Beast Taming Pavilion

In the demon realm, the bloodlines of the five great families had been passed down for generations; their status was exalted, their rank noble.

They were known as the “Five Demons.”

First came the tiger, with its boundless strength.

Second was the turtle, gifted in prophecy and knowledgeable both ancient and modern.

Because the nine-tailed divine fox of Ghost Mansion Mountain had once shaken the world in ancient times, the Ghost Mansion Fox Clan had always held a lofty position in the demon realm; by extension, the fox clan was elevated as well, ranking third.

The lion, inheriting an ancient golden bloodline that overawed all demons, was also one of the Five Demons.

As for the snake, because its body resembled a dragon’s and its divine abilities were stronger than those of most other demons, it naturally held a place among the Five Demons too.

In Yan Jue’s memory, all five demons in the novel had eventually had their nests raided by cultivators; the one with the most powerful abilities had even been taken in as a spirit pet by several sect masters of the Five Dragons Sect…

Their fates were miserably tragic.

Yan Jue steadied herself and asked, “What exactly is going on here? Arena combat?”

The goat demon paused, as if finding her question a little odd, but he still smiled and replied, “Is the lady testing this old one? This is a very popular game among us demons, also called a deathmatch… At the beginning, two people fight; then the winner tosses the hydrangea ball to determine the next opponent.”

“And the final victor gets the title of ‘Demon Champion’ for this area.”

So that was why it had been so lively when she arrived today.

They were holding an event.

Since even the Five Demons were in attendance, one could tell just how popular this game was in the demon realm.

As Yan Jue was thinking, she suddenly saw the snake demon on the arena below raise its head and howl; the cry shook the heavens and earth, fierce and wild.

It sharply lifted the red hydrangea ball in its hand and hurled it outward.

Before Yan Jue could react, the red hydrangea ball came flying at her with tremendous force.

Then it landed securely… in her arms.

Yan Jue froze. The old goat demon beside her abruptly changed expression and fled in a blur.

At once, all the spectators below the arena turned to look at her in unison.

“Oh, little lady there, you actually caught our Snake Boss’s hydrangea ball. Please come up and spar!” The young man who seemed to be the emcee smiled at Yan Jue.

What?

This hydrangea ball?

Yan Jue slowly lowered her head, glanced at the ball in her arms, and stiffened the corners of her lips.

She met the snake demon’s pale, rigid human face on the arena; looking at those golden vertical pupils greedily fixed on her, she was at a loss for words.

She forced an awkward but polite smile. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know. I was just passing by.”

The words had barely left her mouth when the snake demon on the arena lunged toward her with lightning speed. “If you caught the hydrangea ball, then you have to fight me!” Its human face suddenly split open, revealing a gaping maw.

The crowd erupted in gasps.

That little lady wore a sunset-red horse-face skirt embroidered with floral patterns. Her jet-black hair was pinned up with a gold hairpin; her skin was fairer than snow, and her narrow phoenix eyes were clear and bright. She looked like a fairy descended to earth…

It was a pity she had fallen prey to Snake Boss’s gaping mouth.

Almost the instant the snake demon lunged, Yan Jue had no time to think. Her right hand swiftly formed a seal, her left foot stepped out, and she gave a low cry: “Go!”

The Northern Sea black iron in her arms flashed with dazzling golden light in midair, forming a huge net that instantly wrapped the snake demon up.

The snake demon’s pupils shrank sharply, and then it was wound round and round by the demon-binding circlet before crashing heavily to the ground.

“…"

Since Northern Sea black iron could serve as a demon-binding circlet worn on Yan Jue’s body and seal away every trace of demon qi from her, it was clearly something that exerted tremendous suppression over evil beings.

The snake demon twisted desperately, but the more it struggled, the tighter the Northern Sea black iron constricted; faint frost gradually covered its entire body. “You’re despicable! If you’ve got the guts, let me go! Fight me properly!”

Everyone was stunned. The originally boisterous Myriad Demons Pavilion suddenly fell silent.

This little lady had actually subdued the big snake brother, who had just won three matches in a row on the arena, in the blink of an eye.

She had hidden depths!

The young emcee on the arena gave an awkward laugh. “Then… please toss the hydrangea ball to anyone here at random, lady?”

