The Hunt: Conversations and Mountain Climbing

A/N: Hey guys, although the situation over here has not improved much over the last few days, I did manage to get this longer than normal chapter done for ya.

There should be at least another one before the end of the week but beyond that, I can't promise anything. Stay Classy and enjoy.

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When the group had all eaten a hearty meal together, Shane handed out the daily cultivation pellets and placed a wind barrier around Xiao Che and Lingxi's tent.

Then it was time for him to face the music from his wife-to-be.

He spent a long while calming Qingyue's restless heart with lots of hugs and kisses, hair stroking, heavy petting and even some good old dry humping on her part, before managing to reassure her that he was in fact fine.

For the sake of giving credit where credit was due, at no point did Qingyue ask or tell him not to do dangerous things in the future, she only vented out her heart's grievances at his injuries and acted a bit more spoilt than usual.

She was, after all, a girl from a different world, with a different mindset and aware of their constant need to challenge their limits, especially if they were to strive to become peak experts in the future.

She also knew the overall effectiveness of his 'vitality pills' on healing wounds, especially when applicable to himself, however, knowledge of the fact, wouldn't stop her from getting scared or worried when he actually got injured.

Shane understood her concerns of course, if Qingyue were to get injured he would no doubt become frantic, they were each other's world after all. She was his pride, his treasure, and for the time being, his only family while he was her support, her rock.

This time's incident was truly an unexpected accident, however, so it didn't take too long to appease her, and soon, the two of them were cuddling together in their tent.

Shane brushed his fingers through her hair and took in a deep breath of her calming fragrance before he spilt out all his plans and worries for the near future, as well as his view on today's major battle, and they spent a long time talking through everything together.

The blade-like leg piercing his armour and then flesh with minimal effort did indeed catch him off guard, although, it could also be expected from an Earth Profound Beast that specialised as an ambush predator.

The real surprise had come in the form of deadly venom being present in the claws of the Centipede, it was simply a terrifying hunter, shown by its ability to resist Qingyue's pseudo domain, even if only slightly.

Shane suppressed a shudder at the thought of having to fight the thing head-on and Qingyue agreed that the actions they took were the correct ones, as battling the creature together could have had some terrifying consequences.

The creature's evolutionary defensive capabilities seemed to have been completely sacrificed in favour of an overwhelming offence, as shown by the ease with which his weapon cleaved through its exoskeleton.

Although his weapon seemed to have no trouble inflicting damage on the beast even though it was at Earth Profound, in reality, the truth was different and only due to several planned factors coinciding, were they able to dispatch it so easily.

The main reason Shane was able to deal a decisive blow was because of the superior materials used in his weapon's creation, the resultant force behind his swing, the use of different elemental energies in the attack, Qingyue's domain stopping the creature from circulating Profound Energy and finally, its comparatively weak shell...

The usage and manipulation of Elemental Energies were obviously one of the majorly important deciding factors, as both he and Qingyue could manipulate much stronger energy than their realms would suggest.

They then talked about acquiring some Wind-based Profound Arts for Qingyue to learn in tandem with or maybe refined together with the Frozen Cloud Arts. That way, she would have another means for increasing the attacking power of her weapon and fighting above her realm.

No need to talk about whether or not it was even possible for a single person to practice two different Profound Arts, she was the cheat character Qingyue after all.

Shane would be lying if he said that he wasn't surprised when she got all embarrassed, even to the point of blushing bright red when he simultaneously mentioned her doing the impossible while expressing complete confidence in her comprehension ability.

'Heh, so this little seductress can still be embarrassed this way.' He thought with glee.

The next second, Shane was shaking his head and lamenting on the inside. 'Aiya, where did my blushing little snow fairy go away to?' His little wife really had been too hard to tease recently, sometimes, she would even be the one to tease him.

Refining Wind Energy manipulation into her existing cultivation method shouldn't be too hard as he was positive that Ice Energy was already more than just Water Elements.

Whenever he or Qingyue used the Frozen Cloud Arts, Shane could also sense some sort of subtle response from the Wind Elements in the air.

Meaning that the Frozen Cloud Arts, Ice Arts in general or at the very least, The Ice Phoenix God Investiture Canon itself, incorporated some type of Wind Energy manipulation into its processes.

Another thing that came up throughout the evening, was how they had both verified that the growth aspect of their weapons was functioning correctly.

They had also identified the how and that was through the weapons passively siphoning off Profound Energy from both their reserves, every time their cultivation advanced, in order to grow along with them.

Both their weapons had kept up with their own realms so far, with the Warhammer giving off an aura of the peak of the [7th of Spirit Profound] and Qingyue's sword also matching her cultivation of the [6th of Spirit Profound].

Shane explained his hypothesis about how it would no longer be as simple as providing Profound Energy when they wanted to advance their weapons into the next great realm along with themselves.

He had speculated that in order to advance, and that they would each need to 'feed' it the core and/or materials from an Earth Profound Beast.

