Writer's note: A little early but enjoy. Next release will be a while as I have midterms.

Chapter 5: Unexpected Loot

"What happened?" Guo Jing roared as he saw his two grandchildren and an unknown boy enter his pavilion with Guo Yang still unconscious. "What happened to Yang'er?"

"We had to fight a Blue Heart String Phoenix today. He used some kind of earth attack and movement practitioner art to land a blow on the phoenix. He just fainted from exhaustion," Guo Mei explained as Guo Yang groaned.

"Ugh, where am I?" he groaned as he shook his head, his body feeling a little weak as he looked around. "Oh, I'm at grandpa's house. I suppose I must have overexerted my body with too much spirit energy consumption. It seems I'm not at the level where I can use my element attribute arts freely."

"Spirit energy in wine?" Guo Jing frowned as Guo Feng and Ji Ting arrived, seeing Guo Yang drink a milky white wine full of spirit energy. "What is that?"

"It's monkey wine. It contains spirit energy and tastes quite good," Guo Yang answered.

"What are you doing!" Ji Ting snapped, Guo Yang turning to her. "You are just a child. You cannot drink wine!"

"It's in my new magical treasure. I can do with it what I please," he replied, sipping some more and began to meditate to restore his spirit energy.

"Listen to your mother. You will only drink that monkey wine if you need to replace your spent spirit energy. It will be even easier to improve your cultivation in that exhausted state," Guo Jing said, Guo Yang sighing as his body restored to an acceptable level.

"Where did you learn those practitioner arts? We did not hand you any manuals for any practitioner arts," Guo Jing asked.

"I learned it from a snake," Guo Yang answered, telling a half truth as it did come from his hereditary memories.

"From Red Shadow?" Guo Jing asked as he looked at his snake.

"No. I learned by observing the magical beasts at the Alchemist Association while we ventured there to sell the herbs on some days. I studied their movement and how they manipulated their spirit energy," Guo Yang answered, stunning them all.

"Theoretically, it is possible but very difficult," Sun Yi said as he adjusted his glasses. "Ah, sorry. My name is Sun Yi and I am a classmate of Guo Mei and Guo Yang. I'll, uh get going now. See you guys tomorrow."

"Did you do something at school?" Guo Jing asked.

"Hmm? What do you mean?" Guo Yang asked.

"I never saw you buy that gourd or monkey wine," Guo Jing said.

"I, uh, received it from an older class man in return for a favor. You see, I noticed a girl with very powerful cultivation and stared at her to assess it for three seconds? Then, I returned to my meal but some idiot older student yelled at me. I think he was jealous. All I did was ignore the man while smelling my poisonous powder in a little vial. While I was enjoying its fragrance, the idiot named Robert snatched it from me, insulted me, and took a whiff. Is it my fault that he became paralyzed temporarily and nearly lost his life? No. The range of the vial's mist is not even a foot long and even the smell dissipates. It is a nice, shallow scent that I was enjoying until he came," Guo Yang smiled, chills going down everyone's spines.

"And how it ended with you owning that gourd?" Guo Feng asked.

"I, uh, told his friend that Robert would die unless he bought a cure. It is worth twenty thousand spirit coins, but we were too far and he was evidently too poor to buy it. So I told him I would cure him in exchange for something that I needed. He gave me this gourd as that means of transaction to cure his friend. Did I have to save him? No. Did I save him? Yes. He turned out alright, his friend was not publicly exposed as a spineless weakling, and I got this gourd filled with seven barrels of monkey wine," Guo Yang laughed.

"What else did you get?" Guo Jing asked.

"What do you mean?" Guo Yang asked as everyone looked between the two, confused.

"You're a smart boy, too smart. There is no way you would be satisfied and have fun with only one item. If there is one thing I know, as a master of a snake magical beast; snakes are very cunning and always attack when they are certain of pulling off the kill. There must be other prey you met before that Robert character," Guo Jing said, everyone nodding as it made sense.

"I guess I underestimate you, grandpa patriarch," Guo Yang smiled. "You're right. I did get more than that gourd, but I'm pretty sure no one found out."

