Chapter 85 - 84: The Last Heart
While he didn’t want to slaughter them all to the last, it seemed it mattered not what he desired. The Heavenly Daos intended for this sect to experience a calamity of immense devastation. He was merely one of its means to achieve. Perhaps this was supposed to punish their sins? What sins? Well, Wei Wuyin didn’t know.
He had half a mind to dive back and question Anu for his actions, but that impulse faded as quickly as it came. He was not a saint, and what had happened had already happened; it was an unchangeable circumstance.
Kree!
Despite all the death, a warm smile tugged at his lips as he turned to see Bai Lin soaring freely in the skies. It seemed that azure light didn’t just kill all the members of the Beast-Taming Sect, but removed all physical restraints and spiritual marks on these beasts. Anu gave them their freedom. As a beast, this probably seemed right and proper. Furthermore, who knew if Anu was also being used and abused by the Beast-Taming Sect in his weakened and near-lifeless state. After all, he was located directly beneath them. There had to be a story there.
Kree!
Bai Lin landed next to Wei Wuyin, stretching out her head. Wei Wuyin caressed her and the smile on his face grew larger. This matter didn’t affect him, and Bai Lin was safe. In fact, she should be thanking Anu for his actions. With one action, he no longer needed to worry about offending a force as strong as the true Beast-Taming Sect.
"That being said," with a dastardly grin on his face, a glint of greed on his face, "Let’s loot!" These corpses had all sorts of treasures, materials, essence stones, pills, pellets, elixirs, pastes, beast-methods, beast-arts, and all sorts of things hidden within the depths of this Beast-Taming Sect. While he wouldn’t be able to search their memories for their unique spiritual means, he might be able to find notes or a physical copy somewhere. If the former, he could explore creating his own.
Kree!
The word "loot" triggered Bai Lin’s excitement. The duo’s greed was unconcealable.
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Outside the Warring States Pagoda, Wei Wuyin and Bai Lin were still quietly waiting for Su Mei to exit. In his hands was a large bag that jingled with a metallic ring. These were the storage rings of all the Beast-Taming Sect’s members that were in their sect. Unfortunately, his three-layered ring couldn’t hold all the items of a sect within its mere two spaces, so he would have to find other ways to store the excess. Not only did he take their storage rings, he swept the herbs and minerals they had stockpiled within their sect. He pretty much took any and everything of value, including cultivation arts or methods and the bricks of the building.
Outside of a land of corpses, the entire city was stripped completely bare.
"I don’t know if this is the highest karmic luck value that I lost, but back when I left the Scarlet Solaris Sect to search for Mei Mei, I lost 8.7. There, I had a chance to obtain a great benefit at a high risk. However, the Heavenly Daos underestimated my strength." He silently considered as he estimated his immense gains.
The Heavenly Daos only revealed a path, but never outright gave him anything. While it would lead him to objects such as the Three-Point Yin Body or an essence stone, it was his choice whether to grasp it to its fullest and make use of it.
The Meadow Life Wood Essence was a chance and required talent to take advantage of.
Despite this understanding, he had no idea if the benefit was meeting the gigantic scaled creature or wiping the Beast-Taming Sect clean of its resources. In fact, it could be something far off to the future, not including either of those things. Wei Wuyin looked at the sky as he searched his sea of consciousness for the etched inscriptions that detailed the three arts and one method he obtained. As he read through them, his eyes would sometimes reveal a light of confusion, sometimes go blank, and sometimes aglow with realization.
"The True Dragon Transmutation Method is awe-inspiring!" The cultivation method described several ways of becoming a half-dragon with true dragon blood. He felt that he understood that the beast before may not have been an actual dragon, but one with dragon blood.
It would transmute one’s bloodline and allow them to take the path of becoming a dragon. He also learned that dragons weren’t beasts. They were called Divine Myths of Heaven. He didn’t fully understand why the name, but they weren’t literal beasts.
However, beasts were descendants of them. There were even humans who were descendants of them. Therefore, there were humans out there with a dragon’s bloodline!
He sent out his qi and retrieved an azure crystal that contained a refined drop of essence blood from the three-layered ring. This essence blood contained the bloodline of a dragon!
Bringing it over, he carefully inspected it. "According to the method, I can choose three ways to refine this essence blood. Firstly, I can choose to refine it into my heart. This is the most common method, it has no risks of death or failure, and allows one to produce normal blood of a dragon. However, my heart will only be able to perform a single refinement and my body will undergo an uncontrollable mutation.
