Within an enormous mansion located in the northeastern part of Gaoyi City.
The s.p.a.cious hall was partly filled with the golden glow of the evening sunset, which sharply contrasted with the areas that the rays couldn’t reach.
However, there were no servants within the vast hall. Only two figures could be seen sitting on the head seats. They seemed to be discussing something.
The person on the left was wearing a set of beautiful clothes. He had thick eyebrows and big eyes as well as a rough face. However, he exuded a faint imposing aura. This person was the head of the house of Zhao, Zhao Xing; The person on the right was wearing a black gown. He had thin lips and a sharp nose. He had black hair, but streaks of gray could be seen in it. He looked around the age of fifty. In his arms, a black cat-like beast with three tails could be seen as he stroked it rather pa.s.sively. This person was called Li Chen, and he was a middle-grade Soul Ancestor from the Beast Taming School who came to subjugate the house of Zhao.
“Attendant Li, it has almost been a day since your men have left. They still haven’t returned yet, could it be that their pursuit has failed? That Quickshade Bird…” Zhao Xing slightly furrowed his brows as he glanced outside before he carefully asked a question.
Li Chen’s expression remained unchanged. However, he leaned his head slightly as he shot a glance at Zhao Xing. He then indifferently said, “What? Does the Head of the house of Zhao think that my Beast Taming School is unable to retrieve that Quickshade Bird?”
“No no, that isn’t what I meant. It’s just that….the Quickshade Bird is considerably strong, and combined with the two soul cultivators, then if it were to try its best to run away….”
“Worry not, While Wu Sen may only be a late-stage Soul Sprite, he is the tamer of the Thunderbird, an early-stage fifth-cla.s.s soulbeast. Dealing with the still recovering Quickshade Bird will be of no problem at all. Of the two soul cultivators, Wu Sen can deal with the middle-stage Soul Sprite. The master of the Quickshade Bird is merely a Soul Warrior, so either Fang Hao or Tai Ping would be able to bring her to submission as they will without a problem. They should be returning soon in fact.” Li Chen spoke calmly as he caressed the three-tailed spirit cat.
Zhao Xing hesitated for a while before he said, “But… that Quickshade Bird has already signed a soul contract with someone else. This…”
Li Chen furrowed his eyebrows as he spoke, “Let me rea.s.sure you, I will of course have a way to fulfill my promise to you. That soul cultivator is weak, and the soul contract she made with the Quickshade Bird was only just made not too long ago. When the time comes in the future, I’ll teach you a secret of the Beast Taming School that’ll allow you to force the soul seal into a slave seal. With the slave seal, you will be able to control the Quickshade Bird as you please. The intelligence of the bird will drop by several degrees, but you’ll be able to control the bird to your orders as you please.”
Zhao Xing’s eyes brightened, and he was almost unable to conceal his excitement;Although he would only obtain a basic secret technique of the Beast Taming School, this indicated that he was already considered as a half-disciple of the Beast Taming School. This was something that was completely beneficial for the future development of the house of Zhao.
“Yes, yes! Many thanks to attendant Li for supporting me! In the future, my house of Zhao will follow the Beast Taming School heart and soul. I will wholeheartedly serve my school!”
When Zhao Xing saw that Li Chen had shut his eyes to rest, he didn’t dare to continue with his flattery. He turned around to look outside the house with an excited light flickering in his eyes. He thought to himself, “With the support of the Beast Taming School, the City Lord and the house of Liu won’t be able to do anything. I’ll have the Quickshade Bird in my hands; when Zhao Chuan delivers that brat from the house of Ye to me, I’ll no longer have to rely on the help of the Beast Taming School to force the house of Ye to a compromise! At that time, my house of Zhao will be able to suppress the house of Liu to finally become the number one family of Gaoyi City!”
Within rather vast open plains, the resonant sound of a bird cry shattered the evening tranquility, echoing into the distance.
“Jiu!”
Xiao Bai let out a long cry. At this moment, it was no longer that small sparrow-like white bird. Instead, it had returned to its combat mode, and was even bigger than the time when Bai Yunfei had rescued it. When its pair of three-meter-long wings spread out, a green energy gathered around its surroundings. Following the movements of its wings, wind blades flew out in all directions.
