“This…” Zhang Xuan didn’t expect to hear such a request. He hesitated for a brief moment before replying, “To be honest with you, I’m intending to head north. There’s something which I am rushing in time for…”
“Brother Zheng, it’ll only take a little while. It won’t delay you by too long… Besides, the Myriad Beasts Hall is also located north of here. It won’t be too much of a detour,” Elder Liao said.
“If… I were to follow you back to the Myriad Beasts Hall in the capacity of an honorary elder, could I be so impudent as to request access to your elders’ library? To be honest, I’m deeply interested in browsing through your sect’s book collection in order to clarify some doubts in my cultivation,” Zhang Xuan asked.
As one of the Six Sects, the Myriad Beasts Hall should have a sizeable collection of cultivation technique manuals as well. If he could just pay a visit to their library, he might be able to gather more High Immortal realm cultivation technique manuals, thus taking another step further to the completion of the Heaven’s Path Divine Art.
The aim of his journey was to reach High Immortal realm anyway, and if this short detour would help him achieve his aim, it would be a good opportunity to go along with them.
Besides, he would have to acquire a few tamed beast sacks too. It would be as if he was begging to be noticed if the three immortal beasts were to follow him like that!
“Of course! As an honorary elder of our Myriad Beasts Hall, you are entitled to the same privileges as any other one of our elders. We’ll provide you with free tamed beast sacks too so that you can bring the three immortal beasts around with you conveniently. Not only so, on the grounds that you have successfully tamed three of the four immortal beasts, there is a good chance that you could be nominated to become our next hall master!” Elder Liao said with a light chuckle.
“I’d really appreciate the free tamed beast sacks, but as for the position of the hall master, I’m afraid that I’ll have to refuse,” Zhang Xuan replied.
He had no plans on settling down in the Azure. His main goal here was to find Luo Ruoxin, so anything aside from that was unnecessary. The reason why he had wanted to become the sect leader of the Ascendant Cloud Sword Pavilion previously was in hopes that he would be able to tap into its influence, but that had proven to be an extremely risky move. It had brought the attention of the Hall of Gods upon him.
The more high profile he was, the more conspicuous of a target he would be to the Hall of Gods. Thus, he didn’t think that it would be wise of him to expose himself any more than this.
Hearing those words, Elder Liao frowned.
He didn’t expect the other party to be interested in a relatively inexpensive tamed beast sack, only to think nothing of becoming the leader of one of the Six Sects…
Wouldn’t the other party be able to acquire whatever he wanted if he were to become the hall master?
“We can discuss the details later on,” Elder Liao said with an awkward smile.
The matter was just a suggestion that the lot of them had come up with so far. The only one who had the power to make the final decision was the hall master. All they could do was to bring the middle-aged man over to their sect.
After coming to an agreement, Elder Liao and the others quickly focused on recuperating from their injuries. They had sustained severe injuries under the assault of the three immortal beasts earlier.
As for Zhang Xuan, he turned his attention to the Nine-headed Fiery Phoenix to examine the latter’s injuries.
There were nine huge bumps on its heads due to the consecutive strikes by the Dongxu Gourd. At the same time, its body appeared to be a little withered, and fresh blood was still trickling out from the deep cut it was inflicted with.
Given that the Nine-headed Fiery Phoenix had already submitted to him, Zhang Xuan was obliged to treat its injuries. Thus, he took out a jade bottle and passed it over, “Drink this.”
In case of emergency, he had made sure to prepare several more bottles of the gourd’s bathwater prior to setting off.
The Nine-headed Fiery Phoenix unhesitatingly drank the water in the jade bottle, and in just a few moments, it had already fully recovered from its injuries. In fact, it appeared to be more energetic than before.
“Thank you, master,” the Nine-headed Fiery Phoenix replied in agitation.
Using its strongest Nine-headed Flame Breath had taken a toll on its body, and it had lost quite a bit of blood essence to the gourd earlier. Given the severity of its injuries, it thought that it would take at least a decade or so in order to recover back to its peak. Yet, who could have thought that a couple of clear water would actually bring it back to full health within moments…
This further affirmed its choice of acknowledging the man standing before it as its master.
“Call the White-eared Fox back,” Zhang Xuan instructed.
“Yes!”
The Serpentine Dragon rose into the sky and roared ferociously, causing the ground to tremor ceaselessly,
Following that, the crowd saw the pair of human and ‘dragon’ returning back to the surface. Elder Yuan was still driving the Dragon Orb around, and sweat could be seen trickling down his forehead.
