Just two years later, Renyu was already at the peak of third grade, but instead of advancing, he went a step back and cultivated the art he created on his own. It was better the earlier you started with self-created arts, because there were likely to be faults, and if you find them out only later then it would truly be too bad.
Anyways, Renyu only deducted the early qi refining chapter and would most likely spend some more time on it, so he was patient. The art he created had his natal talisman as the core, at least this way, he had a secure foundation.
Like his talisman, it was an art of water and blood cultivation. He was a spell cultivator, so he needed a lot of qi whatever he did. Thereby, one of the characteristics of the art is to enhance and strengthening the dantian to make it store more qi. The other characteristic would naturally have to do with blood, and he thought about it deeply.
The name and meaning behind a cultivation art is much more important than people might think. Naturally the highest reserves of water would be found in an ocean, and which danger would be found in oceans? Right! Water monsters lurking in the great depths. For this reason, blood would naturally not be mentioned in the name, monsters in the ocean are hidden and won’t show their presence if they aren’t sure of attacking you!
With some more thought, Renyu decided on the name ‘Monarch of the Boundless Ocean’, a monarch naturally had servants and it also connected to the ‘Monarch of Lifeblood’, the backside of his natal talisman.
On this day, just after having sold a large batch of talismans, Renyu sat down in his inn room, which he hadn’t changed yet. He began to switch his cultivation art to the ‘Monarch of the Boundless Ocean’-Cultivation Art. It wasn’t easy at all, he had to start step by step. It wasn’t difficult to leave behind the water cultivation art as it was extremely basic and didn’t accompany Renyu for a long time, but cultivating the new art which had holes in it was more difficult.
He was happy he decided to do so now instead of later, he was able to remove all the small remaining lacking points in the art. It took him three full months to finally succeed in this. When he looked at his dantian, he saw how it was much larger and resembling an ocean, at least visibly. Meanwhile, some lifeblood drops that were usually stored in his natal talisman were moving about in the sea of water. Sometimes, you could see the shadow of a water creature coming from them.
‘With this, people can’t call me demonic even if I act with blood. It would actually be great if the lifeblood transformed into a true blood creature, by then, it could consume the blood of others to strengthen itself. Blood of the same kind would be the best, while human blood is the second best. In the future, when I hunt some humans, I will have to keep it quiet.’
With these thoughts, Renyu went back to working for a full year, the focus laying in the water shield and water blade. He was close to perfecting these two, with his talent, water ball was already perfected, and he was sure that once he perfected all of them, the success rate for all would be 50%, the profit he generated would be huge.
But, instead of achieving this, there were issues with his cultivation art throughout the year as he cultivated. They were all minor and he thought he’d have finished them, but with each little progress there would be more. Fortunately, he had great comprehension and only needed a few days each time a new issue came up, still, it delayed him greatly.
In the end, he even came to know something quite disappointing.
‘The quality of lifeblood is too low! How can this?!’ he contemplated as he looked in his dantian. Even after a whole year, the blood phantom didn’t form, even after injections of lifeblood. As he contemplated, Renyu suddenly remembered a sentence in a classic he read “only ten drops of lifeblood can be condensed from any creature”.
He had always thought that the author wrote about an inferior way of condensing lifeblood, but it seemed that this was the true way! This also explained somewhat why the blood phantoms couldn’t be formed – they were not only made of extremely low-grade lifeblood, worse even, Renyu forgot that the blood he bought was so cheap and low, it might have been made from different monsters and not a single one.
‘It’s time to hunt’ he thought to himself. He took all his finished talismans, selected one from each type he would sell, then went to the stall area and used a communication talisman to inform his repeat customer that he was selling again. They had exchanged talismans long ago; it did cost a bit of fortune, but the time saved for the young man was worth the investment.
It didn’t take long before he arrived at the stall. Now, he looked like a sturdy and handsome young man, nearly in his twenties. His figure didn’t change much but the temperament around him was colder and full of bloodthirstiness.
The young man looked at the stall and frowned “Why are there only three?” with the years, he began to talk more and wasn’t so cold to Renyu at least.
“Little Huo, why are you complaining? I told you repeatedly that when you see someone you know, you have to first greet them nicely before you talk about what you want to talk about. It’s fine if you skip the small talk, but you have to at least greet them!” Renyu said disapprovingly.
