The Six Immortals

Bi Fan continued to walk around the forest, very cautiously so.

Two successive encounters with beasts, that weren’t exactly weak, meant that he might no longer be in the first layer of the devil’s territory.

The chances of him being inside the second layer of the devil’s territory were relatively large, as it is said that the majority of the demons inside the second layer were around the ‘brave’ layer and demons as high as the ‘emerging from the womb’ could be encountered with here, on occasions.

Of course, the demons as strong as the ‘emerging from the womb’ layer were lesser in number.

If Bi Fan fatefully bumped into one of them, he would surely try to escape. But escaping from a beast as strong as ‘emerging from the womb’ layer wasn’t that easy either.

Bi Fan was more careful than ever before, as he no longer had the Marten to warn him, or the Chimera to protect him, so now, he needed to be a thousand times more careful.

He hadn’t gone too far, when he felt the ground shake, which was followed by a massive sound, as if there was a whole flock of demons nearby.

“A group of beasts!” Bi Fan didn’t seem scared; on the contrary, he seemed rather excited.

He immediately rushed in the direction of the sound, even if it meant that he was going towards a whole group of beasts.

Bi Fan had made his own calculation, but even then, it was very courageous of him.

As he moved nearer to the sound, he could feel the ground shake with even greater intensity.

Soon, Bi Fan spotted a herd of wild Oxen. It wasn’t a very big herd, and there were only eighteen Oxen in the herd.

Their heads were almost as large as the Chimera’s. Their heads were adorned with horns, which were almost one meter in length. While some of the Oxen had one horn, the others had two.

“Wild Oxen!” Bi Fan was slightly surprised.

One of the books he had read in the past had described an Ox as a very mighty and fierce beast.

However, an Ox didn’t have the ability to evolve, which meant that even the most powerful of Oxen could only become as strong as a goblin, at best. Comparatively, a Chimera was much better, for a Chimera could potentially evolve in time and become far stronger.

An Ox was considered a very fierce fighter and a whole herd of them could potentially be very dangerous for a single human.

“Boom!” A loud noise echoed as one Ox knocked down a tree, severing it.

Bi Fan secretly smacked his lips; it was time to have some fun.

Bi Fan circled his way around to the back of the herd and then leaped up in the air and landed on top of the back of one of the Oxen, which was right at the back of the herd.

“Mooo!” The wild Ox realized that someone had landed on its back. The Ox started to complain and started shaking its body, in the hope of throwing Bi Fan off.

Bi Fan’s hands had already got a firm grasp of the Ox’s horns, while his legs were wrapped around its belly, as the Ox continued to sway.

Even then, the momentum of the Ox was so great that Bi Fan had almost lost his balance a few times.

The Ox was quite powerful, and all Bi Fan could do was hold on tightly, he couldn’t get off, or even attack the Ox.

“Woah! Cool it.” Bi Fan decided that he needed to subdue the Ox, so he started to put pressure on the Ox, hoping to force it to the ground.

The Ox felt this sudden pressure from Bi Fan, but didn’t lower to ground; however, it did slow down a bit.

The remaining seventeen Oxen had noticed the sudden movement at the back of the herd and had already stopped. They had turned around and had come closer to inspect the situation, only to find Bi Fan having emerged out of nowhere, and mounted firmly on top of their companion.

They could not only look on in despair, unable to help their comrade out.

Bi Fan was busy riding the Ox’s back, which was tossing from side to side, showing no disdain for the rest of the world.

“Big guy ah? Come on… come on…”

This blatant provocation was all that was need to anger the Oxen in the herd and their eyes turned red, while their breathing took a coarse tune.

Wild Oxen were considered extremely strong, in fact, it was extremely difficult to withstand the force of these beasts if they collided into anyone headfirst.

Unfortunately for them, Bi Fan had come out of nowhere and was now sitting on the back of an Ox, which meant that none of them could do anything about it.

Bi Fan couldn’t possibly hope to match an Ox if it tried to collide with him, but at present, he was at a great advantage. He managed to put enough pressure on the Ox, so as to make it stand still on the ground.

Since he had already managed to subdue the Ox, he lost interest in it. He looked around and spotted an ‘enormous strength’ layer Ox, standing on the other end on the herd. He decided to have some more fun and he leapt off the back of the Ox he was on.

He used the backs of the Oxen, who were in the way, as stepping stones and tip toed his way to his new muse, bypassing the rest from above.

