《Rooted Ally Dragon (RAD)》 Prologue: Contemplations of Reincarnations Influence, it is the root of power for each and every being in this universe. You are born to rich parents, and live an easy going life, or you are born to poor parent and live out a hard life till the day you die. Each day, you work and you work, you work and you work, you sleep, you eat, you work. You earn money through the system of the world, only to be made to squander it and throw it away on things your made to pay for¡­ forever wanting, forever working. A poor business man, with not much of an education and three sons, as of two hours ago fired and jobless, soon to be homeless, that is mine, Xing Ying''s, great identity. So? I committed suicide. Inside a thin translucent bubble I floated for god knows how long, at some point, I reached the deep dark abyss of nothingness¡­ and then, somehow reincarnated. In a new world, with the same name of Xing Ying, a new chance of life was given to me. Aged eighteen with average looks, brown haired, brown eyed and browned skinned¡­ brown just like the word I uttered as I woke up in this cold and recently dead body, "Shit". What the hell, it¡¯s the same fucking thing! Cultivation, it is the root of power for each and every being in this universe. You are born to strong parents and cultivate in peace with many resources, or you are born to weak parents and live out a hard life of cultivation till the day you die. Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! Each day, you train and you train, you train and you train, you sleep, you eat, you train. You earn power through the system of the world, only to be made to squander it and throw it away on day to day struggles of survival¡­ forever pressed, forever training. A poor young cultivator, with not much of an enlightenment no family, as of two hours ago expelled and sect-less, soon to be homeless, that is his, Xing Ying''s, great identity. So? He committed suicide. Just like me. A new chance? You must be joking, this is just another version of the same depressing thing. I Xing Ying, am a true man at heart, working by day and playing fantasy games such as dungeons of dragons in the dead of night, paying for every extension and every fantasy book that there is to buy, what was there to life without a job? Without money to feed the habit that kept the great I entertained with life? In this life there is no such things! Why would there be? People wield magic and swords in broad daylight! Kill dragons and¡­ It seems this world isn¡¯t so bad after all for the great I. First chapter: A whole lot of running First Chapter: A whole lot of running away Xing Ying woke up shaken, laying on a bed of dust and dead leafs he was taken aback by the heart wrenching pain he experienced. His body ached and his mind trembled, a deeply rooted chill assailed his insides and a scorching heat of an injury tormented his outside, yet, he was clear for a few moments like he never was before. But not for long. Memories started pouring in like a torrent of nasty sewage water, flooding his once calm sea of mind and quickly corrupting him¡­ spoiling his once timid and healthy mind. Xing Ying trembled, two personalities fought over control with great agitation, yet one was fading and the battle did not last long, and there he laid, victorious yet feeling defeated. His mind indeed felt better, yet deeply defiled. It was akin to an innocent child suddenly overloaded memories of his adult self, the innocence was long gone but the memory of how it felt to be pure lingered, and it stung so bad to know how defiled you were. Inwardly Xing sighed with contempt and sorrow, feeling wrong and evil. Xing was after all a reincarnated person, he was no criminal or crook in his past life, nor was he a rapist or murderer, he never stole and never cheated, even being a productive member of society, or so the elegy said¡­ Xing however was one who lurked avidly in the deep dark corners of the World Wide Web, for dozens of years he was exposed to everything the darkest minds could offer, seeing all the filth that floated around in there and then some, entrainment they called it. His new body by the same name was born and raised in a completely different world however, there was no internet and there was no news, there was not even a communication device invented, it progressed to much the same degree as a medieval earth was and except rampant murder it was clear of most deviant subjects as a whole. In a body of a young person at least twenty years his junior, and a virgin at that, he couldn¡¯t fathom how pure and innocent the remains of the psyche he encountered were. A cold gust of wind assaulted his naked body, as the soul had no obstructions it and the body fused more perfectly by the second and the information flowed more clearly between the two. At that point Xing just noticed that the original occupant of the body was long gone, he didn¡¯t simply commit suicide like Xing himself did, but imploded his soul, leaving only scattered remains that were quickly dissipating, adding to that the help from Xing himself and soon it''ll be gone completely, erased forever from the cycle of reincarnation. Xing noted that method for total oblivion as a good outlet for his frustration, one that didn¡¯t throw him back into the cycle of reincarnation like his suicide attempt at the previous world did. What followed was a very painful experience of discomfort as the memories settled in and filled all the blanks like a crude and problematic jigsaw, teaching Xing language and common sense of this new world and all the miscellaneous things he will from now instinctively know. Finally he settled completed into the body and his vision as well as other functions resumed work, more pain immediately followed. Xing''s body was covered with cuts, shallow lacerations oozing still-fresh blood, he wasn¡¯t dead for too long and the injuries were clearly due to soul extermination arts, a nasty form of suicide usually accompanied with a strong outburst of energy. Basically, suicide bombing. Memories bubbled up and Xing found out the original plan was to explode in the middle of the sect and take the few cocky bastards who picked on his former body owner on a joy ride to hell, going out with a flashy exit. The only problem was a young miss he was quite in to, showing up in the middle of the act and causing him to give up on the mass killing, to die quite plainly and peacefully¡­ others took him for a fool who couldn¡¯t actually follow through with even petty revenge, some even wondered if he was too dumb to pull off a suicide attempt and just had a severe mistake while cultivating, or so he heard as his body drew its last breaths. . . "Oi! Soul destroyed due to cultivation? Cultivation is dangerous!" the absurd possibility clouded his mind and blocked off the visons flashing through his mind of the occurrence, lighting up a red light bulb in his head to the dangers of cultivation, one he quickly turned off, he did commit suicide not too long ago after all. Xing stood up wobbly, he was in the middle of a wasteland, a special location meant to serve as a drop off point for bodies of useless cultivators to act as feed for the wild beasts in the area, all in hopes that the unique energies on the bodies will aid the beasts growing into more formidable creatures, ones which could in turn be used in cultivation, a way to make use of the useless. "Oh that right¡­" Xing remembered, the main cultivation norm in this world was to train in some form or another of secret technique, circulating the inner latent energy along the body, and while doing so had a good effect on the body, only by integrating with a "Spirit" which was once a strong beast, and slowly having the energy of it affecting your own, bring about unique characteristics to it could one draw out true power. A quick rifling through memory and Xing found out his cultivation technique was the most basic freely available one "Invisible Force", ranked as one star normal. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.His spirit came from a beast known as "Little Horned Boar" which was a beast ranked two stars normal. The ranks were as follows, each stage had nine stars, and the first of said ranks was the normal rank. In all aspects he was nothing special, but Xing was not going to stand for this and soon plans of changing the situation started to emerge. What place was better to hunt for beasts than this wasteland? It curried minimal reward yet with his spirit and cultivation he was like an overlord for normal starless beasts. Cultivation had many levels, some said it was an endless road while others insisted some final destination, regardless Xing was in the second level of the first stage "Hallow Husk", which had in total nine major levels. Rustling sounds sounded around him, many pairs of red eyes appeared suddenly in the darkness around him and howls, roars, grunts and calls immediately emerged as the beasts grew excited of some fresh new prey which still had it in him to stand. This¡­ was not quite a situation where Xing could style himself an overlord, he could take any beast one on one and could still imagine himself hanging on when faced with three, surviving against four and being able to run away safely from five, but he counted fifteen pairs of eyes with ease as his heart sunk and he stopped counting. "Damn it, fuck!" he cursed loudly in his heart as his body refused to speak, the beasts started to enclose him in a circle. "What could have attracted so many?" he asked himself, covered with blood from head to toe from all the shallow cuts, stinking of blood and out in the open, how they found him was indeed a great mystery¡­ only to him. Xing did what he was best at when he was young in his original world, when faced with strong opponents he took in a deep breath of cold air and steeled his heart, then, explosively released all his strength into his strongest muscles and unleashed his greatest might! His legs hit firmly and strongly as his body arced with flexibility, relentlessly his legs hit at the poor ground and he began to run away. Thinking that he could outrun beasts who run on four while using a body half dead and suffering from loss of blood. That was a great idea from the house of the great creator of great ideas, Xing Ying. It wasn¡¯t two minutes and he already leaned on a log gasping for breath, though for some reason he had not lost consciousness yet, the beasts easily followed him around, seemingly enjoying the hunt. Without any other options Xing took a deep breath and started to circulate his inner energy in the way that his body remembered, immediately he executed the cultivation technique Invisible force and thin strands of invisible force started to appear around his body, collecting slowly into a fist sized orb. A few of the beasts felt oppressed by the strength he exerted, they quickly run away in fear of injury and in search of a less dangerous prey, preferably dead one. The other part of the bunch was the stronger ones who were close to growing into a one star ranked beasts, there were about ten of them, consisting of five wolves and four lions, as well as a single odd ox. The brave lions charged at him fiercely, four mighty beasts that could crash stone in their sharp maws, and somehow Xing was calm, this was a quality that the previous owner of the body had, however timid he was and however scared, he was always calm, never running away from a fight he could win. Xing drew his hands in an arc from both sides, as his calm body executed perfectly the movements that the panicked mind tried to emulate, two palm strikes hit two lions mid jump as they were about to paunch on him, sending them flying and crashing into one of the other lions. Xing let loose and didn¡¯t fight the strength he unleashed for balance, instead letting it pull his legs off the ground, while he fell he executed an odd angled kick which hit squarely at the chin of the remaining tiger, causing his jaw to shut tight and his teeth to break. Falling head first into the dirt Xing quickly rose up to his feet, ready to deal with the five remaining beasts, only to see that two of the wolves were already upon him, ready to claw him¡­ to make matters worse, three of the lions were already back on their feet, roaring in anger. As if a real bomb went off the invisible force orb exploded as one of the wolves bumped into it, sending flesh and blood all over the battlefield, shocking all the beasts nearby, even Xing was amazed by the might of the technique, standing there like a fool for a few moments before taking advantage of the confusion and running away again. Naturally none of the beasts followed. Xing found himself a nice cave and stationed himself there, picking a few types of fruits he knew from trees nearby he stockpiled himself a good amount, with that he entered a meditation period in order to understand his power better. "Lucky bastard, imploding his soul actually did wonders to his strength, from the earliest stage of level two Hallow Husk realm he jumped to late stages of the level, getting close to its peak." Xing could feel the energy stored inside his body far exceeded what was before he himself got into the body. That was the reason for the spike in power of that force orb he unleashed. Xing started to circulate his latent energy around his body¡­ Second Chapter: Farming A Devourer Second Chapter: Farming A Devourer Xing sat quietly inside the damp cave, a small mountain of fruit to his side, amassed to satisfy convenience and sloth. Large droplets of sweat covered his body as he circulated his inner latent energy, stimulating his young body to grow and strengthen to a higher degree. Deep inside, Xing could feel his bonded Spirit, the Horned Boar that the previous owner of the body integrated with, the Spirit was constantly flickering as if it was a wick, trying to attract Xing''s latent energy to it, yet he did not allow it to do so. The Horned Boar was a normal ranked beast with a strength of two stars, it was slow and not at all intelligent however it had immense defense and explosive strength. The act of cultivation had two parts: One was to draw the latent energy along the body, strengthening it plainly. The other was letting the energy absorb the properties of the integrated spirit and change its properties to become more unique. The reason that the force orb that Xing could create was so explosively strong was not only because his increase in strength but also because of the unique property of explosive strength that the Horned Boar had, in turn he had to fork over agility and fluidity, to the point of it becoming a rigid technique similar to an explosive mine instead of a grenade. In his past life Xing used to play an awful lot of role playing games, to such a significant degree that in his eyes it was at least a quarter of his life, in said games he was most