Chapter 5: The Path of Ten Thousand Beasts, Soul Cultivator?!

After a night of turmoil, Lu Wu still felt full of energy. He flew past the Sutra Repository, reentered the portal of light, and arrived once more at the place where the female sage lay in repose.

At this moment, the female sage was fiddling with a golden ring-shaped weapon.

“You’re back? How did you fare?”

Lu Wu couldn’t quite put into words just how much stronger he had become, so he simply danced through the air.

The female sage watched his movements, a look of utter confusion on her face, as if a giant question mark was about to appear on her forehead.

“Strange. The first time I met you, you flapped your wings about six hundred times every twenty breaths—sixty seconds.”

“After absorbing the blood of the demon fox, you flapped your wings around three hundred times in the same span.”

“And now, it’s even less—two hundred times.”

“But why is it that your speed keeps increasing, and you’re becoming more agile and nimble?”

Lu Wu paused. Of course, it was because of his mimicry.

Mosquitoes are small, their wings beat rapidly, but they fly slowly. Flies are slightly larger, flap their wings a bit more slowly, but fly faster and more nimbly. Bees, larger still, beat their wings yet more slowly, but fly even faster and with greater agility.

The female sage pondered this, still puzzled. “Fly another lap for me.”

Lu Wu complied.

The female sage exclaimed in surprise, “I think I’ve seen another creature fly like this… a bee!”

“Your flying habits are very similar to those of a bee.”

Seeing that there was no point in hiding it, Lu Wu traced his flight path to convey his meaning: “I admit, I’m mimicking a bee.”

“Mimicking?” The female sage didn’t quite grasp the concept, but she quickly caught on. With a wave of her hand, a cluster of flowers drifted in through the glowing corridor.

She held a small, pale blue flower with yellow stamens—unknown in name—and said, “Try gathering nectar.”

Lu Wu approached. The pollen from the flower clung to his form, though there was no physical contact. The pollen quickly outlined the form of an ethereal bee.

“Beast soul form!” The female sage was astounded. “The Way of Ten Thousand Beasts! Beast mimicry!”

Lu Wu was puzzled. “Beast mimicry? I suppose it means imitating wild beasts?”

“No!” The hem of the sage’s spiritual form fluttered, and golden soul energy swirled frantically around her as she calculated.

“You’ve mastered both the Way of the Fly and the Way of the Bee!”

“How can this be?”

“To master two forms of beast mimicry in just two days is impossible!”

“Does a mere insect soul possess such strength? Does a bug have such talent? If so, wouldn’t all the sages of the world be put to shame?”

Lu Wu asked, “Is that… very impressive?”

The sage’s face brightened with delight. “I thought that, at your previous rate of progress, it would take many years before you could hope to save—”

“But now, it seems you’re not walking the path of vital energy, but the path of the primordial spirit.”

“Is this the innate supernatural ability of your rare beast kind?”

Rare beast? Innate supernatural ability?

If a mosquito’s supernatural gift counted for anything, surely it would be making enemies itch unbearably…

The female sage considered for a moment. “For now, you have only one goal: quickly increase your strength.”

“Until you are able to turn a single page of a book.”

“There is a secret manual of the primordial spirit in the Grand Library of the Supreme Palace, called ‘The Picture of Longevity.’ If you can train in it, you will truly embark upon the path of cultivation!”

Lu Wu asked, “Don’t you know what’s in that manual?”

The sage replied, “I’ve glanced at it superficially, but if I were to instruct you, you might risk losing control, your soul shattering into pieces.”

“Soul shattering?” Lu Wu hurriedly wrote in the air, “Then it’s best I read it myself!”

After a moment’s thought, the sage added, “But I do remember one technique from the book, which you can start practicing now.”

“If you can, with your current body, master the laws you use when mimicking the bee, your speed will multiply severalfold.”

“Right now, you use the bee’s wingbeat frequency and speed with your form.”

“But have you thought about using your own wingbeat frequency and the bee’s wingbeat distance, combining them to increase your speed?”

Lu Wu was stunned.

A bee flaps its wings two hundred times per minute, a mosquito six hundred times. If he could use a mosquito’s wingbeat frequency with a bee’s speed, wouldn’t his speed increase more than threefold?

And if, in future, he could mimic a golden eagle—using a mosquito’s wingbeat speed with the eagle’s flight distance per beat, wouldn’t he be faster than a rocket?

Was this what was meant by “laws”?

Lu Wu quickly asked, “What do you mean by ‘laws’? How do I master them?”

