Beast

"Judging by the direction, it's the Sun-Burning Temple. It really is that old villain Mingyang!" Zhao Lanjun's face was cold as ice, and Mystic Ice True Qi began to ripple faintly around her once more as she prepared to give chase. "Wait here for a moment, Your Highness. I'll go after him!"

At that, Mu Qinghong also forced another breath of true qi through her body, ready to accompany her.

"Wait!"

Princess Taiping darted in front of them and shook her head. "There's no need to rush."

She drew a deep breath, settling the blood and qi churning inside her after she had driven the Purple Tenuity Heavenly Heart Formula to its limit.

This art was supremely domineering, excelling in explosive bursts of power, its torrent of stellar force all but irresistible. But repeatedly unleashing the Heavenly Pivot Falling Star Palm against the man in black had placed a considerable burden on her as well. Her aura was no longer as seamless and surging as it had been at first.

"Though our combined strike seriously wounded that old villain, his techniques are strange and his background unknown. He might not actually be Mingyang!" Princess Taiping's voice was icy. "How could the mere abbot of the Sun-Burning Temple know so many palace secrets-even the precise flaws in your martial arts?"

Zhao Lanjun and Mu Qinghong exchanged a glance. They, too, found that inconceivable.

Princess Taiping paused, the suspicion in her eyes deepening. "Besides, I keep feeling that the Great Sun Heaven-Burning Hand and Separation by Li Fire might not be his signature arts. During our fight, he seemed... very familiar with the Heavenly Pivot Falling Star Palm as well!"

That was simply inconceivable!

Never mind practicing it-only a handful of outsiders had ever even seen it!

Yet the man in black had seemed able to anticipate the shifts in her palm force, repeatedly redirecting and dispersing it with deft maneuvers, almost as though he could see the future! His martial knowledge and attainments were unfathomable!

"The Sun-Burning Temple may well be a smokescreen he deliberately revealed. There could be traps and killing formations inside that we know nothing about." She finally made her decision. "Aunt Mu is injured. We must not pursue a desperate enemy and risk an unforeseen disaster."

She changed tack.

With a clear grasp of their next steps, Princess Taiping issued her orders. "Our immediate priority is a two-pronged approach. First, we must ensure Aunt Mu's injuries are stable. Second, while this man is gravely wounded and in hiding, we must retrieve the Blood Tai Sui as quickly as possible!"

Her gaze sharpened. "Since this man in black opposes the court and can no longer take the Tai Sui himself, he may deliberately leak the news to draw Wu Sansi and the others here, hoping to profit like the fisherman while the snipe and clam fight! In that case, there's no reason to keep looking over our shoulders!"

"Aunt Lanjun, send word at once. Have the Summer Solstice and Lesser Heat divisions lead the Plum Blossom Guards here at full speed. Seal every major route around Jade Pillar Peak. Let people in, but no one out! Also, send orders to the Heavenly Spider Envoy of the Five Poisons Cult in the Miao Borderlands, who is already on her way. Whatever the cost, she must arrive before noon tomorrow and devote every effort to breaking the Ten Thousand Gu Devouring Spirit Array!"

"Once we retrieve the Two Zhang Treasures and remove our greatest constraint, we can finally act freely and investigate the Sun-Burning Temple properly. Let's see just how many demons and monsters are hiding inside!"

"Yes!"

Zhao Lanjun solemnly accepted her orders and no longer insisted on pursuing him.

She immediately drew an oddly shaped bone whistle from her robes, placed it to her lips, and blew a distinctive sound wave.

A moment later, a black carrier pigeon with a silver band around its leg flew silently out of the darkness, as though it were part of the night itself, and landed on her forearm. Zhao Lanjun slipped her written secret orders into the small silver tube on its leg. With a flutter of wings, the pigeon vanished into the night.

"..."

Watching Taiping's swift, decisive arrangements from the sidelines, Lu Changfeng privately conceded that the old woman did have a few tricks up her sleeve.

