Man and Beast

In an instant, the hunter and the prey switched positions, and the spectators who had just been excited were now in tears.

Normally they take pleasure in the tears and cowardice of the girls on the field, and even mock them, but when it comes to themselves, they don't seem to be any better.

The young male cultivator stepped back desperately: "You! My father will not let you go..."

"Forget it, you'd better not sign up," Xu Shulou stopped him, "Don't bring disaster to your parents, and I don't want to beat your father up after I beat you up."

“…”

In the Colosseum, next to the Death Arena, there were two women on the field. One was lying on the ground, and the other was lying on top of her, suppressing her. The spectators were shouting, "Kill her, break her neck!"

This is obviously not a death fight arena, but why would the spectators care so much when they are just watching the fun?

The woman who had the upper hand ignored him. Seeing that she had won, she was about to let go and stand up. After seeing her intention, a spectator suddenly shouted, "Break her neck and I will redeem you!"

"..." The woman suddenly looked up in the direction where the voice came from, then looked at the guard on the sidelines. The guard shrugged with an indifferent expression.

"No, no, please..." The suppressed girl's eyes showed a trace of despair, "Don't kill me! We are from the same hometown..."

The two eyes met, and they both saw the pain in each other's eyes.

"Kill quickly!" the spectator shouted, "If you don't kill me within a dozen hits, your promise will be void!"

The woman who had the upper hand was confused. Without thinking, she subconsciously tightened her fingers and felt the fragile neck of the girl under her trembling under her hands.

The girl felt the hands tightening on her neck, and the light in her eyes gradually faded.

Right now.

With a loud "boom", a hole was suddenly torn in the wall behind the group of spectators in the east building. Light shone in through the crack, and someone stood in the gap against the light.

As this light reflected in the eyes of the two women, the audience seats became chaotic.

As this chaos unfolded, the pipa girl who was responsible for entertaining the audience before the show started suddenly changed the tune of her instrument, and the pipa sounded like golden swords.

When Xu Shulou drew his sword, it was an accent; when Xu Shulou jumped up, it was a light tune.

Xu Shulou laughed and bowed to her amid the wailing all over the place: "Thank you for composing the music for me, young lady."

The woman on the field had already let go of her hands that were pinching the neck of the person below her, and said to Xu Shulou with tears in her eyes: "Thank you for coming in time."

"She showed up in time and saved me," the girl lying on the ground was almost speechless. She coughed twice and then said unhappily, "What are you thanking me for?"

The woman didn't explain, she just looked down at her hands, she couldn't believe that she had really thought of killing someone just now. At the same time, she felt relieved, she didn't have time to make a big mistake, it was great...

Xu Shulou did not stop, but killed his way through all the places, killed the guards, took the keys and badges, and released the girls in the cages. Everyone was delighted and in disbelief, until they ran out of the door and felt the evening breeze outside, then they hugged each other with tears and laughter.

The round-faced girl who was in the same cage with Xu Shulou looked at her in amazement: "Are you a monk?"

"Yes, I concealed a lot yesterday, please forgive me."

When Xu Shulou turned to go in, the round-faced girl caught up with him and said, "Master cultivator, could you please help me see if I can really cultivate?"

Xu Shulou raised his finger and placed it on her wrist, inserting a trace of spiritual power to examine her internal organs. After a moment, he nodded: "It's true, you have a weak natural spiritual energy in your body."

The round-faced girl was stunned, looking both happy and worried.

Xu Shulou had talked with her yesterday, so he naturally knew what she was hesitating about. After thinking for a while, he raised his hand and put it on her shoulder: "In the cultivation world, there are these despicable people you see, but there are also knights in fine clothes and riding horses, there are female cultivators who punish evil and eliminate evil, and there are sword immortals who travel the world with swords. Becoming a cultivator does not make you bad. Strength is strength. Whether it is good or bad depends on how you use it."

After a brief word of comfort, she was about to continue exploring the interior of the Colosseum, but was stopped by the girl again.

