The Seventh Chapter: The Mysterious Beast

  There's no doubt that Han Li is a genius, and among geniuses, he's the most exceptional. Meng Qi doesn't even have the qualifications to compare with him right now; one is a fierce tiger, while the other is just a chicken. However, Meng Qi has confidence that it won't take long for him to be qualified to challenge Han Li and stand on the same level as him. "Han Li!" Meng Qi silently recited this name: "And also Qing Yao's Blood Coldness, Chi Yao's Linked Flight, Huang Yao's Golden Armor, Bai Yao's Iron Bell, Hei Yao's War Destruction..."

  The five people behind are the five great disciples of Yun Tou Shan, each one is a genius who can match Han Li, and they are the true elite pillars of Yun Tou Shan. Especially Qing Yao Xue Leng's strength is even above Shi Wu Ji, the Great Master of Lian Shi Zong.

  "Right, and there's also Nie Xiaoqian!" Meng Qiu suddenly remembered. He hadn't seen those other people before, but he had personally witnessed Nie Xiaoqian's strength, which was absolutely comparable to the Five Great Disciples. Moreover, a while ago, there were some rumors that Nie Xiaoqian had taken action to kill the famous loose cultivator Hu Tie Tou.

  This Hu Tie Tou is a formidable character, not only sinister and cunning, but also exceptionally powerful. He usually specializes in opposing the disciples of the Five Great Evil Sects in Zhe Dong area. His cultivation is genuinely at the later stage of Yin Spirit, and he possesses an extraordinary treasure. Even when encountering top-notch Condensed Spirit experts, he has managed to retreat unscathed multiple times. Yet, someone like him was actually caught by Nie Xiaoqian, severely beaten until vomiting blood, losing one arm, and barely preserving his life.

  In Meng Qiu's mind, the image of that fierce and overbearing yet beautiful and captivating female ghost emerged...

  In the blink of an eye, more than ten days have passed, and Meng Qiu's strength has been growing steadily. During this period, he practiced the Ten Dragon Ten Elephant Technique under the waterfall every day, which greatly increased his power, but still did not break through. There was less than a month before the Lingyong Cave Spirit Spring, and Meng Qiu estimated that it would be difficult for his Ten Dragon Ten Elephant Technique to reach the third level before then. However, he did not become discouraged, and continued to practice diligently every day, focusing all his energy on cultivation.

  Although the Ten Dragon Ten Elephant Technique did not break through, his fist technique and body method have improved a lot. The Tiger Overlord Fist and the Swift Step have long been practiced to the top level, continuing to cultivate, upgrade without upgrading, but the experience of use can still be slowly accumulated, deeper understanding, heart-to-hand, reaching the level of light as a swallow, fists like thunder.

  This morning, Meng Qiu once again rushed to the waterfall to practice, his body swaying back and forth. As soon as he arrived, before he could even catch his breath, he suddenly heard the sound of fighting coming from nearby. His heart immediately skipped a beat, thinking what's going on? Generally speaking, this place is remote, and it's rare for people to come to Cloud Head Mountain, where did these people come from to fight? He couldn't help but feel curious.

  Meng Qiu thought his strength was not weak, so he followed the sound and went over to see what was going on.

  It was a dense forest over a hundred zhang away from the waterfall. As Meng Qiu approached, he saw a figure flashing by, and at the same time, a shocking roar of a fierce beast came through.

  "It's a demon beast!" Meng Qiu was suddenly shocked and took in a breath of cold air.

  Yao beasts are not ordinary monsters. Generally speaking, no matter whether it's a bird, beast, grass or tree, as long as they have been alive for a long time and have absorbed the essence of heaven and earth, they can transform into a Yaojing (monster spirit). However, there is one type of monster that, due to its powerful bloodline, cannot easily change shape after becoming a monster and can only maintain its original wild beast form. This type of Yao beast often has greater strength than transformed monsters of the same level, but slightly less wisdom, still retaining its wild animal nature.

  "Could it be that a demon beast has appeared here?" Meng Qiu was extremely surprised, he had been cultivating in this area for a long time and had never encountered any demon beasts before.

  Following the sound, I quietly passed by, and when I got closer, about ten or more zhang away, through the trees, I could finally see the situation clearly.

  At this time, the ground in front was already a mess, four people and one beast were confronting each other, obviously having been fighting for a long time. Among them, those four people were all black-robed disciples of Yun Tou Shan, three men and one woman, but they didn't recognize each other, at this moment all were on high alert surrounding a huge demonic beast.

  That monster looked like a fierce tiger at first glance, with yellow and black stripes all over its body, its legs were more than one zhang long, its limbs were agile, it shook its head and swung its tail, two round eyes emitted a fierce light, constantly scanning the four people's bodies in a circle, its mouth was full of serrated teeth, ready to pounce on someone at any time.

