Chapter 1 These Spirit Beasts

"These spirit beasts are all small local beasts from the Kunlun Secret Realm that have become monsters."

As Su Zhou descended from mid-air, Tang Yuan stepped forward. With Bai Canglang's assistance, he used his spiritual form to connect with a giant avian demon beast.

Tang Yuan, in his semi-transparent ethereal form, seemed able to forcibly communicate with people's minds in this state, obtaining the information he wanted. "They have lived in fixed areas within the Kunlun Secret Realm for generations… their ancestral bloodlines have not left behind any inherited information."

"Their ancestors should have been pets left behind by the ancient immortals and gods."

Although not as effective as Su Zhou, Bai Canglang's White Tiger aura could also intimidate beasts. With his help, Tang Yuan communicated with several tiger-like monsters that were clearly stronger. The pale-faced young man frowned and said, "Professor Su, your guess is correct. About eight years ago, these beasts were defeated by a giant bird and chose to submit—and recently, that giant avian demon beast issued an order to them to be wary of all unfamiliar outsiders."

"It should possess intelligence and is likely the one attempting to seize control of the secret realm's authority."

"Oh, it's not attacking?" Su Zhou's focus was somewhat off. He was quite surprised. "I thought the locals here wouldn't welcome us very much, thinking we were despicable outsiders trying to drive them away by any means necessary."

Moreover, if he didn't provoke and mock them, wouldn't those spirit beasts not come rushing over to attack so aggressively? Hmm, his approach did have a bit of a "fishing law enforcement" flavor. Not very commendable, should try a different method next time.

"...Indeed, it's not attacking." Tang Yuan activated his ability again, probing once more. "Well, that avian demon beast rarely appears, and there's no other information."

"That's enough." Su Zhou smiled and patted the other man's shoulder—he could touch spiritual bodies, and Tang Yuan, who was touched directly, was clearly quite startled. He obviously hadn't expected that his body, which ordinary people couldn't touch at all, would be physically contacted by someone without his active intention. "Your ability is very useful. No wonder you were selected for the exploration team."

"Professor Su, are we waiting here to regroup, or should we scout the situation first?"

Bai Canglang also took out his weapon from the weapon case he carried on his back—it was actually a multi-bladed hammer. Of course, in addition to that, he also carried a specially modified anti-material rifle that was over 1.5 meters long. The bullets for this rifle, like those of a revolver, needed to be manually loaded, and each bullet was pure platinum in color, engraved with dense, sharp runes.

Bai Canglang's role in his team was as a long-range special attacker. Of course, if enemies got close, he could also rely on his White Tiger bloodline to charge forward for close combat, but most extraordinary battles generally didn't reach the point of close combat. Except in special circumstances, most enemies were overwhelmed by their firepower from hundreds of meters away.

"My second brother, Bai Jingt涛, is currently working as a test pilot for hypersonic aircraft at Base Three. Because of his White Tiger bloodline, he's very sensitive to metal fatigue and damage to the aircraft's components, so he can always eject or decelerate and land in time, and accurately report the damage information."

This was what Bai Canglang had said when he was chatting and bragging with Su Zhou over dinner not long ago: "Moreover, with the power of our White Tiger family's bloodline, as long as we remotely control the metal in the enemy's aircraft from afar—even just a small part—we can gain a tremendous advantage!"

In response to Bai Canglang's inquiry, Su Zhou, currently the leader, thought for a moment and decided that caution was the best approach. After all, his friends were all in this secret realm, and he couldn't just recklessly charge around as he would when adventuring alone. "Let's wait for the others to come and regroup first, and see what other tricks that guy has up his sleeve after separating us."

"That guy" naturally referred to the avian demon beast that controlled the Kunlun Secret Realm's authority.

"Alright, apart from being indefensible, the summit of Pingding Mountain is also a good landmark."

Bai Canglang nodded, then took out a signal gun and fired a shot into the sky. Pink dye exploded high in the air, forming an eye-catching little firework. "I'll fire one every once in a while, and with the thunder from before, as long as they're not on the exact opposite side of the secret realm, they should be able to see it."

While waiting for the others to regroup, Su Zhou took advantage of his free time to observe the sky and sun of this secret realm.

He keenly noticed that the Kunlun Secret Realm didn't seem very large, at least not as large as he had imagined, capable of supporting a thousand-meter-tall demon god. Although there were mountains and dense forests everywhere, if a demon god really wanted to eat, it could probably eat everything clean in just a few meals.

And the sun in this world was also hazy and indistinct, not like a distant fireball. It was merely a bright light source, and its physical form probably wasn't very large either.

At this time, Bai Canglang also didn't waste any time. While exploring the surrounding area, he noticed the extraordinary nature of Pingding Mountain beneath his feet. He had Tang Yuan take him to become spiritualized, attempting to penetrate the mountain rock and enter the interior to see what was going on, but before he could penetrate more than a few dozen meters, he was repelled by a powerful force.

"This is… Xuanwu's (Black Tortoise) carapace?!"

Although the power was vast, it was gentle and lacked intelligence. Its aura was also very familiar; it was none other than Xuanwu, one of the Four Sacred Beasts—this discovery immediately shocked Bai Canglang, and he immediately took out his storage box to collect some of the stones from the ground and store them away. "The entire Pingding Mountain is the carapace of a Xuanwu demon god!"

"Is that so?" Upon hearing this, Su Zhou raised an eyebrow, also somewhat surprised. He thought of the dragon king's remains under the sea, which were like mountain ranges, and then turned his head to look at the surrounding mountains. A sudden realization dawned on him: "In that case, these mountains..."

