[Tree] Chapter 489: Tainted Beast Core

Sam's stomach churned as he took in a lungful of the monster's putrid breath. It snarled and lunged to bite at his face, but he barely managed to wrestle it in place by hooking his legs around its head and gripping its maw. He strained as his fingers, coated in earth Qi, barely found grip among the beast's teeth and lips.

"Ray! Are you ready?!" he grunted as his muscles greedily absorbed his Qi and became empowered.

"I'm ready!" Ray shouted.

"Fire now!" Sam shouted, straining every muscle as he forcefully pulled the monster's jaw open. Moving his body to the side just in time, a concentrated blast of water shot down the monster's throat. Through his legs around the monster's neck, he could feel the sheer force of the water churning through the beast's insides and wreaking havoc. It let out a desperate gurgling sound as it gasped for air. Sam tightened his grip around the monster's neck as it thrashed a few more times before its eyes rolled into the back of its head, and it fell limp.

Sam waited a few seconds before confirming it was dead.

All the strength left his body, and he collapsed onto the floor, panting for air. His blonde hair had darkened and was stuck to his forehead from the sweat, and he felt terrible.

"That was awesome, Sam!" Ray said, standing over him and partially blocking out the sun. "How did you learn to fight like that?"

"I've fought monsters before," Sam said between breaths.

Ray nodded approvingly. "I was right to follow you," she said, holding out her hand. "Let me help you up."

"Give me a second," Sam said, unable to even lift his hand to accept the offer. He was exhausted to the bone after fighting a single monster. It must have been nearing the Star Core Realm, and if not for the corrupt land it had passed over, weakening and rotting its flesh, he wouldn't have stood a chance.

"Okay," Ray said, glancing around. "Where did Hugo go?"

"He was thrown off the rock outcrop, down the slope behind me," Sam said, gesturing with his eyes. "I left him some healing pills. Do you think you could check on him?"

"Sure, leave it to me," Ray said, smiling and walking off. "Don't die while I'm gone."

"I'll try," Sam weakly replied. Left alone for a moment, he watched the clouds lazily go by as he calmed his breathing. He had genuinely thought he was dead for a moment there. If not for the crazy idea of having Ray blast its insides, they would have been finished. That monster had not only been strong, but it seemed to possess boundless stamina as it just kept going and going, with no signs of slowing down.

Yet, despite his body being sore from the ordeal, he could feel it—the improvement that came from a life-or-death battle. His killing intent was sharpened, his body had pushed more Qi into his muscles than ever before, and he now had more confidence in himself. This wasn't something that could be gained by meditating on the heavens' whispers or by competing in tournaments that had rules against killing.

Is that how Stella got so strong? Sam wondered. He had felt her killing intent before, and it was on another level. Forget a few days or weeks, she must have spent years fighting for her life to sharpen it to that extent. In fact, most of the sect's Grand Elders seemed to have killing intent far beyond what cultivators of their apparent age should possess.

"Even Jasmine can be scary," Sam chuckled, but stopped after feeling a pain in his ribs. Groaning, he slowly sat up and looked around. He was alone on the rocky outcrop with the monster's corpse.

You know, Grand Elder Elaine had made the task sound far easier than it is. Just pick up some corpses, kill the stragglers, and get rewarded. I suppose that to the Grand Elders, a monster like this is nothing but an afterthought, but to mortals and cultivators like myself, this is a town-ending threat.

Shaking his head and finally feeling well enough to stand, he pushed his body up and hissed as he straightened his back. While trying to get a chokehold on the monster, it had slammed him quite a few times into the rock to try and shake him off. At the time, he had hardly registered the dull pain due to the earth Qi coursing through his body. But now that it was fading, the pain turned out to be real.

Pulling up his cloak, he inspected his leg and hip. Wow, just a bruise after all of that? If it had been a few months ago, I'd be dead or a broken mess. He smiled. It was quite cool to see the direct results of his hard work and cultivation in real time.

"What are you doing, kid?"

Sam dropped his cloak to cover his leg and glanced at Hugo cresting the edge with Ray. Despite the terrible fall and hit he had suffered, Hugo seemed to have somewhat recovered.

"Just checking my injuries. How are yours?"

Hugo grinned. "I've suffered worse before." He then looked at the monster. "I'm impressed you managed to kill it, though. You've gotten stronger, Sam, possibly stronger than me."

Sam shook his head. "You were just caught off guard. If I had been the one to suffer the monster's first strike, I'd have been the one flying."

