It didn't take more than twenty minutes for all of the participants to be healed and restored fully by Yang Qing.
Bu Fui had his missing arm restored, Tang Su had the various holes, ruptured organs, and broken bones healed, Yan Qiu had his body detoxified along with the injuries he suffered along the way when he decided to speed run the mountain and abandon all caution.
The first-place finisher Liao Jiayi was completely healed. However, he was still unconscious. He had overdrawn the abilities associated with his physique which put a strain on not only his body but his soul too.
From what Yang Qing and the rest had gathered, Liao Jiayi had a physique associated with the Kunpeng. However, the physique wasn't a naturally occurring one.
When it came to physiques one could either acquire it naturally as a form of bestowal by the order or rules governing the world, or you could acquire it through assiduous cultivation through body refinement, which is what the large populace does since naturally acquired physiques were a rarity.
They were no different than natural Dao treasures if one thought about it.
However other than these two, there was also one other group that could be considered a hybrid of the two physiques. Liao Jiayi happens to fit into this category.
The physique was both acquired and natural at the same time. Such a physique was usually acquired through a pact between a human and a spirit beast or a sentient spiritual herb. Such a pact is usually soul-binding between the two parties and is intrusive to the point it may perpetually affect the bloodline of both parties or one of them.
Some of the largest and most powerful clans and empires within the southern continent had their origins tied to such a pact. One of them was the Shu Clan a rank 1 clan, which was as ancient as the two holy lands. Their founder formed a pact with a powerful golden roc that was in the soul formation realm. The founder had been in the soul formation realm at the time too.
His blood as a result of the soul pact was altered, containing traces of the golden roc's physique within it, and with it came the abilities of the golden roc, one of which was the speed the rocs were famous for.
The roc in return gained a portion of the Shu patriarch's talent when it came to understanding different types of Dao, more specifically the one the patriarch was gifted in.
Humans had the weakest bodies, and the lowest start when compared to other species. However, they had one area in which they outdid the other species, which was their malleability and adaptability to different forms of dao to the point that they could master two different Daos that were antitheses to each other such as the water and fire Dao or the wind and lightning.
This is why there are millions and millions of cultivation arts floating around the world. Humans have no birth restriction on what they could learn unlike spirit beasts who despite their powerful bodies, long lives, and racial traits, were restricted to a particular Dao, and the improvement of their cultivation is at a snail's pace.
A pact between a spirit beast, a spiritual plant, and a human helps alleviate that issue. But for the pact to succeed, the human has to have talent and strength that matched theirs or they would be swallowed by the soul pact ritual.
The Shu Clan patriarch had his physique altered from the pact and gained some of the racial abilities of the Golden roc, one of which was immense speed and an affinity for the wind dao. This bloodline soon got passed down to his children, and their children down the progeny line to date.
Thus the Shu clan is known as Roc physique users, though there are different variations of it among the clan members, and not everyone gains the bloodline and the purity of the bloodline also differs which affects how many traits of the golden roc they gain. When it came to purity the generation of descendants didn't matter as someone in the 50th generation could have a thicker bloodline compared to someone from the 5th.
The only ones that were exceptions to this rule were the patriarch and his direct children.
Liao Jiayi seemed to have a thin bloodline of the Kunpeng. However, the abilities he showed were one of someone who had a thick bloodline.
Yang Qing guessed he had something else in him, that belonged to a real kunpeng or the progenitor who had formed the pact with the kunpeng which was why he could draw out some of its abilities such as high-speed regeneration via the water Dao.
Both Yang Qing and Dai Chen had tried to use their palace sense to investigate his body, however, there seemed to be a shield that isolated his inner structure from them.
The only reason that they even discovered he had its bloodline was the final move before he crossed the finish line.
"Whatever....the vice chancellor will handle any concerns about Liao Jiayi," thought Yang Qing.
Whatever object Liao Jiayi had on him, whether it belonged to a kunpeng directly or someone who had formed a pact with one, whichever case it was, they both meant his background wasn't simple.
Yang Qing decided not to overthink the matter. Liao Jiayi was officially part of the Order despite his background, and there were trusty seniors above him who were more suited to deal with it than him.
His part as a lowly Order worker was to serve and to try and shamelessly score more merit points for discovering Liao Jiayi with the kunpeng bloodline, Yu Mei with the crystal heart glazed physique, Meng Jia a 14-year-old with an unlocked mental sea, there was Yin Rong with the blazing vined white rose physique, and Bu Fui an old man with a talent for the sword who would have likely been buried in the dust.
Yang Qing couldn't help but snicker at the thought of merit points and treasures he would fleece out of the Order. He had every intention of making it seem like he had scouted them personally.
"Zou Yi, Zou Liqin make sure you reach the finish line so I can milk this for all its worth.." thought Yang Qing as a greedy glint flashed in his eyes.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