The grandson and grandfather walked home along the street under the moonlight.
It was already past nine in the evening, and people who had been busy all day trudged by, too weary to give anyone else more than a passing glance.
When they reached the corner of the street, Xiang Qingde told Xiang Beifei to head back home first as he needed to stop by the grocery store to talk about some matters with the owner.
Xiang Beifei turned the corner alone, not far from home, with just an alley to cross.
The alley was unusually quiet today, seemingly untouched by passersby. To add to the silence, the streetlight was broken, leaving a long stretch of road shrouded in darkness.
Just then, Xiaohei on his shoulder suddenly tensed, tugging at Xiang Beifei's ear and barking twice in warning.
"Is there something there?"
Xiang Beifei also felt something was amiss and looked toward the dark void ahead; a foreboding presence seemed to stir in the shadows.
Lacking any real combat skills, he felt no curiosity towards this unknown danger and immediately turned to run towards the light.
However, before he could take two steps, a low growl cut through the darkness; it was as if a gust of wind swept by, and a shadow lunged toward him.
Xiang Beifei instinctively dodged to the side, avoiding the strike, while the shadow missed and quickly steadied itself before turning to fix its gaze on him.
As he ran towards this side, the faint light from a nearby residential building cast out, dispersing some of the darkness. Taking advantage of this dim light, he could make out the rough appearance of the shadow.
It was an animal about one meter tall, resembling a large yellow dog, except the dog had two-inch-long fangs and hair that stood on end like barbs. Its limbs had protrusions that looked like bone blades.
"Is this a desolate beast?"
Xiang Beifei was quite surprised.
He was aware that this world harbored various powerful desolate beasts, with terrifying combat strength constantly encroaching upon human territories.
But normally, these desolate beasts shouldn't appear in residential areas; they were kept beyond the wastelands outside of Jiuzhou. Jiuzhou itself was guarded by pioneers and defenders who would slay any beasts that slipped through.
The area where Xiang Beifei resided was considered a safe zone. Under normal circumstances, there shouldn't be any desolate beasts, and if there were, they would be eliminated by the law enforcement.
So what was the story with this strange canine?
Suddenly, Xiaohei sniffed something and turned its head towards a roadside tree in the darkness, barking twice more.
Xiang Beifei looked in that direction but saw no one.
However, he did see a system interface hiding amongst the tree branches quite clearly.
Even in the darkness, that system interface shone brightly to Xiang Beifei.
Like a lighthouse amidst the murk, unmistakably conspicuous.
Xiang Beifei could see anyone's system, even if he couldn't make out what the person looked like.
"Who is this person?"
Xiang Beifei frowned, focusing on the system interface, attempting to discern the information displayed on it.
But, unfortunately, since the interface was obstructed by branches and at a distance, he couldn't make out the system's details.
At this moment, the strange canine was not allowing Xiang Beifei any time to ponder; it was fixating on him and charged again.
Whoosh!
Xiang Beifei once again dodged the beast-dog's attack by swiftly sidestepping. The moonlight glinted off the beast's bone blade as it swung at Xiang Beifei, who narrowly evaded; the razor-sharp bone blade tore through his clothes!
His strength had only just reached the early stages of Qi-Controlling, and this beast-dog was ferocious, its power and speed far surpassed his.
He was also fortunate to have the "Learn by Analogy" ability.
After continuously evading the mutant dog's attacks twice just now, he had fully understood the information about this mutant dog:
——Originally a stray dog, two years and three months old, mutated into a mutant dog, its strength and speed are ten times that of before, relying mainly on the bone blades on its legs for attacks, with its killing power ranked among the lowest of desolate beasts. The mutant dog's weakness lies in the cartilage beneath the bone blade; hitting it will paralyze its entire body and render it unable to fight for five minutes.
"The weakness is the cartilage beneath the bone blade?"
Xiang Beifei quickly focused on the mutant dog's bone blade, which was six inches long, about twenty centimeters, and extremely vicious when used.
If it weren't for his ability "Learn by Analogy," which allowed him to quickly grasp the mutant dog's mode of attack and dodge at the critical moment, he would have been knocked down long ago.
But even knowing the opponent's attack pattern, trying to dodge was still strenuous, as the opponent's speed was still faster to some extent.
Xiang Beifei didn't have any suitable weapons on hand, all he could think of was using rocks.
"Roar!"
The mutant dog raised its bone blade and viciously kicked towards Xiang Beifei, who plunged to the side and crashed into the wall. In his desperation, he happened to grab a brick.
But just as he was about to use the brick to smash the mutant dog's bone blade, he suddenly remembered the mysterious person hiding in the tree and watching.
The presence of the mutant dog here must be related to that mysterious person.
That meant the other party was stronger than he was.
If they were to take advantage of Xiang Beifei being busy dodging the mutant dog to launch a sneak attack, Xiang Beifei wouldn't have any means of resisting.
But that person stood there without initiating an attack, did he have some concerns?
Was it because it wasn't convenient for him to make a move?
Or some other reason?
"Could it be that he's here to test my strength?"
Xiang Beifei's mind raced with many possibilities in an instant!
——
"The geniuses with UR rank systems from the legends don't have to do any tasks right after awakening and possess late-stage Qi-Controlling strength. Come on, let's see if you can deal with this mid-stage Qi-Controlling mutant dog."
The shadow atop the tree watched Xiang Beifei confronting the mutant dog and muttered to itself.
He was ordered to investigate the system talent rank of Xiang Tianxing's son. Principal Li Nanxing was stronger than him; naturally, he couldn't get any information from Principal Li Nanxing, so he started from Xiang Beifei himself.
If Xiang Beifei was an Awakener of a UR system, then he should be in the late stages of Qi-Controlling by now, and it should be more than enough for him to kill off this mutant dog.
Once the mutant dog was killed, Xiang Beifei's talent could be confirmed, and he could go back to report.
"Why is he evading so strenuously?"
The shadow had some doubts in its heart.
There were no people here, if Xiang Beifei wanted to hide his talent, there was no need.
Could it be that he awakened not a martial Dao system, but a literary Dao system?
But that shouldn't be the case either; even a literary Dao system of UR rank talent reaching the late stages of Qi-Controlling should still be able to fend off this mid-stage Qi-Controlling mutant dog with its own Spiritual Power, even if not adept at fighting.
But why did this kid seem so flustered when dodging, not at all like someone with Spiritual Power?
Could it be a mistake?
Is he really just an N-rank loser?
While the shadow was pondering, Xiang Beifei suddenly turned around and quickly ran towards the tree he was on; at the same time, the mutant dog also leaped high, pouncing in this direction.