Another loud bird cry echoed from the direction Xiao Bai was facing. A purple shadow flashed across the sky. It instantly pa.s.sed through the wind blades as it shot toward Xiao Bai’s right side like a bolt of lightning. The purple shadow stopped, revealing its body. It was a large sparrow, albeit smaller than Xiao Bai, with purple energy surrounding it. Its body was also covered with faint-purple feathers, and it could be seen that it originally had purple-colored eyes. However, they were currently filled with a b.l.o.o.d.y-red color, and contained no trace of spirit within them.
The Thunderbird easily dodged the many wind blades that were coming at it. However, the two birds that were planning to secretly attack the Quickshade Bird from its left weren’t so lucky. They were forced into a rather sorry state as they tried to dodge the wind blades. The gray bird was able to rely on its nimbleness to forcefully dodge the wind blades, but the golden eagle wasn’t able to dodge in time, causing its right wing and chest to be struck by wind blades. It was pushed back several tens of meters before finally stopping. Although it didn’t seem to be injured, its movements were clearly slower than before.
These two birds were the birds that had previously attacked the Quickshade Bird, the Goldfeathered Eagle and the Galebird.
The presence of these two soulbeasts would naturally reveal the presence of their masters, Fang Hao and Tai Ping. Roughly two hundred meters below the four birds were the aforementioned two, Fang Hao and Tai Ping. Alternating between both the ground in front of them and the skies above with rapt attention, the two of them had been completely still. Yet the looks on their faces had suggested that they were quite busy at the moment.
Several hundred meters away in a similarly downwind direction of the four birds, the beautiful silhouette of a woman in white was flying left and right. The meter-long but flexible swords in both her hands flashed through the air and left behind mirror images in an attempt to defend herself from the twin a.s.sault of the giant bat that would attack her head on while a small colorful snake tried to ambush her every so often.
It was Tang Xinyun.
Tang Xinyun had looked rather exhausted as a result of dealing with the two soulbeasts. The white robes she wore was already tattered and torn in several places, and three grisly-looking wounds could be seen on her left wrist. Even though the bleeding had already been staunched, the wound itself and the trail of leftover blood over her snowy-white skin was an especially crude sight.
It could be seen that the two attacking soulbeasts, or rather their masters, were somewhat apprehensive and didn’t wish to kill her, which resulted in the two soulbeasts not launching any deadly attacks. Therefore, Tang Xinyun was still able to barely withstand their onslaught even though she was weaker in comparison to her pursuers. However, if they dragged it on any longer, she would definitely be defeated due to exhaustion.
Tang Xinyun was currently experiencing difficulties, but aunty Zhao, who had always been her bodyguard, was unable to rescue her. The reason for this was due to the fact that Zhao Mancha was also unable to escape from her opponent. At an area a little over a hundred meters away from Tang Xinyun’s right, Zhao Mancha was currently engaged in a battle with a black Spirit Monkey. Despite the ferocity in both her expression and attacks, the Spirit Monkey, which was shorter than her by a head, was leaping all around her while screeching. It had actually trapped the woman within the area and left her unable to reach Tang Xinyun’s side.
Whenever she tried her best to force the Spirit Monkey back and rush to Tang Xinyun’s side, the ground beneath her feet would suddenly give way to reveal gigantic dirt-colored pincers like the ones a crab would have attack her. Zhao Mancha had no other choice but to leap away each time the pincers tried to clamp down onto her feet, but with the Spirit Monkey taking the opportunity to leap at her, she was unable to take another step closer to Tang Xinyun.
It wasn’t just one soulbeast that she was fighting, there were actually two.
There had been many wounds inflicted onto Zhao Mancha’s body. There had been a b.l.o.o.d.y patch of red on her right calf from where the soulbeast hidden in the ground had caused. Another three long wounds could be seen on her back as well from when the Spirit Monkey had attacked her with its sharp claws. But even with these heavy wounds, Zhao Mancha seemed to be unaware of it almost and continued to fight with all her might to try to return to Tang Xinyun’s side.
A middle-aged, long-faced man dressed in a black s.h.i.+rt was standing over ten meters away from Aunty Zhao. He had a stern face while he stared at her, and his expression was similar to Fang Hao’s and Tai Ping’s. He was clearly concentrated on controlling the two soulbeasts that were fighting with Aunty Zhao.
Not too far away from him was a man who was also dressed in black clothes. His yellow face had been watching the sky above him with an indifferent look while the fingers on his right hand seemed to twitched subconsciously. The purple light around his body had been identical to the Thunderbird flying in the sky. This person was the very same Wu Sen that Li Chen had spoken about. A late-stage Soul Sprite with the thunder affinity and also tamer of the Thunderbird–the strongest soulbeast he had in his control.