Chapter 18 - Martial Artist’s Path

Several hours passed before Hei, and his two little sisters could wake up. His body wasn't hurting like before, even though fatigue was still partly present.

Since he hadn't put anything in his stomach since last night, he was incredibly hungry. After all, the various events that occurred at Leaf Village had drained entirely the energy accumulated with the festival's big banquet.

When they woke up, the three of them found themselves in a place unknown to them. When they woke up for the first time at dawn, they didn't pay it so much attention. But now, they could see that it wasn't the Multicolored Leaf Forest but another forest. Seeing this, they became slightly nervous, but fortunately, their mother was behind them sleeping.

To prevent them from being bothered or suddenly attacked, Bao Bei had placed various spiderwebs, each one connected to the tips of her legs. If someone had touched one of those spiderwebs, the contact would have pulled the wire tight, warning Bao Bei about it.

It was a less secure system than the continuous surveillance with spirit power, but it was more hidden and appropriate when you didn't want to waste energy. Moreover, the enemy wouldn't be able to notice that he had been detected, thus coming to a nasty surprise.

Noticing movements from her cubs, Bao Bei awoke. She saw that the three of them had woken up and were hungry. With her legs, she took three bowls of food and handed them to them. Since she knew they would be hungry after finishing sleeping, she had prepared accordingly and hunted some prey nearby.

Once they finished eating, Bao Bei looked seriously at Hei, Ye, and Xing, while examining their status. Then she prepared to begin the talk she had mentioned earlier in the morning but which she had left unanswered.

‘My little ones, listen to me well, especially you, Hei. Now that you all have awakened your spirit power, it is time to understand what it is and how it is structured. It is important that you understand these notions well, but before that, I want to ask you something Hei. Do you want to become a martial artist?’

Hei was amazed by this question but then replied immediately. "I don't know what exactly a martial artist is or what spirit power is. I only know that I want to become stronger. This incident made me realize how weak I am and how many are my limits. When I awakened my spirit power, I felt an energy filling my body. If I can become stronger, then I will become a martial artist. Never again, I will put my little sisters in such danger. I will never be so helpless again while the people I care about are hurt."

Hearing this answer, Bao Bei smiled inwardly. Given Hei's talent, it would have been a pity not to let him develop his spirit power. But the cultivator's path was an arduous path littered with dangers and death. It wouldn't have served much if she had imposed it to him. Only if he really wanted to improve with his whole being, Hei could reach ever-higher peaks.

Bao Bei, therefore, took a serious tone and began her speech. Hearing their mother's voice, the three listened in silence. Ever since they had remembered, their mother had always omitted various things saying that it wasn't the time to talk about it.

Although they trusted her and asked no more questions about it, the curiosity behind these terms had only increased.

Now that Bao Bei had decided to reveal their meaning, how could they miss this opportunity?

First, she started with the definition of spirit power: it was nothing but the natural energy that fuel the world. Every living being was endowed with it, yet only a part was able to awaken it. Even inanimate objects could awaken it, but there were several conditions to be met for this to happen.

The human beings who awakened it were called cultivators or martial artists. To increase one's spirit power, one had to go through the process of cultivation. In order to do this, cultivation methods were needed that were used during meditation alongside with breathing techniques.

It was also possible to cultivate without cultivation methods, going purely by instinct as the humans of the past had done when they first discovered this power. However, cultivation based on intuition was very dangerous. A small mistake during cultivation would bring severe damage to one's body, with some permanent or even fatal. It took an indefinite number of trials and deaths before enough knowledge was formed to create a cultivation method.

The martial artists were divided into ranks according to the amount of spirit power and other characteristics; these ranks were, in turn, subdivided into various stages. At the end of each stage, there was a small block. Then, and a large one when advancing to the next rank. These blocks were called bottlenecks.

These happened because cultivation alone wasn't sufficient to move from one stage to another or from one rank to another. Other energy stimuli were required to make this jump. This usually needed the help of medicinal pills or other resources. One could also advance with more extreme training or new insights obtained during meditation. Lastly, one could engage in life and death fights or go around the world to experience new things.

Once the human side was dealt with in general, Bao Bei then turned to spirit beasts, explaining the differences in cultivation and how they were classified.

There was a first distinction between animals and spirit beasts: the former didn't possess spirit power while the latter did. However, it should be pointed out that the definition of spirit beasts didn't mean exclusively animals endowed with spirit power. But rather anything other than humans and demons that possessed spirit power, including therefore plants and inanimate objects.

Incidentally, it should be known that the demons followed a system similar to the human one, even if with some diversifications. They were quite similar to each other, differing mostly from a somatic point of view.

