Chapter 45

Chapter 45

To reach the Upper Realm, the border between the Upper and Lower Realm was Qin Zhou's only path.

Thus, he returned once more to the place where he had once gathered Flame Pungent Herb.

This time, however, there were hardly any herbalist teams in sight—likely due to the impending "beast tide."

"Making it through the inner border alive will lead us to the entrance of the Upper Realm," Wen Jue said. "The spirit beasts deep within the inner border are at least mid-Golden Core, on par with late-Golden Core or even Nascent Soul human Cultivators. Normally, one would need at least late-Golden Core cultivation to dare attempt the journey."

That was why Wen Jue also felt Qin Zhou was rushing things.

Trying to cross the inner border at early-stage Golden Core… was likely…

"It’s fine."

"You're confident?"

Qin Zhou nodded. "Yes."

When he said "yes," Wen Jue dropped his doubts. He knew what kind of person Qin Zhou was—someone who never talked big.

In fact, he was too careful.

If he didn’t have total confidence, he wouldn’t have come here.

Though the border area was now missing most herb collectors, there were still people around.

Their attire no longer consisted of armor that immediately revealed their identities. Most, like Wen Jue, were polished Cultivators traveling in groups of two or three.

Thus, the duo of him and Wen Jue blended right in.

Qin Zhou knew these people were after the same thing.

Hardly any Foundation Establishment folks could be seen among them—everyone present was Golden Core or stronger.

Like him, they were all here to reach the Upper Realm.

When he had last come to gather Flame Pungent Herb, he had observed that most spirit beasts seemed to be preparing to flee or retreat into their dens—from tiny ants and squirrels to massive rock beasts and nine-stinged wasps.

Simply put, during this period, the spirit beasts wouldn’t bother with human Cultivators venturing into the inner border.

No one knew why the beasts were rampaging, but most probably shared Qin Zhou’s belief—

Now was the perfect opportunity to push through the inner border and enter the Upper Realm.

Qin Zhou wasn’t about to miss out.

So he’d come.

"Let’s go," Qin Zhou said.

Wen Jue naturally followed. As he gazed at the entrance to the dense border forest, he remembered the times he had hunted and searched for Alchemy Materials with the village chief.

Yet, it wasn’t the same.

He touched the mask fastened to his face and thought inexplicably—this time, he hid his face.

Along the way, Wen Jue concealed his aura, appearing utterly devoid of cultivation, tagging along behind Qin Zhou like an ornament.

Qin Zhou didn’t mind. He knew that if they truly encountered something beyond their ability, Wen Jue would act even faster than him.

The lower realm now suffered from depleted spiritual energy, and spirit beast species had dwindled to a fraction.

Spirit beasts fed on spiritual energy and relied on it for cultivation, so their decline wasn’t surprising.

As a top-tier grinder and an avid collector, Qin Zhou had spent eight years logging every spirit beast encounter in the official archives. It included detailed descriptions of their appearances, traits, and even weaknesses.

The officials had probably noticed this hardworking village chief, which was why they personally issued Qin Zhou a spirit beast compendium.

They also bestowed upon him the title of *Beast Tamer*, which still remained in his achievement title list. Its effect was a +20 base affinity with spirit beasts.

In the past, when the realms weren’t divided, even low-tier spirit beasts were abundant in variety. Now, however, they were few and far between, as if abandoned, scraping by in these border woods by feeding on the spiritual energy leaking from the barrier stones.

Was it the cruelty of the Heavenly Dao, or was this world truly facing collapse? Qin Zhou knew too little to tell.

He merely sighed in passing.

He needed to focus on the here and now.

After entering the dense forest, the two encountered almost no spirit beasts. Just as Qin Zhou had predicted, the beasts couldn’t be bothered with them, all holed up in their nests with hoarded supplies, seemingly waiting for something.

This was Qin Zhou’s first time entering the inner reaches.

The spiritual energy here was denser than in the outer regions—no wonder Golden Core-stage spirit beasts could still survive here.

"Just the leaking spiritual energy is enough to sustain so many spirit beasts… This barrier stone… packs serious power."

