Inside the inner-layer of the Valley of Eternal Ruins, Tian Lang, the pup walked with his now thin, frail paws. A few criss-cross injuries could be seen on his body. However, most of them closed in the last week. He could walk and even barely run but being too fast opens the slightly closed fang marks on his back. Even without fast movements, some drops of crimson liquid would leak from the ghastly looking holes on his back. They were so big on his small frame, making one wonder whether they could see the other side of the holes or not. If someone saw his dead body, they would undoubtedly think the cause of his death was the fang marks. Alas, he was still living, disturbing the peace of the world, all the while.
A few meters behind him followed the leopard. From its relaxed walking posture and nimble movements, anyone would assume it fared far better than the pup. But those with discerning eyes would notice one of its front legs limping, albeit slightly. The tearing scar on that leg and small bite on its neck remained persistent, refusing to close up even now. Though due to the leopard’s nimble and light movement, it didn’t suffer from any extra blood loss. It could even run and engage in combat without much worry. This all came from its rich experience and control over the body, something the inexperienced Tian Lang could never hope to achieve, at least now.
Growl~
It was not the injured pup, neither the smug acting leopard, or any hiding beasts. It was a stomach, Tian Lang’s stomach.
As one would expect, recuperating from the wounds and that too after a great battle left him famished. However, thankfully, or maybe not, there was no prey in the inner layer of the Valley of Eternal Ruins. This territory was marked down by the Night Leopards, also known as swift predators of the night. They stood at the peak of the food chain inside the Valley of Eternal Ruins. If not, while they both remained unconscious, it wouldn’t have been surprising for a third party to strike and kill them both, obtaining their powerful crystals.
Of course, Tian Lang, the famished, foolish and worthless pup had no idea about direction nor about the territory he was standing on. No, he probably understood this territory was controlled by the strongest beast here but not direction. If someone asked him which direction was he heading?
Direction? Is that tasty?—would definitely be the famished pup, Tian Lang’s answer.
Normally, he might have recognized the way back, but after the life and death battle, he could barely remember what’s right and left. Let alone the windy long path.
As if the growl had caused the leopard to remember something forgotten, it jumped off to some unknown horizon.
Tian Lang suddenly felt a lot more relieved. Prior to this, he tried to get away from the leopard and even started another fight, but it refused to go too far away from him. If he slept, it would sleep too. If he walked, it would do the same. No matter what, it refused to leave him alone. Finally when the leopard’s figure faded away, Tian Lang ran off.
Without minding his injuries, Tian Lang happily ran in a leisurely manner. Anyway, not like it mattered. There were no beasts in this place anyway.
Growl~
However, something ended his leisurely walk. The mighty hunger... not long ago he thought there was no way, he, the mighty pup would ever encounter the fearful hunger again, but only after a week, he had to face the unforgettable experience of angering the ruthless hunger, once again.
“Wuu~” he let out a pained moan. Getting bitten by the leopard hurt him a lot, but it was tolerable. However, the pain given by the mighty hunger was simply intolerable. As he lamented how he would suffer from the anger of the intolerable hunger, a whiff of blood took away his worries.
Thub!
Something fell on the ground from above. Tian Lang looked back. Only to find a bird with its neck snapped.
Tian Lang’s thoughts about the flying beasts were simple, they are troublesome. So far he successfully hunted only one bird, yet they tasted no different. Not anyway impressive either. Rather, peeling their furs seemed more troublesome than most beasts.
Obviously, being as famished as he was, droll flowed from his mouth and he wanted nothing more than to jump on the bird which he only saw as a big piece of meat, but he noticed something, causing him to halt on his steps.
On the tree stood the same leopard. Fresh crimson liquid dripped from its mouth. Evidently, the leopard just hunted the big bird.
Tian Lang turned back, he couldn’t just hog someone else’s hunt. Let alone when the other party was his greatest—if not first—rival ever, whom he fought a life and death battle with. He walked ahead without a care, as if just a bird couldn’t shake his non-existent, worthless pride. Yet, the dripping saliva that passed by his sharp fangs and created a trail of path, betrayed his feelings.
Grrroowl~
Even the mighty hunger protested. Was his pride worth shit? At least not in front of the mighty hunger. It just wanted to eat. And the bird before him should definitely taste wonderful! How could he just walk away?
Even when his stomach growled audibly, Tian Lang’s walking posture never changed. In fact, it became more proud as he walked toward the very core of the valley. He honestly expected to encounter one or two birds in his path, but he had to face the harsh reality. Let alone birds, he failed to find any magical grass which could replenish his expanded energy.
The leopard ran in front of him with the dead bird in its mouth. Dropping the body from its mouth, the leopard separated it into two equal chunks of meat. Pushing one half towards Tian Lang, it slowly enjoyed the delicacy.
Was it telling him to eat? Tian Lang thought, all the while the flowing saliva almost created a small pool below him.
Tian Lang shook his head. Even though his origin was unknown, he definitely had pride and refused to eat.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
GROOWWLL!~
However, was the mighty pup wolf strong enough to defy the mighty hunger? The answer was obviously no as Tian Lang, who took one step forward, had to slump on the ground. His eyes involuntarily followed the movement of the leopard, as it tore apart yet another chunk of juicy meat.
Gulp!
It was definitely not the mighty pup, Tian Lang. And he definitely didn’t step towards the other half of the meat and definitely not take a large bite of them before gulping them half munched. And definitely not finished his share of the half before the leopard.
Burp~
Of course, he obviously wouldn’t burp like that...
Zzzz... Zzzz...
And he wouldn’t snore so loudly either as he had yet to satisfy the mighty hunger...
...
When Tian Lang came to, a pair of golden sun greeted his sight. His groggy state of mind instantly cleared and jumped into a straight position, wincing at the pain coming from his back.
