by Tinalynge
At the very front of the podium were Li Jian and his henchmen. They were gloating and enjoying themselves as they joked amongst one another, yet suddenly one of them noticed Shen Mu and the group got quiet, all of them staring daggers at Xue Wei.
"So you finally arrived," Li Jian sneered, and Shen Mu was about to respond when he saw that Xue Wei was completely ignoring Li Jian, and he had sudden enlightenment.
Usually, Shen Mu would be riled up by Li Jian quickly, but he wanted to try and see how annoyed the other would be if he completely ignored him. He knew from experience how frustrating it was to be ignored, and Xue Wei had honestly ignored him many a time.
"So these are the beasts?" Shen Mu asked his friends, who were all at a loss for words. They were ready for the usual war of words between Li Jian and Shen Mu, but they saw him saying absolutely nothing to the other. It was quite clear that he was ignoring him, and watching how Li Jian's face turned red, it was clear that it was an even more successful taunt.
"Who do you think you are to ignore me? My father is also a Heavenly Warrior!" Li Jian almost spat out the words, and the audience who had come to see the Diviners and the beasts were filled with excitement. They loved to see the younger generation fight amongst themselves.
"I don't need to worry about a brat who can't even defeat a fourth layer Ordinary Warrior when he is a ninth layered cultivator himself." Shen Mu laughed and shook his head magnanimously as if he was taking pity on Li Jian, and this made Li Jian feel incredibly uncomfortable.
"I can beat him!" he sneered. "I can kill him right now!" he exclaimed, and a Sonic Palm descended from the heavens at a rapid speed, but Xue Wei was faster.
During their last fight, Xue Wei had not even cultivated to the fifth layer, and he had never before tried using the Shattering Mountain Palm. Now he had spent a few weeks perfecting his understanding of both Forbidden Rush and Shattering Mountain Palm, so his performance was many times more astonishing.
It seemed as if his body trembled slightly and then he vanished from sight before reappearing behind Li Jian.
Shattering Mountain Palm!
The attack descended onto Li Jian's back, and Xue Wei had held nothing back, adding all his Qi into this strike.
Li Jian shot forward again; blood spurted from his mouth this time. He had been wholly unprepared for the strike, and it had caused a lot more injuries to him than it would have if he had been prepared. If he was prepared, although he would have been injured, it would not have been as bad as it was now.
Like a leaf fluttering in the wind, Xue Wei vanished again and reappeared at the place where he previously stood. His facial expression was the same as it had been before Li Jian had cast his sudden attack, and although his clothes fluttered slightly, he seemed so casual as if he had not even attacked.
Xue Wei completely ignored Li Jian who was biting the dust on the ground and turned to look at the podium in front of them.
Sitting on the podium on five regular chairs were five people. They wore monk robes, and their eyes were observing what was going on in the crowd.
Xue Wei, looking at the monks, felt that their auras were similar to Manager Su and even closer to his uncle, Xiao Lei.
Some of the five experts were looking at Xue Wei with interest, one of them especially had his eyes lit up with excitement, while two were looking with polite boredness. One was filled with apathy, and the last one was just smiling slightly, not displaying any of his real emotions.
"The rumor is true!" someone whispered in the crowd, and suddenly it burst, "He is not trash anymore!"
"How did he do it? I cannot even see what his cultivation level is at?"
"What kind of plant did that bastard eat to become so strong?"
"A dragon uncle cannot foster a dog nephew; I guess some of Xiao Lei's strength is finally starting to rub off on him!"
So many thoughts were being spoken out loud, and all of them were filled with excitement. Their words made it on top of the stage and the guy who was very curious about what he had seen raised an eyebrow.
"You there, kid, they call you trash, and although your cultivation base is quite low for your age, you have a movement technique. What is this about?"
"My lord, I have a special physique," Xue Wei said, once again making the excuse he had used to deceive Shen Bingwen. He had read in books that many different physiques existed, and although he had never seen one and they were as rare as only one appearing in every generation in the entire continent, he betted his luck on it.
"My physique is such that I could not cultivate, but Qi gathered in my body whenever I was breathing. Back then, it was only a question about time before my dantian would unlock, and when it did, all the Qi my body had gathered would quickly turn to become Qi within my dantian."
"The unlocking of my dantian happened around four and a half months ago," Xue Wei said and looked as honest and upright as anyone could expect, and the monk nodded his head when he heard this.
When Xue Wei said particular physique, the other monks showed interest, even the two bored monks and the apathetic one. Their eyes roamed over Xue Wei's body, but upon noticing that there was nothing unusual, they just nodded their heads.
The monk who had spoken rubbed his chin for a bit and nodded his head too, "to think that this small kingdom had a person with a special physique. But I guess that you did not tell anyone about it before and was treated like trash?"
Xue Wei politely nodded his head. He had been looking for a way to say these words out loud so that everyone could have an excuse for his meteoric rise.
