"So that's the beast's lair…" Shu He murmured to himself as he was perched atop a tree, about half a kilometre away was a large hill made of dirt and a large pile of boulders, like something had collapsed and then had been covered over.
'Is it some sort of ruin?' He considered, he had in fact seen remnants of foundations and walls here and there on his way here, so it was likely to be the case, it was much like the tens of ruined towns he had found in the large wilderness on his way to Sunnyside Town.
And much like the ruins he had encountered Long Tian's remnant, a lot of the ruins were topsy-turvy and disordered, unlike how they should have been; It was as if someone or something had scooped them up then threw them down.
Either that, or the architect behind them had serious issues.
He got as close as he could without alerting the beast with its strong sense of smell and hearing, about a couple hundred meters away.
Shu He concentrated with his 'territory' and pushed it inside the maw of the cave underneath the hill, the insides were what he had expected, pieces of the ruins had fallen on one another and created a temporary shelter where dirt had built up and solidified around them, hardening to form the cave.
It was fairly spacious, about 20 meters wide in a more or less circular formation, the ground was littered with bones of smaller animals… and a handful of human ones, there wasn't an ounce of flesh left on their white bones, picked clean.
'They said there weren't any victims from the village, so are they travellers? I don't think they'd be cultivators but…'
Based on the colour of the bones and the dirt covering them, they weren't too recent, maybe they were unfortunate victims of the beast when it hadn't yet ascended, either way…
'I guess there isn't a peaceful solution here…' Shu He sighed slightly.
One thing he had been told, was that beasts become incredibly hard to tame once they get a taste of human flesh, and the rules of the Beast Taming Division state that it's forbidden; It sounded contradictory to Shu He at first, but the Division focuses on raising companions, not weapons.
Your beast companion may harm others to assist you, but you cannot let them consume the flesh, if they do they may begin to see you not as a partner, but as food; The <
Thus that rule was established.
Shu He had long since considered taking the wolf under a <
'In the end, I'll have to kill it…'
His territory's sight extended to the deep end of the cave, and what laid there was a large creature with wire like fur that scratched the rock faces it ground against, its eyes were closed as its large ribcage expanded and contracted, it rested its long snout on its two thin paws that were lined with razor sharp claws, while shiny silver fangs peeked from under its lips as drool slobbered down to the floor.
'It's big…' Shu He frowned as he observed the creature.
'Even bigger than I had heard… it's basically the size of a cow now, and not a small one' he realigned his plans, he was initially thinking of attempting to assassinate the beast in its lair, but his intuition was telling him that was a bad idea now.
He could tell just by looking at it, no half-assed attack would pierce that fur and it would be hard to down it in a single blow unless he struck a vital point, and ideally he wanted to leave the Spirit Heart of the beast intact, he wanted to study one of them; And It was valuable.
So he needed to deal a heavy blow to the head, its skull is probably quite thick especially after taking on the Metal element enhancement, if he used a fully drawn arrow modified for penetration he may have a chance, otherwise he would need to aim for a thinner area… either the eye socket or inside the jaw.
'It definitely isn't a mere 'Birth' rank spirit beast at least'
Spirit beasts had classifications based on their progress after they ascended, the classifications exist as a guideline, but strengths of spirit beasts vary greatly due to their innate abilities from their bloodline.
First is 'Birth', meaning a spirit beast that had only just ascended, they are starved of energy and are fairly weak, they haven't gotten used to their bodies and their special abilities are unstable and undeveloped.
Second would be 'Satiated', a beast that had spent enough time post birth to get used to its new body and has consumed enough energy to complete its bodily formation, they are considered dangerous for most cultivators below the fifth level due to their strong elemental abilities.
Third is "Lucid", the beast had lived long enough and ate enough to undergo a functional evolution with how it uses its body and has begun to undergo a further transformation with secondary traits forming.
"Evolved" was the last stage he knows about, and the result is something Shu He has seen, this was the stage that 'Elder Bai' was at, the beast can undergo a drastic transformation in their state of existence, allowing them to gain a human form if they so wish, while also drastically increasing their intelligence and capacity to learn; However there is a secondary path for Spirit Beasts that fail to attain human form, they instead take the path of the 'True Beast', they will not be as intelligent, however their natural traits and power will be amplified.
'Based on what I've seen… this wolf would be between 'Birth' and 'Satiated', like I thought it has been chowing down on those stones, its Qi is stable and powerful unlike a 'Birth' level beast, but it likely hasn't been able to adapt to its body as much… so it's in the middle.'
'I wonder what to call this thing… it's the only one of its kind, but I feel like I should at least give it a species name…'
He sat on the branch and thought for a little while as he watched the creature.
'Since it was a 'Greyback Mountain Wolf' I'll just use that as a template, let's call this one a 'Silverback Razor Wolf'' He nodded to himself.
'Well then, I guess I'll wait for this Razor Wolf to leave its lair, I need to observe it for a while after all…' He got comfy in the tree, all while his sight was fixated on the beast.
…
Three hours later, the Razor Wolf steadily stood up and yawned, stretching its long body, when it was fully stood up it resembled a horrifying feral wolf with the body of a muscular greyhound, if you silently listened you could hear the high-pitched scraping of its metallic fur grinding against one another.
'Slightly later than the mayor said it was active… did it gorge itself too much yesterday?' Shu He sat up as he prepared to move.
The large wolf looked around before it made its way to the entrance of the cave, it peeked its head out as its ears and nose twitched like it was checking for an ambush before it slowly plodded out into the light.
Shu He had shifted his position a few times in the three hours, he wanted to remain down-wind so his scent wouldn't be picked up, but he had already sprayed himself with something to mask his scent.
'I should see if there's a technique to neutralise my scent when I go back to the sect…' He marked in the back of his mind as he watched the creature in its full glory with his two eyes.
The thing was as tall as he was stood up, no, even taller, and about as long as a typical car, its paw prints were left as clear indents in the floor as it walked so it was heavy as well.
'This is going to be tough'.
The wolf raised it's head and paused while narrowing its sly yellow eyes, then it turned it slightly for a minute, then once again for another minute.
And then it's facial muscles twitched as slight drool fell from the corner of its mouth before it began moving, lowering its body, and swiftly hopping away like a cheetah, Shu He wasn't slow though and began following along through the trees, making sure not to get too close while keeping his territory locked on it.
'Where are you going, then? You seem to know exactly where it is you want to go…'
Shu He worked out the direction they were going in, and figured that it wasn't towards the village which gave him some relief, but it was to the north-west, so it was cutting it close, he was hoping it hadn't suddenly desired to eat human flesh again.
Because there was plenty of that running around searching for those stones!
'Wait… that's it!' He realised suddenly what the beast was chasing.
'It's those stones, it can likely detect them! All the animals back in the sanctuary were perceptive to my Golden Qi, so it makes sense this wolf can sense it in those stones too!'
In one sense, it means this wolf is a treasure-detecting tool!
'What kind of sense do they use though? Does the Golden Qi actually give off some sort of faint smell? Or is it some unique sense that animals have…' he pondered as he followed.
Of course, there was a massive problem with this situation.
The beast was heading to the stones, and so were the cultivators searching for them! If they realise it can detect them, they'll most certainly try to subdue it, either that or they'll get angry it's taking them all.
'I have a bad feeling about this…'