Ferocious Beast

The black mist moved like a living creature, tumbling forward through the storm. Unlike the tranquility of the shadow encircling the Moon Boat, this black mist appeared erratic and fleeting, yet exuded a savage, malevolent aura. Boundlessly tyrannical, it rammed its way forward, wrestling against the storm. *Crash!* Two colossal waves surged up from the seabed, opening a profound oceanic trench. Only after the black mist swept past was the trench refilled by seawater dragged in by the hurricanes—a magnificent sight. Within the black mist lurked an unmistakably colossal monster. The fleeting glimpses of scales and claws that peeked out from the mist were enough to conjure a terrifying image in one's mind. *Roar!* The monster unleashed another furious roar. The black mist surged wildly. Its roar drowned out the tempest. Across the vast, unobstructed ocean, it resonated like whale song, yet possessed none of its ethereal grace, radiating only a staggering pressure that struck terror into all who heard it. Inside the wind wall, Qin Sang and Liu Li trembled inwardly as they heard the sound once more. At this moment, they were struggling through the wind wall. This was the first time Qin Sang and Liu Li had ever encountered such a situation. The instant they heard the roar, they realized the monster in the storm was closing in on them, and knew all too well that their situation was about to become extremely perilous. There was nowhere to seek refuge within the storm belt. The Ten Directions Earth-Cleaving Divine Shuttle was as conspicuous as a beacon in the dead of night. Turning back would only draw the monster's attention more easily, inviting disaster upon themselves. A creature capable of surviving in the storm belt was bound to possess terrifying strength. Their only option was to hide inside the shelter, using the wind wall and the shelter itself for cover, hoping that the beast was merely passing by. During his prior scouting trips, Qin Sang had found no unusual traces, so this was unlikely to be the monster's lair. If the monster had sensed intruders invading its lair, its roar would have been filled with rage, but what Qin Sang sensed from it was sheer madness! The second roar confirmed their judgment. Although the monster was drawing near from this direction, it was not heading straight for them or the shelter; it seemed more like it was merely passing by and they had been unfortunate enough to cross its path. Both Qin Sang and Liu Li secretly rejoiced that their choice had been correct. This roar was far clearer than the first. The monster's speed was astonishing, and it appeared impervious to the impacts of the storm, barreling ahead in a straight line. Faced with such velocity, had they not entered the wind wall decisively and instead fled in a panic, they likely would have been targeted by the beast, with dire consequences. Hearing the roar once more, Qin Sang felt a stir in his heart. This madness felt somewhat familiar. He couldn't help but recall the ferocious beasts he had encountered in the Inner Hall of the Hall of Seven Kills. The present situation gave Qin Sang no room for careful contemplation. He and Liu Li had charged into the wind wall in haste, without waiting for an opportune moment. Their surroundings were chaotic to the extreme, and Qin Sang had to do everything in his power to carve out a path of survival. Liu Li handed control of the divine shuttle over to Qin Sang. Driven to its limit, the shuttle flashed through the ever-shifting hurricanes without a moment's pause as Qin Sang dashed toward the central shelter with all his might. *Whoosh!* A haze of grey surrounded them. The divine shuttle was engulfed by tempests. No sooner had it slipped through a gap than the hurricanes snapped shut behind it, the shockwaves of their collision nipping at the heels of the green light. A single misstep would suck them in, swallowed by the wind wall. To say they were dancing on the knife's edge hardly began to capture the peril of this moment. Fortunately, Qin Sang had scouted the path ahead of time and was already familiar with the patterns inside the wind wall. While he appeared to be fleeing blindly, he made the optimal choice at every turn, advancing toward the core shelter without mishap. The third furious roar echoed. It was even closer! The beast was moving even faster than they had anticipated! If they could not reach the shelter before the beast drew near, the ripples of the shuttle might also be detected by it. Liu Li summoned the Fourfold Tengshe Seal, a hint of pale blue surfacing in her pupils as she stood poised for battle. The external incarnation also prepared to strike. If pushed to the absolute brink, they would have no choice but to test the monster's strength. Their sole consolation was that they had encountered it near a shelter; running into it midway would have been a true catastrophe. *Swish!* With a face as calm as still water and a mind free of distraction, Qin Sang steered the divine shuttle through layer upon layer of the wind wall until the Heavenly Eye Butterfly finally caught sight of what lay at the core. It was an islet. Spanning merely a hundred zhang across, its layout was visible at a glance—it was scarcely more than a reef. Unsurprisingly, it was dead and silent, devoid of any signs of life. At least this proved it was not the monster's lair. Yet the islet was not entirely barren. A forest had been preserved there, though all its flora had long withered and petrified into fossils. No one knew how many years ago this petrified forest had formed; situated within the storm belt, it had remained unscathed, its branches and leaves intact. Qin Sang had always harbored a question: Were these peculiar shelters discovered by Deity Transformation seniors like Xiaoxiangzi during their travels through the storm belt, or had they been crafted by their own hands? From the look of things now, this islet was at least an ancient ruin. *Roar!