With his three-marked medallion in hand, Kai strode into the Bloodcoral archives unchallenged. It proved to be nothing like the libraries from home except for the collections of texts: endless scrolls filled the cubbies around the walls, with no apparent organization. He didn't even waste his time with it, just asked an outer disciple dressed like a scholar about his search.
And to his surprise, it was easy. An hour later he had everything he needed.
The sects on Cloudspire made everything so complicated that Kai had been sure he'd need to earn a Library Medallion and cultivate through the Book Foundation stage to get access, but they just handed him a scroll on shrouds. Just as he'd hoped, there were several Bloodcoral shrouds, some of which would even fit his purposes. They were overall inferior to those he'd learned on Krysal, many broadcasting cultivation stage, but they would still help him blend in.
While reading, Kai experimented with his chosen technique until he had settled the new shroud over his soul. It would give way in battle, of course, but that would only reveal the Savage Heart as an explanation for his power. Now he had multiple layers of protection that would keep him from standing out on Cloudspire. Well, he might still stand out, but nothing about his soul would be suspicious.
With a shroud in hand, Kai idly considered just leaving the Bloodcoral sect behind. He missed his wives and he didn't want to butt heads with any more cultivators. But no, it hadn't actually been that long and he had other objectives that would be easiest now that he'd earned some authority here.
Besides, this sect was closer to the Frontier than anything else he'd seen in a long time. Their early stages squabbled, yes, but that was exactly the same on Deadwaste - his own life history was proof of how petty jealousies and nepotism could interfere with a broader objective. Surely at the higher levels of the Bloodcoral sect he would find their own elites and maybe unite with them to deal with the monster threat.
Monsters, that was a good topic to research. Kai requested some other scrolls and looked for monsters to hunt, getting more mixed results.
The greatest knowledge was about oceanic monsters, and all of those were firmly controlled by the Bloodcoral sect. Maybe he could hunt some of those if he earned enough marks on his medallion, but Kai would decide if that was worth it later. He had more luck with legends of monsters around the continent: there was something called the Shambling Mass in the Northern Expanse that sounded immensely powerful, rumors of dragons in the Heavenly Mountains and Lakes, and stories of great clawed beasts in the Southern Rivers.
That last one might be the ideal next hunt. Kai found some maps, smaller but more detailed than Zae Zin Nim's, and confirmed everything he knew about geography. He would need to travel southeast to reach the Blueblade sect and meet up with them, so if they had what they needed, they could keep traveling in that direction for the hunt.
Kai spent the next several days focusing on his cultivation. He had been stuck in the 90% range of the Body Refinement stage for a long time, since his body soaked up qi like parched ground absorbed water. Yet on Cloudspire the qi was richer than it was anywhere on Deadwaste or even Rosemount, even before he started using the qi pills.
Several days in, one of the library scholars informed him of special cultivation chambers located deeper into the Bloodcoral headquarters: apparently some of the large shell buildings were accessible. With three marks he couldn't get access to the strongest ones, but he also didn't need that much qi.
Once he claimed a time slot, he walked into the chamber and found it to be a curved room inside the shell with pale white walls. It reminded him of the Immortal's Cave on Darkmist Island, which Zae Zin Nim had enjoyed so much. The qi was thick in the air, thicker than he'd ever felt, so Kai sat down and began to gather it into his dantian.
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Usually he disliked cultivation, but it seemed so easy here, he was actually enjoying it. There was just no comparison to the Krysal City States and for the first time he understood why Cloudspire cultivators were so scornful. He'd gone to an immense amount of work to buy qi for 100,000 Goralian Eagles... that qi might have been purer for his breakthrough, but it was notably weaker.
Eventually, just at the edge, Kai stopped himself from trying to break through and examined his soul.