The corner of Yu Huo’s eye twitched, he greatly disliked being called like that by someone younger than him, but throughout the years, he had become used to it and didn’t say anything anymore. If he did, then he wouldn’t get the talismans, and this truly happened. At that time, he had nearly died because he was stubborn, from then on, he just accepted the situation.
But there was something true about Renyu’s teachings, so he let out a hidden sigh as he cupped his hands and said with some strain “Greetings fellow Daoist Shui!”
Renyu smiled as he waved his hands “Why are you being so formal? We know each other for so long, you can call me Renyu.”
Yu Huo murmured to himself “you always say that, but I still have to greet you”
He thought he wasn’t heard, or he knew he was heard and didn’t care, but Renyu still scolded him “Look at you! Naturally I would reply like that. It’s fine if you don’t have the greatest respect for me, but what if you encounter someone of high standing? They might kill you just because of your disrespectful behaviour!”
He said some more words before he reined himself in “Alright, let’s get down to business. I would like to go out hunting in the great lake. Do you want to go together?”
Huo was greatly surprised “Hunting? You? You have never left the city walls as far as I know, why would you want to go out hunting?”
“Isn’t it obvious? To get some materials. I’ve been working with lowly materials this whole time solely because I didn’t have the strength or capital to ensure my safety. Now that I do, I will naturally go out hunting. The shops barely sell the high-quality things, and if you want it fresh then you have to pay extra. Do I look like a wealthy merchant or why are they so greedy?”
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Huo was about to talk in again but was interrupted by Renyu “Alright, don’t say anymore. I know the dangers and I have the strength. How do you think I can make these talismans? By sitting in my room all day playing with the pen?” this was actually nearly exactly how Renyu created talismans, but he did have fighting experience.
Being invaded and having to fight for life and the clan did wonders to his battle awareness, before he had also taken missions in his imaginary second life, where he would hunt monsters for the clan, so he wasn’t new to hunting.
After some thought, Yu Huo accepted “You can come with me, but you will be responsible for the talismans and spells.”
Renyu naturally smiled, packed his stall and followed Huo to the northern gate. The north was a harbour for the great lake. With the passage of time, Renyu learned that the city he lived in was actually just the outer city, like a welcoming city for lower cultivators. Only qi refining and foundation building cultivators would live here, at most core formation cultivators would pass occasionally, but the real city was an island on the great lake.
Entry was theoretically allowed for anyone, but reaching the inner city from the outer city through a fair would cost quite a few spirit stones, while reaching it on your own was outrageously dangerous.
There might be no monster as high as the mystique awakening stage, core formation was probably also absent, but everything below basically would just swim around and become a hunting ground. If you accidentally missed the inner city and kept driving north, then you might very well just end up in monster territory.
Only meeting a mystique awakening monster would be the blessings of heaven, far north there were the territories of monsters greater than any faction in this barren northern territory of humanity.
Renyu entered a small boat that was in the corner of the harbour with Huo, apparently it was his boat which he had used for quite a long time. Meanwhile, he contemplated about the situation of this world.
‘It’s really interesting how this world isn’t ruled by humanity at all.’ He thought. This world is immensely large, all the territory occupied by humanity is less than a tenth of it. The rest is split between different monster races. But, not to mention other monster races, just the human race has several factions that don’t align well with each other.
The three main factions are the ‘Righteous’, which shouldn’t directly be used as a term. It’s more correct to call them ‘Traditional’, mainly because they rarely change their ways and it’s the basic path to take when creating a faction in the human territory.
The opposing faction, which is also the second largest are the ‘Demonic’, who are cultivators who don’t care for anything besides their own goals, they are often using drastic means and are thereby hated by the victims’ faction.
Then there are the ‘Rogue’, they are faction-less people who normally start cultivating individually. Normally they don’t go far in their path, less successful give up and often join the demonic to reach their path in a different way, while the successful give up their path just a tick later and basically join the righteous faction by following traditional means to create their foundation in the world. Rarely is there a true ‘Rogue’-Cultivator.
Naturally, the three factions ally themselves together as humans.
It’s not that they like each other, no, the highest and strongest humans probably hate each other to the core and would much rather kill them. But, reaching those heights aren’t a matter of Resources, Talent or even Luck. No, you need a lot more, and there is no key to reaching it, you either do it or don’t, it’s a matter beyond even fate. Obviously, humans would rather fight with the enemy than split fully into factions and lose in the fight against monsters.