In truth, he did not think they needed to be so cautious.

Since that fellow had known an expert of Zhao Lanjun's caliber might come, he had likely already committed his trump cards to the encirclement to ensure nothing went wrong.

Those twelve giant apes certainly could not have been raised overnight.

There were too many people and prying eyes on Zhongnan Mountain. Unless he had united every powerful dignitary on the mountain, he could never operate openly. The man in black had not dared reveal his manifestation throughout the entire battle, suggesting that it was distinctive and closely tied to his identity. He had his own concerns. Given that, three Great Grandmasters pressing their advantage would have had a good chance of success. Even if he had made preparations inside the Sun-Burning Temple, they would have amounted to poison, traps, and the like-not much of a threat.

Of course.

That said, if they wanted him to join the pursuit, he had no intention of doing it. It was too dangerous!

In the past, Wu Zetian had slaughtered members of the Li Tang imperial clan in droves and entrusted cruel officials such as Lai Junchen and Zhou Xing with power, unjustly killing many famous generals, including Heichi Changzhi. Those men's descendants and nephews all carried supreme martial inheritances. If they united against the court, they would be difficult to handle. It was best to avoid getting involved. Tonight had already been somewhat risky.

Fortunately, wealth and glory were won through peril. Treating an injury in the midst of battle had earned him his first four-star weapon.

The world's foremost hidden weapon, [Peacock Plume]!

-Though Mu Qinghong's injuries had been dangerous, they were merely internal injuries caused by her art being broken and her true qi rebounding. Anyone could have treated them. If he had not come along, that opportunity would never have fallen to him...

With the arrangements complete.

Princess Taiping turned to Mu Qinghong, her tone becoming concerned. "Aunt Mu, how are your injuries?"

After briefly regulating her breathing, Mu Qinghong said in a low voice, "Rest assured, Your Highness. Young Friend Lu's medical skills are wondrous. He has already expelled the foreign true qi. My vitality is only somewhat depleted, and my meridians are injured. Some rest afterward will suffice."

Hearing that, Princess Taiping took a small, lustrous white jade bottle from her sleeve and handed it over. "Take this Spirit Radiance Pill first, Aunt, and regulate your breathing here for a while. Minister Lu and I will investigate that secret cave by the Jade Belt River."

Mu Qinghong accepted the pill and nodded. "Be careful, Your Highness."

Princess Taiping and Lu Changfeng exchanged a glance and wasted no more time.

With a flicker of movement, they silently reached the murmuring Jade Belt River. Following the direction of their earlier investigation, they indeed discovered a narrow cave entrance concealed by aquatic plants beneath the water near the mountain wall.

Without hesitation, they plunged into the slightly chilly river.

Lu Changfeng silently employed the breath-holding secret art from the Nine Yin Manual, making his breath deep and sustained.

Princess Taiping's cultivation was so profound that she had no need to come up for air.

They swam inward along the dark, winding passage that sloped downward. Everything around them was silent; there was only the sensation of water brushing their bodies. After a dozen or so breaths, a faint light appeared ahead, and the current grew calmer.

They swam hard toward it. The pressure around them suddenly eased, and their heads broke the surface!

The space before them opened wide!

They were inside a naturally formed, fairly spacious dry cavern.

The air circulated freely, carrying the scent of earth and a faint, elusive fragrance, without any sense of stuffiness.

A few luminous pearls were set here and there in the ceiling, casting a soft, pale glow sufficient to see by.

They waded ashore onto the stone floor.

Princess Taiping stopped first and naturally circulated her internal energy, evaporating the water from her clothes.

Lu Changfeng glanced at her from the corner of his eye, his brows stirring. Her magnificent palace robes clung wetly to her shapely body, tracing breathtakingly full curves.

