Crawling along the floor of the shallow river is a living treasure. The great being does not shine, but absorbs the light, looking as solid as a mountain. Its green scales give off a feeling of heaviness, weighing down on anybody who looks at them. Who could this majestic being be, but me!

Yes, peasants! Look upon my powerful form, if you Dare! HAHA!

A shadow passes overhead.

Humph, as if you peasants of the sky have the right to look upon me. I will take my leave now.

I crawl along the river floor away from the prying eyes of the sky near the shore. Using my fins and tail, I am soon secure in deeper waters.

Let me find somewhere to begin my cultivation for the day.

I crawl until I find a suitable divet in the side of the riverbed.

Yes, this will do nicely.

I settle my mind and begin to concentrate. I grab hold of the Qi swirling in the water and condense it into small needles. I give each needle a spin before firing them towards myself, only for all of them to break against the jade scales.

Whoops. Forgot.

I focus on my body, willing it to change. The jade scales all begin to flip, starting from my head and traveling downwards. Now my scales are the same color as my body, black.

I repeat my cultivation method. This time, when the needles are fired at me, they phase through my scales and are absorbed into my body.

When I feel that I can no longer take in anymore Qi, I stop, releasing my hold on the surrounding Qi. The released Qi quickly disperses, causing small eddies in the water.

The scales along my body flip once more, causing the jade to shroud me once again.

Hehe. Every day, I grow stronger. Every day, I am one step closer to absolute power. Yes! Stronger! More!

... Whoah. That was intense. I don’t think I have ever been more pumped up in my whole, fifteen? Days of life. I don’t know how long I spent in that painting, but I have been out and about for ten days.

Now, let's go get stronger, Yeah!

I begin to crawl along the river bed, continuing to head upstream. I travel just a bit faster than last time, having my strength increased just that little bit.

Soon, I will be strong enough to swim through these waters once more. I just have to be patient.

…

Fuck, it's taking too long.

I have been crawling for days, continuing my daily cultivation along the way. I have not found anything worthy to eat, just a bunch of plebian insects and disgusting, pale, weak-looking fish. I sometimes find rocks that smell like food, oddly enough.

Right now, I am looking at one such rock that smells of food. Though this rock sticks out compared to its brethren. The dark rock seems to have a slight golden sheen to it.

Can I eat a rock? No. Well, maybe. Let's try.

I fit my mouth around the rock and swallow it. My body soon gets to work, trying to draw the Qi out of the rock, but fails. There seems to be some sort of barrier on the rock, preventing Qi leakage.

Well, at least I tried.

I open my mouth, allowing the rock to exit my body. Now that I have all these jade scales, they prevent my food from exiting as my earlier meals had, exiting anywhere.

There the rock sits, as if mocking me with its very presence.

What was that?! Who is mocking Me?!

Is it? The rock?

Pea Brain?!

Why don’t you take a look at yourself, you’re just some stupid rock! What do you do all day? Just lay here, waiting to be eroded by the flow of the river until you turn into sand?!

Dull?!

You must not have eyes! Look at me! My scales look fantastic and solid.

You don’t look that shiny to me!

<... You bastard. I am Shiny! How many times do I have to tell you, what you see is merely a shell. A shell!>

Hmph, I don't believe you.

Dammit! I knew it! How are you reading my thoughts, you sly bastard!?

Weak!? You pathetic rock! I will crack open your shell, then we’ll see who’s weak.

You fucker!

I ate the annoying little rock once more. Once it was inside of me, I began pummeling it with needles of Qi.

A golden barrier appeared around the rock and deflected all of the Qi.

Dammit.

I spit the rock out. Then I tried to crush it with my body using my unusual weight. I even dug my fins into the muddy bottom of the river and tried to pull myself downwards.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

But the rock just sunk into the mud, largely avoiding the full brunt of my weight.

You! HMMM!

I swallowed the rock once more.

I need to find a hard surface, like a rock, with a ledge over top of it. Then, I will be able to crush this turd of a rock.

Yes, you are. Just some golden turd, but a turd nonetheless.

I continued to insult the stupid rock as I searched for a suitable spot to crack it. Frustratingly enough, the rock continued to insult me as well.

Yes! There it is, the perfect spot. Your days are numbered stupid rock. Prepare to be among the first of my many defeated opponents.

What’s a peanut?

I am not stupid! I am smart! If you think you are so smart, answer me this riddle.

What is gold and will inevitably be eaten by ink?

Wrong! It is you! The golden turd!

Hmph. What, were you sleeping the first time I ate you? This beautiful jade you see along my body is merely the result of an accessory bloodline, stupid. Do not classify me in the most basic sense, for I am greater!

<... That was ink? I just thought it was dark! What are you? Some kind of abomination come to life?>

Bah! Abomination? I am no such thing. I am beauty and strength incarnate, the great… I do not have a name?

… I think it’s time I cracked this pathetic shell of yours, don't you agree?

I crawl along the ground onto a flat rock I found on the bottom of the river. The annoying golden rock leaves my mouth to sit there on the flat rock, merely awaiting its doom.

