42. Obtaining Power IV

On a dark cave, Clay blankly stares on a trail of light that managed to pass through a tiny hole on the entrance he blocked with rocks.

Earlier today, he encountered members of his abductors and was barely able to stand after the fight.

Thanks to the piece of wood floating on the river, he got inspired and created a simple raft and managed to get away from the scene. He had to continuously use his Qi and after a few hours of aimless drift, the river eventually reached a huge waterfall he was forced to walk on land again.

Originally, he wanted to climb a tree and improvised a shelter but when he saw a cliff not far from him, he used his remaining strength and dug a cave instead.

On earth, it would be impossible to even move with his condition but thanks to the mystical energy of this world, he could manipulate his power and create Qi Projections to support himself.

Clay felt exhausted but ever since the fight, he felt an inexplicable hunger similar to the extremely thirst he experience back at the cell.

Now that he reached a safe distance, he decided to eat and rest.

Clay wanted to hunt some of the wild animals around the area but after realizing he already has the body of the Flame Horned Lion in his spatial ring, he stopped and sent his Qi into his ring and made a thick slice the size of a plate and cooked it using Fire Crystals.

As his hunger grew, Clay did not care if the meat did not have spices. And like a barbaric nomad, he used his bare hands and hold on to the piece of meat and started gnawing like wolf using his teeth to tear and swallow each bite he makes.

In less than five minutes, Clay finished his meal and as he predicted, his stomach was not in the slightest satiated.

Clay is beginning to worry as even an adult would back off when presented with a huge chunk of meat to devour in one seating.

He wanted to stop but when his belly rumbled, his sense of reason faded and sent his Qi into his spatial ring again to cut ten sizable slices similar to what he just ate.

Unaware, Clay had consumed more than forty kilograms of Horned Flame Lion’s meat and after two hours of non stop eating, he started to gain aware but as he wondered where all the food is going, he suddenly felt an irresistible urge to sleep and before he can prepare a simple bed, his body dropped to the ground.

Meanwhile, Clay has no idea how much trouble he caused but three days after the incident, two Nascent Soul Experts scanned a span of two hundred kilometer wide forest in search for him.

That day when he killed a Core Formation cultivator, even without anyone reporting that person perished, the sect the expert belonged to will still have been notified.

Core Formation Experts are considered elders to any sects or even sect master or patriarchs to nameless factions and it has become a tradition for cultivators at this level leave Soul Stamps.

Soul Stamps are rare and expensive useless artifacts and aside from it being used as social identity, its only function is to leave a sign if someone has met his demise and it is exactly what happened when Clay all cultivators in the villa.

For a sect with more than forty Core Formation experts competing for resources, a death within their rank is actually being celebrated but in the end after series of delays, Twin River Spirit Sect still sent someone to investigate.

As usual, the investigation party was ruthless in its methods and killed then Soul Searched anyone within the vicinity including the wrinkled gardener whom Clay spared.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Initially, no one wanted to pursue the issue any further as they believed that Clay is being secretly helped by a Nascent cultivator but after a day when more information surfaced, it was then that Nascent Soul experts themselves were involved.

Clay’s background was easy to trace and to say that someone with zero Elemental Affinity and Human Class Essence Flame can concoct perfect pills, it was a ridiculous and absurd idea for anyone to accept enraging the Elders of Violet Sword Sect.

However, Twin River Spirit Sect has another conjecture. As the party who first initiated the investigation, they retrieved the Spiritual Ants originally owned by Mii Eit revealing clues of what transpired but then kept all information to themselves including the solid proof of the elusive case of missing Alchemists.

Twin River Spirit Sect believes that Clay is possessed by an ancient powerful demonic cultivator and they will do anything to invite this person to their sect.

With their motives unknown to each other, the two sects agreed to cooperate in their investigation.

For the third time, one of the Nascent experts scanned a dense forest known as bandit’s refuge. Every time he sees anyone suspicious, he would kill them and search their souls however, even after killing more than fifty cultivators, he still has not found any good lead.

Soul Search is powerful but the cultivator performing it has limits as well so the Nascent expert has to carefully select a subject.

For the past three days, he had seen all sorts of cultivators either hunting or training and even killing themselves.

At one time, he found a teenager who he thought was sleeping on a cliff. When he focused on the cave, he noticed the body of the boy excreting a black fluid which made him think the boy was probably trying the potency of a self made poison. He would not mind looking further if the boy's height is forty centimeters shorter or if they boy looked thin or weak, but he did not want to waste his time any longer.

After searching the nearby forests one last time, he gave up as and ordered his men to watch out of any unusual pill quality that would come out from the market.

Never did he know that the person he was looking for was the same teenager sleeping on the cave whose body is slowly being transformed and reconstructed.

After a few days, Clay was woken up by a loud thunder causing him to panic and put up his guard. However when his back touched a hard rocky wall, he immediately realized where he was.

Relieved that there is no danger, he started to approach the entrance and slowly moved the boulder used to cover the cave.

As fresh air entered, it was then his nose could tell the difference what bad odor is like. Clay almost threw up with the pungent smell and worst, it is actually coming from his body.

Clay looked at the back of his palm and looked at the dried layer of unknown substance covering his skin. As he rubbed it with his finger, the dried layer fall off exposing a healthy skin. He does not know what happened to him after eating so much but it felt like jumped into a quicksand and got out then went to sleep while covered in mud.

Clay took a deep breath then stretched his neck. At least the rain is pouring so he did not have to walk to the river.

Clay manifested his Qi Projection the formed two huge hands then used it to climb down the cliff then upon reaching the bottom, he willed his Qi Projection to take shape of a gigantic wide cone to harness the rain and allowed a small hole for the water to escape and for him to clean his body.

As Clay removed his clothes, it dawned to him that the loose brown polo shirt and pants he was force to wear in the prison fitted him just right.

“I’ve grown this much?” Clay was confused as a few days ago, he was a tiny and weak little boy but today, he had become a teenager.

Clay is anxious as it may be a side effect of implanting a Beast Core to his body but at the same time, he could not find anything wrong with his body. In fact, the deep wound on this leg was completely healed and he could tell his body is brimming with energy.

Clay casted his worries then decided to think about it later. He then washed the only pair of clothes he had and gathered water using pill bottles before going back to his cave. Since it is still dark, he will wait until morning before journeying out.

After covering his hideout, he hanged his clothes on a stick then took out a Fire Crystal and used his cauldron to release warmth within the cave.

Clay knew he is alone in dark cave but he had no time to entertain loneliness as there is a bigger pressing matter. He is completely naked and the skin on his buttocks could feel every curve on the rough surface on the rock he is sitting at.

Since there are no clothes in his spatial ring, it was then he noticed the spatial rings he looted. However, he is not excited one bit as he knew that every spatial ring is protected and only the owner can open it and based on what he had read, one would need to constantly expose these layers with their own Qi to dissolve the previous owner's restrictions.

As Clay activated his Godly Eyes, only now did he understand how difficult it is to penetrate and erase the Defensive Seals due to its layered structures.

Clay knew it would take him forever if he used his normal Qi but using boosted powers, he believed he can bypass the rings and recover their contents.

After a slight hesitation, Clay simultaneously activated his Beast Core and dantian and started working.