Chapter 105 - 102: Capturing a Demon Beast
Chapter 105: Chapter 102: Capturing a Demon Beast
An hour passed. Li Yuan stopped his cultivation and took a moment to assess himself.
His cultivation speed had indeed increased.
It wasn’t just a marginal improvement; the speed-up was directly palpable.
On the table lay the beast hide scroll detailing how to make Rejuvenation Talismans, and next to it was a recently drawn Rejuvenation Talisman. Li Yuan reached out, picked up the Talisman, and touched it with his fingertip.
To make the Rejuvenation Talisman’s effect permanent, he needed five Wood Attribute pills.
He happened to have two Wood Attribute pills on hand.
But there was no hurry. He would use them all at once after collecting all five, to avoid the hassle of unequipping and re-equipping.
Li Yuan didn’t continue cultivating. Instead, he picked up his talisman brush and resumed his work.
The Rejuvenation Talisman and the Fireball Talisman followed different principles. The Fireball Talisman was all about compression, accumulation, and explosion. The Rejuvenation Talisman was about spreading, nourishing, and gathering. In the past, when he drew Rejuvenation Talismans, his biggest problem was unevenly spreading his Wood Element Spiritual Power, causing the nourishing patterns on the talisman paper to often waver in the middle.
But now, with his Pure Spiritual Power active, the Spiritual Power at the tip of his brush was far more obedient.
Li Yuan dipped his brush in Spiritual Ink and began to draw.
The first Healing Pattern was steady, and the second nourishing pattern was spread wide. The brush tip traced a light circle on the talisman paper, and the Wood Element Spiritual Power seeped into the paper along the lines without dispersing. The final gathering stroke landed in the Talisman Core. A faint green light glowed on the talisman’s surface before quickly receding.
Success.
Li Yuan set the talisman aside and began to draw the next one.
In the afternoon, the two He family Cultivators on garden duty rotated to his area.
One was around thirty, with a dark complexion and an old scar on his temple; his Cultivation was at the Qi Refining Fourth Level. The other was younger, in his early twenties, with a leaner build and at the Qi Refining Third Level. He walked fast and talked even faster.
The two entered the Spirit Medicine garden carrying their Magical Artifacts and greeted Li Yuan first.
"Li Dao You."
"Li Dao You, has it been quiet here today?"
Li Yuan nodded.
"Nothing’s happened during the day."
The younger one breathed a sigh of relief, leaned the Magical Artifact he was holding against the stone railing, and squatted down to wipe the sweat from his forehead.
"Good, good. If this happens a few more times, the family really won’t be able to hold on."
The older one shot him a glance.
"Don’t say such demoralizing things."
The young Cultivator grimaced but didn’t retort. Instead, he turned his head to look at the talisman paper and finished Rejuvenation Talismans on the table, a flicker of interest in his eyes.
"Li Dao You, you know how to make Talismans?"
"A little."
The older Cultivator spoke up again.
"The Wang family sending you here this time has been a huge help."
Li Yuan didn’t respond to that, merely asking a question.
"Your He family’s Spirit Medicine garden produces a lot of Spirit Medicines, so why are there so few people guarding it?"
The older Cultivator chuckled with a hint of resignation.
"Lots of medicine doesn’t mean lots of people."
He walked to the edge of a medicine plot and looked down at a few Spirit Medicines that had just been set upright.
"We He family members are good at growing medicine, but we’re not skilled in Alchemy. Most of the things in this garden end up having to be sold. There’s not much we can keep for our own use."
The young Cultivator, still squatting by the stone railing, chimed in.
"To put it bluntly, we can grow it, but we can’t ’eat’ it."
"If the family actually had a Pill Refiner, we wouldn’t be in such a passive position."
Li Yuan listened without interrupting.
’No need to ask too many questions about this kind of information. If I just let the conversation flow, it will come out naturally.’
His tone was level, containing neither self-deprecation nor concealment.
