Chapter 501: Barbaric Strange Beasts

Once the direction was determined, the remaining 3,000 li of journey—even if they couldn’t fly or move by leaping off both feet—should, in theory, take just a few hours for someone at the late Yuan Ying stage to cover. After all, they could use divine techniques like space compression to move at lightning speed.

However, everyone could predict that this “game” wouldn’t be as simple as a walking race. Along the way, there would surely be numerous obstacles to satisfy the host’s desire for entertainment.

As expected, as soon as they stepped out of the valley, they saw a relatively open grassland beyond the barren mountains. Using their magical vision to look further south, they could faintly make out the outline of a forest.

What was more, there were many oddly shaped strange beasts roaming the grassland. Even with Li Jiu and the others’ extensive experience, they couldn’t identify their origins. On one side were the continuous red barren mountains, and on the other, the lush green grassland—clearly separated, creating a stunning sight.

Before entering the grassland, everyone stopped and began to discuss the situation.

“I’ve never seen these strange beasts before!” said Hua Qing, an elder at the Great Vehicle stage, shaking his head. “In the Spirit Realm, I’ve visited countless planets—tens of thousands, surely—but I’ve never seen such beasts. I don’t recognize any of them. This shows these beasts must be extraordinary. We must be extremely cautious, as we can only rely on our strength at the late Yuan Ying stage.”

The others all lowered their heads. Everyone present was at least at the Refining Void stage, having lived for thousands of years. Much didn’t need to be said—they all understood how to deal with unknown dangers. For example, how to form battle teams, coordinate efforts, and divide tasks—all required no further explanation.

This time, Tian Yin’s past experience proved useful. She transmitted a message to Su Che and the others: “These are barbaric strange beasts that should have gone extinct long ago. In the Immortal Realm, perhaps a few immortals keep them out of interest. But in the Cultivation Realm and the Spirit Realm, they should no longer exist.”

“How strong are these beasts?” Su Che asked.

“Low-level strange beasts, not very strong,” Tian Yin replied. “Three or five people at the late Yuan Ying stage can take care of one, but it would be difficult in a one-on-one fight. Of course, exceptions like you don’t apply.”

Tian Yin meant that Su Che had too many advantages—his overall strength equaled that of four or five cultivators at the same level.

Su Che gazed at the barbaric beasts scattered across the plain and silently analyzed the situation: “It takes three or five late-stage Yuan Ying cultivators to take on just one of them. Given the current situation, it’s already a serious problem.”
“To cross this plain, everyone will have to engage in fierce battles with those barbaric beasts.”
“Heng Yi, Lin Feng, and Miao Li can handle one barbaric beast each; Tian Yin and the Wasteland God Rat, working together, should also be able to handle one. As for myself and Xiao Hei, dealing with one is definitely no problem. As for Shadow, it’s better not to reveal him for now—keep him hidden as a last resort…”
At present, Su Che had one advantage: Shadow’s power hadn’t been sealed. All his original abilities still existed, unimpaired.
The reason for this was surely because Shadow was originally part of him. The sealing power imposed by that mysterious old man only affected Su Che’s physical body and failed to detect Shadow’s existence.
Su Che didn’t want to, nor dare to, reveal this trump card at this stage, because once that mysterious old man discovered it, he would almost certainly seal Shadow as well, possibly imposing even more cruel punishments.
Su Che had no idea who that mysterious old man really was. Such a person with clearly abnormal mental state was utterly unpredictable.
By this calculation, Su Che and his group could handle three barbaric beasts at the same time. For more, they would need to summon more Yuan Ying slaves from the Immortal Prison World. But this was also an ability that couldn’t be revealed unless absolutely necessary.
So, Su Che conveyed his thoughts and orders to Heng Yi, Tian Yin, and the others using telepathy, explaining how to deal with potential dangers…
Meanwhile, Da Cheng-stage cultivators like Li Jiu were also secretly plotting with Princess Xue Yu, discussing how to handle the matter of ‘Tian Yu’.
“I feel that the mysterious old man isn’t giving Tian Yu any special attention. His situation is exactly the same as ours,” transmitted ‘Mù Yǔ Yuè Zūn’, a Da Cheng-stage powerhouse. “Shouldn’t we capture Tian Yu alive first, so he can’t escape if he gets the chance?”
“That’s not a good idea!”
Ancestor Hua Qing waved his hand gently. “What if that mysterious old man really has some connection to Tian Yu? If we attack Tian Yu, we’re just seeking our own death! Under the current circumstances, we absolutely cannot take such risks.”

