The Kun's Immensity

The City Guard organized by Wine Fox Immortal was located at the northernmost end of Floating Mountain.

She had built a simple Bamboo Cottage dojo, surrounded by a ring of tall pines. At the entrance, she had brought in boulders to make a Martial Arts Arena.

On the Martial Arts Arena.

Several dozen people were meditating, training their strength, practicing immortal arts, and sparring with one another.

At first glance, they all looked human, but when Lu Ya spread out his divine sense, he discovered they were all pureblood Beast Immortals.

There were Horse Immortals, Ox Immortals, Sheep Immortals, Pig Immortals, Snake Immortals, Rat Immortals, Cat Immortals, Dog Immortals, Monkey Immortals, Rabbit Immortals, Weasel Immortals, Partridge Immortals, Sparrow Immortals...

They were almost enough to make up the whole zodiac.

There were men and women, old and young.

The two little troublemakers, Muyu Feifei, were there too.

The highest among them had reached three-star Immortal Master, while the lowest was only a one-star Immortal Monarch.

Standing on a hillside covered in wild grass, Lu Ya watched from afar and asked in surprise,

"Why are they all Beast Immortals?"

Ning Zhongzi replied,

"They were all brought back from Beast Nest Forest by Lady Wine Fox. Muyu Feifei have been training with them, too. I don't know if it's because they've joined the big Beast Immortal family, but the two of them have been much more diligent than usual."

Lu Ya thought, how could they not be diligent?

If you wanted to eat a Kun, you'd be diligent too.

"Where's Lady Wine Fox?"

"She went back to Beast Nest Forest again, to see if she could find any higher-ranked Beast Immortals. She's still injured, and she only took a few bamboo slips with her. I never thought that an unreliable woman like her could ever have a serious moment."

Lu Ya thought, how could she not take it seriously?

If you wanted to pick up women and heal your injuries, you'd take it seriously too.

The two soon arrived at the Martial Arts Arena.

The Beast Immortals showed clear hostility toward Lu Ya and Ning Zhongzi.

In the Immortal Realm, not every Beast Immortal was as friendly toward humans as Muyu Feifei.

Seeing how frightened everyone was, the two girls hurriedly explained,

"Don't be scared, everyone!"

"This is my master, Ning Zhongzi."

"This is my junior grand-uncle, Lu Ya."

"They're both good people. They'd never hurt anyone."

The Beast Immortals were only half convinced.

Just then, a Weasel Immortal with a cold expression and reddish eyes quietly said to Muyu Feifei,

"Your master looks stern, but she has a kind heart. This man, though—I know what I'm seeing. His eyes are the eyes of someone who wants to eat Beast Immortals."

"..."

Muyu Feifei pretended to remain calm, but when they looked at Lu Ya again, they felt a little uneasy.

Lu Ya froze.

Good grief, had this little guy activated the Sharingan?

For one brief moment, since the inn had no immortal meat to eat, he had wondered if he could slaughter a few Beast Immortals and have a taste.

Of course, it had only been a fleeting thought. He wasn't really going to do it...

And this little Weasel Immortal had still seen through him?

What a talent!

Lu Ya asked, puzzled,

"Beast Immortals are rare. How did Lady Wine Fox find so many of them in such a short time?"

"They're all Beast Immortals she rescued from the Immortal Thief organization, Immortal Tail. Most of them are quite strong."

"Immortal Tail?"

Lu Ya knew Immortal Tail well.

In the game Ancient Immortal Court, Immortal Tail was one of the four most evil Immortal Thief organizations in the Immortal Realm. Its reach extended across every immortal domain, and it was said to have a total population of a million, with countless experts among its ranks.

Every member of Immortal Tail was a Beast Immortal. It was a large, anti-human, demonic organization. They claimed to be the most orthodox beings in the Immortal Realm—

the Tailed Immortals.

They believed that Tailed Immortals were the true orthodox beings of the Immortal Realm, while tailless humans were demons—devolved Beast Immortals.

