“Why? You are still refusing to admit it?”
Seeing the other party’s twitching lips—a sign of obstinacy—Zhang Xuan’s eyebrows shot up.
If this fellow continued like that, he wouldn’t mind resorting to even more extreme methods—Soul Torment!
Soul Torment was a soul oracle technique where an extracted soul would be put through unimaginable anguish so as to force it to speak. It was usually used for interrogation purposes, and rarely had it ever failed.
However, this would cause the soul of the interrogated to be wiped cleanly off the face of this world, never to be reincarnated again. Due to the callousness of this technique, Zhang Xuan had always been unwilling to utilize it. Who could have known that this fellow would be such a tough nut to crack!
He had heard the conversation between the Byzantium Helios Beast and the aerial spirit beast clearly.
‘You arranged for the aerial spirit beast to encircle the master teachers, and you still dare to deny the matter before me. Do you really take me for a fool?
‘Do you think that I dare not kill you?’
“Kill me then! Do I look like the type to fear death? I would rather die than to betray my master!” the Byzantium Helios Beast spat through clenched jaws.
The other party was clearly trying to sully its reputation. If it were to give in, the honor it had built using the entirety of its life would collapse in an instant. It would rather die than to live dishonorably!
The old principal had dedicated his life to protecting humanity. As his tamed beast, how could it ever face its master if it were to submit to the Otherworldly Demonic Tribe?
“Continue beating him up!”
Not expecting this fellow to be so loyal to its Otherworldly Demon master, to the extent that it would rather die than to betray the latter, Zhang Xuan frowned in displeasure.
“Cough cough…”
Just as the puppets were about to launch another wave of punches and kicks on the Byzantium Helios Beast, Vicious suddenly spoke up. “Master, I fear that it might really die here if we continue beating it.”
Hearing those words, Zhang Xuan suddenly realized that that the Byzantium Helios Beast was already teetering on the edge of life and death. If it were pummeled any further, it might just die on the spot.
“What should I do?”
Zhang Xuan rubbed his glabella in frustration.
It was so much easier to deal with other spirit beasts—with a stick and a carrot, they would submit readily. Yet, this fellow just refused to budge!
Even though Zhang Xuan had put the words harshly, he had no intentions of killing the Byzantium Helios Beast at all.
Soul Torment was not entirely reliable, especially against particularly stubborn individuals. If the Byzantium Helios Beast were to die and the Soul Torment were to fail, the only lead would be lost. As long as the Otherworldly Demons behind this incident remained scot free, the Master Teacher Academy would remain in danger!
Such incidents could easily happen again and again.
Furthermore, if Zhang Xuan were to be enrolled in the Master Teacher Academy, his safety would be affected as well. He didn’t want to be schemed against once more.
“I see… I’ll treat it first before you continue pummeling it. I don’t believe that it can keep up its obstinacy for long!”
After a moment of contemplation, an idea suddenly came into mind. Zhang Xuan took out a wine gourd and infused his zhenqi into it.
After that previous incident, Zhang Xuan realized that it was exceptionally convenient to conceal the Heaven’s Path zhenqi through the overpowering scent of wine. Thus, he decisively bought several gourds of wine and kept them in his storage ring.
He poured the gourd’s wine on the Byzantium Helios Beast’s injuries, but it took two hours for the latter to heal from its external wounds.
Pondering over the matter for a moment, Zhang Xuan realized that this could be due to the disparity in their cultivation realms. With his current cultivation of Cosmos Bridge realm, it would only take a few moments for his zhenqi to heal those of equivalent cultivation. However, against the significantly stronger body of a Saint, his zhenqi was clearly still far too weak.
After healing the latter’s external wounds, Zhang Xuan had four puppets to hold the Byzantium Helios Beast while another two pried open its mouth. Just like that, he forced the wine into its mouth.
After using up four to five gourds and an entire hour, the Byzantium Helios Beast finally recovered from its internal injury as well.
“Alright… Continue pummeling it!”
After seeing that the other party had recovered from its injuries, Zhang Xuan heaved a sigh of relief.
As long as the Byzantium Helios Beast didn’t die, he had all the time in the world.
‘Death? With my Heaven’s Path zhenqi, let’s see how you can die! With an unending session of pummeling, there will surely come a day when you give in!’
Roar!
After hearing the instruction, the puppets immediately charged forward excitedly and began another round of pummeling.