This territory Renyu is on is named ‘Central Plains’, this was not decided upon by the human.
Geographically, it isn’t in the centre either. No, this term is used because it has a few of the richest resources and thereby every faction has a seat here. The north, east and south are occupied by large monster races, while the west is more of a free-for-all territory for the other smaller factions, because it is the most barren of the four. The humans occupy the northwest, and this great lake are the northernmost territory controlled by the human race.
The central plains are one of the places where the three factions are the most harmonious, even though it’s the greatest battlefield. There are several agreements between the top powers that forbid anyone from greatly harming the human territories. It’s not only something ‘against’ the demons, no, the righteous are very good in using excuses to do many bad things.
This caused the central plains to be more of a battle-ridden world for the humans. The rear was occupied by the righteous, with the job of providing resources and personnel. The border was managed by righteous but quantitatively dominated by rogues, while the demonic were sneaking into enemy territory, causing issues and robbing whatever they could.
Not to mention the west, even the north which is bordering the humans are greatly annoyed and bothered by the humans. There is never a great chaos, but all the small battlefields are like a huge debuff for all enemies of humanity in the central plains. It’s like bugs annoying you while you fight, there is no great difference but only a split second of losing attention will have your head beheaded.
In most cases, those strong powers could just push the humans fully out of the central plains, but the humans also had backers. They would have to fight the enemies in their calibre on their own, but when it came to larger monster tribes of the north, then the east would show up and attack the north when they are occupied with fighting humans.
Over time, the eastern tribes had a great relationship with the humans and exchanges happened. The main reason was that they never felt threatened by humanity, but they were very useful, it’s like hiring a mercenary corps when you have an army, the corps can’t compare but they can do well on their own. Most trades only do well when both sides think they get more out of it.
“We’re here.”
“What?”
The corner of Huo’s eye twitched as he asked himself ‘is he really an old man? He’s so dazedly staring in the distance. His quietness is so much weirder than when he talks’
Seeing the look in Huo’s face, Renyu instantly scolds him “Are you scolding me in your heart? I knew you weren’t any good when you were bargaining with me a lot back in the days, but now I see I am right. I am always right. Alright, this is your farming spot? There’s a lot of movement below, at least you can do something right.”
“You can feel movement below?”
‘Naturally I can feel movement below, I am the Monarch of the Boundless Ocean you dunz’ Renyu thought while he just rolled his eyes, he stood up from the boat, walked out of the boat leisurely as he stepped onto the water and walked a few steps to confirm his ability to do that.
‘There’s been so many things in the past that proved this is an actual cultivation world, but doing something deemed impossible in the past life is still the biggest proof. After all, there is probably a way to create a water shield or water blades, not to mention water balls.’
After some fun-thoughts, Renyu straightened his arm as he pointed it downwards. Then, his hand made a claw-like motion and he pulled his hand with immense power, before he instantly jumped on the water and returned to the boat.
Huo looked at him questioningly, so Renyu just waved his hand as he explained “I baited three early qi-stage fish-like monsters. This is my contribution, now it’s your turn.”
This was, like it would be to anyone, a shock for Yu Huo. He couldn’t comprehend how this was possible so fast with so little movement, but he just believed Renyu, tapped the spatial storage bag on his side and summoned a rolled up whip, then he stood ready to fight.
‘What a good child, he isn’t only obedient but also doesn’t fight with the sword but an unconventional weapon like a whip.’ With this thought, Renyu just flicked with his finger and then the monsters were actually pulled. Before, it was just a show to see how Huo would react. He just willed his talisman to pull the blood into his direction to make the sea monsters aware of his presence, there was no more he could do.
Soon, even Huo could feel the movement below and was sure now that Renyu had real powers, he loosened his grip around the rolled-up whip and was ready to instantly fight the moment anything showed up in his vision.
He didn’t need to wait long. Just ten seconds later, one monster popped up after the other. “They’re sharks, just normal sharks which are a bit stronger than mortal creatures. Do your best, I’ll ensure our safety.”
In actuality, early qi-stage cultivators were infinitely close to mortals, and the strongest ‘martial artist’ could easily fight unexperienced cultivators and kill them with no loss. A usual shark was weaker than a real martial artist while a cultivator-shark was basically just as strong as an experienced martial artist, the difference was low.