An ideal spirit master possessed a comprehensive skill set. They would have a method to attack, a method to defend, attack, move and a method to heal.
There are many skills beside this, but ideally these are what every spirit master should have.
In reality, perhaps only two out of ten spirit masters could satisfy all these requirements. Collecting a complete set of spirits that perfectly complemented one another was an incredibly demanding task, not to mention astronomically expensive.
One could choose the method of refining spirits themselves, but that path demanded years of bitter experience or a recipe passed down by an expert with exact, precise methods.
With each subsequent rank, the difficulty of refining multiplied.
A rank one spirit could be refined within a day or two, even less depending on spirit master.
A rank two spirit might take a month or two.
Rank three took a year or two.
Rank four required ten or twenty years, while a rank five spirit could take a staggering ten to twenty years.
These times varied wildly depending on the talent of the person refining, but for a normal spirit master lacking proper recipes, these were the brutal realities of the cultivation world.
Then, soaring above all mortal comprehension, there were Immortal spirits.
These were completely unique. No two Immortal spirits of the same type existed in the entire world.
They were nearly impossible to refine, and when one finally did, the entire mortal realm would feel the effect because their powers were truly heaven shaking.
Right now, Hua Ke was far from an ideal spirit master. He only possessed an attacking spirit, the Boner spirit, which he was forcing to act as a pseudo movement spirit. It was far from a real movement ability, and the strain was showing.
"Die!" Hua Ke roared, swinging his Boner Spirit.
The strike smashed into the pack of five wolves. Two of the beasts died on impact, their skulls shattering with a sickening crunch.
The rest scrambled back up, eyes glowing with feral hunger. As Hua Ke extended his spirit to crush another wolf, a different beast leapt from his blind spot.
Its sharp claws raked viciously across the Boner Spirit, which was using Hua Ke’s real penis.
"Argh!" Hua Ke screamed, dropping to one knee holding Cui Cui. He felt a blinding, tearing pain, exactly as if someone had bitten directly into his penis. Blood began to drip from the damaged spirit, and his face turned entirely pale.
The feeling he got from rubbing his penis against Cui Cui’s buttcheeks quickly faded, as if it had never existed. It was as if his balls had absorbed his ejaculation.
He glanced back. Cui Cui was starting to become a massive liability. He understood he was beginning to lose this battle of attrition.
He looked at Cui Cui still hugging him, locking her legs. Her face was incredibly rosy, and her eyes were watery.
She had finally come back to her senses and realized the horrific situation unfolding around them. She looked utterly embarrassed but simultaneously terrified for her own life and for her young master. This story is hosted at novelping.com.
Hua Ke looked back at the three surviving wolves.
From the shadows of the trees, another five wolves emerged with low growls, bringing the total to eight. He glanced over his shoulder at the terrified Dong villagers who were watching their lone spirit master bleed out.
Gritting his teeth against the agonizing pain, Hua Ke used his Boner Spirit to pole vault backward. He landed heavily next to Fei Fei and shoved Cui Cui into the older man’s arms.
"Take everyone and run," Hua Ke muttered, his breath coming in ragged gasps. "Run and hide in a new cave tonight. By tomorrow morning, if I do not come back, continue your caravan. Walk toward that eastern river where you first found me. Keep following it until you reach the place where you can no longer advance because of the Cang Wu mountain. There, you will find a hidden cave. Because of Cui Cui, you will be able to enter it."
Hua Ke turned his intense gaze to the crying girl. He reached into his soul aperture and materialized two bizarre, glowing items.
"Take these," Hua Ke said, pressing the spirits into her trembling hands.
The first was a Rank 1 Squirt Spirit. It looked like a crystalline clam shell that constantly throbbed, dripping a sweet smelling, softly glowing dew onto the dirt.
The second was a Rank 1 Breast Milk Spirit, taking the form of a floating, plump white gourd with glowing pink tips that radiated a very warm and comforting aura.
From what information Hua Ke gathered, none of these were spirits that Hua Ke could refine. After all, they needed an ample amount of Yin energy, which he didn’t possess, so it felt right that he handed them over to the woman who had been awakened because of him.
"Refine these, Cui Cui," Hua Ke ordered urgently. "You have awakened a soul because of me. Use these and become a spirit master. After reaching that cave I told your father about, you will be the inheritor. Go now. You will understand everything after reaching there."
He then handed over a third item, a Rank 1 Ballsack spirit.
