In a forest far from any signs of civilization sits a solitary building. The building was rather large when taking a look from the outside, little to no entrances from the outside except one set of large doors. The doors were obviously made of a rare wood as the grain seemed to show patterns of flowers naturally. The two doors took up a large portion of the front of the building giving off a sense of dignity and elegance that would cause many who see it to feel inherent respect for the owners of such doors.
Unfortunately the walls were made of a rather crude cut stone, lacking any kind of elegance or even dignity that the doors seemed to suggest belonged to the building’s owner. Interestingly enough the stone that made up the walls of the building did have some abnormal features similar to the door. The stone seemed to be in a constant state of fluctuation, changing from a solid impenetrable wall to a wall of soft grey cotton.
The building’s materials, while the construction might be crude in some portions, showed that the building was anything but ordinary, if it’s location didn’t already give it away. The forest that it was silently standing in showed obvious signs of Spirit Beast activity. In any given moment it would bring little surprise to find 1 or more Spirit Beasts in the immediate vicinity.
Inside of this building sat a simple yet advanced laboratory. From the inside of the building the first thing noticed was the large and small cages lining the entry path. The cages seemed mostly empty, but that seemed to only be temporary as there are many signs of the cages previous occupants. The pathway that contained the cages was simple and crude just like the building exterior, the ground was just hardened dirt, any signs of grass had long withered away due to excessive trampling.
The hallway was constantly filled with a warm light from a single light orb that hung above taking the place of a sun in a rather natural manner leaving one to feel like they were looking at the morning sky.
During this time there was a commotion occurring in this entryway. The front doors were opening slowly yet purposefully revealing a group of people who had a rather large cart behind them. The cart was pulled by what seemed like a normal horse except its rather alarming set of front teeth reminiscent of a saber tooth tiger and their naturally bulky physiques.
After the doors had finished opening the group of people walked in naturally with the cart following behind only to come to a quick stop in front of the cages. One odd thing that was observed with this whole process was the attire of the people. The group of people showed obvious signs of wear and tear from battling and a long time spent outside, yet they were all in a set of lab coats adorned with differing symbols indicating their occupation.
As the two doors closed behind them the group came to a sudden noticeable release of tension. They finally felt like their lives were no longer in constant danger, they finally can relax. Even as they relaxed themselves they didn’t completely relax yet. Half of the group moved to the back of the cart and started to open the cages that contained their haul. Slowly various species of Spirit Beasts were brought out of the cart and placed into the cages on the sides of the pathway. The Beasts were often knocked out from some unknown method, but a few of the more docile ones allowed themselves to be led to the cages while in some restraints.
“I see that you managed to bring a good haul of beasts this time, what’s the total tally?”
During this process the door at the end of the hall opened and an elegant woman wearing the signature lab coat of the group came out with a clipboard ready to start recording their haul. A man stepped out from among the group to respond to the lady.
“Greeting Miss, this month we did manage to get a good number of beasts. A total of 12 - 1 Star Beasts and 3 - 2 Star Beasts. The primary species acquired this trip was the usual non aggressive herbivores, we did manage to acquire a single 1 Star Wolf though.”
As the man spoke he showed obvious signs of reverence and respect towards the woman and made sure to give a brief but effective report.
“Oh? You actually managed to get an aggressive Spirit Beast? I must say that is rather impressive, take the wolf and put it in the high security cage. We can’t have the beast wrecking havoc around here.”
“Yes, I will get right on that.”
After responding the man gave a slight bow and went to the cart and started the process of carefully transporting the aggressive wolf to the high security cages. After every one of the beasts were unloaded, the woman took her time to record each of the new beasts in the cages, making sure to measure their strength and specific species. It seemed that as usual the most common beast among the group was a 1 Star Field Mouse that can be found in excess in this forest.Not that she is complaining. The Field Mouse are actually the primary subject of many of their tests currently as they are the easiest to handle.
After an hour the lady finished recording all of the beasts in detail. Having completed her task she headed back through the door back into the main lab area. In the main laboratory the aesthetics were similar to a modern lab with white being the primary color allowing for contaminants to be easily spotted.
As the woman walked through the halls to her office the people who she passed in the hallways always gave a respectful slight bow to show their acknowledgment of her current position. Reaching her office after a brief walk she calmly opened the door before entering and closing the door behind her with the same calm.
The moment the door shut though, she immediately relaxed her straight back and gave an exhausted sigh full of annoyance.
‘I hate this position, I always have to show an orderly front so as to keep up the respect for the position of head researcher.’