"Instead of becoming just half-dragon, I would refine the essence bloodline of the gigantic scaled beast, becoming half-beast(of the gigantic scaled beast legacy) and half-dragon, losing my humanity. However, it’s the most powerful path, allowing for the quickest progression of power! Forsake my humanity for power and transformation!" He pondered this for an entire hour before shaking his head. Even if he was going to suffer a calamity in the future, he had no desire to transmute his species. This method seemed geared towards beasts, not humans.
"The second method is to refine the primal yang with essence blood energy. With this, I can propagate dragonborn children. I can also cultivate using this newly formed Draconic primal yang and cultivate my body with its energies." This was a rather neutral method and accompanied with it was a moderate increase in personal potential and power. It was long and farseeing, allowing your children to become greater than yourself. The ultimate sacrifice.
He decisively shook his head. He only had thirty-nine years on his clock and he didn’t want to raise children knowing he wouldn’t be able to protect them for life, guide them through their struggles and give them love. If he went in knowing that, the degree of depression could warp his thoughts.
"The last method is to...is it possible?" As he read the last method, he frowned in thought. This felt like it was geared towards humans, but he wasn’t sure. After all, that gigantic-scaled beast had spiritual energy and thus could cultivate.
The third method was quite risky and revolves around a concept that breaks his preconceptions, in much the same way as the Haven Heart Qi Method once did. It was using a vast amount of lifeforce and energy to refine the essence blood.
By doing this, they could give birth to a Divine Mark of Myth. Then, using this mark, a person would integrate it into their physical essence, permeating it throughout every facet of their fleshy matter. This would act as a primer for them to create a Draconic Heart!
When he first read it, he didn’t quite understand what it meant. However, after reading it multiple times, he understood.
It was the process of creating a Draconic Heart of Qi! However, it was different and completely crushed his understanding of cultivation. Because it didn’t use Metaphysical Qi, but a Metaphysical Blood(line)!
A Draconic Heart of Blood. A person would cultivate according to the predescribed method, strengthening their bloodline energy in much the same way they enhanced their qi, through the Essence of Heaven and Earth.
It was considered to be the most difficult in the long-run and brought about strict restrictions and requirements. Not to mention, it started out the weakest of the three. The most important thing was that it was available only to children who have yet to cultivate, not those who’ve formed their Heart of Qi. The reason for this was the requirement was the same as why a person couldn’t form two Heart of Qi. It required essence, matter, mind, and spirit to be condensed in its entirety.
Wei Wuyin’s eyes lit up. If he was a normal cultivator, he would be at a loss, but he possessed the Haven Heart Qi Method! With this, he could follow the procedure as before.
He could split his mind, transform his physical energies and physique anew, and change the state of his meridians. As for the spirit, he knew that he could easily tap into his soul and utilize another piece. That was the easiest aspect of the technique, having accomplished it several times before.
However...
"If I do this and create a Draconic Heart of Blood, I won’t be able to use the Haven Heart Qi Method again..." As he analyzed the aspects of this new bloodline, he knew it would make it nearly impossible for him to restructure his physical body ever again. At the moment, only pure energy was refining his body, but this would shift his DNA entirely.
If he tried to shift it again, he would lose his bloodline. All the resources and essence blood wasted would be useless and his ability to use the Draconic Heart of Blood would cease. It would be in much the same way as his previous ’selves’ were unable to control his two Hearts of Qi.
After several hours of thinking, he decided to do it anyway. He didn’t have an infinite life, so he can’t keep creating more and more Hearts of Qi. In fact, he didn’t want to nor was he confident he could. His soul wasn’t limitless, and he wasn’t someone who reached the Realm of Sages; he couldn’t cultivate his soul.
Who knew what type of damage that would happen if he split his soul into portions and fashioned into countless Hearts of Qi.
In truth, Wei Wuyin would not be able to exceed four Hearts of Qi. Not only was it due to the limitations of his soul, but the limitations of the method itself. As he split off a portion of his soul to construct his spirit, if he removed too much, his soul would destabilize and falter, collapsing in on itself. It would be a rather brutal death, with the possibility for reincarnation no longer existing.
"This will be my last birthing of a spirit!" He swore to himself, revealing a rare form of determination.