Divine Beast?
Song Wen and Liu Jiang had just returned to the Human-Snake Cavern when they encountered Zhou Siyi.
"Junior Brother Wu, I heard you went to catch the murderer. Did you catch him? It's such an interesting thing, why didn't you invite me to come along?"
Zhou Siyi's face showed a hint of disappointment and resentment as she kept rambling on, as if she had missed a tremendous fortuitous opportunity.
Song Wen and Liu Jiang exchanged a glance, both still looking shaken.
"What's wrong with you two? Why aren't you saying anything? Tell me quickly, what happened? Has the real culprit been taken to the Law Enforcement Hall?"
"Senior Sister Zhou, please don't ask. Something unexpected happened, and it's inconvenient to disclose it. The matter of the slaughter of the Spirit-Nurturing Workshop disciples will not be pursued further."
Zhou Siyi stared with her big eyes, quite puzzled.
"We haven't caught the real culprit, are we just going to let it go like this? Wouldn't that damage the sect's prestige? Moreover, the Azure Jade Snake suffered heavy losses, which will definitely affect our future cultivation of Man-Snake."
Liu Jiang picked up the conversation.
"Elder Zhou, let's leave it at that and not mention it again. As for the lost Azure Jade Snake, I plan to ask the Peak Master to exchange them for a batch from the Spirit Beast Peak; and then select some clever outer disciples from the Pill Peak to cultivate Azure Jade Snake in this valley. I believe it won't be long before the number of Azure Jade Snake is restored."
Seeing that neither Song Wen nor Liu Jiang wanted to talk about the process of catching the culprit, Zhou Siyi wisely stopped asking.
After Liu Jiang left, Zhou Siyi said to Song Wen.
"Junior Brother Wu, I've made arrangements for what you said last time about wanting to see the sect's guardian beast. You'll come with me to Year Mountain tomorrow at noon."
Year Mountain is a forbidden area within the Beast Taming Sect. It is located at the deepest part of the Beast Taming Sect, and there are no other mountains within a ten-mile radius around it, as if it had been forcibly uprooted by someone with great power.
Year Mountain Sui is sealed off by an array all year round, with a thick layer of clouds and mist enveloping the area within a ten-mile radius of Year Mountain, making it impossible for anyone to see anything on the Year Mountain.
The next day.
Led by Zhou Siyi, Song Wen boarded a large spaceship.
This spaceship belongs to the Spirit Beast Peak and is nearly 100 meters long.
There were only a dozen or so cultivators on the spaceship. Apart from one Foundation Establishment cultivator, all the others were Late Qi Refinement cultivators.
As soon as he boarded the spaceship, Song Wen keenly sensed that there were more than a thousand mortals being imprisoned inside the cabin.
There were a total of ten such spaceships around.
"Junior sister, you've arrived."
A handsome man with a tall and straight posture walked towards us.
"Senior Brother Liu."
Zhou Siyi was clearly very familiar with this "Senior Brother Liu".
With a look of joy on her face, she called out in a clear voice.
Senior Brother Liu nodded, and when he looked at Zhou Siyi, his eyes showed a hint of care.
He turned his head and looked at Song Wen behind Zhou Siyi.
"This must be Elder Wu Sheng."
Song Wen cupped his hands and said.
"Wu Sheng greets Senior Brother Liu."
On the way here, Zhou Siyi introduced this Senior Brother Liu to Song Wen.
Senior Brother Liu's full name Liu Leyi. He is at the Foundation Establishment Middle Stage and is Zhou Xuelin's only disciple.
Liu Leyi, who was more than ten years older than Zhou Siyi and had been cultivating alongside Zhou Xuelin, had practically watched Zhou Siyi grow up.
This made their relationship extremely close, almost like that of siblings.
After exchanging pleasantries, Liu Leyi led Song Wen and Zhou Siyi to a corner of the deck and spoke softly.
"I'll take charge of this ship. You two can guard the divine beast; no problem. But you must follow my instructions. You two can't disembark; you can only observe from a distance. Whatever you see, you mustn't shout or try to stop it."
"Remember, once you enter the range of the Year Mountain formation, you must withdraw your Divine Sense. Under no circumstances should you use your Divine Sense to sense the divine beast, otherwise it may cause a catastrophic change."
Zhou Siyi said, "Senior Brother Liu, don't worry, we won't cause you any trouble."
Song Wen also nodded, indicating that he would follow the arrangements.
The spaceship continued forward, and soon a thick fog appeared ahead.
Ten spaceships, lined up in a long row, drove straight into the fog.
Passing through the mist, a mountain peak thousands of meters high came into view.
The mountain peaks are bare, with exposed, dark brown rocks.
At the top of the mountain, there is a huge, deep cave that leads straight to the ground. The entrance is more than ten feet wide, and the inside is pitch black, as if any light shining in would be swallowed up.
On the surrounding mountainside, there are eighteen Cave, each about five zhang in size, and the Cave are also pitch black inside.
Song Wen's spaceship was the last of the ten spaceships, and it quietly hovered in mid-air.
On the first spaceship ahead...
A female cultivator at the Late Qi Refinement flew out of the spaceship, clutching a chain.
On the chains were ordinary young men and women.
All of these people wore expressions of panic and fear. Some were crying loudly, some were cursing loudly, and many more were so frightened that their eyes were glazed over, like soulless walking corpses.
A total of one hundred people were bound to the chains that the female cultivator was holding.
She arrived above Year Mountain and threw the chains in her hand, along with herself, into the deep cave at the summit.
Suddenly.
The entire Year Mountain began to shake violently, and countless rocks rolled down from the mountain.
It was as if a huge monster suppressed at the bottom of a mountain had been awakened.
A massive, ten-zhang-thick pillar of flesh rose from the deep cave.
A slit opened at the top of the fleshy pillar.
More than a hundred people, along with their chains, fell into the crevice.
"Gulp!"
A swallowing sound rang out.
"Hurry, hurry, deliver the blood offerings to the divine beast!"
On the first spaceship, someone was giving orders loudly.
One after another, the cultivators took to the air, each holding a chain with a hundred mortals attached to each chain.
More than a thousand mortals were quickly thrown into the rift in the flesh pillar.
Then, the monks on the second spaceship began to act, continuing to drop blood offerings.
Seeing this, Song Wen's eyes were filled with disbelief.
He had assumed that the guardian beast of the Beast Taming Sect was some kind of awe-inspiring spirit beast, or some kind of powerful Demon Beast.
In short, it is a creature that inspires fear and dread upon first sight.
Now, all that can be seen is a pillar of flesh, and on it are traces of decay and putrefaction.
No matter how you look at it, this thing doesn't live up to the title of "guardian beast of the clan".
It's more like some kind of lower-level creature, lacking intelligence and acting solely on instinct.
Zhou Siyi looked at the meat pillar that was eating, and her face was full of disappointment.
Even his eyes held a hint of disdain.
Clearly, this is far removed from the guardian beast she envisioned.
Perhaps noticing the confusion in Song Wen and Zhou Siyi's eyes, Liu Leyi explained in a low voice.
"The guardian beast of the sect is named Blood Year. This fleshy pillar is merely Blood Year's feeding organ. Its true form is hidden beneath Year Mountain. It is likely that apart from the three elders within the sect, no one else knows what its true form is like."