After relaxing her mentally sore shoulders she stretched her hands up and walked to her desk and essentially fell into her seat. Giving another 30 mental and physical sighs she finally got over her annoyance. Taking a second to recollect herself she sat up in her chair and picked up the file she had left on her desk prior to her earlier task.
Current Date: 7/07/263 ASQ
Experiment Topic: Symbiotic Beasts
Log Entry Number: 2194
Head Researcher: Chen Xiuying (4th Stage)
Head Assistant Researcher: Jiang Xinyue (3rd Stage)
Assistant Researcher: Cai Chen (2nd Stage)
Assistant Researcher: Lai Hong (2nd Stage)
Experiment History:
This experiment is focused on the concept of Symbiotic Beasts. The First Symbiotic Beast was observed in 139 ASQ with the two involved beasts being a 3 Star Frog species and a 3 Star Water Lily species. Not much was known about this original sighting as we only had a few eyewitnesses from non cultivators that listened to the conversations of the cultivators. The event had led to the massacre of every cultivator in Unity City leaving only these citizens as witnesses. This is still currently one of the largest recorded cultivator massacres recorded with a death toll of over 500. Original hypotheses believed this was caused by the mutually beneficial relationship of the two beasts allowing for them to not only kill but also catch every one of the cultivators. The Spirit Beast’s lack of interest towards non cultivators still held true even with this new beastial relationship, once again affirming many to never cultivate.
Main Confirmation Topics: Cause of Symbiotic relationship, Effect from the Symbiotic relationship, and Requirements of Symbiotic relationships
Hypothesis: Symbiotic Beasts are formed from a conflict between the two beasts that were previously on good terms.
Constant Beast Subject Data:
Level: 1 Star Mouse Spirit Beast
Breed: Field Mouse
Parents: Determined irrelevant
Age: Just before or as reaches adulthood and starts absorbing Qi
Energy Level: Early 1 Star
Constant Plant Subject Data:
Level: 1 Star Daisy Spirit Plant
Intelligence: Minor Limited Intelligence
Energy Level: Early 1 Star
Start of Experiment:
Both plant and beast must cultivate together in proximity since the beast’s start of cultivation. Has been noted to slightly increase the cultivation speed of both involved. Additional speed occurs when the beast eats near the plant allowing the plant to take in additional energy from the leftovers that the beast couldn’t digest. The beast eating near the plant is not a requirement observed for success but does increase the chances of success. During the development of the two beasts towards the limit of 1 Star beast must be harmed to a near death state. After the beast is near death plant with Minor Limited Intelligence must decide to save the beast. Daisies have been determined to be the most likely spirit plant to perform this step. This step was also the largest limiting factor for the experiment. Upon the plant successfully saving the beast the two must approach the limit of 1 star at approximately the same time, but with the plant being the one to reach the limit of 1 star first. Before the limit is reached the supply of Evolution inducing feed (corpses of other beasts or plants) previously used to speed up cultivation needs to be cut off. Upon reaching the bottleneck of 1 Star the plant is left with no components to induce evolution and must feel pressured to advance. This can vary between plants some are naturally aggressive towards the bottlenecks but some, like the daisies, require external pressures. Upon being pressured the plant would look towards their only possible source of advancement, the beast. Considering the use of Daisies and the often good relationship between the two this portion was the second largest limiter. When the plant does decide to devour the beast to advance itself the process of symbiotic evolution is started.
Symbiotic Evolution:
Upon the plant starting its process to devour the beast Symbiotic Evolution can be invoked. The found requirements for Symbiotic Evolution to be evoked are as follows:
- Beast’s Qi must contain traces of plant’s Qi since the beginning of cultivation
- Beast’s body must contain Plant Qi from the plant (caused by healing process)
- Both must be at or near the limit of 1 Star (or other stars, currently unconfirmed)
With the plant’s assault of the beast in question, the plant would find its roots embedding themselves into the beast as a natural part of the process to devour the beast. With the roots embedded in the beast, the Plant Qi within the beast and its Beast Qi tainted with the Plant Qi, would react to the roots. With the Plant Qi coming from the same source originally it attempts to recombine. The initial process of recombination is successful but the state of the Qi soon becomes unstable. The cause is the fundamental differences between Beast Qi and Plant Qi which had managed to mix. Upon the instability occurring the Qi that has combined starts to rip itself apart. A few things about the unstable Qi have been noted:
- The unstable Qi infects the rest of the Qi in both beast and plant’s body, causing the body to be rapidly filled with the unstable Qi
- Should the Qi occupy the full body of one of the subjects the body of the subject starts a process of deconstruction. Brain or plant soul is destroyed immediately upon the start of this ending the life of the subject. Process of deconstruction involves body melting until it becomes liquid tainted Qi, the uses for tainted Qi is still unknown.
