Bear Demon Shi Jian!

To the north stood a mountain called Autumn Cry.

In the mountain was a cave called Long Sleep.

The name had not come naturally. The cave abode's master, a bear demon, had given it that elegant name in imitation of the Human Race.

His name was Shi Jian.

He was a bear demon with human memories in his head, who had also been bound to something called the "Enlightenment System."

That was why he refused to remain a stupid beast.

Shi Jian did not know what a system was, but that did not stop him from regarding it as a miracle that could defy the heavens and change his fate.

[Enlightenment]: 1

[Cultivation]: Foundation Establishment Early Stage (level 2 Demon Beast)

The information on the light screen was clear at a glance.

Every year, he gained one use of Enlightenment. He could use it to awaken the intelligence of anything, or keep using it on himself to strengthen his soul.

Thanks to this divine treasure, he had taken only thirty-five years to cultivate from a clueless beast into a great Foundation Establishment demon of this mountain range.

But what came after that?

The shackles of his bloodline stretched before him like an impassable chasm. Without rare treasures or an inherited Cultivation Method, Foundation Establishment was the end of the road for an ordinary black bear like him.

Shi Jian refused to accept it.

So he had been waiting.

Waiting for a tool he could use to "borrow a chicken to lay eggs"!

"Finally, he's here..."

Deep inside the cave abode, Shi Jian's enormous bear body trembled slightly. A gleam flashed through his copper-bell eyes, carrying a cunning no bear should have possessed.

"After luring this old thing for years, he's finally taken the bait!"

He grinned, revealing a sinister smile utterly at odds with his honest, sturdy appearance.

What future was there in being a mountain king? He would eat raw flesh and drink blood, never knowing if he would live to see tomorrow.

Becoming a human cultivator's spirit beast-that was how one ascended to heaven in a single step!

Of course, he was not going to be anyone's dog.

Shi Jian just wanted to profit from both sides!

If the Demon Race held sway, he would be a peerless great demon who howled at the moon and swallowed the sun, eating humans and drinking blood alongside them to grow stronger. That would be following the Heavenly Dao: the weak were meat for the strong.

If the Human Race flourished, he would be an auspicious spirit beast well versed in human nature, enjoying the good life, cultivating, and grabbing resources alongside them. That too would be following the Heavenly Dao: a fine bird chose the right tree to perch in.

As for face?

Could that stuff put food in his belly? Could it help him break through the shackles of his bloodline?

Cultivating was about seeking longevity. What use was face?!

His plan was simple.

First, become a spirit beast. Then, become an ancestor!

Once he outlived the old cultivator before him, who already had one foot in the grave, he, Shi Jian, would transform into the Lineage's guardian deity and everyone's venerable ancestor.

By then, inviting a god in was easy, but sending him away would be hard!

After he sired a few litters of bear cubs and used the Enlightenment System to awaken their intelligence one by one, a clan of highly intelligent bear demons would quietly take shape.

Then he would spend a few hundred years pulling the strings in secret, like a cuckoo taking over a magpie's nest.

That would give him a firm foothold in the Human Race's world. Spirit Veins, spirit fields, pills, inheritances... everything would be his and his descendants' for the taking!

With people waiting on him every day, spirit rice at every meal, and a Spirit Vein to use, wouldn't that life be more comfortable than fighting those stupid demons for territory in the mountains?

Risk his life? Impossible.

Enjoy the good life? That was a must!

Shi Jian truly could not understand why those demons spent all day killing and fighting, without the slightest eye for sustainable development.

He, the great demon Shi Jian, was ashamed to be counted among them!

"Here you come, my little darling... no, my old darling is here!"

"Ahem!"

Shi Jian cleared his throat and instantly tucked away every trace of emotion.

"Be aloof, be reserved!"

"I've got to make him think inviting me, Old Bear, home is the good fortune of three lifetimes, a blessing as vast as the heavens!"