likely to be a sort of Mage, one who liked variety and versatility above raw power, and so he disapproved of his current spirit. Xing will no longer allow his energy to tread the path of the Horned Boar, and so restricted it away from the spirit. With that out of the way he could think of the future. Xing began to think about his cultivation technique as he cultivated using it. Invisible force is a basic cultivation technique which doubles as an attack methods, named so as it provided little distinction to its users, leaving the body looking underdeveloped regardless of how much might the person cultivated, hence he wielded an invisible amount of force. Another reason was the invisible nature of its energy, a thing that required quite a bit of skill to pull off with energy used via other cultivation techniques. This kind of cultivation technique was one Xing very much liked, it allowed for him to conceal his trump cards which he very much liked, and while it was a known as the lowest level cultivation technique he did not know the reason, for now it will do him nicely. With the influence of the Horned Boar halted, Xing began contemplating how to enhance himself using other spirits, questioning which type would suit him well. The world is grand and diverse, Xing already knew of a thousand different variations of beasts off the top of his head, all low-graded however, as he did not face or hear too much of the true monsters of the world. Thoughts began to weave into options and quickly memories and plans condensed fully. Xing remembered how when he was young he used to live in a farm, how he raised and bred chickens and cows, as well as horses. In the act of breeding it was important to look out for traits that each animal had and mix and match accordingly, with the goal of creating the best offspring possible, it took a lot of time. In this world, Xing found through his memories, starless beasts multiplied at the same rate as normal animals, yet beasts that were ranked with stars reproduced at a much lower rate, in addition to that infighting further dwindled them significantly. Perhaps, he could breed himself a strong beast, but that''s too far off for the moment. "What a hustle" Xing grunted as he contemplated breeding, getting even more depressed as he checked on his progress, it''s already been a few hours but he could only faintly feel a small improvement, though he did understand that his current pace was much faster than the old one the body had. He could only go on to theorizing that the process his body went through due to soul extermination arts must have caused some sort of change in the body. A thin membrane of force existed on Xing''s body as he cultivated, invisible to most. The membrane was something that wasn''t there before the reincarnation, yet it was of no mysterious nature, in his memory he knew of it already. Indicating that his body was nearing the peak of the second level of "Hallowed Husk" and closing in on the third level. That was the meaning of achieving that membrane. Yet he would have to train for quite a few more days to truly reach the threshold. Time went on and soon thin tendrils of smoke began to rise up from the surface of his body, a buzzing constantly remained in his mind. At first Xing suspected this indicated progress. That opinion soon changed as he opened his eyes to consume a fruit or two... In front of his eyes appeared a cloud of insects hovering above his mountain of fruit, the same mountain which was now teeming with rot and insects. A grim look of annoyance appeared on his face as Xing stretched out his hand and condensed an orb of force. Sending it to the mountain. A deafening explosion sounded as pieces of overly ripe fruit flew everywhere, covering the walls of the cave, and Xing''s body, with foul smelling mush. Rage filled his heart, the membrane on his body fizzled and his eyes almost shot death rays upon the insects which survived, memories of terribly hot summers and annoying insects buzzing all around him flooded and his hatred intensified towards the flies and mosquitoes that flew around him as if taunting him over and over again. In his fit of rage Xing released energy left and right in hopes of slaying the clouds of insects that tormented him so, however to no avail. Finally he looked at still staggering amounts remained with scorn in his eyes, they remained plentiful while as his energy reserves did not, he was drained. Resentfully he left the cave, vowing to make those insects the subjects of his bitter revenge, he left in searches of a water source to clean up. "Despicable insects, they reproduce so numerously and quickly, I bet they planted eggs in those fruits beforehand... filthy things, I might have ate them¡­ die, die painfully in my stomach" With no one to talk to he just blurted the lines to himself . An idea blossomed in his head suddenly, a type of enlightenment that is brought on by sheer luck and cannot be sought. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. "Reproduce numerously, rapidly... countless variations¡­ easily cultivated en masse" He murmured. Having found a small river he submerged himself in the stream, his thoughts submerged on other matters, concentrating on the insects. When he came out clean, a plan already existed in him. Xing returned to cave, yet the flies already left, the foul smell remained and so he himself left in fear of it attracting some dark and powerful beast. Finding a new cave, Xing again collected numerous fruits, piling them in a mountain inside it. Knowing that without sufficient heat the fruits will take a long time to ripen he sent along the walls of the cave his newly refreshed energy, heating the cave as if he was cultivating in it, doing so required much less energy than cultivation itself. Upon seeing some larva eating their way out of some fruit, Xing quickly unleashed an orb of energy to the wall of the cave, sealing the majority of the insects inside. With the greenhouse ready Xing went off to search along the other caves in the area, those that were empty he filled with fruit and sealed. In the caves that weren''t empty Xing found colonies of large ants, rodents and most notably and to his great pleasure spiders, the natural enemies of flying insects. Those caves he left alone and marked for future visit. Luckily Xing was clean of blood by that point, or else he would surely meet dangerous beasts on numerous occasions, only due to luck he did not. It''s been three days since he arrived at his body and awoke at the wasteland, finally he felt accomplished somewhat. On the morning of the fourth day to his arrival Xing heard strong buzzing sounds from a few of the caves, traveling to the spider cave he captured some spiders the size of a human palm, naming them Myriad Palm Spiders, as they all looked somewhat different in terms of coloring. He delivered them into the caves as he unsealed them slightly, only to seal the caves again to keep all the prey inside. Xing chose to refrain from the ants as they were a colony type beast, one needs a high cultivation base to effectively integrate with them. Otherwise integrating with just one ant, not able to show off the main strength of an ant being a part of a colony, that won''t be any good. The rodents he refrained from as they had a much smaller rate of birth, hence will take much more time to affect, and regardless he did not wish to integrate with something filthier than a boar . It didn''t