Currently in front of Lute, a massive Vicious Beast was hissing. A water serpent nearly twenty-three feet long and its width had to be nearly three feet. Truly a massive monster compared to him. Its scales were an extremely clear aqua, so much so that in the lake it could be rendered invisible. The only thing that stood out were the eyes, the vertical reptilian pupils were a deep crimson, the exact same color as Lute’s hair.

Once a few days had passed since Isla released her Slaughter Aura in the surrounding area, the wildlife began to return. As such they became tools for Isla to use in Lute’s training. Each day, through her senses, she’d find a suitable beast nearby that could pose a threat to Lute, but not enough where he would die as long as he was careful. Thus the days passed in torture for Lute.

First he’d cultivate through the night. The moment the light of the sun appeared on the horizon, it was time for imitation of the Thousand Ways Scriptures. Every day, Isla went through ten stances, explaining in depth the methods of utilizing the stances taught through the Scriptures as well as her own insights that she’d made on her own over time.

Despite her personality, whenever Lute had a question, Isla was extremely patient and took time to answer, but if he failed in executing a stance properly or so much as flowed his Qi slightly the wrong way for a particular stance, he’d immediately get flattened to the ground to the brink of unconsciousness.

Surprisingly, the stances were much harder to execute than he originally thought and the strain placed on his body and meridians was quite shocking, especially with how durable he was on a fundamental level. This still didn’t prevent Isla from beating Lute to a pulp with her Slaughter Aura whenever he made a mistake. Even now she took a liking to keeping a constant increasing pressure on him while he was executing the stances, forty of which he’d learned so far. This was all to his dismay, Isla was beginning to become extremely scrutinizing towards his perfection of the stances.

However for the past few days, more and more Vicious Beasts were appearing, they were all at a level Lute could win with some effort, but not enough where he’d be seriously injured. Honestly, Isla flattening him to a pulp was scarier than a beast nowadays. And so, here he found himself against the water serpent, training the use of his stances in real combat.

If anyone else saw this, they would think Lute went insane. You don’t use Vicious Beasts to practice skills you just learnt, that was simply suicide. And yet, here was Lute, as normal, fighting a Vicious Beast, but this time with much more grace, weaving the forty stances he’d learnt in myriad ways depending on how the battle progressed. His way of fighting made almost a complete one-eighty degree turn. There were still snippets of his brutish methods that was used upon the wolves some days prior, but now those barbaric ways would only momentarily show themselves within Lute’s movements, whether he attacked or defended.

The water serpent coiled up, once again, it eyed its prey, and Lute had proved to be a much harder target than it once previously thought. Even more so, the pressure he was emitting was almost equal that of it. It still wasn’t deterred however; there was no way it felt that it could lose to such a small human.

This is certainly a challenge, but nothing I can’t handle, my combat strength feels as if its doubled in the past few days, if I didn’t have these stances, there is no way I would be able to fight this serpent, but now…. its dead.

Revolving his Qi at maximum strength, Lute charged towards the serpent. It shot out of its coil like a spear towards him, but it had done this many times previously. Lute quickly changed to a stance while charging that would easier allow him to maneuver while giving up some defensive posturing, but he had faith in his tempered body.

And it held true, a long cut was all that appeared on Lute’s right forearm, grazed by the water serpents’ fangs. It didn’t seem to be venomous; instead due to its size it probably constricted and squeezed its prey to death. The reality though was that had anyone other than Lute at his cultivation done the same maneuver, they wouldn’t have a long cut; instead their entire arm would’ve been ripped from their body.

Finally approaching the water serpent, Lute combined and switched his stances so that he could attack its weak points most efficiently. Swinging his right leg, Lute slammed it into the weakest point of the water serpent, the joint right below and behind the eye, where the jaw connected to its skull. The force sent a shockwave through the serpents’ body, but with the head as the primary receiver of such an injury, despite its tough scales, the water serpents skull all but shattered, bone fragment entering the brain.

