Legendary Beast Cultivator

Lin Yuan remained silent and quivering slightly. The chilling, strong sensation from the sect master’s aperture still lingered in his sea of consciousness, making his skin crawl.

"The mark..." He slowly lowered his gaze to the wooden floor.

Xue Hongzhao watched him closely, waiting. Lin Yuan took a slow, steady breath.

"I saw something similar in the cave," He continued, slightly quivering under fear.

"The cave?"

Lin Yuan nodded before elucidating the situation in the cave. "After the battle ended and the demonic cultivator died, I went back there."

Xue Hongzhao’s eyebrow twitched with immediate annoyance.

"I found a strange sigil carved into the stone floor," Lin Yuan continued calmly. "I wanted to investigate it."

The sect master’s expression turned considerably darker. "Why the hell did you go back there alone?"

"I wanted to investigate any clues..." Lin Yuan kept his eyes staring down, his voice steady. "And later I wanted to check the corpse."

Xue Hongzhao’s eyes squinted once in confusion. "The corpse?"

"Yes." Lin Yuan answered without flinching. "I wanted to search for anything that could explain why that demonic cultivator looked at me before he died."

He deliberately held his tongue on the one detail that mattered most. He didn’t mention the name Noir.

Xue Hongzhao stared at him for a few scary seconds, judging his sincerity. Finally, the sect master let out a jagged breath. "It’s fine."

Lin Yuan looked up.

"I’ll take you back to the medical hall myself," Xue Hongzhao said, reaching for his robe.

"No need!" Lin Yuan immediately answered, nodding his head.

Xue Hongzhao raised his eyebrow while Lin Yuan cleared his throat, awkwardly scratching the back of his neck.

"I mean... I already went there secretly. I checked the medical hall where the scorched corpse has been kept," Lin Yuan let out a small smirk to cover up his fear.

An agonizing pause settled over the room.

"I apologize, sect master," Lin Yuan bowed, cupping his fists.

Xue Hongzhao gritted his teeth, shaking his head. "You slipped into my medical pavilion secretly?"

Lin Yuan offered a faint, dry smile. "Yes."

"You really are an irritating, reckless bastard," Xue Hongzhao grunted, taking a step forward, his beast essence flaring up.

"I’ve heard that before many times," Lin Yuan stared at him without blinking his eyes.

Xue Hongzhao sighed, rubbing his temples. "Fine!"

Then, his expression suddenly shifted. His eyes snapped back to Lin Yuan.

Lin Yuan looked at him.

"You said you wanted to inspect the demonic cultivator’s corpse?" the sect master asked, smearing his robes.

"Yes!" Lin Yuan slowly stood up, staring down. "The corpse is missing, sect master!"

Xue Hongzhao froze in his seat. "What?"

"There is nothing in the medical pavilion," Lin Yuan said, his voice turning cold. "The demonic cultivator’s body has disappeared."

The sect master’s heart sank straight into his stomach.

Xue Hongzhao suddenly slammed his fist onto the cedar table! "What the fuck is going on in my sect?!"

"Guards!" His furious roar rattled the wooden walls.

The doors swung open instantly, and the two armored guards rushed inside, kneeling on one knee.

"Sect Master!"

"Go to the lower medical pavilion right now," Xue Hongzhao commanded, his eyes flaring with golden-red heat. "Search if that demonic filth is there or not!! If it’s not found, maintain a red alert and inform all the guards to check everywhere!!"

"Yes, Master!" The guards scrambled to their feet and sprinted out of the room.

Lin Yuan remained silent on his seat. The air inside the private chamber grew suffocating, thick with the scent of burning wood and raw spiritual pressure.

The minutes dragged in silence for hours. Then, the hurried footsteps returned down the wooden walkway.

The two guards entered the room again, but their bodies were pale and exhausted. Their shoulders trembled as they dropped to both knees, pressing their foreheads to the floorboards.

"Sect Master..."

Xue Hongzhao’s gaze darkened. "Speak."

The lead guard swallowed hard, his voice dry. "The... the body..."

"Speak out!" the sect master yelled.

"The demonic cultivator’s corpse is gone."

The second guard quickly stammered. "We searched the entire medical wing, Master. There is no body, no blood trail, and no struggle for escape. It just vanished without any trace."

Xue Hongzhao’s knuckles cracked as his fists clenched tight.

An obscuring eruption of Phoenix fire burst out around his fists.

The two guards slammed their faces against the floorboards in sheer terror. Lin Yuan leaned back, shielding his eyes as the temperature increased.

The divine phoenix appeared behind the sect master’s shoulders, letting out a furious, deafening shriek.

The cedar beams groaned under the pure heat. Xue Hongzhao stared into the flames, veins bulging along his neck.

Slowly... he took in a deep, blazing breath. He clamped his hand shut. The golden-crimson flames collapsed back into his aperture. "Enough."

The phoenix faded away.

Xue Hongzhao exhaled a cloud of gray smoke, looking back down at Lin Yuan. His voice had returned to its authority. "Be on your guard from now on."

Lin Yuan nodded quietly.

