Aspiring to the Immortal Path

Chapter 417: The Beast Garden

Flying south from Mount Buyao, over mountains and fields, Tang Jie spotted a village in the distance.

Looking down at the compass, he saw that the light was now basically at the center of the compass.

In other words, Lin Baicang was in that village.

Tang Jie didn’t immediately go inside. He instead flew in a circle around the village first.

While using himself as bait to lure Lin Baicang was a good idea, it had the disadvantage of possibly luring out disciples of the Beast Refining Gate as well.

While traveling around with Xu Miaoran and seeing the sights, he had already noticed several dozen pursuers. Alas, although his Insight could detect these hidden followers, he couldn’t tell who they worked for. Thus, he wasn’t actually sure if the Beast Refining Gate’s people had mixed in with these people.

After making a circle and confirming that no one was hiding in the area, Tang Jie entered the village.

The compass could only tell him that Lin Baicang was here, but it couldn’t tell him which one was Lin Baicang. Thus, Tang Jie could only use his eyes.

He walked through the village like he was just some traveler.

There were few people in the village. The young men had mostly gone to work the fields.

A young woman was making a gobbling sound as she spread out feed for the chickens. Several elders sat by a door while chatting about what was going on in their families. There was a youth listlessly sieving rice using a sieve made of bamboo. A peddler with a carrying pole across his back was haggling over price with a villager. And there was a beggar lying on the ground like a dead person.

Finally, there were several villagers with hoes standing in a corner of the village with nothing to do.

Stopping at the very center of the village, Tang Jie looked around and finally shouted, “My name is Tang Jie! On orders of the Basking Moon Sect, I’ve come to pick you up! Lin Baicang, you can come out now.”

He didn’t say it too loudly, but it was enough for every person in the village to hear it.

Shock and surprise appeared on the faces of the villagers. They had no clue what was going on.

Tang Jie waited for a few moments, but nothing happened. He sighed and went over to that beggar lying on the ground. “Stop wasting my time. Lin Baicang, I’m not your enemy.”

The beggar looked at Tang Jie in fear and curled up in a ball.

Tang Jie sighed again. With a wave of his hand, he moved the beggar to the side, and then he punched at the ground where the beggar had been lying.

With a thump and a spray of dust, a person emerged from the ground: a rather ugly and shifty-looking middle-aged man.

“Lin Baicang!” Tang Jie spat out this name.

It turned out that this person hadn’t been hiding among the villagers but hiding underground, intentionally hiding right under that beggar. In this way, the life energy of that beggar would conceal his own life energy, making him more difficult to discover. It was rather cunning.

After being forced out by Tang Jie, that monkey-like man looked at Tang Jie in shock. “How did you manage to find me?”

He had been relying on his unique methods to escape the pursuit of the Beast Refining Gate this entire time, so he had never expected Tang Jie to so easily see through it. Of course, he had also guided Tang Jie here, but he was still shocked beyond compare.

Tang Jie casually replied, “You didn’t guide me here just so we could play hide-and-seek, right?”

Lin Baicang came to his senses and quickly looked around. “This place isn’t safe. Follow me.”

He lunged out and drilled into the ground.

Tang Jie was startled. This guy wanted him to follow him into the ground?

As he was hesitating, Lin Baicang’s head popped out of the ground, and he waved his hand at Tang Jie. “What are you standing around for? Come down!”

Tang Jie looked around and saw that all the villagers were ignoring everything. He realized that Lin Baicang was employing some sort of smokescreen art so that they wouldn’t be given away. Thus, he followed Lin Baicang into the hole.

Once they were inside, Tang Jie discovered that there was a very wide and long tunnel leading off into the distance.

Lin Baicang urged, “Go, go, go!”

He led the way, and Tang Jie followed. Behind him, the earth began to close up, swiftly sealing the tunnel. As for the beggar from before, he fell asleep as if none of this had happened.

After following Lin Baicang for some time, taking numerous turns and traveling through numerous tunnels, Tang Jie was thoroughly disoriented.

Eventually, the tunnel suddenly opened up into an underground room.

This underground chamber had a circumference of several dozen meters and was circled by passages, ten-some of them leading off in various directions.

This Lin Baicang really was like a rat, creating an entire maze underground.

There was a supporting pillar in the center of the chamber. There was even a stone table with stone stools in the place, laid out with fruits, wine, and vegetables. Besides this, Tang Jie noticed that there were signs of a formation in this chamber. It appeared to be a very crude and weak formation, but it was hidden rather well. This was probably Lin Baicang’s work.

The moment Lin Baicang arrived, he jumped onto the stone stool which was positioned as the seat of honor, upon which he exhaled. “Whew! We’re safe now.”