take long, a few hours later the sound of buzzing in a few of the caves already lessened significantly. In the end of the day Xing was faced with five spiders which were the strongest of the lot, each had a different look. One of the spider was on the smaller side, giving off a blue metallic like luster, three of the bunch were albino who were bigger than the average by a third and had a ring of golden hairs on their heads, as if to act as a crown, the last one was average sized yet was jet black and had notable spikes around its body. Time went by, more and more caves were filled with flies and consumed by the five spiders, in the end though the three white spiders proved inferior and so Xing found his strongest male and female spiders, the blue metallic like spider and the black spike spider On his tenth day from awakening he threw the two inside a cave and entered inside himself, sealing it. What followed was a long period of cultivation in which Xing exerted outwards the most energy he could at a sustainable pace, to feed an nourish the spiders as much as he could, he even went as far as bringing along the corpses of the ants and rodents he killed since, along with a starless lion beast he found dead, they all went into the cave. Soon... Ten thousand eggs appeared inside the cave, a surprisingly large amount even for an arachnid. When they hatched a great battle began to unfold, all the ten thousand spiders began to eat away at their brothers and sisters, as if crazed for food the winner consumed the loser at an astonishing rate, and as they ate they grew and changed. Xing looked in awe at the sight of the tiny battlefield, he sat in front like a god watching over on his subjects and with from time to time would point on one spider or another, sending strands of energy to the small spider to save it from a tough spot, not wanting to lose a good possibility due to chance. The arachnid battlefield compressed further and further, groups of certain types of spiders stuck out as more interesting, and as they grew trough the battle some began to show abilities of beasts who reached the starless stage should have, such as spewing clouds of poisonous poison or high speed regeneration, some were even able to turn others into stone with a bite¡­ Xing began to worry he was growing little monsters that will bring about his own end. The battlefield reached a critical point as less than a hundred spiders remained, all unique and ferocious, they were now all fully equal to the weakest type of starless beasts, yet with their size they still did not pose a threat to Xing, who readied an orb of force just in case. At a certain point ten to twenty spiders remained, one arachnid suddenly rose to prominence, after consuming hundreds or maybe thousands of his kin his form grew to twice the regular palm size and he began rapidly changing! Xing looked over as the spider began destroying the competition with ease, the body of the spider cracking and breaking, thin hard flakes of its black exterior actually fell off. The arachnid stood singularly in the cave, his body deep dark crimson under the previously fallen outer shell, thin silver lines adorned its sleek body. Silently it proceeded to its parents which were high up on the webs weaved along the cave walls. Xing watched as it butchered them as well and devoured their felled carcasses on the ground. Xing watched as the arachnid finished to devour its parents, when it finished spikes erupted from its body and his body increased in size yet became slender. Thus the spider was named "Devourer Of Kin" as Xing''s newest creation, estimated to stand at the middle to high one star beast ranking. Energy strands shot off out of Xing''s body, constricting Devourer, an ancient rite started, recited out of memory from his body, what ensued was very mysterious and odd, great interference prevented from Xing to perceive almost anything till he fell into a deep sleep. When he woke up it was at midnight, the moon floated tall in the sky outside the dark cave, Destroyer the arachnid had lone past disappeared into Xing''s body and became a spirit under his command, and without permission it even devoured the spirit of the Horned Boar bit by bit. A deep chuckle could be heard from the Cave as a cold terrifying look appeared on the face of young Xing, a ferocious aura flooded outwards from his body as killing intent boiled out from him, he had just integrated with a strong spirit and to his notice broke through into the third level of "Hallowed Husk", revenge was imminent. Lions, Wolves and Ox from now on will face their greatest calamity in the wasteland of corpses since the birth of the place. Third Chapter: Calamity of the Beasts Third Chapter: Calamity of the Beasts The moon hung still high in the night sky as Xing left the cave in search of prey, blood lust oozing out of him, his plans were to exterminate everything that stood in his way while honing and tuning his energy to the unknown unique traits of Devourer, killing two birds with one stone. Truth be told, Xing was endlessly reckless fusing with a beast he did not know all there was to know about, mistakes in cultivation often happen due to such reckless choices off the top of one''s head, usually rearing their ugly head much later and in a spectacularly bad way. Even more so, Xing conducted the ritual of bonding on a wide awake and live beast, one in top physical and mental condition at that¡­ such a thing was a great taboo, it often brought about a mental affect that was quite nasty, presumably brutality and loss of mental facilities and intelligence. Xing strode his way through the thin forest, nothing on his mind but slaughter, soon, he found his heart''s wish and a huge lion appeared in front of his eyes. The class two beast glared back at Xing, intrigued by the bloodlust the little guy was emitting it did not feel oppressed even a little in front of such a weak looking human. A cold fog escaped the mouth of the lion, its bluish eyes gleamed with ice cold killing intent, one which usually sent chills down the spines of most of its opponents. "A frost lion, two stars" the memory floated in Xing''s head. For former members of a sect or clan like him the beasts commonly found in this kind of wasteland were all too familiar, they were the possessions of their seniors wealthy classmates, to be envied and obsessed upon. An orb of force appeared in Xing''s hand, his energy not yet converted any to conform to "Devourer" and so could not create anything more fine and exact, yet with his new found strength even a rigid construct such as this will do. A chilling roar sounded as the frost lion opened his huge maws and unleashed a subzero breathe at Xing, intending to freeze and slow him down. A moment later a different and deafening roar appeared as Xing himself released a savage call for battle, his hand pushed the force orb outwards to hit the thick foggy breath and it in turn exploded, clouding the view. The frost lion couldn¡¯t see a thing, but at some point excruciating pain assailed his mind and body, it fell miserably and cried with pain, its side spewing horrifying amounts of blood, on the ground by it its flesh was sprawled in disarray, unattached to its body. Another mighty explosion went off on its body again, another orb of force landing on its now messed up body, it roared with pain, anger and fear. Another explosion destroyed its body further, and another even stronger one