Cultivation System: Elder Edition

Chapter 452

Ancient Yaoguai (II)

We didn't immediately descend, eyeing down the now-rising little army that eyed us right back. There was fear and wariness in their gazes, though the storm of Qi surging deep below us in the cave told me that they were more than willing to throw caution to the wind and attack.

While I'm rather happy to find them in such sorry states, which means the fight probably won't be beyond difficult, it didn't come with its own set of questions.

Such as, who the hell left them in this state? And why not kill them? Did these guys manage to kill whoever attacked them? Possibly. There's a good chance that some elder hellspawn of some sect showed up here while we were still wandering the desert and such and thought to vent their anger over being trapped in this place on these guys.

It resulted in a massive battle, and these just barely managed to eke out a victory, Pyrrhic though it was. And now here I come, bright and shiny, not a spec of blood or dust on my clothes (metaphorically speaking; in reality, there was a lot of dust and mud and whatnot, and even some blood), ready to finish what somebody else started.

"Why aren't we attacking?!" Xinya asked. "Are you waiting for them to recover? Are you trying to be honorable?"

"For someone who professes herself experienced," I glanced over at her. "Aren't you... curious?"

"... curious?"

"Why are they in such a state? Do you think that the Heavens saw we were headed this way and decided to help us out?"

"..." This seems to have calmed her down somewhat as her eyes wandered down to the pack of beasts. "Would it change anything even if we knew? Maybe there was a civil war among them, and it just ended recently. It wouldn't be an uncommon thing."

Potentially.

But I don't really know why I'm throwing guesses at the wall when I can just use my Creator's eyes. Checking the leading ape, I only needed to spend 50 points to see its window, which, instead of answering the central question, just besieged me with tons more...

[--Creator's Eyes used.]

[Target: Nameless (Ancient Yaoguai)]

[Age: 33,839]

[Talent: peak-Heaven]

[Cultivation Realm: peak-Demigod (Wounded -> peak-Revolving Core Realm)]

[Cultivation Arts: Innate Might (peak-Heaven), Heavenly Roar (peak-Sky)...]

[...]

[Traits]

[Enlightened Beast (Legendary) -- an ordinary beast who underwent Enlightenment, gaining a a baseline level of intelligence and understanding of Dao]

[Head of the Pack (Legendary) -- it inspires beasts under its command, causing them to be able to use Qi in small quantities and increasing their baseline physique greatly]

[Undying Marrow (???) -- provides near total immunity to diseases. Its blood is an extremely potent alchemical ingredient.

[Wrathful (Legendary) -- an incredibly angry and vengeful beast; once it marks its target, it will never let them go]

[Marred Dantian (???): It had recently tried to consume the Spirit of the Vein and integrate it into its dantian. It completely failed, resulting in a major backlash that drove it temporarily mad. Though it had managed to escape the madness, the dantian is actively leaking Qi, and it has lost most of its cultivation already, feasting upon its underlings to just barely stem the bleeding.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

[...]

[Assessing suitability...]

[--a strange anomaly discovered]

[Evolved Mutation—during the process of Enlightenment, the beast didn't simply have its intellect upgraded. In addition, its body also underwent a metamorphosis of sorts. Though it hadn't obtained a special physique or bloodline, as those are even more exceedingly rare, it had obtained a mutation: Undying Marrow. Its marrow bone produces extremely potent cells, granting it nigh-complete immunity to all natural and even inflicted diseases.

[...]

[Recommendation: Host is recommended to slay the beast and extract all its blood as an alchemical ingredient. Due to the leaking dantian, the potency of its blood is decreasing by the hour, and it is no longer capable of producing a new one.

[...]

[Final Assessment: an incredibly rare creature who tried to overcome its limited potential the only way its base intellect knew how to, forming its own undoing. Though it would have never amounted to much, as it failed to awaken its dormant bloodline during the Enlightenment, what little potential it had has been completely extinguished. It is bound for swift death, regardless of the host's intervention.

Here I was, weaving all sorts of tales about how it ended up like that, and it turns out it's self-inflicted. Huh.

I suppose hubris extends not just to humans but toward all those who have some level of intellect.

"Alright, let's go," I announced, and all three of us immediately jumped.

Though I couldn't fly yet, I could very much glide in a way that was quite fun. Sort of like having tiny jet engines in any part of my body I'd want. I could simply use the the Art of Surviving to imbue Qi with wind, gently pushing and pulling myself in any direction I wanted. But that's all I could do, really—just gently push and pull, rather than jet myself up or down.

Unlike me, Liao Xinya could fly, a great envy of mine. She didn't even ride a sword, just descendeded like a freakin' deity.

Xi Zhao followed my principle and utilized Art of Surviving to gently glide down.

As we fell and landed in the massive, surprisingly well-lit cave, the beasts all made a wide circle around us, pulling away until the nearest was about twenty feet. They were still wary but didn't attack, whether they hoped we just came here to sightsee a bit and we'd leave any second now or whether they hoped for some kind of divine intervention... I didn't know.

Though I couldn't see the Spirit, I did immediately sense an even deeper shift in Qi toward the the west of us, beyond the sea of beasts, where a small flicker of reddish light stood out among the milky-white of pulsating veins around us. I just now realized that the walls of the cave were overrun with roots, but they were rotting and dead, dark like obsidian.

"GAAAH!! GAAAAAH!!" The ground shook as the big white ape finally stood up, slamming its fists against its chest.

It was rather imposing and, not too long ago, would have done a whole lot to my psyche, but even without knowing its current (relative) pathetic state, I wouldn't have been that scared. I mean, if we came here and he was at the peak of his strength, then yeah, I would have probably had to use the mirror or somehow hope that Liao Xinya could punch a realm above her weight and kill him while Xi Zhao and I somehow dealt with the army of weaker beasts.

"Master, I'll take him on," Xi Zhao announced. "I... want to try something."

"Fine," I mean, not like it mattered much. All three of us would likely have to fight for a good while.

What peeved me a bit was my shortsightedness yet again. When creating martial arts, I kind of zeroed in on a very conventional approach, rather than thinking a bit more freely. Such as... why didn't I create some sort of an art that was an AoE nuke? It would come quite handy right now, instead of needing to weed through dozens of beasts, one at a time, even if they were weakened.

No, especially because they were weakened.

... looks like I'll have to sit down for a bit after this and test the limits of creation a bit more.

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