Chapter 249: Big Cat and Anan 2

Chapter 249: Chapter 249: Big Cat and Anan 2

"Don’t be afraid. I’m here to save you."

Su An’an’s heart tightened, and she rushed toward the little wild dog.

She knelt, and a pink glow from her palm slowly enveloped the little creature’s mangled hind leg.

Wherever the Divine Light passed, pinkish new flesh began to grow over the exposed bone.

The little wild dog whimpered and nuzzled the back of her hand, its round eyes full of gratitude as soft whines escaped its throat.

Su An’an was about to reach out and pet its head when the clarity in its eyes suddenly vanished.

"Careful!" Just as Ying Jiuyao’s roar sounded, a piercing red light burst from the little wild dog’s eyes.

Its once-docile expression turned savage, and the fangs at the corners of its mouth shot out by half an inch.

It snapped its jaws open and lunged for Su An’an’s neck.

"You’re courting death!" Ying Jiuyao’s tiger claw, whistling through the air, came crashing down.

With a SQUELCH, the little wild dog’s head rolled to the ground, splattering Su An’an with black blood.

But in the instant the head hit the ground...

...a final, hoarse roar was forced from its throat, each word clear: "Long live Lord Hong Chengtian!"

"That damned Black Priest, that damned Hong Chengtian!"

Su An’an stared at the controlled wild dog, the pink light in her palm pulsing violently.

’I have to find the core of this corruption, or more living things will be controlled.’

Ying Jiuyao shifted back to his human form and reached out to wipe the bloodstains from her cheek.

"This area is too big. We’ll find it faster if we split up."

"No." Su An’an grabbed his wrist, her fingertips turning white from the force of her grip.

"It’s too dangerous for you to go alone. We’ll go together."

Ying Jiuyao looked at her tightly pressed lips, his Adam’s apple bobbing. He wanted to say something, but the determination in her eyes stopped him.

He turned his hand to clasp hers, pressing her fingertips into his warm palm. "Alright. Together."

The two had just turned when a loud CRASH echoed from a wooden cabin deep within the camp, as if something heavy had been knocked over.

Su An’an and Ying Jiuyao exchanged a glance and simultaneously darted toward the cabin.

Beneath a blackened, withered tree, the cabin door was ajar, and a strange ticking sound came from within.

Su An’an pushed the door open, and the sight within, illuminated by the moonlight, made her gasp.

The walls were covered in a dense array of wild dog corpses and Red Crystal fragments.

And on a stone platform in the center of the room lay the corpse of the Wild Dog Clan’s chieftain.

A Red Crystal Heart was embedded in his chest, and it was beating.

"How did a Red Crystal Heart get inside his body?"

Su An’an was both confused and wary.

The Red Crystal Heart was the key to Hong Chengtian’s resurrection, and before, they had always been buried inside strange divine statues.

"Doesn’t matter whose body it’s in. Let’s just destroy it."

Ying Jiuyao gathered silver electrical currents in his claws and blasted them toward the Red Crystal Heart.

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

The Wild Dog chieftain’s eyes snapped open, and the red light from his chest flared.

It converged in the air to form a blurry human figure, which let out a cackling, sinister laugh.

"Die!"

A foul, acrid red mist swept toward Su An’an and Ying Jiuyao.

Ying Jiuyao sneered as his golden domain abruptly unfurled, its Level 4S pressure spreading out like a tsunami.

The ground cracked layer by layer wherever it passed, and the red mist that had been about to surge forward began to boil like water.

"AWOOOO!"

Countless Mutant Beasts appeared like phantoms, all of them controlled by the Red Crystal’s corruption.

"I’ll clear the field,"

he said in a low voice as a fluffy White Tiger tail suddenly burst from his tailbone. "You purify the core."

Su An’an nodded, pressing her palm to his back. The Divine Contract Golden Pattern flowed from her fingertips into Ying Jiuyao’s body.

The instant the pink and silver glows intertwined on his back, Ying Jiuyao explosively transformed into his true White Tiger form.

His three-meter-tall, snow-white tiger body was covered in flowing golden patterns. When he spread his tiger wings, they blocked out half the moonlight.

