Xue Wei was puzzled at first, but he quickly concluded that these experts must be the ones sent by the Celestial Dog Clan to kill Hei Gou.

They were Primordial Beasts. This was apparent when one looked first at w.a.n.g Xiaoyun, then at Hei Gou.

Hei Gou had amus.e.m.e.nt written all over his face, while w.a.n.g Xiaoyun’s face was as stormy as thunderclouds with her brows deeply furrowed. Her one healthy eye looked ready to shoot flames, if it were at all possible.

"Hey, Gou, do you know them?" Xue Wei asked Hei Gou curiously. He was not too worried; their numbers were equal. 

w.a.n.g Xiaoyun was a fourth layer Heavenly Warrior and a Wayfarer to boot, so she was the strongest person in their group.

Hei Gou was no longer the same as the old him when he was still with his family, now possessing Heavenly Warrior-level strength as well as the aftereffects of his mutation from a pair of wings to a higher level of purity. 

And then there was Xue Wei. Xue Wei was only a fifth layer Sky Warrior, but it was hard to judge his true strength. 

“I know them.” Hei Gou sighed and shook his head. There was a complicated look in his eyes. "They are my brothers. My eldest brother, my third brother, and my fifteenth brother," he continued. Xue Wei felt a mix of emotions when he heard that. Hei Gou was not on good terms with his family, but it would be wrong to kill them. 

Xue Wei pondered over what to do. He felt inclined to eliminate them so they would not pose a future threat to Hei Gou, but he was also aware that doing so would hurt Hei Gou and might even give him a heart demon.

Hei Gou shared these sentiments, but w.a.n.g Xiaoyun looked at the beasts with undisguised hatred. It was clear that she wanted to kill all three of them. 

"To think you actually have the guts to call yourself our brother!" the fifteenth brother yelled out. "You disrespected our entire family and made it the family of a deserter! Mother and Father would never be able to lift their heads in the future. If it wasn't for the fact that we have Second Brother and his status as a genius in our clan you would have caused us all to be outcasts."

"So I should just walk right into my own death?" Hei Gou snorted. “What a good brother you are, willing to let me die for the sake of keeping the family honor intact!"

"That is a sacrifice that everyone should be willing to make!" the third brother retorted with a sneer. Xue Wei and Hei Gou just snickered. 

"A name is nothing. A person’s life is what truly matters!" Xue Wei countered. However, Hei Gou’s three brothers just looked at him as if he were an idiot.

"Who are you? A mere human dares to talk back to us?!" The eldest brother sneered, but before he could say anything else, a small gem around his wrist started s.h.i.+ning. 

"Someone is trying to contact us?" All three were puzzled. The only ones who could contact them were the members of the Celestial Dog Clan, but the clan was situated in the Northern Taiga – it had to be urgent for them to make contact.

"What is it?" The elder brother paled as he listened to what was being transmitted to him; fear and trepidation showed clearly on his face when he looked at Hei Gou. He retreated a few steps backwards. 

The other two looked curiously at him. They were unaware of what had been transmitted to him, so they were puzzled by their eldest brother’s reaction. Why had he retreated from Hei Gou?

Hei Gou had always been the weakest amongst their litter of brothers. He was the youngest and also the one with the least talent. 

He had been chosen as a sacrifice for that reason, but it now looked like he had encountered some life-changing luck. 

"Retreat!" The eldest brother showed no hesitation in his following actions. The message he had received had spelled it out clearly to him. 

"If Hei Gou is harmed or killed, the entire Celestial Dog Clan will be eradicated by the Ice Harpy. The Council of Elders has given him a special mission. He cannot be troubled or delayed. Return home at once," was the message, shocking the eldest brother so much that he couldn’t help but feel his existence shrink a little in size.

He was jealous and confused but also slightly relieved.

Although he felt great hatred towards Hei Gou for putting their family through hard times, he was still his baby brother. Having said baby brother’s blood on his hands would make him feel regret for life.

This new development relieved him immensely. Hei Gou had been the weakest amongst them all back in the Celestial Dog Clan – but why would the Council of Elders, the group the eldest brother revered more than anything, give the weak little Hei Gou a special mission? 

The Council of Elders was well-known amongst both humans and beasts. They were the strongest experts in the entire Chang'an Continent on the beasts' side. 

They were the ones responsible for sending out their side’s most talented Primordial Beasts on various missions throughout the continent, and they were the reason that the stalemate had lasted as long as it had. Many of them were survivors of the great human revolt. 

To meet them, one needed to be one of the most outstanding geniuses in the entire continent, or one had to contribute with some sort of great accomplishment. However, Hei Gou had never been outstanding in any way – all he had done was run away from home.

"Why don't we kill him already?" asked one of the brothers. His viciousness made Xue Wei frown. Although they were beasts and did not have much feelings for their brothers and sisters, this was too much. 

"Beasts will always be beasts," said w.a.n.g Xiaoyun. She wasted no time in charging at them, brandis.h.i.+ng a green fan with the snap of the wrist. 

