Chapter 24: Breeding Ground
Chapter 24: Breeding Ground
Hao Xuan and co. waited for a couple of mins outside the door until the gears started spinning one by one and unlocking the gigantic door slowly.
It took more than 30 seconds to unlock it completely and then it opened just a few meters, enough for them to pass through.
"Is it actually safe for us to go in?" First asked with a frown. Everything pointed to something very dangerous being in there.
"It's perfectly safe. All the beasts are locked up," the man said as he entered the doorway.
Hao Xuan and First looked at each other and then First took the lead and they also entered.
The other side was a huge cylindrical room which seemed to have no end. They came out on a platform connected to a side of the wall with a single stairway leading down.
Below them were hundreds of people in white coats going about their business.
On the other side were hundreds of rooms of different sizes with many beasts inside. Some were filled with water, some with molten lava, some with thick foliage and some with blood.
"Each cell contains a different beast. They have either been bred on requests of powerful clans or the top brass. Each has a different specialty and a purpose. Every cell has a different atmosphere and environment that is best suited for the beast inside. It's all maintained by a single formation located under the ground," the man explained as he led them down the stairs.
"We have some aerial beasts, some water beasts although in much smaller numbers, and many land beasts. You can choose any one of them and we will try to help with the contract as much as possible."
"Why are there fewer water beasts?" Hao Xuan asked. Was it hard to keep the water clean or something?
"Because they tend to be thousands of meters long. Even less powerful beasts can grow up to be a 100 meters, let alone spiritual and demonic beasts. Also, it is not easy to transport them," the man replied.
He led them to the cells where they got an up-close look at some of the creatures inside. Some were just a few inches long with big ears and cute eyes, and some looked like actual nightmares.
There was one cell that was filled with dark blue water. Nothing was visible inside it other than the bedrock. Hao Xuan looked around for a few seconds but couldn't see anything at all.
As he got closer, a large tentacle came lashing at him like a whip. It was longer than the entire flood dragon and startled him so much that he almost fell over trying to back up.
"That's a baby Kraken. Took two profound level experts to catch it," the man said with a laugh.
They got on a moving walkway and stayed on it for about an hour. It was actually pretty fast and they still hadn't reached the end of this massive "tunnel".
When they got off there was another much smaller but just as sturdy door there. They went through and came to another large room, about the size of twenty football fields.
It was much darker and there were only a dozen or so people in there that looked extremely strong.
"These are the mutants. The ones that cannot be mass-produced and were not intended. They are classified as top secret and are extremely dangerous. If you need something "cool", you'll find it here," the man replied as he looked at Hao Xuan with a smirk.
First frowned looking at the fifty or so cells not far from them. Each and every one of them was much stronger than the beasts outside and reeked of blood.
Hao Xuan walked up to the first cell and saw a huge white creature inside. It was about 15 meters long with four legs and two arms and nothing but a mouth on its face. There were grey scales on its sides and underbelly and two rows of them on the top that were separated by glowing red pustules.
"She is called Rynx. It has no sensory organs but can still perceive the surroundings with extreme clarity. Its one of the more strange ones as its usually docile but when given the chance will slowly cut open its prey and play with its insides before eating it," the man explained from afar. Seemed like even he didn't wanna get too close to this thing.
Hao Xuan walked up to the next cell and was stunned. It contained a small creature of only about one meter in length. It was jet black in color and with two arms and two legs. But the part that surprised Hao Xuan was that it had six snakeheads. It looked like a newborn and the snakeheads were extremely cute as well, playfully fighting with each other.
"This one is quite new. It was born a few weeks ago. We already have a buyer for this so unfortunately, you can't have it," the man said as he knocked on the barrier of the cell.
The snakeheads looked up and some even made funny faces at him. Seemed like this was a very high-level beast.
The next cell contained a large beast with a face of a lizard, body shape of a tiger and a tail of a scorpion. It looked at Hao Xuan straight in the eyes without blinking, giving him goosebumps.
They walked around for a while looking at all the beasts. Hao Xuan saw quite a few beasts that caught his eye.
There was one that looked like a horse but with eight legs. It had another huge mouth filled with deadly teeth on its chest.
