The Wendigos were indeed inedible, at least for me. I extracted all the Essence I could get out of them after devouring their Souls. It was another great boon to my Cultivation, boosting me by another month or so. It was kind of depressing how little these beasts moved the needle. What kind of Soul did I have if it needed so much Soul Essence to grow?
“Don’t know… A strong one? Nascent Soul Cultivators shouldn’t be able to use Golden Qi until they are at the last step before the Golden Core. And you are doing it at the first step… Unbelievable...”
I mentally shrugged at his comment.
[Forget all that, why can't I fly in this place?] I asked. For some odd reason, the space in this part of the jungle was incredibly rigid. Like comparing a soft sponge to hardened steel. I couldn’t budge it in the slightest even with all my powers.
“There could be many reasons…” Old ghost began. “There could be a spatial anomaly, where a stable portal can be opened. Or it could be an inheritance of some powerful Cultivator keeping the place locked down…”
[Inheritance?] My ears perked up. I could always use more money.
“Yeah, but more likely it’s that one of the Elders was here recently, using his Mystic Arts and his Aura still lingers in the area. That could prevent those in the lower Realms from manipulating space here for a while.”
[Oh…] That did indeed sound more plausible. We were just a hundred kilometers or so southwest of the Sect.
“Just check out the place. If you see something unusual we might find something.”
[Can’t you look by yourself?] I asked.
“I could, but I don’t have any Qi to use my Arcane Eye. I would have to burn my Soul to get some, which I’m obviously not going to do. I have no desire to decay even faster.”
[Right…] His words made sense. He was just a Soul without a body, so he had no access to Qi, so I used my Magic Eyes to look around instead. But even walking around a bit, I couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. [Probably just an Elder then, huh?] I said with a bit of disappointment in my voice. I really hoped for a treasure or something.
“Yup.”
I sighed and collapsed on my back, laying in the soft grass, and started at the bright starry sky. I still had so far left to go.
[How come the Wendigos were so much stronger than the Mountain Apes? They were at a lower Realm.] I asked. It was something that was bugging me a lot.
“Wendigo? Oh, you mean those beasts… It’s simple, they had more Essence.” Old ghost answered.
[Is that all?] I wondered out loud. [They didn’t have any special abilities or anything?]
“Not that I could see. But you need to realize strength is not determined by the Realm. That only shows how strong the Soul is and what Mystic Arts they can use. Body Cultivation is much different.”
[How so?]
“Well, take those two for example. Mountain Apes are predominately fruit-eaters who live in big groups. They share resources between them and are pretty peaceful, most of the time. Wendigos, on the other hand, are bloodthirsty hunters that fight for their lives on a daily basis. They eat whatever they can, whenever they can. It is obvious which of them would be stronger.”
[So that’s what you meant by them having more Essence? Because they eat the flesh of others?]
“Exactly! Body Essence is for a Body Cultivator what Soul Essence is for a Soul Cultivator. And they are both made out of the same thing, Qi. Higher Realms just allow for accelerated growth. That’s why it’s best to focus on Soul Cultivation first and leave Body Cultivation for later when you have more and better Qi.”
[Hmm…] His words made so much sense, and they gave me something to think about. I would have to consider the implication in depth to optimize my growth. I took out my notebook and added a few new lines with the insights I had just gained.
If I wanted to go far, I had to go slow and just never stop. As the proverb says: “A journey of a thousand miles begins by taking a shit.” Or something like that. I couldn’t remember.
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I decided to cut my adventure short and turn back home. There was still time for me to prepare for the Beast Tide, and maybe buy a new weapon too. A shame for the Toothpick. It snapped so easily.
A fully metal glaive would have been much better. At least it would only bend and could be repaired if I hit things too hard with it, instead of breaking apart and flying god-knows-where like the last one.
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I came back home two days later and announced my return at one of the sentries who was keeping track of those things at our side of the mountain range.
My Cultivation was going well. I completed many cycles of Awakening Breath, and my Aura was slowly changing to be similar to that of the old ghost. My mind felt much better after a session, and I experienced a release of tightness I didn’t know I had. Even though the speed of Cultivation didn’t increase all that much, the feeling while doing it and after, was way above the previous technique.
“You are doing well. Since you have so much Qi at your disposal, it seems the foundation of the first layer will be completed soon.”
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I already knew what he was talking about without him telling me. My Soul used to be encased in black mist, but that seemed to be slowly hardening into a shell with the help of foreign Soul Essence and my own Cultivation. Like an onion, in the Nascent Soul Realm, there were nine layers to build around the Soul, slowly, one at a time.
I was basically done with building the first shell where the first layer will be built on top of it. Starting with the shell to separate the Soul from any potential mistakes or damage future Cultivation could bring, and build a cushy layer on top of it. After reaching the limit, create another shell around that to lock it in place, and then build on top of it. Repeat that nine times, and that’s basically the Nascent Soul Realm in a nutshell. I knew you had to then somehow compress and merge all these layers with the Soul beneath to reach the Golden Core Realm.
Wasn’t sure how though. But it also didn’t matter, since I was at least a decade away from it. I would find out eventually when it was time.
But apparently, all these layers would make a Soul much more resistant to outside attacks, so being without protection on the first level was when the Nascent Soul Cultivator was at his weakest. Though it was still much better than being at the peak of Spirit Accumulation, obviously.
“Oh, hey Gerald. You are finally back.” I waved at the guys in the village after coming back and Chity quickly came to greet me.
[What did I miss?]
