15 Demonic Shadow Wolf
In room 753 of the outer sect housing for Flaming Saber Sect, a surprising sight could be seen: A young man was shining brightly, with his hair flying everywhere, and a look of concentration. The whole room was lit up, as his skin glowed, and his eyes emitted flashes of light.
The young man was Li Zhu, who was in the midst of absorbing the energy from the Divine Beasts pill, while using the Undying Beasts soul method to cultivate (chapter 3).
The energy of the Divine Beasts pill was abundant, causing the bright phenomenon, which Li Zhu was unaware of. At the moment, he was attempting to break through to the fourth stage of Qi gathering realm, after having reached the third stage just a day earlier.
Although his foundation was somewhat unstable due to the speed of his breakthrough, Li Zhu tried to use the energy provided by the pill to fully consolidate his cultivation, before moving on.
When a cultivator reached the peak of a stage, there was always a bottleneck, which slowed down cultivation, and made it very hard to breakthrough to the next stage.
That said, with the amount and purity of the energy in the Divine Beasts pill, Li Zhu hadn't encountered any obstacles when reaching the third stage of Qi gathering, and he was now already about to reach the fourth stage.
Of course, the pill was now close to being exhausted, with only a small portion of energy left.
Realizing this, Li Zhu used all the remaining energy, as well as his own, attempting to force a breakthrough.
A river of energy flooded his meridians, forcing Li Zhu's muscles to expand violently, causing small cracks to form on his skin.
He gritted his teeth, trying to withstand the pain, realizing that if he failed his breakthrough this far in the process, it could result in chronic injuries which could affect his future cultivation.
It was already too late for regret, though, so Li Zhu drove all of the violent energy into his middle Dantian, which was already overflowing.
The cracks on his skin began to bleed, as his body became like a balloon, ready to pop at any moment.
"Ten... more... seconds!" yelled Li Zhu, who had estimated how much time it would take for him to breakthrough, while reminding himself that he could do it.
His body was reaching its limits, and he was now all red, with blood flowing out of the cracks, which were expanding.
The moment he was about to explode, though, the phenomenon abruptly stopped, and an aura of power erupted from Li Zhu, who had finally achieved his breakthrough.
'Damn, that was dumb! I almost died there!' thought Li Zhu, determined to never force a breakthrough anymore, to prevent what happened today to repeat itself.
Although he was now a fourth stage Qi gathering realm expert, the cost had been heavy, with most of his body now being covered in blood.
That said, since there were no broken bones or serious internal damage, Li Zhu could slowly heal himself, though it would take a few days to recover completely.
Not worried, Li Zhu quickly washed off the blood with a cold bath, before preparing himself for the upcoming selection.
It was now the day he needed to pick his first Spirit beast, and he was extremely excited, since even as the crown prince he had never been a summoner. With this thought in mind, Li Zhu went out of the outer sect housing, before walking towards Spirit Beasts peak, which the elders had instructed him about.
The Flaming Saber sect mostly used spirit beasts for alchemy components, such as fur or claws. Because of this, the amount of beasts they had was quite low, and the summoners even lower.
Summoning was not seen as a powerful fighting path, so only a few sects specialized in it, and kept thousands of powerful spirit beasts. In Crouching Tiger Kingdom, for example, the total amount of summoners was probably close to a few hundred, while the other two fighting paths were chosen by hundreds of thousands of cultivators.
In the Flaming Saber sect, there was one summoner elder, who was in charge of Spirit Beasts peak, even though he was not powerful enough to be a peak lord anywhere else.
After about an hour, Li Zhu finally reached Spirit Beasts peak, which was about five miles away from the outer sect housing. He was not in a rush, so it took him longer than what someone at his cultivation level would generally take.
There, a massive wall blocked off the peak, to avoid the escape of weak spirit beasts, which were not strong enough to be placed in cages.
A few people were standing outside the gate, waiting for it to open, presumably for the same reason as Li Zhu: Spirit beast picking.
Generally, a summoner could form a contract with two spirit beasts in each realm: once in the first Qi gathering stage, and once when he reached the sixth stage.
Because of this, some of the people waiting may have been current members of the sect who were hoping to get a second or even third spirit beast, though for any beast after that they would probably either go searching in the wild, or travel to larger cities, where powerful spirit beasts were sold in mass.
Li Zhu, knowing it would take some time for the gate to open, sat down, trying to get comfortable.
