Young Noble Be Monster Slaying

Chapter 542: Thunderbolt Stronghold

The sharp cry of a bird pierced through the air. "Keeew!"

A shadowy creature loomed over a hillside, descending toward it at the very next second.

Four disciples of the Thunderbolt Stronghold were sitting on that hillside, deep in a discussion.

Their team leader was, of course, the Thunderbolt Stronghold's eldest disciple of the current generation, Du Wuhen. He was dark-skinned, tall, and slim with limbs as long and agile as an ape's, giving him a rather unusual appearance.

At this moment, Du Wuhen stood up, his hands almost reaching his knees. He raised his arm, and the shadowy creature shrank in midair, landing on his arm.

"Misty Waters City is filled with people from the Penglai Supreme Sect. There's no way the Mount Shu Sect team is there," Du Wuhen said quietly.

Right then, the shadowy creature's true appearance was finally revealed. It was a spirit bird with feathers that were colored a deep shade of azure and covered in intricate patterns. The beautiful spirit bird had a pair of lively and animated eyes like those of a human. Despite being the average size of an ordinary bird, the spirit bird exuded the arrogant air of the mighty.

This was Du Wuhen's tamed beast, the Azure Mysterious Wind Bird.

In the Assembly of Immortal Sects, restrictions were applied to members of beast-taming sects like the Thunderbolt Stronghold, greatly reducing their combat power. The assembly rules only allowed tamed beasts that were bound by a soul contract to participate in the competition.

A soul contract was a method that beast tamers used to control their beasts, similar to how a Soul Subjugator controlled the souls under their command. Limitations were imposed on the target to ensure their obedience.

There was one key difference between the beast tamers' soul contract and the Soul Subjugators' soul control—the parties in a soul contract shared the benefits and drawbacks. The death of the beast tamer would result in the death of the soul-bound tamed beast. On the other hand, the death of the soul-bound tamed beast would result in damage to the beast tamer's soul.

Additionally, their cultivation journeys were mutually complementary. If one party made a breakthrough in cultivation, the other would benefit from it too.

Initially, there were no issues with this rule. Without it, everyone would just take their sect's guardian celestial beast into the events.

The problem was that many of the spirit beasts of the Thunderbolt Stronghold's beast tamers were not controlled through soul contracts. This was because a person's soul could only accommodate a limited number of soul contracts—typically three and at most five or six as they raised their cultivation level. The beast tamer would be unable to bear any more soul contracts than that.

Moreover, soul contracts could not be easily removed. They could only free up a spot when one of their soul-bound tamed beasts died. However, the death of a soul-bound tamed beast would permanently damage the beast tamer's soul.

Therefore, beast tamers were extremely cautious when imprinting their souls with soul contracts. They only formed soul contracts with spirit beasts that met their high standards of talent and combat ability.

There were limitations for soul contracts. Usually, a tamed beast could not exceed its master's cultivation level by more than half a realm, at most a full realm. Otherwise, the soul contract could not be formed.

Therefore, the disciples of the Thunderbolt Stronghold relied more on emotional bonding to tie their tamed beasts to them. They helped their tamed beasts cultivate by giving them sufficient resources. In turn, the tamed beasts would aid their tamers in combat. The beast tamers treated their tamed beasts the same way they would a friend or family member, rather than depending on the traditional method of soul contracts.

For spirit beasts with long lives, they did not mind spending decades accompanying a genius cultivator in exchange for resources they might not find even after searching for several hundred years.

This was one of the reasons why the Thunderbolt Stronghold was stronger than any other beast-taming sect in history.

For example, Huang Ling'er once commanded a Mammothdagon to stomp the young master of the Inferno Devil Valley to death. However, that Mammothdagon was actually her father's tamed beast and had followed Huang Ling'er around as her pet. Under the rules of the Assembly of Immortal Sects, she wouldn't be allowed to bring it in.

Fortunately, the Thunderbolt Stronghold also placed great focus on the cultivation of the beast tamers. Even if the core disciples could not take their tamed beasts into the events, they would still have high combat power, and that had allowed the sect to perform well in the past Assemblies of Immortal Sects.

Consequently, the Thunderbolt Stronghold had high hopes for this year's Assembly of Immortal Sects as well. The three core disciples representing their sect this year were all exceptionally talented and had great reputations among the younger disciples of the immortal sects. Their tamed beasts had been training with them since they were young children, allowing them to have outstanding combat power and perfect synergy.