ensued, it lost consciousness after a few, not long after it died. Xing could be seen covered with blood from head to toe, dragging away the lower half of the corpse of the lion which he separated with force orbs. The same night Xing did not find any more strong opponents, yet much of the ground around the area was painted red as lions and wolfs, starless and one stared, found their end in a brutal manner in his hands. A carnivore''s mountain of flesh replaced the previous fruit mountains Xing was fond of making, as it kept accumulating and growing his, bloodlust could not be satiated and only skyrocketed. For the beasts, that night could be called "The night of horrors" or "The night the devil awoke and dragged our kin to hell", terror was stricken deep into their hearts, although they were not all that intelligent, their intelligence exceeded that of dogs and cats and so they did have some sort of understanding of the situation. In the heat of the morning that arrived Xing was found deep inside a damp cave, munching on cool bluish meat, one which was once the frost lion. "Ox¡­" Xing murmured as he ate, clouded with thoughts of revenge gone out of control. Though his blood lust only grew, he did felt quite satisfied with killing so many lions and wolves, yet there was a single ox that hounded him together with that bunch at that time, made him run in fear¡­ and he did not kill any ox yet. In the mornings Xing would eat the flesh of the frost lion, cultivate and sleept. In the night Xing would go out and search for Ox, not finding much of anything at all actually, the creatures in the area already learnt their lesson and left the area his territory, probably naming it something along the lines of "The forbidden zone" or "Devil''s Hell Gates". As time went on more and more of Xing''s energy was conforming to Devourer''s unique properties, if not for it being invisible its color and feel would greatly darken. With the change Xing started to feel a decrease in raw strength of his energy, yet it started to immediately bite in into his prey and rage inside their internal organs, it seems what it lacked in explosive might it made up for with ferociousness and cruelty. Half of the corpse of the frost lion still remained in place, out on the open it was a monument to his great strength and savageness, he often stopped by at the carcass he left, it held up surprisingly well to rot and heat due to it being of high quality and more importantly being almost ice cold. Xing looked at the corpse one night, a savage look appeared on his face as a despicable idea appeared in his head. The following day a few mountains of flesh were excavated out from the caves, put around the main corpse of the lion in disarray. Such a thick smell of blood and gore filled the area that even Xing was a bit reluctant to stay, yet he resisted and remained. Xing was the spider sitting in wait on its trap, waiting for prey to appear, the silent hunter. An Ox appeared two days later, then another one, they began to crowd the area around in the distance, looking from afar, judging the situation. On the night of that day the moon was full, and a rank two Ox, blood red and huge, appeared. Xing looked at all the Ox, his killing intent boiled, yet he stayed still, in his heart he cursed them, "Hesitant Ox" he named them, just as he called the lions "Foolish Lion" in his heart. When it happened it happened all at once, all the Ox in the open began rushing at the sea of flesh, Xing simply opened his eyes, a devilish smile on his lips. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. A series of explorations sounded as the Ox reached the corpses, his net was triggered and the many small orbs of force he left scattered under the corpses were triggered, sending flesh, ripe and flesh together without distinction into the air, decimating the first charging wave of the Ox, which was about half. The rest that hung back in the shadows turned tail immediately, but for some it was already too late. Xing leapt out like a fanatical demon, his hand covered with invisible force, whenever he reached an ox he punched or delivered a palm strike, crippling it. While he gave up on about half, which run the other way he was going, his real prey was the slowest of them all, and he reached the huge crimson ox with haste. "EAT!" Xing screamed with glee and excitement, all he could think about was devouring that two star beast, he grew more excited as his energy bore into the Ox with a devastating punch, followed by a well-placed palm strike to the temple, which followed with a few more savage and reckless attacks that finally brought down the ox to a fall. When he landed off the back of the falling crimson giant, one of the Ox rammed into him, sending him spinning into the horn of another one, which speared him in the gut. He almost fell to be stampeded upon by all the fleeing ox. A deep anger exploded from him as he ripped off the head of one of the starless Ox, delivering an intense blow to the crimson one by his side out of spite, causing so much internal bleeding that it was sure to die. And then he simply left, feeling disarrayed. At some point he found some cave to hide in. "Damn it" Xing held his head with both his hands, an invisible energy preventing his guts from spewing out and slowly healing him up¡­ he felt as if going through a panic attack coupled with an asthma attack, the pain that his fleshly wound caused did not help, his mind was crumbling. "What¡­ am I doing?" Xing asked himself, confused, many memories flashed by as his past life and the life of the current body appeared, he felt that he may be dying and his two lives were flashing appearing before him. "Who am I?" Finally asking the right question, a tremor went through him, his soul trembled and his mind rumbled, a strong force clearing the fog clouding his mind. Everything became clear in a flash, everything became so crystal clear and solid that it was almost too¡­ real. He was Xing Ying! A chill went through his body as all the killing intent he amassed suddenly turned inwardly, shooting in and to Devourer, the spirit nibbling on his soul, clutching it greedily. "Despicable thing!" Xing called inwardly, his energy slamming into the spirit like a high tide and bound it up, suppressing with all his might as it trashed around till it separated from his soul. An ancient symbol of the rite appeared on the spider as Xing chanted the rite of binding again, sealing it tightly, sealing Devourer to his will, a tool for him to use and not the other way around, what was before a two way street became a single pass. Devourer let out a deeply disturbing shriek as it tried to resist, ultimately, it turned out to be a creature of the soul, a highly rare and unique type of beast that had a connection to the mind¡­ a truly destructive skill, and highly dangerous to integrate with as it had all the right tools to fight back. Devourer closed its eyes as its Spirit body was bound completely, asleep, not willing to consciously submit. Once done Xing felt more familiar and aware of his integrated spirit, understanding one of its mysterious properties. Devourer had energy with an ability to affect the soul and exert killing intent, affecting its prey and pulling at its strings. For half a month Xing remained in the cave, most of the time he was fainted, the other he spent in healing up, when he finally crawled out of the cave he felt a new man, carrying a cold calm