330 To Riverfall!

I canceled Summon: Holy Spirit and slipped back into my own body. Four legs again. I'd never get used to it.

Running, breathing, and even blinking felt strange in this form. The muscles weren't mine. Instead, they belonged to the Animal Soul, yet they moved at my will. I sometimes wondered if I could ever return to my proper shape. Maybe if I recovered my Human Soul… or my main spirit-body, wherever it was now.

It was funny, really.

"Thing-y feels dangerous," the Animal Soul muttered from somewhere deep within.

"I know, buddy," I answered, watching the dull gleam of the crown. "That's why we have to be careful about it."

I lowered my head and picked it up gently with my snout. Even without any visible energy flow, the crown hummed with suppressed divinity. It was quiet, but the kind of quiet that screamed in the back of your skull. I tucked it into my pocket dimension and immediately regretted it.

A deep, wrenching twist ran through my stomach, like swallowing a storm. My vision blurred. "Ugh…"

Then came the barfing. Yes, the majestic Da Wei, cultivator of Paladin awesomeness and master of Divine Words, was now vomiting uncontrollably in a hole. The crown clattered back out of my pocket dimension and rolled once before coming to a stop, gleaming faintly. I stared at it through half-lidded eyes.

"Even suppressed, you're a stubborn bastard," I muttered, spitting to the side.

It wasn't just heavy. Instead, it resisted containment. Its very existence pressed down on the fabric of space. My Divine Sense brushed against it, and I felt like I was staring at a black hole in the shape of a pretty hat.

"Guess you don't like being carried that way, huh?"

I sighed, grabbed it with my snout again, and launched upward with Zealot's Stride. The wind hit my fur as the valley shrank below me. The distortion of time around the pit fell away instantly, the sensation of my life being eaten ebbing from my bones.

"Finally…"

I glanced down once more. That pit must have been Zai Ai's doing. A prison, a seal, and a memory she left behind without knowing why. She probably spent a long time down there and has forgotten every reason for it. I guessed, I'd never know.

I tightened my grip on the crown and accelerated, gold energy bursting beneath my paws.

Divine Speed. Zealot's Stride.

I phased higher into the air, wind howling against me, and eyes locked on the distant horizon where the Riverfall lay. Time to go home, or the place I have closest to one, second only to New Willow. Hmmm… It would've been faster to use Castling or Egress, but this crown was too eye-catching. Even with its presence dulled down, I could feel quintessence pouring out of it.

Still, bringing stuff from Point A to Point B should have been easy, right? Wrong!

If the distance between A and B had been, say, a few kingdoms apart, I could've managed it with some grit and maybe an energy drink or two. But this wasn't some simple countryside delivery. This was the Hollowed World, a place so massive it made galaxies look humble. Hundreds of continents, each with its own ecosystems, sects, and lunatics. Even after all this time, its sheer scale still messed with my head.

Meh… I guessed I could manage…

I couldn't help but think, if a World War broke out across this world… The destruction would be beyond imagination. I'd seen empires fall, gods bleed, and stars explode, but a war on that level? No thanks.

Still, a mission was a mission. Fetch quest, huh? It reminded me of LLO, back when my biggest problem was whether the goblin I killed would drop the right loot. Those were simpler days.

Anyway, back to reality.

The moment I left the valley, the trouble started. Not five minutes into my flight when I sensed killing intent closing in fast, then came the yelling.

"It's the rumored golden hound I heard about!"

"Such a Sacred Beast! Look at that pure aura… divine bloodline, I tell you!"

"What's that thing in its mouth? A crown?"

"It's a supreme treasure!"

"I can feel pure Immortal Qi from that thing!"

I groaned internally. Great. Random encounter.

"That dog is mine! I'll boil it into soup and advance my realm!"

"Bah! I need that crown to heal from my last breakthrough! Move aside!"

"Brothers and sisters, let us not fight amongst ourselves—"

"Shut up, you're already channeling your sword qi!"

In the span of seconds, a dozen cultivators surrounded me, their auras blooming like fireworks. I scanned their levels, Tenth Realm, most of them, though a few sneaky bastards were hiding underground at the Seventh or Eighth.

I blinked, tail flicking.

"What the fuck?!"

Where the hell did these geezers and hags even come from!? Were they waiting in the sky for random loot deliveries? Or did the Hollow Star's energy just attract every greedy mosquito within a thousand miles?

The crown pulsed faintly between my jaws. Yep. Definitely it's fault.

I sighed through my snout and activated Qi Speech. My words rippled through the air, divine resonance lacing each syllable.

"Everyone, listen! I need this crown. It's not what you think—it's dangerous."

They hesitated slightly. A few exchanged looks. I continued.

"Let me go, and I swear upon my soul, I'll owe you all. You'll have treasures, elixirs, techniques, and whatever you need."

They paused, suspicious eyes landing on me.

