Chapter 4: Human Essence

Author note: I have edited some things in Chapter One regarding cultivation. It is mentioned in this chapter but look back if you are confused. It is mostly regarding 'human essence' and is important to understand.

*Things like sexism and racism are purely for worldbuilding and to make it more realistic. Thank you for your understanding.*

The elder watched as his son had the gold coin snatched out of his hand. Inwardly sighing, the elder knew his son decided to keep him over everything else. In response to this wave of filial piety, the father only felt lucky that he had such a son. Although he had yet to give him grandchildren, at this point he couldn't ask for more.

A smile gradually formed on the elder's face.

However, at the next moment, he found that his neck went limp and he couldn't control it falling. The elder wondered if it was his illness affecting him again before his mind suddenly went dark. He died an instant death and was still conscious for a few seconds in a dead body.

...

Mo Wang felt helpless. Today, he had lost many things with no gain. First, he watched as the demon slaughtered his people then had a fortune taken off his hands. At least he still had his father, he thought.

Unfortunately, that was also robbed from him. Right before his eyes.

Mo Wang stared dazedly at his father's drooping head. A few seconds later, a thin stream of scarlet blood was seen dripping down his front and onto the knitted blanket. This blanket was knitted by Mo Wang's mother to him on his tenth birthday. After she succumbed to illness, this was his most prized possession. However, when his beloved father fell ill, he gifted the blanket to him. Instead of refusing, his father smiled and made him the village chief. That was two years ago now.

Mo Wang felt a rush of guilt. Why was he so worthless? If he had just given the gold coin straight away, none of this would've happened. But instead, out of greed, he tried lying to the cultivator thrice and got what he deserved. It had to be known that no mortal would ever be as daring as Mo Wang. The only reason he had the gall to deceive a powerful cultivator was due to the temptation of the gold coin.

Mo Wang fell to his knees as he looked at his father's corpse. He spluttered incoherent words but Qing Fang could make out repeated uses of "sorry" and "my fault".

Qing Fang watched with mild interest as he took heavy steps toward his next victim. His boots thudded on the wooden floor and gradually approached Mo Wang.

However, instead of falling into despair and the grip of fear as Qing Fang approached, Mo Wang lips quivered as he spat out prayers for his father. His love for his father could be seen in how he easily gave up on a gold coin to save him.

Without getting much entertainment from this pitiful display, Qing Fang lost interest and with a heavy fist, he directly opened Mo Wang's skull. Brain matter spilt onto the floor as Mo Wang fell forwards from his kneeling position face-first onto the floor. It was not an honourable death and Qing Fang was never going to waste time buying him.

The father and son, now dead, were still and lifeless as Qing Fang stood in the living space, flipping the gold coin and catching it.

Suddenly, as though he remembered something, his gaze shot back toward the village and onto the houses. There were about three hundred people in this village and about two-hundred-and-eighty were hiding in the houses. The rest were dead.

Leaving through the hole in the wall he had made before, Qing Fang wished he had divine sense. This would allow him to sense things he cannot see. With it, he would be able to rapidly search through all the houses to find his target. It would also increase his fighting capability to a whole new level because, as well as seeing his opponent, he would be able to sense every movement he takes. Unfortunately, cultivators only get this ability once they are Stage 7.

Complaining internally that he had to visit every house, Qing Fang suddenly realised. If he had to breach every house, he would be able to have a lot of fun, right?

A creepy smile now adorned on his face, Qing Fang headed to the closest house and kicked the door off of its hinges. As he did this, two high-pitched screams came from the only bedroom in the small house. Thanking them for making it easy, he walked over slowly and after waiting for a second, violently swung the door open.

The screams resounded once again. Now inside, Qing Fang saw what he presumed to be a mother and her daughter along with a man. The family of three already witnessed Qing Fang's devastating power earlier. With a heart of self-sacrifice, the father put himself in front of his family and stood with a steady gaze but an unsteadily beating heart.

Laughing lightly, Qing Fang disappeared. The father suddenly tensed his body as his hair stood up. He looked down. There, he saw Qing Fang with his arm plunged into his chest. Qing Fang's eyes were locked on the father's eyes as he slowly pulled his hand from his chest and showed him his own heart.

Seeing only fear, Qing Fang laughed loudly as the father's body fell to the floor.

The mother and daughter cried out the name of the father as they shook with despair.

Qing Fang relished in their expressions as he took their heads off of their bodies with a wide arc of his arm.

Since he was only dealing with weak mortals, Qing Fang preferred to kill them with his bare hands. Using jets of water to slice them into hundreds of pieces is still fun but Qing Fang wanted to feel the flesh crushed in his hands.

Storming into the fourteenth house, Qing Fang's eyes lit up. One of his two goals in clearing out the village was shivering before him.

In front of him were two women that looked exactly alike. Even their teary eyes and fear-filled faces were identical.

"Found you." Qing Fang playfully whispered for them to hear.

Knowing that he was looking for them all along, their bodies shook violently. Their eyes traced the painfully slow movements of Qing Fang as he approached.

