'Your world is really fascinating, just how did your people advance to such a level without cultivation?'

'Because we are not idiots like you?'

I ignored the groan from the idiot while I focused on the meat cooking on the fire, salivating at just the thought of its taste.

Immediately after the fight with the Demon Mole, I was suddenly assaulted with extreme hunger which indicated my new body's need for resources to heal itself. So I got to work with dismantling the body of the Demon Mole all the while the idiot in my head pointed out the valuable parts of the demon beast to be harvested.

I dug out the internal organs which are apparently very sought after as a delicacy in the Frontier cities by the Noble families that govern the area. I peeled away the skin to make rugs for my bed while paying close attention to removing the crystals in the body carefully. My senses were telling me that these crystals were a much more condensed form of the Spirit Stones that I had found in the caves and would prove for interesting experiment materials.

I harvested the Bones and meat for my meal and finally extracted the most valuable part of the body.

The Demonic Core.

A Demonic Core is considered to be a treasure due to the Qi of the Demonic Beast that is contained within it. The higher the realm of the demonic beast, the valuable it becomes. In fact, one of the greatest treasures of the Heavenly Immortal Empire is a Demonic Core from an Elemental King level High Elf.

Yeah, I was definitely surprised when I found out that there were Western Fantasy creatures like Elves, Dwarves, Orcs and other such creatures in this world of Cultivation, although they were different from what I remembered from stories besides the obvious difference of the existence of cultivation.

In this world, anything that was sapient but not a Human was considered a Demonic Beast, this included Humanoid creatures such as the Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Ogres, the Fairy folk, and the Nature Spirits.

There was also something called Beastmen but that was just a title given to animalistic Demonic Beasts that take on a humanoid form when they reach the level of Elemental Soul awakening. In that sense, The Demon Mole I hunted was just one major realm away from attaining a human form.

The Cultivation realms of this world were also, just like the sects, heavily influenced by the ability to manipulate the elements.

Body Refinement is considered the first step of cultivation and is divided into five stages.

Bone strengthening, Nerve and Blood vessel enhancement, Blood enrichment, Organ improvement, Skin purification.

Once these stages are completed, the body is considered ready to begin the cultivation of Qi and the cultivator enters the next realm. Qi establishment, which is divided into three parts.

Mist condensation, in which the cultivator condenses the ambient Qi in the environment into their own body, Qi Lake, in which the condensed Qi is turned into a liquid and forms a metaphysical lake of Qi in the part of the body that is a little bit below the navel. Qi core establishment, in which the condensed liquid is solidified into a core of pure Qi. After this step, the cultivator enters the next realm.

Core Enhancement, which has two stages.

Core refinement in which the previously formed core is refined further by using the element that matches the Qi manual that the cultivator is using and is instilled with the element in preparation for the next stage, Elemental Core formation, in which the Core is successfully instilled with the element of the Cultivator's compatibility and is further condensed to form the Elemental Core of a Cultivator.

In most places of the Empire aside from the Capital city and a few other places, if a Cultivator reaches the Elemental Core level, they are considered to be existences that are above law and are able to do whatever they want without much opposition. They can even qualify to become a Guest Elder in any of the three Great Sects if they wanted to.

This was also the reason why I had immediately hid in the ground when the Lackey of my Stepbrother had come looking for me to settle things, I knew that I stood no chance against him if I fought him without any preparations.

After Core enhancement, there was Element Realization, Elemental Soul Awakening, Elemental King, and Elemental Emperor, but those realms were so out of reach for most Cultivators that they don't even want to think about it. This is also primarily due to the precious item that I am now holding in my hand.

At the very beginning of cultivation, in the Body Refinement stage, the Cultivator requires external aid to cultivate as he or she will be incapable of sensing and using the ambient Qi in the environment until they reach Qi establishment. This external aid can come in any form, such as regular medicinal baths made from plants that are rich in Qi, the blood of a beast that has yet to form a Demonic core and become a demonic beast, and aid from a senior from a higher realm of cultivation. In the case of minor sects, they rely on pills that they create with the help of their Alchemists or if the disciple is lucky, being assisted by an Elder.

But when it comes to the Three Great Sects and the Royal Family, they utilize extremely expensive items for their younger generation to improve their cultivation, Such as the blood of a Demonic Beast, or the Demonic Core of Demonic Beast.

The quality of the material used during the Body Refining phase decides the rate of advancement and general Cultivation ability of a Cultivator. It is due to this precise reason that a Demonic Core, even from a Body Refining level Demonic Beast is sold at an exorbitant price of a few thousand spirit stones, which is the average salary of a high-level Elder in a recognized Minor Sect.