“Yes.” The ‘Lord of Famous Swords’, also in the Mahayana stage, nodded in agreement and transmitted his voice, saying, “We are in unknown and dangerous lands, turned into entertainment pawns in the hands of mysterious people. It’s hard enough to protect ourselves—how can we have the energy to scheme against others? The right course is to do our utmost to escape this predicament.”
A few others agreed, supporting the views of Patriarch Hua Qing and the Lord of Famous Swords.
After a brief silence, Li Jiu said, “I have a plan to determine whether there is any connection between that mysterious old man and Tian Yu. We can assign some of our trusted subordinates to act as scapegoats and attack Tian Yu and his group first. If that mysterious old man punishes them then, it will confirm our suspicions.”
“Good!”
“That’s a good idea!”
The others nodded in agreement.
But Princess Xueyu said, “On the other hand, if it’s proven that there’s no connection between the mysterious old man and Tian Yu, then if we can’t capture Tian Yu alive during the journey, we must ensure he doesn’t fall to the bottom ten.”
In other words, Su Che must not die at the hands of the mysterious old man—otherwise, all their previous efforts would be in vain.
In short, to obtain the Black Pagoda, Su Che couldn’t die at someone else’s hands; he had to die at their own hands.
Just as they were talking, several gasps suddenly came from the crowd.
“Ah…”
Five figures were pulled into the sky by an invisible force. Under the gaze of over a thousand eyes, they were instantly crushed into piles of flesh, then torn into pieces of varying sizes and scattered below.
Their personal items and life treasures were sucked into the sky by some force and vanished instantly.
Whoosh!
The mysterious old man’s head reappeared high in the sky, and he said with a laugh, “Let’s add another rule: besides not allowing your feet to leave the ground, you’re not allowed to stop moving either. If you linger like this again, more people will die a horrible death, hahaha…”
Hearing this, no one dared stay put. They quickly moved together and stepped onto the grassland.
Among the five people who were crushed and torn apart, four were in the Refining Void stage, and one was a dominant figure in the Spirit Realm—a Heavenly Monarch in the Tribulation stage.
Such a mighty Heavenly Monarch died in such a humiliating and tragic way—it was truly unbearable…
Using this as a warning, it effectively made the participants realize: this wasn’t a joke—it was a deadly game.

Over a thousand people rushed into the edge of the grassland, immediately attracting the attention of some strange, ferocious beasts nearby. Earlier, separated by the boundary between the grassland and the barren mountains, those beasts couldn’t see this large group of people; now, as soon as anyone stepped on the grass, they could sense it.
Aoooh… aoooh… aoooh…
The nearest giant beasts, covered in spikes, resembling wild bulls yet with rows of fangs, roared as they charged toward them. Their howls alerted even more beasts farther away.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The entire grassland erupted into chaos. At least thousands of beasts, as if starving for tens of thousands of years, would go into a frenzied state the moment they spotted other creatures, their eyes turning red.
“Get ready for battle! Keep moving forward—no one may stop!”
The delicate voice of Princess Xueyu rang out again.
Battle was inevitable, but anyone who stopped moving would face punishment from the mysterious old man, being torn to pieces.
At the forefront of the group of over a thousand people, they were already under attack from those spiked wild bull beasts.
The few at the front were Li Jiu and other trusted subordinates at the Great Vehicle stage. They had originally been Heavenly Kings at the Tribulation stage, but now, like everyone else, they could only rely on their combat strength from the later Yuan Ying stage. Moreover, their top-grade Dao weapons could only exert 20-30% of their power, while supreme-grade Dao weapons were completely uncontrollable. As a result, many had quickly switched to higher-grade Dao weapons.
These elites from the Spirit Realm each possessed vast amounts of magical treasures in their storage spaces. They had plenty of top-grade Dao weapons reserved to reward younger generations—at least a dozen could be taken out at a time.
Each of them was a hero, so they certainly weren’t short of magical treasures.
Boom!
Several beasts charged from different angles. The Heavenly Kings at the front had already activated their top-grade defensive Dao weapons. It could be said that no force in the cultivation world could penetrate the defensive barriers of such weapons.
But at that moment, one of the Heavenly Kings, along with his weapon, was knocked back several dozen feet by a wild bull, tumbling into the crowd. Though his defense held and he wasn’t injured, the immense force of the beast was hard to withstand.
“Not bad. Not too strong.”
Li Jiu and the others, slightly behind, felt considerably relieved. Their concern earlier had been that the mysterious old man might deliberately create terrifying monsters to kill them one by one, making it impossible to resist.

At present, the attack power of these exotic beasts is still manageable; it’s not overly exaggerated.
“Haw!”
The Heavenly Monarch who had just been pushed back let out a fierce roar, charged forward again, and unleashed a deep blue wave of divine energy to counterattack the bull-like beast.
As a mighty Heavenly Monarch, he was almost knocked away by such a low-level beast. If his feet left the ground accidentally, the consequences would be unimaginable…
It was truly a great humiliation to be mocked by a mere beast while trying to move through shallow waters!
Therefore, before his companions could come to his aid, he rushed out of the crowd and launched an immediate counterattack.
Su Che, who was at the back of the group, saw this from afar and wondered that this person’s divine wave technique was somewhat similar to his own Soul Seizing technique…
Then he heard a celestial voice whisper in his ear: “Against these barbaric exotic beasts, you must not use such techniques; the consequences will be severe…”