I struggled to resume steady breathing after my experience with divine sight. My heart was beating rapidly in my chest. I was way too excited to sleep anytime soon, so I may as well continue learning the techniques I gained. For now, though I should familiarize myself with the sight.
I carefully controlled my ability to only extend to 5 meters around me. Fortunately, the ability responded appropriately. It was still uncomfortable. I was seeing with my two eyes and also seeing every nook and cranny within a fifteen-foot radius. Closing my eyes was a little better, but I'd need to get used to using the ability with my eyes open. I noticed a pile of refuse that was being swept under the bed, I'd have to lecture the maidservants about that tomorrow. I secretly wondered if all the moms in my previous life gained a limited version of divine sight. They all seemed to have the ability to see invisible dirt, but they could never find their keys. It could be called dirt sight.
Aside from the limited omniscience the Sea of Soul granted it had other benefits too. My thoughts had never been so clear. I was having miniature inspirations for all of my abilities. What I liked most of all was the extended ability to visualize. I basically had a one-kilometer radius playground in which I could imagine anything and the result was as crisp and clear as reality. It gave me no added combat ability, but the former otaku in me appreciated the enhancement to my daydreams. Most of my techniques required visualization as well, I wondered if this would aid me in learning techniques. The only thing I had left to do was learn techniques, but if they all took as long as Kinetic Burst, I was better off trying to sleep.
There were two techniques I absolutely needed to learn. First up was the concealment technique. I didn't want to disguise my cultivation base permanently, but I had cultivated way too fast and the backing of the Seeker family would mean almost nothing within the sect. If people found out how fast I cultivated, first they'd feed my cultivation like fattening a pig, and then consume my cultivation base through forbidden techniques.
It wasn't just Earth that had these stories. The library was full of stories of people who shined too bright before being struck down while they were still young. These were the cautionary tales of this world. Earth's children's stories would caution kids to not wander alone or trust strangers. Eternia's children's tales warned kids to not be too brilliant. What's worse is most of the tales were non-fiction.
I quickly scanned the technique. It was simple, too simple. This was the downside to a common technique. The technique only called for drawing the qi that was naturally emitted by a cultivator and suppressing it under the skin. This qi was a cultivator's first line of defense, it formed a barrier around the cultivator. It was called aura. This technique had so many holes it was almost useless. First suppressing the aura would entirely remove my first line of defense. Second, any cultivator with divine sense or qi sense would see right through the technique as they would see the qi within the body. A simple realm difference would also eventually penetrate the technique. Third, this would just make me look like a mortal when it worked. Given that I needed to fool the elders in the sect so they didn't feed me to their disciples, this technique was not enough.
I began thinking of how I could improve the technique. The primary problem was that anyone who could see into another cultivator's body would render the technique useless. A barrier wouldn't work, as the barrier could be detected. Instead, I thought about mimicking the qi density of a lower-level cultivator within the body. Qi within the various qi conduits and containers within the body were nigh undetectable as the qi-reinforced walls of those vessels also provided the perfect concealment. Instead, the problem was the qi that leaked out to the muscles and organs of the body. What if I completely contained the qi leaking from all the extra meridians I had cultivated? I decided to try it out.
I restricted the qi in all except the first 7 meridians I unlocked. The process was extremely quick. The visualization from my sea of soul helped immensely. The qi still flowed through the meridians and I could still use techniques with the force of a peak qi-gatherer, but the qi density in my skin, muscles, bones, and organs dropped drastically. I looked at myself with my divine sight and I indeed gave off the aura of a late-stage qi-gatherer with only 7 meridians open. Even knowing that it was false, I could find no flaws in the disguise, not without my own internal perception. This solved the majority of the problems of the technique, however my defense was still weakened. Not only my aura but also my body was weakened to only the level of a late-stage qi-gatherer. Basically, while using this technique, I'd be a glass cannon. I could use offensive abilities equal to my real cultivation base, but my defense would be equal to my false cultivation base. I supposed there would always be a trade-off with this kind of technique, and this was the best I could think of. A new technique was added to my system.
Shroud of Solomon (Legendary-Spirit Grade) [Initial Success]
The name seemed fitting, having the wisdom to hide only that which needed to be hidden. I had now done what I needed to do, but my heart was still too excited for bed so now for what I wanted to do, the stealth technique. The title was fairly ordinary for a supreme technique, Muted Presence. Sounded kind of lame. Well, it couldn't be supreme for nothing, so I started reading it and was quickly astounded by what it did. It cycled my yin qi through all six yin meridians and their branches in a complex pattern. The result was a unique form of yin qi being emitted into my aura. Every light particle, sound wave, scent, and other sense carriers were tainted by this qi when they passed through my aura. When the tainted sense carrier reached an organism that could perceive, it would tell that organism's brain to ignore my presence. This was better than invisibility. In a crowd, people would walk around me. If I moved an object it wouldn't freak people out. Unless it was necessary though, people wouldn't pay attention to my existence. And even when it was necessary, they wouldn't pay attention to my identity. Even in a private sanctum where no other person should be, they wouldn't pay me any notice. It would take a strong mind to break the illusion.
