Seven dexterity was certainly not a good number. Considering that she herself had eleven, that meant that the beast was now even less in control of his body than she was, and she couldn’t even go through an overgrown path with full confidence of her footing. This was a completely normal path, but expecting to have more control over one's body and lacking the ability was probably even worse than not having had it in the first place. Apparently, the benefits from passing each bottleneck were not lost though. Regrowing limbs was usually impossible without expensive medicine and the time of extremely talented healers. That was probably this beast’s Rank Six or Rank Seven ability. Such regenerative powers were definitely more common in monsters than in beasts or humans, but apparently this one was well versed in using the fact its limbs were disposable for combat advantages. A crippling wound inflicted easily implies a low power, and that allows for taking advantage of the misinterpretation of ones strength.
The beast was reticent to provide any real advice, for one reason or another, but to be completely honest so is pretty much everyone. It was always extremely annoying that anyone over Rank One decides immediately that anyone who hasn’t gotten through body refining isn’t worth talking to as a person. She’ll probably do the same thing though.
However, what she managed to get through the uncooperative, arrogant, uncouth, high rank beast was that it had a strong enough body that even in its diminished form it essentially had unlimited stamina and immunity to all mortal failings. That meant that spending effort on improving those statistics were wastes of time. Strength, control, and intelligence, more than constitution, were important. As long as she could get whichever rank would render the statistics irrelevant, she would have gotten to that point significantly easier than anyone who had invested effort into being able to endure the rigors of life. Energy of the Heavens was there to build up immortal warriors, who would ascend to battle in the greater cosmos. Of course they would have no issues with mortal foibles as a standard benefit.
Like how once a commoner cultivated to Rank One, they would be able to see how the Energy of the Heavens allowed one to manipulate elements, and gained the ability to hit things really far regardless of physical strength. That alone made them powerful relative to commoners, and with the stat points gained through their absorption of Heavenly Energy it usually meant that in a fair fight the commoner who still hadn’t completed Body Refining was going to lose. She would be there in no time at all if she could figure out how to leverage the helmet’s sight into actually absorbing the energy faster. Maybe she could meditate on the ribbons. The beast going through it certainly had an effect.
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As they walked, Puren Ning keeps an eye out for free floating clumps of Heavenly Energy, but they were less common than she would have hoped. In fact, there had been more in the village than she had seen on this entire walk. After thinking about it for a while, she decided it was probably because she had led the beast through this path to get to the village in the first place. Descending from the Heavens probably took time after it was absorbed by a Rank Nine.
Once a cultivator reaches Rank Nine, they ascend. Usually they spend a little time to set their affairs in order, obliterate anyone they ever had the slightest grievance with, and make it easier for their descendants to cultivate, but within a week of passing the last sub-level of Rank Eight they would disappear, never to be seen again. Puren Ning figured it was for the same reason as Rank One Beasts being unable to live in the forest. The world simply didn’t have the energy to support their level of power, so they went to the source.
There was no way for her to know for sure, since she was just some commoner in a farming village, but there was probably a reason that the Sects only ever had Rank Eight Masters at most. From what she learned of history, the three main sects had power cycles, where each one lost the majority of its strength every time their foremost champion ascended. Despite their differences, the world was generally at peace, as each sect spent their efforts trying to make the most of their established territories. Right now, the Chaotic Demon Sect was the most powerful, with the rank eight grandmaster, and the Divine Continent Sect was the weakest, as their leader’s relatively recent ascension killed all the high rank cultivators. Pushing the beast gently back on to the path forward, Puren Ning looks worriedly at the sun. It had already progressed to midday, which meant the subjugation team would be at the village by now. Hopefully they hadn’t left any obvious trail that leads to the mountain, and the hunters would have to investigate all the possibilities. That meant talking to the villagers, of which Puren Ning was confident none of them would be useful, checking the forest, which wouldn’t take any time relatively speaking, and only then explore the pathways.
Hopefully the beast had a plan for when they caught up.