Chapter 12 - Beast Tide

Upon reaching the latter stages of a cultivation realm, the speed of improvement would slow down dramatically compared to the earlier stages. Progressing from from the initial stage all the way through to the late stage, would require around the same period of time as ascending from the late to peak stage.

For the Qi Gathering realm, the stages were defined solely by the amount of Yuan Qi that filled one’s dantian. 1-4% for initial stage, 5-49% for early stage, 50-74% for mid stage, 75-98% for late stage and 99% for peak stage.

The peak stage signified that one had reached the highest point possible within their realm. It was the completion of the realm, and the only way to develop one’s cultivation further was to breakthrough into the next realm.

This breakthrough could sometimes take even longer to attain than ascending through the entire realm itself. It wasn’t something so simple like refining more Yuan Qi, it was a qualitative change that took place to the Yuan Qi within the dantian. When breaking through from the Qi Gathering realm to the True Yuan Qi realm, the gaseous and impure Yuan Qi which had been refined during the first realm of cultivation would be purified and rapidly condensed into a liquid. This liquid would form a lake within the dantian, providing the foundation for the ascension to the next realm.

The process of condensing the Yuan Qi couldn’t be rushed and should only be attempted after gaining a certain degree of certainty regarding your chances of success.

The reason for Yaan pondering over this right now, was because one week ago he finally reached the Peak Qi Gathering realm after yet another year of monotonous cultivation with the sect! Now ten years old, his name had spread throughout the sect by word of mouth, as had the rumour that he was genius blessed by the heavens.

His speed of progression through the Qi Gathering realm was, simply put, insane. This speed was only achievable thanks to the Fiend Foundation, the unique trait that allowed him to refine slaughter aura and rapidly accumulate Yuan Qi. His talent was only moderate, so if he cultivated normally, then this stage would have required another twenty years to achieve.

There were now two years remaining until the inter-sect competition, and Yaan was starting to feel a sense of pressure. The entire sect hoped that he could bring them glory by breaking through to the True Yuan Qi realm before the tournament commenced.

They hoped, but knew that this was highly unlikely. Accumulating Qi and breaking through the realms were two completely separate matters. The first relied on talent, resources and hard work, whilst the latter needed these things on top of something else…perception and understanding.

With his body and Yuan Qi now satisfying the requirements to ascend realms, Yaan could actually attempt to breakthrough anytime he saw fit. However, there would be a severe backlash for failing with a breakthrough, injuring the person and perhaps even damaging the foundation of their cultivation.

That wasn’t all though. As a fiend, Yaan actually needed to breakthrough with his body and Yuan Qi simultaneously! If he attempted one breakthrough whilst neglecting the other, he would simply fail when trying to ascend with the other later on, causing his hard efforts to go to waste. In order to cultivate both paths, the two breakthroughs must be completed side by side.

Breaking through the lower realms with the body actually wasn’t so difficult, he only needed to consume a special Rank 2 medicinal pill and his success was almost guaranteed. The problem was, that he would need to focus on his breakthrough as a Qi master whilst enduring the distracting changes to his body. This was the path of a fiend who cultivated two paths, there was no other way around it.

“But how do I know when I’m ready? Will waiting around really help anything?” Yaan asked Rui, feeling confused about this point.

Naturally, she already had an answer.

“Spend your time meditating and observing the state of your body and Yuan Qi. Sink your mind into your dantian and watch the flow of Yuan Qi throughout your being. Eventually, you will feel that you are ready to breakthrough. This feeling will be extremely natural and you should not attempt the breakthrough before this point. There is no special technique involved in doing so. Well, there are techniques that can provide assistance to those with poor comprehension, but this is more risky than doing things naturally and definitely does not suit a fiend.”

This was similar to his teacher’s advice, if a bit more detailed. However, Great Elder Wan also recommended Yaan do something else, something he hadn’t tried for some time now.

Painting.