Soon, hideous crimson swellings returned onto the body of the Byzantium Helios Beast, and its breathing grew ragged.
After treating it with the Heaven’s Path zhenqi again, yet another pummeling session rained down on the Byzantium Helios Beast.
After three consecutive cycles, light had vanished from the Byzantium Helios Beast’s eyes, and it seemed to be nearing the limits of its tolerance.
But even so, it still refused to spout the slightest word regarding the Otherworldly Demonic Tribe. In a sense, Zhang Xuan was also impressed by the other party’s loyalty to its master.
“Let’s stop here for today…”
Looking above him, Zhang Xuan realized that the sun was gradually descending in the west. If he didn’t hurry back, he just might fail the examination. Thus, he could only halt the pummeling session for now.
It was frustrating how he had spent half a day of effort but still couldn’t make a saint beast submit to him.
The Byzantium Helios Beast’s loyalty toward its master was simply so strong that the usual tricks Zhang Xuan used were rendered completely ineffective.
Zhang Xuan knew that the only way was to slowly wear the Byzantium Helios Beast down mentally.
In any case, time was on his side.
“But this fellow is so big, am I to lug him around?”
To continue the questioning, Zhang Xuan would have to take the fellow away with him. However, considering the size of the Byzantium Helios Beast… how was he supposed to take it with him?
Of course, it was possible for Zhang Xuan to carry it around, but… No matter what, the Byzantium Helios Beast was a true saint beast. If others were to learn that he had managed to reduce it to such a pitiful state, their first doubt would be how he had managed to do so. The subsequent investigation might lead to the revelation of the existence of Vicious and the Otherworldly Demon puppets.
Since this concerned the Otherworldly Demonic Tribe, it was best to proceed cautiously.
Besides, he had only arrived at the Master Teacher Academy recently, so he thought that it would be best for him to lie low. There was no need for him cause such a huge storm and have everyone know that even saint beasts were nothing before him.
“The Myriad Anthive Nest might be small, but it might still work if I were to force this fellow in…”
Zhang Xuan analyzed as he stroked his lower jaw.
The physique of the Byzantium Helios Beast bore some resemblance to an ape. If its head were to be planted into its pants before rolling its body together and fastening it with some rope, it might just be possible to stuff it into the small Anthive Nest.
In his previous life, there were some yoga experts whose bodies were so flexible that they could even fit into a tiny fish tank.
“I should give it a try!”
With this idea in mind, Zhang Xuan immediately dived into action. He took out strip of skin from a spirit beast he had hunted earlier and sliced it into a long rope using the Glacier Rain Sword before passing it to the puppets.
The puppets first pummeled the Byzantium Helios Beast into a state of near death before rolling it up and binding it with the rope. After which, they sent another few more kicks and punches at its body to further compress it.
In any case, the other party was a saint beast with incredible vitality, and it was being nourished by Zhang Xuan’s zhenqi as well. It would be extremely difficult for it to die.
After some arduous effort, the Byzantium Helios Beast was finally compressed to a size that could be fitted into the Anthive Nest. Thus, Zhang Xuan flicked his hand and took out the nest. With another wave of his hand, he stored the Byzantium Helios Beast in the hive.
Peng!
In the hive, the Myriad Anthive Queen suddenly found itself being forcefully pushed to the sides of the hive. Its face was pressed tightly against the ceiling, and its body had distorted into a giant “大” word. It seemed as though its body would burst at any moment now.
The hive of two meters radius should have been a comfortable fit for it, but with the entry of the Byzantium Helios Beast, free space became something that was direly lacking in there. The Anthive Queen found itself on the verge of being suffocated to death.
It was fortunate that its physical constitution was still relatively strong. Otherwise, it might really burst from the immense pressure pushing against it.
Knowing that it was a squeeze inside, Zhang Xuan sheepishly instructed the Myriad Anthive Queen, “Just tolerate it for now. I’ll free you after I find a suitable location!”
Both the Byzantium Helios Beast and the Myriad Anthive Queen were secrets that Zhang Xuan was unwilling to reveal. Thus, the only solution was to keep them hidden inside the hive for the time being until he returned to his own dwelling.
After returning the Anthive Nest into the storage ring, Zhang Xuan scanned the surroundings one last time, and he suddenly spotted two storage rings on the ground.