Du Wuhen's Azure Mysterious Wind Bird, Wei Tiandi's Purple-Lightning Divine Turtle, and Deng Yixiao's Five-Fire Divine Ape—all of them were spirit beasts of extremely powerful bloodlines.

Those spirit beasts were all sitting beside their masters, painting quite a lively scene.

…

"We searched all the way from the northern coast to here. There is an area of plains to the west of Misty Waters City that is a forbidden area in Penglai. If the Mount Shu Sect hasn't been eliminated yet, that is probably where they are," Du Wuhen surmised.

Deng Yixiao replied, "The Mount Shu Sect's team isn't weak. Jiang Yuebai, Chu Liang, and Xu Ziyang are among the top in strength. It's very unlikely they would die right after landing."

Wei Tiandi frowned. "I think so too, but those hilly plains are huge. It will be difficult to search for them."

"Let's be patient for a little longer. We still have six days anyway. We'll find them eventually," Du Wuhen said calmly.

"Why do we have to find the Mount Shu Sect's team? Can't we just advance without doing that?" Huang Ling'er asked, sounding quite bored.

She had run away from home and been gone for quite a while. Huang Hanshan, the Lord of the Thunderbolt Stronghold, had expended great efforts to find and take her home. He had to coax her with kind words and promise to let her participate in the Assembly of Immortal Sects. That was the only reason she obediently stayed home to cultivate for a period.

Anyway, the Thunderbolt Stronghold knew that their representative team for this Assembly of Immortal Sects was a three-plus-one deal. Aside from the three core disciples, no other disciple in the current generation had a higher cultivation level than Huang Ling'er, so they might as well let their sect leader's beloved daughter gain some experience.

Huang Ling'er was rebellious, but she was indeed quite powerful. She had been diligent in her daily cultivation, after all. Huang Ling'er had always wanted to roam the martial world. How could she do that if she was weak? Moreover, her tamed beast was quite strong too.

Huang Ling'er was currently hugging and playing with her tamed beast Hua Hua, a large black dog. It was the only tamed beast she had formed a soul contract with.

Hua Hua was a legendary Snow Mountain Divine Hound. It was capable of tracking over great distances, understanding the balance of yin and yang, and had mystical abilities.

Guo Zhanfeng of the Night Saber Sect had a white dog named Baixue from the same lineage of Snow Mountain Divine Hounds. However, Baixua was just his pet. He did not have a soul contract with it, so he couldn't bring it with him to the Assembly of Immortal Sects.

Du Wuhen explained, "Our most important task is to eliminate the Mount Shu Sect team in this round. As long as the Mount Shu Sect fails to make the top ten again, they'll lose their place among the Divine Nine. That spot will naturally be filled by one of the Terrestrial Ten sects. Ascending Dragon Academy isn't interested, so the contenders are our sect and Taotie City. Our sect has always performed better than Taotie City."

With a serious expression, Deng Yixiao added, "In other words, if the Mount Shu Sect team is eliminated, our sect has a great chance of ascending into the Divine Nine."

The three core disciples knew how critical this mission was—so much so that it could determine the future of the Thunderbolt Stronghold. The pressure was immense.

However, Huang Ling'er, their sect leader's daughter, wasn't as aware of these stakes.

Huang Hanshan had always doted on his daughter and never forced her to get involved in sect affairs. Their relationship had been very strained recently, and he knew that pushing her would only backfire. That's why he had instructed these three senior brothers to explain things to his daughter once they were in the illusory realm.

After hearing their explanation, Huang Ling'er's expression became serious, and she stopped joking around.

Huang Ling'er was quite stubborn and rebellious, but she understood what was at stake now. Having dealt with Chu Liang before, she didn't really want to target the Mount Shu Sect team, but now that she understood the situation, she no longer objected to it. Friendship was one thing, but her sect's interests were another.

To be fair, Huang Hanshan and Xu Bashan of the Whale Gang were sworn brothers. Xu Bashan had also sworn brotherhood with Chu Liang, so that made Huang Hanshan and Chu Liang two practically brothers as well. Nevertheless, in the face of the Thunderbolt Sect's future, all these personal ties had to be set aside.

Huang Ling'er stood up and said seriously, "All right, I'll do my best with you all!"

Before she finished speaking, Hua Hua suddenly jumped to its feet and urgently barked twice. "Woof! Woof!"

Right after that, the tamed beasts of the other three disciples swiftly got up.

