Chapter 20: The Five-Colored Dragon Dog Pan Hu

At the edge of the black fog in Black Cloud Marsh.

It was not only Xi Luo and Li Li Boyang fighting the corrupted creatures.

As more and more corrupted creatures emerged from the black fog, the spirits and monsters living nearby basically all became aware of the approaching danger.

Among these hundred mountains, mountain gods as stubborn as Xi Luo were, after all, a minority.

When the mountains and rivers they inhabited were being eroded by the black fog.

The vast majority of mountain gods and river gods made the same decision as the monsters: stay away from the black fog.

However, just as there were exceptions like Xi Luo among the mountain gods.

There were naturally those among the monsters who went against the tide.

Pan Hu, the dog-headed human, was such a special existence.

As a monster capable of sensing the earth vein qi, Pan Hu was only one step away from transforming into a dragon dog and advancing to become a mountain god.

Unfortunately, with the appearance of the black fog, Pan Hu, who was unwilling to leave Yunfu Mountain like other mountain gods and monsters, could only choose to fight alone.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

There stood Pan Hu, clad in a five-colored long robe, wielding a millstone-sized axe.

Even when facing a siege by multiple corrupted creatures, he displayed combat prowess different from that of ordinary monsters.

With every swing of his axe, he could directly cleave the head of a corrupted creature.

In contrast, those corrupted creatures, aside from their immunity to death after corruption, possessed physical attributes even inferior to normal beasts.

Under this shifting balance, the black fog within a hundred meters seemed to be deterred by Pan Hu, failing to spread toward Yunfu Mountain for a long time.

"Awooo!"

Just after Pan Hu once again split the head of a corrupted creature, he suddenly threw back his head and let out a long howl.

The howl, wolf-like and dog-like, spread in all directions.

Immediately, more wolf-dog howls emerged from nearby forests and villages, responding to Pan Hu's call.

"Roar!"

At that moment, a fierce tiger's roar suddenly came from within the black fog.

The next second, a pitch-black tiger, its body entirely corrupted and exposing white bones, suddenly lunged out.

Due to its characteristic of blending almost perfectly with the black fog.

Pan Hu, who was calling to his kin, failed to notice in time and was struck by the creature's claw.

Rrrrip...

In an instant, the sharp claws left deep, bone-revealing wounds on Pan Hu's body.

Fortunately, Pan Hu was rich in combat experience; he immediately retreated and rolled, dissipating the force of the blow.

Otherwise, with just that one slap, even as formidable as Pan Hu, he would likely have had his bones and tendons completely shattered, losing all combat ability.

Even so, looking at the pitch-black fierce tiger whose ferocity had not diminished.

Pan Hu still gripped the millstone-sized axe in his hand, his heart already prepared for a fight to the death.

"Awooo!"

Because Pan Hu recognized this pitch-black fierce tiger.

It was originally an individual in this forest on the verge of transforming into a monster.

Now, due to the spread of the black fog, it had been corrupted into this ugly form.

The gap between monsters and beasts was actually not as large as ordinary people imagined.

At the very least, this pitch-black fierce tiger, as the overlord of a local forest, was something even those monsters who had already transformed dared not provoke lightly.

Whoosh!

Just as the fierce tiger was about to pounce on Pan Hu again, a crisp sound of breaking the air suddenly came.

In the blink of an eye, the fierce tiger, realizing the danger, tried to dodge sideways.

However, it was still half a beat too slow; a golden streak of light pierced its neck, separating its head from its body.

"Roar..."

Even as its head rolled to the ground, the fierce tiger was still attempting to roar.

It was completely unaware that its body and head already belonged to two separate places.

"..."

Seeing this, Pan Hu, who had witnessed everything, did not relax his guard.

Instead, he looked up at the sky more tensely, staring at the golden streak of light still circling above.

"..."

Only when Pan Hu noticed that a crimson figure seemed to have appeared in the direction where the golden streak of light was moving away.

Did he finally calm down and lower the millstone-sized axe in his hand.

Vaguely, Pan Hu seemed to hear that crimson figure saying something.

"You're asking about that dog pup?"

"He is the adopted son of the old woman Gao from Gao Family Village next door; he counts as an anomaly among monsters..."

【Adopted son? Monster?】

【These two terms, which seem completely unrelated, actually appear on the same person.】

To speak the truth, although Li Li Boyang had repeatedly overestimated the absurdity of this world, he still did not expect a monster to be a human's adopted son.

Judging solely from Pan Hu's appearance of fighting to the death without retreating, Li Li Boyang could easily imagine the deep bond between him and his adoptive mother.

"What is there to find strange about this?"

"If we're really talking about strange, didn't your parents raise a freak like you?"

Glancing at the golden sword pill, which had no self-awareness whatsoever, Xi Luo's retort was as sharp as ever.

"Except for the different way you were born, you and that pup aren't actually that different."

Moving through the mountains and forests, one after the other, Li Li Boyang finally understood the origins of Panhu from Xi Luo's subsequent explanation.

Roughly twenty years ago, an old woman from Gao Family Village suffered from an ear ailment, swelling into a blister.

Lacking even the most basic medical conditions and common sense, the old woman of Gao did not take the ear ailment seriously at first.

Until the ear ailment grew increasingly severe, swelling to the point where it affected her daily life.

The old woman of Gao then pierced that blister and picked out a hard-shelled insect from within, its size comparable to a silkworm cocoon.

Perhaps out of curiosity, or perhaps simply because she had a big heart...

The old woman of Gao merely carelessly placed that hard-shelled insect into a gourd ladle at home and never gave it another thought.

Until the spring of the following year, that hard-shelled insect hatched into a pup, its fur displaying a pattern of five colors.

At first, the old woman of Gao merely raised that pup as an ordinary watchdog.

However, as time passed, the old woman of Gao gradually discovered that this pup was unusually intelligent, even capable of understanding her words.

Naturally, the widowed old woman of Gao raised this pup as her own son.

For the old woman of Gao, who had no children of her own.

The pup's appearance undoubtedly filled the void in her later years.

Thus, twenty years passed in the blink of an eye.

That pup from back then grew day by day and began to learn to walk on two legs, mimicking the old woman of Gao.

Since the pup was born from a gourd ladle, the old woman of Gao simply named him "Panhu."

To this day, Panhu has long become a member of Gao Family Village, constantly accompanying the old woman of Gao by her side.

To speak the truth, if the old woman of Gao were not so advanced in age and truly unable to endure the hardship of leaving her home.

Panhu probably would not have appeared frequently at the edge of the black mist, repeatedly preventing those corrupted creatures from invading toward Gao Family Village.

Monthly Tickets / Recommendation Tickets

Thank you to the great Yi An Yi Wang You for the 100 donations!





(End of Chapter)