That was not good news to Li Qingshan at all. It meant the addition of many more unpredictable variables.

  If it were only Si Long, as long as his life lamp was not extinguished, then no one would be perplexed even if he never showed himself for quite a few years. That was simply the lifestyle of cultivators. However, if it involved the first senior brother of the Myriad sect who was reincarnating and recultivating from scratch, that would be difficult to say.

  Who knew how many friends and enemies he had in the Myriad sect. Who knew how many people were keeping a close eye on the Dragon’s Pool dwelling. Perhaps even the two sect masters of the Myriad sect paid special attention to this.

  Xiao An and the others have remained in the Dragon’s Pool dwelling the entire time. It’s beneficial to their cultivation, but it’s far too dangerous. I need to find them a different place as soon as possible, even if it’s a little worse. Li Qingshan made up his mind. However, Navy Li’l Fatty still needed a little more time to devour the world. If he removed the Heaven Climbing Vine now, who knew how many people would die as a result.

  Nothing has gone wrong in such a long time, so surely there won’t be such a great coincidence!

  Li Qingshan suppressed his hint of uneasiness and continued with his original plan, visiting the Spiritual Beast garden to collect a mount. However, there had once been a master of the school of Mohism that said, “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.”
Nine thousand kilometres north of Myriad city.

  The fierce winds howled as the waves surged furiously, slamming against the black cliff again and again.

  The blizzard danced wildly, whistling past the cliff.

  A black stone tablet stood on the cliff, overlooking the surging seas. It was engraved with two lively words, Xuanming Dwelling!

  If Li Qingshan were here, he definitely would have noticed at first glance that it was the handiwork of the same person who wrote the words Dragon’s Pool dwelling.

  Behind the stone tablet was a mountain. The mountain towered into the sky, directly plunging into the clouds like it was connected with the heavens.

  The mountain was without a peak, only a deep abyss. It was several dozen kilometres across like a lone, black eye embedded in the sea of clouds, peering at the sky.

  The abyss seemed bottomless. It was so dark that even light could not illuminate it.

  A fortunate snowflake was swept up by the fierce winds, sent into the cloud layer. Unfortunately, it then fell into the abyss.

  It was translucent and hexagonal in shape, like a fairy that had left the group, hesitating and pacing around, drifting about gently.

  After drifting for who knew how long, it finally landed at the bottom of the abyss, producing a faint ripple on the silent, black and transparent surface of the lake. It melded away with its translucency and hexagonal shape.

  The ripple had dissipated rapidly, but the surface of the lake gradually began to shake.

  “It’s about time. Lin Xuan, have you failed?”
A deep, heavy voice murmured. A pair of dragon eyes suddenly opened in the black lake water.

  The pitch-black body coiled beneath the water began to move. The black scales rippled like water as the claws unfolded, gripping the jagged rocks and propping up its huge body. It raised its head and let out a roar at the sky.

  Boom!

  It was like a volcano that had lain dormant for several thousand years abruptly awakening again. However, what surged forth was not magma and flames, but thousands of tonnes of water. A furious dragon burst out from the surging flames, and only then did the mighty dragon cry become audible, scattering all the clouds within five hundred kilometres.

  The rolling waves that surged out turned back into water vapour, surrounding a golden-eyed black dragon as it soared off. It had headed off in the direction of the Dragon’s Pool dwelling.

  Through the transparent crystal wall, Li Qingshan stared at a strange roe with a pair of wings. It “flew” around in the water, producing a series of splashes. It seemed to possess some wondrous power. The sign on the side introduced what it was.

  Luo fish roe—Adult luo fish possess the body of a fish, the wings of a bird, and the voice of mandarin ducks. They can fly and swim, regularly causing floods. They are rumoured to be connected to the kunpeng in bloodline, but this has never been proven. Price: seven Yellow Bronze bookmarks, buy two get one free.

  “I could give this to Yanying and see what she can do with it,” Li Qingshan said with interest before he continued onwards.

  He arrived before a metal cage. A great brown bear was locked up inside with its eyes closed as if it was sleeping. It even embraced a log in its arms.

