Being cut out from whatever was happening, Bai Qi took a bet. One where if his martial soul did what it had to, he would survive. In the other case, well, he had already shut down his mind, so he would simply never awake.

But he did wake up and judging from the moon, not more than an hour had passed. He inwardly concluded while sensing the surroundings and finding nothing but his presence.

"It's gone. Now it's just a matter of what price did I pay for it!" Bai Qi muttered while looking around and confirming there was no sign of anything except a few dead demon beasts.

His mind and body did not feel damaged, which meant that his soul had taken the full brunt of the stress. Bai Qi knew it and so avoided using his aura. Considering such an approach as the most correct one, Bai Qi decided to complete the original task of their hunting group.

Gathering meat wasn't anything more than losing time, as the beastmen could come later and do it. But Bai Qi had the feeling that he could discover something useful, not to mention that a few Demon Beasts cores would be useful for him. Especially if as he suspected, his Soul was damaged. A modified, and controlled, use of a Chaos core could help him begin mending it. At least enough until he got the required ingredients for a [Soul Mending Pill]. A pill that would not only help his assumed condition but allow him to breakthrough as well. After all, the [Soul Mending Pill] was a real Earth-tier pill!

Bai Qi wryly smiled as the thought crossed his mind, and summoning a small amount of his inner qi to cover his arms, walked towards the nearest [Crimson Bonewolf].

___________________________________________________________________

Earlier. Nearby forest.

Gi La was closer to the north, so she first moved to find the tiger-men. Tiaowen was a dutiful one, and Gi La knew that he would not be late without reason.

The plan was for them to circle, keeping a distance of two miles from the hill, enough as to see the signal and not be discovered by the Demon Beasts. Thus, she suspected that if they met some trouble to approach, it should be somewhere between the planned spot and the hill itself.

As she moved, she imagined dozens of possible reasons and did not like either. If Tiaowen and his group had been stopped by an enemy or a trap, then it was one enough as to stop five 2nd level Saint Beasts.

Each possible reason made her conceive a path of action, but as she first sensed and then saw the tiger-men, she could not help but swear.

"Damn, did they suddenly turn dumb?!"

Indeed, she could not have fantasized the five of them simply sitting there without any care.

Her initial reaction, one that came from the thought that their commander and the human were fighting, was to slap them.

But as Gi La approached more, she noticed a strangeness. The five of them maintained a conversation, but it wasn't coherent at all.

"It's as if they each have their own" She muttered while releasing her aura and trying to sense what was wrong.

Beastmen, and Saint Beasts in general, had a far weaker consciousness than their equivalent cultivators. Thus, placing them under an illusion was easier. And while snapping them from it would be easier as well, it did not matter if one could not notice the type of illusion.

Thankfully for Gi La, it wasn't a complex one, and her senses caught on some kind of connection going from them towards the direction she had just come from.

"Is there a Demon Beast capable of using illusions?!" She was shocked but quickly calmed herself, remembering that Heise Zhao wasn't alone, and the human cultivator should be less susceptible.

Freeing them without mind power would be hard, so she decided to take a different approach. By surrounding the tiger-men with her aura, she cut the connection and after some time, it dispersed entirely, liberating them from the illusion.

***

Half of an hour later, taking the five with her, she gave the hill a wide berth, moving towards the place where Guandian and his mate should be. She found them in a similar condition, although in place of sitting calmly, the two [One Eyed Leopards] laid on the ground, shaking.

Having the previous experience to guide her, Gi La confirmed a similar connection and used her aura to wake them as well. To slightly hasten the process, she also commanded the tiger-men to use their auras, and it worked, with the leopards waking up after a few minutes.

***

The hunting group was complete now, except for Heise Zhao and the human. And because of her strength and position, as well that they had fallen prey to the illusion, so were unaware of the happenings, Gi La assumed the leadership.

She had always preferred acting cautiously. And this time, she did not change her manner either.

"Guandian, your kin is the fastest among us. Take Yanjing and rush back to the camp." Gi La commanded, and after relating what she knew, motioned for them to set off.

As the leopards did, she took a breath and continued, "If whatever controlled the Demon Beasts is so strong as I suspect, then both the commander and the human are in dire straits."

"So what do we wait for? If they are fighting, we can be of help!" The lead man-tiger, Tiaowen growled impatiently.

"You all were caught in an illusion, one that neither of you nor we noticed. If that beast, or whatever it is, has such means, what help we can provide? We could make it worse!" Gi La rebuked while scratching the scales on her left arm with her other claw. She always did so when she was thinking, and knowing this, Tiaowen did not try to bicker.

"Let's move to the edge of our senses envelope and try checking on the situation. Over an hour has passed, and I am not sure of what happened during it. So if the fight is ongoing, we encircle the enemy and act on the leader's orders or directly attack if he can not give them. If it's finished, then I will go alone and check on the situation. Understood?" After a couple of minutes, Gi La decided, and the man-tigers nodded in acceptance.

__________________________________________________________________

With or without aura, a cultivator's speed wasn't affected, as the core of any physical improvement was the inner qi. So it took Bai Qi only a few moments to move and begin carving one of the Bonewolves. Although the logical path of action would be to rush back to safe territory, to the camp, Bai Qi thought otherwise.

He did not know in what condition Heise Zhao was, but he did recall that Gi La and the other beastmen should be around. Thus, if they were alive, they would come here first.

