Chapter 92: Ch.5
I headed to class the next day with Nie Li and Lu Piao. They were teaching about utilizing a soul flame, an exercise that was meant to precede the first fate soul. I slept through most of the class as I was practically exempt. I was already at three fate soul and the teacher, venerable Redsoul knew it.
The entire time I slept, I had a finger in the air burning a torch flame's worth of soul flame. A way of showing off to be sure, but it still took some effort to actually sleep and keep a steady flame.
After class Nie Li took my advice and went to heal Gu Lan. I stayed quiet through the whole process until it was reward time. I stopped him from giving Nie Li the five hundred spirit stones saying. "We need you to utilize your family's forces to kill and bring back as many demon spirits of good quality as possible instead. They don't have to have dragon bloodlines."
Nie Li looked at me and I mouthed 'pot' to him. His eyes went wide and he smiled agreeing with my words. When we left the Gu family residence with a new friendship and ally, we headed to the market place.
There we set up a stall where we would sell one god growth rate demon spirit for twelve spirit stones or ten for a hundred. The crowed occasionally asked if they had dragon bloodlines to which I called them idiots, making the rest of the crowd laugh.
That's when the target of opportunity came along. A few had bought one or two here and there but when Li Xingyun, a rich young master with his own army, came along and asked how many we had I told him with a smile. "Two thousand plus a few dozen I'll throw in if you buy them all now."
His eyes went wide before he agreed. "Deal!"
He mentioned it being a pity none were dragon bloodlines of excellent growth rate or better and Nie Li smirked. "In the future if we come across such things we'll contact you."
Li Xingyun was clearly surprised and he finally introduced himself as a young master of the Ashen flames family. When he paid for the demon spirits, I tapped Nie Li mentally saying. (Take them to Gu Bei and tell him to send his people out in force. If they can get a couple million demon spirits of good growth rate I can guarantee we'll make serious cash. Then we can switch to training and gathering dragon bloodlines of good or less in bulk.)
He was off in a flash while I packed up the stall and brought Lu Piao back to the house. When we arrived Xiao Yu was worried sick but I shrugged it off saying. "We were getting a lay of the land. Soon enough we'll be rolling in spirit stones so we decided to make a few contacts."
She was stunned silly before asking. "How would you be getting a lot of spirit stones?"
I shrugged. "Another secret. Look, I like you, I do, you're a nice enough person and you've opened up your home to us, but you've got to give me time to get to know you beyond the surface. It takes time for me to trust people and even more time to tell them my secrets. I told your dad a few but only because I had to. You however, forgive me if I take my time to get to know your character first."
I pointed at Lu Piao. "I've known him nearly a year now and I still don't trust him with my secrets. In fact only Nie Li knows a few I have and those he priced out of me."
She frowned before sighing. "You're right. Real trust takes time to build."
I nodded and headed to my room where I stayed until Nie Li got back. He'd paid in advance and in a couple days that would all pay off.
The next morning we were all up early when Xiao Yu found us. Xiao Yu looked at Nie Li, Lu Piao and I and asked, "Nie Li, Lu Piao, Lu Fènghuáng, do the three of you want to go to somewhere with me?"
"Where?"
"One of the three major testing grounds of Skysoul Institute: the Saint Soul Grounds!"
Lu Piao couldn't help asking out of curiosity, "Oh? What kind of place is that?"
"The Saint Soul Grounds is the safest testing ground among the three of the Skysoul Institute; however, its requirements are pretty high. Only those who have a Soul quality of a certain degree are allowed in." Xiao Yu lightly smiled as he continued, "Wait until we're there, then you'll know."
When we arrived at the testing grounds I went ahead, not really caring about their drama. I walked up the platform while absorbing massive amounts of energy from heaven and earth. My vine came alive instantly and a whirlpool of energy fluctuated around me as I stepped higher and higher.
When my name started appearing on the soul board outside, there was a ruckus, but I cared not. I continued to walk as I surpassed most of the people on the platform until only a dozen remained ahead of me.
I felt my fourth fate soul starting to form as the bud grew on the vine. I stepped farther and deeper into the heavenly energy well. The vine was only passively absorbing energy for now as my comprehension of the heavenly god technique deepened with each step.
