"Any damage?" I asked. He Shan Jie inspected the Divine Gaia Golem for a moment, and then shook his head.
"Nope." He looked sheepish when he turned to us, especially to Chi Yan and Hong Yao Yao. "Nothing more than superficial damage and scorch marks…which can be easily repaired if I infuse him with my qi."
"Don't give us that look." Chi Yan waved his hand flippantly and snorted. "It wasn't as if Yao Yao and I were going all out. We were holding back because we were worried about accidentally wrecking the golem before you could obtain it."
"Still…" Hong Yao Yao shook her head. "I'll have to admit that the Divine Gaia Golem is really tough. It's a good thing that you and sir Hei Ye are around, otherwise it'll be a very harsh battle. We'll have to expend all of our qi just to defeat that thing."
"But now he's on our side," He Shan Jie said proudly. He then bowed deeply. "Thank you very much. All of you. I can't sufficiently express how grateful I truly am."
"No, no." It was my turn to wave my hands but I did it frantically. "You deserve a reward. I owe you a lot, especially since you agreed to risk your life and fight by my side against such a formidable foe. I'm just glad we were able to repay you somehow."
He Shan Jie chuckled and placed a hand on my shoulder. "Brother Hei, you are too modest." He looked at the rest of the party, including Lan Bei Er. "Thank you. Really. This means a lot to me."
"We always planned to get you a replacement for your earth golem," Lan Bei Er said with a smile. "I'm just glad we found a suitable one."
"Suitable?" He Shan Jie laughed. "This Divine Gaia Golem exceeds every aspect of my imagination! Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would ever get my hands on one!"
"Good thing we agreed to tag along on this mission then, eh?" Chi Yan grinned. He Shan Jie shrugged before nodding with a wry smile.
"Yes…it really was a good decision to come along. Not that I would have decided otherwise even if I would not have obtained this Divine Gaia Golem."
"This is what we call karma. They say no good deed goes unrewarded."
I wanted to correct Chi Yan and tell him that it was actually no good deed goes unpunished, but I decided not to. I actually agreed with his version. Good things happened to good people, and bad things happened to bad people. Well, reality was more complicated than that. People couldn't be classified as wholly "good" or wholly "bad." Also, both good and bad things happened to us, regardless of whether we were good or bad. But on the whole, you would be rewarded for doing good things and punished for doing bad things.
Not always, but when you averaged it out, it was a good rule of thumb to follow. Nobody was going to praise you for hurting them, but they would be more likely to help you if you had done them a favor. On the other hand, they were more likely to seek revenge if you hurt them…assuming you were stupid enough to allow them to catch you in the act.
Given the average intelligence of cultivation story characters, they most probably thought they could blatantly commit crimes in the open (such as rape, murder and robbery) right in front of everybody and get away with it simply because they were "strong." Funny how it always turned out the protagonist was actually stronger than them, which led to them running to their seniors, clan or sect elders, or fathers and grandfathers and begging them to take revenge for them. Wait, weren't they the ones espousing the whole "strong eat the weak" nonsense? Then how come they hadn't been eaten up and trampled upon by these seniors, elders or parents they ask to take revenge on their behalf? Funny how that rule only applied when they were bullying other people, but suddenly when they were the victims, that rule no longer applied.
I guess cultivation story authors were inconsistent. They just wanted to generate conflict for the sake of it, not caring how contrived it was.
"I can sense the spirit beast of Mount Sunset…it is very close."
Hong Yao Yao's voice broke me out of my thoughts. I nodded and glanced past the double doors that the Divine Gaia Golem had been guarding. They had been left open, the remnants of the stone dragon statues lying as debris all over the entrance. There were none left, the stone dragon statues having floundered once I had assassinated their commander. Whatever stragglers my party had missed had been inadvertently trampled upon by the Divine Gaia Golem when he had emerged from the doors.
"Whoa…not bad." Chi Yan was grinning. "With that level of spiritual qi, I bet I can go all out without worrying about leveling the mountain. This thing is a beast!"
"We…have to be careful," He Shan Jie said and took a deep breath. He placed a hand on the Divine Gaia Golem. "Even with my new partner, I don't know if we can beat it. It's at least at the Saint Realm, right?"
"Right," I affirmed, staring past the doors. I couldn't see the spirit beast proper, but I could definitely sense the tremendous spiritual pressure crushing us. It was almost like an ocean. Or a sun shining directly upon us in outer space, basking us in fierce radiation. Invisible but deadly.
It made me almost want to run.
"Okay." Lan Bei Er clapped her hands, calling our attention back to her. She looked stern. "All of you have just been through a grueling battle. It would be foolish to challenge the spirit beast of Mount Sunset right now. So I suggest that we take an hour's break. We know where it is, and it seems to be staying put for now. We don't have to worry about it making a move any time soon. Let me check everyone for injuries, then we rest up to recover our qi. You want to fight that thing? Make sure you do it at full strength."
"Yes, wife," I replied immediately.