Monstrous Hunger - XIII (nu)
Cultivation: Body Refinement 99% (121)
Savage Heart: 14 (141)
Physique Level: D-9 (245)
Beggar King's Robes: +1 (5)
Behemoth's Heart - VIII (theta)
Thunderbird's Wings - V (epsilon)
Direboar's Strength - XIII (nu)
Baleful Breath - V (epsilon)
Tyrant's Claw - XI (iota)
Void Gaze - VI (zeta)
Isulfr's Bite - VIII (theta)
Sahagin's Soul - X (lambda)
Mutefang's Stealth - X (kappa)
Lizarkyl's Tail - V (epsilon)
Direurchin's Spikes - V (epsilon)
Wallcrawler's Feet - III (gamma)
Abominalgum - I (alpha)
Rose Piranha - III (gamma)
Bloodtrap - III (gamma)
Banchlain - V (epsilon)
Slime's Immortality - I (alpha)
Silver Demon - I (alpha)
Direcrab's Claw - III (gamma)
Voidmaw's Bite - I (alpha)
Great Cetae - II (beta)
Spine Aura Urchin - I (alpha)
Since he'd arrived on Cloudspire, most of his growth had been in the Savage Heart and the monstrous side of his soul, but that was about to change. In theory, once he reached the Nascent Soul stage he would get a boost of over 100 Power, which would open up even more space for his monstrous abilities to grow.
Yet he stopped short of breaking through. He could do it at any time, but he wanted to be absolutely sure that he did it properly to maximize his potential. That meant returning to Zae Zin Nim - the Bloodcoral sect had senior disciples who would help with that sort of thing, but Kai trusted his wife's judgment over theirs. Thankfully, given that they didn't have an emergency bearing down on them for once, he could afford to wait and do everything perfectly.
Someone knocked on the door and coughed audibly. Kai realized that he had gone past his time and rose to his feet. When he walked out, he discovered a small crowd of cultivators, including a Nascent Foundation... and the young man who had challenged him in the competition earlier.
"Stuck at the last step, eh?" the older cultivator asked. "Unfortunately, brute force often struggles to get through the Body Refinement stage."
"Thank you for the pointer, senior." Kai gritted his teeth and bowed, thinking of Zae Zin Nim. They needed to avoid attention until they had the strength to fight their enemies, and he'd endure worse humiliations than a little mockery for her sake.
Still, as he walked past the group, Kai struggled to keep his expression neutral. Sometimes he thought he could get along with the Bloodcoral cultivators and sometimes they were just irritating.
After that, he went to go meet with Cor Li Xan. Technically someone of his rank wasn't supposed to be able to just walk up to an Earth Soul, but they had enough of a bond that no one was going to stop him. The senior cultivator actually seemed to be finishing his own cultivation and smiled when he saw Kai approach.
"You've been industrious these days," he said as he got to his feet. "I wish our outer disciples had half your focus. Are there any resources you need for your advancement? I can't make promises, but the Bloodcoral sect invests in those who help us so much."
"Thank you for the offer." Kai gave him a more sincere bow and smiled. "I've found most of what I need in the library, but I do have a question: do you have any pills that can break the 999 Power barrier?"
To his surprise, Cor Li Xan immediately frowned. "Ambition is good, but that's a bit too ambitious. You would need to reach Earth Soul to get close to that barrier."
Kai opened his mouth to explain that it wasn't for him, then decided against it. Talking about allies might raise suspicion, and he was starting to understand the way sects thought about the world: someone who infiltrated a sect to acquire such an item was probably doing it on behalf of a more powerful force. No, better to seem like a barbarian cultivator than to let any of them suspect that he was using the sect for his own advancement.
Even if that seemed to be what half the disciples were doing.
"Listen, my friend," Cor Li Xan said as he stepped closer, "such resources are rare here. Even an Earth Soul who has cultivated other powers will still be far from that limit - it's so far along the path of cultivation that many don't even know about it."
"I guess that makes sense," Kai said. He hadn't considered that only rare Sky Souls would need something like that, and held back from saying that such resources were more common on Rosemount. Their mix of powers seemed to make it easier for someone to creep up to 999 Power, but they lacked the enormous leaps that made Sky Soul cultivators so dangerous.
"If you're on the hunt for resources, I have another suggestion." Cor Li Xan hardly ever made physical contact, but he actually tapped his shoulder to direct him to the side. "The Bloodcoral sect will soon venture deeper into the Western Wilds to compete with other sects for power and reputation. What would you say to representing us?"