Chapter 30 - Tale Under The Stars (1/2)
By the time they finished eating, the evening had come. The moon shone clearly in the sky, surrounded by the shining stars that bathed the surrounding grass in the moonlight.
In the spiderweb house, Hei, Lian, Ye, Xing, and Bao Bei were relaxing lying on the ground while digesting the evening meal.
Although it was ordinarily uncomfortable to sleep on the floor if you weren't used to it, Lian had made no complaints and silently ate with the whole family together.
When they had rested enough, all of them came out of the spiderweb house. It was time to start the ritual to revive the spirit vein.
'The ritual to revive the spirit vein is done through a special formation that does nothing but sending the energy contained in external objects towards the spirit vein itself.' Bao Bei said as she began to draw the formation on the ground with absolute precision.
Hei, fascinated by his mother's mastery, couldn't help but ask, ”Mom, do you know formations?”
'Not really, I'm not such a great expert, but this is a particular formation known only to very few divine beasts. I was taught a long time ago by a friend. It was a lotus flower divine beast.'
When she mentioned her old friend, Bao Bei's eyes became sad, looking back at what had happened in the past before she met Hei.
Seeing his mother becoming sad, Hei tried to change the subject.
”Mother, there is one thing that isn't clear to me. Some time ago, you said that spirit beasts also included plants and inanimate objects. If animal-type spirit beasts are nothing but animals that have awakened their spirit power, then the plants with spirit power that we cultivate are themselves spirit beasts?”
Hearing her son's question, Bao Bei came to her senses and replied quietly, 'No, they aren't spirit beasts. Well, for plants, in addition to spirit power, a consciousness must also be formed within them. And this process takes many years. As for inanimate objects, they require spirit power, consciousness, and the creation of a blood-like substance that makes them alive. The times for this process are even longer than for the plants and cannot be artificially induced, thus making the inanimate type spirit beasts very rare.'
Hei listened to this explanation with interest, wondering what kind of spirit beast his mother had seen in her life.
Noticing the interest of her son, Bao Bei smiled and sighed inwardly at the same time. She had finished drawing the formation and arranging all the spirit cores in their possession. Now, all that remained was to activate the formation and wait for the result. So, in the waiting, she would finally tell them about her past.
While the formation slowly lit up, recalling the spirit cores and external environment's spirit power towards the underground spirit vein, Bao Bei had Hei, Ye, and Xing come near her. She also made Lian and Shui sit next to them while the other buffaloes slept peacefully after the long walk during the day.
At that point, she connected her mind to that of Shui and Lian. In that way, she could transmit her voice to them too. Unlike Shui, with whom she had once communicated to the pond before departing from Kang's group, this was the first time Bao Bei was speaking to Lian.
The young girl with an expressionless gaze seemed somewhat amazed for a second but then returned to her usual inexpressive self. Xing and Ye were on her legs as they watched their mother with interest. They hadn't forgotten the promise she had made to them: telling what she had always tried not to say.
'Now that we have arrived here, it is time to tell you what I couldn't bear to say before. But to make you understand, you must remember the discussion about the spirit beasts and divine beasts that I told you long ago.'
Even though her sons remembered it, Shui was only instinctively conscious without knowing the specific details while Lian was unaware of it. So Bao Bei again proceeded to explain that topic.
Once that part was over, she moved on to the next one, 'the elemental laws are also learnable by all beings with spirit power. When you reach the meridian stage, Hei, you could communicate with the spirit power in the environment and start what is called the elemental conversion. As for the precise process, we will discuss it in detail in the future when the time comes.'
At that point, Bao Bei paused and then resumed with a tone that hid a note of bitterness and anger.
'Learning the elemental laws allows you to change the very nature of your spirit power, thus being able to carry out attacks with ever stronger power and range. However, the problem lies in the difficulty; although external objects can be used to accelerate the elemental conversion, there are no shortcuts in the study of an elemental law except for one: a bloodline.'
'Bloodline?' Hei thought to himself as he wondered what it was.
Suddenly it occurred to him that his mother would always add some of her blood to the milk he received. Unsure if it could be the same thing, he tried to ask a question, but he was anticipated by Bao Bei, who continued her explanation.
'With a bloodline, it refers to the blood of us divine beasts. Us spirit beasts, when we reach the sixth level and become a divine beast, we receive a bloodline. After receiving a bloodline, we can awaken our bloodline's element and another one that is our innate element. So, in the end, we possess two elements.
Humans and demons, instead, can only control a single element law. Yet, somehow, they discovered that by absorbing the bloodline of a divine beast, they could acquire a second element, and the learning speed of that element was greatly accelerated. Thus, it began the mad hunt for us divine beasts.
We divine beasts used to live alone or with a mate and our cubs, but we were reluctant to join in a pack, considering there were few specimens for every single species of divine beast. Therefore, humans and demons could hunt the first divine beasts by attacking them en masse. When we realized the danger, humans and demons had already acquired too many powers.
Divine beasts are also mostly arrogant by nature. Without bottlenecks in their cultivation, they mocked the attacks made by humans and demons, merely believing that they had been successful only because the dead divine beasts were weak. For them, joining together in a single flag was unthinkable.
Fortunately, your father decided to unite the divine beasts and set out to become stronger and challenge all the leaders in their territories and submit them to his command.
Incidentally, it was during one of his trips that I met your father. At the time, I was still a weak little spider. I met him wounded after a brutal confrontation with another divine beast.
When I saw him hurt, something inside me stirred. I didn't know why, but inside me, I felt that I couldn't let him die like this. So I helped him heal, and he decided to take me with him to thank me for my help. Thanks to him, I was able to reach the divine beast level, and during our travels, we fell in love.
As time went by, he became stronger and stronger and succeeded in his goal. Finally, we divine beasts were reunited.
The demons and humans at that point, gave your father the name of 'Serpent of Darkness,' since his element was darkness, while the divine beasts gave him the title of Beast Emperor.