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“The depth of one’s Dao can be the measure of one’s confidence.”
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The Spirit Beast Eland opened its eyes and stood when Qai approached.
It stooped low and warmly rub its head on Qai’s body as if it hadn't seen its master for a long time.
Qai, on the other hand, swept his Spiritual Sense on the Elend’s body and checked its much improved strength.
Its scales were now almost invisible but its pair of twisted horns were shining in its dark gold color.
With just one look, Qai could already tell that those pair of horns alone were already precious.
The Spirit Beast was emitting pure silver-colored Wind element spiritual Qi energy which evidently revealed the uniqueness of its bloodline.
“Alright, show me what skills you have.”
Qai didn't how it understood him—perhaps the Queen Ant mediated once again—but the Eland right there and then blurred from where it stood and appeared few meters away.
Thereafter, it opened its mouth and 3 swift bladelike silver Wind element spiritual Qi energy gushed forth onto a nearby boulder.
Baam. Baam. Baam.
When the silver-colored Wind blades hit their target, the steady rock was cut into pieces.
Qai jumped in elation.
The Eland’s movement was so swift that it almost appeared like it was teleporting. And its attacking ability—though simple—was potent enough to deal heavy damage to its enemies.
“From now on, you’ll accompany me as well in my battles.”
When the Spirit Beast heard Qai’s words, it released a thunderous roar in the valley that came with gushing strong wind.
A couple of days later, the Mo disciples came.
They were now set to leave for their war mission and went to Qai’s valley as agreed.
Qai gladly welcomed them and introduced the 3 to his Eland who was beyond astonished when they saw it.
Level 3 Spirit Beast!
“Was this the baby Eland from before!? How come it's much stronger than its mother?”
“That’s all thanks to your Vitality grains. Were it not for its mother razing on your fields, I wouldn’t have any thought of giving them to this Eland.”
Qai did not say anything about the Qilin blood. He didn't want to nonchalantly reveal the secrets of the ninth floor of the Pagoda. After all, he was intent on going back in it.
“Big brother Qai, you sure are lucky to have this Spirit Beast.”
“Indeed, and it will accompany us in our journey.”
After some idle talks, he was about to ask if they dropped by Ji Wuheng’s place when the latter came calling out his name outside the valley.
Ji Wuheng came together with a meter long level 1 Spirit Beast Snake curled in his arm.
He worked in the breeding ground so it was not unthinkable that he possessed a Spirit Beast himself. But when he saw Qai’s Eland, he almost fell off from awe.
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However, it wasn't the first time for Ji Wuheng to see an outer disciple able to tame a level 3 Spirit Beast so he let go of any thoughts and just proceeded to say his purpose.
“Brother Qai, are you all set? Disciples are starting to gather in the South peak. The sect would be giving away a set of medicinal pills before sending the disciples away.”
“If that is the case, we should hurry as well.”
And so all 5 of them went to the South mountain together with the Eland.
In the arena at the South peak, an unexplainable atmosphere hovered in the air. One could instantly tell that an imminent crisis existed in everyone's mind.
Several disciples were already gathering in teams.
There were also a number of Spirit Beasts present so the Eland’s presence didn't stand out too much.
However, most of them belonged to Foundation Establishment stage disciples. So the Eland—being with a group of outer disciples—was not ordinary at all.
But the looming war just could not grant anyone the spare time to make an investigation about somebody else's secret.
Thus, no one bothered to trouble Qai’s group—for, after all, everyone in the sect had now a common enemy.
Qai’s group sat in an inconspicuous spot and allowed Mo Shui to collect the resources for them all.
Qai tried to spread his Spiritual Sense to eavesdrop on any valuable information he might get.
Not far away from their spot, a group of inner disciples was chatting about the war. Two in the group were familiar to him since they were part of the group that participated in the Trial by Fire back in the Kamaria Island.
Apparently, they were more privy to the war matters than them—or more exactly, those inner disciples had more access to information than the outer disciples.
“Junior brothers and sisters, I heard from my master that the Broken Moon Sect was backed by a mysterious sect from our neighboring continent. From my master's viewpoint, the Broken Moon Sect wanted to be the sole ruler of the entire Crimson Edge Continent.”
“Broken Moon Sect must have offered a huge prize to pull an outside force in their goal.”
“Indeed. But my guess is that the sect behind the Broken Moon Sect is the real enemy. Perhaps all this chaos is their design. At the end of the day, even if the Broken Moon Sect succeeds in their goal, they might just end up as puppets of that mysterious sect.”
“Hah, how are we to know? In the grand scheme of things, we are just minor characters in this war. Just let those elites cultivators do the political maneuvering.”
“Brother, if that is the case, then this war against the Heavenly Sword Sect is meaningless. The 3 other sects should just join their hands to wipe out the Broken Moon Sect.”
“Well perhaps, the Heavenly Sword Sect also received something from that mysterious sect.”
When Qai heard everything, he couldn't help but sigh.
‘Why am I not surprised.’
It was just the same back in his previous life—full of schemes and plots.
However, he was struck by the fact that another continent existed. And from the sound of it, it appeared that the neighboring continent must be bigger than Crimson Edge Continent for a single sect in it to be capable of creating large scale chaos.
By this time, the entire arena was almost filled with sect disciple in teams. And the number of Spirit Beasts increased dramatically as well.
There were no rogue cultivators present since the clans in the region were responsible for recruiting them.
Mo Shui arrived in their spot and immediately distributed the resources.
After a time it took to finish a meal, a group of Core Formation sect elders came streaking in the sky.
And immediately, the disciples were divided into two groups.
The group heading to aid the Scarlet Feather Sect consisted of an elder, a sect official, 10 teams of inner disciples and around 3 dozen teams of outer disciples—one of them, of course, was Qai and his team.
More or less, only 250 cultivators from the Precious Tree Sect were going to reinforce the Scarlet Feather Sect. While the rest would defend the region from the Shu Clan territories.
But the elder and sect official leading the mission was someone familiar to Qai—Elder Li and Fatty Liu. Fatty Liu in this mission was assigned to be in charge of awarding Contribution Points.
Elder Li immediately gathered all the disciples under his command and instantly swept his Spiritual Sense on each and every disciple.
In return, the disciples shivered in fear.
It was as if their secrets were instantly revealed in the eyes of the elder.
When his gaze stopped at Qai and his team, Elder Li sized up the Spirit Beast standing in the team.
He simply nodded and continued with his evaluation.
Thereafter, he flicked his right hand and a streak of light gushed forth from his beast pouch.
All of a sudden an extremely huge level 5 Spirit Beast Beast appeared.
It was a 30-meter long Centipede.
The rest of the Spirit Beasts belonging to the disciples stiffened as the aura of the Centipede boomed when it appeared.
“Alright, all of the flying ships of the sect will be heading to the Shu Clan, so all of you under my command will have to use this beast mount.”