In a cage of rock Shi Xin had put up, the mushroom hit the bars repeatedly before giving up and curling into a ball.

"What even is that?" Yingyi asked, turning to the guardian spirits.

"No clue."

"Beats me."

"...are you really even elders?" he harrumphed.

"Oi oi, don't be rude. This is a different planet we don't usually go to. How are we supposed to recognise the unique flora and fauna?"

Yingyi paused.

"What about this Fisherspider then? I could recognise it." he took out one of the spiders, now dead.

Wang Wei made a look of disgust and took a few steps away.

"Some species are brought over when people hop from planet to planet. It's not our-" Shi Xin paused. "Wait... that's not even a White Striped one! Instead of 6 small eyes, it has 4 big ones!"

"...how the hell did you even notice that? It's practically identical."

"That's just how alchemy is."

At the side, Xiuying stared into the cage.

"I feel kind of bad for it," she said.

Tu Teng stared at it with an odd look.

"Hm. Quite unusual... this fungus is a demonic creature!"

"Eh? Like, it practices demonic arts and stuff?" Xiuying asked in shock.

Demonic arts... Mei didn't remember specifically, but she remembered from a lecture it would often involve hunting other cultivators to take their qi. It was one of the rare instances she was listening with interest, but unfortunately, the sect master didn't elaborate.

"No, that's not necessarily the case. It's more of a naming convention. I suppose in a weird way, they should actually be named spirit creatures, but spirits beasts took the name first." Tu Teng explained.

"Huh?"

"Have you disciples noticed a difference between the souls of yourselves, plants and animals, compared to the souls of spirits?"

They were quiet for a bit. Then Liu Qiang prodded Mei.

"Oi, you're the spirit master, go tell them," he smirked.

Gah!

"Um... the souls of spirits are shinier?" she grumbled. "Though I guess if they're trying to keep hidden, they are harder to see than the souls of people and stuff?"

"...hm. I guess that works. Once your cultivation is higher, you might be able to sense the fundamental difference more." Tu Teng said thoughtfully.

Huh. Mei thought she would have been told it was a bad response.

"Fundamentally, the souls of most living things are different from the souls of spirits. You humans, animals, plants, fungi, whatever. Your souls fall under the influence of the 6 great springs, the reincarnation cycle. Each of you has gone through countless lives as you pass through the cycle, even if you don't remember it."

"Us spirits are different. Our souls originate from qi, whether we are birthed by the natural laws or from the union of multiple spirits."

"This fungus here... has a soul of that type. A soul of a spirit, if you will. And such creatures are known as Demonic Beasts. Or a demonic fungus in this case."

Xiuying spoke up.

"So why are they called demonic then? Shouldn't they be called spirit beasts?"

"I'll get to that. But first... let me tell you of an old legend..." Tu Teng said.

In the vast expanse of space, there was once a mighty god, Nothingness.

Its size was tremendous, the size of an entire universe. No, it was the universe.

But there was no life back then.

Until, the battle between gods.

Under the combined power of several unknown gods, Nothingness was slain, giving rise to Everything. From the corpse of the mighty god, countless galaxies were born, filling what was once void with light from countless stars.

Nothingness's soul was shattered into innumerable pieces. From the tremendous power within each piece, each of them slowly gained sentience, becoming their very own souls.

From countless Godshards, life was born. The first ancient beasts called themselves the spirit beasts, from the heavenly spirits within their body.

But such was not Nothingness's will. From what little was left of its consciousness, Nothingness would try to gather each and every Godshard.

Across the universe, the spirits beings found themselves withering from age and were filled with despair.

They resisted with all their might, creating the first cultivators. Cultivation was to defy Nothingness, to prolong one's life. And when the inevitable came, they would escape from Nothingness's grasp, reincarnating into new life.

As such, the ancient god slowly faded away.

The mightiest of cultivators fought to claim what remained, eventually forming the Heavens. They became truly immortal and gained what remained of Nothingness's power.

Using that power, the heavenly officials created the natural laws, the dao and karma.

And thus, the universe was born.

"So basically, us spirits are life without Godshards. We have immortality with how we're free from the pull of reincarnation, and karma cannot truly be imposed on us." Tu Teng continued. "The spirits with fleshly bodies were free to practice demonic cultivation without tribulation, and thus became known as Demonic creatures."

The whole group was silent.

"Sounds like a bit of a stretch. The legend, I mean." Yingyi said.

Tu Teng shrugged.

"It is a legend after all. Who knows how much truth there is to it?" he said. "There are also other legends that contradict it, some even saying Nothingness granted the spirit creatures various gifts."

Mei thought to herself for a bit. She was fairly immersed in the tale, but she felt like it was just as Yingyi said, a bunch of bullshit.

If some other gods killed him, then why wouldn't they absorb whatever qi was left instead of just leaving it be? What if some cultivators from the new universe became really strong and went to fight those gods as revenge?

Hm. Actually, it might make more sense to be grateful instead? Since otherwise, they wouldn't even exist.

Mei began to daydream, not paying attention as the other disciples discussed.

Oh god.

Mushroom really wished it listened to its parent. It ran off to play as usual, but the last thing it expected was to encounter humans.

In terror, it mimicked a magma shroom, but one of the dumb humans tried to sit on it for some reason and now it was in danger.

...and then they started talking about some religious nonsense. Bunch of crazy people! Mushroom felt like it was doomed.