Chapter 20 - Reason for Cultivating

After successfully casting the Water-drop Slash spell a single time, there was no need for Yaan to spend too long reviewing the spell scroll in the training hall. The basics of the spell were firmly imprinted in his mind, whilst Rui memorised the remaining minor details and assisted his practise back at his temple.

In just a single month, Yaan, was confident that he would be able to use this spell in actual combat. For the first time in his life, he was actually feeling eager to fight, to test himself!

And so, Yaan returned to the Hun Village station point yet again. Compared to one month ago, the village and border walls had been reinforced even further, extending up higher and possessing a far sturdier feel to them.

The first beast he encountered just past the village walls was a Rank 1 black boar. Unfortunately, the body of this demonic beast was easily decapitated by a single casual casting of his spell, so Yaan wasn’t able to properly assess his strength. If he wanted to witness the true capability of Water-drop Slash in combat, he would need to find a more powerful prey.

He decided to wait until a Rank 2 beast appeared. 3 hours later, he heard an urgent shout from nearby.

“Help, it’s a Rank 2 beast! Someone come quickly!”

Yaan leapt to his feet and sprinted at his greatest speed. He turned past a cluster of oak trees, then came across a group of three Qi Gathering realm inner sect disciples staring fearfully up at a towering silver fanged cricket.

The silver fanged cricket was a tall bipedal insect protected by a dull brown shell and sporting two large silver fangs for offence. Insect type beasts were more rare than other kinds, but it was far from Yaan’s first encounter with such a weird looking opponent.

The cricket that was about to swipe down at the three cowering disciples stopped in its tracks, then jolted its head to the side at a strange angle. It’s beady black insect eyes locked onto Yaan, causing it to reassess the situation and ignore the weaklings that it had been prepared to devour.

Siii…

Yaan drew his sword carefully, keeping the beast within his line of sight at all times. This was clearly a Rank 2 beast, but he couldn’t be certain about its exact strength. It was very difficult to assess the exact strength of another being at your own cultivation realm until doing battle. Luckily for Yaan though, he had Rui, who was experienced enough to tell at a glance.

“Early Rank 2, be careful.” She assessed that he should have no issue keeping his life so long as he remained alert and cautious. Yaan nodded slowly, his gaze towards the beast sharpening as adrenaline pumped through his veins.

Early Rank 2 beast, this was equivalent to a Qi master at the True Yuan Qi realm with a pond of liquid Yuan Qi! At 200 drops, Yaan was far from this level, but he had the additional advantage of his 2-Star demonic body. His body was also at the initial stage of the 2-Star realm. Improving a 2-Star body was exponentially more difficult than the 1-Star body, requiring hundreds of times the recourses compared to before. Yaan sometimes wondered how on earth he would train the 3-Star body.

Still though, the combination of his body and his Yuan Qi made him a formidable force, even against this Early Rank 2 beast.

“Kraaah!”

The cricket roared out with a shrill scream, then began dashing towards him on its hind legs. Its arms were laced with razor sharp metal spikes, threatening to decapitate Yaan as they swung down towards him in a chaotic motion.

Yaan nimbly slipped to the side, then ducked down to avoid the lethal strike. Following this smooth movement, he jumped backwards to create some distance whilst simultaneously casting Water-drop Slash. The Yuan Qi rapidly sped through his Qi channels, only a small amount being wasted along the way. 100 drops of Yuan Qi were sent to his sword, with 90 of these drops reaching the blade and covering it. Launching the strike burned up half of the Yuan Qi around the blade, leaving the remaining 45 drops to form the propelled attack itself.

His efficiency was above the minimum. So long as 40 drops were used in the propulsion and another 40 in the attack itself, the spell could be cast. Most beginning Qi masters could only cast the spell with an 80% efficiency though, meaning that they needed 100 drops to cast the spell properly.

The three inner sect disciples watched on in awe as a blade of water shot through the air, reaching the cricket without giving it any time to react. The cricket instinctively raised its arms, but these were chopped through by the glimmering blue water blade.

CLANG!

The blade continued and slashed through its throat, but the power was now reduced and only managed to slice half way through. The cricket’s neck hung at a weird angle as thick green fluid spurted out in periodic blobs, but it was somehow still alive. Insects were like this, they couldn’t be considered in the same way as mammals.

