Tron!

That was the name of the twelve-meter-high Torkun that had black stripes across its white fur. His appearance was highly distinguishable even if placed in a crowd of Torkuns.

That was normal.

After all, he was the King!

Specifically, he was the king of the third zone. But since the third zone was considered the strongest and most dangerous region in the entire secret realm, it wasn't wrong to call him the strongest in the entire realm.

In appearance, Tron could be compared to a white-furred ape with black stripes and a crown made of tree branches lying on his head. While the branch was made of simple wood, its intricate design made it look special, adding more to the air of nobility around him.

Looking at the tens of Torkuns kneeling before him, Tron couldn't help but have a moment of satisfaction. Mixed among the group of Torkuns were beasts of other races. There were bull-like beasts, bear-like beasts, cat-like beasts, and many more.

However, all the foreign beasts retracted their auras as they tried to make their presence as small as possible. As Tron was the king, his kind needed to be the most dominant race in the entire zone.

A gap was made among the beasts as three Torkuns walked toward Tron who was in front. The three Torkuns each dragged an incapacitated human behind them.

Arriving before Tron, they bowed down before making several sounds as they communicated with him.

A look of disdain flashed in the eyes of Tron as he gazed at his kind that were unable to evolve and break through the limits of spiritual beasts. Only magical beasts could transform into humans and communicate effortlessly. Spiritual beasts on the other hand could only become more intelligent the more their cultivation increased.

However, the disdain quickly disappeared as Tron moved his gaze to the three bodies that were thrown beside him by the beasts after they had finished explaining what happened on their end.

Looking at the only conscious male among the three humans, Tron opened his mouth, causing the eyes of the former to widen like saucers.

"So..."

A look of disbelief was etched on the human's face, but Tron simply ignored him and continued.

"It is that time of the year, huh?" his voice sounded a bit hoarse yet deep, as one could feel the power underneath it.

The male continued to look at him with a stunned look, making Tron raise his right leg and stomp down.

*Squash!*

Blood splattered on the face of the male, pulling him out of his surprise. A split second later he screamed in fear:

"Ahhhhhh. Please, please I beg you." the male human totally ignored his helpless sister who was stomped to death right beside him, and begged for his own life.

A trace of disgust appeared on Tron's face.

Bringing his head closer to the human male, he raised his forefinger which was as big as the latter's head, and gestured for him to be quiet.

The human male quickly shut his mouth as he nodded his head in agreement.

"Hmm..." Tron scratched the white hair under his chin, his actions similar to how a man would scratch his beard. However, the scared human had no thoughts of appreciating such minor gestures.

Tron closed his eyes for a moment. The image of a pitch-black snake flashed in his mind. He couldn't help but remember his rival who was far weaker than him.

Yet she had escaped countless death situations and even survived as a master-realm beast in the third zone full of grandmaster-realm monsters.

He had wondered how she was able to pull it off but at that time he didn't really put her in his eyes. All his thoughts then were to become the strongest, as he fought against his kind and beasts of other races for supremacy.

It was then...

Tron retracted his hand from his chin and to the back of his head. He raised his head and released a sigh.

A bit over a month ago, The master of this realm reached out to him.

He had thought he had proven himself and the master had found him worthy.

"Hah!" he could still remember that cold yet beautiful voice, that could even tug at the heartstrings of the battle-stricken him of that time even without seeing her once.

She had approached him to grant him a special mission and as a reward, she had awakened his bloodline. He could still recall the power he tasted when he felt the weak trace of the saint-beast bloodline within him awaken. The coursing strength through his veins had made him feel like nothing in the secret realm could contend against him. And the gratitude he felt made him indebted to this new master of his. Even before hearing his mission, he had already decided to risk his life to achieve it.

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That was until he found out he wasn't the only one the secret master had approached.

And when he found out this possible rival of his was the pitch-black snake that had merely caught his interest for a moment...

Tron felt ashamed.

His pride in being chosen among several thousand beasts hit rock bottom.

He ignored the mission of leaving the secret realm to find a person and bring them back into the secret realm.

Instead, in his anger, he attacked the beast he had found far below him. The pitch black-snake had done what it was good at.

Running.

He had chased it to the ends of the third zone, and in the process revealed his newfound strength. The beast feared him and didn't dare to cross his path and just when he had thought he could finally kill the snake that was surprisingly good at fleeing, something special happened.

The pitch-black snake awakened its bloodline.

A god-beast bloodline.

As the name entailed, it was a beast with the prowess of a legendary god.

He had smelled death at that moment. It was then he realized he didn't wish to die. Now that he had found the strength he had always run after, he wanted to cling to life.

As if feeling his emotions, the master of the secret realm directly saved him from the clutches of death and sent the pitch-black snake outside the secret realm.

After that, no matter what he said, or what he did, the master didn't contact him again.

'But now...' After a full minute...

*Troooooooom!* Tron opened his eyes, releasing an invisible wave of pressure that crushed the beasts and humans around him.

'She is back!'