"S-sir. What do you want?" One of the women said as quietly as a mouse. It was just the two of them in the house and they had no chance of escape as Qing Fang blocked the only door with his body.

"Take off your clothes." Qing Fang ordered. He needed to inspect this strange breed of human.

Indeed, Qing Fang came to inspect these specimens. Although his main goal in exterminating the village was to remove witnesses and those that had seen his face, he was very intrigued by the two in front of him and had an idea when he saw them. 'If I could observe their human essence...'

Qing Fang had an inkling that some of the mysteries of human essence would be unravelled given a chance to experiment with these women. Qing Fang himself was just like any other cultivator. They were aware of its existence within themselves and could sense it but they didn't know what it was for. It had to be known that cultivators could easily sense their own essence but it was hard to truly understand it. It was like trying to learn a completely new language that no one speaks by deciphering a single text.

With sad and pitiful faces, the women slowly undid their dresses as their bodies were exposed to Qing Fang. They weren't the prettiest women but had a toned and well-proportioned body due to all the labour they did every day.

Under the scouring eyes of Qing Fang, the women quietly wept.

Qing Fang was developing a frown on his face. There was nothing strange about these women on the surface. He wanted to inspect their bodies before their human essence but he couldn't find anything. Unable to conclude anything, he decided to just ask them.

"Why are you identical?" He asked, probing for any information they might have about themselves.

"W-we shared the womb. I-i guess this is what happens." One of the women said meekly. She was also confused. Didn't this powerful cultivator want to have sex with them? She thought he was attracted at the thought of bedding two identical women at the same time. Since he was after something else presumably, the eyes of the women brightened. They thought they might not be defiled.

Hearing they shared the womb, Qing Fang began inspecting their bodies but didn't find anything. After all, although all of his senses were heightened due to cultivation, he couldn't see at a cellular level. If he could, he would discover the science behind identical twins and a few of his questions would be answered.

'No... Maybe it's on the inside?' Although he didn't know what he was looking for, with a quick motion, one of the women was vertically split in half with perfect symmetry. Besides the human essence, what Qing Fang was after was anything reflected in the flesh. Using any possible information would make it countless times easier when deciphering their human essence.

Seeing her sister suddenly split into two pieces and fall apart right next to her, the only remaining woman started wailing. She was wailing for her sister as well as herself. The tears streamed faster as she looked at the ground. She didn't dare to look up at Qing Fang for fear of attracting his attention.

Still finding nothing from inspecting the insides of the woman, Qing Fang could only go in blind when searching their human essence. It had to be known that as one's cultivation increases and you become more in line with the great dao, deciphering essence becomes easier as you become one with nature. The difficult thing is delving into it and even sensing it when you are a mortal. This is when it's most important as it's of paramount importance to discover one's affinity before starting cultivation.

As a Stage 3 cultivator, Qing Fang could look quite deep into his human essence. However, he still hadn't discovered his affinity as it was deep in the centre. Not that it would help anyway. He had already embarked upon Water path and couldn't go back. As for destroying one's cultivation and starting over? By doing this, one's potential would be severely crippled and you would never be able to advance beyond your original stage.

Qing Fang sat down cross-legged on the ground before the corpse and the weeping woman. The woman stopped screaming but was still crying. Right now, she was naked, covered in blood and slobbering all over herself. Not a pretty sight at all.

"Sit." In a deep and commanding tone, Qing Fang made the woman sit. Qing Fang didn't want to waste time trying to pacify her, so he made contact with her and directly controlled her human essence to make her sit quietly. Any cultivator had to learn how to do this, however, it required astounding mental power, willpower and skill. The limit without any repercussions is a gap of 5 stages or more, and that's just the repercussions from the person they're trying to control. Thus, Qing Fang couldn't effortlessly control a mortal until he was Stage 5. Even with a gap of 5 stages or more, a mistake could kill you so this method was barely used.

Cultivators could control the human essence of other cultivators, not just mortals, but it was many times more difficult. Cultivators could defend themselves, turning it into a battle of willpower and fortitude. This is not used in battles at all. This is because if the opponents of are similar power, which they almost always are if they're having a drawn-out battle, even if one comes out as the victor both will suffer devastating damage to their human essence. Due to this, third parties could effortlessly reap the benefits of two corpses. Also, without the divine sense of a Stage 7 cultivator, you would need physical contact to access the human essence of others, making it wildly impractical in a battle situation.

However, the main reason it is barely used is the difficulty of forming a powerful attack with it. Harming yourself is easy in a battle of willpower with human essence on the line. One wrong move and not only will your body be controlled and your human essence easily destroyed, but all of your memories would be on display. Thus, cultivators are very sensitive about using their human essence to control others. Even what Qing Fang did just now was extremely dangerous. If he made a wrong step, he would've fallen into a deep sleep until his human essence repaired itself. Because of this, cultivators rarely control others even if they have the power to do so. They keep their human essence locked away and protected within their bodies.