“Nothing yet.” Alyx also came. He had a strong smell of medicine following him around. “Though there was an announcement…”
I wondered if they already knew about the Beast Tide. But just to be sure I pretended to know nothing. [Oh, what was it about?]
“Nothing just yet.” Chity said. “They announced there was going to be an announcement in the following days. When we hear a gong we all have to gather in the Inner Sect. Until then, we are free to do whatever, and we get paid for it too!” He slowly stretched his back with hands behind his head and a silly grin plastered on his face.
[Oh, yeah… I’ve been wondering what you were doing here since it’s barely midday. Any ideas about what might be happening?]
“Not a clue.” Alyx said as we took a seat around our campfire. “But I have seen quite a few Elders going about. Before you could maybe see one every week, but I have already counted five today.”
[Really?] I lifted an eyebrow. I wondered what they might be doing.
“Yeah, but they aren’t doing anything interesting. Just walking around the place like they are looking for something. And before you ask, no, I don’t know why.” Chity added.
[Fair enough...]
“But enough about us, where have you been? Haven’t seen you in almost a week.”
[Oh, you know… I went along the Sect to the west a little bit, to see what was there. Gathered some good herbs along the way too.] I pulled out a sack filled with various plants I gathered on my way back. It was mostly just a cover story and could barely reach 15 SSS in value.
“Oh, nice! Wish I could take some time off too. That last expedition was so worth it! It was enough to get me a new sword!” Chity patted the handle of the blade he carried on his hip while smiling brightly.
“It’s even enchanted! It’s only the sharpness enchantment, but now I don’t have to worry about it going dull on me. Also, the metal is much better than that low-grade iron I had before.”
“Wow, how much was it?” Alyx asked, looking at the fancy pommel.
“50 Spirit Shards!”
[Damn!] That was quite a bit for a fancy sword.
Alyx just whistled loudly and opened his eyes wide. “Wish I had that kind of money to throw around… I bought alchemy tools with mine, so now I’m almost broke.”
Alyx Bell was a very modest guy that saved most of his pay. Even so, going on a successful hunt once brought us more than a full month of his pay. But that’s just how things went. More risks meant better rewards, usually. Unless you were the unlucky one that didn’t return.
And looking around the village confirmed that fact as I noticed some houses seemed abandoned. Not many, but I was pretty sure we lost another five members in the last two or so months. The population was slowly shrinking and nobody seemed to even notice. Or they just didn’t say anything.
“Aaaaaah-!”
Boom!
After a short scream, one of the wooden houses suddenly blew up. Many people jumped up in fright, and some of them covered their ears in pain and collapsed to the ground as they were too close to the explosion.
Soon bits of wood and blood came raining back down, and everybody too close to it took cover.
“What the hell just happened?!” Chitty shouted and unsheathed his sword, ready to fight.
But he was overreacting. I felt a tiny Soul be sucked into my own, and the bits and pieces of memories that flashed in my mind were enough for me to understand what happened.
“What is going on? What happened here?” One of the sentries, a Senior Disciple, quickly landed in the middle of our village, close to the origin of the explosion, and began his questioning of those around.
I didn’t even see or hear him coming, he just appeared there. Though, based on the indentation on the ground, he most likely jumped there.
“I don’t know.” A Disciple answered, still visibly shaken. “The guy in there, I think his name was Bang Pop, suddenly shouted, and then his house exploded.”
The rest of them answered mostly the same, and the Disciple wrote it all down on a tablet in his hand. After that he just remained there, staring north towards the Sect, and waited. Just as I was wondering what he was doing, an Elder came from that direction and landed soundlessly on the ground.
“Esteemed Elder!” The sentry bowed deeply and cupped his hands.
“Speak. What happened?”
“Yes, Esteemed Elder!” Senior Disciple then quickly explained what he was told while the Elder just nodded, towering head and shoulders above him. He then came at the sight of the explosion and waved his sleeve. Some bits of dust rose from the ground and landed in his hand. I couldn’t see much else, but I did see him frown. It was difficult to observe from so far away even with Eagle Eyes that served as my binoculars.
The Elder then spoke with Senior Disciple, though I couldn’t hear him anymore. The Disciple nodded and then quickly left.
After that, the Elder waved his absurdly large sleeve again, and all the debris and blood gathered into a sphere before him. A few seconds later, the sphere broke apart into fine dust, and with a final wave of his sleeve, it was gone. Wiped from the world, like it was never even there. Or he just spread it out over a large area, making it practically undetectable. That was more likely to have happened.
“Return to your tasks, and do not play with things you do not understand!” With those words, the Elder rose into the air and disappeared above the trees. I might have been imagining things, but I felt as if he looked straight at me for a split second before leaving.
Maybe he didn’t like that I was watching him so closely.
“What the hell was that about?” Chity asked after the Elder was gone.
“I got no idea… But what was that at the end? What was he saying?”
[Maybe the guy played with Spirit Shards and one of them exploded?] I said, posing my words as a question. [I heard they contain a lot of Qi.]
“You think so?”
I knew so. From the fragmented memories, I saw him try and prod the crystal, but a Mortal trying to contain Spirit Qi… It was simply impossible. Even I couldn’t do it, much less him. He wasn’t careful and released the Spirit Qi all at once. It used his body as a conduit, surging through him and burning his flesh, right before blowing him up. But I didn’t have to tell them that.
“We should ask Che when he returns. They are digging up Ether for the Spirit Stones there, right? Maybe he knows something.”
“Right...”
Needless to say, the unexpected incident put a damper on things.