Counting corpses and New Moons
After three days spent in that 'small' mountain range, almost every single peak had been littered with the footsteps of Shane's group of six.
Wherever they went, they left behind the empty dens of powerful Profound Beasts, bare rocky ground and large empty pits.
The amount of stacked up corpses in Shane's inventory were no longer just in the hundreds. After the incident with the Profound Ants, it had already surpassed a thousand, subsequently unlocking the sort function of his Inventory.
He tapped his finger absentmindedly on the table while browsing through the gathered loot and wondering how he ever lived without this extremely helpful function before.
Thousands upon thousands of low-level corpses and herbs, multiple tonnes of ore, hundreds of kilograms of gold, silver and platinum, almost thirty kilograms of purple-veined heaven crystals and a small sack of gemstones were neatly separated inside the transparent blue window's display.
With a mental nudge, the tabs changed and the higher tiered 'loot' was displayed before his eyes. There were at least a few hundred corpses between the peak of Nascent Profound and the peak of Spirit Profound, enough to last them for months, if not years and finally, eleven corpses of Earth Profound Realm.
Shane grinned to himself, remembering clearly how each one of them fell...
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First was the pair of Jade Tempest Scorpions at the [2nd Earth Profound] that Qingyue, after reaching the peak of Spirit Profound, killed through unleashing her domain and Profound Arts to the fullest.
The scorpions were only the size of a large dog but they were able to skillfully utilise the wind to move at incredible speeds and were completely covered in emerald coloured, crystalline armour.
This armour consisted of many facets and sharp angles, consequently giving Qingyue, who insisted on battling with them in close combat to improve her swordsmanship, an extremely hard time piercing it.
She danced around the pair of beasts like floating clouds and flowing water but even after a long while, she had only managed to leave a multitude of shallow scores along their armoured exoskeletons
Qingyue, who had basically insta killed everything she had fought so far, got exceptionally frustrated. Gathering almost her entire remaining Profound Energy reserves, she poured it into her most accomplished Frozen Cloud Domain yet and effectively froze them into ice cubes.
She then proceeded to use the energy reserves of her inner world to form two gigantic ice loti, one on each palm, and slammed them down onto the frozen scorpions, turning them both into bloody ice fragments.
Rather unnecessary, but it gave her great satisfaction for a moment until she realised what she had done and started panicking about how they could possibly use the corpses in that state.
Thankfully, her husband was able to salvage the situation by devouring one of them and using bestowal to form a pill, then wrapping the other one up with his profound energy before storing all the pieces away together.
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Shane's grin grew to look rather mocking as he glanced at the six corpses at the [4th of Earth Profound]. They were Fierce Storm Hawks, The Xiao Sect's patron bird, and frankly, they were extremely disappointing.
Flying atop the back of Coral, who was much faster and way more beautiful than these scraggly looking buzzards, by the way, he had swooped down and targeted their wing joints with tiny localised spheres of his own Frozen Cloud Domain, freezing them stiff mid-flight.
After that, well… the birds either hit the ground and died or they hit the ground and then Shane hit them and they died. It was a rather easy and boorish way to hunt them but then again he was cheating by using the power of a Throne against an Earth Profound beast.
The other three Earth Profound corpses were the two leftover Cinder Bears and a single Wyrm like Earth elemental beast that Dusty, in all her new forty-meter long glory, had ripped out of the ground and proceeded to toy with for almost an hour before snapping its neck.
'There must be some way different evolutions or bloodlines affect the strength of Profound Beasts.' Shane absentmindedly thought to himself, not for the first time, as he reminisced over Dusty's extremely brutal fight.
Even though the beast had higher cultivation than Dusty by two small realms, the battle itself was as if an adult were battling a child.
'Thinking about it, Coral was the same with those Fierce Storm Hawks. She was faster and larger and the amount of elemental energy she could utilise was many times greater than them too.'
Perhaps his beasts were just special, he glanced over to where Coral was sat upon Lingxi's shoulder and Dusty was draped over Qingyue's neck, both acting like spoiled children for breakfast morsels and smiled softly while shaking his head. In any case, they were the cutest
Feeling satisfied with the newfound order to the chaos that used to be his inventory, Shane closed the window with a thought and chewed his last piece of Spirit Profound Zephyr Bird Egg omelette, relishing the rich taste.
He placed his chopsticks down and clapped his hands to get everyone's attention *Clap*.
"*Ahem* This has been an extremely beneficial and enjoyable week for everyone. We've all improved by leaps and bounds, whether it be by cultivation or combat experience and I'm really proud at how far we all came." The words sounded happy but unfortunately, nobody found much joy in them.
There was just a single day left until they needed to return and as Shane glanced around the breakfast table, yes he had a different one for breakfast, he couldn't help but marvel, not only at their cultivations but also at the looks of reluctance on their faces.
Qingyue was probably depressed that she would have to go back to publicly keeping her distance from him, a matter he would solve as soon as he returned, so she didn't count.
