Void Cultivation

"Well, as far as he does nothing to bother me, I could care even less." Grey said quietly. He was not a saint and didn't care about the fact that he was being used.

To him, this world was filled with constant dangers and threats. Madness and existences that were not supposed to exist, were roaming in this broken world.

In a world where the strong ruled the weak, and the weak were preyed upon by the strong and puppeteered like dolls, surviving, and surviving alone was key.

And besides, how could he, a Qi accumulation cultivator, fight against a Nascent Soul Transformation expert.

It was pure madness!

Grey heard a silent and subtle sound that made his ears perk up. With the wave of his hand, he quietly dispersed poison and made it look like he rolling his sleeves.

Giving the Phoenix a slight glance, Grey extended his perception to more than 100 feet. And hiding in the white bushes, was a chubby robed cultivator.

His cheeks were plump and full and his eyes were like crescent moons with the addition of a large grin on his face.

Grey took in this information quickly and suddenly casted hand seals. The chubby cultivator who was hiding in the bushes felt as if something was wrong and wanted to peek out to have a look, but he felt as if a large hand had suddenly grabbed his feet, and was dragging him towards Grey.

He let out a shriek of surprise before bringing out a long club. As soon as the club appeared, the invisible hand pulling him paused for a second.

That short pause was enough for the chubby cultivator to make a run for it, further down the mountain.

'Hm, he has soul weapons?!' Grey was surprised. A long time ago, Caster had once told him about Soul weapon and how they could be procured. That to have a Soul weapon, one had to be a forger, or a Soulsmiths.

Back when he became the Co-Captain of Team three of the Detective Agency Department for the Sequence Three of Sky Mist City, he scouted for information about Soulsmiths on his Jade Slip and found that they demanded a lot of Spirit stones for even the most basic Forgery.

Like for example, to enchant a sword costed about 1000 spirit stones. And that was for even the most basic enchantments!

Unlike the Dao of medicine which did not have levels or ranks, but depended solely on comprehension, the world of Soul smiths had levels and ranks to it.

The most basic Soul weapons had grades following from; Profound, Earthly, Heavenly, Mystic, Sacred, Legendary, and Divine. With Divine being the highest and rarely ever seen before, except from history.

As for Soul Smiths, the level of their forging were as follows; Amateur, Veteran, Master, Grandmaster, Saint Craftsman, Blessed Craftsman, and Holy Craftsman.

Even finding Heavenly Soul smiths were so rare that a cultivator could go his entire lifespan without seeing one.

But these ranks and levels were before God descended. After God descended with the presence of corrosive substance, most of the names of the levels for Soul weapons grades changed to; Mortal, Earthly, Heavenly, Mystical, Bizarre, Tainted, and Divine.

As for the ranks of Soul smiths themselves, it changed into; Amateur, Veteran, Master, Grandmaster, Corrupted, Demonic and Defiled.

Because Corrosive substance changed the very core of even life itself, it changed The Profound level to Mortal, the Saint level to Corrupted, and the Level of a Holy Craftsman turned into Defiled.

That was because they were Defiled by the very weapon they wished to enchant itself.

All in all, Grey learnt that Soul smiths and Soul weapons leaned towards becoming something other than human. With the way the path derailed and headed into unknown levels made him feel that the humans who indulged themselves in forging were probably on a different road from normal cultivators.

The weapons forged by Soulsmiths tended to have a somewhat evil aura. That's why when Grey saw the weapon that suddenly appeared, he knew it was a Soul weapons.

And weirdly, higher Soul weapons could only be used by their forgers. If you wanted to make a weapon for someone else perhaps, the person would have to be present throughout the whole forging stage.

The reason for the 'Soul' in 'Soul Weapons', was because Soul Weapons were tied directly to one's soul. That was also one of the reasons why it could only be used by the forgers.

If the Soulsmiths die, the Soul weapon is likely to fuse to the next Soul it perceives. Unless if necessary, the Soul weapon would always choose the person with the strongest Soul and Spirit sea.

"Soulsmith..." When the Chubby cultivator heard that, he stopped in surprise. But soon regretted it as a foot was launched towards his face. But surprisingly, he reacted and sprang to his feet.

