Meng Hu was caught; they had found out that he was an unbound Demonic Beast. It was fine if they thought that he was just an ordinary Demonic Beast, but if they had found out that he was a shape-shifting Beast cultivator, it would be a disaster.
These past few years, Meng Hu, as a disciple of Woyun Sect, had also made a name for himself, the people who knew him in the Righteous Path were not few. If people learnt that Qingtong kept a shape-shifting Beast cultivator as a disciple, it would be dangerous for their sect. The people of the cultivation world desired Demonic Beasts more than anything else, but because everyone made them swear blood pacts after catching them, they were becoming very rare, many powerful cultivators could not get a Demonic Beast. If the Beast cultivators protected by the sect were to be exposed, only calamity awaited them.
The precious stone lands its innocent possessor in jail, just like it had happened to Lord Duantian all those years ago.
Without further delay, they immediately went downstairs, packed their things and prepared to leave.
In fact, there was nothing much to put in order, they only had to put away the drying cured meat on the third-floor terrace as well as the frozen bird legs, and to roll up the elk pelt blanket on the rocking chair. After that, they pushed open the door and got ready to store the Crystal Palace.
As soon as they opened the door, they saw two little foxes sitting outside and watching them eagerly.
It was to be expected that Shuang Ren would follow them back to their sect, but what was Shuang Hua doing there?
“I know that my abilities are not high, but I beg you, let me stay at the Great Beast’s side as a maidservant,” Shuang Hua turned into a human and said reverentially. Shuang Ren had not told his sister about the sect, she only knew that Qingtong was her elder brother’s Master and she did not want to be separated from her sibling. Besides, she also wanted to learn some skills and see the outside world.
The snowy mountains were lonely. Here, the Demonic Beasts cultivated slowly by absorbing the essence of the sun and moon. Although their days were carefree, it was also very boring.
The cold and beautiful eyes swept over Shuang Hua and then looked at Shuang Ren.
Shuang Ren immediately knelt down and beseeched, “Master please excuse our presumption, but she is this disciple’s only blood relative and I truly don’t feel at ease leaving her here alone.”
“Fine, you may become a maidservant.” Qingtong lowered his eyes. Actually, the Woyun Sect took in any Demonic Beast who came seeking asylum, regardless of ability; it was just him who paid a lot of attention to potential and looks. The claws were not hooked and neither was the body lithe enough, accepting one of them had already been hard enough, how could he accept another one? Having her become a maidservant would be more suitable.
Shuang Ren was very surprised and immediately took his sister and kowtowed in humble thanks. He had not expected Master would take his sister as a disciple; it was enough that she could stay with him as a maid.
Mo Tianliao was somewhat displeased. One alone was a nuisance, why bring the other? Qingtong said that it was not good to have no female Beast cultivators in their sect. If all the disciples ended up liking men, then eventually there would be no little furballs to play with.
Mo Tianliao pursed his lips, speechless.
“How do we get back?” Qingtong looked at Mo Tianliao. It was a long way to the sect and it was not like they could use a flying sword. Mo Tianliao knew that he had not been doing anything serious these past few days, he had not crafted a flying boat or anything like that. Just great, we have no means of transportation.
Mo Tianliao scratched his head and rummaged around his storage wrist guard for a long time, but apart from a lot of lingshi, he found nothing. When he had fled for his life, he had used up everything, his peerless flying boat had also been destroyed. He turned to look at Taishi, although it could also become a flying boat, its body only had so much material. Having it turn into a longsword, an axe, etcetera, was fine, but if it were to turn into a flying boat, it would be very flimsy, not matter what method he used, it would not support them at all.
“Well, we could use the cat house.” Mo Tianliao turned to look behind him at the Crystal Palace, which had still not been put away.
“Hmm?” Qingtong turned around and looked at the three-zhang-high palace. “Can this be used as a flying ship?”
“With enough lingshi.” Mo Tianliao smiled. He asked his cat to go in first while he activated the array outside, making a complicated lotus seal with both hands while at the same time embedding dozens of top-grade lingshi into the indentations in each corner of the Crystal Palace.
Making a very loud humming sound, the Crystal Palace rose and started to float in mid-air.
Mo Tianliao flew up on his sword. This palace was like an ordinary flying boat, it shook for a moment, then suddenly shot out.
Qingtong was caught off guard and fell on the bed, Mo Tianliao followed him by also jumping on, then rolled around with him. “How about it, isn’t the cat house I made very convenient?”
“Is this thing fast?” Qingtong looked at the flying clouds through the wall. It did not seem slow.
“It’s adequate.” Mo Tianliao sat up, took his baby cat into his arms and watched the scenery outside the wall with him. “It’s much faster than our sect’s flying ship.”
When they had taken their sect’s flying ship to Liuyun Sect, the journey had taken over a month. The Crystal Palace was not too fast, but it would be able to return to the sect in under ten days.
The Mo Palace exploration began in half a month, because the Woyun Sect was the one closest to the Demonic Path among the three major sects, every one of those belonging to the Righteous Path who had gotten the token would gather there first and then they would set off together as a group.
That being the case, and since Meng Hu had been caught, Xuanji would definitely try to get everyone, both man and tiger, back to the clan territory.
