Chapter 557 - 31: The Spirit Beast City You Don’t Know

The Divine Beast Qilin: a kind-hearted and auspicious beast, progenitor of all land beasts, which subsists on qi.

It is one of the Four Spirits, alongside the Dragon, Phoenix, and Turtle.

The Water Qilin, as its name suggests, is a Qilin that possesses the Water Control Power. While the vast majority of Qilin embody the Earth Virtue, that doesn’t preclude the existence of subspecies like the Fire Qilin and Thunder Qilin. As it happens, the most powerful lineage in the current generation of the Qilin Race is that of the Water Qilin.

The Water Qilin, Ann Duo, is a King of Divine Beasts. However, it was recently backstabbed by its own disciple and has been preoccupied with quelling the resulting internal strife. Consequently, it did not join the other Kings of Divine Beasts in besieging the Zhengguo Action Team.

Of course, the Water Qilin might not have gone even if it had been invited. As Kind-hearted and Auspicious Beasts, the Qilin Race has always been gentle by nature and averse to conflict (internal strife, however, is a cultural tradition). Furthermore, they are born to subsist on qi, feeding on pure Spiritual Qi and Spiritual Mechanisms.

These creatures exist completely outside of any current ecosystem or food chain. They would never even consider attacking strangers from an Otherworld. As long as you don’t block their path or show any hostility, a Qilin will simply ignore all other Spirit Beasts and go about its life.

In fact, some Production Species of the Mao Race would piously follow Lord Qilin, gathering its shed fur to weave into Protective Talismans. This was behavior that would have gotten them eaten in any other territory, yet the Qilin never minded. At most, it would just grumble, ’What do they even want that stuff for?’

For this very reason, upon learning of the Qilin’s desire to communicate with humanity, the nations of Earth convened an emergency meeting. They decided to welcome the creature with the highest honors and sincere goodwill.

"There’s no need to make an enemy of the entire Beast God Realm. We’ve already gained a major foothold in the Feather Race’s territory by leveraging the Golden-winged Bird and Chongming Bird bloodlines. If we can reach a non-interference pact with the Mao Race, we can probably quell the chaos in the Beast God Realm by the end of the year."

The speaker was the Military Saint. The one-eyed man, nearly eighty years old, was keenly aware of the power disparity between Earth and the Beast God Realm.

The Beast God Realm had a considerable number of Extraordinary Divine Beasts, but their societal structures were simply too primitive. They were utterly incapable of unifying their civilization’s strength to contend with Earth.

What’s more, the technological gap alone was enough for any of Earth’s major powers to completely overwhelm the Beast God Realm in terms of intelligence, information, and even Magical Artifacts.

But no matter how easy the war might be, war was still war.

In this Era of Spiritual Qi Revival, with its rapid development, there was no need to slow our own progress to wage all-out war against an enemy destined to lose. Why go to all that trouble?

"For that exact reason, the tone of this meeting must be one of peace, friendship, and sincerity."

Thus, the Daoist Saint concluded the matter for the Military God.

Then, everyone in the conference hall turned to look at Su Zhou, who was hunched in the back, furtively playing on his phone.

"I was just checking replies... wait, why are you all looking at me?"

Thinking he’d been caught playing on his phone during the meeting, Su Zhou froze and instinctively closed the forum app.

But as he noticed the gazes of cultivators from all over the world focused on him, the young man realized why everyone was staring.

’So my very presence just screams violence, malice, and threat?’

Su Zhou’s thoughts were so plain on his face that Bai Canglang, who read them instantly, cleared his throat. He said gravely, "Professor Su, it’s mainly because you’ve already slain four Kings of Divine Beasts. We’re a little concerned you might want to kill the King of the Mao Race too, just to get the grand slam."

’If you hadn’t said anything, I wouldn’t have even thought of that achievement. Brother Bai, are you trying to give me a reminder to get it done?’

Su Zhou clicked his tongue in annoyance and tapped the table. "Do I look that reckless to you?" he said to Bai Canglang. "As long as that Qilin is as gentle and kind as the legends say, do you really think I have nothing better to do than to go looking for trouble with it?"

"In that case, you’d better eat up..."

Unlike the others, who were slightly worried, the Daoist Saint wasn’t concerned that Su Zhou would cause trouble. As a professional, Level 3 "Su-Zhou-ologist," he had long since analyzed Su Zhou’s micro-expressions and past actions. He knew the reason Su Zhou had violently killed those divine beasts was because their slaughter of innocent, intelligent life—and indeed the entire Order of the Beast God Realm—disgusted him.

Leaving aside the fact that Qilin, as Kind-hearted and Auspicious Beasts, are a gentle race that almost never kills, many of the other major clans in the Mao Race were also vegetarians. For example, the Elephant of Listening, the Celestial Bull, and even some powerful wild boar divine beasts all preferred Spirit Plants to flesh and blood.

Furthermore, there was a thriving clan of wild Iron-eating Beasts within the Mao Race that occupied a bamboo forest on a mining mountain. This group of divine beasts had already been in private contact with Zhengguo’s own Iron-eating Beast Cultivators, and they were also extremely interested in the terms Zhengguo was offering.

In short, while the Mao Race certainly had many carnivorous divine beasts, the presence of the Qilin and other powerful vegetarian clans meant their territory lacked the bloody, brutal atmosphere found among the other races. Even the carnivores were among the strictest adherents to the Primordial Ancestor’s teachings, rarely devouring intelligent beings that possessed a Soul.