As for the Element realization realm Demonic Core I had? If the word got out, the Three Great sects, even the Royal Family would try to get it from me one way or another, Even if I asked for an exorbitant price they would not hesitate to shell out that amount. Although it is a different topic altogether whether I will first survive the assassins that would undoubtedly be sent after me once the word gets out.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

This is mainly because of the fact that the only place where a Demonic beast that has a cultivation realm higher than Core Enhancement can be found is in either the Dead Lands in the north that are under the sole monopoly of the Heavenly Edge Sect and is also considered to be a forbidden zone that nobody dares to enter, and the Southern part of the continent that I am in right now, which is shrouded in Death Qi and can only be entered once every five years and only for 48 hours.

For everyone aside from me, that is. Once again, Thank whatever passes for a god here that I am not a normal Human.

Aside from these two places, the largest concentration of stronger Demonic Beasts can only be found on the Demon Beast Kingdom which spans over the entirety of the western side of the continent encompassing many Demonic Beast territories like The Elven Forest, The Beast Clans, The Dessert Tribes, The realms of the Nature Spirits, The Dwarven Caves, Orc Villages, Ogre Towns and the main Demonic Capital. The Western side of the continent is separated from the Eastern side of the continent by a massive sea that is oddly shaped like a straight line, as if something destroyed that part of the continent, leaving behind only three ways to travel between the two parts of the continent.

One part is located in the north and one is in the south. The Southern path is inaccessible for obvious reasons alongside an additional reason that the Flood Dragons make their nest on that path while the Northern path is the home to the Nine Poisons Spiders, an extremely dangerous species of massive Spiders with nine different kinds of venom in their bodies. This leaves the only way to travel between the two sides by Sea travel.

Although this place is teeming with strong Demonic Beasts that the Human Sects could easily kill for their Demonic Cores, they are deterred by the fact that all these separate species of Demonic Beasts have come together to form a Kingdom of their own led by the Dragon Clan to oppose the Human Empire.

'Hey Idiot, when are you going to give me your Cultivation technique? I need to get stronger if I am going to survive against monsters like these'

'It's not that I am unwilling to give you my Cultivation technique, it's the fact that your meridians are completely abnormal that is stopping me from doing so. Frankly, if it were not for the fact that they don't resemble any known meridian patterns of a Demonic beast of any species, I would have thought that your body was that of a monster with how jumbled up your meridian pattern is. Then there is also the problem of your elemental affinity to take into consideration

'Tch'

I took out the meat from the fire and started eating, thinking about what the idiot said. While I was harvesting the Demon Mole for its parts, the Idiot was scanning my body to prepare for cultivation so that we would not end up in the same kind of predicament as before but he ended up concluding that It was simply impossible for me to cultivate using his or any other human technique, in fact, he was not even sure if it was possible for me to cultivate using a Demonic technique either. If I am to cultivate, I will need to create an entirely new Technique from scratch with my unique meridian pattern as a base.

But here lies another problem. I did not know much about Cultivation in the first place and the Idiot was not of much use either since he specialized in only knowing the family technique of the Royal Family. The Thunder God Technique. If I am to craft a technique, I will need to study as many cultivation techniques as possible, it would be ideal if I could find a diverse range of techniques to compare and experiment with.

But to do these things, I will need to go out of the Yin forest and that is an idea I am not about to consider for at least a few years because I know for a fact that the bastard of a Step Brother must have already put a bounty on my head.

'Seriously, you are one useless idiot, how did you not find it suspicious that the girl that never even looked at you all your life suddenly asked you to visit her In her personal chambers at night? You should have realized it was a trap in the first place

'You can say that easily, but Xia Lei is someone I had a crush on since I was a child, we were even engaged to marry but she never even looked at me until that day, of course, I would be excited that she was finally willing to talk to me and at night in her personal chambers? You can't blame me for imagining certain things, needless to say, I was betrayed thoroughly and was blamed by her that I tried to violate her followed by my so-called brother coming in valiantly from the door, indicating that all of it was a setup from the beginning, and making me out to be criminal in front of the Xia family which is one of the four military families directly under the Royal Family'

'Like I said before, Grade-A protagonist plot right there'

'Anyways, I may not be able to help you with Techniques, but since you are so interested in experimentation, how about I give you the book I bought from the market about formations before I joined the others on their expedition to the Yin Forest?'

I scoured through my memories about formations and realized that they were something similar to those seals from that Naruto manga. In the hands of an incompetent fool, they amount to nothing but in the hands of an expert, they could become anything. But they had one major flaw.

They required Qi to create or utilize them.

'……Sorry friend, it seems that the Heavens are going out of their way to completely block all of your paths to power'

'I blame you for this

'Hey!'