Chapter 2

[ Noir Forest, Night Void Altar clearing ]

As Cang Rou slowly rose, an illusory aura emanated from her being, trapping the onlookers in a daze. There were no exceptions, for even the powerful Village Head was dazed for a millisecond.

Slowly, the youths each snapped out of it and looked at Cang Rou with hints of caution hidden behind their admiring expressions.

Basking in the limelight, Cang Rou's beautiful face, adorned with an uncontrollable grin, began to relax. She now sported an indifferent expression on her pretty little face, however, her nose that looked like it was about to pierce the heavens betrayed her true attitude. It made her look like an arrogant peacock pretending to be an unfettered expert.

Snapping her eyes across the clearing Cang Rou's sharp phoenix eyes locked onto She Li. Jumping off the Altar, Cang Rou landed infont of the devilishly handsome youth. Focusing her aura into her eyes, Cang Rou stared directly at him for a breath of time. No reaction was incited, the other party's serpentine eyes seem to swallow whatever force she was projecting onto them. This lack of reaction caused Cang Rou to snort in dissatisfaction, feeling he was acting bit different she gave up. Stepping past him she rammed her shoulder into his, not caring about his reactions anymore Cang Rou found a tree stump and rested on it with her eyes closed.

Facing forward She Li's back and palms were coated in a thin layer of sweat, his lips pressed together tightly, annoyance made his lips twich. Heat was quickly being generated from his body as rage filled his mind. Taking a deep breath he tried to minimize his rage and calm his boiling blood. Silently swallowing, She Li's eyes narrowed as he recalled how he was treated by the villagers. How he was neglected as an orphaned newborn by the caretaker appointed to him by the Village Head.

She was young and pretty so whenever a man came over to accompany her to her room she would dump him in a pig pen to feed from the milk of the pregnant demonic beast pigs.

As a mix-blood with the bloodline of a spirit beast She Li's body matured faster than his peers. By the time he was five his was as tall as a regular eleven year old. This made him a target for the more vicious older kids who brutally beat him in comparison to his peers who just ignored his existence.

At seven he was expelled from the Village for fighting. He was chased into the Noir Forest where he lived in a small hut the Village Head built for him. She Li's life was packed with deadly fights and sleepless nights, for 8 years he depended on himself for food water and body refining resources. He only saw other humans thrice a year when Elder Fan gave lectures on the dao from his cave dwelling in the Starry Mountain Range behind the Village. Elder Fan was a mysterious cultivator who settled in mountains 100 years ago and he would teach kids under the age of fifteen, that was his way of 'accumulate karma' according to him.

Staying alive was She Li's utmost priority and as he followed Elder Fan's advice on body refining he had realized that his body did not grow bulky and strong like the other youths. His body grew thinner and his build became slender. His muscles and bones became flexible to the extreme, he was even able to wrap his hand around trees like a rope if he exerted himself!

His constitution caused him to adapt a cunning and sinister way of hunting, fighting his prey with quick and unpredictable movements and ending them with poisonous traps or paralyzing them with thorns that always kept under is long nails and in his sleeve.

She Li's life in the forest tempered his mentality and perception and give him a quick witted personality with a great eye for both danger and fortune.

It was only with such abilities could he snatch resources from the cunning spirit beasts and avoid being ripped to shreds by their army of retarded demon beasts.

A few days ago when he was escaping from a giant Raged Demon Bull, he had accidentally climbed into a mysterious cave in an attempt to keep his poor little life. Marked from top to bottom in runic characters, the weird cave was definitely a place of fortune in the mind of She Li. Venturing deeper into the cave, She Li happened upon a large ancient formation. The triangular formation was riddled with inscriptions that weaved together to display images of snakes, lizards, dragons and hundreds of other reptilian creatures.

At each tip of the formation was a bowl of solidified blood, looking closely one bowl at the base of the formation was with less volume than the others.

Not thinking too much about the inconsistencies of the bowl, She Li looked to the center of the formation.

There he saw a character that seemed to been drawn with rough beastly claws, however, as he stared at the character he could feel a reaction from his blood. Knowing this was a fortunate encounter, She Li focused his attention on the character. Feeling no progress after hours, he sighed. Placing two Fasting Weeds in his mouth She Li chewed and swallowed the bitter herb.

Stretching his muscles he brought his body to peak condition.

Sitting cross-legged, She Li quietly cleared his mind, he then focused on the rough character. Slowly, he lost himself to the unique charm of the character. Wilst in a daze, She Li's body began to emit steamy particles from his every pore, it completely shrouded him. Not fazed by the mist around him, She Li's eyes seemed to be able to pierce through the steam and was still locked onto the rough character.