"That may be true," Hugo chuckled.

"I—I can heal your injury if you will let me see it," Ray said hesitantly, her gaze lingering on his leg.

Oh, right, water Qi is renowned for its healing properties. Sam looked down at his body, and after remembering where the injury was, he shook his head. "I'll be fine, it's just a bruise. But I appreciate the offer." Switching the topic, he looked down at the corpse. "So, what should we do with this?"

"Didn't the Ashfallen Sect tell us they would give rewards for corpses?" Ray said.

"That's right," Sam agreed. "But what about its beast core?"

"Aren't beast cores what those demonic sect cultivators use for strength, which drives them all crazy?" Ray asked.

Sam nodded. "Yes, but being driven crazy isn't as much of a concern anymore. The Ashfallen Trading Company sells a pill that removes heart demons, though it is one of their most expensive ones."

"I've heard of that heart demon pill," Hugo said, crossing his arms. "But it's sold in limited supply, and every time I've gone to buy one, they're sold out. I wonder if that's because the ingredients are rare, or because they don't want people abusing beast cores for power."

"Whether they want it or not, we have no choice," Sam said, gesturing to the fire cultivator high in the sky, unleashing hellfire on the ruined land below. "We will never reach that level of strength by not taking advantage of every opportunity. The Ashfallen Sect said they wanted corpses but didn't specify anything about the beast cores. I say we absorb the beast cores from the monsters we personally kill to replenish our spent Qi and then sell the rest later to get heart demon pills. This way, we can keep fighting for longer while progressing our cultivation."

Ray's expression hardened. "What if we don't get the heart demon pill?"

"Then you will have to battle your own heart demons or get driven crazy. Look, I admit this plan has a lot of risks, but think about it. Did the Grand Elders get as strong as they did by taking the safe route?"

Perhaps it was the adrenaline still pumping through his veins, but battle was calling to him. He wanted to fight and get stronger. But if he blew all the Qi stored in his Soul Core after killing one monster, he would have to spend a week cultivating it back. That was wasted time. Yes, beast cores carried risk, but some risks were worth taking.

"He's got a point, and I can hardly shame him for wanting to use beast cores," Hugo said, shrugging. "However, until I get that heart demon pill, I'll have to refrain. Especially the beast core from a monster this strong, that might be further tainted by that ruined land. It will send me over the edge into madness. I'll leave it to you two younglings with fresh and unburdened minds."

"I'm not sure I want to..." Ray said, her hands balling into fists.

"Well, we killed this monster together, so this feels unfair," Sam said, taking out a knife. "How about I get this one, and after seeing the effects from absorbing it, you can decide if you want the next one?"

Ray thought for a moment and eventually nodded. "Okay."

"Great. Can you two keep watch while I gut this thing? It will only take a minute," he said, pouring some Qi into his arm and slashing at the mutated bull's stomach. The stench of rotten flesh that hissed out of the wound was indescribable.

I wonder if the farmers shoveling shit and taking care of animals ever thought that being one of those lofty cultivators who walked around all high and mighty in pristine robes actually had to experience something like this. I know I certainly didn't.

Wincing and doing his best to hold his breath, he plunged his hand into the corpse and fished around for the beast's core. Guided by the faint flow of Qi, he eventually found it. Ripping it free, he retracted his arm. Shaking off the blood and guts, he grinned as he held a small blackened marble in his hand that was brimming with demonic Qi.

A beast core—one containing the Qi from a high Soul Fire Realm monster.

Hugo took a step back, holding his nose.

Sam laughed. "Come on, it's not that bad. You've clearly never worked on a farm before."

Ray hesitantly stepped closer, water coiling around her arms.

Sam eyed her with caution. "Hey, what are you—" he was cut off as a blast of freezing water hit his arm, washing off the muck and almost knocking the tiny beast core out of his hand. "Oi! I almost dropped it."

"Stop complaining," Ray said, rolling her eyes. "Were you really planning to spend the next week walking around smelling like a rotten corpse? You will attract every monster in a five-mile radius."

That was a fair point, although he wouldn't admit it. Instead, he simply nodded and thanked Ray for the cleaning. The smell had been pretty bad. Waving his hand over the mutated bull's corpse, it vanished in a flash of silver light alongside the stench.

Sitting away from the bloodstained ground, he analyzed the beast core. Excitement was brimming, as this was one of the strongest beast cores he had ever had the honor of holding.

