Gui Jianchou stared blankly at Ye Jingyu’s retreating back, then looked at the trees he had smashed into earlier, and touched his shattered ing gu bone before letting out a wail to the heavens: "Why? Why is this happening?"

He truly couldn't comprehend how Ye Jingyu, having suffered such grave injuries and with his entire martial foundation supposedly destroyed, could still possess such formidable power? Imagining that single punch from moments ago, he couldn't muster even the slightest impulse to resist; under that blow, he had been utterly helpless.

He was supposed to be the supreme figure of this generation, the strongest among them, yet now he had lost so utterly, so humiliatingly. How could he possibly face his Master, who had painstakingly cultivated him?

He had intended to kill, but instead, he had nearly been killed himself—what a mockery! What a deep humiliation!

For a moment, Gui Jianchou entertained the thought of ending his own life.

Had it not been for the appearance of that figure, he might have truly chosen to take his own life.

It was a graceful, beautiful figure, clad in a tight, flowing crimson gauze dress that accentuated her graceful form. A veil covered her face, yet the hazy outline suggested something utterly dreamlike.

"Master, your disciple is useless. I have disappointed you..." Upon seeing this figure materialize out of thin air before him, Gui Jianchou stifled his sobs and knelt in deep reverence, his face etched with profound shame.

No one knew that the new Sect Master of the Rakshasa Gate was a woman, and one who appeared quite young at that.

Blood Rakshasa ignored Gui Jianchou's words, instead gazing silently in the direction Ye Jingyu had departed. Her long eyelashes fluttered delicately. After a long pause, she slowly turned, her eyes finally settling on her heavily wounded disciple on the ground.

"I am not disappointed, because you are still alive. As long as you live, there is hope," Blood Rakshasa stated calmly. In her mind, however, she pictured the conversation between Ye Jingyu and Jiu Feng.

"As long as you live, there is hope?" Gui Jianchou murmured the phrase repeatedly, suddenly grasping some profound understanding.

"I understand, Master!" He struck his head heavily on the ground three times toward Blood Rakshasa, struggling to rise. In that instant, the despondency in his eyes had vanished completely.

Having reached the Martial Saint realm at such a young age, distinguishing himself as a prodigy among his peers, he was certainly not the type to easily shrink away. His earlier despair stemmed entirely from the massive blow delivered by someone he considered utterly useless. That drastic reversal had triggered the notion of suicide. Now that his Master had awakened him, he naturally knew what he must do next.

"It is good that you understand. The Soul Battle Tournament is still more than a year away; you have plenty of time," Blood Rakshasa nodded with satisfaction, seeing her beloved disciple recover so quickly.

"Master, what exactly is the Soul Battle Tournament?" Gui Jianchou asked, hearing those four words from his Master's lips once more, a deep curiosity stirring within him.

"When the time comes, I will tell you. What you must do now is surpass Xuanyuan Jing, surpass Ye Jingyu. Worry about nothing else," Blood Rakshasa commanded coldly.

Gui Jianchou dared not say another word and lowered his head submissively.

Ye Jingyu walked for several miles before stopping.

"Damn it, walking alone like this is too monotonous. I'm at the edge of the Tiangang Mountain Range; I might as well catch a feral beast to ride!" Looking at the towering Tiangang Mountains to his right, Ye Jingyu suddenly felt that walking all the way to Yunjing would be too arduous. With his current strength, capturing a sixth-tier feral beast should be effortless.

With that thought, Ye Jingyu turned and sprang toward the Tiangang Mountain Range. With a few leaps, he crossed thousands of meters, and within a few breaths, he had plunged into the dense heart of the mountains.

Towering trees rose before him, some reaching hundreds of feet high, others true giants requiring a dozen men to encircle, soaring perhaps a thousand feet. Beneath these colossal trees often dwelled strange feral beasts, but as Ye Jingyu traveled, he found only low-tier creatures; the strongest was merely a fourth-tier Mottled Leopard, far below what he required.

After searching for over an hour without finding a worthy beast, just as Ye Jingyu was about to simply capture any creature for transport, he heard a series of deep roars echoing through the jungle.

A jolt ran through him. His feet moved instantly, transforming into streaks of afterimages as he bolted toward the sound. After sprinting for about fifteen minutes, his figure settled onto a large tree branch. Looking out, he saw an open clearing ahead. There, six One-Horned Dragon Lions were gathered, each about a zhang tall, clearly mature sixth-tier beasts at the very least.

Such feral beasts were considered formidable even in the Southern Savage Forest of the Tiangang Mountain Range. It was rare enough to find one in an entire region, yet here were six together—it truly astonished Ye Jingyu.

What surprised him even more was that these six One-Horned Dragon Lions had surrounded a creature no larger than a colt: a Unicorn.

Wait, normal Unicorns were silver-white, but the one cornered by the Dragon Lions was pitch black all over, with only a slight touch of white around its eyes—no other color was visible.

Its single horn was incredibly sharp, catching the sunlight to reflect streaks of inky black brilliance. Even facing four of the Dragon Lions, the creature showed no sign of fear. Instead, its eyes shot out sharp glints, and its four hooves began to burn with a dark, smoky flame. A supremely powerful aura pressed down, deterring the six Dragon Lions from advancing.

What kind of feral beast was this? To possess such might?

Ye Jingyu was overjoyed. He had been worrying about finding a mount, and now here was one that likely reached the Saint level. Heaven was truly favoring him!

He settled casually onto the branch, pulling out a piece of fruit from some unseen pocket and popping it into his mouth. He fully intended to watch how this creature managed to escape or, better yet, slay these six Dragon Lions.

But the black Unicorn seemed to sense something. It suddenly reared back and let out a long, piercing cry, turning sharply to flee deeper into the forest.

The six One-Horned Dragon Lions paused, seemingly puzzled by this sudden politeness today. Why run before the fight even began?

"Hah, trying to run? Not so easy," Ye Jingyu cursed under his breath, leaping from the branch. He sailed over the heads of the six Dragon Lions, his occasionally radiating aura causing the beasts to tremble. They seemed to finally understand why the black creature had fled.

(Today, my brother's son is having his full-moon celebration; I'm becoming a godfather!)