The demon beast, covered in sharp, blade-like armor, crashed to the ground, an unyielding wail spilling from its mouth. Grrroooo...
What exactly had the pangolin said?
No one knew, but pangolin certainly tasted good.
This pangolin-like demon beast was only second-tier. Once Ye Wuyou dragged it out, the four swarmed it, and before long, its iron armor had been smashed to pieces.
This was also Ye Wuyou's first time seeing proper cultivators fight.
It was different from when Lu Caiwei had slaughtered those controlled corpses with nothing but her sword.
This time, Xu Fang held the front alone, weathering the demon beast's attacks with his formidable body, while Bai Changzai flicked his hand back, sending out several talismans amid mingled thunder and fire.
When the demon beast tried to burrow underground and escape, the loose, muddy ground seemed to have gained a thin membrane. Even after it battered its head bloody, the ground did not budge.
Cooperation between cultivators seemed to make a powerful enemy much weaker.
Lin Qingqing crouched beside the road, looking puzzled.
They were still dozens of li from the Cloudmist Mountains. Normally, demon beasts were only found within the mountains themselves.
Why would a demon beast come so far out to attack their group?
It made no sense.
Though second-tier demon beasts had yet to awaken humanlike spiritual intelligence, they were far from stupid.
Even savage beasts knew to observe their prey before hunting, let alone a second-tier demon beast.
Lin Qingqing sighed. Despite her analysis, it had happened all the same.
A trace of lingering fear remained in her eyes...
She had failed to notice any sign of this demon beast earlier. If she had walked past unguarded, and it had targeted her...
She would not have died, but she would certainly have suffered.
"We can't stay here."
That was Lin Qingqing's decision.
The sky gradually darkened, and a crescent moon slowly rose above the branches, drawing a veil over the mountains.
A cold wind swept across the cliff.
Three figures gradually emerged.
"We've tested them. Those four are indeed jailers from the Heavenly Prison. Coming here at a time like this, they must be after that demon fox."
The man at their head wore a golden brocade robe.
Though it looked impressive, without the cover of night, a closer look would have revealed several frayed hems worn pale.
Watching the figures below gradually recede, he softly recited,
"That autumn night was the day my master married."
The other two, a man and a woman, looked puzzled, as though a blank, bewildered question mark had appeared over their heads.
The Man in Brocade paid them no mind. He continued speaking, as though delivering his most heartfelt soliloquy to the empty valley.
"I fell deeply in love with a woman I should never have loved, and my master's wife loved me just as deeply."
At this scandalous declaration, the two who had been about to interrupt his inexplicable monologue froze. Then they withdrew their hands and listened in quiet excitement.
"I knew she didn't love my master. But as the sect master of the Thousand Illusions Sect, he held great power and status. She had no choice but to give herself to him."
"In my dreams, I can still hear her cries. She said, 'Save me...'"
"She and I made a promise. To save her, I killed my master. But she... never appeared again."
"Only later did I learn that she was merely a demon fox. She lured my master and me away and stole the supreme treasure of our Thousand Illusions Sect, the Thousand Illusions Purple-Gold Bell."
"It hurt. It hurt so much... I lost everything. Without its sect master and supreme treasure, the Thousand Illusions Sect was reduced to ruins in an instant..."
He paused briefly, then the Man in Brocade pointed toward the distant Cloudmist Mountains and exclaimed,
"Now the Heavenly Prison has collapsed, and that demon fox has escaped. Wonderful, absolutely wonderful! I made inquiries everywhere before. The Thousand Illusions Sect's supreme treasure isn't in the Heavenly Prison's possession, so that demon fox must have hidden it somewhere."
"The chance is right before my eyes. I have to consider whether this is the only chance I'll ever have! I'll win everything back. As long as we follow this group from the Heavenly Prison, we'll find that demon fox."
"Restoring the glory of our Thousand Illusions Sect is a duty we cannot shirk!"
The two stood speechless after hearing this juicy scandal. The other man seemed moved by the atmosphere as well and silently stepped forward.
The remaining woman's lips twitched as she gave the two men a strange look.
The man wore coarse hemp clothing, and even his hair looked somewhat disheveled. He appeared quite impoverished.
Standing on the cliff, he recited in a voice of utmost resolve,
"That year, I was eighteen. The entire Beast Taming Sect celebrated, while I stood on a street corner like some lowly lackey."
"The laughter and joy were theirs, and so were the credit and rewards. Even my childhood sweetheart, my fiancée, was sitting in another man's arms, smiling."
"I suddenly understood that human joys are not shared. I only found them noisy. In the endless night, loneliness and desolation alone belonged to me."
The woman rubbed her shoulders, feeling goosebumps rise all over her.
The young man formerly of the Beast Taming Sect ignored their looks and spoke slowly.
"All those things originally belonged to me. I was a prodigy of the sect. I shed blood for it and suffered wounds for it. But because I quarreled with the sect master's worthless son, they shut me out at every turn."
"The sect master crippled my cultivation, my fiancée tore up our marriage agreement, and in the end, they expelled me from the sect. Heh."
"Fortunately, I still had something held in reserve. I survived that brush with death and rebuilt my cultivation."
"Now I hear that a Third-Tier Demon Fox has escaped, and that she carries the bloodline of the Qingqiu Royal Clan. One demon stronger than six! I'll tame this fox and have her aid my cultivation!"
"I'll fight my way back and stand before them. Not to prove anything, but to tell them that whatever I've lost, I'll take back with my own hands!"
"Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west-don't bully a youth just because he's poor!"
The Man in Brocade stared for a moment, then his eyes lit up, as though he had found a kindred spirit.
"Good, good, good! Brother Tu, it's rare to find someone I get along with so well. I'll only take the Purple-Gold Bell, then. I won't compete with you for the demon fox."
"Brother Murong, say no more. Brotherhood lives in the heart."
Beneath the night sky, the two seemed touched once more by their own words. Remembering their tragic experiences, they embraced and wept.
After a long while, they parted and stared straight at the remaining woman.
"So, Miss Bai Lu, what brings you here?"
The woman called Bai Lu wore a white silk veil that revealed only her somewhat seductive eyes. Her clothing looked ordinary enough, but its cut was strange.
The cuffs, shoulders, and thighs seemed to have been deliberately cut away, exposing enticing glimpses of fair skin.
Walking down the street dressed like this, she might well have drawn condemnation from busybodies for offending public decency. Others might have secretly sighed that she was a female bodhisattva.
Bai Lu seemed quite dismissive of their question, and her answer was simple.
"I'm from the Joyous Union Sect. I've come down the mountain to temper my heart in the mortal world."
Temper her heart in the mortal world?
What was that?
The two looked puzzled.
Bai Lu's gaze was helpless. She simply stood beside the cliff, watching the four distant figures disappear from sight.
She stared for a while, then seemed to think of something and said with a soft laugh,
"Tempering the heart in the mortal world... hmm, to put it in terms you fellows would understand."
"It probably just means finding a man."
Before you continue