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A wet leather-wrapped sandbag from 50ft away swung as Silas laid into the bag. Every blow felt like he was touching the rough leather bag as he shortened the distance with his Dao. Sweat poured down his naked back and soaked his hose as he practiced using his Dao and body. The first stage demon beast used to wrap the bag was tough enough to let him beat on it all day without worry.

99.3% of his lungs had been cultivated, and soon he would move on to a new organ, and already he could feel the change. His body moved faster, and he rarely lost his breath. A single lung full of air could last nearly an hour; with more cultivation, that time would extend. His muscles felt stronger, and it took longer for his head to start pounding from Dao over usage.

Every breath increased his strength closer to the next stage of the Natal Realm. More spirit stones diffused in the air, and there were few impurities left in his lungs in the last few percentages. Every session he devoted to training his Dao Insight made it easier to use. His cultivation adapted, making the Distance Insight his own.

99.5%

Blows rained down from his fist in a flurry as he gained a stronger hand on his technique. It wasn’t a true martial technique but something similar after-hours devoted to wielding the Dao. Fractals were piecing together in his mind along with the calculations to make a teachable technique from his own experience.

While punched the bag and cultivated, he let his mind work out the complicated problem of developing techniques to pass on. At the end of the road he traveled, Silas was sure to create a technique to help his descendants learn the Distance Insight if they have a Dao Eye.

His own Dao Eye buzzed around his shoulder as he punched while he attempted to take the next step in his martial training. Silas was attempting to obtain a Dao of fists. While it was a minor martial Dao equal to palms, elbows, knees, and kicks, Silas wanted it. Learning such a Dao would make his blows hit with conceptual force even without spiritual energy added to the mix.

Dao Insights were normally something sought after in the core realm, so 3 realms above his current realm. He normally wouldn’t even try searching for them with his current strength, but his Dao Eye changed everything. The little stone of hollow, soul reaper, and cultivator human energy connected with the heavens and earth like nothing he had ever encountered. Making them wasn’t even difficult. The only problem was his mind.

99.7%

He felt his strength increase with every breath. Closing in on the next stage felt amazing as each lungful of spirit energy full air brought him closer to reaching the next stage. Sweat covered the floor as he punched, feeling his fists harden from the wet back and hard leather wrapped around it. Even with his Dao Eye, he was missing something to step over the line into the Dao Fist insight.

Power suffused his body as his heart raced, dragging in more spiritual energy. His aura bolstered his physical body to the limit. Striking wasn’t how he fought; Silas was a specialized cultivator that preferred to keep his enemies at a distance. Fighting Soifon and then the wolf demon beast had changed him. His heart pounded in anticipation of his next fight, and he struggled to gain one more advantage before it inevitably occurred.

He felt his body harden with every training session. Silas broke his body and healed every day, bringing him closer to another type of cultivation. Chepi and Hurit had found some herbs they said were used for healing, and he inspected them with his Alchemy knowledge before making some discoveries.

99.99%

There were many herbs in his land that could be useful for both poisons and healing. Of the two, the poisons were the most valuable to him for cultivation. Mixing some of them together, he could make a herb bath to temper his body. It wouldn’t get him to the first stage of body cultivation, but it would help.

Pre-Natal body cultivation was all about fighting and gathering herbs that put the body in the right amount of danger. In the Natal stage, Silas needed to find dangerous environments to temper himself. Extreme locations like the depths of the ocean, the harshest deserts, and the coldest tundra were what he needed. Of course, a few bolts of lightning wouldn’t hurt, either.

100%

He felt an eruption of spiritual power erupt from his body as his lungs were fully cultivated. Power flowed through him as he struggled to handle his aura. Silas used the eruption of energy to strike at his liver and get a headstart on its cultivation when he heard a knock on his door.

The cultivator froze as he withdrew from cultivating his liver without accidentally ruining himself. Careful organ cultivation wasn’t necessary after he hit a few major organs besides the brain. That one took precision. With his veins, heart, and lungs cultivated, most of his organs would naturally cultivate, given he took in enough spirit energy. However, brains were delicate things, and he needed to be careful if he didn’t want to ruin his body.

He heard another knock at his door and struck out. The door exploded off its hinges, and Eugene slid his head into the doorway.

“Mayhap I have a very good reason to disturb thou,” Eugene said.

“Oy, I am Aoife; I want to get married.” A redhead said with the thickest fake Irish accent Silas had ever heard. She smiled, and he saw a bow hung casually on her back. “I am new and would not mind a big strong man showing me around.”

“Methinks if thou disturbed my cultivation at a critical point for this,” Silas sucked in a breath and let it out. “Lovely young woman I would love to ravish, then we will have words,” Silas said.

