Reunion

"Follow him to the Spirit Beast Garden."

A Martial Master dressed in servant's garb walked up to Chu Zheng and smiled.

"Come with me."

Chu Zheng immediately understood. They were clearly being assigned their posts.

The other servants were assigned quickly as well. Besides Chu Zheng, two other Martial Masters were headed to the Spirit Beast Garden.

"My name is Tong Jinshan. Just call me Old Tong. What should I call you?"

"Chu Zheng."

"Dong Chong."

"Liu Yuanzhen."

As they spoke, they had already reached the outer edge of the Square. Before them stretched a vast expanse of low sheds.

Tied inside were horses Chu Zheng had never seen before. They stood nearly a zhang tall at the shoulder, their bodies jet-black, their manes fine and dense, their muscles knotted like coiling dragons.

At a glance, there were no fewer than a hundred of them.

Tong Jinshan led out two horses and said slowly, "Mount up. Chu Zheng, you'll ride with me."

Seeing the three of them looking confused, Tong Jinshan swung onto his horse and offered an explanation.

"The Spirit Beast Garden is nearly two thousand li from here. We need to hurry, or we won't make tomorrow morning's breakfast."

"Two thousand li?!" All three were startled.

What surprised Chu Zheng was the horses' speed. Without using Primordial Qi to bolster his body, his current physical speed was only about on that level.

"If you have questions, ask them on the road. Get on first."

Tong Jinshan urged them again.

Chu Zheng leapt onto the horse's back. The next instant, a fierce gale sprang up around them, and the forests and vegetation in the corner of his vision rapidly swept backward.

The black horse beneath him ran as though riding the wind on currents of air. Mountains, rivers, lakes, and ravines passed beneath its hooves as if it were treading level ground—though the ride was rather bumpy.

"You've only just arrived. Give it some time, and you'll get used to it."

A voice transmitted through Internal Qi sounded by Chu Zheng's ear as Tong Jinshan explained, "Those Immortal Sect disciples have little time to spare for people like us. You usually won't even see them. If you came here hoping to curry favor with them, I'd advise you to leave as soon as possible."

After offering that warning, Tong Jinshan began introducing Chu Zheng to the situation within the Phantom Spirit Sect's mountain gate.

The Phantom Spirit Mountain Range stretched across ten thousand li, and the Spirit Beast Garden was nearly two thousand li from here.

Even cultivators in the Spiritual Spring Realm needed two Periods of Time to make the trip, and afterward they would have to recover their expended Mana. That amounted to wasting nearly an entire day, so naturally no one would give them a ride.

When traveling through the mountain gate, servants could only rely on these Cloud-Treading Colts.

They rarely saw those Immortal Sect disciples even in their daily lives. The disciples barely had enough time for cultivation as it was; they had no time to waste dealing with servants.

Servants' time was not worth much. Most of them, upon entering the sect, were led around by veteran servants to familiarize themselves with the surroundings.

Precisely because most of their time had to be devoted to cultivation, a great pile of miscellaneous chores had accumulated, requiring someone to handle them.

This included, but was not limited to, tending medicinal fields, feeding spirit beasts, transporting ore, and running errands or making purchases for Outer Disciples who had yet to enter the Spiritual Spring Realm.

Servants existed for this very reason.

At least a hundred new disciples entered the Phantom Spirit Sect every year. A considerable portion of them were selected from among more than ten mortal kingdoms.

Those with Low-grade Immortal Bones had no right to take a master individually. They could only follow the crowd and receive instruction and answers to their questions together from the Outer Sect Elders.

These people came from different backgrounds and held different statuses. Some disciples had been born into distinguished families and were accustomed to summoning others at a word and ordering them about.

After entering the sect, with no one at their side to attend to them, they inevitably found it difficult to adjust. Some tasks were things they ought to do themselves but did not wish to do, and in the end, they could only fall upon the servants' heads.

After talking at length for quite some time, Tong Jinshan finally mentioned the Spirit Beast Garden they were about to reach.

"The work at the Spirit Beast Garden isn't heavy, but it's rather varied. Aside from feeding them, disciples often come to borrow or return spirit beasts. We don't need to worry about the high-grade spirit beasts. Most of them can already speak human language, and Outer Disciples look after them."

"We need to keep an eye on the condition of some low-grade spirit beasts—whether they're injured or overly depleted—and adjust their feed according to their specific condition so they can recover as quickly as possible."

"Oh, and there is one rule I must tell you in advance. It absolutely must not be violated."

"If you commit this offense, everyone connected to you will be severely punished."

Tong Jinshan's tone was grave, making the three of them tense inwardly as they listened with rapt attention.

"Sex with spirit beasts is strictly forbidden. Violators will bring punishment upon their entire clan."

For a moment, Chu Zheng was completely stunned. His first thought was that he had misheard.

Once he came to his senses, his expression could not help turning somewhat complicated.

Chu Zheng did not consider whether this rule was reasonable. Behind every rule that seemed absurd lay a story even more absurd.

What he would not do, someone else would. After all, humanity's—well, that thing—was free.

The only thing he could not understand was how Martial Masters serving as servants could possibly violate those powerful spirit beasts.

At the first glimmer of dawn, the two Cloud-Treading Colts finally arrived at the Spirit Beast Garden.

It was a canyon chasm stretching over a hundred li, several li wide.

The moment he drew near, Chu Zheng sensed an exceptionally intense fluctuation of Primordial Qi, far surpassing anyone he had seen before, such as Qin Feng or Han Yuliang.

Tong Jinshan first took the three of them to breakfast. Though it was called breakfast, it was merely a bowl of Spiritual Spring Water and a Qi Nourishing Pill.

The Spirit Beast Garden only provided this one meal a day. A single Qi Nourishing Pill was enough to sustain a Great Grandmaster through an entire day of activity.

For an ordinary person, swallowing one of these would let them go ten days or half a month without food with no ill effects whatsoever.

Only after entering the Spirit Beast Garden did Chu Zheng understand his earlier doubts.

To avoid casualties among the laborers and even the Outer Disciples, the spirit beasts here all wore Spirit Restraining Rings that limited their Mana. Against Martial Masters with some measure of strength, in certain encounters, they truly had little ability to resist.

However, for Chu Zheng, that aspect was still somewhat beyond the pale. He was unwilling even to think about it.

Life in the Spirit Beast Garden was far more peaceful than Chu Zheng had imagined.

His daily routine was remarkably fixed: feed the spirit beasts, prepare the next day's rations, then return to cultivate.

Because of the powerful spirit beasts here, the Spiritual Energy surging through this place each day far exceeded that of other locations.

It was of enormous benefit to Chu Zheng's cultivation. One day of cultivation here was worth half a month in the mundane world.

As long as he completed his beast-feeding duties on time, no one came to disturb him.

He prioritized the daily refreshed repair attempts on the Xuantian Seal. It was only one step away from being completely restored.

In the blink of an eye, several days passed.

At noon one day, Tong Jinshan hurried over with a woman following behind him.

"True Disciple Song, all the ranked spirit beasts are here."

"Thank you for your trouble."

Hearing the commotion, Chu Zheng stepped out of his residence. The instant he saw who had come, he slowly frowned.

Song Lingqing.

Before he could react, Tong Jinshan was already beckoning to him.

"Chu Zheng, come!"

Song Lingqing's gaze swept over him. Upon seeing Chu Zheng, her expression shifted slightly, a tumult of emotions flickering in her eyes.

Yet after a stretch of silence, she merely stood where she was without saying a word, making no attempt to speak to Chu Zheng.