Qin Zhou couldn’t help but look up at the massive triangular stone suspended in the air, its cerulean spiritual energy continuously pouring out, maintaining the separation between the upper and lower realms.

Even he was seeing such a colossal barrier stone for the first time.

As far as he knew, barrier stones, like spirit stones, were containers of spiritual energy. The difference was that barrier stones required experts to craft the barriers.

Once the barrier was woven, the stone would steadily release its stored spiritual energy to sustain the formation.

However, even the biggest barrier stone had finite capacity.

From this, it seemed the barrier between the realms was deliberately set up—someone had established it and periodically replenished the barrier stone’s energy to maintain it.

Moreover, this barrier was sanctioned by the Heavenly Dao, endowed with the laws of the world, imposing restrictions on Cultivators from the upper realm.

*—*

"Something’s coming," Wen Jue suddenly said, cutting through his thoughts.

"Gale Sparrow Beasts. Not slow," Wen Jue answered without hesitation.

Qin Zhou snapped back to attention, his gaze shifting to the wide path ahead, covered in dried leaves.

Gale Sparrow Beasts—a type of fierce avian known for their speed.

Achilles' heel: their appetite.

Then again, most spirit beasts were gluttonous. They fed on spiritual energy, and the higher their grade, the tastier they found it.

Spirit beasts like the Ninebee Queen, which required specific poisonous herbs and smoke to deal with, were the exception rather than the norm. After all, boss-tier beasts played by different rules. Qin Zhou flung a handful of pills skyward.

With the speed of the Windsparrow spirit beast, he should have immediately seen a bird's shadow flash by, snatching the pill mid-air.

But nothing happened.

The pill was thrown up, then fell back down.

It landed not far from Qin Zhou's feet.

Qin Zhou looked at Wen Jue in confusion.

Wen Jue covered his eyes and laughed loudly, "Sorry, forgot to tell you—it's a Foundation Establishment realm Windsparrow spirit beast."

As soon as he finished speaking, a small, colorful Windsparrow spread its wings and hopped over to Qin Zhou. It lifted its tail up, pecked downward with its head, and scooped the pill into its mouth.

The colorful feathers on its rump stuck up high, as if taunting Qin Zhou.

Apart from some low-level spirit beasts, most Foundation Establishment realm spirit beasts were practically still infants.

This palm-sized Windsparrow, resembling a chick, was clearly no exception.

Qin Zhou gripped it by the scruff and lifted it up, staring coldly at the culprit that had made Wen Jue laugh at him so loudly. "I’ll eat you," he said flatly.

Wen Jue’s pulse jumped at those words.

"I’ll eat you"... Why did it sound like it was directed at him?

Tch, it’s not like he meant to laugh that hard.

The little Windsparrow, meanwhile, went rigid with fear at the words, its wings stiffening. The pill remained in its mouth—neither spit out nor swallowed.

This little thing actually had intelligence. A rare find indeed.

Just as Qin Zhou was about to let it go, an anxious voice called from farther along the path, "Esteemed ones, spare my spirit beast!"

"Little Sparrow didn’t mean to offend you two, please show mercy, Esteemed ones!"

Qin Zhou and Wen Jue turned toward the voice.

A young man hurried over. He was good-looking—refined features, fair skin, and a gentle voice. His aura oddly brought Lu Wu to mind.

But unlike Lu Wu, whose spiritual energy came from millennia spent healing and saving lives, accumulating virtue, this person's origins were unclear.

He held a staff in his hand, which Qin Zhou recognized—it belonged to one of the professions in the cultivation world:

A Beastmaster.

He wasn’t lying. The little Windsparrow, hearing his voice, perked up with confidence and immediately struggled free, hopping out of Qin Zhou’s grip. Flapping its tiny wings, it waddled its chubby body toward the young man.

The young man quickly crouched, cradling the Windsparrow in his palms. Seeing it unharmed—and spotting the unfinished rare-grade pill still in its beak—his eyes widened in shock. "You greedy thing... You stole the Seniors' pills! Spit it out now!"

