Sage smiled as he looked down at his Iron Mantis. He was quite sure those that were afraid of bugs would be downright terrified at the sight of it. It had a dark grey, nearly black, carapace the sa shade as cast iron. Its forelimbs were like serrated knives, flashing about in the air as he had the little guy perform so strikes to see how fast it moved. Hed already nurtured it with his ager qi to reach an adult state, the cat sized mantis struck like lightning and with its wings it was extrely mobile. Given his current level, Sages Mantis was probably already a match for many normal animals, but its rely a distraction against another cultivator.
Sage learned in his reading that the wilderness of this world was filled with spirit beasts. They were just as powerful as cultivators, with a matching system given to them. So, a Rank 1 Spirit Beast is as powerful as a Ki Building cultivator. Spirit beasts grow as they consud spiritual materials. The lower level beasts eat spirit plants and drink spiritual waters. Predatory spirit beasts eat other spirit beasts, the end result being the intake of qi. Beasts couldnt really cultivate until their rank reached a high enough level for their intelligence to rise to a human-like level. Before that they simply consud each other, gradually increasing in power. Cultivators even hunt them for the sa reasons. The at of the spirit beasts was very rich in qi, helping cultivators improve quickly, and their other body parts could be refined for many other uses.
Spirit Insects were similar but differed in a few ways. Firstly, spirit insects didnt really have personalities. They were like robots in that they had intelligence but no emotions, desires, or wants. They were even more instinctual than animals, making them perfect puppets for the Chong Clan and its branch families to control. The other main difference had to do with the Insect Immortal Index. These techniques circumvented the normal rules of spirit beast growth and cultivation. Instead of slowly growing in size and power as they consud other beasts, the spirit insects were fed directly with the cultivators qi. They went from an egg to full size in a matter of hours with enough energy. This also created a restriction, instead of simply requiring more energy to grow stronger, the spirit insects required energy of higher level. It was a matter of quality instead of quantity.
Many considered this a good thing as how efficient insects were when working in swarms or colonies theyd be fearful of the wilds being completely overrun by hordes of giant and powerful bugs. Instead, spirit insects were almost a boon. If soone ran into an exceptionally powerful bug, it usually was a good indicator that there was a higher qi concentration sowhere in the area. This usually led to great spots to cultivate or better yet, natural treasures! For Sage and the Chong Clan, it also ant that the spirit insects were rapidly grown, but they were only as strong as their owner.
The clans and sects that raised spirit beasts focused their efforts and theoretically raised spirit beasts to be far more powerful than the trainers linked to them, but spirit insects required regular feedings of energy. That ant raising a high level insect required access to either energy from higher level cultivators or rare and precious resources. With the additional factors of comparably short lifespans and constant feedings, the Chong Clan was nearly the only group that chose to use spirit insects as anything more than just materials. They lived more than ten tis longer than regular insects, but when many species of normal insects lived rely a few seasons at best most spirit insects only survived a few years. Without the Insect Immortal Indexs techniques others are rely throwing money away to have weapons that were impossible to train and lasted only a few years.
Uncle Zhang told him that the high ranking mbers of the clan even controlled their Mantes to activate their own martial arts. Each rank the cultivator advanced, the Colossal Iron Mantis tripled in size! At this point Sage did so quick calculations and realized they lived up to their na. At the peak of Ki Building, the Iron Mantis is about 2 feet long. So that ant the Rank 4 Foundation Building elders of the clan had truly colossal 54 ft Mantes. Theyd even be large enough to ride on when a clan mber got near the peak of Rank 2 when they were around 6 feet long.
Sage continued with his review of his powers now, quickly slipping into a light ditative state to look inside his body. Hed been practicing ditation for six years now and hed learned long ago how to instantly enter ditation and also recently how to only partially enter a trance. He still had full control over his body and sensed the state of his qi internally, though his other senses were dulled and his reactions sluggish. The only qi techniques he had were those from the Insect Immortal Index, but his Golden Mantis Body had been progressing quite steadily.