Xiao Che and Lingxi, however, had been thoroughly enjoying themselves these past days, exploring areas that had likely been untouched by other humans for thousands upon thousands of years and getting all the closer for it.
"As much fun as this was, all things must come to an end and unfortunately, there is only one day left before we have to return." Three groans were his answer and even Shane knew that keeping the bitterness out of his own voice was impossible at this point.
"Big Brother Long, can't we just stay out here forever?" Lingxi whined with reluctance.
"You brat, you just want to stay out here and explore the wilderness in the day and brother Che at night don't you?" Shane teased and she nodded without hesitation. "En"
He raised an eyebrow. "You want to spend your life in a tent in a cave?" "En"
"Wandering the wilderness, battling beasts and exploring unknown areas, away from all the other people?" "En"
"You just want to avoid telling your dad that you ate up your nephew in the wilderness don't you little Lingxi?~" Qingyue chimed in from next to her.
Lingxi started to sweat bullets and turned her head to the side, she looked to be struggling with something and finally after Qingyue poked her cheeks a few times, she nodded meekly with a pout. "...En"
Qingyue's eyes lit up and looking extremely happy with herself, she held her hand up to a rather stunned Shane who nonetheless still received the unexpected high five with a deliciously crisp and satisfying sound. *Pa*
Shane then burst out laughing, bringing Xiao Che who had been staring, wide-eyed and open-mouthed at the situation out of his stupor.
The poor kid started choking and spluttering on whatever was or wasn't in his mouth at the time and Lingxi tried to turn her pout into a slightly fearful look that was convincing for the most part, although the corners of her lips were curled.
At least the mood became lively again.
After laughing for a good half a minute, Shane wiped a small tear from the corner of his eyes. "*Hooo* That was brilliant, anyways I have a surprise for everyone today! As a reward for all the hard work these last few days, we are gonna go for a ride on Coral to New Moon City and visit the Black Moon Merchant Guild!
While we're there we can sell a couple of cores and buy some other things to take back home for Grandpa Lie and my future father and brother-in-law."
'Ah shit! Definitely forgot about that.' When he mentioned Yuanba, the mood around the table sank again and Shane facepalmed inwardly. The kid had been avoiding them since the day he first met Qingyue and gave some cultivation pills over, despite being invited to join them more than a few times.
Xiao Che scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "Whenever I went out to meet Yuanba, I tried to get him to come and join us with training or even for a meal, but he always made some excuse saying he was busy."
Qingyue looked over to Shane with concern and he grasped her hand reassuringly as Lingxi did the same to a defeated looking Xiao Che. Before Shane arrived, Yuanba was his best friend and knowing the kid, he was probably thinking he had let Yuanba down.
"Okay, no need to be so depressed, I only met him a couple of times but I have a good eye for people and I know exactly the kind of person he is." He bullshitted without reserve, causing his wife's eye to twitch.
"My guess is that he used the cultivation resources that I gifted to him on our first meeting and his cultivation realm barely advanced at all and so he is ashamed to see me, thinking he wasted them.
Obviously, I don't feel that way but he's such an honest kid that he can't help but feel bad. Anyways, I'll talk to him when we get back, now let's get ready to go." He waved his hand dismissively and stood up to start clearing away their campsite.
As he walked past Qingyue, she activated the innate, master level skill, of all women and used her little fingers to violently pinch his waist before whispering. "You know something, don't you." In his ear in English.
'Truly, can't get anything past this little lie detector.' Shane wrapped his arms around her waist and gripped her soft buttocks out of view of the others, kneading and pinching them to his heart's content.
He moved his mouth to the side of her head and nibbled on her earlobe, causing her whole body to limply lean into his chest. "Yuanba has a special physique like you, I will tell you about it later."
Qingyue was shocked stiff at the revelation, if that was the case, then what kind of special physique would stop her brother from being able to advance his cultivation? Was it the reason why he was so huge and muscular too?
She was brought out of her thoughts as Shane blew a puff of warm air into her ear, one of his wandering claws tracing the crack of her buttocks while the other trailed up along her spine.
She started feeling hot and dry all over from his continued ministrations and while she still had enough awareness remaining, decided to push him away albeit while grumbling in a very flirty manner.
Shane, satisfied with both his cheap advantages and successfully pulling Qingyue out of a thinking cycle that would inevitably lead back to her missing mother, began humming the Game of Thrones opening tune while storing away their campsite.
He had a bad habit of humming these really catchy and repetitive tunes that easily got into peoples heads...
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As it turns out flying on the back of a living creature with a playful personality, that can comfortably travel at around a third of the speed of sound is in no way as glorious as Shane thought it would be.
The good news? They covered a distance of almost 500km in just over an hour. The bad news, it cost almost half of his profound energy reserves to shield the group from the 400kmph winds. Oh, and apparently cultivators could also get travel sick.
