25

Unaware of the tears of an innocent young lady, Hong was living the life of his dreams.

Ma Yuntang, the boy with whom he had sparred with at the graduation ceremony had run into him a week later when he was still searching for information near the school. This had proved very helpful to him to uncover many mysteries. Mainly their martial arts.

Using martial arts with qi had been hard. He had tried to do what was possible in murim in the tiny world, only to fail in his past life. But failure is the father of sucess. After much attempts, he found out the reason why martial arts couldn't as much summon power as they did in murim. It was the energy between heaven and earth.

Heaven and earth energy is the power spiritualists absorb to cultivate soul force. This energy exists as mist, unbounded and soft. Accepting all changes and existing formlessly in the tiny world.

The heaven and earth energy of murim is different. It is rigid. Connected and cannot be manipulated easily. If heaven and earth energy of tiny world is like a mist, then the energy of murim is like a three dimensional net.

A person must reach a certain level of internal energy to reach it. But once they do connect with the net using qi, they are able to move massive amounts of energy with simple movements.

But this universe lack the net. So the power Hong had displayed so far was the power of his internal energy only. Even the storm demon was only able to move a small amount of the heaven and earth energy.

In this world, spiritualists gather the energy till it's quality exceeds the quality of the energy present and use the difference of quality to change the surroundings.

The spiritualists of the tool realm went both ways.Their martial arts were able to pull more power than his own because of the tool they had created. They basically first gather enough energy to change the quality of the energy, and use their tools as a medium to create a net by using their soul force. The key part was, the tool creates a net. This was the limitation. It means that they are able to use martial arts only when they use tools. Which explains their focus of one aspect.

What he needed was to find a method to create his own net without depending on a tool. Afterall, there are people in the upper realms capable of sealing the soul seas, not to mention his need to depend on soul force instead of qi.

While dodging another flaming fist, Hong delivered a round house kick aiming towards Ma yuntang's temple. Ma Yuntang, or as Hong addresses him, brother Yuntang was a member from a prestigious family in this realm. They are said to be a branch who were directly decended from the first tool cultivator himself. And with their fearsome gauntlets coupled with their explosive flame martial arts, they had proven themselves to be one of the best .

After yuntang met Hong once more, he had extended an invitation to visit his family. Ma yuntang, as the son of the brother of the current patriach had been impressed by Hong's martial ability and he directly asked him to stay at his clan lands till he finds himself wanting to leave. And as someone with no source of income, clothing or a roof above his head, Hong had accepted it.

The kick was blocked, but the power still carried Ma yuntang a few meters away.

They were currently engaging in their morning practice, a daily habit they had been engaging for the three weeks he was staying.

"Let's stop for now, it's about time to eat"

Hong said to which the battle crazy boy gave a reluctant nod before they head inside the somewhat large manor.

The breakfast was pleasent. At least in Hong's opinion. For normal people, the spice in the food would've made them swallow an entire tub of ice-cream. Truly a fiery meal.

The elders ate separately from the young ones, which meant there were no table manners whatsoever. Some chewed while opening their mouths to maximum while some nibbled their food. Brothers and sisters all talked while their mouths were filled with food but no one, minded, not even Hong. As they say, when in Rome do what the Romans do.

Hong ate his food with relish, stuffing his mouth with anything he could reach . His mind was so focused at his meal, he almost missed a question that could change his future.

"Little Yuntang, when are you going to find your second demon spirit?"

The girl with long and fiery red hair, Ding Ge questioned , to which Ma yuntang who was sitting next to Hong replied.

"I already know what I want sis Ge. I just can't seem to find one"

Curious, Hong asked," there're hundreds of demon beasts in the forest, what are you looking for anyway". He wanted to be a bit helpful to the family that was providing him free meals.

"Molten lava jiao dragon snake"

A less common, but easy to find demon beast, Hong nodded in agreement. And it's fiery nature and sharp and sturdy scales along with flexible body would allow him to cover his weakness well. At least that's what Hong thought.

"Hahahahahaha, chough, chough, chough".Ding Ge started to laugh out so loud she choked on her food. After clearing her throat she began to reprimand him.

"Quit dreaming, ma, pa and even uncle Ma spent years trying to find one for themselves before they settled to a red star porcupine. "

"But sis, that's the best one for me!"

"We know!!"

The whole table, even some adults chimed in simultaneously much to Ma Yuntang's embarrassment. So he turned to Hong's direction for support. But to his suprise, unlike the other times he had embarrassed himself infront of his family, Hong didn't turn around and pretend that he didn't exist. But instead he seemed to be in a deep thought.

'Gotcha'

"See Hong belives me" Yuntang shifted the entire attention to his friend, hoping he would get embarrassed in righteous fury. But what he said next made both tables go silent.

"Well, I might know a place"

"Ya sure?"

Ding Ge suddenly asked with sudden seriousness." Like i said before, ma and pa searched the entire land, but still couldn't find one"

"Yeah, pretty sure there are enough demon beasts of any attribute there" then Hong pulled out the head of a peak gold snow wind ape before stating,"I know ,cause I came from there "

Sure enough, no one got scared, instead they all grew excited. Adults walked to the kids table and observed the head with professional eyes while the children poked it to satiate their curiosity.

"All right , house meeting" the patriach, Ma Yuntao announced in a loud voice to gain the attention of everyone present. Then turned to Hong.

"Can you please tell us , how you got an elemental type demon beast head? "

"Sure " Hong replied since that was also his plan. He had spent more than three weeks in the battle realm and almost all the demon beasts were cultivating by specialising an ability after they reached the gold rank. Be it iron bite,burning fur,super regeneration, super sight, all of the, limited their bloodline powers and focused on one aspect making them one trick ponies.

Meanwhile, the ones in the tiny realm try to follow human foot steps by trying to reach the spiritual god levels by cultivating natural laws instead of one skill.

Hong had hunted many of these beasts, choosing to seal their souls in his inner garden for future needs.

Then Hong spent a few hours telling them about glory city, demon beasts and demon beast hordes and the dark guild. He also told them about how he came here after jumping into a pond which rendered the people flabbergasted.

"So, what do you think?" Hong finished his narration and asked the family. He really hoped that they would come.

"Well if it's like what you say, then there might be a lot of families willing to move there " then seeing Hong's puzzled face, the patriach explained.

"A lot of families in here want to cultivate and at least have one influencer rank. If there are demon spirits that can let us reach that level, anyone would be willing to risk their lives for it. Besides us reds never feared fighting".

The next day, the patriarch met with all the leaders of the influential families before revealing the information to the public. And the result was terrific.

All the families, rich and poor gathered their belongings, destroyed their fields and arrived to the gateway before even the sun set. Hong had already shown the leaders the path, which they all followed reaching safely to the tiny realm.

That day, more than a hundred thousand humans, all combat ready stepped into the tiny world, shifting the tilted scales of balance to one side.