A Luo River runs from west to east, flowing through the southeastern corner of the Divine Continent, passing across the Luo River Plain and the Yama Wasteland Sea, and emptying into the Divine Southern Sea. Thanks to the blessings of the God of the Luo River, the Luo River Plain enjoys favorable weather year after year. So, although the Heluo Divine Sect is only considered a third-rate sect on the Divine Continent, it still manages to occupy this fertile land—though it is surrounded by covetous and powerful enemies.

Tunhai City is the most prosperous city within the territory of the Heluo Divine Sect. To manage Tunhai City, the sect specifically established the position of “Tunhai Bishop” to oversee all religious affairs in the city.

The Tunhai Bishop’s status is second only to the head of the Heluo Divine Sect, commanding eighteen Guardian Beast Warriors—a powerful military force that makes up a quarter of the sect’s entire military strength!

On the Divine Continent, the gods advocate respect for life, so conflicts between temples are usually resolved through Guardian Beast Warriors. Guardian Beast Warriors are the fighters who defend the sect.

All gods are equal. On the Divine Continent, regardless of race, one can only choose either magic or martial arts—this rule applies to everyone. However, sometimes the gods show special favor. To protect the sects that worship them, they grant some people the ability to cultivate both magic and martial arts.

And Guardian Beasts are the magical beasts that can help warriors gain this ability—legend has it they are the pets of the gods. Only by merging souls with a Guardian Beast can one obtain the ability to cultivate both magic and martial arts.

After paying a certain tax, the adventurer team was finally allowed to enter Tunhai City. Henry Bennett sat in the carriage—he was glad he could think of it that way—looking around at this city of another world.

Towering city walls, impassable even for flying birds; the city gates resembled a beast’s mouth, swallowing and spitting out streams of people coming and going. Inside the city, buildings stood in dense rows, rising and falling like mountain ranges, some of them featuring bizarre designs with a touch of artistry.

On the Divine Continent, the grandest building in every city is always the temple. The Heluo Temple in Tunhai City, perhaps due to ample funds, was built especially tall and magnificent. Although the other buildings in the city were also imposing, they still seemed petty in comparison.

The temple stood out among the crowd, built of white marble, with a slender flagpole atop its white square spire, from which fluttered a narrow blue flag symbolizing the Luo River. Every Heluo Temple has such a flag on its roof; this flag is the emblem of the Heluo Divine Sect. Every clergy member wears a narrow flag, and the number of flags on one’s body indicates their rank within the sect.

Henry Bennett was brought to a place resembling a marketplace: surrounded by simple wooden fences, with several small round platforms in the center, where people stood hawking their wares—Henry Bennett suddenly realized: oh, it was a magical beast market.

He glanced at the two warriors straining to pull the cart in front, and at the now even slimmer young female mage, and silently chanted a Buddhist prayer in his heart: “Buddha bless, since they worked so hard to drag me back from the wasteland, please help them sell me for a good price…” The archer captain took a prime spot and then shouted loudly, “Intelligent divine beast, a once-in-a-century intelligent divine beast—you heard right, yes, an intelligent divine beast! The entire Divine Continent will go crazy for it. Snatch it up and you’ll become famous across the continent, you’ll become the target of every great sect’s recruitment. Act quickly, this is a rare opportunity!” Henry Bennett couldn’t help but laugh and asked the warrior beside him, “Why doesn’t your captain become a bard?” The warrior was stunned for a moment, then replied, “Him? He used to be a bard.” The captain’s voice was loud—truly professional—after his shouting, many people heard that an intelligent divine beast was being auctioned, which was like dropping a bomb in the magical beast market, and people swarmed over at once.

Orcs, elves, dwarves… In front of Henry Bennett’s carriage, the crowd surged. The adventurer team struggled to maintain order, and only with the help of the market guards did they finally separate the crowd from Henry Bennett’s cart.

The archer captain’s elegant appearance was unfortunately ruined in this “conflict.” Now he carried a bow with a broken string, his clothes were torn in several places, and his face was bruised and swollen, but his eyes were shining with excitement—in Henry Bennett’s words, “like the happiness of having found a mistress.”

“Amitabha, what a sin… heh heh!” Henry Bennett offered a small prayer in his heart for slandering the archer captain.

“Is this divine beast real? Is it really intelligent?” someone below began to question. The speaker was an orc. On the Divine Continent, the various races live together and don’t mind differences in race or faith. This orc was clearly not of pure blood; though he was burly, most of the hair on his face had receded, but from his ears, one could vaguely tell he was a bear-man.

“Yeah, you didn’t just grab some random magical beast and pretend it’s a divine beast, did you?”

“That’s right, prove it to us first.” …The crowd clamored, demanding that the adventurer team prove that this was indeed a divine beast.