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  Xiao Feng wasn’t quite certain if he bought Beast Master Zen’s explanation, if he was being entirely honest with himself. Sure, he believed that there was a sanctity to the ritual and indeed, if this truly was the wilderness then the situation could have gotten dangerous.

  However, there was a reason why Beast Master Zen was allowed to maintain the menagerie in the alchemy division, which was almost entirely full of non-combatants and given how valuable alchemists were, Xiao Feng thought it highly unlikely that he would be allowed to stay if there was a reasonable chance that he would lose control of the spiritual beasts under his care.

  No, Beast Master Zen and Liulian had certainly lived for a long time and as such, their bond had to be a lot stronger than Xiao Feng and Nova’s and having met the Umbral Fang in the Realm of Yul, she didn’t lack intelligence.

  Besides, predator or not, Nova was a newborn child that couldn’t even hold a candle to Liulian when it came to strength, so Xiao Feng found it hard to believe that she could really cause such an offense to a bonded beast who shared the wisdom of her partner.

  His predecessor had warned him to be wary of Beast Master Zen and it seemed like he had not been mistaken. The only motive Xiao Feng saw for his actions was for Nova to reveal her natural affinity, which would grant him more knowledge upon a spiritual beast he had failed to identify.

  So, had Xiao Feng not found it prudent to warn Nova and his insistence on trying to teach her the utilization of Wind Qi first, the conversation with Beast Master Zen could have gone very differently.

  Cold sweat began to bead up on Xiao Feng’s forehead as he realized how close he had come to being chased down by a Soul Emperor and he only managed to calm himself when he realized that, by intervening in the manner that he had, Beast Master Zen had chosen the most ideal outcome for Xiao Feng.

  He now has no reason to doubt that Nova’s wind affinity is natural. After all, how else would a spiritual beast instinctively use an element attuned qi on the day of their hatching? Xiao Feng thought. And now, no matter how hard he tries, he won’t be able to figure out Nova’s species because he’s going to keep looking for information on Wind Beasts.

  “It’s alright,” Xiao Feng replied after regaining his inner calm. “Nova told me about the ritual and how she inherited knowledge on it from her ancestors, among other wisdom.”

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  “So you have succeeded then,” Beast Master Zen noted, the certainty in his tone enough to be set in stone. “I must admit, you have greatly surprised me. Given how injured the Beast Egg was and how little I could find about it, I was skeptical of its chances of hatching, yet not only did you successfully refine a Beast Bonding Pill and manage to rescue the egg, but you even went further and managed to enter into a true bond. It seems that the tales of your impressive deeds did not sell you short, Hero of the Zheyan Pass.”

  “It took me too many attempts to refine a Beast Bonding Pill. If it wasn’t for Nova’s will to recover and if her egg did not possess natural resilience, there was nothing I could have done to heal it,” Xiao Feng humbly replied, not willing to draw Beast Master Zen’s attention any more than required.

  “While that is true, most would not go as far as you did for an egg that had a slim chance of hatching, even amongst my fellow Beast Masters. So do not sell your accomplishment short,” Beast Master Zen replied, his tone earnest. “Even getting it to hatch alone without any information on her species alone is an accomplishment worthy of a beast master. But to enter into a true bond…,” He trailed off, not managing to hide a note of confusion in his tone.

  “From a young age, I was drawn to nature. Despite being born with spiritual roots, I knew that I was not suited for the path of a martial cultivator. I did not yearn for power the same way my fellow disciples at the Azure Lotus Sect did and the grand tales of mighty yet noble cultivators chasing down and slaughtering the vile demons that know no restraint did not inspire the same fire in me as it did for so many others. For I did not want to fight other cultivators, I just wanted to explore the world I had been born into. So I snuck out every free moment I got and my joys came from discovering rare and valuable spiritual plants, documenting the traces of spiritual beasts and sometimes, even following them and getting close enough to get glimpses of them,” Beast Master Zen revealed, his tone soft and thoughtful as he recounted his past, perhaps even a touch melancholic.

  “And inevitably, one day I got caught misusing the pass I had been granted for managing the herb garden, which granted me free access through and into the sect formation. When they found me in the forest in the middle of the night, their first thought was that I was a spy for the demonic path and I must say, that is not a situation that you want to be caught in. They interrogated me for two days before they had no choice but to believe that my claim, as inane as it was, turned out to be valid. Still, I had misused sect resources and as such, had no defense if they decided to strike down my status as an Outer Disciple,” He explained, his tone sounding amused despite his mention of interrogation, which had sent a chill down Xiao Feng’s spine the moment he’d heard it.

  “What happened after?” Xiao Feng blurted out, too intrigued to hold the question back.

  “A Beast Master, who was intrigued by my situation, intervened,” Beast Master Zen said. “Due to his intervention, I remained an Outer Disciple and all he asked for in return was to help him take care of the spiritual beasts in his care a few times a week. I took to the task with great gusto and it showed in my work along with the affinity I shared with the spiritual beasts I took care of. It was not long after that the Beast Master who had aided me so greatly, declared that he would take me in as a true disciple if I accepted. That is how I became an Inner Disciple and eventually, a Beast Master in my own right.”

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