“Master.”

Elder Li Roy worked in his workshop, carving a piece of crystal full of microscopic Runes when his apprentice entered. He dismissed the hundreds of glyphs and formations that kept his work stable with a wave of his hand and placed the crystal on a silk cushion.

“So you have finally made a decision.” Elder Li said, looking at him.

Shao Lin lowered his head in shame. “I… I felt inadequate, master. Yet now I feel even worse. I’m a failure.”

He just advanced to Golden Core Realm, Third Layer, and his Aura was still unstable. It flickered all over the place as his emotions dictated.

Elder Li stood up and placed a hand on his shoulder, pulling him closer. “You are not a failure for taking a pill. That’s what they are made for, after all, to be used.”

“But... I never needed them before. And he isn’t using them either, yet he is growing so fast. It feels as if I have stagnated.”

Elder Li shook his head and gestured for him to follow. They left the workshop and went to the lab, or better called, the refinery. The spacious room where Alchemy took place. He opened one of the cupboards that held all kinds of reagents and compounds.

His large hand took a small vial of crimson fluid and brought it to light.

“See this?”

Shao Lin looked at the vial and then at the Elder. “Gerald’s blood?”

Elder Li nodded. “Now, observe.” He dropped a drop of it into a small cup and filled it up with water. He then placed the cup in a metal cage with a small monkey-like creature.

The furry animal jumped at the metal bars curiously and looked at the Elder, then sniffed the water and took a few quick licks. Realizing it was nothing tasty, it abandoned it and went back to its corner to sleep.

Yet, before it could do that it began to scream and claw at its chest, and soon it was spitting and coughing out boiling blood. Not even a minute later, it was dead.

Shao Lin gulped nervously. A single drop of blood was diluted a thousand times in the cup of water, and the creature barely licked a few drops of that, and yet it died.

Even though it was just an early Nascent Soul beast, for it to die so suddenly was… terrifying.

“Master?” Shao Lin looked at his mentor questioningly.

Elder Li sighed. “I have examined it. It is a mixture of poison from the Black Harpy and Emerald Roc.”

“The two Spirit Beasts that fought above the sect?” Shao Lin gasped, eyes wide.

Elder Li simply nodded.

“But… I don’t understand…”

After making the corpse of the dead animal disappear, Elder Li carefully stored the vial in the cupboard where it sat among other vials marked with a skull.

“I don’t know how or why, yet the fact remains that your Junior Brother’s blood somehow contains poisons of Spirit Grade. How he is still alive despite that is unknown. As you fight him, just make sure you don’t accidentally swallow any. Actually, don’t even let it touch your skin.”

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Shao Lin’s mouth gaped as he realized the implications. He was so close to death hundreds of times without even knowing it.

“Now, I know that must be quite a shock for you, but I also just discovered it a few days ago. The damn Formations began deteriorating a bit faster than they should so I had to investigate.” Elder Li said, continuing with his world-breaking revelations. “But apart from the two Spirit Beasts, Gerald’s body contains at least a dozen more minor beast abilities. It’s like he is absorbing pieces of other beasts and merging with them. Yet I cannot detect any malignancy in his body. It’s almost like…”

“He’s adapting.” Shao Lin finished his sentence and had to sit down from shock. “Dozens…”

Elder Li slowly, and somberly nodded.

Upon reaching the Golden Core, the Disciples of Myriad Beast Sect could merge with the Beast Essence of another creature, permanently changing their body to gain some of their abilities. They were one of the rare sects that did this, and that’s also where their name came from. They were a Sect of myriad beasts, one inside every single Golden Core Cultivator.

Shao Lin merged with a hawk, gaining its eyesight, hearing, stamina, and some other minor abilities. It worked great with his choice of weapon which was the bow, and he thought he would be unbeatable in battle against his peers with its powers.

Yet to hear another had merged with dozens of beasts, not to mention he wasn’t even close to reaching Golden Core Realm, that was unheard of!

“But… how?! Everyone said that merging with more than one beast is already dangerous, while three is guaranteed death! How can he do that?!”

Elder Li sighed. “That’s… not exactly right.”

“Huh?”

“You will not die if you merge with more than one or two different Beast Essence, but it is not advisable. The more you have, the harder it gets to control it. With just one, you will keep your human form and only improve. It is not so if you go more than that.”

“Elder Li… what are you saying?” Shao Lin looked at him with wide eyes. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Elder Li lied to him? The Sect lied to him? Did they lie to all of them?

“Not everyone has a body suitable to contain more than one kind of Beast Essence at once, so to limit the damage, we created this rule, to keep you safe.” He said, stroking his beard as he stared at the ceiling. “Centuries ago such a thing did not yet exist, and many Disciples turned into hideous monsters after their assimilation went awry. Balancing multiple creatures in a human body is already difficult, but doing so with dozens is simply impossible.”

“Then, how is Gerald…?”

“I don’t know.” Elder Li shook his head. “That is a veil of mystery even my sight cannot pierce.”

“Truly?!”

“Yes. Now go back, train, and become stronger. Do not compare yourself with that freak of nature, it will hurt your growth. You are my first student and it falls on you to carry on my legacy in unraveling the secrets of the wider world and the universe. Work hard. And not a word of our conversation to anyone, alright?”

“Yes, Elder!” With a renewed spirit and a mission on his hands, Shao Lin left the room. He had to become stronger, strong enough to be able to shoulder the secrets of the Sect, and help his master discover the secrets of the cosmos.

After he left, Elder Li collapsed in his chair, making it creak painfully under his weight.

He didn’t get it. The kid, by all logical explanations, shouldn’t exist. He tried to replicate his blood and flesh, yet even with his power, anything that gained its form, rotted and died.

It was hopeless. He couldn’t exist.

There was something else he was missing, an invisible string that bound it all together, a stabilizing agent, something. Yet he found nothing. He secretly examined Gerald in all the ways he knew how, yet discovered nothing but more questions.

His lust for knowledge was slowly driving him mad.

Nothing, absolutely nothing worked. He was just a normal kid. A kid that could burn without burning. Die without dying. And eat without becoming full.

A complete paradox.

Once, curious as he was, Elder Li divined his future. It was difficult and messy, the strings of fate branching in a million different directions, making it nearly impossible to predict the path, but in the end, he did it, only to be left even more confused.

His vision began, and he was excitedly waiting to see what it would show him. It was black. All of it. All of what? All of IT.

He didn’t understand. He saw nothing, yet it wasn’t a nothing that would indicate death, it was a different kind of nothing. He strained to understand, he tried to expand the vision to the edges of his ability, to see more. Yet the more he saw, the worse it got. It was nothing. Empty. An oppressive blackness that stretched to the edge of his power and beyond.

There was only one thing that somehow resembled that nothing. Empty. Infinite. Eternal. Beyond comprehension.

He looked up. It was almost like…