"So, what is this… what is Yingzi anyway, you said they're a 'Spectral Plains Wolf' but I've never seen any animal as large as it, not even close…" Shu He said still marvelling at the 'wolf's' size as it plodded alongside them.
"Could it be you've never seen a spirit beast before?" Jian He asked with a slight chuckle.
"Huh? Is that similar to a Qi Beast?" Shu He replied, remembering Bai Shun mentioning such a thing to him before, beasts that were far more powerful than normal ones.
"So you know that term huh…" He scratched the back of his head as he seemed a little awkward "They're one and the same, a lot of cultivators call them Qi Beasts because they're beasts that can make use of Qi, but people like me refer to them as spiritual animals, or spirit beasts whichever you prefer because they're not just a simple change from normal wild animals".
"Heee… so what are the other changes?"
"For one they're more intelligent which makes them perfect to communicate with and is the reason our division exists, while you can train a normal animal to do tasks there will always be a wall between you, but for spirit animals that isn't true, the more they grow the more they can communicate and accomplish more complicated tasks, they can become invaluable companions" Jian He explained passionately to Shu He as they walked along.
"Intelligent… so when you were speaking with Yingzi before, you were actually talking?" Shu He was quite marvelled, being able to talk to animals sounded incredibly convenient.
"Yes and no, unfortunately Yingzi isn't capable of human speech yet, but we can communicate thoughts and intent through this" Jiang He tapped his glabella and a lightly glowing symbol showed up, it kind of resembled a paw print, but sharper in design.
"That is?"
"Hmmm I guess I can tell you since you'll be visiting anyway, it's the main technique our Beast Taming Division uses, you can create a contract with a spirit beast allowing various benefits, the one that I'm talking about now if the ability to transmit intentions and feelings, it's incredibly useful for getting closer to a spirit beast."
"Wow! Can anyone use it?" Shu He's eyes sparkled slightly.
"…You would need to get permission from our elder first, and there's other pre-requisites like having enough Qi to sustain the contract creation, or the most important thing-" Jian He stopped and turned to look Shu He directly in the eyes before finishing his line.
"Trust!"
"…" Shu He stood still for a moment; his mind shook for a second before placating itself.
"Trust? In your elders? Your fellow disciples?" He asked.
Jiang He shook his head.
"In the spirit animal you're contracting, they must trust you and you must trust them, or the contract can't be formed".
'Trust? In the animal…'
Shu He felt a bit lost, if here were to be honest, right now he didn't feel like trusting someone, not because he hated others, or because of some greater reason.
He was just scared.
He had made 'friends' with Gang Bo, gotten closer to some other people like Bai Shun and Yun Jian, but he still kept a wall between himself and them, one thicker than normal.
It was just after losing his parents… he didn't feel like he can care enough about someone like that again.
At least not yet.
After all, they might go and die again.
So, he couldn't understand the idea of trust in an animal, even more so that he has never had a pet before, when he thinks of an animal he was thinking it could be convenient to use, as cruel as it seemed.
"What's wrong? You don't need to worry I'm not putting you on the spot right now" Jian He laughed and patted his shoulder bringing him back to the present.
"It's fine I'm just… a bit hesitant I guess?" Shu He spoke, his true feelings leaking out slightly causing Jian He's eyes to widen slightly.
He placed his hand on Shu He's shoulder and spoke calmly.
"That's fine, it's fine to be hesitant, it's fine to be unsure, it's fine to be scared; That's why cultivation exists, to better yourself, to find your path, your future, your way forward; Just take all the time you need there's no rush".
Shu He looked directly into his eyes and found no falsehood, just a unique calmness filled with a caring feeling.
"…Thank you" He felt oddly calmed, like the stirring emotions in the back of his mind had been settled.
"Ah- Sorry we've only just met and I'm sticking my nose into things I shouldn't, sorry!" He backed off realising how close he had gotten and what he said with a hint of embarrassment, Yingzi seemed to shake his head sideways behind the two.
"No, it's fine, I think that's a good thing." Shu He couldn't help but chuckle, he had only just met this senior of his, but his impression is already pretty good.
"A-anyway we're almost there, I'll have to introduce you to Elder Bai while we're there, come on Yingzi stop laughing and get moving".
"Rrrr…" Shu He could almost see the large white wolf sighing as it listened to Jian He.
…
"Here it is" Jian He said as they stood before what seemed to be a large cave entrance carved out of a large square boulder.
