[Leviathan’s Pov]

As I sail, I chomp down the Venom-Fruit and immediately feel it’s effects. I could now coat myself in poison and use it as a direct killing source, fire it like a beam or use it as an assassination methods, as I can feel the knowledge in myself of several… very nasty poisons…

With my remaining 35.000 soul essence, I head over to the ‘Cultivation Method’ tab and look around for something that I can actually use. There were things named ‘Heavenly Glory Cultivation’, ’Two-headed Hydra cultivation’, ‘Lion-Fanged Rhino cultivation’ and other really… Dumb names for the cultivation methods… It did sound kinda cool though…

I looked at several of them and read the short descriptions. I mainly wanted one that could just generally enhance all of my body strength, as that was my main focus and specialization, quick and extremely powerful attacks. I also filtered it so that it would only show methods that cost exactly 35.000, which was already pretty high up in the tiers, considering the most expensive method only costed 40.000 soul essence.

I ended up buying one titled ’Dragon Emperor’s Body Cultivation’ as it fit quite nicely with my setup. It would strengthen my already extra-reinforced body and overall give a huge boost to all of my stats. It also says that if one cultivates it enough, it will give dragon wings, which I absolutely want! I mean, if those can grow on my monster form too then it’d just look absolutely epic. 

A thing I forgot to mention, my monster form had grown larger and larger the stronger I got. It now is 100 meters from head to tail, and 10 meters wide. It looks… too big to fit anywhere where people might live, so I have to pay attention and not use this form too much.

After finally finishing all of the shopping and stuff, which I noticed I started to really like, I  set the ship’s sail and began to pilot the ship towards the nearest city, which was only about a week of navigating away. I set the ship on it’s course after checking that it should not go and slam into any rocks, and went off to practice my newly-formed knowledge in my head.

Why am I not going there in my monster form? Well, it’d be really suspicious to suddenly arrive without a ship, and I wanted some time to practice this cultivation too. Plus, it’s not like I don’t have enough time, as I once asked the voice in my head if I would ever grow old, and it said that I had effectively become immortal to old age thanks to the devil fruit I ate, which sounds really nice…

And cultivate I did. I had to meditate and feel the energy inside of me and send it rampaging through my body like wild fire. I needed to resist this, as this was the initial and hardest stage. The energy, which the book called Qi, soared through my body and focused on places like my teeth and nails. It hurt like hell, but I endured. The knowledge claimed that 90% of people who cultivated this failed at this stage, and would be crippled.

I refused to be crippled, and this didn’t even feel close to all the pain I went through at the hell. I didn’t hate this pain. I embraced it, kept it close, as I knew that it would forge me and destroy all the future pain. Little pains now will be nothing like the pains of the future after all.

It took me a solid 2 hours to finally take over the raging Qi in my body. This meant that I had successfully completed the first stage. My body hurt all over, so I took a nap after checking my course. I don’t know for how long I slept, but when I woke up the sun had made it all the way around the earth and a new day had begun. I must have been quite exhausted… I didn’t even notice… 

I checked and corrected my course using a compass, a map and the sun’s location. After doing this, I went back into cultivating this god damn dragon body thingie. According to my knowledge, anyone who could achieve even just the first stage could be considered a genius, so I think the ‘Highest-tier genius cultivation rate’ had some influence in me successfully in doing this, which meant I hadn’t wasted 20.000 points into nothing luckily… 

I began to cultivate, and did as my mind-manual said. I basically had to use the Qi I had accumulated in my body and refine it into dragon’s Qi. It wasn’t really specific, but I understood it anyway. The idea of a dragon is that of a prideful, often arrogant, rampaging predator. I had to find and transform the Qi itself into something wrathful, something that fit me… enormously… 

Grinning in delight, I begin to condense more and more Qi and coat it with my hate and anger. It tried to rampage again, but I kept it still with sheer strength and willpower. I spent the entire day doing this, and managed to almost break through to the third stage, which would normally be insane, but considering my extreme affinity with this type of Qi and the fact that I have a genius-tier cultivation rate, I really wasn’t too happy with my progress, as I hoped to break through in one day. After all, there are 10 stages in this method, and each one gets harder and harder, so I wanted to speed through it.