When Yaan was trying to calm his mind, preparing to undergo the ascension to the Qi Gathering realm, he needed to find a way to relax his heart and soul. This was a common struggle for all cultivators, everyone would eventually develop their own preferred method of doing so. Great Elder Wan introduced Yaan to painting at that time. Whilst Yaan was no expert artist, he remembered enjoying the process of clearing his mind and focussing only on the development of his art. So, when he was given this suggestion once again, he was all too ready to accept.

At first, his skill was quite terrible, but over time, he steadily improved. Yaan wasn’t sure exactly what he wanted to paint at first, opting to paint the core sect’s luscious scenery. Other times, he tried painting other people and sometimes himself. As time passed by, he began thinking back to his past…he decided to paint Lightstone Village. Countless canvases stacked up as he attempted to paint a memory engrained deep within his mind, but never felt that the end result was quite right. After a few weeks of painting in solitude, he finally completed a picture that he was satisfied with.

He debated putting this painting up on the wall of his temple, but in the end decided to carefully place it under his bed.

Whilst he perhaps became a little sidetracked, the experience of improving his skill whilst not thinking about anything else really did help to ease his thoughts. After returning to his cultivation, Yaan no longer felt overly pressured nor stressed about succeeding or failing. Well, Rui’s words of advice also helped there.

“Don’t worry about the competition and don’t force the breakthrough. Your future prospects are more important than anything else, this tournament is just something that could be a bit useful, it’s not worth stressing over.”

Yaan nodded, knowing that she was right. He found himself agreeing with some of the things Rui said more often than those other ‘righteous’ cultivators these days. He wasn’t sure whether or not this was something to be happy about, given that Rui herself followed the demonic way.

For now, observing his dantian was truly all he could do. He could no longer refine more Yuan Qi, nor could he consume more demonic beast meat to improve his body.

He kept in his pocket a Rank 2 pill called the Rank 2 boundary ascension pill. This pill was given to spirit beasts to trigger their ascension from Rank 1 to Rank 2. Under normal circumstance, a wild spirit beast would simply continue about their lives and ascend at a random time, but this pill sped up the process dramatically.

When demonic race body cultivators used this pill, it direction raised their cultivation from the Peak 1-Star realm to the Initial 2-Star realm. When the time came that Yaan felt himself able to breakthrough to the True Yuan Qi realm, he would consume this pill before turning his attention to his Qi breakthrough.

In a way, it might seem that body cultivation was much simpler, but this was not the case. Body cultivation was painful, dangerous and expensive. Each realm breakthrough would rack the body with pain temporarily, which could potentially result in death if he lost consciousness. The medicines required to progress were also painfully expensive, Yaan would certainly struggle to obtain this ascension pill if not for his teacher.

He spent his time sinking his consciousness into his dantian, observing the seemingly random flow of gaseous Yuan Qi that now filled his dantian to the brim. This flow entered and exited the dantian, flowing through his meridians and bringing vitality to his body as it travelled peacefully.

In and out, the Yuan Qi circulated freely.

He had been meditating like this everyday for the last few weeks, watching patiently as the Yuan Qi flowed within his body. Sometimes he would focus and try to find patterns, other times he simply allowed the image to pass through his mind without having any thoughts.

Knock knock!

“Hmm?” Yaan opened his eyes with a frown, annoyed that he had been distracted from his meditation. Disturbing someone unnecessarily whilst they were in closed door cultivation was considered rude, since it was possible that they might become distracted during a rare moment of comprehension. For someone to barge into his garden and then knock on his door directly, it had better be something important!

It was.

The messenger at the door hurriedly apologised, then didn’t stop speaking as he rapidly explained to Yaan that there was a sudden beast tide closing in on Heavenly Path Mountain! The messenger quickly ran off after informing Yaan that everyone was to meet at the core sect meeting hall.

A beast tide was an unavoidable catastrophe that would occur to varying degrees around Heavenly Path Mountain every few years or so. Hundreds, thousands, sometimes tens of thousands of beasts would storm down from the Northern wilderness, making their way towards the mountain in a frenzy.

