Having put the disciples to sleep, Lin Mu could finally put his attention on the corpse of the beast he had just killed. He stepped closer and came to kneel beside it.

"Hmm… it is certainly similar to the beast corpse we found earlier, but this one is even bigger. And it doesn't have as many bone spurs or just exposed bones in general." Lin Mu said as he probed the beast with his spirit sense.

He couldn't find any apparent vitality in it, which made him think that the invader did more than just take over a beast's body. 

"Though what beast is this? I don't think I've seen one like this before." Lin Mu muttered.

~whoosh~

~whoosh~

At the same time, the sound of wind could be heard and Lin Mu sensed a few people appearing in his range.

"Finally they're here…" Lin Mu muttered and stood up to look at Jing Luo and the three elders.

"ARE YOU OKAY!?" Jing Luo called out loud.

"I'm good… the disciples not so much." Lin Mu replied.

"This…" the elders took a look at the scene of massacre and their expressions darkened.

Elder Boqin had a cold face as he walked towards the corpse.

"Is this the beast that did all this?" Elder Boqin questioned.

"Yes… it had already killed everyone else by the time I appeared, and only those five were left." Lin Mu answered.

Elder Boqin clenched his fist, and anger was visible in his eyes.

"They made a mistake sending Qi refining realm disciples… the beasts will always be stronger than that due to the influence of the invader. This beast was probably at the Infant Soul stage of the Nascent soul realm, but I could tell its strength was at least two stages above that." Lin Mu commented.

"They did indeed. And the cost will be ours to bear as well…" Elder Boqin replied.

"Though… do you all know what beast this is? I don't think I've seen one like this before." Lin Mu questioned.

"Let me take a look," Elder Wenyan said as he approached.

He scanned the beast from top to bottom and furrowed his brows as a thought came to his mind.

"It has certainly changed in appearance and has two extra tails, but I think this beast used to be a Horse Manticore." Elder Wenyan answered.

"A Horse Manticore?" Lin Mu said in confusion and looked at the beast again.

"Hmm… yes, if we remove the bony horns, the dark slimy skin and the two extra scorpion tails, it is certainly one of the lesser hybrid manticores." Lin Mu confirmed as he recalled certain information.

He knew about the beast known as Manticores and had read about them before. In fact, even the Lost immortal had encountered them before in his travels. There were many types of them and since they could breed with a lot of beasts, there were even more hybrids.

They were similar in this aspect to the dragons and had great libido and drive to have as many offspring as possible. But then this presented another question to Lin Mu.

"Where is this type of a beast found on our continent, though? I'm very sure that it certainly does not live near the Hong Lin kingdom. That previous beast was quite likely to be a green tailed howler monkey and those are native to the kingdom, but this beast certainly is not." Lin Mu questioned.

"I know about them." Jing Luo chimed in.

"Please tell us," Lin Mu requested.

"If my memory serves me correctly, Horse manticores are usually found in the great southern forest. It is very rare to find them out of there. Unless… it was under the ownership of someone else." Jing Luo spoke.

"You mean to say… this was a beast being reared by some cultivator?" Lin Mu asked.

"It is certainly possible. The beast's fur and claws can be used for making spirit tools, while its fangs and poison are used in alchemical pills." Jing Luo replied.

"Rearing a Horse Manticore like this is not easy. At the very least, the person who owned it would need to be stronger than it, which would mean they need to be at the Child Soul stage or above in the Nascent soul realm." Elder Boqin spoke.

"Hmm… that narrows down the number of targets to a handful if we think of it." Lin Mu added. "It is unlikely that this was owned by some individual cultivator. Plus, since its was infected by the invader in the Hong Lin kingdom, someone had to have been transporting it for some reason." 

Hearing Lin Mu's words gave a lot more to think for the three elders. 

"We'll have to investigate more later. First we need to get the disciples to the safety… and prepare a funereal for the ones that died." Elder Wenyan spoke.

"That is right." Lin Mu agreed and looked towards the distance.

"Why are the people from the sect not here yet?" Lin Mu questioned.

"I don't know… let me check in." Elder Boqin said as he took out the jade slip.

But just before he was about to send a message, the jade slip hummed on its own.

"Oh?" Elder Boqin listened to the message that he had just received before looking towards the direction of the sect.

~BOOM~BOOM~BOOM~

The sound of air exploding could be heard and strong spirit Qi fluctuations came from the distance.

"They're here." Elder Boqin stated.

Lin Mu and Jing Luo then felt spirit Qi fluctuations that were at least at the Dao Shell realm, mixed in with some weaker ones that were at the Nascent soul realm approaching.

"WHERE IS THE BEAST!?" A domineering voice was heard roaring.

A couple seconds later, Lin Mu could finally see the people in his vision. It was two elders that seemed to be at the Dao Shell realm and six more that were in the Nascent soul realm.

Over all it was a strong party, but unfortunately they were still later.

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