which could be wielded with care instead of madness. In that time Xing exhausted and replenished a lot of energy resulting in all of it converting to the property of Devourer. Xing opened his palm and circulated his cultivation technique, Invisible force, many strands appeared and formed a thin spider net, which slowly changed into a long line, a blade. Certainly, he now had immense control on his energy, which leapt up from the start line of the third level all the way to the middle of the same level. The energy blade thinned out and concentrated into a needle like form, which was thrown at a wolf lying in wait, piercing its head and causing it to howl in maddened pain for a moment before dying out of fright, killing intent had poured into it and stopped its heart. He named the wolfs "Cunning Wolf" for ganging up on him last time, and lying in wait this time to attack him. "In terms of power¡­ Instead of the glass cannon that I was, all attack and no skill, I wanted to become more of a jack of all trades of a mage¡­ Yet somehow I feel I changed jobs into a rouge or an assassin¡­ seems like in the future ill be a pretty stealthy and dark mage" He talked to himself, contemplating. "I''m all alone out here, the beast ruling this area should be a third level averagely, and soon I''ll be able to break it in half with ease¡­ I must find a way out of this wasteland, there is no way all these beasts are staying here without leaving without a barrier of some sort, and I don¡¯t think I can destroy what a couple hundred beasts cant." The thoughts continued to swarm in his mind. "I''ll have to wait till they bring over some corpses to feed the beasts, there is bound to be a yearly competition each year in all the sects and clans, often blood debts are settled there and "accidental" deaths are bountiful¡­ at most I''ll have to wait eleven months." Xing was already full blown talking to himself without care. "First goal then, reaching the forth level of Hallowed Husk." He declared to himself. "Second goal, slaying the beast ruling this whole area." He continued to plan. "Third goal¡­" a dangerous light flared up in Xing''s eyes. "Integrate the beast ruling this whole wasteland as my second spirit!" he decided. Pure insanity, integrating with more than one spirit before the seventh level of Hallowed Husk was taboo, severe rebound promised. Xing did not care. Soon, the terror will return to the wasteland and peace will turn into unrest and fear. Forth Chapter: Cultivating Serenity, Cultivated Dread Forth Chapter: Cultivating Serenity, Cultivated Dread. "Self-pity could often be the greatest of sins, corrupting, twisting and destroying the authentic real world view... It could cast a long ominous shadow into the future of even the brightest of stars." A few wise words of sect elder Galileo, aged three hundred and five, Sermon of the Mind. Xing did not allow himself to wallow in self-pity, he had just been burnt by the flames of arrogance and could not allow himself to freeze deep inside the icy, inner cycle of self-made hells, melancholy. Memories of the many sermons given to previous occupant Xing bubbled up, to the previous owner of the body they were simple words which he diligently heard, but never truly listened to. Xing might have never heard them himself, but listened perfectly well. Taking risks was a part of cultivation. The act is, of and by itself, a risk taken to conform to a certain mindset, it is better to take the reins of fate in your own hands and crush the chariot you are riding, dead, than to be led by another till he himself will crush. To prolong one''s life and call upon strength beyond what one could conjure himself, cultivation was the road which the chariot had to ride on, different paths will lead to different fates, different paths will show different sights which in turn steel the rider in different ways, to take to the road yourself was to command change in yourself, to grow and see the world, even if that world and that growth will lead to your demise. Yet cultivation cast the soul into turmoil, rapid change, rise in strength and the wind of time blowing past you, the soul will surely face tribulation that might destroy it, ending existence forever, or reforming it into a new stronger form. There was no great lord, clan leader or sect patriarch that could hold position long, most stepped down or were eradicated sooner or later, that is because while the road is full of wanders, it is arduous, others will likely try to steal the progress you have made even from afar. Only carrying a greater force than your allies and underlings, and making your enemies feel safe all the way to the grave, could one live in such a world and succeed. There was not one who survived forever, as one could never match the many, yet there were many names which survived till the end of time, and ten million souls forgotten could not compare. Xing lamented the happenings that had brought about that crazed and blood infatuated state he experienced, clearly it was due to Devourer''s affecting him, though he had a feeling it was his own personality deficit that allowed such a thing to happen¡­ Arrogance, it has always been his bane, be it in card games or role playing owns, he often lucked out as his impatience filled with his arrogance emerged. Integrating with an unknown spirit was a reckless and dangerous act, he had known that, yet instead of relying on the knowledge of his new world he did as the fantasies of his old world bid. And what started it all? Simple spite at mere insects, he had not been long in this new world, nor seen anything of note, yet had already began to botch his whole future. Integrating a spirit into his most inner sanctum of being, his own body, doing so without truly understanding the rite of binding and the deeper meaning of such a connection, he had brought about immense danger upon himself. Something had to deal with from now on. Promising to own up and change thing for the better Xing started to analyze his integrated spirit based on what little knowledge he had. Devourer, an arachnid of unknown lineage. Carried the mixed blood of many spider species, who most likely were all brought over to the area due to outside influence. The spider series had been in relative seclusion and did not show massive popularity outside, that was easily gauged from the fact that no major known senior had a spider as an integrated spirit, at least not a known one, meaning the mainstream view did not put much trust in them, they were in low demand and as per those conditions, under much less supervision, unknown variations that curried over the generations without notice were possible. Devourer had ability to affect the psychological state of other beings through blood lust, whether imposed upon as a form of pressure or induced... Since it was a spider it comes to reason it''s its venom of choice. A hypothesis was hammered out in Xing''s mind, stating that although he was infected with the fast acting venom of Devourer and was cast into a murderous killing spree, it was not by chance, in fact it was intentional. All to what end? It was seen by him that the arachnid was trying to feed on his soul, nibbling at it. Furthermore it looked quite odd as to how fond it had been of consuming the spirit of that little horned boar that provirus laid dormant inside him, what was of little sense is the fact that the lower leveled arachnid had the upper hand on the stronger horned