Beneath the soaked fabric, her slender waist seemed too small to fill a hand, while her hips were rounded and lush and her legs straight and long. As her internal energy evaporated the water, a faint white mist spread around her. She resembled the Goddess of the Luo River rising from the water, or an immortal maiden beneath the moon. Her youthful features blended strangely with a mature woman's ultimate allure and the stately grace of someone long accustomed to power, creating an arresting feast for the eyes.

Even Lu Changfeng, steady-minded and accustomed to beautiful women, faltered for a moment. He silently admired her. This woman... setting aside her scheming and character, her looks and bearing alone truly make her a peerless beauty, enough to set the hearts of men across the world aflutter.

No wonder Gao Jian had resorted to murder at the slightest rustle of wind through the grass...

And Wu Youji, too, had never stopped pining for the woman who openly made him wear a cuckold's green hat...

How could that momentary lapse escape the keen spiritual senses of a Fifth Realm Great Grandmaster?

Princess Taiping was concentrating on drying her clothes when she suddenly felt a gaze fall upon her. The admiration and brief entrancement in it made her movements pause ever so slightly.

Far from being annoyed, she glanced at Lu Changfeng's profile as he swiftly regained his composure, and an indescribable flicker of satisfaction and delight passed through her heart.

Heh...

She chuckled inwardly. I thought you really were a Liu Xiahui, unruffled even with a woman in your lap, able to ignore even me.

So you're no different after all.

She had always been confident in her charm. Only with Lu Changfeng had she met setbacks several times.

His aloof manner and strict adherence to a subject's etiquette on their earlier encounters had once made her doubt her own allure. Now those doubts vanished like smoke, and a mature woman's mingled pride and playful amusement quietly arose within her.

She did not expose him. Instead, as though she had noticed nothing, she continued elegantly drying her silk skirts. Only the curve of her lips deepened slightly, like a phoenix pleased with itself after successfully toying with its prey. The cavern's gentle light illuminated her jade-like profile, making her beauty all the more breathtaking.

Lu Changfeng, however, withdrew his gaze and surveyed their surroundings.

Up ahead, a small cluster of dark red, fleshy roots hung from a tiny opening in the ceiling, writhing faintly like something alive. They extended into a bubbling spring below, drawing in moisture.

Those were the Blood Tai Sui's roots!

Looking closely, he saw several distinct cut marks on the cluster. Someone had clearly already harvested part of it.

Deeper inside the cavern, the faint light of the luminous pearls revealed unmistakably man-made stone platforms, bookshelves, medicinal ingredients, and pill furnaces. This place had actually been converted into a fully equipped secret alchemy chamber, one permeated with an air of evil!

Lu Changfeng was mildly startled. Then he noticed an open notebook on a table.

He strode over, picked it up, and examined it. The more he read, the more alarmed he became!

This was no ordinary alchemy record, but a systematic log of biological weapon refinement!

The opening laid out the research principles in chillingly detached terms:

"The Blood Tai Sui embodies the baleful energies of heaven and earth. Those who forcibly ingest it will inevitably suffer backlash. Yet if a living body is used as a furnace to endure its medicinal power first, and its blood essence is then extracted for a second refinement, perhaps its miraculous effects can be obtained while avoiding its calamities!"

The notebook recorded three phases of experimentation in detail:

"Apes were directly fed diluted Tai Sui juice. They gained strength enough to split stone and unmatched ferocity. However, half died with every meridian shattered, while the remainder went mad and destroyed themselves within the time it took an incense stick to burn, their spirits withering and bodies decaying. This path is untenable. Another route must be found."

"Next, Tai Sui was used as the principal ingredient, supplemented with rare medicinal materials such as ice saliva grass and earth vein zi zhi, to refine the [Beastheart Pill]. Upon ingestion, the apes' strength surged without immediate death. They survived for over a month, and their ferocity increased further. However... their intelligence was extinguished, leaving only bestial instinct. They are of little practical use. These are 'blood apes.'"