His sharp claws gouged deep furrows into the ground.

He threw his head back and let out a long howl that shook the forest, then launched himself off all fours, pouncing into the Mutated Beast Group like a bolt of golden lightning!

His claws slashed through the air, creating a golden gale, and a lunging mutant bear was sliced in half at the waist.

Black blood splattered onto his snow-white fur, only serving to make his golden eyes look even more ferocious.

Another mutant leopard tried to launch a sneak attack, but his tail whipped around and struck it, sending its body crashing into the rock wall like a kite with a broken string.

In just a few moments, he had torn the surrounding Mutant Beasts to shreds. Golden Spiritual Power flowed between his claws, and even the air was tinged with a biting, murderous aura.

Meanwhile, Su An’an’s pink light transformed into chains that wrapped tightly around the Red Crystal core.

Any Red Crystal fragments that tried to get near sizzled and dissolved upon contact with the pink light.

She gritted her teeth and channeled the power of the Divine Contract, the pink light in her palm growing ever brighter. "Shatter!"

BOOM!

The instant the Red Crystal core exploded, the Red Crystal veins throughout the entire forest receded like a fading tide.

The red drained from the eyes of the still-struggling beasts, and they collapsed to the ground, letting out weak whimpers.

Ying Jiuyao retracted his true White Tiger form and walked to her side, bathed in blood.

The ferocity in his golden eyes had not yet faded, but it softened the moment his gaze met hers.

He lowered his head and nuzzled the top of hers, the tip of his tail still wagging excitedly.

Su An’an stood on her toes to wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth, unable to hold back a smile. "Lord White Tiger, you were so cool."

The tips of his ears turned slightly red, but he stiffened his neck and snorted. "I was always this strong."

Su An’an smiled and walked to the center of the cabin to pick up a dark Red Crystal Stone fragment.

"I thought Hong Chengtian’s three Red Crystal Hearts had already fused, so I didn’t expect we could destroy another one... wait, no!"

She suddenly clenched the residual crystal powder in her fist.

"This isn’t a real Red Crystal Heart! It’s just a replica made by the Black Priest!"

Ying Jiuyao’s golden pupils constricted, and his hand instinctively pressed against her shoulder. "A replica?"

"The Energy purity is far too low."

Su An’an rubbed the powder between her fingertips.

"The evil power contained in a real Red Crystal Heart would burn the Divine Contract, but this replica is more like an Energy relay station."

Su An’an suddenly remembered something and whirled toward the withered tree by the door.

The lingering dark red patterns under the bark actually formed the shape of an eye.

It blinked at her, then dissipated.

"It was watching us,"

she said coldly. The moment her fingertips touched the trunk and a Golden Light seeped in, the bark actually made a sound like a faint snicker.

"The Black Priest is using these derivatives to buy time!"

Ying Jiuyao walked to her side, his tail gently wrapping around her ankle.

"Don’t be angry. At least now we know their plan."

"Let’s return to the White Tiger’s garrison."

Su An’an glanced at his still-bleeding fingertips. "Let’s treat your wounds first."

Inside the White Tiger Holy Hall, the scents of medicinal herbs and pine resin mingled.

Su An’an was using her Divine Light to heal Ying Jiuyao’s injuries.

A white-haired elder walked in, leaning on a bone staff. "Lady Divine Female, Lord Jiuyao."

"Elder, I’ve destroyed the source of the corruption."

Su An’an recounted what had happened with the Wild Dog Tribe and the Red Crystal replica.

The elder sighed, his cloudy eyes full of worry.

"If a mere replica has such power, I fear that if the genuine articles finish fusing, the entire Beast Star will be devoured by evil energy."

He paused, his gaze falling on their clasped hands, and then abruptly changed the subject.

"When this old one performed a divination with Astrology, I also saw an ancient prophecy."

As he spoke, he struck his bone staff heavily against the ground, and a line of golden runes appeared.

[When the blood of the Golden-striped White Tiger and the master of the Divine Contract merge, only then can the curse on the Land of Dawn be broken.]

Su An’an’s ears turned slightly red. ’Isn’t this just a roundabout way of telling us to have a baby?’