Yaan showed no signs of surprise at this bizarre scene. He was already prepared for this and immediately leapt forwards, quickly appearing in close range right besides the cricket. The injured insect swung at him wildly, hoping to land a hit with this crazed but inaccurate slash.

“Ah, why did he get in close?!” One of the inner sect disciples cried out in shock. He thought that since Yaan could cast that spell, he should definitely stay further back and out of danger!

The girl besides him smacked him on the back of the head, scowling at him for what he said.

“Idiot, obviously he used up too much Yuan Qi and can’t cast the spell again!”

“Oh, so it’s like this!” The boy nodded embarrassedly. He was unaware that spells used up so much Yuan Qi. Still, even knowing that Yaan had no other choice, he was tense and felt worried. After all, this was clearly a child battling against an enormous demonic beast, and in close combat no less!

In fact, Yaan still possessed sufficient Yuan Qi to cast another strike, but doing so would completely drain him of all energy and leave him collapsed on the floor. He wouldn’t do such a thing on this unpredictable battlefield unless he was left with no other choice.

Rui taught him that he should fight smart. What about facing the opponent head on in a glorious and prideful battle? Well, that sort of thinking would get you killed. It was best to always be cautious and to fight whilst sustaining as few injuries as possible. In fact, it was better to avoid combat all together, but she thought that this type of setting was good for Yaan to gain experience. There was a lowered amount of risk compared to fighting alone in the vast outside world.

As the cricket’s hasty attack reached him, Yaan didn’t back away, but instead stepped forwards and narrowed his eyes. He focussed entirely on stabbing his sword towards the open wound on the cricket’s neck.

A few drops of Yuan Qi covered the blade, reinforcing its durability and increasing the sharpness. Yaan's eyes widened and his killing intent suddenly exploded outwards. The liquid Yuan Qi glowed with a crimson light, causing the cricket to hesitate for a brief instant.

Chiiiii!

The sword pierced through the gap in the cricket’s neck, then tore up through its flesh and into its brain, before a metallic tip protruded out through its hard carapace of a skull. The insect seemingly froze in place.

Hup!

Yaan jumped backwards as he sensed the life aura vanish from the cricket. It fell down face first and hit the ground with a thump. He stood in place and stared at the corpse for a while as he was lost in thought, but still remembered to refine the slaughter aura. The slaughter aura from this beast was powerful and gave rise to the desire for bloodshed and violence, but Yaan was able to endure whilst keeping a relatively clear mind.

This spell was quite useful, but he certainly needed more practice. Yaan also saw that he needed to refine more liquid Yuan Qi before using spells recklessly; a single attack drained half of his Yuan Qi after all!

Overall, he was pleased with the result.

He politely accepted the excited thanks from the inner sect disciples, noting their gazes of admiration and respect towards him.

“So this is strength, huh.” Yaan muttered to himself later on as he patrolled the many times reinforced border walls, alone once again.

Those inner sect disciples were all older than him by at least ten years each. For men and women in their twenties to treat a child with respect, something like this could be seen amongst mortal royalty, sure, but this was different. Their respect wasn’t directed towards his position, his identity or his background, but towards his own personal strength.

To Qi masters, age became irrelevant in the face of power. Those with power were respected, whilst the weak were discarded without a second thought. Qi masters valued those with potential and those with actual power above anything else, this was even true towards their own sect members. Whilst sect members would always stick together and support one another, weak and strong alike, respect was something that could only be garnered by the strong. Perhaps this was the one similarity between the demonic and righteous paths…

Strength surpassed all else.

“You’re far from strong.” Rui reminded him. “Your cultivation is only at the True Yuan Qi realm, just a single stage ahead of the entry to the cultivation world.”

“I know, but still…I feel that I’m starting to understand the appeal of strength.” Yaan scratched his head and replied with an awkward laugh, not sure if Rui would take him seriously.

“Oh? You enjoy impressing others? The admiration? The pride this causes you to feel? Or perhaps is it lording over others that you have discovered to be enjoyable?"

This talkative barrage of questions took Yaan by surprise. It was extremely rare for Rui to talk this much, no matter ask a series of questions like this. She seemed to be genuinely interested!

