Never had the Eastern Continent, or any continent for that matter, seen such an assembly of Mysterious Beasts. Even the wars of the Western Continent’s Beast clans failed to gather such numbers. But to answer the emperor’s, mortal beasts ascended to join the mysterious beast clans, bolstering their ranks with colonies of troops.
Now, the Eastern Continent didn’t have a single mortal beast left, not even the horses that drove carriages, or the mules that pulled carts. Wealthy mortals and nobles now walked like slaves and commoners, but as the fear of getting crushed by a random stampede dominated their hearts, they had no time to care for these abrupt changes.
Above Xuanyuan Mountain’s highest peak, Daji, Xiao Hu, and Zhiji Jing lay amidst swirling clouds. Daji didn’t pick this place at random. In ancient times, the first Beast Sovereign to ever walk the Eastern Continent, the Yellow Dragon, was born in this place. But following the Great Desolation war, and at a critical moment of his cultivation, the Shentu Imperial clan’s grand elders attacked the Yellow Dragon, slaying him in a catastrophic war that cemented them as the new overlords of the Eastern Continent.
The Shentu might have only ruled for 10,000 years, but at their back, they carried over 100,000 years of illustrious history and had long positioned themselves as the only challenge to the previous Feng Imperial clan’s rule. Interestingly, after a mere 10,000 years of rule, the Shentu now faced stronger challenges than what they put the previous imperial clan through: Zhenwu Shenquan and Bai Daji.
One united the ancient human clans with the blessing of the Central Domain, while the other now assembled all beasts under her knee. Anyone could see that destiny didn’t favor the Shentu Imperial clan, and Daji aimed to capitalize on that.
At the moment, the nine-tailed fox girl sat at the edge of the mountain peak, teasing Xiao Hu, whose eyes stayed glued on a jade mirror.
”Am I beautiful?” Xiao Hu asked, her eyes trembling with an obsessive shine as she stared at the mirror.
”No, you’re ugly, too ugly! Ugly duckling, stop staring at the mirror, or it might break into pieces,” Daji replied almost immediately.
”You!”
”Me what? Don’t you know that unless you’re ready to fight, you should never say ‘You?!’ What, wanna fight? Sorry, too much money has gone into that broken face of yours, I can’t bear to smash it.”
”Why…are you being so mean today?!” Although she knew that Daji was playing jokes on her, whenever it came to beauty, Xiao Hu couldn’t tell joke from truth.
”I am being mean? Do you know how much money I spent on this artifact? And you’re wasting it to test the obvious? What, do you expect that if you keep staring at it, at some point the mirror will gain sentience so you can ask it:
’Mirror, oh my mirror, who is the most beautiful woman in the world?’
And then the mirror will answer:
’You, Hu Ximei, of course it’s you!'” Daji grabbed her shoulders, her body swaying in theatrical gestures.
”What money? Your dad gave you this mirror.” Xiao Hu rolled her eyes, shaking her head in exasperation. This wasn’t the first time that Daji tried to tease her with theatrics. But the better her fox sister’s performance, the more annoyed Xiao Hu felt.
It wasn’t about Daji. Theatrical performances, in general, filled Xiao Hu’s heart with a blend of pain and rage.
”That’s not the point. The point is that reality doesn’t change because you refuse to come to terms with the facts. And the fact, Ximei, is that you are beautiful. I don’t care about what past you’re hiding. If you’ve forgotten it, if you can’t remember it, then it’s not worth it!” Daji screamed into Xiao Hu’s ears, forcing her to listen by keeping a firm hold on her shoulder.
Xiao Hu’s cheeks paled at Daji’s words, her heart growing more chaotic by the second.
”Perhaps it’s all for the best. Perhaps this is your fate-bestowed chance to start fresh and go past the insecurities, fears and pains that your heart still fails to erase. You’re now my sister, and as such, I demand that you live splendidly.” Daji smiled as she said this, and though she’d forgotten her past and had limited knowledge of the world, Xiao Hu dared to say that the fox girl’s smile put all stars to shame.
Her racing pulse calmed down, and her heart warmed up. Xiao Hu would never say it out loud, but deep down she firmly believed that, if Daji never appeared to her, she’d be drifting aimlessly, lost—or perhaps dead already. To Daji, she owed more than she could repay, and if need be, would not hesitate to give up her life for her sister.
”Huh, that sounded…pretty good.” Zhiji Jing stroked her chin, musing on Daji’s words.
”What can I say. I was born with a peerless swagger, mystifying charisma and enough wisdom to shame the ancient sages. It’s hard, you know. To be this good, this splendid, at such a tender age. Ahh…I wish I could share some of my magnificence with the world.” Daji swooned at her own excellence and sobbed on Xiao Hu’s lap.
”I’m confused. Am I not the peacock? Why is it that you sound more like one than me?” Zhiji Jing shook her head left and right, almost questioning if this comical fox girl could shoulder the future of the Myriad Beast clans. Of course, by now Zhiji Jing had spent enough time by Daji’s side to not allow the merry displays to make her underestimate this crafty vixen.
At this time, the first of the beast hordes made its entrance, assembling by the cave entrance leading to the burial ground of the Yellow Dragon. There, its corpse still lay, sheltered by adamantine defenses and ancient runes that prevented the Shentu Imperial clan from exploiting it for resources.
More hordes arrived in haste, and by the time the first ray of dawn shafted through the sky, billions of mysterious beasts had made an ordered entrance, prostrating themselves at their emperor’s feet.
”Welcome, ladies and gentlemen of the beast clans, to the inauguration of this land’s number one faction: the Myriad Beast Gang.
We will split into 29 Hordes, one for each Eastern Province. The hordes will be adjusted to match the various provinces’ strength, so we can concentrate the lion’s share of our firepower on the upper provinces and imperial city.
Trampling upon those that have no means to fight back is no fun. We’re better than that, even without that monk’s interference, I wouldn’t have condoned such indiscipline.
This…isn’t a war of extermination. This…is our self-given opportunity to show to all that look down upon us—to all that hunt and exploit us with peace of mind—that our voice, our stories, our pains and sufferings, as silent as they might have been till now…matter!
Never again will the beast lineages recoil at the sound of footsteps, hide in terror, or fiddle through trash for survival. Each and every one of you is a king, a queen, a prince and princess in their own right!
So long as you follow me and wholeheartedly devote yourselves to our cause, then I, your empress, will lead you all to establish the empire where you can at last live in peace and enjoy eternal bliss!” Daji’s words boomed throughout the land, stirring the hearts of myriad beasts.