Chapter 3514: Entering The Dark Bear King Sect’s Territory

Some beasts were cautious, retreating the moment Lin Mu’s aura brushed against them. Others were bold, territorial, or simply too slow to realize what they were facing.

A pair of Twin Crest Thunder Apes leapt from opposite sides of the forest, fists crackling with lightning as they tried to crush Shrubby between them.

Lin Mu skewered one mid-air and bisected the other in a single fluid motion.

A Sky Maw Leech, a horrifying thing that lurked between layers of mist and canopy, attempted to swallow them whole from above. It never completed the motion. Its body was shredded into dozens of pieces before it could even fully manifest.

By the fifth day, Cattaleya was visibly bored.

She sat cross-legged on Shrubby’s back, chin resting on one massive arm, eyes roaming the forest with growing restlessness.

"This is dull," she said flatly.

Meng Bai wisely pretended not to hear.

Cattaleya turned her gaze toward Lin Mu. "Let me fight."

Lin Mu glanced at her. "You have been fighting." Which she did against some beasts that got too close in swarms.

"No," she replied. "I mean properly."

Lin Mu considered it.

He had already noticed her attention drifting toward the larger beasts. More than once, she had watched herds of Tremor Tusk Elephants with an unsettling level of interest.

At one point, she had even commented, completely seriously, about wanting to test how long it would take her to win a tug of war against one.

Or several.

Letting her vent now was safer.

"Fine," Lin Mu said. "Just do not turn the forest upside down."

Her expression brightened instantly.

The next beast that approached them did not even understand what had gone wrong.

It was a Cragback Gore Tortoise, its shell layered with jagged mineral growths. Each step it took cracked the ground beneath it. It charged with a deep, grinding roar, its bulk easily rivaling a small hill.

Cattaleya jumped.

She landed directly in front of it.

The tortoise barely had time to react before she grabbed its head and slammed it into the ground with bone-crushing force.

The forest shook.

She lifted it again and brought it down once more, then snapped its neck with a sharp twist.

It died instantly.

Little Shrubby skidded to a stop, staring.

"...You crushed the shell," he said accusingly while Lin Mu translated.

"So?" Cattaleya replied.

"So now there are bone shards everywhere," Shrubby growled. "And the guts burst. The bile will soak into the meat."

Cattaleya paused.

She looked down at the mess she had made.

"...Oh."

Shrubby continued, tail lashing. "And cleaning that will take forever."

She scratched her cheek, then sighed. "Fine. I will kill them cleaner."

And to her credit, she did.

The next few beasts died with terrifying efficiency. Neck snaps. Spinal breaks. Clean, decisive strikes that left the bodies largely intact.

Shrubby approved grudgingly.

By the time fourteen days had passed since they left the Equator Port City, the forest began to change again.

Shua

The shift was subtle, but Lin Mu felt it immediately.

The natural energy twisted in a way that was different from before. The flow of Qi through the land had altered, not violently, but deliberately.

"Slow down," Lin Mu said.

Little Shrubby reduced his pace.

Lin Mu closed his eyes and extended his perception. There was no formation pattern he could identify. No carved lines. No constructed nodes.

And yet, something had been crossed.

"This is not artificial," Lin Mu said slowly.

Daoist Chu nodded, his expression serious. "A natural array."

Lin Mu agreed.

The scale of it was staggering. Whatever structure existed here stretched for kilometers, possibly hundreds of kilometers. It was not something one could analyze from ground level.

Even from several kilometers above, they would only see a fragment.

"That is why natural arrays are feared," Daoist Chu continued. "You cannot simply dismantle them. You must understand them. And often, you cannot even see them."

Lin Mu frowned slightly.

"This one is not offensive," he said. "It feels... observational."

A detection array.

Or perhaps something more subtle.

And Lin Mu was fairly certain he knew who controlled it.

"We have entered the territory of the Dark Bear King Sect," he said.

No one argued.

An hour later, Little Shrubby spoke up.

"I smell new things," he said quietly.

"Different from before?"

"Yes. Kind of like beasts, but also human."

Lin Mu focused.

At first, he sensed nothing.

The forest was too dense. Too alive. The presence of these watchers blended seamlessly into the environment. It took effort, and more than a little patience, before Lin Mu finally caught it.

Multiple presences.

Not beasts in the usual sense. Their auras were controlled, restrained. Not wild.

Beastkin.

They moved through the forest without disturbing it, their presence woven into the natural rhythm of the land. Some moved on the ground. Others leapt through the canopy. A few remained completely still, watching.

"They are following us," Meng Bai said quietly.

"Yes," Lin Mu replied. "And they want us to know."

Daoist Chu exhaled slowly. "Not an ambush, then."

"No," Lin Mu said. "An evaluation."

Not every beastkin in the rainforest belonged to the Dark Bear King Sect. Many tribes lived here independently, bound only loosely under its banner.

But the strong ones.

The ones watching them now.

Those were almost certainly members of the sect.

And they had noticed the intruders in their forest.

Once Lin Mu realized that they had been noticed, he made the decision immediately.

"Slow down," he said calmly.

Little Shrubby reduced his speed from a blur to a steady, ground-eating lope, his massive paws landing softly despite their size. The Crown Leaves of trees barely rustled beneath him now, and the oppressive momentum that had carried them through the rainforest for days finally eased.

Lin Mu’s reasoning was simple.

They were already deep inside the Dark Bear King Sect’s territory. Charging through at full speed could easily be interpreted as provocation, arrogance, or even scouting behavior. And when dealing with a sect ruled by beastkin, pride and instinct mattered just as much as reason.

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