chsdbacks Chapter 362 The Ferocious Beast That Disappeared for Several Years
Chapter 362 The Ferocious Beast That Disappeared for Several Years
After leaving the main hall and walking a hundred steps along the corridor, the moonlight was blocked by the mountain wall, and the surroundings became dark again.
Qin Mu stopped and stood with his hands behind his back.
The night wind blew in from the opening of the tunnel, causing his moon-white robes to flutter gently.
Zhao Qingxue walked beside him, her grip on the Frost Moon Sword looser than before.
She turned her head, her voice low. "What should we do next?"
Qin Mu gazed at the white buildings illuminated by candlelight, a cold glint in his eyes. "I'm very curious now, what will Han Zhong do? Will he collude with Xu Longxiang?"
Zhao Qingxue nodded thoughtfully, her fingers gently stroking the scabbard.
"So you plan to wait and see how things develop, and use this incident to test Han Zhong's loyalty."
Qin Mu's lips curled into a cold smile. "That's right. If Han Zhong really has problems, perhaps he can implicate even more people. Then, I can wipe them all out in one fell swoop."
Zhao Qingxue glanced at him but didn't say anything more.
Jiang Zhaoyue stood behind Qin Mu, listening to these words without any emotional fluctuation.
Her gaze fell on the kneeling white figures in the distance, on the devout, infatuated faces illuminated by candlelight.
In the past, she might have hesitated before informing the North of this news.
But now, she doesn't even have that thought anymore.
From the moment she knelt before Qin Mu and uttered, "Your Majesty, I am a spy sent from the Northern Border," she severed all ties with her past.
Yunluan stepped forward, removing her hand from the sword hilt. "Your Majesty, where do we go now?"
Qin Mu turned around, his gaze sweeping over the layers of white buildings surrounding the tunnel. "Let's go see where their granaries and armories are. With so many people gathered here, their food supplies must be plentiful."
Yunluan nodded without saying a word.
Qin Mu raised his right hand, his five fingers slightly spread, and gently beckoned to a white-clad masked man standing with his hands hanging down in the shadows of the corridor.
The man's body stiffened abruptly, then, as if gripped by an invisible hand, his feet left the ground, and he floated over silently.
His eyes were wide open, filled with extreme fear, and his mouth was agape, but no sound came out.
Qin Mu placed his palm on the top of the man's head and closed his eyes.
A few breaths later, he released his grip, and the man collapsed to the ground, motionless, his pupils dilated, having already fainted.
"Let's go." Qin Mu turned around and walked deeper into the cave.
The granary is located at the deepest part of the cave, requiring passage through layers of guards and several checkpoints.
Before each door stood a white-clad, masked man, holding a spear, his eyes like those of an eagle.
But as they passed in front of Qin Mu, their gazes slid over him like water sliding over a stone, and they saw nothing.
Qin Mu didn't even bother to conceal his presence; he simply made sure the guards couldn't see him.
With his current strength, he could easily make a group of second- and third-rank martial artists ignore a few figures without breaking a sweat.
After passing through the last stone gate, a bright and open space suddenly appeared before us.
This is a huge natural cave, more than ten times larger than the main hall outside.
The cave ceiling was very high, so high that the candlelight could not reach it; there was only a deep, unseen darkness.
Stone steps were carved into the four walls of the cave, and each step was piled with sacks and wooden boxes.
The sacks were stacked higher than a person, one after another, stretching from the cave wall all the way to the center of the cave.
The wooden crates were stacked neatly, with labels on the lids indicating the contents: "rice," "noodles," "beans," and "salt."
Zhao Qingxue stood at the cave entrance, gazing at the mountain of grain before her, her pupils slightly contracting.
Her lips parted slightly, as if she wanted to say something, but no sound came out.
Jiang Zhaoyue's fingers clenched the hem of her clothes, her knuckles turning white.
She had seen granaries in the Northern Territory. The granaries of the Zhenbei Prince's Mansion were already considered large, but compared to this one, they were less than a tenth the size.
Yunluan placed her hand on the hilt of her sword, her gaze sweeping over the mountains of grain sacks, her brows furrowing tightly.
Qin Mu stood at the front, his gaze sweeping over the grain sacks and wooden boxes, the cold light in his eyes deepening.
He didn't speak, but simply walked deeper into the cave.
Zhao Qingxue followed behind him, her gaze shifting from the grain sacks to the increasingly dense darkness ahead.
The candlelight couldn't reach that far; there was only a deep, bottomless darkness.
The darkness was like a giant beast with its mouth wide open, waiting for its prey to walk in.
Qin Mu suddenly stopped.
His brow furrowed slightly as his gaze fell upon the darkness at the deepest part of the cave.
Two pairs of eyes lit up in the darkness.
Green and eerie, like two pairs of lanterns hanging in mid-air, their light cold and devoid of warmth, like will-o'-the-wisps in a graveyard.
Zhao Qingxue gripped the Frost Moon Sword tightly, her knuckles turning white.
Jiang Zhaoyue's breathing suddenly quickened, and she subconsciously took half a step closer to Qin Mu.
Yunluan had already drawn the sword three inches from its tip, the blade gleaming with a cold, dark silver light in the candlelight.