Spikes of Qi instantly shot towards the three Celestial Dog Clan members the moment the fan was unfolded. Fear instantly struck their hearts as they urgently retreated.

w.a.n.g Xiaoyun did not care about Hei Gou getting a heart demon if she killed his brothers. All that mattered to her was that there were four Primordial Beasts around her, and that only one of them was off-limits. 

w.a.n.g Xiaoyun had realized that Xue Wei was planning on letting them go, but her bone-deep hatred towards Primordial Beasts would not let him have his way so simply. 

Xue Wei instantly knew of w.a.n.g Xiaoyun’s intentions when he saw her actions. He could not help the small curse that escaped his lips as he gave chase, ready to stop her.

It was clear that the trio's leader was retreating; there was no need to fight. The other two brothers, unaware of the true situation, ceased retreating and prepared to meet w.a.n.g Xiaoyun’s attack head-on when they saw her charging at them.

Hei Gou and the oldest brother both observed the chaos that ensued in front of them with confused eyes. 

w.a.n.g Xiaoyun was fighting the two Primordial Beasts. She sent out attack after attack, each one seeking to take life should a moment of inattentiveness grip her opponents, but they were ferocious in their retaliation.

They soon found that their attacks were not effective enough, and s.h.i.+fted back into their original shape. However, just when they thought they had the upper hand, tattoos shone on w.a.n.g Xiaoyun’s face and arms, displaying her bloodline as a Wayfarer. Her strength multiplied several times with the appearance of the tattoos. 

"Gou! Help out!” Xue Wei yelled out before rus.h.i.+ng after w.a.n.g Xiaoyun. “Xiaoyun, don’t do this!” pleaded Xue Wei as she continued to slash at the three members of the Celestial Dog Clan with her fan. His words fell on deaf ears; she did not even pretend to listen.

He wanted to stop their fight, but it would be risky to insert himself between Heavenly Warriors. Unfortunately, he had no choice. 

"Haven't done this in a while," muttered Xue Wei. The shape of his arms changed as they swelled up in size suddenly and azure scales started to grow all over them.

Hei Gou knew the seriousness of the matter when he saw Xue Wei transform. He, too, took on his original shape. His healthy, l.u.s.trous fur was silky smooth, and the wings on his back were breathtakingly beautiful. He was bigger than the three other Celestial Dogs and several times more majestic.

A heavy pressure bore down on the other Celestial Dogs when Hei Gou transformed, and all of them looked at Hei Gou with fear and disbelief in their eyes.

How had he become so strong? How had he undergone such a mutation? 

The eldest brother narrowed his eyes when he felt the shocking aura of Xue Wei’s transformation and finally spared a glance at the individual who he had previously underestimated. Xue Wei’s transformation looked quite similar to when a Primordial Beast changed into its original shape; there were no Qi fluctuations to indicate that it was a technique. It looked no different from an innate ability to him. 

Xue Wei used his newfound strength to appear behind w.a.n.g Xiaoyun. He wrapped his large scaled arms around her and pressed her body against his, holding her in a tight grip. 

w.a.n.g Xiaoyun could instantly feel that the one holding her was Xue Wei, but her pupils shrank and her heart started hammering wildly in her chest when she saw the scaled arms around her. 

"You..." her voice cracked, and she tried struggle free again. "How can you transform into a beast?!" There was fear and indignation in her voice. "Have you been deceiving me all along? Are you actually a Primordial Beast as the others say?!" Her eye shone with madness. A stream of tears spilled from her eyes in a mixture of fear and sorrow.

"Calm down." Xue Wei smiled and squeezed her gently, but his actions only worried her further. She was dying to know the truth. 

"You know as well as I that I could not cultivate for quite some years," Xue Wei began to explain gently, unaware that the eldest brother of the Celestial Dogs was eavesdropping.

"My uncle found a scripture for me that allows me to cultivate, and it has the innate ability to allow me to transform parts of my body into that of Primordial Beasts." 

"You can transform into a beast because of your cultivation technique?" w.a.n.g Xiaoyun was suspicious of this, but Xue Wei nodded his head seriously. 

"I cannot transform my entire body," he explained. "So far, I have only tried to transform my arms. I have not succeeded in transforming anything beyond that.

“It was also because of this partial transformation that the Kingdom of Heping decided that I am a Primordial Beast. They did not even give me time to explain that it is the specific technique that I am cultivating."

Xue Wei sighed. He knew that w.a.n.g Xiaoyun was very sensitive when it came to Primordial Beasts, and understandably so. 

The transformed Hei Gou had taken the most direct approach and placed himself between both parties, stopping the attacks on both sides.

"Stop this now!" The eldest brother yelled at his two younger brothers. "We have new orders! We are to return to the clan at once. Something urgent has happened - we cannot afford to spend any more time on Hei Gou."

The two brothers were shocked when they heard what their older brother said, but they were also worried for their home. Dissatisfaction was written all over their faces as they threw a last glance at Xue Wei holding w.a.n.g Xiaoyun, and at Hei Gou, who stood behind them like a majestic sovereign of dogs.

Still, they left quickly. w.a.n.g Xiaoyun did not say anything, though she glared daggers at them. She remained in Xue Wei’s scaled embrace.