boar, a mystery to be uncovered. Factoring all the intel together lead Xing to a conclusion: Devourer was indeed then, a creature which fed on soul matter rather than only on flesh, and to do that it used its venom to numb the notice of its prey, meaning it needed it to either defeated or unknowing. Such a creature is exceedingly troublesome to raise, even more so to command and control, with its affinity to the mind and the soul it has a high intelligence and could resist orders to some degree, to the point it could attack from within. Even its advantages were not so grand. In front of an equally strong opponent strictly in the terms of energy and regardless of cultivation technique, he could not possibly use that sort of technique head on, doing that he will surely not prevail, the reason was quite simple. Being unable to cut in trough the defenses of an aware and well protected enemy will render the attack void. Xing felt between a rock and a hard place, arrogance whispered in his ear, urging him to destroy that despicable creature which lays bound inside himself, to cast it aside and attain a different beast, one representing strength and not cowardice. "It would take too long" he dismissed the notion, knowing that in the least, he would have to defeat the lord of the area to gain a silver of a chance for survival. Without an equally strong beast to the lord under his command, or one as mysterious as Devourer, he could not possibly win. Without the lord his chances of breaking through the barrier were slim, he will then be at the mercy of those who threw him into the wasteland. Xing was already treated to the cold, harsh truth, he had decided before on a couple goals to accomplish, yet three days went by and he already understood how hard to attain his wants were. To reach the forth level in cultivation of "Hallowed Husk"? He was honestly approaching the late vestige of the middle part of third stage that is for sure, encroaching on the border to the later and peak stages even. Yet from that distance to the very peak of the level, he could already sense the fearsome bottleneck between the third and fourth level, and as he approached closer bit by bit he could feel surer and surer it is a mighty wall he will not pass easily. To defeat the lord of the wasteland? The strongest beast that made its home in the area? Hubris incarnate. A day prior, after scouting deeper into the forests of the wasteland, he had found hordes of beasts emanating pressure greater than the Frost lion and Crimson ox combined, it seems every member of the horde singularly held the strength of a three star beast at the least. And then there was the image of a pile of bones of those same beasts, deeper inside the forest. He had found the skeletons left after a hefty meal... a whole horde at least twenty strong of normal three star beasts, extinct. What could have done that? Only the lord of the wasteland, probably. As for integrating with that monster? Xing did not dare to breathe even a word of it to himself, much less attempt it, and so he was battling depression. With that, all of his plans born out of arrogance crumbled into dust. "Plans had to be often changed, decisions made with snap judgement, progress had to be done in a calculated manner and strength had to be gauged accurately, else, you perish" he remembered the words, again agreeing with elder Galileo. Regardless of the teachings of his previous sect elder, in the world of cultivation, there was always one sentence past Xing found shared by all under the sky, and present Xing agreed wholeheartedly. "Beware of yourself for you might bite off more than you can chew, intending to host a wedding with wine yet ending up hosted to with piss as you lay in the coffin of your own making" pretty heavy stuff. Xing had his share of reckless abandonment, he will not breed any new beast to call upon the door of misfortune, he will not take chances if not pressed¡­ regardless of how unwilling he was previously to live, this new life albeit filled with endless daggers, excited him. With cultivating his realm of power to a greater strength not being a viable option to pour most of his focus into, and challenging the ruler being a clear cut suicide, he had little options, yet still, some. Invisible Force was one such option, being a cultivation technique which is the basics of the basics, wielding attribute-less energy was the easiest form and could be done with or without a weapon. It''s underlying flaw? It was weak. "How could simplicity ever rival the polish of hard work" oddly he remembered Galileo saying this sentence to him when the two were the only ones present, his voice filled with sarcasm. The eluding sharpness of sword cultivation technique, the beautiful complexity of structuring cultivation techniques, as well as the pureness of elemental cultivation techniques, in front of the allure of such techniques the sneakiness of a basic cultivation technique could not hold a candle. Xing knew that if an elemental cultivator of ice techniques would integrate with a beast such as the frost lion for instance, rather than a normal beast, his power will soar ten folds. What Invisible force offered was not a suppression of the unique factors of the energy wavelengths beasts offered, but an attempt to disregard them, diminishing the affect instead of having an intensifying affect. In order to fix such a deficit Xing knew he had to take a certain amount of risk to reap rewards. He began to cultivate. Reconstructing a cultivation technique required knowledge, skill, and time, while Xing lacked the first two conditions, he was not willing to offer up even the third. The time Xing offered up was exactly five days, if unable to press the cultivation technique further, he would forsake it. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. Five days passed, Xing did not achieve his goal, and so he gave up trying. During those five days, again he felt pressed between a rock and a hard place, thoughts about the people who dropped him off in the wasteland returning to drop off others... Only to find him out amongst the living and kill him out of inconvenience... Those thoughts constantly agitated him, he really did not want to die anymore. "Unavoidable" called Xing, laughing with his head up to the sky. "Unavoidable" he called again, this time his face showing sorrow. "Unavoidable" he called finally, lowering his head, his tone cold and plain. "It seems, the cycle of reincarnation is chaotic, not nearly as rewarding and plentiful as described in my past life, those who reincarnate into a different world with their thoughts intact do not get any special power... nor destiny, nor are they prodigies, we are left to rot." Bitterly he smiled. Xing rose up, his body boiling with energy and his mentality steeled, if he could not have the heavens, nor the sun, or even the moon, if he could have no grand things... Xing lowered his sight at a rock laying on the ground, picking it up. Looking at the stone he felt serine. If he could not have even the moon, he will take a stone, and make it into the heavens. "I am the stone" declared Xing. "I am the heavens" Xing said, crushing the stone in his hand. Amongst the turmoil he felt within his heart, he oppned his mouth and words sprung out, emotion filled to match the tears going down his cheeks, enlightenment came this time in the form of a poem out of his mouth. "Serenity, a high hanging fruit. Yet one shouldn''t