Chapter 12

The amount of soul power Shin Long gained from his two newly subjugated and integrated demon spirits was minuscule. Despite that though, it felt like his power was refined by leaps and bounds. His senses became sharper, his soul became heavier and it felt like the world opened up around him and shone with a new life that he'd been blind to before.

His new spirits were seamlessly subjugated without issue. The red eagle struggled, but the difference between his and its power and will were like heaven and earth.

The red crab though was entirely different. It didn't struggle at all. "Kookee!" it happily waved its massive claw to him from its spherical home within his soul realm before hunkering down and resting as its soul force flowed into his soul realm and his power flowed through it, accepting its new place in life with an ease that honestly left Shin Long a little astonished.

...Perhaps it was a tamed demon beast before it died? They were quite common. Demon Beasts raised from egg form around humans, and thus losing their natural aggression against humanity as a whole if trained properly.

'The abilities I got from them aren't powerful, but they'll be helpful nonetheless.' Shin Long mused as he left his soul realm behind and returned to the physical world. His ability with the flame body technique was much more powerful than the red eagles thanks to his much superior soul force, and the ability to breathe underwater was incredibly versatile.

He was tempted to stay where he was, under the warm sun shining down upon him and his companion and just bask in the strength he felt rushing through his veins. But he put a stop to that thought immediately, while becoming a one star silver rank already was something amazing, it was but a bucket compared to the ocean he was striving for. He would not allow himself to feel content with this meager level of power.

"Ready to go?" he asked his companion, beginning to walk ahead.

Ning'er shook her head, "You're something else," the orange haired girl shook her head, a rueful smile on her face and began to follow him, "..So why Earth Eaters? I have a vague idea now since you explained your technique, but there's stronger bronze rank demon beasts than them around Glory City, and they're easier to kill as well."

Shin Long nodded. "All very true," he replied. "But Earth Eaters are a bit special. While not incredibly powerful. They have an interesting ability I want to make use of, and because of that ability, they are one of the species of demon beasts that produce spirit grade demon beasts much more commonly than others."

Demon Beasts bred very quickly. But besides their natural growth of power upon ageing, they didn't grow much stronger outside of special circumstances. Earth Eaters were in fact very weak as far as soul force went, little better than common demon beasts. But because by eating and refining earth within their bodies their soul force grew, they all transcended the normal natural limits of their strength through age. And thus, leading to many evolutions into Spirit Grade types.

"Are you wanting to use the earth eating ability to help your cultivation?" Ning'er wondered.

Shin Long smiled, "Yep!" he replied. He was glad she was quick on the uptake. Someone like his brothers would have just scoffed and boasted about how only a weak talentless fool would seek out demon spirits as weak as them and blah blah. "You want to join me in doing it? Integrating with a demon spirit like one of them and using their ability should give a decent boost to your cultivation."

She wouldn't be able to integrate with a demon spirit with an attribute related to storms as she was sadly. They were very rare, and the only species Shin Long knew of were in the gold rank and above. Though once she got to the point where she could integrate with one, her storm dragon cultivation would increase massively.

Ning'er shook her head, "I can't, I'm not even a one star bronze rank yet," she replied, "While it sounds fun, I don't have the strength to do it. It's something you need to be silver rank to do normally."

Shin Long shook his head at the answer. "You already know how to do it don't you?" he asked. The normal way to integrate a demon spirit was incredibly simple, you just needed to know how to open up your soul realm and how to close it.

"I do," Ning'er nodded. "Why?"

He shrugged and smiled at her, "Trust me," Shin Long told her, "It isn't hard to integrate with a demon spirit. People just don't know enough about the technique in Glory City. Earth Eaters aren't that powerful, and despite having 'earth' in their name, they don't actually have an attribute, so they can be integrated into the soul realm of anybody that has the talent for it." And as long as she didn't try to integrate one that was somehow of the silver rank or above, she should have no problems with it trying to break free.

The orange haired girl sighed, shaking her head, "You know, it feels a lot like you're calling all the experts of Glory City foolish morons without actually saying the words," she pointed out, but there was a small grin spreading across her face, "Okay, I'll trust you."

Perfect. With him infusing her with some of his yang qi last night, and her using the medicine enhanced by zoysia grass, her meridans should already be healed enough to the point where there would be no consequences in her breaking through to the first star bronze rank. Especially since doing it during the day, under the sun would get her a ton of yang qi and help balance out her condition all the more, and even increase her cultivation even further when she broke through.

It was too bad he didn't have the money needed right now to create a specific type of soul nurturing pill from the War God Cultivation manual. It burned un-needed fat from the body to enhance cultivation, and also used food within the body to speed up cultivation even further. With it and the Earth Eater ability, it would give both Ning'er and himself quite the boosts to their cultivation.

It wasn't a massive thing for himself. He was honestly more interested in just adding more and more demon spirits to his growing army. But for Ning'er the effects would be massive. He honestly nearly salivated at the thought of making this girl strong enough to smack down his older half brother Shen Fei, the humiliation he would feel would be legendary!