* Just then, a fourth roar rang out. Deafeningly loud, it felt as if it sounded right beside their ears. Qin Sang's expression shifted slightly. Spotting the gap in the final layer of the wind wall, he flashed through. Yet at the very instant he pierced the wind wall, alarm bells rang wildly in Qin Sang's heart, his back tensing as he sensed an inexplicable danger closing in! Outside the wind wall, the black mist tumbled along; its objective was indeed not the shelter. Yet just as it was about to brush past, an unexpected upheaval occurred! Whether enraged by the hurricanes here, which were far denser than elsewhere, or alerted by the strange anomaly of the wind wall around the shelter, the monster roared fiercely as the black mist abruptly billowed outward. Immediately after, a long tail tore through the black mist and burst out of the oceanic trench. Fast as black lightning, the tail vanished in an instant, leaving behind a long, lingering phantom in the void. With a sharp whoosh, it swept away the hurricanes in the surrounding space, and its afterimage whipped viciously against the wind wall. *Riiip!* The afterimage plunged into the wind wall with terrifying momentum, as if intent on ripping the wall wide open. However, as the convergence point of violent tempests, vast energy was concentrated here, and it was not so easily broken. The two forces collided. Though the fragile balance maintained inside the wind wall was thrown into chaos by the phantom tail, the wall was not torn apart. The people inside, however, bore the brunt of the fallout. Inside the wind wall, Qin Sang reacted swiftly. The moment he detected the disturbance in the wind wall, he charged toward the islet without holding back. Unfortunately, his movement was still half a beat too slow. Behind them, the energy fluctuations from the collision coalesced into grey wind-waves. While they did not appear much wilder than before, they sent a cold shiver down Qin Sang's spine. At that critical juncture, Qin Sang made an astounding move: he abruptly withdrew his true essence, relinquishing control of the Ten Directions Earth-Cleaving Divine Shuttle and passing it to Liu Li. In the next instant, two figures emerged into the open—Qin Sang and his incarnation. The wind-waves were right upon them, only moments from swallowing them whole. The Ten Directions Earth-Cleaving Divine Shuttle was their sole reliance for traversing the storm belt; it could not be destroyed here. Furthermore, unlike the Moon Boat before, a restrictive barrier surrounded the islet, requiring them to locate the entrance first. For this reason, Qin Sang did not hesitate to expose himself and block the wind-waves in person. Simultaneously, the external incarnation pushed his palms forward, sending the python banner flying from his hands. On the surface of the banner, the snow python looked ferocious, roaring frantically. After subduing the snow python, Qin Sang had not had the time to foster rapport with it, having coerced it into submission purely through sheer strength. In this life-or-death crisis, the snow python was naturally unwilling to lay down its life for him. But with such a vast disparity in their realms, its struggles were completely in vain; it could not break free of the restraint, unable even to utter a cry. *Whoosh!* The python banner swelled silently, turning into a wall that shielded them from the giant wave. Yet this wall was far too fragile. The chilling mist was swept away by the colossal wave in an instant, and both the snow python and the python banner vanished into the surge without a trace. Qin Sang did not even have time to retrieve it. Gauging the power of the wind-waves, Qin Sang's heart sank, yet he did not retreat. Close on the heels of the python banner came an ice mirror. The external incarnation cast a defensive divine ability, constructing a second barrier. *Boom!* *Crack, crack, crack...* Webs of cracks spread across the ice mirror in an instant before it shattered into pieces. Before the wind-waves struck him directly, the external incarnation raced against time to unleash another divine ability. Frigid chill billowed before him, condensing into a full suit of ice armor around his body, and then he felt a crushing force slam into him. *Bang!* A series of explosive cracks erupted from the external incarnation as the ice armor shattered, sending him flying backward on the spot. Yet all of this fell within Qin Sang's calculations. He caught the external incarnation with a swift grab. The second Nascent Soul fled back into his main body, its form looking somewhat dissipated. Storing away the incarnation's physical form, Qin Sang flashed with light, manifesting the astral barrier of the Ruyi Orb. Yet from beginning to end, he never deployed the Sun God Tree, the demonic fire, or his sword formation. He had not witnessed what had happened outside, but he knew full well that it must have been caused by that monster. Every action just now had been purely defensive. With the beast so close by, unleashing his full power would generate too immense a commotion, and if the beast noticed him, the peril would be even greater. To this end, Qin Sang did not hesitate to pay the price of sacrificing the python banner and having his incarnation severely injured just to buy time. At worst, he would recuperate in the shelter for a few years; arriving in Zhongzhou a little later would make little difference. *Crack!