959 The Demonic Forest
Before the sun had even risen, the group of 6 flew across the morning sky towards the north.
Alex looked at the 4 humans he flew with, and the slug that was also with them. “I thought senior was the sect’s sacred beast. Shouldn’t he be in the sect in case it needs protection?” he asked.
He sat on the flying ship of the Blue Spring sect, along with the others who were all either late into the Saint Core realm or were in the Saint Soul realm.
The slug looked at him, but it did not speak at all.
“My friend here isn’t actually very strong in combat,” the sect master said. “That is not the reason why he is the sect’s Sacred Beast.”
“Oh? What is it then?” Alex asked curiously.
“Seagem is a Blue Spring slug, the beast our sect is named after. He is a rare kind of beast that is naturally capable of following Qi and aura. He can see where it is concentrated, and where it is not.”
“He can also eat on those aura and get rid of them,” the sect master said. “After becoming a Saint ranked beast, he had gained the ability to hide himself and his surrounding from the Spiritual senses of others.”
“Given how useful it is to go into the forest and take away from orphaned beasts or just some eggs, he is one of the main reasons why our sect even keeps prospering,” the sect master said.
“Oh… that does sound quite important,” Alex said. ‘Can see and eat aura to not leave any of it behind? That is quite amazing,’ he thought.
His concealment technique hid all aura he would otherwise leave, but that still left the aura that had already appeared before he used the techniques. So, if someone were good enough, they could use that aura to try and later find you.
It seemed the slug was one of those beasts that were capable of doing that.
“Do not use your spiritual sense. No matter what,” the sect leader said.
Suddenly, Alex felt the aura around him disappear. It was disappearing more rapidly than it was appearing.
The slug, also called Seagem by the sect leader, was actively eating their aura to hide them all. It was also hiding them from any spiritual sense that might be lurking around in the morning.
Alex looked away from his ship and toward the north. Even without spiritual sense, he could see it clearly.
The Demonic Forest.
Alex already had knowledge of what it looked like, but still seeing the thing for real gave him quite a bit of amazement in his heart.
He saw the trees topped with white completely covering everything in the north. The trees started in the plains but quickly went onto a mountain range.
The mountain range was massive, so massive that it surrounded the entire Demonic Forest. Hundreds of kilometers wide, the mountain ranges surrounded and were part of the Demonic forest.
Some of those in the middle were active volcanoes, leading to the area around them remaining mostly snow free.
“The forest you see ahead on the plain is what we consider to be the outskirts of the forest,” the sect master said to him.
“The first layer of mountains that surround the demonic forest is what we consider to be the outer range of forest. Everything beyond that is the Inner range.”
Alex nodded as he heard it and asked, “You have not yet made a distinction between Inner and Core range? I’m sure there is a difference there, right?”
The sect master sighed. “I don’t doubt there is,” he said. “But we are not nearly strong enough, so we’ve never visited there. Since we’ve never visited there, we’ve never had to make the distinction,” he said.
The ship passed over the dense forest, flying silently in the pre-dawn sky. Alex neither felt any spiritual sense passing through them nor did he feel any aura in the air.
He looked towards Seagem who was actively consuming everything to keep them hidden. As he watched, the beast’s two antenna tentacles on its head suddenly vibrated.
“Oh, it looks like Seagem found something,” the sect master said. He waited for a bit to get more information, and once he received it, the sect master diverted the ship at a slight angle to go towards a certain destination.
After they had passed the first layer of mountains and were in the inner range of the forest, the ship slowly descended, but it didn’t make a landing.
“Let’s move,” the sect master said.
The other 3 elders nodded, and all 4 of them dropped off at once. The Slug flew as well, and Alex was the last one to follow.
The ship disappeared from the sky and the sect master turned to Alex. “Don’t move too far away from Seagem. He wouldn’t be able to keep you safe,” he said.
Alex nodded and moved over right next to the Sacred beast. The slug let him be and focused on its own task of finding weak beasts that were all alone. On top of already having to focus on clearing their aura, and hiding them from a spiritual sense, it could be seen how much the beast was doing.
Alex heard the sounds of fighting in the distance and turned around to look, but he couldn’t see anything.
“The beasts are fighting,” the sect master told him. “It’s normal in here. They always fight here, usually to the death.”
“Oh,” Alex said. “So strength is truly power here.”
“Yes,” the sect master said. “The people say that the cultivation world is the same, that it is where Strength reigns above all and has the law of the jungle. But that is not true,” the sect master said.
“The only people that do say that are the ones that have never witnessed the true law of the jungle. There is no way in hell that a civilized world like the cultivation world could ever be considered to have a law of the jungle.”
“But power still reigns supreme, right?” Alex asked. “You can do anything if you’re strong enough.”
“That…” the sect master’s face twisted a little, and even one other elder that was with them got a little angry. They didn’t show it on the outside, but Alex still saw it.
‘Did I say something wrong?’ he wondered.
The group remained silent for a while, and then they arrived next to a tree with a massive nest on it. There were 7 eggs in the nest, all of them with a red shells and green tendrils moving across the egg.
“No one’s here, let’s make it quick,” the sect master said and the other 3 nodded. They all grabbed one of the 7 eggs, leaving behind 3 eggs only in the nest.
“That’s a little sad,” Alex said, looking at the nest. “The mother will come back to find only 3 beasts.”
“Don’t be,” one of the elders said. “This is an egg of a Firevine Cuckoo. They are known to have the firstborns kick off the other eggs to guarantee that their mother takes care of them. Had we left the eggs, they would’ve all been destroyed anyway.”
“Oh,” Alex said. “Then why not take the rest of the eggs too?”
“The newborn child needs it. When it hatches, its first instinct is to throw its siblings off of the nest. If it doesn’t find anything to throw, it will thrash around until it itself falls off the nest and dies,” the sect master answered. “We don’t want that.”
“Ah, I see,” Alex said.
The group moved away from the nest and onto another part of the forest where a cub was left alone.
Alex looked at the cub that reminded him of Pearl when he was young. This cub was a lion cub however and had brown fur on its body.
The sect master grabbed it and immediately tossed it inside the storage bag.
Alex blinked once and looked at what had just happened with a bit of confusion. “Wait… is that a beast pouch?” he asked.
“Hmm? Oh, yes. Is this your first time seeing this?” the sect master asked.
“I’m afraid so,” Alex said. “I’ve only ever heard about it before.
A beast pouch was a storage bag made the same way a normal storage bag was made. However, instead of stuffing in space, it had a chunk of land and air in it, making it inhabitable.
It was but a temporary arrangement as with the little bit of land and air, it could never fully house a beast, not like a natural beast space formed via a bond could.
“Yes, It’s called a Beast pouch, and is quite handy in these situations,” the sect master said. “Come on, we have more places to visit.”
The sun had now risen and the beasts were starting to wake up either from their sleep or from their overnight cultivation.
The 6 of them were still cloaked thanks to the slug’s ability, but that would be less useful very soon.
So, the sect master went over to the riskier spots while they could and gathered all the beasts that were there.
Once the sun was completely in the sky and some of the beasts were even starting to challenge them thanks to their lack of aura, the sect master finally decided to drop the facade.
“Alright, split off and go look for whatever you can. Once you are done, return back to the sect. I will have to stay here and help this young man for a bit,” the sect master said.
The 3 other elders nodded and split off to find the beasts on their own.