Chapter 259
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Chapter 259: The Hundred-Zhang Spirit Beast
Just as Ye Yun had guessed, they encountered no spirit beasts or criminals before nightfall, let alone members of other teams.
As darkness fell, the sun vanished completely below the horizon, its last glow swallowed by the encroaching blackness. A few dim stars flickered overhead, offering meager light.
The night sky over the Soul-Cutting Mountains held no moon—or at least none visible to Ye Yun and the others. The sparse stars seemed fixed in place, unmoving.
Ye Yun knew this was because the Soul-Cutting Mountains weren’t part of the natural world. They were a fabricated space carved out by a Great Technique, every element an illusion formed by spatial magical arrays. With their current cultivation levels, none of them could grasp the core mechanisms of these arrays.
Even Su Hao, a late-stage Foundation Establishment expert, couldn’t unravel the mountains’ mysteries. The creator of such a place must have reached the Golden Core stage—or higher. Ye Yun suspected even Golden Core great cultivators might lack the power to craft this realm. Perhaps a Nascent Soul stage expert from ages past had forged these mountains.
"Ye Yun, your turn to cultivate." Su Yinxue’s soft voice stirred the silence exactly two hours later, her eyes opening beneath her veil.
Ye Yun nodded and sat cross-legged, closing his eyes to circulate his true qi.
Though two hours passed swiftly for cultivators, Ye Yun hadn’t idled. He’d scrutinized every patch of earth and tracked the darkening sky, alert for anomalies.
He believed the greatest threat lay not in spirit beasts or criminals, but the mountains themselves. Yet this puzzled him—how could exiled criminals survive here if the terrain was so lethal? And if they did, how fearsome must their true strength be?
The mental strain left him weary despite his strong soul. When Su Yinxue relieved him, exhaustion washed over him.
He glanced at her silhouette—a graceful figure standing in the wind, white robes fluttering like a celestial being. Smiling faintly, he closed his eyes again, diving deep into meditation to rejuvenate his spirit.
An urgent shout shattered his focus hours later: "Wake up! Look at the mountaintop!" Yu Minghong’s voice trembled as he pointed into the distance.
Ye Yun darted to Yu Minghong’s side. Twenty li away, atop a mountain, loomed a colossal creature—a hundred zhang tall, with limbs and a massive head.
"A spirit beast?" Ye Yun muttered, stunned.
Su Yinxue and the others rushed over, equally awed.
"Impossible!" Su Yinxue breathed. "Ancient records never mention spirit beasts over forty zhang tall. That thing is twice as large!"
"It’s… absorbing something." Yu Minghong pointed at the beast’s gaping mouth, aimed skyward.
"Swallowing starlight?" Su Ling wondered.
"Can spirit beasts devour spiritual energy and star power?" Ye Yun asked.
"Never heard of such a thing," Su Yinxue said. "Even Foundation Establishment cultivators barely harness star power through arrays. A beast doing this naturally? Unthinkable."
"Let’s not provoke it," Duan Chenfeng said, uncharacteristically solemn. "Observe first."
Ye Yun agreed. Though only at the second stage of Qi refining, his soul sensed the beast’s overwhelming power. United, the five stood no chance against it.
They hid behind rocks, peering at the distant peak. The hundred-zhang beast shifted positions every half-hour, its maw swallowing faint blue wisps that coalesced from the air. Eight such wisps vanished into it, its body growing translucent—a blurred outline shielded by spatial distortions.
Dawn crept in, pale light replacing darkness. Yet when morning fully broke, the beast had vanished without a trace.
"Gone?" The group exchanged bewildered glances.
"Real or illusion?" Ye Yun muttered.
"Who cares?" Duan Chenfeng shrugged.
"If real, we’re outmatched," Yu Minghong said grimly.
"Space warped around it," Su Ling noted. "Spatial laws at play."
"It was real," Su Yinxue said quietly. "I felt its pressure from here."
Ye Yun nodded. As the sole Foundation Establishment cultivator, her judgment was sound. The Soul-Cutting Mountains’ first revelation—a hundred-zhang enigma—left them chilled.
