I was getting quite good at throwing quick jabs at people’s faces. My movement wasn’t telegraphed at all as the power came exclusively from the shoulder and not from the lower body. It was quite a bit weaker because of that, but still enough to bring an unsuspecting man to his knees. Or ass, as it happened in this case.
Su Ker collapsed on the ground from the sudden strike, and before anyone even had time to react, I already shoved two of the thugs out of my way, enjoying their shocked expressions as they were unable to resist, and ran away.
These guys, thinking themselves strong, had in fact, no chance! How could some untrained kid that had just started on the path of Cultivation possibly compete with someone that consumed the Essence of a Blaze Bear? It was a rhetorical question. They couldn’t.
“What are you doing?! After him!”
By the time Su Ker shouted the order, it was already too late. I had dozens of meters head start, and on top of that, I was faster. My lead was unassailable.
[I’ll remember this! And you owe me lunch!] That was the last thing I shouted before disappearing from their view, leaving them to eat my dust and yell angry curses from afar.
But soon even those stopped, and I was completely alone.
I ran through a forest at great speed, pissed off to all hell. My stomach was rumbling and I was hungry! I would remember this, luring me away from my meal, how dare they?!
I came back to the Sect not long after and made my way to one of the food stalls to get a bite to eat. I tossed the man a Spirit Shard and got a few pieces of delicious succulent meat on sticks. It was just enough to satisfy my cravings until I got a proper meal in a restaurant.
I did that because I knew I had to wait twenty or so minutes before receiving my order. I just picked something at random from the menu, since I wasn’t really familiar with all the options yet. But no matter what I picked, it was always meat or some version of delicious animal products. Plants were eaten extremely rarely, and mostly in the form of medicine or pills.
Most people in the Sect were big, even if they weren’t necessarily combat-oriented. So far, every man I have seen that was at least an Inner Disciple was two meters and above in height, and many of those had large builds, full of dense muscle.
Being large had many pros, but so did being extremely dense. Muscle dense, not mind dense. Durability was the most obvious one. Denser muscles and bones would be much more difficult to damage, having the ability to endure punishment. Especially the bones. There were already some freaks that had slightly denser bones back on Earth, and they were notoriously difficult to break.
Now imagine taking that ability and enhancing it a few dozen times, on top of extremely dense muscle, plus a magic enchantment on top. You would basically get an indestructible superhuman.
They would still get stronger just like their larger counterparts but to a lesser degree. And depending on what effects magic nullification had in combat, having an extremely durable body would possibly be of great value.
The fact that I didn’t see that many giants like Ren Kong meant that there was something to being smaller. Apart from having to eat less food, it was also less of a hassle in everyday life. Especially since girls liked to remain on the smaller side, as far as I could tell.
I considered growing to about 220 centimeters over time if I could influence it. That was where I felt most comfortable since it was about the size I was before my untimely demise.
And since I decided to focus on defense, that was what I decided to do, even if growing big had many advantages. Survival above else! And it was the only thing that could counteract the rapid power increase from consuming Essence. If my body became durable enough, then I could absorb as much strength as I wanted from other beasts without any negative side effects, as far as I knew.
As far as I knew, as far as I knew… I didn’t know much of anything, did I? Not for certain at least. It was slightly frustrating not being sure of anything, but it was the best I could do with limited information. Like my Soul for example.
I felt like I could already advance to the Nascent Soul Realm since a few days ago, but it just didn’t feel right. It was as if I could do it, but on the other hand, I felt like I was only less than halfway to the top.
That was probably what they meant when they said to push to the limit and not leave any talent unused. I wasn’t exactly sure what would happen if I did it halfway, but I guessed my Cultivation would suffer because of it. Most likely a step in my Path would become weak, making it more difficult to advance later on.
I was not going to play with my future just because I had the option to take a shortcut. That seemed unwise. Foundation had to be made of concrete and metal, not dried mud and sand.
Well, I guess dried mud and sand were alright if you wanted to make a shabby dirt shack. But for a mighty skyscraper, a solid foundation was required. I was going to build that foundation, no matter how long it took, and nothing would distract me from-
Oh, food!
My order just came, and as I took the first bite, everything else just melted away. A small taste of heaven! This constant craving for sustenance, for the flesh of other beings, was never so intense before. Each day I have felt hungrier, and especially after the last training session, my hunger increased yet again.
I looked over to the other patrons of the restaurant and saw them similarly devouring their food. They didn’t seem as desperately hungry as me, but there was some of that… desire in their eyes.
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A small difference in what I have experienced to that of fantasy stories about Cultivators. As my Realm increased, instead of requiring less food, I became hungrier instead. This insatiable hunger, this desire for-
Hold on… I had experienced this feeling before. A long, long time ago, well, half a year, or thereabout. Long time relative to my short existence. The Eternal Hunger.
I put my hand into the pouch at my waist and pulled out an Earth Crystal. The core of another animal, most likely one of the Giant Rats. Disgusting creatures, but even they had their use. Their core was full of that mythical substance called Ether. I placed the brown crystal into my mouth, and nearly instantly I could feel my cheeks and tongue tingle as the crystal dissolved.
Unfortunately, it was of poor quality, so most of the crystal was made of impurities and stuff, leaving me with a mouthful of sand-like particles. I spat out the gray sand mixed with saliva and rinsed my mouth.
I could feel in real time that crazy hunger slowly subsiding. Of course, it wasn’t gone, but it had lessened by about 10%.
Ether was mostly found in blood, or in the crystal. The flesh of an animal held comparatively little, which was probably why food didn’t seem to satisfy me anymore.
I paid and stood up, took out a notebook, and recorded my discovery. I had an inkling what might have happened to me.