It was apparent that even up to this point, Elder Yuan hadn’t realized that the ‘Serpentine Dragon’ he had been teasing was a fake.
“W-what? How is it possible that there’s another Serpentine Dragon here?” Elder Yuan was stunned when he saw the real Serpentine Dragon.
Paying no heed to the astonished Elder Yuan, the Serpentine Dragon said, “White-eared Fox, the rest of us have already submitted to our master. What do you intend to do now?”
“You have submitted to him?”
The White-eared Fox was stunned. Its figure swiftly morphed from that of a Serpentine Dragon to a massive gray fox. Despite being gray from head to toe, it had an eye-catching pair of snowy white ears. This was also probably where its name had come from as well.
The White-eared Fox contemplated deeply for a moment before lowering its back deeply, “I am willing to submit to him as well.”
Three of the four immortal beasts ruling over the Ascendant Cloud Mountain had already submitted. Given that it was the weakest of them all and its illusion had already been exposed, there was no way it would stand a chance against the others.
Rather than to be killed, it might as well pledge its loyalty to the same master as well.
As the White-eared Fox submitted to Zhang Xuan as well, Elder Yuan finally came to realize what was going on, and he fell into a daze.
He thought he would be able to tame the Serpentine Dragon without any trouble, especially since he had devoted thirty whole years into making preparations for this single moment. Who could have thought that a single White-eared Fox would be able to foil all of his efforts…
More importantly, within this short period of time, this ‘Zheng Yang’ had already managed to tame the other three immortal beasts, thus becoming the biggest winner of this mission.
“What is more important than incentivizing the beast you intend to tame is to win its respect. The Northern Sea Dragon Orb and Dragon Blood you have prepared are indeed useful artifacts, but if you wish to truly win the respect of the beast you have tamed, you’ll have to prove yourself to it,” Zhang Xuan said.
One of the reasons why his Beast Pummeling Taming Method worked time and time again was because it proved his superiority in strength!
Treasures and the sort were just material possessions. They could be used to accrue goodwill with one’s tamed beast, but a relationship built solely upon goodwill was fragile. Ultimately, one would still have to prove his strength in order to take a dominant position in the relationship, or else there was no guarantee that one would be able to retain control over one’s beast!
“I understand… Brother Zheng, thank you for your guidance!”
Elder Yuan was one of the top geniuses of the Myriad Beasts Hall, or else he wouldn’t have become one of the candidates to become the hall master despite his young age. Zhang Xuan’s words had really opened his eyes to a very simple fact.
The Myriad Beasts Hall couldn’t compete with the Ascendant Cloud Sword Pavilion in the field of swordsmanship, it was beneath the Starchaser Palace in the field of soul arts, its finances couldn’t match the Sevenstar Pavilion, and its movement arts were elementary compared to the Evanescent Immortal Sect…
All it had was its beast taming. For this reason, its disciples took pride in being able to tame beasts stronger than them. Such a mindset was ingrained so deeply in their mindset that none of them questioned it.
However, now that he looked back on it, it was utterly wrong.
The very foundation of a beast tamer was not his tamed beast but his cultivation. A tamed beast was only an auxiliary mean to enhance the fighting prowess of a beast tamer…
Elder Yuan had devoted thirty years of his life making preparations to tame the Serpentine Dragon, and the resources he had spent on it was unimaginable too… If he had devoted his time and resources to his cultivation instead, he would have been much stronger than he was at the moment. Everything wouldn’t have ended up in futility.
“Let’s go!”
Since their work here was done, the group swiftly packed up and began making their way back to the Myriad Beasts Hall.
Zhang Xuan felt that their speed of travel was too slow, and he got all of them onto the Serpentine Beast and proceeded swiftly ahead.
…
Three days later, the Myriad Beasts Hall finally came into view.
In terms of scale, the Myriad Beasts Hall paled nowhere in comparison to the Ascendant Cloud Sword Pavilion. The entrance to the sect was a massive dragon head, and the buildings beyond formed the scales of the dragon. These buildings stretched on for hundreds of li, forming the body and tail of the dragon.
Looking at it from afar, the entire Myriad Beasts Hall looked like a living dragon that was prowling along the mountain range, biding its time before it soared into the vast sky once more.
Zhang Xuan had to admit that this was truly an impressive work of art. Even before entering the sect, the imposing presence of the sect would have already induced deference in the hearts of the visitors.
“How magnificent!” Zhang Xuan remarked as he looked upon the sight from the top of the Serpentine Dragon.
