"Are they there?" Bai Qi murmured as he overlooked the location that the link in his consciousness had taken him to. Bowu had also confirmed he was close, but if it was so, where were the mentioned ravine and waterfall?

The only thing that Bai Qi could see was a cloud of white that covered the land in front as if it was mist, and from within it, he sensed nothing. Neither of his senses, be it the qi sense or vision, had managed to penetrate it. He could discern that the cloud was composed of uncountable white flowers of the same kind that floated in the river a quarter of a mile to the right. But more than that? Nothing.

In such a situation, Bai Qi would usually proceed with calm analysis and use all means to investigate the cloud. But, for some reason, he felt that he was short of time.

Bai Qi concluded by taking a brief look around. The river indeed disappeared into the cloud, so he wasn't wrong. At least it seemed he was not.

Thus, failing to penetrate it with his senses, Bai Qi took a deep breath and walked right into the flower cloud while using the river for direction.

*Step* *Step*

From outside, the cloud looked to occupy an area of a few hundred feet at max. But Bai Qi counted over a thousand steps, and he had neither emerged from the cloud nor encountered anything. The river was still to his right, and he had not lost his way, so why?

Bai Qi questioned himself, but he had not the slightest hint to develop any answer.

*Step* *Step*

He counted another thousand steps before stopping. The flowers appeared to be surrounding him, but surprisingly, he could not reach and grab any of them. It was almost as if the flowers that formed this strange cloud evaded his grasp by themselves.

With no senses or signs to help him, Bai Qi could only solve the situation based on his own knowledge. Which wasn't low, but seemingly even it was failing him, at least for now.

"It can be nothing more than an illusion, or I would have already exited the cloud from the other side. But I can not sense its source anywhere." Bai Qi muttered to himself, using the sound of his voice as a point for his senses to latch on.

His voice sounded normal, and he felt how it did leave his mouth. Thus, he was definitively not unconscious but trapped inside an illusionary world in both body and mind.

Armed with this knowledge, he followed with another few tests. He attempted to walk and speak, walk backward, turn around, change directions, among other things. He even tried to summon and send a few wisps of 'Ghostflame' to try and attack the flowers, only to see and then feel the flames dying without hitting even a single one. But nothing seemed to work, or on the contrary, everything did work, and the illusion was not only a complete one but also one with a very expansive world.

And it was a fixed one, as to confirm he wasn't trapped entirely, Bai Qi had backtracked all his route. And he did exit the cloud, appearing in the same spot he had entered it.

"Damn!" Bai Qi cursed in annoyance but then shook his head. And forcefully calming, he sat down cross-legged.

***

Even directing all of his mindpower and available qi to his senses, he could not penetrate the cloud at all. So he then turned to his last option, one that Bai Qi did not want to use until he tried everything else.

He did make his best effort to avoid damaging the paired links in his consciousness while examining them. But either because it was an incomplete link or because their respective linked beings weren't in control of them, the links only throbbed a few times in response to his mindpower, and nothing else happened.

Without knowing the source, a formation, or something else, Bai Qi could not even apply an array or use other forceful means. Thus he continued meditating, leaving his senses to probe on the cloud and using part of his consciousness to try and find options he may have overlooked.

Same time. A small clearing, 40 miles from the ravine.

Bowu had not used the pill that the human had left him at first. But after thinking, he did reach for it and then swallowed it.

And although he felt pain, as the human said, he also felt how his wounds began healing. First slowly, and then quicker and quicker.

"Damn. I can not even hate the human. It was me who could not stop him. And he did not try to wound me until I did, even left me medicine. Damn!"

Bowu had never heard of a pill that could heal such a wound in mere minutes, even if searing pain accompanied the process. And now, he had not only seen but also consumed one of them.

***

"Damn!" He growled again, inwardly accepting, that indeed, the human would be far more fascinating for the Bai sisters.

Bowu knew that neither Bai Rui nor Bai Ze considered him anything but kin. But he had always hoped for a day when that would change. It was for that he hid his feelings and thoughts, as other Beastmen would take them as a weakness. And he always accepted any challenge and task. Well, in front of the beast girls at least.

But this defeat and one that looked as if the human spent only the minimum effort had shown him that he had no chance.

And even though dozens of different ideas crossed his mind, Bowu knew that he would not go with any of them because, in the best case, it would only bring hate to him. And so, when he rose from the ground, finding himself healed, he did not even try to follow after the human called Wu Guang. On the contrary, Bowu only spared a single glance towards the south and began slowly moving to the camp.

No hate, no fear, and except for a slight hope that the human could not enter the ravine and that the sisters would not leave until someone came for them, he had given up.

The sun was on the verge of setting down, and Bai Qi had not a single idea of how to proceed. He had recuperated a good chunk of his qi pool, but neither his mind nor senses had given him anything new.

Suddenly, he opened his eyes and lightly chuckled. The chuckle turned into a burst of laughter, one that ended as abruptly as it began.