He raised his wine cup and filled it.

Tang Jie saw that he was no longer very nervous, and closely examined the stone stool he was seated on. Smiling, he said, “So your real escape route was right under your butt… interesting.”

Lin Baicang’s face went stiff. “You… How did you find out?”

There truly was a secret tunnel beneath this stone stool, which was Lin Baicang’s real escape route. The other passages were all just feints. But Tang Jie had seen right through him with a single sentence, causing Lin Baicang’s confidence in this passage to plunge.

Fortunately, Tang Jie renewed his confidence. “I guessed. Your concealment spell is excellent, as are the escape methods you prepared. But you clearly don’t know how to hide your emotions very well. From the moment I met you, you had anxiety and panic written all over your face. It was only when you sat on that stool that you regained your composure.”

Tang Jie pointed at his temple and drew a circle. “By using my head a little, I easily concluded that you had some sort of hidden card.”

Lin Baicang exhaled and patted his chest. “I see. That’s good, that’s good. Here I thought that my mechanisms were too crude.”

Tang Jie broke out in laughter. He took a few steps forward and said, “There’s no need for you to be that worried. I came to bring you back to the Basking Moon Sect.”

“‘Bring me back’?” To his surprise, Lin Baicang looked at Tang Jie and started to laugh. “You think I can go back? Let alone me, you think you can still go back?”

Tang Jie frowned. “I know that the Beast Refining Gate is chasing you, but I think if it’s only a few Cognitive Creation Tier pursuers, I should be able to deal with them.”

“‘Cognitive Creation Tier’?” Lin Baicang acted like he had heard some funny joke, holding his belly as he laughed. “If it were just Cognitive Creation Tier, you really think I would be forced to hide underground like a rat, not daring to show my face?”

Tang Jie’s pupils constricted. “You’re saying that a Celestial Heart True Person is also after you?”

“What do you think? Are you afraid now?” Lin Baicang chuckled. “Tang Jie, I know what sort of person you are, and your name has spread rather far within Godhead Palace and the Beast Refining Gate. But while you might be formidable enough to deal with a Cognitive Creation cultivator, can you deal with a True Person? And if you can deal with a True Person, can you deal with three, including one at the Heart Demon Period?”

“Three Celestial Heart True Persons?” Even Tang Jie was rather alarmed. “What did you do that made the Beast Refining Gate mobilize three Celestial Heart True Persons against you?”

“Three is nothing! If they weren’t worried about alarming the Basking Moon Sect and Horizon Ocean Pavilion, they would have even sent out True Lords or the Seven War Beasts. And this is only what’s out in the open. I have no idea how many might be in the shadows!” Lin Baicang jumped around and shouted. He was very thin and feeble-looking, so as he jumped around on the stool, he seemed very much like a monkey.

Lin Baicang’s words gave Tang Jie a huge fright. “What did you say? What did you do, that they would mobilize True Lords? Did you kill one of their bigshots? Or steal some supreme treasure?”

Despite his questions, Tang Jie didn’t feel like Lin Baicang was the sort of person who could pull off something that big. This man was at the Nine Revolutions Period, and let alone him, even Tang Jie didn’t feel like he had the ability to stir up such a storm in the middle of their own territory.

Lin Baicang was on the verge of tears. “You managed to get it right. I stole one of their sacred items.”

This term caused Tang Jie’s heart to tense.

Anything that could be considered a sacred item in one of the six major sects could not be an ordinary item. It would at least have to be a Dao armament, and not some ordinary Dao armament either.

For example, a Dao armament like the Seven Inferno Heaven Treasures would not be considered a sacred item of the Seven Absolutions Sect.

That this mousy man would mention the words “sacred item” made Tang Jie’s heart shiver.

“Which sacred item?” he asked.

“The Beast Garden,” Lin Baicang muttered.

“‘The Beast Garden’?” Tang Jie jumped at this name.

As one might expect from a place called the Beast Garden, it was where the Beast Refining Gate raised fiend beasts.

As the sect that used “Beast” in its name, the Beast Refining Gate specialized in taming various fiend beasts for its own use. Thus, raising powerful combat beasts had always been its utmost priority.

The Beast Garden was a special Dao armament forged specifically for this goal. Its greatest use was boosting the strength of fiend beasts, in terms of both level and actual combat strength.

The Beast Refining Gate had a contribution reward that allowed one to send one’s fiend beast into the garden. The longer the period spent in the garden, the stronger the beast would become.

One could say that the Beast Garden was the Beast Refining Gate’s core treasure, that the Beast Refining Gate was the Beast Refining Gate precisely because of the Beast Garden. Even if others had the same beast-taming techniques, their fiend beasts of the same level would be weaker because they lacked the Beast Garden.

