Shielding his eyes from the sudden brightness, Jin Shu stepped out of the cave and into the daylight. It had taken him an entire day—and a fight with a Master Realm demonic beast—but he had officially entered the southern region, ho of the Demon Cult and its worshipers.
He scanned the landscape, half expecting to see demon worshipers performing human sacrifices or sothing equally grotesque. Instead, an unassuming forest stretched before him, frad by a beautiful waterfall cascading down distant cliffs.
Still, Jin Shu didn't relax. Even if demon worshipers weren't imdiately visible, danger was almost certainly lurking within the trees.
Pulling out his mother's map, he compared it to the terrain to orient himself. A brightly scribbled line—clearly not part of the original artwork—cut straight through the forest, leading to a village situated just beyond its edge.
"Hmm… if the village is right outside the forest," Jin Shu mused, "then there probably aren't any powerful demonic beasts living here… if any at all."
"Famous last words," Gold said.
"Hey, now who's jinxing things?" Jin Shu shot back.
"Still you," Shuang added dryly.
Jin Shu opened his mouth to argue, then stopped.
"…Fine. Whatever. Let's just get to the village. Hopefully they've got a warm bed and real food."
He'd been awake for a full twenty-four hours, and the only thing he'd eaten was one of Bin Yu's ration pills—vanilla flavored, with a bitter dicinal aftertaste that lingered far too long.
The promise of an actual al put so spring in his step, though he remained cautious as he moved through the forest. Halfway through, the most dangerous thing he encountered was a forest devil—also known as a horned squirrel.
Then, as he rounded a massive tree, a shadow caught his eye.
He slowed, peering deeper into the forest. Sothing tall… wide. It took a mont to resolve, but when it did, fear wasn't his first reaction. Confusion was.
The creature walking calmly among the trees stood nearly two ters tall, covered in thick brown fur. It had four hooves and a pair of enormous antlers—wider than its body was tall—from which green vines dangled, partially obscuring its long snout.
It was unmistakable.
"A moose?" Jin Shu muttered. "Those exist here?"
He recognized it from Gold's mories—a staple creature from Earth. Yet sothing else tugged at the back of his mind, an uneasy sense of familiarity from sowhere else.
"Moose… moose… where have I seen sothing like that…?"
"Jin Shu," Nano said sharply. "Run."
"Oh fff—"
The warning snapped sothing into place. Jin Shu spun and bolted, sprinting through the forest as fast as his legs could carry him. As he ran, mories from the sect's library surfaced—specifically a peculiar book with only ten pages. Each page held nothing more than an illustration, a na, and a single warning: Avoid at all costs.
The creature he'd just seen appeared on the seventh page.
The Ill-Oned Dread Beast.
They were ranked by threat, from deadliest to world-ending. Seventh placed it above the forr—three steps closer to catastrophe. Not quite an extinction-level event, but far beyond sothing any cultivator should ever encounter.
"Moo!"
The bugle echoed through the forest, impossibly close. Jin Shu risked a glance over his shoulder and nearly had a heart attack.
The beast was still there—walking calmly after him, as if on a leisurely stroll. No matter how fast Jin Shu ran, it never seed to fall behind.
"Nano," he gasped, "you got a strategy for this one?"
"Run."
"Oh. Right. Yeah," Jin Shu replied with a dry, breathless chuckle. "Brilliant plan."
"Even if an immortal stood in your place," Nano continued, "the best they could hope for would be containnt. The Ill-Oned Dread Beast is unkillable and inexhaustible."
Jin Shu didn't have ti to listen to Nano's explanation. He was too busy pushing his body to its limits, fleeing from the ever-present being behind him. No matter how fast he ran—or how many obstacles he put between them—the creature was always there whenever he glanced over his shoulder.
At one point, he skidded to a halt, poured a massive surge of qi into his bullets, and emptied an entire thirty-round magazine into the beast.
Its body shimred like a mirage.
The bullets passed straight through it, shredding the forest behind instead.
"Is… is that supposed to happen?" Jin Shu gasped.
"That likely explains why it was labeled unkillable," Nano replied.
Jin Shu chewed his lip, mind racing. Running wasn't working. His weapons were useless.
"You said an immortal might be able to trap it, right?"
"I cannot be certain," Nano said. "The only immortal we have encountered was the remnant of the Dryad Queen, and she acted through Fan Biyu's body."
"Well, I don't have any spare immortals lying around," Jin Shu muttered. "Got any other ideas?"