"But our He family still has some standing in the area."
Li Yuan glanced at him.
"Because of your Arrays?"
This time, it was the young Cultivator’s turn to smile.
"Li Dao You figured it out?"
"It was easy enough to guess."
The garden’s Array last night wasn’t particularly strong, but it wasn’t something that could be set up casually either. Plus, Steward Liu had mentioned before that the He family could connect the Wang family with Array Masters. This was clearly the foundation of the He family’s strength.
The older Cultivator nodded.
"Someone in the family knows a bit about Arrays. It’s nothing too profound, but among the small families around here, it’s considered presentable. Whenever a family needs to repair a small Array, patch an Array Hub, or hire an Array Master, they often have to go through us to make the connection."
The young Cultivator added,
"That’s why even though our Cultivation isn’t high, we can still get by. The Wang family is willing to protect us, so other families don’t dare to mess with us easily."
"Of course, if things really get chaotic, that’s another story."
Li Yuan asked, "You’re very close with the Wang family?"
The older Cultivator nodded.
"We are. We have no choice but to be."
"A family like ours can’t survive on its own. For years, the He family has operated under the Wang family’s wing, selling our medicinal herbs in the Wang family’s market and directing any favors related to Arrays their way. We even send a few of our young people to stay with the Wang family for a while."
The young Cultivator picked up the thread.
"Some go to work, others to learn. They sign short-term contracts. To be blunt, it’s to let the Wang family see our people, and for us to use the Wang family’s resources to broaden our horizons."
Li Yuan grunted in acknowledgment.
The He family’s overall Cultivation was low, yet they could maintain their footing in the area—not because they were strong enough on their own, but because they had something others needed, and they had allied themselves with the Wang family early on.
Such a family could get by in normal times, but in times of true chaos, their situation would be even more precarious.
The young Cultivator picked his Magical Artifact back up and glanced outside the Spirit Medicine garden.
"The Wang family and the Li family have been fighting fiercely lately, and it’s hardest for those of us caught in the middle. When the Demon Beasts attack and chaos erupts, our family has to defend multiple fronts, but we just don’t have enough people for any of them."
Li Yuan followed his gaze outward but didn’t ask any more questions.
He had learned almost everything he needed to know.
The Spirit Medicine garden fell quiet again for a while.
Li Yuan continued making Talismans, while the two He family Cultivators took turns patrolling the perimeter of the garden. They exchanged a few words now and then, mostly about the mundane details of their daily guard duties. As evening fell, the three of them took their respective positions.
As soon as the sky turned dark, movement stirred once again in the woods outside the garden.
First came the soft SNAP of a twig breaking.
Then, two faint, gloomy lights appeared in the western woods, like the eyes of a beast.
The young Cultivator shot to his feet, gripping his Magical Artifact tightly.
"They’re back."
Li Yuan had already stepped out of the stone house, his gaze sweeping over the woods.
This time, there weren’t three, but four.
Two Gray Iguanas, one Iron-Spine Hyena, and another badger-like Demon Beast with its hackles raised and a leaner build. Their auras were all between Tier One Low Grade and Middle Grade. There were more of them than last night, and they charged with greater urgency.
The Iron-Spine Hyena in the lead lunged directly at the western Array.
The curtain of light trembled violently.
Li Yuan didn’t wait for it to strike a second time, unleashing his Fireball Technique.
BOOM! The fireball exploded beside the hyena, sending it flying. The hyena tumbled into the gravel, and just as it struggled to get up, a second fiery arrow arrived, piercing straight through its neck bone.
The other three Demon Beasts scattered.
One Gray Iguana hugged the edge of the Array and circled northward, as if looking for a weak point. The other charged straight ahead but was knocked off course by a Magic spell from the older Cultivator.
Li Yuan moved, using the Fire Escape Skill to close the distance. He raised his hand and launched another Fireball, blasting the most aggressive Gray Iguana and sending it flying sideways.
