There was another unknown about divination.
Normally, when predicting the weather, one would first collect data for days. Divination has no such requirement. Wang Feng once again put a stone on the ground to test his hypothesis. He decided to touch the stone to establish a connection with it. He then put his hand on the connection and pushed his spiritual qi into it. Wang Feng felt a slight push at the spot where he and the stone connected. At the same time, the stone was pushed back a bit. Wang Feng's hypothesis was confirmed. Despite accepting a huge energy loss and an equivalent backlash, a practitioner can affect the thing that the string is connected with. That is to say, these strings of destiny, the karmic ties, are conducive to an unknown type of energy or particle that is capable of carrying data from the target to the diviner. That energy can be converted from spiritual qi. It is also omnipresent in nature, traveling through cause and effect relationships. Thus, diviners are able to scry things.
A sudden inspiration dawned on Wang Feng. He first activated his dao mark and divined the path his blood would take after leaving his heart. He was shocked at the result - the strings of fate mapped the entirety of his cardiovascular system. Wang Feng then used the sticky gecko art in the thinnest way possible and aligned it perfectly with his veins, using the karmic ties as a guideline. He hollowed out the center of the tendril and created an entrance and exit in his mouth, integrating it with the cardiovascular system tendril system. Wang Feng used his hand to guide spiritual energy towards the entrance of the tendril system, which circulated within his veins at incredible speeds. Near-instantly, his cells and his spiritual root reached capacity. He then circulated his own spiritual qi to push out the raw spiritual energy within the tendrils. Lastly, he used the tendril system to fold into itself and expel itself, causing his body to go into metamorphosis mode in preparation for a breakthrough.
The classic cultivation methods were focused on painstaking and careful control, causing most of the spiritual energy in cultivation to be wasted. Demonic cultivation methods were like inflicting harm upon oneself. The karmic blood cultivation sutra that he had just invented bypassed the need for control and opened up the possibility of moving immense amounts of energy all at once. The upgrade to the flesh was not due to spiritual qi or energy but the effects of such particles traveling near the flesh. Just like electrical currents create magnetic fields, spiritual currents create fields that cells can tap into.
Wang Feng cast several stones. One represented cultivating at breakneck speeds, the other represented making karmic blood cultivation sutra public, one represented laying low, keeping as much to yourself as possible, the other represented the reactionary approach, and one represented cultivating in seclusion for a long time.
The reactionary approach came out as the most auspicious of the bunch. That made sense to Wang Feng. Every living being survives by paying attention. One could shut themselves in, but they could never shut out the outside world. Also, upgrading too quickly would not be safe, as one could be accused of being a spy from the demon sect. Laying low and keeping to oneself is also dangerous. Within certain competitive communities, the more one gives in, the more people will start taking advantage. Words can be phrased differently, after all. Generosity becomes foolishness, mild-temperedness becomes weakness, and bravery becomes stupidity.
Wang Feng made his way to the Medicine and Pill Pagoda where he found Elder Li. He waited until Elder Li had finished the refinement process before asking him, "Elder Li, I just cultivated for the first time! Can you check if I made a mistake?" Wang Feng presented his wrists to Elder Li, who checked his body and said, "Your body is in the metamorphosis stage. How many cycles did you cultivate? Hmm... you have laid the perfect foundation for launching a cultivation career. Take it easy for the next two weeks and wait for your body to completely transition into the middle stages of the Body Nourishing Realm. Why don't you check out some sermons in the meantime? Tonight, I will show you to your abode so you can move out of mine."
Meanwhile, in the dust-filled outskirts of the Shoushan territory, there was an ornate desk and two chairs, with a bottle of immortal wine and two glasses placed next to them. Two men walked toward the desk from different directions. One of the men had long white hair and feminine facial features. He stepped forward, but his steps did not match the speed at which he was moving forward. He was Six Wings Demon Venerable Luo Geming. The other gentleman was the Sect Master of the Shoushan Sect, Thousand Puppets Venerable Shi Hong. These enemies had agreed to meet up in a specific place and were now seated facing each other. The bottle started levitating and poured a drink for both the Six Wings Demon Venerable and Thousand Puppets Venerable.
