The Beast Core Possibility - 438
Zhu Yi stopped playing around in the city and found an information broker.
He cheaply bought information on nearby sects. Besides the heart scalp sect, the only other two sects that could be considered nearby were the Water Lotus sect and the Great Fire sect.
Zhu Yi remembered Zhou Fan's words about his affinity. "Master. Do I only have a fire affinity?" He asked.
"Yes. That is your only affinity." Zhou Fan responded.
Zhu Yi nodded. The choice was not a difficult one, he chose the Great Fire sect without too much thought.
The only real issue left was whether or not he could actually join the sect.
After buying some basic information on the sect, Zhu Yi spoke to Zhou Fan. "Master. This Great Fire sect is a level higher than the Heart Scalp sect. It is said that there is a nascent soul realm cultivator within it. What if I can't join?"
"It doesn't matter. We'll find a way." Zhou Fan said.
Zhu Yi nodded before falling into deep thought.
After a moment, he spoke. "Master, what if I postponed trying to join the Great Fire sect until I am stronger?"
Zhou Fan didn't speak for a moment after hearing Zhu Yi's question.
"What about, instead of waiting until you are stronger, we wait until you are more talented?" Zhou Fan asked.
"What do you mean master?" Zhu Yi asked.
"I can increase your talent if I recover more or have access to a large amount of untainted Qi." Zhou Fan said.
Zhu Yi was confused, but he was far too weak to understand what raising talent truly meant.
"It sounds like you were really strong before being injured, Master. In that case, I suppose that we can indeed wait." Zhu Yi said.
The surrounding 3 sects were the only ones that Zhu Yi could reasonably travel to. Out of the three, the Heart Scalp sect was a no-go zone, the Water Lotus sect was unsuitable for him, and the Great Fire sect was too high level.
Zhu Yi's talent was not enough to join. Without Zhou Fan, he would have likely never reached the Foundation Establishment realm, especially without the true cultivation manual. If he had practiced with one of the other cultivation manuals going around, then his future would have been even more limited.
In combination with the low density of Qi, Zhu Yi had been destined to fail to reach the foundation establishment realm. Luckily for him, that had all changed due to Zhou Fan.
The only issue was finding spirit stones.
"Actually, there may be a way to get untainted Qi without needing spirit stones." Zhou Fan said.
He had been thinking about the possibility, and although he had never tried it, it seemed as if it would work.
"What would that be?" Zhu Yi asked.
"Beast cores. After dying, the beast core of beasts still contains Qi. It is used for many purposes, but unfortunately, it is tainted since it came from the beast." Zhou Fan explained.
All Qi that had been inside a cultivator's body had been tainted, but if a cultivator died and left behind a coagulation of Qi, or in this case a beast core, then it may be possible to untaint it.
"With my power, I may be able to untaint Qi from a dead beast's beast core." Zhou Fan said.
The Qi of a person contained a trace of their will, even when they died. It was what made it their Qi, but in the case that the owner of the Qi was dead, then the will could theoretically be removed. Although it sounded simple in theory, only Zhou Fan, who had the river of cultivation, would be able to do it.
"In that case, I just need to find Beast cores, right?" Zhu Yi said.
"Not really find. You'd likely need to kill the beast. After the death of a beast, the vast majority of the Qi quickly dissipates. What remains afterwards is at best 1% of the original amount. In order to have any substantial effect, the beast needs to have been dead for no more than 30 seconds." Zhou Fan explained.
In other words, Zhu Yi could not simply go and buy beast cores from the market to help Zhou Fan recover.
With everything understood, Zhu Yi headed to the place that all low-level, sectless cultivators gathered to survive and continue cultivating. The rogue cultivator guild.
This was a place that accepted all, though much different from a sect. First, there was not simply a single place that it existed. The rogue cultivator guild had many branches everywhere throughout the entire world.
Also unlike a sect, the rogue cultivator guild would not protect you or help you freely. You would also not have to fight for the rogue cultivator guild.
The rogue cultivator guild simply acted as a place of transactions between sectless cultivators, whether it be monetary or service.
Zhu Yi walked into the branch that existed within the city. Inside, there was no lack of cultivators, each of them sectless.
In a city like this, where around 50% of the people were low-level cultivators, the rogue guild experienced its highest traffic.
In addition, although a foundation establishment realm cultivator could join almost any sect they wanted, whether it be as a disciple or a guest disciple, there were no lack of them in the rogue cultivator guild and white palace city.
Some had offended powerful people, some had stolen items, some had killed and run, and the white palace city was the sanctuary for all such people, especially if they were at the peak of the foundation establishment realm and fairly strong.
As Zhu Yi walked up to a front desk, he looked around. The entire place seemed to be made out of wood, and there were posters everywhere, as well as a technological innovation of cultivators known as the crystal pad, the recent successor to the crystal ball.
There were a few crystal pads in the rogue cultivator guild with lines of cultivators in front of them. The crystal pads, as well as the outdated crystal balls, were connected to a network that held a large amount of information.