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.
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.