His eyes that were looking into the distance finally shifted back to the human, and the invisible pressure disappeared causing the human to gasp for air and the beasts to visibly relax.

Flashing his mouth full of canine-like teeth, Tron asked again:

"It is that time of the year, right?"

Even though the human wasn't sure what he was asking about, he quickly nodded his head but when he saw the slight change on Tron's face, he rapidly shook it again.

Seeing that the human had been scared senseless, Tron shook his head as he lost interest.

He already knew the answer to his question. He knew it wasn't time for the secret realm to open but since it opened arbitrarily, it meant an external factor must have caused the change.

His eyes shone as he thought of the factor when abruptly his expression changed.

A new gap was opened among the group of beasts, as a wounded Torkun leaped through toward Tron.

A commotion rang out among the beasts.

"Silence!" Tron spoke in a deep voice causing the surroundings to go still.

A wounded Torkun standing at nine meters tall, fell to one of its knees before him.

No matter how Tron tried to hide his surprise, he couldn't completely mask it. He had sent out two groups of beasts to handle the intruders that had entered his territory, with his second-in-command leading one of them. One of the groups came back safely and accomplished their task. They were the ones that brought the three surviving humans among which he had already killed one.

However, the Torkun in front of him was the only one remaining in the second group. And it was surprisingly the group led by his second in command. He knew his strength very well, as it wasn't until he awakened his saint beast bloodline that he came to have the strength to overcome him. In fact, aside from the pitch-black snake, his second in command was the only one he respected.

Tron squinted his large eyes as he questioned in a cold voice:

"What happened?"

The wounded Torkun shivered greatly in fear, and ignoring its injuries and the blood it was currently losing, it quickly narrated the events that happened.

"Hoof!* *Hoof!* *Hoof!*

It made several strange noises.

"Hmm..." Tron rubbed the back of his neck, "So what you are saying is that the group encountered an Auburn-haired boy with a deep red aura around him who killed three members of the team, and yet successfully escaped from your assault. Then in your chase, you met two kids with red skin, among which the male singlehandedly decimated the rest of the entire team including my second in command. Is that the gist of it?"

As if it could understand his words, the Torkun nodded.

"I see..." Tron moved his eyes away from the wounded Torkun and to the male human who was still shivering a short distance away from him.

'So there are some strong figures among those invading...how interesting.'

Tron who had been staring at the human who shivered the more under his stare, abruptly turned his head back to the Torkun, "So how did you survive?"

The Torkun trembled in fear.

Under Tron's cold stare, it didn't dare hesitate to speak the truth.

*Hoff!* *Hoff!*

After a moment of silence, Tron's voice resounded in the silent forest, "So you ran away immediately when you felt your life was in danger." He stretched his hand towards the Torkun causing the latter to close its eyes in fear.

But surprisingly, Tron's hand merely landed on its wounded shoulder, as he patted it a few times, "You did well! What matters is to survive. Hope! Only then will you have the hope of trying again." immediately when he finished his words, he turned around and walked away.

The wounded Torkun breathed heavily as it escaped the grasp of death. Its tightened muscles visibly relaxed, and its clenched hands opened.

It was then that Tron who had only taken a step paused.

"But you know..."

The wounded Torkun quickly raised its lowered head in time to see Tron's massive left hand which had been swung backward in a swing arrive beside its head.

*Boooooooooooom!*

The house-sized wounded Torkun had its head and its entire upper body blown away, leaving behind only a pair of hind limbs resting in a kneeling position.

The shockwave generated from Tron's first didn't weaken at all, as it blasted the beasts on its path into pieces and formed a deep trench a meter deep and a kilometer long.

Blood rained from the sky as its characteristic iron smell permeated the area.

"...I hate cowards!"Tron completed his unfinished words. Alas, the wounded Torkun was no longer alive to receive them.

None of the beasts still remaining dared to speak and instead lowered their heads as they held their breaths in fear.

Seeing the destruction he caused, Tron shook the blood off his hand, before speaking:

"Let us go and greet our guests!"

He walked toward the foaming human who had passed out in fear and stomped on the last unconscious female human.

"I still need you." he grabbed the fainted male human by the scuff before heading toward the largest tree in the area.

There, a large axe as big as a human was embedded deep into the tree trunk. The handle seemed to be made from strewn branches.

Grabbing the handle, Tron yanked it off the tree, causing splinters of wood to scatter into the air.

He looked at the beasts around him and commanded, "Go and kill any outsider you come across!"

As if granted amnesty, the tens of beasts remaining quickly disappeared into the distance.

Left alone, Tron took a deep breath, causing two swirls of wind to form before his face.

"Time to hunt!"

With a mighty stomp, Tron who held a two-meter-long axe in one hand, and grabbed the scuff of the human male with the other, leaped tens of meters high into the sky, as he reduced his previous location into a two-hundred-wide crater.

The strongest presence in the third zone with an awakened bloodline of a saintbeast which was comparable to a peak-level god-tier talent finally moved out.

*****

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