Now half dead, the water serpent was in a daze, Lute quickly finished it off by diving to the other side of its body and delivering the same attack to the opposite side of its head, thus throwing away any hope for survival.

“How was that master, was I successful in the time limit this time?”

Isla laughed, this disciple of hers could truly be funny sometimes, and he proposed as a part of the training that he had to beat the Vicious Beasts within a specified time limit to be a success, all so he could defeat enemies quickly. And she actually wasn’t adverse to the idea since it would increase the pressure upon Lute.

“You weren’t even remotely close to my standards, to beat these weaklings you shouldn’t even need more than thirty seconds. Look what happened when you hit its weak point, it practically died on the spot. So why’d it take you over five minutes to kill it and even suffer an injury.”

Isla’s words ripped into Lute’s pride, he proposed this idea and now he was regretting it, he’d thought that the serpent died plenty quick. Apparently it wasn’t enough. He needed to find the weak points of the beasts quicker.

“So within thirty seconds, and beasts of this level, I need to find the weak points and vitals of them and kill them using those points?”

Isla clapped her hands and floated around Lute, then looked at the Water Serpent and back to him. “This beast was only at the eighth level, three sub-realms above you, there is no reason you are incapable, especially as you are getting stronger each day. Sure, in combat you can leave non-lethal wounds that worsen over the course of the fight, but in real life and death combat, every attack should be aimed at vitals, you are killing your opponent, and they are killing you, there is no time to be a coward.”

Flipping his overgrown hair to his back, Lute then looked at the disfigured head of the water serpent. Its body clearly was a gruesome scene, but such things were now a daily occurrence for Lute.

Yes, it’s kill or be killed in this world, there is no in between so there is no need to be soft-hearted. Well it’s not as if there is anyone who is truly pure on this world, everyone has ulterior motives, with myself included. We truly are the worst possible race, the absolute trash and scum of the universe. And yet, there is nothing I can do about it, but it doesn’t mean I have to live with it anymore, all I need is enough power to complete the soul contract and I can live in seclusion.

With nightfall, approaching and the Vicious Beast already dead, there was nothing else to do before cultivating through the night, rather than wait for it to rot, Lute prepared a fire and began to skin the Water Serpent with one of its own fangs. Despite its massive size, the entire task of skinning and butchering took only a few hours. All unnecessary meat that he wouldn’t finish, Lute through as far into the forest of the mountain range as possible so he wouldn’t attract hordes of beasts.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Lute kept only four things, enough meat which would last for a little over a week, the fangs, scales, and a small orb he found, all from the Water Serpent.

The orb was the most mysterious thing he’d seen; it was a translucent pale shade of blue. Its luster shining underneath the light of the sunset, and the most mysterious attraction was Lute felt power emitting from such a small orb.

Lifting up the orb, holding it out to the sunset, Lute procured it before Isla, “Master, what is this pale blue orb I extracted from the Vicious Beast?”

Isla gazed at the orb in Lute’s palm, finally returning her attention to the material world instead whatever was distracting her, “It’s the physical cultivation of a Vicious Beast. This will not happen with humans, the method is simply different for beasts and humans.”

Different, how could cultivations be so different, the end scenarios was the same was it not? And yet, here was this orb that might not be emitting the complete strength of the Vicious Beast from before, but it was certainly close.

Lute stored the orb away within a makeshift bag from animal skins he had made within the past few days, “What makes it different then, why don’t humans create orbs?”

Hearing his question, Isla looked pointed to the surrounding area, “This is the difference, Vicious Beasts are inherently loved by nature. This is why they are so much stronger than cultivators of the same level, the price though, they cultivate slower than humans. The gathered energy of the world takes a physical form known as a core. This core has many uses for a cultivator, but mostly they are used in pill making.”

Lute gaze towards his animal skin bag, within such a small orb, he could turn in into his own cultivation, if that was true, he’d make up for the lost time rather quickly.

Lute turned towards Isla, a new light in his eyes filled with determination. “Then how do I turn its energy into my own? Surely I would at the very least be able to advance to the same cultivation the water serpent was at previously.”

