13 Foundation realm

In a private room on the second floor of the four rivers restaurant...

"Master, my future aspirations aside, who was that youth with the disaster dice? Weren't you going to tell me about him while we were here?"

A drumstick holding youth curiously inquired whilst eating at full speed.

"Yes, I did say that. Have you ever heard of the calamity list?"

"Nope, never heard of it, can you tell me about it whilst I finish my breakfast?"

Cough* cough* cough*

The old man suddenly felt the urge to make some pancakes.

Only, not the food kind but the flattened disciple and panda type. "This discipe of mine cares even more about food than I care about wine...truly a lost cause"

And coincidentally, right at this moment when he was about to continue telling his beloved disciple about the calamity list...

"Master! I broke trough! I reached eighth tier qi refining finally after a whole three months of being at tier seven!"

Looking over at his master's side..."was the old man having a heart attack? His eyes keep twitching and he keeps mumbling things about pancakes under his breath...I guess even cultivators go senile with old age...sigh* he must have been too excited hearing about my advancement"

He thought to himself whilst eating a dish called "golden sands" which apparently consisted of sandworm meat with a broth that made the entire dish appear golden in color.

After the old man calmed himself down with plenty of expensive wine....

"Little fourth, listen closely since this concerns you more than you think. The calamity list consists of the one thousand most destructive abilities known to cultivators, they can be destructive in all sorts of ways. In fact, some of them have the potential to change the entire cultivation world as we know it, hence they are known as the calamities since in the hands of evil cultivators they can be used for very destructive means.

Your star swallowing ability is ranked first on that list, I wasn't lying when I said the eighth rank core spirit is known as the most destructive one in history."

"Then why don't they just kill everyone that has the calamity abilities? And does that mean the disaster dice is also on that list?"

Sigh*

"it's not that simple, calamity list abilities are only considered calamities in the hands of evil cultivators.

The first ever owner of your ability, Heaven Swallowing Fiend destroyed over one hundred out of three thousand lower worlds before he was killed by the powerhouses from the higher realms. It took thousands if not hundreds of thousands of years to rebuild these lost worlds.

But, does that mean you also have to be evil since you are the current owner of the ability? Not at all. If people owning the calamity abilities got killed for it the cultivation world would go into chaos since your awakened ability is not a choice but something decided by the heavens.

As for the disaster dice...it is ranked ninety-second on the calamity list. The reason I know all of this is because the central continent has these lists carved into a huge stele in the..."

"Master! I've broken through again! It took me only three dishes this time! Peak foundation realm meat sure is potent even though I am only eating a small piece of a beast with each dish"...

Pushing down the urge to make "pancakes" by drinking plenty of mouthfuls of wine the old man continued his story

"The reason I didn't want the disaster dice owner as my disciple is because the disaster dice doesn't discriminate between friend or foe...it could even kill me if I am not careful, let alone my disciples. I still have things to do in this lower world so I can't risk taking in such a disciple.

But the disaster dice has a certain control over heaven's will so in order to avoid having to accept him as a disciple I had to make up the rule where every one of my disciples has to be more rare than the previous one. And I cannot change this rule since I have made a heavenly oath on it."

After the old man finished his explanation they both continued eating and drinking whilst Fang Qiu got an introduction on everything he could need from the other buildings around the plaza.

Whilst they were talking Fang Qiu continued increasing in cultivation realms by absorbing the foreign qi inside the meat. And since it was high tier foundation realm beast meat they were eating...

"First tier foundation realm!"

"Second tier foundation realm!"

"Third tier foundation realm!"

By this point Fang Qiu couldn't eat a single bite more no matter how delicious the dishes were.

"Finally giving up? I knew you wouldn't be able to finish these hundreds of dishes, it will take a couple of weeks before you can finish them all and reach the peak of the foundation realm." The old man added happily. after all, this was his money being spent so of course he was happy seeing his disciple overestimating himself.

"Giving up? What's that? Do you want to bet?

"Bet? Did you forget the only reason you are here is because of a bet you are about to lose in a year, yet you want to make another one already? At most you can reach the fifth tier if you faked being full and stay here untill evening, eating more than that today is impossible."

"Allright, if I can reach the sixth tier by nightfall I win! If I can't accomplish this it will count as my loss. What do you want if I lose old man?

"Perfect timing, I want you to make a heavenly oath that you will only address me as master from today on if you lose, no more calling me old man! And if you do manage to reach the sixth tier I will count it as my loss and let you decide what to do about the disaster dice youth! As long as I don't have to take him as a disciple or kill him you have free reign over what I do about him, he sees mee as his master anyways so even if you want him to give all his possessions to you, he will probably do so.

"And what if I manage to reach revolving core realm?"

"That's impossible!"

"Nothing is impossible to me! Are you underestimating me old man?"

"Show me then." The old man crossed his arms and waited to see how Fang Qiu would reach revolving core today.

Fang Qiu wanted to cross his arms too and stare back, but....yeah.

_____

"Old man, are you sure you know everything about my ability?"

"Did you forget you told us on the back of the silver eagle? Your ability allows you to absorb qi from flesh or meat whilst regular cultivators can only absorb it from the surrounding heaven and earth. Meaning that as long as you have enough food and time you can easily reach the peak of your realm.

Yet, you only have a certain capacity for food in your stomach after all. And your ability is called star swallowing so I doubt you can absorb the qi without eating. Is there anything I forgot to add?"

Staring with a smug face at Fang Qiu he was waiting for how the youth would reach the sixth tier of formation realm.

"You didn't forget anything, but there is one aspect of my skill that I didn't mention before. Actually there's two but only one is of importance today. Let me ask you, what has Little black been doing ever since we got here?"

"Of course, he has been eating as always....wait!" Core spirits can only absorb treasures of their respective element, that's why no one bothers feeding their core spirits food since it would even be able to harm people's core spirits. Which means...

"I underestimated you, Little Fourth. It seems your panda can eat too and increase your cultivation directly since the panda is part of your body, am I correct?"

"Very smart of you, old man! Only, you discovered it too late since you were too busy watching me. Also, what you said is correct, but that would only allow me to reach the seventh tier maximum, even with Little Black eating non stop for the entire day, he is only knee high after all. So how would I reach ninth tier or even core formation?"

"You already won the bet so why don't you just tell me instead?" The old man replied in a defeated tone whilst taking out some even stronger wine from his spacial ring.

"Have you never wondered why star swallowing is named star swallowing? How did the Heaven swallowing fiend destroy over one hundred planets?

I know how…In fact, I will show you how!"

He could just give the command in his mind since him and the panda were linked but for dramatical effect in order to stun the old man even more he said it out loud:

"Little Black, do it!"