Shane also discovered firsthand, the effects of profound energy streams and chaotic Wind Energy on fast-moving flying objects. Yes, he experienced profound turbulence.
He could let that one slide however as he somehow managed to gain a greater understanding of how to utilise the Wind just by sensing the flows all around him.
On the plus side, he did manage to explain to Qingyue, through Spirit Sound Transmission, everything he knew about Yuanba's Tyrannical Emperors Divine Veins, including the requirements for awakening them and the drawbacks of not awakening them.
Needless to say, she wasn't especially thrilled about either option but Shane believed there would be another way and reassured her that they would help him together.
He was banking on Jasmine also having a good head full of generations of Star God's knowledge to take advantage of. She wouldn't be hiding her identity from him in this timeline and so he could hopefully pick her brains.
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When New Moon City finally came into view, Shane's jaw was hanging wide open, it was huge! At least ten times larger than Floating Cloud and even bigger than the whole of London had been on his Earth!
There were nine gigantic structures within that stood out from the rest, seven grand sectorial buildings, a huge walled compound with many towers and above it all, the city lord's palatial-Esque mansion.
Each of them spread far and wide throughout the enormous walled-off city, having enough land of their own to house tens of thousands of disciples, even then, the city didn't look crowded in the least.
Temples, pavilions, kiosks, courtyards, gardens, lakes, and huge mountain rockeries made up the various small and large clan territories scattered across the rest of the blooming city landscape like a forest of stone.
Dozens of miles of dazzling white and blue coastline were dotted with docks, transport vessels, fishing boats and leisure yachts. The city truly was a very beautiful place.
Faced with the pleading gazes of his entire party, Shane had Coral do a slow lap around the city borders so that they could all get a good look from above before he checked his map and nudged her towards one of the large open courtyards of the Black Moon Merchant Guild.
They didn't want to alarm anyone by landing swiftly, so he had her slowly glide down toward the landing spot. That of course was too good to be true as Dusty, the little showoff, wriggled free from her perch among the birdie's talons and dropped the last dozen or so meters to the ground.
She promptly transformed, while still in mid-air, displaying herself in all her beautiful forty-meter long emerald glory and consequently shared the absolute shit out of the already waiting attendant, although, by the time Coral had fully descended, he had regained his composure.
The attendant bowed at 90 degrees and spoke some very comfortable words directly to Shane. "Welcome to our humble establishment noble guests, your majestic entrance was truly impressive. May this little one inquire as to your business here today?"
The attendant only glanced at Qingyue, Lingxi and Xiao Che for a second and although his eyes flashed with appreciation when his gaze landed on Qingyue, he was able to pull them away after just a moment.
Shane nodded inwardly, the attendant's eyes were pretty good, and he was very professional. Although Qingyue was wearing a veil, she still had a kingdom toppling beauty and an innate noble temperament that was absolutely not possible to be possessed by an ordinary person.
When he spoke to Shane, he spoke with respect, not fake pleasantries, genuine respect. Shane himself was mostly unaware or more like unbothered but he had definitely cultivated a rather dangerous and unyielding aura that seemingly surrounded him at all times.
The number of Profound Beasts that had died in his hands by this point were not less than a few thousand, and he had even inadvertently absorbed a tiny portion of the killing intent of the Heavenly Slaughter Star God.
As unintentional as that was, it still had a direct effect on his aura and bearings...
All in all, he gave off the feeling of a predator and that crossing him in any way would result in a fate worse than death, especially when he was closely eyeing someone with those glowing crimson irises.
Shane flicked the attendant a Purple Profound coin and spoke amiably to him. "I want to sell some higher-level cores and buy a few other things today, I wonder if you could help set me up with a manager who has some say around here, hmm?"
"May I inquire about the level of the Cores you wish to sell esteemed sir?" The attendant asked through Spirit Sound Transmission.
"Spirit Profound Peak" These three words were returned nonchalantly with just a small amount of Shane's Will infused yet the attendant felt as if a clap of thunder resounded in his ears.
An illusory great pressure had descended on the shoulders of the man, it was as if he could directly feel the death of those beasts from the young man's mouth, and within an instant, his back had grown slick with a cold sweat.
He was only at the latter stages of Spirit Profound himself after all, and Profound Beasts were also widely known for being tougher than cultivators of the same level.
For these 'kids' to be able to slay multiple peak Spirit Profound Beasts and remain uninjured, they were no doubt monsters. That was fearful enough, without even taking into account the appearance of not one but two Earth Profound contracted beasts.
However, risk and reward were said to go hand in hand and good business was often hard to come by, especially out here in a fringe city of the Blue Wind Empire.
The attendant was no simple character, so the man easily regained his composure, bowed his head, and declared. "Leave it to this lowly one!"
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A/N: Thank you for being patient, I don't know how long this situation will persist for but unfortunately, it looks to be long term with my mother needing a joint replacement operation in the near future.
Chapter releases may be slow but I have no intention to give up the novel and already have a rough plan for at least the next 50 chapters.