Those were thoughts for later, however.

The ease with which his armour had been penetrated was Shane's major concern for the day.

Qingyue pointed out that he hadn't used Organic Constructs to absorb anything since the skin from the Spirit Profound Panther and even though it worked together with his greatest defensive strength, his Body Cultivation, he shouldn't have expected it to be able to take more punishment.

That had to change, every single bit of extra protection, no matter how small, would benefit him greatly in the future, but first, he needed to acquire some good materials to improve its defence by a lot...

It was decided then, one of the Earth Profound Beasts residing within these mountains would become nourishment for his red-veined, silvery liquid essence, living armour that was once nothing more than plain old gothic scaled steel.

Shane had found himself genuinely enjoying this brainstorming session with his wife, normally he wouldn't have wanted to say anything as he didn't want to burden her and also his head was usually so full of random shit, it wouldn't do anyone any favours to hear it all.

This time, however, he found that it was nice to have someone to properly confide in and talking about his worries surprisingly made them feel even closer. It definitely helped that Qingyue was incredibly sharp and smart enough to be able to pick up on the things he had missed.

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Shane left the tent feeling as if a weight he didn't know he was carrying had been removed from his chest and a wry smile on his face.

That was probably the longest conversation he and Qingyue had ever shared, outside of the dreamscape where the communication between words and thoughts toed a fine line, of course.

This had never been an issue between them, as they were both quiet people, content to spend hours at a time in each other's company without a word spoken.

They would also mostly communicate with their eyes or Spirit Sound Transmissions when alone and in the dreamscape, a lot of things could be conveyed with a mere thought.

Qingyue herself was quiet by nature and Shane had spent the last few years of his life as a bit of a recluse. When he thought about it, hadn't most of the conversations he had partaken in since arriving here been premeditated and then him either leading or talking at someone?

Shane tended to talk a lot more than necessary in front of others, that wasn't to say that he found it difficult to talk to others or get along with them but it was mostly to allay his own rather awkward nature.

It was more of a case of an overactive mind, where he would have so many things running through his head at once that he would end up saying something that didn't make all that much sense in regards to the conversation at hand and then have to over-explain so that people didn't get the wrong idea.

It just felt a lot easier to Shane if he was the one to lead the conversation forward with his own momentum rather than let it get away from him, the only problem with that was that it tended to put him in a somewhat 'superior' position, which wasn't what he actually wanted.

A warm smile graced his lips. 'There is no way that old fox Xiao Lie didn't realise how awkward I acted at first and instead of calling me out, he must have realised that I wasn't intentionally acting like a douche and just let me be. Still, that's something I can work on from now on.'

Thankfully, the feeling he got from Qingyue was different to everyone else and Shane wasn't sure why but he sure was grateful.

When he was with her, he didn't feel that same awkward need to fill any conversational gap with meaningless words and they could just enjoy silence together in comfort...

Shane walked towards the blocked entrance of the cave and rubbed his hairless chin in thought. The family of three were also quiet people in their own right... no, they certainly talked a lot more together these days.

His eyes widened, perhaps they had all realised early on that he was quite the awkward speaker and let him do his thing...

Shaking his head with a wry smile, Shane pulled out a 'Coral Feather Profound Quill' and began using his Profound Energy to inscribe formation letters in the air.

A larger and more refined version of the 'cultivation realm hiding formation' he had learnt from the pearl took shape and imprinted itself onto the wall of earth before pulsing once as he filled it with enough Profound Energy to last for half a day.

Shane nodded to himself as he scanned the outside with his Spirit Sense. He had used Earth Energy to mask the blocked entrance until it looked the same as the surrounding rocky slopes and with the formation covering their energy signatures, he should be able to cultivate for a few hours with no risks.

Calling Dusty and Coral back into the tattoo, he re-entered the tent and sat down on the bed next to Qingyue, who was already in the lotus position, absorbing the pellet consisting of her strongest prey of the day.

Shane made himself comfortable against the headboard before gently manoeuvring her into his lap and it showed that her trust in him was unfathomably deep as he was able to do this without disturbing her in the slightest.

It had to be known that a cultivator was at the peak of vulnerability and defencelessness while attempting a breakthrough, so their bodies would normally react instinctively to any approaching presence.

His wife's only reaction was a slight curling of the corners of her mouth before she naturally leaned back into his chest as he closed his eyes and began probing the slightly toxic looking purple swirl hovering around in his veins.

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When the morning came, there were many great changes within the group.

Shane's cultivation had soared, reaching halfway through the [9th of Spirit Profound] and also reaching the [8th of Spirit Profound] in Body, he even had a vague feeling that he may have gained a slight poison affinity and resistance.

Coral had reached the peak of Spirit Profound and little Dusty had again jumped ahead of her Master, by finally reaching the Earth Profound Realm and was currently adapting to the changes in her profound energy, within the tattoo.