"What you said yesterday about great love and small kindness..." The girl blushed and looked at her, "You must be the one with the greatest love among the monks!"

Xu Shulou laughed: "No, I am one of the cultivators with the worst reputation."

———

After the girls calmed down, someone found Xu Shulou and asked him what to do with the spectators.

"Whether to kill or release those people in the Death Arena, or whatever, is up to you," Xu Shulou said, "I won't interfere with your decision."

Everyone nodded and turned to discuss with each other.

Xu Shulou asked again: "Where are the abducted men being held?"

One girl stepped forward and said, “I once saw a guard lead a man into a dark room at the back.”

"Please lead the way."

"Okay!" The girls actively led the way, and Xu Shulou found a dark room under their guidance.

There was a dim oil lamp burning in the darkroom, and there was a screen, a bed, a table, chairs and a bookshelf, but nothing else. It didn't look like a place where people could be imprisoned.

Xu Shulou looked around and said, "I'm afraid there is a trap."

"Let's split up and look for it," the girls suggested.

"I'm not very good at mechanisms," Xu Shulou thought for a moment, took out his weapon and started to chisel the wall. He chiseled four walls and then the ground. Soon he found a hole in the ground. He dug along the mechanism buried inside, dug out the floor tiles, split the tables and chairs, and followed the mechanism line to a bottle on the bookshelf. "Found it!"

It was the first time that the girls saw someone looking for a trap in this way, and they couldn't help but twitch their lips.

As the mechanism made a sound, a big hole appeared on the ground. Everyone looked in and saw a piece of crossbeam hung by ropes, slowly rising from the depths. Standing on the crossbeam was a strange figure.

"Hide quickly!" Xu Shulou gave a timely warning and held the sword in front of the girls. The next moment, a hairy creature jumped over from the crossbar. The girls were unable to dodge in time. The crossbar was clearly several feet away from the ground. Its jumping ability was truly amazing.

After the thing came up, it did not attack immediately, but stared at everyone, as if waiting for something. She thought for a moment, then took out a red badge she found on the guard. The thing took it and looked at it, then stood aside with its hands hanging down, as if it had no intention of stopping them.

"What is this?" The girls came to their senses and looked at it in wonder. It had a pair of leopard hind legs and tail on its lower body, and its upper arms were also leopard's. Its skin had spots and patterns, but its hands had human fingers and were very flexible. The weirdest thing was that its eyes, nose, ears, and lips were all leopard's, but its face was a human's, and there was a large black mole at the corner of its mouth.

Xu Shulou took a closer look and was also horrified. This was obviously not a leopard demon. Even if the demon was not fully transformed, it would not look like this...

While she was thinking, one of the girls looked at the black mole and trembled: "Dongzi? Is that you?"

"What Dongzi?"

"It's my lover, who was captured with me..."

The girls were surprised and asked, "How could this monster be your lover? Are you hallucinating because of the shock?"

"It can't be wrong," the girl said tremblingly as she moved closer to the monster for a closer look. "I always dislike this black mole on him... How could I have made a mistake?"

She raised her hand to touch the creature's face, but was scared back by the creature's attacking stance.

"Don't touch it," Xu Shulou looked at the deep pit below, "I'm going to go down and take a look, don't follow me."

At this time, the horizontal beam had risen to the same level as the floor, and Xu Shulou stepped on it, letting the horizontal beam carry her down to a narrow and dark place. While she was adapting, the scene in front of her suddenly opened up. The hollowed-out mountain belly appeared in front of her. There was a wide space here with several torches burning inside. There were spiral paths built along the mountain wall, and all kinds of... weirdos were walking on the paths.

The scene was almost magnificent. Xu Shulou flew down, and those weirdos did not attack her, but continued to do their original work.

"Since you found this place, is the Colosseum destroyed?" A male voice sounded not far away.

Xu Shulou looked in the direction of the voice and said, "That's right."

The man raised an eyebrow, but didn't seem to take it too seriously.

"Are you the owner of the Colosseum?"

The man looked at her and asked, "Should you give your name first before asking others?"

