The legend begins with becoming a white deer.

Xu Ling's cultivation was not weak, but his hearing was far inferior to Qi Ji's. He could only hear faint noises coming from upstream of the river, but he could not distinguish the number of people near or far.

"Yo~"

Just as he turned his head in confusion to ask, he saw Qi Ji let out a low murmur.

The tail gently brushed against the boy huddled behind it, and the golden eyes looked toward the source of the voice, signaling him to keep an eye on the child.

Without waiting for the spirit's response, Qi Ji took four steps, stepping on the pebbles on the riverbank, and walked upstream step by step.

His pace was slow, yet he exuded an undeniable sense of pressure.

Xu Ling felt a chill run down his spine and immediately realized that he had encountered someone. He quickly squatted down and carried the boy on his back.

"Come, young benefactor, don't be afraid. I'm not a bad person. Come on my back."

Perhaps it was the gentle aura emanating from the spirit that relaxed the boy's sensitive nerves, causing him to obediently lie on the spirit's back.

After stabilizing the boy's body, the spirit gathered its energy and quickly followed.

After turning a bend in the river, a dozen or so figures came into view on the open ground ahead.

This group of people were all armed with steel knives and iron bars. They were disheveled, with bulging, fleshy faces and fierce eyes. In the night, they looked like vicious wolves coming down from the mountain. They had obviously followed the boy's trail.

The boy, lying on the back of the spirit, trembled violently upon hearing their voices, his neck instinctively shrinking back, barely daring to breathe.

"It's them...it's these bastards..."

The burly man with a scarred face spat and pointed at the boy, cursing, "You little brat, run! Let's see where you think you can run!"

A man standing nearby, carrying a steel knife, glanced sideways at Xu Ling and said in a sinister tone, "There's also this meddlesome little monk. Since he witnessed our affair, he won't be leaving alive. Let's take him down too."

Several people stared at Qi Ji, their eyes gleaming, licking their lips as they said, "Good heavens, such a big deer, and it's white with golden stripes! The fur looks amazing. We can either catch it and sell it for a high price, or slaughter it and eat the venison—it'll definitely be very nutritious!"

Qi Ji stood still, his golden deer-like eyes gleaming coldly.

(╰_╯)#

This group of people looks like desperados who have been roaming the mountains for years. It's one thing for them not to know about spirit beasts, but they haven't even heard of any legends about strange beasts. They must be frogs in a well who don't care about the outside world.

Just as everyone was shouting and about to rush forward, a man with a goatee at the end of the group frowned, stared at Qi Ji for a long time, and hesitated, saying, "Wait... this deer is unusual. I feel like I've seen it somewhere before..."

"What are you talking about! It's just a beast, kill it first!"

The scarred man shouted impatiently and waved his hand. A dozen men then charged forward, brandishing knives and clubs.

Just as the spirit was about to step forward, it heard a clear, melodious deer cry in front of it.

Suddenly, the antlers on Qi Ji's head shone with a white light. The light condensed and took shape, then transformed into an antler-shaped energy cannon that was unleashed—the skill [Thousand Peaks].

Qi Ji deliberately adjusted the appearance of [Thousand Peaks] to maximize the size of the antler-shaped energy cannons it fired. This would reduce the lethality, but even with the reduced lethality, it would be more than enough to deal with this group of people.

"boom--"

The energy cannon roared out with a whooshing sound, crashing into the oncoming crowd.

The twelve people at the very front were all enveloped within it.

"Puff~~"

"Puff~~"

"Puff~~"

After three muffled thuds, the three people at the front instantly disintegrated, their flesh and blood flying everywhere.

The remaining nine were in no better shape; their shoulders, thighs, and arms were instantly pulverized by the energy, leaving only bare bones.

"Ughh ...

A piercing scream instantly echoed through the night forest, startling the birds into scattering in all directions.

The spirit, carrying the boy on her back, was stunned and stood frozen in place. Then she immediately came to her senses and instinctively covered the boy's eyes.

He knew that Qi Ji would be very strong as a spirit beast, but he did not expect him to be so ruthless, striking without saying a word and directly killing him.

