Cultivating Chai

62:

“Is it really okay?” Xiao Feng asked for the second time, as his tone betrayed his hesitation.

“What are you so afraid of?” Beast Master Zen asked, his tone perplexed. “Liulian is a powerful foundation establishment beast, yes. But she is bonded to me. You won’t be attacked unless you try and do me harm or I command her to.”

“I understand that but…,” Xiao Feng trailed off, not wanting to offend the Beast Master but not quite sure how to convey his worried without doing so either. “She is still a wild spiritual beast, right?” He asked, trying to keep his implication as subtle as he could manage.

Beast Master Zen blinked, before he started looking Xiao Feng up and down as if he had come across a particularly rare breed of spiritual beast.

“You really don’t know anything about beast taming, do you?” Beast Master Zen asked, his tone almost sounding awed.

“Well,” Xiao Feng said, stretching the vowel out for dramatic effect. “I know that once you bond a beast they’re not going to attack you. But, I’m not the one that’s bonded to Liulian,” He tried to defend his reputation, but from the increasingly puzzled look Beast Master Zen was giving him, it was clear that he wasn’t succeeding.

Beast Master Zen signed, before reaching for his right hand and firmly clasping it. Xiao Feng didn’t resist as his hand was pressed against Liulian’s fur, before Beast Master Zen pulled away.

The sleek, glossy fur was far softer that Xiao Feng would’ve expected from just looking at it and once he realized that Liulian wasn’t biting at him for his transgressions, he couldn’t help but let his hand glide down from it’s neck to the curve of it’s back. The panther-like spiritual beast only slightly arched in response, contentedly leaning into the touch.

Xiao Feng struggled to keep the surprise from his eyes. Even to his predecessor, spiritual beasts had always been deadly creatures, whether he encountered them in the thick of a forest or on the battlefield, under the command of the demonic cultivators that had undoubtedly used vile and taboo methods to subdue them.

Xiao Feng’s own logic from earth reinforced that notion. Wild animals could never truly be domesticated, for there was no knowing when their primal instincts would overcome the perceived bond that had been formed.

“The Martial Division must have given you quite the rounded education, eh?” Beast Master Zen rhetorically asked. “Does Liulian look like she’s about to pounce on you?”

“No,” Xiao Feng replied, as he continued stroking the majestic spiritual beast’s back, unable to conceal the amazement that was written all over his expression.

A content half-smile had curled up on the panther-like spiritual beast’s features, one that seemed almost human.

“Liulian was a year old when I found her,” Beast Master Zen revealed. “Umbral fangs are gifted spiritual beasts that have a high affinity for darkness Qi since birth. How familiar are you with a spiritual beast’s cultivation?”

“I know that they start from the Qi gathering stage, but their heritage often decides the extent and limitations of their growth,” Xiao Feng replied, parroting what he recalled from his predecessor’s memories.

“Correct, but that is a very rudimentary understanding,” Beast Master Zen replied. “Spiritual beasts have a beast core from the moment they are born. It is their organ for cultivation, like we have our dantian. However, a spiritual beast is very different from a human. They are naturally endowed and most are superior to us humans in strength, speed and reflexes. On top of that, their beast core makes them far more sensitive to Qi compared to humans, allowing them to subconsciously draw in ambient Qi from even the most barren of regions.”

Xiao Feng scoured his predecessor’s memories for an answer, only to find detailed knowledge pertaining to the behavior, attack patterns and estimated strength of specific spiritual beasts that he would be most likely to encounter on the battlefield instead of an overarching framework of knowledge.

It was getting increasingly clear that his training and education had been granted to him with the explicit purpose of honing him to become a weapon to be used against the demonic path cultivators, with no real regard for his own growth as an individual or cultivator.

“If that is the case, why are spiritual beasts not a much greater threat to us?” Xiao Feng asked, his tone piqued with curiosity. It did not make any sense for spiritual beasts to have so many physical and spiritual advantages, especially since Beast Master Zen had made it sound like cultivating was synonymous with breathing for Spiritual Beasts.

“That is where your earlier statement comes into play,” Beast Master Zen revealed. “You said that a beast’s heritage decides the extent and limitations of their growth. This is true and that is precisely why we have tiers to gauge a spiritual beast’s potential.”

Tiers, Xiao Feng thought, the word causing a resonance with his predecessor’s memories. There was something there, but it was blurry.

He nodded, signaling for Beast Master Zen to continue.

“It is an imperfect scale, but nonetheless, a useful one. I mentioned earlier that a beast core is akin to a dantian. I meant that quite literally, because when a spiritual beast ascends to the next stage, there is no foundation establishment. The beast core simply evolves after being bathed in heavenly thunder. This continues until the nascent soul stage, after which the differences between human and beast cultivators rapidly decline,” Beast Master Zen explained.

“Does that mean that a Nascent Soul beast will gain sapience?” Xiao Feng blurted out, unable to conceal the twinge of excitement in his tone.

Beast Master Zen blinked twice while considering the question. Then he chuckled, his laugh heavy with amusement.

“I don’t know,” He replied. “You’re gonna have to ask a Nascent Soul Beast yourself, never met one.”

Xiao Feng felt his cheeks sting.

“But I do think you are underestimating my Liulian. True beast taming involves a bonding of souls, an intermingling of thought and desire. I cannot read all her thoughts, but what she allows me to peer into is more complex than you’d imagine.”

“How does that work?” Xiao Feng asked.

“Patience,” Beast Tamer Zen chided.”That is for later on in the lesson. Now, where was I?”

“Tiers,” Xiao Feng answered.

“Ah yes. Numbered one through four, there are four tiers that I personally know of. My Liulian is a tier 3 spiritual beast, which means that the highest cultivator stage her species has been recorded to have reached, is our equivalent of the Core Formation stage. None of her kind, that we know of, has reached the Nascent Soul Stage,” Beast Tamer Zen revealed, his tone heavy.

“Not one?” Xiao Feng asked, his tone incredulous.

“The heavens are never fair, but they are just. Before the scales that is the heavenly tribulation, all of us are weighted equally. In exchange for the natural advantages granted to spiritual beasts, their tribulation far exceeds human ones in intensity, to the point where it’s hard to even draw a comparison between the two.”