But this item could only improve the strength of fiends and sprites. It had no effect on humans, ghosts, and monsters.

Right now, Lin Baicang was telling him that he had stolen the Beast Garden? It was just too unbelievable.

Looking at Lin Baicang, Tang Jie gritted his teeth and said, “Are you trying to joke with me? You stole a Dao armament? Even if such a thing was placed right in front of you to take, you still might not be able to take it away, right? Moreover, if you stole the Beast Garden, where is the Beast Garden now?”

Tang Jie stuck out his hand.

Lin Baicang said with a tearful face, “How could I know where it is? It’s a long story. If you ask me how I stole it, I can only say that I’m still not sure…”

Lin Baicang began to tell his story to Tang Jie.

Lin Baicang was a spy the Basking Moon Sect had placed in the Beast Refining Gate. This person’s greatest skills were theft and concealment. It was just that he had a cowardly disposition and couldn’t accomplish anything great.

For this reason, his status in the Beast Refining Gate was at the lowest level: an outer disciple.

As he was in the Beast Refining Gate, Lin Baicang cultivated the Beast Refining Gate’s Myriad Beast Union Mantra. Of course, it was only the most basic version, which the Basking Moon Sect had obtained long ago, so there was no need for him to hand it over. This mantra meant that he raised a refined beast, a Maze Mouse. The Maze Mouse lacked combat power, but it excelled at digging holes in the earth, and it also had a sharp sense of smell, making it perfect as a sentry.

This lack of combat power and his mouse-like personality meant that Lin Baicang did not receive much attention in the Beast Refining Gate. But despite his cowardice, he had never given up on the idea of making a name for himself.

One day, the opportunity finally came.

It happened a little more than three months ago.

On that day, Lin Baicang had finally completed the first level of the Myriad Beast Union Mantra and entered the second level. In other words, he could get an additional fiend beast. Thus, he decided to enter the Windgrave Jungle to test his luck.

The Beast Garden was where fiend beasts were raised, and the Windgrave Jungle was where the Beast Refining Gate caught its fiend beasts. Their greatest difference was that the Beast Garden was a Dao armament and the Windgrave Jungle was a natural jungle.

The Beast Garden was located within the Windgrave Jungle.

That day, Lin Baicang had been searching for a fiend beast that suited him, and he ventured deep into the jungle. With the early warnings from his Maze Mouse, he managed to avoid most of the danger and successfully enter the jungle’s depths.

Just when he was getting tired, he saw a garden that covered hundreds of acres looming in the distance. Within it, countless birds, beasts, and insects ran about. The front gate was guarded by ten-some Beast Refining Gate disciples.

Lin Baicang immediately knew that this was the Beast Garden.

He was envious, thinking that it would be great if his Maze Mouse could get in.

In truth, while Maze Mice were weak, this didn’t mean they couldn’t become great fiends. It was said that Maze Mice innately had the bloodline of the Skyvore Mouse, which was a famous great fiend.

Perhaps if the Maze Mouse could enter the Beast Garden, it had a chance of growing into a Skyvore Mouse?

At that time, Lin Baicang couldn’t help but have this thought.

This was just a brief thought that Lin Baicang had had no plans of acting on.

As he was walking along the edge of the Beast Garden, an Ironback Eagle suddenly flew overhead, the gale created by its wings sending him tumbling over. Lin Baicang was scared out of his wits by the sudden appearance of this eagle. Thinking that someone had released this beast to hurt him, he looked around, but he saw no one.

In the middle of his shock, a fiend fox ran past him.

This time, Lin Baicang saw that the fiend beast had run out from the Beast Garden.

“You just said a fiend beast ran out of the Beast Garden?” Tang Jie asked.

“Right, right!” Lin Baicang nodded, wildly gesticulating. “I went in the direction the fiend fox came from and discovered that there was a hole in the Beast Garden!”

“‘A hole’? How could that be?” Tang Jie was stunned.

A hole in a Dao armament? What sort of joke was this?

“Ah, I found it strange too, but that was what really happened. The Beast Garden was created from a Dao armament, and it’s held to the ground by a formation, locking it down and creating its own dimension. But even the myriad domains experience spatial fissures, so why can’t formations? For some reason, a crack appeared in the Beast Garden.”

“And then?” Tang Jie asked.

“And then…” Lin Baicang’s voice suddenly dropped.

What happened after that was very simple.

When Lin Baicang saw that a crack had appeared in the Beast Garden, he knew that his chance had come.

As if possessed, he thought about using this crack into the Beast Garden to make his fiend mouse stronger.