The words unique physique caused a lot of commoners to startle. They did not know about such a phenomenon, but after hearing Xue Wei explain what he did, they were all surprised and enlightened.
"Young man, if you ever want to be a monk, come with us to visit our master," the speaking monk said with a smile. "Although you cannot become a Diviner, I am sure you would make it quite well as another kind of monk."
Xue Wei cupped his hands and bowed deeply to the monk. "Thank you for your kind offer," Xue Wei said politely. "I have to say that I am tempted, but I am also a warrior. I wish to fight the Primordial Beasts in the war. I wish to become a great figure like my uncle and slaughter Primordial Beasts."
Xue Wei was honest and upright, and the monk did not press further. He just smiled and nodded his head before he sat back down on the chair.
Chapter 16 - Wayfarers
When Xue Wei was lying about his condition, he was certain that he did have some sort of special physique. Otherwise, his body would not act the way it was acting, nor would his dantian have turned into a pearl.
Even with Xue Wei's extensive knowledge about the different physiques that were out there, he had never heard of a physique like his before, and thus he was slightly frustrated.
Was the pearl the reason for his cultivation going so fast, or was there some other secret behind it? And why did he need a specific cultivation technique to be able to absorb the Qi?
Xue Wei had many unanswered questions in his mind, and he knew that the only one who could answer them was his uncle. It was clear that his uncle knew more about his physique than he let on.
When he examined Xue Wei's body, he had said that it was not a lack of talent and that he would not forever be unable to cultivate, and just as he had left, he had left an amazing cultivation technique behind.
The more Xue Wei thought about it, the more mysterious his uncle seemed, and he was unsure of what exactly he would ask him first when they reunited again.
"Now is not the time to think about this," Xue Wei mumbled to himself and began observing everything that was on the platform. Not only were there the chairs and the Diviners, but there were also two fierce beasts.
The beasts within the Continent of Chang'an were categorized as mortal beasts first. That was the common horse, sheep, pig, cow, and so on. Anyone could tame them, as they had no ability for cultivation, and their intellect was at the level of an animal.<
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Then came the Fierce Beasts. Fierce Beasts were the beasts that could cultivate. Some of them had more intellect than others, and some of them were stronger than others. They ranged from the Iron Warboar that was almost as thoughtless as a mortal beast all the way up to the more dangerous and highly intellectual Cloud Leopards, Wind Wolves, and so on.
Above the Fierce Beasts were obviously the Primordial Beasts. The Primordial Beasts were born with a talent and intellect that could rival that of humans. They could take on a human shape, and their ability to fight was many times more frightening than the Fierce Beasts.
The beasts on the podium were both Fierce Beasts. One of them was equivalent to the rank of a ninth layer Earth Warrior, while the other was the same as a first layer Sky Warrior.
Everyone present, Xue Wei included, were looking at these beasts. They could not help but dream about owning the beasts. How magnificent they would be if they came riding into the war on these beasts!
One of the beasts was a Black Horned Mammoth, the ideal mount that could crush Fierce Beasts of equal or lower rank, and which had an incredibly high defense that made it near impossible for others to take it down. Hence, the rider would be able to fight relatively safely.
The other was a more offense-oriented beast; it was a Four-Tailed Scorpion. Although its defense lacked in comparison to the Black Horned Mammoth, it was much better at killing beasts and could assist its owner in battle.
Between the two of them, everyone clearly had their preferred beast. Some saw the defense of the Black Horned Mammoth as the best choice because of said defense, it was the best way of staying alive and ultimately killing as many beasts as possible, while others felt that raising one's attack was the way to go.
The Black Horned Mammoth was a Fierce Beast with the strength of a first layer Sky Warrior, and because of this, most of the people found it more attractive. Xue Wei, on the other hand, preferred the Four-Tailed Scorpion.
He was painfully aware that he would never get either of the beasts, as he was simply too weak to control them right now, but he had a firm belief that he would in the future be able to get his hands on a Fierce Beast companion.
Suddenly, Xue Wei's eyes collided with the eyes of the Black Horned Mammoth, and the moment they looked at one another, Xue Wei saw that the mammoth's entire body trembled, yet the second after it was gone and nothing could be seen. Xue Wei looked around, and although everyone talked about how amazing the mammoth was, no one seemed to have noticed anything.
That is, none of the commoners noticed anything.
"Child, come up here." The monk who had previously been apathetic suddenly spoke out. His eyes penetrated into Xue Wei's body, and Xue Wei suddenly felt as if everything within him was seen through.
Not knowing what was going on, Xue Wei did not dare hesitate and went straight to the podium.
When he stood in front of the apathetic monk, he clasped his hands together and bowed deeply, but the monk did not seem to care about such gestures and instead placed his hand on Xue Wei’s forehead.
Energy rushed through his body, as if it was scouring for something, and everywhere it went, Xue Wei felt a pleasant sensation in his body.
