“Huh, what’s this?”
Xi Shen said as he carelessly pick up the round golden object, which was the size of a baby’s fist, and examined it.
He felt the Core Formation Realm aura was emanating from this object, and he sense the power it contained which seemed rather chaotic.
“This…”
Xi Shen had an idea of what this was, and after thinking for a moment about sending his Qi inside of it to stimulate it from its inactive state, he discarded that idea.
His Time Qi was no ordinary Qi, certain things one could use the six elemental Qi for, he can’t with his Time Qi. Its power and properties just make it unsuitable to be used willy-nilly like any ordinary Qi, rather, it would be a waste on Xi Shen’s part if he started using it for such trivial things.
Instead, he sent out his Divine Will and guided a bit of the Spiritual Qi in the surroundings to enter the golden object.
After being stimulated by the Spiritual Qi, the golden object began releasing a bestial aura of a Silver Fang Spirit Beast.
“It’s like I thought, this is Beast Core from a Rank 3 Spirit Beast!”
The animals in this Era as Xi Shen had come to know were able to cultivate Spiritual Qi like humans, but with a different process because of a difference in species.
Unlike humans, Spirit Beasts don’t have a dantian, but instead Beast Cores like the one in Xi Shen’s hand. From what Xi Shen had read about them, they can gain the ability to develop a Sea of Consciousness like humans after reaching Rank 4 as well as gain human-like intelligence. There was even an additional ability to transform into a human!
The first time Xi Shen read about it he was extremely shocked, as well as fascinated by how Spiritual Qi affected and transformed animals. He never heard of animals being capable of these things back in his past life. Only creatures like God Beasts, such as Tai and Little Snow, had the intelligence of a human and could cultivate.
Xi Shen really hadn’t expected Spiritual Qi to have such a profound effect on the animals' ecosystem, completely changing it from what it used to be. And he knew there were a lot more changes that happened because of it being introduced into the God Domain, things he didn’t know of as yet.
But if he remembered correctly, humans had a separate system of classifications for Spirit Beasts' Qi Cultivation Realms which corresponds with their own.
For the Qi Condensation Realm to the Meridian Opening Realm, they are called Demonic Beasts and are the lowest level of Spirit Beasts.
They are spilt into Lesser Demonic Beasts, Mid-tier Demonic Beasts, Higher Demonic Beasts, and finally Greater Demonic Beasts.
These four levels of demonic beasts have power equivalent to cultivators in the Four Physical Realms respectfully.
After that, they move on from only absorbing Spiritual Qi into their flesh, and strengthening it, to becoming Rank 1 Spirit Beasts and forming Demonic Beast Cores to store Spiritual Qi.
From there, they move up to Rank 2, Rank 3, Rank 4, and then… well, that’s it. That was as far as Xi Shen knew.
Like before, these Ranks correspond in power with the Five Soul Realms, or rather, the first four realms in the Five Soul Realm.
For some reason, the power scale of Spirit Beasts stopped at the Soul Transformation Realm, Rank 4. Xi Shen did manage however to dig up some old scrolls that had a hypothesis, which speculated that it was because Spirit Beast was unable to comprehend a Law and begin the transformation of their Beast Souls into a Divine Beast Soul.
'From developing a Sea of Consciousness to gaining the intelligence of a human, and forming a human body, was their desperate attempt to imitate the path we humans take, as that was the only way for them to break the limit of their species and become more powerful.'
But there wasn't even a rank above Rank 4 for them. It seemed no Spirit Beast had managed to overcome that innate limit placed on them. Who or what placed that limit on them was of course the Heavens themselves, though not intended as it was just how their bodies structure.
The cultivation path of humans has been revised over countless years, so it was well developed and they have managed to overcome those limits in the past. Spirit Beasts on the other hand were behind, and haven’t found a method to overcome the hurdle and catch up to humans, well, if there is even a method waiting to be discovered.
As Xi Shen reached here in his thoughts, he said, “Well, some cultivators who specialize in taming Spirit Beasts, who are called Spirit Beast Tamers, have devoted their lives to developing a solid path for Spirit Beasts to reach Rank 5. Of course, this caused widespread debate as some people didn’t want to give Spirit Beasts the opportunity to become stronger. No telling if it would come back to bite them. Us humans are really greedy and selfish, we're unwilling to share this world with another species. Well, I’m not one to talk about being too greedy.”
Xi Shen laughed a bit in amusement after saying that last sentence.
Twisting and turning the Beast Core in his hands, Xi Shen said again, “I think there’s a Beast Core exchange system in the Academy. I could get more Academy Points on top of reporting this place.”
As Xi Shen said that he became extremely excited, but then as if a cold bucket of water had been dumped on him, he realized one massive blunder he had made.
“W-wait, how am I going to report this? If I report this place to the Academy and they come to investigate, aren’t they going to ask me what happened here? What am I going to say then? Didn’t I just create a masked vigilante? Those Demonic Cultivators who had escaped before will surely spread my fame. This...”