Lu Ya thought,

They weren't wrong. According to Darwin's theory of evolution, humans were all monkeys, and immortals were all Immortal Monkeys.

Ning Zhongzi continued,

"Ten years ago, Lady Wine Fox infiltrated Immortal Tail's branch in Beast Nest Forest. But when they discovered that she was half human, they drove her out."

"Doesn't that woman bring bad luck wherever she goes? That branch of Immortal Tail is still around?"

"As you said, an unprecedented Beast Tide has recently erupted in Beast Nest Forest, and many unsavory Immortal Thief organizations have suffered. Even Immortal Tail's branch was not spared. Many Beast Immortals were devoured by beasts, and Lady Wine Fox was able to rescue so many in such a short time only because of the Beast Tide."

Lu Ya nodded and fell into thought.

"So they're all unsavory Beast Immortals..."

The simple remark made the Beast Immortals tremble with fear.

The little Weasel Immortal in particular seemed to sense that Lu Ya was no ordinary person and kept hiding in a corner by the cliff.

Ning Zhongzi hurried to explain,

"That isn't the case. Immortal Tail abducted these Beast Immortals by force. They never chose to do evil."

"Is that so?"

Before the words had even left his mouth—

A loud bang rang out!

An orange figure plummeted from the clouds and slammed diagonally into the grass some distance away.

Lu Ya spread out his divine sense.

He saw Wine Fox Immortal curled up in a deep crater, covered in blood, with an infant in her arms.

At the same time,

dark clouds churned across the sky, swiftly blotting out the sunlight. Shadows fell over the entire northern side of Floating Mountain.

The head of a colossal Giant Kun emerged from the clouds.

An aged voice, like a heavenly bell, boomed down—

"You have fallen into depravity."

One moment, Floating Mountain had been bathed in brilliant sunshine.

The next, the weather changed abruptly. Dark clouds gathered, blotting out half the sky.

Within the clouds, shadows collided amid alternating flashes of light and darkness, releasing a series of muffled rumbles.

The pressure above the dojo plummeted. Everyone's hair stood on end, their chests tightened, and they struggled to breathe.

Two of the most powerful Immortal Sect Master auras tangled and swirled within the dark clouds, swiftly enveloping all of Floating Mountain.

Nine Star Immortal Sect Masters!

Two of them!

On the Martial Arts Arena,

the Beast Immortals' pupils dilated. They looked as if they were staring death in the face, their terror a thousand times greater than what they had felt when they saw Lu Ya.

Soon, someone couldn't take it anymore and dropped to their knees with a thud. Only then did the others react, dropping to their knees as well.

Muyu Feifei were stunned and hurriedly shouted,

"What are you doing?"

"Why are you kneeling?"

Everyone lay prostrate on the ground, not daring to make a sound. Their ragged breathing was the only thing to be heard, filled with the dread of those facing death.

Muyu Feifei were so frightened that they nearly knelt too. They weren't even sure whether Lu Ya could handle this one.

Lu Ya looked up.

With a piercing cry that echoed across the heavens, a colossal beast poked its pitch-black head out of the dark clouds, like a god revealing a fragment of its silhouette against the vast sky.

A whale's head, narrow eyes, long whiskers like a waterfall, front fins like wings, and a rare red Reverse Spiral pattern carved into its forehead!

Was this... a Kun?

The Kun from "In the Northern Darkness there is a fish, and its name is Kun"?

Although Lu Ya had never encountered a Kun in the game, he had often heard on the forums that Kun beasts existed. They were generally divine beasts above level eighty. So why was this one at Immortal Sect Master level?

At the sight of the Kun, Muyu Feifei turned ashen. Terrified, they grabbed Lu Ya's hand, their little mouths trembling.

"This is the giant flying fish I told you about, the one said to fly in the skies above Beast Nest Forest!"

"But isn't this fish... way too big?"

"It doesn't look tasty at all. It's terrifying."