I knew that, however, foundations were extremely important in cultivation, so I held my impatience back as I cultivated and kept refining, not trying to rush anything. I stopped when the sun went down and once again checked the ship’s course using the stars and adjusted it. 

I slept a good night sleep on a nice, hard bench, since I wasn’t willing to spend 1.000 soul essence on a bed. Seriously, isn’t that a bit too much? The boat itself only costed 200 after all… 

After sulking to myself for a little bit, I took down the sails and jumped out from the boat. I then turned into my monster form and went into the depths of the sea to catch a little lunch. It didn’t take long for me to find a tiny fish to eat. Well, tiny is from my prospective, as it was almost double the size of my boat. 

I swiftly tore through said fish and ate him and his core. I then kept hunting fish for about an hour, and after having killed 4 other tiny(?) fishes I went back to my boat. I had almost forgotten to take off my clothes before transforming, but I luckily remembered, so I still had them.

I put the clothes on and put back the sails. I then went back into cultivating. It didn’t take longer then two hours for me to finally make the breakthrough. My entire body felt on fire, but it was a good fire, the fire of improvement. I smiled and kept pouring more Qi into this ‘fire’. Normally, a cultivator would only be able to withstand this for 2 or so minutes, but I already had an extremely tough and sturdy body, so I kept the fire going for an hour before I had to stop. This essentially meant that my foundation for the future was perfectly set, and I’d have much less trouble with the higher-ranks of this method, which sounded very nice…

I spent the rest of the week on my boat working on cultivation and occasionally going for a lunch-trip under the seas. I had already broken trough and was at the fifth stage of the ‘Dragon Emperor’s Body Cultivation’, which would normally have taken decades for a person to achieve, but then again, I’m not a normal person in any way, so I don’t care. My body had undergone some changes internally, and I felt that I would soon perceive some outside my body too. My bones all felt denser, my bone structure itself was more flexible yet harder and my muscles had become denser too. Overall, I was very satisfied. Even my monster form had undergone some changes, perhaps even more then my human form.

Horns now sprouted from my head in my monster form and a carapace-like armor surrounded my supposedly chest, neck and arms. Undeveloped wings also came from my back. It would probably take until the 8th or 9th stage till they develop enough for flight, but the prospect itself was very exciting. My body had also grown to 140 meters in length, which was insane and didn’t make any sense, but I didn’t really care.

I had also gained a couple thousand Soul Essence from hunting down fishes in the seas, which I used to buy the knowledge of economics of this world, and converted 1000 soul essence into 500 gold coins, which is a really good exchange rate, considering a normal family of 4 would only live off of 10 gold coins a year, so I was quite pleased with how filthy rich I was. 

As I was navigating, I suddenly spotted a ship coming towards me. Well, it probably was just passing through, but it still was coming my way. They probably spotted me the same time I did, even though they had the height advantage of the main mast. 

I pondered wether to ignore them or not, and decided to check if they were friendly. It wouldn’t do good to attack the first signs of civilization after all, even though I didn’t like humans didn’t mean I was going to kill them all. Oh wait, I probably wouldn’t bat an eye even if I did… Too bad for them…

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

I looked at the ship, and noticed as there were several men squinting their eyes in my direction. What’s up with them? Are they going to attack me or something? 

Realization dawned upon me. I was simply… beautiful… I guess? 

I shrugged internally and simply went back to cultivating. I was almost at the sixth stage, and I could feel it. I had gathered tons of dragon Qi and had infused it into my very DNA. The next step would be to take all of this Qi and upgrade it even more into refined Qi, the Emperor Dragon Qi, which the name alone made me vomit blood, but as the saying goes, in Rome do as the romans do. I refuse to call myself one of those shitty chinese names though. Leviathan sounds much better after all.

The idiot’s ship soon arrived next to mine and I heard a deep voice say “Oi, lady, what’cha doing out here in the sea? Are you lost? If you want to you can come with us!” The voice held no malice in it, so I simply shouted “… Port... Chinchiwa?” I looked up at the ship, who was now essentially side by side with my own and saw a large man, not fat and not particularly muscular either, just very big in his structure. I think he was the one who shouted out at me. Several men and even a couple women were next to him or behind him.

