That instant seemed as if an eternity had passed.

The moment Hu Yuan saw Sparrow Cat, all the hair on his body stood on end.

He struggled with all his might to halt his action, but it was too late, and it was impossible to stop, because he had unleashed the Technique of Slaughter.

Once the Technique of Slaughter was deployed, it was like a blade of death—once it struck any creature, there was no room for regret.

Even Hu Yuan himself could not reconsider at this moment.

In that instant, he felt as if he were standing at the threshold of two grand doors, one bearing the image of the lower half of a sparrow, the other adorned with a drooping cat head. Then it told him to make a choice, a choice that had to be made: was the Technique of Slaughter meant to kill the sparrow or the cat?

Floods of distant memories surged to his mind at this moment.

His first death occurred during his peak.

Long, long ago, when there were no Taoists, no techniques, only natural divine skills, only inherently powerful creatures.

Back then, before he took human form, with his intrinsically powerful flesh, he roamed wild and unchallenged, devouring every living thing within the mountains as his prey.

He had battled divine beings born of nature in the mountains and fought to the death with tyrannical Tyrant Dragons in the waters—in those times, he grew ever stronger.

Until one day, he encountered a human of that era. This human praised him as the lord of all mountain creatures but also warned him that, being far too brutal, his ways would eventually lead to serious repercussions.

That human told him that as the Mountain Lord, though it was necessary to devour other creatures for sustenance, he should not kill indiscriminately.

To feed was the nature of beings, the law of nature, but when satiated, one should not continue to kill.

Back then, he certainly didn't understand these principles, seeing only the human's incessant buzzing in his ear as an irritation.

He immediately decided to kill the man, even though he wasn't hungry, just for the sake of killing. And then, the man didn't kill him but continued to reason with him, even taking a bone from him, claiming that a tiger bone was a great medicine.

Lastly, he wrote the character "King" on his forehead.

As for why it wasn't the character for "Lord," it was because the man said it wasn't as pleasing to the eye.

Before leaving, the man imparted many teachings and talked for a long time, expressing his hope that he would live up to this character in the future.

It was his first major setback, where his sheer strength was no match for the human.

As a result, for the first time, he heeded someone else's words and refrained from killing once his hunger was satisfied.

After adopting this rule, whenever he saw other creatures continue to kill after their hunger was quenched, he grew irritated and killed them.

Gradually, this became an unwritten rule among many creatures.

Later on, he kept growing stronger, aspiring to become human, for the strongest being he had ever seen was human.

He grew stronger and stronger; eventually, after being struck by lightning, he transformed into human form and also obtained the Technique of Slaughter.

His capacity for slaughter increased, and at his peak, there were few who could withstand a single hit from his Technique of Slaughter without perishing.

Back then, he had never encountered anyone who could withstand three hits from his Technique of Slaughter.

This made him increasingly arrogant, and he considered himself invincible. His perceived invincibility was shattered one day while he was battling other creatures and cleaving through a mountain range. He encountered a Cat-Headed Bird, which dealt him a major setback—his first since obtaining the title of Mountain Lord.

That creature, which he thought would die from a single blow, mocked him to an extreme degree.

Even then, he found many of its taunts harsh, and many of its words were incomprehensible to him.

Of course, he couldn't bear it, and in a rage, he unleashed the Technique of Slaughter.

The massive Cat-Headed Bird stood still, taunting continuously, neither dodging nor evading, and endured his most powerful One-Hit Slaughter Technique in his life.

That moment was just like the present.

He understood clearly that whatever he chose would be wrong. It wasn't that there was no right answer, but that any choice he made was bound to be the wrong one.

Last time, he chose the sparrow; this time, he chose the drooping cat head.

Then his hand, which had landed on Sparrow Cat's head, recoiled as if electrocuted.

His body, as if struck by a heavy blow, instantly transformed. His face became that of a tiger, and black and orange fur, sharp as steel needles, erupted all over him.

His figure, as if hit by a tremendous force, was sent flying back, and every pore of his body spewed fresh blood.

He was reduced to his original form on the spot, lying on the ground, coughing up blood incessantly.

The Technique of Slaughter, upon striking a living being, would be triggered, and once triggered, it could no longer be reversed.

When the force of that blow was enough to instantly kill the opponent, it would immediately trigger death. This applied regardless of whether the target was human, Demon, ghost, or deity, and without considering whether their own strength could normally harm the opponent.

For example, Ghost was inherently resilient against ordinary attacks. While Ghost could possibly rip apart tigers and leopards with bare hands, those same attacks were futile against it.

But the Technique of Slaughter would disregard these factors; as long as there was sufficient strength, any strength, the opponent would surely die.

Even if the force of the blow, at its peak, wasn't enough to kill the opponent, that blow would still unleash the maximum damaging effect.

For instance, King Guilong, now transformed into the Azure Dragon, could barely withstand his One-Hit Slaughter Technique. This was his absolute limit, and a second blow would undoubtedly cause King Guilong to perish.

However, when his Technique of Slaughter targeted Sparrow Cat, it simply could not complete this process.

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