deprive oneself of it even as it lays in the heavens themselves. What is it that drives each and every one of us to torment ourselves so? The will to strive for goodness, self-goodness. It sustains us. It is the personification hope, hope to see our futile endeavors do matter in the scheme of things, we are not just a drop in the storm, taken. Let go of your worries, disallow the theory of chaos to rule your-self. Calmness is the goodness you can achieve trough neutrality. Serenity¡­ Even if it lays in the vaults of heavens, let us rend the heavens themselves for our goodness" Once he was done with the poem he felt elevated, while not fully understanding the meaning behind his words, he could slightly feel the two opposite views that the duality in it represented. Despite trying to temper his cultivation technique, he only managed to temper himself, yet still reaping rewards from it. Emotions were then pushed aside and a cold calculative persona fell on Xing. Xing calculated the amount of latent energy he had, coming up with the same amount he has since birth, his energy never accumulated past what he was born with, despite cultivating. Such a thing was a given, what cultivators cultivated was the body, through their latent energy, and the quality of their energy, through the technique. There was no way to increase the amount of latent energy. The quality represented the strength of a single unit of energy, the quantity represented the amount available, and the spirit represented the interpretation of it. There were three major kinds of cultivators, Xing remembered, those with little latent energy, those with an average amount, and those with a lot of latent energy, not one type was strictly stronger than the other. Those who had little energy had little problem cultivating the quality of their energy, as they didn''t have a lot, yet faced great difficulties when it came to cultivating the body, something that required to circulate a certain amount of energy along the body, the more you had the less cycles had to be done. Those who had abundant energy had little problem cultivating their body to a higher realm, which in turn meant they could unleash outwards outside their body more of it, yet great difficulty cultivating the quality of their energy as they had much of it. And so bottlenecks appeared. Too little energy meant you reached the quality threshold to rise up a level, yet the body was not ready yet, not yet tempered enough to contain the future rise in quality. Too much energy meant your body reached the threshold to rise up, yet the quality of the energy didn''t own up to the real demand, meaning that the body could handle a greater force in it only to end up short. Xing was more of the balanced type, which meant that while his progress was slower, he shouldn''t face bottlenecks, and yet he felt one up ahead, he was eager to arrive at it to find out what it was. Deciding to go on a hunt to cultivate himself through battle, and gain the meat of beasts which could help him regenerate his energy faster, he existed the cave. His steps were heavy, he did not understand why. At the mouth of the cave appeared in front of Xing a horde, fifty strong, all ox beasts, with two of them being the level two Crimson ox. His eyes bulged and he cringed, how did they find him? Ten bat winged ox suddenly swooped down at him from above without warning, a surprise attack he was not ready for. His membrane flared up and he pulsed it outwards, sending a ripple filled with killing intent, the flying ox fell to the ground struck with horror and paralyzed as if electrocuted. Xing''s membrane visible diminished around him, it was by luck the enemies relied on quantity rather than quality as his killing intent was best on that type. A charge led by a Crimson Ox initiated, heading his way, twenty strong. Xing drew back more deeply into the cave, retreating to a narrower path. The twenty strong horde crammed into the passage, allowing only two to pass at a time. Xing picked them off when he could, sending other shocking hit after the other to the temples of the nearer beasts, yet needing to quickly draw back for fear of being head butted by a nearby ox, getting speared with their long sharp horns was not something he wanted to try again. By the time he arrived at the end of the passage and into the open space of the cave itself, he already managed to pick off eleven, though practically exhausted. Such a tight battle was taxing without the drug fueled like madness of killing intent overdose. Nine regular oxen and one Crimson one remained, Xing felt he had to compromise. Jumping ahead on the bodies of his enemies and past the corpses that he felled, he tried to escape outwards, trying to break out of the cave while bearing the risk of being flanked from both sides. He ran at top speed and almost arrived at the mouth of the cave, yet a Crimson Ox appeared in front of him blocking his way, beyond him he could see a few flying ox which recuperated... with having to deal with both a strong adversely he could not crush with a big attack due to energy consumption, and the numbers of his opponents being against him¡­ the aerial support practically boxed him into oblivion... He could not make it out. Xing made a snap judgment and took a huge risk, he formed a force orb and smashed, not at the Crimson one in his front, yet at the wall at his side. Causing a cave in. Once the stone fell, he moved back, in such a tight spot the hardly fitting Crimson Ox could not back away fast enough, he was crushed dead. Xing turned back, looking at the ten opponents left for him to face, he charged at them sending fists and palm strikes, mixing ones infused with energy and ones not infused in order to feint and catch his opponents by surprise. With only a silver of his strength left, the remaining one Crimson Ox appeared in his sights. A quick check up left Xing with the knowledge he had about a fifteenth of his energy left, not enough for even a single force orb, he cursed his inefficient cultivation technique, after those five days he was already drained to start with, even with trying to save up, his techniques were already too costly due to the inefficient cultivation technique. Xing condensed a single pseudo force orb, half the normal size he usually generated. Leaving him with a hundredth of his energy left, enough to only fight with his body as a human apart from the orb. The Crimson one charged at him, not leaving him much time, hastily he condensed the orb as much as he could. The Ox arrived and Xing punched out, the orb caged inside his fist went straight through the teeth of the beast and into its mouth, still packed inside the fist, letting the ox hammer him into the rabble behind him. He caught up blood, yet still smiled. "Stupid beast, be glad I''m willing to offer you something tasty to eat." He murmured with a certain weakness. The force orb inside Xing''s fist condensed further, then could not take any further force applied on it and exploded mightily, taking with it Xing''s arm and devastating a huge chunk of the innards of the Ox. The Crimson one chocked on the explosion once, gaping, then vomited a huge mouthful of blood at Xing, dead. Everything blackened for a moment for Xing, then his vision reddened as blood vessels in his eyes broke due to backlash and stress. Devourer woke up and started to resist its restraints again... In such a dire state, Xing simply lost consciousness.