“Yah, we’re going there too so jump on board. Oi, Yang Li, get me the stairs.” He shouted and soon enough they dropped some stairs. I grabbed my things, which were my clothes, compass, map, money, and a couple of other accessories like necklaces, rings, shampoos, comb, nail files and other things I… somehow found enough Soul Essence to buy and put them all on a bag I had bought beforehand for when I’d reach land.

I then climbed up the rope the guys threw down and jumped into their ship. I looked around, ignoring the stares and whispers of the idiots and asked the captain “… How much?” He looked at me confused for a bit, so I added “Time.” He nodded and said “Ah, well, we’re going to reach the port by tonight. If you need anything just ask anyone around, after all, we’re all one big friendly team at sea. A little less friendly when we have no wine though.” He laughed and then left after telling me where to find an empty room.

I found said room, and locked the door after entering. I don’t trust these guys, why would they suddenly help me? They probably only did it because of my appearance, not who I truly am… I hate those kinds of people the most… But I guess I’ll take the opportunity and gain a whole day to dedicate to cultivating.

I spent the rest of the day locked up in my room. I had discovered that I don’t actually need to eat a lot, but I still could and it’d just save up… somewhere? I never got fat no matter how much I ate, never got hungry either, but I never felt full as well, so I don’t really know the rules that apply to this… This basically meant I could just ignore them for lunch and dinner, and focus on cultivating.

An hour before arriving, I finally made my breakthrough to the sixth level. I simply began to suck in Qi from all around me, then from the ocean itself beneath me. I knew what this meant. If you cultivate in a desert, you will gain a Desert Emperor’s Body, if you cultivate in a very hot climate, like a volcano, you’ll gain a Fire Emperor’s Body. This also works for the ocean, so I’ll probably get the Water Emperor’s Body. 

I continued to suck in gargantuan amounts of Qi, and finally stopped after 40 minutes. I felt much stronger, and my whole body was far more flexible and felt much faster. The attributes usually mean either Strength, Speed, Special Techniques or other perks. The Water Emperor’s Body would give me a huge increase in speed, flexibility and some extra strength, I would also become twice as strong and fast in the water, which by now was my natural element. 

Soon enough, somebody began knocking on my door. I got up, stretched, and went to open it. A little girl of perhaps 10 years of age was standing there. She blushed and looked at me as I looked at her. How cute… I guess I’m not immune to cute things… only romance is a no-go huh?

“… Need something?” I said and she tried to talk but stumbled and bit her tongue. She moaned quietly in pain and then said slowly “U-uh, uncle Roger said we’re almost arrived, and said to go warn you and check if everything was ok… if it didn’t bother you… I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to disturb you!” She said and began to cry. I felt kinda awkward, this girl was… weird.

I simply patted her head a bit and said “… Thanks.” She looked at me with teary eyes, but I ignored them and went to fetch my bag, before leaving the room behind. The girl followed me silently, not even looking at me. I wonder what’s up with her… 

I arrive on the main deck and I look out into the horizon. There was a city a couple of miles away from us, and we were headed towards it. Smiling a bit at the idea of finally arriving, I walk towards the captain in order to thank him.

He was chatting with a couple people from his crew, but shushed them as I arrived. I smile a bit at him and say “… Thanks” He smiles too and says “No problem miss, one must always help others at sea. Your boat’s on the back of the ship if you want it.” I shake my head and say “… Keep it.” He raised an eyebrow at this and said “Are you sure?” I nodded at that. He smiled and said “Oh well, thanks I guess.”

Why am I giving out the ship? Because it’s crap and I was planning on getting a new one either way after I enter the city. There’s no reason to use a crappy boat if I have the chance to get a better one. 

I simply stare at the ocean for the remaining 20 minutes of the trip. It took me until we arrived to finally notice the girl had still been following me. I turn to her and say “… Need something?” she shakes her head with a sad smile and says “…. No, it’s just… you remind me of someone… My mother… She died a couple of years ago, when she was taken by a local young lord who took a fancy in her… I’ve been living with my dad and uncle ever since…” Ah, I see. The stereotypical ‘I remind someone of someone they love/loved’ scenario. Too bad for her I couldn’t care less.