"How did you get those?" Guo Feng cried as Guo Yang deposited five, meter high, eggs. They were obviously eggs of magical beasts and everyone turned to him in shock.

"You know, even for me, there is no way to tell what is inside these eggs. I doubt whoever owned these knew either. Trust me, no one knows more about magical beast eggs than me," Guo Yang smiled evilly, reminiscing about his times as a snake and creeping into magical beast dens and breaking many of their eggs. The taste was....addictive for a snake. Very addictive.

"What do you want to do with these eggs?" Guo Jing asked.

"Well, I planned on eating one," he said, stunning them all.

"How could you? It's a magical beast egg," Guo Mei began.

"That is more delicious than most magical beast meat and milk. Trust your youngest brother. I know these things," he smiled. "Well, I could give my siblings one each, keep one for myself, give one to the sub branches, and eat the last."

"No. You will give two to the sub branches. You can't eat magical beast eggs," Guo Jing said, Guo Yang outraged but keeping calm as he did not have the power to do as he wished. Yet.

"What else did you get?" Guo Feng asked.

"If you press any further, then I will cease harvesting poisonous herbs," Guo Yang said through gritted teeth, even Guo Lin and Guo Mei figuring out he was angry despite the calm face. "You and Guo Lin pick one and leave. I....am angry. Grandpa patriarch, you will take two eggs after I make my pick. I will remember this day."

"Sorry," Guo Mei and Guo Lin said as they each took an egg and hastily left.

"I will be by the pond in the backyard of the pavilion, sorting out the rest of my loot. If you two go anywhere near me, or anyone really; you will all be poisoned. I guarantee, no one else will know the cure. Come, Red Shadow," Guo Yang growled at his parents as he drank some monkey wine, stored the gourd and one egg in his inter-spacial ring, and stormed out.

"Come here," Guo Jing said but was shocked to see the snake ignore him. It slammed its tail on Guo Feng and glared at Ji Ting before slithering behind Guo Yang. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, father," Guo Feng said as he coughed blood. "I..don't know what's going on? I think I worsened the relationship with my son, even more than it already had. I did not expect him to be so strong, or so smart either."

"Yes, you paid more attention to Guo Lin and Guo Mei and their active sibling rivalry. Perhaps treating Guo Yang as a sickly, crippled child due to his weakness to cold weather was the reason for it. He and I get along fine. He calls me grandpa," Guo Jing said. "Although, knowing him, he might be angry at me for a few hours before calming down."

"I told you to pay more attention to him," Ji Ting snapped, her husband looking at the floor as she did do so, many times. "However, he had her help him keep Guo Mei from hating Guo Lin for displaying more talent than her. He was also to blame for the bad relationship between Guo Yang and his mother.

Guo Yang would never admit it, but it had a small, small influence in how he treated them. After all, he did see his own mother being eaten by a hawk magical beast and never knew his father. Love was foreign to him. That was the biggest factor. He was always hiding and having to eat weaker prey, or weakened predators. Once he became strong, he had to slither and escape from those who sought his magical beast core.

His body was broken, his mind under stress, and danger was worn like a mantle for nearly every year of his life. Family? He trusted the snake magical beast of his human grandfather more than his new family. Snakes really lived one of the harshest of lives as the number one delicacy for avian magical beasts with phoenixes at the very top. His human parents' interactions with him were minor and nearly insignificant compared to his past life's experiences.

"Exalted One, why did you let them take your prize?" Red Shadow hissed.

"Whoever said I had only five? It seems the two human boys I robbed were quite rich. Well, these particular eggs are sold in the magical beast shop for one thousand demon spirit coins each. It is because these eggs are camouflaged to look the same through formations, displayed in large patches to trick customers in thinking they have a big chance in picking a very powerful magical beast," Guo Yang said as he took out two more. "I suspect the third year student's ring contained almost all these eggs. I also got a few thousand spirit beads and a few spirit crystals. Quite the unexpected loot. I figured the two boys were nobles, as most are proud and willing to fight to be class president. Turns out, I was right."

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

"Exalted One is quite cunning. What do you plan to do now? My human master might have suspicions on how you learn your practitioner arts," Red Shadow asked.

