Chapter 173 - The Primal Core Beast

The Divine Light sect was one of the five major sects of Ziyun. Its members were stationed in the highest peak within the mountain ranges north of the Shenguang empire.

After the ancestral founders established the foundations of the Divine Light sect there, they named the mountain “Shenguang Peak.”

“Our leader has commanded us to make a thorough investigation of the background of the young- and middle-aged men. This is a portrait of them. Take a copy and comb the entire place for their whereabouts, starting from the very center of the Shenguang empire!”

On an expansive stone platform halfway up Shenguang Peak, an old monk of average build, wearing a silver cassock, addressed eleven people in front of him.

The eleven people who stood before the old monk were either middle-aged monks wearing red robes or men in casual clothing. The Divine Light sect consisted of disciples of Buddha, as well as many who were laymen.

Each of the eleven people was standing on the back of a giant flying beast.

The first of them, wearing a black robe, tall and burly, was a middle-aged man with a scar on his face. Although the giant eagle at his feet was about the same size as the other giant eagles, its body was surrounded by a faint white mist, as if to make it clear to the others that it was a Primal Core beast!

The other flying beasts kept a certain distance from this giant eagle, each of their bodies stiff, as if they were afraid to move.

“As for the scope and range of this investigation, I will leave it to the ten elders to make your own arrangements.”

The old monk faced the man in the black robes as he said this.

“Yes.”

The black-robed man nodded.

“Let’s go!”

…

After he greeted the old monk, the man in the black robes steered the giant eagle at his feet, whistled out and left Shenguang Peak in an instant.

With both wings spread out, the giant eagle that he rode had a wingspan of over 20 meters.

This body shape is the hallmark of the Connate stage level for the eagle species. However, this giant eagle was not a Connate stage beast, but a Primal Core beast. When most of these beasts are trained to reach the Connate stage, their shape will remain fixed.

They will remain unchanged, regardless of whether they are trained to reach the Primal Core, Dharma, or even the Primordial and Divine Transformation stages.

Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!

…

As the man in black robes left, the other ten disciples and brethren of the Divine Light sect followed him on their own flying beasts. The flying beasts under their feet were just as huge.

A few of these eagle beasts also had a wingspan of 20 meters and were quite apparently Connate-stage beasts.

“You! Head to the northwest along the path to find out about the two people. If you find nothing in the northwest area of the Shenguang empire, you must continue in the same direction into the other empires to investigate.”

“I will leave the West to you.”

“You, go southwest.”

…

Following the man in black robes, each of the Divine Light sect’s ten elders gave their orders and one by one the figures on the flying beasts rode swiftly away. Finally, the black-robed man led his own Primal Core beast toward the southeast.

He chose to head southeast because the border to the next empire was so far away it required one to travel a great distance.

He thought it best to cover this route himself.

“I wonder who these two men are. Just as we became aware of them, they managed to stun the entire Divine Light sect. The leader himself needed to order a thorough investigation of their origins.”

The man in the black robes raised his hands and two portraits appeared out of thin air. In one of them was a vivid and life-like picture of a refined middle-aged man.

The other portrait depicted a young man with handsome features and a sense of arrogance about him; he seemed unnaturally aloof.

The two people in these portraits were none other than Zhou Donghuang and his servant.

“Ever since I entered the ‘Eagle Eye’ this is the first time that the team has been activated to this extent,” the man in black robes murmured to himself as he folded up the portraits.

Eagle Eye was the intelligence division of the Divine Light sect. It was under the control and responsibility of the fifth elder who was a Primal Core practitioner. The second person in charge of this division was the man in black robes – the tenth elder of the Divine Light sect.

This middle-aged man in black was also the practitioner in the Divine Light sect who was most likely to enter the advanced Primal Core stage next.

“Elder brother, this might turn out quite well for us: a time for us to head out and relax.”

The youthful voice of a teenager came from the mouth of the giant eagle at the man’s feet. This Primal Core beast had managed to refine the powers and control of his larynx and was now able to speak in human language.

“That is true.”

The man in the black robes smiled, “However, I hope that this trip will be a rewarding one. I am curious about the origins of that young man.”

“A Primal Core practitioner not 20 years of age. is that even possible? I personally feel this piece of news to be quite incredible,” the giant eagle said, his tone full of suspicion.

“This news was passed back to the sect by the third elder. It should be genuine. I just don’t know if the young man managed to get hold of some essence, or if he has a powerful teacher behind him,” the man wondered aloud.

The giant eagle, a Primal Core beast, was able to travel at an incredible speed. However, because it needed to work with the black-robed man in their search for their target person, it took about half a month to reach the border of the southeast area of the Shenguang empire.

Swish!

After they went past the border of the Shenguang empire, the giant eagle continued forward in the southeast direction. For seven or eight days, they saw no sign of life.

“Elder brother, it’s too remote here, isn’t it? All I see are barren hills and treacherous waters!”

Looking down at the wilderness below, the giant eagle couldn’t help but blurt this out to the man in black robes.

“Haha. This area is indeed desolate. However, it is said that past this desolate land, there are groups of people inhabiting the area and even a small sect,” the middle-aged man said with a smile.

“A small sect? How small?” The giant eagle’s curiosity was piqued.

“The strongest man within the sect is but a Connate stage practitioner,” the man replied.

“Connate stage? The strongest one?”

The eagle’s sharp eyes flashed with disdain. “That really is small.”

“In all the major empires, there are but only a few Primal Core practitioners and even they are too embarrassed to establish their own sects. Now in such a small place, to start a sect where there is not one Primal Core practitioner, that is truly absurd!”

The giant eagle’s contempt grew as he said this.

…

Three days later.

Two unwelcome guests, a man and an eagle, flew over a vast valley.

“If I were to guess, this should be the location of that small sect. I have seen records of this small sect in our Eagle Eye dossier; it seems like they call it the ‘Valley of the Medicine Masters’?”

The middle-aged man in black robes stood on his eagle’s back, its wings spreading over twenty meters. He surveyed the vast valley below them.

“There are even sentries at the height of the four corners of this valley.”

The sharp eyes of the giant eagle flashed. It was not difficult for it to see the inconspicuous observation towers around the corners of the valley and that there were people on patrol, sending out signals.

“Let’s head down.” As the man in black robes spoke, the giant eagle swooped down towards the vicinity of a lookout post.

On that observation deck, an elder of the Valley looked at the man and the eagle as if they appeared out of thin air. On realizing the immense size of the giant eagle, his face immediately drained of color. “A Connate-level beast?!”

A giant eagle’s wings spread more than twenty meters was the unmistakable characteristic of a Connate-level beast.

“A Connate-level beast?”

In response to the elder’s exclamation, the giant eagle became a little upset. “Hey! old man, I’m not merely a small Connate-stage beast,” he countered directly.

“Don’t you dare speak of what you don’t know, or I will tear you apart!” As it said this, the giant eagle flashed a deadly cold stare at the old man.

“Human language?”

The elder of the Valley was already pale with fright, and when he heard the giant eagle speak his pupils constricted in fear, his knees buckled, and he fell to the ground. “You… you are a Primal Core beast?!”

There had never been an appearance of a Primal Core practitioner or Primal Core beast in the Valley of the Medicine Masters before this.

However, this didn’t prevent the people of the Valley of Medicine Masters from knowing that when a beast entered the Primal Core stage, it was able to hone its laryngeal muscles and practice speaking human language.

The ability to speak a human language was a sign of a Primal Core or even more advanced beast.

“At least you possess some form of learning.”

The cold glare of the giant eagle dissipated at this.

Whoosh!

At the same moment, the man in black robes, a dazzling figure with a milky white halo around him, emerged from the sky and landed softly in front of the elder of the Valley.

“A Primal … Primal Core practitioner?!”

The elderly man, who was sitting on the ground paralyzed with fear, shrank away even further in shock. At this moment he felt as if his whole being had become numb.

First, a Primal Core beast.

And now, a Primal Core practitioner.

Was there anyone else in the history of the Valley of the Medicine Masters who has had this same encounter?

“I am the tenth elder from the Divine Light sect, Lin Hantian.”

The middle-aged man in black robes, the tenth elder of the Divine Light sect and second-in-charge of the Eagle Eye intelligence team, held up two portraits in front of the elder clearly as he spoke. “Do you recognize these two people?”

“The Divine Light sect?” the Valley elder asked in suspicion; he had never heard of the Divine Light sect before.

However, as this other person was a Primal Core practitioner and, to top it off, a tenth elder from this sect named “Divine Light,” it was not hard to imagine that this Divine Light sect was of a very different nature from his own Valley of the Medicine Masters.

Now, as the two portraits were held up before him and he was asked whether he recognized the two persons at all, he inadvertently glanced through them.

In just one look, his eyes unwittingly narrowed in recognition.

These two persons depicted in the drawings: he knew them.

One of them was their very own Head of the Valley of the Medicine Masters, Su Mo.

The other, whose youthful features had somehow faded, was still immediately recognizable. It was none other than the man that the Valley Head Su Mo had acknowledged as his master: Zhou Donghuang, a man from Yunyang country, of the 16 countries of the Eastern Valley, formerly known as the teenage Connate.

“My lord, I’m not sure. For what reason is it that you might be looking for these two people?”

The Valley elder asked cautiously because he did not know whether the other party was a friend or an enemy. If this man was an enemy and he was to reveal their Valley head’s identity, that would surely undermine their safety!