The five remaining people who weren't affected were also stunned, their hands holding knives frozen in mid-air, their faces deathly pale.

The goatee-bearded man stared at Qi Ji's gleaming antlers, and suddenly his mind went blank.

He was the only literate person in the group. Some time ago, he bought a newspaper called "Chronicles of the Nations" from a merchant. The front page featured a picture of a deer with the words "The Eleventh Divine Beast in the World: White Deer" written next to it.

"That's right, it's a spirit beast! It's the legendary white deer!"

The man screamed, terrified out of his wits.

They actually attacked the spirit beast; they're doomed now.

The man turned and ran into the woods.

Upon hearing this, the others were terrified and tried to flee.

"It's too late to run now."

Qi Ji watched the five people trying to escape, and with a slight thought, golden-green light emanated from the deer antlers.

The next second, the bushes along the riverbank and the vines under the tree roots grew wildly.

Several thick tree branches shot out like venomous snakes, arriving first and instantly wrapping around the legs of the five people, who immediately staggered and fell to the ground.

This was followed by four piercing, soft sounds.

"Pfft~~Pfft~~Pfft~~Pfft~~"

Four tree branches pierced through the chests of the four men, suspending them in mid-air, with blood dripping down the branches.

Only the goatee-bearded man remained, his hands and feet tightly bound by branches, dangling in mid-air, not yet dead.

The wounded on the ground, who were still alive, had their throats pierced by the spreading twigs, and their screams came to an abrupt halt.

Qi Ji walked over slowly, his golden eyes calmly looking at the man.

"Spare me! Spare me! My lord spirit beast, Your Excellency White Deer, please don't kill me! I know I was wrong, I was blind to your greatness! Please don't kill me! It was those bastards who said they wanted to eat you, it had nothing to do with me!"

The man was terrified, writhing and begging for mercy, tears and snot mingling together.

The spirit carried the boy over, his brows furrowing slightly as he looked at the scattered corpses and bloodstains on the ground.

Such bloody and decisive methods are quite different from the "compassion" that his master taught him from childhood.

But the spirit was not pedantic. This group of people had kidnapped children and killed people. They were obviously guilty of heinous crimes and deserved to die.

He didn't say much, but his face darkened as he stepped forward and asked, "Tell this humble monk honestly, who are you? Why did you kidnap this child? Why did you kill his parents?"

"this........."

The man hesitated upon hearing this, looking as if he didn't want to speak, but the next second a branch wrapped around him, and a powerful squeezing force made it difficult for him to breathe.

The suffocating fear of death terrified him, causing his mental defenses to crumble, and he cried out in alarm.

"I'll talk! I'll talk! Don't kill me!"

The man confessed everything, spilling the beans.

"We...we're just doing this for money. There's a big organization behind us who hired us to specifically capture children of school age and send them...to the stronghold in the north. I'm just a gofer. I really don't know who's in charge. I only know that every time we capture enough people, someone comes to pick them up and gives us a reward..."

Qi Ji and the young monk Xu Ling understood immediately upon hearing the man's words.

"Human traffickers?"

Xu Ling bit her lip, feeling a tightness in her chest.

Qi Ji also felt a surge of disgust.

This world leans towards an ancient society, where martial arts exist, and vendettas and power struggles are commonplace, making it far more dangerous than his previous life in modern society.

Even so, even though Qi Ji had seen countless battles, the profession he hated most was human traffickers.

They prey on unarmed children.

Using the lives of innocent children to make money.

This is the most despicable and vile act in the world.

Qi Ji lowered his head, leaned close to the man, and gently sniffed.

Qi Ji memorized the man's scent so that he could easily follow the trail to find him later.

Then......

"Bang—!"

The fluffy white deer tail instantly tightened, transforming into a powerful white whip, which Qi Ji used to lash the man's head.

With a muffled, crisp sound, the man's head exploded like a rotten watermelon, and his body slumped limply to the ground.

The night wind blew across the riverbank, carrying a faint smell of blood.

Qi Ji flicked its tail, its golden eyes gazing into the dark depths of the north.