Nearby is a small ledge over this spot, which a begin to slowly climb, dragging my weight upwards to the peak.

Once I reach the top of the ledge, I take a look around.

Yes. This is how it should be. I will look down on my domain from up high, looking down on everything. Hmm, this feeling! It’s incredible!

Hmph. I wouldn’t expect some rock to know what being a ruler feels like, or to have any ambition to be one. But this is not a complex, it is merely a fact. And you won't need to think about it much longer, because you’ll be dead!

I wriggle my way to the ledge, then fall. It was only a one-meter drop, but with my weight, one meter was plenty enough.

I smashed into the rock, causing a small chip in the stone. But more importantly, directly beneath me, was the cracked shell.

Hehehe, now then, you pompous prick, let's see what you look like on the inside.

I wiggled to the side and got a better look at the crushed rock beneath me. Only to find out it wasn’t a rock at all. This thing was a freshwater mussel. Its shell was cracked and exposed bits of meat were ballooned out of the cracks. The meat was golden in color and seemed to shine, much like the shell.

So you really weren't a rock? I am flummoxed.

Or what? Are you gonna put up your pathetic golden shield?

Oh really?

I edge I little closer.

Because I have a theory. What if, let's say, your shielding abilities are tied to your shell, and now that that is cracked, you can’t do anything. Hmm? Am I right?

Hmm. Well let’s find out, shall we?

I begin to move towards the mussel's stationary remains, thinking about all the wonderful Qi I will be able to draw forth from this being's remains. Then I stop short, sensing danger.

A golden beam of energy hits my scales, hard. I am thrown back, sailing through the water, quickly sinking back to the bottom. I hit the ground and a large cloud of debris is thrown up around me, making the murky water even murkier.

You damn ROCK!

I try to feel the damage to myself and am shocked by what I feel. All of the scales along my head have large cracks everywhere. I can feel some of my ink body spilling out, filling the cracks in the green scales with a deep black.

Y-you damaged me?!

I was stunned. Then the rage came.

This pathetic, just some stupid, rock, damaged MY scales! Mine!

I crawled forward as fast as my fins could take me. The area where the golden beam had hit me was absolutely destroyed. The flat rock was turned into minuscule pieces of clear glass sand.

The rock didn’t seem to move at all, despite the obvious kickback it should have experienced. Its shine seemed to have muted somewhat, appearing less bright.

You are smarter than you look, rock.

<... Of course, I am a genius. And I must say, those scales of yours are tougher than they look, almost annoyingly so. But how many beams can you take?>

The better question is, how many more of those can you do?

<....>

That shut the rock up quickly. Then I swerved to the side as another golden beam pummeled the side of my body, breaking my scales. I was once more thrown through the water, crashing to the ground in a spray of debris.

Damn It! The stupid rock had another one!

I again inspect the damage, only to find it even worse than before. It seemed the beam had traveled along my body to break all the scales on my right side, affecting a much larger area.

I looked at the rock through the mud clouding my vision. It had dimmed even more this time. Seemed the second blast had taken a lot more out of it. The golden glow was reduced to the faintest of light, hardly radiating anything, but just reflecting the light already present.

Got you now, rock. Prepare to be devoured!

<...>

Judging by the lack of a snarky retort, I assume the rock must be completely spent. I pick myself up and towards the rock.

When I arrive before it, there is still no reaction. I open my mouth to devour it but quickly shut it as I sense another beam coming.

The golden beam sprang forth, much smaller and weaker this time. It didn’t have enough power to lift me from the ground but still managed to push me back a fair distance.

The scales on my head cracked even further but still refused to fall apart.

Give up.

I crawled next to the rock and looked down at it.

Now, even the shininess of the rock was gone. It was a dull color, like scuffed gold.

Your end is nigh. Be grateful, for you will be eaten by me, the great… Moshui!

With that final thought, I ate the rock. My insides began to immediately suck the Qi out of its flesh and transform it, staining it black. The amount of Qi still stored in its flesh was surprising for something so near exhaustion.

All the flesh was sucked dry of Qi and expelled, leaving the core of the mussel still sitting inside me. It was a golden pearl that seemed to shine even when surrounded by blackness. I tried to draw the Qi out of this pearl and found it even easier to draw from than the flesh.

Bah, still trying to play tricks on me? What will happen if I crush you, you explode? No, I don't think I will.

Power.

Intelligence.

Hmm, no, I don’t think so.

<... You Idiot! Spit me out and crush me!>

No.

What are you talking about? You are basically already dead. I ate you. Do you not remember stupid?

As the golden pearl continued to try and trick me, I continued to siphon Qi out of the stupid thing. The Qi rushed through my body, strengthening it as it traveled.

Then something slightly concerning occurred. The Qi began to head back towards the pearl for some reason. I struggled to hold it back and continue circulating it but to no avail.

I watched in growing horror as the Qi continued on its way and entered the pearl. All the while more Qi was being drawn from the pearl, almost like a cycle.