“Words would be agreeable to have if my actions were so, but nay there is a method to my madness. Thou have guests, human children fleeing from monsters in the woods who invaded their homes and slew their parents.” Eugene said.

“Art they more demon beasts. My home needs a new rug or four.” Silas said.

“Thy words art aggressive and manly I like them. Methinks if thou slay thy enemies and pile their heads in a pyramid, I will have found a real man.” Aoife said.

“Someone must have fallen in love with my Gol ancestors. Sorry I don’t bleach my hair with lime or take out the skulls of my enemies to show off.” Silas said.

Eugene quirked an eyebrow. “I heard my dear wife complain about how Hurit has been showing off the skulls of the demons beasts thou returned with.”

“It seems I will get along well with my fellow concubines,” Aoife said.

He was a leaf on the wind. No matter how they tried his temper and tempted his wrath, Silas wouldn’t take the bait. But if there were enemies to slay, his fists were hungry for live enemies to beat on. The skulls of demon beasts were to liven his home up.

“The children say they ran away from demons that looked like humans,” Eugene said.

Silas couldn’t believe it. There wasn’t enough spirit energy in the wild unless one managed to take a trip to Hueco Mundo. Still, it would have taken years to amass enough spiritual energy for a demon beast to evolve enough to take on a human form. He would also sense them instead; he felt the faintest spiritual energy. More concerning the spiritual energy, when he focused on it felt like it was connected to multiple Dao. They weren’t even in the first stage from what he could sense, and were spiritually as strong as the wolf had been. Except they kept vanishing from his senses.

Demon beasts weren’t hollows; they couldn’t make the trip; they would have to force a hollow to open the way for them. Not to mention years would need to pass for them to gain a human form. It didn’t make sense, and when things didn’t make sense, someone was lying or missing information.

Silas pulled his wolf skin cloak on, grabbed Aoife by the hand, and pulled her to his chest. A blush crept over her face as he looked her in the eyes. She smelled like flowers and cinnamon, and her red hair fell nearly to her waist with all the luscious thickness of Asian hair. He brushed his hands through it and sighed.

“Alright, I like thou. Eugene, thank thou, but we have a job to do. Something is not right. I will take point if thou will watch my back. Methinks we art up against tricky predators, so don’t hold back.” Silas said.

He changed into his riding boots and spurs as Dotty galloped to his side. Silas patted her flank and enjoyed her warmth. Dotty came without him having to call, and Silas thought he knew why.

Despite his lack of talent for the field, Dotty had formed a bond with him. He could feel it slowly growing stronger, and his telekinesis was a little stronger. As she moved to the next realm, their bond grew stronger; in the future, any Dao insights either of them learned would be easier to learn by the other.

To strengthen their bond, they needed to sleep together; he knew that for sure. Beast cultivators exclusively had sex with their spirit beasts and grew by leaps and bounds thanks to the insights the spirit beasts granted them. But, on the other hand, it made cultivation even more expensive than it already was.

Silas shook off those thoughts and rode to the gate. He didn’t need to see the children to know they were let go for the demon beasts to track. They planned for the children to be picked up and taken somewhere with more prey. If they didn’t find anyone, the beasts would have tracked them down and eaten them.

He ensured all 50 of the muskets in his space ring were loaded. Silas wished he had his staff, but the wolfman broke it. That was fine. Silas wanted to feel the demon beasts’ bones break on his fists. A malignant energy more twisted than most demon beasts radiated from the foes he sensed. They were on the farm where several families and workers lived. It was 5 miles East and barely in his field of spirit sense.

“Mayhap I should join thou,” Aoife said.

Silas wanted to cut loose, but these beings felt like the sneaky type. Bounts were tough, but he didn’t know if she had a doll yet.

Eugene rode up behind them. “Stay here and catch up with Yoshino; the demon beasts might flee before we get there. They feel to be the shifty type.”

“In the spring, when the snows melt, I will purchase the farm and the land between. Then, we can collect the dead on the farm after we ensure it's safe and raise them.” Silas said.

Eugene nodded his head. “The lake has been feeling a little cramped. It would be nice to ride a few miles and never lose the feeling of this land.”

“It does feel like I returned home after a millennium,” Aoife said.

Silas hadn’t taken a breath since he left the cave and decided to take one. He marveled at how much spirit energy he could pull into his lungs. He felt his body sending the spirit energy everywhere, slowly cultivating his vital organs. The density of the spirit energy had grown by leaps and bounds and practically poured out of the lake. He already had to change his timetable for reaching the foundation realm. He went from a decade to 2 years, and that number may decrease in the future. If they captured Quincy spiritual energy, a new substance could be created. He couldn’t decide if he wanted to use pure human spiritual energy or his own cultivator spiritual energy first. Both were excellent choices that would lead to different outcomes.