"The Sun Family is generous only on the surface. They’ve only left the areas with Beasts at the 5th Level 5th Tier and below for us. Anything higher has nothing to do with us."
The Town Mayors of the Three-Star Main Towns sighed one after another before quickly retreating. Only a few stubborn Town Mayors continued forward. The Secret Realm was so vast; it was impossible for members of the Sun Family to be hunting beside every single Beast, right?
At this moment, Ye Xuan shared the exact same thought. Since he was already here, turning back was out of the question. Bypassing the Sun Family, Ye Xuan continued his advance.
Soon, he reached the zone inhabited by 5th Level 7th Tier Beasts. There were significantly fewer Sun Family members here. Fighting a 7th Tier Beast without using his Beast Soul Power was pushing Ye Xuan to his absolute limits. If he didn’t have an Earth-grade weapon in his hands and hadn’t learned the high-tier Ghost-grade Jingyun Body Technique, he would never dare to clash head-on with a 5th Level 7th Tier Beast.
"Kill!" Taking advantage of the isolated area, Ye Xuan knew he had to finish the battle quickly.
In just a few breaths, he pierced the 5th Level 7th Tier Beast’s head. His luck was good; the very first 5th Level 7th Tier Beast he killed yielded a Beast Pill. Ye Xuan stored both the Beast Pill and the Beast’s corpse into his Storage Ring, immediately setting off to find his next prey.
Meanwhile, about 1,500 meters away from Ye Xuan, a lion stood guard in front of a cave.
This lion had relatively short legs and a single horn on its head. It was a 5th Level 7th Tier Beast—the Unicorn Frenzied Lion. Among 5th Level 7th Tier Beasts, the Unicorn Frenzied Lion was undeniably at the top of the food chain. Unless a 5th Level 8th Tier Beast appeared, it was essentially invincible.
Standing before the Unicorn Frenzied Lion were several young men. The oldest among them wasn’t even forty, and a black bear with a golden trim was embroidered on each of their chests.
One of the young men spoke up, "This is weird. The Unicorn Frenzied Lion is clearly terrified of the Celestial Secret Divine Crossbows in our hands. But why is it stubbornly guarding the cave entrance? Could there be something good inside?"
"Hurry, shoot it dead with the Celestial Secret Divine Crossbows!"
The young men frantically loaded their weapons. The crossbow arrows they held were crafted by the Celestial Secret Pavilion and boasted astonishing power. Unfortunately, the Celestial Secret Divine Crossbows in their hands were only first-generation models; at their strongest, they could only deal with Cultivators at the 8th Layer of the Demon Spirit Realm. If they had the second-generation Celestial Secret Divine Crossbows, it would be a completely different story—they could even kill experts in the Earth Spirit Realm! However, only people from Main Cities and Royal Cities were qualified to possess the second-generation models.
These young men were all Cultivators in the Demon Spirit Realm, with the strongest among them only at the 5th Layer of the Demon Spirit Realm. Normally, they wouldn’t stand a chance against a Unicorn Frenzied Lion and would merely be serving themselves up as a free meal. Yet, relying on the Celestial Secret Divine Crossbows, they had actually managed to severely injure the beast, leaving it completely drenched in blood.
The Unicorn Frenzied Lion desperately wanted to ignore its wounds and swallow this pack of despicable humans whole. However, the moment it showed any sign of approaching, the group would quickly retreat. Seemingly harboring some reservations, the Unicorn Frenzied Lion didn’t chase them too far and returned to the cave entrance.
Even a fool could guess from this behavior that there had to be something valuable inside the cave. Otherwise, why would the Unicorn Frenzied Lion be so reluctant to leave?
"ROAR!"
The Unicorn Frenzied Lion let out a furious bellow. After its roar, it swiftly fled the scene. Although Wild Beasts didn’t possess high intelligence, it still knew that if it didn’t leave, it would die right there.
"Cong, it ran away! Should we chase it?"
"You guys chase it. I’ll go see what good stuff is inside the cave," Cong replied.
"We should chase it?" The members of the Sun Family exchanged glances, but no one stepped forward to pursue the beast.
