"Greetings! High elders!" Elder Boqin and the other two greeted out loud.
The two Dao Shell realm elders were the first to land and gazed at the dead bodies. Then without speaking to Lin Mu or the three elders, he gave out an order.
"Gather the remains and send them to the sect. The five disciples will be sent to the healing pavilion right away." One of the Dao Shell realm elders ordered.
"Yes, High Elder!" The six Nascent soul realm elders responded before they quickly got to work.
With this done, the Dao Shell realm elders could focus on Lin Mu and his entourage.
"Now tell what happened here, Elder Boqin." The High elder questioned.
"It is simple High Elder Sunsen. The disciples were being killed by the beast, and Senior Lin Mu here rescued the ones that were still alive and killed the beast." Elder Boqin answered in short.
"Hmm…" High Elder Sunsen looked at Lin Mu but did not speak.
"So you are the Lin Mu that Patriarch Hua was negotiating about." High Elder Sunsen said, his thoughts unknown.
"And the beast? This is the one I presume?" the other high elder asked.
"Yes, this is the one." Lin Mu replied.
"Very well. It shall be taken as well." The second High elder said. "Take it away!"
One of the six Nascent soul realm elder responded to his order and came to stand near the beast corpse. But just as he was about to touch it something happened.
~SCREECH!!!!!~
An inhuman screech was heard coming from the beast's corpse. The screech was powerful enough that even the High Elders were forced to shut their ears.
~GRRR~
Little Shrubby felt danger and growled towards the corpse, ready to act.
"What is this?" The Nascent soul realm elder couldn't help but say as he felt the headache from the screech.
~shua~
Then in front of them, a strange presence was felt emanating from the corpse of the Horse Manticore. It was repulsive and a sense of disgust filled everyone that was present near it.
Lin Mu was very familiar with it and had felt it several times before, knowing exactly what it was.
"Invader…" He muttered.
The presence only increased more and more, until a dark black smoky aura rose up from the body of the beast. The black slimy layer that was covering the beast started to evaporate and formed a black mass in the air.
The mass wiggled and twisted, turning into an irregular figure that had bone spurs and skulls embedded in it everywhere.
~SCREECH~
The figure let out a bone chilling shriek that could be heard for hundreds of kilometers. Even the people inside the sect could hear and the ones that had a higher cultivation could hear it even further.
In the Long Cloud sect, several strong experts were stunned and appeared in the sky, staring towards the source of the shriek.
The figure kept on screeching and gazed at the Nascent soul realm elder that was the closet to it. Even though the figure had no eyes, the elder could feel a deadly glare coming from it.
Lin Mu's eyes went wide, and he shouted, "GET BACK!"
The Nascent soul realm elder quickly flew back, but was still a bit late as the dark black smoky aura of the figure managed to touch his hand.
"ARGH!" The Nascent soul realm elder cried as he felt a deep pain in his hand that rose right up from his bones.
~SHUA~
Little Shrubby spat out a searing line of fire that forcibly pushed the figure away and severed the aura that was touching the Nascent soul realm elder.
~SCREECH~
The figure let out a shriek again and seemed to be far more angry than before.
"YOU DEMON!" The Dao Shell realm high elders were furious.
They were unable to reach in time and their sect's disciples had died to this being and now, even when they were right in front of it; they were still unable to stop one of their elders from getting hurt.
In all fronts this was an insult to their face and they would not take it freely.
The High Elder named Sunsen moved his hands in a rhythmic pattern, almost as if he was dancing and spirit Qi rose from his body. The spirit Qi wrapped around his hands and took the shape of a python.
"Cloud Python Fist!" The Dao Shell realm elder chanted.
~HISS~
The python that had just formed around his arms shot out towards the figure of the invader and threated to bite it. The python's jaws were wide open and its fangs prominently displayed.
Of course, the figure of the invader didn't stay still and counterattacked. The bone spurs on its body extended and grew, turning it into a spiky ball.
~CLANG~
The python bit onto the invaders figure and tried to swallow it whole.
~SCREECH~
The figure screamed in pain and anger as it started to shrink. It was certain that the attack was not for show and the elder was not weak at all. Lin Mu could feel the power of the attack and understood that it was something that could actually crack his Mortal Strengthening Scripture's armor.
~KACHA~
And as was expected, the invader's figure was barely able to hold for a few seconds, befog the bone spurs broke and it was crushed. The python swallowed it whole and let out a victorious hiss.
"Is it over?" Elder Peizhi couldn't help but say.
But this his words turned out to be a jinx and another screech was heard, this time a bit lower.
~mush~
The python suddenly broke apart and a mass of smoke gathered back again from its fragments. It gathered together to become the figure of the Invader and regained its bone spurs and skulls.
Though looking at it now, one could tell that it was at least thirty percent smaller and had suffered some damage in the attack.
The figure seemingly looked at the people surrounding it and let out an unwilling cry.
~SKREEE~