* This was the next sound Qin Sang heard. At the same time he caught the external incarnation, the giant wave slammed against the astral barrier. The Ruyi Orb was an exotic Buddhist treasure, after all, and its astral barrier held out a little longer than the ice mirror had, but in the end it could not escape the fate of shattering. Though sheltered within the barrier, Qin Sang still unavoidably took the impact. Fortunately, he was also a body cultivator; after a brief shudder, he quickly steadied himself, his thunder wings flapping frantically as he dashed toward the islet without looking back. Using the time Qin Sang had bought, Liu Li followed the sea chart's guidance and successfully located the entrance to the islet's restrictive barrier. Without hesitation, she spun around and unleashed the Ice Soul Divine Light to support Qin Sang. *Crack, crack, crack...* The vanguard of the colossal wave was silently frozen solid. Though it lasted only a brief moment, it was enough for Qin Sang to break free. *Whoosh! Whoosh!* Qin Sang and Liu Li plunged into the islet almost shoulder to shoulder. The instant they escaped inside, the giant wave crashed violently against the restrictive barrier, its terrifying power creating a breathless spectacle. The islet, however, remained rock-steady. Standing on solid ground with tense faces, Qin Sang and Liu Li looked at each other, both filled with the lingering relief of having survived a brush with death. *Rumble!* The hurricanes roared. The afterimage lashed out by the monster was ultimately swallowed by the wind wall. As the aftershocks subsided, a fleeting breach was forced open on one side of the wind wall. Through the gap, they caught a vague glimpse of a mass of black mist sweeping past the storm. Within the black mist, an immense tail submerged into the oceanic trench. Resembling that of a dragon, snake, and crocodile all at once, it was covered in pitch-black scales, with a row of triangular bony plates lining its spine like sharp swords. The largest bony plate was comparable to a wall. It was impossible to fathom just how massive the monster's true body was! In the next instant, the giant tail and the black mist swept past, and the wind wall closed up. That fleeting glimpse left a profound impression on Qin Sang and Liu Li, leaving them silent for a long time. They had envisioned that unknown creatures might inhabit the storm belt. The world was vast, and full of wonders. If immortal cultivators could cultivate in places where the heaven-and-earth origin energy was stable, then there had to be living beings capable of adapting to the storm belt, roaming freely across this vast expanse. As it turned out, their guess had been correct. Yet they had not expected their very first encounter to deliver such an unforgettable show of force. With the wind wall sealed, even the Heavenly Eye Butterfly could no longer see the black mist and the monster outside. Yet Qin Sang remained rooted to the spot, staring unblinkingly in that direction. "A ferocious beast?" Qin Sang murmured to himself, recalling his experiences in the Hall of Seven Kills. Back then, after entering the Inner Hall, he had mostly relied on Senior Qingzhu's incarnation, Ning Wuhui. He had never had the chance to delve into the deepest reaches of the Hall of Seven Kills. The ferocious beasts he had met back then did not possess anywhere near the oppressive aura of this mysterious, unseen monster, yet the sheer madness in them was something Qin Sang remembered vividly. This monster bore a certain resemblance to them. Unfortunately, they dared not draw close to the monster and could not observe it closely. What was its origin? What did its full form look like? Having traveled the storm belt for ten years, this was the first time they had encountered one. How many similar monsters inhabited this storm belt? In the storm belt, cultivation realms were far more conspicuous than shelters. Did these monsters never attack the cultivation realms? Why had he never seen any records concerning them? Question after question surged in Qin Sang's mind. These unsolved mysteries invited endless contemplation. The wind wall gradually returned to calm; before long, a new balance would surely be established. The monster never attacked again and had likely moved far away. That lash earlier seemed to have been nothing more than a casual strike on a whim. Seeing that they were safe, Qin Sang exhaled slowly, sat down cross-legged, and summoned his second Nascent Soul. After examining it for a moment, he smiled wryly. "We might have to stay here for several years." Liu Li glanced at Qin Sang's heavily injured second Nascent Soul. After a moment of silence, she asked doubtfully, "Could its lair be nearby?" "That is precisely my greatest concern. If this monster continues to roam the vicinity, neither route will be safe. We should use our recovery period to scout it out thoroughly," Qin Sang said thoughtfully. With that, he brought out the sea chart. If such a formidable monster lived nearby, Xiaoxiangzi could not have failed to mark it. Either the beast had migrated here later, or it was merely passing through. Qin Sang's gaze swept across the shelters marked on the chart one by one. The previous ten years had been slow but exceptionally smooth, making them somewhat overly optimistic. For the remainder of the journey, there was no telling how many more storms and trials awaited them. Over the following period, Qin Sang and Liu Li hid on the islet to heal and cultivate, without taking a single step outside. Throughout that whole year, the monster never returned. A year later, Qin Sang tentatively ventured out of the islet to inspect the immediate surroundings. Finding no signs of a monster's lair, he did not rush to depart, returning to the islet to remain dormant. In this manner, they remained on the islet for five full years. The external incarnation's injuries healed completely, and the area around the shelter was thoroughly investigated. The monster was indeed no longer in the vicinity. On this day, the divine shuttle flew out from the islet, embarking once again upon their onward journey.