12 Three Reasons

So, after a nice conversation with his mom and sister, he took a shower and went to bed.

His first day in the sanctuary could be categorized as a complete success, so he only needed to stick to the plan and keep moving forward.

The next day, Ling Yun went immediately towards the teleport station and entered Steel Armor Shelter. After appearing in his room, the first thing Ling Yun did was to open the inventory and retrieve the body of the sacred-blood black beetle and activate his gene vision.

Once his eyes fell on the small creature, he could see the ten white spots where the meat which could help him evolve were located. Unfortunately, there were also 4 spots located in the shell of the creature, so he might not get a hundred percent of the sacred-blood geno points.

Still, that was only a secondary gain. What he needed the most was the black crystal.

He took out a big metal bowl he bought from the system and placed the dead creature there. After that, he opened up the shell using the wound on his underside as an entry point.

Since he only had ten geno points, ordinary ones at that, it was difficult, but not impossible. After about ten minutes of using the knife his mom gifted him, he managed to completely open the creature and started emptying the meet on the bowl.

After a few seconds, his hands fell on something solid. And since the black beetle was very soft under its shell, it could only be one thing.

Ling Yun gently and reverently cleaned the black crystal from the beetle's insides and held it in his hands. It was, as described in the novel, the size of a pigeon egg with a very beautiful luster.

"Finally, we are together." He said while smiling creepily towards the crystal.

"Anne, how do I use the item upgrade thingy?" He asked merrily. After all, this would be his first step in becoming a god-like existence in the sanctuaries.

"Just take the item in your left hand and activate the inventory spot where it is located."

Ling Yun did as was instructed and a system message appeared before his eyes.

[Do you want to use the Item Upgrade on the black crystal?]

"Yes, do it already." Ling Yun answered not very patiently.

After that, light started to surround the black crystal and it floated off his hand. He could see the light getting brighter and brighter until he had to cover his eyes. Eventually, after a few seconds passed, the light started to die away and he took the crystal on his hand once again.

After the light completely cleared, what remained was the same crystal in the same size, but it had a lot of more bright spots and it's black color became darker. It before it looked like the night sky, now it looked like a real galaxy.

"Master, the upgrade is finished and was successful."

Ling Yun smiled maniacally and placed the crystal near its mouth.

"Great. Bottoms up." He said and in one fluid movement swallowed the black crystal.

He felt energy swell in his body for a second before it suddenly disappeared and felt some stirring in his sea of soul. Visualizing it, Ban'er was greedily eyeing the crystal and the nightmare centipede was not too far away from him, but his other beast souls were far away from the duo. Like what happened with Han Sen, they were scared shitless of the super griffon and to a lesser degree of the centipede.

Ling Yun immediately wanted to feed the crystal to a nice beast soul so it could evolve, but he hadn't planned that far off yet.

Now that he had successfully assimilated the black crystal into his sea of soul, he ordered all oh his beast souls to not touch the crystal and started to think.

But meanwhile, he ordered the auto-kitchen to prepare the sacred-blood creature in front of him.

He didn't even bother to separate the gene pots before preparing the food, as it was a small creature all things considered.

'Okay, I have entered First God's Sanctuary and obtained the black crystal as well as the black beetle sacred-blood soul. That was my primary objective on the first month of entering the sanctuary. It should still be a month or so before Han Sen canonically gets the black crystal, so I should wait that much before giving him the beast soul armor. The next big event after that is the bloody slayer hunt, which I have no interest in. After that, the purple winged dragon hunt, which I will too let develop organically. And after that is the shura landing on Roca Planet, which will be a very important point in the life of Han Sen, or Dollar. That should be four months from now. A month after that, the martial ring should open, and the competition should start. By that point, I need to be away from Steel Armor Shelter. I don't need to do anything special after giving Han Sen the armor, so I could very well move towards Glory Shelter after that.' Ling Yun mused to himself.

Indeed, he was planning on entering the martial arts contest of the First God's Sanctuary. His reasoning was threefold. He wanted to see on what standing he was. He knew his cultivation scriptures were something very valuable and superior compared to the other ones he knew of. He was also aware that he had a good battle awareness, but his weapon techniques were still not up to standard. So, he wanted to test himself.

The second reason was, of course, the sacred-blood beast soul he would get as a reward for the top ten, the spot of "the chosen". He was aware it might be impossible for him to reach that stage, but he had to try, nonetheless.

