Chapter 200: Soul Beasts Must Also Cultivate
The Great Star Dou Forest.
Gu Yuena leaned against a massive boulder by the shore of the Lake of Life, her fingertips gently stroking the cultivation technique booklet in her hands. Sunlight filtered through the dense canopy and spilled down, casting a faint halo over her silver hair.
"These things are truly rather interesting," she murmured to herself, a flicker of contemplation passing through her violet eyes. "They can genuinely help increase strength—even spiritual power can be used for cultivation. If all humans cultivated like this in the future, I'm afraid for us soul beasts, it would be a catastrophe of utter annihilation, wouldn't it?"
Over these past days, she had first meticulously studied these techniques, then selected a group of ten-thousand-year soul beasts with higher intelligence to test them. Only after confirming there were no problems did she begin formally cultivating herself.
After a period of cultivation, Gu Yuena was surprised to discover that her strength had indeed seen some slight growth, and her spiritual power had also made some progress.
Although compared to the vast baseline of her power, this bit of growth was minuscule and utterly imperceptible to ordinary people.
Even she herself only faintly sensed that there were some subtle changes.
But stronger was still stronger.
She raised her eyes to look into the distance. Di Tian, Bi Ji, Zi Ji, and the others had also cultivated these techniques, and the auras on their bodies were somewhat more condensed and solid than before.
As long as they continued cultivating through these techniques, could it be that soul beasts could also break through that boundary and ascend as deities?
Gu Yuena lowered her eyes and gently shook her head.
She knew very well in her heart that it wasn't that easy.
Di Tian was a living, breathing example. He had once followed the Dragon God, and had essentially been a god himself. But after the Dragon God was cleaved apart and they fled the Divine Realm, Di Tian's strength had gradually fallen to what it was today.
In the final analysis, it was because the Divine Realm had a rule—soul beasts were not permitted to become gods.
No, not just soul beasts. Any existence that was not of the human race was forbidden. Once discovered by the Divine Realm, they would send people to encircle, suppress, and capture them.
Even if they now managed to forcibly break through the limit by relying on these techniques, they still had to face the problem of heavenly tribulations. If they couldn't overcome the threshold of heavenly tribulation, everything was in vain.
Di Tian stood at the side, listening silently to Gu Yuena's words, and nodded slightly.
"Indeed so, Sovereign," he spoke. "However, if the Water God Church perfects and widely disseminates this series of things—artificial soul bones and soul rings—human soul masters would likely no longer need to hunt us soul beasts for soul rings and soul bones as they do now."
His impression of the Water God Church was quite good. Furina had given them many benefits and reached a cooperative agreement with the Sovereign. Moreover, the things the Water God Church was researching could genuinely reduce the pressure of human hunting on soul beasts. This was a tangible, substantial benefit for the survival and propagation of soul beasts.
Gu Yuena, however, shook her head.
"We cannot think that way."
She rose to her feet, her silver hair swaying gently with the motion.
She walked to the lakeside and gazed at her own reflection in the water, her tone calm but carrying a hint of coldness: "Even without soul bones and soul rings, soul beasts themselves are a great tonic for humans, especially for soul masters. I've made inquiries through the people sent over from the Water God Church. The cafeterias of quite a few advanced soul master academies prepare ten-year and hundred-year soul beast meat as food for their students."
She turned around and looked at Di Tian, complex light flickering in her violet eyes: "Moreover, even if artificial soul rings and soul bones can be created, things like hundred-thousand-year soul bones will still be rare treasures. Soul beasts above ten thousand years are treasures from head to toe. This point, you should know even better than I do."
She had done her homework.
Know the enemy and know yourself, and you can fight a hundred battles without defeat. Although she was cooperating with Furina, with the Divine Realm as their common enemy, she couldn't put all her eggs in one basket. The threat that humans posed to soul beasts had to be kept firmly in mind at all times.
Di Tian was silent for a moment, then slowly nodded.
Human greed—he had witnessed far too much of it. If everyone could become stronger, then everyone would certainly still want to be stronger than others. When that time came, soul beasts would still be the first to suffer. His previous thinking had still been far too simplistic.
Gu Yuena continued: "Besides, we are now preparing to assault the Divine Realm. All soul beasts that have awakened intelligence must try cultivating these techniques—mainly those at ten thousand years and above."
She explained: "Soul beasts above ten thousand years have high intelligence and relatively strong power. Cultivating will yield twice the results with half the effort, and they are also the most likely to become our subsequent fighting force."
After all, they were preparing to contend against gods. Even hundred-thousand-year soul beasts were nothing but insects before a god. Aside from apex existences like Di Tian and the others, who might perhaps have the strength to fight, the rest were utterly beneath notice.
But since they had obtained the techniques, letting them go to waste by not cultivating them would also be a waste. Following the principle of not putting all eggs in one basket, strengthening the overall power of the soul beasts was also preparation for confronting an increasingly powerful humanity in the future.
"As for..." Gu Yuena paused, her gaze drifting toward those weaker soul beasts active in the forest in the distance, "those below the thousand-year level, they can be taught by fellow soul beasts of the same species who have already cultivated."
Thousand-year soul beasts did possess intelligence, but for the vast majority, it was limited. Many of those weaker soul beasts would only ever reach the thousand-year level in their entire lives. To break through to ten thousand years without the right opportunity and coincidence was harder than reaching the heavens.
Hundred-year soul beasts were even lower. As for ten-year soul beasts, they were basically no different from ordinary animals—just possessing a little soul power and a physique that was ever so slightly stronger.
Even the advanced soul master academies of humans generally only used hundred-year soul beasts as ingredients. Ten-year soul beasts were rarely used alone; most of the time, they were mixed in with ordinary ingredients.
Whether they could even succeed in cultivating was a question in itself.
"Yes, Sovereign," Di Tian responded respectfully.
He then continued: "Speaking of which, Sovereign, what are your views on those... humans who wish to unite with soul beasts?"
Gu Yuena paused, momentarily taken aback.
She pressed a hand to her forehead and sank into thought.
What Di Tian was referring to were those martial soul scientists led by Dr. Oak. Dr. Oak, in particular, was already together with a Three-Tailed Beauty Demon Fox who had consumed Shapeshifting Grass and taken on the form of a human beast-kin girl—and had even given the other party the name Su Daji.
The other scholars had also followed suit one after another, attempting to romance soul beasts, and a portion of them had already succeeded.
They seemed to genuinely want to unite with soul beasts and give birth to unique, unprecedented offspring. There were even more outrageous ones who had offered to act as matchmakers for Di Tian, so that his descendants might obtain the martial soul of the Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King.
Before Di Tian had even expressed anything, Bi Ji and Zi Ji had already refused one after another.
But that group of people still refused to give up. They were even researching whether Savage Beast martial souls could be inherited through other means—such as extracting the genes of soul beasts...
Every time Gu Yuena recalled this matter, she found it rather headache-inducing.
She raised a hand and rubbed her temples, remaining silent for a long while before finally giving her answer.
"Leave them be."
Her voice carried a trace of helplessness, and also a hint of resignation to fate: "As long as they haven't crossed the bottom line, there's no need to pay them any mind. Also, warn them not to go too far."
A self-deprecating smile curved at the corner of her mouth: "Perhaps... this is also a path that soul beasts can choose to take in the future."
Saying it aloud, even she herself found it somewhat laughable. Because she herself didn't quite believe it either.
But trying never hurt.
Di Tian bowed slightly and responded in a deep voice: "Yes."