  However, the sign beside it indicated that it was a pi bear cub. It was perhaps better described as it could not even open its eyes yet instead of sleeping. It was much more expensive than those luo fish roe.

  The little pi bear rolled over in its sleep, and the log in its arms was crushed to pieces.

  “Hmm? Even a cub is this violent. I wonder how vicious it’ll become when it grows older. No wonder they use a cage with such thick bars!”
Li Qingshan continued onwards.

  Metal-eating beast—Also known as black and white bears, they eat metal and prefer bamboo. They are intelligent. Notice: Non-cubs can be tamed as well.

  “Oh, this one’s good, this one’s good!”
Li Qingshan was like a child who had visited the zoo for the first time. He was so excited that he was basically about to jump around and clap his hands.

  The Spiritual Beast garden was far too fascinating. It bore some resemblance to the Hundred Herbs garden as they were both blessed lands of cultivation. It was like a natural reserve, supporting various kinds of exotic beasts, free for people to choose. Whether they flew in the sky, ran along the ground, or swam in water, they were all available. There were even some beasts capable of all three.

  He had only heard about many of them from legends. He had not even heard about the others.

  “Senior brother, have you chosen? This metal-eating beast has been captured from the Daemonic Beast realm by senior brother Ma of our Spiritual Beast garden after quite some difficulty. It’s very easy to raise. Just feeding it metal and bamboo is enough. If you want to raise a pi bear instead, you’ll need to buy several thousand kilograms of meat a month at the very least. That’s not a small sum. Metal-eating beasts are bears as well. When they get angry, they’re no different from pi bears! It’s said that they even have some humanity about them and can even control their souls. Look at its eyes…”
The female attendant responsible for receiving him introduced extremely enthusiastically. She had been following Li Qingshan the entire time. He had almost strolled through the entire Spiritual Beast garden, yet she showed no irritation at all.

  Li Qingshan followed her finger and gazed at the two black eye circles and the metal-eating beast looked over at him too. Perhaps due to the bloodline of the qilin, it seemed very close and attached to him, which filled him with the strange, intense urge to buy one and raise one. However, he was choosing a mount here, not a pet, so it was best if he saved the bookmarks.

  As a result, he shook his head. “Nevermind. I think you should just convert it into bookmarks instead! I prefer walking with my own two feet.”
The female attendant said, “Senior brother, you can’t say that. So-called ‘mounts’ are only a saying. Which cultivator isn’t capable of flight? Why must we ride an animal? Not only are mounts closely connected with cultivators, companions that go through thick and thin together, there’s one particular benefit that I must mention. They can greatly lengthen the lifespans of cultivators.”
“How come?”
“Humans are the paragon of creatures. Unfortunately, their lifespans are too short. They don’t possess the same lifespan as daemons, which can easily live for more than ten thousand years. As a result, they make up for this shortcoming by raising a daemonic beast and establishing a contract to lengthen their lifespans. Do you know senior brother Le Tian from the Fate Perturbing casino?”
Li Qingshan said, “Yeah, except I heard he gambled against Ox-headed A’pang on his way to the afterlife.”
The female attendant smiled mysteriously. “That’s only a rumour. Ox-headed A’pang isn’t that easy to fool. Have you seen his three-legged golden toad?”
Li Qingshan nodded.

  “Three-legged golden toads are most skilled in techniques for prolonging life. Senior brother Le Tian probably only bought some time with Ox-headed A’pang. In the end, he still relied on the three-legged golden toad to pull him back.”
Li Qingshan possessed various bloodlines of divine and demonic beasts, so his lifespan was very long. He had never considered this issue before. On top of that, lifespan did not possess much meaning to him. If he could not make it to beyond the Nine Heavens before the deadline, then brother ox’s enemies probably would not spare him either as a remnant.

  However, he could still sense how important lifespans were to human cultivators. Regular Soul Nascence cultivators only had a lifespan of a thousand years, which came nowhere close to Daemon Kings of the same cultivation.