Another had a body shape of a goat but the skin of a lizard. It was completely white and had three red eyes on its face and its mouth was like that of a bird.
But there was one that stood out amongst them all. It had four eyes with a head of a gorilla, the body of a tiger and the legs and tail of a lizard. It had no nostrils and extremely sharp big white teeth.
Just as Hao Xuan was about to choose it, Zhurong who was silently sitting on his shoulder meowed and shook his head.
Hao Xuan was a bit surprised. This was by far the 'coolest' beast he had ever seen but it would be a problem if Zhurong didn't like it.
Zhurong jumped off of his shoulder and walked up to the cell that contained the beast. He put his little paw up to the barrier and his eyes glowed blue for a second. Soon as the beast saw him it lunged at him full force with saliva dripping from his mouth.
Everyone was caught by surprise. The beast had been very well behaved until now, why did it suddenly attack Zhurong?
What they didn't know was that it had a very aggressive personality. It hated the humans for keeping it captive since its birth and would've killed Hao Xuan even at the expense of its own life.
Zhurong acted like it was to be expected and casually walked towards the end of the hall where there was another small door and started clawing at it.
Hao Xuan and the rest followed. The man frowned looking at him.
"What's behind the door?" First asked looking towards the man.
"Its where we discard the beasts. If the beast is too powerful or has no chance of making a contract with a human then we kill it," he replied.
"Can we see what beast is behind the door?" Hao Xuan asked as he walked up to Zhurong and picked him up.
"I don't see why not. If you can actually make a contract with it then go ahead," the man said shrugging his shoulder.
He took out a key and opened the door and they all went through.
The other side contained a huge formation that looked like strange markings on the ground. They were glowing red and getting brighter and brighter like it was charging up.
On the other side of the formation was a beast tied down by crystal-like chains coming out of the ground. It had extremely sharp bone-like protrusions coming out from the top and looked like a huge lizard and was actually breathing fire, trying to break free from the chains but they wouldn't even budge.
Everyone looked at Zhurong but he just watched on without making a sound.
The formation finally charged up a few seconds later and a small ball of red light was created. It slowly floated towards the beast as it struggled even more. As soon as it came into contact with the beast it expanded and covered its entire body.
A second later it shrank back into nothingness but to Hao Xuan's surprise, the beast was gone. There was absolutely nothing left. No ash, no sign of anything being there before.
They stood there in silence for 10 seconds or so and then the ground opened up and another beast slowly came up.
It wasn't that big, only about 13 meters long and 2 meters high. Completely black in color with blue fur on its neck and forelegs. It had a massive serrated tail that ended up in a half meter long scythe-like blade. Its face had two horns coming out from the sides instead of the top of the head.
It was very muscular and looked really intimidating. Its face was covered in the same bone-like material as the tail.
The weird thing was that it wasn't struggling. It just sat there with its head held high, looking down on everything.
"Meow," when Zhurong saw it, his eyes sparkled. He suddenly stood up in Hao Xuan's arms and meowed towards the beast.
The beast suddenly jerked its head looked towards Hao Xuan, specifically Zhurong. It then frowned and looked elsewhere again.
Zhurong meowed once more but got no response in return. The formation started to light up for the second time but the beast paid no attention to it.
He finally jumped down from Hao Xuan's embrace and went closer to the barrier separating them and meowed several times, finally getting the beast's attention.
****
Authors Notes:
For some of the mutants described above:
1. https://i.pinimg.com/564x/bd/64/f7/bd64f788aa79c4b36ef0e27cb445707e.jpg
Shortened URL: https://urlzs.com/qmVxp
2. https://i.pinimg.com/564x/d6/16/bf/d616bf22b451606e9611185fafbdef97.jpg
Shortened URL: https://urlzs.com/WnHJR
In the formation room:
1. https://i.pinimg.com/564x/02/3f/5d/023f5d8883d93684b6d709386a676c88.jpg
Shortened URL: https://urlzs.com/fGNhN
and the last beast:
2. https://i.pinimg.com/564x/49/31/49/493149e9779eed11c8ed967c7a1459c0.jpg
Shortened URL: https://urlzs.com/TQQ5f