"Heh. I never expected to find myself blocked by something so easy. It seems that my mental state is far from the usual." He stood up while speaking aloud, and as he did, his aura began expanding.

When it covered an area of over a hundred feet to each side, Bai Qi waved his hands, and the freely flowing aura almost instantly concentrated in a sphere around him.

"Totems, huh? That can only mean that at some point, there was an Exalted Beastman. Only one of them could have done something like this." He continued aloud as the aura formed a pair of enormous claws around his arms.

He then approached the cloud of flowers and clawed while releasing all the aura he gathered.

*Swoosh*

And as if the current of aura was enough, the cloud parted in two, revealing a stone statue that resembled a tiger.

Bai Qi examined the totem of what should have been a [Fire Tiger] and marveled as he felt its age.

Bowu did say about the totems and that they protected the ravine. But Bai Qi had assumed it meant anything but a formation array. It could not be held against him in any case, as no beastman could have trodded the Formation Path, not to mention becoming a Formation Saint.

But that was if one considered the Saint Beast Beastmen seen and known until now. But after the Saint Beast level, the Exalted Beast realm followed, and Beasts from that realm would have no issue learning formations.

After all, an Exalted Beast core would turn into a dantian, and their mind power and consciousness would not be lesser than their cultivator counterparts!

With the twenty feet tall statue now uncovered, Bai Qi also sensed the truth about the protection this ravine had. He was amazed, as it was a masterpiece, almost on the same level as [Immortal Eleven Springs] training zone.

The method to enter it was simple as it was complex. At first, it required one to show its power, and if enough, one of the totems would appear. But from there, only someone bound to the totems via a, probably, blood ritual could proceed.

Bai Qi obviously had never been bound to the totems. But with the obstacle in plain view, he could use other means.

{Bright Heavens, let's see how you fare against a Saint-level formation!} On his command, the golden-threaded glove materialized on his left hand, and Bai Qi touched the statue.

*Shake* *Shake* *ROAR*

At first, the totem shook, then the surrounding flowers shook, and then, it was as if dozens of angry beasts roared in unison.

But neither of that made Bai Qi pull his hand back. And a few moments later, the totem illuminated in the blue gleam of activated runes.

The flower cloud began glowing as well, but in a golden hue, the one of a formation. After that, it simply disappeared, uncovering a narrow but deep ravine, surrounded by statues of beasts placed 333 feet from each other.

"Haa, I will lament this, truly." Bai Qi half exhaled, half sighed and walked past the totem in front.

***

The glove was miraculous indeed, but even it could not destroy the entire formation. It had temporarily destroyed the outer, illusionary layer, but everything else, like the traps, remained active. Thought Bai Qi's senses allowed him to avoid most, and the [Bright Heavens] glove helped him destroy or at least freeze the ones some of the ones he could not, he still was forced to brace and defend against several traps.

Most of them were on the only path down, into the almost mile-deep opening, and even if he wanted, he could not dodge them anyway.

[Breath of Inner Fire] the innate ability of the [Fire Tiger] scorched him.

[Horns of the Earth] the innate ability of the [Grey Singlehorn] punctured and left deep gashes on his body.

[Winds of the Afterworld] the innate ability of the [Death Hunter] surged around him, destroying his aura.

But Bai Qi continued his descent, even though if asked, even now, he could not answer a simple question - Why?

___________________________________________________________________

Xiaoshan Mao had explained to both Bai Rui and Bai Ze what they did and mentioned that it had a slight, almost inexistent, chance of awakening their true ancestral bloodline.

By a whim of the heavens, as humans would say. And the Beastmen would say that the Holy Ancestor recognized them. In any case, neither sister knew the reason, and probably not even the Elder could explain it, but their bloodline did awake. Even more, it happened to both of them, at the same time and in the best possible location.

***

After being shouted by her elder sister, Bai Ze also had sat down and concentrated on commuting with the agitated blood inside her body. And again, as if destined, both sisters opened their eyes at the same time, as their auras surrounded them.

There were no observers, and the sisters' eyes were blurred, so no one could see how the figure of a [White Tiger] had materialized behind each of his descendants.

*Roar* *Roar* *Roar* *Roar*

Four roars, two from the beast girls and two from their respective auras, filled up the three hundred feet wide ravine.

*Thump* *Thump*

Both fell on the ground, unconscious, unable to notice that even though their aura dispersed, the [White Tiger] phantoms had not. On the contrary, both apparitions looked more and more lifelike with every passing moment.

And when it looked as if the tigers were truly alive, they exploded into a myriad of blindingly white specks. And as rain fell on the body of their respective summoner.

***

And being unconscious as they were, neither Bai Ze nor Bai Rui noticed that someone else was now present nearby. It was a human male, covered in both caked and fresh blood, with burn marks, and looking as if he had just left the most savage battlefield.

With wobbly feet but straight back, he made a few steps before falling to the ground as a whisper escaped his lips, "You two, I have come to take responsibility."