"Are you really going to be fine? That thing reeks of tainted Qi," Ray said, crouching down before him and looking at it curiously. "You're not going to mutate into a monster, are you?"

"No. But there's a chance I'm driven to madness by my own Qi and start to think I'm invincible, leading to my inevitable death at the hands of a monster or cultivator," Sam said with a straight face. It was true. That was what accepting demonic Qi into one's soul could do. It also caused heart demons to fester, which created bottlenecks and stopped a cultivator from progressing.

Ray blinked, possibly waiting for him to say he was joking. But he was dead serious—absorbing this beast core was a risky idea and outright bad if he didn't get his hands on that heart demon-expelling pill in the future. After all, he had already absorbed a few to get to where he was now, but he didn't want to end up like Hugo, one step away from madness.

"You might want to step back a bit," Sam said, holding the beast core closer to his chest. The stone was oddly cold to the touch, and it made him feel sick. After Ray had sufficiently stepped back, he opened his soul and pulled on the stone. A black miasma poured out, flooding his spirit roots. He could feel it crawling through him, blackening his insides like tar. Yet the ecstasy of the Qi injection almost made him throw his head back and moan. It was a feeling like no other and almost addictive.

After an hour or so, he had finished absorbing it. The stone had grown dull and now felt like nothing special. Discarding it, Sam stood up, his body brimming with power. Rolling his shoulders and cracking his back, he grinned. "This feels amazing."

Ray squinted at him. "Are you still Sam?"

"Don't be ridiculous," Sam said, picking up his sword that had fallen to the ground during the fight earlier. "Let's get to monster hun—"

"We've got a problem!" Hugo shouted as he peered over the rocky outcrop.

Sam rushed past Ray to Hugo's side, and sure enough, the ground below was teeming with monsters. Since they were merely on an outcrop and not a mountain, the slope wasn't that steep, and only a few meters of height separated them. They seemed to be a small horde of insect-like creatures, and if he squinted at them a little closer, their bodies were rotting. They had likely managed to cross the ruined lands, but their bodies were significantly weakened.

Maybe we can win.

A hand clamped on his shoulder, and Hugo shook his head. "I know what you're thinking, but we can't. There are too many of them. Relax, let's retreat through the portal."

Ray nodded furiously in agreement. "This is beyond us, there are a dozen of them at least."

Sam gritted his teeth. He was sure of it—if he went down there and fought to the death, he could win. It was possible, with the potential for growth, corpses, and beast cores... it was too much to give up. Yet these two were holding him back, convincing him to leave.

Maybe they had a point... There was no reason to throw his life away. As he was mulling over what to do, a sudden presence behind him caught his attention. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw someone walking through the portal.

It was a girl with green hair filled with white flowers and snake-like yellow eyes. Everyone in the Ashfallen Sect knew this girl, either in person or from the rumors.

She was the slaughter princess's one and only disciple.

Jasmine met his gaze, and her eyes widened ever so slightly.

"Oh, it's you," she said, recognizing him. "I thought this portal was unused, sorry. I'll pick another one."

"No, wait," he called out. His mind was racing for what to say. He knew from firsthand experience that Jasmine was strong, and the sect would always back her up, making her the perfect teammate. He didn't want to use her per se; it was just that she was a good person to hang around and be friends with. He saw her as a rival, but that didn't mean they couldn't stand shoulder to shoulder sometimes.

"What's up?" Jasmine asked, her body half-turned to leave.

"Jasmine..." he trailed off, but then the perfect words came to mind. He was talking to Stella's disciple here. "Would you be interested in joining a slaughter?" he asked, giving her a crazed smile. "I've gathered quite the offering here and was pondering if I should head in alone," he vaguely gestured to the monsters that were climbing up the rocky outcrop behind him. "But if we were to team up, I think it would be fun."

"A slaughter, huh?" Jasmine said, sounding interested. She walked forward, sickly green soul fire flickering across her body. "My Master said this was a good opportunity to get some fighting practice in and told me to survive out in the wilderness by myself. But I suppose a quick warm-up wouldn't hurt."

Sam grinned.

He had finally found someone to whom he could leave his back in a life-and-death battle.

Stella's one and only true disciple. She summoned her whip, and after exchanging grins, they jumped into the monster horde with a battle cry.

[Author Note]

Hello! I always enjoy writing these side chapters, which I think really expand and deepen the world. We will get back to Ashlock and the main cast soon enough :)