sudden violence.
Liu Yuan sensed it just as clearly.
His extraordinary Three Pupils narrowed slightly, a captivating purple-gold light swirling within their depths. He had been quietly observing the duo from Shrek Academy all along, catching the murderous intent the exact microsecond it flared. More, unlike his master or senior brother, Liu Yuan knew exactly who that killing intent belonged to.
Three heavy, suffocating gazes converged on Wang Qiu'er simultaneously.
Her delicate features pulled tight. She could physically feel the crushing weight of their attention. Du Busi's stare was dissecting, as if peeling back her flesh to examine her bones. Aotian's glare brimmed with overt hostility, his subtle weight shift broadcasting his readiness to strike. And Liu Yuan's gaze... she couldn't quite put a name to it. It lacked the raw aggression of the others, replaced instead by a cold, penetrating understanding.
That quiet certainty made her skin crawl.
Huo Yuhao immediately felt the drastic shift in the atmosphere. He glanced back at Qiu'er, then turned his attention to Liu Yuan's group, his brow knitting together.
"What's wrong?" he asked, his voice breaking the tense silence.
No one bothered to answer him.
Du Busi remained perfectly still, yet the vast ocean of spirit power within his body began to roar to life. Long Aotian took a deliberate half-step backward, angling his broad shoulders to physically shield Liu Yuan. The young transmigrator simply stood his ground, the purple-gold radiance in his eyes flickering with an icy amusement.
Finally, Liu Yuan broke the silence.
"Huo Yuhao, it has been a long time." His tone was casual, yet in the dead quiet of the forest, every syllable struck like a hammer. "I truly didn't expect you to be hanging around with a spirit beast."
Yuhao froze.
For a second, his brain simply refused to process the words. A spirit beast? What spirit beast? Following Liu Yuan's line of sight, he looked back at the girl standing beside him, his expression rapidly morphing from mild confusion to utter bewilderment.
"What do you mean?" Yuhao demanded, his voice laced with disbelief. "Wang Qiu'er is a spirit beast?"
She was a comrade he had met at Shrek Academy. Despite her aloof demeanor and reluctance to speak, he had never once doubted her humanity.
But Qiu'er's expression betrayed her. It wasn't the righteous indignation of someone falsely accused. Instead, her lips pressed into a bloodless line. Her slender fingers curled inward, and her entire body pulled taut like a drawn bowstring—the obvious posture of a cornered prey whose deepest secret had just been dragged into the light.
Seeing her visceral reaction, Du Busi already had his answer.
A cold, grating laugh rumbled from his chest. Rather than attacking immediately, he glanced sideways at his disciple. "Liu Yuan, are you absolutely certain?"
Liu Yuan nodded, his voice completely devoid of hesitation. "I am sure."
He didn't bother offering a lengthy explanation. Across the vast expanse of the Douluo Continent, the number of individuals capable of seeing through Wang Qiu'er's flawless human disguise could be counted on one hand. But Liu Yuan possessed the ultimate advantage: the memories of the original timeline. Her identity had never been a mystery to him.
She was the Imperial Auspicious Beast, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion of the Star Dou Great Forest.
While her current appearance was a near-perfect mirror of Wang Dong'er, their auras were fundamentally opposed. Dong'er possessed a gentle, radiant warmth, whereas Qiu'er was an iceberg of cold arrogance. An ordinary observer might miss the nuance, but Liu Yuan's Three Pupils missed nothing.
Hearing his disciple's absolute confirmation, Du Busi required no further convincing. He trusted Liu Yuan's judgment implicitly.
The towering sect master took a single, devastating step forward. He didn't bother summoning his martial soul, nor did he activate a single spirit ring. He merely unleashed the raw, unadulterated spirit power pressure of a Level 98 Super Douluo.
He directed the invisible tidal wave of force entirely past Yuhao, locking it precisely onto Qiu'er.
The girl's body instantly locked up. The sheer atmospheric pressure crashed down on her shoulders like a collapsing mountain, driving the air from her lungs. She desperately tried to circulate her internal energy to fight back, but beneath the absolute suppression of a Super Douluo, her spirit power felt as sluggish as freezing mud.
Standing mere inches away, Yuhao caught the violent aftershocks of that oppressive aura. The blood drained from his face, leaving him deathly pale, yet he refused to retreat. He stubbornly stepped in front of Qiu'er, throwing his arms out.