"Don't worry. You know how we snakes deal with humans. We never make the same mistake twice," Guo Yang said. He looked at one of the two eggs he kept aside and gingerly set it at the edge of the pond while he looked at the other two and cracked them. He closed his eyes and swirled his arms and hands in opposing circles, ending at his chest. The yoke from the egg rose out of the egg shells and vanished as the pure spirit energy entered his mouth. After repeating the process on the second egg, he let Red Shadow eat one of the baby magical beasts within the eggs and ate the other one. He frowned as he discovered it was a baby dragon, but then smiled as it meant he would consume dragon blood. His luck was truly great!"

Spirit crystals contained more spirit energy than spirit beads as they were not filled with spiritual energy, but crystallized versions of it. He did not know who possessed them but knew that if he was discovered to possess them, many would kill him for it. Spirit crystals were exceedingly rare and valuable. He put thoughts on the spirit crystals aside as he was not at the cultivation stage where he could truly benefit from them. Grabbing a few handful of spirit beads, he began to cultivate.

Due to his neidan, his absorption rate was just too fast. Even the spirit energy from his surrounding seemed to surge into him. The pond rippled and the blades of grass waved as his body seemed to suck in all the spirit energy in the area. Such a surge of spirit energy immediately alerted Guo Jing and Guo Feng as they raced out to see what caused it. They gaped as three wisps of spirit energy surged around him, one for each element attribute he had. Rings of rock, water, and light soon appeared around his body as he continued his cultivation.

"Im, im, impossible," Guo Jing said as he stared at his grandson.

"What is it?" Guo Feng asked.

"No. I can't believe it. Did he consume dragon blood? He must have!" Guo Jing said and turned to his son. "Do you understand what is happening? Guo Yang is forming a Yin Yang, heaven and earth, divine tattoo! This is no lesser, ordinary, or higher ranked divine tattoo. See how his body changes? His bones' densities will harden and his cartilages will improve by leaps and bounds. Even his muscles, organs, and skin will undergo drastic changes!"

They watched as the wisps multiplied while the rings enlarged and formed a cocoon around Guo Yang. Li Ting soon arrived and she also gasped upon seeing it. Behind her was Guo Li, the wife of Guo Jing. She had been in closed door training and came out after almost twelve years due to the commotion Guo Yang was causing. She too, was shocked to see the cocoon.

"Guo Feng, make sure no one enters anywhere near this pavilion! No one is to know or spread knowledge of what is happening here!" he yelled, Guo Feng nodding as he left to carry out the order. "That smart rascal! He must have eaten a magical beast egg! I see one by the pond. He would have wasted such a magical beast, but he did not contract with it and make it lose its wonderful effect. A heaven and earth tattoo. This is just too much."

"That's Little Yang?" Guo Li asked as she stared at the cocoon. "What happened?"

As Guo Jing described what the triplets did while she was away, Ji Ting yelled as they waited past midnight and saw a glowing crack on the cocoon. "The cocoon is breaking!"

Save for a ring, Guo Yang emerged completely naked as the cocoon shattered. He grew three inches and his muscles had become more lean with less fat in his body. His sand colored eyes now had a golden luster and his black hair fell past his shoulders. Instead of a normal dragon with a lizard body and wings, a serpent-bodied dragon appeared on his back with the head of a dragon, white catfish whiskers, red scales, brilliant deer antlers, and a jade colored man extending from the top of its head to the tail.

"What manner of dragon is this? It looks like snake!" Guo Jing cried, never seeing pictures of such a dragon before.

A black pillar of light fell on Guo Yang, lifting him up three feet as Guo Feng arrived with Guo Mei and Guo Lin. Guo Mei had an owl magical beast while Guo Lin had a manticore magical beast. It looked like a small lion cub with bat wings and a scorpion tail. Normally, everyone would be happy with joy to discover a clan member with a mythical type magical beast. However, their attention was solely on Guo Yang. No one but them saw an image of that exact dragon appear in the sky, their eyes widening as their gazes followed its fall from the Heavens and enter Guo Yang's body.

