I'm extremely interested in Nen abilities.

It seems that the so-called elder of the Black Mist Lion is the type who is willing to communicate with humans.

Jing Yang nodded to himself. This was easy to understand. If the entire clan were like Ryan, the patriarch wouldn't have been raised like a wolf child. Instead, he would have been swallowed whole by the Black Mist Lion when he was found.

Sure enough, when they found the core habitat of these magical beasts in a valley plain, led by two black mist lions, and met the Grand Elder, the latter's attitude was quite friendly.

It's unclear whether he's always been this way towards humans, or if it's because those who manage to walk from the edge of the mountains to meet him are generally qualified to receive his kind attitude.

Of course, it's more likely that it's a result of the black mist lions lying all around Jingyang and the others.

Even with Ryan and Rand as guides, these monsters wouldn't easily consider Jing Yang and his companions as friends. They would inevitably come up to question them, and even physically provoke them.

Jingyang and his group naturally understood that they needed to demonstrate their strength at this time.

Therefore, after explaining his reasoning, the old lion elder, who had stepped out in the spotlight, was exceptionally easy to talk to.

The old lion was thin, but what was rare was that the beast was wearing a robe. Beneath the half-open robe, one could still see the muscles and bones beneath the loose skin, which gave a glimpse of its powerful physique in its youth.

"You're asking about this pendant..."

The elder took out the small jade Buddha he was wearing from his bosom. It was a light gray stone-like object, a small multi-armed Buddha with a blurry face. The sculptor's skill was not refined, and it was no different from the ones he had seen before.

"They are just some clumsy imitations of mine," the old lion said in a hoarse voice. "As for their special abilities, they are not my skills. I just copied them and did what that person said, and even then, I did a very poor job of imitating them."

The black mist lions around them, their faces bruised and swollen, some even rolling on the ground unable to get up, were also hearing the elder recount the origin of their clan's pendant for the first time, and they were greatly astonished.

"That person?" Aussie seized upon the key phrase in the elder's words, "Was the other person a human?"

The old lion sighed, "Yes, it was humans! Let me think, it was hundreds of years ago, wasn't it? I was very young then..."

Several hundred years?!

Jingyang and Ao Si were both taken aback. How could these black mist lion monsters live so long? Is their natural lifespan really that long?

"Back when our clan lived by the sea, I would often see him standing alone on the beach, either staring blankly at the endless sea for days on end."

"Or he would go alone on the shore and carve an entire reef, bit by bit, into many different stone statues."

The elder smacked his lips, lost in distant memories.

"Probably because I often hung around him, he got used to my presence. One time, I couldn't help but ask him, 'This sea is boundless and incredibly boring, there's nothing here. What are you looking at?' That's when he spoke for the first time."

He said he was looking at humanity's past and also at humanity's future.

"He has already seen the sunrise on the other side, so he came here to see the sunset."

It can hold so much liquid!

Looking at the ocean and witnessing the sunrise and sunset is easy to understand, but... can one see humanity's past and future?

Is he just bragging to a bunch of Warcraft players, or is he really some awesome person?

Jingyang's mind raced with thoughts. Surely it wasn't that old man Netero was just taking a leisurely stroll by the sea.

The old lion shook his head. "Sigh, I've gone off on a tangent. Back to the stones... well, the stones. He carved each reef into different shapes. Strangely enough, these were just ordinary stones, but after he did that, they all looked like jewels, as beautiful as black jade. I mustered up the courage to ask for one to play with, but he said these things were useless to us magical beasts."

"However, in the end, he couldn't resist my persistence and left a statue, but forbade me to touch it. As compensation, he taught me a method of reproduction..."

He looked at Jingyang and the other two who were listening attentively, as well as the group of Black Mist Lion Clan members around them, and said, "The statue he left behind is enshrined in our temple. The pendant I made using the method he taught me naturally has the ability to teleport us to the temple when we are in danger."

