Hundred Iron Workshop.
Inside the residence.
A strong bloody smell filled the entire room, and on the table lay a piece of exotic beast flesh the size of a human head.
Although there was only this one piece, streams of blood slowly flowed from it, dripping onto the ground.
A rich bloody smell emanated from it, clearly not ordinary beast meat.
Beside the table, Lin Sheng grabbed this piece of flesh and, with a burst of strength in his hand, stimulated it.
The head-sized piece of meat shattered with a bang, turning into a cloud of blood mist that he inhaled into his mouth.
Although eating raw flesh was nothing to him, as a normal person, directly eating it raw naturally didn't feel very good.
So he simply turned it into a blood mist, which was also quicker to absorb.
This was a piece of Advanced Spirit Beast flesh he had Nong Yu buy.
As the blood mist was completely absorbed,
Lin Sheng immediately activated his Intermediate Mimicry Talent.
Soon, part of the energy from the blood mist in his body was peeled off and began to transform in a special way.
At the same time, Lin Sheng raised his palm, and a tingling sensation came from the back of his hand, and soon, black, steel-needle-like hairs grew out from the skin on the back of his hand at a visible speed.
Before long, the entire back of his hand was covered with a dense layer of black fur, sparkling with cold glints, looking quite sharp.
He gently slid the back of his hand across the table in front of him.
Without feeling any obstruction, a corner of the table had already been cut off.
"It seems that the Intermediate Mimicry Talent is already sufficient to support mimicking exotic beasts of the Advanced Spirit Beast Rank."
Seeing this scene, Lin Sheng nodded slightly.
This progress was much greater than he had imagined.
After all, the effect of Elementary Mimicry was truly limited.
"However, it's not just the effect of Ultimate Mimicry; it should also be somewhat related to the physique of the Talent holder."
Lin Sheng stroked his chin.
He immediately ordered another piece of the same Advanced Exotic Beast meat to be sent over.
He threw it to the two Spirit Beast Rank Long-Toothed Lacquer Fish.
In the pond, the two Long-Toothed Lacquer Fish were first startled by the sudden entry of the meat and retreated several meters, but soon they were attracted by the rich bloody smell.
They frantically competed for it, and in just a few breaths, this piece of Advanced Exotic Beast meat had been completely devoured.
At this moment, Lin Sheng pointed a finger, and a burst of strength fell into the pond water. The two Long-Toothed Lacquer Fish seemed to sense the threat and quickly began to change.
Their bodies continuously trembled, and dense black spots emerged on their smooth, scale-less skin, but ultimately they stopped.
The black spots on their bodies also retracted back into their bodies, returning to their original appearance.
Seeing this scene, Lin Sheng's eyes lit up, and he secretly thought, "As expected."
"It seems that even with the Intermediate Mimicry Talent, because the Long-Toothed Lacquer Fish's host conditions are too poor, it is simply unable to perform cross-Rank mimicry."
"Even if it could barely succeed in mimicking, it certainly wouldn't be able to last long and would instead consume a large amount of its own Origin Qi."
At this moment, he had a deeper understanding of this Mimicry Talent.
Mimicking Advanced Exotic Beasts was not too difficult for him; he could complete it with some time and would not feel much pressure.
At the same time, the duration it could be maintained was much longer than imagined.
Half an hour had passed, and he could still easily mimic the form of the Advanced Exotic Beast he had just devoured.
Of course, because he had only devoured a portion, the degree of mimicry was also quite dangerous.
"But if I want to completely mimic an exotic beast, do I need to devour the complete exotic beast flesh?!"
This question came to his mind again.
To try the Mimicry Talent, he undoubtedly needed a lot of testing.
He glanced at the early evening sky outside and simply ordered Nong Yu to buy a few live Spirit Beasts to experiment with directly.
It wasn't until sunset, after several live Spirit Beasts had been completely consumed,
that Lin Sheng finally got the answer he wanted.
"The Mimicry Talent cannot completely mimic exotic beasts; even if the entire Spirit Beast is completely absorbed, it cannot achieve this."
"However, this might be due to the low Rank of the Mimicry Talent."
"But to completely mimic an exotic beast, the difficulty is definitely much, much higher than I imagined. I think even Advanced Mimicry would be completely unable to achieve this."
Lin Sheng muttered to himself softly.
After all, achieving this would be a complete change of one's own structure, equivalent to transforming from one species to another, a method that was truly inconceivable.
After many trials, he had also mastered the upper limit of mimicry.
He could only partially mimic exotic beasts. The higher the Rank and stronger the target of mimicry, the lower the degree of mimicry.
Conversely, the lower the Rank of the mimicry target, the higher the degree of mimicry, but even for mundane beasts, there was still an upper limit, and only a portion could still be mimicked.