"I've got to make him enshrine me like a great Buddha!"

With great calculation, Shi Jian adjusted his posture and lay sprawled on a huge rock in front of the cave entrance, perfectly displaying his glossy brown-black fur and explosively defined muscles.

Just look at that mighty physique, that unfathomable presence!

He refused to believe any cultivator could resist a prospective talent as "plump and succulent" as this!

Surely that would let him get a firm grip on the situation, drive a hard bargain, and then have a Human Race cultivator comfortably invite him home and treat him with reverence.

"You've come."

"Fellow Daoist, your bearing is as splendid as ever."

Shi Jian slowly raised his eyelids, deliberately pitching his voice low and resonant, with a trace of the indifference of someone long accustomed to a lofty position. He was full of little schemes.

Before his voice had faded, a figure was already standing quietly outside the cave.

The newcomer was as thin as a dying candle in the wind, his cheeks sunken, as though the years had drained him of all vitality. Only his white hair stood out beneath the moon, dazzling as snow.

The Foundation Establishment cultivator of the Sun Immortal Clan, Chunmuzi: Sun Hangchun!

An old fellow whose lifespan was nearly exhausted, with only forty years left to live.

Forty years.

For him, Shi Jian, that was merely the blink of an eye it took to pass from youth into one's prime.

But for Sun Hangchun, it was his Lineage's last chance to catch its breath.

Forty years from now, he would become a handful of yellow earth. Without Foundation Establishment protection, the Sun Immortal Clan behind him would instantly become a juicy piece of meat surrounded by wolves.

That was the iron law of the cultivation world.

What Shi Jian had been waiting for was Sun Hangchun's bone-deep despair, and the urgency of a man so desperately ill he would try any doctor.

"Fellow Daoist Shi, you jest."

Sun Hangchun cupped his hands, his voice hoarse and tinged with decay. "Compared to you, fellow Daoist, what splendor could these old bones of mine possibly have left?"

His cloudy gaze fell on Shi Jian, making no attempt to conceal his envy and longing.

"But you, fellow Daoist Shi, your Qi and Blood... they are truly as vigorous as a blazing furnace. They put me to shame!"

The old man changed tack, and the dagger appeared when the map was unrolled.

"With talent like yours, fellow Daoist, isn't remaining in these wild mountains like a pearl buried in dust?"

"Why not come to my Sun Immortal Clan?"

"I am willing to devote the strength of the entire clan to supporting you. All I ask is that you swear a great heart-demon oath to safeguard my Sun clan... for two hundred years!"

"Whatever the price, you may name it!"

Sun Hangchun bent even lower, humbling himself to the utmost.

"So long as it is within my power, there is nothing I will not grant!"

The old fox's abacus was clacking away...

His Sun clan had nothing to use but a second-tier Spirit Vein and a little over a hundred mu of spirit fields. They were dirt poor. Trading those lifeless things for the protection of a living Foundation Establishment great demon with boundless potential would be an outright windfall!

Two hundred years was enough time for a genius to emerge among the Sun clan's younger generation.

If they could also get their hands on a high-level beast-taming method...

When the time came, who would be master and who would be servant remained to be seen.

The day might yet come when his Sun Immortal Clan used a bear to rise, soaring into the heavens in a single bound!

"I name it?"

"I could, but what are those people behind you supposed to mean, fellow Daoist?"

"If you're in league with them, then unless you give me a reasonable explanation today, I'm afraid you won't be walking out of Mingqiu Mountain!"

Shi Jian slowly rose, his gaze fixed on a point a hundred zhang away. His Divine Sense was actually a shade stronger than Sun Hangchun's.

If he had been a cultivator, perhaps that would have been nothing remarkable.

But Shi Jian was a demon. For a Demon Beast's Divine Sense to be stronger than a cultivator's at the same realm-and a bear demon known for its strength at that-was as absurd as seeing a ghost in broad daylight!

"Fellow Daoist Shi, what is this?"