***

By the moment when Bai Qi moved towards the second bonewolf, he sensed the approach of several auras. Concentrating on his senses, he identified them as Gi La and the man-tigers, so he stopped what he was doing and turned around to meet them.

"Wu Guang? What happened?" Gi La asked as soon as her voice could reach him. The man-tigers spread around, keeping an eye on the surroundings.

Bai Qi briefly explained, only omitting the means he had used to deal with the being. He could not hide the fact that something had happened, as there were strands of an aura that could be considered his, floating around, but he did not plan to reveal the true reason. In turn, he explained that his soul was embedded with a life-saving treasure, and when the being attempted to take control over him, it seemingly activated.

"But are you okay? And why do you are still here?" Gi La's senses had caught on the traces as Bai Qi thought, but his explanation was reasonable enough for her. Still, she did not understand why he had not left, at least to look for them or even for Heise Zhao.

"A talisman embedded in one's soul is a dangerous thing, and I am unsure that I can safely use aura now. My combat capacity is uncertain, so after considering that this was a Demon Beasts' nest, I assumed it to be a safe place to wait." Bai Qi explained and then motioned to Gi La and the others, "After all, I was aware that you would come here at some point if you were well."

She had other questions, and she had not spoken with the human for long before, but she did notice that he looked as dazed. That coupled with his explanation, meant that he probably had suffered severe inner damage, and so, Gi La decided to avoid questioning him now. She decided after a brief moment.

"Mmm, leaving seems reasonable. But first, help me gather the Demon Cores. I am not sure if you truly need the meat, but the cores can help me heal my soul if it was damaged." Bai Qi could guess what was going on in the lizard's mind, and when she started speaking about leaving, he immediately spoke up.

"The meat will be useful, and if the cores are as well, then let's complete the task here before moving." Gi La agreed while making a small inner note about looking after the human for now. He seemed strange somehow, even if she could not point out the reason why.

***

With the help of the Beastmen, the entire process only took a few minutes. But a great surprise for everyone, even for Bai Qi, were the contents of the dugout cave where they had initially suspected the two leading demon beasts to dwell.

Two beasts were indeed present, dead as all the others. But what a pair of beasts!

Equivalent to a 3rd or even 4th level Saint Beast when alive, twenty-five feet long, covered in armored scales.

No one of the seven could resist sucking a mouthful of air before exclaiming, "Demon Steel Fang!"

A [Demon Steel Fang] was an unusual mutation for snake-bloodline Chaos Beasts that occurred once several generations. An offspring of the more common [Demon Fanged Snake], which was already a fairly difficult opponent and was one of the rare cases of a Demon Beast that even under the influence of Chaos Qi retained some intelligence, the [Demon Steel Fang] was even more alike to a normal Saint Beast.

It could communicate with others, and even when taken away from its source of Chaos Qi, it could still grow in strength as it generated a small amount of it naturally.

At last, Bai Qi understood the reason why the being he had fought, defended the place with such fervor.

It had taken over the best possible candidate for its experiments in forming a vessel and simply could not risk moving them. After all, not only the cultivators, but even the Beastmen would leave everything and try to hunt such a pair of Demon beasts.

The danger they posed aside, their body was a true treasure, with each scale having a small amount of embedded chaos qi, the beasts could be used to create Earth-tier armaments. And even with the crude means of the Beastmen, which were more akin mortal smithing than actual refining, a weapon or armor from the [Demon Steel Fang] scales would be no worse than an almost ideal Spirit-tier one!

***

Meat, cores, and even an unexpected treasure safely stored, Gi La commanded the group to move out. But after moving for less than half an hour, they were intercepted by Yanjing and Heise Zhao. The former accompanied the latter, who decided to not risk going to the camp before confirming what had happened to him.

He was shocked to find that the human he hoped to have escaped, and inwardly thought dead was fine. Or at least looked so, as Gi La took him aside and quickly shared what she had found, felt, and sensed.

"I, Heise Zhao, am truly ashamed for leaving you there, even if you asked for it." Heise Zhao straightforwardly said before excusing himself again and requesting Bai Qi to confirm his condition.

Although Bai Qi's guesses before were confirmed by the gathering of consciousness actions and words, he still did not assure Heise Zhao of anything before making a full scan with his mind power.

"No signs of anything dangerous, but there is a small remnant amount of foreign mind power near your core. I would suggest taking some time to circulate your qi and regenerate your aura slowly, cleansing yourself from it. And also," Bai Qi summoned one of the [12 Stars and 8 Reflections] he did not pass to the elders, "Dilute it in blood and drink it. It's a cleansing pill, and it will help you cleanse anything I may have missed. The [12 Stars and 8 Reflections] pill also will slightly help improve your Spirit Core, so no harm even if I did not miss anything."

"Thank you" The man-lynx slowly nodded while receiving the pill. Even the aroma from the pill indicated that it wasn't just a random common-tier one, and he was only surprised at the means the human had.

As they resumed their journey to the camp, Heise Zhao motioned for him to be left alone with Bai Qi, and asked directly, "The being that you called a gathering of consciousness is dead, right?"

"Most probably, I found no signs of it anywhere."

"But your treasure..?"

"As most life-saving ones, destroyed after being used, so I could not assure of anything. It also activated as I went unconscious, so I did not see anything either." Bai Qi did not enjoy lying to the forthright beastmen, but there was no choice either.

"Whatever it costs me, I will compensate you." Heise Zhao spoke up after a brief pause, and before Bai Qi could say anything, he added, "Even if it means to follow you and protect you until I die."