"Sect Master Du, let us talk this through calmly!" Yuhao gritted out, his voice straining against the crushing gravity. "Qiu'er is my friend. She isn't some spirit beast!"
Long Aotian scoffed loudly, his voice dripping with disdain. "Your friend? Do you even have the slightest clue what she actually is?"
Yuhao opened his mouth to fire back a retort, only to find the words dying in his throat. He lacked the confidence to argue. The harsh truth was that he knew virtually nothing about Qiu'er's background, and worse, he was completely powerless to stop a monster like Du Busi.
Du Busi ignored the Shrek student entirely. His predatory gaze remained welded to the trembling girl.
"Reveal yourself," he commanded. The volume of his voice was low, but it carried an irresistible, god-like authority.
Qiu'er bit down hard on her lower lip, tasting copper. She neither spoke nor moved. Her slender frame shook violently—not out of cowardice, but from the agonizing physical exertion required to simply remain standing under the Super Douluo's might. But the chasm in strength was impossible. Her knees were already beginning to buckle.
Watching the scene unfold, Liu Yuan finally spoke up again.
"Master, do not kill her." His tone remained perfectly level, treating the life-or-death situation as a simple matter of logistics. "She is the Imperial Auspicious Beast of the Star Dou Great Forest, the very same Three-Eyed Golden Lion we encountered last time. If you end her life here, it will be incredibly troublesome to explain to Di Tian."
Du Busi arched an eyebrow, a dark realization flashing in his eyes.
Of course he remembered that accursed beast. During their previous expedition into the Star Dou Great Forest, it was precisely because of this Three-Eyed Golden Lion that they had been cornered by the terrifying might of Di Tian and Xiong Jun. If he hadn't burned his own life force to carve a bloody path of retreat, Liu Yuan and Long Aotian would have perished in those woods.
"So, it is you," Du Busi growled, the temperature of his voice dropping to absolute zero.
His impression of the Auspicious Beast was exceptionally poor. It wasn't her strength that offended him, but her arrogant meddling. If not for her interference, the Body Sect wouldn't have been forced into such a pathetic, desperate retreat.
Under the crushing weight of Du Busi's mounting fury, Qiu'er's trembling intensified. She desperately wanted to flee, but the Super Douluo's pressure had completely locked down the surrounding space. She couldn't even lift a finger, let alone escape.
Yuhao watched her agonized expression with mounting panic. He desperately wanted to intervene, to summon his own power, but the ambient pressure rendered him completely immobile.
"Qiu'er..." he choked out.
She didn't answer. She couldn't.
Her human disguise finally shattered. A faint, ethereal golden light erupted from beneath her skin. The radiance grew blindingly intense, her slender silhouette twisting and expanding within the brilliant glow.
Yuhao's eyes widened to the point of tearing. He watched in absolute horror as the beautiful young woman melted away, replaced by an entirely different entity.
As the light faded, a majestic golden spirit beast stood in her place. It wasn't particularly massive—measuring roughly two meters in length—but it was undeniably stunning. Thick, shimmering golden fur covered its sleek body, and a vertical third eye rested in the center of its forehead, radiating a faint, eerie crimson glow.
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion.
Yuhao's mind flatlined. He stood rooted to the earth, staring blankly at the golden beast. The person he had fought alongside for months, the girl who wore Dong'er's face, was a spirit beast?
"Don't look!" A desperate, distinctly human voice tore from the beast's maw, thick with panic and humiliation. "Huo Yuhao, do not look at me!"
She had fought so hard to maintain her human form in front of this youth. It was her final, desperate shred of dignity. Now, Liu Yuan and Du Busi had violently stripped it all away, leaving her completely exposed.
But Yuhao couldn't look away. His lips parted, trembling slightly, but his vocal cords refused to produce a single sound.
Standing a short distance away, Liu Yuan observed the tragic display with absolute apathy.
He had never gone out of his way to hunt Wang Qiu'er, but this arrogant creature had repeatedly interfered with his plans. His patience had long since dried up. If it weren't for the looming threat of the Beast God Di Tian, he would have gladly skinned her alive for her core and bones. Since he couldn't kill her, he was more than happy to inflict maximum psychological damage.
"I do not know exactly why a supreme spirit beast would lower itself to lurk around a human for so long," Liu Yuan remarked, his voice slicing through the heavy silence. "But it certainly isn't for anything good."
He shifted his gaze to the paralyzed Shrek student, his lips curving into a dry, mocking smile.
"Huo Yuhao, it seems you owe me yet another favor."
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