And it wasn’t just his Maze Mouse. He went in himself, hoping to shatter the myth that the Beast Garden had no effect on humans.

Thus, after entering the Beast Garden, Lin Baicang randomly wandered around, hoping to find something or come across a lucky encounter.

He really did end up finding something.

It was a stone stele set up in the very center of the Beast Garden.

The word “Suppress” (镇) was carved into the stele.

When he saw this word, Lin Baicang felt like he could sense that there was some intimidating power beneath this stele.

He didn’t know what this power was, but greed made him forget his fear.

Thus, he walked over and started to pull up the stele.

The stone stele was very heavy, and Lin Baicang couldn’t move it no matter how hard he tried.

But at this moment, the stone stele radiated a golden light, and Lin Baicang felt the stone stele become much lighter.

Delighted, Lin Baicang put in all his strength and really managed to pull the stele out.

To startling effect.

The moment Lin Baicang pulled out the stone stele, the golden light erupted from the place it had occupied and instantly engulfed the entire Beast Garden.

The Beast Garden trembled, and then it began to rise into the air!

Lin Baicang was given a huge scare. He immediately knew that he had gotten in trouble and was anxious to leave.

But when he wanted to leave, he realized that he couldn’t. The Beast Garden had a formation inside, and for some reason, it had already activated. The entire Beast Garden was entering a dangerous state.

The disciples responsible for guarding the Beast Garden were also in a panic over its unusual behavior. They attempted to close the Beast Garden through a variety of methods, but they ultimately failed and could only watch it fly away.

“Then how did you escape?” Tang Jie asked.

Lin Baicang appeared a little embarrassed. “When the Beast Garden’s formation activated, I already thought I was dead. But to my surprise, all of the fiend beasts suddenly roared in unison. At that time, the Beast Refining Gate disciples had started to forcefully close the Beast Garden. However, the fiend beasts all seemed to gain intelligence and rushed at that hole in the Beast Garden all at once. They served to open the road for me, and so I ran out together with the beast flood.”

Tang Jie asked, “They didn’t eat you?”

Lin Baicang awkwardly laughed. “Those fiend beasts were mostly all refined beasts, so they were used to following humans, and I’m a Beast Refining Gate disciple, so they didn’t eat me.”

Tang Jie coldly said, “But you didn’t have a pass token.”

Lin Baicang froze, and after a while, he said, “Maybe I was just lucky. In any case, those fiend beasts didn’t eat me and even helped me escape the Beast Garden. Though, when I got out, there was a fiend beast that tried to eat me. Fortunately, a Beast Refining Gate disciple noticed something going on and rushed over. Thus, I didn’t die, but I ended up being exposed…”

“After that?”

“‘After that’? I ran, naturally. Fortunately, the Beast Garden flying into the sky had thrown countless people into panic, and they were all busy trying to stop it, and since I was skilled in traveling through the earth, I had an opportunity to escape. After fleeing the Windgrave Jungle, I learned that the Beast Refining Gate’s people were looking for me and had found out who I was. Once they found out I was from the Basking Moon Sect, they sent many people to seal all the roads to Sageheart. With no choice, I fled toward the sea, and they chased me.”

“Then how did you end up in Endsea?”

“Because the Beast Garden flew here,” Lin Baicang bluntly stated. It seemed that he still hadn’t given up on the Beast Garden. When one thought about it, it was a natural response. The Beast Refining Gate was already certain that he had stolen the Beast Garden, so how could he take the blame without actually performing the deed?

Tang Jie was shocked. “What did you say? The Beast Garden is in Endsea?”

He suddenly recalled Shen Qingdan’s words.

He realized that what that requester wanted Shen Qingdan to open wasn’t some Immortal mobile palace, but an Immortal mobile garden!

“Yes!” Lin Baicang nodded. “If I didn’t have this thing, I wouldn’t have known that the Beast Garden was in Endsea.”

He took out an item, a stone stele.

On it was written a single word:

“Suppress”!

The stone stele exuded an ancient energy. By looking at this stele, Tang Jie felt like he was looking into a bleak and distant past.

Tang Jie suddenly realized, “They were chasing you for this thing! This is the treasure used to suppress the Beast Garden. Without this thing, the Beast Garden will go out of control.”

He realized something else and shouted, “Did you suddenly lose track of the Beast Garden when you arrived at Celestial River Island? You were no longer able to identify where it was?”

“Eh? How did you know?” Lin Baicang was flabbergasted. “It’s true. I chased it all the way here, and then the stone stele stopped displaying the position of the Beast Garden, and I was forced to remain on this island. The Beast Refining Gate’s people came s