Zhen Shi was floating amidst the green trees of Berthelien forest, awaiting the arrival of Myne and Vivienne. It was now night and the moon was shining brightly. And the duo arrived soon after.

"Bro Zhen Shi you ran away pretty fast!!" shouted out Myne in laughter. Vivienne was also playfully smiling. Unable to handle this Zhen Shi spoke out in a last-ditch effort, " Of course I did. I'm a handsome and scholarly person who cares not for words of thanks. Yours truly will find happiness simply in helping others!" while proudly patting his chest.

Myne and Vivienne laughed even louder, "Haha! That's our brother...!"

Zhen Shi, who was now quite pleased with himself asked, "You guys, what will you do now that you are free ?"

Myne spoke out as if in prior agreement with Vivienne, " It has been countless millennia since we were last out and about in the world. That old hag that tricked us should still be out there, but... the world has changed since our time."

"This is the Berthelien forest and we don't really have any place to go to nearby nor do we have any particular goals. So, if Brother Zhen Shi doesn't mind, both of us would like to follow you!" while smiling. Myne was also thinking, 'To show my gratitude I'll also do my best to keep brother free from those tendencies of his!' while looking at Zhen Shi with pity.

"HAHA! How could I mind? Two experts with power at the soul deification stage are willing to follow me!" shouted out Zhen Shi. He was also thinking, 'I'll have to keep Brother Merlin free from his masochistic tendencies in gratitude for their help...' while looking at Myne in pity.

Vivienne noticed something strange about their looks at each other, but couldn't quite put a finger on why exactly... Still, Zhen Shi continued, "Okay! Let us head to the Lyonesse kingdom. I have a promise to keep after all..." while smiling in anticipation.

But...

............

Wait..! SHIET, I came here to train. Despite having spent more than a week I'm still at Core Formation Stage 5. My skills haven't improved exponentially either... I have nothing much to show off!

If any other cultivator heard his thoughts they would cough up blood.

As such, "Uhh... Forget what I said. Let's spend about another week in here. I need to get some training done," said Zhen Shi turning to Myne and Vivienne.

Myne and Vivienne shrugged in agreement. They didn't really mind. So they spent several hours dashing about in the Berthelien forest under the bright moonlight. Zhen Shi intended to find some powerful beasts and kill them to level up.

However, Zhen Shi did not encounter a single demonic beast or bug. It was almost as if they were avoiding him. While pondering this question, his eyes fell on Myne and Vivienne for a moment, who too was looking at him.

FUCK! No wonder we met no beasts! These two are emanating a subtle aura that would scare off most beasts!!

"Ughh... are you guys living demonic beast repellant?" asked Zhen Shi in exasperation.

At this rate, he'll have to go off on his own for a while to level up.

Myne and Vivienne were confused, "We thought you were training some special movement skill by rushing about in the forest. As such, our presence would keep beasts from interfering and help you... Or...." and said.

ROOOOAAARR! A powerful bestial roar rang out within the forest. The ape beast Zhen Shi met before would be nothing but cannon fodder in the face of this beast.

Vivienne continued speaking, "Or maybe you wanted to attract a very powerful beast, like that one, to practice fighting while being under our guard."

Zhen Shi was stunned. FUCK! How could I have missed this...

System, I was just testing you this entire time but.. you failed to reach up to my expectations. I am disappointed...

System: (ಥ﹏ಥ)

Still, he had to come up with a reason. " Ahh... Of course, I was just trying out a movement technique I learned recently," he said. "And I obviously anticipated the arrival of a powerful beast when we just ran about in the forest. That was my plan for... dinner! Yes, dinner. I had heard that demon beast meat is quite delicious!" Zhen Shi was quite pleased with himself and his foolproof excuse.

Vivienne and Myne assented to his 'foolproof' reasoning. But, the roaring continued as a soul deification stage giant butterfly revealed itself from amidst the trees.

FUCK! Where are beasts like this even hiding? More importantly, how do butterflies even roar??

The Butterfly spoke out while roaring, "I can sense the deaths of countless beasts on one of you and the death of one of my kin on the other. As such, I'll kill you two. But this lady appears to be innocent. So she may leave if she pleases." Its mandibles stretched out whilst it roared, answering Zhen Shi's question.

"FUCK! So that's how it roared. How ugly..." shouted out Zhen Shi. But inwardly he was happy, for this heaven-sent chance to gain EXP...

However, Vivienne spoke out, "Little bro, killing beasts for food must be done carefully." Zhen Shi felt a sliver of suspicion as she said these words. And his suspicions were proved correct, as Vivienne continued to speak, "As such... Let me handle the preparation of this beast for our meal" and launched a terrifying slash of formless light aether. This light shined brightly in the night was almost water-like and lightly passed over the butterfly's head, neatly decapitating it.

Zhen Shi's eye twitched, ಠ_ಥ FUCK, Me and my clever mouth...

"NOOO! Big Sis what've you done?? My EXP points!!" shouted out Zhen Shi in despair. Vivienne was extremely confused at this brother of hers now.

