Chapter 8In the vast and endless forest where different variety of beast and flora exist a small inconspicuous cave lay hidden near the boundary of the middle forest. Inside this dimly lit cave are two people that are happily chatting with each other while having their meal.
It has already been more than a month since s.h.i.+n Jiao came to this world. After learning a lot of things and gaining the skills from the long deceased traveler Gubu, he had already improved his craft and cultivation by leaps and bounds. The number of spheres in his dantian is now at 30, just like before he is unable to raise it as if he encountered another bottleneck. It was only thanks to Cherry Lao that he was able to feel spiritual energy which enable him to be inspired and breakthrough from the 10th sphere. Even though he wasn"t able to raise his cultivation level, for now, he can still hunt higher level beast using his almost cheat like artifacts.
Although Cherry Lao was able to feel the spiritual energy, her cultivation was ruined. She was already at the core forming realm peak stage, but because of the incident with her clan, she had to begin again from body refining stage. But determination can be seen in her eyes as she tried her best to persevere and start over her cultivation. s.h.i.+n Jiao truly respected her strong will and courage to never give up.
"Cherry, I wanted to help you boost your cultivation. You said that your meridian is blocked right?" s.h.i.+n Jiao asked as he decided to do everything in his power to help her regain her cultivation level.
"Yes, when we were fighting I accidentally inhaled meridian blocking powder which dropped my cultivation level to core forming realm primary stage. But the worst thing is that I over drafted my dantian by using a forbidden escape spell and that damaged my core." Cherry Lao explained.
"That"s a bit tricky, I have no knowledge of medicine. And you said that you don"t have any pills in your ring that can help. So what should we do then?"
"Sigh… there is actually a way. But it is impossible with only the two of us."
"There is a way? Tell me then. I will think of a way to accomplish it." s.h.i.+n Jiao said with confidence.
"You"re so smug huh. I don"t know what your cultivation level is. What I can say is that even if I regain my cultivation level, I won"t be able to accomplish this task."
"Really? Come on tell me. I want to know how you can regain your cultivation level back."
"Sigh… I need the energy of a level 5 beast king"s core. This is the only way I could regain my cultivation level in one go and immediately form a gold core. But even in my sect, to get our hands on a level 5 beast king core we have to gather at least 5 infant soul realm elders. So do you think that it is possible with just the two of us?" Cherry Lao explained and raised one of her brows to taunt s.h.i.+n Jiao.
"Well, we might not know. Maybe tomorrow if I go out I would come across a dying level 5 beast king. I would be able to get my hands on a core then. Who knows right?"
"Yeah, right… s.h.i.+n, please don"t push yourself in danger because of me okay? I"ll just start all over again, I know I can do it" she said with a smile.
Although Cherry Lao was smiling, s.h.i.+n Jiao still saw the sadness in her eyes that she is trying to conceal. So he planned to hunt tomorrow a level 5 beast king. He is already familiar with the geography of the area, and the distribution of power among the beast kin. So finding a beast king is easy for him, not to mention with the use of his artifacts.
The next day after breakfast, Cherry Lao continued her cultivation and s.h.i.+n Jiao, as usual, provides her with a beast core. She knows that s.h.i.+n Jiao is capable of hunting level 3 beast which made her think that he is also a core forming cultivator like herself. So when he provides her with beast core she just accepted them and slowly absorb the spiritual energy within. He also instructed her to don"t throw the cores she used as they can still use it as a fuel. s.h.i.+n Jiao actually discovered that within a beast core exist 2 kinds of energy, spiritual and natural energy. He discovered this when he was able to reach the 11th sphere. Although he is still unable to cultivate spiritual energy absorbing them is a must in creating more spheres, hence he was able to reach the 30th using this method.
After going out of the cave, s.h.i.+n Jiao took out his gears and put them on. Then he took the southern direction as he knows that it is the territory of bull like beasts. And in that area there exist 2 levels 5 beast kings, the Demon Bull, and the King Minotaur.
After an hour of das.h.i.+ng through the woods, s.h.i.+n Jiao entered the territory. Using his goggles he can see different types of auras, and to his surprise, he saw a lot of level 5 normal beast.
"I guess this is the right place." As s.h.i.+n Jiao said that he stops and then waved his hand as if summoning something.
From his ring came out a strange long artifact, the length of the object is up to his shoulder. If someone from this world saw this they would think that it is a strange bow gun without a bowstring. Because of its design, they would not be familiar with its functions. But from s.h.i.+n Jiao"s old world it is considered as the most commonly used anti-material rifle, the BARRETT. This weapon uses a metal called black ore which cultivator uses to make flying swords. This combined with "runes programming system" which s.h.i.+n Jiao created, made this rifle very powerful. It still uses any type of ore as a projectile, imbued with the natural energy of his choice. The power of the weapon depends on the level of beast core and can be combined with his own sphere energy.
s.h.i.+n Jiao sneakily enters the territory and carefully searched for the Beast King in the area. Since there are two so he is confident that he could find one of them. After an hour of searching, he noticed a powerful fluctuation to the west of his position. And there he found a gigantic figure, gorging on a dead beast. With the head of a bull and a body of a giant man, although it is sitting while munching with gusto on its prey, it still stood at around 1 and a half meters tall. The creature is still unaware of a small human that"s observing it as the distance is still far off and with the cover of trees, it cannot see s.h.i.+n Jiao. Unlike the Minotaur beast king, s.h.i.+n Jiao, on the other hand, can see its aura and its action, although not clear but in multicolored light.
