A Tale Of Demons And War Gods - Chapter 5.1

Shin Long had been grinning widely ever since they left the demon spirit stall behind. For the life of her, Ning'er couldn't understand why he was so happy. He'd actually cheered in excitement when checking over the demon spirits that were being sold in the stall, and quite literally rushed her to get them for him.

Even while the massive gates of Glory City slammed shut behind them with enough force to kick up a blast of wind that would send normal people flying, all Ning'er had eyes for was the smile on her new...friends...face.

It was just a duo of Red Crab and Red Eagle demon spirits. What was there to be excited about? The eagles flew in large flocks over Glory City all the time, and their only offensive ability was to heat up their feathers till they caught alight with tiny embers of flame. And the crab was even worse. You could find dozens of them at nearly any little river or pond within the city, and their only offensive weapon was the fact that they had one claw that was twice the size of the other, which didn't mean much considering the crabs themselves were about a foot in height at most.

"Why are you so happy?" she couldn't help herself and had to ask.

"Because both of these demon spirits have extraordinary growth rates!" Shin Long replied promptly and loudly, holding both spherical spirit containers into the air and smiling excitedly at them, "I wasn't expecting to find anything like this for a while and especially not at a random stall."

"Growth rates?" Ning'er titled her head and asked. She'd never heard of them term before. The common practice of a demon spiritualist was to integrate a demon spirit, the best they could get and use it until they gained a better and stronger one that they could merge with.

Shin Long blinked and then looked at her as if she were an idiot. Ning'ers cheeks flushed with embarrassment, even if she didn't understand the reason behind it.

"Oh!" he blinked again, "I forgot how wasteful everyone is with their demon spirits without actually truly understanding them."

Ning'er had a feeling she should feel insulted on her ancestor's behalves, but honestly, she just giggled at the casual insult to hundreds of years of established practice.

"See, demon spirits like us humans have talent," Shin Long began explaining, and she listened in interest, "These talents, going from Poor, to Good, Excellent, then Extraordinary and finally God are kind of like our soul force colours. They determine a demon spirits talent for getting stronger."

"Demon spirits can get stronger!?" Ning'er gasped in shock. That changed, so much! There were many who gave up demon spirits who fit them better because the spirits were weaker than others they obtained. If they could get stronger, there wouldn't be a call to waste such expensive spirits.

"Yep!" Shin Long beamed, "It's pretty simple really. Demon spirits will grow slightly as their demon spiritualist does, and if you focus on them, you can actually cultivate their power as well."

He stepped closer to Ning'er after saying that and showed her the two demon spirits she'd bought him, "These two might be incredibly weak," he confided, "But with their amazing growth rates, it'll be a simple matter to increase their power."

Shin Long really was something else wasn't he? He was a talent she could never hope to match at the rate she was going now. He was so smart, and wise. He knew so much, and he was so strong too!

"And," he continued, holding the spirits up into the air, his unique red soul force with green lightning bolts shimmering through it bursting into existence around his arm, just as he closed his fingers around the demon spirits, "With my special cultivation technique, I can raise more than one spirit at a time!" and before Ning'ers astonished eyes, he opened his hand a moment later, to reveal both demon spirits gone!

"Ah!" she yelped in shock a split moment later, when his aura burst to life around him, ascending into the air in a massive pillar of crimson red soul force that pushed her back a few feet, large cackling green lightning bolts zapping the ground around it. She looked at Shin Longs face, and couldn't help but gaze at him in awe when he looked back at her, both oh his eyes emitting blinding light that hid his pupils and whites from view, one glowing emerald green, the other a dark crimson red.

He'd just broken through to the Silver Rank!

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The amount of soul power Shin Long gained from his two newly subjugated and integrated demon spirits was minuscule. Despite that though, it felt like his power was refined by leaps and bounds. His senses became sharper, his soul became heavier and it felt like the world opened up around him and shone with a new life that he'd been blind to before.

His new spirits were seamlessly subjugated without issue. The red eagle struggled, but the difference between his and its power and will were like heaven and earth.

The red crab though was entirely different. It didn't struggle at all. "Kookee!" it happily waved its massive claw to him from its spherical home within his soul realm before hunkering down and resting as its soul force flowed into his soul realm and his power flowed through it, accepting its new place in life with an ease that honestly left Shin Long a little astonished.

...Perhaps it was a tamed demon beast before it died? They were quite common. Demon Beasts raised from egg form around humans, and thus losing their natural aggression against humanity as a whole if trained properly.

