Chapter 1592 1585: Ruled by Beasts (8)
Chapter 1592 Chapter 1585: Ruled by Beasts (8)
"Mother is coming! Mother is coming!" The energetic shouts of the children rang in the air as they hurried to the village's center. They were all remarkably fast despite their young ages and low cultivations, a clear sign of their beastly qualities and strength.
Meanwhile, the older members of the village were far more patient, but still light-footed as they made their way deeper into the village.
Su Mei, Ming Shufeng, and Xiao Bai gave each other glances as they observed this phenomenon. Su Mei quietly unleashed her Spiritual Sense to gather further information, yet didn't sense the slightest signs of a descent from the sky or approach from a distance.
Ming Shufeng was ever cautious, executing several hand-seals as a glitter of gold sparkled around her, each glitter reminiscent of a radiant star. After gathering insight by delving into the heavens, Ming Shufeng's eyes snapped open.
"We need to go!" She shouted urgently. Before she could get out the third word, she found herself lifted atop Xiao Bai, held by her waist by the short-haired and decisive-brained Su Mei. Xiao Bai wasted no time flapping its gorgeous white wings, taking to the sky, breaching the Sky Layer in a single blink of an Ascended's eye, and traversing thousands of miles into the Dark Void.
The trio gazed at the planet intently. The planet itself wasn't too large or small, roughly medium in size, sufficient to house trillions spaciously. Additionally, the environment wasn't bad and could sustain a variety of life with a thriving ecological system. While its grade was lacking, barely reaching the astral-grade, it was sufficient as a simple habitation for living things.
From a simple gaze that could magnify, scanning the surface, one would find villages upon villages of beastmen. Not a single human soul within. Not even a single demon. However, each village felt similar with slight variations, some smaller than others, while some were massive enough to rival entire cities. They were simple in design, possessing very little technology or advanced systems such as education, only the bare minimum of bartering and hunting.
They lived. They worked. They ate. They defecated. They slept. Then, they repeated with each sleep cycle.
Su Mei and Ming Shufeng had noticed this simplicity with a single glance. Especially after seeing that each child and adult lacked the fundamental concepts of clothing or covering themselves. They lived like beasts with sprinkles of human survival instincts, such as housing and infrastructure, nude and completely free.
As they hovered a little ways away from the planet's Sky Layer, Su Mei could feel the hurried and anxious pounding of Ming Shufeng's heart through their physical contact. She had acted swiftly due to the entire situation being highly suspicious. This was, after all, a galaxy ruled by beasts.
"..." Su Mei remained silent for several seconds, and then finally furrowed her brows as she asked: "What did you see-"
Interrupting unintentionally, Xiao Bai let loose a mighty neigh. Then, the planet began to rumble. Xiao Bai flapped his wings once again, and his body was like a white flicker with crackling black lightning. Within the blink of an Ascended's eye, the distance between him and the planet lengthened by tens of thousands of miles.
The speed was explosively fast! Capable of surpassing World Emperors by a large margin!
Ming Shufeng gritted her teeth and pushed on her gurgling stomach, not accustomed to Xiao Bai's nigh-instant acceleration despite her cultivation. Her pale complexion however was irrelevant as she stared unwaveringly at the planet, her blue eyes that were like gorgeous sapphire widened uncontrollably, and her breath grew still.
"..." Su Mei's pupils constricted slightly.
"Who? Are? You?" A tranquil voice, soothing to the mind and soul, echoed out through the Dark Void. Each word was defined and separated, drawn out and lingering within one's mind as if each contained a meaning all of its own.
"Su Mei of the Neo-Dawn Empire."
Su Mei didn't act, but she did reply by introducing herself. She had already deciphered the method of communication used. It was a mixture of spatial and mental transmission that was targeting the soul. It was exquisite, however, the execution was raw and unrefined as if it was a natural ability used rather than a spell, art, or method.
A beast!
"I'm Ming Shufeng of the Neo-Dawn Empire, Heavenly Seer of World-Saint Neo-Dawn."
Ming Shufeng added an additional title, causing Su Mei to shoot her a glance. However, she subtly sent her thoughts through spiritual transmission via the Saint Rings: "A beast stronger than a World Emperor."
Seven words and Su Mei instantly understood Ming Shufeng's vigilance and the origins of her panic. Moreover, from what she could tell, this beast had a bloodline linked with space, while her bloodline had to be fairly advanced was common amongst Genesis Beasts with sufficient intelligence.