Still, Zhen Shi walked over to the corpse of the butterfly with an aching heart, "Aiya! Little beast, at least you were able to become a butterfly in this life. I suppose you can die happily." He then turned to Vivienne and Myne with a forced smile on his face, "I'll go out to kill some more beasts. You guys prepare the food. I'll be back in less than a day," and said. Immediately he used the air aether to fly away. In his sorrow of losing the points, he had forgotten to even take the demonic core.

Myne and Vivienne looked on as he disappeared. Vivienne sighed, "Myne, did I do something wrong? He ran off so quickly..." and said in confusion. Myne laughed, "He refused it before, but he might be one of those who speak for demon beast rights... That 'exp point' thing might even be common slang among demon beast right activists!!"

Vivienne's eyes lit up in understanding but immediately frowned, "But wasn't he the one who proposed to eat it in the first place?" and asked. Myne nodded in agreement, "Even I don't understand that kid sometimes. Just forget it... He'll be back after 'killing more beasts' as he 'supposedly' said." Vivienne nodded with a smile and started to work on preparing the food...

But Myne continued, "More importantly Vivienne I just confirmed something interesting. That butterfly beast accused me of killing one of its kind. But the only beast I killed in the last millennia was that earthworm. I misunderstood what Bro Zhen Shi said before as lies... But, just like he said, in this era, earthworms can apparently become butterflies..."

Hmm... I wonder if I misunderstood anything else about this brother of mine.

Nah... Not possible...

🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲

Zhen Shi was still slightly unhappy about losing the EXP points but he immediately got over it as he met three beasts who had followed the butterfly. Two of them were huge muscled elephant beasts at the spirit transformation stage. The other was a winged bat beast at the nascent soul stage.

Having witnessed the death of the Spirit Deification stage butterfly, these beasts started to flee noticing Zhen Shi pursuing them. But noticing that the pursuer was only at the core formation stage they halted in shame.

Zhen Shi was greatly pleased. It would have been difficult to kill them if they focused on escaping. The bat beast started to snicker wildly, "Little core formation boy where'd you find the balls to start chasing us?" and spoke shamelessly forgetting that they had been running away before. The elephant beasts laughed as well.

Zhen Shi frowned, "EEHH? Has your inner bat made your brain batty as well? I got the balls from those two next to you of course. Can't you see that only the penis is left on their faces?" and said calmly holding back the urge to laugh at his own joke.

The bat and the elephants frowned angrily with a heavy aura.

But Zhen Shi continued, "Back in my home there are tales of a great bat hero. He is exceptionally intelligent and truly powerful. He also had a clown for a nemesis, who is almost always captured in the end...."

The bat halted him saying," Oh? Kid, are you trying to beg for forgiveness by speaking about the greatness of bats like me? Well, continue, I might forgive you. But these two definitely won't..." and pointed at the elephants.

Zhen Shi paused, "Huh? Are you crazy? That bat hero was a human dressing up as one. I simply wanted to point out you are the polar opposite of him..." and spoke out snickering. The bat beast was truly angry now and as such attacked whilst roaring, "Go repent in hell you shameless brat!!" He was followed by the roaring elephants as well...

FUCK! Even bats and elephants roar now?

Zhen Shi who had survived against a law holder wouldn't be afraid of mere Soul Stage beasts. Zhen Shi transformed into his bestial form with his body covered in azure scales and vermillion feathers, two horns on his head, a draconic tail and a pair of wings. Now in a bluish-red demonic body, he exerted the full force of the divine beast bloodline on these three causing them to halt in fear.

The elephants could only sense the divine bestial nature, but the bat was truly frozen in fear. As a flying beast, he could sense the vermillion bird bloodline. It kneeled in fear, "Young master, I hope that you forgive us for our foolishness just now. We were unable to sense your greatness while you were in human form. In your true form, your greatness is unhidden," and spoke out respectfully.

"FUCK! Are you saying that I, Zhen Shi, is worse looking than this demonic beast form? Even after trying to kill me, you dare say shit?"

Zhen Shi roared a beastly draconic roar and charged towards the bat beast. Realizing he had messed up his words, the bat pushed the elephant beasts forwards using wind aether and started to escape. Those elephant beasts were truly unfortunate, as Zhen Shi whacked his divine bow on to their faces with the full force of his physical body. He had even coated the bow with for good measure. Ever since the battle against Vivienne, Zhen Shi had learned that even his own skills could be used in such a manner.

As the attack hit, the 'swords' on their faces turned in to mush as their heads exploded. Their remaining body burned and turned to ash under the effect of the black fire.

Ding!

Congratulations to the user for killing a peak soul transformation demonic beast.

The user has gained 150,000 exp. x2

Ding!

Congratulations to the user for reaching the Core Formation Stage 6.

But Zhen Shi ignored this as he was completely focused on the escaping bat beast. "Batsy, Batsy! Don't run away! Mr. J is here to have fun with you!" and shouting so he used the full efforts of his demonic beast body and air aether to chase the bat beast, while occasionally throwing out .

The bat was truly panicking now.

SHIT! Why'd I have to go and offend Mt. Tai. This young master of the Vermillion Bird clan is a lunatic! Those black fireballs will definitely slow me down if they hit.

