Test Subjects

*Things like sexism and racism are purely for worldbuilding and to make it more realistic. Thank you for your understanding.*

Qing Fang sat in the lotus position in the large hole he had dug for himself.

The family of three that used to live in the house above this hole had unfortunately died terrible deaths before they could even realise what was happening. Naturally, Qing Fang didn't care for their plight as they would not care for his: simple.

His huge white body sat stationary and was still more than three meters tall despite him sitting. His massively long legs that disgustingly had three joints, with one of them going inwards like a four-legged animal's hind legs, looked strange when he sat cross-legged; but ultimately rested there functionally.

Two absolutely massive wings larger than a tall building were beautifully folded behind him and hid their massive span as they folded around Qing Fang like a cloak. When folded, the huge spears of bone that stuck out from the joints hoisted themselves above Qing Fang's head like a terrifying crown.

Beneath the earth, time passed with no regard and days fell to weeks like nothing. During this time, Qing Fang was in a state of meditative sleep as he let his soul recover.

His unlocked soul which was once a large beautiful sphere of shimmering blue was cracked and grey, and Qing Fang constantly felt like his life could just slip away and vanish when it was in this state.

However, as the giant slept and his soul started to recover, something strange started to happen deep within his body where his broken soul rested.

Sleep and mental rest nourished the soul slowly back to what it once was before, fibres of it reaching around like ribbons and caressing itself. However, from within the dark abyss that housed the soul, claws of darkness reached out towards it like hiding vipers waiting to strike.

Qing Fang's brows unconsciously furrowed as his fangs bared and he snarled while in deep meditation. A feeling of pain and danger crept ever-closer as it seemed like the light above the cloud, the heaven waiting for the dead, all things that were good-were about to be stripped from him!

No matter the being, strong or weak, they took solace from knowing that the future held a sort of comfort at some point. A moment of rest, a second of gratuitous reflection: peace of mind.

However, sweat started to form on Qing Fang's brow as his gruesome expression turned to one of worry. His breathing quickened and roughened as he felt a feeling he had never felt before...

Doom.

Uncomfortable moans that were almost like weeps came from the monstrous giant as he slept. All the while, darkness caved in around his soul that started to cry out in fear. The abyss where his soul rested once seemed like an empty nothingness, but now it seemed to be the home of all things black and dark.

The darkness crept closer until it embraced the shivering blue soul like a chain of fear and terror. While in the real world, Qing Fang's monstrous body started to shake with trepidation and unease as one could see his eyes thrashing about beneath his eyelids with nervous terror, like an animal waiting to be devoured with no salvation.

And it was at this moment...

The all-encompassing darkness rushed in like a flood and completely crushed the stunning blue soul!

The cracks in the soul were seeped through with the darkness clawing to get in with unimaginable hunger and madness! The blueness of the soul tried to resist, but it was dyed black by the abyss.

It seemed like the soul's own body had replaced it with something else...

Wave after wave of suffocating darkness squeezed and crushed all things human as it was replaced with animalistic rage and hubris. But nothing could be done, for all matter of trickery and innocence was useless in the face of true power, true darkness...

Grunts of fear from Qing Fang started to fade away and were replaced by moans of unimaginable pleasure. The monster started to grunt and growl like a beast as its human soul was devoured and replaced by a monstrous one.

Before long, the shimmering blue soul that was trying to repair itself was devoured and turned completely black. A strange red glow in the centre dulled out toward the completely black edges of the soul, seeming like a sun within the darkness. It was monstrously beautiful.

Qing Fang's restless breathing had returned to calm, however, they were different from before. Unlike the soft human breathing he once had, rough breathing similar to a beasts escaped his nostrils.

Whatever sympathy that could be mustered from before had completely vanished and only a beast's mentality remained. Mercilessness, dishonour and shamelessness were all that remained. And if before it was something manufactured by his human logic, now it was a beast's natural instinct.

Kill or be killed. Oh, the beauty of it.

Qing Fang could no longer smile, for he saw no point. He could no longer love, for he could not fathom it. He could no longer hope, for thinking about the future was pointless at the moment.

And...he could no longer rest or take solace, for a monster could not allow it.

...

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Large eyes opened slowly to the sound of flesh against wood up above them. A stale expression was worn on the fanged face as his body eerily rose to stand up. There was no expression or needless pondering as Qing Fang jumped out of the hole he had dug for himself.

He did not know how long he had been down there, and he did not need to know.