The Earth Profound Realm is after all the first great change along the road to cultivation. Not only does the Profound Energy within one's veins become extremely vigorous and sturdy, but the life expectancy also increases.

Although Shane himself had absolutely no idea if that applied to Profound Beasts and only knew that Dusty 'felt' different to him today, beyond the usual strength increase, of course, it was as if every aspect of her had been through a qualitative change.

Qingyue, that beautifully monstrous genius, had again broken through to the [7th of Spirit Profound] and was very proud of herself for getting that far by absorbing pellets from beasts that she had personally killed, 'vitality pills' notwithstanding.

Xiao Che and Lingxi had also both reached the peak of the [5th of Nascent Profound]. Lingxi, unfortunately, had only half the amount of opened entrances that Xiao Che did and so Shane was tweaking their given pellets on the sly so that they stayed at the same realm until he could open the same number of entrances for each of them.

The 'vitality pills' he gave out like candies, were possibly even more important than the cultivation pellets themselves, even though they were made from low-level beasts as they basically allowed the three of them to cheat their way through cultivation realms while maintaining a strong foundation and perfect stability.

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The group spent the next three days hiking all across the 'small' treasure trove of a mountain range and in total, they visited over a hundred different densely clustered peaks.

Compared to the forest, there were very few Beasts that made their nests in these mountain peaks and the majority of them were in the late Spirit and early Earth Profound Realms, boasting large areas of territory.

All of the beast's that called this desolate place their home were incredibly tough and ferocious, often attacking anything that entered into their territories without hesitation and madly fighting at full force until their last breaths.

The first time he confronted one of them, it was as if it had been injected with chicken blood, attacking with a much greater speed and strength than its realm would suggest, causing Shane to have a cold sweat. 'It seems I was truly lucky to keep my life when I first travelled through here.'

Due to these high-level beasts having such large territories, a large portion of the flora was ultimately untouched and had in one way or another, evolved into some type of profound plant or flower, the LongsVine even made a reappearance!

For the group, the standard modus operandi was to do airborne reconnaissance runs from the back of Coral while using their Spirit Senses to locate any strong Profound Beasts in the area.

Next, Shane and Qingyue would jump down to deal with them before everyone would traverse and combe the nearby area with their Spirit Senses, collecting every Profound Herb and Spirit Grass they could find.

Shane would stand on his cute Dusty's head and ride her around, covering as much ground as possible while using a combination of his minimap and pulses of Earth Energy to locate every single valuable ore deposit in the area before storing them away in his inventory with the same trick he used on the Crystals.

They would rinse and repeat on different mountain peaks until the day began to grow dark, at which point they would hop onto the back of Coral and fly back to their cave at breakneck speed to spend the night comfortably.

Talking of Coral, she received many praises from Qingyue and Lingxi when transforming into her largest form for the first time. She seemed to be warming up to his wife more recently which was a good thing, perhaps it was their opposing natures that caused the friction at the start.

Still, the not so little birdie looked beautiful and majestic to the extreme, while maintaining the plumage of a peacock with the exception of a sturdier body and her head which, despite still having her cute crest, resembled more of a falcon Esque bird of prey.

Her wingspan was over ten meters and even though she was certainly strong enough to carry them all, in the beginning, her body was barely a meter wide and three long, making for a tight fit.

That problem was nonexistent after the first day, as Shane and Dusty went all out to hunt a sleuth of four Mountain Cinder Bears at the [2nd of Earth Profound].

They were slow, much slower than him at least and only four meters in length, so they couldn't really pose much of a threat but they had incredible strength, tough defence and each of their attacks brought forth extreme waves of heat.

Shane and Dusty had the time of their life fighting those bears, this was made evident by the way his crimson eyes glowed with a deep bloody light and that signature feral grin was plastered all across his face the entire time.

When only the largest of the sleuth remained, he even stopped augmenting himself with the wind to dodge and instead wielded his Warhammer coated in Earth Energy, matching the Alpha blow for blow without being knocked back a single step.

The Alpha's corpse as well as one of the others were later devoured and combined within his veins before he cultivated the resultant energy, not only boosting both of his cultivations to the very peak of Spirit Profound, but also giving him the ability to produce and wield Fire Energy.

Shane was overjoyed at the result, as possessing Fire Energy, was also coincidentally the last step needed for his 'Elemental Forge' to become an actual skill on his status.

He would check that properly when he returned to Floating Cloud, however, as there would be a lot of notifications that needed attention once he reached Earth Profound.

The energy from two Earth Profound beasts caused Dusty to advance into the [2nd of Earth Profound] and Coral to go through another evolution becoming a Royal Blaze Luan when she broke through to the [1st of Earth Profound], her full size also increased again.

Unfortunately, it took Shane and his pets almost the entire night to assimilate the energy from those two Earth Profound bears, so he decided to wait until they were out of the mountains before breaking through to the Earth Profound Realm himself.

That way he wouldn't need to rush his breakthrough or worry about eating into the remaining time left on their trip.