The beast was extremely large; the size of a car and it had a very sturdy body. Its fur was a golden yellow with a purple mane that reached its paws. The large canines that jutted from its upper jaw could easily shred a human to pieces.
Lu Zheng walked toward the beast and rose out his hand.
"What are you doing?!" Shu Jun was stunned by Lu Zheng's motion.
Everyone expected the beast to bite Lu Zheng's arm off but it only bent its head docilely as it made purring sounds. It even crouched on the ground.
"How?" Shu Kai was stunned by the turn of events.
"Oh, this is my beast pet, Themur" Lu Zheng said with a smile.
"Beast pet?!" Shu clansmen chorused.
Hong Haoyu let out an obvious snort at the degrading demeanour of the Shu clansmen.
"How come you have a rank four beast as a pet?" Shu Jun asked.
"Why can't I?" Lu Zheng asked rhetorically as he sat on Themur's back. Gesturing to Shu Teng, he said: "Come and join me, he won't harm you"
Shu Teng was surprised at Lu Zheng's offer and stared at Themur's large face as if asking for an appeal.
After a short moment of deliberation, she joined Lu Zheng on Themur's back.
The moment she sat on it, all the pent up fear she had built up from seeing a mighty rank four beast like Themur up close disappeared and was replaced by awe.
It was a huge change in perspective for her.
"So a mighty beast like this can also be ridden" Shu Teng thought.
"Well then, let's meet at the Dark Forest" Lu Zheng laughed and commanded Themur to move.
In a few breaths of time, the distance between Themur and the rest was over seventy metres.
"So fast" Shu Kai and the others commented.
Hong Haoyu had a somewhat perplexed expression as he clenched his fist. That day, he swore to also ride a mighty beast of his own.
…..
"Hahaha" Shu Teng laughed heartily as her bosom bubbled up and down.
She felt that Lu Zheng was an interesting fellow. Not only was he strong and good looking, he also had great inter-personal skills and a wide array of experiences. His sense of humour was also great.
"What's so funny?" Shu Kai had a fiery expression as he panted, his entire body covered in sweat from walking such a long distance.
Shu Teng noticed the others were just like Shu Kai and felt grateful that she had accepted Lu Zheng's offer to ride Themur.
"Finally, we've been waiting" Lu Zheng smiled.
"Hmph!" Shu Kai snorted with his arms crossed as he entered the Dark Forest.
Like its name implied, the Dark Forest was completely covered in darkness even though it was the middle of the day. Not a single ray of sunlight reached the forest floor.
The trees also grew tall and strong. It made it easy for beasts to ambush unsuspecting martial practitioners.
The bodies of the Shu clansmen radiated an azure glow that gave light to their footsteps and enhanced visibility.
"So it is moon path" Lu Zheng muttered.
"You are very knowledgeable Brother Lu" Shu Teng giggled. "Our Shu Clan mainly cultivates moon path and it has been our heritage for many generations"
Shu Kai didn't lose the chance to brag: "In the last generation, we even had a Void Passage realm moon path expert that helped advance our Shu Clan's knowledge about moon path. It is this inheritance that we Shu clansmen cultivate"
Lu Zheng nodded in understanding. What Shu Kai meant was that given enough time, there was a large possibility for this current generation of Shu clansmen to produce Void Passage realm experts.
It was truly worth bragging about.
"Hush" Shu Mingling put his finger to his lips as the azure light he gave off reduced in intensity.
The rest of the group immediately shut up. From their deliberations, Lu Zheng had discovered that Shu Mingling had an exceptional scouting technique.
It was probably what he was using now.
The red ribbon on Shu Mingling's waist untied itself and floated into his hands before suddenly straightening, becoming as turgid as a rod.
Moon Qi poured into the ribbon which gave off as azure light and with one swipe, a sharp light cut through the Dark Forest, cutting the trees like butter.
"Awooo!" An inhumane scream entered their hearing only a few seconds after Shu Mingling's attack. It was naturally the scream of a beast.
"It is dead" Shu Mingling said with a sigh of relief that blew away the tense atmosphere.
Shu Mingling quickly led the group to where the beast had died, a few steps away from the clearing made by his own technique.
The dead body of an ape-like beast was pinned to the body of a large tree with a large cut that almost rendered it into two pieces running across its body.
The beast was very large and towered up to three metres yet it was nearly cut in half.
They had all seen the sharp light when it left Shu Mingling's ribbon. It was merely a few inches long and yet it had grown to such a length.
Shu Mingling was definitely strong.
"It was probably a rank two beast" Hong Haoyu critiqued the beast.
Shu Lin and Shu Mu, other members of the group, went on to cut the beast apart. From the way the moved, one could see that they were adept at dividing beasts.
Soon, it was only the beast's guts that were spilled on the ground. Other important parts like its hide, meat and bones had been separated.
Those parts were quickly stored by Shu Kai and Lu Zheng burnt the guts away to clean their traces. The scent of blood drove many beasts in the Dark Forest crazy.
Moving on, Lu Zheng and the others created a bloody path into the Dark Forest with the aid of Shu Mingling's scouting technique. In order not to attract too much attention, Lu Zheng refrained from using his Sea of Consciousness.
Many beasts died at their hands with rank two beasts being the majority. Only a few rank three beasts had been encountered by the group and so far, there had been no rank four beasts.
With their strengths, it was an easy walk.