The sage replied, “Before you even began cultivating, you already mastered the Way of Beast Mimicry, though you don’t understand its mysteries.”

“Long ago, the Way of Beast Mimicry was very popular—humans would imitate wolves, insects, tigers, and leopards with their bodies.”

“The method I know is this: First, observe wild or demon beasts, then develop at least one basic beast martial art or technique.”

“Next, spend years among beasts, until you cultivate a beast’s heart, so that not even the beasts themselves can distinguish you from their own.”

“Finally, over time, you must mend the natural flaws in the laws you form, so the human body fully possesses all the traits and strengths of the beast.”

She paused. “For those with great talent, it might take years to learn the way of a single beast; for the untalented, they may never understand it in their lifetime.”

“But you, in just two days, have completed two paths of beast mimicry.”

“You have the ‘way’ but lack the ‘technique’—that is why you have not yet truly begun cultivation.”

Lu Wu said, “So my goal is to become stronger and stronger, until I can turn a single page, and then read ‘The Picture of Ten Thousand Beasts’, and undergo a qualitative leap—a metamorphosis?”

The sage replied, “You must not waste any time in cultivation. Since you’ve chosen to walk this path, then proceed.”

“If you have the strength of sixty bees, that should be enough to turn a page.”

In fact, with his current power—about six bees—Lu Wu could easily lift a single-gram sheet of paper. But turning a page and lifting a sheet are very different. Turning a page meets resistance, and if there’s a breeze, the weight can multiply a thousandfold.

The sage estimated that with the strength of sixty bees, reading a book would be quite efficient.

Lu Wu now had two tasks: First, train his flight speed. Use the wingbeat frequency of a mosquito, combined with the wingbeat distance of a bee, to achieve triple his current speed. Second, find a new target for his next evolution!

“Sixty bees’ strength to read a book steadily? That won’t take long…”

—

In the main hall before the Mountain Gate of the Supreme Palace, Elder Chen stood with his hands behind his back, addressing the thousand new disciples assembled upon the martial training ground:

“As new disciples of the Supreme Palace, you have five days to study the introductory chapter of the ‘Supreme Taoist Canon.’”

“After five days, those who activate their spiritual meridians may enter the inner sect.”

“The rest will remain in the outer sect as herb gatherers or alchemy apprentices.”

“Do you understand?”

A chorus of eager young voices replied, “We understand!”

Elder Chen stroked his beard with satisfaction. “Each of you take a vial of spiritual powder and begin your cultivation.”

Flying on the outskirts, Lu Wu looked at the throng of newly admitted disciples, and only one thought filled his mind: “A gluttonous feast!”

The boys and girls, each with dreams of entering paradise, wasted no time; many began cultivating that very night.

“Ouch, what just bit me?”

“That’s a huge bump!”

“There’s a bug!”

The next morning, many disciples showed up to breakfast with dark circles beneath their eyes.

Elder Chen was delighted. “Excellent! The disciples of Room Six, Block D, have shown great resolve, training all through the night on the ‘Supreme Taoist Canon.’ Promising youths indeed.”

“Cultivation is about defying the heavens. With equal talent, those with perseverance will go farther!”

Little did he know, these disciples had been tormented by Lu Wu all night.

Lu Wu, to test the usefulness of their blood, would bite each only a little, but the itching and swelling were the same.

Thus, the dozens of girls in Room Six, Block D, spent the whole night sleepless.

After a whole night of “selecting,” Lu Wu finally identified the most talented among them—a young woman named Ziyu.

And all the while, Lu Wu had been furiously practicing his flight, making things harder for himself by constantly disturbing the disciples’ cultivation.

The girls, their training interrupted by maddening itchiness, were both embarrassed and enraged, wielding their pillows in a three-hundred-round battle with Lu Wu.

Under such intense training, Lu Wu began to grasp the knack of it.

Now, he could attempt flight using the wingbeat frequency of a fly and the wingbeat distance of a bee, boosting his speed by fifty percent.

And after a night of bloodsucking, the moment of evolution had finally arrived!

“One, evolve into a fly.”

“Two, mimic a longhorn beetle.”

“Three, store demon essence and prepare for the Qi Condensation stage.”

Lu Wu was stunned.

A longhorn beetle? Just when he needed it most, it appeared!

The longhorn beetle, an insect with an exoskeleton, possesses strength far beyond ordinary flying insects!

With the beetle’s strength, turning pages would be a breeze.

“‘The Picture of Ten Thousand Beasts’, here I come!”