At a small but well structured square at the commoners city, the Outer sect academy was placed. None of the school buildings were two floors and occupied the entire street. All the clans sent their children here and the outer sect disciples were included as part of their curriculum to properly train.
At this moment it was early morning but the school was already active as the children were already arriving and one in particular was already in class cheerfully laughing while talking.
“... the magic control works better after I had done that but for Qi it's a bit harder but it can focus more into smaller sections of the body and is easier to compress. The best thing for each is use them in their respective fields magic for long range and Qi for close range.”
This person was Meng Bei. In school he was a diligent study and had long since become a good person figure but outside he was a prankster.
“Brother Bei sure is smart. No wonder you could master Shadow magic which is an enigmatic branch of magic.” One of the girls fawned over him. She was a commoner who hadn’t been accepted into the sect but she could still learn at the academy so she could properly develop and work for the sect and maybe join one of the halls as a worker.
“No need to say such things. I only wish to help my juniors who come asking.” He said in a gentle tone.
Puff!
At this moment a hand touched his right shoulder and he suddenly felt his body was more than five times heavier as that hand was pushing his body down. “Helping out huh?” A familiar voice said and as he slowly turned he saw the smiling Ning behind him. That said, the smile didn't reach his eyes as he looked down at Meng Bei who had begun to sweat.
“B-brother Ning, how good to see you.” Meng Bei said in a friendly tone.
“Yes it's quite good but brother Meng. I do wonder why you left so quickly when you could have met the famous Zhao Rinrin that time?” Ning asked.
“W-what do you mean? Me a lowly Rider meet someone from the famed Zhao clan especially someone like the princess Rinrin.” He said.
“I wonder if brother Meng knows how much of a headache it is to listen to her and not only that but you also got me blacklisted by an inner sect disciple now because of what you said and she thought I said.” Ning said.
“H-headache? How could just talking with her cause trouble?” Meng Bei asked.
“That is because my stupid muscle brain cousin is the inner sect disciple in question.” Suddenly Guo Tian appeared behind Ning. “That idiot has already been married to a lower class Rider clan because of his inferior talent but he wants Zhao Rinrin to rise in rank and to be the Dao Couple of someone with great talent.” He said coldly and sneered.
“Just tell him to leave me alone. I already have enough troubles pulling that carriage of bricks and sometimes stone and now I have him staring at me from the dark.” Ning said irritated then clicked his tongue, “It’s all because of that dull headed girl.” He grumbled.
“You still dare call me dull headed! Also why did a dog like you not properly greet his master!?” the same irritating voice shouted from behind.
“I wouldn’t bow to a dull headed girl like you even if an entire carriage of bricks was thrown on my back!” Ning said.
The brow of the girl twitched and a vein could be seen as she was clearly irritated. The people all around, including Meng Bei and Guo Tian had slackjaws as they saw the expressionless princess in a fit of rage.
“You vulgar dog! Bow before me and beg for apology!” She shouted.
“Hmph! Can’t you come up with a better insult? How many times have you said that already?” Ning said.
“And what of you!? All you can call me is dull headed disrespecting this princess.”
“Fine then, I’ll call you empty headed from now on how does that said.” Ning said and turned to the girl glaring and her face turned bright red in rage and sparks flew between them.
Suddenly Rinrin turned towards Meng Bei and narrowed her eyes, “I remember you, you’re the face that I saw behind this dog. So you were one of the people insulting this princess.” She narrowed her eyes.
“Of course not miss, that was completely Brother Ning.” He shamelessly pushed the blame.
“Oh so a shameless idiot is your true face.” Ning narrowed his eyes.
“I prefer being called a ruffian or scoundrel.” He said shamelessly making the girls behind him looked confused when comparing him now to the image before.
Guo Tian shook his head, “Two idiots, one naive, the other stupid.” he said.
“Huh!” the two shouted together.
“And what about you!? It looks like you got a cow to lick your hair slick like that!?” Meng Bei said narrowing his eyes.
Instantly Guo Tian’s face turned bright red and he turned around glaring at Meng Bei.
“To me it looks like a nearly arranged birds nest perfect for his eagle.” Ning laughed.