The remaining badger-like Demon Beast didn’t charge the Array. Instead, it skirted rapidly along the garden’s outer edge, its movements more agile than the others, as if trying to sneak in from the side.
Li Yuan glanced at it, and that strange feeling he’d had before resurfaced.
’Once or twice could be a coincidence.’
’But for Demon Beasts to attack the Spirit Medicine garden two nights in a row... that’s much less likely to be a coincidence.’
With a quick change of thought, Li Yuan didn’t go for the kill immediately. Instead, he turned and dealt with the other Gray Iguana first. A fiery arrow through the leg, a Fireball to the head to finish it—he took it down within two breaths.
Only the last badger-like demon was left on the field.
Seeing all its companions fall, the creature didn’t retreat. Instead, it suddenly darted toward the north side of the garden, its speed increasing dramatically.
A flash of fire erupted from under Li Yuan’s feet as he gave chase.
The Fire Escape Skill was astonishingly fast for short-distance pursuit. In just a few bounds, he was right behind the Demon Beast. Li Yuan didn’t use a Fireball. His right hand shot out and clamped down on the back of its neck, while his left hand pressed down on its spine, violently suppressing it with Spiritual Power.
The badger-like demon struggled desperately, its four claws digging deep gouges into the ground as it let out a sharp, piercing shriek.
The young Cultivator was stunned.
"Li Dao You, you’re not going to kill it?"
"Let’s keep it alive for now."
Li Yuan pinned the Demon Beast to the ground, his knee pressing down on its lower back. The older Cultivator reacted quickly, immediately coming over to help, using the handle of his Magical Artifact to hold down the Demon Beast’s head.
"Tie it up."
The two of them scrambled to pull out a rope and securely tied up the badger-like demon.
The Spirit Medicine garden fell quiet once more, with only the corpses of a few Demon Beasts lying on the ground.
With the last Demon Beast pinned to the ground, Li Yuan didn’t immediately deliver the final blow.
He squatted down and pried open the Demon Beast’s mouth to take a look.
The teeth were normal, there wasn’t much saliva, no pill residue, and no discernible medicinal scent. Then he checked its eyes. The pupils weren’t overly dilated, unlike the Demon Beasts at the mine last night, which had been driven into a frenzy.
Li Yuan then ran his hands over its neck, spine, and flanks.
There were no needles buried beneath the fur, no abnormal lumps, and no signs of man-made stitches.
"Give me the knife."
The older Cultivator handed him the short blade.
Li Yuan made a small incision in the flesh beneath the Demon Beast’s foreleg and probed it with his Spiritual Power. The flow of Demonic Power in its flesh and blood was chaotic, but it was the chaos of a creature that had been startled and had charged an Array, not the result of some pre-planted technique.
He turned the Demon Beast over again, checking the base of its tail and the tendons of its hind legs.
Still nothing.
The young Cultivator, squatting nearby, couldn’t help but ask,
"Did someone tamper with it?"
"I can’t be sure yet."
Li Yuan sheathed the knife and tossed the Demon Beast back onto the ground.
This badger-like demon’s reactions, aura, and physical condition all seemed normal.
The problem was, the very act of these Demon Beasts charging the Array was abnormal.
But when he actually inspected the body, there was nothing to be found.
Li Yuan stood up and wiped the blood from his hands.
"Lock it up for now. We’ll deal with it tomorrow."
The young Cultivator nodded and, together with the older Cultivator, dragged the Demon Beast to the stone railing and retied the ropes to secure it.
Li Yuan stood at the edge of the Spirit Medicine garden, glancing toward the pitch-black woods.
There was no more movement in the woods. The night wind blew, leaving only the RUSTLE of leaves.
The Demon Beasts hadn’t come in large numbers, nor were they particularly strong.
But they just came too frequently.
He withdrew his gaze and turned back to the stone house. The captured Demon Beast was still tied up outside, and its occasional struggles caused the ropes to scrape faintly against the stone railing.