Only I am Venerable

This colossal beast did indeed possess the bloodline of an Ancient Divine Beast, the Hou. Although its bloodline wasn’t perfectly pure, it was by no means an ordinary creature. On any given day, it was the sole king of the surrounding ten thousand miles of sea!

The Sea Tide Gang had led the woman in white here with malicious intent, hoping she and the beast would grievously injure one another so the gang could reap the benefits.

Human hearts are inherently greedy. To the members of the Sea Tide Gang, from top to bottom, such an act wasn’t considered the least bit excessive.

But this colossal beast, having been provoked and insulted by the woman in white time and again, finally felt the pride of the Ancient Divine Beasts buried deep within its bloodline begin to awaken!

In the already gloomy sky, clusters of inky black clouds rolled in, churning and tumbling as they gathered in ever-increasing numbers.

When an Anomaly appears in the heavens, a strange event is sure to follow.

As the beast roared relentlessly, the expression on the woman in white’s face gradually turned grim.

At the gates of the Moon Shaking Immortal Palace, an Ancient Divine Beast—a Hou—stood guard. And the Hou’s Ultimate Skill was this very type of skyward roar!

The destructive power of this sound was immense; with her current strength, she stood no chance of resisting it!

Even though the beast before her was not a pure-blooded Hou, she was no Great Power on the level of the Moon Shaking Immortal Palace’s founding ancestor!

What infuriated her even more was that this damned man had shamelessly taken advantage of her predicament. The very instant she was stunned, he sent another sword strike slashing toward her!

By now, Han Mei, clad in white like a Fairy, was certain that the combat Techniques this man cultivated were anything but ordinary!

Despite only being at the Venerable realm, he could unleash Sword Intent continuously, and each strike carried an aura of looking down upon the world. This person was no ordinary man!

Unfortunately, she was not omniscient. Only now did she realize just how terrifying Qin Li truly was. But due to a series of misfortunes and misunderstandings, the two were already fated to be mortal enemies.

ROOOAR!

Following another furious roar from the beast, Qin Li’s figure shot backward. The woman in white, Han Mei, paled. With a SPIT, she coughed up a mouthful of blood, her expression wilting as a hint of fear appeared in her eyes.

Looking at the colossal beast now, its size and appearance hadn’t changed, but its eyes now shone with a completely different light! At the same time, the flames wreathed around its body had transformed from their original red to a sinister blue!

The sky for several hundred meters around was scorched intensely hot by these flames, as if one were standing over an erupting volcano. Moreover, the flames played no favorites; they wouldn’t spare Qin Li just because he was temporarily on the beast’s side.

That was why Qin Li had instantly retreated, falling back until he reached a safe distance. At the same time, he came to appreciate the terror of his beast brother’s roar.

The beast’s roar contained a powerful Spiritual Attack. Even with his immense Spiritual Power, Qin Li didn’t dare to face it head-on. The wisest course of action was to stay far away from the rampaging beast.

The woman in white, Han Mei, had clearly anticipated this as well. However, she was a fraction of a second slower than Qin Li, and she was the beast’s primary target!

She watched as the ferocious beast opened its massive maw once more. As it let out another roar, a dragon of blue fire shot toward her!

The roar shook the woman in white so violently that she spat another mouthful of blood. She shot a venomous glare at both the beast and Qin Li before her figure flickered. She pulled an Elixir from her robes, swallowed it quickly, and thought with grim certainty, ’It’s impossible to kill either the beast or that damned, shameless bastard today! Fortunately, Junior Sister and the others should have gathered enough Cold Jade Flowers. With those, the Sect can refine plenty of Cold Jade Pills. This mission can be considered complete! As for the two junior brothers who died... alas, that’s the price of venturing out for experience!’

In a flash, Han Mei processed all of this. Without a moment’s hesitation, her body transformed into a streak of white light and shot toward the island.

The Elixir she had swallowed—a Cold Jade Pill—dissolved the moment it entered her mouth. It had a miraculous effect on suppressing injuries. Unfortunately, their Sect was running low on Cold Jade Pills. Their mission this time was to come to the East Sea and gather Cold Jade Flowers, as the plant could not be cultivated and grew only on a few select islands in this region.

Every hundred years or so, the Moon Shaking Immortal Palace would send disciples to find this Spirit Flower. They never expected that such a terrifying beast would appear on the island where it grew.

As she flew, the woman in white remained wary of the beast and that damned, shameless man giving chase. She secretly swore to herself that once she returned to the Sect, she would train even more diligently. Sooner or later, she would find this young man and repay him for today’s humiliation!

To her relief, neither the beast nor the scoundrel pursued her. Instead, they had stopped, though she didn’t know what they were doing.

’Whatever. The beast might be incredibly powerful, but its intelligence is low. It doesn’t even seem to know how to speak. Maybe it will turn around and start fighting that scoundrel instead.’

