Chapter 211: Life in Shenyuan
Leaving behind Wan Qiao’s room, Hui Yue decided that he would follow the training schedule to the letter, not doing anything halfway or with a slacking attitude. Hui Yue knew that this training was made specially for him. It would push him to transcend his limits over and over again. But it was not so harsh that his body was incapable of handling it. Hui Yue knew that although Wan Qiao was a sadist, she seemed sincere when she passed him the training schedule. The woman gained nothing from making him hurt his body. If anything she seemed interested in him gaining control over his inner phenomena and also boosting his strength.
The schedule included push-ups, vertical push-ups, running, weightlifting, and other various exercises which altogether balanced his training. The running was what Hui Yue had to do the most because he was already rather agile due to training Velocity Flow all these years. Working on increasing his nimbleness further was a goal of Wan Qiao.
The training schedule made by Wan Qiao took ten hours a day to complete, after which he got two hours to relax in a hot spring bath. Then the rest of the day was used to cultivate his inner energies.
After having been there for some time, Wan Qiao ensured that he ate food every day. Food filled with magical and medicinal herbs. Being a Lord of the Forest, and especially the strongest one, she got plenty of medicinal herbs gifted to her each year, not to mention the workers within her fiefdom who planted and harvested herbs.
Within all of Shenyuan, the One-Horned Jasmine Eagle, Wan Qiao, was the most feared creature. Her strength was far superior to every other Lord of the Forest, and her age far outstripped even the oldest magical beast within the kingdom. She was revered and within her capital, she was worshiped like a deity.
This woman, who usually stayed in her office or personal chambers had recently changed, and the thing which had caused her to change was a young man. No one knew where this young man came from, nor who he was. The only thing known about him was that he was invited into Wan Qiao’s private chambers at least once a day, that he was training hard, and that she would often oversee his training. They also knew he was capable of maintaining full human form although he did not have the aura of a Saint.
What everyone was unaware of was that Hui Yue was summoned to Wan Qiao’s personal chambers for the sake of training. So he could train himself even more. This time, not physically or mentally, but to learn how to fully control the strength of the magical beast which resided within him.
Through tough training, Hui Yue found out that the beast in his dantian cave was not a second soul as he had expected, no the beast in his dantian cave was a part of his soul.
This also meant that Lan Feng and the wolf-man were two completely different kinds of souls. Although Hui Yue and Lan Feng’s souls were connected they were two individual souls; however, this red wolf was a part of Hui Yue. Because of this Hui Yue could ultimately control its strengths as though they was his own.
At first, both wolf and man were apprehensive about accepting this fact, and even now when they stared at each other oddly, knowing they were the same person. They eventually came to accept the facts because they could merge and allow for Hui Yue to use the strength of the wolf.
This made Hui Yue fully understand that this wolf was indeed himself. No matter how he looked at it, the wolf was his former life. Also, this meant that the others were his previous lives as well. If they were to materialize themselves, Hui Yue could control them much more efficiently.
Another thing Hui Yue learned from when the wolf freed itself from his soul was that his affinity with Fire increased tremendously. This was due to the wolf having an elemental affinity for fire.
Thinking along these lines, Hui Yue could not help but look at the green pearl within his dantian cave. If he managed to gain control over this pearl he would become much more proficient at healing. Alongside being able to become an alchemist. Knowing this was incredibly tempting, however, the only way to make his soul manifest was for it to grow stronger.
Increasing the green pearl’s strength meant that Hui Yue had to be saved by the pearl, and that happened rarely. Another option was to feed the pearl high-quality medicinal pills, but Hui Yue found that the pearl refused to absorb them as though it knew what his plans were.
Sighing deeply, Hui Yue came to the conclusion that he could do nothing but see what happened in the future. Standing in Wan Qiao’s room his body once more transformed into the shape of a wolf-man. The final transformation, the transformation to a full wolf, was still not possible for him.
Although he could not fully transform just yet, his strength had already increased by an astonishing amount when he became a wolf-man. In this shape, when using his beastly mist energies alongside his spiritual energy, and elemental affinities he was as powerful as a King ranked expert.
Wan Qiao managed to bring countless guards from her many armies into the palace to spar against Hui Yue. This let the young man learn how to use the strength he gathered in real battle.