There was complete chaos in the herd, they all wanted to collide into him, and rip him into pieces, but since he didn’t land on the ground, their anger couldn’t be realized into action and they just stood there, helpless, furious.

In a handful of leaps, Bi Fan managed to reach the other end of the herd, having bypassed the Oxen in between, and landed firmly on the back of the ‘enormous strength’ layer Ox.

His legs were clamped around the Ox’s belly while his hands had a firm grasp of the Ox’s sharp horns.

“Moooo!” The Ox went man and wild with fury, and started colliding with everything in the vicinity, severing even the trees that stood nearby, hoping to throw Bi Fan off its back.

But Bi Fan had firmly established his position on top of its back, and was relishing driving the Ox mad.

Bi Fan was enjoying competing with this one; it was so much fun. He was beginning to really enjoy this contest of brute strength.

There he was, sitting in the middle of nowhere, at the top of an Ox, increasing the power with which he was trying to subdue the Ox.

Bi Fan kept increasing the pressure, hoping to suppress the beast, but the Ox was no less, in fact, was amazingly strong. So much so that, the Ox had barely slowed down, and that naughty little thing, continued to ram into obstacles.

“Dude, this must feel new to you, ah?” Bi Fan tried to agonize the Ox further.

But Bi Fan was beginning to realize just how crazy this Ox really was.

 

But Bi Fan was beginning to realize just how crazy this Ox really was.

“Boom….Boom….” The Ox bumped into a couple of trees successively, breaking them into two. Soon, it began running into the forest, bumping into trees along the way, severing a good number of them.

This mad, wild Ox was really powerful and really aggressive.

Bi Fan’s legs were wrapped around the Ox’s belly, so his body could distinctly feel every jolt along the way. If it wasn’t for his hands, which were tightly gripping the Ox’s sharp horns, Bi Fan would have been thrown off this Ox’s back by now.

The seventeen other Oxen in the herd had initially chased after them, but had eventually withdrawn.

The Ox’s violent behavior had gotten on the wrong side of Bi Fan, and he started using ‘the immortal finger’ to beat up the Ox, as that was the only technique that he could use in this situation.

The pain made the Ox even more violent and it started to rampage around the forest with an even greater momentum.

As it rampaged around the wilderness, it obviously disturbed a lot of other wild beasts.

Some of them, who were weaker than the Ox, simply gave way to the Ox and then circled back to their holes.

Others, who were stronger, initially gave way to the Ox, as they too, were afraid of the Ox’s damaging ability in case of a head-on collision, but later started to chase after them later. However, even these demons were forced to give up their pursuit, as the Ox was moving too fast.

However, at the this point, Bi Fan’s earlier playful expression had drastically changed to a very grave one, for he feared that if the Ox rammed down the lair of a goblin or a similar creature, then they certainly would feed him to the dogs.

Suddenly, Bi Fan was reminded of the Jade tablet and his mood calmed down a bit. Now, it was play time again, and he decided to take this Ox out for a real ride.

“I’m driving! I’m driving!” Now Bi Fan was really toying with this Ox; he sat there on top of its back, pretending to be soldier mounted on top of a horse.

The Ox’s eyes were red with raging fury and its breathing was getting more and more coarse.

“Moooooooo!”

The Ox continued to jolt violently, madly. Soon, it rammed into a large tree, on purpose, in the hope of unseating Bi Fan.

However, Bi Fan was awfully comfortable with all of this; he had gotten accustomed to all the jolting and bumping; in fact, he was enjoying it.

“Big guy, getting slower? Hurry up, giddy up horsey!” Bi Fan giggled and teased the Ox.

The wild Ox was becoming even madder, and kept bumping into anything and everything that it could lay its eyes on.

This had been going on for quite some time now, and the Ox’s endurance was paving way for fatigue, as it seemed a little tired now.

All of a sudden, the Ox jumped into a giant algal bloom, splashing countless sprays of water and algae, all over the surrounding area.

This pool of water was very clear, serene and hidden in depth.

To Bi Fan’s surprise, the Ox was an expert diver, and started diving into the most latent depths of the pool, and Bi Fan was forced to consider the idea of withdrawing himself.

Even though the Ox was mad with fury, it still hadn’t lost its sense of rationality yet. In fact, Bi Fan could tell that it was fairly smart.

Bi Fan held his breath and grabbed the Ox’s horns as tightly as he could and prepared for the oncoming assault.

The wild Ox started to tumble inside the water, in the hope of getting rid of Bi Fan.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a very powerful momentum broke out of the water, and left the entire pool swirling in its might. The pool suddenly had a different column of water, turning and twisting inside it.

