First, one thing must be established: Demon Beasts can power up by devouring humans, and they can do so at a terrifyingly rapid rate.
Take that Evil Flood Dragon as an example, it progressed from the strength of an ordinary Martial Artist to that of a Grandmaster Level Evil Flood Dragon in just a few years.
Apart from Wang Sheng himself, who is like a cheat, even the most talented of the Human Race couldn’t achieve this feat.
And every Demon Beast is capable of reaching this level; in fact, if they eat enough people, reaching Great Grandmaster isn’t too difficult.
However, each dynasty of the Human Race would purge Demon Beasts, take the Great Zhou Dynasty for example, almost annihilated them at the founding of the nation, it’s only in recent years that Demon Beasts have become numerous again.
“The rapid advancement of Demon Beasts, could it also be influenced by the ’Heavenly Father’, is their method of advancement a kind of harvesting technique?”
Wang Sheng once again refined his speculation.
The Heavenly Father, Demon Beasts, the Master of Destiny—if they all appeared around the same time, many things could be surmised.
“However, without any evidence, these can hardly be deemed true.” Zhu Xiao neither agreed nor disagreed.
As she said, these are all conjectures with no way to confirm their veracity.
But there is a certain rationale to these guesses.
The emergence of Demon Beasts is indeed too abrupt; countless Martial Artists have researched their methods of strength advancement for years on end, and still, nothing has come of it.
“There were some who fell from grace, wanting to learn the Demon Beasts’ rapid method of enhancing their power, but aside from being soaked in bloodshed, they succeeded in nothing else.”
Zhu Xiao once again revealed some secrets.
For many, the advancement of their power is of utmost importance, and if they could ascend like Demon Beasts, many would willingly try.
The absence of such individuals means one thing: it’s impossible.
Wang Sheng, hearing this, thought of something.
“I once encountered an Evil Flood Dragon that could aid humans in enhancing their strength, enabling ordinary people to reach Eighth or Ninth Grade within a few years. Aren’t people tempted by such a method for empowering themselves?”
“Demon Beasts can devour humans to enhance their own power, but that only means using humans as cultivated food, and it’s only applicable to cultivating Martial Artists below Grandmaster level. Moreover, once the host dies, all those who relied on the Demon Beast for power enhancement must die as well; people have already studied this.”
Some things that may be mysterious to Wang Sheng are simply not secrets to someone at Zhu Xiao’s level.
For thousands of years, methods to enhance power have been almost completely researched.
“I see.” Wang Sheng realized that his understanding of certain things was still lacking.
Of course, that wasn’t the important issue here; he was inquiring mainly about the relation to the harvesting technique.
But now it seemed that the two were not deeply connected.
At that moment, Zhu Xiao picked up the materials and said, “The truth is, the reason I brought these materials is that I couldn’t make anything out of them. They seemed ordinary, yet you managed to associate them with these ideas.”
Although Zhu Xiao didn’t explicitly say so, she was clearly teasing Wang Sheng a bit.
Wang Sheng wasn’t much bothered. He said, “Indeed, these are all baseless guesses and can only be considered as such, but there are some that do have a basis. First off, from which era does ’Qi’ come, or more precisely, how many years has it been since the time of ’Qi’ to now?”
“Over six thousand years?” Zhu Xiao promptly mentioned a figure, “Though it’s not precise, it’s roughly around that time.”
“Over six thousand years?” That’s a very long span of time, and the existence of martial arts has made the development of technology difficult.
For example, humans, desiring technology, invented airplanes, but in this world, once you reach the Great Grandmaster level, you can fly, so naturally, many would focus on that path instead.
However, this isn’t the point Wang Sheng intended to make.
“So how many years has Qi-Blood Martial Arts been around until now?”
“That’s even less clear, but it should be around eight or nine thousand years.” Zhu Xiao pondered for a moment before giving a timeframe.
“So, from the birth of Qi-Blood Martial Arts to the appearance of the Master of Destiny, there’s roughly a two-to-three-thousand-year gap. During those two to three thousand years, did Qi-Blood Martial Arts make any progress?”
“Of course, there’s been progress; otherwise, where would Grandmasters and Great Grandmasters come from? Back then, the use of Qi-Blood was still very rudimentary.” Zhu Xiao spoke without hesitation, stating facts.
“What about the remaining six thousand years? Has Qi-Blood Martial Arts made any substantial progress?”
“There has. The Master of Destiny—” Zhu Xiao cut herself off.
She realized the issue.
The Master of Destiny had always been considered to her a mistaken path, one that allowed only one person to become the strongest—is that really a good path?
Even due to this belief, she had reservations about Qi-Blood Martial Arts as a whole.
But now, looking at it this way, it seems there are clear issues—has Qi-Blood Martial Arts not truly advanced in the past six thousand years?
“…”
“Why has nobody noticed such an obvious problem?”
Wang Sheng shook his head and said, “No, the problem isn’t that obvious. If I hadn’t told you about Heavenly Father and the interference, would you have realized these issues? Probably not.
Plus, in the eyes of the vast majority, Qi-Blood Martial Arts hasn’t been without progress. The Master of Destiny is also a choice, even a good one, to many.”