“It’s not like that.” Yaan shook his head. “Being admired by those older sect members just reminded me of how far I’ve come. I think…I want to travel even further down this path. At first I only cultivated to seek revenge, and whilst that is still my primary goal, I think that I will still continue cultivating even after achieving this. I don’t quite understand it myself, but that’s also why I want to continue improving. So that I can better understand it all.”

Rui didn’t immediately reply. In fact, she was silent for quite some time. His response was beyond her expectations, but it was certainly something that she was pleased to hear. His explanation might have sounded vague, but it showed his understanding towards his own lack of understanding, whilst demonstrating his desire to learn more and to pursue his own heart.

Only…hearing such a well thought out answer from a ten year old child was unexpected.

She had at one point led her own sect, Yaan knew this but was unaware of the specific details. Rui had trained children and observed their growth in the past, so she knew that Yaan’s mindset was extremely unusual for a child, even amongst those who became fiends. No, it was more than unusual, it was actually quite mature.

Even some people twice his age wouldn’t possess this much insight into their reasons for cultivating. When asked why they cultivated, those young people of the righteous path would reply, ‘for glory, for my parents, to obtain the respect of my Elders and to become a great hero!’ Those of the demonic path at such an age were less common, but they would give more simple answers, saying something like, ’strength is absolute, I will never bow down to others no matter the situation!’

Either way, these surface level reasons were immature and often changed with age. Yaan’s development was quite strange, which both impressed and worried her. It impressed her because she had never met a child like this, but it worried her because this unexpected development was becoming increasingly difficult for her to control.

Rui sighed, realising that she could no longer be forceful with imposing her own philosophies upon him. She could continue to assist him with ways of self preservation, survival and improvement. She could still easily steer him towards the demonic way. The exact path he chose to walk down, however, would now be up to Yaan.

This was inevitable, she knew it would happen eventually, but she had hoped that she would have the chance to spend longer creating a bigger impact on his development. Rui was a wisened and highly pragmatic woman though, she wouldn’t worry about this too much. Instead, she simply changing her plans slightly and decided on the best course of action from here on.

As Rui considered her response, less time passed by than it would seem. Her body was lost and her soul severely damaged, but she had much experience and was able to think through things very quickly. She even had multiple streams of thought running through her mind simultaneously, an impressive feat given her grave injuries.

When she finally spoke, she decided to simply provide Yaan with some advice.

“If you want to improve rapidly, you should focus on killing more beasts at this border. By killing Rank 2 beasts on your own, not only can you refine the slaughter aura to increase the amount of Yuan Qi in your dantian, but you can also train you demonic body further by consuming the meat. Rank 2 beast meat is far superior compared to Rank 1 beast meat, and whilst this body refinement method is a bit slow without medicinal pills, it’s still good enough until you reach the early stage, or perhaps half way to the mid stage. Fighting every day will also accelerate the process of body cultivation. You can also accumulate more merit points now that you have the ability to slay Rank 2 beasts on your own, potentially affording you access to medicinal pills for the body, as well as more spells.”

“You seem to be more talkative than usual today, Rui.” Yaan replied with a bit of surprise. When she didn’t respond, he decided that since she was being quite helpful today, he may as well take advantage of that.

“Do I need more spells? It’s difficult enough casting one and integrating it into a fight as it is…”

“More spells means a greater range of abilities, which is crucial for travelling alone in the outside world. You have an attacking spell, but you could do with more to cover other areas. Attack, defence, surveillance, healing, buffing and movement are the six fundamentals. Your body makes up for the defence side, whilst your sword arts are equivalent to a low level movement spell already. Healing spells can be withheld for now if you buy sufficient vitality recovery pills. For travelling alone in the wilderness though, surveillance is essential.”

Yaan listened attentively and nodded, showing that he understood. He knew that it was rare for weaker Qi masters to travel alone in the outside world, because that would require one person to become adept in multiple specialisations in order to survive. Travelling in groups was more simple, as roles could be split between combat, surveillance and support.

Still, Rui had continually drilled into him one vital point. Eventually, he would need to leave this sect, and at that point, he would certainly be completely alone.