The complete contrast between their words caused the classroom to fall in silence. One insulted the slick hair but the other insulted his hair and the Dao Beast on his shoulder.
Guo Tian was so furious that he was about to jump on them when a pouting stomp hit the floor. “How dare you three ignore this princess!?” the final one of the group spoke up furious at being ignored by all three. She was as proud as a peacock and as beautiful so she had always been fawned upon but now this group of boys did not even spare a glance. One out right bickered with her, another was a ruffian and made fun of her behind her back and another simply ignored her very existence. How could someone so proud like her stand these continuous insults and she was about to lash out when the bell rang and the teacher walked in.
“Alright everyone get into your seats!” He shouted. Quickly most of the students moved to their seats but he saw the group of four still glaring at each other. “You four, get to your seats! Class is starting.” the teacher said.
They all glared at each other before each one split off to a different seat each with a scowl on their face and like this a strange atmosphere was left in the classroom.
***
“Damn it, even though this brat is naive, why is he so cautious? That stupid fish can’t even let me get within 5 meters of that carriage to plant the bait.” The young man who was increasing the weight of Ning’s cart cursed in his mind.
The last two days he had tried several times to find a time to put the bait on Ning’s cart but he had forgotten that the boy also had beasts. They would equally be attracted to the bait. If it was in the middle of the convey it would be the same as him being in a shark infested water and chumming the water where he was going to swim. It was than that he realized those people who had made him do this had intentionally made him a sacrifice for their plans. They had no plans on letting him get away or they at least though that planting it would kill two birds with one stone by having him die and removing all traces to them.
Frustration and hate filled the young man’s body so he spent an entire two weeks after he got the bait to learn Ning’s movements. Several days he wasn’t working because of school but the rest he would work without delay.
He did not once think of setting up the carriage with the bag already open. It would instantly attract all the Dao Beasts and Wild Beasts to the Quarry and he could not get near the carriage but after spending enough time he found that there was a single opening.
When they would reach the camp, most of the disciples would leave their carriage to go rest at the river for a very short time before returning to meditate.
Having decided this was the best time he waited and finally when he saw the opening he sneaked over and dropped the small back on the ground on top of the bull harnesses before running away as fast as possible.
He needed to vanish from here as because when they realize the bait was planted and the Wild Beasts and Dao Beasts go wild it would cause massive mayhem and there might even be disciples that die and he would be the prime suspect. He knew for a fact he needed to get hundreds of thousands of kilometers away and fast because the Law Enforcement Hall of the sect wasn’t to scoff at. Be it inner or outer their power was at the highest level and inner court elders and disciples worked in these posts especially Riders who have hunting beasts with incredibly high trained senses. The most fearsome was the outer sect hall master who was a Rider and possessed the most infamous creature which gave him the nickname, “Devil Hound”. This creature is the Orthrus.
This was an incredibly hard breed to raise because it is an immensely rare dual energy beasts which cultivates Qi and Infernal Energy. It is amongst the highest degree of beast royalty only beaten by the Cerberus which is a grade higher and it a beast of the higher realm which the Orthrus has a chance of becoming upon ascending.
The smelling capability of this creature is one of the highest in the world and elder in question is also one of the nation's few Sprout Rank Riders and the Orthrus was a beast that had reached Nascent Spirit and Primary Demon Spirit ranks in each respective system it cultivated. It should be known, true experts are considered only those of the Nascent Spirit and Primary Demon Spirit and above. For Riders the Sprout rank is considered a high level existence usually elders and most masters of sects who take disciples are of this rank. The grand elders are even above that.
As for this elder of the outer sect hall. Even the royal family would show respect because he is the nation's leading figure for searching for escaped felons and during war, if a large figure were to sneak into the ranks of the army and cause havok. He can sniff them out in a heartbeat.
As such, mobilizing the small bit of Qi he had cultivated, he ran because his life depended on it.
Back at the river Ning was enjoying the water as he lay on his back while his head was half submerged into the water. Tora was swimming while Tyrant kept drinking for a long while.
After five minutes Ning got up and stored some water and walked to his carriage with Tora and Tyrant in tow. As soon as he reached he carriage he found the small bag left on the harness of the carriage and Ning narrowed his eyes and scrunched up his brows. “What is this?” He asked and looked at it.
