Long Dong wasn’t reacting to my calls recently, having said he was feeling exhausted and just wanted to rest, so I couldn’t ask him for advice on what to do. So, considering what I knew, I made the best decision I could with the limited information.

First, no Essence consumption for at least two weeks, and then only one Gray or Silver Essence Core each week after that for a few months. That way my body should purge the impurities quickly, especially if I fast for a few days. It’s just so I don’t do any more damage than what I already did.

Also, another thing I just noticed, completely unrelated to Cultivation. The sleeves on my new robe… are long and wide, as it is the style around these parts, but they have pockets! The damn sleeves have pockets on the inside! It’s so… weird.

That brings a whole new meaning to having an ace up your sleeve. Heck, there was enough space to hide an entire chicken, but I digress...

I wondered if people hid weapons in their sleeves. They probably did, huh? Especially the Elders, with their thick and long robes, with wide sleeves that nearly touch the floor. You could hide half a bull in there.

Sorry, I haven’t eaten for the entire day and I’m starting to feel the effects. Namely, my mind is going bonkers. My body expects food, but as I’m not getting any, and so it’s going haywire. But, as far as I know, I should be back to normal in no time. I just need to distract myself for a bit and not think about delicious chicken wings, roasted pork belly, or…

My mouth started to water just thinking about it. I wanted to eat, damn it!

Whatever, I’ll find something else to do. How about playing with Golden Qi? That sounds fun.

I returned back home with my new stuff and dumped the older clothes on the bed. Maybe I should get a rack to hang them on since my home was kind of empty. Except for the bed covered with the Howler hide, and the cauldron in the corner, there really wasn’t much to see. Well, that was stuff to worry about for some other time.

I took a Spirit Shard and held it in my palm. It was a tiny piece of white crystal, barely bigger than a grain of rice, yet it contained so much Qi. Spirit Qi, the fuel that powered the Cultivation economy. I carefully pulled on it and extracted a single strand of it, like a white, sparkling hair of incredible power. I did not try to contain it, and it simply decayed, expanding hundreds of times as its quality broke down. I was left with a tangled mess of a golden color… like golden cotton candy!

As soon as the Qi turned to gold, I focused on it with my mind and began shaping it. It was still too strong for me to contain, but I could slow down its decay and expansion. I shaped the strands of tangled Qi, almost like knitting a structure out of it. I spread it out over my hand, creating a glove with sharp, finger-length bear claws. They were as beautiful as they were dangerous and razor sharp.

After admiring my creation for a short while, I conjured another glove on my other hand, that one from Nascent Qi. I made it as strong as I could with my limited ability, and it became solid. Solid enough to use it to pick things up, but nowhere near strong enough to resist a real impact.

I used Telekinesis and took a sharp piece of rock and scraped it over the golden glove. As expected, nothing happened, however, when I scraped the silver creation of Nascent Qi, the stone left a mark. A scratch, if you will.

But, the most fascinating thing happened when I used the golden claws to scratch the silver glove. The superior power of the Golden Qi, even as it slowly decayed, created a strong enough interference that, even as I tried my best to hold it together, the Nascent Qi glove began to fall apart as a golden claw slowly neared. I observed it happen in slow motion, as the golden construct came close, the silver one just collapsed like loose sand in the wind, turning into gray mist at the spot, before disappearing from view.

[Dude…] That was so cool, and scary.

I then remembered another thing and tried to scratch my naked hand. It felt as if I was trying to scratch a metal surface, however, if I pushed too hard, that resistance lessened, and my golden claws drew blood. I frowned slightly, and activated Elemental Avatar, before trying again. Surely the extra protection would…

My thoughts stopped. The result was exactly the same. As if my defensive enchantment wasn’t even there. Nascent Qi decayed and collapsed into nothing before the might of Golden Qi. That was… interesting.

My mind was already tired from keeping the golden glove for so long, so I released it, letting the Qi return to its natural form.

The implications of my discovery were… concerning. Higher grades of Qi made all those below it completely useless. An absolute suppression of those on a lower Realm. Though it seemed like the physical toughness of the body could resist the suppression effect somewhat, that was not the case with defensive spells. Or, defensive Mystic Arts, as they called it.

That meant that fighting an opponent of a higher Realm was suicide. Unless the difference in Body Cultivation was so great that the suppression effect didn’t matter. But that was lunacy. Why would someone of a higher Realm have a weaker body? He could Cultivate faster, so that made no sense and wasn’t even worth considering.

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That’s probably why the massive wild beasts were so dangerous. They generally had more Qi and could as such produce more Essence, advancing in Body Cultivation much faster than humans. They didn’t rely on intricate spells and strategies to fight, instead relying on pure physical prowess. We were basically lagging behind. Or, at least most of the Cultivators were. Warriors and fighters focused on advancing in the area of Body Cultivation, but most Cultivators weren’t fighters.

I thought back to the Wendigos I fought. Comparing them to Mountain Apes would be like comparing grown-ups to small children. They were so much faster and stronger just because their lives were different, and I dreaded to think how scary they could become in a decade or two. Essence could create a huge disparity between beings of the same Realm, but once Golden Qi came into play, all of that meant nothing.