"Heart blood essence was taken from mature 'blood apes,' mixed with heart-cleansing lotus seeds and spirit-concentrating flower dew, and refined through a secret method to produce [Soldier Blood Tonic]. Robust death-sworn warriors were made to ingest it... marvelous! Within three months, they achieved initial success, breaking through two realms in succession and doubling their agility while retaining the rudimentary intelligence needed to obey! However, their bodies gradually mutated, with increased body hair and protruding jaws. This symptom of 'ape transformation' has yet to be overcome."

Lu Changfeng's gaze fixed on the hair-raising entry on the latest page:

"Though the blood apes are complete, they remain beasts, with limited potential. Better, perhaps... to use young children of excellent innate aptitude as the foundation, allowing their pure constitutions to accommodate the 'Soldier Blood Tonic'! The first trial involved three subjects. After two months, remarkable effects have already appeared. Their cultivation rose directly to Houtian, their muscles and bones strengthened, and signs of ape transformation were far milder than in adults! Heaven blesses my path. This method is the road to the heavens! Divine soldiers are within reach!"

"This is bad!"

Lu Changfeng cried out, a chill shooting straight from his spine to the crown of his head!

He abruptly raised his head, his lightning-sharp gaze piercing through the clutter piled at the rear of the alchemy chamber and instantly locking onto an apparently ordinary stone wall. There was an extremely well-concealed seam in it!

His face turned ashen, unprecedented fury roiling in his chest. Almost instinctively, he drew his sword and charged over!

Princess Taiping was taken aback by his sudden movement. Since they had met, this was the first time she had seen him so distraught and urgent. Knowing he must have discovered something momentous, she followed without a moment's hesitation.

Bang!

Lu Changfeng's furious kick slammed into the hidden door, which was almost indistinguishable from the stone wall!

Beyond it lay a narrow secret passage sloping downward. Cold, damp air rushed into their faces, laden with a pungent, strange mixture of rank animal stench and medicinal herbs, along with an indescribable, nauseating sense of oppression.

The passage was short. From its far end came faint wheezing, like the strained rasp of broken bellows, and the scraping sound of something heavy dragging across rough ground.

Lu Changfeng's expression darkened further. He forced a word through clenched teeth. "Beast!"

No longer bothering to conceal himself, he sprang forward, hurtling toward the end of the passage like an arrow loosed from a bow.

Princess Taiping followed close behind and swept her gaze over the scene-

Even she, who had weathered countless storms, could not help drawing a sharp breath as every hair on her body stood on end!

Dozens of apes of varying shapes were confined in the stone chamber on the left!

Most had vacant eyes and patches of missing fur, their bodies covered in stitched scars or grotesque growths. Some limbs had even twisted and swollen unnaturally. At the sight of strangers, they cowered and shrank back in terror, opening their mouths wide, yet could only let out silent howls, revealing the bare stumps where their vocal cords had been severed at the root!

That sight alone was horrifying enough.

But when her gaze turned to the second stone chamber, an even deeper chill instantly seized her heart!

Confined in the second stone chamber... were children!

Or rather, children who still vaguely resembled humans, but whose bodies had undergone varying degrees of ape-like deformity!

Their vocal cords had likewise been cut out. Their eyes were numb and hollow as they lay imprisoned like livestock in cold iron cages.

Some children had arms so long they hung below their knees. Some were covered in sparse red hair. Others crouched on the ground, moving no differently from apes. They huddled together in the silence of despair, emitting those heartbreaking, labored breaths like broken bellows.

No hell on earth could be worse than this!

How was this an alchemy chamber? It was a demon's den, where living bodies were subjected to inhuman refinement that profaned every human bond! The man in black had not merely experimented on apes-he had truly extended his poisonous hands to children!

Lu Changfeng abruptly clenched the notebook in his hand, his knuckles whitening with the force.

Those cold words intertwined with the living tragedy before him, searing the madness and cruelty of the person behind it into his very bones.

He regretted it.

He should have insisted earlier that they join forces and tear that beast into ten thousand pieces!!