Nobody objected, and so we all took a break for an hour, paying the tremendous spiritual qi no attention. I even dozed off, lying on the ground. Lan Bei Er sat beside me, closing her eyes and meditating. She was using some sort of breathing method to recuperate and regain her qi. I probably didn't need to do the same thing because I could simply rely on Heaven and Earth Formula to replenish my qi while I slept.
The rest did whatever they needed to do. Sit and meditate, use breathing methods, whatever. I didn't care. It was none of my business. As long as they got the job done, they could do whatever they wanted.
Then the time came.
"Everybody ready?" I asked after I woke up. Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I rose to my feet and put my glasses on. It was a short nap, but it was better than nothing. I could feel qi flowing through my body normally, fully replenished. Good. I could fight at peak condition now.
Apparently everyone else was feeling the same. Chi Yan was swinging his arm about to test his muscles, and he was grinning in satisfaction. He Shan Jie maintained that calm, impassive look that he always had, his head silently bowed in what appeared to be prayer. But he was brimming with potent strength, and I could sense that his connection with the Divine Gaia Golem had been strengthened. Clearly he had not been idle during the one hour of break time. Hong Yao Yao was stifling a yawn, but she was visibly burning with fiery qi as butterflies fluttered around her. She smirked and winked at me.
Beside me, Lan Bei Er still appeared concerned, but she herself had recovered most of the qi she had expended in healing us or conjuring barriers. She nodded confidently when I glanced at her, letting me know that she was ready to go. Somehow she reminded me of Inoue Orihime…their powers were quite similar. Though her personality, appearance and abilities were more similar to Cecilia…okay, I admit that she was practically a clone of Cecilia from There was a cute girl in the hero party, so I tried to confess to her.
Whatever the case, I was glad that she was by my side. I held her hand and gave it a squeeze, and she returned the affection. Then we strode through the still open double doors and ascended to the outside peak of Mount Sunset.
There, the spirit beast awaited us. The boss monster who had taken over as ruler of this ruins.
"Ho…? So you're approaching me?" The spirit beast scoffed, speaking clearly in human language despite not being human. He wasn't even humanoid. His voice was deep and gruff, so I could tell that he was a male. "Instead of running away, you're coming straight at me?"
Why did that line sound so familiar? Judging from Hong Yao Yao's exasperated reaction, I knew I wasn't imagining it.
I decided not to pay too much attention to his words and instead focused on his appearance. The spirit beast of Mount Sunset was a gigantic white wolf…or was he a white dog? He wasn't as big as the Divine Gaia Golem, but even on all fours, he was taller than us humans. Maybe five meters tall? He resembled a wolf, but somehow I could tell that he was a dog. He was covered in spiky white fur, had sharp claws, a bushy tail, and red markings around his black and yellow eyes.
Drawing my katana, I approached him without any fear despite the immense spiritual qi pressure that he was emanating. Instead, I curled my lips into a sneer.
"I can't kick your ass if I don't come closer."
"Ho ho!" The gigantic white dog chuckled. "Then come as close as you like!"
"Are you seriously indulging him in that stupid dialogue from an anime?!" Hong Yao Yao snapped at me. "And why does a spirit beast know the lines from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure?!"
"You thought it was Dio, but it was me, Tian Gou!" the white dog proclaimed arrogantly, patting his chest with a clawed paw. Even I had to cover my face with my palm this time.
"Wait, Tian Gou?" He Shan Jie blurted out in disbelief. "The Divine Dog who devoured the sun, Tian Gou?!"
"That's me!" Tian Gou, or the Divine Dog confirmed smugly.
"The Divine Dog…or?" I asked. Everyone stared at me in bewilderment, even Hong Yao Yao.
"I don't know that reference," she admitted.
"It's a story on Webnovel by Tyrone Bedoire," I replied with a shrug. Hong Yao Yao made a face.
"You actually read the web fiction on that website?"
"I mean, I literally have stories published there…"
"Okay, stop! Stop breaking the fourth wall!"
"Ahem." We all turned to stare at the Divine Dog. He glared at us, affronted. "Can you do your comedy skit elsewhere? You're here to challenge me, like all those other human trash, right? Now get on with it. I don't have much time."
He then opened his slavering jaws wide, his fangs gleaming in the sunlight that was slowly dipping down over the mountain – thus giving it its name.
"Allow me to devour you all like I did the rest. Perhaps it'll help me achieve a breakthrough and regain my lost powers."
…lost powers? Then again, he was the Divine Dog, so…yeah. He probably fell from heaven or something, maybe as punishment for devouring the sun. I had to read up again to remember his legend, but I did recall that he was supposed to be some divine beast that ate both the sun and the moon, causing the eclipse.
Not that it mattered. I didn't have the luxury of sympathizing with him. This spirit beast had massacred lots of cultivators and terrorized the people at West Gate City. I had to put a stop to his atrocities.
Feeling the same, Chi Yan and He Shan Jie backed me up, with Hong Yao Yao falling back to the middle to provide ranged support. The Divine Dog glared at us, his eyes gleaming ravenously.
Then he lunged forward with his jaws wide open, intent on swallowing us whole.