Liu Defu limped behind Bi Deng, his face a bruised and battered mess, and his groin still aching dully.
Unable to hold back any longer, he lowered his voice and asked, "Elder, that Lu Lei is nothing more in the Spirit Breath Realm (Early Stage) than a piece of trash. Why only punish him by making him clean the dung pits? Wouldn't it save us all a lot of trouble to just cripple him outright?"
Bi Deng stopped dead in his tracks, whirled around, and slapped Liu Defu right across the face, sending him spinning in a complete circle.
"Idol! Fool!"
Bi Deng hissed through clenched teeth, "You think Zhou Muxue of Yunyu Peak is just some ornament? It’s only been a few days since she finished draining Lu Lei through dual cultivation. What do you think would happen if the kid suddenly dropped dead and she decided to investigate?"
Liu Defu clutched his swollen cheek, his voice trembling: "B-but Lu Lei is just a Spirit Breath Realm (Early Stage) human furnace..."
"Furnace?"
Bi Deng sneered. "Other inner sect disciples might not care about whether a furnace lives or dies, but that Zhou Muxue is a total freak of nature on Yunyu Peak."
Bi Deng irritably yanked at his collar. "Zhou Muxue is notoriously stubborn on Yunyu Peak. She follows all sorts of bizarre manuals for everything she does. If Lu Lei dies too obviously, there's no guarantee she won't actually go strictly by the book!"
After all, he had no idea where the books in Zhou Muxue's possession came from, nor had he ever read them, so he had no clue what was written inside.
Seeing that Liu Defu still looked unconvinced, Bi Deng added with a sinister edge, "Besides, do you think the Flaming Rhinoceros Garden in the Spirit Beast Garden is any paradise? Those horny female rhinoceroses have been extremely restless lately, and they've already trampled three outer sect disciples to death. With Lu Lei's meager cultivation, he'll be lucky if he lasts three days!"
At this, Liu Defu’s eyes lit up, and he quickly broke into a flattering smile. "The Elder is wise! Once that punk gets trampled into minced meat by the rhinoceroses, even if Senior Sister Zhou wants to look into it—"
"Shut your trap!"
Bi Deng planted a boot squarely in his backside. "Why aren't you rolling off to tend to your injuries? With that pig-head face of yours, do you want the whole sect to know my nephew is a good-for-nothing who couldn't even beat someone in the Spirit Breath Realm (Early Stage)?"
Liu Defu fawned, "T-that... that was because he ambushed me!"
Bi Deng snapped, "Get the hell out of my sight and stop being an eyesore!"
Meanwhile, Lu Lei was standing at the foot of the Spirit Beast Garden mountain, gazing up at the sky.
Known as the "Sixth Peak" of the Huanhuan Sect, this mountain looked entirely different from the other five peaks. The entire mountain was shrouded in a pale purple barrier, from within which came the faint, overlapping roars of beasts.
At the entrance stood a weathered stone tablet carved with the bold, vigorous characters: "FEROCIOUS BEASTS WITHIN, ENTER WITH CAUTION!" The script was weathered and slightly blurred by the passage of time.
The Spirit Beast Garden of the Huanhuan Sect was divided into two sections: the inner and outer gardens.
The inner garden was a core forbidden zone of the sect, accessible only to inner sect elders and a handful of elite disciples. It housed numerous high-grade spiritual beasts, including many at the Spirit Spring Realm and Spirit Core Realm, serving as vital combat reserves for the Huanhuan Sect.
The outer garden, on the other hand, was an area open to outer sect disciples. Although the spiritual beasts there were generally of lower grades, they were massive in number and diverse in species.
"Senior Brother, I am here to serve my punishment."
Lu Lei handed his token to the gatekeeper and asked offhandedly, "I heard the master of our Spirit Beast Garden is the former sect master's dao companion?"
The gatekeeper’s expression changed drastically. Lowering his voice, he hissed, "If you're trying to get yourself killed, don't drag me down with you! Lady Baili despises it most when people bring that up!"
Before he could finish speaking, a crisp fox cry echoed from the mountains. Startled, the gatekeeper gave Lu Lei a shove, sending him tumbling straight through the barrier. "The Flaming Rhinoceros Garden is in the eastern valley, now get lost!"
Upon reaching the Flaming Rhinoceros Garden, Lu Lei finally understood what kind of malicious intentions Bi Deng had in mind.
Standing on the stone steps at the entrance of the Flaming Rhinoceros Garden, before he had even set foot into the valley, a wave of scorching heat washed over him.
The air was thick with a pungent smell of sulfur, mixed with a fermenting, rotten stench—as if someone had tossed rotten eggs into a volcanic crater.
"Boom!"
A loud crash rang out in the distance.