The cause of the beast tide was debated, but one popular theory suggested it to be an organised hunt orchestrated by the more intelligent leaders of the spirit beasts. However, some believed that beast tides could be caused by natural disasters which resulted in masses of beasts fleeing in their fear.

Either way, a beast tide always spelled trouble and death.

The reason for there being no mortal villages north of the Greenwood mountain range was also due to this matter. Any mortal village would be instantly demolished by even the most meagre of beasts tides. The danger of a beast tide depended on the scale of the tide though, so Yaan tried not to worry too much just yet. In all likelihood, the beasts wouldn’t even succeed in breaching the outer sect.

As Yaan arrived at the meeting hall, he quickly found some familiar faces. Boln and Kaila he was familiar with, whilst Elia and Owan Shi, the Sect Lord’s disciples, were also talking to the couple.

“Why are we gathered outside?” Yaan asked curiously as he approached the group.

“Oh, you must be junior disciple Yaan?” Owan Shi asked with a bit of interest. He was an arrogant character, but he showed some interest towards this young rising star.

“Yaan greets senior disciple brother.” Yaan nodded slightly as he clasped his hands. Impressed by his polite conduct not befitting a child, Owan Shi took it upon himself to explain the situation.

“There’s no time to gather everyone inside, my father the Sect Lord is about to address everyone shortly. From what I hear, it’s actually a 10,000 beast level tide!”

Yaan’s expression darkened, suddenly understanding why the atmosphere was grave. A 10,000 beast tide meant that there were at least 10,000 beasts involved!

Hundred beast, thousand beast, ten thousand beast, these were the three levels of beast tide that the sect needed to deal with. There were of course even higher level calamities, but these were less common, and in all honesty, the sect was unable to deal with a hundred thousand beast tide.

It should also be remembered that these were not ordinary animals, but demonic beasts and spirit beasts. Demonic beasts were more crazy and known for having aggressive temperaments, but that didn’t mean that spirit beasts were docile and gentle. If a Qi master annoyed a spirit beast, or if a spirit beast was hungry, it would certainly attack and kill a Qi master. In this beast tide, the crazed demonic and spirit beasts would be no different for all means and purposes.

And the lowest level of all beasts was Rank 1, equivalent to Qi Gathering realm Qi masters in strength!

For a ten thousand beast tide to occur, they certainly would not be limited to Rank 1. In fact, a ten thousand beast tide was of such large scale that it could even be lead by a Rank 5 beast! Rank 5 beasts were powerful, a full realm above the sect’s most powerful Spirit Core realm Elders. If this truly was the case, then this beast tide could result in serious losses for the sect. They hoped that this beast tide was a random occurrence and that they wouldn’t need to face anything above Rank 4, but the fear in the air was palpable as the core disciples waited on the Sect Lord to provide an update.

“Everyone, thank you for gathering so quickly.” The Sect Lord’s booming voice echoed through the lands, startling everyone and prompting them to look up.

Some less knowledgable disciples felt stunned as they saw the Great Elders all gathered together, not on the ground, but thirty feet up in the air! Some flew without assistance, others stood on flying weapons, a few even rode on the backs of spirit beasts. But still, all 12 of the Great Elders were flying!

The greatest advantage of the Spirit Core realm was the ability to fly. Lower realm Qi masters could fly with the assistance of treasures, but this would be clunky and draining of energy. Only Spirit Core realm Qi masters could fly freely using their abilities alone, whilst also making the best use of flying type treasures.

“I’m sure you have all heard that this is a ten thousand beast tide, but this is no ordinary or random ten thousand beast tide.”

That sentence alone caused everyone’s hearts to sink. No matter what, wasn’t this really dangerous then?

“There are an estimated 50,000 beasts, fully unified in their organised hunt under the rule of a Rank 5 wyvern.”

To quell the immediate unrest, the Sect Lord raised his hand calmly.

