Hearing those words, someone quickly focused their gaze on it.
Sure enough.
"The body has transformed, with a slight golden sheen. It really is an Innate Realm beast—the Great Vajra Bear!" Someone recognized the beast and immediately called out.
Now, no one doubted the truth of Zhang Feng's words.
After all, the evidence was right there before their eyes.
"My Venerable has already gone ahead to Beast Taming Mountain. Most of the dangers along the way have probably been cleared out, so our journey should be perfectly safe," Zhang Feng said with a cheerful grin.
Wasn't that the truth?
Who knew how many beasts had met their deaths at Lin Cheng's hands along the way?
The sheer density of the bloodlust in the air was enough to deter the vast majority of the Demon Race.
For the time being, this road was unquestionably the safest one.
In fact, before long, the only safe passage through the Mist Forbidden Land would give rise to quite a few new professions.
After all, beast flesh and blood lay everywhere along the road.
To someone like Lin Cheng, such things were worse than worthless.
But for many ordinary people, and even some low-grade cultivators, they were rare treasures.
The flesh and blood of Innate beasts—
That alone could spark a fierce scramble among a great many elders of the Seventh and Eighth Grades.
Even Zhang Feng himself was tempted.
If not for his Venerable's orders, he would probably have stayed here for the next few months.
"Let's go."
As it turned out, they didn't encounter the slightest danger along the way.
Even the occasional foolish beast that crossed their path was easily dealt with by Zhang Feng, Liu Yanran, and the others.
After all, setting aside Zhang Feng, an Eighth Grade expert, Liu Yanran was also in the Seventh Grade Realm.
The people of Beast Taming Mountain who had managed to break free from their encirclement were no ordinary folk, either.
A mere beast or two posed no threat to them, as long as they weren't part of a pack.
"At this pace, we'll reach Beast Taming Mountain's sect in half a day," Liu Yanran said.
Elsewhere.
After leaving Zhang Feng behind, Lin Cheng once again set his course on his own.
His speed surged by another thirty percent.
In mere moments, Beast Taming Mountain's sect appeared in his line of sight.
"Hang in there, my dear disciple. Your master is coming to save you!"
Lin Cheng silently sensed Meng Tangtang's location. She was already very close.
The red dot on the formation disk was blinking at a steadier pace, and its light was relatively bright, proving that Meng Tangtang wasn't in much danger for the time being.
What's more,
the defensive measures he had left on her were still working.
They were enough to keep her safe for a while.
At this point, Lin Cheng was no longer in a hurry.
He had arrived. That meant there was no room for anything to go wrong, and no one could hurt his disciple.
As a transmigrator, he had that much confidence.
"Why not try signing in here?"
The thought struck Lin Cheng out of nowhere.
Ever since transmigrating to this world, he had spent nearly all his time holed up in the Library Pavilion of Jingyun Sect.
He hardly ever left the house, much less the sect. This was a rare outing.
"But if I sign in here, my long-running streak at the Library Pavilion will be broken, and the reward grade will plummet..."
Lin Cheng thought it over, then decided it wasn't worth it.
He still had more than ninety years before he could stop signing in at the Library Pavilion for good. Switching locations now would mean throwing away all his hard work.
Besides, only by signing in at the Library Pavilion for the long term could he hope to get a Super Sign-In opportunity. If he changed locations, wouldn't he lose his biggest trump card?
No, no!
He wasn't about to make a losing deal!
"Forget it."
"Once I've dealt with this, I'd better go back to staying put in the Library Pavilion and signing in."
In the end, Lin Cheng chose not to sign in at Beast Taming Mountain.
It wasn't some sacred paradise, after all.
The treasures he got from signing in would probably be no better than what he'd received when he first transmigrated and signed in at the Library Pavilion.
Possibly worse.
Better not take the risk!
"Saving my disciple comes first!"
After a few seconds of thought, Lin Cheng activated his Eye of Truth-Breaking. A faint violet glow welled up in his pupils.
