Chapter 16: Wayfarers
When Xue Wei was lying about his condition, he was certain that he did have some sort of special physique. Otherwise, his body would not act the way it was acting, or his dantian have turned into a pearl.
Even with Xue Wei's extensive knowledge about the different physiques that were out there, he had never heard of his physique before, and thus he was slightly frustrated.
Was the pearl the reason for his cultivation to go so fast, or was there some other secret behind it? And why did he need a specific cultivation technique to be able to absorb the Qi?
Xue Wei had many unanswered questions in his mind, and he knew that the only one who could answer them was his uncle. It was clear that his uncle knew more about his physique that he had said.
When he examined Xue Wei's body, he had said that it was not a lack of talent and that he would not forever be unable to cultivate, and just as he had left he had left an amazing cultivation technique behind.
The more Xue Wei thought about it, the more mysterious his uncle seemed, and he was unsure of what exactly he would ask him first when they reunited again.
"Now is not the time to think about this," Xue Wei mumbled to himself and began observing everything that was on the platform. Not only were there the chairs and diviners, but there were also two fierce beasts.
The beasts within the continent of Chang'an were categorized as mortal beasts first. That was the common horse, sheep, pig, cow and so on. Anyone could tame them as they had no ability for cultivation and intellect at the level of an animal.
Then came the Fierce Beasts. Fierce Beasts were the beasts that could cultivate. Some of them had more intellect than others, and some of them were stronger than others. They ranged from the Iron Warboar which was almost as thoughtless as a mortal beast, and all the way up to the more dangerous and highly knowledgeable Cloud Leopards, Wind Wolves and so on.
Above the Fierce Beasts were obviously the Primordial Beasts. The Primordial Beasts were born with a talent and intellect that could rival that of humans. They could take on a human shape, and their ability to fight was many times more frightening than the Fierce Beasts.
The beasts on the podium were both Fierce Beasts. One of them was equivalent to the rank of a ninth layered Earth Warrior, while the other was the same as a first layered Sky Warrior.
Everyone present, Xue Wei included, were looking at these beasts, they could not help but dream about owning the beasts. How magnificent they would be if they came riding into the war on these beasts!
One of the beasts was a Black Horned Mammoth, the ideal mount which could crush similarly and lower ranked Fierce Beasts, and which had an incredibly high defense so that it was near impossible to be taken down by others, and hence, the rider would be able to fight relatively safely.
The other was a more offense-oriented beast; it was a Four-Tailed Scorpion. Although its defense was lacking in comparison to the Black Horned Mammoth, it was much better at killing beasts and could assist its owner in battle.
Between the two of them, everyone clearly had their preferred beast. Some saw the defense of the Black Horned Mammoth as the best defense and therefore also the best way of staying alive and ultimately killing as many beasts as possible, while others felt that raising one's attack was the way to go.
The Black Horned Mammoth was the Fierce Beast with the strength of a first layered Sky Warrior, and because of this, most of the people found him most attractive. Xue Wei, on the other hand, preferred the Four-Tailed Scorpion.
He was painfully aware that he would never get either of the beasts, he was simply too weak to control them right now, but he had a firm belief that in the future he would be able to get his hands on a Fierce Beast companion.
Suddenly Xue Wei's eyes collided with the eyes of the Black Horned Mammoth, and the moment they looked at one another, Xue Wei saw that the mammoth's entire body trembled, yet the second after it was gone and nothing could be seen. Xue Wei looked around, and although everyone was talking about how amazing the mammoth was, no one seemed to have noticed anything.
That was, no one of the commoners noticed anything.
"Child, come up here." The monk who had previously been apathetic suddenly spoke out. His eyes penetrated into Xue Wei's body, and Xue Wei suddenly felt as if everything within him was seen through.
Not knowing what was going on, Xue Wei did not dare hesitate and went straight to the podium.
When he stood in front of the apathetic monk, he clasped his hands together and bowed deeply, but the monk did not seem to care about such gestures and instead placed his hand on the forehead of Xue Wei.
Energy rushed through his body, and as if it was scouring for something, and everywhere it went, Xue Wei felt a pleasant sensation in his body.
The majority of the energy was searching his head as if it expected to find something, but no matter what they were looking for, nothing appeared.
The apathetic monk frowned but after ten minutes did he withdraw his hand. He looked at the other monks and shook his head.
"Child, come with me, I need to speak with you," he said after a bit of consideration and Xue Wei, who had no reason to decline nodded his head. He was quite perplexed as to what was going on, but he had a feeling that he had just escaped calamity.