- Should the body of the subjects be separated both will fill with unstable Qi immediately and both shall die at that moment.
- Infected regions being cut off in order to separate the subjects will still cause both to die, for reasons currently unknown.
In response to the generation of unstable Qi the plant’s body would undergo an involuntary and instinctual action, sending its roots towards the heart of the beast. When the plant’s roots invade the heart of the beast both subjects start the evolution process and their unstable Qi stabilizes. Failure to reach the heart before the body is filled with unstable Qi ends in death of both subjects.
The Evolution:
Symbiotic Evolution finds itself being very different from normal evolution:
- The plant invades the entire body of the beast creating a second circulatory system.
- Traits between the two species greatly mix
- Plant receives a mutation highly related to the beast’s mutations or species ability
- Beast receives a mutation highly related to the plant’s mutations or species ability
- Mutation received is not a constant and can range from far weaker than the original trait or far stronger than the original trait
- Both keep past traits
- The minds of both plant and animal are suspected to be connected due to observed interactions between both subjects after evolution
Example Data after Symbiotic Evolution:
Level: 2 Star Mouse Spirit Beast
Breed: Daisy Mouse
Observed Mutations:
- Front Claws length increased by 3 cm (Normal Mutation)
- Fur takes on color of the Daisy
- Passive absorption of Qi increased and can do photosynthesis Qi gathering
Battle Strength:
- This Symbiotic Evolution was found to make the beast’s cultivation faster but combat ability decreased for the beast compared to normal evolution
Level: 2 Star Daisy Spirit Plant
Breed: Field Daisy
Observed Mutations:
- Roots possess brown fur
- Claws grow at the end of 5 roots (roots lay retracted all except the claw portion when not battling)
Battle Strength:
- This Symbiotic Evolution was found to make the plant’s cultivation slower but combat ability greatly increases for the plant compared to normal evolution
Having looked at the condensed data left on the front pages Xiuying couldn’t help but feel a little happy. This was a project that had been going on for over 100 years and now they have a mostly complete understanding of this particular evolution. While it might seem pointless to many to research such a rare phenomenon she thought otherwise. If they looked into the evolution processes of the beasts and their possible strange evolutions like this case, they could make better Cultivation Manuals.
In fact she had already created a Cultivation Manual based on this research. The manual can be considered one of the riskier cultivation methods and she herself doesn’t plan to attempt to change to the new cultivation method as it conflicts with her current Lightning Wolf Manual that allowed her to reach the 4th stage.
The new Cultivation Manual is based on the process of taming a low intelligence plant and implanting it into the cultivator’s body. This can be considered risky as the method to control the plants isn’t very advanced, but she believes that will be solved by the future generations allowing this manual to show its true strength.
On the thought process of the Cultivation Manual advancements, she still needs to make the 5th level of the Lightning Wolf Manual. She is currently one of the strongest Cultivators in the empire, but she still needs to progress and to progress she needs more steps to her manual.
Lucky for her though they did just catch a 1 Star Wolf, she should induce a Lightning Evolution in the Wolf and slowly work on observing the evolutions. While making it evolve to 5 star would make manual deduction easy, but it would also make the destruction of the whole facility even easier. Raising Spirit Beasts for inspiration is like walking a tightrope, one small mistake can lead to everything falling apart.
Even inducing the 4 Star evolution is a high risk move as she would be the only one capable to fight the beast at that point, and she would be at a disadvantage with the similar element situation. Nevertheless this won’t stop her, she isn’t doing this only for herself but also to help humanity. They need more advanced and complete methods to progress; they can’t just stay weak and follow the whims of whatever Spirit Beast walks by.
Having reaffirmed her conviction, she stood up and made her way to the door. Putting on her confident appearance, that contained true confidence now, she left the room to start her work on the new 1 Star Wolf. Time is precious.
Sorry to say but the current outlook of my semester in terms of work is looking a bit grim. As far as I can tell free time is but a dream for me at this point. But when I do get some time and motivation to do something other than lay in bed relaxing I'll make a chapter, so I'm just saying now there will be no set release times and that chapters will com sporadically. Sorry about that, but this semester is just hitting hard and its only the second week.