An older man with a respectably long white beard in a white lab coat that could be said to be anything but clean, entered the room with a happy yet exhausted look on his face. Behind him entered a young woman in glasses and in a lab coat that is clean and proper, very unlike the man, and sat on one of the chairs arranged facing the desk.

 

The old man sitting down at his desk again after finally finishing his most recent experiment quickly changed his face to one of pure exhaustion as he looked towards the woman. Chen Ming felt that it was only right to show his exhaustion after 3 days straight of research despite the increase in energy and durability that the body gets once they become a cultivator.

 

“Sir, you cannot rest yet, you still need to record your findings officially.”

 

His research assistant couldn’t help but chide Chen Ming for his attempt to fake exhaustion right after he sat down.

 

“Xiao Yinger, can’t you be more relaxed? We just spent the last 3 days confirming the evolutionary patterns of the Spirit Beasts, isn’t time to sleep? These old bones can only take so much!”

 

Chen Ming’s sudden outburst full of energy, to declare that he has no more energy, wasn’t the most convincing. Chen Xiuying could only sigh at the antics of this grandfather of hers, he has always been a light hearted man.

 

“Sir, you are famous in the research facility for forgetting things after your naps, otherwise we wouldn’t have to stay up so long in the first place.”

 

“....”

 

Failing to devise a good excuse for her statement, Ming could only sigh in regret that he couldn’t nap and pull out a set of writing utensils and some paper. Despite his overall lighthearted personality Ming became very serious when it comes to his research.

 

He proceeded to prepare the paper for the official statement on their research.

 

Current Date: 5/29/20 ASQ

 

Experiment Topic: 1 Star Spirit Beasts Evolution into 2 Star Spirit Beasts\

 

Log Entry Number: 23

 

Head Researcher: Chen Ming

Assistant Researcher: Chen Xiuying

 

After preparing the paper with the general info that he didn’t really need to think about he looked towards Chen Xiuying, his eyes telling her to start arranging the information. As Xiuying read the data back to her grandfather he was making the summary of the research topic.

 

Abstract:

This experiment was focused on a 1 Star Mouse spirit beast. The beast was assumed to be on the brink of evolution when selected for research. The Mouse has been born and bred within the research facility so the margin of error of the data could be as far as 20% due to the lack of possible factors that would be present in the wild. This experiment was designed to act as a confirmation of past experiments about the evolution patterns of the 1 Star Mouse breed spirit beasts.

 

Main Confirmation Topics: Energy needed to cause evolution, Time of evolution, Effects of evolution

 

State of Subject when selected for this experiment:

 

Level: 1 Star Mouse Spirit Beast

 

Breed: Field Mouse 

 

Parents: 1 Star Field Mouse Spirit Beast Mother, 1 Star Field Mouse Spirit Beast Father

 

Age: 4 Months

 

Diet since Birth:

• First 3 Months sustained by Mothers Milk
• Upon reaching 3 Months of age was fed with a controlled diet separated from other Spirit Beasts
  • Non-Spiritual Standard Pellets

 

Suspected Energy Level: 35/50 pts (Pts based on amount of energy actively absorbed in 1 day)

 

Suspected Energy Sources:

• Passive Absorption of Spirit Qi (5)
  • 1 pt present since birth (1)
  • 1 pt passively absorbed over the time period of 1 per week, Time period for this starts when no longer breastfeeding (4)
• Active Absorption of Spirit Qi (30)
  • 1 pt absorbed per day if Spirit Beast encounters no interruptions of consciousness

Start of Experiment: 

At the start of the experiment the diet of the mouse had a single 1 Star Spirit Plant with no medical properties. According to past data this is believed to give the Spirit Beast 15 pts of Energy. Upon finishing the Spirit Plant the subject fell into a sleep, this state is suspected to be involuntary as a normal state subject has never resisted this state, only contradicting data to this is when the subject is being subjected to immediate danger. Upon falling unconscious all of the subject's senses shut down and are in a state of complete vulnerability. Heart rate is confirmed to greatly slow similar to a hibernating state. After a time period of exactly 7 days, the subject has been confirmed to wake up as has been observed in all experiments. After state of hibernation the subject’s body goes through a sudden series of mutations with no known pattern currently, the state observed after mutations is considered a 2 Star Spirit Beast. During the following 3 days a series of data was collected from the new 2 Star Mouse Spirit Beast, before it was promptly killed due to facilitity’s lack of methods to safely contain a 2 Star Spirit Beast.

