Chapter 33: Beast Core

Behind me, the massive Tier 3 Thunder-Scale Tiger froze mid-air, hit the ground with a heavy thud, and split cleanly into two halves down its spine, dead before it even realized it had been cut.

I turned around, brushed a speck of dust from my shoulder, and looked toward the boulder with an easygoing grin.

"Well, Qingxue? Did you catch all that?"

Shen Qingxue slowly stepped out from behind the massive boulder, her eyes wide, glittering with open shock and absolute awe.

She had grown up around border garrisons, watching veteran mortal soldiers hack at one another with heavy iron blades, but she had never witnessed a battle like this. The movements were so light, so razor-sharp, that an eight-hundred-pound armored predator had been thoroughly dismantled and sliced in two without grazing a single thread of my sleeves.

"Master... that was incredible," she breathed, looking from my scabbarded sword to the severed halves of the beast. "It was so fluid, like water cutting through stone. Can... can I learn a technique like that?"

I chuckled, flicking my wrist to shake the imaginary dust from my cuffs. "One day, certainly. But not right now. The Gale-Severing Willow Sword Art requires you to channel sharp wind-attribute qi through four specialized apertures along your wrists and shoulders. If you try to force that kind of sharp, rotational energy before you reach Foundation Establishment, your channels will simply crack from the strain. Don’t rush it. Polish the foundational forms I gave you first. Build the container before you try pouring in the storm."

Qingxue lowered her head, nodding obediently. "Disciple understands."

"Good. Now, come over here." I gestured toward the fallen tiger. "Since we killed a Tier 3 beast, I might as well show you another essential lesson of the cultivation world."

Shen Qingxue walked over without hesitation. Having survived the brutal massacre of her family clan and crawled through blood-soaked ditches, the sight of gore and severed meat didn’t make her flinch in the slightest. She stood beside me with complete, detached composure.

I crouched down beside the upper torso of the beast, drawing a small utility dagger from my sleeve.

"Every magical beast that condenses ambient qi forms a Beast Core," I explained, slicing cleanly through the thick, muscular chest tissue right below the breastbone. "It is the condensed crystal of their cultivation base, packed with raw elemental essence. Cultivators use them to forge pills, power sect arrays, or sell them for hefty bags of spirit stones."

My blade met a hard, crystalline obstruction. With a deft twist of my wrist, I scooped out a fist-sized, dark-purple spherical stone. Faint arcs of blue lightning crackled harmlessly across its glassy surface, humming with residual thunder qi.

"Usually, you find it situated right near the heart or the central dantian, just like this," I said, wiping the blood off the crystal with a clean cloth before tossing it to her. "However, magical beasts are wild, chaotic creatures. Depending on their species or rare mutations, their core could be lodged in their skull, nestled near their spine, or hidden in their lower belly. If you ever hunt alone in the future, you have to study beast anatomy thoroughly so you don’t waste time butchering an entire carcass in dangerous territory."

Qingxue caught the warm, crackling core, inspecting its glowing veins with great curiosity before storing it into her pouch. "I will memorize every word, Master."

"Alright, let’s keep moving. The sun won’t wait for us."

We mounted our Iron-Hoof Blood Stallions once more and urged them forward, leaving the blood-soaked gorge behind.

By late afternoon, the clear skies began to turn an ominous, bruised slate-grey. Thick, churning storm clouds rolled over the mountain peaks with terrifying speed, blotting out the setting sun. Seeing the weather turn sour, I checked our direction and aimed for a medium-sized mortal border settlement nestled near the edge of the forest: Autumn Wind Town.

Before our horses could even reach the outer perimeter of the town, the heavens opened up.

CRACK-BOOM!

A violent flash of lightning split the sky, followed instantly by a howling, torrential downpour. Gale-force winds whipped through the trees, snapping branches and turning the dirt road into a river of thick mud in a matter of seconds.

Naturally, for a Late-Stage Golden Core cultivator, a mundane rainstorm wasn’t even a minor inconvenience. With a casual wave of my hand, I released a thin, invisible dome of pure golden qi from my body. The energy expanded smoothly, forming a shimmering, five-yard-wide umbrella that completely enclosed Qingxue, myself, and both our towering steeds.

The freezing rain and howling winds slammed against the barrier, only to bounce off harmlessly, trickling down the curved energy shield without wetting a single strand of our hair.

Technically, with my spiritual reserves, I could have kept this shield active all night, riding straight through the storm without breaking a sweat. But doing so was completely unnecessary.

Qingxue was at the peak of the Body Strengthening Realm, meaning her muscles were dense, her stamina was high, and a day of hard riding hadn’t exhausted her fragile mortal shell.

However, our horses were living creatures; despite being Tier 2 beasts, galloping at high speeds through rocky terrain while fighting the wind would eventually wear out their joints. Besides, dragging a girl through a dreary downpour all night was terrible romance, and my own stomach was already clamoring for hot food and warm wine.

As the wooden watchtowers and low stone walls of Autumn Wind Town materialized through the sheets of rain, I reined in my stallion.

"Qingxue, hold up for a second," I called out. With a thought, I retracted the golden barrier into my sleeves, letting a few harmless drops of mist settle on our cloaks.

"Listen closely," I said, leaning toward her. "Once we pass through those gates, remember what I told you. Do not reveal our identities as Mystic Cloud Sect cultivators unless someone actively steps on your face and causes trouble. In this world, maintaining a layer of anonymity is the easiest way to avoid annoying flies. But if someone truly tries to push you around, throw that restraint into the river and crush them."