The two of them moved towards the Auction House of Tiankong City. It turned out that this was where the monks had found residence while they were in Tiankong City. The Diviners were against joining any faction, and although the City Lords of the city was responsible for looking after important guests, the Diviners would stay at the most neutral faction they could find.
Xue Wei was taken to the Auction House's section for very important guests, and into a lounge of a massive suite.
Here the apathetic monk sat down and gestured for Xue Wei to do the same.
"How did you scare that big mammoth?" the monk asked right away but Xue Wei just frowned, had he scared the mammoth? He remembered it shaking, but it was not enough to be considered scared.
Still, Xue Wei could sense that arguing with this Diviner would be pointless, and likely even change his situation to become less favorable, and thus he stood there, looking completely confused.
"I do not know," he said honestly, "I looked the Black Horned Mammoth in the eyes, and it's body trembled. I did not do anything special. Could it have something to do with my special physique? Or could it sense the scent of my uncle on me? My uncle is a great Primordial Beast hunter."
The monk seemed unconvinced. "Tell me about your past," he said in a gruff voice, and Xue Wei nodded his head.
"I do not remember my childhood. My mother died while giving birth to me and my father died in an attack by the Primordial Beasts in the Northern Administrative Region of Heping. In the Northern Taiga."
"My uncle took me in, and has been looking after me ever since; I was around ten years when it happened."
"My body has a special physique so I could not cultivate but my uncle said that I would be able to cultivate later, and as a result, I spent all my time reading in the past."
"Now that I am capable of cultivating I spend all my time on either practicing my martial arts or cultivating my cultivation technique."
Xue Wei weaved in lies with the truths making him capable of hiding a few things about his body and the condition he had experienced before.
He knew that lying straight to the face of the Monk would be noticed, but when he merged it with the truth, or at least what he considered to be the truth, then the monk too believed him.
"I have only seen the fear in the eyes of the Fierce beasts when they encounter Diviners or if they are in front of a Primordial Beast," the monk explained.
"You are clearly not a diviner, but I checked your body, and although your dantian is rather odd, you are not a Primordial Beast either. You do not have a beast core."
"So that leads me to the question, what are you?"
"I do not know," Xue Wei answered, feeling his palms sweaty. So the check had been to see if he was a Primordial Beast. Fortunately, it had proven that he was not. Otherwise, he would have most likely been enslaved by now.
"My uncle checked my body before. He is a Primordial Beast hunter," Xue Wei continued and felt better. It was clear that he was no beast since his uncle was a human and even a beast hunter, but he understood that if this monk had wanted to get rid of him, it would be easy to say just a few words.
"Well, I guess you really don't know," the monk sighed and looked annoyed as if he had wasted a lot of time for no reason.
"Perhaps you are like the Wayfarers," he continued. "The Wayfarers who has activated their bloodline are feared by some Fierce Beasts. Maybe your physique is similar."
The last sentences seemed to be spoken to himself more than to Xue Wei, but Xue Wei heard what the monk said, and he also heard the words Wayfarers. Hearing them, he was rather curious. He had always wanted to meet a real Wayfarer, but they traveled in family groups, and it was very rare for them to come to a kingdom such as Heping.
Wayfarers were nomads like the Diviners, but the Wayfarers traveled in family groups of up to thousand experts together.
All wayfarers were hunters, and some of the most outstanding Primordial Beast hunters came from the Wayfarers.
The reason Wayfarers were looked at with such curiosity was because of their bloodline. They shared an ancient bloodline of the War of God, a human cultivator who had risen against the Primordial Beasts, and by consuming the blood of a Primordial Beast, could the Wayfarers unleash their full potential.
They only needed to consume blood from a primordial beast once to activate the blood within their bodies, but it was rare to find and kill Primordial Beasts, and as a result, they were always on the move to find new danger zones and suitable beasts to slay.
Xue Wei had never compared his situation with them, but maybe there was something about it. Could he also have a special bloodline alongside his special physique?
"Do not think too much about it," the monk sighed as he had lost interest in Xue Wei again, and Xue Wei nodded his head. He had to wait for his uncle to return before he could get any answers and as a result, he cupped his hands again and bowed to the monk before he retreated.
Instead of returning to the marketplace, Xue Wei went to the auction hall where they were going to auction off the two beasts. Although he could not buy them and was incapable of controlling them, he was still curious as to who would end up owning them.
He was incredibly surprised to see that there was already a great line out the door trying to gain access to the auction house, but due to him coming from the VIP chambers, he was led into the auction hall right away.