Chapter 358: Seven Beasts Sect
Upon seeing Bai Mo arrive, Baitou Weng waved him over.
Then, with a gentle expression, he introduced him to the scholar-like man sitting across from them.
"This is the fellow Daoist who called us over. I think he’s quite good, someone who can truly discuss the Dao with us."
The scholar coughed lightly, an unhealthy flush rising to his face as he turned to look.
"Oh? Another prodigiously talented junior."
The scholar, named Jing Heng, was around forty years old and did not appear to be in good condition.
Bai Mo sat down and greeted him.
"Senior Jing, how were you injured?"
Jing Heng covered his mouth and let out a muffled cough.
"I suppose it was an unlucky day for travel. People from the Seven Beasts Sect caught my scent and hunted me all the way here, leaving me in this state."
At these words, a shadow crossed the faces of Baitou Weng and Gai Lao.
After a moment of silence, Gai Lao said furiously,
"A pack of wolves!"
"No matter," Baitou Weng said. "On the return trip, Fellow Daoist Jing, you can travel with me. If nothing else, ensuring your safe passage won’t be difficult."
Jing Heng cupped his hands in a salute toward him but said nothing more.
The Seven Beasts Sect. Bai Mo had never heard the name before.
Baitou Weng explained,
"They’re a sect that operates unscrupulously. They’ve been powerful for a long time, no weaker than your Xuandao Sect."
"I just never thought that even you, Fellow Daoist Jing, an Honorary City Lord of an Immortal City, would be hunted down and injured by them."
As for why they would capture a Pill Grandmaster, everyone knew the reason without it needing to be said.
But to do so this brazenly, without fear of offending the Pill Pavilion, was enough to show the Seven Beasts Sect’s deep-seated power and audacity.
They were clearly not a major sect that prided itself on integrity.
Bai Mo frowned.
"An Alchemy Dao Grandmaster has their own principles. Even if captured, how could they be forced to submit..."
At this, Bai Mo stopped abruptly and fell silent.
Baitou Weng finished for him, "They have their methods."
Jing Heng was in poor condition, having traveled a great distance and weathered much hardship, so he could not say much more.
They got him a room to rest, asked for the location of the recent ambush, and then the group went their separate ways.
Baitou Weng went to the Pill Pavilion’s local branch to report the matter.
Bai Mo, on the other hand, found the Xuandao Sect’s station in Celestial Mountain City and explained Jing Heng’s situation.
"What!?"
"The Seven Beasts Sect is committing such atrocities on our sect’s territory again!?"
The disciple at the station slammed the table and shot to his feet, filled with indignation.
Celestial Mountain City was a major center for the Alchemy Dao. It offered an immense amount of tribute to the sect each year, not to mention its crucial role in transporting resources.
The station was built in a grand style befitting the sect, resembling the City Lord’s Mansion, only without the pavilions and gazebos inside.
Its style was more akin to the austere design of a mortal realm yamen.
Many disciples were stationed here, and it was rumored that a Nascent Soul Cultivator presided over it, though they hadn’t shown their face in a long time.
Bai Mo used a sect-only passage to go directly inside and meet the disciple in charge.
Even though the disciple who had slammed the table was a Core Formation cultivator, a matter concerning the Seven Beasts Sect was not something he could decide on his own.
So he immediately wrote a letter and entrusted it to a carrier goose from the Foreign Affairs Hall to be sent back to the sect.
Watching the disciple, Bai Mo suddenly felt he looked familiar.
After a moment’s thought, Bai Mo asked pensively,
"Brother, have you ever been to Mi Mountain?"
"Hm?" The Core Formation disciple looked up, revealing a set of bright white teeth.
"So you recognize me, Junior Brother."
"That’s right. I was lucky enough to capture a rogue cultivator previously. We met when I was escorting him to Mi Mountain."
"I just wasn’t the one in charge at the time, so we didn’t get to speak."
’So that’s how it is,’ Bai Mo thought. ’No wonder he believed my words so easily. A guard from Mi Mountain wouldn’t just spout nonsense.’
The two exchanged a few pleasantries, and Bai Mo took the opportunity to ask,
"Brother Xu, what kind of sect is this Seven Beasts Sect?"
"A pretty powerful sect. Their territory and strength are on par with ours."
