I did several scans using my divine sense and managed to pick up a few more little pieces that the Automaton failed to take to the Lord of Lords pagoda in his mass haul.
After a couple more scans and realizing that there was nothing else left to take, I turned to Y who was standing watch over me.
"Let's go back up," I said.
"Good decision, we're being surrounded as we speak," he said.
I frowned as I was sure that my divine sense was far and wide but I didn't realize that we were being surrounded at all, even now, I don't see anything.
Y placed me slowly on his shoulder, and before I even asked, he replied, "It is the difference between Saint Qi and Heavenly Qi, though you, my lord have a unique Qi signature it is still born from Heavenly Qi. Once you Ascend, you will retain your unique signature and will have the ability to use the same variant only in Saint Qi," He said.
I seem to have understood a bit, it is as if Heavenly Qi and Saint Qi work on two different wavelengths, thus why I cannot detect whatever it is that is surrounding us. Thankfully I have Y with me, otherwise, I would have no hope of defeating a Saint Qi class prowling creature.
Y jumped up on the nearest pillar and began crab crawling upwards, rather rapidly.
"Do you know what type of creatures were surrounding us?" I asked.
"Yes, it is something similar to what we faced above, only these ones are far stronger. It appears that the strong live down below, while the weak are chased upwards," he said.
Makes sense, though I fail to understand how such creatures were able to survive this long without any food or sustenance besides the very few and rare dumb cultivators who end up coming here. Me included.
Y's crawl came to a stop as we reached the top of the pillar and onto a new platform. We continued going from one platform to another thanks to Y's Drill Head Bullets and ropes and arrived at the gate that separated this area and the next.
We arrived to the area where two broken and long-since snuffed braziers were. There were no flames to light the dark and there didn't seem to be anything to stop us from entering.
The gate that was separating the platforms and the Dark Beast habitat had already been broken, either by time or by something else.
We walked inside, making sure to scan everywhere and anywhere.
This place was almost the same as before. A long massive bridge, and many, many small caves on the side walls along the bridge. While a large distance separating the bridge and walls led to a dark chasm below.
This place was a den to one of the most dangerous things I've laid eyes on, yet with so much time has went by, I do not think that any of them still lives.
"Lord, those parasites are here also, be careful," Y spoke and soon two of the said mole rat faced creatures came at us.
After several swings of Y's sword and a powerful poison breath and ignition, they turned to burn flesh and soon to ash.
"Those things look too big to be parasites," I said.
"Indeed, but their Qi structure is very fragile, they seem to be unable to produce Qi or absorb it naturally, all of the ones we faced are in extremely weakened conditions. They must have ate and consumed everything that lived here, and now are all slowly dying," Y explained.
As we walked, I seemed to have realized that something sad happened here. Every Dark Beast that used to live here had long since been killed, and none of them remain. Perhaps they went extinct. Since only the Imperial Family had the right to raise them, and now with this last haven of Dark Beast infested with these parasites, they are probably no more in the world.
Our walk continued until I stopped. I picked up something with my divine sense that not even Y seemed to pick up.
"Y, do you see that?" I pointed.
Y looked around and failed to realize the meaning behind my words.
I had a wide grin on my face, "Do you know that being too used to using Saint Qi can make you partially blind," I said.
"I fail to understand the correlation with using Saint Qi and losing sight," he said.
"No, not like that, you're too used to using Saint Qi, that you missed something that didn't have Saint Qi," I smiled.
"Take me there," I pointed at one of the caves in the walls that the Dark Beasts used as nests.
Y made it all the way to the cave with a single jump.
Once we landed into the cave, I slowly made my way through a lot of bones and into the back of the cave.
It looked as if this small cave had a cave-in and the back side had fell down. But, that was actually camouflage.
Looking at the bones inside this cave, they belonged to two Dark beasts that seemed to have died facing the entrance of the cave. They had many broken bones. They seem to have died facing something. Or, protecting something.
I began by unraveling the rocks, bit by bit until I touched something that seemed as sturdy as a rock but felt far too smooth to be rock.
Once unraveled I picked it up, it was a large oval shaped object. And it was probably half my size and several times my weight.
I didn't even feel the weight thanks to the new body I obtained and once I turned to Y, he spoke, "Is that an egg?" he said.
"Yep, seems like it, and it still has Qi inside it, I don't know if this thing can still be hatched. But if it has Qi, it is still alive."
"Indeed, now that you speak of it, this creature has a lot of normal Heavenly Qi, and not a single hint of Saint Qi, it is perhaps on the cusp of evolving yet it was missing the final push. Perhaps it needed its parents to supplement it with Qi in order to be hatched, but since they have died, it never had the ability to hatch and forever remained frozen in that state between life and death. Unable to do either."
"It's a stroke of good luck, Automaton take this," I said.
Suddenly a small teleportation gate opened up where I placed the egg inside then it disappeared.
"Do you plan on raising it?" Y asked.
"Of course I am," I replied.
"Do you know how to raise it?" he asked.
"It's a big cat, what else besides food can it ever need, but as a dark beast it can't survive under light, Automaton make sure to place it somewhere dark we'll take care of it later." I said
The puppet nodded and left.
"Good stuff good stuff!" I grinned as I walked back to the cave's exit.
Y took us back to the bridge and we continued walking forward.
I whistled as I was moving up ahead.
"You seem content, my Lord," he said.
"Of course I am. I got Some Stone Aged Milk, and a Thunder Bull chariot that was the symbol of the Imperial Family, and now I have a Dark Beast. Thankfully the Imperial Family went extinct otherwise I'd be too worried to take these things out in the real world, but now, I have the ability to do so," I said.
"But lord, there are heavens above heavens, and mountains above mountains, though this imperial family you speak of is dead, wouldn't another, more powerful cultivator vie for your treasures?" he asked.
"Well, that's why I have you, and that's why I'm here trying to save Master Rain, so he'll owe me one, and no one will bother me after I save his life," I said.
"That is…very brilliant," Y said.
"When was I never brilliant," I grinned as we walked to the chamber of doors.