11 11. A Beautiful Creature

Feng Lan and Wei Song snuck through the night and neared the inner sanctum. The inner sanctum is heavily guarded by warrior stage cultivators. They approached when they there will be a shift change.

They were moving and fleeting effortlessly through shadows. Feng Lan was supposed to cause a distraction while Wei Song slid inside during the confusion. Since there will be people practicing inside, Wei Song can blend with the crowd inside.

When they were near the corner from where they can peek at the guards, they could hear loud noises.

Tut...tut..tut.

Bam...bam…bam.

One of the guards shouted, " Call the elders?"

"Which one?"

" Everyone."

There were already people running around in panic. Everything was in a mess

Great! No need to create one more distraction. But can they use this!

Suddenly from the inner sanctum, an apprentice priest ran out. One of his hands was gone, and blood was spraying, "The guardian beast is mad. Its more aggressive than ever. "and promptly fainted away. One of the guards just kicked him away from the entrance and ran inside.

The cultivators are running outside while the guards where running in. Feng Lan and Wei Song took a look at each other. They grabbed the head scarves of two wounded guards who have fainted.

Everyone was looking at the entrance with fear and they casually slipped in. When they entered the inner sanctum, they saw an animal like a horse that is going berserk while fire seemed to be coming out of its snout and mouth. It was a nice orange with red wings on both sides of its body and two blue horns curved beautifully on top of his head. Its was decorated with blue colored intricate patterns like henna or tattoo designs running through its body. It was struggling with two priests while at least a hundred guards surrounding it with sparks flying on both sides and when it sent fire, the tattoos lighted up stunningly. There was another doorway at the back of it leading to another inner chamber.

Feng Lan gaped and stood still. She felt it was too beautiful and she her hands moved automatically to pet it. Wei Song grabbed her hands and pulled her to a corner," Shhh…What are you doing?"

"Don't you think its very beautiful? I want to stop those damn elders from hurting it."

"You mean the horse griffin? Do you know how much power it has?"

"Who cares? Its still adorable." And she turned to look at it.

As though sensing her look, the griffin stared at her with his beautiful long lashed eyes and it even stopped fighting. The elders didn't notice its change and continued attacking it. It came out of his stupor.

"What adorable? It's a devil with blue patterns. You shouldn'ttt…"

Neigh…neigh...neigh. Wei Song turned and saw the griffin directly running towards them.

'Did it get offended by the remark that he just made? Is it coming for revenge?'

"Feng Lan lets run away. I think the griffin is coming towards me." He grabbed her hands and tried to run away. But Feng Lan just stood there like a stone statue. Before he could carry her away, the griffin came and just stood before them silently.

Everyone else also became silent while Feng Lan stretched her hands tentatively. The griffin blinked at her and then snorted. It lowered its head and moved towards her. She scratched its head and let her fingers through its fluffy hair.

Is it a terrifying horse griffin or an adorable puppy? The griffin neighed and snorted. It turned around and stood near her.

She instinctively climbed on it and grabbed Wei Song. The griffin gave one more thunderous neigh and fled along towards the inner door and vanished inside.

Everyone outside was rooted to their spot even Grand Elder who just came in was astonished. No one within his memory had ever gone inside the inner room. It is one of the most secret places and the guardian beast has never let anyone in including him and his predecessors.

The elders ran towards the open door to get in, but by the time they moved, the door has closed and the engraved arrays on the inner door started activating.

All of the elders including Elder Cheng have arrived. They tried to get in by force by attacking the door.

Grand Elder moved towards the front, "Stay your hands. We can't go in even if everyone exhausted themselves."

Elder Cheng snorted, "Then have we just have to wait? No one knows who those two guards were. They can be infiltrators."

"Even if they are infiltrators, they are selected by the guardian beast. We have to wait until they come out."

"Grand Elder, you can't be mellow under every problem. This is how you reacted when the guardian beast was angry before. "Elder Cheng disdainfully tried to tarnish Grand Elder's reputation.

Grand Elder enigmatically smiled "Elder Cheng, I didn't know that you have grown old. Didn't you understand that the guardian beast was acting this way for that certain person? So, the before problem is gone."

All the elders didn't know how to react as they looked at each other. Elder Cheng felt humiliated and instead one of his faction elders spoke up, "So what are we going to do?"

"What else? We are just guardians of this Phoenix hall. The remnant can still be felt and until it indicates otherwise, we still do our duty. So, let's just wait!"