A Tale Of Demons And War Gods - Chapter 5.2

It took near half an hour for Shin Long and Ning'er to travel towards the mountainous area where the Earth Eater herd lived. It wasn't very far from Glory City really, but a bit off the beaten path, to the west of the entrance leading in to the Endless Forest.

"You wouldn't think they'd be so low ranked looking at them," Shin Long whistled as he surveyed the massive group of demon beasts from atop the branch of a large tree, the vast majority of them taking massive bites out of the mountain side or ground, while the rest leisurely lay around and basked in the warmth of the sun.

The sizes of them were interesting. Ranging from the size of a common house canine demon beast of around two feet tall, right up to a pair of massive ones easily taller than eight feet, one even exceeding ten feet!

And they were incredibly formidable looking too. Walking on all fours, with massive spikes jutting from their backs all the way down to the tips of their tails, massive razor sharp fangs, and horns that curled up from the top and sides of their heads.

"I'm counting a total of five spirit grade demon beasts," Ning'er commented from beside him on the branch, "This must be a small herd, that or they've been culled recently. If I'm not wrong I see two one star bronze ranks, one three star, one four star, and that really big one must be a five star."

"Good estimates!" Shin Long beamed, patting the girl on the head and laughing internally when her face flushed at the gesture, "You're dead on." his sensing range had increased quite a bit since he broke through to the silver rank, and he could sense the power of these beasts. There were a few incredibly close to breaking through to the one star bronze rank, and would probably get there within the next few days, but other than that Ning'er was completely on point.

"..How are you going to do this?" the orange haired girl asked. "I know a few offensive techniques, but none that will be able to get through their body armour right now."

Ning er looked to Shin Long curiously, wondering what he was planning on doing. From what she knew, the natural armour of an Earth Eater grew along with its soul force. The stronger it became, the stronger its armour was. Nothing less than a silver rank weapon would be able to pierce their natural armour.

"It's nothing I can't handle," Shin Long grinned, and he stepped forward to the edge of the branch. He held out his palms and to Ning'ers awe, a pair of energy spheres formed in them. One a bright, luminescent white, the other a deep ebony black that seemed to suck in all light around it. Even as immature as her sensing capabilities were right now, she could feel the sheer power radiating from each orb of power. Then Shin Long cupped his hands together at his side, merging the two orbs together in a chaotic beat of pulsing black and white before throwing his hands forward in front of him, "Yin Yang Blast!" he roared.

For a moment, Ning'er thought she went deaf. The sheer noise that erupted, like the very air was vibrating apart left everything muted to her as a massive beam of white and black energy shot forward travelling the hundreds of feet between their position and that of the largest Earth Eater, surrounded on all sides by many of its brethren.

*BOOOOOM!*

A massive explosion was kicked up as the blast hit the demon beast before it even had a chance to realise what was going, erupting outwards in a gigantic dome of raging, chaotic black and white power and washing over tens of dozens of the Earth Eaters.

'What power!' Ning'er gaped at the boy standing in front of her as the explosion died down moments later to reveal a massive crater where the blast struck, and the corpses of the largest of the Earth Eaters, along with easily a hundred more surrounding it.

Was he really the same age as her? Hell, was he really just a one star silver rank? The sheer power behind that attack felt far beyond the power of any silver rank she'd saw produce in her own Winged Dragon clan.

She knew the Yin Yang Blast of the Fanged Panda was an extremely powerful ability, but she hadn't dreamed it could put out so much devastation!

"War Cry! Energy Claws!" Shin Long wasn't even idly while he waited for the results of his attack to die down. A crimson flame like aura burst into life around his body, and his nails lengthened into claws easily two inches or more long and began crackling with green energy.

Without saying anything to her, he stepped off of the branch and landed on the ground, and then burst forward in a show of raw speed Ning'er couldn't even follow with her eyes!

All she saw was a red blur before Earth Eater bodies started to fall. They hadn't even found out what happened with his initial attack and he was already in amongst them, tearing through them with his bare hands like a hot knife through butter.