But this was already enough for Lin Sheng.
He didn't want to use the Mimicry Talent to completely mimic exotic beasts.
Instead, he wanted to select the advantages of their Bloodline after mimicking powerful exotic beasts and refine them into his own body by devouring their blood.
Partial mimicry was already enough.
"I wonder if Intermediate Mimicry can mimic Yao Beasts?"
Lin Sheng thought, stroking his chin.
But soon, he shook his head slightly.
In Yunhai City, and even within Donghai Prefecture, it was not difficult to buy Advanced Exotic Beasts, but it was too difficult for the people of Dark Star to buy Yao Beast Rank Materials at present.
Yao Beast Rank Materials were basically monopolized by the upper echelons, and rarely flowed out.
Even if he wanted to try, he simply couldn't do it at the moment.
"Forget it, I can only talk about it later. However, judging from the performance of the Intermediate Mimicry Talent, mimicking a Yao Beast should be quite difficult. When I reach Advanced Mimicry Talent, it should be completely fine."
Shaking his head slightly, Lin Sheng suppressed the distracting thoughts in his mind.
He ordered someone to clean up the mess in the courtyard, then returned to his room and began cultivating the Supreme Heavenly Demon Scripture.
The next day, as dawn broke.
Outside Yunhai City, Lin Sheng, Shui Zhi, and a few others had already left the city.
The Donghai Prefecture Military Department stronghold was not in Yunhai City, but in Wanghai City, one of the two core cities of Donghai Prefecture.
The two cities were not far apart.
In addition, Lin Sheng only brought Shui Zhi, Bai Can, and Jin Yang, three Divine Form experts, on this trip. Their strength was not weak, and after half a day, they had already reached Wanghai City.
Looking at the huge city in sight, the few of them stopped.
"As expected of the Donghai Prefecture Military Department's main base, this grandeur is not inferior to Fulong City at all."
Bai Can said with some emotion.
At the foot of Wanghai City.
A group of four followed the caravan in front towards the city gate.
At this moment, a low beast roar suddenly came from afar behind them. Although it was very far away, the roar was deep and powerful, carrying an indescribable ferocity and wildness.
Immediately, all the horses in the caravans outside the city gate prostrated themselves on the ground, trembling, no matter how their owners whipped them, they showed no intention of getting up.
Some weaker ones were even scared to death on the spot, motionless.
From this single beast roar, it was clear that it was definitely not comparable to an ordinary Vicious Beast.
Lin Sheng, Shui Zhi, and the others turned their gazes to the rear.
Looking from afar, they only saw a cloud of dust flying.
A carriage was rapidly approaching Wanghai City.
Calling it a carriage was actually inappropriate; it was a rather large chariot.
It made Lin Sheng recall the luxurious carriage of Kamura, the Saint of Tianluo Sect, back then.
The carriage in his sight was even larger than Kamura's by a third.
Especially the exotic beast pulling the carriage in front.
This was a colossal ox-shaped exotic beast, like a small mountain, several zhang long and over four meters tall, with a fiery red body.
Its fiery red fur fluttered in the wind, and the most striking feature was the three huge horns on its head. A spear-like horn on its forehead slightly tilted upwards, occasionally flashing with points of crimson light.
Its two bright yellow eyes, the size of human heads, exuded a violent aura.
With just one glance, Lin Sheng could confirm that this ox-shaped Vicious Beast was definitely not as simple as an Advanced Exotic Beast.
"A Yao Beast!?"
He murmured softly.
This crimson ox Vicious Beast was definitely a Yao Beast.
The crimson ox moved extremely fast, and in just a dozen breaths, it had already reached the city gate.
The caravans and commoners outside the city gate had already been scared away when they saw the crimson ox.
Some horses and mules that were still prostrate on the ground, trembling,
were unable to dodge in time and were directly crushed by the crimson ox's massive hooves, turning into clumps of flesh and blood fragments.
Even when it reached the city gate, the crimson ox showed no sign of stopping.
Just as the city guards looked nervous and horrified,
a faint voice came from the luxurious carriage.
"Open the gate."
The city gate of Wanghai City was quite wide, but usually only half of it was open, and with the size of this crimson ox, it simply couldn't pass through.
At this moment, the city gate official hurried over.
Upon seeing the crimson ox, his face was already beaming with smiles.
"So it's the distinguished guest from Sea King Sect. This humble subordinate has failed to welcome you properly. What are you still standing around for? Hurry up and open the city gate to welcome Young Master Moyun into the city!"
He cupped his hands towards the carriage and then reprimanded the few city gate soldiers.
The few city guards immediately fumbled to open the city gate.