Jingyang said, "Then, where is the temple? The patriarch you raised, and our friends who were kidnapped by him, are probably there."

Chapter 167 The Dilapidated Zen Temple

Upon hearing Jing Yang's request, the Great Elder of the Black Mist Lions was somewhat displeased. "The temple is a sacred place for our race. How can we just take you humans there?"

Little Drop said, "Since that patriarch is also wearing your pendants, he must have been to that temple more than once. He's human too."

"He was raised by my tribe from a young age, growing up listening to my stories just like the lion cubs of my tribe. How can he be considered human?" the eldest son, Gong Yun, said. "At most, he can only be considered half human, the other half being a magical beast. Hahaha..."

"Elder, it's because you always say things like that that the kid has become so neurotic!"

"That's why he ran away from the mountains and never came back."

"What is a human? What is a monster? And who am I? I've heard him repeat these questions at least eight hundred, if not a thousand..."

The surrounding Black Mist Lion tribesmen began to shout.

Jing Yang had no interest in the backstory of the cult leader who had harmed ordinary people, and went straight to the Grand Elder, saying, "Have you forgotten something? It wasn't just these two who attacked us before; there were two others. They ran fast, using one of your pendants to escape. —I think they haven't returned yet, have they?"

The Grand Elder's expression immediately changed. The two black mist lions, Ryan and Land, who had led Jingyang and the other two to this place, exclaimed, "Tiebo and Xirun haven't returned yet? Are they still at the temple?!"

“I’m afraid it’s not that they don’t want to come back, but that they can’t,” Jing Yang said. “The little lion you raised is no longer just someone who mutters to himself and doubts his own identity. He’s probably gone completely mad. He likes to gouge out people’s eyes and performs shamanistic rituals. Since he’s neither human nor magical beast, what scruples could he possibly have? He can be ruthless to his fellow humans, so how will he deal with those two magical beasts who came to his door?”

Rand clenched his fist and shouted, "Elder, we have to find them both!"

"Yes, Elder!" The crowd cheered.

However, some Black Mist Lions expressed their confusion, saying, "Why listen to what this human is saying? Perhaps Tie Bo and Xi Run just chatted a bit more after meeting Hemlando at the temple?"

It was only then that Jingyang and the others learned that the patriarch was actually named Hermlando.

The elder, his face grim, finally said, "Ryan, Rand, you two come with me to the temple. The three human guests, you may come along as well."

He looked at Jingyang and the other two.

"How do we get there?" Xiao Di looked curiously at the small jade Buddha hanging around the Elder's neck, pointed at it, and asked, "Use this?"

“Of course, otherwise how would we get there?” Ryan stood beside the Grand Elder.

The Grand Elder grasped the small jade Buddha, but Jingyang asked, "Do you know the way there on foot?"

Oushi nodded secretly. Being cautious was the right thing to do.

Who knows what the so-called teleportation ability within this small jade Buddha is all about? And who knows what the so-called temple at the other end of the teleportation is like?

It would be unwise to rashly step into someone's Nen abilities without knowing anything about them or fully trusting them.

Moreover, the two black mist lions that escaped from the temple have not yet returned, and it is highly likely that they have been captured by the patriarch who is hiding in the temple. The two black mist lions may well tell you what happened to them, so the patriarch probably already knows that the three of them came here to rescue Kurapika.

As long as that patriarch isn't out of his mind, he shouldn't think that a few people with Nen abilities can't handle a few magical beasts.

Even if the Grand Elder's Jade Buddha teleportation itself didn't have a trap, the Pope had probably already set one at the other end, waiting for these humans who came looking for him to walk right into the trap at the teleportation location.

"It's possible to get there by foot, but it's quite far," the elder said.

"Then let's go." Jingyang gestured.

The journey was uneventful. As the number of black mist lions scattered throughout the mountains decreased, the so-called temple was not far away.

"It's there."