A colossal creature emerged from the darkness.
It resembles a tiger, but is more than three times larger.
It was jet black, with glossy fur like silk soaked in ink, and every hair gleamed with a cold, eerie sheen.
Its limbs are as thick as pillars, and its claws are deeply embedded in the stone slabs of the ground, leaving deep claw marks with every step it takes.
Its tail is very long, dragging on the ground, with the tip slightly upturned, like a long black whip.
It has a large head, a protruding mouth that reveals two rows of gleaming white teeth, each as long as a finger, with dark red flesh remnants between them.
Its eyes were green with vertical pupils, like a snake or a cat, and were staring intently at Qin Mu. The vertical pupils were narrowed into a thin line, like two green knives.
Behind it followed another one.
That one was a little smaller than the one in front.
Its fur is not pure black, but gray and white, like a stone that has been washed by water for too long, or like the traces left by moonlight on ashes.
Its eyes were also green, but the green was paler than the one in front, like the grass sprouts that had just emerged in early spring, warm and moist, yet equally cold.
Its legs were short, and it walked with a limp. Its left hind leg seemed to have suffered an old injury, and it would pause slightly with each step, its body swaying gently, but it always stayed by the side of the big beast, never falling behind.
The beast stopped three zhang away from Qin Mu, lowered its head, and emitted a low, rolling growl from its throat.
The sound was loud, like muffled thunder, causing dust to fall from the cave ceiling.
Its body lowered slightly, and its front paws scratched the ground, leaving four deep grooves on the stone slab, sending pebbles flying.
It's like a fully drawn bow, ready to be released at any moment.
The little beast hid behind the big beast, peeking out half its head and looking timidly at Qin Mu with its pale green eyes.
Its body trembled slightly, not from cold, but from tension, from the instinctive fear of facing an existence far more powerful than itself.
It pressed itself even closer to the beast's side, almost completely hiding its body in the beast's shadow.
Zhao Qingxue stared at the large beast, at its green vertical pupils, at its jet-black fur, and at its thick, pillar-like limbs.
Her mind flashed back to the yellowed, worn-out ancient books she had once read, and to the names she thought were just legends, long extinct, existing only in words.
"The Mysterious Yin Nether Beast." Her voice trembled slightly, each word seeming to be forced out from her throat. "This beast was recorded as extinct for hundreds of years, I never expected to find it here."
She paused, her gaze sweeping back and forth between the two beasts, her brow furrowing even more deeply. "One is male, the other female; they're a married couple. The larger one is male, the smaller one is female. Legend says they'll stay together through thick and thin, never living alone."
Qin Mu did not turn around; his gaze remained fixed on the male beast.
There was no fear or even wariness in his eyes, only a faint, curious light, like someone seeing a completely new animal in a zoo, finding it novel and interesting.
The male beast's snoring grew louder and louder, like a pot boiling over, steam billowing out from the gaps in the lid, producing a low, rolling roar.
Its front paws pawed at the ground again, sending pebbles flying that hit the burlap sacks beside it with a muffled "plop" sound.
Its body crouched even lower, almost touching the ground, and its tail stopped wagging, hanging straight behind it like a black iron rod.
The mother animal emerged completely from behind it and stood very close to it.
It only reached the male's thighs, yet it also lowered its body, tightened its tail, and revealed its gleaming white teeth.
It also made a gurgling sound from its throat, much softer than the male's, but equally full of hostility.
Two beasts, one large and one small, one black and one gray, stood side by side.
The male beasts are like mountains, the female beasts are like stones.
They stood in front of Qin Mu like a living city wall that had emerged from the ancient wilderness.
Qin Mu looked at the two Xuan Yin Youhou beasts, which were crouching low and ready to pounce at any moment, and a slow smile crept onto his lips. "Interesting, they actually use this method to protect their food."
Zhao Qingxue stood beside him, gripping the Frost Moon Sword even tighter, her gaze fixed on the male beast. "I've read in ancient texts that the Xuan Yin You Ao, once fully grown, possesses strength no less than a first-grade Celestial Phenomenon Realm cultivator. These two are clearly adults; the male's fur is as black as ink, and the female's claws and teeth are fully developed. Together, they're even more troublesome."
She paused, her gaze shifting to the greyish-white mother beast. "The two together are not to be underestimated."
Yunluan's hand rested on the hilt of the sword, her knuckles turning white.
She stepped forward and lowered her voice, saying, "Your Majesty, let me deal with the smaller one."
Qin Mu shook his head, his gaze remaining fixed on the two beasts. "No need."
He took a step and walked forward.
The moon-white robe fluttered gently in the candlelight, and the pace was unhurried, as if strolling in one's own backyard.
The male beast's snoring suddenly rose in pitch, like a muffled thunderclap exploding in the cave.
Its front paws shoved the ground hard, sending pebbles flying that hit a nearby sack with a muffled "thud".
Its body crouched even lower, almost touching the ground, its tail taut behind it like a black iron rod.
The female beast nestled close to the male beast's side, lowering her body and taut her tail.
Qin Mu stopped a foot away from the male beast.
The male beast pounced suddenly.