45. Hounds
At the entrance of a cave, Clay is sitting on rock as he chewed on piece of roasted meat. Earlier, there was a slight drizzle making the leaves of the trees spark with morning dew creating a perfect morning for a cup of coffee. But Clay is not enjoying the refreshing cold breeze nor is he admiring the relaxing earthy scent as his mind is focused on the Beast Cores on his chest.
Looking at his five extra meridians, he just noticed that the initial Qi Nodes the lit up after ingesting the Awakening Pill are slightly larger when compared to all other Major Qi Nodes. But what really got him curious is the order in which they all fall into.
The Fire Beast Core for example has 3, 8, 16, 29, 50, 84 and the Earth Core with 5, 10, 18, 31, 52, 86. It looked random at first but if he were to get the difference between the 3rd and 2nd number, divide it by the difference between the 2nd and the 1st value, the answer is 1.6 which is almost close to what mathematicians call the golden ratio.
Clay has yet to figure out his real identity back on earth but analyzing his fragmented memories, it all points out that he was just a normal dumb man with protruded belly but the fact that he could identify the golden ratio out of some random numbers is making him consider if he was really a scientist.
He thought he would recall more of his previous life’s memories but after sitting for almost two hours, but all he got is a numb gluteus maximus.
As the sun started to rise, Clay got to his feet and stretched his arms. After a hellish night of extreme pain, at least he can now confidently confront any enemies he might encounter during his travel.
As a test, he materialized Qi Projection Tentacles from his back and slowly boosted them by combining the energy from his Beast Cores. Since he can control how many Cores can combine with his Dantian’s energy, he will call it X# Degree Boosted Power.
With the thick and snake-like tentacles extending from his back, Clay got reminded of Dr. Octopus from a Marvel Movie. But he is not so cheap to imitate some lowly villain so he will call himself something else.
“I am Dr. Tentaculus.” Clay muttered to himself with his strange pose.
“Wait. That did not sound cool at all.” Clay retracted his Qi and looked around to make sure no one witnessed his embarrassing pose.
Having confirmed he is alone, Clay descended the cliff.
Now that he has gotten the power he needed, he should be ready to start his journey and his first objective is to find the closest town and inquire about Beast Core integration. He may feel normal now but who knows if there are side effects he needed to prevent.
As he got to an open ground, Clay took out a long wooden raft from his spatial ring.
When he was sorting out his loot a few days ago, one of the items contained from the Core Formation expert he killed is a magic item similar to the flying artifact used by Dal In and in front of him is an exact copy of the magic raft.
If he could figure out a way to operate this item, then this should make his travel a lot easier.
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“Let’s see.” Clay thought it would be simple maneuvering the artifact and make it fly but upon seeing the Formations inscribed around the raft, his excitement immediately faded. Just the like pattern inside his cauldron, it looked complex and daunting and this time, they are not interconnected.
“Try this?” Clay injected his Qi into the Magic Circle on the front row hoping it would levitate but raft did not do anything.
“How about this?” Clay then tried to activate the other Formations on the raft but it still did not do anything.
After multiple attempts, Clay sighed in dejection. Not only did it deplete half of his energy but he started to feel mental fatigue so he stopped and stored back the artifact. He then sat on meditative position to recover and after a few minutes, he decided to travel on foot.
But unbeknownst to Clay and blame his ignorance and naivety of the cultivation world, he was unaware that some of the Inscriptions he activated a minute ago is for sending distress signals. And with an entire sect looking for him, it was easy tracking the signal which originated from the magic raft. The first to receive the signal is a Late Foundation Establishment cultivator from Twin River Spirit Sect who is already on his way.
After less than an hour, the man arrived where the signal came from but he did not immediately land and investigate. Instead, he first surveyed the area while flying. As he looked around, he realized that he is on a forest near the villa where one of their Elders had been mercilessly killed.
After a minute, he spread his divine sense hoping he would find the culprit however, he could not find a single soul and the only lead he found is a cave chiseled on a cliff.
The man is careful he did not rush and slowly approached the cave and when he had a full view of the interior, only then did he land on the entrance.
“Why does it smell like wild demonic lion shed off its skin?”
As the man looked for clues, he noticed some fresh footprints. And following the trail, he reckons the culprit should have had left an hour ago.
“Let’s see who you are.” The man smirked. Flight is an ability acquired when one breaks through to Foundation Establishment and someone to have had left obvious trails, he believed that the culprit is a Qi Condensation practitioner and unable to use flying artifacts so it should be easy find this person.
And if he is correct, the culprit should have had used a treasure to eliminate a Core Formation expert.
As a precaution, he summoned two mechanical insects to follow him. In the event he gets caught by surprise, his pets should send out message to the sect.
Meanwhile, Clay is walking near river as he decided to follow its trail. He wanted to climb and pass through the mountains but upon seeing a violet spider on a bush, he changed his mind. Who knows if he forced his way and get bitten a poisonous insect. He would rather take a safer route.
As he jumped towards a huge rock, he felt ripples of unknown energy approaching from behind so he turned around.
“A cultivator?” Clay looked up and when he saw the flying artifact approaching his location, he felt a bad premonition.
An hour ago, he was testing a magic raft and looking at the flying artifact above him, he saw the same pattern and design. While thinking if this stranger is friendly, Clay saw two speeding Fire Balls fired at him.
BOOM!
Clay jumped away from the rock to avoid the attack and created a barrier to protect him from the impact.
Clay wanted to retaliate but the man is too far away. With his Boosted Power, he can extend his Qi Projections within thirty meter radius but man is safely maintaining a hundred meter distance.
Clay clenched his teeth. Had he known that playing with the magic raft would invite trouble, he would not mind destroying it and throwing it away.
He had always feared confronting an enemy who would exploit his weakness and who would have expected he will actually meet one today. If only he can levitate as well.
Judging his opponent’s strength, he could easily crush him by just combining energy from two of his meridians but the problem now is their distance.
As Clay was planning his attack, he saw the man took out a talisman and activated it.
“No!” Clay has no idea what kind of talisman was activated but it looks like the man just called for reinforcements.
Clay has limited battle experience so he can only run and wait for an opportunity.