Shu He looked up and around with his sight but saw nothing before looking back at Jian He in confusion.
"What's wrong?" Jian He asked, seeing his questioning look.
"Um, no, it's just I was expecting some sort of large dome or tower, you know like the Covetous Dragon Pavilion or the Alchemy Tower…" Shu He explained.
"Oh, is that all? Just wait till' you get inside then, you'll be surprised." Jian He just waved his hand telling Shu He to follow as he entered the cavernous entrance with the giant 'wolf' Yingzi following along.
"Okay…" Shu He said sceptically as he followed along.
Not long after they entered they encountered a stairway with larger than normal steps that began to spiral down, they walked along for nearly 5 minutes in the brightstone lit passageway before they reached a flat surface with chains and large wheels attach to the side.
"Is this an elevator?" Shu He asked, not too surprised after the spectacle that was the great elevator before the steps of ascension.
"Yup, just step on and it'll take us down to where our division lays".
So, he did, and Yingzi stepped on it as well making Shu He look its way.
"Oh, do you have these elevators and large stairwells because of animals like Yingzi?" Shu He had a sudden realisation.
Jian He nodded in response.
"Good of you to notice, yes we have multiple elevators leading to different parts of the sect to transport animals in and out, it would be impossible to do so without them" he explained as he pulled a lever on the elevator and with a *Kerchunk* it began lowering.
The noise the elevator made was too loud so they couldn't have a proper conversation on the way down, instead Shu He merely looked around at what he could; It seems Lingzi didn't like the noise the elevator made so it was laid with its head on the ground and its two white paws covering its ears which made him chuckle.
He couldn't really see anything else since the thick walls around them blocked his sight, clearly it was pure rock for at least tens of meters, so they were in the mountain.
'Thinking about it, this elevator is rather crude without the safety parts of modern elevators… couldn't it go wrong easily? We'd be trapped many hundreds of meters underground surrounded by impenetrable rock…'
The intrusive thoughts entered his mind causing him to shiver so he tried to take his mind off them.
'I wonder how far we are underground now… I feel like we've already passed the surface level…'
It took a full 10 minutes of lowering but eventually it stopped as they were greeted by a bright light.
"Huh? Sunlight? Aren't we underground?" Shu He said, covering his eyes from the piercing light since they had long since adapted to the dim darkness of the passageway.
"Hehe, just come along" Jian He chuckled as he walked off the elevator and exited the doorway.
Shu He followed along as his eyes gradually adjusted to the light, the moment he left the tunnel he was hit by things he didn't expect to see at all.
Bright, warm sunlight, a gentle breeze, scents of varying flora and even a blue sky!
Shu He stood with his mouth wide open as he looked around.
"Didn't we go down? Did we actually go up?! Is this some trick?!"
"We're most definitely underground, impressive right?" Jian He puffed up his chest in pride as if it was his own creation.
"Just how?!" This kind of thing was way too high off the scale compared to everything Shu He had seen so far, it wasn't just large in scale but also detail, it felt so real like he was outside that he had a hard time believing it wasn't!
"Well, I can't really explain everything, the sky is an illusion obviously but for the sunlight and moonlight we use composite yin and yang materials in combination with brightstones to emulate them, formations are used to regulate temperature and humidity in different zones and create artificial winds, it's the pride and joy of the Beast Taming Division!"
"…Shouldn't you guys be working on other things if you can make this?" Shu He thought.
"Well…" He itched his chin with embarrassment "I said our pride and joy, but it was a collective collaboration of the entire sect when It was made, we're just the ones that use it most".
"Oh" Shu He nodded in understanding.
"Anyway, let's head further in, that's where Elder Bai is usually found" Jian He said before he turned to Lingzi.
"You're free now, make sure to come for food in a few hours" He spoke while tapping his glabella, the symbol appeared before turning in to glittering motes of light.
"It disappeared?" Shu He said in surprise.
"Yeah, that was just a temporary contract we use when taking spirit animals out of this enclosure, it's not permanent so it's weaker in strength and usefulness, it's mostly just so we can communicate better" Jian He explained as they began walking through some trees, Shu He was looking left and right as he kept seeing new plants and flowers that he hadn't seen before or rare ones he had once looked for.
"Hm? Are you interested in the plants here?" Jian He asked as he saw Shu He looking around with clear excitement in his eyes.
"Huh? Ah! Well! I worked as an apothecary a few years ago and I'm interested in alchemy now so… I couldn't help it…" Shu He felt a bit embarrassed that he was called out while engrossed in all the interesting things around him.