The foot did not hit his face, but it did hit his chest with so much force that the Chubby cultivator's chest caved in directly, and he immediately spat out a mouthful of blood.

"Wait, wait..." The chubby cultivator tried to speak but when hit by another strong kick, he could only swallow his words and cough out another mouthful of blood.

The club that the Chubby cultivator summoned seemed to tremble as it swung at Grey with a speed that resembled a black blur.

But Grey did not even take another glance at it. There was the screeching of a bird and hot, sweating flames befell the flying club.

While the Phoenix took care of the flying black club, Grey continued to rough handle the Chubby cultivator without a change in expression.

He had read from his Jade slip that Soulsmiths were the hardest to deal with. Because their weapons were like an extension of themselves, and a soulsmith never had only one Soul weapon.

If give time, a Soulsmith could change the tide of any battle at any given instant. That's why Grey didn't give the Chubby cultivator any chance to rest and unleash his weapon arsenal.

He continuously dealth damage with his fists and kicks alone. What followed after was pained groans and endless spurting blood.

After several short minutes that seemed like a long time in hell to the Chubby cultivator, Grey finally stopped with his barrage. The flying club had also been dealt with by the Phoenix and was currently surrounded by extremely hot flames that had long melted the snow and was starting to melt the ground itself.

With a cold expression on his blurry face, Grey looked at the Chubby cultivator who was sitting an endless amount of blood. Despite being at the Seventh Level of Qi accumulation, he was not even able to put up any resistance in front of Grey.

He was totally incapacitated. His bones had been crushed, his chest had caved in so many times, in so many places with his ribs puncturing some of his internal organs.

With every single bone in his body, apart from his spinal cord broken, the Chubby cultivator could hardly move if he wanted to. And because of his broken bones, and seriously injured internal organs, he could not even circultae his energy.

He was a complete sitting duck. He could only move his eyes and mouth.

With nothing else to do, the Chubby cultivator could only cry out in pain. Grey rubbed the other side of his palm before viciously slapping the Chubby cultivator.

'PAH!'

The Chubby cultivator snapped out of his pain with the addition of another pain.

"Please, stop! Don't kill me..." He started rambling and ranting, but Grey only stood and watched coldly. After a long time, he finally asked.

"Are you a Soulsmith?" The question was filled with nonchalance and coldness that made the hot blood rushing through the Chubby cultivator's body run cold.

As this was the first time he had heard Grey speak clearly, he noted that the voice sounded young and slightly immature. Despite the tone being cold and calm, he could hear the sound of youth.

"Yes, I am a Soulsmith!" The chubby cultivator wasted no time in answering. After being dealt harshly by Grey, he knew that even if his assailant was young, he was still decisive and ruthless. And could take action at any time.

"Why were you hiding in the bushes?" Grey asked another question, and the Chubby cultivator answered quickly.

"I saw you fly down from the sky, and at first I was afraid. But after confirming you were still in the Qi accumulation realm, and the eigth level you broke through, I immediately thought of a plan to attack you and take the treasures you must surely have!" The chubby cultivator answered truthfully, after all, nothinh good would come out from lying.

Grey's lips twitched, but he quickly controlled himself and asked. "Do I look like someone who has a lot of treasures?"

The Chubby cultivator wasted no time in answering truthfully again, while spurting out blood from time to time.

"Well 'cough-cough', there is a treasure that is currently concealing your appearance. And despite the treasures I have with me, I can't even get a glimpse of your true appearance! I don't even think a Foundation establishment cultivator can see you when you wear that treasure! Maybe a Core Formation expert can?" The chubby cultivator said.

'What, the mysterious cloak is that mysterious and hard to see through?'

"Did you ask if I took this treasure from someone's corpse before attacking me!" Grey's voice was chillingly cold.

"No!" The chubby cultivator said depressed.

'Yeah, neither did I...' Grey said inwardly in a self deprecating tone. He had only gotten the mysterious cloak from the Devil's race cultivator who wanted to quickly flee.

If he had killed him, he could say that he indeed took it from someone's corpse.