The guards whom Wan Qiao found all had to stay in the palace. None of them were allowed to tell anyone about what they did for her. All of them were curious as to what the relationship between this young man and the woman known as Shenyuan’s Queen was.
Today was a day just like the others. Hui Yue had previously finished his physical training then his body had been sore, so he relaxed within the hot spring bath for an hour. After that he ate his lunch and now he was within Wan Qiao’s chambers, standing in front of her as a wolf-man.
The amount of time Hui Yue could last in his transformed stage increased day by day. His control over mist energy, the energy used by magical beasts, was something which took time to control, and Hui Yue was working hard on it every single day.
Magical beasts did not have dantians; instead, they had beast cores which were located within their heads. Although they were said to have the same ranks as cultivators, their energy was not the same as human cultivators.
Beasts refined the essence of the heavens and the earth which would naturally circulate within their body, and after it was refined a mist would enter the beast core where it would combine with their elemental affinity. Unlike humans, beasts had elemental affinity from when they were born. Some had more than one affinity while others had only one. The mist energy would have the same color as Qi when the beasts were younger. As they grew older, it would turn silvery before it eventually took its color after their elemental affinity.
This color was also the reason many inexperienced experts believed that magical beasts had the same sort of energy like humans, and ranked their strengths as such.
Hui Yue did not know the actual difference between beasts and human energies until he had the beast within him. This was due to Lan Feng. Although he was a beast, he used Qi, spiritual energy, and Wu Wei.
Having a magical beast within his body using the same sort of energies as himself, Hui Yue did not understand that this did not apply to all magical beasts.
It turned out that the reason Lan Feng could use these energies was because he was a divine beast.
Divine beasts were beasts far stronger than other beasts. From when they were born, they were capable of taking full human form, alongside cultivating the same way humans do. Lan Feng and the other three sons of the four Divine Beasts were all cultivating like humans. This was one of the few things which set divine beasts apart from standard magical beasts.
Thinking this, it was evident that the wolf whom Hui Yue had been in his previous life was not a divine beast; however, his strength far surpassed that of Lan Feng. That was something which Hui Yue knew for sure.
All of these things Hui Yue did not know before but learned at the time he underwent Wan Qiao’s personal training. Having transformed into a wolf-man, Hui Yue quickly turned back to a human.
He had a limited amount of time he was capable of keeping up his wolf-man form, and he knew that Wan Qiao planned yet another battle for him to participate in; a fight he could only win if he was in his wolf-man form.
It was Hui Yue’s bad luck should he not manage to keep his wolf-man form long enough to defeat his opponent in which case he would be beaten black and blue by his opponent. This was something which Wan Qiao ensured happened often. The reason that Wan Qiao used this sort of training was so that Hui Yue, who disliked being beaten, would take the fights seriously. Due to this, he would strive his best to win. If Hui Yue did not have the ability to win then, he would learn from the match and train harder to become stronger.
Hui Yue fought the same guard each night until he was capable of defeating them. This was done to ensure that he would increase his strength little by little.
The guard he was set to fight tonight was one he had already met three nights in a row, obviously, he had not won any of the matches. The first night, Hui Yue had no chance of victory. He lost with record speed in a few minutes. The second night he managed to last for about ten minutes, and last night he came very close to winning with the match ongoing even after fifteen minutes.
These fights were what made Hui Yue truly understand how much he was progressing every single day. Standing within Wan Qiao’s room, Hui Yue looked out the window only to see a seemingly young man making his way through the courtyard outside the window. He was headed straight for the building in which Wan Qiao’s personal rooms were located.
Looking at this young man, Hui Yue could not help but smile a depressing smile. He knew that this man, who was an eagle-man, was nowhere as young as he seemed. He had chosen to stop his body from aging; a sign that he had long since entered the upper dantian becoming a King ranked expert.
When Hui Yue said that he had long since entered the upper dantian, he was not overstating. The guard had indeed been a King for over a hundred years by now, and he was one of Wan Qiao’s most trusted guards.
Not waiting for the young man to enter the premises, Hui Yue sighed deeply as he stood up and left the room in which he was standing together with Wan Qiao. The woman following him behind, a smile on her face as she looked forward to the battle that was about to commence.