He realized it was none other than the eyes of the leopard. It stared at him as if to see an idiot. Not that he cared about such stuff... well, it would have been a different matter if he understood the meaning of that uncomfortable gaze.
Stretching his limbs, he once again continued his journey. What was different from usual, as he went deeper, he encountered small-big chunks of stones and metals. Different from the ordinary ones, they had smooth sides, yet it seemed something tore apart these stones from a full one.
As he went further, he found some enormous structures—albeit ruins and pieces—unfamiliar to him. From the remnants, it seemed to be the aftermath of a great and unimaginable battle. Tian Lang felt a bit aphrension while thinking about how big of a wolf he had to be to cause this kind of destruction.
Oh how great that must be—was definitely the kind of feeling he got.
Contrary to his apprehension and hyped feeling, the leopard had completely relaxed attitude. It had come to this ruins countless times. And it even encountered some powerful beings that the leopard couldn’t even hope to defeat. They were on a completely different level. Yet they never paid any attention to it.
Suddenly the leopard jumped in front of Tian Lang. It gave him a signal to follow and without even bothering to check back. Jumping here and there, the leopard soon led him to a clean area.
Around a hundred meters of diameters and a giant stone slab stood tall in the middle. The giant slab had small big dark runes in it, looking no different from a monument. In front of the slab was a bench made out of hard concrete. Just a single glance would tell anyone that this place was frequently used.
Precisely the leopard met the powerful beings in this very place. At that time they hadn’t even spared it a glance, something the leopard was grateful about. The only time the leopard came here, it found them looking at the stone slab attentively, unknown why.
The space around the giant slab had a powerful pressure, no matter how great one was, they couldn’t walk close to the slab. Only the pressure didn’t seem to restrict weak beasts too much. The stronger the being was, the higher the pressure they felt.
With another swift jump, the leopard sat on the concrete bench comfortably. Tian Lang also followed the leopard, but before he could fall on the bench, his body glowed with golden and bronze.
A beam of rainbow light appeared from Tian Lang’s head, shooting right towards the giant stone slab. Myriads of runes surfaced on Tian Lang’s figure. His eyes were closed, his body floated up, and a purple triangular shield surrounded his body. Purple streaks of light poured out continuously, forming dozens of meters high pillar of light that shot right towards the giant stone slab. At the same time, two green and yellow-golden orbs floated on his left and right respectively.
When the pillar of purple light touched the stone slab, as if it had gained life, the dark runes suddenly shone with a dim radiance.
Then the runes separated from the slab and danced around with Tian Lang in the middle. Some runes were absorbed by the purple triangular shield, some passed through the shield and entered Tian Lang’s body. Some also entered the green and golden orbs floating around him. Some pre-existing golden and bronze runes also jumped out of his body.
The golden-bronze runes started to move erratically. Followed by the movements the black dim runes connected with each other in a uniform order, creating a giant chain.
Another golden streak of light left from Tian Lang’s body, shooting straight into the chain. As if the chain made of runes were reinvigorated, the glow of golden and black intensified more than ten times. The golden light was so bright that the leopard couldn’t open its eyes at all.
The Runic Chain then emitted a beautiful, mysterious sound, before it suddenly started to revolve. The straight runic chain became circular as it gradually took the form of a circular birdcage, caging the triangular shield inside it.
The leopard tried to see as much as possible from the slit of its eyes. It saw the countless runes floating around Tian Lang as if they were judging him, yet not in a bad manner.
An extremely small amount of runes floated towards the leopard’s body.
But no runes entered its body. They only knocked against others while surrounding its frame. Some of the runes even floated back to the sky again, entering the green and golden orb.
At this time Tian Lang’s body suddenly jerked. Three drops of crimson blood shot straight towards the brows of the leopard. A bright pattern formed on its chest. As the light was too intense it was hard to figure out the pattern properly. By the time the light faded, the pattern mysteriously faded along with it.
The runes floating around the leopard didn’t hesitate any more and entered its head, paws, and back. Right after, the leopard also floated similar to Tian Lang but unlike him, who floated fifty meters above the ground, it only floated five meters before coming to a halt.
The leopard suddenly felt its years of stagnant progress suddenly loosening. From its initial rank, it succeeded in a variant evolution! The injuries in its deepest part, which would’ve caused its death healed at the speed of naked eyes. Even the external injuries were healed, only leaving the scars caused by the fangs of Tian Lang from their great battle.
The leopard was almost in tears. It couldn’t breakthrough for years and even touched the ground to death. Never in its dream did it think to evolve once again, gaining higher strength and intelligence. It could feel a shadow of fog clearing from its mind. It was as if the things it couldn’t understand now become understandable, still many things were yet to be understood. All of it was given by the small but strange pup. It had already decided to follow the wolf pup for the rest of its life, and this time it vowed to do so.
Tian Lang went through even more groundbreaking evolution. With the help of the power of runes, the remnant dragon energy in his body surged wildly. Although the process was painful, Tian Lang could hardly feel them as the extremely pleasing power of runes coursed through his veins at the same time.
Unlike the previous evolutions, his body didn’t shrink and even got a bit larger. However, it was only a little. He was a bit bigger pup, but still a pup. The same cute pup. His missing platinum furs also grew back and even became a bit longer. Almost too fluffy. It wouldn’t be a surprise for a two-legged creature to take him and treat as a pet dog.
All of this came to a halt when the golden and black revolving birdcage slowly shrunk before it passed through the triangular shield. In the end, the runes including the Runic Cage entered Tian Lang’s body and disappeared without a trace.
The golden pillar of light disappeared.
Tian Lang who was floating fifty meters high up in the sky slowly floated back down, light as a feather.
The leopard used its own body for the pup to get a smooth landing, not willing to let him wake up from his sleep.