“We must not panic. If we are to survive this as a sect, we must fight side by side to eliminate these vicious foes! Everyone who has reached the Mid Qi Gathering realm or above will be required to battle, but do not worry, you will all be given a spiritual treasure if you don’t possess one already.

Now for the specifics. There are 50,000 beasts led by a single Rank 5 wyvern, but their command structure can be further deconstructed. The wyvern controls just 10 Rank 4 beasts, suggesting that it is only an initial or early stage Rank 5 beast. Each Rank 4 beast controls its own pack separately, but their overall movements are coordinated. There should be around 10 Rank 3’s per pack, controlling packs of 400-600 Rank 1 and Rank 2 beasts.”

The sheer numbers were too terrifying! The battle power of this savage army sounded so high that some people were already starting to lose hope.

How could this have happened? For such a sudden large scale calamity, with no prior warning, to encompass them so easily?!

The Sect Lord was no novice. He saw the disciples and even some of the weaker Elders losing heart, so he immediately provided them with motivation and reassurance.

“This is an excellent opportunity for you all. A system of contribution points will be established, though proof of each kill such as the eyes will be required to obtain points. Retrieving full corpses will also be awarded with points for the resources. Contribution points can be spent during this time of crisis as you wish, even going so far as being able to purchase Rank 4 medicinal pills if one’s contribution is high enough.”

He paused to let everyone process this, feeling satisfied as a motivated gleam retuned to their eyes. With risk came opportunity, this was a fact of the cultivation world that everyone knew and accepted.

“This beast tide will come in waves and will likely drag out for many months. A Rank 5 beast is powerful and smart enough to utilise tactics, but worry not, for we naturally have our own defensive measures to make up for the difference in cultivation level. Despite the scale of this beast tide, the beasts will not reach the inner or core sect!”

The Sect Lord continued to speak for a while, concisely explaining this beast tide and the sect’s plans going forwards. All disciples would be assigned to teams. Qi Gathering realm disciples would mix with True Yuan Qi realm disciples, whilst Qi Temple realm disciples and Elders would be lead by a Spirit Core realm Great Elder.

At first, people worried that those weaker teams would encounter danger, but the Sect Lord assured everyone that the earlier stages of the beast tide wouldn’t be so dangerous. The first waves would involve the weaker Rank 1 to Rank 3 beasts being sent out, so the danger shouldn’t escalate to too high a level.

Groups were assigned quickly under the Great Elders’ guidance. After finding his disciple, Great Elder Wan swiftly made his way across to Yaan’s group.

“We greet Great Elder Wan!” The disciples around him bowed respectfully.

“Hm. Could I trouble you to look after my apprentice, disciple Boln?” The old man spoke warmly, immediately making everyone feel at ease. Boln nodded quickly, agreeing without any hesitation. Actually, he was planning on suggesting this arrangement anyway. Whilst Yaan was only ten years old, he was actually quite powerful for a Qi Gathering realm disciple. Since he needed some disciples at the Qi Gathering realm to join his group, he was happy to have Yaan on board.

“Of course, Great Elder Wan!” Boln replied brightly.

“In that case, I think that Elia shall join this group also.”

Yaan nearly jumped as the Sect Lord appeared behind him silently. He turned slightly and examined the Sect Lord’s expression, but couldn’t see anything through that indifferent front. Yaan always had difficulty reading this man, though he supposed that was normal, given the age and cultivation difference between them.

“Greeting, Sect Lord.” They all replied simultaneously, aside from Great Elder Wan who just nodded indifferently.

“It would be my honour, Sect Lord.” Boln smiled.

“Good. You need just one more member. I shall leave that to your own discretion, disciple Boln.”

Great Elder Wan glanced at Yaan meaningfully before he followed after the Sect Lord to assist with the group assignments.

“I shall take my leave also.” Owan Shi nodded, then followed after his father. As a Qi Temple realm disciple, he was to join one of the higher class groups with the Elders.