"None."
Jin Shu exhaled sharply. "Then we trap it."
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not ant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
He didn't have ti to stop and carve an intricate formation, but he did have sothing almost as valuable—knowledge. Formation theory had been drilled into him since childhood, and now he'd have to rely on instinct and improvisation.
As he ran, he forced his qi through his ridians, down his legs, into his feet, and finally into the earth itself. Every step left behind a faintly glowing footprint, marking the ground as he wove between the trees in a deliberate pattern.
The Ill-Oned Dread Beast didn't rush him. It never closed the distance, never fell behind—simply followed at a constant pace, its presence pressing down on him like a suffocating weight.
So that's why they call it a dread beast, Jin Shu thought grimly. Not because it killed you quickly—but because it chased you endlessly, filling you with despair until there was nowhere left to run.
He circled the creature again and again, threading his path through the forest, the glowing qi trail slowly connecting into a complex, incomplete pattern.
Please work, he thought. Just long enough for to get away.
Gritting his teeth hard enough for them to creak, Jin Shu stepped toward the Ill-Oned Dread Beast and pulled out the demonic core he'd harvested from the Cave Dragon.
For the first ti since the chase began, the beast stopped moving.
It didn't retreat.
It simply allowed him to approach.
His heart hamred harder with every step. When he was less than ten feet away, it felt as though it might tear itself from his chest.
The Ill-Oned Dread Beast regarded him with eyes blacker than the abyss itself. A line from Gold's mories surfaced unbidden.
If you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes back.
His vision blurred.
Death flooded his mind—his mother's body broken and still, Yin'er crying out as she vanished, his loved ones dying one after another while he stood powerless to stop it.
"Wake up!" Gold roared inside his mind.
Jin Shu blinked violently, reality snapping back into place. He stumbled, fell backward, and scrambled away on hands and knees.
The dread beast narrowed its eyes, irritation flickering across its massive features. It snorted, mist curling from its nostrils.
Jin Shu didn't hesitate again.
He scrawled runes across the demonic core with shaking hands, slamd it into the earth, and linked it to the incomplete formation lines. Qi surged from his body into the core, flooding it—then he turned and ran.
The Ill-Oned Dread Beast glanced down at the core, stepped over it, and brought a heavy hoof crashing down.
Crack.
Jin Shu heard the sound and couldn't help smirking as he glanced back.
"I was hoping you'd do that."
The shattered core erupted in blinding white light. Pressure slamd into the forest like a descending heaven—trees groaned, beasts fled, and Jin Shu spat a mouthful of blood as the force washed over him.
The grin never left his face.
The light surged outward, racing along the glowing footprints he'd left behind. In an instant, they connected—rising into a semi-transparent barrier of pure white radiance.
"Hope you enjoy my Pure-Light Trapping Formation," Jin Shu called out. "See ya never, sucker."
He raised a hand and flipped the beast off from the other side of the barrier.
The Ill-Oned Dread Beast blinked slowly and stepped forward. Jin Shu's heart sank as it approached the edge of the formation. The beast tilted its head and gently tapped the barrier with one antler.
Clink.
The sound rang like tal striking glass.
The barrier held.
The dread beast stared at Jin Shu through the light screen, eyes narrowing once more. Then, without warning, it vanished—as though it had never existed at all.
"Oh… crap!"
Jin Shu slamd himself against the barrier, keeping the formation at his back as his eyes flicked to every shadow. If the beast could vanish like that, there was no guarantee it couldn't reappear behind him.
Seconds stretched into minutes. Minutes bled into hours.
Nothing happened.
No footsteps. No pressure. No impossible presence watching him from just beyond sight.
"Is… is it really gone?" he asked quietly.
"Seems like it," Shuang replied.
"Holy shit…" Jin Shu slid down the barrier, hitting the ground hard as the tension finally drained from his body. His limbs trembled now that his nerves had nothing left to cling to.
"It's barely been more than a day since we left the sect," he muttered. "And we've already run into an Adept Realm python that swallowed a peak Spirit Realm beast whole, a dying Master Realm Cave Dragon… and then that thing."
He stared up through the trees, swallowing.
"A being that would make even immortals run with their tails tucked."
Silence lingered.
"…This world is scary."
Ill-Oned Dread Beast Sketch:
This was drawn by my little sister after she read this chapter 😊
It's not really as imposing and more moose-like than the image I was trying to go for, but cool nonetheless!
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