 

Data Collected during 3 days of Observation:

 

Level: 2 Star Mouse Spirit Beast

 

Breed: Mutated Field Mouse

 

Observed Mutations:

• Front Claws length increased by 3 cm
• Front Claws hardness equal to solid steel
• Front Claws sharpness increased to be able to cut 2 cm into a rock with a single swipe

 

Age: 4 Months and 10 days

 

Suspected Energy Level: ?/? Energy levels for 2 Star Spirit Beasts still unknown

 

Battle Strength: Only tested once when being killed

• Was faced against 3, 2 Star Cultivators
• End result of battle was 2, 2 Star Cultivators with Minor wounds to flesh on their arms

 

Observations During Battle:

• Ability to sense danger increased to a unnatural level
• Speed has increased
• Reaction to danger changed to Fight instead of Flight

After recording more of the specifics of the data into the paper, Chen Ming was exhausted for real now. Chen Xiuying had already left after finishing the report leaving Ming to fend for himself in writing his report.

 

“Haaaahhh, Despite it already being 20 years since the appearance of Spirit Qi we have only continued to fall behind the beasts. It has already been observed that 3 Star Spirit Beasts exist. We cannot even venture into the forests anymore so I doubt that is the strongest currently.”

 

Despite the lack of people in the room Ming was muttering to himself thinking of how the world has changed since Spirit Qi came to exist. When it all first started 1 Star Spirit Beasts were rather rare, but this only lasted till about 1 month into the change. Suddenly Spirit Beasts started becoming common.

 

As Spirit Beasts became more common people became alarmed, but settled soon after as people noticed these new beasts had no interest in humans or what they grew. Nevertheless, humans being the curious creatures they are, decided to find a way to harvest the new found power of Spirit Qi.

 

After more than 5 years the first Cultivation technique was made, people started to Cultivate and take on the title Cultivator. Becoming a Cultivator gave the ability to wield Spirit Qi in many ways which was alluring for many for the pure potential and wishes for magic.

 

After a month of this explosion in the number of Cultivators, the first massacre happened. It was only a single 1 Star Spirit Beast Deer, yet an entire town of Cultivators were killed. This seemed to be the start of the battle.

 

We started to hone our strength as Cultivators and prepare for more attacks from Spirit Beasts. This worked for a long time, till, ironically, the same Deer that massacred the village came back, but this time as a 2 Star Spirit Beast.

 

Another massacre later the Deer disappeared again. Over the next few years it was found that the higher the number of Cultivators in one spot the more likely they are to be attacked. The conundrum that was faced from this realisation was that if they spread out they would be less likely to be attacked, but they would also be less likely to live through the attack without others.

 

The balancing act continued for another few years, then the 2 Star Cultivation technique came out. The main benefit from becoming 2 Star is the increase of lifespan. Chen Ming himself was one of the first to become a 2 Star Cultivator which has allowed for him to reach the ripe old age of 105. 

 

It has already been 12 years since that was done and now we have situations like the research facility. The facility only has 3, 2 Star Cultivators and 5, 1 Star Cultivators. The facility has to hold off attacks from 1 Star beasts rather rare as they don’t approach what they can’t face. The problem is the 2 Star beasts that come on average of 1/per week. 

 

In the end they are living well enough and this strength is needed to do their experiments so they can’t complain.

 

After internally recounting the past a little, Ming got up from his chair and headed to his room, turning off the lights as he left.

---

Author Note: well that might be more dry then even I thought it would be, I'll ask in a poll about your thoughts. Coming back to the story a little I wanted to mention that the current state of technology is in-between a medieval china and a more modern era. With the addition of Spirit Qi they have already invented electricity from Spirit Qi but other than lights its not very far along, they put the most focus on Spirit Beast research since the attacks. Anyway I hope you at least had some things cleared for how the Spirit Beasts are or Cultivate. If you find something that you think should be more clear or that you just want me to clear up leave a comment and I'll try to give a response.