High Beast

Once Shui was close enough to Malirin forest, he assumed the same form as last time. His aura was less of a problem, but mutation control was too connected to his core to change with just that. In the body of a golden rabid monkey, Shui hopped on trees towards his brother's den. Although he had to get through a few beast spirits' territories to get to him, his aura was still diluted so none of them could detect him. While this was convenient, Shui wouldn't have minded being attacked so he could get some quick combat experience. Although he could manage most movements in his beast form, he hadn't tried fighting in it yet.

'I guess I'll have to look for opponents later.'

Shui knew the strength of his body, so he wasn't afraid of beast spirits or high beasts, but that didn't mean he could definitely beat them by randomly swinging around his arms.

As Shui got closer to his brother, he sensed several presences around him so he slowed down. When the number of presences reached ten, he stopped and looked around him. Although he was at the edge of his brother's territory, none of the presences around him were familiar, nor could he sense any wolves amongst them. They seemed to be hostile and while he didn't mind eliminating them, he wanted to give his brother a heads-up first.

'So big bro, there are some lizards at the edge of your territory, can I kill them?'

'Well, they're not my people, but it's best not to kill them yet. Just come here so I can give you a rundown of the situation. I'll send some of my girls to pick you up.'

After talking with Cin, Shui simply watched the group surrounding him and noticed that this group quickly escaped as another group approached. Shui only thought of the wolves living with Cin as just a harem, but they were still beast spirits, strong ones at that. Only four of them were enough to scare off the group of ten that were around him. Once they were all in front of him, they first double checked to make sure that no one else was around, before escorting him to Cin. Shui already knew that something was happening, and the tense atmosphere of Cin's den further supported his guess.

Once they were in front of Cin's chamber, the wolves left him. Shui headed further in and saw Cin lying down on his side with a fresh bone in his mouth.

"And here I was thinking you were in danger."

"Hmph, how could your big brother be threatened in this playground?"

Since he didn't have to move his mouth to speak, Cin continued biting down on the bone, which used to belong to a beast spirit.

"So, what happened?"

"It went like this..."

Cin went on to explain how he was ambushed by three high beasts and got a serious wound so he had to retreat to his den, and how ever since then, the evolved beasts under that high beast had been snooping around his land.

"A serious wound, huh? Well, I guess for you it was a quick heal."

"Basically, but it still hurt. I can't believe I got injured by weaklings like them. I'm definitely getting back at those mutts for it."

"Hmm, but would you be strong enough while breaking through?"

"Err..."

Cin finally stopped chewing the bone as he paused to think of a response, but when he sensed the doubt coming from Shui, he hastily came up with something.

"Hey, it's not that I can't beat them, it's just that I don't want another one of those mutts to join in and kill me."

"...I guess that makes sense."

If he was human, Cin would have surely wiped away his cold sweat, but luckily that sort of thing didn't happen to him.

"Mhmm, so we'll stick to the original plan. It won't be as smooth, but if I have a few more days I should be able to push myself to the high beast boundary, and I'll need you to protect me while I do so."

"Sure."

It wasn't the most secure plan, but with Shui by his side, Cin didn't have to worry about the high beasts that wanted him dead.

'I'll show those bastards what happens when they mess with me.'

Completely forgetting that he had been reluctant to borrow Shui's assistance, Cin was burning with a vengeance.

While he waited for Cin to reach the high beast boundary, Shui took out a spell that was in his storage ring. Since he had transformed, there naturally wasn't any room for him to hold space expansion bags, so everything was now in this ring. The spell he took out was the 'Four Elements Technique'. This wasn't the watered-down version that Nalos used, but the corna that it was based on.

Above tier 9 spells were cornas, which were the main abilities of Masters. At this level, rather than a variety of spells with similar attributes, one would just use a single technique that encompassed all of their insights related to the laws of the natural world. Cornas couldn't be compared to normal spells in power, but the requirements to use them were also very strict. While many of them didn't require an exorbitant amount of energy to activate since they could be split into different abilities, one needed exceptionally high comprehension and a strong soul. While he was fine in the comprehension department, Shui's soul was barely enough for him to understand the information that he got from the plaque that recorded the technique.

The Four Element Theory that this corna was based off of, said that all attributes came under four categories. Wind element, fire element, water element and earth element. The Four Elements Technique, could be practiced in five stages with the first stage involving the simple task of manifesting the elements, but it had to incorporate personal insights.

In order to manifest an element properly, Shui would have to imagine how the element would come into being. The corna gave him examples, but it wouldn't be enough. Since foundational energy could freely interfere in the laws of the natural world as long as there was enough of it, it was important that he could believe that his idea was possible and that it didn't deviate from the rules of the natural world too much.

He started off with the water element. Rather than use his divine energy to substitute for water, he used it to gather and condense the gaseous water that was already in the air. Through this method, he could utilize vast amounts of water with less effort. He could also quickly think of ways to use water in combat by controlling the water that was around his opponent.

'What about fire?'

Fire was naturally the most offensive of the four elements, but Shui had already manifested his heart flame. Furthermore, since his heart flame was born from divine energy, though he was only in the Soul Realm, it was strong enough to use against tough enemies and had a special attribute. Therefore, Shui wasn't sure if a manifested flame would be very useful to him.

'No, I can't give up on it so easily. I should research this more.'