His huge body still looked thin and malnourished, however, its sheer hugeness swept away and feeling of weakness as he kneeled in the open living space of the house he was in. Three lifeless bodies lay scattered around him, with grey skin and empty flesh that not even maggots would want. A stink came from them as they had begun to partially decompose in the air, seeming to have been there about a month.

Qing Fang tried to reach past the door with his divine sense but snarled as his soul was still injured. If not, he could crush the souls of all those below Stage 7 who didn't have an unlocked soul themselves.

Qing Fang stole a glance at his soul within himself and was unsurprised to see it was black and red instead of blue. It was not that he wasn't surprised, but those feelings had vanished for they were useless. What he did look at were the cracks that were still laced upon his soul, and after seeing the fruits after a month of meditation, he concluded it would be a long, long time before it was fully healed and he could use his soul again.

'What a dream...' As he meditated, Qing Fang's mind was thrust someplace else, amidst flesh and blood. Into the belly of what he had truly become. Once again, he remembered that the soul housed more knowledge about one's self than the mind could comprehend. Memories, or more like thoughts, that were not his own were told to him by his own soul in a dream of darkness and blood.

'This must be similar to the inherited memories that monsters and beasts receive. What a wonderful thing; to know things without having to learn them. Is that what I have become? A monster, a beast? The mysteries of heaven and earth still amaze those trapped below it. I suppose nothing is impossible, just unknown.'

Qing Fang thought as he neared the door where the knocks were coming from. His head was above the door even though he was kneeling, using the senses of his Stage 5 body to know what was on the other side.

And then all of a sudden, the door was opened in a blur and the unfortunate human on the other side was grabbed and pulled in with a huge hand gripping his torso. As the door was slammed shut again by Qing Fang, he did not wince as he squeezed and blood splattered all over his naked body.

Blood was nothing but food to him, and he was not hungry right now. Cultivation still lay in the accumulation of Laws, only this time, the Law of Blood.

His body was unbelievably powerful, in the realm of an early Stage 5 cultivator's body. This strength was his natural birthright, his natural suppression for his beastly rarity.

All manner of heavenly beasts were born with unimaginable strength that humans did not possess at birth, their only excuse for being a weak species. Dragons, serpents, worldly entities and heavenly monsters; they were all born with a body that had natural suppression and was born strong compared to humans.

Qing Fang possessed a body like this. As a mortal, he would be slightly weaker than he is right now, maybe Stage 4 he thought. However, he was a Stage 1 Blood path cultivator and his body was strengthened to Early Stage 5. But, Qing Fang knew that the increase in his body's strength will barely increase as he cultivates in the early stages. Maybe only increasing a few minor realms before he was Stage 6 or even Stage 7.

And when his body's strength matched his cultivation realm, the natural suppression he had would have vanished and he would be just like a weak human of the same rank. But for now, he could enjoy the advantage of being born a strong beast.

This is what his inherited memories had told to him, and he had no choice but to believe it. After all, who wouldn't trust their own soul?

Releasing the bloodied carcass of the weak human to the floor with an empty expression, Qing Fang thought. 'I have learned much about myself, but there's a lot I still don't know...'

Indeed, Qing Fang still knew barely anything about his new self other than this. However, what he did learn was that...

Everything was blood.

Everything that made him what he is was due to his Blood path affinity. It was almost as if he was born in the wrong body, or maybe had the wrong soul for a measly human. And what could've caused this is something he was not worthy of knowing. In fact, Qing Fang thought he would never find out at all.

Maybe he is just a test subject for a higher being...he could not know.

'There are still things I must do.' Qing Fang thought. Despite his want to leave the hidden city, the cage of beasts, there were new things that had taken priority.

And those were discovering more about Blood path, about his future, and healing his soul. Even with this body, he didn't want to rush to leave the cage of beasts. After all, what waited for him on the other side? The Qing Clan?

He would much rather deal with the forces of this city than with one of the monarchs of the Mortal Realm. And besides, a cultivator can only pierce the atmosphere and explore the countless worlds of the Mortal Realm when they were Stage 6 cultivators. He was trapped anywhere he went.

He did not know what the future held or what he wanted to do or where he wanted to go, however, he would just focus on cultivating. And for now, staying here was better for him.

Besides that, he would go wherever there was fresh blood. After all, what he needed to cultivate was blood. And to do that, he needed to kill. There was no rush to go anywhere just yet...

Qing Fang reached out a clawed hand to the dead human he had just killed and watched as the blood of his body started to swirl maliciously before culminating into a fountain that poured out of his chest, eventually forming into a sphere of blood that floated before Qing Fang.

