According to the "True Devil Subjugation Art," a Yao Beast is a creature that deviates from conventional beasts.
Being a wild beast, it naturally wouldn't possess overly advanced intelligence or abundant emotions; it would remain untamed, cruel, and bloodthirsty.
Therefore, during the process of raising and training Yao Beasts, one must never harbor mercy. Instead, one must be utterly ruthless and cruel, instilling fear in the Yao Beast towards its master, leading to its subjugation.
For example, one type of Yao Beast recorded in the "True Devil Subjugation Art" is the Black Roaring Tapir.
Although its appearance might seem clumsy, slow, and endearing, its nature is extremely vicious and insidious. It enjoys using its nightmare ability to plunge entire villages and towns into bloody nightmares, causing them to slaughter each other, even leading to the horrific tragedy of cannibalism.
Therefore, for a Yao Beast like the Black Roaring Tapir, it must be continuously beaten and abused during its growth to instill absolute fear in it towards its master, which then leads to absolute obedience.
Otherwise, as soon as the Black Roaring Tapir roughly masters its abilities, even if only for play, it will inevitably drag its master into terrifying nightmares and toy with them until they die.
It's not just the Black Roaring Tapir; basically, the other types of Yao Beasts recorded in the "True Devil Subjugation Art," except for one called the Iron Scale Fungi Cattle, which has a relatively gentle and non-contentious nature, are all like this.
For instance, one recorded, the Illusion Scale Demon Hound, likes to use the cover of night to stealthily infiltrate villages and towns, secretly gnawing on the heads of human infants.
Often, when the infants' parents discover something is wrong, they will only see their children's heads continuously disappearing piece by piece out of thin air, with clear sucking and chewing sounds persistently coming from the surrounding air.
That sight was utterly terrifying.
"Yao… Beast…"
Li Hai pondered for a moment, then asked Qiu Fangzheng, "Fangzheng, have you ever heard of such things as monsters or Yao Beasts?"
"No, Your Excellency, I have never seen or heard of them."
Qiu Fangzheng shook his head, then added, "My Lord, not only is Niujiao Town devoid of them, but the entire Dragon Mountain has also never heard of any monsters. There are, however, a great many bandits and brigands."
"Alright." Li Hai pouted, "Perhaps they exist in certain areas within the Jing Dynasty's territory. Otherwise, how would such a book appear?"
"Probably... possibly."
Qiu Fangzheng echoed, "After all, the entire Dragon Mountain region is not as large as a single province of the Great Jing Dynasty, so perhaps monsters exist in some provinces."
After the casual conversation, the two ghosts once again transformed into two wisps of black smoke, disappearing from their original spot and beginning to speed towards the final location.
That place was precisely where Qiu Fangzheng had always said the ancient Sect's Monument was located.
Some time later—
"My Lord."
Qiu Fangzheng pointed at a cracked, face-up, fallen stone tablet and respectfully said, "This is the tablet I mentioned earlier. From the records on it, this tablet should have been left by survivors after the earthquake back then."
"Mm." Li Hai nodded, then casually walked over and began to examine it closely.
Indeed, as Qiu Fangzheng had said, this stone tablet, about seven feet tall, meticulously recorded various pieces of information about this School.
Based on this information, Li Hai finally learned that the School's name was Hunting Deer Pavilion, an ancient Sect with a Legacy of a thousand years, renowned for its skill in raising Yao Beasts, and also quite accomplished in the Dao of Medicinal Pills and body tempering.
The reason it had to relocate its entire School from the inland regions of Da Xuan (Great Xuan) to a remote area like Dragon Mountain was because during the one hundred and seventy-third year of the sixth Black Celestial's reign in the Da Xuan Dynasty, people from this School unexpectedly unearthed an astonishing Treasure Trove from the depths of the northern grasslands of the Xuan Dynasty.
That is, the gold that Li Hai had previously seen and taken.
"Black Celestial... what a strange name."
Upon seeing this, Li Hai muttered softly, "Judging by the style of this name, could the so-called Da Xuan Dynasty... be a demonic country?"
After muttering, he continued reading.
He then discovered that the ancient tablet recorded that those gold pieces... were not the true 'protagonists' of the Treasure Trove.
The real crucial factor that forced Hunting Deer Pavilion to decide to relocate its entire School was, surprisingly, a legendary... Dragon Egg.
"Dragon Egg?"
Li Hai couldn't help but ask Qiu Fangzheng, who was beside him, "Fangzheng, you are older than me and have seen more. Have you ever heard of Dragons existing in this world?"
"Uh..." Qiu Fangzheng's skeletal face couldn't help but furrow.
I'm older than you?
This sentence almost made Qiu Fangzheng lose his composure.
It sounded both right and wrong.
But in the end, he still honestly replied:
"My Lord, although I have existed alone in this world for over seventy years, I have never seen or heard of any true Dragons appearing."
"Alright." Li Hai shrugged, "Then it seems this is probably another specialty of Da Xuan... oh no, of Great Jing."
After a few casual remarks, he continued to read the ancient tablet.
According to its content, over a thousand years ago, after obtaining that Dragon Egg, Hunting Deer Pavilion developed a great ambition.
That is, to dominate the world and carve out territories to become feudal lords.
To put it plainly, the high-ranking members of Hunting Deer Pavilion had essentially gambled the future of their School on this Dragon Egg.
They hoped that in the future, they could use it to cultivate and train a King of Yao Beasts that could crush all living beings, helping them conquer the world.
Therefore, after multiple secret discussions, this School left Da Xuan and migrated to the distant Dragon Mountain.
They wanted to secretly lie low in this desolate mountain region until the Dragon Egg developed sufficiently strong, and then return to Da Xuan to make a grand comeback.
Unfortunately, their luck did not keep up with their ambition.
As soon as they arrived at Dragon Mountain, just a few years after establishing their School's stronghold, bang, the great earthquake struck.
Ultimately, all of Hunting Deer Pavilion's efforts and ambitions came to naught.
Li Hai's comment on this was:
"If you have bad luck, don't blame society; just rest in peace."
The content after this was somewhat uninspiring.
It mainly consisted of reminiscing about the Sect's ancestors, recalling the Sect's past glory, lamenting the Sect's current miserable state, and then angrily cursing the heavens for being blind and the Heavenly Dao for being unjust.
And finally, it was a delusional hope that future generations, upon seeing this inscription, would re-establish Hunting Deer Pavilion.
Yes, in Li Hai's opinion, this was delusional talk.
Look at this ghostly place they were in; how could an ordinary person get in?
Let alone people, even ordinary ghosts couldn't get in.
Furthermore, Li Hai already bore the heavy responsibility of revitalizing the hell, so how could he possibly have the time to help Hunting Deer Pavilion with any School revival?
"I've finished reading. All in all, it was a very unlucky School. It flourished for a thousand years, but ultimately was buried by an earthquake."
Li Hai slowly raised his head and concluded, "However, all things that rise must fall; this is the true principle of the Heavenly Dao and earthly virtue. So, the demise of Hunting Deer Pavilion is quite normal."
"Your Excellency speaks wisely." Qiu Fangzheng echoed.
With that, the two ghosts transformed into black smoke, intending to leave the place.
But just then, Li Hai's calm mind inexplicably trembled.