'The abilities I got from them aren't powerful, but they'll be helpful nonetheless.' Shin Long mused as he left his soul realm behind and returned to the physical world. His ability with the flame body technique was much more powerful than the red eagles thanks to his much superior soul force, and the ability to breathe underwater was incredibly versatile.

He was tempted to stay where he was, under the warm sun shining down upon him and his companion and just bask in the strength he felt rushing through his veins. But he put a stop to that thought immediately, while becoming a one star silver rank already was something amazing, it was but a bucket compared to the ocean he was striving for. He would not allow himself to feel content with this meager level of power.

"Ready to go?" he asked his companion, beginning to walk ahead.

Ning'er shook her head, "You're something else," the orange haired girl shook her head, a rueful smile on her face and began to follow him, "..So why Earth Eaters? I have a vague idea now since you explained your technique, but there's stronger bronze rank demon beasts than them around Glory City, and they're easier to kill as well."

Shin Long nodded. "All very true," he replied. "But Earth Eaters are a bit special. While not incredibly powerful. They have an interesting ability I want to make use of, and because of that ability, they are one of the species of demon beasts that produce spirit grade demon beasts much more commonly than others."

Demon Beasts bred very quickly. But besides their natural growth of power upon ageing, they didn't grow much stronger outside of special circumstances. Earth Eaters were in fact very weak as far as soul force went, little better than common demon beasts. But because by eating and refining earth within their bodies their soul force grew, they all transcended the normal natural limits of their strength through age. And thus, leading to many evolutions into Spirit Grade types.

"Are you wanting to use the earth eating ability to help your cultivation?" Ning'er wondered.

Shin Long smiled, "Yep!" he replied. He was glad she was quick on the uptake. Someone like his brothers would have just scoffed and boasted about how only a weak talentless fool would seek out demon spirits as weak as them and blah blah. "You want to join me in doing it? Integrating with a demon spirit like one of them and using their ability should give a decent boost to your cultivation."

She wouldn't be able to integrate with a demon spirit with an attribute related to storms as she was sadly. They were very rare, and the only species Shin Long knew of were in the gold rank and above. Though once she got to the point where she could integrate with one, her storm dragon cultivation would increase massively.

Ning'er shook her head, "I can't, I'm not even a one star bronze rank yet," she replied, "While it sounds fun, I don't have the strength to do it. It's something you need to be silver rank to do normally."

Shin Long shook his head at the answer. "You already know how to do it don't you?" he asked. The normal way to integrate a demon spirit was incredibly simple, you just needed to know how to open up your soul realm and how to close it.

"I do," Ning'er nodded. "Why?"

He shrugged and smiled at her, "Trust me," Shin Long told her, "It isn't hard to integrate with a demon spirit. People just don't know enough about the technique in Glory City. Earth Eaters aren't that powerful, and despite having 'earth' in their name, they don't actually have an attribute, so they can be integrated into the soul realm of anybody that has the talent for it." And as long as she didn't try to integrate one that was somehow of the silver rank or above, she should have no problems with it trying to break free.

The orange haired girl sighed, shaking her head, "You know, it feels a lot like you're calling all the experts of Glory City foolish morons without actually saying the words," she pointed out, but there was a small grin spreading across her face, "Okay, I'll trust you."

Perfect. With him infusing her with some of his yang qi last night, and her using the medicine enhanced by zoysia grass, her meridans should already be healed enough to the point where there would be no consequences in her breaking through to the first star bronze rank. Especially since doing it during the day, under the sun would get her a ton of yang qi and help balance out her condition all the more, and even increase her cultivation even further when she broke through.

It was too bad he didn't have the money needed right now to create a specific type of soul nurturing pill from the War God Cultivation manual. It burned un-needed fat from the body to enhance cultivation, and also used food within the body to speed up cultivation even further. With it and the Earth Eater ability, it would give both Ning'er and himself quite the boosts to their cultivation.

It wasn't a massive thing for himself. He was honestly more interested in just adding more and more demon spirits to his growing army. But for Ning'er the effects would be massive. He honestly nearly salivated at the thought of making this girl strong enough to smack down his older half brother Shen Fei, the humiliation he would feel would be legendary!

And just another great step forward in his revenge against the Sacred Family. 'You'll beg me for forgiveness, but I won't give you any father!' Shin Long hissed gleefully within the confines of his mind. He'd take everything from them. Their money, their reputation, their power. Hell, he'd rip the very demon beasts from their bodies and use to enhance his own power!

He even planned on taking his aunt as his woman.

For killing his mother over bringing 'shame' to the families reputation, he would destroy everything they held dear. They were pitiful, killing his mother simply because she wanted to leave the service of the family upon reaching gold rank and earning the right to become a noble herself and create her own noble family.