“… cool?” She looks a bit regretful, but still nods. She goes away as we anchor at one of the docs. I quickly jump down from the boat and land on the docs. I ignore the stares and whispers from the other sailors since they’re rather… unethical. I almost wanted to go into my monster form and kill them all, but I held back. I’m still not sure if there are other devil fruit users. My life would be easier if there are though, as it would let me take my monster form without people going around shouting I’m a demon or something.

I walk out of the docs and into the main city. The people in the streets looked like a mix of westerners and eastern chinese, and the houses are all quite small and it looks like a lot of people live in them, so I’m expecting pretty low standards around here...

I continue to walk around the city and finally find what I’ve been searching for. The shopping area. I look around at all of the wares and goods they’re selling. I did notice a bunch of hoodlums staring at me with lewd eyes, but I ignore them as they’re weaklings. Curious about one thing, I silently ask the voice in my head “… Human… Essence?” The voice understood what I meant and answered “Unlike monsters, humans do not have a core. You will simply need to kill them in any way and the essence will naturally flow into you. It does not matter how you kill them, as long as it was intentional.” How nice…

I notice a strange shop. It was bigger and more decorated with the others. It also had a sign on top of it that read ‘Yan Mao’s Sect Shop’. Curious, I enter the shop and look around. It had potions, books, spheres that I think were monster cores, swords and I could even see couple of weird bows. There was a man sitting behind a counter, he was reading a newspaper. How cliche… 

I walk up to the man and he finally notices me. He looks at my clothes then back at me for a second and says “Greetings. What do you want to buy? Know that the stuff here is pretty expensive young lady.” I nod at that and point at a couple of monster cores “… Those. All.” He raises an eyebrow at that, before laughing “Hahaha, you can’t be right. Did I hear correctly? A single monster core can cost 10 gold coins, and I have 6 in stock.” I nod and take out my 500 gold coins. I had put them in a large sack, and I throw it onto the counter. He stops laughing and looks inside of the sack.

It was quite funny how quickly he paled. He swiftly bowed and went to retrieve the monster cores. Why am I doing this? Well, I want to establish a reputation here, and since I won’t really lose money by buying cores and then selling them to the system, I’m not particularly worried financially. Unfortunately, I do lose a bit in the exchange rate, as those cores look rather weak, and will at most give me 10 essence, while I have to exchange 20 essence for them, so it’s not really profitable.

The guy comes back with 6 cores in hand and puts them on the table. “In total, they’d cost 60 gold coins. Are you sure of your purchase young lady?” I nod at him. He takes the bag and puts it into another bag, which I can only assume is a thing to count money. He then takes out 440 gold coins and gives them to me.

“Here, and here are the cores. Thank you for your purchase. Say, would you be interested in joining the Yan Mao sect? Although there aren’t many female disciples allowed, I’m sure we could make an exception…” I shake my head at this. Me? In a sect? Absolutely no way I’m going to be tied down in a single place.

He insists a bit, but I sternly refuse. He was about to cause a ruckus, when a young man perhaps in his 20’s entered the shop. He looked at the old man, who quickly paled and backed away. He then looked at me and smiled.

“Elder Bofu, it’s not good to trouble young ladies such as this one. Our sect might need people, but we’re not desperate enough to force people into joining us. Only scum like the Yan Yan sect does that” He spat out in the end with venom in his voice. Too bad I’m immune to venoms though.

“Say, young lady, what are you doing in our sect’s shop? Have you found anything that pleases you?” Hm. If I do basic math, add some geometry, and mix in some common sense… This guy’s trying to pick up on me with sweet talk. I shake my head at him and say “… Cores… Bought…” He tilted his head and looked at the old man who said “She indeed did buy all of our monster cores.”

The man looked pretty interested, and let out a “Hoh, so the young lady is quite rich? Well, sorry for the trouble. Elder Bofu, may I talk with you for a moment regarding something?” Bofu nods, and they both go at the back of the shop. I simply leave and head out, searching for an inn. Too bad trouble awaits me everywhere I go...