Nangua reclined on the chair as he brought both hands together. He organized his words first and then explained: "Pills, made from alchemy, usually require some natural ingredients. That is because spiritual energy is naturally contained in anything that compose our world. Life is birthed from it one might say. The best ingredients are those with an abundance of energy obviously. Now, what do you think would be the greatest ingredient?"

It did not take more than an instant for Jin to reach an answer and give it: "A cultivator"

Nangua nodded and added: "That's right. Cultivators are those who absorb the spiritual energy to grow beyond their mortal states. As such, they are the entities with the highest amount of spiritual energy in this world. Which means that they are also one of the best resources available"

Jin stated: "Yet there are so many cultivators... It would not make sense. Violence would be far more abundant"

Nangua explained: "That's how it once was. But then, a few figures emerged and brought a new order. Saints, Evils, Neutrals, Oceanics...These are not denominations born alongside the world but created after many eras of massacre. The Saints and Oceanics are against using the lives of others directly while the Evils are in favor of it. Of course, this is simply the superficial way it has been presented to the world"

"I will now tell you the truth as it was told to me. Whether you believe or not will be up to you. I do hope you will though but...We'll see... Anyways. The figures that emerged to stop the massacre, can you guess what their origins were?"

"Humans, right?" answered Jin. He already had a vague idea of where this was going.

Nangua nodded: "Exactly. Their goal was solely to stop the massacre of humans by humans. While selfless in a way, it was also selfish in another. Since human cultivators no longer went after one another, who do you think they began to hunt?"

"Spiritual Beasts"

Nangua countered: "Not exactly. The correct answer would be 'everything that is not human' instead. They were named Saints by the other humans. And they began to violently start to exterminate the other races instead after unifying their own. Forced, the many beings within the oceans banded together and, thus, birthed the Oceanics"

"However, they did fight back the Saints. Instead, they allied with them. They had to pick a side and so, they did. What was left were the myriads of non-human beings on land. Those...were unable to unify. Because of the distance between themselves and the reality that humans were everywhere around them. Some figures did emerge from those beings, nicknamed as the Evils by all others. But they were not enough to reverse the situation obviously"

"They fought for eras. As time went by, some beings from those three factions got tired of it and left, creating the Neutrals. However, many remained and many new ones joined. Humans and Oceanics prospered while all others suffered. The balance was already tilted on one side and, in time, it continued this way"

"It developed into the situation of today. Populations of non-human beings are regulated by Humans on land, reared within enclaves until they reach a certain point at which the humans start harvesting them...They have long sorted out and selected the breed they wished to keep. Those that had quick reproductive abilities and weak powers mostly. Small insects and little beasts... It's become close to impossible for new Evils to grow naturally thanks to this"

Jin thought back to the time in which he joined a frontier war. Were those the enclaves Nangua referred to? It was quite likely. After all, they controlled the ecosystems within. The fact that they used it as a way to test their descendants and provide them with field experience was something different but still made Jin think that what Nangua stated might be true... After all, humans did completely control the lands. And there were many such enclaves.

Kingdoms, Sects, Businesses... Many of those owned a few. They were responsible for their control and earned benefits in exchange. They were basically 'goods' in a way. High-grade ones, obviously.

He also recalled a few bets made by the powerful men and women at The Peak. They were betting such enclaves with each other during the tournament.

To them, what was merely a product was much more in the eyes of Nangua.

However, this was not what he asked about. Even though it was valuable insights, it was not what he wanted and needed to hear. In fact, it had nothing to do with him. Jin stated: "This was not my question"

Nangua chuckled and added: "Not quite, I admit. However, it is linked. This is the backstory behind me being captured. A very far away kind of explanation. As a spiritual being originating from a plant, I am on the 'can hunt' list of humans"

"Alright, stop glaring at me, I admit it, I was only introducing some things to you... What the liquid was... It was my blood. Or, more accurately, blood created from me consuming human blood and recreating it within my body for my own consumption. Blood is blood, you might say but you would be slightly wrong. The blood of humans does not contain any elemental properties from birth while mine, and the blood of those like me, do"

"In my case, the element of 'vines' and 'pumpkin' are the fundamentals of my existence. There is also 'life', 'earth', 'water', 'light' and so on in smaller proportions... So, as such, my blood contains some insights on those elements. Now, however, my blood, while containing those, remains blood. If consumed just like that, it would have no effects whatsoever. After all, what you eat never comes in contact with your spiritual soul sea and your core"

"That is what the alchemical array and the pool were made. It forced my blood to react in some ways to become something else while keeping its properties. It turned it into an elixir that could interact with the drinker's core"