"We might not be able to eat it. We might get eaten instead..."

Was it really that big?

Lu Ya took a casual measure. Damn, the Kun's head alone was thirty feet wide.

Unfortunately, Lu Ya wasn't much of a scholar. One "damn" was all he needed to get by.

I could eat this thing for a year!

If a nine-star Immortal Sect Master Kun was already this huge, how big would a divine Kun be?

The Kun was so vast that none knew how many thousands of miles it stretched. It transformed into a bird, whose name was Peng.

Atop the colossal Kun's head stood a black-robed man, a golden glow above his head. His voice rang out like a heavenly bell—

"You've disappointed me greatly."

The Beast Immortals trembled, prostrate on the ground, seized by terror from the depths of their souls.

Lu Ya swept his gaze over them.

That black-robed man... was he a Peng Immortal?

A Golden Immortal of the Peng variety, at the nine-star Immortal Sect Master level?

Kun and Peng had appeared together. They were at the same cultivation level, one a colossal beast, the other a Beast Immortal?

This reminded Lu Ya of a legend he had heard earlier from the two girls and Ning Zhongzi.

Beast Nest Forest had a legend even older and more terrifying than the one about Liu Xuanye bringing death to her husbands.

Three thousand years ago,

a pair of Kun beast hatchlings had appeared in Beast Nest Forest. They were twins, abandoned by their parents, with extraordinary cultivation talent. Their bodies were covered in rare pitch-black scales, they had a pair of fins like wings, and a pair of tails that stirred clouds and rain.

Kun were divine beasts, and legends said they were exceptionally delicious. Immortals only dared to drool over them, never to hunt them lightly.

Two thousand eight hundred years ago,

Yun Zhonghe, then the head of the White Lotus Sect, passed through Beast Tide Forest and spotted the two divine beasts.

He then secluded himself in Beast Tide Forest for nearly a hundred years, laying down over a hundred layers of formation traps one after another. At last, he captured the two divine beasts and took them back to the White Lotus Sect.

Yun Zhonghe was an interesting man.

He gradually raised one of the two Giant Kun to be his mount and named it Void Kun.

He enlightened the other Giant Kun and made it his disciple. After entering the Immortal Sect, the Kun transformed into a Peng, and he named it Golden Peng.

With Yun Zhonghe's careful cultivation and teaching, within a mere two thousand years, the Kun and the Peng had both advanced to Immortal Sect Master.

The Kunpeng Brothers, one a Beast Immortal who had been granted immortal status, the other an immortal beast mount belonging to an Immortal Venerable, had once been celebrated throughout Colored Cloud Immortal Domain as a heartwarming tale.

The incident took place at Yun Zhonghe's eight-thousandth birthday banquet.

Yun Zhonghe planned to slaughter Void Kun and serve it to guests from the Immortal Court.

Yun Zhonghe's youngest disciple was named Yunzhongzi. Yunzhongzi was close to the Kunpeng Brothers and secretly told Golden Peng about the plan.

Golden Peng flew into a rage. With Yunzhongzi's covert help, he set fire to the mountain in the middle of the night and took Void Kun away in the chaos, fleeing to Beast Nest Forest.

Having lost all faith in humanity, the Kunpeng Brothers joined the newly established branch of Immortal Tail. A thousand years later, Golden Peng became the branch's Immortal Chief.

For the thousand years Golden Peng led Immortal Tail's branch, he used Beast Nest Forest as a base, breeding beasts on a massive scale, unleashing Beast Tides, and taking ruthless revenge on humanity.

They massacred more than a hundred sects, large and small, across East Floating District, devoured humans in great numbers, and abducted countless Beast Immortals, brainwashing them and turning them into brutal Immortal Tail members who slaughtered humans.

Only the wealthy and powerful White Lotus Sect and the desolate, unpopulated Bamboo Spring Sect survived unscathed, standing firm.