I was slowly becoming one with my surroundings as the whirlpool turned into a whirlwind. When I surpassed the third place, I looked at the girl for a brief moment and walked farther. I didn't slow even as I passed the first place either.
I continued to the deepest parts of the well very few had reached before. There I sat down and began actively directing my vine to take as much as it could. As if an atomic bomb of power hit, a vacuum formed as massive amounts of heavenly energy was absorbed.
I didn't stop at one fate soul either. The higher up you were, the longer you could be inside this testing ground, and I was at the top. I noticed Nie Li in the distance taking second place now by using the energy well's own force against it.
As amusing as that was, I had to focus as one, two, three and finally a fourth fate soul formed from this testing ground before the well started to feel a bit thin to me. Not that it had actually done so, but it was becoming not enough to sustain a fifth or possibly six fate soul without collapsing in on itself.
I'd be strung up by the martial ancestors if I actually drained a sect resource like that so I stood after the second day and headed out.
Nie Li and the rest had begun to rise as well when they saw me coming down. I murmured to him. "If I stay I'll end up draining the well and pissing off the old foggies."
Lu Piao stood and spoke up. "Nie Li I've got to leave or I'll be kicked out."
Nie Li sweat dropped but nodded coming with us. He asked on the way out. "How did you just become a seventh fate?"
I shrugged. "Tell you later."
He nodded and we followed Lu Piao and Xiao Yu our of the testing grounds. Once outside almost immediately we were surrounded. There were a total of ten people, nine of whom had already stepped into the Heavenly Fate Realm. There was one who was approximately the same age as Nie Li.
"Who are you people?" Xiao Yu looked at them as he went on high alert and made preparations to engage in battle.
The youth walked over as his gaze fell onto Nie Li. "You're Nie Li?'
Nie Li's eyes narrowed. "Correct. Who are you people and why are you looking for me?" It seemed that the other party had approached because of him.
The youth closed in on Nie Li as he coldly snorted, "Brat, you must be tired of living. Someone from the Tiny World actually dared to be so impudent in the Skysoul Institute!"
Nie Li contemptuously curled his lips, "Long Yuyin sent you guys?"
When the one whom seemed to be the leader spoke. "Nie Li, you actually dared to hurt Long Yuyin! You must be tired of living!"
I burst out laughing, drawing their attention to me. Still chuckling I wiped a fake tear from my eye. "So touching, all over a little girl you fancy. Kid, I'll tell you what, you and your subordinates here can leave now before I drain the heaven and earth energies from your bodies, leaving you crippled husks."
They shivered and the leader snorted. "Stay out of this!"
I raised an eyebrow and said overbearingly. "Kid, you surrounded me with them, besides, if I want to stick my hand in someone's business-"
I reached out with the vine, a thread of heaven and earth energy connected me with each of them and reversed the flow, bringing them screaming to their knees as I continued. "-I'd like to see who can stop me from doing so."
I released them just before their fate souls started to collapse, scaring them bloodless and stiff as they barely managed to save themselves. I'd only stopped after the lesson was taught, even after the teachers made their presence's known.
I turned to Nie Li saying. "Next time you drag me into a mess, at least pick someone I can drain to death. These morons didn't have enough to even begin to form another fate soul for me. Granted I didn't take it all, but I took enough to teach them a lesson at least."
He gave me a sardonic smile as if my placing the blame square on his shoulders was expected and not at all deserved. The teachers showed up and while one gave me a glare I smirked. "You looking being my training partner? I could get a lot out of a heavenly axis realm like yourself."
The teacher shivered before snorting. "What you've done wasn't strictly against the rules because we'd never thought it possible to do so before and we'll let it slide this once, but from now on any more actions like that inside this institute will result in expulsion."
I sighed. "At least tell me I can do such things in the more violent training grounds or in fighting rings? I'd hate to be forced to let myself be bullied when I'm not technically killing anyone, well, maybe their dreams but they can survive that barring suicide."
