Chapter 437: Chaos Beasts - 437
After leaving the history records of the white palace city, Zhu Yi walked around the city some more.
Under the orders of Chen Jie, no person above the Foundation Establishment realm was allowed to enter the city. Along with that, no person at all was allowed to enter the white palace, under any circumstances.
As Zhu Yi walked around, Zhou Fan thought of another piece of information shown in the history records of the white palace city.
It mentioned that Chen Jie, without injury, defeated a "Chaos Beast" on the same level. While Zhu Yi simply saw it as another piece of information on Chen Jie's long list of victories, Zhou Fan saw the word differently.
The word "Chaos" in Chaos Beast gave him a bad feeling. It could be called intuition, but he felt that Chaos Beasts were not as simple as they seemed.
After all, in the history records, it stated that defeating a Chaos Beast on the same level was a great achievement of Chen Jie, but Chen Jie was known as invincible. He had never known defeat, much less to someone on the same level. Yet still, it was listed there.
The feat of defeating a Chaos Beast on the same level also had a surprising lack of information. It was as if something was being hidden from low level cultivators.
While Zhu Yi walked around, Zhou Fan spoke.
"Ask some of these people if they know anything about Chaos Beasts." He said.
Zhu Yi nodded and proceeded to do just that.
However, not a single person knew what he was talking about except for an avid Chen Jie fan that had memorized Chen Jie's accomplishments.
"I've also wondered what a Chaos Beast was, especially for it to be labeled as a great achievement of his." The man had said.
Even Zhu Yi became suspicious at the lack of information on the topic, but he was doing his best not to pass out on the street. After all, he had gone too long without sleeping while in the history records.
Zhu Yi found an inn which charged a silver a night. Zhu Yi was stunned, but chalked it up to the fact that they were all cultivators.
The next morning, Zhu Yi awoke to a knock on his door. After a few moments of stretching and rolling around, Zhu Yi got up and answered it.
Outside was a man with a gray hood covering his head. His body was covered in robes.
"My lord wishes to speak with you. Please follow me."
Zhu Yi looked at him in confusion. "Who is your lord?"
"My lord is a nascent soul realm cultivator. It has been heard that you've been asking about Chaos Beasts. My lord handles such matters." The hooded man said.
Zhu Yi's eyes widened and he looked at his shoulder.
"Go ahead." Zhou Fan said.
Zhu Yi nodded. The hooded man took that as a yes to following him and led the way.
Zhu Yi silently followed. It was early morning, but the streets were still as active as ever. Even Qi gathering cultivators could go a few days without sleeping, and there was no lack of them in the white palace city. After all, it was like a historic monument that a person could only visit when younger and weaker, though very few would ever reach the core formation realm.
This seemed to be a relatively low level cultivation world.
Zhu Yi took twists and turns before heading out of the city. Regardless of the situation, core formation realm cultivators and above were simply not allowed in the city.
Shortly after leaving the city, Zhu Yi was led to a thick tree with a door.
"Wait here." The hooded man said as he knocked on the door and left.
A few moments later, Zhu Yi heard a voice. "Come in."
Zhu Yi twisted the doorknob and entered the tree. Inside was a relatively cozy environment. The walls were lined by books and an old man was sitting behind the desk, writing something.
Zhu Yi closed the door behind him and quietly waited as the old man wrote.
"I hate people who act like this." Zhou Fan said on his shoulder. It was clear that the old man was trying to establish some sort of superiority by making Zhu Yi wait.
After nearly three minutes, the old man finally looked up from his paper and stopped writing.
"I am the protector of White Palace City, and it has come to my attention that you've been asking around about Chaos Beasts." The old man said without giving Zhu Yi any room to speak.
"I'll put this very simply. Do not even think about Chaos Beasts until reaching the core formation realm. Don't speak to anyone about Chaos Beasts before reaching the core formation realm. It is restricted information. The only reason it is on the wall of Chen Jie's achievements is to give credit for the fact that it happened. We occasionally get someone like you who asks about them. However, they all die if they do not heed this warning. Get." The old man said before making a shooing motion with his hand.
Zhu Yi silently and calmly turned around and left. Both he and Zhou Fan were abnormally silent until reaching the city.
Only then did Zhu Yi's fists clench into a ball. "How dare some old man talk to me like that!" He said with clenched teeth.
To both Zhu Yi and Zhou Fan, it was an unfamiliar feeling. When had they ever been talked down to like that. As if they were some sort of ants.
"Master! I want to beat that old man up until he is begging for his life!" Zhu Yi said quietly through his teeth.
"Don't worry." Zhou Fan said. "If you don't beat him until he is begging while you're in the core formation realm, my name isn't Zhou Fan."
Zhou Fan was equally angered. There was a sense of powerlessness he had never felt. There had been times when he had been outmatched in terms of power, such as when first feeling the great attractors long ago, but he had never been looked down upon by an intelligent lifeform and been unable to do anything about it.
Although it was not actually happening to him, it was happening to his disciple. It was no less humiliating.