The scale of Golden Peng's crimes, and the cruelty and bloodshed of his methods, shook not only East Floating District but the entire Colored Cloud Immortal Domain. The Immortal Court put a bounty of over a hundred million Immortal Crystals on him.

But Golden Peng and Void Kun had long lived deep within Beast Nest Forest, directing the Beast Tides. They came and went without a trace and had never been captured.

Yun Zhonghe was stripped of his immortal rank over the incident, forced to step down as head of the White Lotus Sect, and went into seclusion.

His disciple Yunzhongzi went even further, betraying the sect outright and leading a group of fellow disciples into Beast Nest Forest. There, they founded the Immortal Thief organization Black Lotus and set their sights on Bamboo Spring Sect.

And then... there was no then.

To lure high-ranking hunters into Beast Nest Forest to hunt the Kunpeng Brothers, the Immortal Court not only offered a huge bounty but also loudly advertised just how delicious Void Kun was, until everyone knew.

That was why Muyu Feifei wanted to eat the giant fish.

But they didn't know the story behind it. Ning Zhongzi had told Lu Ya the legend later.

At that moment, atop the Kun's head among the clouds,

Golden Peng, dressed in black, descended from the sky, his rage hot enough to burn the heavens and his voice tolling like a death knell.

"You still trust humans?"

"Have you forgotten what humans did to us?"

"Have you forgotten how greedy, cruel, and unscrupulous humans are?"

"Do you really think this Beast Tide spiraling out of control was a coincidence?"

"No. It was this woman!"

In the grassy hollow near the dojo,

Wine Fox Immortal struggled to climb out and handed the infant in her arms to Ning Zhongzi.

Ning Zhongzi held Snake Infant and looked at the child.

This was a half-human, half-snake baby girl, human from the waist up and a snake from the waist down. Pale, colorful scales covered her. She looked terribly weak, but hadn't suffered a single injury.

This was...

Ning Zhongzi couldn't be sure whether the child's identity was what she suspected.

She glanced at Wine Fox Immortal. The woman was covered in blood and had suffered injuries in several places. The wound on her Immortal Platform was especially severe...

Would this woman really risk her life to save a baby? Was it out of sympathy for another half-Beast Immortal?

Above the clouds, atop Kun's head, Golden Peng gazed at the Black Boat on Little Bamboo Spring Mountain and suddenly sneered.

"I never thought that Liu Xuanye would become an Immortal Sect Master too. Poor Junior Brother Yunzhongzi—he was actually tricked by this woman. Don't tell me you were the one who spread the false information, Wine Fox Immortal?"

"I thought you'd have nothing to do with Yun Zhonghe after all these years. I never imagined you were still his lapdog. You even dared to disrupt my Beast Tide and wound my Immortal Tail!"

Wine Fox Immortal steadied herself, took out a wine gourd, and gulped down a mouthful of Immortal Nectar. Blood streamed down her round face, but her bold spirit shone through.

She suddenly burst into wild laughter, ignoring her injuries as the spiritual pressure of an Immortal Sect Master erupted violently from her.

"Hahaha! And just who's Yun Zhonghe's dog? Don't tell me you still don't know Yunzhongzi's identity!"

Dark clouds gathered between Golden Peng's brows. He didn't want to recall what had happened back then.

"Half-human, half-beast monsters like you shouldn't exist in this world. You're all a bunch of lowlifes who grovel before humans and stick out your asses for them. You, Liu Xuanye—everyone here will die today!"

The Beast Immortals went deathly pale with fright. Even the two little girls were trembling.

Golden Peng's black robe billowed. He spread his arms like a god, his rolling spiritual pressure roaring like the wrath of a collapsing sky.

"From this day on, Bamboo Spring Sect will be my new Beast Tide base."

Bring in the Beast Tide?

I was just worrying about not having any meat dishes!

Lu Ya sat cross-legged on a boulder, so moved he was almost in tears. He munched on a crisp melon and gave a thumbs-up to the sky.

"Keep it up!"