Xu Zhong explained, "But their internal strife is intense. They have seven factions constantly fighting each other to the death. There’s never a moment of peace..."
Xu Zhong knew the Seven Beasts Sect in great detail, and his lengthy explanation lasted for the time it takes half an incense stick to burn.
Bai Mo was surprised.
"The Seven Beasts Sect is more than ten thousand li from here."
"They’re certainly active."
Xu Zhong’s expression soured.
"People of the Alchemy Dao in Celestial Mountain City are occasionally harassed by them. We are probably the ones in the sect who have the most contact with them."
"This sect is unscrupulous. Junior Brother, if you run into them, remember to be careful. If you get a chance to land a killing blow, you should take it..."
After bidding farewell to Xu Zhong, Bai Mo returned to the Swift-Swan Inn.
「The sky had grown dark, the day drawing to a close.」
Bai Mo had already gotten a room next to Baitou Weng’s to make it easier to go back and forth.
By nightfall, Jing Heng had rested for half a day, and his energy and spirit were much improved.
Everyone gathered in Baitou Weng’s room for a discussion by candlelight.
Gai Lao was the first to speak.
"I went to the place where Fellow Daoist Jing was ambushed today. The tracks have been erased, but you can still notice them if you look closely."
Jing Heng said softly, "My attackers were four Core Formation cultivators. Two of them had Spirit Beasts, and all were of comparable strength."
"But as for whether there were others in the shadows, that is not something I could have detected."
Baitou Weng interjected.
"The Pill Pavilion has already taken action. Those few will certainly not dare to show their faces."
Bai Mo also said, "I have already reported it to the sect. Someone will be sent down soon to eliminate the Seven Beasts Sect cultivators."
In any case, they could expect some peaceful days ahead.
With the matter of the Seven Beasts Sect settled for now, Bai Mo brought up the commission from the West Pole Sect.
"So that’s the situation. They aren’t just willing to pay with Spirit Stones; they’re also offering the ’Fire Department Celestial Artisan’."
Baitou Weng nodded.
"It doesn’t sound like an Alchemy secret manual. It’s probably a method for refining things like pill furnaces, right? Or maybe a technique for guiding Spiritual Fire?"
Gai Lao agreed.
"I looked into this sect’s background. Going back eighteen generations, not a single person in their sect has achieved our level of mastery in the Alchemy Dao."
"I imagine they don’t have any good Alchemy Dao inheritances, just these tangentially related things."
From their brief exchange, Jing Heng also got the gist of the commission.
"A Pill Ghost?"
"It might be worth a trip. To be honest with you all, in my younger, more impetuous days, I also considered cultivating one of those..."
Following his lead, the group quickly turned the conversation back to matters of alchemy, talking through the sleepless night.
The three of them were all veterans of the Alchemy Dao, their experience far surpassing Bai Mo’s.
After a few hours of sleep, Bai Mo woke up with his head still feeling a bit fuzzy and not much of an appetite.
He ordered a bowl of meat congee and ate it absently in the middle of the hall, his mind completely preoccupied with last night’s conversation.
A disciple in a gray robe, likely one who handled miscellaneous tasks at the station, hurried over.
"Are you Brother Bai?"
"I am." Bai Mo put down his spoon.
"There’s news about the Seven Beasts Sect matter you reported yesterday."
"So quickly?"
"Yes. Early this morning, a senior arrived carrying several heads. Upon identification, they were confirmed to be practitioners of the Seven Beasts Sect’s methods."
The disciple lowered his voice.
"Right now, that person is meeting with our sect’s Nascent Soul ancestor."
’So there really is a Nascent Soul Cultivator presiding over Celestial Mountain City,’ Bai Mo thought to himself.
"So you came to find me because..."
The disciple quickly bowed and replied,
"We’d like to ask your ambushed companion to come and identify them, to see if any fish slipped through the net."
"As we should. I will bring him over shortly."
Jing Heng’s vital energy had not yet fully recovered. He meditated until noon before finally pushing open his door and coming down to the inn’s main hall.
Bai Mo then found him and explained the situation.
Jing Heng slapped his thigh and exclaimed that it was just deserts. Then, he left with Bai Mo, heading for the Xuandao Sect’s station.