STNS: Chapter 562 (Patreon)

Batu Kahn, from the moment of his birth to now, had never once tasted defeat. He was born during the height of a Qi Storm and his first cry was a roar that rose above the thunder. Unlike the other cubs, whose survival was never certain in the brutal wastes, he stood and walked within hours. His first act as a newborn was to claw apart a predator that had crept to close to the den. He had never been a mere cub, and his people never treated him as such. Even those of the Warrior Caste whispered that Heaven itself had marked him for greatness.

His tale was one of conquest.

As a child, he killed his first auroch alone, during his Rite of the Fang he did not simply pass but slaughtered the beast meant to test him so completely that his trial was called a massacre instead of a hunt, and where most tigers tested themselves against one another, he alone sought only the strongest adversaries and crushed them with ease. Every victory deepened his belief in himself and every kill convinced him that the world existed only to prove his supremacy.

By the time he had reached maturity, people were already calling him Baatar Fanglord. Many said that he was the greatest warrior of his generation. Whispers abounded about him. Some even went so far as to call him the greatest warrior ever--and he proved their words right.

He challenged the Khan as a young teen, not because he needed to, but because he believed that the throne was already his by right.

Their battle shook the Wastes. Many who witnessed it would tell tales about how their fight split the ground and canyon walls. Some claimed the battle had been evenly matched. It had not. After getting his measure of the man known at the time as the Khan, he had found him lacking and ripped out his throat. From that day on, he took the Khan name, changing his name to Batu Khan.

His rule had been defined by ferocity and fear. Shortly after his ascension, he waged war on the other tiger clans, destroying them utterly until not even a single one of them remained.

So bored…

And perhaps that explained his own boredom. Having never tasted defeat, having never fought a worthy opponent, Batu Khan had grown bored. He wanted a challenge. He craved feeling the flesh of someone worthy on his fangs. None had ever satisfied him, and he wondered if perhaps he would never find someone to satisfy his craving.

At that moment, as he mused on his own boredom, a rumbling shook the Great Hall. He looked up and watched as cracks formed on the ribs that kept the hall aloft. Dust fell lightly upon his shoulders and throne. Then the doors burst open, and a young tiger tribesmen rushed in, face pale but flushed, sweat dripping down him as he panicked.

“K-Khan! Someone has breached out outer wall! They are battling against your guards, but… the guards… they are not doing well.”

“Oh?” Batu Khan raised an eyebrow, shifting to lean forward, elbow on his knee, face on his elbow. “Someone dares to enter my palace uninvited? Who dares to court death?”

He was more intrigued than angry. Anyone who had decided to assault his palace was bold indeed. Batu Khan would have said they were stupid, but he had to assume this person knew what they were doing. In which case, they believed they had the strength to defeat him. Who was it? Who was so brazen as to assume they could beat him? He wished to know.

“Uh… I don’t know their names, but… they’re a group of humans and a pantherian girl.”

“Humans, you say? On the Da Continent?”

There had not been a human on this continent in many centuries. Some came, lured by the promise of magical beast cores. Others appeared by accident. One thing never changed, however, and that was how every human who ever came to the Da Continent died, often painfully.

Batu Khan was even more intrigued now. A group of humans had made it all the way here. Truly? He wanted to know more.

“What can you tell me about these intruders?”

The young tiger tribesman took a moment to respond. “There are seven of them. Two young men, four young women, and one of our Hunters are with them.”

He went on to describe the people’s appearance. While he was curious about the women, he cared more about the young man with dark hair in the description. The more he heard about that young man, the more intrigued he became.

“He has the scent of Baihu, you say?”

“Yes, Khan.”

Batu Khan had heard that, long ago, there existed a clan… clan? Was that what the humans called it? In either event, there existed a group of humans who worshipped Baihu as their god. Those who proved themselves had even received his blood. Batu Khan thought it a ridiculous rumor at the time, but maybe there was more to the story than he knew.

“Very well. I shall see this young man with my own eyes,” he said.

The young tiger tribesman’s eyes widened. “You’re going to fight him yourself?”

“We shall see. I’ll fight him if he proves too much for my guards, but if he cannot defeat them, then it means he wasn’t worth my time.”

Unfurling his fists, he opened his fingers and flexed, letting his long, sharp claws come out. A fanged grin came unbidden to his face. It looked like he might finally get to have some fun after all this time.

***

Töri Qiang did not believe himself to be a coward. Certainly, he was cautious. It was his cautious nature that allowed him to do what other hunters could not. He wielded wariness like a weapon; it was how he had survived for so long as a hunter. Some people had mocked him for his nature, but many of them wound up biting the dust by being overly arrogant and reckless. He would not make their mistakes.

That was why he had decided to join up with Wu Jian and his group. After fighting the man and losing horribly, he understood that Wu Jian and his entire group was composed of monsters. Even with his experience, he could not figure out who among them was the strongest.

Wu Jian was the obvious leader. He led from the front. However, he seemed to heed Wu Meiying’s words, which made her… his adviser? He couldn’t figure it out. There was some intimacy involved between them. They always sat close, and often, Wu Meiying would place her feet in his lap or lean her head on his shoulder. He thought maybe they were in a relationship, but then Hou Jingshu and Zhou Lihua would also do the same thing. He once caught Hou Jingshu and Wu Jian sneaking into the forest. Töri Qiang had followed them, curious, and what he’d seen had made him so jealous that he almost saw red. Hou Jingshu’s moans still rang out in his ears like the drawn out tolling of a crystal clear bell. He would have attacked Wu Jian if he wasn’t so terrified of the man’s strength.