The teachers shivered by my words as well but held firm. "The arena is a place of testing skills for the advancement of your district and rank. Not a place to cultivate as you put it. As for the other testing grounds, what goes on inside is none of our business so long as no one dies."
The other teacher spoke up quickly. "But we will be warning everyone against bullying the younger generation, if for no other reason that to avoid any mishaps like this one."
I chuckled. "What you mean is that you'll be warning everyone to steer clear of me because you don't want me treating them like spirit stones."
They didn't argue my point so I shrugged. "Whatever. I should warn you though, if I run into them again and they're causing trouble, my liking intent alone could very well see their souls fly out of their bodies. A side effect of what I do I'm afraid. You might want to see to it none of my friends here are provoked else this fine institution may have a rash of fainting spells they may never recover from."
I strolled away having said my peace while Nie Li and the rest apologized and followed me. Nie Li asked once we were a good distance away. "What was that?"
I shrugged. "A technique I learned to adapt to this reality. My body isn't that unique compared to the supreme physiques out there but my mind and soul are even by your standards. When I learned to harness the laws of tiny world, I built a house you could call it, for my soul, made of all the laws tiny world had to offer. That house was in the form of a seed that sprouted into a vine and with that vine, I can use techniques you'd never even consider without backlash."
He paled as I continued. "I made a link between myself and their heavenly energy using the vine and reversed the flow, essentially draining the heavenly energy from them."
I was aware of those listening and didn't care. They were the martial ancestors of the divine feather sect and would hear me wherever I went so I might as well clue them in as to my unique way of things. Nie Li though went into a contemplation of his own and I left him to it.
If he could figure out his own problems from what little I revealed then more power to him. We headed to Gu Bei's house next and while a few people looked in our general direction with both interest and anger, they must've heard and been warned off pissing us off because they stayed away.
When we arrived at Gu Bei's place he almost immediately gave us the demon spirits. I gotta say, twenty thousand spiritual stones bought a lot of good and excellent growth rate demon spirits! Nearly five hundred million to be exact! I left with them and went into immediate closed door cultivation and began refining like a mad man.
The next day I joined Nei Li for class only long enough to get a workout after that I went back to refining for another two days until Xiao Yu pulled me away to try the next training ground, the Grounds of Ghastly Ruins. Inside you could earn thirty spiritual stones for every one thousand ghouls you killed.
They dropped soul scales that could be used to exchange for spirit stones and other such things. We were only allotted two days inside and the places we'd end up were random but this was an even better opportunity for me as I could drain anyone I came across so long as I didn't kill them.
I was a bit disappointed to the fact that only heavenly fate and below were allowed in but beggars can't be choosers. When I entered I was immediately separated from everyone else so I went full berserk and transformed into my green luan demon spirit.
I flew around lighting vast quantities of ghouls on fire and collected thousands by the second. I flew everywhere as I ruled the sky. Only those confident in their skills were so open here.
An hour and nearly a hundred thousand ghouls passed before I saw signs of others. As luck would have it, I ran into Nie Li and another fellow. He looked to be bullied so I dropped out of the sky, landing next to him. "Nie Li, is this guy bothering you?"
Nie Li looked relieved now. "Brother Lu, he was pressuring me to give him my things."
I turned to the idiot and asked. "Is that so?"
He grunted. "And if it is?"
I gave a bloodthirsty grin as I connected us both. He was a mere five fate but it was the first chance I'd had to actually drain someone dry so I was going to take it. Almost immediately he paled as I sucked the heavenly energy from his body, cracking his soul realm and leaving him barely alive.
It was plenty of heavenly energy to play with but not enough to do me any good so I put a hand on Nie Li and funneled it all into him. He could have it as it would see him enter heavenly fate realm at least. When I finished, Nie Li sat down in meditation, having realized what I'd done and was working on his own fate soul.
I snatched the idiot's ring and sifted through it. There wasn't much inside but a good deal of soul scales. Ten thousand or so. When Nie Li finished stepping into heavenly fate realm and consolidated his strength, I tossed him the ring and hit his mind with the information I'd had on enochian sigils.
They helped me greatly as while I was alone, no one could spy on me. I'd done the same for Duan Jian just before he'd left. I wasn't taking any chances as I'd scorched the sigils into mine and his ribs.