Except for the claws, every part of a Wendigo’s body could be damaged with Golden Qi, while the reverse wasn’t true. No matter where or how the Wendigo attacked, as long as the body had even a smidgen of Golden Qi there to protect it, it was invincible.

Focus on Soul Cultivation they said. And they were right. As long as you had superior Qi, all tricks would turn to dust.

I wondered if a golden barrier could stop a bullet. While my body could stop blades and stones, I wasn’t so sure what a high-caliber round would do to my flesh. Some of those could punch through even many layers of modern armor, not to even mention weapons specifically designed to pierce those defenses.

Luckily this wasn’t Earth. Here combat was completely different, working by a separate set of rules. The worst thing I could come across here was an enraged monster with enough firepower to rival a nuke, and it couldn’t even be reasoned with. Did I say luckily? I meant, unfortunately!

These are just my conjectures, a guess. Extrapolations of my experiences with limited information.

[Hey, old ghost. Are you there?] I called. No answer. What the heck was he even doing? It’s been so long since I heard him complain. I couldn’t peer inside the Thousand Faces Mask to see what was going on in there. Maybe that was for the best. Leave him some privacy and all that.

I meditated some more, utilizing the Awakening Breath Cultivation Technique to feed my Soul. Hah! That was a surprise. The exhaustion of my mind lessened. That was something previous techniques didn’t do, and I gladly accepted the unexpected gift.

“Oh, hey… You finally did it…” The old ghost suddenly said, sounding tired.

[Did what? And what’s going on with you?]

“You completed the foundation of the Awakening Breath. Now you can recover your mental exhaustion a bit just by feeding your Soul. And you don’t have to worry about me, I’m just tired.”

[Really? I thought you said Souls couldn’t get tired?]

“It’s not that... simple…”

[I’ve got plenty of time.] I said.

The room was quiet. [Hello? You there?] The old ghost didn’t respond.

Whatever. I just shook my head and closed my eyes, meditating to recover my Qi. Soon I would be able to try again, peering beneath the surface of Golden Qi, to discover its secrets, all on my own!

----------------------------------------

[Follow.] I ordered, and a squirrel ran beside me, jumping across branches and between trees as I slowly walked through the forest. My mind over theirs, for a short while. The squirrel shook and suddenly tried to escape.

[Come back. Follow me.] having to give orders constantly was kind of annoying, but it was a good way to train. Repetitions. Practice makes… permanent. I have not yet tried to use orders in a fight, but I could guess they were useful. Even if I could stump the enemy for just a second, that would most likely be enough to turn the tide of battle.

[Do a flip.]

I smiled as the squirrel stopped and made a tiny somersault on a branch. Its acrobatic abilities were quite good.

[Alright, very good, here.] I gave it some kind of nut I found. [You are free to go now.]

With my last order, the control over its mind was released and the little thing skittered away, but not before stuffing the meal inside its mouth.

I slowly stretched and took a lungful of the fresh morning air. It was the beginning of fall. The days were getting gradually colder, and the fruits of the forest were ripe for the taking. Maybe the Dwarf Peaches were also ready, but I couldn’t leave the Sect to check.

Until the Beast Horde officially started, we couldn’t leave the mountain range. So, having nothing to do, I went back to hunting rats. It was mostly to distract myself from the temptations of good food. It was barely the third day of my fast, and I decided to do at least five. What better way to forget about delicious sustenance than chasing around stinky Giant Rats? There was none.

I opened my Magic Eyes to look around. I still couldn’t see more than 100 meters around me, despite advancing in Cultivation. I thought it was odd at first as I expected my ability to increase, but I later realized it was the fault of the subpar technique I was using. Magic Eyes was the basic garbage as far as Spirit Sense techniques went. Once again, there was that word, Spirit. The basis for all Cultivation.

If I had to describe how Magic Eyes felt, it would be like being shortsighted, only this worked for Qi instead of light. I thought about learning the Arcane Eye from the old ghost as that apparently allowed you to see much more of the magical spectrum, with greater clarity. If I could detect all those creatures that were in a lower Realm than me, that would save me a lot of time hunting.

But wait! Wouldn’t that mean other people could see my unusually high Realm?! Yes, yes they could. But that is bad manners in the Sect, and besides, I can’t stop them. No point in worrying about it. At most I can act so I draw as little attention to myself as possible. It would be really cool if the old ghost could help me with my little problems.

Unfortunately, the damn guy was not responding. If I didn’t know any better, I would think he was dead.

Oh, well… It’s not the end of the world. I just had to pay more attention and focus on my other senses when hunting. Like my hearing for example. I stopped walking and listened. The forest was full of constant sounds, and if you didn’t know what to listen for, well…

I heard very faint chirps in the distance. An untrained hunter might mistake them for the calls of young birds, but it was fall. There were no young birds in the forest anymore.

I slowly made my way forward, my breathing shallow and slow, as I kept quiet. The bottom half of my body was encased in a Sound Barrier, blocking all the noise that came from crackling leaves and snapping sticks. My left hand held the glaive in front of me, and my right was ready to shoot magic.

Just as I was about to move a branch out of my way, I froze. There they were, the filthy beasts!