SHAPESHIFTERS

The cultivation world of the Martial Grotto continent was a cruel place. A place where the weak are discarded as scum and the strong are revered. It is also a place of multitudes of schemes and fortune. They say fortune favors the brave, but that kind of reasoning was foreign in this land. The more qualified expression should rather be : Fortune favors the strong.

Ling Aotian walked through a snowy forest. His hands still carrying a large egg, hugging it as he dragged his feet out of the snow. It was now currently snowing, the ground covered and the trees forming snow canopies.

" I really have to get a life ring for myself." Aotian stummered as he looked at the huge egg. It had become a burden to him. In his mind, if he had a life ring, this burden would have been delt with.

A life ring was different from a spacial ring, both in size and quality. A life ring, just as the name suggests is capable of storing items with life. That included herbs, trees, eggs...and even people depending on the size of the life ring. The size of the life ring depended on the users soul quality. The stronger your soul, the greater the space of a life ring. This condition is mostly due to the fact that one has to connect his own soul to the life ring in order to become it's master. But such a treasure was hard to find, with most of the ones able to afford them being peak cultivators.

Ling Aotian stopped and rested a top a huge rock. The rock was so huge that it was only half covered by snow. The best but being that high above it was a huge tree that provided cover from the snow. He put the egg besides him, his left hand supporting it while his right hand on his chin contemplating...

"It's been five days and I haven't found anything to eat. This damnable snow! The game must be taking shelter while the unlucky ones are already dead. Fuuu!! " He sighed his eyes taking note of his immediate surrounding lest any suprises occur.

"If I walk for another day or two and if am lucky, I may be able to find a town." He crossed his fingers hopping he gets Lucky.

As of right now, Ling Aotian's situation was not good. He knew that if he somehow got unlucky and comes across a bronze ranked magical beast, he would be done for. He had no combat power.

All ranking in the Martial Grotto Continent followed a specific heirachy. Copper indicating the same level as the Spiritual Qi awakening realm, bronze indicating Qi refining realm, silver showed the body and soul tempering realm, Gold equalled core formation realm, Violet equivalent to Essence seal realm, White going with the Void Shattering realm while Emerald Green representing Heaven merging.

This system represented all rankings, be it pills, spirit weapons, talismans..etc.

Back to Ling Aotian, although could use superior skill, he knew that he had to be decisive due to his jade Qi poor stamina. Luckily, he had already broken towards the second realm of cultivation : The Qi refining realm. If he said this in a pavilion full of people, he didn't know just how many would scoff at him with indignance. Just what kind of joke was it ..! He broke through from the first level of spiritual Qi awakening to Qi refining in one go..!!! That was a whole major realm!!

This realm was the foundational realm. It requires one to replace their spirit body with the dantian. The creation of the dantian depended on Qi. The quality of Qi used depended on one's own spirit body, hence if one had a bronze ranked spirit body he could only have a bronze ranked dantian. The level of dantian also affects the level of spiritual root that is born in the dantian: since the higher the grade of the dantian, the higher the spirit root born from the dantian and the greater the potential of the cultivator.

Ling Aotian's Spirit body was white in color, making him have the potential to form a white grade dantian. This is of course what happened in his past self. Presently though,his Qi could directly be refined to a deep green jade. This was the full effect of the Supreme Jade Physique. This physique allowed him to form emerald jade Qi, meaning that his dantian would most likely become of the highest grade while his spiritual root had a high percentage of being of emerald green rank.

One thing to note is that, an emerald green dantian could birth a spirit root from the emerald grade to the bronze grade. This depended with how thoroughly one refined Qi. A person could have a white grade dantian but a silver grade spirit root. It all depended on how you refine your Qi during this realm.

Qi from heaven and Earth enters one's body in it's origin state. One has to refine that said Qi from its Colorless nature to bronze color if one has a bronze grade spirit body. If one has a white grade, that person has to refine his Qi to make it copper color, them refine the copper Qi to bronze , bronze to silver until it becomes white Qi: The limit due to spirit body. A reminder : A person with a white spirit body can also decide to create his dantian with silver Qi, thus making the dantian silver Grade. This is totally possible, especially to lone cultivators with no resouces to cultivate.

The Qi refining realm was also one of the most demanding of spirit stones. This is because absorbing natural Qi takes too long. One could take 10 days just to filter a drop of Qi from heaven and earth. Using spirit stones however was another matter on its own. Spirit stones are are natural concentration of Qi, pure and primordial making it easier to cultivate with.

Ling Aotian was currently extremely poor, without a single spirit stones. He had used them all to buy large amounts of formation disks, talismans and the likes in order to escape LingFeng city. He knew from his memories that if he had chosen to stay at LingFeng city with his strength, it would not have mattered how many formations or talismans he had. So many people coveted his spirit Jade refining technique. Some of which don't even know what it actually is.They don't care, as long as it was a treasure found in the City's ruins it did not matter. Due to this reason, he made the decision without thinking twice. From the moment he awoke with his memories, he had already planned to leave that damned city.

"I wonder where that kid landed ..??" He wondered. The kid he was referring to being Ling Sun. Aotian didn't even know his name, he just remembered that he had tossed a kid inside the spacial rift.

If only Ling Sun could hear him right now, he would definitely curse his whole ancestry.

Ling Aotian decided to leave his temporary rock, wishing he could carry it untill he reaches a town. If only it was doable.

He continued dragging his feet out of the snow, his eyes looking at the egg in his hand while blinking towards the way. Another two days passed, his spirit and morale down. He decided to gamble. He circulated his little jade Qi to activate a movement skill. He was betting that he was near a town and that it would be worth it if he got out of this snow.

He hesitated for a moment, knowing very well that if he does not find shelter soon, he will most likely die if he encounters a bronze ranked beast.

"I'll gamble for now ...heavens , please be on my side just this once..! "

Qi circulated, his legs bulging and the snow gave way as if a strong wind was blowing them away. " Gliding proctor !! " He shouted, his legs propelling him forward as Qi concentrated there.

In one breath's time, he had moved two hundred meters away. His body bending and maneuvering around the snow and trees effortlessly, his hands tightly holding the egg with care.

After a full ten minutes he was out of jade Qi, his movement skill slowly coming to a stop as he grabbed on to a tree's back. He was exhausted.

But at this moment...." Help..! Help..!" Screams of help resounded from a near distance on his right. Twisting his neck to look, he was stunned.. " Just what kind of dog shit luck was this..?"

A girl, no older than fifteen was running for her dear life. Behind him, a whole pack of snow wolves just seemed not to catch up. The girl was using a movement skill, but Ling Aotian could clearly see that her spiritual Qi was being depleted at a visible pace with her speed slowing down.

He sighed " It's none of my god damn business..!! "

And with that he climbed the tree he was holding onto, leaving even the egg on the ground, covering it up with snow. He had set up his determination, he would not die for a mere girl today. However, things went array very fast, the girl was coming straight towards his very tree, her smile changing from one of distress to one of excitement. The snow wolves also had the same expression as they pounced into the air while spiritual Qi could visibly be seen transforming them into human form.

"You had one job... One job damnable heavens..!! Could you not just give me this face and give out some good luck !!" He cursed, then jumped down the tree, his expression dark uttering a single word."

"Shapeshifters !!"