The majority of the energy was searching his head as if it expected to find something, but no matter what they were looking for, nothing appeared.
The apathetic monk frowned, but he withdrew his hand after ten minutes. He looked at the other monks and shook his head.
"Child, come with me. I need to speak with you," he said after a bit of consideration, and Xue Wei, who had no reason to decline, nodded his head. He was quite perplexed as to what was going on, but he had a feeling that he had just escaped calamity.
The two of them moved towards the Auction House of Tiankong City. It turned out that this was where the monks had found residence while they were in Tiankong City. The Diviners were against joining any faction, and although the City Lord was responsible for looking after important guests, the Diviners would stay at the most neutral faction they could find.
Xue Wei was taken to the Auction House's section for very important guests, and into the lounge of a massive suite.
Here, the apathetic monk sat down and gestured for Xue Wei to do the same.
"How did you scare that big mammoth?" the monk asked right away, but Xue Wei just frowned – had he scared the mammoth? He remembered it shaking, but it was not enough to be considered scared.
Still, Xue Wei could sense that arguing with this Diviner would be pointless, and likely even change his situation to become less favorable. So he stood there, looking completely confused.
"I do not know," he said honestly. "I looked the Black Horned Mammoth in the eyes, and its body trembled all of a sudden. I did not do anything special. Could it have something to do with my special physique? Or could it sense the scent of my uncle on me? My uncle is a great Primordial Beast hunter."
The monk seemed unconvinced. "Tell me about your past," he said in a gruff voice, and Xue Wei nodded his head.
"I do not remember my childhood. My mother died while giving birth to me and my father died in an attack by the Primordial Beasts in the Northern Administrative Region of Heping. In the Northern Taiga."
"My uncle took me in and has been looking after me ever since; I was around ten years old when it happened."
"My body has a special physique so I could not cultivate, but my uncle said that I would be able to cultivate later, and as a result, I spent all my time reading in the past."
"Now that I am capable of cultivating, I spend all my time on either practicing my martial arts or cultivating my cultivation technique."
Xue Wei weaved in lies with the truths, making him capable of hiding a few things about his body and the condition he had experienced before.
He knew that lying straight to the monk’s face would be noticed, but when he merged it with the truth, or at least what he considered to be the truth, then the monk too believed him.
"I have only seen fear in the eyes of Fierce Beasts when they encounter Diviners or if they are in front of a Primordial Beast," the monk explained.
"You are clearly not a Diviner, but I checked your body, and although your dantian is rather odd, you are not a Primordial Beast either. You do not have a beast core."
"So that leads me to the question, what are you?"
"I do not know," Xue Wei answered, feeling his palms get sweaty. So the probe earlier had been to see if he was a Primordial Beast. Fortunately, it had proven that he was not. Otherwise, he would have most likely been enslaved by now.
"My uncle checked my body before. He is a Primordial Beast hunter," Xue Wei continued and felt better. It was clear that he was no beast since his uncle was a human and even a beast hunter, but he understood that if this monk had wanted to get rid of him, it would be easy to say just a few words.
"Well, I guess you really don't know," the monk sighed and looked annoyed as if he had wasted a lot of time for no reason.
"Perhaps you are like the Wayfarers," he continued. "The Wayfarers who have activated their bloodline are feared by some Fierce Beasts. Maybe your physique is similar."
The last sentences seemed to be spoken to himself more than to Xue Wei, but Xue Wei heard what the monk said, and he also heard the word Wayfarers. Hearing them, he was rather curious. He had always wanted to meet a real Wayfarer, but they traveled in family groups, and it was very rare for them to come to a kingdom such as Heping.
Wayfarers were nomads like the Diviners, but the Wayfarers traveled in family groups of up to thousands of experts together.
All Wayfarers were hunters, and some of the most outstanding Primordial Beast hunters came from the Wayfarers.
The reason Wayfarers were looked at with such curiosity was because of their bloodline. They shared an ancient bloodline of the War God, a human cultivator of the past who had risen against the Primordial Beasts; and by consuming the blood of a Primordial Beast, the Wayfarers could unleash their full potential.
They only needed to consume blood from a Primordial Beast once to activate the blood within their bodies, but it was rare to find and kill Primordial Beasts. As a result, they were always on the move to find new danger zones and suitable beasts to slay.
Xue Wei had never compared his situation with them, but maybe there was something about it. Could he also have a special bloodline alongside his special physique?
"Do not think too much about it," the monk sighed as he had lost interest in Xue Wei again, and Xue Wei nodded his head. He had to wait for his uncle to return before he could get any answers, and as a result, he cupped his hands again and bowed to the monk before he took his leave.
Instead of returning to the marketplace, Xue Wei went to the auction hall where they were going to auction off the two beasts. Although he could not buy them and was incapable of controlling them, he was still curious as to who would end up owning them.