When I removed my hand from his brow I told him. "It won't stop a being as powerful as my father, but the sage emperor is just a mortal. No matter how powerful he can still die. With this no one will be able to see you through divination techniques so, should you use it, you should warn that master of yours not to try looking for you that way."
He actually shed a tear and thanked me. I shrugged it off and told him. "I'm going hunting again. Waiting for you shaved five hours off my time."
I flew away while he entered his shadow devil void form and disappeared. It's sad to say the ghouls later found the idiot and killed him, finishing him off then and there. He hadn't the energy to flee or call for help so his death was certain.
I continued my hunt, not sparing any more thought to it all as I slaughtered ghouls by the thousands in pillars of fire that only attracted more. I hadn't had this much fun since I was a space cowboy!
A couple million fell to my hands by the time the test was over. I'd come in second place as Nie Li had actually gotten nearly ten million. I had a feeling he'd use some demon beast bait to draw more near. Oh well, as it turns out Lu Piao got robbed as well so it was all in good fun I guess.
Nie Li shared his spiritual stones with Lu Piao, Yu Yan, Xiao Yu and his duck. He'd gotten three hundred thousand anyway so he had plenty to go around. I however saved mine while dragging them to the market to sell off the god growth rate demon spirits.
Gu Bei saw us as I'd sent Xiao Yu out to find Li Xingyun. Gu Bei asked what we were doing and when he heard he frowned. "Why let water flow into other fertile fields. If you're selling god growth rate demon spirits then my Gu family will bug them!"
I chuckled. "Brother Gu, we've so many god growth rate demon spirits that no one family could afford them all. That is why we're selling them here and inviting others!"
I indicated to Xiao Yu returning with Li Xingyun. "It isn't meant as a slight but we simply do have too many."
He sighed. "Let me contact my uncles and patriarch. At your prices we can at least take a hundred thousand if you have that many!"
I nodded. "Of course. Take your time brother Gu, there's plenty more to go around if you'd like to join us and help sell them."
An idea struck him at my offer and he nodded in agreement. "I think I'll do just that!"
Li Xingyun who had his own army of thousands and wanted to use the demon spirits to not only bolster his own forces but to get in good with his family, bought another fifteen thousand before even he was forced to contact his family to let them know of the valuable resources we had.
Soon enough a guest elder of both the Gu and Ashen Flames family arrived with a lot more spirit stones and an offer apiece to join their families. We declined the offer easily enough and sold a million demon spirits to both combined.
They were stunned to learn we had plenty more as well. Gu Bei had used his one good contact and now his family would appreciate what he'd done while Li Xingyun had contacted his uncle the supreme elder of his clan and he'd been rewarded as well.
His own people all had god growth rates demon spirits now or would soon have anyway. As it was we were rich and it was this money we turned around and had Gu Bei use to have his people bring back as many good and ordinary growth rate demon dragon bloodline demon spirits as possible. Even then we had almost half a million spiritual stones left over.
Nie Li, Lu Piao, Xiao Yu and I all went into closed door cultivation immediately while we waited on the demon spirits with dragon bloodlines to come. I devoured an entire hill's worth of spiritual stones over the next two days reaching nine fate realm.
When I finished I tossed the rest I had, a thousand or so, to the duck as they were no longer any use to me in this quantity. Nie Li himself had reached five star heavenly fate in the week he stayed in meditation. I'd stopped on several occasions to simply drain stones and transfer the energy into him.
Lu Piao had reached seven fate realm as his speeds were simply astonishing even without my help. Xiao Yu wasn't much slower as she reached nine fate as well. The real kicker was that Lu Piao hadn't even been a heavenly fate realm when we began.
Nor had he used up most of his spiritual stones like I and Nie Li. Yu Yan was right there with him though as we'd included her in the split agreeing the duck could have the leftovers. Fat bastard actually took what Lu Piao had yet to use then turned on the rest o us with greedy little beady eyes.
If Nie Li hadn't made a soul seal on the little fucker I'd be having roasted duck right now. As it was it's stomach was twice the size of a balloon and ready to pop while it dozed in the corner surrounded by spiritual stones it actually ate in it's sleep.
