Reaper of the Martial World

Book 11: Chapter 41: Wait (2)

Dyon didn’t believe the wyverns needed to be changed, nor did he have some magical ability to change the path of an already established race. What he could do, however, was light the path they needed to follow.

What wyverns lacked the most in comparison to dragons wasn’t just strength, but rather, a proper dao heart.

The wyverns believed themselves to be arrogant, but in reality, they were stereotypical beasts. Despite many of them having high cultivations, their intelligence was lacking, and their comprehension was even worse.

Beasts could usually make up for this lack of comprehension with their innate affinities, but the wyverns were both lucky and unlucky in this respect.

They were lucky in that their affinities were highly tailored toward their bodily strength. Much like Celestial Tigers, they specialized in a sort of slaughter qi, but this slaughter qi was much less refined. While a Celestial Tiger’s slaughter qi had aspects of intimidation and mental attacks, a wyvern’s slaughter qi was a pure physical augmentation.

And this was where their lack of luck became clear. They continuously evolved along the path of greater pure strength, but they lacked any sort of flexibility. Wasn’t this the very same reason the Titans fell in the end as well?

As powerful as he was in the way of alchemy, Dyon couldn’t just concoct a pill to raise their intelligence. Well… He could, but the issue was the spiritual ingredients needed. They were simply too rare, even for his current level of wealth.

What Dyon needed to do was find a way to have the wyverns raise their intelligence themselves… But if such a thing was so easy, wouldn’t they have already done it?

It was then Dyon noticed something peculiar.

On a day several decades ago while his clone was on yet another campaign through the Ancient Battlefield, he released his Presence for a matter he had long since forgotten about. However, what he did remember very clearly from that day was how the wyverns reacted to it.

Dyon noticed faintly that their blood began to boil, vibrating at a frequency that was eerily similar to when he unleashed his own Presence.

It was then that Dyon had an epiphany.

Presence… Perception… They were mystical martial arts that one could release with just your body and nothing else. In fact, even Dyon’s own mortal father had comprehended Presence and likely even Perception without having cultivated a single day in his entire life.

This sort of instinctual cultivation, one that relied on the most primitive tool one’s own body… Wasn’t it perfect for the wyverns?

It was then that Dyon realized his previous assessment of the wyverns had been too shallow. Their ‘slaughter qi’ wasn’t actually a qi at all, but rather a slaughter martial intent that was passed on through their bloodline.

Thinking back to the Pride Clan’s pool of blood, Dyon fell into his own thoughts.

Ever since that day, his Presence had morphed into something completely out of his expectation.

Firstly, it no longer seemed restricted by the strength of his body, though, somehow, his bodily strength still contradictorily helped to strengthen it.

Secondly, he could no longer properly categorize his Presence either. Before he absorbed the pool of blood, he had been an Emperor Grade Presence wielder. But now, he had no idea what realm he was in. Was it the God Grade? He didn’t know…

Thirdly, he couldn’t detect these changes in his own blood. He thought that maybe there would be some mutation, but his bloodline still followed his Titan Diamond Body without faltering. It was almost as though the changes made weren’t tangible at all, yet their impact was very clear.

The point of all this was simple. If even Dyon couldn’t make heads or tails of what was going on, how could the wyverns who innately lacked intelligence comprehend was sort of secret lay dormant within their own bodies?

However, now, they had Dyon to think for them… Comprehending the Pride Clan’s blood might have been beyond him, however, the wyvern bloodline was much more straight-forward.

Instead of being a mysterious martial will that could attack the psyche of an opponent, the wyvern’s bloodline was entirely focused on strengthening their own bodies. This was without a doubt the simplest by far! In fact, training them was even simpler!

Every day for over a century, Dyon forced the wyverns to bow beneath his Presence, forcefully agitating their blood again and again. He showed no mercy, even stamping his feet upon their heads and grinding them into the ground.

This situation went on for decades. The humiliation was etched into their souls so fiercely that some of them even directly committed suicide.

It was a cruel thing indeed, but Dyon continued. Dyon goaded them with words, each sentence seemingly piercing directly into their hearts.

Finally, on one faithful day, one of them finally snapped.

A mighty roar escaped its lips as land for hundreds of kilometers was completely leveled.

However, the result left Dyon without an ability to laugh or cry. He could only look on with what must have been a hilarious expression.

Shouldn’t this breakthrough have made the wyvern akin to a carp leaping over a dragon’s gate?

So… Why was it that this evolved wyvern actually regressed and became a normal snake…?