Suddenly the two Dao Beasts ran forward sniffing the bag but never touching it. They had something like a mental link so basic emotions could be felt and this time Ning could feel something like curiosity and hunger but it came from the very faint smell left on the bag. The real content is what had released that and was attracting their attention and it made Ning very suspicious of this.
Very carefully he walked over and carefully picked it up and after seeing nothing had changed he looked at it and sniffed and moved it away quickly because it stank. It was not the typical stink but instead it was a strong sweet smell that was almost overbearing to the human senses. If allowed to dilute in the air such as burning an incense stick made of whatever it was the smell would be better or putting out small cup of essence oil to allow a gentle perfume into the air but this was extremely powerful.
Because of how Tora and Tyrant were acting Ning couldn’t help but worry considering how he had offended, somehow, Guo Wein.
He turned on his heel and ran towards the crowd of traveling disciples. “Hey, did anyone drop this bag near my carriage?” Ning called out.
Everyone looked over and saw the strange little bag but before they could reply all the Dao Beasts began to move over and sniff as if there was something good inside and instantly made everyone wary.
“Where did you get this?” Rinrin asked serious.
Ning narrated the short explanation and handed over the bag to Rinrin and she started to turn it but the bag was made of leather and had not external markings while the top was sealed tight by magic which was held by the robe which was enchanted to bind.
“Should we open and see?” One of the disciples asked with a bit of greed in his eyes.
If it was treasure or some kind of herb it would really help them if they could get it. Also since the Dao Beasts are attracted than it must be something good for them.
“I don’t think we should open this.” Another disciple said. He was holding on to a small wolf beast which was trying to squirm out of his arms to the bag.
Most of the Riders were in unison on this because when it comes to anomaly involving their Dao Beasts, it directly affects their cultivation and they can feel the beasts reactions, somewhat, through a link.
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“I say we open it!” The greedy disciple said coveting this causing everyone to frown.
“I agree with disciple brother. Just because you are worried about you beasts doesn’t mean that it is a bad thing. They seem attracted to it meaning it's something they want.” another disciple said.
Soon enough the crowd was split in two on this and it was causing a lot of unrest as the group that wanted to open it seemed to be getting more aggressive and this bag was making it hard to control the Dao Beasts.
Ning expanded his Meridians and cycled his Qi and soon found the two had no longer falling under the effects but instead were glaring intensely with a hidden rage.
“Hey, if you cycle you Qi the Dao Beasts will break out of their trance.” Ning quickly said and very soon they had the beasts healed but now every last one of them showed intense rage towards the bag. Which caused the other party to be shocked by the sudden change.
Still under this moment of having their guards dropped one of the greedy disciples activated his movement technique and stole the bag running away. “Ahaha! Let's stop this bullshit already!” He shouted and pulled the sealing string. At once he opened the bag and flipped it over and what fell out was an incredibly smelly pile of meat and at the same time everyone paled.
“BEAST BAIT!” someone roared.
Ning’s eyes sharpened as soon as he saw this, “Someone destroy that quick!” He shouted.
At this time Rinrin had jumped up and her hands revealed a bloody mist and at once she shot that at the pile of bait. She didn’t even care about the disciple nearby. That bloody mist made contact and completely froze the meat in blood colored ice and she landed on that pull with an axe kick smashing it all. Next she turned to the disciple who had snatched the bag and glared at him with shining eyes.
ROAR!
Unfortunately at that time a massive roar came from the depths of the woods. Following it countless roars could be heard.
She glared at him and grabbed him by the neck and smashed a fist into his Dantian and released her Infernal Energy sealing his Qi before she dragged him over. “Someone tie him up. Riders, those with flying mounts get ready to fight from the air. Those with only land beasts get ready to fight on the ground. Magi should hide in the back and provide support. Practitioner will be in the front. Those with higher strength in the front, those too weak remain with the Magi.” Rinrin said instantly as she took control of the situation.
At that time the ground began to rumble and suddenly the treeline broke as a massive black ape appeared roar and rushing towards the crowd.
ROARHHHHH! ROWAHHH!
Second heavy ape roar containing heavy amounts of malice came from Rinrin and her Snow Demon Ape jumped out and rapidly grew before meeting the huge ape in combat.