It was mainly used as a control method between powerful and weak rather than a fighting method due to the mysteries that still encompass human essence. This was another common discovery about human essence: you could control another person by controlling it. This showed that it was linked to the body of the person.

The only reason Qing Fang dared to do such a dangerous thing as using the fragile human essence within him to control a mortal is that he is particularly confident in himself. Qing Fang had always been above average when using human essence. This was also why he was so interested in unearthing mysteries about human essence from these two women. Although human essence is useless in cultivation and battle, it is not without its own profundity.

The woman suddenly felt herself lose control of her body. She couldn't move her mouth to speak but the disbelief in her eyes conveyed all it had to. She was now sat opposite Qing Fang and next to the two halves of her sister. The tears still streamed down her face. Qing Fang couldn't control her to such a degree that he could make her a human doll. He could only control her muscles.

He reached out his hand under the frightened gaze of the woman and put two fingers on her forehead. By establishing physical contact, he sensed another human essence besides his own. Looking at it, Qing Fang began using his heightened senses and comprehension to decipher it. Scenes and information suddenly appeared in Qing Fang's mind. These were the memories of the woman. It showed her with her sister in multiple scenes but Qing Fang didn't pay any attention.

He encroached upon the core of the human essence until he couldn't go any further due to insufficient cultivation and comprehension. After he hit a wall, he reviewed the structure of the human essence he had looked through so far. After looking for a while and trying to advance further to no avail, Qing Fang released the woman from his grasp and stopped using his willpower to control her.

Regaining control of her body, the woman didn't speak nor run away, she was dead. After combing through everything, Qing Fang did some damage to her human essence and directly killed her.

He then put his hand on one of the halves of the other woman. Sensing another human essence, he didn't hesitate to look through it, but when he did, he was shocked.

'This is it!' Upon inspecting the human essence of both bodies, he found that the two women's human essence was completely different. This was a huge discovery.

The current generally accepted theory of human essence is that it is gradually formed over the years due to the personality, experiences and memories of the person. This allows access for them to be controlled through it and allows for it to be a weak spot, and if damaged, one will die.

However, from the fact that the two women with almost identical bodies and experiences have completely different human essence, he speculated something else. He figured that the human essence is within a person from the moment they come into existence. It might even come before the body itself. It is also the human essence that determines a person's personality, not the other way around. He was very sure of this.

From this information, Qing Fang was almost certain that it was useful in cultivation. Then, he suddenly had a thought.

Stage 7 cultivators have divine sense, a sort of formless sense that allows them a wider and remote perception. However, what is the basis of this development? It can't be the body. Qing Fang now suspected that it was the human essence that allowed this power. He theorised that with Stage 7 cultivation, it will allow one to completely unlock their human essence, granting them the power of divine sense. As one's cultivation increases, their ability to sense and analyse human essence increases as the body's senses are refined. Qing Fang guessed that for people with average comprehension that didn't unlock it before Stage 7, that is the breaking point. There is likely to be a big increase in the ability to decipher human essence at Stage 7.

Following this train of thought, Qing Fang suddenly exclaimed aloud.

He thought of the common saying "Mortals strengthen the body, Immortals nourish the soul and Gods create life."

"Could human essence be...the soul?" Qing Fang was dumbfounded. He had discovered the soul, the base of cultivation for lofty immortals. This also proved that immortals existed. They, as well as Gods, had been folklore.

From this revelation, Qing Fang suddenly calmed down. 'Other people definitely know this information but refuse to share it', he thought. He thought back to what people commonly knew about 'human essence' or the soul.

Human essence entirely summarises everything about that person. If you can sense essence easily, you'll be able to find out everything about that person. Their emotions, deepest thoughts, memories and desires. It is written in their human essence like a code.

Truly confirming that 'human essence' is the soul, a concept that is already spread through mortal religion, he felt ecstatic.

Qing Fang, as a mortal cultivator, had discovered the soul. Human essence is not a Law but the soul.

Mortal cultivators had wondered about what the human essence is for regarding cultivation for many years but none have found out. Those that do have already stepped into the Immortal Realm and begun their cultivation as immortals.

Mortal cultivators absorb 'essence' or Law fragments into their bodies to gradually perfect them. However, the use of one's intrinsic 'human essence' is unknown to the mortal cultivator masses. At this point, they only know that it is directly linked to a person and if it is destroyed, they die. Being able to easily sense 'essence' or Law fragments links to comprehension ability.

Now Qing Fang had this information, he realised it was actually useless. He still had to wait until Stage 7 before he completely unlocked his mortal soul. Also, the soul still doesn't complement body cultivation. However, Qing Fang wasn't sour. This was still extremely valuable information that told him about immortals.

Carving this information into his memory, Qing Fang went and killed all the other mortals in the village without wasting time. The destruction of this place will definitely be found out by Qing Clan and the date coincides with his mission. However, if he removed all witnesses, he can blame it on the rogue cultivator and get off scot-free.

He had massive gains in the form of information about the soul and a gold coin.

Walking on the blood-stained ground, he waltzed into the forest to find traces of the rogue cultivator.