And as such it meticulously proceeded forward while carefully avoiding these attacks.

After a while, the bat had put a distance of several kilometers between it and Zhen shi. Realizing that this Batsy would soon escape, Zhen Shi brought out the divine bow. He utilized all of his spiritual energy in this arrow as he had to shoot a moving Bat, who was particularly sensitive to air aether itself, while dashing forwards himself.

His mind was completely focused on this single arrow free of any stray thought. The arrow was released and it silently streaked forwards completely invisible within the night forest. But at the last moment, the Bat dodged it letting the arrow lightly scrape by its wing.

However, the missed arrow miraculously swerved back striking straight through the membrane of one of the bat's wings. At that moment when he had run out of spiritual energy, Zhen Shi had vaguely sensed a unique energy between his intent and the arrow. Noticing the arrow missing the target he exerted his intent with powerfull will power on to it, causing it to return and strike again. However, this was a stroke of luck. And difficult to do again without more comprehension and training.

It was an extremely easy task to simply control projectiles with spiritual energy while close to the practitioner. But to exert control at a distance of several kilometers required very powerful cultivation or deep understanding of the related art.

Out of luck, Zhen Shi had accidentally trodden on to a path leading him to a deeper understanding of archery. But this didn't matter for the moment as he was celebrating his success in finally reaching the bat.

"HAHA, Batsy. You can't escape this Mr. J now. Just stop and fight like a man!!" shouted out Zhen Shi as he easily overtook the Bat who was struggling to move with only one working wing.

The bat roared in exasperation, "Very well, even we Bats have pride and bravery. Young master pushed me to do this... Face the ultimate attack of the bat clan!!!"

"FUCK! What bravery? Don't bat's always come out only at night?" shouted out Zhen Shi readying to attack.

The bat shook its head, "Didn't the Vermillion Bird clan inform you about our history? Well, let me inform you in their place then. But, you'll die as well..."

Saying so, the bat opened its mouth and started screeching loudly, while gathering terrifying amounts of God Aether, "WE OF THE BAT CLAN..... ARE WE MAMMALS OR ARE WE BIRDS??

IN THAT GREAT WAR BETWEEN MAMMALS AND BIRDS, WE JOINED NEITHER SIDE AND FOOLISHLY KEPT SHIFTING TO THE MORE FAVOURABLE ONE!!"

While shouting out this, it swung its wings and tapped it's feet in a random pattern mesmerizing all those who heard it, and continued to sing as if it was singing a Heavy-Metal song. The screamed words and beat mixed together under the control of god aether, later being released as deadly sound waves targeted at Zhen Shi.

Ding!

Target Nascent Soul Demonic beast is utilizing God Aether from the patron minor god, Cama-Zotz

[Cama-Zotz is the God of Bats in Aztec Mythology]

FUCK! Is this bat actually singing heavy metal? Huh... not bad... for a bat.

The bat continued screaming screechingly in tune to the beat,

"IN THE END WE WERE THROWN OUT BY BOTH SIDES...

THE WAR ENDED WITH PEACE BUT ONLY WE WERE HUNTED BY ALL...

FORCING US TO COME OUT AT NIGHT!!"

And it continued repeating the lyrics,

"WE OF THE BAT CLAN... ARE WE MAMMALS OR BIRDS??"...

The god aether empowered sound waves were beginning to cause great damage to Zhen Shi who was entranced in this tale of the Bat clan. Blood was seeping out of his ears and his soul was shaken...

The bat was intently looking at Zhen Shi who was receiving great damage with a smile of confidence on its face.

"Batsy, how powerful your song is..." muttered Zhen Shi. Now, Zhen Shi was pondering what he should do. He could have an epic battle of music between the divine boom box and Batsy... or... finish it instantly...

As such, "SHAMING THE HEAVENS!!" he shouted out while pulling down his pants. The nascent soul stage Batsy was frozen in place. Even with the support of the god aether, under the effect of Gold Tier , he was frozen in place and was unable to release the powerful sound waves.

But the Bat could still speak out as Zhen Shi attacked him with a full-powered strengthened with primordial chaos, tetra-elemental spiritual roots and .

"Aiya! Who cares about the Bat race. Witnessing this young master's 'prowess' in the next life, I wish to be born of this young master's 'Divine Sword' race!" the Bat murmured weakly.

Hearing this Zhen Shi grimaced as he attacked with even greater ardor, "Go repent in hell you shameless bat!"

NOONE ELSE CAN POSSESS A DIVINE SWORD LIKE I!!

The bow descended on to the Bat's body causing it to explode with its last words...

Still, after killing this bat Zhen Shi stayed silent for a moment, and spoke out, "Batsy no matter how shameless you were, your skill in being a heavy metal singer was truly top-notch. Batsy, I hope you can meet your Mr.J in hell.

*Sigh* Such a shame to see a Bat genius of Heavy Metal die at a young age.

System, Is this what they mean by 'geniuses die young'...

System: "...."

Zhen Shi sighed once more and started to walk away leaving his last words to reverberate in this place, under the moonlight,

"Batsy, skilled in the art of Heavy Metal, I hope you *RUST* in peace."