Following that came countless other monsters.
Ning pulled back Tyrant into the ring and quickly jumped on Tora standing. He had only trained it a few times and circulated his Qi to his feet to remain attached to the Tora’s back. He never removed Tyrant’s connection though, the powerful earth Qi was really necessary at this point because they would need to fight a beast wave.
At this moment a bright red flare burst out of the crowd and launched rapidly into the air and Rinrin’s voice could be heard. “The emergency flare was shot! It will take only 5 minutes at most for the Law Enforcement Hall and many other disciples to arrive.” she shouted.
“Let’s go!” Ning said and bent forward as Tora flew off.
In the air were many bird and other beasts and it was Ning’s first air battle. How could he not be worried being so high up but training to fly under combat situations he had trained with his mother in his two years?
Behind him other flying creatures began to appear and take to the skies but he was the first to arrive and what was in front of him was a high success qi refining Black vulture.
It saw Ning and Tora and screeched and flew towards them in a berserk manner.
‘Sky Fish Sky River Ascension’
The billowing wind picked up pushed Ning and Tora out of the way but as they dodged by a hairs breath Ning concentrated his Qi and strike out on the wing passing right next to them.
CRACK!
The sound of a crack was followed by a pained screech. Ning and Tora didn’t even look and dove down towards a wild Peak Qi refining Flying Tiger Fish. Ning jumped off Tora as they drew near and dropped down with his legs straight and just as the Flying Tiger Fish passed Ning smashed down on it like a missile breaking several bones and then jumped off just as Tora arrived next to the fish and with a dead whip of its tail slammed the spikes on his tail into the head and body of the fish and pulled it back covered in blood.
Then it flew rapidly at Ning and caught him in mid air before flying off.
In the two years that Ning has trained, Bo Rei had them train a few maneuvers such as jumping off and catching mid air, how Tora should fight with his spikes and other things.
As Ning landed he turned his eyes forward and saw a pack of similar Flying Tiger Fish that was circling them. They were all weaker than the one before and they were surging towards them.
Suddenly Tora made a turn and his eyes shined a sinister glint. Ning felt a large vibration on Tora’s Dao Seed and it released a thick aura through his body into Tora he turned and roared.
The roar was like a ripple and hit them all with an overbearing suppressive force.
In truth, not only the Flying Tiger fish, anything below High Success Qi refining was impacted by the suppressive force in Tora’s roar that sounded like a true tigers roar. It is said that Tigers are one of the four celestial beasts equal to a dragon. The Flying Tiger Fish is a unique beast because all flying fish types fall under the category of descendants of the legendary Roc, the fish which jumped to the heavens and became a bird. Flying Tiger Fish are stuck under both beasts gene pool.
When most of the weaker ones were frozen by a suppressive force, from deep in the woods a roar that was even more powerful hit them all.
Ning felt his body go cold and even Tora was hit by an even greater suppressive force born by an even higher force and was trembling. “Xiantian rank.” Ning muttered feeling cold inside.
The breathing of all the creatures grew heavy as they thought the deeper forest creatures were coming close.
The forests were usually separated in levels usually several hundred kilometer wide. The stronger they are the deeper into the back mountains of the mountain range they will go. Near the road ways and the sect in general most beasts are Qi refining or Houtian, for magic beasts it is until the Small solid core stage and Demon Beasts are too rare and usually appear already deep in the forest.
The forest was being crushed as an amazing being came and several times several beasts could be seeing running away. Most of the previously quelled beasts turned into a frenzy again and the pack of Flying Tiger Fish once more advanced on Ning.
“All our hard work.” Ning sneered and looked down a moment before turning to the others, “You all go that way and stop those beasts. You Magic Beast Riders, use magic to suppress the swarm of Green Sparrow Peckers. You with the Winged Blood Tiger! Stop that Scaled Firelizard that is advancing from the east. You, you and you, help me stop this pack of Flying Tiger Fish!” Ning shouted out orders quickly into the chaotic scene
On the ground, Rinrin had remained on the ground to lead the common disciples to form a defensive wall to push back the beasts. The close combat beasts were the primary defense while the Qi practitioner were aiding them.
