The Cultivation sects that had a long history and profound background in Chaotian usually had a divine animal to guard their mountains; for instance, the White Snake of the Great Marsh Sect and the Cold-Signal Bird of the Kunlun Sect were quite famous, and even the West Ocean Sword Sect with a shorter history also had their own divine animal, Flying Whale, an intimidating creature that could cast its shadow on the ocean like a mountain.
The guarding animal for the Center Sect was the divine Unicorn, which had become the main character in many fairy tales a long time ago, but another main character, the Old Dragon, had disappeared for many years.
The Green Mountain Sect of course had their own divine animals guarding the mountains, the rumored four Principal Guards.
Yet, the Principal Guards of the Green Mountain Sect were rather mysterious. All the Cultivation practitioners knew was that their names were Round Turtle, White Ghost, Dark Phoenix, and Night Howler, but none of them knew what they looked like.
It wasn't until this day that Yuan Qü had learned that the Principal Guard White Ghost of their sect was a cat, Dark Phoenix was a rooster, and Round Turtle was really an old turtle.
In addition to the Unicorn, their divine animals were quite modest in comparison to the mountain guards of other sects.
Yuan Qü wanted to forget about these, only wanting to remember their titles.
"What about the last one?" Gu Qing asked curiously.
"Master Night Howler…Yeah, it's Master Night Howler…Though he isn't a regular…Okay…He's actually a dog."
It took Yuan Qü some time to find the proper words to describe the last divine animal, but he found that he had no way to change the fact of what it was, no matter how he was to describe him; so he chose to give up the attempt, glaring at Gu Qing once.
Gu Qing felt it wasn't his fault, since he didn't know anything about it.
Jing Jiu added, "Ada doesn't like Dead Dog, so don't mention this name in his presence."
Though Round Turtle, White Ghost, Dark Phoenix and Night Howler were all brilliant titles, Jing Jiu was still used to addressing them the same way as he did many years ago, like Ada and Dead Dog.
Having said that, Jing Jiu turned around and walked to the cliff's edge, lying down on the bamboo chair; Zhao Layue followed him over.
Gu Qing thought the name Dead Dog was quite weird, and he also noticed his master was in a depressed mood when mentioning this particular Principal Guard.
He asked Yuan Qü, "Is Master Night Howler on Shangde Peak?"
Yuan Qü felt surprised, inquiring, "How do you know?"
Gu Qing thought, it was obvious since Yuan Qü only knew the origin of Master Night Howler among all the four Principal Guards.
One day usually went fast, but this day was very long.
The Sword Boat arrived by the stream; Jing Jiu and Zhao Layue went to Bihu Peak, accompanied by a gust of wind from the peak, and they enjoyed watching the sceneries on two peaks; finally, they brought back a cat before the sun set down.
Jing Jiu lay on the bamboo chair, the ceramic plate beneath his hand. The number of sand grains seemed remain same in the plate.
Seeing this scene, Zhao Layue thought he must have experienced a great deal of hardship in the snowland over the past six years.
Tianguang Peak was the highest peak on the Green Mountain, so the sunset could still be seen there. As the setting sun lowered, the shadow of the Inherited Heaven Sword's sheath located the stone monument became shorter and shorter and eventually turned into a black dot.
The stone turtle underneath the monument closed his eyes; it was unknown when he would open them again.
The distance between Xilai Peak and Shiyue Peak was the closest among the nine peaks of the Green Mountain. These two peaks were not so high, and the darkness had already covered the mountains there.
Nobody knew that there was a stone beam connecting the two peaks in the midst of the cliffs enshrouded by the thick fog.
The stone beam was hidden among the heavy fog all year long, since the frost and snow remained there the entire time. When the wind occasionally blew over the stone beam, one could vaguely see the paw imprints on it, which looked like the bamboo leaves.
The position of Shangde Peak was very special. Its spiritual source could be sensed clearly in the mountain range, but it was far away from any other spiritual source.
It was because of this that the cold well in the deep end of the ground there couldn't obtain any spiritual energy; the deeper the well, the colder it got.