They covered their ears as an inhumane shriek sounded in their minds. It was as if they were hearing the cry of a mother dragon as it saw its child for the first time. White horns appeared behind the top of Guo Yang's ears and the pillar of light faded. They did not know it, but every living creature in the Pangu continent and every dragon and snake magical beast in the world had heard the shriek in their minds. However, only the dragons and snakes knew what it meant.

"So that is the first dragon snake the Exalted One should have been," Red Shadow hissed as the wisps disappeared into Guo Yang's body and then saw the broken egg. "Uh oh. The Exalted One liked that egg."

"No one is to speak of what happened here. No one is to know he formed a dragon body. Divine tattoos are not uncommon in powerful clans, but dragon bodies and Yin Yang divine tattoos are. Do you understand? Our Guo Clan will be endangered if this leaks out," Guo Jing said, everyone nodding violently as Guo Feng hastily covered his son's lower body.

"What about the school?" Guo Feng asked.

"Tell them he will take a week off due to the strain from his spirit energy consumption. It is acceptable as he used element attribute practitioner arts," Ji Ting said answered. "Father-in-law, will my son be alright?"

"Yes. He is to sleep in my guest room. No one is to disturb him in this week's time. I only heard a similar shriek in my mind thrice. It was from the three talented children, out of the ten, of the emperor, the news publicly announced," Guo Jing shivered. "No one can know of this. No one. This dragon shriek sounded different. It had to. I never seen such a dragon. Divine tattoos are strange, so we might be able to make it pass off as an ordinary or lesser divine tattoo."

"Finally, a worthy rival," Guo Lin said innocently, Guo Mei hurt as she realized her brother never considered her as such. All but Guo Jing left the pavilion, Guo Li formally meeting her older grandchildren for the first time since helping their birth.

Many thousand miles away, movement in a giant, golden pavilion took place. Many servants and guards rushed through many smaller buildings, as if to check on something. Within the grand hall of the largest pavilion, many generals and ministers stood before a man on a white wooden throne as he wore a black robe with five gold dragon coiling around his limbs and chest.

"What happened? Head of the palace guards, which of my other seven children formed a Yin Yang divine tattoo?" the emperor of the Song Dynasty roared. His empire encompassed the entire Pangu continent, making his empire the largest and most powerful over the fifteen continents.

"Your Imperial Majesty, I am afraid none of them have formed a Yin Yang tattoo. Of the seven who did not have one, five had already formed higher and ordinary ranked divine tattoos. It is not possible for them. As for the last two, their backs remain barren," a guard in a luxurious gold dragon armor shouted as he knelt on one knee.

"What!" he roared, slamming the left arm rest of his throne into dust. "How can this be? I want soldiers sent into every one of the empire's provinces. Someone must have seen a radiant pillar of golden light. I want that person found and brought to me. He either submits and is married into my family or is annihilated alongside his entire clan! I don't even care if he is a member of a sect or academy! Find the person with the Yin Yang divine tattoo!"

Unaware of the activities of the palace, the members of the main branch of the Guo Clan secretly celebrated because of their two powerful triplet grandsons of the patriarch. One had a Yin Yang divine tattoo and the other not only had four element attributes, he had a mythical type magical beast. Only one person did not celebrate as she gazed at the moon, a tiny owl nibbling on her hand. Unbeknownst to everyone, she actually fused lightning and darkness to make black lightning.

"I...I can't lose. They need to see me, recognize me!" Guo Mei said as darkness seemed to swallow the world around her. "I need the power to be stronger than my brothers. To show them that I am worthy to walk alongside them with pride. To be known as Guo Mei, not their elder triplet."

"And what would you sacrifice for such power?" a voice whispered into her ear.

"Anything. I can't be left behind," Guo Mei said as saw a giant, crimson eye appear before her, a giant mass covered in darkness as it gazed down at her.

"Embrace the darkness child. Harness that variant lightning. It is your birthright, your power. Child of the Darkness, accept my power and you will form your soul realm and gain power beyond your imagination. Embrace your destiny. Embrace your fate as a harvester of souls," the eye said and Guo Mei's screams were silenced as it fused into her body, even her soul bound magical beast affect by the unknown darkness.