Isla almost burst out laughing, did Lute really not think when asking questions such as these. It should be obvious that it wasn’t as easy as he thought it was. Regaining her composure, Isla finally began to answer his request in earnest.

“For an average cultivator, with nothing, the power of a core flowing through them would be suicide; this is why they are used for pills. The pills condense the power of the core into something a human can ingest without internally destroying themselves. But, that is for an average cultivator, even if you took the core directly, it wouldn’t be of much use for you. Not with your special circumstances.”

For an average cultivator directly ingesting a core or pill above what they could control was akin to suicide or at the least would cripple them. For someone that gained an inheritance, the risk was at a much lower level, especially if the inherited strength changed the meridians and body on a fundamental level such as Lute. With his ability of self-recovery, and the durability of his meridians, even if he absorbed a beast core, the damage would be minimal at best, unless the core was many great reams above his cultivation.

Lute once again took the core out of his makeshift bag, he wanted to try and absorb the energy within it, from the amount that he felt within he believed the core would allow a breakthrough into the ninth level of the Foundational Qi Realm.

Based on instinct alone, Lute chose to sit with the core on the palm of his hands instead of swallowing it. Circulating his Qi as if he were cultivating, he included the core in his revolutions. Flowing the Qi through it then allowing it to reenter his body. With each revolution the foreign strength rampaged through Lute’s meridians, but compared to the average man, he was perfectly fine. His meridians filled to the brink and felt sluggish due to forcing a vast amount of foreign Qi through them, but they did not tear or burst.

With each passing revolution, the Qi that was trying to act violent became more and more pure, it lost all of its berserk properties and assimilated into Lutes Qi, eventually becoming his own.

As more and more Qi was absorbed from the core, it gradually lost its luster. The core shrank until it was nearly half of its size, all of the translucence and power Lute sensed from it before was gone, what was left could be considered a dull crystal of no worth. However, Lute made no attempt to throw away the core, instead he continued to cultivate, gradually in taking more of the world Qi.

Nearly four hours later, Lute opened his eyes, releasing his aura; it was at the seventh level of the Foundational Qi Realm. Despite breaking through two consecutive small realms, Lute’s Qi was for the most part stable, it would take a few days to acclimate to the new strength, but that was far quicker than most cultivators who needed weeks.

Contrary to his expectations, Lute became slightly disgusted. Annoyance was clearly visible within his body language, tapping his fingers against his outer thighs aggressively and a cold expression was prevalent.

“Master, with the amount of energy in that core, I should have easily broken through to the ninth level of the Foundational Qi Realm. I don’t see why cultivators can’t absorb these, they don’t provide much energy, and although it rampaged through my meridians at first, it turned out to be easily controllable.”

Isla’s reprimanding voice resounded in the area almost at the exact moment he finished his question, “Don’t compare yourself to other cultivators in the Mortal Realm. They would not be able to absorb a core of a beast at a higher cultivation than themselves, not without the help of someone who was stronger than the beast. And if they did successfully absorb the energy without wasting it, they’d jump many small realms at once.”

The misunderstanding stemmed from the fact Lute didn’t truly know the power gap from the Mortal Realm to the Divine Realm. If it were another cultivator at his level in the Divine Realm, they would probably be able to pull off what he’d done by absorbing the core directly. But in the Mortal Realm, the only way to absorb a core directly in the safest manner was to be multiple small realms above it in cultivation, even then there was a chance the rampaging Qi could cripple the cultivator if they didn’t have the utmost caution.

Lute was about to give a curt reply to Isla when he heard something in the surrounding forest. The problem was it didn’t sound like a beast or even one life form. The sound was more reminiscent of his own movements, which could only mean that there were other people in this part of the forest, as for what reason, it was unknown.

