Chapter 3673 — Two Mysterious Figures

"Not bad. But it isn't as though every powerful spirit beast is willing to join South Island. After all, once they do, you human cultivators won't dare set your sights on them anymore, but they'll also have to submit to all sorts of restraints. So there are still plenty of extraordinarily powerful spirit beasts that don't belong to the Spirit Beast Clan at all—just as there are plenty of low-born, unaffiliated human cultivators who refuse to join a sect."

He paused, and Ghost Thing's tone turned somewhat grave: "From what this old man can sense, there are quite a few powerful spirit beasts in these back mountains whose strength would qualify them for South Island—several of them the equal of the Spirit Beast Clan's finest fighters. The fact that they've stayed here means they've no wish to join South Island. And that is a loss to the entire Spirit Beast Clan."

"The equal of the Spirit Beast Clan's finest fighters? How powerful would that be? How do they compare with that Ghost-Eyed Golden Eagle from before?" Wei Zhao asked curiously.

"The Ghost-Eyed Golden Eagle? Hah—its natural gifts and strength are decent enough, and if it keeps growing there'd be no problem, more or less, with it joining South Island. But compared with the few I mentioned, it isn't even on the same level." Ghost Thing gave a mocking laugh.

"Really?" Wei Zhao was dumbstruck for a moment. After the firsthand experience he'd just had, a vicious bird like the Ghost-Eyed Golden Eagle already seemed to him a being of tremendous power—and yet in Ghost Thing's mouth it seemed utterly beneath mention?

"Boy, the few I'm talking about are all in the deepest core of the back mountains now. As for their strength—put it this way: all you'd have to do is walk up in front of them, and if they so much as blinked, you'd be dead." Ghost Thing gave a strange, rasping chuckle.

"Uh..." Wei Zhao simply froze. Though he felt Ghost Thing was laying it on a bit thick, he couldn't help a shudder of dread, the hairs on his neck pricking upright.

A single blink and he'd die? Instinct told Wei Zhao that Ghost Thing was not lying. In the innermost core of the back mountains there were very likely creatures of precisely such monstrous power lurking. Which showed that the Three-Tier Pavilion had good reason for laying down layer upon layer of prohibitions in the back mountains—otherwise, if someone with more nerve than sense blundered in, they'd die without ever knowing how.

"Senior Ghost, then how would your strength in your prime compare with theirs?" Wei Zhao asked, a trace of hope creeping into his manner.

"Those few, placed here on the Heaven-Tier North Island—yes, their strength is genuinely formidable. But as for South Island—heh heh, this old man was an elder of the Spirit Beast Clan, ranked among the top five in strength. What does that tell you?" Ghost Thing answered his question with another.

"An elder ranked among the top five in strength? Then you'd have been among the very mightiest in the Spirit Beast Clan?" Wei Zhao had long since guessed that Ghost Thing's origins were extraordinary, but he had never imagined they could be extraordinary to this degree.

His identity was actually a core figure of South Island—that practically made him the equal of old man Xu Lingchong. This was a personage Wei Zhao, as things stood, had to look up to with reverence. And to think there was one right here at his side!

In that case, if the first one he'd encountered back in the mortal world had been Ghost Thing in his prime, wouldn't the fellow have snuffed him out without so much as blinking? He'd have been dead on the spot.

Recalling the circumstances of their first meeting, Wei Zhao felt a surge of relief. Thank goodness the thing he'd run into from the start was only this damaged primordial spirit—otherwise his bones would have rotted away long ago.

"Senior Ghost... ah, no—Senior Spirit Beast. Since you were an elder of the Spirit Beast Clan, how did you come to be in the mortal world?" Wei Zhao could not help asking. Compared with the Spirit Beast Clan, the human experts of Cloud Terrace Island were if anything more numerous—yet he'd never heard of anyone volunteering to leave Cloud Terrace Island and go back down to the mortal world.

Ghost Thing was silent a while. He did not answer directly, but asked instead, "You've probably got another question you haven't voiced yet, boy—wondering how this old man, so powerful back then, could have sunk to such a wretched state as this?"

"Heh heh..." Wei Zhao laughed awkwardly. He had indeed wondered exactly that, but hadn't dared ask outright for fear of reopening old wounds.

A being ranked in the top five of the Spirit Beast Clan, whose strength had reached Ghost Thing's level, should by rights have had few rivals left. Even if some stronger than he remained, at the very least he ought to have been able to flee when he couldn't win. That he should have fallen to the point of having nothing left but a damaged primordial spirit was truly beyond comprehension.

Ghost Thing gave a long, slow sigh, and only then began to explain: "The existence of the Spirit Beast Clan rests, in the final accounting, upon the Spirit Beast King. When he was present, the Spirit Beast Clan spoke with a single voice and stood united as a sheet of iron, so that all the other powerful sects looked upon it with awe. But when he was absent, it gradually reverted to each faction going its own way. Better than the most primitive state of things, perhaps, but the factions began to clash without cease, and it all crumbled into loose sand."

"The Spirit Beast King absent? Surely he wasn't killed?" Wei Zhao could not help crying out.

From Ghost Thing's description a moment ago, this Spirit Beast King was practically an invincible presence under heaven—even the three mightiest human experts could do nothing against him. Wei Zhao simply could not imagine what manner of being could contend with such an epic existence!

"This business, in fact, must begin eight years ago!" Ghost Thing sighed. "Eight years ago, the spiritual qi of heaven and earth across all of Cloud Terrace Island began to grow somewhat thin. Everyone noticed it at the time, but no one knew why! And then, on the central island of Cloud Terrace Island, two mysterious figures appeared out of nowhere and summoned all the great powers of Cloud Terrace Island to a meeting to discuss a response. Naturally, only those of the very highest strength were qualified to attend—not even I was permitted! As for how that meeting went, there's no way of knowing—because from that time on, our Spirit Beast King, together with those top experts, vanished!"

"Vanished?" Wei Zhao's heart gave a sudden leap! Two mysterious figures? How was this so similar to what had happened back in the mortal world?

Back then, it had been his own master and old man Wei who had taken away those late Heaven-Tier peak, great-perfection experts. How was it that here on the Heaven-Tier Island, the very same scene had played out?

Except that it had come five years later!

Still, Wei Zhao did not think these two were old man Wei—because old man Wei was still down in the mortal world! The only question was whether his own master might be one of these two.

"Oh? Senior Ghost, then where did these two mysterious figures come from? They said hold a meeting, and everyone just went? No one resisted?" Wei Zhao was rather puzzled. After all, those top experts each had their own pride—it wasn't as though just anyone could summon them! (To be continued...)

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