Two Flaming Rhinoceroses, standing over three meters tall, were frantically smashing their horns together. Amidst flying sparks, their hide glowed with magma-like patterns, and the breath blowing from their nostrils scorched the ground black.
One of them was defeated, its crimson beastly pupils suddenly pivoting toward Lu Lei.
"Oh no!"
Lu Lei's hair stood on end.
The frenzied Flaming Rhinoceros kicked its hind legs hard against the ground, charging straight at him amidst a rolling wave of heat.
Lu Lei turned to run, only to find another female rhinoceros blocking his escape route. It was anxiously pawing the ground with its front hooves, its thrashing tail sending sparks flying in all directions, clearly also trapped in the violent throes of estrus.
"System! Save me! Protect your master!"
Lu Lei shrieked in his mind.
"It is recommended that the host utilize the Body Cultivator ultimate technique: Iron Mountain Against."
The system's mechanical voice was entirely devoid of emotion.
"Against your granddaddy! You little punk!"
Lu Lei executed a clumsy donkey-roll to dodge the charge, the stone wall behind him smashed to dust by the rhinoceros horns.
Before he even had a chance to catch his breath, he suddenly felt empty beneath his feet—that male rhinoceros had actually swept him into the air with its tail!
"Thud!"
Lu Lei crashed down heavily near the edge of the dung pit, his cheek a mere ten centimeters away from the boiling "magma dung."
The surface of the dark red, viscous substance floated with unburned fodder, and the sparks sent flying by bursting air bubbles landed on the back of his neck, scalding a row of blisters.
"Is this shit or lava, what the fuck!"
Lu Lei scrambled away on all fours, his scalp tingling as he stared at the pool of "magma dung."
His job was to shovel the dung of these Flaming Rhinoceroses into bags woven from scarlet silk, and then transport them to the spiritual herb garden to serve as fertilizer for fire-attribute spiritual herbs.
However, those Flaming Rhinoceroses in the throes of estrus cared nothing about whether Lu Lei was helping them clean up their filth. A few Flaming Rhinoceroses that had failed to win mates decided to take out their frustration on Lu Lei.
"Moo—!"
A male rhinoceros suddenly reared up on its hind legs, slamming its front hooves hard into the ground. Several Flaming Rhinoceroses whipped their heads around in unison, their crimson beastly pupils locking onto Lu Lei.
"Wait! I'm just here to help clean..."
Before he could finish, five rhinoceroses closed in from a fan-shaped formation. Lu Lei hurriedly grabbed a dung scoop from the side to block; the refined iron handle bent into a U-shape under the impact of the horns.
Leveraging the force, he wedged the dung scoop into the rhinoceros's nostril and vaulted onto its back.
The male rhinoceros shook its head wildly, carrying Lu Lei straight toward the center of the dung pit.
"What the fuck!"
"Stop, damn it, I don't want to die with you!"
Fortunately, even the Flaming Rhinoceros found its own dung repulsive. Right as it was about to plunge into the dung pit, it suddenly reared up on its hind legs and stopped, though Lu Lei was still violently flung off by the momentum.
Before he could even get back to his feet, another Flaming Rhinoceros charged at him.
The Flaming Rhinoceros's horn grazed past Lu Lei's ear, the scorching airflow nearly scorching off his eyebrows.
Lu Lei grabbed hold of that magma-glowing horn for dear life, hanging in midair like a tattered flag while the wind whistled past his ears.
"What the hell! Are you a rhinoceros or a bullfighter?!"
Before the words left his mouth, another female rhinoceros slammed into him from the side.
Lu Lei felt like a soccer ball being kicked back and forth—and a ruined, battered soccer ball at that, played with by a delinquent child.
"Boom!"
The horn of the first Flaming Rhinoceros struck him squarely in the lower back, sending Lu Lei soaring into the air and tracing a graceful parabola.
Before he could hit the ground, the second female rhinoceros had already assumed its stance, using its tail like a paddle to swat him toward the opposite side.
"Damn it! I'm not a volleyball!"
Lu Lei's protests were shredded by the wind.
A third Flaming Rhinoceros caught him with its forehead, smashing him toward the edge of the dung pit like a billiard ball. Lu Lei performed a somersault in midair, narrowly skimming past the magma dung pit, only to be tossed back by the fourth rhinoceros's snout.
The fifth Flaming Rhinoceros was evidently a soccer fan; it delivered a flying volley with its hind leg, launching Lu Lei high into the sky.
Lu Lei spun like a spinning top, the world turning upside down before his eyes as the only sounds left in his ears were the howling wind and the excited roars of the rhinoceroses.
"Are these beasts toying with me?"
Lu Lei thought in despair.
Meanwhile, hidden in a place Lu Lei could not see, a pair of beautiful fox eyes was secretly watching this "ball game."
"Interesting. It's been a long time since the Spirit Beast Garden was this lively."