Chapter 25 War Beast
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Sigh——
Lu Qingshan rose from the bed, stretching lazily.
Having transmigrated just two short days ago, one event followed another, leaving him utterly exhausted.
To a large extent, Qi Refining Cultivators are still just slightly more powerful mortals.
Only after the Foundation Establishment can one truly be considered a genuine Cultivator.
Foundation Establishment Cultivators have the ability to fast, maintaining their vigor without the need for rest. It really is quite carefree.
Finally, when the current matters came to a temporary close, Lu Qingshan quickly took the opportunity to rest.
That sleep lasted an entire day.
...
Upon awakening, it was July 15th.
Lu Qingshan's gaze became solemn.
The plot was about to begin.
It was uncertain whether his interference would create any change in history, or if the powerful inertia of history would correct everything back to its original course.
Lu Qingshan pondered, lost in thought.
Clatter——
An unusual noise arose in the quiet room, instantly drawing Lu Qingshan's attention.
Lu Qingshan turned his head toward the source of the noise.
The wooden latticed window in the room was opened slightly at the corner.
A sneaky-looking head cautiously peeked in.
—Indeed, sneaky-looking, because it was none other than the West Mouse Great King.
Lu Qingshan expressed surprise, "Why have you come back?"
From the beginning, Lu Qingshan had no intention of making things difficult for the West Mouse Great King.
In his eyes, it did not matter whether one was a demon or a human; what mattered was their actions.
Some people may appear human, but are far more malevolent than any demon.
If the West Mouse Great King had never killed indiscriminately, then what harm was there in being a demon?
The reason Lu Qingshan kept the West Mouse Great King with him was that he believed the Great King might still be of use.
After all, the West Mouse Great King was the only one who had witnessed the Blood Pool at Yuanshan City... uh, the only demon that did.
He was an extremely important witness.
However, after encountering the Blood Corpse Cultivator at the Great Xia Commercial Firm, Lu Qingshan made up his mind, no longer in need of the West Mouse Great King.
Thus, upon leaving the firm, Lu Qingshan kept his word and let the West Mouse Great King go.
But now, for some reason, the West Mouse Great King had unexpectedly returned.
Upon seeing Lu Qingshan's figure, the West Mouse Great King patted its chest and exhaled with relief, "It's good that you're still here."
Lu Qingshan's eyebrows furrowed, "What happened?"
With a push from its stubby legs, the West Mouse Great King turned into a shadow to leap from the window to the table.
"Big discovery, big discovery!" whispered the West Mouse Great King mysteriously, "The other day in the Great Xia Commercial Firm, I saw you paying special attention to that female Cultivator, and after running into the lady, as soon as we left the Great Xia Commercial Firm, you suddenly agreed to let me go, so I kept a little eye on that female Cultivator."
The West Mouse Great King was likely referring to Wu Yi.
True to its sly nickname, despite seeming slow-witted, this demon rat was actually quite sharp.
Even such subtle changes in his own expression were noticed by the West Mouse Great King.
Lu Qingshan sighed inwardly but remained silent, waiting for the West Mouse Great King to continue.
The West Mouse Great King rambled on about its experiences over the past two days.
It turns out that after following Lu Qingshan to Yuanshan City and witnessing the prosperity of the human Prefecture City, it had unexpectedly become somewhat reluctant to return to its modest dwelling.
After Lu Qingshan let it go, it didn't choose to return to the village, but mustered the courage to stay in Yuanshan City.
The city was, after all, big enough to accommodate one demon rat.
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As it happened, just as the West Rat King was wandering aimlessly around the city, savoring his new-found freedom, he coincidentally bumped into Wu Yi, whose movements were secretive, and whose destination was unknown.
Out of curiosity, the West Rat King followed Wu Yi from a distance for some time.
Fearing discovery, the West Rat King did not dare to follow too closely.
He trailed her until he saw Wu Yi enter a mansion and then she never reemerged.
"Mansion?"