When starting the Body Cultivation process, my blood was saturated with Ether and I felt fine. Even after training for a while, I didn’t feel many changes. But then I began the intense sessions… My guess was that to change the body, large amounts of Ether were required since that was what held onto Qi.
That was the most basic knowledge of magic. And I had, for the second time in my existence, drained my blood of this vital substance. My Qi stores didn’t noticeably change since the Ether simply moved to my flesh and bones. But now that I figured this out…
I took another Earth Crystal and placed it in my mouth. It too soon turned into sand. Annoying beyond imagination, eating a fistful of sand.
Unfortunately, the mouth seemed like the only viable place with skin thin enough through which to absorb Ether into the body. Apart from eating it in food, of course. And I wasn’t willing to try and stuff it in on the other end, even if that worked.
So I was stuck with it, unfortunately. Unless I somehow found a Beast Core of a Golden Core Realm monster or above. That one would probably be much purer and less of a hassle to consume.
The Ether fully absorbed into my blood, and I felt a marginal decrease in hunger yet again.
Perhaps the flesh of animals in higher Realms contained more Ether, making them better suited for stronger Cultivators to consume. And they had more Essence too.
I could hardly believe how little of it I could extract from an entire Blaze Bear. A fistful of Essence Cores was so little compared to the mass of flesh I have converted. Plenty of it was ruined as the technique wasn’t perfect, that was true, but still, more than 99% loss of mass was still quite extreme.
Oh well… I couldn’t really complain. It was a free boost that probably saved me months of hard work.
I threw another tiny crystal in my mouth and frowned in disgust. The texture was truly horrible. I still had the big Wind Crystal from the Howler, but I was saving that in case of emergency. It was a beast of high Spirit Accumulation Realm, and worth quite a bit. Most likely close to a tenth of a Spirit Stone if I had to guess. The core of the Blaze Bear was about 70 SSS, so that’s what I was basing my guesses on.
I eventually returned back home, though I avoided the main roads in case the lunatics from the White Minks were still around. I closely examined the beginners’ village as well as my house, and after confirming they weren’t there I could finally relax a bit.
There was no way in hell I would be paying them protection money, especially not after what they did, or tried to do. And if they didn’t get the message and came after me again, I would simply hand out some more bloody noses to those blocking my path. I was a pacifist after all.
Towards the evening our little group gathered once more, but I could immediately notice a few problems.
Chity Boru was acting weirdly as if he was deeply worried about something.
[Hey, what’s up? Something happened?]
“Ah? Hmm, maybe…”
His answer didn’t give me any confidence, so I probed further. [So, what’s bothering you?]
“Eh… I’m probably overthinking this, but…”
[Just spit it out already!]
If there was one thing that annoyed me, it was when people were mincing words. Just say what you mean!
“So, it’s like this… Ban didn’t come home yesterday, and today Shi went looking for him, but it has already been hours, and he also didn’t come back. I’m getting worried…” Chity said, his face marred by a deep frown.
[Missing? Did they leave the Sect by any chance?]
“No, that’s the thing! They were staying in the Inner Sect almost the entire time. I’m not sure of their exact location, Shi didn’t tell me, but they definitely didn’t go into the wild.”
[Hmm…]
“I bet it is the Rogue Cultivator that got them. He’s mad we killed his tamed beast and now he’s coming for revenge!” Chity exclaimed.
[Yeah, right…] If he wasn’t a man I would slap him for overreacting. [How the hell is a dirty Rogue Cultivator supposed to sneak into the Sect and kidnap two Disciples without anyone noticing? Even if Outer Disciples are on the outskirts, surely the sentries would notice if someone not from the Sect would try barging in.]
The brooches they gave us were giving off a very weak Aura, most likely something the Formations could pick up to distinguish us from the outsiders. It was not difficult to figure that out with a bit of intuition and logic.
“Do you really think so? I’m just worried-”
[Man! Just relax! Nothing bad is going to happen. Maybe Ban got himself a girlfriend or something. I’m sure he’s going to turn up soon.]
“Oh... Now that you mention it, he did say he was meeting with someone…”
[See? He’s probably just having fun somewhere, and Shi most likely just joined him. Who was he planning to meet with, by the way?]
“He didn’t say.” Chity shook his head. “But you are probably right. I’m overreacting, aren’t I?”
“Yes, yes you are.” Even Alyx agreed with me, having listened to our entire conversation. “Plenty of my Senior Brothers disappear every once in a while and then come back acting drunk and smelling of herbs and incense.”
[Haha, they are probably smoking the herbs if I had to guess!]
“I don’t know about smoking…” Alyx said. “But I know of quite a few plants we are growing, and they have some weird effects on the mind. I once accidentally ingested sap from the Mind Root during processing, and I was having hallucinations for hours. It was wild!”
He then told stories of his mates tripping balls on the fields after they disregarded the warnings of their Seniors and inhaled the scent of various flowering plants. The effects were quite drastic and they had to be carried off to the infirmary.
But apparently in low doses, the feeling you would get was quite pleasant. They even helped with Cultivation bottlenecks in some cases.
It was exactly what you would imagine would happen if a bunch of teenagers were tasked with growing weed, largely unsupervised.
I just shook my head at the substance abuse, but since they were Cultivators, their bodies were significantly more robust and could take it. Probably.
I had no desire to dabble in mind-altering drugs as I needed my cognitive function at 100% at all times. If I ever wanted a chance at figuring out what the hell was going on with my Soul, and if I ever wanted the chance to return to Earth, keeping my brain functional was vital!
It was also one of the reasons I valued sleep so much, and as such, I went to bed pretty early. The day had already been exhausting enough, and I was tired.