To the west of the celestial empire lies the verdant forest, a dense and mystical woodland teeming with spiritual energy. It is inhabited by various magical beasts, ancient spirits, and a few reclusive hermits.
At the border of the forest is a small town, Maple Leaf. For a small border town, it is always very busy because of its unique position which allows cultivators who wish to enter the verdant forest to restock their supplies and sometimes sell off their gains.
In a small inconspicuous corner of the city, within an alley is a small shop, and sitting in front of it is a man. Di sheng had dark flowing hair that reached down to his shoulders, a goatee, and black robes. His facial features were average. The alley was very busy but this buzzing scene seemed to be lost to him as he went through the memories in his mind.
He was just sitting here quietly minding his business when two divine techniques just popped into his mind accompanied by a screen that suddenly appeared in front of him.
He had come to realize that whatever it was, identified itself as an AI.
He was 42 years old and had just reached the Qi manifestation realm a few months ago. Due to a lack of talent, he knew his cultivation journey would most likely stop here.
Having always expected it, it did not come as a surprise. Achieving Qi gathering at 16, Qi condensation at 25, and Qi manifestation at 41. His talent was mediocre, to say the least, and as a result, he was never selected into a sect or academy within the empire.
However today his fate was about to change.
Blood God Art: all blood succumb to my will...
After reading the entire technique, he understood nothing
"Let me check the other one"
Serpent's Embrace: the golden serpent is an ancient mythical creature that dates back to the dawn of creation. According to legends, it is believed to be one of the primordial divine beings that emerged from the cosmic chaos, embodying the principle of balance, wisdom, and divine energy...
After the introduction and going through the technique, Di Sheng came to realize, it was very difficult to practice it and right now was even more difficult than the Blood God Art because it was a bloodline method.
"Damn, two godly techniques and I can only practice one due to my limited talent. Damn it, even blessings can not be picked up"
Just as he was expressing his dissatisfaction in his mind, the screen that appeared earlier started flashing with lines of words and information and options.
Looking at the screen that gave him the option of joining both techniques into one he beamed. He now understood the use of this AI. Perhaps it could do this his human mortal brain could not even dream of.
His mood soon attracted the attention of some people prompting him to enter the store to draw less attention.
He knew that this world followed the law of the jungle. Might is right and a weak man's wealth is also his doom.
He locked the door behind him and sat down as he used his mind to initiate the unification process.
He started feeling a headache soon after which only got worse by the minute. Blood started flowing from his orifices as he soon fell unconscious with his body still twitching on the ground.
He woke up only to realize that two days had passed, his face pale and his body weak like someone lacking nutrients. Only when a cultivator is injured can he find himself in such a situation.
He had now come to understand that the AI did everything within his limits and the stronger he got so too did the AI.
He can simply not understand how he has survived this ordeal. Nevertheless, he was glad to have not lost his poor life because of carelessness.
Looking at the transparent screen, he saw written on it
The name itself was domineering as he quickly glanced through it. It was a very powerful skill and a bloodline technique.
"But where do I get the golden serpent bloodline?" Di Sheng asked himself in doubt.
For the next three years, he visited many places and read many records about all kinds of serpents and tried to trace their ancestral roots but soon he came to realize that if not for the cultivation method he would have thought the golden serpent was a myth and maybe never existed.
However, after that much research, the AI drew some conclusions with 70% accuracy of snakes that could contain the ancient chaotic bloodline.
He found a total of six but only four of them had above 70% chance of containing the bloodline but only three of them could be found with his capabilities.
He came to realize that the AI had made his life much easier and certain things were no longer missed by him.
Without the AI there was no way he could identify these snakes.
The three kinds of snakes he had to hunt were the Aurelien viper, the gilded python, and luminous adders.
After three years of practice, his cultivation had shown little improvement and he knew this was his only way forward if he ever hoped to break through to the foundation realm.
Three days later he began his mission into the forest. This time he was going to hunt a lot of serpents.
Amongst his targets, the weakest was the gilded python whose strongest were mostly in the foundation realm, However, he was not going to antagonize the powerful ones and instead focused on the weak ones in the Qi realm.
They were not too deep into the forest and were relatively easy to find.
On the third day of his search Di Sheng was feeling down, for three days he had searched in vain. While resting atop a tree branch, he heard swooshing sounds within the forest not too far from his position. Having already gained spiritual sense, he soon discovered what was happening.