Every few minutes the crack and crunch of rocks being ground up by something harder echoed from the corner of the room saw to me tossing a barrier over the fat duck like creature. When all was quiet for more than a half hour span, I decided to meditate to soothe my mind before heading out for the dragon bloodline demon spirits.
After an hour or so my mind was calm again as I went to get the dragon bloodline demon spirits. Gu Bei had been like us and used many of the spirit stones we'd given him to cultivate as well. He'd used the little influence he'd gained to lower the prices and send more people out to hind dragon bloodline demon spirits so that he could keep enough for his own cultivation.
When you're working with over half a million demon spirit stones for such a thing, no one misses ten thousand here or there. As such both he and his sister who was on the mend, had risen in cultivation just like us. Hell, he was making a profit selling off all the regular god growth rate demon spirits with his family's contacts.
It was the least we could do for him for keeping it all a secret and out of his family's mouths. Even the elder, one who'd favored and supported Gu Lan fiercely, swore he'd only tell the patriarch and only ever refer to us as Gu Bei's people.
Li Xingyun's uncle was the same except he didn't need to explain himself to anyone. The patriarch of their family wasn't exactly his favorite person either so he simply promised to say he'd acquired it for their family's and his personal forces.
as for the normal people, it was never discussed how many we exactly had and the stall was taken down when Gu Bei took over selling them for us. When I went to retrieve the dragon bloodline demon spirits, it was unsurprising that he'd managed to get nearly a hundred thousand so far and was working on a deal for when we sold whatever we came up with next.
That plus the three million spiritual stones he passed me saw me smiling. He hadn't yet begun to sell even a fraction of what we'd given him to, but then, I never expected him to. Some I'm sure would be used when we decided to build our own forces and leave the sect out into the draconic ruins realm.
I headed back to my room to begin refining the demon spirits after giving his sister a check up and declaring her fine and healthy again. She'd removed and dislodged the last of the poison she'd been inflicted with during cultivation after the bulk of it had been wiped out.
When I started on utilizing the demon pot again for the dragon bloodline demon spirits, a marvelous sensation hit me as my mind went into the pot's sub dimension where it stored the excess soul force and heavenly energy given off by the dying demon spirits.
It was the pot's second hidden function, a cultivation tool! There was mainly souls force inside and since I only needed heavenly energy now, it was useless to me until it built up said energy from the deaths of dragon bloodline demon spirits.
I began directing the demon spirits I wanted to win, to kill off the rest. As such the last five days of our week went by in a flash. The pot would rock for a the last three days as it spit out god growth rate dragon bloodline spirits. Only a hand full were truly unique and only one mattered to me at the moment.
A red phoenix with a nearly pure dragon bloodline and it's wisdom unlocked was what I stared at now as I delved into meditation while not integrating with it, but having my vine absorb it instead and transfer the bloodline and spiritual wisdom to my own green luan.
An agonizingly painful chain happened inside of my as my soul realm quaked and my green luan screamed. The vine held it fiercely while it flapped about and tried to get away. Red and green bursts of flames shot out of it in constant intervals, causing my shadow devil demon spirit to retreat into a corner behind the vine and hide.
Finally in a brilliant flash of flames the green luan as it burned up. For a moment I feared it'd failed until in the ashes of it's previous body, a green little phoenix popped out. It's beak and eyes were red but the rest of it was a luminescent green. It had evolved and what's more, gone through a rebirth of sorts.
The phoenix in question had real intelligence behind it's eyes. I immediately began feeding it the leftover demon spirits of ordinary and good growth rates while it grew at a rapid pace until it's size dwarfed even the red phoenix I'd fed it. I couldn't rightly tell what it was about it but I knew it wasn't just a god growth rate demon spirit with a dragon bloodline.
It's bearing spoke of power and nobility. Soon enough though it reached nine fate in power and curled up, going to sleep. If I didn't have the vine controlling it, something told me I'd be in serious danger. It had paid me little attention even with the vine, like I was beneath it's notice somehow.