"Squeak"
At that moment, though, the iron fence swung open, revealing a short old man, holding himself over a cane, while he gestured to everyone to come in.
The old man then coughed, before saying, "I see some new faces here, so I will explain how Spirit Beasts peak works. There are three levels of beasts here, with the third level being beasts of the core consolidating realm. Anyone in the Qi gathering realm can only pick from a first or second level beast, since any higher would be dangerous. All powerful beasts are held in their own little habitats, caged inside by invisible heavenly energy walls, that only affect the beasts themselves. You guys can all roam around and pick a spirit beast that suits you, though I recommend not trying to form contracts with any beasts that have a higher cultivation than you, since the moment you enter their cage they can kill you. If you don't know how to form a contract, ask me, I will teach you. That's all you need to know... good luck!"
As he finished the explanation, most disciples rushed into the mountain, searching for a suitable beast. Some new members of the sect, instead, stopped to ask the old man questions about contracts, but Li Zhu already knew what he needed to do, so he also went to explore.
The mountain was large, and there were not many spirit beasts compared to the amount of room, meaning each one was quite hard to find.
As he walked, though, Li Zhu passed the cages of a few level two spirit beasts, such as Frost-Steel wolves, which he had fought against in the past.
These wolves were not adults, yet, and as they grew up they would be classified as level three spirit beasts, with the cultivation of core consolidating.
While he passed spirit beasts, the main thing Li Zhu thought about was the skills that he would gain after he fused with them, and how useful those skills would be to him. Although Frost-steel wolves were strong, Li Zhu was trying to find a beast with a skill which, after he found more powerful beasts in the future, he could still use. Because of this, Li Zhu was not looking for spirit beasts with simple offensive or defense skills, rather ones that had unusual and useful skills.
"Death-Thunder tiger... lets me control lightning... don't really need it"
"Violent Wind Falcon... could eventually give me the ability of flight, but there are faster flying beasts out there"
Walking around the mountain, Li Zhu saw many spirit beasts, though he chose none, eventually sighing, realizing that he would need to look elsewhere. Usually summoners could not fuse with their spirit beasts, so other people did not care for the same criteria as Li Zhu, who was stubborn when it came to the type of beast he wanted, and would not accept beasts that were only strong in the core consolidating realm or lower.
While he was sighing, a small little dog walked up to him, before licking his shoes. The dog was adorable, with soft fur and a cute face, and Li Zhu noticed a tag around its neck. The small tag meant this dog was actually a level one spirit beast, who was not strong enough to require a cage.
'A Moonlight dog' thought Li Zhu, crouching down to pet the animal. Moonlight dogs were very common, and their unique skill was their extraordinary sense of smell. Although that did count as an unusual skill, Li Zhu was definitely not willing to waste a spirit beast slot for such a weak dog, cute as it was.
Petting it, Li Zhu felt the silky smooth fur on his hand, which felt very comfortable. As his hand reached the back of the dog, though, he felt a little cut in the skin, almost like a scar.
Curious, Li Zhu moved the fur away, and what he saw left him speechless: there was a small blood red marking, which started to become hot as he touched it.
"It can't be... this is no Moonlight dog... it is a Demonic Shadow Wolf!" exclaimed Li Zhu, as he recalled the records he had read about this beast, when he studied in the royal library.
A Demonic Shadow Wolf was very weak at birth, and it would not grow stronger unless given demonic energy, which was why most of these beasts lived in demonic territories, which the Endless Sword continent did not have. The unique characteristic of Demonic Shadow Wolves was that, as long as they were given enough demonic energy, they could grow endlessly, never reaching a limit.
For one of these beasts, which hadn't been seen on this continent for thousands of years, to appear in the Flaming Saber sect, was extremely shocking, and Li Zhu wondered if there were more of these Demonic Shadow Wolves out there.
He did not even think about how the sect could have misidentified the beast, since it had all the features of a Moonlight dog, and if Li Zhu hadn't touched the scar by chance, there was no way he would have found out this secret.
Furthermore, he only knew about Demonic Shadow Wolves because he had read a book about extinct and rare species, which was probably only held in the royal library of the Heavenly Dragon Empire, the largest collection of knowledge in the continent.
"A Demonic Shadow wolf can learn many skills, and the first one is Shadow Lurk, which allows it to meld with shadows, remaining hidden from sight, which is perfect for sneak attacks." As Li Zhu recalled the information he had learned about these spirit beasts, he grew more excited... he had found a skill that he could use!
