Chapter 196: Taking Stock

Tao Ba gave Sage another deep look, his gaze seeming to pierce deep and lay bare all of Sage’s secrets.

“You should have told me you could do that. You could have saved a lot of time.”

Sage blinked, “What do you mean? You also haven’t told me where we are. How did you come out of…”

Before he could finish, Tao Ba gave him another flick on the nose, “I didn’t. You’re still in the Universe Ring. We’re in an area that you don’t have the authority to be in. I made an exception to help you out Kid. You should be happy. I stopped you from eating all your bugs and beasts.”

“Eating all my... “

Sage realized he was in his true form, and he was also much smaller than he used to be. At this point the memories of what he’d been doing for the last year finally came forth and he couldn’t help it. He started laughing at his own sad state, hunting bugs and eating fish in a lake. He truly had lived the life of an animal this time. Last time he’d been a rampaging monster because of his own impatience and carelessness. This time he’d been killed and kicked back down the food chain.

The Fu Clan will pay for this.

“So, what did you mean about saving time?”

Tao Ba pointed at his body and chuckled, “The you now is a fresh creature. You lost all your cultivation. Your meridians have shrunk down to a normal size without any reinforcement from training and all your Qi Pores are closed again. Your dantian is empty, not a speck of Qi.”

“How is that good, or saving me time? It’ll take me decades to return to what I had!”

“Hah, you didn’t let me finish. You have horrible talent and you practiced many different Qi Cultivation Techniques.”

“Thanks for rubbing it in!”

Tao Ba laughed again, “So feisty now, Little Snake. You must be going through puberty again. Always interrupting. You see, practicing so many different Cultivation Techniques created a mess out of your meridians. While it’s certainly possible to switch techniques, everytime its done will leave subtle remnants behind. Its sort of like the difference between building a big house from scratch versus doing a renovation to add more rooms to an existing house. Its certainly possible and shouldn’t cause any issues doing it once or twice, but you can’t turn a one bedroom shack into a mansion, adding one room at a time, without ending up with a lot of problems.”

Sage thought about this idea for a bit and then tilted his wide snout and waited for Tao Ba to continue. Tao Ba smirked at him, not saying anything more and looking like he was waiting for something.

“Please continue, oh Great Tao Ba. I have been remiss, Sir. Please forgive me. Getting killed has addled my mind and made me forget all my manners.”

Tao Ba put on a smug smile and nodded, “That’s better. You see, now that you’ve gained a new body your messy meridians have been cleared. You can directly start with a good Cultivation Technique and not have to remodel your body to support a change. In addition, instead of a weak set of human flesh to start cultivating with, you’ve got a nice sturdy beast body. I brought you here because the fish in that lake have a reasonably pure bloodline, at least the best you could handle as a Little Baby Snake.”

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Sage suddenly remembered the Blood Refining Body Hardening Technique he’d gained from the Ancestral Memories of that unknown Mosquito. It had been combined into the Charming Lance Beetle and laid dormant inside them until he unlocked it by combining with it himself. He only found out about the technique after the Silver Liberator Butterfly helped him regain his mind and shuffle about all the changes he’d experienced and reshape his body. It seems his animal self had been able to use the techniques from Ancestral Memories and had been practicing Blood Refining this whole time. He thought about checking his own body when he realized he no longer had Spiritual Sense.

Oh right. I died and lost my cultivation. It’s been a long time since I didn’t have Spiritual Sense, not since…

Sage suddenly looked around and then at Tao Ba, “Where’s my Seed of Life?”

Tao Ba blinked, “You had one of those, too? You frustrating little brat! Why did you keep so many secrets from me!”

The white haired boy closed his eyes for a second and then smiled. Sage felt himself lifted into the air by an unseen force that felt like dozens of invisible hands. Tao Ba kicked the ground and it propelled him backwards at high speed. Flying into the air, Sage was dragged along behind the boy and got to see a magnificent view of a huge rainforest from above. He didn’t have much time to admire it before they flew into a huge bank of mist and Sage could no longer see further than the tip of his own nose. They changed directions multiple times, so many times and so quickly that Sage lost track of where they were headed. Finally, they passed through the fog once more. Floating through the air, Sage recognized the lone building in the distance.

We really are inside the Universe Ring! This ring is even more amazing then I thought.

They flew through the air before finally landing in front of the building. Tao Ba walked in like he owned the place and passed through a few doorways. Sage’s giant body was forced to float around behind him like a pet, the invisible force pushing and prodding to squeeze him through the doorways. They stopped when they were standing in front of a glowing sphere, hovering in mid-air.

“Found it. Seems like you weren’t lying. You little cheat, you even found some other Heavenly Materials to support it. Let me see… Eye of the World, First Light, Stormbreath, and a Sovereign Stone. Very good. The Seed of Life will draw you towards other Heavenly Materials and you seem to be quite lucky to be able to collect so many. I’m surprised you haven’t died before.”

Sage had to ask and satiate his curiosity, quickly learning the details on what Tao Ba was talking about. He had an out of date reference material describing Heavenly Treasures, a Memory Sphere he’d found in the special Storage Ring that he learned was a small piece of the Universe Ring. The Memory Sphere had random scatterings of information. It listed names, usual places to find them, and any known powers. It also had biographies of people who were known to have the Heavenly Treasures and what they did with them. That said, it was far from comprehensive, it was more of a very well detailed journal. It only had names for many of the Heavenly Treasures.

Tao Ba started to explain and then he got bored and just held up a hand. The tip of his finger started to glow and he reached forward towards Sage. Sage held very still, eager to receive the information. Then Tao Ba flicked him on the forehead with a different finger, startling Sage. Before he could complain, Tao Ba flicked him with the glowing finger and Sage was immobilized as a flood of information flowed into his head. The Heavenly Treasures list in that Memory Sphere was nothing compared to what he just gained. It only had knowledge on a hundred different Heavenly Treasures in detail, with another hundred or so with a few details and more with just names. The information that Tao Ba gave him had thousands of different Heavenly Materials, each with detailed descriptions of their appearance and powers, likely locations to find them, and most importantly the methods to collect and master them.

Eye of the World. The eyes are the windows to the soul. This eye is greater than all others and a world all to its own. It can shed tears that nourish the soul, strengthening spirits and other similar exististences. One of the Heavenly Waters.

First Light. The first ray of the dawn’s light came from this special fire. Night is ended when the sun rises and the first light of dawn is very powerful against creatures of darkness. The night, cold, and darkness are Yin related elements so their natural foil is Yang elements. The First Light is a very powerful Yang fire, a Heavenly Flame that is known for overwhelming those with strong Yin natures. On the other hand, just like the dawn it doesn’t last for long. It had previously been sealed up inside an orb and mounted atop a pillar covered in array symbols.

Stormbreath. Breath of the storm. The fury of the wind and skies. A type of Heavenly Wind, it had been locked up inside a stone to reduce its power. Sage found it at the Soul Taming Abode. A user of the Divine Breath Technique found a way to embed the stone inside his lungs and draw on the energy that leaked out from the Stormbreath to empower his technique. Just like the First Light, the former owners couldn’t master the Heavenly Treasures so they came up with workarounds to still gain some benefits.

Sovereign Stone. Lord and dominion over the earth. The Sovereign Stone sounds so very imposing, but in truth it is not all that powerful. Certainly, all Heavenly Treasures are quite strong, but in comparison to others this one is quite weak. Instead, it is the lord of all the Heavenly Jewels. Heavenly Jewels are earth natured Heavenly Treasures, and the Sovereign Stone can overpower and even control other Heavenly Jewels.

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