“Master there is cultivators coming in this direction…”

Isla dissipated, her spiritual form once again merging with Lute’s body. Even if her soul was still in the Divine Path she couldn’t actually harm anyone with her Slaughter Aura or Soul. The only exception was Lute because he was merged with her in body and soul. It was instead much safer that she didn’t show her spiritual form around anyone other than Lute so rumors wouldn’t spread, for that could mean their death. However, being inside Lute didn’t stop her from being able to order him around.

“I’ve been keeping an eye on them for a while now, that’s why I’ve seemed so distracted today. There are four of them. Two at the seventh level of the Foundational Qi Realm, one at the eighth level, and another that seems to have just broken into the ninth level as his strength seems especially unstable. I’m willing to guess he is impatient at cultivation.”

Lute narrowed his eyes and suppressed his aura to hide his cultivation. It would be better for the four strangers to not know his exact strength. If things went wrong he’d be forced to fight, and it’d be best if he had a hidden advantage, such as his Slaughter Aura not being found out yet.

Since he knew they were approaching, Lute returned to cultivating, there was no use hiding as he wouldn’t escape in time. Instead he was judging his chances of killing the cultivators that approached if he was forced to fight.

“Master, do you think that I could take them on? I know beasts are intelligent, but they are much straighter forward and direct in fighting. Humans are more deceptive and cunning so I’d assume that puts me at a disadvantage.”

Through the connection, Lute was able to somewhat tell that Isla was seriously contemplating for a moment, and the footsteps of the party coming towards him were ever closer, however he felt somewhat relieved upon her response.

“You need to be careful upon the fact that they will probably have weapons while you don’t, they will have much better teamwork, and yes they are much more deceptive. But I think you could win, the Water Serpent was far stronger than any of them individually. The only one that could fight it is the strongest of the four... that is if he cultivated normally. But because he rushed his cultivation, his strength is about half of what a mortal at the ninth level should be on this trash planet, even the cultivator at the eighth level could probably beat him if he was careful as his cultivation is stable enough to consider him a bit more than average in talent…at least for someone in the Mortal Realm.”

Lute ignored the direction in which the group of four was approaching, he didn’t want to give any signal he knew they were already coming, although with how loud they were traveling, they didn’t seem to know about the concept of being quiet when travelling through a dangerous area, especially one full of Vicious Beasts.

I should be ok, if the strongest one is barely able to fight blow for blow with the water serpent, then I should win. Their weapons can’t be stronger than the fangs of the water serpent, and neither should their attacks. My Qi is purer and my strength originates from a higher plane of existence. If I lose, then I deserve to die, there is no reason for me not to win, especially when Master says I shouldn’t lose.

With that final thought, the clearing became noisy. Entering from the east, four figures, all adorned in simple leather tunics and breeches with a black cloak over each of them entered the clearing where Lute resided.

Upon seeing what little remained of the corpse on the ground of the Water Serpent that Lute hadn’t dismembered and the core of which could easily be seen was drained of power, the apparent leader of the groups eyes widened. This water serpent was something that they were requested to dispose of, and the reward was a bonus amount of cultivation resources from the sect if they performed exemplary. He’d specifically paid special care to preparing to kill this beast in order to breakthrough into the tenth level of the Foundational Qi Realm and obtain the chance to become a direct disciple of an elder.

With that chance now gone, it might be a delay of months before he could become an elder’s direct disciple. All through a sick twist of fate did this happen. Since clearly this wild savage had a group village somewhere, if he couldn’t get resources from the sect then he might as well take all the cores this barbarian’s village probably saved up since it could be discerned that they knew the value of cores as the one by the youth was drained of its energy.

Feigning a smile, the leader approached Lute who was cultivating, “Oi, you there, we need to have a small chat about the problems with this scenario. I won’t take no for an answer as it is a matter of grave importance.”

Contrary to what he thought would happen, the leader of the group felt an extremely cold chill run down his spine as Lute opened his eyes. They were extremely sharp and cold, as if he wasn’t even an ant in the eyes of this savage. Deep down in his consciousness, he had the feeling he was prodding a sleeping beast, but it was too late to turn back.