The Windsparrow, upon hearing this, swallowed the pill whole—despite it being larger than its beak. "Peep!"

The young man was caught between amusement and scolding. "You really..."

When he looked up, Qin Zhou and Wen Jue were staring at him.

"What’s the pill’s value in spirit stones?" the young man asked. "I’ll make restitution. My spirit beast is greedy—please don’t hold it against us."

Qin Zhou: "Unnecessary. I gave it freely."

Before the young man could speak, Wen Jue asked, "What’s a beast tamer doing here?"

The young man quickly explained, his face flushing red, "I wanted to see the Upper Realm. Now that my cultivation has reached the Golden Core stage, if I can break through the inner perimeter this time, I’ll head there."

Same goal, then.

"Are you two headed there too?" the young man asked curiously.

He couldn’t discern Wen Jue’s cultivation level, but Qin Zhou… seemed to be at the Golden Core stage like him.

"Yeah."

"Then… perhaps we could…" The young man was about to suggest something when Wen Jue cut him off, "We’re not traveling together."

Those four words doused the young man’s enthusiasm. He gave an awkward chuckle, "Sorry, didn’t mean to overstep."

"We’ll go our own way." Wen Jue grabbed Qin Zhou’s arm and dragged him away.

His blunt manner didn’t upset Qin Zhou. On the contrary, Qin Zhou simply nodded slightly in agreement, "Farewell."

Watching the two walk away, the young beast tamer patted the little wind sparrow’s head, "Don’t wander off again, little one."

"Chirp!"

"That’s weird. My Little Sparrow has always avoided strangers, yet this is the first time it’s warmed up to someone."

"Chirp!"

"Not just you—even I felt drawn to him. Why is that?" The young man pondered but couldn’t figure it out. "Whatever, let’s move deeper in. If we’re too late, we might miss the legendary secret realm."

……

After parting with the young beast tamer, neither spoke, by unspoken agreement.

Wen Jue glanced at Qin Zhou and found his expression unchanged.

"That young man earlier… there’s something fishy." Wen Jue frowned. While he could’ve easily revealed his power to investigate the young man’s background, he held back.

If he didn’t restrain himself, this border woods would probably go haywire.

"Even if that scrawny chick doesn’t look like a wind sparrow, it is one."

A Golden Core beast tamer having a baby wind sparrow as a spiritual pet was pretty unbelievable to begin with.

"Grown wind sparrows can at least reach the Golden Core stage, and given enough time, even the Nascent Soul realm isn’t impossible. Wind sparrows are proud—they rarely acknowledge masters, much less sign some master-servant deal with a beast tamer. Moreover, wind sparrows are family-oriented. If a baby wind sparrow were captured, the adults would go berserk to kill whoever took it…"

"Either the contract wasn’t with that scrawny chick but with a grown wind sparrow, or he coincidentally found an orphaned baby wind sparrow." Wen Jue concluded.

The second option’s pretty unlikely.

Wen Jue was right. Qin Zhou listened quietly and nodded slightly in agreement, "You really know your stuff."

"Oh… someone taught me once."

"The person who raised you?"

"So what if it was?"

Qin Zhou remarked, "Yeah, they did good."

Wen Jue: ?

Who praises themselves like that?

"Beastmasters aren't usually strong fighters. Without some sort of leverage, he probably wouldn’t dare go to the Upper Realm alone," Wen Jue added.

Qin Zhou: "Yeah, but..."

"But what?"

"Never mind, let’s go." Qin Zhou frowned slightly, keeping his doubts to himself.

He had seen it—the little wind sparrow’s favorability rating with him was '20.'

Surprisingly, the beastmaster’s favorability rating was also '20.'

The wind sparrow’s favorability came from his 'Beastmaster's Mentor' title. But where did the young man’s favorability come from?

Since Qin Zhou didn’t elaborate, Wen Jue didn’t press further.

Nor did Wen Jue mention to Qin Zhou that something about the young man felt off to him. But he couldn’t put his finger on what was wrong.

In any case, it was just a brief encounter during their journey through the dense forest.