Three days passed, finally She Li broke out of the mysterious state. Ruminating on his gains, She Li broke out into smiles. During his time comprehending the <Immemorial Draconic Character: Evolution> the special energy from the character purified, transformed and merged both his human and snake bloodline into one completely new bloodline unique to himself. From the initial purification of his old snake bloodline he came to know that his father was most probably a Calamity Viper spirit beast, this and information on the hierarchy of spirit beasts, bloodline techniques, fighting styles and a cultivation path using the essence of dying stars specifc to Calamity Vipers were all obtained from the bloodline inheritance of the Calamity Viper blood.

The cultivation path was not complex as it simply showed him a few acupoints to circulate the blood energy in his bloodline through and he will be able to sense and absorb energies from dying and deceased stars called <Calamity Essence> . There was no information on how to store this type of energy however, so She Li put it to the back of his mind and focused attention on the Triangular formation.

She Li had already deciphered the usage and means of activation for the ancient formation during the three days with the help of the Draconic character. Taking a deep breath She Li took out a bone knife and made his way toward the blood bowl with the lesser amount of blood. Slitting his wrist She Li poured his blood into the bowl. Looking at his blood, it seemed a bit lighter in color and thicker than average human blood. Intrigued, She Li ignored his paling complexion and weakening energy and continued to study his blood, but there seem to nothing any more special about it.

Finishing that thought, he noticed that that the bowl was now full. Circulating his blood energy Shi Li saw the cut on his wrist heal with incredible speed. Raising his hand to inspect the wound that has now become a white scar on his skin and even that was slowly vanishing. Marveled by his awesome new bloodlines capabilities, She Li couldn't help thanking both The God of Luck and the Raged Demon Bull for their magnanimity. Allow him to gain access this cave was a great blessing.

Laughing, he went to the center of the formation, sat cross-legged and focused his mind, blood, and bodily energies to blend into the power fluctuations of the Draconic character inorder to control the construct in accordance to his deductions.

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM* *CRASH*

Suddenly a powerful aura enveloped the cave causing the cave's foundation to shift, the ceiling began to fissure spraying small stones everywhere. She Li strained his entire being to keep the formation running, the now glowing runes and inscription patterns contracted together and were slowly absorbed into the ancient Draconic character.

*Crack*

The bowls of blood exploded and three ribbons of blood dove into the Draconic character.

*Weng*

Only the ancient character was left now. Suddenly a blanket of red covered the entire cave, originating from the Draconic character. She Li allowed himself to be drowned in the light, feeling his body undergoing a baptism.

One day before the Awakening Trails for the village, She Li awoke, naked, feeling like a new person. His body rippled with power as he sprung up from the ground. Examining himself his body seemed to be the same but the scales on his forearm and back were now gone, his fangs retracted and he now stood six feet tall.

Every cell and organ in his body shined golden indicating he had reached the peak of mortal body refining, he could even vaguely see the heavenly chains that held him down, keeping him a mortal, nine in total. She Li could fight and defeat a 6th rung spirit path Master with his current strength and if he breaks all nine of these chains he would be able to transcend and attain a Minor Spirit body, enabling him to battle top experts like the Village Head at the peak of the Spirit Path, the 9th rung. This was no light feat, if he was to cultivate his body normally and even with the help a few high rank herbs, this would probably be achievable with two decades of training.

She Li smiled as knew what he experienced and gained these past few days were among the peak when it comes to all the fortunate encounters he has ever heard about.

The < Immemorial Draconic Character: Evolution> was an ancient character from the very first era of universe, the Immemorial Era! It was created by a powerful Dragon Immortal who spent billions of years studying the various complexities of the Heavens and Earth. Achieving his Dao, he gained Divinity and using treads of divinity he created five <Immemorial Draconic characters > to ease the path of cultivation for the juniors of The Beast Clan. The only one She Li knew about was the character of <Evolution> and that was the only one he cared about, as he knew his limits.

The character of <Evolution> allows its user to be the progenitor of their own bloodline by improving their bloodlines to the peak and merging them into one unique one. She Li already experienced that function of the character, but it also helps the user in comprehending the dao by giving them access to the thousands of different laws and daos the Dragon Immortal comprehended. Though the higher ones cultivation the better you will be able to comprehend. There is also an infinite space in the character used to store items, herbs, living beings, She Li can even create or store a world in the space if he has enough power.

There were other abilities but She Li's power was too weak, rendering him unable to access them. Rubbing a dull bronze scale in the middle of his palm She Li sighed and transformed into his previous appearance. His handsome face now adorned two protruding fangs, his eyes were always the same throughout his previous transformations, black oblong pupils with peaks at the end, like slits in the middle of the eyes, they shined with a poisonous spark every once in a while. His height remained at 6 feet and the scales on his forearm and back reappeared.

Completing the transformation, She Li dashed out of the cave in his birthday suit and made his way back to his abode. The Noir Forest was literally She Li's backyard so he quickly found his way to his little hut. There he quickly threw on some clothes and made his way to the Awakening Trails ground.