Xaoi Ning'ers thoughts trailed back to earlier, when he practically laughed at the thought of his older brother, a one star gold rank trying to pick a fight with him because he was hanging around with her. and she realised now why he was so confident.

She could really see him easily defeating someone like Shen Fei, who despite being a gold rank only reached there thanks to massive amounts of elixirs and soul pills.

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For Shin Long, cutting loose with all his powers, with a large horde of demon beasts to test his capabilities on was something else. Freeing and exhilarating all at once.

His power as a silver rank demon spiritualist, bolstered by the power of his demon spirits when using their abilities was something else. The sheer devastation wrought by his Yin Yang Blast was beyond his predictions. He'd killed over a hundred of the Earth Eaters with that one blast alone, and even took out the the strongest Spirit Grade demon beast in the opening shot.

And with the War Cry ability boosting his physical parameters by double, alongside the Energy Claws of his Spotted Tiger, he carved through the thick, powerful armour of the demon beasts that highly refined normal weapons would shatter upon striking, with an ease that was almost a little frightening.

In less than two minutes after he Shin Long fired his Yin Yang Blast, the mountain front area was littered with corpses. Only four remained, circling around him, savage roars leaving their throats.

The four remaining Spirit Grade types.

Shin Long smirked at the largest one, the tallest one left after he killed the five star bronze rank, making this one the four star. and its fellows the three star, and the pair of one star bronze ranks.

"Hrrra!" it roared at him, pawing one massive leg through the ground, tearing a small trench in it. But still, it didn't charge him.

'It's afraid of me.' he realised. And the other three were as well. It was why they only circled up, putting up a tough front. They were smart enough to know that should they attack, they would die. But if they ran, they'd die as well.

Shin Long would feel sorry for them, if it weren't for the simple fact that they had a natural and instinctual hate of humans, all demon beasts did for the most part. And the only way to get rid of it, was to nurture them since birth and tame them.

These beasts would trample down a toddler if one walked in front of them. Then devour the corpse for good measure.

Which was a good enough reason for him not to feel sympathy for them. And so he moved. He blurred forward, and before the largest could react, he buried the claws of his right hand through its head and right into its brain, killing it instantly.

There was a trio of roars from around him and the earth beneath him trembled as the other three pounced towards him.

He turned, lashing out with a perfect round house kick, "Lightning Strike!" he declared, and emerald green lightning burst into life around his limb. The head of the three star bronze rank crunched loudly under his foot as his kick met its temple and it fell dead dead at his feet.

At the same time, he lashed out, his fingers fashioned narrowly into bladed like shapes and stabbed the claws he'd conjured through the heads of the smallest two Spirit Grade demon beasts as they tried to pincer him from both sides, stabbing them in the heads like the four star rank before them.

He pulled his hands from their heads, allowing them both to fall to the ground limply, blood and brain matter oozing from their craniums and let the energy of his demon spirits dissipate from his body, red aura, lightning infused leg, energy claws and all.

"Well that was easy." Shin Long chuckled to himself, pulling a rag from his spatial ring and wiping the blood from his hands. The only part of his body to get stained at all during his little rampage, that was how fast he'd moved.

War Cry was something else, that was for sure. It was probably his most powerful ability besides the Yin Yang Blast, and the sheer utility it allowed him made it even better in most cases.

"I'm so glad I decided to push my plans forward." he mused, looking around himself, eyeing the corpses littering the area. He'd initially planned to not come out here for another week or so, but listening to Nie Li had made him a little bit paranoid he supposed.

If Nie Li, some random low tier kid from his class had cottoned on to his plans for the zoysia grass, what else could have happened without him noticing? Could the Sacred Family have been spying on him all this time? Could they have figured out bits of his cultivation? If they did, would they attempt to kill him and take the War God Cultivation technique for themselves?

The only reason they hadn't gotten their hands on it initially was because his mother before she was killed was being inducted as a noble since she had reached the Gold Rank, and no longer worked for the Sacred Family by then, and thus the City Lord himself had passed her spatial ring and possessions to him personally.

