The Core of an Ancient Beast

When Shui stepped in front of his brother, the dog leader gulped. Its finely tuned senses told it to stop what it was doing immediately, but it couldn't back down anymore. Therefore, it held its head high and looked down on the small golden monkey.

"Are you going to surrender?" it asked while trying to seem as imposing as possible.

In response, Shui stayed aloof while enlarging his tails until they were as thick as the dog leader's limbs.

"I'll give you one chance."

"Huh?"

"You said it, didn't you? The strong devour the weak. So all of you, drop whatever you got and scram."

Unlike the dog leader, Shui didn't need to act imposing when he threatened them. In fact, it sounded less like a threat, and more like a command.

"Tch, don't you think you're being a little too arro-"

The dog leader puffed its chest and was tried to prove that it wasn't inferior to Shui in the slightest, but doing this meant it had given up on its only chance at surviving. The moment it rejected his offer, Shui constricted its body with his tails. It thought that with its size and strength, it would be able to escape quickly, but before it knew it, Shui's tails stretched to wrap around every part of its body.

"Wait, you don't want to-"

No excuses he could give were worth listening to, so Shui swiftly tightened the grip of his tail and simultaneously crushed the neck, limbs and chest of the dog leader. This sort of brutal death naturally made the rest of its gang fearful, but instead of cowering they showed their rising desire to fight. However, just as they were about to pounce on him, Shui's tails split into more tails until the number of his tails matched their number. And at the end of these new tails were three-pronged tips that looked like tridents. Every single one of them was pointed at a beast that opposed him.

"Will you continue to resist?" asked Shui in the same aloof manner.

Unlike what some may think, not all evolved beasts were the type to fight to the death with anyone they deemed as an enemy, even the ones that were stronger. While that type definitely existed, as long as the gap in strength was large enough it would be easier to find a beast who would retreat and wait for some time in the future to get their revenge.

The battle between the beasts and Shui became a perfect example of this. While most of them surrendered, there were a few who thought this was an illusion and charged at him anyways. They died of course. After all, for an evolved beast not blessed with great heritage, how could it survive without being able to tell which battles to lose?

After looting the remains of the ones that died, Cin took a space expansion bag from Shui and went around collecting treasure from the ones that surrendered. Since cultivators died in the forest all the time, no one was surprised about the space expansion bag and they didn't question where it came from either.

After collecting from the gang, Cin stopped in front of two big frogs.

"What? We already gave you what we had." said one frog.

Everyone else saw it pay up as well so they looked at Cin suspiciously, but his nose was never to be doubted.

"Come on, cough it up before I slice you open."

Certain that he was right, Cin nudged the bag in front of the frogs with its snout.

"I said I don't-"

True to his words, right as the frog tried to continue its argument, Cin's claw ripped into it. Without any preparation for the attack, the frog's guts spilled out on the ground.

"You!!!"

"You coward!"

"How could you?!"

Despite Shui's presence, the gang didn't take this lying down. They could accept losing, but not this humiliation. They took a step towards surrounding him, but then Cin grabbed more than a couple, perfectly fine, glowing fruits out of the bloody mess that remained. The crowd wasn't dumb enough to not understand what this meant so they hesitated and stayed back.

Cin then glanced at the other frog and it immediately vomited out even more fruits. These fruits were all beneficial to high beasts, and it seemed its comrades truly didn't know that it was hiding them so they glared at both of them. The first frog might have had its stomach ripped open, but it was still alive so it could still feel pain.

Ignoring as that group surrounded the two frogs, Cin returned to Shui with the bag. Once they were next to each other, Cin used telepathy to talk to him.

"Hey lil' bro, do you think we could try and sneak this out without having to give up a share."

"Hmm, I can probably try something but with this many witnesses there won't be a peaceful way out if we don't at least give up some."

"Tch, fine. Just leave enough for me to give to my pack. You can take your own share."

Cin could have asked Shui to beat up the beast lord so they could keep all the loot, but its pride didn't allow that thought any consideration. It had already decided that it would rule the forest with its own strength.

"Um, excuse me."

While Shui and Cin talked through telepathy, one of the high beasts of the smaller group called out to them. Both brothers quickly understood why and discussed it.

"What do you think?" asked Cin.

"Let them go. We don't want to have everything or else it'll be harder to keep what we want."

After a quick exchange, Cin turned to the smaller group and said, "You can go, we don't need anymore."

For most evolved beasts, it was normal to leave one's treasures in their territories so no one had anything of high value on them besides the fruits and whatever they may have picked up from the misty plain.

Watching the scene of the the two brothers robbing the bigger group and then leaving, was the crown panther great beast. Shui and Cin didn't know this, but it was the master of the stonehide lion, flail lizard and waning moon bear. Since it gave them the antidote for the blackrock snake's territory, it knew that their absence meant that they failed to complete their task.

As a great beast, it didn't have a problem with its followers fighting, but Cin wasn't part of any faction. That might have been fine as a beast spirit but now that he was a high beast, he had to choose an umbrella to stand under. The blackrock snake only took poisonous creatures so the choice would be between it and the silver tiger which had the diluted bloodline of the White Tiger.

Cin had already caught the attention of the crown panther great beast and it would likely also catch the attention of the silver tiger. But the crown panther great beast was determined. Either it would be Cin's master or it would get rid of it.

Unaware of who was watching him, Cin went with Shui to the most important region of the secret world. There was a gigantic tree that stretched into the sunless sky with it's leaves concealing the clouds, and at its roots were several glowing orbs of different sizes. It would have been unbelievable if they weren't right in front of them, but these orbs were all true cores, proofs that many beast kings died here.