In either event, watching Wu Jian as he punched the gate leading into the Heavenly White Tiger King’s Hall. This gate was called The Tiger’s Fangs, and it was made from an ancient alloy that very few blacksmiths were able to work with due to its incredibly high melting point. Stronger than steal, capable of absorbing qi, this gate should have been able to withstand even cultivators at the Perfection Realm.

And it had just been blasted off its hinges with a punch.

Töri Qiang shuddered.

As the dust began to settle, Wu Jian and his party strode into the palace entrance. Töri Qiang followed in dread and silence.

The Heavenly White Tiger King’s palace was tiered with an outer wall, inner citadel, and central hall. They had just passed the wall. What they now stood in was a vast open space, and in the distance, three buildings stood like monoliths. Largest among them was the Great Hall, known as the Hall of the Tiger King, and standing on either side like fangs jutting from the ground was the trophy room and war room. They were smaller but no less imposing.

Several guards were inside this area. Each one seemed startled to see them, and Töri Qiang could imagine they had just been minding their own business when Wu Jian destroyed the gate. Despite their surprise, they still responded swiftly, moving into a combat stance in a split second.

“Who are you?!” asked one of them.

“Are you courting death?! How dare you break into our Heavenly King’s sacred palace!!” shouted another.

More expletives followed one after the other. Töri Qiang wished he could find something to hide behind, but there was nothing for him to use to hide himself. He was beginning to regret following this group. They were crazy!

Wu Jian ignored the people shouting at them and turned to Youmei. The young panther girl was bouncing on the balls of her feet. She looked excited. The gleam in her eyes made him shudder.

“You wanna go at them?” asked Wu Jian.

Youmei looked at him. “Can I?”

He shrugged. “Go ahead.”

“Yay!”

The fact that a child was excited about facing off against a group of the Heavenly White Tiger Clan’s strongest warriors was terrifying enough, but what made it worse was how none of the other members of the group seemed interested in helping her. Were they that confident in this girl’s prowess? He couldn’t feel her cultivation, which meant she was stronger than him, but so were all these people. They were the Fangguard, the Khan’s strongest warriors.

“You dare insult us by sending a child to fight?!” asked one of the men.

A woman snarled. “You court death!”

Every member of the Fangguard was an elite among the elite, and these people protected the Hall of the Tiger King, which meant they were the strongest among the guards. This group rippled with muscles and repressed power. One of the men, the one who had spoken, took a step forward, and the earth itself trembled. A quake shook the ground and cracks spread as small pebbles rose into the air, only to be crushed by the power he was releasing.

Youmei appeared unbothered. She bounced on the balls of her feet and let her arms dangle as though they were boneless. The Fangguard took offense to her actions. They rushed forward, their roars echoing across not only the palace but the entire city.

The man who had first shouted reached her within a split second. It was so fast that Töri Qiang couldn’t even follow him. To his eyes, it was as though the man had simply appeared before Youmei. He thought it was all over for the girl. The man was already throwing a punch with so much power the air itself was igniting. The fist hit her right in the face--

“Shadow Walking.”

“What the--”

And passed through her. The man stumbled as he, too, passed through the girl’s body. Töri Qiang had to blink because he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. What had happened?! What was that?!

“You’re wide open!!”

The shout came before the spears did. Black spears appeared from the man’s shadow, wrapped around his legs, then his torso, then his arm, and finally, his neck. The man struggled to break out of them. His muscles bulged, his face turned red, and his body shuddered, but no matter how much he fought, he could not break free.

And that was when she appeared.

“YOUMEI KICK!!!”

Youmei leapt out of the man’s shadow, right underneath him, feet first. Her heels slammed into the underside of the Fangguard’s jaw, crushing it. Töri Qiang saw how the jaw became deformed as it was broken, shattered into millions of pieces. A burst of air erupted from the point of impact, but the man himself remained locked in place. Time seemed to standstill before the Fangguard, an elite warrior among the Heavenly White Tiger Clan, went completely limp.

The remaining guards froze, uncertain, and in that timeframe, Youmei stood back up and turned to them, her eyes gleaming with ferocious joy. She looked at them all with a fanged grin.

“You’re next,” she said, and then vanished.

What followed could not be called a fight. It was a massacre. Youmei was stronger than she had any right to be. Just who was this child? Töri Qiang had seen her spar with Wu Jian, and he would have never guessed she was that powerful.

In mere minutes, the Fangguard lay on the ground, and Youmei stood in the center, clapping her eyes as if removing dust from them.

“How did I do, Master?” asked Youmei after bouncing over to him.

He smiled and gently ruffled her hair. “You did great. I’m so proud of how strong you’ve become.”

Youmei beamed. It was so innocent and joyful that Töri Qiang shuddered all over again. How could someone look so innocent and pure after brutally massacring so many of his people. She was a monster!

Clap.

Clap.

Clap.

At that moment, clapping echoed around them, and everyone turned to look as a man strode out of the Hall of the King.

“Magnificent,” the man said. “Truly magnificent. You’re quite strong for one so young. Now, why don’t we see how far that strength can go?”