Eternal Tale

”A White Death Leopard! Retreat for now!”

”Hurry and scatter! We must keep it distracted!”

”Dammit! It’s so close!”

Countless disciples rushed out of the temple, their voices shaking with shock and anger.

And behind them, stormed out the temple a spiritual beast as white as snow. It exuded a powerful aura with its long white fur billowed in the wind. Its length was a terrifying 6 meters. With bloodlust in its eyes, It unhinged its jaw as it glared at the disciples running around.

The White Death Leopard’s sharp claws were dripping with fresh blood, soaking the ground. Its eyes were sharp and quick, always able to predict the movements of cultivators and finish them off quickly.

Behind the leopard laid a trail of torn and mutilated bodies. Their eyes were still filled with terror, even in death.

Roar! Roar!

With another roar, the mountain shook, and clouds of dust rose.

The leopard then started pacing in front of the gate of the temple. It seemed to be surveying the area.

”This temple is enormous. These disciples are crawling out one after the other like ants out of an ant hill.” Chen Xun sighed.

The oppressive presence of the White Death Leopard was overwhelming. Even he wasn’t sure about his chances against it. However, if they had a chance to sneak inside, it had to be now.

The disciples had gathered and discussed moments ago and had concluded that facing the beast directly wasn’t feasible. They had to distract it first.

Minutes passed, and the Wangyue Temple seemed to have fallen silent, only occasional roars from the White Death Leopard could be heard—which continued to intimidate those disciples nearby.

By the time the sun had set, nobody dared to attack anymore. After all, everyone had only one life. Who here had the courage to be the first to step up and offer it?

And so, Chen Xun and the black ox could only reluctantly withdraw, returning to the depths of the forest.

Their only advantage was their strength and endurance and the fact that Chen Xun even carried some tools that could be used to dig underground.

”Old ox, let’s dig a tunnel...” He said helplessly.

The experience they had gained digging tunnels in the Ningyun Mountains was of great help now.

”Moo?” The big black ox was surprised but immediately liked the idea. This might actually work!

”I’ll mark the distance.” Chen Xun cleared his throat and looked into the distance. Then, he crouched and swept up a clump of soil before thoroughly analyzing it for a second before throwing it back. ”Old ox, let’s get digging, this might actually work.”

”Moo!”

Side by side, Chen Xun and the big black ox started digging under the ancient tree.

Their digging speed was fast, astonishingly fast. The bags they had filled with soil from the past month’s digging were now put to good use again.

”Old ox, I’ll continue digging, and you guard the entrance.”

”Moo~” With a moo, the black ox turned around and rushed out to block the entrance. It had years of experience in these operations and didn’t require any instructions.

As time passed, under the leadership of disciples from the Ten Great Sects, the battle outside the temple resumed. They needed to keep the White Death Leopard occupied while others entered to harvest the herbs.

However, the White Death Leopard was no fool. It could see through their intentions and fiercely guarded the temple entrance. Anyone attempting to rush in was met with a bloody massacre, causing many to run off in fear.

Not to mention, there was inner tension between the disciples of the ten sects. They may appear united, but that wasn’t the case. Nobody dared to go all out in fear of being betrayed at any moment. Little did they know, beneath their feet, a man and an ox were constantly digging.

Ten days later, inside the tunnel.

”Old ox, I’m having trouble digging further. Let me measure the distance, wait for me.”

”Moo~” The big black ox sat in the pit, continuously blowing out air through its nostrils. It was the first time it had felt that digging was so tiring.

Chen Xun took out his immortal sword from the storage bag and flew ahead. He tapped into the knowledge he had gained from his nine years of compulsory education in order to calculate the distance based on his speed and the time taken to reach the entrance of the tunnel. He reached the tunnel entrance and kept note of the data, and then turned around and double checked the measurements once again on his way back.

”Old ox, we should be right down below it!”

”Moo!”

Blast!

”Moo!” The big black ox stood up, its muscles bulging. Its hooves pointed upwards, and large chunks of debris fell down.

Chen Xun also started punching repeatedly at the stone. After an hour of pounding, they were covered in dirt, but they had finally made it!

A ray of light appeared through the cracks, and they could see the ceiling of the ancient temple.

They cautiously stuck their heads out.

”It’s tough! Even we took half an hour to break through the ground. If a beast were bombarded like this, who knows how many times it would have died.”

Chen Xun muttered softly, his eyes scanning the surroundings filled with many corpses. ”Old ox, let’s go up.”

Chen Xun crawled out from the hole before helping the black ox out as well. There was a proud look in the duo’s eyes when their eyes met.

”Moo~~!”

The big black ox stomped its hooves and looked deep into the temple. There was a pool, but the water seemed quite viscous. There were also over a dozen Sun Ginseng plants growing inside, along with many companion herbs, making the scene incredibly peculiar.

They could hear the sound of the battle outside. The disciples continued their cat-and-mouse game with the White Death Leopard. Both sides were exhausted.

Chen Xun glanced at the situation outside and smiled, ”Old ox, let’s just take two plants; that’s enough to fulfill our merit.”

”Moo moo~” The big black ox exclaimed. It had never destroyed so many herbs along the way, and Chen Xun was trying to scare it again.

Annoyed, it nudged Chen Xun and then hurried to the edge of the pool, taking out the medicine box and starting to harvest the main as well as the auxiliary herb for Foundation Building pill. Chen Xun stayed behind to keep watch in case of any accidents.

”Moo~”

Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!

Hearing Chen Xun’s call, the black ox jumped straight back into the tunnel and onto the immortal swords. They then brought out the bags full of soil from their storage bags before accelerating and dumping the soil behind them as they moved.

It wasn’t long before they were out of the temple, just as they had come, leaving without a trace.

Inside the Wangyue Temple, the White Death Leopard suddenly sensed something. With a swipe of its claws, it drove away the people attacking it and hurried into the temple, but it was soon dumbfounded...

Roar!

Roar!

The White Death Leopard became exceptionally agitated, and the bloodlust in its eyes deepened. It looked back at the humans behind it with madness in its eyes! Today, they would all die!!

”What’s going on?!”

”The White Death Leopard has gone mad!”

”Retreat, retreat quickly!”

The entire situation had reached a climax, and countless cries filled the air as the frenzied spiritual beast was completely set on killing the disciples, to the extent that If taking a life meant getting wounded, it didn’t care. Anyone who approached met a bloody end.

Some people could only curse repeatedly, wondering why this trip to the Southern Dipper Mountain was so difficult. They hadn’t heard of a spiritual beast going mad like this before.

But this outcome wasn’t that bad, many had been waiting for an opportunity to act, and this moment was precisely that opportunity since the beast had seemingly gone insane.

*****************

On another side of the forest, around the Quiluo Temple, countless demonic beasts roamed. The sound of battle outside the temple was similar to that of the previous ancient temple, even the air was filled with a bloody scent. The temple gate was almost blocked by countless corpses.

Three demonic beasts at the tenth level of Qi Refining stood outside, covered in injuries and bloodstains. And behind them, was an even more terrifying demonic beast. While the disciples had been told before that every Southern Dipper Mountain expedition hanged on the fact that countless human lives were used to support it. They were mostly used to exhaust the many demonic beasts until they grew weak enough where the remaining disciples could harvest the herbs.

And with that in mind, wise men would not stand under a dangerous wall. Chen Xun and the black ox definitely wouldn’t charge in, but they could hide in the tunnel and begin their preparations, one digging and one expanding.