"I am sending an emergency message to the central investigation division on the main continent," Xue Hongzhao said, gritting his teeth. "They have specialists equipped to track dark arts. They will investigate through the cave, the destroyed settlements, and the missing corpse."

"I will find out who is pulling the strings behind this mountain," He spoke, his eyes becoming intense. He turned away, waving his hand. "Return to your quarters and rest."

Lin Yuan stood and bowed deeply. "Yes, Sect Master!"

He turned and stepped out into the night air. Outside the central courtyard, the stone grounds were quiet.

Chen Ming and Lian Nichang were still leaning against the courtyard trees, waiting for Lin Yuan. The moment Lin Yuan descended the steps, Chen Ming rushed toward him.

"What happened there?" Lian Nichang looked at him, tossing a stray pebble into the garden. "You were inside for a long time."

"The demonic cultivator’s corpse is gone," Lin Yuan let out a slow sigh.

Both boys froze, petrified.

"What?" Chen Ming blinked. "Gone where?"

"It vanished from the medical hall. The guards confirmed it."

Chen Ming’s face turned serious. "And what did the sect master say?"

"He’s summoning high-level investigators from the main continent to take over the inquiry," Lin Yuan explained, stretching his hands.

"So the sect and mountain will be placed under formal inspection?" Lian Nichang frowned slightly.

"Most likely!"

"The situation is becoming worse now," Chen Ming rubbed his chin, looking toward the dark mountains.

Lin Yuan nodded in approval.

Then, a calm, sluggish voice echoed inside his sea of consciousness. "Don’t waste your breath worrying about it, kid."

The turtle sounded unbothered. "The esteemed sect elders will turn the mountains upside down with their little investigation. Let them handle the politics. You have your own fucking weakness to resolve before those officials arrive."

Lin Yuan’s expression sharpened. ’You mean about the beast essence consumption?’

"Yes, you arrogant boy," the turtle continued, "you nearly drained your aperture during that fight. If another crisis strikes before you solve your retention problem, your legendary beasts will choke you to death from the inside."

Lin Yuan clenched his fists inside his wide sleeves. The turtle beast was right, and the twin white tigers were growing stronger by the day, their appetites expanding. In a genuine war, running dry in essence was a death sentence.

"I’m heading out for a bit," Lin Yuan turned his legs toward the eastern wing.

Chen Ming blinked, catching his shoulder. "Where now?"

"The library pavilion."

"Again?" Chen Ming groaned, nodding his head. "At midnight?"

Lin Yuan ignored him and kept walking. The Red Talon Library Pavilion was cold and deserted. The rows of towering wooden shelves stretched into the shadows, smelling of aged parchment, dried ink, and spirit wood.

Lin Yuan moved quietly between the aisles, his eyes darting across the jade slips and bamboo scrolls.

Aperture expansion...Body conditioning...Essence recovery techniques...Combat circulation.

He plucked one old manual from the rack, skimmed through the contents, and set it aside. Most were basic methods suited only for cultivators with ordinary beast contracts.

After nearly an hour of searching the historical archives, his fingers stopped against a yellowed scroll detailing internal beast essence conservation.

Lin Yuan opened the silk ribbon, reading by the dim glow of an essence lamp. There are three viable methods recorded in it.

The first method relied on restructuring meridian pathways to increase circulation speed, minimizing loss during high-tier ability execution.

The second method involved consuming specialized nutrient-rich alchemical pills capable of stabilizing core essence during high-tier beast manifestations.

The third method... Lin Yuan’s eyes narrowed with keen interest.

A rare compression technique that forcibly condensed the volume of the beast essence pool inside the aperture, meticulously increasing its density and purity rather than merely relying on raw capacity expansion.

’Quality over quantity... hehe’ Lin Yuan thought, memorizing the core breathing chant and the meridian flow coordinates, then rolled the parchment back up.

"This could work," He slid the scroll carefully back into its wooden slot. As his hand reached for an adjacent manual on recovery, a leather scroll slipped out in the dark space behind the shelf, dropping onto the wooden floorboards.

"Ahh.. fuck!" Lin Yuan frowned, rubbing his forehead. He crouched down, picking up the fallen scroll from the floor.

It was far older than the surrounding manuals, and its surface buried under a crust of gray dust and cobwebs.

Lin Yuan wiped the dust away with the edge of his sleeve. The moment the dust cleared, Lin Yuan froze.

On the leather scroll, there was a jagged, grotesque symbol. It was a distorted, multi-jointed beast claw wrapping tightly around five bleeding crescent lines.

It was the same mark carved into the rock of the dark cave, and the same parasitic brand placed in the sect master’s aperture.

Lin Yuan’s fingers locked onto the scroll, his heart pounding against his ribs. "What..."

A sudden chill crept through the library aisle. The pitch-black grooves of the carved claw seemed to stare back at him from the faded leather.

Lin Yuan felt a terrifying realization in his brain. The dead demonic cultivator on the mountain had never been the source of this nightmare. He was merely another pawn in a secret that had been hidden within Red Talon Hall for a long time.