Xi Shen’s expression under his slightly broken mask suddenly turned blank with a hint of dumbfoundedness.
His expression then morphed into an ugly expression and he raised his hand to smack his forehead at his stupidity, but remembering that he had on a masked he paused, and instead pressed his balled up fist, with the Beast Core inside of it, against his forehead.
“Ahh, god damn it, I’m so dumb!”
Xi Shen said before he let out a long sigh, causing his face to feel a bit warm because of the mouth-less mask.
“Alright, alright, let’s think about this. I created this persona because I wanted a cover while targeting the various Demonic Cult secret hideouts. Not only to exercise my techniques but to also investigate more about the Demonic Qi they wielded. I met that body cultivator who uses Demonic Qi to enhance his physical strength. This is a good discovery, as it means Demonic Qi is being used similarly to Spiritual Qi, even Qi techniques can be cultivated with Demonic Qi then. But this plan I rashly came up with is now proving to screw me over, as I can’t report this place to the Academy and collect my Academy Points. Else that would leave a trail that the second prince is the Faceless Hero. Damn it.”
Xi Shen stood in his position and cursed at his current situation.
After thinking for a moment, he said, “No, this is fine. I’ll just not report it and keep the Faceless Hero persona. So I’m the weak and trashy second prince who can’t cultivate in the public eye, but behind the mask, I’m the justice-hungry Faceless Hero! Yes, this will do!”
Xi Shen suddenly smiled, maybe this could work after all.
However, he once again felt as if a tank of cold water had been dumped on him and he realized his second massive blunder!
“The faceless hero is going to be known to be able to use a strange Daoist Magic that enables him to conjure numerous Elemental Sword Qi or even Blade Qi. This is a product of me combining Soul Cultivation with Spiritual Qi techniques. As the trashy second prince who cultivates Soul Arts, if I used this technique as the second prince, wouldn’t that just out me as the Faceless Hero? If I don’t, then will I just be confined to using boring Soul Arts as the second prince?!!”
Xi Shen’s face turned even uglier than before, and as he thought about it more he realize there was no way around it. Those Demonic Cultivators that escape have surely seen him as the Faceless Hero that uses the Myriad Qi Creation Art.
“Arrghhh!!”
Xi Shen let out a frustrated cry before he bent down and began scratching at his head like a dog with fleas.
“Dammit! dammit! dammit! I don’t want to be confined to just using Soul Arts to battle!! I have all these different cultivation systems at my disposal but being confined to just using and exploring one is sickening! Dammit, why can’t I just use them openly without hiding my identity?!”
After yelling that, Xi Shen immediately realized the answer to that question.
“Oh, yeah that’s right, I’m the second prince. Fuck."
"There are a lot of things that could have been different if it was known that I could cultivate, and it’s certainly not in a good way. If I just reveal my current talents and powers, then that’s just painting a giant red target on my back. No way I’ll escape people coming after me for some reason, either to kill me or to capture me for the things I know. Father’s and the Clan’s protection will only go so far.”
Thinking up to here, Xi Shen once again scratched at his head wildly in frustration.
If someone saw him at this moment, one would realize his behavior seemed rather… childish.
Not that Xi Shen hadn’t realized his reactions and emotional responses have become as such recently, about one to two years ago to be precise, but he took those previous feelings in stride. As for this more childish outburst because of his blunders, he was too frustrated at the moment to give it any thought.
“All this hiding and sneaking around to get some enjoyment from my research endeavors, are becoming a pain to deal with. And all these different powers within me, the Heavenly Laws Comprehension, my Time Qi Cultivation, my Soul Cultivation, all of them have their own unique path and techniques that wields their power. A part of me doesn’t want to stop exploring them and instead delve deeper, but now it seems taking on too many things at once is becoming a pain even for a genius like myself. I wish I could just have clones of myself to cultivate each cultivation system, then I won't have to deal with them conflicting with each other.”
*Sighs*
Xi Shen let out a final sigh calming his emotions somewhat.
“I shouldn’t be too greedy. If it was in my past life I couldn’t even dream of having so many possibilities to get stronger in my grasp.”
Xi Shen looked at his hand and clenched it as he said that.
‘Don’t be too greedy?’
An orange light flickered in Xi Shen’s pupils behind his mask as that thought appeared in his mind.
Smiling, he then said mumbling under his breath, “That might be too difficult for the current me.”
Placing the Beast Core into his storage ring, Xi Shen left the pavilion and the underground cavern entirely.
He’ll speak with Mu Fan about the Demonic Cultivators and have his Clan report it to the Academy.
If Xi Shen’s suspicions were right, then some of the Clans in this City were guilty of working with the Demonic Cult. The Academy should be able to sniff them out once here.
But for now, he still had that Jun youth to take care of. His circumstances were just right for Xi Shen to kidna- ahh, no wait, he meant it was just right to consider making him another member of the group.
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