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As for the spiritual beast hiding in the trees, they didn't notice him at all. He had been eavesdropping on their conversation and learnt quite a lot from this.
He was likely the strongest beast in this forest if their words were to be trusted. This was good news as it meant the fauna wouldn't be endangering him here. There were some negative aspects to it but it didn't change much. The danger still came from human cultivators.
As for this trio… He wondered what to do with them.
It was a fact that spiritual beast could eat humans. It happened a lot as well. But as a previous human, he didn't feel like doing it. It would be like cannibalism… Yeah, it wasn't something he could do. Unless he was at the very end of the line and without any other options. He would probably be more at ease eating another owl than a human to be honest.
So, what to do? Should he just leave as if he did not seem them? He could. No benefits but no detriments. Still, it would be a shame not to make use of them in some ways.
There wasn't much he needed except for cultivation resources. Now being in the spiritual accumulation realm, he would need a lot more. Absorbing the wild energy and eating beast cores wouldn't be enough if he wanted to truly grow. It might be enough to get him to the fifth stage with an average acceptable speed.
But never beyond that.
Humans managed to overcome spiritual beast because they found a way to avoid this problem. Alchemy. Making medicines, pills, pellets and much more who could help with cultivation. If he ever wanted to reach the level of a sentient spiritual beast and considered an actual by the humans, he needed a lot of those.
And right there, he might have the perfect tools.
Three humans weaker than him and in need of something he could easily provide. They were here for a spiritual beast companion, weren't they? Couldn't he find one and give it to them? Of course, he could. He didn't care about the other spiritual beasts. To him, they were products too. But he would be the one to fix a price on their heads.
He chuckled at the evil thoughts he had. He would make money by scamming the kids of this sect.
Well, it probably wouldn't be long before the higher level of the sect learnt of it but it was fine. He should be able to have enough time before they found out to milk a few resources out of it.
Now, he only had to think on how to approach the trio.
He couldn't speak but since he could understand their words, it was obviously the same language. And that meant he could probably write and they would understand. Now, however, he might frighten them if he approached… It was better to lead them to him instead of forcing himself onto them.
Yeah, that was a good idea.
He would practice the usual scam of the experts that led you to him because you were special. He laughed as he flew off, there were some things he needed to get first. And he was still hungry.
…
An hour and some later, he was no longer hungry and he was now admiring his work. There was a rock in front of him.
He used his spiritual energy to cover the end of one of his wings and used to write through the rock. It was an application of the first of the four principles of spiritual energy manipulation, coating. One would manifest the spiritual energy outside the soul sea to cover oneself, one's equipment or to infuse it into something through touch. By using the 'coating', one could easily go beyond his abilities and safely at that. It was the very basic of spiritual energy and the first thing to learn.
Obviously, he knew how to use such a principle like the back of his hand. It was the very foundation of every spiritual techniques.
Using it to coat his wing, he could then apply enough strength to literally write onto the rock. And that's exactly what he did. He read what he wrote in his mind once more:
"Trade spiritual beasts for spiritual pills. Five pills per stage. Find me at the big stone to the north"
There was a big stone at the north of the trio's camp. He would use that as his base of operations.
He grabbed the rock and flew off with it.
As he reached the camp, he could see that the two girls had left to sleep and only the guy remained awake. They were likely taking turns to watch the surroundings. In case.
He flew lower and went to land with his rock on a tree branch. He would wait until the guy watched the other w
It didn't take long.
Then, he dove down and dropped the stone gently before flying away. Now, he only needed to wait. He went back to the big hole in the big tree that he planned to make his new home and began to meditate.
He had to train a little in the four principles and their application before returning to cultivating. Just to make sure he was used to everything once again.
There were four principles to the use of spiritual energy. Coating was the first. The other three were:
2) External Manipulation: This technique consisted of sending the spiritual energy beyond the body of the user and sending to move in particular directions, even controlling it from afar. The further one advanced, the further away one could be. Speed, size, manifestation time... It was many times more difficult than the first technique but a must as well.
3) Fine Tuning: It was the ability to focus the spiritual energy on a single place and intricately weaving it at the smallest of levels. Coating one's arm and coating one's muscles inside said arm brought completely different effects. Fine tuning was the science behind maximizing the usage of the energy.
4) Domain: The ability to manifest one's spiritual energy anywhere at any time in a specific area, the Domain. It was the highest-level technique of the spiritual energy mastery and one of the strongest. Becoming a god might be impossible but being one was possible inside one's domain if you reached a high enough comprehension.
Back in the days, he mostly used the first and fourth principle as he fought in close range. He still made use of the other two but he wasn't as much of an adept.
Since he was now an owl, he would likely have to focus on the second principle, to make use of his innate advantage of flight. Maybe he would have to work on Fine Tuning as well to boost his speed… He would have to think of it but for now, he would simply try to use all four principles with this new body and see if it all worked correctly.
Of course, he had already tested coating before so he skipped to the other three…And spent the night training.
…
The next morning, the trio of young cultivators were surprised to find a rock with words written upon it in a place where there had been nothing the day before. They curiously looked at it and, after reading it, jumped in excitement.
If this wasn't a prank, it was truly a blessing.
Five spiritual pills did cost a bit but they could manage. If they could get a tamed beast for such a low price though, it was more than worth it.
The three of them began to fervently discuss how to approach this. They wondered if it was true or a trap at first. In the end, they decided that they would consider it true. No one would waste their time on tricking trash like them anyways. They had heard about evil cultivators kidnapping kids and such but, honestly, they were still on sect territory. They didn't fear that.
After that, they began to discuss on what they should do about the news. They had a few pills on them already. No more than a dozen each though. They were the lowest of pills but they were still pills containing spiritual energy. It wasn't cheap to poor people.
The problem was that they all wanted a strong beast of the fifth stage… But only had enough for one if they pitched their all and added it to each other. But which one would sacrifice his chance to get a good spiritual beast? None of them.
Of course, they could also use their own stock and get a weaker beast. They would all be able to get one that way. But that was not what they wanted.
In the end, they attacked each other… And only one of the girls survived the fierce fight.
They had been friends but in the face of a benefit that could turn their world around, they became enemies.
The surviving girl picked all the stuff from the three and moved eagerly towards the big rock while humming. The corpses would be eaten by wild beasts and no one would ever know anything about it. Not like people would care if the lowest ranked disciples died anyway.
She would come back with a powerful tamed beast and say that the other two sacrificed themselves so she could come back with it.
After faking sadness and remorse for a few months, everything would go back to normal.
