Yi Feng brought Shen Ying and flew straight to the Mirage Sea. Although he had no idea why she wanted to stand on his sword, he knew she was a guest no matter what and he had no choice but to give in to her requests. He introduced Shen Ying to the Mirage Sea.

　　“Sect Master Shen, this is the Mirage Sea,” he pointed toward a sea which seemed to extend into infinity. “Thanks to my Yi Family, there aren’t many beasts on the shore along the Mirage Sea. We’ll see more beasts once we get to Qianqun Island.”

　　Shen Ying nodded. Indeed, after a moment, they saw many islands in the middle of the Mirage Sea. The islands themselves were small – some resembled stone peaks that were only a few square metres long. Yi Feng had no intention to stop at any of the islands. He described some of them briefly and continued to fly past them. After an hour, such islands became sparser but each of them were much larger than the ones they saw before.

　　Just as he said, there were many spirit beasts on the islands. Some were traveling in groups of three to five while others were traveling in groups of hundreds. Most of them were on the land but occasionally they spotted a beast or two in the waters. All the beasts were huge – they could be spotted from afar.

　　“I found my Lion Roaring Beast on that island,” Yi Feng gestured to a huge island to his right.

　　“That cat?” Shen Ying turned to look at him.

　　Yi Feng hesitated. He figured that she regarded the Lion Roaring Beast as a small beast and explained, “The Lion Roaring Beast is a tenth-stage spirit beast. It can mutate. Sect Master Shen, the form you saw the other day was not its true form. In actual fact, it is about sixty to ninety times larger than it appeared.”

　　“Oh,” she nodded.

　　A tinge of sadness enveloped Yi Feng as he thought about his Contract Beast, so he did not explain any further. He took one final glance at the island and flew past it. After another hour, they stopped at an island that contained a dense forest.

　　“Let’s start our search from here,” he descended toward the island and pointed at the dense forest. “There is thick spirit Qi on this island. We should be able to find spirit beasts in their tenth-stage at minimum.”

　　“Alright,” Shen Ying said. She had no preference.

　　Yi Feng retrieved a stack of array flags and dharmic talismans and said, “I have a gold-elemental spirit root, so I am after spirit beasts that have spirit roots of other elements. Sect Master Shen, are you looking for any kind of spirit beast in particular?”

　　“Yes!” She nodded.

　　“What kind of spirit beast?”

　　A huge ball of fur surfaced in Shen Ying’s imagination. “I want a big, white one.” A delicious one.

　　“White?” Yi Feng hesitated and glanced at her. Then, he understood. Sect Master Shen is a lady after all. Naturally, she was looking for spirit beasts with good appearances. This is understandable.

　　“I’ve prepared all the arrays, talismans, dharma artifacts and equipment I need. Sect Master Shen, what is your strategy?”

　　“Huh?” What does he mean?

　　“The spirit beasts here are very dangerous. We need to be prepared,” Yi Feng raised the equipment in his hands and continued, “These can aid us. What kind of beast control techniques are you most familiar with, Sect Master Shen?”

　　“Are there… many types?” Don’t I just have to grab them?

　　“Naturally.” This is Yi Feng’s expertise. He recited the techniques from memory, “Every stage of beast control – from the pursuit, the observation and the movement, to the battle, the domination, the sealing and the contract – is equally important.”

　　“Er…” Is it that complicated? All she had to do with the rabbit was beat it into submission. Demons were so different from beasts.

　　“The spirit beast in my sect was very drawn to Sect Master Shen’s aura. My guess is you’re proficient in pursuit and observation?”

　　“Er… not really.”

　　“Then are you good at abboting or array formations?”

　　“Nope.”

　　“Are you good at dominating the spirit beast or sealing them?”

　　“I’ve never learned that before.”

　　“How about concluding a contract…”

　　“Concluding a what?”

　　Yi Feng: “…”

　　What exactly do you know? Are you really here to help out?

　　(๑ŐдŐ)b

　　Suddenly, he began to doubt the validity of her decision to catch spirit beasts.

　　Roar!

　　As they were talking, they heard a loud roar from behind them. It sounded as loud as thunder. Yi Feng immediately snapped out of his stupor.

　　“This sounds like… Cloud-Bearing Beast!” His eyes widened and his face went pale. He hurriedly turned to look at Shen Ying, “Don’t just stand there, this ground we’re standing on may be…”

　　Before he could finish, the ground, along with the entire island, shook violently. His body suddenly felt much heavier as the whole ground rose upwards, into the sky. All around them, trees were falling to the floor and rocks were rolling around. Their legs began to split apart as the ground beneath them cracked open.

　　“Jump ahead toward the left,” Yi Feng shouted to Shen Ying as he forcefully got on his sword.

　　Shen Ying looked at the rocks and mountains falling apart in front of her. Then, she glanced down at her feet. She jumped in the direction Yi Feng instructed her to and landed toward the southeast side of the land. Yi Feng landed beside her shortly after.

　　Turning back, the two of them saw the entire dense forest collapse. Two-thirds of the land hovered in the air. Four huge pillars appeared under the floating island. They heard another roar and saw a great, black head stretch out of the floating island. It opened its mouth to reveal a row of sharp teeth. A row of spikes grew out of what had originally been the ground.

　　Shen Ying raised her head and saw the beast’s entire form.

　　What a huge… turtle!

　　She had been standing on the turtle’s shell!

　　“It really is a Cloud-Bearing Beast!” Yi Feng stared in amazement. He did not think the first beast he would come across would be a Cloud-Bearing Beast. It was incredible.

　　The Cloud-Bearing Beast was one of the biggest spirit beasts in the Upper Azure World. A mature Cloud-Bearing Beast could cover a huge part of the sky,. This beast was temperamental and sensitive but extremely quiet. It tended to go berserk when annoyed, so it is not suitable as a Contract Spirit Beast. When they landed on the island, they accidentally awakened it.

　　What made matters worse was that the Cloud-Bearing Beast is a thirteenth-stage spirit beast. It is as powerful as a late-stage Soul Formation cultivator. Spirit beasts were also much more powerful than human cultivators in the same realm.

　　Yi Feng felt like he would vomit. If this had happened ten minutes ago, he would think Sect Master Shen and he together could tackle the Cloud-Bearing Beast. But now… he knew Sect Master Shen had no knowledge about beast control! What am I to do? Is it too late to run?

　　Roar!

　　The Cloud-Bearing Beast roared once again. Great waves formed in the seawater around them, threatening to swallow the entire island.

　　Sh*t! It is too late to run.

　　Yi Feng quickly summoned a seal and set up an array formation. He summoned his spirit sword and instructed, “Sect Master Shen, we cannot contract this beast. I’m going to try to force it into a deep sleep. Please maintain this array formation for me.”

　　“Oh, okay!” She nodded. “All the best!”

　　He flew out toward the beast and began to form a sea with both of his hands. Suddenly, a vine as thick and sturdy as a man flew toward the Cloud-Bearing Beast’s body.

　　Shen Ying glanced at the light-emitting array formation beneath her feet. Maintaining the array formation means… not letting the turtle touch it right?

　　( ̄△̄;)

　　Just as she started figuring Yi Feng’s instructions, a loud snapping sound came from in front of her. Yi Feng’s vine was not sturdy enough to control the great Cloud-Bearing Beast. The vine that circled the beast’s mouth snapped as the beast opened its mouth to bite at the air behind it.

　　As the beast turned around, the four pillars moved along with the beast’s body. The pillars headed straight for the array formation. Shen Ying frowned and raised her hand, smacking the turtle’s legs.

　　He said don’t touch it!