The West Rat King scratched his head, "It seemed to be called the Mansion of Suffering; I can't recognize your Human Race's writing, but that's what people call it."
The West Rat King waved his little paw, "Let's not talk about that for now. Guess what I found?"
The West Rat King was smug.
Lu Qingshan, without any courtesy, tapped hard on the West Rat King's head, "Don't beat around the bush with me."
The West Rat King held his head, looking at Lu Qingshan with an aggrieved expression, "I mustered up the courage to sneak into the Mansion of Suffering. Strangely enough, although I clearly saw her enter the mansion, after I roamed around for quite a few turns, I just couldn't find that female cultivator; it was as if she had vanished into thin air.
Just when I was about to give up searching, I suddenly smelled a familiar scent."
"A familiar scent?"
The West Rat King explained, "It was exactly like the strange fragrance emanating from the Blood Pool, albeit extremely faint and almost dissipated. But the impression that scent made on me was so profound that I managed to pick it up."
"Following that scent, I found my way to the depths of the mansion and, unexpectedly, came across an underground chamber.
And in that chamber, there was another Blood Pool! Though this one was much smaller compared to the one I had seen before."
The West Rat King, gesturing excitedly, said, "The key point is that inside the Blood Pool, there was a ferocious-looking Demon Beast resembling a lion but without a single hair on its body, with blood-red eyes, and three protruding bones on its spine, those three bones are also quite peculiar, looking like... uh..."
The West Rat King couldn't find the appropriate words and suddenly got stuck.
"Is it like there are long swords sticking out of its spine?" Lu Qingshan interjected.
"Yes! Yes! Yes! Isn't that odd? I've never seen such a creature before," the West Rat King nodded vigorously in agreement.
Then, the West Rat King quickly came to his senses and looked at Lu Qingshan suspiciously, "You haven't seen it, so how do you know what this Demon Beast looks like?"
Lu Qingshan shook his head, "That's not a Demon Beast, but a War Beast."
"War Beast?"
Lu Qingshan did not explain much to the West Rat King.
The term 'War Beast' would only become widespread among the Human Race after several more iterations.
A War Beast, as the name implies, is a beast of the Demon Race, with a variety of Divine Skills.
The creature encountered by the West Rat King was likely a War Beast.
[War Beast]: A beast that contains a diluted essence of the Bing Bloodline (Eighth Grade Holy Demon Bloodline).
The sword-like bones on the spine of the War Beast are its Divine Skills.
Players refer to them as Sword Bones, which, when deployed, can sever the connection between a cultivator and their Magic Artifact.
The Sword Bone is a one-time Divine Skill; once it leaves the body, it cannot be retracted—use it once, and it's gone.
Three Sword Bones mean that it can use its Divine Skills three times.
Lu Qingshan fell into deep thought.
Had War Beasts appeared so early?
What a big ordeal—to seize a shard of the Heavenly Secret Mirror, even a War Beast had been employed.
Even in the Abyss, the numbers of War Beasts were not great, let alone the ones specially brought by the Demon Race to the territory of the Human Race, which were even rarer.
...
Yuanshan Tower had failed to find Wu Yi during their hunt for the Blood Corpse True Person.
Lu Qingshan had thought that the Blood Corpse True Person must have sent Wu Yi away.
Moreover, since Wu Yi was simply an apprentice taken in by the Blood Corpse True Person under the identity of an Evil Cultivator and was not a person of the Netherworld, she knew nothing of Netherworld affairs. Therefore, neither Lu Qingshan nor Yuanshan Tower took Wu Yi's disappearance seriously.
Unexpectedly, Wu Yi was connected to such important intelligence.
The Divine Skills of a War Beast are unpredictable and profound. Qi Yuan and Yuanshan Tower, even if they were well-prepared, could very likely fail and fall to the Divine Skills of the War Beast, resulting in the theft of a Heavenly Secret Mirror shard.
The question now was whether they could detain the peoples of the Netherworld.