Chapter 438: The Beast Core Possibility - 438
Zhu Yi stopped playing around in the city and found an information broker.
He cheaply bought information on nearby sects. Besides the heart scalp sect, the only other two sects that could be considered nearby were the Water Lotus sect and the Great Fire sect.
Zhu Yi remembered Zhou Fan's words about his affinity. "Master. Do I only have a fire affinity?" He asked.
"Yes. That is your only affinity." Zhou Fan responded.
Zhu Yi nodded. The choice was not a difficult one, he chose the Great Fire sect without too much thought.
The only real issue left was whether or not he could actually join the sect.
After buying some basic information on the sect, Zhu Yi spoke to Zhou Fan. "Master. This Great Fire sect is a level higher than the Heart Scalp sect. It is said that there is a nascent soul realm cultivator within it. What if I can't join?"
"It doesn't matter. We'll find a way." Zhou Fan said.
Zhu Yi nodded before falling into deep thought.
After a moment, he spoke. "Master, what if I postponed trying to join the Great Fire sect until I am stronger?"
Zhou Fan didn't speak for a moment after hearing Zhu Yi's question.
"What about, instead of waiting until you are stronger, we wait until you are more talented?" Zhou Fan asked.
"What do you mean master?" Zhu Yi asked.
"I can increase your talent if I recover more or have access to a large amount of untainted Qi." Zhou Fan said.
Zhu Yi was confused, but he was far too weak to understand what raising talent truly meant.
"It sounds like you were really strong before being injured, Master. In that case, I suppose that we can indeed wait." Zhu Yi said.
The surrounding 3 sects were the only ones that Zhu Yi could reasonably travel to. Out of the three, the Heart Scalp sect was a no-go zone, the Water Lotus sect was unsuitable for him, and the Great Fire sect was too high level.
Zhu Yi's talent was not enough to join. Without Zhou Fan, he would have likely never reached the Foundation Establishment realm, especially without the true cultivation manual. If he had practiced with one of the other cultivation manuals going around, then his future would have been even more limited.
In combination with the low density of Qi, Zhu Yi had been destined to fail to reach the foundation establishment realm. Luckily for him, that had all changed due to Zhou Fan.
The only issue was finding spirit stones.
"Actually, there may be a way to get untainted Qi without needing spirit stones." Zhou Fan said.
He had been thinking about the possibility, and although he had never tried it, it seemed as if it would work.
"What would that be?" Zhu Yi asked.
"Beast cores. After dying, the beast core of beasts still contains Qi. It is used for many purposes, but unfortunately, it is tainted since it came from the beast." Zhou Fan explained.
All Qi that had been inside a cultivator's body had been tainted, but if a cultivator died and left behind a coagulation of Qi, or in this case a beast core, then it may be possible to untaint it.
"With my power, I may be able to untaint Qi from a dead beast's beast core." Zhou Fan said.
The Qi of a person contained a trace of their will, even when they died. It was what made it their Qi, but in the case that the owner of the Qi was dead, then the will could theoretically be removed. Although it sounded simple in theory, only Zhou Fan, who had the river of cultivation, would be able to do it.
"In that case, I just need to find Beast cores, right?" Zhu Yi said.
"Not really find. You'd likely need to kill the beast. After the death of a beast, the vast majority of the Qi quickly dissipates. What remains afterwards is at best 1% of the original amount. In order to have any substantial effect, the beast needs to have been dead for no more than 30 seconds." Zhou Fan explained.
In other words, Zhu Yi could not simply go and buy beast cores from the market to help Zhou Fan recover.
With everything understood, Zhu Yi headed to the place that all low-level, sectless cultivators gathered to survive and continue cultivating. The rogue cultivator guild.
This was a place that accepted all, though much different from a sect. First, there was not simply a single place that it existed. The rogue cultivator guild had many branches everywhere throughout the entire world.
Also unlike a sect, the rogue cultivator guild would not protect you or help you freely. You would also not have to fight for the rogue cultivator guild.
The rogue cultivator guild simply acted as a place of transactions between sectless cultivators, whether it be monetary or service.
Zhu Yi walked into the branch that existed within the city. Inside, there was no lack of cultivators, each of them sectless.
In a city like this, where around 50% of the people were low-level cultivators, the rogue guild experienced its highest traffic.
In addition, although a foundation establishment realm cultivator could join almost any sect they wanted, whether it be as a disciple or a guest disciple, there were no lack of them in the rogue cultivator guild and white palace city.
Some had offended powerful people, some had stolen items, some had killed and run, and the white palace city was the sanctuary for all such people, especially if they were at the peak of the foundation establishment realm and fairly strong.
As Zhu Yi walked up to a front desk, he looked around. The entire place seemed to be made out of wood, and there were posters everywhere, as well as a technological innovation of cultivators known as the crystal pad, the recent successor to the crystal ball.
There were a few crystal pads in the rogue cultivator guild with lines of cultivators in front of them. The crystal pads, as well as the outdated crystal balls, were connected to a network that held a large amount of information.
Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
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121 Power
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