The third and final reason was exposure. He was a complete unknown to the alliance. His background was as humble as it gets and didn't have any backer. He also didn't plan on entering any organization, at least not until military school. So, if he didn't want to enter any of them, why did he want exposure? Simple, really. He wanted to be coveted.

A lot of organizations would want him to join them, so they wouldn't mistreat him. He would also be able to cooperate with them in hunts or other things, which would increase his wallet and further expand his name. It was also a way of protecting his family. Once he was on the spotlight, his family would be too, which would reduce the risk of someone harming them.

But for this, he still needed more strength.

His best skills were with the spear and bow, so he needed a spear beast soul. Off the top of his head, he remembered two creatures that could drop them. One was the copper-toothed beast, which were a primitive creature, and the mutant golden sawfish, which was in the dark swamp. Both were a possibility, but if he could evolve them, he would choose the copper-toothed beast. After all, it was closer.

As for the bow, he already had one. True, it was an ordinary beast soul, but that could be solved with the crystal. The problem, though, was the arrow beast soul. He only knew of one of those, and they were too in the Dark swamp. The problem was, Han Sen got his arrow there, so it might affect his chances of getting it if he gained it from them. It was troublesome.

Other than that, his sword skills were next, but he already had a sword beast soul. He had an armor as well, so that was that.

After finishing the thought, the system announced his meal was ready, and he dug in with gusto. It was his first time eating sacred-blood flesh, after all. Why wouldn't he be happy?

The soup was, as always, delicious. As far as he could tell, the auto-kitchen grounded the pieces of the shell were there were geno points available and used it for the broth. The meat, while didn't look very enticing, had a nice herbal flavor. All of these with some vegetables. It was delicious. Almost as delicious as the glorious sound on his ears.

{Flesh of black beetle eaten. One sacred geno point gained.}

{Flesh of black beetle eaten. One sacred geno point gained.}

{Flesh of black beetle eaten. One sacred geno point gained.}

The announcement repeated itself seven more times. In total, he had gained ten sacred geno points. That alone should increase his fitness index by two. By now, he should be around five fitness. Not too shabby, considering this was his second day in the sanctuary.

As soon as he finished eating, he summoned the centipede and let it eat the remainder of the soup, which was about half. It didn't matter to him, considering he had already consumed the important bits.

"You know, we should give you a name." The centipede hearing that turned around to look at Ling Yun. You couldn't see its eyes, and it was a purple color with red markings on the sides of its shell. You could tell its pincers were very strong and sharp, same for its legs. But no matter how he looked at it, the creature didn't look like anything special.

Sure, it looked badass, but a generic type of badass.

He dismissed a lot of nicknames; little purple, big purple, chief beef, senju of the thousand feet, but none of them seemed to stick.

Finally, after a lot of careful deliberation, he settled on calling it ugly.

'Ugly, not a bad name.'

He nodded to himself.

But after ugly finished its food, he got to thinking again. He was not strong enough.

In the sanctuaries, unless you were something akin to a martial god, the beast souls you possessed were of most importance. So, he started listing his necessities.

'The most important thing is survivability. To do that, you need basically two things; an absolute defense or means of escaping. Which means a good beast soul armor for the first and wings or mounts for the second. I will also need mobility, so the mount is necessary.

Still, there are sometimes where you can't just flee, so a good offense might save your life. For that, weapons and techniques are a must. I have sword and bow beast souls, but I need a spear and an arrow. Actually, preferably two arrows, so I am not too slow firing. That should cover my attack, but a shapeshifting beast soul would be greatly appreciated, too. That way I could have an extra advantage. Still, those are very expensive and rare. Good thing I can evolve them. Still, it doesn't sound too good of a prospect.

Next are the utility beast souls. An aura one would be nice, but not needed. The same for the flying and aquatic mounts. The standard mount is practically a must.

So, in order of importance, he needed wings, an arrow, a mount, a spear, shapeshifting (preferably humanoid), and a second arrow.

And evolve them to a good grade.

Yeah, not hard at all.

Sighing, he decided to at least start doing something.

'If I remember correctly, it took Han Sen a day for an ordinary beast to evolve into a primitive one. So, with the crystal upgraded, it shouldn't take too long.'

Thinking up to hear, he ordered the mantis reaper to take the crystal. The other creatures were, apparently, offended they were not chosen, especially Ban'er and Little Ugly, but he didn't pay them any mind.

Taking a look at the system clock, he got up and left his room.

He had an idea that may be genius or stupid, but he was going to find out.