’Hopefully, they’ll both end up critically injured!’

As Han Mei flew, lost in thought, the island appeared before her. As she drew closer, she saw her group of junior brothers and sisters flying low over the island’s Forest, seemingly searching for something.

A wave of anger at their incompetence washed over her. Han Mei shouted, "Why are you all flying around aimlessly instead of helping Junior Sister gather Spirit Flowers? I lured the beast away, but it’ll be back soon! You... You’re all infuriating me!"

What angered Han Mei even more was that her junior sister was among the group flying about like headless chickens. But before she could voice her question, she heard the sound of sobbing.

"SOB, SOB..." The girl in the yellow dress looked at her with a tear-streaked, aggrieved face, as if she had just found her pillar of support. "Senior Sister, that shameless guy... he... he..."

"Spit it out! He what?" Seeing her junior sister in such a state, Han Mei felt a sense of helplessness, but also a growing premonition. ’It seems that scoundrel... just flew away from this very island!’

"He stole all the Spirit Flowers! He’s completely unreasonable... WAAAAH!"

"What?" Han Mei felt the injuries suppressed by the Cold Jade Pill threatening to worsen. Qi and blood churned in her chest, and she nearly spat out another mouthful of blood.

"All of them? H-How is that possible?" Suppressing her shock and fury, Han Mei froze in mid-air and demanded loudly.

"There’s... there’s still one left." The girl in yellow pitifully took the single remaining Cold Jade Flower from her Storage Ring. The Spirit Flower, as exquisite as a work of art, was beautiful beyond compare and radiated endless vitality.

But now, as it swayed gently in the bleak wind, it felt like a vicious slap across Han Mei’s face. She could almost see that scoundrel’s shameless grin!

"Shameless! You infuriate me!" Han Mei roared at the sky, finally unable to hold it back as she spat a mouthful of blood.

"Senior Sister, what’s wrong?"

"Are you all right, Senior Sister?"

"Ah, Senior Sister is injured!"

"Senior Sister..."

The group immediately crowded around her, descending into chaos.

Han Mei weakly raised a hand and said feebly, "Let’s go. Leave this place first. The beast will be back soon."

"But the Cold Jade Flowers..." someone began, only to be cut off by Han Mei.

"Let’s save our lives first! Go!"

Her furious shout seemed to snap everyone back to reality. The expressions on their faces were a sight to behold, their eyes filled with complex emotions. This entire experience had taught these direct disciples of the Moon Shaking Immortal Palace’s Sect Leader, who had always been so high and mighty, a vivid lesson. It was a harsh reminder that there is always someone better, a sky beyond the sky.

At the same time, a certain tall, handsome young man was now indelibly seared into their minds.

Whether it was resentment or fury, the fact remained that this group of incredibly proud, high-and-mighty youths had returned in utter defeat.

...

The terrifying transformation the beast had undergone had made Qin Li want to retreat as well. Not all Spirit Beasts, like She She, the Golden Eagle, and the Little Fox, possessed near-human intelligence.

They had only gradually developed human-like ways of thinking because they had undergone Transformation into human form. But since Ancient Times, there have always been many Divine Beasts of terrifying power that would never deign to take on human form!

It wasn’t that their intelligence was low; on the contrary, it was no worse than a human’s. They didn’t take human form because their immensely proud bloodlines gave them an almost perverse sense of pride.

They... disdained transforming into humans!

Although Qin Li didn’t recognize the beast before him, he could sense that it, too, must possess some kind of mysterious bloodline. Otherwise, such a transformation at a critical moment would have been impossible.

But just as Qin Li was about to leave, the beast changed as quickly as an actor swapping masks. The blue flames on its body suddenly vanished, and the world-scorning aura in its eyes disappeared.

It had... actually returned to its previous state!

Qin Li stared, dumbfounded. He thought, ’So its invincible state only lasts for an instant. If that woman in white had left a moment later, she probably would have called her junior brothers and sisters back to besiege both the beast and me.’

Thinking of this, Qin Li felt a little relieved as he looked in the direction the woman in white had long since vanished.

Since the beast had returned to normal, Qin Li was confident he could leave easily. He smiled and said, "Brother Beast, thank you for helping me through this ordeal. We’ll meet again someday."

With that, Qin Li turned to leave, but his inner thought was, ’A beast this terrifying, even in its current state, is not something I can handle. So, let’s hope we never meet again.’

To his surprise, however, the colossal beast suddenly spoke in a human voice. It was extremely deep and resonant, like that of a wizened old man.

"Young man... wait."

The corner of Qin Li’s mouth twitched violently. He turned back around, flashing a harmless-looking smile. "Well, uh... Brother Beast, so you can speak human." (To be continued. If you want to know what happens next, please log in to www.qidian.com. More Chapters are available to support the author and official publication!)