They seemed to be combining their forces to hold up an array. It looked like an extremely complicated array. It took Lonemoon a long time before he recognized it to be a huge seal. However, it did not look stable. Instead, it looked like it was going to break apart at any time. The array contained cool yin aura, which was seeping out continuously.
The group of them combined their forces to hold the array in place, as if afraid that whatever was inside it would escape. However, even their combined powers were not strong enough. The yin Qi inside the array grew and grew, and the thing captured inside of it continued to crash against the boundaries of the array. Each time it collided with the boundaries, the entire Hao Ran Sect shook.
Lonemoon frowned. He turned to face the person beside him. "Fatty, go and help them out."
"Yes, Master." Fatty immediately rushed over. It was almost as if he couldn't have waited a second longer. Since he just learned how to conjure this array, he had no difficulty in remembering how to help out. He immediately faced the ball of yin Qi, conjured his own array, and moved it so as to support the powers of the other disciples around him.
"Why are you..." Chan Ji looked shocked when he saw Fatty next to him. He turned around and addressed Lonemoon and the two other elders.
"Focus on the array!" Lonemoon shouted to him. "You haven't finished setting it up!"
Chan Ji turned back to focus on the array. Now that Fatty was helping them, the pressure on each of them was lightened considerably. Yin Qi finally stopped flowing out of the array.
Within half a minute, the collision against the array stopped as well. The sea went back to being calm. The glow around the array slowly disappeared.
"Thank you for your help, Fellow Daoist!" Chan Ji nodded at Fatty, and then turned to face Lonemoon and the others once again.
"It was convenient for us to land a hand. Please don't stand on ceremony, Court Lord," Fatty responded, smiling.
"May I ask you, Court Lord, what exactly is this thing captured in the array?" Lonemoon asked as he watched the seal. "Your disciples are all Soul Formation cultivators. What exactly was it that was so hard to subdue despite the combined forces of more than ten of you?"
"Well..." Chan Ji's expression changed. He hesitated.
"It's a fierce beast!" The elderly man behind Chan J interjected. It was that Earth Immortal.
"Patriarch..."
"There's no harm in letting them know!" The man waved his hand, stopping Chan Ji from objecting any further. "They don't look like evil people. For all we know, we can get more help fighting this thing by telling this group of people."
"This Fellow Daoist is...?" Lonemoon took one look at the Earth Immortal and asked. This Earth Immortal could remain in the lower realm for such a long time without ascending to immortality, and not as an itinerant cultivator as well. It was amazing.
"This is the Patriarch of our sect – Exalted Immortal Jing De," Chan Ji introduced.
"So it's Fellow Daoist Jing De." Lonemoon cupped his fists respectfully and greeted him.
The expressions of the other cultivators present changed immediately. Jing De's status in the Sacred Arrival Realm was different from the other cultivators'. Some might even say that he was one of the first people to enter the immortal realm. Perhaps because he was a True immortal, everybody addressed him as "Exalted Immortal". Yet, Lonemoon only referred to him as a fellow Daoist. Even Jing De could not help but frown, but he did not go so far as to correct him.
"This seal contains the ferocious Weeping Beast!"
"What, a Weeping Beast!" Lonemoon exclaimed, his eyes widening.
"Huh?" Shen Ying turned to Chef out of habit.
Yi Qing lowered his head and explained, "Master, the Weeping Beast is an ancient beast. It's one of the divine races, which appeared on this realm at the same time as dragons and phoenixes. Such ferocious beasts are just as strong as divine races, but they're different in that the former do not have sentience, and they are natural killers. From ancient times, beasts of the divine race have been battling these ferocious beasts. Almost all of the latter have been killed. Logically... there should be no ancient ferocious beasts left on this realm."
"Then what's this wee... whatever beast?"
"It's a Weeping Beast." Yi Qing pondered for a moment before he continued explaining, "Legend has it that the ancient ferocious Weeping Beast has yin Qi as its soul, baleful Qi as its spirit, and grievous energy as its bones. It's extremely murderous and it thirsts for fresh flesh and blood. It would eat anything that has life in it."
"Well..." Shen Ying narrowed her eyes.
Lonemoon lowered his gaze and asked, "What is an ancient ferocious beast doing in the mortal realm?" Shouldn't they be appearing in the divine realm, if anywhere at all? That's more fitting of their status.
"We're not too sure about that either," Chan Ji sighed. "Years ago, when our sect's patriarch discovered the Weeping Beast, they sealed it and created a Buddhist Sect – Hao Ran Court, as we know it today. They wanted to use the Buddhist glow to cleanse this beast of its yin Qi and baneful Qi." As if thinking of something, Chan Ji shook his head and continued, "But all these years, this ferocious beast has not gotten better. Instead, it has gotten much worse. Now, even the seal that our late Grandmaster left behind is not strong enough to contain it."
"Just leaving it in a seal is not going to solve the problem." If this ancient ferocious beast escaped, all the cultivators in the mortal realm would not be able to fend themselves against it. No, not even all the cultivators in the immortal realm would have an easy time subduing the beast.
"Ah, we too understand that the seal would only deal with the problem temporarily, so that it would be stopped from going out to harm others." Chan Ji looked at Lonemoon helplessly. Something flashed across his face. "But apart from this, we know no other method."
Lonemoon frowned. Of course there were other methods. The most effective of which was of course to get either Chef's or his own help. The problem would be solved immediately. Dealing with the beast was not the problem. The problem was how a beast that had gone extinct even in the divine realm had suddenly appeared in the mortal realm.
"But the seal is getting weaker and weaker as time goes by. The ferocious beast, on the other hand, is getting stronger and stronger. What's more, this is already the third time this week that it's broken out of the seal. It looks like the day is coming where it will completely shatter the seal, unless..." An idea seemed to have popped into Chan Ji's head. He immediately shook his head, his expression troubled. A moment later, he looked at the group and said, "Fellow Daoists, this is Hao Ran Court's problem after all. It has nothing to do with you all. It is no longer safe for you to remain here. Please leave as soon as you can."
Lonemoon's expression darkened. Before he could say anything, Fatty spoke up in a righteous tone, "How can we leave you to settle these problems at a time like this? If the ancient ferocious beast really escapes, all living creatures will be destroyed. Nobody will be able to run away. What's more, we're not people who are afraid of death! Right, Master?" Once he finished his righteous speech, he turned to Lonemoon for affirmation.
"Heh heh." Lonemoon rolled his eyes. "You can go and deal with that ferocious beast yourself." That's for talking like you have the power to do anything about it
"..." Fatty lowered his head immediately.
Lonemoon was too lazy to deal with this passionate youngster. He turned instead to Chan Ji and said, "Court Lord, did you mean to say that there are other methods of stopping this beast from going out into the world?
"There were before, but..." Chan Ji looked him in the eyes. There was fire and passion, but he was finding it difficult to speak his mind. A moment later, he gritted his teeth and said, "The ancestral masters of my sect created this array that can seal ferocious beasts. They since passed it down, generation by generation. Naturally, all of us know how to set it up. Now that the ferocious beast has more or less broken through this one, the most effective method would of course be for us to set up a new seal."
"How can that be done?" Lonemoon asked.