As far as classification according to spirit power was concerned, spirit beasts were differentiated both by humans and by demons in levels. There were a total of 7 levels that were the same number of ranks as human and demon martial artists.

However, it had to be said that in reality, only six ranks/levels actually existed; the seventh grade or level was almost unattainable. Ever since the sentient species became capable of recording the events that occurred to transmit them to future lineages, only one being had succeeded in that endeavor.

If it wasn't for the precedent that happened before the eyes of the whole world, one might have thought that rank was an illusion and that there were only 6 of them.

Therefore the seventh grade became named God Rank and became the ultimate goal of all the martial artists. They wanted to free themselves from the chains that were imposed since birth as creatures destined to die. It was said in fact that by becoming a God, it was possible to escape from the clutches of time, thus becoming immortal.

Returning to the spirit beasts, these differed further from humans and demons because they had no bottlenecks, except one, excluding the attainment of God rank. And the only thing they had to worry about was accumulating their spirit power in their bodies by fighting and eating spirit cores.

However, that only bottleneck was a mountain almost impossible to climb that only a few could overcome: reaching the divine beast stage.

By divine beast, it was meant a sixth-level spirit beast that had received the baptism of the elemental laws that ruled the world, thus becoming an entirely different species. It was thanks to this change of species that they were able to mate with spirit beasts with whom would normally have been impossible.

For example, Bao Bei was a spider while her companion was a snake. It should have been impossible for them to procreate in the same way humans couldn't have children with other species. However, since they had both become divine beasts, they were considered of the same species. Therefore they were able to give birth to Ye and Xing.

It should also be added that spirit beasts' cubs didn't always awaken spirit power. But they were more likely to do it rather than animals' cubs. Nevertheless, the cubs of divine beasts were always born as divine beasts, although their method of cultivation would remain like that of the spirit beasts.

At that point, Bao Bei stopped her speech. From the stern expressions of her three children, she understood that they were in a moment of reflection, trying to digest every single information received.

This time she hadn't used mental images to help them understand. The path of those who tried to understand spirit power, the energy that fueled the world, was full of mysteries and enigmas. It was, therefore, crucial that they were able to formulate their own hypotheses and realize the consequences of the facts only by listening to information obtained from others.

After a while, however, they awoke from their thoughts and motioned for their mother to continue.

‘All right, going back to our discussion. From now on, you will have to train to increase your spirit power. Ye and Xing, you two just have to accumulate your spirit power. As you are already divine beasts, you don't have to worry about the bottleneck on the sixth level. For you, Hei, the story is different instead. To advance, you need a cultivation method and techniques manuals to fight. Fortunately, your father left me these things, so you don't have to worry about it.’ At this point, Bao Bei stopped for a moment, undecided whether to continue or not, but she decided not to reveal everything, given that some topics were still too big for them.

‘Listen to me carefully, for no reason in the world must you reveal that the two of you are divine beasts. There's a reason why you don't have to talk about it, but it's too early to know. I want you to take your first steps in peace without worrying about things bigger than you. To help you do that, I will teach you a technique to make your body smaller and return it to its normal size whenever you want. Unfortunately, it applies only to divine beasts. But I think you will be happy to be able to continue using your movement formation, right?’

To this, Hei, Ye, and Xing nodded their heads and expressed themselves with happiness. Indeed they had thought of it in the past. Since Ye and Xing would surely grow bigger, they would no longer be able to remain attached to Hei's body. But now, it wasn't a problem anymore.

‘Another thing. When you move around, you have to say that you are a beast tamer, okay, Hei?’

"Yes, I understand, mother. But exactly what is a beast tamer?"

‘A beast tamer is nothing but a martial artist who, instead of fighting directly, uses spirit beasts. Through a pact between the person and the spirit beast, it is possible to form a bond between them. Whit that, they can communicate mentally and help mutual cultivation: this is called a spirit pact.

For this to happen, there is a need for both parties' consent. But on this point, there are no problems. I want you to make a spirit pact with Ye and Xing to further strengthen the cover of being a beast tamer. But your spirit power is still insufficient, so it's a thing for the future. Did you understand everything, didn't you?’

"Yes, mother. We have understood everything perfectly. We will do as you wish." The three who were excited about this idea answered in chorus.

After all, they were brother and sisters, so being able to get even closer to each other was a good thing in their eyes.

‘All right, good little ones of mine. However, we cannot start our training yet. First, we need to find a place to stay. The best place is to find a sect; there, we will find enough resources for your growth. I don't know where they are situated. So the first thing to do is to find a city where to obtain information. Going further north there is a big city, so we will go there, and then we will move to the nearest sect. Once we arrive there, we can start your training.’

So the four of them started to move towards this new path that would mark their future.