And just another great step forward in his revenge against the Sacred Family. 'You'll beg me for forgiveness, but I won't give you any father!' Shin Long hissed gleefully within the confines of his mind. He'd take everything from them. Their money, their reputation, their power. Hell, he'd rip the very demon beasts from their bodies and use to enhance his own power!

He even planned on taking his aunt as his woman.

For killing his mother over bringing 'shame' to the families reputation, he would destroy everything they held dear. They were pitiful, killing his mother simply because she wanted to leave the service of the family upon reaching gold rank and earning the right to become a noble herself and create her own noble family.

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It took near half an hour for Shin Long and Ning'er to travel towards the mountainous area where the Earth Eater herd lived. It wasn't very far from Glory City really, but a bit off the beaten path, to the west of the entrance leading in to the Endless Forest.

"You wouldn't think they'd be so low ranked looking at them," Shin Long whistled as he surveyed the massive group of demon beasts from atop the branch of a large tree, the vast majority of them taking massive bites out of the mountain side or ground, while the rest leisurely lay around and basked in the warmth of the sun.

The sizes of them were interesting. Ranging from the size of a common house canine demon beast of around two feet tall, right up to a pair of massive ones easily taller than eight feet, one even exceeding ten feet!

And they were incredibly formidable looking too. Waling on all fours, with massive spikes jutting from their backs all the way down to the tips of their tails, massive razor sharp fangs, and horns that curled up from the top and sides of their heads.

"I'm counting a total of five spirit grade demon beasts," Ning'er commented from beside him on the branch, "This must be a small herd, that or they've been culled recently. If I'm not wrong I see two one star bronze ranks, one three star, one four star, and that really big one must be a five star."

"Good estimates!" Shin Long beamed, patting the girl on the head and laughing internally when her face flushed at the gesture, "You're dead on." his sensing range had increased quite a bit since he broke through to the silver rank, and he could sense the power of these beasts. There were a few incredibly close to breaking through to the one star bronze rank, and would probably get there within the next few days, but other than that Ning'er was completely on point.

"..How are you going to do this?" the orange haired girl asked. "I know a few offensive techniques, but none that will be able to get through their body armour right now."

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Ning'er looked to Shin Long curiously, wondering what he was planning on doing. From what she knew, the natural armour of an Earth Eater grew along with its soul force. The stronger it became, the stronger its armour was. Nothing less than a silver rank weapon would be able to pierce their natural armour.

"It's nothing I can't handle," Shin Long grinned, and he stepped forward to the edge of the branch. He held out his palms and to Ning'ers awe, a pair of energy spheres formed in them. One a bright, luminescent white, the other a deep ebony black that seemed to suck in all light around it. Even as immature as her sensing capabilities were right now, she could feel the sheer power radiating from each orb of power. Then Shin Long cupped his hands together at his side, merging the two orbs together in a chaotic beat of pulsing black and white before throwing his hands forward in front of him, "Yin Yang Blast!" he roared.

For a moment, Ning'er thought she went deaf. The sheer noise that erupted, like the very air was vibrating apart left everything muted to her as a massive beam of white and black energy shot forward travelling the hundreds of feet between their position and that of the largest Earth Eater, surrounded on all sides by many of its brethren.

*BOOOOOM!*

A massive explosion was kicked up as the blast hit the demon beast before it even had a chance to realise what was going, erupting outwards in a gigantic dome of raging, chaotic black and white power and washing over tens of dozens of the Earth Eaters.

'What power!' Ning'er gaped at the boy standing in front of her as the explosion died down moments later to reveal a massive crater where the blast struck, and the corpses of the largest of the Earth Eaters, along with easily a hundred more surrounding it.

Was he really the same age as her? Hell, was he really just a one star silver rank? The sheer power behind that attack felt far beyond the power of any silver rank she'd saw produce in her own Winged Dragon clan.

She knew the Yin Yang Blast of the Fanged Panda was an extremely powerful ability, but she hadn't dreamed it could put out so much devastation!

"War Cry! Energy Claws!" Shin Long wasn't even idly while he waited for the results of his attack to die down. A crimson flame like aura burst into life around his body, and his nails lengthened into claws easily two inches or more long and began crackling with green energy.

Without saying anything to her, he stepped off of the branch and landed on the ground, and then burst forward in a show of raw speed Ning'er couldn't even follow with her eyes!

All she saw was a red blur before Earth Eater bodies started to fall. They hadn't even found out what happened with his initial attack and he was already in amongst them, tearing through them with his bare hands like a hot knife through butter.

Xaoi Ning'ers thoughts trailed back to earlier, when he practically laughed at the thought of his older brother, a one star gold rank trying to pick a fight with him because he was hanging around with her. and she realised now why he was so confident.

She could really see him easily defeating someone like Shen Fei, who despite being a gold rank only reached there thanks to massive amounts of elixirs and soul pills.