Looking around he found a very tall tree and is a good place for sniping. Its distance is around 2 kilometers from his target. But because of the size of his target, s.h.i.+n Jiao is sure that he will be able to hit it without any problem. So without a word, he quickly dashed and climb the large tall tree. After reaching a favorable spot he raised the BARRETT and adjusted the focus, although there are leaves covering the surroundings, the head of the beast king is exposed and an easy target.
"Sorry big guy." He mumbled to himself.
The Minotaur beast king on the other seems to feel that something is amiss and a wary look appears in its eyes. Then it suddenly looks around it with caution. Upon seeing this s.h.i.+n Jiao became agitated, he blames himself for making the first mistake in sniping. In his years of experience, he had mastered hiding his killing intent which he had forgotten.
"d.a.m.n… That was close. Okay, let"s relax first." s.h.i.+n Jiao cursed then took a deep breath.
He then aims again this time hiding his killing intent and didn"t startle his target. After some adjustment, he pulled the trigger.
"Pst!" a silence m.u.f.fled burst sound came out of the rifle.
The Minotaur king resumes its feasting as it felt its perception coming became normal again. But not soon as it was about to take a bite of another chunk of meat, a silver glint suddenly appear and disappear just like that. Then the Minotaur king suddenly dropped down on the ground with its eyes all white. On its head, a large fist-sized hole appears and exited on its back in a straight line as if the flesh and bones of the level 5 king beast are like b.u.t.ter in a hot knife.
Then after a while, s.h.i.+n Jiao appear and a wide smile bloomed on his face. In fact, he was truly astonished by what he saw. Lying on the ground is the body of a level 5 Minotaur beast king, and beside it with almost half of its body almost gone is another level 5 beast king, the giant earthen bear. s.h.i.+n Jiao immediately send both carca.s.ses inside his ring and scuttled back to the cave. He felt too excited as now he has a way to help Cherry Lao with her cultivation. She could also be of great help for him as she could maybe show him the way out of the vast Daemon forest.
Meanwhile, inside the cave, Cherry Lao is still trying her best to increase her cultivation. She was a little worried as s.h.i.+n Jiao didn"t come back that afternoon for lunch.
"I can"t concentrate in cultivating with this situation… Where could he have gone to? This is the first time he missed lunch." She muttered to herself as she stood up from the bed and look at the cave entrance.
"This is not good, I have to go out and look for him." She said as she walks towards the huge stone door planning to go out and look for s.h.i.+n Jiao not caring of the danger outside.
As she touched the cold stone wanting to push it, it suddenly jerked and moved back. To her surprise, the stone door opened and she saw s.h.i.+n Jiao walking in with a smile on his face. When she saw him, all the worries in her heart flew away and she just hugged him without a second thought.
"Where have you been? I was really worried you know!" She said with tear-filled eyes while nestling her head on s.h.i.+n Jiao"s chest.
s.h.i.+n Jiao was startled by the beautiful girl hugging him, although he wanted to react he held himself back and just enjoy the feeling. It"s been a couple of months since he was held like this, he always held his girlfriend before but ever since he became too busy with work, the unexpected break-up, and being sent to another world, he was not able to experience that same feeling until now.
Feeling a little awkward s.h.i.+n Jiao carefully caressed Cherry Lao"s head as a form of habit. But she suddenly jerked as if a cold s.h.i.+ver ran through her back which wakes her up and made her blush. She then pushed s.h.i.+n Jiao away and quickly turned back, afraid to see his reaction.
s.h.i.+n Jiao sheepishly smiled and scratched his head not knowing what to say.
"Sorry, for… for getting home this late. I know I cause you to worry."
"Who… Who"s worried about you." She said in an annoyed voice but still didn"t turn to face s.h.i.+n Jiao.
"Sigh, okay… I was late because I found something in the forest. Here look at this." s.h.i.+n Jiao said as he took out a beast core which pulsates with strong energy.
When Cherry Lao felt it, her body suddenly stiffens, and with disbelieving eyes, she slowly turns around to see the beast core in s.h.i.+n Jiao"s hand. When she clearly saw what it was her eyes almost popped out in disbelief.
"This… this… how can this be? How did you manage to get this?"
"It"s a secret… he, he." s.h.i.+n Jiao said with a playful tone.
"This aura and feeling, I can"t forget the first time I felt this strong spiritual presence. It"s a level 5 king beast core right?" Cherry Lao said with an inquisitive tone.
"Well, yes… I was really happy to find it. Now you can regain your cultivation back right?"
Cherry Lao just nod her head but she didn"t lift it as tears slowly trickled down.
"Sigh, women are really made of water. I guess no matter what planet it is they truly likes to cry." s.h.i.+n Jiao said to himself as if having realized something very important.
"Well, enough crying… Tell me what else do you need? I"ll get them for you." s.h.i.+n Jiao said to break the awkwardness in the surrounding.
"This is already enough, just protect me as I try to absorb the energy with this core… s.h.i.+n, thank you so much for your kindness. I can"t repay you enough for this." Cherry Lao said what she felt right now.
"Hey, you"re my friend right. So I would do my best to help you." He said with a smile.
"This guy is so dense… Argh… Is he blind? Am I really not that attractive? Gosh, this is so frustrating." She murmured to herself as her face frown in dissatisfaction.
So as to not have any more squabble, Cherry Lao just accepted the beast core and went directly to the middle of the cave and sat in a lotus position, and began to absorb the beast core.