The crimson ox opened its bloody maw and let out a roar similar to a tiger's, but even more crude and wild.
Then, it strode into the city.
After the roar, the horses and mules that had fortunately escaped earlier were directly shaken to death on the spot.
Even the commoners who were closer covered their heads, their faces showing pain, and rolled on the ground incessantly.
Seeing this scene, the city gate general frowned and gave a look to the city guards, telling them to let the affected commoners and merchants enter the city early for treatment.
"Tsk, these Sea King Sect people are truly arrogant, still so overbearing even in Wanghai City."
Some commoners who had escaped cursed in low voices, feeling indignant.
They clearly knew the identity of the crimson ox carriage.
"Who says it isn't? But who told you this is Donghai Prefecture? You'd better keep your voice down, lest the Sea King Sect people hear you and cause you a lot of trouble. What's the point of that?"
"You're right, but the Sea King Sect people rarely come to Wanghai City. I wonder which Elder of the Sea King Sect this grand procession belongs to this time!?"
"Third Brother, didn't you hear the city gate official? Besides, that iconic Brahma Crimson Fire Ox just now, you wouldn't not know whose mount it is, would you?"
"I remember now! It's the Boundless Sea, Young Master Moyun of Sea King Sect!"
Listening to the idle chatter of the people around him, Lin Sheng's gaze followed the wide-open city gate for a long while before retracting his sight.
"Brahma Crimson Fire Ox?"
Bai Can, who was beside him, couldn't help but click his tongue.
"The Sea King Sect people certainly put on a grand show. That giant ox just now is most likely a Yao Beast. To use a Yao Beast as a mount is truly arrogant!"
After speaking, he was somewhat puzzled.
"Isn't Wanghai City the Military Department's stronghold in Donghai Prefecture?"
Upon hearing this, Lin Sheng didn't speak, but he seemed to have thought of something.
Shui Zhi then spoke up to explain.
"You've just arrived here, so you might not be very familiar with the situation in Donghai Prefecture."
"Although Donghai Prefecture is ostensibly controlled by the Military Department, the actual controllers are the Sea King Sect. This is a top Southern Qi force comparable to Tianluo Sect. Here, the Southern Qi Military Department's power is not as strong as in Central Prefecture, and it's not very powerful."
"Nearly seventy percent of Donghai Prefecture's industries are controlled by Sea King Sect, the Military Department controls over twenty percent, and the remaining half a percent is divided among some small and medium-sized forces. This is the situation in Donghai Prefecture."
After listening to Shui Zhi's words, Bai Can nodded and said with some emotion,
"So, there are quite a few Grandmaster experts in Sea King Sect."
"As far as I know, the Sect Master of Sea King Sect is a genuine Three Realms Grandmaster, ranking among the top existences among the major top forces. Besides the Sect Master, who is the strongest force, there are three other Grandmasters. Of course, this is what's known publicly; it doesn't rule out other Grandmaster reserves secretly."
Shui Zhi nodded and said.
"Four Grandmasters in one sect, that's truly impressive. No wonder they put on such a grand show."
Bai Can clicked his tongue.
Lin Sheng, however, said nothing; he had already known about this.
Southern Qi itself was not a monolithic entity.
The Central Imperial Court, the Military Department, and the major top forces checked each other, and competition was inevitable.
Only when facing external pressure would they unite against it.
Compared to these, he was more concerned about other things.
"Shui Zhi, do you know the background of this Young Master Moyun?"
Lin Sheng suddenly asked.
"During my time in Donghai Prefecture, I gained some understanding of the Sea King Sect's situation. This Young Master Moyun is the Young Lord of Sea King Sect, and his status is highly respected in this Donghai Prefecture. He is thirty-five years old this year and is already at the Divine Form Six Transformations Realm. He possesses outstanding talent and extraordinary combat power, earning him the title of 'Boundless Sea'."
"Boundless Sea, what a grand title."
Bai Can chuckled from the side.
After meeting Lin Sheng, hearing about these so-called peerless Geniuses, he truly felt nothing.
"Young Lord of Sea King Sect, huh!?"
Ignoring Bai Can beside him, Lin Sheng frowned slightly.
"What a pity."
He shook his head slightly and chuckled wryly.
He had finally seen a Yao Beast, and he was naturally quite interested, but the other party's status was noble, and he didn't want to take any risks.
The last time, Kamura caused him to be targeted by a Three Realms Grandmaster, a feeling he didn't want to experience again.
Especially since this was Sea King Sect's territory.
"Alright, let's enter the city."
Lin Sheng said no more. After giving the order, the group had already arrived before the city gate official, with the token they had prepared earlier.
Upon seeing it, the official immediately welcomed them in with a smile.