Brian Carter almost simultaneously sensed three powerful presences hidden at the edge of the peach grove. The strength of these auras was unmistakably that of innate beasts. They were only a few hundred meters away—at the speed of innate experts, such a distance could be covered in just over ten seconds. He immediately gripped the Xuan Yue at his side, pointed it toward the peach grove, and laughed heartily: “Brother Tiger, running away has never been our style. How about we fight with our backs to the river?”

Blake Carter was also a proud and untamed king among beasts. Hearing Brian Carter’s suggestion, its kingly aura burst forth, and a tiger’s roar startled the surrounding birds and beasts into flight. At the same time, those three powerful presences began to move, splitting into three directions and advancing toward the pond.

Brian Carter narrowed his eyes, feeling fortunate for his decision. Of the three innate auras, two were actually birds, and only one was a beast. If he had thought of fleeing earlier, not only would his own momentum have faltered, but he would never have escaped the pursuit of the flying beasts. In over a year of travel, he had only encountered one innate flying beast before, and it had been extremely troublesome—he and Blake Carter had to join forces and use trickery to take it down. If the bird had wanted to escape, they would never have caught it.

Now, suddenly facing two innate flying beasts, Brian Carter couldn’t help but gasp. One was a strange raptor, eagle-like but not quite an eagle, while the other was oddly just a large, colorful pheasant. Normally, pheasants are low on the food chain and barely survive, let alone reach the innate realm. As for the beast, it made Brian Carter want to laugh and cry at the same time—it was actually an elk. He had seen many elk along the way, but never an innate elk.

Though it was three against two, Brian Carter and Blake Carter were instead stirred to an even stronger fighting spirit. After hundreds of battles over the past year, both man and tiger had become extremely experienced and ferocious fighters.

“Come on, come on, Brother Tiger, let’s join forces and teach these three who don’t know their place a lesson.” Brian Carter gripped the Xuan Yue’s hilt tightly, pushed off with both feet, and leapt into the air. His blade swept out like a rainbow, slashing toward the beautiful pheasant flying straight at him.

The pheasant never expected that, despite being outnumbered, the two on the other side would dare to take the initiative. Nor did it expect Brian Carter’s speed and courage. Caught off guard, it suffered a heavy loss in the very first exchange.

“Bang~” Colorful feathers drifted down from the sky as the pheasant let out a sharp, pained cry. The pheasant tried to struggle and escape, but Blake Carter was already in perfect sync with Brian Carter. Ignoring the attacks from the raptor and the elk, Blake Carter blocked the pheasant’s escape route. A cold, glowing orb shot from the tiger’s mouth, striking the fleeing pheasant.

With a thunderous crash, the pheasant was reduced to a rain of blood without even a final scream. Brian Carter was not about to let this rare opportunity slip by, and quickly absorbed all the pheasant’s dissipating spiritual energy. This, however, came at a cost for Blake Carter, who, while killing the pheasant head-on, also paid a price.

A wound was clawed into his broad back by the raptor, and his belly was struck by the elk’s antlers, sending his whole body flying. After rolling several times on the ground, he finally stood up. Fortunately, Blake Carter was still full of spirit, not caring about such injuries at all.

Brian Carter landed nimbly beside Blake Carter with a somersault, laughing heartily: “Brother Tiger, are you alright?” It wasn’t that Brian Carter was being callous or joking inappropriately—man and tiger had been injured countless times along the way. Today’s wounds were nothing.

Blake Carter shot Brian Carter a resentful glare, his eyes flashing with a cold, fierce light as he swept a disdainful look at the surviving raptor and elk.

Brian Carter’s gaze also turned cold. Pointing the Xuan Yue at the remaining bird and beast, he said icily, “Brother Tiger, you can choose between roasted venison and stewed bird leg later. These two fools dared to hurt you.” With that, he dashed toward the raptor.

Meanwhile, Blake Carter let out a furious roar, his sharp teeth aimed straight at the elk that had just rammed him. In his eyes, the raptor could wait, but the elk was a lowly creature, usually just food—how could he tolerate it offending his dignity today?

Brian Carter couldn’t be bothered to use the old trick of teaming up to take down one opponent. Though these two were also at the innate level, they were still a notch below Brian Carter and Blake Carter. One-on-one, they posed no real threat. He treated it as a rare chance for practice. So, Brian Carter tangled with the raptor, while Blake Carter launched a frenzied assault on the elk. Before long, feathers were flying from the raptor, and the elk was covered in blood and wounds.

The atmosphere here was peaceful—if even pheasants and elk could reach the innate realm, it showed how little brutality there was in this place, and how poor the beasts’ combat experience was. How could they compare to the ferocity of Brian Carter and Blake Carter, who had survived countless deadly battles?