Unfortunately, the Ancient Sealed Regions had a severe lack of Genesis Beasts after eighty thousand years of human supremacy and bestial suppression. Besides Bai Lin, Xiao Bai, Anu, Ernu, and the three beasts that Wei Wuyin had nurtured since his Myriad Monarch Sect days, most beasts struggled to enter the path of pursuing their ancestral lineage. Meanwhile, cultivators mostly used beast-communicating spells to facilitate conversation, and not even Shui Fengbao had talked to other Genesis Beasts before through mental transmissions.
This was why the Sky Heart Galaxy could be ruled by beasts-existences at this level were present! With the prohibition in place preventing Heavenly Saint Phase ascension, cultivators were destined to forever be suppressed.
Su Mei's eyes narrowed as she tried to grasp the identity of the beast. However, she was unable to visually see it even with her Ocular Spell. It wasn't even remotely visible. The depths of its mystic presence were unfathomable for mortals. She could only sense the disturbance of the world around it. It was often forgotten about this limitation, and it had even allowed Shui Fengbao to be unable to immediately sense the incoming beast or its attack!
They were still firmly within the Mortal Dao!
However, Ming Shufeng and Xiao Bai could see it! Xiao Bai was confused; it had expected the beast to have fur, to originate from the feline or canine lineages given the clear signs of similarities with the beastmen and their excited exclamations of their mother coming. However, it was not a furry beast!
He saw a scaly fish.
It resembled a goldfish by design but was golden brown with specks of silvery scales, and its eyes were two spatial vortexes that seemed to lead to an endless chaos of space. It had swallowed the planet whole, storing it safely within its Internal World. With a size larger than a large-sized planet, it eyed them from the side.
Ming Shufeng was also taken aback by the fact that this so-called 'mother' was an aquatic beast! There was a story behind that for sure!
"Leave. My. Territory." The words rolled into their mind like an avalanche, filled with threat and a ferocious will. Su Mei's eyes glinted with sharpness, her hand subtly reaching the hilt of her saber.
"Wait!" Ming Shufeng yelled. She could feel that Su Mei was ready to attack, and this wasn't due to its words that suggested it didn't wish to fight, but the oppressive intent to attack them no matter what. It was simply preparing bloodline energy to launch an attack! It was buying time!
"Let's talk! Let's just talk! Not fight!" Ming Shufeng exclaimed urgently. "We're foreigners from beyond this galaxy, just visitors, and we're-"
Tensions rose as Ming Shufeng spoke rapidly. Su Mei's hand was already on her hilt, ready to be unsheathed at a moment's notice. While she couldn't see the beast, she could sense it, and that was enough to unleash a slash.
The grand battle between Su Mei and the scaly fish of planetary size was placed on a halt as the Heavenly Seer used her blessed tongue to speak reason with the beast. An unreasonably unimaginable feat. While it listened on, the hostility slowly shrunk by the second in disbelief.
These beasts were not feral; they were intelligent and had a level of awareness not inferior to humans at all. They had territories, and they seemed to be capable of even adopting children! While their society was unfathomable from an outsider's point of view, this was their world and all of it felt extremely normal, while the arrival of these foreigners had disrupted their predictable days.
"-beyond the galaxy. Your children and you can-" Ming Shufeng was relentless with her convincing words, and she told of the glorious Neo-Dawn Empire and the various galaxies they've visited, including the possibility of a cooperation of sorts! She didn't hide their strength either, heralding Wei Wuyin as a human of strength that could cause this entire galaxy to collapse, just as he had forced the Abyssal Overlords, existences far stronger than the scaly fish to submit.
Albeit the circumstances were different when comparing beasts to cultivators, she still told the truth.
Unlike Zuhei or Shui Fengbao, who were unleashing a hellish calamity on the Rocs and Almirajs respectively, Yue Songli and Ming Shufeng took different routes when interacting with the beasts of the galaxy, displaying polar opposite decision-making and attitudes. If there was a change in individuals sent to different locations, perhaps the changes would have been unpredictable.
-----
A week later.
Wei Wuyin eyed the iridescent and burning regions of the Sky Heart Galaxy, including the region filled with bloody mist and broken feathers, without any signs of corpses anywhere. It was as if they were all...eaten!
Meanwhile, a gorgeous Yue Songli sat atop the head of the star-eating hyena, mediating and communicating and Ming Shufeng was being brought to other regions with a different variety of beastmen, all of whom referred to the fish as 'Mother'. A peculiar development.
At that moment...
Ohn!
An urge to enter the Sky Heart Galaxy by the Heavenly Daos was felt, identified, and alerted by the Bloodline of Sin as usual.
"Hm?" Wei Wuyin frowned as he eyed his left arm.