'Ah. I missed this.' Qing Fang used his Stage 1 cultivation to manipulate the law fragments. It had only been a short while since he had thrown away his old cultivation, however, he sorely missed the feeling of manipulating law fragments.

However, his control was naturally limited to Stage 1. The amount he could conjure and move at one time was limited to a Stage 1 cultivator's might, which was truly pathetic. At most, he could conjure and control a puddle of blood.

Nevertheless, Qing Fang swirled the blood into a small flowing stream that flowed directly into his stomach, for safekeeping. After all, he needed to cultivate the blood, and he simply refused to do it from a dead body when he could carry it around in his stomach.

Not only that, his body was thin and weak, he obviously needed to eat to recover.

The blood from a single man was not enough to leave a dent in his huge stomach and it was useless to cultivate just that, Qing Fang would wait until he was completely full of blood.

'For now, I guess I can play around with Blood path for a while. Now, where can I find some test subjects?'

From that girl Chu Hua's memories, Qing Fang already knew all he needed to about the City. The City Administration was a new organisation established by the self-proclaimed City Lord. Under his power, the Freedom Alliance and the Temple were growing weaker and weaker by the day.

The Temple was where Qing Chu Hua was from, however, her family was betrayed and overthrown by the leader, Hong Yuxuan.

The Freedom Alliance was the biggest force independent of the City Lord and they would likely have some subjects that Qing Fang would be interested in, however, he preferred not to meddle with these cornered beasts.

Thus, he decided to look toward the City Administration. They were huge and had plenty of academies which nurtured youths for cultivation around the city, just what Qing Fang was after.

The City Lord had many regional barons below him that governed the districts of the city. And each of them had a cultivation academy that they looked after.

Where Qing Fang was currently was in the slums, a providence of the city with no ruler, a no man's land. He would have to travel to the inner-city and to one of the baron's regions to find a cultivation academy.

Qing Fang decided that he would go and scout out some ripe youths.

...

Da Huan sat in the lotus position amidst others his age within a small hall as they meditated. An older man sat at the front of the room and watched over them, waiting for at least one to lose concentration.

All of the youths, including Da Huan, were aged sixteen or under. They were being taught about cultivation and conditioned for meditation before they took that first step of ascension and awakened to the World of Laws.

It was a training of spirituality so they could take that first step, among fighting training and basic scholarly learning of reading and writing.

In his class, Da Huang was among the closest to completing ascension, reaching a state of harmony and discovering the World of Laws. From then on, he would undergo the ritual of choosing and become a cultivator.

What the youths had to do was study the theory of the dao and align themselves with the world. For them right now, everything they were learning could be a fantasy had they not seen people flying through the skies with their own eyes.

The youth Da Huang was absorbed in his meditation as he pondered the deeper meaning behind the dao, the world itself. Everything had rules and regulations to it, and the answer behind that fact lay within the dao.

When he had discovered his own comprehension of the dao, reaching a state of harmony, the dao would show itself to him and he could cultivate.

His eyes were closed as his heart was calm until...

"You!!"

The elder at the front of the room called angrily while pointing to one of the youths. The youth, a young girl, lowered her head embarrassedly as she received looks from her peers all around her.

"Losing concentration at this point in your education, young lady, worries me."

The elder said as he paced around the room and began a lengthy lecture for the duration of their class, making many roll their eyes at first but soon regret it.

After listening to the elder rant for the rest of the duration of their class, the youths were let out of the hall to practice their unarmed combat training for the day.

This was Da Huang's least favourite class of the week as he was quite unathletic and below the average height for his age. If not for his vast spirituality and learning ethic, he wouldn't have been named as one of the best in his class.

The young boy practiced pivoting his body for hours and changing between stances, often stumbling and falling to the floor. He always got up with an annoyed expression and dirt on his face, souring his mood.

'Move legs!! Move!!' His frustration was unimaginable because he just couldn't move his own limbs the way he wanted to. Even the girls of his class could do the basic stances and pivots, while he would trip even at this point.

However, what he failed to notice was that far above him, on the roof of one of the academy pagodas, a hooded figure with his entire body covered by a large robe was staring down at him with unnerving eyes.

And as Da Huang eventually got tired of exercising and practising, he headed toward his lodgings within the academy.

And the hooded figure far above followed over him as the sun started to set and activity within the academy started to die down.

Normally, Da Huang would feel safe with the Stage 3 guards from the City Administration patrolling, however, he didn't know how unsafe he was.

*3,042/3,000 words*