"What about deeper inside?" Lin Mu asked.
The prisoner immediately shook his head. "We can't. The beasts live there."
His voice became almost a whisper. "They're too strong. Even the weakest among them..." He looked at his own shackled wrists. "...Are beyond us."
"Our cultivation remains sealed, so we're barely stronger than ordinary mortals. Even a weak spirit beast could wipe out our entire group."
Several prisoners quietly nodded as one man raised his sleeve. A long scar stretched from his shoulder down toward his elbow.
"I got too close once and only saw its tail." The man trembled. "I barely escaped."
Another prisoner silently rolled up his trouser leg showing that half the calf had disappeared.
"The beasts don't even bother chasing us. They simply kill whoever gets close enough."
Lin Mu finally understood something else: The carrot.
