CHAPTER 519: CHAPTER 518 BORN

Li Yushan let out a sigh of relief, grateful that they had kept something in reserve and had not completely lost track of the enemy.

However, was Bai Yongyan—or rather, the person acting under his guise—really a White Lotus Sect Member? If so, why did he seem not to care about the lives of other White Lotus Demon Cultivators? If not, Li Yushan found it hard to imagine someone who would simultaneously provoke the forces of the Martial Virtue Guards, West Factory, and the White Lotus Cult.

BANG—CRACK!

A flaming point of light suddenly rose in the distant western night sky, exploding with a roar and releasing a dazzling brilliance, forming a vague, cloud-like pattern.

"Let’s go!"

Li Yushan’s expression changed abruptly. With a low shout, he signaled his cavalry to rush out of the Royal Mansion, mount their horses, and gallop toward the west of the city.

The abbot of Yongling Temple, along with the high monks of Annam, caught up. This left only the Labor Officers of the Xijishi Factory standing in the courtyard, looking at each other in dismay. In the end, they decided to leave five people behind to help dig the tunnels and wait for Yu Qingqiu, while the rest followed Li Yushan out of the Royal Mansion.

In the dark and pitch-black underground, a massive Worm the size of a carriage, its body covered with a shell and mouthparts protruding outward, moved its hundreds of feet, dragging a huge iron cage through the winding underground tunnel at breakneck speed.

The Auspicious Beast clung to the bars of the cage, half-lying on the bottom to minimize the bumps caused by the Burrowing Worm as it advanced.

The dim light did not impair his vision. With pale green eyes, the Auspicious Beast looked at the composed man sitting on the shell of the Worm and asked hoarsely, "Who... exactly are you?"

"Me?"

Li Ang maintained his seated posture and calmly replied, "Aren’t you proficient in divination? You should be the one to tell me that."

"My eyes can see most things in this world, but I cannot see through you."

The Auspicious Beast shook his head. "I can’t see your past, present, or future."

"That means your vision has deteriorated. You should take some eye drops to wash your eyes," Li Ang spoke earnestly. "Otherwise, you’ll end up like I did in the past, needing to memorize all the directions of the letter E on the vision chart just to pass the vision test."

The Auspicious Beast looked thoroughly confused. "I don’t understand what you’re saying," he said blankly.

"Nothing much, just advising you to take care of your eyesight," Li Ang said casually. He then turned his head, studied the Auspicious Beast for a moment, and asked, "By the way, do you have a name?"

Caught off guard by the question, the Auspicious Beast replied, "A name? I do not have such a thing."

"How can you not have a name? It’s not practical to keep calling you ’Auspicious Beast.’"

Li Ang casually glanced at the humanoid, suggesting, "Sun Wukong, Winston, Curious George, LBW, King Gigi—pick one of these names."

The humanoid scratched his head. Although he did not understand the specific meanings of these names, he sensed something odd about them and shook his head. "No need. A name is just a human designation. Since I am naturally born and raised, I need not bother with one."

"Naturally born and raised?"

Li Ang raised an eyebrow. "Where do you come from? Surely you didn’t also pop out of a stone, did you?"

"No."

The humanoid shook his head, not heeding the word "also," and continued, "I have no memory of my birth. The first thing I remember was opening my eyes to find myself falling from the sky and crashing into a jungle. I was badly injured at the time. After I crawled up from the ground, I used the herbs around me to treat myself, and then I lived in the jungle."

The humanoid’s gaze became unfocused as he muttered to himself, "I stayed in the jungle for seven years. At first, I had to avoid wolves, tigers, leopards, pythons, and venomous insects. I was often injured and looked quite miserable.

"But as time passed, I found myself growing stronger and ’smarter.’ I was able to make various tools to defend against and even kill mighty beasts. Eventually, even some of the demons in the jungle feared me and fled my territory.

"I had become the king of the jungle, but my heart"—Auspicious Beast pointed to his chest and whispered softly—"was always empty and hollow.

"I felt lonely, isolated. I wanted to find kindred spirits I could communicate with. However, even the apes in the jungle that looked most like me couldn’t comprehend my intelligence. No matter how I taught them, I couldn’t make them as smart as me."

"That sounds pretty miserable."

Li Ang nodded; he could very much understand that feeling.

Auspicious Beast went on, "Then, I found a human village. They were living a primitive and backward life on the edge of the forest; their living environment was even worse than that of the commoners in the Central Plains.

"I hid and observed them, learning their language and knowledge—this wasn’t difficult for me. Sometimes, I would secretly help them, like rescuing individuals attacked by fierce beasts or guiding them to plant crops suitable for the local soil.

"They never discovered me. They simply believed that the forest was sheltering them, and eventually, they erected a totem pole and began to worship the forest god.

"But I never tried to blend in with them."

Auspicious Beast pointed to his half-human, half-ape face. "Even if I shave off all my body hair and put on human clothes, I can’t change this face. If I were to walk out of the jungle and declare myself the forest god, most likely, I’d still be treated as a demon and driven out with sticks and stones."

"Normal."

Li Ang said, "It’s like the story of Lord Ye who professed to love dragons but was terrified by a real one."

"Exactly."

Auspicious Beast nodded. "Of course, in Annam, they don’t have this idiom; they have another way of saying it... In any case, I helped the village quietly.

"Using my innate knowledge, I planted precious trees on the edge of the forest. This enabled the villagers to become wealthy by selling timber, and the small village of a dozen households grew into a small town of hundreds, even thousands, of people."

"And then?"

Li Ang asked, "Did news spread too far and attract Cultivators?"

"Not exactly."

Auspicious Beast said somberly, "I found a traveler on the mountain who had been bitten by a Snake. He was delirious and on the verge of death.

"So I brought him back to my den and saved his life. When he woke up, I gave him herbs and food and showed him the way out of the mountains.

"I also cautioned him, no matter what, not to reveal my existence to the outside world."

Li Ang shook his head. "It seems he couldn’t keep his promise."

"Yes..."

Auspicious Beast murmured, "He was tearfully grateful, thanking me endlessly. He readily agreed to my request, claiming he would definitely keep his promise.

"At first, he did just that. In my vague premonition, he walked out of the mountains with the herbs and food but got lost again. With great difficulty, he reached a ferry where he begged the ferryman for a ride.

"The ferryman let him on the boat. By then, he hadn’t eaten for days; he was dizzy with hunger and his insides ached with pain, so he begged the ferryman for some food again.

"The ferryman refused, saying that letting him cross the river for free was already an exception. If he let him eat and drink for free as well, word would spread, and then every passerby would demand free passage and food. That would be the end of his ferry business."