It was only when a figure jumped out of the forest causing a world shaking smash that the entire scene froze.
Grrrr!
The giant body was growling, the body was of a Lion while the tail was of a Snake. This was a premature chimera who had yet to form its third body but even so this creature was even rarer than the Orthrus. It is born as a normal Profound Beast Lion, after it reached Xiantian it will grow a Demon Snake tail and further on it will again grow a third body on its back in the form of a Magic Beast Goat. This Chimera was one of the few three energy beasts in the world and is considered a mutant beast born from common Profound Lions beasts.
The pressure coming off of it was extremely heavy and disgusting. The figure was already a bit disfigured and the tail had already become the massive four meter long snake while the body of the lion was three meters high and 6 long. The muscles were rippling and looked like the skin would break under the strain.
The snake looked around and released a rattling sound as and hissed just before the Lion roared and pounced like lighting at Rinrin.
At that moment a burst of wind came from the left as Ning landed on the back of the Snow Demon Ape where she was and gripped her around the waist. “Come on!” He shouted and the ape looked before he instantly shrank down and grabbed Ning’s leg as he jumped and landed on Tora who was coming in and quickly dodged through the masses of beasts. They mobilized the ‘Sky Fish Sky River Ascension’ to it’s limit as they weaved through the attacks of all the beasts while behind them the Chimera was rushing at them. The main reason was one, Rinrin was one of the few with Demon Beasts and the Dao Beast Seeds were compressed knowledge pertaining to her two demon beasts. At this stage the Chimera needed an incredible amount of Infernal Energy to supply to the snake for it to continue to grow until the later stages and then it would need to cultivate mana as well after that. Each new body it needed to cultivate from the start. It was an unfortunate curse that came with power.
ROAR!
It roared in rage as it saw the irritations getting in the way and it slammed everything out of the way as it chased them away.
“L-let me down this instant!” Rinrin shouted in embarrassment.
“If you want to die I don’t mind.” Ning said.
“Not that! Let me stand at last, stop touching me!” She shouted.
“Is this really the time to be worrying about this!?” Ning roared back at her as he was guiding Tora through the beasts aiming for the forest where it would be easier to get away.
The Chimera roared and the focus of the many beasts turned to Ning and Rinrin and Tora had begun to try and rise into the air when countless beasts jumped up and caused them to weave and dodge the attacks and lunges.
“This is getting us nowhere!” Ning shouted and continued to cycle around his Qi as he tried his best. The monsters had already forgotten about the bait and was now under the command of the Chimera who was out to hunt for human sacrifice for it to grow stronger.
As the two were pushed further and further down as he got to forest and the beasts climbed on the trees and jumped at them and as soon as he cleared the trees the roar came and the flying beasts would come in but thanks to Tora’s speed he could out do them.
“H-how much longer?” Ning asked solemnly.
“No more time young man.” A cold voice said before a catastrophic pressure fell over the entire mountain. Not a single beasts moved, anything in the low levels instantly fainted, anything ranking Houtain or above was pushed down to the ground and couldn’t move as for the Chimera it was fearing for it’s life. It could barely move.
“A beast wave… boy what happened?” the cold voice said before in front of the now still Ning and Tora in the air a man dressed in long black robes with a white one overtop they could see the ‘Hall of Law Enforcement’ written on the right side of his robes and probably on his back.
“Black robes? An elder!” Ning’s heart skipped a beat as he felt this kind of pressure. Below the man was a black vulture whose size measured dozens of meters and made Tora look like a small shrimp.
“Junior greets esteemed elder. This junior located a suspicious bag which was sealing Beast Bait but because it was sealed we could not figure out what was inside and the camp was split between those who wished to open and those who did not before it was stolen from our hand and opened. The bait had been destroyed by this miss Zhao Rinrin.” Ning said everything in a completely submissive tone.
“Beast Bait!” His eyes scoured the camp and saw the frozen space where the meat was crushed and nearby was the bag. The man waved his hand and the bag flew up and stopped in front of him. He looked at it and sneered before looking down at all the Wild Beasts. With a thought the pressure on all the disciples and the Dao Beasts were let up and they all withdrew into a corner trembling at the might of this person.
