People often mistake Material Artists with cultivators, which is understandable, few know the difference. Cultivators are vile, detestable people who only know how to plunder. Material Artists, on the other hand, practice Kung Fu and wield the power of chi, a power approved by Heaven and Earth. They walk a different path to immortality, but the end goal remains the same; they want to become one with their Kung Fu, melding with both Heaven and Earth to become something akin to an immortal but not quite. It is more accurate to describe that state as becoming one with all things.
Their way is in the wind and mountains, with a kick, seas boil and dry up, with a shout, the Earth is silenced, and with a thought, natural disasters brew. Zenith Material Artists are mighty foes, even immortals have to tread carefully when approaching one; the chi of the earth and all living things do their bidding, granting them frightening powers immortals can’t hope to ever replicate.
That being said, all have one fatal weakness; because they are so tied to Earth, heaven does not want them. They cannot traverse both Heaven and Earth like an immortal. Because of this, people have developed another name for the: Earthly immortals. They do not like this name, though, as it reminds them of their weakness and inability to touch upon the domain of the sky and the stars and heavenly opportunities therein.
It is a sad fate, but not as sad as the fate of Cultivators, they face a reality worse than even death, even Gods have it better than them.
–Excerpt from ‘The Approved Paths’, by imperial scholar Zu.
Inside the chamber didn’t look like how Harry expected it to look; First off, it had walls and a proper flooring, even though they were made from mud-brick. An expensive-looking fur carpet from some unknown animal stretched from the point where Harry entered to the center of the chamber, where a massive four-cornered bed rested, draped out with animal furs and expensive cloth.
It was so large that it took up 90% of the chamber, torches and what looked to be treasure chests took up the rest.
That wasn’t what shocked Harry the most, though; it was what he saw on the bed. Cuddling together under the fur sheet of the bed were two rats, one slim, slender, and as white as now, the other was slightly more muscular and was blood-red but exuded a soft, feminine aura.
Harry almost couldn’t believe his eyes; he knew that rat, it was Ballusha, the first daughter of Ballcrusher, who also happened to be his wife, one of them at least, the rat had at least 200. The rat had a suspicion of who the other rat was, but he almost didn’t want to believe it.
It had to be Pink Lump, but he looked nothing like how Harry remembered him; he looked like a completely different rat, free of fresh lumps, pain, and old age.
It didn’t make sense, any of it, but Harry’s confusion was quick and vanished within moments. His eyes flashed with murderous light, and the rat’s pupils dilated as he vanished. Pink Lump was the first to react, but it was useless. To Harry, it looked as if he was moving in slow motion, each movement played out before him, frame by frame.
Harry reached the bed in less than a second. The rat had managed to fall off the bed and was scrambling to his feet in that time, which was really impressive. Harry doubted he would’ve been able to beat him without being in a similar state as this; the rat was an old monster with terrifying strength.
Harry curled his paw into a fist and punched out, aiming for the rat’s heart. The fist connected, but Harry felt as if he’d hit metal rather than flesh, but that didn’t deter him. The rat’s fists blurred and kicked up the wind as he rained them down on the same spot, over and over, despite the pain.
He didn’t stop until the Pink Lump’s chest was a mess of blood mixed with its steel-like fur; a huge section of it had caved in, revealing a punctured lung and shards of broken bone scattered about.
Harry knocked the rat off his feet with a smooth sweep of his legs, jumped atop his caved-in chest, and began stomping down furiously. He knew that Pink lump could recover from such a wound; in fact, compared to some of the things he’d lived through, this was nothing.
Harry’s eyes darted to the left as he stomped on Pink Lump, on the crimson timer that ticked away casually.
He had 10 seconds left.
Suddenly, Harry heard something pop, and he looked down at his blood-soaked feet and at Pink Lump. His chest had once again transformed; his lungs had popped, and his heart was no longer beating, but Harry still didn’t feel like he’d died.
To be certain, he crushed that with his feet, too. Then, he stomped down on the rat’s neck, which lay against the mud-brick wall, snapping it. But, the rat still wasn’t done, to be absolutely certain, he stomped on Pink Lump’s head until his cranium cracked open and his brain spilled out into the open where Harry ruthlessly crushed it to bits.
With that done, Harry shifted his gaze to Ballusha, who was only now slowly rising from her sleep, confusion and drowsiness evident in her eyes. Harry leaped from where he stood, reaching her in one go as he slashed at her throat vertically, his claws facing minimal resistance as they moved deeper.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
It became evident to Harry that though Ballusha also had monstrous strength, likely not inferior to Pink Lump, she was severely lacking in terms of defence, which made her death quick and sifted as Harry decapitated her in one clean strike.
The timer expired a second later, and he went limp as if he were a puppet whose strings had been abruptly cut.
∞
Reality cracked, then caved in as a brilliant golden portal adorned with intricate ethereal runes and symbols manifested directly above a pond of water deep in a lush, magical jungle. A youthful male figure stepped through the portal a second later, clad in intricate black panling lanshan.