The deepest part of that well was the offensive gate of the Green Mountain Formation; its low temperature felt as if it could pierce through bone, like the cold weather in the snowland.
Since the sunlight couldn't shine here, it was always a night world.
The stone walkway was very damp, and the energy exuded from the prison quarters was extremely filthy and evil, reflecting what the prisoners were like.
One could hear the angry screams and vicious swears uttered by the devil men of the Underworld and the demons, even through a thick heavy stone gate.
No disciples of the Green Mountain were on guard here. Even those elders in the Broken Sea State couldn't stay for too long here; otherwise, their Cultivation would be affected, and they might even go mad once they were assaulted by the filthy energy and devil wills. The main method of guarding the Sword Jail on Shangde Peak was using the flying sword to patrol it; but how did they deal with the usual happenings?
A faint noise occurred in the dark tunnel, sounding like the snowflakes landing on the ground.
A glow appeared from nowhere, and a black paw stepped on the damp stone slabs.
This was a black dog, with long and thin limbs, black hair throughout and very smooth.
The faint light landed on his body and instantly disappeared, as if the light were swallowed by something.
The most terrifying part was that the dog was huge in size, like a black mountain.
The tunnel of thirty feet high in Sword Jail was like a regular dog den for him.
His movements were so gentle that one would feel the sound of snowflakes landing on the ground was intentional; otherwise it shouldn't make any noise.
The forbidden formation and stone gates were opening up as he walked near them.
He walked slowly in the tunnel, his eyes gloomy and cold, as if he were touring his own territory.
The angry screams and vicious swears had suddenly vanished in Sword Jail.
Even the filthy and evil energy had gone as well.
Regardless of whether the imprisoned were the traitors in the Broken Sea State or the Devil-God-like swordsmen of the Underworld, they all displayed a great deal of dread.
The black dog kept on walking, until he got out of Sword Jail.
There was a patch of thick fog outside the cave, with a strong lethal intent hidden within, and outside the fog was the ocean of clouds.
Illuminated by the remaining twilight, the ocean of clouds looked as if it were ablaze.
There were many peaks hidden in the midst of the burning clouds.
The Hermit Peaks of the Green Mountain were located here.
The black dog started running, at an unimaginable speed. The flying swords couldn't even keep up with him.
The ocean of clouds was disturbed, and the fog hung on his body like the cottons, looking quite amazing.
He came to the front of a peak, and he jumped up by stepping on the cloud. His one jump could cover a thousand yards, noiselessly.
There was a manor cave on the cliff, with accumulated leaves and dusts outside, and a gemstone was embedded on the cliff wall, emitting a red glow.
The black dog looked at the closed stone gate, remaining reticent.
He remembered clearly that the disciple in the cave hailed from Bihu Peak.
Three hundred years ago, this disciple had already entered the middle state of the Broken Sea, but he didn't have any chance of breaking through the Heaven Arrival State; as a result, he came to the Hermit Peak.
After the forbidden formation was lifted, the dog walked into the manor cave and saw the corpse of that disciple.
The disciple's face was full of wrinkles, looking very old, and his white hair was loose, his skin dry, devoid of all moisture.
He had seen the similar scenes too many times, so the expression in his eyes was still gloomy and cold, lacking all sentiment.
He lowered his head to pick up the corpse with his mouth, and turned around, heading to the outside of the manor cave.
The gemstone on the cliff wall turned green.
The black dog jumped onto the ocean of clouds, drifting away along with the moving cloud.
The setting sun dropped below the mountains, and the darkness fell on the world.
The black dog came to the front of a stony mountain.
There were many holes on the cliff.
And there was a stone statue in each hole.
He lowered his head to put the corpse in one of the holes.
One more stone statue had been added.
The black dog had returned to Sword Jail.
He passed the dark and gloomy tunnel and came to a place.
This place was circled by the walls, like a well, but the ground was pretty dry.
The black dog sat down quietly.
A band of light shone from the sky down on his body.