Two young men and a woman were in pursuit of a lone young man. They were all in the Qi manifestation realm and were all between 20 and 25 from Di Sheng's estimate. He was about to leave but was already found out.
"Fellow Daoist, help me escape this crisis and make sure you are rewarded handsomely"
In the cultivation world seniority was determined by strength and after sensing Di Sheng's cultivation, there was no great respect in the way he spoke to Di Sheng even though he was about twice his age.
Di Sheng just glanced at him and turned to leave. Why would he put his nose in matters that do not concern him?
However before he could leave, he was surrounded by the other four.
"What is the meaning of this?" Di Sheng asked with a frosty expression.
"Fellow Daoist, don't blame us but if you two are together, you must hand over the core before leaving" a voice came. The words sounded polite but the person's face said otherwise. The girl was the one who spoke and from the looks of it, she was probably leading this group of four.
"Senior sister Jing, let's just kill them and be done with it" another one spoke
"So you would risk attacking and killing an innocent without care just because you suspect him, where did you put your conscience?" Di Sheng asked, his face turning even more frosty as time went by
"Innocent? What rubbish. Look I don't have time to discuss with you here. are you guys handing it over or do we fight?" One man amongst them spoke revealing a trace of impatience in his tone
"No wonder they call you guys devilish cultivators. You are truly ruthless"
"Let's kill them, we can use their blood to refine tonics and with the gilded python's core, senior sister's dark coiling serpent technique will go through, and then we'll have a backer in the foundation realm." As the man spoke he launched an attack as a palm made out of black Qi flew toward the fleeing young man.
Di Sheng and the young man who had always been on guard dodged it easily.
Di Sheng dashed forward and formed a fist and punched in the air.
The punch flew out in nine consecutive waves bulldozing everything in their path.
Since his spiritual root was poor, he had spent a lot of time polishing his battle arts. So he was in no way weak.
The punch reached one of the men who immediately formed a shield to block it but it blasted him away and as he flew uncontrollably backward, the nine waves superimposed about to land on him. This would leave him severely injured, to say the least.
But right at this moment, senior sister Jing appeared in front of the man and released her technique
"Serpent's fang"
A black snake was formed from her Qi as it bit towards the fist. The was gradually corroded and destroyed mid-air. Despite being weakened the serpentine Qi still flew towards Di Sheng who punched forward again while withdrawing.
This Girl was stronger than him and he had no intention of entangling with her any further. He would escape while he still could.
He withdrew towards where the fleeing young man was being laid siege by the other two pursuers.
As he got near Di Sheng released a palm technique "rock crushing palm" towards one of them. It took the man by surprise and he was seriously injured. He jumped into the forest and fled without looking back and so too did the fleeing young man.
The girl wanted to chase but stayed behind because of her injured follower. In this moment, Di Sheng's battle experience showed.
After making a successful escape, he turned and looked at the young man who was escaping with him.
"Fellow Daoist, thank you for your help today. I will remember this. My name is Li Ming from the Battle Star Academy"
Hearing this Di Sheng raised his brows in surprise. What was a student from one of the top academies within the empire doing so far from home? It has to be known that the empire itself was very large containing hundreds of kingdoms and to enter the Battle Star Academy has one requirement that is decided at birth. One must be a noble to enroll in such an academy.
This man was undoubtedly a noble.
However, that was of no concern to Di Sheng.
"You implicated me in your affairs, how are you going to compensate me"
"Fellow Daoist, I can't give you the core as it is very important to me but I can give you spirit stones"
Di Sheng just looked at him without saying a word causing the man to sweat. Could it be he had to fight this his benefactor?
Nevertheless the less he took out a bag containing thirty spirit stones as a reward for Di Sheng.
His eyes did not waver as he handed it over.
"Where is the python's corpse?" Di Sheng asked.
This left the young man perplexed as the python's corpse was relatively useless as the scales could only forge defensive armor at the Qi gathering realm.
Only the core was valuable, however, he still revealed the area where the corpse could be found, telling Di Sheng the general area where gilded pythons could be found.
Having had the information and thirty spirit stones for his troubles, he headed in the direction Li Ming indicated.
Seeing him leave, Li Ming heaved a sigh of relief as he too took his leave.
Hurry along for about half a day Di Sheng found what he was looking for. At this moment, a giant python about 15m long lay before him.
Its scales gleam like pure gold.
This species had an innate affinity for earth and metal manipulation, enabling them to reshape their surroundings, and creating powerful defensive barriers. Their venoms contained a metallic property capable of corroding and penetrating armor.