The Six Wings Demon felt the burn of the alcohol travel down his throat.
"Shi Hong, don't you think it's unfair that while everyone is trying to survive, the Shoushan Sect hogs all the resources, leaving the rest of us to choose between being brutal or dying?"
Puppet Venerable felt the burn of alcohol travel down his throat.
"The emperor of the Yao Dynasty is tough on demonic cults. He provides aid to local sects that battle the demon cult members."
Pale demon had blood-red lips. He had been suffering from the side effects of his cultivation methods for years now.
"Shi Hong, don't you think it's unfair that the hypocritical sects hog all the stable cultivation manuals, leaving those without connections to suffer forever?"
Shi Hong smiled.
"You haven't committed any grand atrocities lately. Resources from the capital city are drying up. Do your job as a demon correctly, so I can legitimately put in a request for the pills I need for my cultivation."
Six wings Demon Venerable was fuming with anger.
"SHI HONG! DON'T YOU THINK IT…"
Thousand Puppets Venerable slapped Six wings Demon into the ground.
"Hey…what are you…?" Six wings Demon Venerable asked, holding his cheek.
"Well, you've stopped your atrocities lately. So, Yao Emperor reduced the cultivation aid. You have to understand, it's inconvenient for me."
Demon Venerable was green with anger. Six majestic dragonfly wings sprouted from his back.
Shi Hong flicked his fingers. One of the wings sprouted from Six wings Demon Venerable ripped off. Six wings Demon Venerable fell to the ground in pain.
Holding a single wing, Shi Hong took a sip from the immortal wine and lamented.
"It's such a shame, Five Wings Demon. You have collected all the demons under your banner, making it convenient for me to squash them when and how I see fit. You wantonly commit crimes, which means that whatever I do to you or your demon sect is justified. I can use demon cultivators to train my juniors. I have really come to like having a bunch of people I can abuse to make profits."
He sat on the man writhing in pain on the ground.
"I want you to know that I wish for you to keep doing what you were doing all along. But remember that you are a btch I can fck whenever I want. Figuratively, of course. Don't get uppity. Don't think you are of equal standing to me. I want you to feel like a beaten dog whenever you think of me."
Shi Hong downed the rest of the immortal wine. He poured whatever was left in his cup on Luo Geming's face. Shi Hong took the wing and disappeared.
Luo Geming, with wobbling arms and legs, scurried back to his immortal abode. The slave servant he had kidnapped brought him a fruit plate. In a moment of anger, he slapped the young girl in half.
Luo Geming stood there and watched as the poor girl in her twenties wheezed out her death rattle. She stared at and prodded her torn stomach in shock.
Quite the distance away, within the Shoushan sect, Wang Feng got a new abode. As he was settling in his abode, A drunk out of his mind Shi Hong came to visit.
"Wang Feng! Congratulations on your new home!"
Shi Hong hated things within his territory but out of his control. The uppity rebel had been humbled, but now there was this unknown boy with unknown capabilities and unknown intentions, which was an irritation to Shi Hong. He did not want to start hostilities with Wang Feng. He learned not to mess with unknowns since he had tried to make a puppet out of a dao entity. Not only had Shi Hong failed spectacularly, but he had also been the victim of a series of misfortunes orchestrated by dao entities afterwards. The Dao entity he tried to capture was two major realms lower than him. Despite that, the dao entity contorted, dodged, and phase shifted away from the puppeteering connections. Shi Hong learned the hard way that the way to deal with Dao entities was not to deal with them. A diviner with immense capabilities was equally unfathomable. Shi Hong resented being pushed into a compromise. It hurt his pride as a Venerable.
Wang Feng was way more of a headache than the five wings demon.
Shi Hong smiled and pulled out a giant dragonfly wing. At the root of the wing, there was still a chunk of flesh. He gave it to Wang Feng.
"Here, a housewarming gift."
It was a threat but not an outright hostility. It could be interpreted as a real gift.
Wang Feng was excited. He took the wing and yelled, "Wow, cool wing!"
Shi Hong was annoyed to no end. The threat went over Wang Feng's head. Thousand Puppets Venerable escaped to his pagoda so he could spare himself from doing rash things out of anger.