"My name is Xu Shulou. May I ask your name, fellow Taoist?"

"My name is Chen Zhuang," he didn't react when he heard Xu Shulou's name, "and, yes, I am the owner of the Colosseum."

Xu Shulou was slightly surprised: "Chen Zhuang? Is it you?"

This name appeared in her dream. He was good friends with Lu Beichen and provided him with money and resources. When the mortal world was hit by drought, he generously gave money to buy Lu Beichen a good reputation. Lu Beichen also returned the favor and supported him in various experiments with his own power. In the dream, Chenzhuang did produce some amazing things.

It was another ally of Lu Beichen in the dream. Xu Shulou couldn't help thinking that he seemed to have killed more than one such person.

In the dream, Chen Zhuang was a relatively positive character. Even if he could not be considered a "good man", he had a good reputation. Xu Shulou did not expect to meet him in this occasion.

But thinking about how she had become a rat crossing the street that everyone wanted to kill in her dream, Xu Shulou felt that dreams were something that should not be taken seriously.

"Have you heard of me?"

Xu Shulou did not answer but asked: "The Colosseum is destroyed, you don't seem to care much."

"That's just a way for me to make money," the man looked at the orcs coming and going in the belly of the mountain, "What I really want to pursue is here."

Xu Shulou followed his gaze and looked at the half-human, half-beast people who were working or carrying heavy loads. Most of them were tigers, leopards, wolves, bears, and many of them had some male features, but some of them looked like strong women in the upper body. They looked numb and dazed, and only focused on the work in their hands.

"You've seen the leopard man up close, right? How was it?" The man's face showed a look of waiting for praise, which made him look almost naive.

Xu Shulou's eyelashes trembled slightly: "A very cruel creature."

"Is that all you can see? It seems you don't know how to appreciate it," the man closed his eyes and recalled his thoughts. "I gave him a leopard's hind legs so that he has sufficient jumping ability, gave him a leopard's upper limbs so that he has the strength to work, gave him a leopard's eyes and ears so that he is more sensitive, but I kept his mortal hands and brain. Of course, I only mean part of his brain. It's enough for him to know how to obey. Being too smart is not good."

"You sewed the beast and the mortal together...?"

"Yes, it combines the advantages of leopard and human. It is my perfect creation." He looked at Xu Shulou, as if waiting for her admiration and praise.

Xu Shulou held the sword in his hand and asked: "Is there any other way to recover?"

Although she asked this question, she knew in her heart that those people had been transformed into this state and it would be impossible to restore them.

"Of course not? Why do we need to restore them? If they are restored, can they create more value than now?" The man said excitedly, spreading his arms like a king who can dominate the fate of others. "This is creation, this is a masterpiece! This can promote the development of the entire cultivation world!"

Xu Shulou shook his head: "You are really a lunatic."

"He is also a madman who can create history. He is better than a rational mediocre person." Chen Zhuang did not deny the title of madman. "There are always the most mediocre people in this world. It's too boring."

Xu Shulou made a sword flower: "Maybe it's because crazy people like you don't live long?"

"Are you threatening to kill me?" The man looked at Xu Shulou, who was unmoved, with dissatisfaction. "They built the Colosseum for me, and you have seen the effect. Think about it, let these absolutely obedient and energetic guys serve us, they can build caves and sects for us, they can plunder and fight for us, cultivate spiritual plants and raise spiritual beasts for us, make elixirs and collect herbs for us, and we can also take them with us to step on the mechanisms when exploring secret realms. All the tedious work that requires physical strength can be handed over to them... The cultivators only need to concentrate on cultivation, and they don't need to be bothered by other trivial matters. Think about those expensive puppets with scarce materials, and then look at my orcs with materials everywhere. Which one is better, you should have made a judgment in your heart."

"The price is to bring disaster to the world."

"How can this be considered harming the human world? There are always endless mortals, and I only took a small part of them." The man looked down at the orcs, "You say I am cruel, but even a random war among them consumes far more mortals than I do, doesn't it?"

Xu Shulou was in agony, wondering why he always met such lunatics.