As for the Chimera the man waved his head and a simple wave of energy flowed out towards the beast. The energy wasn’t either fast or slow but the terror in the Chimera caused it to be unable to react and when that energy hit it, its body simply fell over devoid of life.
“Child who saved the Zhao princess, you have earned that carcass, your two beasts, Flying Tiger Fish and Titan Bull, they both can eat meat, simply remove the tail down to the base without a single bit left then feed them the meat. They will experience accelerated growth and the bull will advance greatly. All disciples, your reward for hanging in until the end shall be these beasts, you may take them all and trade them for contribution points. I, Hall Master of the Law Enforcement, Rou Jing, shall be responsible. You have experienced hardship so once you collected your game you are to trade it in and report to the Hall of Law Enforcement because we shall initiate an investigation into this. Har…” He shouted and beside the man a two headed dog appeared. He moved the bag down, “Ignore the smell of the disciples, find anyone who is not present in this location.” He ordered.
“Yes sir!” He barked and the two heads sniffed the bag for a long moment before jump over and seemingly jumping on air and smelling everyone before it sniffed round and raised its head and growled.
The next moment black smoke and fire rose up and it howled as its body grew nearly a hundred fold becoming a behemoth that instantly shot into the forest leaving a path of destruction.
“You two, good job leading the disciples, I will be sure to report that to the sect once I report this incident in. You may land and procure your catch.” The man said and sat down and closed his eyes.
Ning looked down and nodded to Tora and as they landed Ning put down Rinrin and walked over to the carcass of the chimera and in his hand a glowing orb appeared with a small pot and tree and soon the body was sucked in.
“You are using a personal garden to transport them? Don’t you have a space item?” Rinrin asked.
“Not everyone is from a rich family.” Ning said coldly and climbed on Tora and flew around taking earth and wind type beast after killing them. Ning also killed all the Flying Tiger Fish he saw and picked up the injured alpha he had killed first and stored them all in an empty space in his garden which slowly gathered more and more and soon everyone had gathered more or less an amount.
Those who were Riders with flying beasts helped transport the others who were not taking several and soon they reached the city and headed for the Mission Hall which was where hunting requests are picked up to hunt beasts and turn in the bodies for contribution points.
Ning in particular turned in 32 Qi refining stage creatures of different types and elements he picked up while keeping bovine and the flying fish because eating similar beasts might help them grow stronger. The total sum of points was average around 200 to 500 for those peak rank. Of course there were Magic Beasts near the small solid core stage and below mixed in. With 15 gaining 200 points, 10 gave 350 points and 7 gave 500 gave a grand total of 10,000 points in one go. For most of the disciples who had undergone the trials and risks during this time this was a reward beyond compare for the risk they had suffered through. Not only that but a few people, mostly Riders, had more bodies stored because feeding them to their beasts gave more benefits than anything else.
Afterwards they reported to the hall and were put under questioning where they said what happened after Ning found the bag but the greedy ones twisted the truth to keep themselves off the frying pan and fire but the boy who had opened the bag and caused the problem which could have been avoided was punished by having his cultivation crippled and thrown out of the sect left in the city with his family.
Ning returned home where the news had traveled like wildfire and Bo Rei came over and hugged him gently. He recounted everything that happened and what the Hall Master had said and inside the garden they found the remaining bodies and a smile on Bo Rei’s face showed how happy she was.
“Let's first clean this, once we get the key ingredients out let's see if this miss can’t cause my baby to rise like a star.” She said and the two spent the entire night and the following days which had the duties suspended due to the investigation, removing specific parts and bones she could use especially the hide. The other beasts were eaten directly by the two beasts as replacement for their food.
As for the culprit, two days after the incident, the Orthrus returned and in his jaws was the, still living, skinny boy who had been increasing Ning’s weights and he was tortured but almost died several times but did not reveal it and so he was publicly hanged as an example.
As for Ning, the next work day Tyrant easily pulled the now true 500 kilos of weight because now he had reached Peak of Qi refining stage and his training in ‘Titan Bull Titan Body had reached level 4 thanks to all the food and there was still a large amount remaining.
To those who were part of this, they were in hiding because the Law Enforcement was still investigating who was it that planned this attack and so time passed without any incident.