Chapter 88: Beast Core.

Haru looked down at his hand seeing the snake between his fingers. He didn't actually think that he would grab it in time. He just got lucky as reflex told him to grab it as he flew closer.

He then looked at the cloud feathered eagle who seemed to be happy as its eyes opened a little wider as it looked toward Haru.

"Thank god for that," Lao said with a sigh.

"What do you mean? Is this snake poisonous or something?" Haru asked.

"No, nothing like that. It would be fine if you fed it to your pet bird but you would lose a valuable material. Illusionary Vipers are also from the upper realms.

Most beasts from the upper realms contain something called a beast crystal. But is more commonly referred to as a core. As it is where the beasts store their Qi. If you absorb the Qi from inside it will instantly improve your cultivation.

And since you are already close to breaking through to the Spirit Soul stage it will probably push you right through the bottleneck. I thought it would be a waste to give it to the bird." Lao explained everything to Haru.

"Oh, That is useful. Thanks for telling me about that. It would be a waste. So, How do I get this beast crystal out?" Haru asked. As Kun still looked at him impatiently waiting for him to reply.

"Well, Aren't you going to say anything?" Kun demanded an explanation for taking his food from him.

"Just shut up for a minute. I will give it back in a second." Haru snapped back at Kun.

To say that he was part of Haru's bloodline he was getting to be quite rude. Maybe it was about time Lao whipped him in the head with his tail again?

"Getting it out is easy. And now would be the perfect time to teach you some sword techniques. Take out that sword the sect master gave you all those years ago." Lao said and then reminded Haru of the time Li Jun had asked the sect master for a sword.

It was still in his storage ring. He hadn't even touched it before. But it also wasn't a normal thing to be walking around with a sword so he had no use for it before.

Haru then focused Qi into the storage ring and felt out for the sword. It took a few seconds as he rummaged through all of the junk that he had stored in there over the years but he finally pulled out the sword in a flash of light.

He looked down at the long black scabbard held out in front of him. The sword was so light that he barely noticed that he was holding anything. But it also seemed to be perfectly balanced.

He didn't hold the hilt with much pressure. The balance was so perfect that it stuck to his hand naturally like it was glued to him.

The sword was plain like no craftsmanship went into making the scabbard at all. Everything on the outside looked like it was dyed black to cut costs of making it.

"Oh, He gave you that sword?" Lao asked.

"Yeah, Is there something wrong with it?" Haru asked back.

"Not wrong. I will say he gave you quite the gift, to be honest. The sword might not be very high quality. But it has already formed a fully grown sword spirit.

With your level of cultivation right now, having a fully formed sword spirit will help you out a lot. Although in the future you will need to form your own.

But this will work for the next couple of years I guess. It all depends on your speed in cultivating." Lao said and then stopped for a moment.

"Now, What technique should I teach you? I know I will let you decide. Do you want practical or flashy?" Lao asked Haru.

Haru didn't even need to think about it. He spent his last life in the military he learned pretty quickly that flashy attacks all ways lead to your own death. He had watched it many times so he didn't think twice before he answered.

"Practical of course." He said and then looked at the sword more intently.

"Practical it is. I don't really want to waste any time for you to learn a simple technique like this so I'm going to transfer it into your mind. It might hurt a little bit." Lao said and then went on to transfer the knowledge.

The information from the technique suddenly began writing itself into Haru's brain.

"Slashing Sword Version three." Was the name of the technique. It consisted of three attacks and two blocks. The first attack was a single slash downward, The second attack was a slash from left to right, and the final attack was a diagonal slash.

"Did a five-year-old come up with this?" Haru thought but he ended up saying it out loud as the headache from the transfer of knowledge muddled his brain a little bit.

"A five-year-old? Try ten thousand years old. Li Jun was actually the one who created this. It is simple but this is really all you need to use.

He found that everybody who he faced with a sword was expecting some secret technique with each sword swing. So he just perfected the basic slashes and then used them instead.

He always told me it is better to learn one thing to the best of your ability than to learn a bunch of things with minimal effort." Lao said and then began to reminisce for a second.

"Is Li Jun still okay? He hasn't come out for over three years now. He didn't say anything when he left so I have kind of been holding in my worry for him all this time." Haru asked Lao.

"I wouldn't really say he is okay. Since his soul was split into pieces the Li Jun you know has been fighting the pull from his original body for thousands of years.

The array was the only thing stopping him from returning. But when he decided to make you his disciple he told you to break the array so you could live.

He knows he will have to go back eventually but he wanted to make sure you were well trained before he left. It was just a little unfortunate that he had to try to recover his Qi so quickly." Lao said with a bit of pain in his voice.

"I hope he will get better. Anyway. How do I go about getting this beast core or whatever?" Haru asked, Changing the subject as it was starting to get a bit gloomy.

"Oh yes, The beast core. You will have to slice the head from the snaked body. Just behind where the ears should be. Every beast is different but for snakes, The core is always in their head." Lao said.

Haru looked at the snake's body for a second and then began to unsheathe his sword as he threw it's the body on the floor to make cutting it easier.

As the sword slid out of the scabbard there was a loud metallic ringing noise. Haru dropped the scabbard and held the sword with two hands. As soon as he unsheathed the blade the weight of the sword became a lot heavier.

It was like he was holding a new sword. The dull-looking exterior really took away the beauty of the blade it's self. There were three long deep channels in the blade that would allow blood to slowly escape if it was stabbed into someone.

The sword was shrouded in a thick aura of death and seemed to be pulling Haru's consciousness away from his body.

"So it is one of those swords. That is great!" Lao shouted as he realised something about the Sword in Haru's hands.

"What's great?" Haru asked.

"That sword. It is a soul tempering sword. Like how a dragons voice will temper your soul. This blade was specifically designed to temper the soul of the user. So the effects are much stronger.

And the fact that you will break through to the spirit soul stage is convenient during the spirit soul stage your soul will be strengthened with Qi so it will help you more if you can strengthen your soul naturally too." Lao said.

Haru was amazed at how much Li Jun had done to help him. He didn't know how he would ever pay him back for everything. He just hoped that he would come back soon so he could thank him properly.

He would have died without Li Jun saving him from that pool. But now there was nothing he could do to help the man who rescued him. He felt sorry as he brought the sword up above his head.

For some reason, he imagined Li Jun's thoughts as he made this technique. He probably never thought that he would have a student learning it did he? He thought as he brought the sword down into the middle of the snake's head.

A flash of blue light appeared as the sword contacted something solid. A small little blue bead flew up into the air. Haru caught the bead before it could touch the floor and then looked at it for a second.

"Is this it?" He asked Lao.

"It sure is. You can feed the rest to your pet if you want to." He said and then vanished back into the ring. It was easy for Lao to move into Haru's consciousness since the ring was on his body. So it was just as easy for him to vanish back into the ring.

Haru then looked at the mutilated body of the snake. Before scooping it up onto the sword and then throwing it over to Kun who was patiently waiting.

Before it could hit the ground. Kun had already devoured it whole.

"Delicious!" He said before returning to Haru's consciousness.