Oxen are very heavy in weight, but even then, the Ox went flying.

Bi Fan found himself unable to breathe as the water column hit his body with the force of a hammer, leaving him in agonizing pain.

“Woah!” Bi Fan was completely astonished for a moment.

Certainly there was a very powerful monster hidden in the depths of this abyss, one so strong that it could shake the whole pool up.

The Ox seemed really scared and started swimming towards the surface, desperately.

Bi Fan and the Ox had just barely reached the surface when, the surface of the pool exploded open.

“Boom!”

A towering column of water splashed all across the area.

And suddenly, a huge head adorned with a horn, emerged from the water; it was the head of a massive monster. The monster seemed extremely big, and one could make out that the visible part of the monster’s body was barely half of its whole, but was still almost thirty meters in length. The whole body of this monster was covered in scales.

“JiaoLong!” Bi Fan exclaimed, terror-stricken.

JiaoLong was dragon by heritage, and was capable of evolving into a full-fledged dragon. This creature was exceptionally strong, and in this case, being an adult, deep into the ‘emerging from the womb’ layer.

The Ox’s limbs went cold and it started to shiver with fear, as soon as it saw the dragon. So much so, that it even forgot to escape, and just stood there.

“RRRRAGHHHH” The dragon roared, opened its bloody mouth and while doing so, revealed its sharp teeth, which quickly dug themselves into the Ox.

Bi Fan was so sacred that he couldn’t stay here for even one more second now, as he too, was too terrified, to even move, for fear had overtaken him as well.

He quickly pulled out the Jade tablet and disappeared in an instant.

Before being transferred out, the last thing that Bi Fan saw, was the Ox dying a miserable death, by being torn into two by the dragon’s vicious teeth.

Bi Fan felt numb, but couldn’t help secretly thanking his stars.

If it wasn’t for the Jade tablet, then Bi Fan was destined to suffer the same fate, as the Ox he had been playing around with.

All of a sudden, Bi Fan found himself in Xi Guan.

“This is really amazing; this Jade tablet makes for an excellent insurance policy!” Bi Fan was really grateful that he had purchased one of these tablets.

Bi Fan quickly restored his original look, and went into the town, as he didn’t exactly feel any need to rush into the devil’s territory immediately.

Bi Fan had been inside the second layer of the devil’s territory for a while and he had no idea what had happened with the evil spirits. A walk around the town would help him understand the circumstances a little better.

Additionally, Bi Fan also needed to buy a pet belt. A pet belt was used to incorporate animals into it, as if they were objects; it was quite similar to a Yin Yang pouch in terms of functionality, but slightly cheaper.

The Chimera was too big in size to tag along everywhere. On top of that, since the Chimera had been spotted with his disguise around the possessed zone, it was quite possible that people might recognize it, which could cause him a significant amount of trouble. However, if he managed to purchase a pet belt, then he could incorporate the Chimera into the belt and avoid any problems.

Bi Fan quickly made his way to the trading floor inside the market, and started searching for a pet belt.

A pet belt isn’t a very common accessory, and was only used by a very handful of practitioners, as not many of them kept wild beasts as pets.

Bi Fan searched for a long time, but couldn’t find one.

Out of desperation, Bi Fan set up his own booth and decided to use one of the Yin Yang pouches to procure a pet belt.

“Yin Yang pouch for a pet belt! One for one, interested people may come forth!” Bi Fan couldn’t wait much longer; so he started shouting as loudly as he possibly could, meanwhile waving a Yin Yang pouch in his hand to validate the authenticity of his trade.

In no time, a lot of people had surrounded him.

“Brother, how much for the Yin Yang pouch?”

“Brother, I want the Yin Yang pouch, quote a price for me!”

…    …

“To be exchanged only for a pet belt, not for sale!” Bi Fan insisted, as loudly as possible.

“Oh, unfortunately, I don’t have a pet belt….”

“Brother, the Yin Yang pouch will fetch you some spars, and then you can use those spars to buy yourself a pet belt. Trust me; I will pay a premium price!”

Bi Fan had been surrounded by a lot of people, who, were trying as hard as possible to get hold of the Yin Yang pouch he had, and all their arguing was making him dizzy.

“Only available in exchange of a pet belt, not available for a sale at any cost!” Bi Fan stated out loudly, hoping to reaffirm his position on the trade.

“Brothers, there is no point doing business with someone who is that rigid. He’s simply not going to listen.” One distinct voice, subdued the crowd