Yan Jue hugged the hydrangea ball, completely unable to make sense of what was happening. She was just about to speak when she suddenly saw the woman in front of her wearing a bright red slit gown stand up. “Juejue, throw it to me, throw it to me!”

Yan Jue: “...?”

That imposing, valiant woman in red had a slender figure, full in front and round behind; her pair of snow-white long legs were exposed to the air, irresistibly sexy.

She had a pair of amber eyes exactly like Yan Jue’s, and her narrow phoenix eyes were full of brilliance.

Looking at her, Yan Jue suddenly felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity.

All eyes fell on the fox demon who had accidentally wandered in, and the emcee smiled and urged again, “Lady, hurry up.”

Yan Jue had just been about to throw the ball when she suddenly heard an urgent bugle blast from not far away.

“The people from Beast Taming Pavilion are here!!!”

It was like a huge bomb had been thrown into calm water.

Someone screamed and sprang to their feet, running that way; in an instant, all the demons stood up too, surging toward that direction like a tide.

“Good heavens, we didn’t get infiltrated by a spy, did we? Why would people from Beast Taming Pavilion…”

“Help, last time my husband and I went to the grasslands for tea, we ran into Beast Taming Pavilion cultivators; they nearly flayed and dismembered us!”

“Run!!!”

Yan Jue was jostled several steps forward by the panicked crowd of demons. Listening to their words, she couldn’t help but pause slightly.

Beast Taming Pavilion was one of the six great immortal sects.

Each of the six great immortal sects had its own specialty.

Among them, Beast Taming Pavilion was the righteous immortal sect famous for “beast taming,” and it excelled at raising all kinds of spirit beasts and demon beasts.

A fierce wave of spiritual power came straight at her, accompanied by a surge of grand righteous energy that made countless demons and evils dread it; Yan Jue’s scalp prickled.

Footsteps suddenly sounded over there.

Yan Jue turned sharply and saw a girl in a black cloak walk in.

Yan Jue’s pupils contracted abruptly.

The girl who had walked in was the one she had seen earlier when they were eating today!

Her expression was cold. The black cloak snapped in the fierce wind, and her deep blue eyes were lowered. In her hand she held a black snakebone whip.

Beside her followed that huge tiger hound; its fur was golden, and it moved like a lazy big cat as it ambled along at her side. Suddenly its hind legs tensed, and with a howl of wind, its tiger paw slapped viciously at a demon beside it.

The little demon didn’t even have time to scream before it collapsed into a pool of blood.

All the demons, frightened and scrambling, surged inward; Yan Jue followed the crowd and ran inside.

Someone suddenly grabbed her sleeve.

Yan Jue turned sharply and saw a white-haired old grandfather staring at her. For some reason, Yan Jue again felt that this old man looked familiar; perhaps he was someone the original owner knew.

The old grandfather said to her shakily, “Princess, San Niang asked me to come tell you…”

Princess???

San Niang???

Yan Jue urgently needed a quiet place to sort through her thoughts. She couldn’t be blamed for this; when she read novels, she had never thought from the original owner’s perspective, so she didn’t know some of the relationships on the original owner’s side.

She only knew the original owner was the legitimate daughter of the Ghost Mansion Fox Clan, and that the red-slit woman from earlier probably had some connection to the fox clan.

Yan Jue tugged at her lips. “Grandpa, you…”

The old grandfather: “You’d better not go back for now. The King is in a foul mood, and things aren’t peaceful over at Ghost Mansion Mountain either. It’d be best to go first to Luwu and stay with the old matriarch there. With the old matriarch around, the King won’t make things difficult for you.”

With that, he turned into a puff of blue smoke and vanished.

Yan Jue: “...”

The blue-eyed girl narrowed her eyes and sliced sharply through the air with her right hand; golden light burst from the mark on the tiger hound’s forehead.

Yan Jue saw the white-bearded old goat who had just recommended heavenly materials and earthly treasures to her fall to the ground, his arm scraped bloody by the rough earth, as he hurriedly shouted toward that side, “Dalang, come quickly!”

A little boy had been knocked over by the crowd and was lying on the ground, crying loudly.

The tiger hound barked sharply and moved closer and closer to him.

Looking at the scene, Yan Jue suddenly felt a surge of anger.

These demons hadn’t done anything wrong at all, yet these cultivators were going to take lives without distinguishing right from wrong!

