However, moments later Yang Qing quickly dismissed his guessing thoughts because finally there was a change in the mountains. They seemed grander than before and their effects became much more prominent to the point that some of the defensive features of Yang Qing's robes were triggered.
However, there was nothing to worry about because in the next instant a gold-red barrier formed around the branch that shielded him from the effects of those mountains.
"How do the core formation and palace realm guards survive here," Yang Qing inwardly wondered with a faint shiver as he recalled the short experience.
Requiem guards had a bare minimum threshold which was a late-stage cultivation base and a blue core. However, based on the experience he just had, Yang Qing had doubts about whether anyone below the domain realm would be able to survive on those mountains not unless they had special tokens or artifacts that helped them stave off the effects of the mountain.
When his thoughts reached this point, he couldn't help but look below to the long branch beneath his feet that he had detected Vice Warden Shao An's aura on.
After 20 minutes Yang Qing had already arrived at one of the mountains. It was the mountain that had normal-looking features, except for the spirit beasts that he detected where none was below the palace realm and was lush with monarch-grade herbs.
The branch took him to the summit of that mountain. On the way over Yang Qing finally realized how terrifying the mountain was despite its picturesque and serene look. He had detected almost 18 spirit beasts that made his soul tremble. For such an effect they either had to be at the peak of the palace realm or were at the domain realm already. Other than that, Yang Qing had this nagging feeling there were even more terrifying spirit beasts it's just that he was too weak to detect them.
The 18 spirit beasts that he did detect, acted in a docile manner when they sensed the presence of the branch. With his safety assured that was when Yang Qing decided to boldly take a closer look at the mountain and its 'occupants.' Use of spiritual sense seemed to have been restricted within the area so he could only use his eyes.
"Are they?!!!" Yang Qing had a look of dismay as he spotted two spirit beasts seating cross-legged as they traded what looked to be jugs of wine. They had a long scroll unfurled between them and they seemed to be discussing it, based on the serious expressions they had as they pointed to certain parts of the scroll.
One of the spirit beasts was an ashen rainbow deer and the other was a sapphire-eyed aurora bear. They were both in the middle stages of the palace realm. Under normal circumstances they should have provided a wide berth to each other since the stronger a spirit beast was the more territorial, they were.
It was rare to find two spirit beasts of similar cultivation base being in this close proximity to one another without breaking into a fight. Though spirit beasts in the palace realm had the same intelligence as humans or spirit beasts that had already unlocked their wisdom pearls, they usually avoided each other. Of course, there were exceptions such as Bolin and the green flash viper or Haishi and the green flowered babirusa. However, for the former, though they could be considered friends, there was still a hierarchy. In some regard, Bolin could be considered a subordinate of the green flash viper.
A subordinated relationship could create such a scenario and as for Haishi's case, she was an oddity who didn't exactly know the way of the spirit beast world and its ruthlessness. Thus when she tailed the green flowered babirusa she didn't have the malevolent bloodthirsty aura of a spirit beast that had eaten fellow spirit beasts, which was why the green flowered babirusa was comfortable enough to ignore her and their cultivation base were a few minor realms apart, so it had another reason not to care if it was being followed by a weaker spirit beast or not.
But for spirit beasts that were at the same cultivation level, they rarely tolerated each other, the few instances that they did was usually under influenced circumstances such as the spirit beasts being groomed at beast tamer halls around different organizations. In such a circumstance they'd be trained and forced to tolerate each other, however, even then there was always some sort of hierarchy.
Yang Qing observed some more and was shocked to find the harmonious relationship exhibited by the two spirit beasts could be seen by other spirit beasts around the mountain even the domain realm spirit beasts.
"Could it be the work of a top-tier gold-grade beast tamer?" wondered Yang Qing as his glittered at the strange interactions around him, however, all that was cut short because in no time he was already at the peak of the mountain which was covered in nothing but yellow grass and snow and a 1-meter golden red tree that had luscious leaves.
Beneath that tree was Shao An fiddling with some broken dark grey almost rusty amulet which he put away when Yang Qing appeared.
Yang Qing's eyes were wider than even when he saw the mountains because he saw the branch that had carried him over, casually disappear into Vice Warden Shao An's index finger.
"Thank you for bringing me over Vice Warden Shao An," said Yang Qing as he cupped his fists in greeting.
"Just call me Shao, and be casual like you are with Lei," said Vice Warden Shao An as he invited Yang Qing over for a seat.
"It should be your first time here, what's your impression?" Vice Warden Shao An asked.
"It leaves an impression," Yang Qing said as he smiled bitterly when he saw the look Vice Warden Shao An was giving when he had a small smile tug on his lips.
"Is this a grotto?" since Vice Warden Shao An seemed casual, Yang Qing thought he might as well ask one of the few things on his mind about the place.
"That it is…" Vice Warden Shao An said as he paused as his gaze turned distant and nostalgic when he stared in a random direction in one of the mountains.
"I was astounded too when I came here the first time. The 11 mountains really do leave an impression, En Sang lucked out with this place, too bad he doesn't seem to value it at all. He would rather be anywhere else but here," said Vice Warden Shao An with a rueful smile.
"En sang? Isn't he the chief librarian!!!!?" Yang Qing inwardly thought with a shocked expression.
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om