Internally, I winced. "Please don't make me kill anyone today… I just wanted to complete one fetch quest without bloodshed." But of course, this was the Hollowed World. Absolutely nothing was ever simple here.

So, why was I playing diplomat in the sky with a mouthful of cursed metal? Two reasons, and both of them irritated me. First: this body wasn't my true one. It could mimic the strength of an Ascended Soul when I poured quintessence into it, but it was still a borrowed vessel, fragile flesh wrapped around power. Dave had been no different: brimful of courage, but breakable. If I bled here, I bled for good! Second: every skirmish in the Hollowed World risked drawing out hidden masters, those vultures who pop from the dirt the moment treasure squeaks. Like for example, the one I am holding with my snout… I had no desire to stall the mission now; worse yet, I didn't want to watch a dozen ambitious corpses claim my dog-body and that crown like trinkets. Honestly, I fucking hated them.

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"Let's slaughter them!" the Animal Soul piped up. "You can do it, my lovely progenitor!

I felt the pull in my chest, the old want to rend and roar. Ugh. So bloodthirsty. I let out a low, involuntary growl. I wasn't immune to the thought of tearing them apart. But now? No. Not when I could just run.

One of the Tenth Realm idiots made a show of charging forward.

"This is an intelligent Sacred Beast," someone hissed. "Beware of its cunning!"

"The beast is mine!" another crowed.

The impatient one lunged. I blinked and vanished. Flash Step folded the air, and I was ahead of him, tasting wind. For a heartbeat, it was tempting to use Castling, to flick myself away to New Willow or directly into the Empire's lands and hand the crown off to safety. But the crown's peculiar pull told me to stay. If its presence attracted sharks, it also smelled of whatever blood trail led back to my hideout in the Empire. I would not expose that. Not now.

The moment I blinked away, a formation ignited where I had stood, a lattice of rune-lines and snares, shimmering like nets in the air. They had prepared for this, huh?

"Got the beast! It's mine!" the impatient one shouted again, rolling into a string of handseals. The formation hummed, lines knitting together into tighter loops.

I dropped back to the ground, landing with a paw on the stone. A Ninth Realm cultivator in the unmistakable whites and silver embroidery of the Heavenly Temple stepped through the smoke, face set in grim determination. Sacred sigils trembled at his fingertips. He smelled of incense and command; his aura was old and lacquered like court armor.

Of course. Heavenly Temple colors. Figures.

My gut tightened. This wasn't a ragtag band of treasure mongers. This was organized. The pattern snapped into place, the nets, the levels of the attackers, and the way they'd fanned to corners like wolves coordinated by a whistle. Someone had planned this ambush.

The Ninth Realm cultivator raised his hand high, voice booming across the hollow, threaded with holy authority. "Death Squad Division No. 112! I shall accomplish my mission… seize the crown and secure the beast!"

His shout was a flare. From the rubble, from beneath the stones, from behind crags and broken pillars, more figures slid into the light, armored, hungry, and numerous. They poured out of hiding like locusts from a fissure.

Their ambush might've worked if they hadn't been so damn loud. My Divine Sense painted them all in sharp, pulsing silhouettes: dozens of qi signatures, each trying to suppress their presence but failing miserably. I sighed through my fangs. This was going to be annoying.

The sky suddenly howled with spellfire. Flaming spears, chains of lightning, and a few particularly flashy dragons of pure qi came roaring toward me from above. I darted between them, a streak of gold. Each blast that grazed my fur felt like static; each formation that tried to cage me cracked apart under my acceleration.

"Summon: Holy Spirit—Ezekiel!"

The heavens split.

A skeletal giant plunged through the clouds, bone wings spreading wide, sockets burning with golden fury. The air warped under the weight of his presence. He let out a thunderous roar, shaking the treetops and scattering several unlucky cultivators like leaves in a gale.

"TOUCH HIM, AND I'LL TURN YOUR SOULS INTO MY MEAL!" Ezekiel's voice rattled the air itself. He swung a bony fist the size of a carriage, crushing one of the Tenth Realm cultivators who hadn't dodged fast enough.

Seriously, though? Since when could Ezekiel talk?

Meanwhile, I whispered another incantation, qi and mana folding like origami between my paws. "Halo of Restriction."

Golden bands of light appeared around every Heavenly Temple cultivator in range, tightening with each heartbeat. Some screamed, their meridians twisting.

But before I could press the advantage, chaos erupted again. A spear pierced through the chest of one of the restricted cultivators, clean and deliberate. From the shadows, an old man with bloodshot eyes shuffled forward, his robes ragged, aura thick with demonic taint.

"Heavenly Temple dogs should stay out of this!" the old man snarled, grabbing the fallen cultivator's body and draining it dry. His veins pulsed black as he absorbed the man's essence. "How dare you leak word of a legendary item and use us as a distraction!? The dog's mine… and so is the crown!"