Just as Su Zhou and his party were analyzing the situation in the secret realm, and the others were hurrying to regroup,

Rumble!

Suddenly, a low hum echoed in the distance.

Everyone looked towards the source of the sound wave—it was a palace complex located at the foot of the mountains next to the Five Central Mountains of Kunlun.

The sound was clear and sustained, like the long, unending hum after the violent collision of sword blades. As the sound rang out, an incomparably sharp aura of metal and punishment also spread in all directions, causing the light between heaven and earth to dim slightly.

Su Zhou's expression turned solemn, and he sensed something was amiss. He sensed the presence of a third-party aura outside of Kunlun and Earth.

And Bai Canglang's face darkened. He felt an extremely strong bloodline pressure, even more severe than facing the pressure of a pure-blooded White Tiger… and in the Kunlun Mountains, the only thing that possessed such an aura was probably the power left behind by the Xiwangmu Da Tianzun (Great Heavenly Lord, Mother Queen of the West).

As for Tang Yuan, his gaze was blank. After all, he didn't have demon blood, and his strength wasn't strong enough to sense anything else.

In the distant horizon, something seemed to be released from its restraints, connecting with this secret realm. It seemed to be planning to manifest an anomaly and display its power—but before it could fully extend its power into this world, the aura of metal and punishment that had originally emanated out, which seemed to belong to the Xiwangmu Da Tianzun, gathered again and blocked the connecting channel.

Not only that, but accompanied by violent spiritual turbulence, the huge gate outside the Kunlun Secret Realm that connected the two realms was also rapidly closing before the shocked gazes of everyone!

The two realms were isolated once again!

In the Kunlun Secret Realm, at the sealed land of the black giant cave, an enraged voice sounded.

"Garuda, what do you mean by this?!"

It could be seen that in the palace where the black giant cave was located, many ferocious beasts had gathered. They were of different kinds and belonged to different species, but the commonality was that these tiger, wolf, bear, and hyena beasts were at least four to five meters tall, with stout bodies like mountains of flesh. Their scarlet eyes revealed a ferocity that was almost devoid of reason, only a few of the beasts had clear eyes, seeming to possess obvious intelligence.

And these intelligent beasts, like the voice coming from the black giant cave, now seemed extremely angry.

"Didn't we agree before to summon us here to resist the remnants of the Immortal Realm? You have already summoned the vanguard of our world, so why did you reactivate the suppression seal of the Jiuling Jinmu (Nine-Spirit Golden Mother) and suppress us again!?"

"Because this is my home, even if it's not my home, it's at least where I live." The humanoid figure of Garuda was exceptionally petite compared to these giant beasts, but it did not show any fear. "You and the remnants of the Immortal Realm are both outsiders to me, and I am weak and essentially unable to resist any side."

"In that case, I really only have two options, one is to fully lean towards you, or fully lean towards the remnants of the Immortal Realm, using my bloodline and familiarity with the Kunlun Secret Realm as value to ensure my safety. You probably value my bloodline, while the remnants of the Immortal Realm may value my familiarity with the Kunlun Secret Realm and the authority I possess."

At this time, a jackal-shaped beast seemed unable to endure it, or was influenced by the will of the other side of the black giant cave. It quietly and rapidly pounced towards Garuda's back, bringing with it a gust of wind, seemingly wanting to bite it to death—but Garuda simply raised its hand casually, allowing the other party to bite. The sharp fangs, which were dozens of centimeters long, were shattered by its seemingly weak white arm.

Garuda grabbed the howling jackal's head with a backhand, and with a gentle squeeze, crushed it into a mass of bloody mud and bone fragments. Even the spiritual energy crystal condensed in the head was directly crushed, turning into semi-transparent shockwaves that reverberated in the hall.

[Shakra (Indra) once struck the Garuda with his Vajra, but only caused it to drop a feather]

The aura of the divine bird pressed in all directions, causing all the beasts to bow their heads, intimidated by its power.

But Garuda's tone was still calm: "Since I was transformed from the Azure Glazed Pearl, I have lived alone in this secret realm for more than ten years, and then came here by accident and heard your voices."

"I am very grateful that you are willing to communicate with me and accompany me through boring and lonely times, but I am very clear that you are not good people. Just as you taught me, no life will do meaningless things, such as some meaningless nonsense, helping those who are useless to them… The purpose of your willingness to spend time with me can only be for my bloodline and the resources in this Kunlun Secret Realm."

"So what?" The voice in the black giant cave also regained its composure at this time. It said in a deep voice: "At least we won't kill you, like those immortals and gods, killing and dismembering you, cooking your corpse as food. Doesn't your bloodline memory tell you? They will draw out your tendons and boil your marrow, drink your fresh blood, and eat your heart raw."

The voice in the black giant cave revealed genuine hatred. Obviously, its bloodline memory also had memories inherited from its ancestors—it could be heard that they had fought with the old immortals and gods, and had been defeated.

"One-sided words, I need to obtain information from both sides to draw the correct judgment, just like I have memories from both sides in my bloodline, I can't just believe one side."

To this, Garuda shook its head: "You once said that there are four ways for the Garuda to be born, which are viviparous, oviparous, moisture-born, and transformation-born. And I am the strongest 'transformation-born Garuda', born out of thin air from the Qi of Heaven and Earth, and naturally possess the inheritance of the divine bird—my strength is so strong that even other divine beast bloodlines of the same rank cannot defeat me."

"This is my capital."