He moved his body through the forms, his Uncle Zhang was not ho so he had the whole courtyard to himself. His body felt so strong and powerful. Hed never had this sort of feeling back on Earth. Since hed determined this was a completely different world long ago, he imagined this was what a superhero felt like.
Super Hero might be pushing it a bit, more like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Thinking of this point he ran and kicked off from the ground, leaping up into the air and soaring up onto the roof of the house he shared with his Uncle. Laughing madly the whole way as he looked over the courtyard like a conquering emperor. Sage had recently reached the 5th stage of the 1st rank, Ki Building. His Mantis was already a foot long, half the full size for a peak Ki Building Cultivator.
These people here are so obsessed with all cultivator ranks, its always such a mouthful. Im just going to treat it like a new nural system.
They split each rank into 9 stages and also made the distinction for peak cultivators who were at the maximum for stage 9 yet couldnt break through into the next rank. Conveniently that was 10 stages per rank. Simple enough, each rank will be ten levels. Sage decided to just refer to people by level like it was a video ga or tabletop role-playing ga. As a 1st rank, 5th stage cultivator that made him a level 15.
Ahh, much easier. So much less of a hassle. Maybe Ill get other people to start saying it too.
Hopping back down from the roof, he went back to practicing his Golden Mantis, going through each of the movents that hed learned in the last few years. This new life wasnt as exciting as hed once hoped it could be. Once hed gotten over the initial strangeness of being a child in a different world, it was a great opportunity. It was like he was the main character of a ga. He could get special powers and beco a hero. The reality of things was far less exciting. Every morning was hard exercise and physical training until lunch. Then hed have to study from books until the mid-afternoon and then it was ditation till dinner and for a few hours after it as well.
Even with all this hard work, he was only barely passable. Keeping up with most of the regular clan mbers was the best he could do. The plan for extre amounts of hard work was only enough to keep up with the pace of everyone else. Such a sha he wasnt a cultivation genius.
Seems being a computer programr is pretty useless in a world without computers. My ani and video ga hobbies only helped a little culturally. Why didnt I pay more attention in chemistry class?
With such a filled schedule, the last six years had passed in a blur. His body sore from exercising, mind numbed from studying, and then hed finish off everyday in ditation. By the ti he got into bed he passed out imdiately. There had been dreams of his old life, but he had done his best not to dwell on the changes.
He was actually supposed to be ditating right now, having just had dinner earlier. Uncle Zhang had gone out to drink with so of his old buddies from the army that were in town. Thinking of his Uncle reminiscing with old friends had reminded Sage of his old life and that was why he was being so introspective at the mont. Now that hed grown accustod to this world perhaps he had so knowledge from his old world that they didnt have here. Many of the things he thought of that were helpful used materials that he had no idea how to make. Plastic? Gasoline? Dynamite? He knew only little snippets about them. Gasoline was refined from crude oil, and dynamite was stabilized nitroglycerin. Easy enough to say, but how can you actually create them?
I must be going about this wrong. I should focus on what I do know and not what might be useful.
So, what did he know? Thinking it over, he could answer a lot of basically useless trivia questions about his hobbies: ani, video gas, and movies. That was all nonsense, so best move on. He was a programr and though he didnt use it much hed once learned quite a bit of math and physics. So that was sothing. From what hed read so far, most people didnt know much math, only enough to handle business transactions. Only rchants had to learn much about fractions and percentages. He also wasnt bad chanically, perhaps he could look through so of the mundane tools and equipnt people used. Maybe he will invent so upgrades.
Alas, he was still just a fourteen year old trainee. Hed probably just have to keep on training like he had been for the last few years. A thought suddenly struck him. Hed read in the library a book that detailed the dangerous regions in their county. He lived in the Lionheart town of the Jade Spirit County, and in the book it went over the 8 most dangerous places. Sage wasnt planning on going to any of them, but he was reminded how each of those locations held special resources and opportunities. People put themselves into harms way in the pursuit of treasures and the hope of faster advancent.
He certainly didnt want to head to one of those locations, but Sage actually knew of a similar place nearby. Sowhere dangerous, but also a source of possible treasures!
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