Huang Ling'er could tell from Hua Hua's barks that something was wrong. She tried to jump aside, but it was too late.

A hand suddenly shot up from the ground and grabbed Huang Ling'er by the ankle. The hand was small, but it was very strong.

A short figure with a sinister grin burst out of the ground and punched Huang Ling'er, causing her to explode!

Boom!

…

"Little Junior Sister!"

Huang Ling'er's three senior brothers flew into a rage.

Someone had killed their little junior sister right in front of them. How could they tolerate such terrible humiliation?

Du Wuhen struck first. His Azure Mysterious Wind Bird spun in the air and instantly transformed into a massive black scythe that was almost as tall as him. With it in hand, he looked like the Grim Reaper.

"I'm going to take your life!" Du Wuhen roared.

He swung the scythe, swiftly stirring up gusts of black wind!

The short figure laughed loudly. "Haha!"

The person that killed Huang Ling'er turned out to be a child who looked barely over ten years old and wore a wild and sinister grin.

Despite facing Du Wuhen's scythe, the child just lifted his leg and used it to block the blade of the scythe!

Clang.

The sound of colliding metal rang out.

The child leaped back several times to create some distance between him and Du Wuhen, before lastly doing a somersault and landing on the ground.

The only child in this Competition of the Hundred Sects was, of course, the Penglai Supreme Sect's Qi Lin'er.

After landing, he twisted his left leg slightly, revealing a shallow bleeding wound on his calf.

Both Qi Lin'er and Du Wuhen were surprised by the clash.

Du Wuhen was astonished that his scythe, which had an extremely sharp blade, hadn't severed Qi Lin'er's leg.

Qi Lin'er, on the other hand, was surprised because he had rarely been injured to the point of bleeding. He was quite astonished that Du Wuhen's weapon could break through his defense.

Nevertheless, before Qi Lin'er could think much about that, the attacks of the other two members of the Thunderbolt Stronghold team were already upon him.

Wei Tiandi's Purple-Lightning Divine Turtle moved extremely quickly, appearing as a streak of lightning as it rammed into Qi Lin'er.

He could not react in time to block the attack. Blinded by the flash of light, he had quickly raised his left arm to block, but what followed were stabs of sharp pain. The Purple-Lightning Divine Turtle's fangs sank several inches into Qi Lin'er's forearm.

Meanwhile, the Five-Fire Divine Ape arrived with a whoosh, shrouded in raging demonic flames.

Seeing that, Qi Lin'er let out a strange laugh, "Hah! You've got more people. I won't fight you. I'll just take one of your soul crystals as a toll!"

Then he drilled into the ground and fiercely struck the Purple-Lightning Divine Turtle's head with his right palm. He pried it off his left arm, causing a stream of blood to spurt out. Shockingly, the blood wasn't red but gold!

"You think you can leave?" Du Wuhen said, turning his hand over and folding his fingers into a hook-like form as if beckoning something.

Whoosh.

A fierce gust of wind flipped over the surface of the ground, and countless wind blades danced wildly on the ground, revealing Qi Lin'er.

Even though they found Qi Lin'er quickly, he escaped underground just as swiftly. The three members of the Thunderbolt Stronghold chased after him.

In the blink of an eye, they arrived at the outskirts of Misty Waters City, where they could see the towering city walls in the distance.

"If you dare, come and chase me!" Qi Lin'er shouted.

"Stop! Don't chase him," Du Wuhen yelled, waving his hand to call off his two junior brothers.

"Why?" Wei Tiandi asked urgently, "I was just about to catch that brat!"

"He's from the Penglai Supreme Sect," Du Wuhen said quietly.

"So what if he's from Penglai?" Wei Tiandi replied angrily. "He killed our junior sister. Aren't we going to avenge her?"

"Our priority is to take down the Mount Shu Sect team. Let's not complicate things."

"But..." Wei Tiandi uttered frustratedly.

He glanced at Misty Waters City, unwilling to let Qi Lin'er off.

Deng Yixiao tried to persuade Wei Tiandi as well. "Second Senior Brother… the Penglai Supreme Sect is powerful. If we clash with them, it might not end well for us. We could end up ruining the plan for our sect. How about we deal with the Mount Shu Sect team first? We can just come back later to avenge Little Junior Sister later."

Wei Tiandi glared at the city walls. "Hmph. Fine, we'll settle this later. We'll come back for what they owe us in a couple of days."

GLTD Alternate Universe's Thoughts

Translator: LD