  Glancing at the blank-faced metal-eating beast, he sighed. “Sigh, these daemonic beasts sure are pitiful, being used by people like this.”
The female attendant widened her eyes. “Senior brother, you can’t say that! Everyone in the Spiritual Beast garden has lots of love. No matter how intelligent the daemonic beasts are, they’re still daemonic beasts at the end of the day. They cannot be compared to humans. If they were to remain in the Daemonic Beast realm, only a hundredth of ten thousand luo fish roe can hatch, and only a single one will be able to produce more roe. On top of that, after much selection, escaping from predators, that adult luo fish has an almost negligible chance at becoming a daemon, so what’s the point of possessing such a long lifespan?”
“Humans are paragons of creatures. Not only do we provide them with a better environment, taking care of their diet and daily life, but we can even awaken their intelligence and teach them how to cultivate, letting them set off on the path of cultivation as well. Only through cultivation do they develop such a lifespan. We basically treat them even better than our fathers! They only have to carry us around a little and share a bit of their lifespan with us. Isn’t that fair?”
Spurt!

  Li Qingshan could not help but burst out laughing. This female attendant sure was interesting. On top of that, when he thought of how mighty the Spirit Reverend of Ocean Returnance and the nine-coloured deer were, he probably had no right to pity these daemonic beasts as someone who was beneath both a deer and a turtle.

  Even as people, they could not avoid being “ridden” if they lived in this world, and they would be ridden for nothing. They would be willing to risk their lives for you over some cheap change. Compared to that, they were better off being mounts and living happily.

  It made him think of how that bastard Si Long wanted him to serve as his mount back then. That had truly left him fuming, but in hindsight, it was not completely an insult. Instead, it was kind of like increasing his status. However, he had no interest in standing above all others, only second in command to someone else. However, if it was Ruan Yaozhu instead… cough cough!

  “Oh, sorry. I understand now. However, please still convert it into bookmarks. I already have a mount.”
The female attendant was flattered. She never expected him to apologise to her, which made her blush. She asked shyly, “Senior brother, what’s your mount? Our Spiritual Beast garden can also provide you with various carefully-prepared feed. It’s not particularly expensive. There are set meals here. Feeding your mount is quite an area of intrigue. If there’s anything you don’t understand, I can help you take a look.”
The primary business of the Spirit Beast garden was not selling spiritual beasts, but to provide various kinds of service. They were not afraid that Li Qingshan would not buy a mount. They were only afraid he would not have one.

  “Oh, it’s a phoenix.”
Li Qingshan brought up Li Fengyuan again to brush aside the question. It made him wonder when he should bring him up to the Human realm to show off a little. He did not allow others to ascend because he did not trust them. As the weakest of the fourth heavenly kings, the Meat-stewing Heavenly King, he was obviously not among them.

  Li Fengyuan was close to the fourth heavenly tribulation too, so he would definitely serve as a great assistance. Making him pretend to be his mount was a good idea too. He would not bother to ride him. Even if he rode him every now and then, it was perfectly justifiable for a son to carry his father on his back.

  “P- phoenix!?” The female cultivator was stunned. If three-legged golden toads were only skilled in prolonging life, then phoenix could undergo Nirvāṇa Rebirth. They possessed eternal life and were undying. The help they could provide to cultivators was far too great, not to mention the other benefits. However, phoenixs were reserved and proud in nature, so how could one serve as his mount? “Senior brother, you’re not joking, are you?”
Li Qingshan said, “I’m not! Is there anything here for feeding phoenixes? Actually, forget about that. He likes to drink alcohol and eat meat.”
“Drink alcohol and eat meat!” The female cultivator had already become certain that Li Qingshan was boasting, but she could not expose him either, so she smiled. “Please do bring him to our Spiritual Beast garden for a show in the future. I’ve seen senior brother Lin Xuan’s golden-eyed black dragon once before, but I haven’t seen a phoenix before!”
Sigh, this senior brother is so polite and friendly. It’s just a pity that he likes to boast.

  “No problem, no problem.”
Li Qingshan’s heart skipped a beat. The sense of uneasiness he had suppressed suddenly cleared up.

  Golden-eyed black dragon!