He couldn’t help but recall how impressed he was when he first caught sight of the massive mountain gate and humongous sword located at the entrance of the Ascendant Cloud Sword Pavilion. It seemed like none of the Six Sects were to be trifled with.
“It’s said that the founder of the Myriad Beasts Hall had managed to tame a Pseudo Dragon back in his time. All of these buildings were built in the era of the founder, and they were constructed to resemble the body of the Pseudo Dragon. As a result of that, the sect carries the imposing authority of the Dragon Tribe. Any beasts who come near the Myriad Beasts Hall would feel innate deference and dare not to wreak havoc,” Elder Liao explained solemnly.
Zhang Xuan nodded in response.
The Dragon Tribe was known as the Sovereign of the Beasts. Buildings that were built in imitation of their form would naturally gather Dragon Energy over time, inducing deference in the other beasts.
“Brother Zheng, you can rest here for the time being. I’ll report the incident to the hall master first,” Elder Liao led Zhang Xuan to a posh residence before clasping his fist and bidding farewell.
Since he was already here, Zhang Xuan decided to take a brief respite too. After the crowd from the Myriad Beasts Hall left, he instructed the four immortal beasts to take a rest outside before entering the residence.
He pondered for a brief moment before bringing the Dongxu Gourd out from his dantian.
“How are you feeling?”
Ever since this fellow had absorbed the flames and blood essence of the Nine-headed Fiery Phoenix, it had gone completely quiet. Over the past three days, there had been no movements from it at all.
“It seems like the blood essence from that bird is still lacking. I still need more energy…” the Dongxu Gourd sighed helplessly.
“You still need more energy? What’s going on?” Zhang Xuan asked with a frown.
“As you know, I am a legendary beast who once ruled…” the Dongxu Gourd began on its long-winded story once more.
“That’s enough,” Zhang Xuan interjected sharply. “I know that you used to be very powerful. What I want to know is how did you end up getting sealed in your current body!”
Given how this fellow was able to devour High Immortal-tier swords and defeat the Nine-headed Fiery Phoenix with ease, its prowess was really not to be underestimated.
What that had left Zhang Xuan perplexed was why the Dongxu Gourd would appear in the Master Teacher Continent in the first place. Given its prowess, it was apparent that it was a being that belonged to the Azure or the Firmament even.
Also, how did it end up in such a state?
“I have no idea either. My memories are a little hazy. I was already in a Dongxu Gourd when I woke up. My instincts tells me that I’ll only recover my memories once I return back to my full strength,” the Dongxu Gourd said.
Seeing how it was futile to get anything out of this fellow, Zhang Xuan sighed deeply and said, “Forget it. Why don’t you tell me what do you need in order for you to break free of your current form instead?”
“The amount of energy I have gathered still isn’t sufficient for me to break free of my shell yet… However, if you could just feed me some Superior Immortal Pills, I just might be able to do it,” the Dongxu Gourd said.
“Superior Immortal Pills? How many do you need?” Zhang Xuan frowned.
He did have some Superior Immortal Pills on hand, but he didn’t have too many of it.
He had intended to acquire a hundred of them back when he paid a visit to the Wuhai City Ethereal Hall. Unfortunately, the Ethereal Hall didn’t have enough supply to meet his demand, so he could only make do with what they had on hand. That being said, the Ethereal Hall promised to gather the remaining amount, and they would hold another transaction a few days later.
However, the assassination from the Hall of Gods happened right after that, and he was forced to leave the city in such a huge hurry that he hadn’t managed to claim them yet.
Of the Superior Immortal Pills he had received, he had used quite a few of them himself, and he had given a couple of them to Bai Ruanqing and Dan Xiaotian for their cultivation too. As such, he only had five of them left in his possession.
He was intending to use them for the breakthrough of his soul cultivation, but if the Dongxu Gourd needed it, he had no qualms about giving them to it instead.
With the token which Kong shi had given him, gathering sufficient cultivation resources was no longer an issue to him anymore. As long as there was an Ethereal Hall nearby, he would be able to acquire almost anything he needed.
“I need roughly two hundred Superior Immortal Pills,” the Dongxu Gourd said.
“Two hundred Superior Immortal Pills?” Zhang Xuan’s eyebrows shot up.
He seemed to have underestimated the Dongxu Gourd’s appetite yet again.
Even a major city like Wuhai City could only bring out twenty Superior Immortal Pills in a moment’s time, but you are actually telling me you need two hundred of them…
Where do you expect me to find that many Superior Immortal Pills for you?
“I’ll only become more and more indebted to Kong shi at this rate,” Zhang Xuan rubbed his glabella helplessly.