"Oh? Were you going to take a look at the Alchemy Tower when I spoke to you? Sorry for interrupting you" Jian He said apologetically, with no hint of sarcasm.
"No, it's fine! I wasn't rushing over there, I wanted to look around more, so you came at a perfect time".
"That's good then, the flora here is mostly just for the consumption of the animals but occasionally special herbs or flowers are born due to the animals living nearby so they'll go do the other divisions to use or are auctioned off if they're especially valuable" He explained.
"How many animals do you have living here?"
"Hmm that's not an easy question to answer since the population here rises and falls quite a lot depending on the circumstances, we have thousands of normal animals here, way more if we count bugs and insects and the smaller mammals or fish, as for spirit animals we have just over 100".
"100?! More like Lingzi?!" Shu He eyes widened as he looked around him.
"Like Lingzi?... oh, you mean size wise? Not all spirit beasts are like that, some don't change in size much from a normal animal, but there are some here that are bigger, you won't see any near here though since they claim a lot of territory to themselves here".
"Bigger… like a dragon?!" His eyes sparkled thinking of the most popular mythological dragon he could think of.
"Pftahahahaha" He was greeted with a heartfelt laugh from Jian He.
"…What, did I say something funny?" Shu He's brows twitched, feeling annoying for being laughed at.
"Oh, no, it's just- Dragons are incredibly vicious, strong, large and elusive creatures, even if we could find one there's no way we'd be able to keep it here, I don't think even our sect master could do that! I've never even heard of a sighting near here anyway".
"Really? Oh…" Shu He couldn't help but become slightly disappointed after he hyped himself up.
"Ah, look, just over there is where the elder should be" Jian He pointed to something in the distance.
'Smoke? No… water vapour?'
As they closed in Shu He got a better look, a large waterfall cascaded down an artificial cliff as the water hitting the basin roared, being heard for miles.
"What's this Elder Bai doing there? Meditating?" He asked.
"Um, yeah, something like that" Jian He said, looking away from Shu He.
It took another 5 minutes of travel on foot as they leisurely took their time, eventually they came to the large basin of water, the water was crystal clear and you could see fish of varying types happily swimming at the bottom in schools, plenty of colourful plants and flowers grew around sipping up the crystalline water and some smaller animals were visiting the watering hole for a refreshing drink, as Shu He and Jian He walked in to the area they didn't respond, clearly used to the presence of people.
Shu He's eyes then locked on to a feature piece of this area, a large smooth white stone rested in the middle of the basin and on top of it was a man.
He had long white hair that looked smooth and clean yet had a wild flair to it, his eyes were closed as he laid still.
Asleep.
Naked.
His sect robes lying next to him.
"Uh… that's the Elder Bai you were talking about?" Shu He pointed at the naked man, a slight look of exasperation and disbelief in his eyes.
Jian He sighed, covering his eyes in embarrassment before he steeled himself.
"Elder Bai! There's a potential new member for our division here!" He yelled out, trying to ignore that fact that the elder was flying commando.
The figure on the stone stirred, one of his eyes opened as it turned to eye the two visitors.
'Pure gold…' Eyes of pure gold was what Shu He saw, but it held a weird since of feral beauty that he hadn't seen before, the pupil ever so slit instead of round.
He stood and stretched before taking a step.
"Please put your robes on!" Jian He yelled before they had to see the nude model close up.
"…Fine" Elder Bai reluctantly pulled the clothes off the stone beside him and dressed himself before making a great into the water and speeding along under the surface, bursting out and landing on the ground near the two.
Shu He now got a good look at him, even though he was an 'elder' he didn't look old at all, rather he looked like he was barely in his early 20's, his eyes clear and hair clean, his body lean and well built.
'He's dry' Shu He noticed this irregularity, even though he had clearly just taken a dive his hair, skin and uniform were dry as a bone.
"So, who's this new recruit-" Elder Bai's began asking Jian He a question before he abruptly stopped, his head snapped towards Shu He as his eyes turned slit.
Shu He could even observe his nose twitching as he got closer to him, he even felt slightly intimidated, taking a step back subconsciously.
'What's wrong? Do I smell bad?!' His heart began beating fast.
"You…" Elder Bai began speaking again, but his voice was filled with a hint of uncertainty.
"You smell like earth… like sky… like disaster…" He began mumbling which the two of them overheard clearly but didn't understand.
"You smell like mother".