Everything within dozens of miles came into sharp focus.
Soon, he spotted his disciple trapped in a dungeon.
"Found her!"
His disciple was only being held captive, and three Alchemy Hall elders were with her. Aside from looking rather listless, none of them seemed to be injured. Lin Cheng breathed a sigh of relief.
"That girl's so reckless. A little more time in there might teach her a lesson!"
Fortunately, this time she'd come through unscathed.
Lin Cheng didn't rush to rescue them. Instead, he continued carefully inspecting all of Beast Taming Mountain, assessing the enemy's strength.
His spiritual sense swept back and forth.
Before long, Lin Cheng found three suspicious places where his spiritual sense was obstructed.
The next moment, Lin Cheng increased its power.
The layers of restrictions shattered in an instant.
At the first location, Lin Cheng "saw" an injured Innate beast, a black beast shaped like a qilin.
Blood was steadily pouring from multiple wounds on its body, collected in a nearby blood pool. Beside the pool stood a strange-looking old witch.
She kept gesturing at the air with her fingers.
Then, wisps of blood energy rose from the pool and flowed into the bottle in the old witch's hand, forming blood-red pills one after another.
After harvesting another batch,
the old witch nodded with satisfaction. Under the qilin beast's hate-filled gaze, she forced a bottle of life-giving medicinal liquid down its throat as it struggled.
Once its injuries had healed a little, she would harvest it again.
Lin Cheng discovered that the old witch was only in the Seventh Grade Realm, but seemed to control a set of black chains that kept the qilin beast firmly restrained.
Looking more closely,
he could see that the old witch didn't truly look human, just similar.
Her ears were slightly pointed, her eyes glowed red, and her withered hands were as sharp and powerful as steel claws. Overall, she resembled a monster Lin Cheng had seen in his previous life—a goblin.
But there were differences, too.
She looked more human.
"An alien race!"
The next moment, Lin Cheng's eyes narrowed, a dangerous glint flashing in them. "This creature closely resembles the alien races described in the books. And it seems to be a member of the Witch Demon Race, which specializes in refining potions. Their status is on par with alchemists in the human world."
"Beast Taming Mountain really has fallen to an alien race!"
At that thought, Lin Cheng suddenly remembered the beast incident that had thrown the world into turmoil some time ago.
It seemed that something had gone wrong at Ten Thousand Beast Canyon, which Beast Taming Mountain was charged with guarding, allowing a great many beasts to escape.
Now that he thought about it, it was probably not just Ten Thousand Beast Canyon. The entire Beast Taming Mountain had become a stronghold for the alien race.
"I can't sense the Innate expert from Beast Taming Mountain. Most likely, he's dead. That black qilin beast must be the sect's guardian spirit beast—the Black Qilin, at the fourth level of the Innate Realm."
Lin Cheng soon pieced together the likely situation.
At the same time, a chill crept through his heart.
Beast Taming Mountain had been wiped out right under the noses of all the major sects in the Southern Region, and no one had even noticed!
No wonder his disciple had been imprisoned when she came to Beast Taming Mountain.
It wasn't that Beast Taming Mountain had grown reckless. The whole thing had been orchestrated by the alien race.
They had imprisoned Meng Tangtang and the others instead of killing them.
They were probably trying to use them as bait. It wasn't hard to guess the alien race's next target: Jingyun Sect!
In terms of strength, Jingyun Sect ranked last among the Southern Region's ten great sects.
It was even weaker than Beast Taming Mountain.
Clearly, the alien race had already set its sights on them.
"Those aliens probably didn't expect their attempt to fish for prey would draw in a shark..."
The alien race had no idea Lin Cheng existed, much less that the seemingly weak Jingyun Sect had a Foundation Establishment Venerable among its ranks.
The moment Lin Cheng arrived,
the roles of hunter and prey quietly switched.
Before you continue