As they had expected, by the time they were approaching Woyun Sect, Xuanji and the others were already there, surrounded by people from the other two sects who were making a racket in front of the entrance.
“That tiger belongs to my shidi Qingtong Zhenren. Even if he is an unbound shape-shifting Beast cultivator, it has been established that he is also his spiritual pet. Why should you people get to take him away?” Xuanji clenched the turtle shell in his hands and resisted the urge to refer to them as a bunch of sanctimonious hypocrites.
“Humph, Qingtong Zhenren secretly allowed an unbound Demonic Beast to cultivate until it attained human shape, this is a great threat to the cultivation world.” Elder Yun Song of Qingyun Sect had never managed to teach Qingtong a lesson, so he naturally seized this opportunity to mercilessly drag him down.
Seeing her shixiong be so aggressive, elder Yun Yuan of Qingyun Sect tried to smooth things over, “Qingtong Zhenren hasn’t shown up yet, maybe he’s having some trouble, we should listen to what he has to say before making a decision.”
“Whoever finds an unbound Demonic Beast owns it. Our Liuyun Sect caught it, so naturally it belongs to us,” Liu Bi, an Elder of the Liuyun Sect, said in a shrill voice. Liu Bi was also a woman, During the Three Sects Conference, Ding Hu was seriously injured and was now unconscious, and Liu Mang Zhenren could not leave the sect, so she was the only one who could be sent to accompany the disciples.
“Oh-ho, so it’s okay to just go to somebody else’s place to catch Demonic Beasts,” Zi Mo mocked coldy. “Since that’s the case, why don’t we all go to Liuyun Sect’s rear mountains for a walk? Any unbound Demonic Beasts we find along the way will belong to whomever finds them after all.”
Everyone knew that the Liuyun Sect bred Demonic Beast and so they had many of them. Hearing this statement, there was a chorus of approval.
Liu Bi choked briefly; she was about to say something when suddenly they were covered by a shadow. Everyone looked up to see a huge palace floating ever their heads, they froze.
Everybody recognized this Crystal Palace; it was the spatial magical tool that had been crafted by Mo Tianliao during the Three Sects Conference. It could even fly? Before everyone could think any further about it, the Crystal Palace suddenly plummeted, seemingly out of control, it fell straight down. The shadow covered all the people present, if they did not avoid it in time, they would be crushed into meat paste.
“Aaaghh!” Everyone panicked and tried to dodge, their movements accompanied by the screams of many female disciples.
The Crystal Palace, unconcerned with the people below, came crashing down with a deafening bang.
The powerful cultivators still managed to keep their composure, but the weak disciples were somewhat flustered.
Mo Tianliao stood on the second floor laughing his ass off.
The two foxes had rolled into a corner because of the sudden fall. Qingtong, meanwhile, stood steadily beside Mo Tianliao and glared at him for being a troublemaker. Immediately after, a little smirk escaped him. It really was funny.
When the Crystal Palace landed, the door on the second floor opened and a snow-white figure came floating down, followed by a person dressed in fine dark clothes.
The people from Woyun Sect greeted them with joy, while the expressions on the faces of the people from other sects were different.
“Qingtong Zhenren is back, how wonderful.” Yun Yuan was all smiles.
“You’re not yet betrothed but you still act so lovey-dovey. If it doesn’t work out, wouldn’t you end up making a laughing stock of yourself?” Liu Bi had always been at odds with Yun Yuan, so she could not resist needling her.
“You…” Yun Yuan turned red in the face and glared at Liu Bi, but she did not refute the supposed “engagement”.
Mo Tianliao frowned slightly. What’s the matter with these women? He took half a step forward, pulling Master behind him and said with a tiny smile, “Something happened a couple of days ago so Master and I were unable to return for a few days. What’s going on?”
“Humph, Qingtong Zhenren illicitly raised a Demonic Beast. We’ve come here to demand an explanation,” Yun Song said in an insinuating manner.
What a scoundrel, he wanted to steal somebody else’s Demonic Beast and now dares to demand an explanation? Mo Tianliao knew very well just how shameless the Qingyun Sect’s people were. When Elder Yun He had taken his people to besiege the Mo Palace, he had said the same thing. “Milord, you have crafted a divine weapon without seeking permission, threatening the safety of the Taixuan continent. We’ve come to demand an explanation.”
“Who took this excellency’s tiger?” Qingtong ignored their useless prattle and asked in a cold voice.
Mo Tianliao shrank the Crystal Palace, then, with no regard to the people around them, he took Qingtong’s hand and put it inside the storage bracelet on his wrist.
Everyone was absorbed in discussing the matter of the Demonic Beast so they did not pay attention to this little gesture, but Xuanji who was standing beside them saw it and felt like his eyeballs were about to pop out of their sockets. He had a feeling that something terrible had happened to shidi during the time he had gone missing.
“Everyone who comes here is a guest. You’ve come to visit our Woyun Sect, so why haven’t you come in? Why are all of you standing around talking at the entrance?” A rich and sedate voice came from the mountain road. A little while later, a smiling Tianlang Zhenren, dressed in grey and white Taoist robes, came and invited everyone in for some tea.
Unedited, please point out any mistakes