The garment itself was black and bore a golden dragon symbol that sparkled and glowed in the dim morning light of the dew-filled magical jungle. It looked like a dragon-shaped fractal, one that ran from the left side of his panling lanshan, around the back, and to the other side, perfectly lining up with a golden dragon tattoo on his neck.
Despite manifesting directly over a body of water, the youth showed no fear; his hands were clasped behind his back as he took a step forward, stepping directly on the surface of the water as if it were a solid, his facial expression carefree and aloof as he moved.
Suddenly, he paused and looked up, his gaze piercing through the thick canopy of the forest and locking onto something above him.
“Heavens,” he muttered, “Do you have eyes? If so, let calamity befall this dragon before me; it seeks to undermine your plans.”
The tattoo on his neck shimmered with golden light, and reality quaked as a peal of thunder rumbled through the dome of the world, announcing its presence with incomprehensible might. A golden dragon manifested above the world a second later, pulling back its serpentine neck as it prepared to roar.
But then something unexpected happened, the system of this world, which had been silent upon the youth’s arrival, manifested with shocking words.
Reality quacked, the dragon wailed in pain, and Harry knew no more.
∞
Harry awoke feeling both refreshed and oddly tired mentally, as if he’d just finished an intense battle with some unseen force. It took him a while to realize where he was; his mind felt somewhat muted, likely due to the last stand ability of his trait.
The rat looked around, blinking when he saw no corpses, but quickly calmed down as he surveyed the area; apart from the cracked mud-bricks and messed-up bed, everything else was spotless.
An outsider wouldn’t be able to tell that a battle had happened here a few hours ago; everything was clean, just slightly ajar.
Harry sent his will to the notifications, banging on [Wall] at the back of his mind and willed them to combine before willing it to appear.
-Predation was partially successful-
-Trait acquired: Regeneration (0)
-Trait acquired: Super strength (0)
-Trait acquired: Dual Heart (0)
-Trait acquired: Iron skeleton (0)
-Trait acquired: Kin link (-) [Strengthened]
-Trait acquired: Forced Hibernation (0)
+5000 Biomass
Power spilled forth from Harry like a broken dam, gushing out with great force that slammed into [Walll] like a sentient sledgehammer, but the trait held strong. Harry’s body changed rapidly. He grew noticeably taller as every bone in his body dissolved, reformed, and hardened until they resembled iron rods rather than actual bone.
His heart ceased beating, then split into two perfect halves that rapidly grew into separate yet intricately linked entities that forced his entire circulatory system to reorganize themselves as they settled in, one in the original spot and the other in his lower abdomen.
Then, they started beating, first randomly but synced perfectly with a flare of crimson power. Harry could feel the difference immediately; his stamina jumped all the way to 300, and he felt stronger, faster, and better with every breath he took.
The other changes were less noticeable, Harry couldn’t tell what [Forced Hibernation] changed, only that it did change something. The rat didn’t feel a sudden surge of strength when [Super strength] settled in, but he noticed that his strength stat had shot up to 30 and his entire body felt a little different in that regard. [Iron skeleton] initially surprised Harry, as he had no idea where it could’ve possibly come from, that was until he remembered the upgrade he selected for the [Iron teeth] trait, then it clicked.
When Harry saw that he got the [Regeneration] trait, he sighed in relief; the partially successful nature of the predation caused him to worry, after all, it meant that the trait he wanted the most might not appear.
He was sure Pink Lump had other extraordinary traits tucked away in his body, but the rat hadn’t managed to get them with his authority, sadly. Still, it wasn’t that bad; Harry didn’t know how Pink lump managed to transform and grow so much, even resist the pull of old age, but he knew that the [Regeneration] trait was the source of it all was it.
With the trait in hand and his twisted authority, Harry was sure he could replicate a few of these things, depending on what upgrades he got.
Overall, he was very pleased, not just with the traits he acquired but with the amount of biomass he got, too. The only thing that slightly dampened his mood was the fact that [Kin link] yet again, but that was a minor issue. He was so far from the forest now that it really didn’t matter; they couldn’t leave it even if they wanted to.
Next, the rat summoned his status screen, reviewing his gains while pondering how to spend the small fortune he managed to acquire.
Name: Harry [####]
Species: Common Rat
Authority: Predation
Facets:
HP: 1/1 (1HP/D)
STAM: 300/300
VENOM: 100%
AGI: 20
STR: 30
INT: 10
WIS: 21
DEF: 20
Biomass: 5250
Souls:
Traits:
Iron Stomach (0) (0/50)
Iron teeth (1) (0/100)
Adrenal Burst (3) (0/600)
Wall (1) (0/2000)
Wooden Exoskeleton (4) (1000)
Spiritual sense (0)(1000)
Photosynthesis (0)(50)
Fat storage (0) (50)
Kin link (-)
Fast clotting (1) (100)
Sharp claws (1) (100)
Thermal vision (1)(100)
Venom Glands (1) (100)
Forced Hibernation (0)
Iron skeleton (0)
Dual Heart (0)
Super strength (0)
Regeneration (0)