“If you, Zhu Xiao, were not practicing a new path of cultivation, I’m afraid that the possibility of you not acknowledging what I said about the Heavenly Father would be even greater, right?”
Zhu Xiao didn’t speak; she knew this was true.
If she had always been practicing Qi Blood Martial Arts, years of understanding were not something that could easily be changed.
“See, you think so too. Besides, it took two to three thousand years to develop to a Great Grandmaster, but at six thousand years, there appeared such a huge limitation, and there might even be a Master of Destiny with aftermaths like the Demon Beast issue. Were all those predecessors inept? That’s impossible!”
The comparison between two to three thousand years and six thousand years should not result in such a situation, even if the difficulty of progression had increased later on.
“And another thing, considering the emergence of the Master of Destiny was six thousand years ago, plus the matter of the Heavenly Father, don’t you find it strange?”
Wang Sheng was a pure observer.
As such, he could discern many things. Zhu Xiao was following a new path, but she was still within the situation. Pointed out by Wang Sheng, she also began to see some issues.
She didn’t believe either that all the predecessors were useless.
Setting other things aside, even if there were no qualitative changes in strength, some of the combat techniques of Qi Blood Martial Arts weren’t created without good reason.
“But…” Zhu Xiao wanted to say something more, but was interrupted.
“Let me tell you another thing. Many say that the Valley Master of Stargazing Valley has surpassed the level of a Great Grandmaster, right? It’s true. After the battle with that mysterious entity, he achieved a breakthrough at the last moment!”
This was proof that there was a future for Qi Blood Martial Arts.
“Qi Blood Martial Arts can be cultivated to even higher realms!”
Zhu Xiao no longer had any doubts in her heart.
“Indeed, it seems that Qi Blood Martial Arts have always been interfered with. Six thousand years without progress could really be due to the ’Heavenly Father’s’ limitations, and once someone makes a breakthrough, would he come out to stop it?”
Zhu Xiao felt this might truly be the case.
However—
“The Heavenly Father might not actively interfere; he could be preventing progress from a much deeper level. The Valley Master of Stargazing Valley took the fight to him, and even you might have been interfered with. Didn’t you say that the bottleneck didn’t feel right?”
Before, Zhu Xiao had mentioned that her bottleneck didn’t seem natural, and she had doubted it.
Now, she felt even more certain.
“Last time it was just a suspicion, but now it’s more of a certainty. Also, is it true that the Valley Master of Stargazing Valley achieved a breakthrough to the next realm?”
“It’s true, that’s for certain,” Wang Sheng nodded.
“So it seems, it’s a truly despairing path ahead. Is there a way to resolve it?” Zhu Xiao felt a heaviness in her heart.
Qi Blood Martial Arts had been interfered with and not progressed in six thousand years, she couldn’t wait that long, not even for six hundred years.
“As for solutions, there are none. In fact, we haven’t figured out the ’Heavenly Father’s’ identity, have we? We only know that the Master of Destiny and the Heavenly Father may be related.”
“Could it be that the Master of Destiny is the spokesperson of the ’Heavenly Father’? After all, the Master of Destiny is very powerful; accomplishing certain things would be too simple for him,” Zhu Xiao combined the information and shared her speculation.
“Perhaps, but we can start the investigation from this angle, like the case of ’Qi,’ the first Master of Destiny.”
Investigating the history of Qi Blood Martial Arts was indeed the correct decision; they have confirmed some things once again.
Perhaps this time, they were truly nearing the truth.
“Qi Blood Martial Arts have not progressed in six thousand years, mostly likely due to some issues. Investigating the time when the problems began could uncover some truths.”
“I’ll do my best!” Zhu Xiao wasn’t very confident about investigating Qi, “Qi wasn’t an ancestor from the Great Zhou region but rather from all of the Human Race, so Great Zhou might not have much information.”
“There are other empires though, why don’t they communicate much with Great Zhou?”
“Because of the existence of the Border Army. The Border Army is not unique to Great Zhou. Not many know their purpose; it’s quite mysterious. They are stationed at the borders, and there are few conflicts between empires.”
Zhu Xiao was quite clear on some matters.
“We’ll just have to take it slow. I’m going to the Imperial City this time to see if I can find some clues.”
The Imperial City could also be a place where one might learn the truth.
After all, even the Valley Master of Stargazing Valley sought the young prince before taking action, including the matter of the strange disappearance of memories involving the old Scholar Zhou Tongwen.
“That’s all we can do for now, I hope you make some discoveries,” Zhu Xiao said with some weight to her words.
Merely investigating a piece of history had revealed these issues.
Perhaps until the matter with the Heavenly Father was resolved, it would be difficult for her to reach a higher level.
It’s not that there is no higher realm to attain, but that there is a problem with the world itself.
Qi Blood Martial Arts was the path that was first affected.
“I’ll be taking my leave now.” Zhu Xiao wanted to resolve this issue as quickly as possible.
Wang Sheng watched as Zhu Xiao prepared to leave, and finally spoke the thoughts he wanted to share, “Zhu Xiao, perhaps you could take a closer look at yourself…”