They were the storage rings the aerial spirit beast had stolen from Brother Yu and Senior Feng.
The storage rings seemed to have fallen from the Byzantium Helios Beast during the vicious beating by the Otherworldly Demon puppets. Zhang Xuan picked the rings up and fused a droplet of his blood into each of the rings.
The Soul Imprint on the rings had already been wiped away by the Byzantium Helios Beast’s forceful entry earlier, allowing Zhang Xuan to claim ownership of the rings directly.
“There are so many inner cores inside… This should be enough for me to clear the examination and win the bet. Looks like I need not hunt any further!”
Scanning through the content of the storage ring, Zhang Xuan found plenty of spirit beast inner cores inside.
Through the Beastscale Incense and Seeking Mouse, Brother Yu and Senior Feng had managed to track down and kill many spirit beasts.
While there shouldn’t be a problem for Brother Yu and Senior Feng to clear the examination, it would be difficult for them to hunt down this many inner cores with the time that was left. Thus, it could be said that they had already lost the bet.
Aside from that, there were also several thousand middle-tier spirit stones along with all kinds of artifacts and formations inside the two storage rings.
“Those two fellows sure are wealthy. But this works fine as well, I happen to be lacking resources at the moment.”
It just so happened that Zhang Xuan was a little poor at the moment, so the acquiring of these two storage rings could spare him quite a lot of trouble.
As for returning the storage rings…
That was a good joke!
It wasn’t like he was the one who stole these storage rings. He had spent so much effort to defeat the Byzantium Helios Beast, and these two storage rings were his spoils of war!
Hu!
Just as Zhang Xuan was about to put those two storage rings in his pocket, he suddenly thought of something, and he immersed his consciousness back into the storage rings. A moment later, a jade token appeared in his palm.
A beautiful light flowed within the transparent jade token. This was the Aerial Strike Amulet which Brother Yu had staked on the bet!
He had checked this object with the Library of Heaven’s Path earlier, and it was indeed a valuable artifact.
To think that he would end up obtaining it in such a manner.
‘With this item in hand, I will be able to survive an attack from a Saint 1-dan!’ Zhang Xuan thought as he placed the amulet into his bosom.
The Dragon Scale Protective Amulet he had acquired previously had saved him on multiple occasions, and this item was even more valuable than that.
With this, even if a Saint 1-dan were to creep up on him and launch a fatal blow, he would be able to get away unscathed.
As long as he overcame the initial assault, he would be able to release Vicious and his Otherworldly Demon puppets and reverse the situation.
‘It is a pity that the Seeking Mouse isn’t here…’
After putting away the storage rings, Zhang Xuan suddenly recalled the Seeking Mouse, and he shook his head in disappointment.
Considering the Seeking Mouse’s ability to hunt down spirit beasts, it was indeed a valuable asset.
That aerial spirit beast had only been interested in uncovering the whereabouts of the Myriad Anthive Queen then, so it had probably only grabbed whatever possible clues there may be.
Once the Seeking Mouse had escaped, given its sharp nose, it would be hard to capture it once more.
“Let’s return!”
After scanning through the straw cottage and finding no treasure at all, Zhang Xuan finally left the top of Leiyuan Peak in disappointment.
Right after pummeling the Byzantium Helios Beast, Zhang Xuan had the Anthive Myriad Queen instruct the aerial spirit beast to release all of the master teachers from the encirclement.
After being released from the encirclement, the master teachers would have to depend on their own capabilities to pass the examination.
After all, Zhang Xuan was no saint. All of the examinees should have come with the realization that they would be put in danger. If they were to be killed by the spirit beasts, they only had their own shortcomings to blame.
Executing the Red Dust Heaven Ascending Steps, Zhang Xuan swiftly bypassed several valleys. He noticed several battles here and there, and it seemed like there were casualties on both sides as well. However, it was still within an acceptable range.
On the way down the mountain, there were also several spirit beasts who attempted to provoke him, but they ended up being crushed with a single fist. Naturally, Zhang Xuan didn’t forget to take their inner cores.
By the time he was approaching the foot of the mountain, there was already a huge crowd in the area. He looked around for a remote area to land before quietly following behind the crowd.
Woo we reached 56,000!!! As promised, there’ll be two bonus chapters, though I’ll only be releasing them later today or tomorrow due to lack of edited chapters at the moment