For the lower class groups, the organisation was fairly straight forwards. They needed to form groups of 5, including at least one but at most two True Yuan Qi realm sect members.

With Boln, the strongest True Yuan Qi realm disciple, and Kaila, a Late True Yuan Qi disciple, it was fairly obvious that their group was already the most powerful amongst the lower class.

As Owan Shi departed, Elia felt slightly lost, alone with three unfamiliar faces.

“Don’t worry Elia, there will be no problems in a group as strong as ours’.” Boln mistook her discomfit for fear towards the beast tide, but she appreciated the sentiment and nodded back with a smile.

She glanced slightly at Yaan, but he was looking elsewhere, lost in thought. She thought he was amazing, really…how was it that even in this situation, Yaan didn’t look afraid at all?

‘When will I be receiving my spiritual treasure?’ Yaan wondered, watching as his teacher faded into the bustling mass of excited and nervous disciples. He had never before used a spiritual treasure, so despite the situation, he actually felt a bit excited.

The first wave of the beast tide had already encroached into the Heavenly Path Sect’s territory at the Northern border. There were no villages in this dangerous region and the area was generally treated as a place for disciples to train themselves, so the sect wasn’t yet panicked. That said, the first beasts would surely reach the outer sect at the foot of the mountain within another six hours.

Besides waiting for the situation to develop, Yaan was also listening to Rui.

“A Rank 5 beast could really be a calamity for this little sect. Since that sect leader seems so confident, there is likely a large array protecting the mountain left behind by the first generation sect leader.” She analysed with ease.

Yaan couldn’t reply to her in public, but his darkening expression told her enough.

“Don’t be so worried, the first beasts sent out during any large scale beast tide are basically just pawns, sent for probing. They will be weak enough for your group to manage. For now, this is actually a good opportunity. You will gain a treasure, plus you can earn merit points and buy more resources by killing beasts. Immersing yourself in slaughter is also a good way to increase your comprehension of the next realm."

She paused, then sent one final sentence into his mind via spirit sense.

“When things become heated later on, it would be best if you stay within the safety of this mountain, or even flee to another if it is possible to do so safely.”

Yaan pondered her words quietly, following his group into a less crowded area.

“Greetings, junior disciple Yaan.”

“Hm?” Yaan looked up dazedly, only to see an unfamiliar face staring back. No, he had seen this person before, he just didn’t know their name…

“Yaan, this is Findi, a core sect disciple like us.” Boln explained unhurriedly.

“Ah, my apologies. Greetings senior disciple Findi, I hope that we can work well together.” Yaan’s refined, almost scripted words, rolled off the tongue as if spoken by a wisened Elder. Findi was a bit taken aback by such a display from a child.

“Haha, it seems that the rumours about junior disciple Yaan are true. You’re certainly more mature than any ordinary child!” Findi laughed, but the surprise in his eyes gave away that he was actually quite stunned by Yaan’s demeanour.

Yaan just smiled politely and said nothing.

He had grown accustomed to acting this way around the sect. Be polite and amicable, but don’t grow too close and attached. This way he could stroll through his current life with minimal problems, allowing him to focus on his cultivation without worrying about anything else. This was one of the few things that Rui didn’t critique him for. His way with handling people was certainly excellent given his current situation. Though, she often wondered how he would adapt if his situation were to change.

Their group of five was now set, so the five of them found a space and began chatting to become more familiar with one another. They would be working together after all, it was good to know each other’s personalities and preferences so they could better coordinate.

Seeing Yaan fitting in so smoothly with these older disciples, Elia started to feel a bit inferior. She felt that Yaan was so mature and calm, that he was able to talk naturally with stronger Qi masters like this whilst not worrying about the coming beast tide.

She wasn’t entirely wrong, but she obviously misunderstood some things. Yaan wasn’t ‘getting along’ with these people and making friends like she thought, he was simply being polite and maintaining his appearance as he bid his time. Everything Yaan did was just biding his time, patiently waiting. Waiting for the day that he could finally take his revenge…