  "It's a Lingyashou!" Meng Qiu exclaimed, this kind of Lingyashou is equivalent to a demon beast in the later stage of Qi refining, with immense strength, its head like a bronze hammer, its tail like a steel whip, and it can spit out highly toxic venom from its mouth, those who are poisoned will die instantly, there is no antidote.

  At this moment, after a brief confrontation, the Lingyabeast let out a tiger's roar and launched another attack. The four black-robed disciples from Yun Toushan joined forces to counterattack, moving in tandem, changing positions, seemingly using a simple formation. The four of them coordinated extremely well, likely having undergone long-term training specifically to deal with this ferocious beast.

  A few people all used swords, with strength roughly in the middle of the Qi training period. Among them, a man who was the strongest, and another robust man like a bear, charged forward every time, serving as a human shield. Another man and the only woman assisted from the side, attacking and surrounding the monster, moving around and fighting in a well-organized manner. The main attacker held a giant sword, not easily striking, slowly waiting for an opportunity, just waiting for the monster to reveal its weakness, suddenly striking with lightning speed, each time accurate and ruthless, leaving a wound on the Lingyao beast's body.

  Meng Qiu saw that the young man holding the giant sword, his cultivation had already reached the peak of the middle stage of Qi refining, only one step away from advancing to the late stage. With solid strength and tacit cooperation, the Lingyao beast was gradually showing signs of decline, its roar still loud but its attack weakened.

  The man with the giant sword seized the opportunity and suddenly launched a series of attacks, taking advantage of the demon beast's exhaustion. The sword light burst out abruptly as he shouted: "Die for me!"

  Taking advantage of the momentum, a giant sword slashed down, directly hitting the Lingyabeast's soft ribs on its side. With a cracking sound, the skin split open and the flesh burst forth. The Lingyabeast let out a mournful howl, wanting to turn around and counterattack, but was blocked by someone. After struggling for just a moment, it finally collapsed to the ground, spewing out several mouthfuls of bloody foam, and immediately lost all signs of life.

  "Wang Shixiong, good swordsmanship!" The woman couldn't help but exclaim excitedly, her eyes filled with admiration for the young giant swordsman.

  "Wang Shixiong's heavy sword is getting more and more refined, this time entering the Dragon Cave must be among the top, maybe even get a chance to break into the top ten and obtain a true spirit." Another black-clothed demon disciple excitedly said.

  "Li Shimei, Liu Shidi, don't praise me anymore. I'm very clear about my own abilities. Maybe I have a chance to compete for the top 30, but as for the top 10, it's not even worth thinking about, it's simply impossible." The Wang brother who had just put away his heavy sword said with a smile, then his gaze fell on the demonic beast: "This time we killed this Ling Ya beast, our gains are pretty good. Its skin, flesh and blood can be sold separately, at least worth over 10,000 taels."

  Wang said to this point, seemingly still somewhat reluctant, shook his head and said: "Unfortunately, we found that the cave entrance was too deep, with monsters lurking inside. Our cultivation is not enough, otherwise entering it would definitely have unexpected gains. Just now at the cave entrance, I seemed to smell a musky scent, if luck is good, there might be musk deer in that cave."

  What he said was not the ordinary musk deer that grows musk under its belly, but a kind of demon beast. It is warm and gentle in nature, but alert. The musk produced under its abdomen is especially precious for those who practice Taoism. When ignited, it calms the mind and quiets the spirit, making one's thoughts calm and steady, with no risk of going astray during cultivation. One or two liang of this demon beast's musk is worth 100,000 liang of gold.

  The words of Wang Shixiong made the other three people also sigh, but they were more afraid of the danger in the cave. If things went wrong, they might lose their lives. Even if they were greedy, they didn't dare to enter the cave to find the musk deer. Instead, they focused on dealing with the Lingyashou beast that had been killed and fell into their bag. The several people quickly divided and cleaned up the useful parts, putting them away for safekeeping, preparing to return and sell them for money.

  "Alright, let's head back. We've been out for several days and it's time to rest." After everything was settled, Wang Shixiong called out as they prepared to return to Yun Tou Shan. However, the sturdy young man who had acted as a meat shield still couldn't bear to give up. Frowning, he said: "Wang Shixiong, are we really just going back like this? We're not going to go down that cave entrance? That's a Musk Deer! If we can get our hands on it, the few of us will instantly become rich and be able to buy dan medicines and magical treasures, speeding up the condensation of our yin spirits. Can't we think of some way?"

  The woman also had some intention, looking at Wang Shixiong, without saying a word, but it was clear.

  Only the last young man with a slender and tall figure did not express his opinion, seemingly indifferent to everything, only listening to Wang's brother.

  "This...” Wang Shixiong hesitated slightly, wanting to say that he was also extremely unwilling in his heart. He knew more than anyone else the value of the musk deer, but was it worth risking his life to gamble with? Not to mention that there might be other demonic beasts in the cave, just the musk deer itself, although its nature was shy, once it was forced into a desperate situation, it would also fight back fiercely. Its strength was equivalent to that of a low-level yin spirit, which they couldn't handle.