After crossing a mountain, under the starlight and moonlight, the elder pointed to the valley between two mountains ahead, saying, "The temple is at the bottom of that valley."

Ryan and Rand's beastly eyes gleamed with a dark golden light as they gazed into the distance, seemingly possessing night vision.

We don't! We are human beings! Ous was speechless.

"Why are we in a canyon again?" Jing Yang wondered. "Does your clan really like this kind of terrain?"

The place where this elder and many black mist lions lived was a flat area in the valley next to it.

"We didn't choose the location for the temple," the elder smacked his lips.

Jingyang and the other two immediately understood.

It seems that the so-called temple was built by the human who carved the stone statues on the beach hundreds of years ago, as the old lion mentioned.

It's even uncertain whether what they built at the bottom of that canyon was actually a temple.

The monsters at the time probably saw that the person placed the stone statue there and assumed it was a statue of a god... Especially when that powerful Nen user, yes, there is no doubt that he was a master of Nen among humans, and the replicas he left behind all had strange teleportation abilities, it is not surprising that the Black Mist Lion Clan regarded it as a temple and a statue to worship.

The group of six quickly descended the mountain and approached the canyon between the two mountains ahead.

In the distance, Jingyang seemed to see the gate of a dilapidated Buddhist temple, but as he suddenly took a step out, billowing black mist surged around him like a tide, engulfing everything in an instant.

The three people and three beasts were not far apart when they moved forward, but they could not see each other or the road ahead when they were buried in the black mist.

Every step felt like walking on black clouds, with a constant fear that the next step would slip into thin air. I couldn't tell which way was up or down, and I had a feeling of weightlessness.

"Pfft."

Rand lost his balance and fell to the ground, dazed, and touched the lion's head.

"Thousand-Armed Tathagata, Unborn Avalokitesvara..."

A dreamlike chanting voice came from within the black mist.

"Hermand, is that you? You're really back?" Ryan shouted through the fog. "Where are the others? Elder! Rand! Elder!"

"The Thousand-Armed Tathagata, the Unborn Guanyin... The True Buddha's Wrathful Eyes, Blood Reddens the Human World..."

Rand ripped a claw towards the direction from which the chanting sound came, and black mist billowed as a black figure, accompanied by the chanting, disappeared into the distance.

He shouted, "Elder! Ryan! Tie Bo! Xi Runke! And humans! Humans! And...humans! Where are you all?"

Suddenly, something attacked him from within the black mist.

"Thousand-Armed Tathagata, Unborn Avalokitesvara..."

"Alright, that's all you can recite, is it?"

The Grand Elder stood motionless in the fog, coldly gazing at the surrounding black mist, listening to the deathly silence except for the faint chanting that seemed to come from nowhere.

Finally, he said impatiently, "When you were a child, who picked you up and fed you with milk and meat? I told you so many stories, and all you can do is recite things like Buddha, Guanyin, God, angels, and the great legends of the Thirty-Six Sages?"

"God is dead!"

From within the billowing black mist, a dark silhouette vaguely emerged, roaring angrily, "Buddha is dead! Sage is dead!"

Suddenly, a pair of blood-red eyes opened on the black Buddha statue's face, as if it were weeping blood, or burning with inextinguishable rage.

"Angels have lost their wings, gods have perished, this human world has no future..."

Above those two blood-red eyes, another pair of equally fiery red pupils opened.

Is someone talking?

Oushi maintained his "Entanglement" technique to ensure defense against any unexpected situation, cautiously observing the surging black mist around him. What on earth was happening? Was that patriarch behind this? He was still alive after all!

"Zhen Yuanzi! Xiao Di! Zhen Yuanzi!" Ou Si shouted loudly, but no one responded. Suddenly, he swung his fist to the side, but only disrupted a cloud of black mist, without any other effect.

Could this black mist have hallucinogenic effects?

It disrupts my perception and judgment!