Nie Li was the reason why he was pushing his plans for the zoysia grass forward. And his paranoia was why he was pushing his plans for cultivation ahead instead of pacing himself. He needed to be strong enough to defend himself should the Sacred Family really, possibly be planning to make a move against him.

"Better start taking these things apart." Shin Long sighed to himself, shaking his head and ridding him of his circular paranoid thoughts. This mass of corpses would attract stronger demon beasts within the hour from the Endless Forest looking for an easy meal.

He kind of wanted to wait and see what turned up. But he was still just a mere one star silver rank despite his advantages. He might not be able to protect Ning'er if things got too dicey.

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Something was very odd about Shin Longs power. He was without a doubt a one star silver rank, but the sheer combat ability he showed far exceeded even those of the same rank she'd met, and there were quite a few in her clan.

A demon spiritualist was much stronger when they merged forms with their demon beast. But Shin Long seemed to be even stronger still, and without merging with any of his demon spirits.

She supposed he was always partially merged with them to a degree, which was what allowed him to constantly use all of their abilities. But was it really that straight forward? Was he basically merged to a degree with all of his spirits when using their abilities, and that was where his power came from? All things considered, if he was, and just using the Spotted Tigers abilities, he would have already been at the half way point to two star silver rank power wise, and then with the Horned Sheep added on to, then using its War Cry ability, he may as well have been around the level of a four star silver rank, maybe even a five star silver rank.

If so, at the rate he was going, she could very well see him becoming a Legend rank by the time he was only twenty!

The stronger he got, the more demon beasts he could hunt and make more money. The more money he got, the more demon spirits he could purchase and integrate with to become even stronger and boost the speed of his cultivation even faster, leading to killing demon beasts even further, making even more money and repeating the process.

Ning'er eyed the boy who gave her the ticket to her freedom as he went about methodically and meticulously carving apart the bodies of his prey, taking what he needed and storing their body parts in his spatial ring before moving on to the next. 'No doubt, he's going to stand at the top of Glory City one day, maybe even become the City Lord.' she thought to herself.

She looked up to the sky as her mind predictably went to Ye Ziyun, her former friend. Someone of her stature would be much more of a match for the likes of Shin Long once he rose to prominence.

The orange haired girl clutched at her chest, feeling a hollow pain form in her breast at the thought of Shin Long marrying her former friend, and her losing him to the purple haired girl.

She couldn't stand the luck Ye Ziyun had in life. As the daughter of the City Lord, none could force her to do anything she didn't want to. She got the best training, the best treatment, anything she desired and more. Where as she, Ning'er was a slave to her clan elders demands, used as little more as a trophy to be bartered to the Sacred Family, loaded up on elixirs to make her body more womanly for the scoundrel she was betrothed to and expected to just accept it as if it were her natural position in the world.

'I'll sooner slit my throat than be the woman of Shen Fei!' Ning'er hissed internally.

Before her thoughts could rage any further, a gentle touch on her head roused her and she looked up to see Shin Long grinning at her, "All done, and check this out!" he said, holding up his hand to show her two Earth Eater demon spirits, "You'll never believe it, but the five star bronze rank one had an extraordinary growth rate. The four star only had an average growth rate, but you won't really need to cultivate its strength since you're more suited for a storm attribute demon beast." with that said, he left go of her head and grabbed her hand gently, lifting it up to plop the four star bronze rank demon spirit in her hand.

"When you integrate this, you'll most likely break through to the first star bronze rank no doubt," Shin Long continued on, "I'm thinking if I infuse you with some of my yang qi as you integrate it, alongside the yang qi from the sun to help balance out all your yin qi, your cultivation will probably rise massively!" he beamed as he explained.

Ning'er looked up at his warm, smiling face. She felt her cheeks warm up once more, and her thoughts zeroed in on that he had been thinking on how to help her get stronger even quicker.

'...I won't let Ye Ziyun have him.' she decided then and there, curling her fingers around the demon spirit placed in her palm. From now on, she would become strong enough to walk beside Shin Long, the boy who gave her the chance to take her life back.

Shen Fei. Ye Ziyun. The elders of her clan and the Sacred Family. They could all go hang for all she cared right here in this moment.