I turned to the shadow devil with a grin and only thought. (You're next as soon as I find enough nightmare spirits with dragon bloodlines.)
It shivered but made no move to flee, only returning to it's nest, it too being beneath the phoenix that now arrogantly sat on the tall vine, curled up and sleeping. I left my soul realm and looked at the puddle of black ooze that had poured out of my unconscious body.
Sighing I cleaned it up and grabbed a shower. My skin had become as fare as a women's and soft as well. Sighing once more I continued sifting through the demon spirits before leaving Nie Li his Saint Jiao Dragon while I found one that suited me so much more. A Bloody Dragonwolf with a hint of it's spiritual wisdom unlocked!
It wasn't anywhere near the arrogant bird but it would serve me well and as I was used to the wolf form, I'd be a far more proficient killer with it. It would be my fighter class all right. When I started the integration process, cracks that had formed from the dumb bird began spreading now all across my soul realm.
I began healing them as fast as possible but the integration process had to take precedence and so, while they spread, I sweated balls of blood the beaded up all over. My vine kicked into high gear once it sensed the danger and began absorbing the massive amounts of heavenly energy given off by the integration process with a god growth rate dragon bloodline demon spirit.
Just when I thought my soul realm couldn't hold any more, it shattered as a larger barrier formed, indicating my new boundaries. The cause being a shiny silver star that my vine has spit out from the blossom above the fate souls.
I'd broken through to heavenly star realm! I immediately woke up as the integration process completed and grabbed the nightmare demon pot. My consciousness delved into the pocket storage dimension and the vine reached out, absorbing massive amounts of heavenly energy that the dragon bloodline demon spirits had let out when they'd died.
The star shines as it was refined into a fully realized first heavenly star realm well, star. Once it was consolidated I set the pot down and withdrew from my meditation. I then went about giving Nei Li and the others their new demon spirits. Hell, I'd even made Gu Lan and Gu Bei both god growth rate dragon bloodline spirits that Nie Li could give them later.
I was using him as a middle man sure, but he didn't have to carry the pot on him, nor did he have a ring with near unlimited space inside. I meant literally nearly unlimited. It's only limits were that it couldn't hold things that lived and needed oxygen to do so.
When they woke up from their cultivation sessions seeing their new demon spirits, each of them were exited and beyond happy. While they integrated their demon spirits, I separated the extraordinary growth rate dragon bloodline demon spirits I'd made for us to sell and utilize from the god growth rate dragon bloodline spirits that were meant for our friends and allies.
I'd even made one for Duan Jian and Li Xingyun should I get the chance to make a deal with him. If his people were plenty trustworthy as was said in the book then there was a thousand more god growth rate dragon bloodline demon spirits and ten thousand excellent growth rate dragon bloodline spirits in it for them to make close ties.
I took the chance to bring my soul weapons up to speed as well. With my understanding of the way of the sword and Nie Li's mixed in for good measure, it actually hurt to look at my swords directly and even then the recipient would feel a terrify need to dodge as their sharpness alone could cut the soul.
They vibrates and hummed as I put them away once more. It was nearly time for the three schools to meet for their annual auction festivals soon enough. Later that day after Nie Li had given the demon spirits to the Gu siblings and their own personal ones to boot, we got word of their arrival.
Gu Bei, pervert that he was, was the one to let us know the Heavenly note sect and the Skyblaze sect were arriving soon to hold the auction and talent showing. When Lu Piao, Xiao Yu and I went to meet up with them, I wore my swords at my waste as they signified and personified my understanding of the way of the sword for those with the talent to see it.
Not even Nie Li came close to my way of the sword even with his understanding of the ancient books. I'd spent thousands of years perfecting my art and traveled to many realities and galaxies carrying blades like these.
I was a prodigy even in the beginning and now, if I'd chosen to focus on my way alone, it would be easy for me to step into the realm of one with the sword and it's higher realm, my sword as one. I'm not saying I could take it beyond that to becoming a sword, but then I'd no intention of doing so to begin with.
The sword way was simply not for me in the end. I hadn't abandoned it completely nor would I ever do such a thing, but I most certainly wasn't about to focus solely on it either.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone