Dao Companions Help Me Live Forever

Chapter 191: Beast Master

Approximately a hundred years ago.

The place that was once known as Black Bear Ridge was not yet called Bee Wasp Forest. At that time, it was occupied by a demon king-level bear king.

The queen bee, who was the logistics general under the bear king, was highly favored by the bear king due to her expertise in collecting flowers and brewing honey.

Until one day...

A blood-feathered eagle descended from the sky, bringing with it a gust of bloody wind. The powerful demonic energy swept through the entire Black Bear Ridge.

The bear king thought it was a demon king who came to fight for territory and boldly went forward to confront it.

However, he was no match for the blood eagle. After a fierce battle, the blood eagle tore open the bear king's body, swallowed his demon core, and took over Black Bear Ridge, exuding immense ferocity.

The queen bee, who should have perished alongside the bear king, caught the attention of the Beast Master controlling the blood eagle due to her potential. He forcibly took her under his command and used a portion of her demon soul to refine a forbidden token.

This Beast Master was naturally the demonic cultivator, and the blood eagle was the blood puppet he controlled.

After occupying Black Bear Ridge, the Beast Master supported the queen bee as a puppet and renamed it Bee Wasp Forest, making it his stronghold.

Since then, the Beast Master began researching a demonic technique called the Blood Demon Art, attempting to teach demonic beasts this technique.

The Old Ape King was chosen by the Beast Master during that time.

Later, as the progress of his research on the Blood Demon Art slowed down, the Beast Master began refining the Beast Soul Banner and started hunting down the demon kings in the mountains.

At first, he relied on the reputation of the blood eagle, but as he faced stronger demon kings, he had to personally take action.

However, there were still some fish that managed to escape the net. Unable to conceal the news any longer, it attracted the intervention of the Golden Peng Demon Emperor.

The Beast Master used all his means to save his life and fled in desperation.

The Beast Master, who had escaped back to Bee Wasp Forest, was already at the end of his rope, with his life hanging by a thread.

He ordered the queen bee to protect him while he hid in his cave, healing his injuries and prolonging his life. Unexpectedly, the queen bee, who had been gentle for many years, secretly tempted Jiang Laozu, who was cultivating in this place, to sneak into the cave and attack the Beast Master.

At a critical moment, the queen bee risked the backlash of the forbidden token and did not intervene to protect the Beast Master.

At the crucial moment of healing his injuries, the Beast Master was attacked by Jiang Laozu, resulting in further injuries. In order to stabilize Jiang Laozu and buy himself time to heal, he offered the Blood Demon Art as a bargaining chip.

Jiang Laozu, who obtained the Blood Demon Art, was also injured by the Beast Master's counterattack but obtained what he wanted. Naturally, he did not want to be entangled any further.

With Jiang Laozu no longer causing trouble, the Beast Master made a decisive move, activating the formation in his cave and using the forbidden token refined from the queen bee's demon soul as the core of the formation.

Once the formation was destroyed and the forbidden token was destroyed, the queen bee would also die.

Therefore, in order to survive, the queen bee had to actively protect the cave from being exposed.

On the other hand, in order to appease the queen bee, Jiang Laozu and the queen bee made a contract to cultivate the Blood Demon Art together, break the seal, and retrieve the demon soul.

However, the queen bee was ultimately lacking in worldly experience and did not know that promises like these could be easily broken. Some people treat them as empty words.

Of course, the queen bee was not without precautions against Jiang Laozu.

However, she was struck by a backlash and had to enter a deep sleep to heal, while Jiang Laozu, with his severe injuries, forcibly broke out of Bee Wasp Forest.

This is how a series of events unfolded afterwards.

Yu Xian learned about the events that happened back then from the Old Ape King and the queen bee, gradually piecing together the story.

Of course, these stories are told from their respective perspectives, so there are bound to be inaccuracies. This is the limitation of personal experience.

But it is probably close to the truth.

For a fortunate descendant to encounter a severely injured dying senior of the same clan, it should have been a heartwarming scene of passing on knowledge and filial piety.

However, the dormant queen bee, a wicked woman, revealed her fangs and tempted the junior with evil intentions, causing harm to the senior.

So a chance encounter turned into a situation where all parties suffered losses.

In Yu Xian's mind, another version of the story emerged, while his eyes sparkled as he examined the formation and restrictions set up by the Beast Master for the cave.

As a quasi-third-order formation master, his understanding of formations had long surpassed what it used to be.

The formation set up by the Beast Master was actually quite basic, just a commonly seen second-order protective formation, the Five Elements Light Shield Formation.

The shield part of the third-order Xuan Yang Golden Light Formation used some principles from this formation.

This formation had all five elements, and its advantage was its versatility. No matter what environment it was set up in, it had some power.

As for why it wasn't a third-order formation, it was probably because third-order formations were powerful and made a lot of noise when activated.

This place was located within the Ten Thousand Demon Mountains, surrounded by demons and beasts. Activating the formation here would basically be telling other demons and beasts that there were human cultivators hiding here.

Moreover, the Demon Bee Forest was naturally a protective formation with demon bees everywhere.

But who could have expected that the docile Queen Bee would stab them in the back at the most critical moment, risking mutual destruction.

It was not difficult to unravel this formation. The five elements generate and restrain each other.

As long as the order in which the formation absorbed the qi of the five elements was understood, it could be deciphered step by step using corresponding spiritual objects of the five elements.

However, the Beast Master made some changes to his protective formation.

He didn't use simple elemental qi, but his own blood demon power as the foundation of the formation.

So to unravel the formation, one needed to have the same kind of power.

If a different kind of power was inputted, the formation would instantly collapse, but the core of the formation would also be lost.

So the purpose of this formation was not to block others, but to be a self-destructing formation. As long as one wasn't careful, it would destroy itself.

The Queen Bee must have discovered the rules of the formation's operation, so she thoughtfully wrapped the cave entrance with resin to prevent any accidental impact on the formation.

With a thought, Yu Xian enveloped himself in the blood demon power he cultivated and calmly stepped into the formation.

In the air, hexagonal shields with a dark red hue appeared, resembling honeycombs, seemingly trying to stop his entry.

But as soon as the formation sensed the blood power on Yu Xian's body, the shields on the formation swayed like ripples on water, and Yu Xian walked in without any hindrance.

The old Monkey King standing outside the cave couldn't contain his anticipation and couldn't help but pull at his fur.

The voice of the Queen Bee came from the honeycomb.

"Little monkey, can he be trusted?"

The old Monkey King smiled bitterly, "Your Majesty, do we have any other options?"

The Queen Bee fell silent, and a mysterious wave rippled through the air.

Whenever this happened, clouds of mist would silently burst open, turning into strands of smoke and dust, as if nothing had happened.

The Mist Prison Formation had already cut off the Queen Bee's connection with the entire Demon Bee Forest.

And because it only needed to serve a single purpose, the consumption was not as intense as when it was used to drag out the old Monkey King. Even if it was opened for three days and three nights, there was no need to worry about running out of energy.

...

The Beast Master's cave was built by hollowing out the inside of an ancient tree, so it didn't appear cramped or narrow.

The first thing that caught the eye was a hall.

The inner walls of the ancient tree emitted a faint light, with yellow and white wood grain. The hall was empty, with cages of various sizes.

Inside the cages were various demon beasts that had turned into dried corpses. On the ground and on the railings, there were dried bloodstains.

Yu Xian walked through the iron cage and saw several corpses of silver-backed violent apes.

Clearly, these monsters were all experimental subjects of the Beast Master.

Walking through the hall, he arrived at a spacious corridor.

On both sides of the corridor were rooms with different names.

Blood Magic Room, Miscellaneous Room, Alchemy Room, Beast Breeding Room, Cultivation Room, Collection Room...

Yu Xian first pushed open the door of the Blood Magic Room and smelled a faint stench. Then he saw the corpses of monsters tied to shelves.

It was a monster resembling a monkey, about the size of an average adult, with a long tail dragging on the ground, measuring over one meter long.

Its limbs were all fixed, its abdomen was dissected, revealing an empty space inside, and its organs were nowhere to be found.

Next to the corpse were a pile of unidentified animal bones, large and small.

"This should be the Beast Master's laboratory, but he seems to have a special fondness for monsters."

Yu Xian walked to a desk, where an open book was placed, with a pen placed aside, and the ink had long dried up.

Yu Xian picked up the book, and it was the experimental records of the Beast Master.

"June 8th, 5642 of the Jiuyang calendar, weather: sunny."

"The blood magic transplantation failed. The blood of the long-tailed golden-haired monkey was completely consumed by the blood magic. After dissection, all the flesh and blood disappeared.

Could it be that my idea is wrong? Can monsters really not adapt to blood magic?

No, since the little monkey succeeded, other monsters must also be able to. As long as I have enough experimental data, I will definitely find the pattern.

Compared to the weak physique of the human race, monsters have unique advantages. As long as I fuse blood magic with monsters, my Blood Magic Technique will definitely reach a higher level.

Unless absolutely necessary, I will never harm my own kind!"

"August 16th, 5642 of the Jiuyang calendar, weather: light rain."

"Failure, still a failure. I can no longer tolerate the current progress. If this continues, when will my Blood Magic Technique reach perfection? When will I have my revenge!"

"March 12th, 5643 of the Jiuyang calendar."

"Soul Banner! Humans have souls, and monsters also have beast souls, monster souls. I will collect thousands of monster souls and refine the Ten Thousand Beast Soul Banner!"

...

Clearly, this was not just a simple experimental record, but also served as the diary of the Beast Master.

This was also the first time Yu Xian discovered that the Jiuyang Domain actually had a unified calendar.

Looking at the years and months of this calendar, even the famous Jiuyang Immortal Sect, the ruling power of the domain, had only existed for over five thousand years, far from the millennium-old heritage he had imagined.

"And, this Beast Master seems to be a protagonist as well. His family fell into distress, he obtained a fortuitous encounter with Blood Magic, and he diligently cultivated his techniques, vowing to seek revenge.

But it seems that his enemy is very strong, to the point where he doesn't even have confidence after breaking through to the Gold Core realm."

"But at least he still has some bottom line. He hasn't truly resorted to cannibalism, but instead found another way by using the essence of monster blood to cultivate his techniques.

Although this is unfair to the monster race, who made me a human as well."

Yu Xian put away the diary of the Beast Master.

Clearly, the Beast Master had deep grievances and no one to confide in on a daily basis, so he could only write in his diary to vent.

Leaving the Blood Magic Room, the Miscellaneous Room contained some ores, spiritual wood, spiritual flowers, and medicinal herbs. However, due to improper preservation, except for the ores and spiritual wood, the other medicinal properties had mostly evaporated.

But there were a few third-grade spiritual woods, which were excellent for refining formations or drawing talismans.

Yu Xian carefully collected everything with a satisfied expression, secretly grateful that he had brought along multiple storage bags; otherwise, it would have been difficult to tidy up these things.

For him, all third-grade resources were worth celebrating.

Entering the alchemy room, it was empty inside, with only a clay-colored alchemy furnace. However, the room was a few degrees higher than the outside.

Yu Xian curiously made a soft sound and walked to the front of the furnace, reaching out to touch it. Surprisingly, it was still warm.

With a thought, his mana transformed into a large hand and lifted the furnace lid, revealing a strand of bright yellow flame, about the thickness of a thumb, and appeared very weak.

"This is... the Heavenly Fire?"

Yu Xian cupped his palm, and the flame was sucked into his hand.

Different from the true fire catalyzed by mana, there were many naturally nurtured spirit fires in the world.

Spirit fires were born from the essence of fire and possessed various characteristics due to their different growth environments.

For example, the earth fire born in volcanic magma had fierce and powerful firepower, naturally suitable for refining tools. No matter how stubborn the material was, it would deform and melt under its smelting.

Another example was a kind of spirit wood called Thunder-Inducing Wood, which would actively attract lightning strikes during the thunderstorm season. If it survived the lightning strike, it would continue to grow and become stronger.

In this process, there was an extremely low probability of giving birth to a spirit fire called Thunder Flame.

Thunder Flame possessed the power to break evil. If used to refine magical tools, it would carry a trace of the power to break evil, making it most suitable for dealing with evil cultivators and demonic cultivators.

If used for alchemy, its inherent thunder power could greatly refine impurities, increasing the success rate of alchemy by one or two percent.

Recalling the records about spirit fires, Yu Xian felt a bit more anticipation for the spirit fire in his palm.

He didn't know much about this aspect, so he couldn't call out the name of the spirit fire.

But it didn't matter.

Since Wan Shou Zhen Ren placed this fire in the alchemy furnace, it must be a spirit fire suitable for alchemy. As long as he refined a few more pills and gave it a name, it would become his exclusive pill fire.

He could also go back and ask Wu Lao Zu.

After all, Wu Lao Zu had been an alchemist for many years, so his knowledge in this area must be richer than his.

Yu Xian happily put away the spirit fire and the alchemy furnace, feeling that this trip was not in vain. Every remaining gain was considered a big profit.

Behind the alchemy room was the beast nurturing room. When opened, one could see seven or eight eggs of different shapes and colors.

All these eggs were placed in stone pots, some of which were covered with a layer of dry straw, while others were surrounded by a circle of dry mud.

Most of the eggs had lost their vitality, but there were still two eggs with weak vitality.

"It seems that Wan Shou Zhen Ren is also a part-time beast tamer. It's a pity about these monster beast eggs. If they can catch the attention of this Zhen Ren, their bloodlines must be extraordinary."

Yu Xian sighed and put away the two monster beast eggs that still had vitality, checking if there was a chance to revive them.

As for the dead eggs, he wouldn't waste them and would bring them back for Ah Miao to eat.

This kind of high-grade egg was not something that could be easily obtained.

Behind the beast nurturing room was the cultivation room.

The door to the cultivation room was wide open. Yu Xian carefully probed with his divine sense but found nothing. The expected corpse of Wan Shou Zhen Ren was also not there.

Only on a simple and ancient meditation cushion, there was a tattered soul banner the size of a palm, quietly lying there with a dark red color.

Yu Xian silently looked at the soul banner, his gaze flickering, not knowing what he was thinking.

Just at this moment, he suddenly called out, "Wan Shou Zhen Ren."

These few chapters were not written very well, probably because the college entrance examination was approaching, and I'm feeling a bit anxious.

(End of this chapter)