128 Royal Zodiacs

From what Jin knew about the Zoo of the Cultivation Arts, what Peppers had told him was all correct. In fact, she really did know more about the Zoo more than him. Every province had a Zoo of the Cultivation Arts as most cultivators' techniques and styles were based on animals.

All monsters and even animals had power levels that corresponded to the grades for humans. But unlike humans, they were unable to choose what kind of powers they would have as they were born with them.

Although the humans in this world were not born with an ability, they all had the potential to adopt a cultivation style that they liked and were attuned to. It was the best advantage humans had over monsters and animals and was also why they were able to rule the world.

It was true that observing the cultivation of wild animals would provide a better insight into a particular style for a person with the same cultivation style, but those animals were not exactly the easiest to find. Also, people would have to travel far and wide to locate them and it might even disrupt the native ecosystem in the long run.

Hence, zoos were renovated in order to allow cultivators to observe the animals, learn from them, and maybe even teach fellow cultivators of the same style as well. Therefore, there were many recruitments near the various animal enclosures and that was how guilds or sects were created these days. By coming to the Zoo of Cultivation Arts.

The Shenzhen Provincial Zoo of Cultivation Arts might not necessarily be the largest, the biggest, or even the most modern, but it boasted the most extensive range of animals in enclosures.

When Jin's group entered the zoo, they were immediately bombarded by various recruiters of different animal sects. If they had had the time, it would have been a good place to learn more about prominent sects and guilds. Perhaps it was also possible that joining one would improve the store's standings in the future as Jin might have the backing of a sect if there any problems arose.

However, Jin was not planning on joining one at the moment. Firstly, he was here only for the Baby Panda Mission. He just wanted to take a selfie with it, or maybe with the whole group too and then immediately return to the store. Time was money, and those were the two things he could not afford to waste at the moment.

"Would you like to join the Furious Monkey Sect? We even have members in the Royal Zodiac Monkey Sect!"

"Do not listen to him! The Raging Tiger Sect is your best choice, one of our founders comes directly from the Royal Zodiac Tiger Sect!"

"Dear fellow cultivators, how about joining the Towering Tortoise Sect? Our roots came from theancient spirit monster, the Black Turtle of the North!"

"Towering Tortoise? Is that not what Kong Xian, that Kendo highschool kid, used?" Jin thought to himself but eventually ignored all the recruitments and shouldered his way out of the main square and into the animal viewing enclosures.

"Wow, they were crazy about trying to get people to join them. Why are they so desperate?" Milk was a little annoyed since she knew there were times in the main square where she could had been groped due to the massive amount of people present. Despite this, Zeru had been protecting her from possible fidgety hands and Milk could only give a genuine wide smile in return for Zeru's honourable protection.

"More people means more tribute to their Sect and that, in turn, means that their higher-ups would have more money," Jin said and that was also one of the reasons why he refused to join the sects. They might accept people with different cultivation styles at first but eventually, they would want them to learn their main style.

"If that's the case, won't there be many different sects with different prefixes and animals associated to them?" Milk continued to ask questions as the group followed the map towards the Panda Enclosure.

"Not really. There are grand sects like the Royal Zodiac ones, which control nearly half of China's current economy. Under those grand sects, there are large sects that control the smaller sects and that's where cultivators who have various cultivation belong." Zeru tried to explain and Jin agreed with him. Seeing Jin agree, Zeru could not help but sigh since it looked like even if it was in the future, the power chain did not change a single bit.

"So, it's like many organisations within one parent organisation?" Milk asked and Zeru nodded his head.

"Compared to the past, these small sects do not matter much now and it's more like a meeting place for cultivators so that the cultivators can have a sense of belonging. The ones that really have the fighting power and perhaps the power to protect the country would definitely be the Royal Zodiacs." Jin commented.

"Ah! I read about the Royal Zodiacs! They are the 12 Chinese animal cultivators that the Jade Emperor eventually assigned as protectors after calling for a meeting that required the animal cultivators to cross the magical river to meet up with him. Eventually, they were selected for the years on the Chinese calendar too!" Peppers proudly mentioned.

"Hahaha! But do you want to hear something different and perhaps the true story of how the Royal Zodiacs came to be?" Zeru smirked when he proposed that idea. Everyone immediately had their attention on Zeru.

"There was no Jade Emperor in the first place. The one in reign was the Banned Emperor and his name brought fear and oppression to all. Needless to say, the common folk were not happy and even the nobles were struggling under his rule. Therefore, the original cultivators of the 12 Royal Zodiac animals, who were initially nobodies, were the ones that brought him down in a grand fight at the River of Death." Zeru continued his story when he realised everyone was already intrigued by his story.

"They fought for 12 days and 12 nights with each cultivator taking turns to wear the Banned Emperor down. At the end, when the fight was almost lost and all hope was nearly gone, the Banned Emperor saw his most trustworthy brother, the Jade Prince came. He thought that the Jade Prince had brought reinforcement. However, to his surprise, the Jade Prince betrayed him by delivering the deathblow and before he died, the Banned Emperor even found out that it was the Jade Prince that tricked him by calling for the meeting at the River of Death."

"Hence, in order to keep this assassination a secret, the Jade Prince continued the lie that the Banned Emperor was sick and eventually died. He later succeeded as the new Emperor who honoured the 12 founders who had battled the Banned Emperor and painstakingly changed the course of history and the books were written with their help too." Zeru concluded as they were reaching the panda enclosure.

"How did you even know about this?" Jin asked with immense curiosity.

"Trade Secret." Zeru smiled and the entire group laughed at Zeru using Jin's catchphrase. However, deep in his heart, he mourned for his old master.

"It's because my previous Master was the last descendant of the hidden and forgotten 13th Royal Sect. The Royal Zodiac Panda Sect." Zeru thought to himself as he noticed how Jin and his previous master had some things in common.