This was a difficult technique to even read, let alone practice. Another hour went by before I could cycle my qi appropriately. I had no way to ensure it was working on the balcony so I returned inside and walked out of the bedroom, the two guards posted there took no action. I waved my hands in front of their faces and got no response. Seemed to work so I returned to my room and laid down on the sliver of bed my sister and fox had left for me.
Muted Presence (Supreme-Spirit grade) [Initial Success]
The time was 3:38, I really should sleep. I tossed and turned for a few minutes, trying to get comfortable with my ass still hanging off the edge of the bed. Then I remembered something from the morning. The abilities Form of the Hominid and Form of the Terra Bound indicated partial changes were possible. This obviously meant I could do things like change a single appendage when suitable, but what if it could do more? What if I could mix and match?
I decided to start with a simple concept. I changed my forearm into a gorilla's but changed the nails to cat claws. It worked, I had a beefy, hairy arm with sharp claws on the fingertips. Since this worked so well, could I make a complete transformation using the best traits from different animals?
I got out of bed, too excited to sleep again. I needed a form that would strike terror into those who saw me. Eldritch horrors were out since my ability didn't give me access to cephalopods, so I'd make do with what I had, mostly mammals. I took a look over at Rosie, why not a fox demon?
Let's start with a base template. I covered my skin in fox fur, changed my face into a fox snout and muzzle, changed my ears into the pointed, fluffy ears of a fox, and lastly grew out several fox tails. Four seemed to be the limit, I didn't know exactly why that was. Qi seemed to flow in my meridians better for each tail I possessed. The limit was likely associated with why the more powerful fox-like demonic beasts had more tails in the first place. Soon a cute foxgirl was standing in the room. However, I wanted fearsome, not cute. At this juncture, I removed my pajamas. Who knew how crazy my transformation would get in the end and the thick fox fur did a decent job of keeping me decent.
Next, I changed the muscles and bones in my arms to match that of a chimpanzee. I was after the increased strength without changing the shape, size, and function of my arms too much. Maybe I could add an extra pair of arms. Another set of arms sprouted out of my armpits. Could I add another? Nope, again four seemed to be the limit. It took me a few minutes to gain proper control of the new set of arms. I would definitely need to train many different beast forms, especially those with anatomy strikingly different from humans. This was not something I could adjust to mid-combat. Again, I switched my nails out for cat claws. They were quite sharp, I also liked that they could retract.
Now to get some of that demonic aspect. I grew antelope horns on my skull next to the fluffy fox ears. This was almost purely for aesthetics, but who knew, maybe a day would come when I would get to ram someone with my horns. I then reversed my knees, similar to any four-legged animal, and changed my feet into oversized fox paws. It took me a few minutes to find the right balance that allowed me to easily walk on two limbs or six limbs, but I did find it. This was less demonic and more practical, so I also tried changing my paws into cloven hooves. Again, it took a few adjustments, but I found the right tweaks to be able to walk properly with hooves. I memorized both the cloven hoof and paw layout.
Now I wanted to do something more complicated. I wanted to keep human visual acuity as I didn't have access to hawk or eagle features, but I wanted night vision like that of a cat. I didn't know if my ability allowed such micro-adjustments, but I decided to try it out. I carefully changed out my lens, iris, pupil, and eyelids to match those of a cat. I also added the reflective layer behind the lens that is responsible for the night vision. I left my rods and cones as human. I also thought of the tarsiers and how their large eyes allowed greater light collection. Surprisingly my ability accepted enhanced size and nothing else as a valid change, and I grew my eyes by twenty percent. If I matched the tarsier, the entire top of my head would be nothing but eyes. I decided anime-sized eyes were big enough. Immediately I could see my room with much greater clarity. Perhaps this was useless since I now had divine sight, but it was always possible for divine sight to be disabled. Plus the vertical slit pupils with that eerie reflective glow added to the demonic look I was pursuing.
I ultimately kept Rosie's red fox pattern with black paws and a white belly, but I did an experiment and found I could basically take any fur pattern I imagined. The camouflage applications were endless assuming I ever needed it. I finished my changes by making my neck more fox-like so I could look straight ahead while on all six without straining.
I heard a *ding* from my system indicating that a new ability had been learned.
Fox Demon Form (Divine Grade): Take on the form of the fox demon, a notoriously dangerous humanoid demonic beast that often leads beast tides, but has never been caught or killed. Stats +100٪, Qi regeneration +100٪, Technique damage +100%, resistance to mental effects +100٪, mental technique effectiveness +100%
Cost: 250 qi
An insane ability appeared before me. I was just messing around and somehow I mimicked an actual being and unlocked this oppressive ability.
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Unbeknownst to me, near the center of the continent, eyes identical to mine opened wide.