Tiger hounds were in fact a very elegant kind of spirit beast; before hunting, they most liked to savor the frightened look of their prey.

It came to a stop in front of that little boy from the goat clan and did not attack immediately. Instead, it narrowed its eyes and admired him for a moment, then suddenly opened its bloody maw.

All of a sudden, there was a deafening blast from over there.

A sleeve arrow shot over at lightning speed, carrying a surging wave of scorching flames as it stabbed straight into the tiger hound’s shoulder blade!

Blood sprayed everywhere.

“Roar!!!”

The tiger hound howled in pain. Instinctively, it lashed out in the direction from which the sleeve arrow had been fired, but hit nothing.

The next instant, faint crackling electricity could be heard in the sky.

The Beast Taming Pavilion girl looked up and saw ghostfire fireflies filling the heavens.

Yan Jue swept her right hand across the sky, and the ghostfire fireflies formed a formation.

The girl’s pupils shrank.

The Three True Thunder Array; one ghostfire firefly after another linked into a line across the sky, and with a thunderous boom, the power of lightning struck fiercely toward the people below.

The tiger hound let out a howl, its tail sweeping violently. Apparently it had never encountered such a formation before; this water-attributed tiger hound feared lightning especially, and actually showed a faint tendency to retreat.

The Beast Taming Pavilion girl’s gaze sharpened; she swung the long whip in her hand, and the ghostfire fireflies in the sky dropped to the ground in response.

Dozens of ghostfire fireflies were tiny and nimble in the air, yet she had accurately struck them all down.

Taking advantage of the moment, the tiger hound lunged toward Yan Jue’s direction.

It ran a few steps, then suddenly stopped, falling into confusion.

It had clearly seen that person here just now…

But in fact, once it got close, it realized it saw nothing at all.

Yan Jue’s figure was completely hidden in the darkness.

Just then, Yan Jue had taken an invisibility pill; her body briefly merged with the wall behind her. The tiger hound’s sense of smell had always been sharp, and it quickly noticed something amiss, opening its bloody maw to bite at her!

Yan Jue pressed her right hand to the ground and suddenly exerted force; the “Instant Thousand Miles” incantation burst forth.

Yan Jue leaped into the air; her body vanished before the tiger hound’s eyes.

-

Demons were truly a very unwelcome existence in this world.

Therefore, places where demons gathered, such as caves and the like, would prepare multiple escape routes in advance to guard against sudden attacks from cultivators.

Yan Jue followed the demons and took a hidden passage in the Myriad Demons Pavilion to the forest outside.

She could still faintly feel spiritual fluctuations behind her; she knew that the Beast Taming Pavilion girl hadn’t gone far.

After emerging from the cave, many of the little demons transformed back into their original forms; in an instant, the cave mouth was full of little dogs, cats, rabbits, and other animals, with fallen leaves swirling underfoot.

If the situation hadn’t been urgent, Yan Jue would almost have laughed.

Yan Jue took up her stance and, in the blink of an eye, used the lightness skill “Drifting Snow”; wind gathered beneath her feet as she ran off swiftly.

Yan Jue returned to the inn in the city, used Drifting Snow, exerted force beneath her feet, and leaped up, lightly flipping through the second-floor window.

It was deep night and quiet; no one would see her anyway.

It was already so late. If she went in through the front door, it would only invite suspicion.

Yan Jue sat on the bed, her heart still racing.

She had met that Beast Taming Pavilion girl at the dinner table just now; she didn’t know whether she had merely come to the inn for a meal, or whether she was also staying here.

Yan Jue naturally hoped it was the former. Cultivators of the righteous path generally had an extremely sharp sense for demonic qi; the farther away from them, the better.

Yan Jue took the Northern Sea black iron out of her Qiankun bag and let her divine sense sink into it. At once, the black iron lengthened, and Yan Jue fastened it firmly around her neck, feeling the demonic qi gradually absorbed by the black iron before finally relaxing.

She rolled onto the bed and stared at the ceiling, frowning.

Beast Taming Pavilion was one of the six great immortal sects and had always been stationed along the northwestern border.

Yan Jue remembered that in the novel, Beast Taming Pavilion only once came south, and that was when the six great immortal sects joined forces to besiege and exterminate the demons.

Now the people from Beast Taming Pavilion were already here in the southern region under Five Dragons Sect jurisdiction. What were they trying to do?!