"Also take this," he added. "After refining it, you will be able to see few things inside it which will be useful to you. It is up to you to protect your village now."
Cui Cui could only stare at him, her body shaking.
"I am sorry for deceiving you all," Hua Ke muttered, a sad smile touching his lips. "Cui Cui, my name is not Wang Ke. My real name is Hua Ke, and I am from a completely different mountain range, not Cang Wu Mountain."
Before he could say another word, a bold wolf tried to bypass him and jump straight at the mortal villagers.
"Get back!" Hua Ke shouted. He swung his bleeding Boner Spirit, smashing the beast out of the air and sending it crashing into a nearby boulder.
Hua Ke planted his spirit into the ground again, and pole vaulted directly into the center of the wolf pack to draw their attention. The heavy scent of his blood and his aggressive threat made all eight wolves turn their glowing eyes entirely on him.
"Go, Fei Fei! Go now!" Hua Ke shouted over his shoulder.
Fei Fei, Qing Qing, and the other Dong mortals were completely confused and deeply scared.
Cui Cui on the other hand was a complete mess. She was crying loudly, her snot leaking down her face, love juices leaking from her lingering arousal, her body trembling uncontrollably as her tears fell endlessly onto the dusty floor.
Fei Fei looked at the terrified villagers around him. His eyes hardened. He knew this was not a chance he could waste when a spirit master was willingly laying down his life to tell them to leave.
"Young master! Young master!" Cui Cui screamed, reaching out for him.
Fei Fei quickly grabbed Cui Cui by the waist and hauled her away. "Move! Everyone move the donkeys! We are leaving!"
Hua Ke watched the mortals fleeing into the distance. A bitter laugh escaped his lips.
What am I even doing here, playing the hero?
Why am I doing this for some mortal villagers?
Hua Ke had no answer. In that moment, he was nothing more than a fool led by his heart, rather than the genius who thought with his mind.
He smiled tiredly as all the wolves suddenly rushed him at once.
Further down the trail, Cui Cui was still crying and throwing a massive fit, trying to break free from her father. Qing Qing walked beside them, looking at his father with intense worry.
"Father, what are we supposed to do now?" Qing Qing asked, his voice shaking. "Are we supposed to do exactly what that spirit master told us, or do we just walk toward where the Lin clan is?"
Qing Qing kept thinking about the bleeding, bizarre weapon the spirit master used.
*I knew it,* Qing Qing thought to himself. *That really was a penis. My eyes did not lie to me earlier. What an incredibly weird spirit master. Now I finally understand why he always went deep into the forest alone to deal with beasts. But was it true what he said about Cui Cui? She was awakened as a spirit master just because of him? That is completely unheard of.*
Qing Qing looked at the crying girl, his mind spinning with all the new possibilities.
"I want to go back! Let me go back!" Cui Cui yelled, still throwing a violent fit in Fei Fei’s grip.
Fei Fei stopped and shook her by the shoulders. "Cui Cui, listen to me right now! If we stay there, we will all die! We will only hold back young master!"
Cui Cui sobbed, shaking her head.
"We cannot help him against beasts," Fei Fei said sternly. "If we stay there, the people who are relying on us will die. If what the young master said is true, we still have hope. He gave you some incredible stuff. You should do exactly what he said."
It sat heavily in the back of all their minds that this young master had deceived them about his identity. But as they ran through the dark woods, it did not really matter to them.
It was just a fake name, which made perfect sense when thinking about his vulnerable position while injured. The rest of everything he did, including staying behind to face certain death, was entirely for their sake.
Fei Fei also clearly understood why Hua Ke did not say they should go to the Lin Clan directly.
Ji Ma Ko might be waiting for them on that exact path if he was sending his wolf packs out freely like this to investigate the area, and without a spirit master, even if they didn’t meet Ji Ma Ko, they wouldn’t be able to reach the Lin Clan.
It was stupid of us anyway, Fei Fei thought bitterly. After all, what did we expect? Did we really think we mortals could outrun a Rank 2 spirit master like Ji Ma Ko without getting caught?
He let out a heavy, exhausted sigh and looked at the frightened villagers.
"We will do exactly what the spirit master said," Fei Fei muttered loudly enough for everyone to hear. "We will go to that hidden cave he mentioned. Cui Cui will do the rest."
He looked over at his daughter. Cui Cui, who had been crying wildly just moments earlier, was now just looking down at the glowing spirits in her hands, her face pale and absolutely terrified of the heavy burden now resting on her shoulders.