Shen continued taking the bears to the clan for his contribution points whilst wondering if it was possible to gain power from the spiritual embodiment of the wolf but soon abandoned the thought since doing so would mean completely destroying the soul of the creature and only a cultivator of the demonic Dao would do such a thing.
Shen continued into the clan and traded in the full bear corpses to the elder for his contribution points "It seems like these were killed by some kind of wolf yet the injuries seem slightly off and the mother of these cubs was killed so quickly that you would assume that the beasts were killed in an instant but not a single piece of the edible meat was taken they were only killed by the wolf not consumed by it...hm strange oh well here are your contribution points for retrieving the bodies of these bears" For bringing in four fairly intact thunderous bear corpses Shen gained 700 contribution points after turning in all of the bears for his tasks 300 for the mother bear and was given 400 for the 3 cubs collectively Shen smiled warmly as he thought of his new wealth and decided to save it for now.
Shen walked towards the same little plaza that he had been using for his cultivation noticed no one was around as usual and went straight to cultivating to push himself to the next level and again he cultivated for days before feeling tired. As Shen walked towards his quarters he felt his cultivation had reached the edge of the 2nd level and as such he was slightly worried about the 3rd level since for body cultivators it meant having to use a lot more resources since by that point they would have to focus on their element and body separately instead of cultivating them simultaneously.
Shen slept for a long time and had a dream of a man who had cultivated his body to an extreme level and that man was a cultivator of the demonic Dao that yearned for only strength that could never be rivaled. Shen felt a tug in his mind towards the demonic Dao at the sight of this but the tug was very small it was like planting a seed and waiting for it to grow now all the seed needed was something to fuel its growth until it sprouted but for now the seed was dormant. Shen awoke at the 3rd stage and before he could question how a strange voice whispered "A gift from me" and then stayed silent as Shen seemed to first tense up at the voice and then he relaxed thinking that somehow he must have used a resource before he slept and the resource had pushed him through to the 3rd level.
Shen did not fully believe his own excuse for this situation however what was he supposed to believe? That someone was capable of enhancing his cultivation as a gift? He was a body cultivator at that so how would someone even accomplish such a heaven defying task?! With such strong points to argue the existence of a being with unimaginable power he unconsciously blocked out its memory at least he unconsciously tried to block its memory but it just wouldn't be forgotten as if it had it's own will so it stayed in his mind unmoved.
Shen walked through his clan and went to a lecture on lightning to aid his comprehension of it since now he would cultivate lightning and body separately but his lightning comprehension would affect his body cultivation speed so now he would visit the lecture hall often and use many resources to hurry along his body cultivation at the moment Shen couldn't notice it but a small amount of energy of the demonic Dao had entered his soul from now on he would be affected by it but it was not enough for people to focus on it if they were to search his soul not now at least if it were to grow then it would become an issue worth addressing unless he chooses to embrace and many tend to embrace the call of their darkest desires be it Strength, Influence, or Wealth.