Molting the Mortal Coil

A shark of this size at tier six was nothing special. While Sage had admired these immense beasts in the past like the Genesis Spider and Pibei Wangu, the giant crocodile in a relationship with Baozhai, he later realized their bloodlines were low quality. Their bodies were just too low quality to contain all the power needed to reach the sixth tier so they had to keep getting bigger and bigger to hold it all. While it was impressive to have reached such strength, it wasn’t enough to stop him from using it as a training target.

As he closed in on the shark at breakneck speeds it had tried to dodge him, but Sage used the Fluid Power System to give one last boost to correct his aim. The shark’s evasive action had merely moved his target and with that last little nudge he shot into the shark’s body and punched through its core, smashing it into pieces and blasting apart its insides. This species of shark was not unknown to him so he knew the location of their core. A sixth tier Demonic Beast did not have a Nascent Soul in the same way that a Human Cultivator did. The Human Nascent Soul could have their whole body destroyed yet they would remain ‘alive’ until their Nascent Soul was also destroyed. Demonic Beasts had far more powerful bodies and natural abilities along with many times longer lifespans, but they had to pay for it in terms of their lower intelligence and reliance upon a Beast Core.

Their soul was contained within the Beast Core and if it was torn from their body or their body destroyed their soul still remained within the Beast Core, unable to escape like a Nascent Soul could. These Beast Cores were a very valuable resource for the creation of tools and other treasures, especially since it was quite difficult to tear them out of a body. Especially at the higher tiers as it became increasingly hard to kill the Demonic Beast it belonged to. Defeating a sixth tier beast usually became a choice of whether one wanted the materials making up a beast's body, or their Beast Core. Destroying its other internal organs would only weaken its physical strength and severed limbs could just be replaced by Qi constructs. Such beasts were very tenacious and the whole body would have to be ripped to shreds in order to finally retrieve the core. Or they could go for the other extreme and directly destroy the core to collect the body relatively intact. Only those significantly stronger could be so overpowering to directly pluck the core out of a Beast’s body.

Sage didn’t want his work to turn into the earnings of others so he scooped up the gigantic shark’s body and sent it into the Inner World. He didn’t bother to collect all the bits and blood that had already spilled into the water. There was also the chance something terrifying might get attracted by the smell of such powerful blood. While he’d used the tactic in the past to draw out more powerful beasts, that wasn’t his goal at the moment.

There was a part of the sea that he wanted to investigate. Killing the giant shark was done merely as a test of his own abilities. He wasn’t foolish enough to make such a move without already being confident in his capabilities, but on the Inner World he wasn’t willing to kill off any of the tier six beasts as they were either already in his employ or integral parts of farming operations. It was much better to use a low quality beast on the outside world that he hadn’t yet invested any resources into and also didn’t want to capture for himself. The tests showed he should be strong and fast enough to pull off such a maneuver so this act was done as a confirmation.

With his capabilities proven he swam rapidly towards a part of the ocean where there were no settlements in the Depths. While there was no point of reference for where exactly the Depths were located in the world, if he was still even on the same world, there were maps that showed their locations in relation to each other. They were placed in a sort of ring formation, forming a loose circle. This ring was of an immense size so most of those he asked would never waste their time trying to cross the center of it. The distance was just too large for the supply caravans to make the trip. They preferred to move from one city to another. Those that traveled through the whole Depths would slowly travel around the stops on the circle like one big circuit.

It was only when he reached the Great Pod that he found out it was far more mysterious. None of the Gilogos had ever properly entertained his questions about it. Only when he reached the Great Pod was there an actual response. Instead of ignoring him or brushing off the question he was answered with solemn gazes and told to stay out of that area if he wanted to keep his life. Some were a little more vague about this result, while others seemed to talk like they were straight out of a ghost story.

Either way, it intrigued him and he was curious to know more. Only, he wasn’t a fool. Those who made a living of traveling from one city to the next in the Depths were very experienced at handling the dangers of travel and covering long distances. Even so, the distance to the center of the circle was too far for them to ever attempt. At most they might cross near the edge, skipping two or three of the cities before they stopped again. Even if the right techniques meant a Cultivator didn’t have to eat, drink, or sleep the great pressure wore on them. For non-natives the empowered water seemed to slowly grind them down, constantly reducing the rate they could recover their Qi and draining their physical strength. Even with specialized tools, vehicles and beasts to assist them there was a limit.

Sage was never foolish enough to send himself into certain danger, but now that he had this body of ultimate swimming speed he felt far more confident. The absurd distance he had to cross was no longer so absurd. If there truly was some sort of deadly danger there, he had enough speed he was confident he could escape from it. With such an excellent assurance, his curiosity got the better of him and he felt it was a perfect test of his speed. This time he didn’t stop for any distractions, jetting forward in a shower of bubbles towards the mysterious core of the Depths.

Every few hours he swam up to the surface, slowing down considerably as he stopped piping out air and instead drew it in. A powerful vacuum formed above him, pulling air into his blowhole at an astounding rate. He breathed in a huge volume of air, forcing it into his body with Qi, and then instead of breathing out, his Qi coated lungs compressed all of it down into a small sphere. This sphere as well as the methods of breathing, compression, and also emitting the air were all parts of the Divine Breath technique. With just a few minutes of inhaling without any exhaling he refilled his air storage and dove back down. He had to be at a certain depth in order to use the air shielding technique to the fullest. The waves and currents near the surface interfered with the technique, slowing him down and making it more difficult to execute.

Even traveling many times faster than most sea life it took him weeks to approach the center of the giant circle of cities that made up the Depths. The Adjutor made it very simple for him to track his speed and the time spent traveling which gave him a pretty accurate gauge of his location. The caravans who made the map had traveled between the cities enough time for their maps to be very accurate so he felt pretty confident in trusting their cartography skills, at least for the well explored routes. The map was donut shaped as they could only range a certain distance from each city safely and he was heading into the unexplored hole in the middle.

Sage knew he’d finally got close enough to the center when he felt a chill crawl up his spine. These waters were far from being cold enough to make him physically chilled, and was instead a reaction to the subtle vibrations and state of the natural energy all around him. The talk of certain death did not seem so strange anymore.