Although a 5th Level 7th Tier Beast was full of treasures, whatever was hidden inside this cave likely wouldn’t be any worse. If they went after it, wouldn’t they just be leaving the better treasures for Cong?
"What? None of you want to go? Then let’s all go inside and take a look," Cong spoke up again.
With that, he took the lead and entered the cave. The rest of the group closely followed, terrified that Sun Cong would snatch away all the fortuitous encounters.
The cave was very deep, and the further they went, the narrower the passage became. Whether due to an internal collapse or something else, a rather large fissure extended deep into the Big Mountain. The fissure was just wide enough for a person to walk through upright. The Sun Family members had no idea what awaited them inside, but since they were already there, they naturally had to check it out. One after another, they filed into the fissure.
Meanwhile, back where Ye Xuan was.
He was walking in the direction of the cave when, after taking only a few steps, he spotted a massive lion. The beast was lying on the ground, licking its wounds.
"A Unicorn Frenzied Lion... and it’s severely injured," Ye Xuan murmured, his eyes narrowing.
He figured this Beast had most likely been wounded by the Sun Family members and had fled all the way here. He glanced around but didn’t spot any trace of the Sun Family.
What was there to wait for, then? There was no way he would refuse a free meal delivered right to his doorstep.
Wielding his Earth-grade weapon, Ye Xuan transformed into a gust of wind, thrusting his blade straight at the Unicorn Frenzied Lion’s head. The beast sensed the danger and tried to flee, but it was already too late. The sword in Ye Xuan’s hand effortlessly pierced its head. After splitting it open, a Beast Pill rolled out.
"Such great luck! As they say, out of the depths of misfortune comes bliss. Could it be that my good luck has returned?"
Overjoyed, Ye Xuan hurriedly stored away the Beast Pill and the Wild Beast’s corpse. These were all valuable resources, especially the Unicorn Frenzied Lion’s hide. If he remembered correctly, its hide could be used by high-level tailors to stitch together high-tier garments. Such garments had the effect of reducing incoming Attack Power. Of course, not a single person in an ordinary city was even qualified to purchase such garments because high-level tailors were simply too rare.
The craftsmanship required to turn a Beast’s hide into beautiful clothing was not something just anyone possessed. Only a lineage of Master Tailors could possibly pull it off. Furthermore, the success rate was abysmally low. Out of ten or even a hundred attempts, perhaps only one garment would be successfully crafted.
When Ye Xuan was in the Profound Cloud Sect, the Holy Son’s Robe he wore was crafted precisely by a Master Tailor. Not only did it look magnificent, but it could also neutralize an opponent’s attacks. Even though it could only block two layers of Attack Power, it was still incredibly impressive.
After putting the corpse away, Ye Xuan looked at the ground in the distance. The earth was covered in blood. That meant the Unicorn Frenzied Lion had come from that direction. There were definitely members of the Sun Family up ahead.
Ye Xuan turned around, originally planning to head in a different direction, but suddenly, he stopped in his tracks.
Something wasn’t right. The Unicorn Frenzied Lion was so heavily injured, and with such obvious blood trails on the ground, it was impossible for the Sun Family members to fail to track it down. Unless they hadn’t pursued it at all. But why wouldn’t they?
As the saying goes, curiosity killed the cat. Ye Xuan decided to investigate that direction. Even if he did run into the Sun Family, he could just detour around them then. Advancing along the trail, Ye Xuan soon stopped in front of a cave. The bloodstains here were the thickest, indicating this was exactly where the Unicorn Frenzied Lion had fled from.
"Such a short distance..." Ye Xuan frowned.
From start to finish, this Beast had only run about three miles. Yet no one chased after it over such a short distance? Could it be...
Ye Xuan turned his head to glance at the cave. Then, without any hesitation, he swiftly rushed inside. Along the way, he noticed numerous bloody footprints. This indicated that quite a few Sun Family members had entered—likely as many as five or six people. But Ye Xuan did not choose to turn back. He was determined to see exactly what kind of good stuff the Sun Family had found that made them completely abandon a heavily injured 5th Level 7th Tier Beast.
Could it be...
That there were treasures?