"Over my undead body!" Ezekiel roared, cleaving a formation sigil in half with his skeletal wing. "I SWEAR BY THE FIRST OATH, IF ANY OF YOU LAY A FINGER ON HIM, I'LL FEED YOU TO THE VOID!"

"He's mine!" another Tenth Realm cultivator shouted, throwing a crimson blade of qi at my flank.

"Over your corpse!" came another reply.

"Oh for fuck's sake," I muttered. "They're arguing over ownership while I'm still breathing."

More Tenth Realm masters dropped from the sky, drawn by the scent of chaos, each wielding strange artifacts, each barking claims over me and the crown.

That was when I heard my Animal Soul's voice, rumbling from deep within. "Let me handle this, progenitor."

There was a certainty, an old wild pride behind those words that made even me pause. I hesitated only a moment before withdrawing my consciousness, letting him take the reins.

"Don't get cocky," I murmured as my awareness faded into the backseat.

The Animal Soul laughed in a deep, rolling sound that was half growl, half storm. Then my body shifted. Bones cracked. Fur split. The golden hound became a colossal elephant, trumpeting as thunder coursed through its tusks.

The nearest cultivator barely had time to scream before he was crushed underfoot. With a stomp that split the ground, the Animal Soul barreled forward, rolling into a massive golden blur.

"Too slow, too greedy!" it shouted gleefully as it picked up speed.

Then, mid-charge, the form shrank and twisted again, elephant becoming armadillo, gleaming plates folding over into a seamless sphere. We rolled through the battlefield like a boulder of divine metal, smashing formations and scattering cultivators like bowling pins, the air behind us thick with dust and curses.

What the fuck? What the fuck!?

The Animal Soul's body wasn't just any beastly form. It was that of a Demi-God, radiating the kind of pressure that made even Tenth Realm cultivators flinch when it roared. Its raw damage output could level mountains and split valleys, easily matching an Ascended Soul's might. Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for me in my summoned state.

"But we gotta pull every advantage we get, right?"

When I used Summon: Holy Spirit, my consciousness separated from the Animal Soul and materialized beside it, taking the shape of my humanoid self clad in holy light. My essence was weaker here, barely seventy percent of my real strength, but still enough to tear through most obstacles.

Armor formed around me in streaks of divine energy, silver-white plates glowing with scripture. I gripped the air, conjuring a weapon, but the blade that appeared felt off, thin, fragile. It wouldn't last against these old monsters.

I shouted, "Sword, please!"

The Animal Soul, now a radiant golden horse galloping through the chaos, whinnied once before spitting a glimmering sword from its pocket dimension. It arced through the air toward me like a shooting star.

I caught it with both hands; the familiar weight grounded me. "Ah, that's better. I missed you, Silver Steel…" The blade thrummed in harmony with my qi and mana, eager for battle.

The first attacker came from above, a Tenth Realm cultivator swinging a crescent-shaped artifact that glowed like molten moonlight. I parried, sparks of divine and spiritual power scattering into the void. Two more followed, one thrusting a trident forged from dragon bone, another unleashing talismans that coiled into flame serpents.

I turned, stepped, and slashed… all movement, no hesitation. The sword sang as it clashed against their weapons, each impact echoing like thunder. The backlash of qi split the air, tearing open the clouds above.

Meanwhile, the Animal Soul reared on its hind legs, summoning down radiant bolts from the heavens. "Holy Smite!" it bellowed through Qi Speech, each word vibrating through the battlefield.

Pillars of light crashed down, scorching the ground and flinging back our pursuers.

I seized the opportunity, casting, "Zealot's Stride!"

Golden energy burst beneath my feet as I launched upward, streaking through the air like a comet. I landed on the Animal Soul's back just as it galloped forward, a divine blur cutting across the shattered valley.

"Time to go, buddy!" I called.

The Animal Soul let out a rumbling growl of agreement, its form blurring from speed as it invoked every mobility art it knew from Zealot's Stride, Divine Speed, and Flash Step, one after another.

We became a streak of radiant gold darting through the heavens, leaving behind only sonic booms and the furious shouts of our enemies. I held the sword in both hands, turning back just long enough to cast another spell.

"Final Adjudication!"

The skies darkened. The air itself shivered as an enormous scale of blinding gold and shadow descended from the firmament. One side burned with holy fire, the other drowned in unending dusk. The cultivators below froze in terror as the scales tilted.

From the balance's fulcrum burst chains of radiant scripture, lashing outward with thunderous cracks. They struck the sinners, piercing through qi barriers and bone alike, dragging them screaming toward the burning half of the scale. Their artifacts shattered like glass, their souls trembling beneath divine authority.

The Animal Soul neighed as we cut through the carnage, the crown carried by his muzzle. I didn't look back. The sky behind us was filled with light, judgment, and the fading echoes of those who dared stand in our path.

"Let's get out of here," I said softly.

And with that, the golden blur surged forward, soaring across the horizon, toward Riverfall, toward destiny, leaving divine justice smoldering in our wake.

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