Chapter 156

Chapter 156: Every Pro Has Its Con in Worldly Matters

Sensing Fang Ning’s persistence, Sky Eagle answered with a heavy tone, “The land has a secret not many people know about. It’s a small place and doesn’t even have a complete Maxim, but it has the ability to accumulate Vitality. Not only can creatures cultivate quickly in this place, it was much easier to understand the Maxim of the Atmosphere in here which was needed to break through to Grade-A. The world outside was wider, the Maxim was more complete, but also more complicated and much harder to understand.”

Fang Ning was shocked at the sound of that. “If that’s the case, it should be a good thing. Why do you sound so somber?”

Sky Eagle shook its head. “In worldly matters, every pro must come with a con. Cultivate too quickly, you will miss out on the mental resilience, which includes passion, interest, self-confidence, and will.”

“For those less talented, they might need to advance little by little, giving their mental resilience a chance to catch up. They might take a while to advance into Grade-A, but once they succeed, they won’t be plagued with future troubles.”

“However, some geniuses advanced too quickly without having sufficient time to mature. Once they’ve reached Grade-A, their mental resilience and their power were not in sync and might face their Inner Demons. If they could surpass that, their paths of cultivation will continue. Otherwise, they’ll mutate into one of the Bloodthirsty Monsters, becoming a soulless husk of a monster.”

Fang Ning was the laziest cultivating person he knew, but he completely understood what was told to him.

One of the key segments in the cultivation of Dragonization Ability was the Cultivation of the Heart. This was also reflected in the cultivation of Atmospheric Morality Technique, so he technically was allowed to have some opinion on it. During cultivation, it was one of his weak points, and he could never pass the Cultivation of the Heart. The black dog, Brett, was in the same situation as him.

Fang Ning felt a little sorry for himself and continued speaking, “Looks like the thousands of monsters being controlled by king cobra were all genius Grade-A powerhouses that failed to surpass their inner demons. That’s so sad to hear.”

The System interrupted, “Host, don’t you dare to stop me from receiving the experience pack just because you pity them…”

Fang Ning had no comeback to that. He said, “The world will turn according to its fate. It was the blessing of the world that these beasts were born with the talent, but because of that, they were also envied by the world. Cultivating too fast caused their power to be out-of-sync with their mental resilience, making them face their Inner Demons. The moment they failed to overcome their Inner Demons, they have already died, leaving the shell of the impressive creature that they were. I was sighing for the loss of their lives, but I won’t feel sorry about killing these monsters wearing their body.”

The System said, “That’s good. If you began taking pity on them now, I would’ve been very conflicted…”

Again, no quips to use. “Oh, come off it. Was there ever any time that I successfully stopped you from farming monsters once your mind was set?”

Sky Eagle continued, “Brother Dragon, you are as wise as you are strong. Like you said, even though there were multiple occurrences, there will be some geniuses who thought they were better than the rest every few years. They thought they had enough mental resilience and did not control their cultivation speed. So when they realized their mental resilience could no longer keep up to their cultivation speed and that their Inner Demons are haunting them, most of them will regret their choices and immortalize their thoughts about cultivation at the Heritage Valley. That’s where the name ‘the Land of Heritage’ really come from.”

Fang Ning said, “So that’s how it got its name. From the looks of it, you should be concerned with your own Inner Demon, is it not?”

Sky Eagle answered, “Regrettably, I was one of the proud ones. My talent was incredibly good and I achieved Grade-A within twenty years. As soon as I realized my mental resilience was not stable, I’ve suppressed my strength and didn’t advance. I’ve passed time through carving stones and rocks hoping it would polish my mental resilience. The statuette that I picked out was one of my best works so far.”

“In spite of that, I still feel like my mental stability is slipping recently. That’s the foreshadowing of Inner Demon’s arrival. I was too impatient during my early cultivation years, so I might not be able to overcome my Inner Demon. That was why I wanted to ask the Chinese for a contribution of Faith so I could change to cultivating the path of godhood. The Maxim of the Land of Heritage was not complete and doesn’t support the cultivation of godhood, so I can only achieve it with the Faith of humans outside.”

Fang Ning sighed. “I understand now. The king cobra had risen all the way to the top of Grade-A within eight years, its Inner Demon must be unimaginably difficult to surpass. Since we’re talking about mental resilience, have you tried looking for techniques that focus solely on cultivating the mental resilience to make up for it?”

Sky Eagle said, “This world is tiny. Techniques like that are hard to find, and even if there are, it’s too late for me to restart, I don’t have the time.”

Fang Ning was feeling sad for the eagle, but something clicked in his mind that made him shudder. “Oh no, this means that the king cobra was trying to contact the other genius cultivators that were at risk from their Inner Demons. It was trying to lure the others and build an alliance of demons with the promise of Indian people’s Faith. From your experience, the Chinese would never agree to worshiping other demons as deities.”

Sky Eagle nodded. “You’re absolutely right, Brother Dragon. I thought the Chinese would make an exception with my presence being able to suppress the king cobra. What a shame, they were diligent. If it weren’t for your advice, I might even be lured by that venomous snake. It will not be so generous, I’m guessing the day it completed its alliance will be the day it shows its fangs.”

Fang Ning responded, “Fellow cultivator, you definitely are its natural enemy, you knew every move it’s going to take. Seeing how familiar you are with this small land, do you know about the number of Inner-Demon-riddled powerhouses in here?”

Sky Eagle answered, “The Land of Heritage had its share of outstanding individuals, but geniuses like that were still rare. A new one would emerge about every decade, and those earlier than that had basically become zombie-demons. It would be able to get in touch with about seven or eight of them. Half of them were confident they could beat their Inner Demons, and the other half would probably only believe it after they had been rebuffed by the Chinese. After all, the king cobra is cunning and views every other creature as an enemy. Furthermore, it came from outside world, no one would believe its words lightly.”

At this point, Fang Ning decided to excuse himself so he could inform the people from the Truth Department and discuss a solution. He could not help Sky Eagle achieve godhood. The most he could do was to ask the System to capture more spirits of criminals when they were back outside.

Sky Eagle also said that it wanted to arrange for his successor as the leader of its tribe. Both of them had promised to return to the exact spot in three days.

Fang Ning gave it a thought and asked the System to take over. At the same time, he asked it to prepare a Dragon God cell phone for their new ally just in case.

The System’s answer was short and sweet. “No.”

Fang Ning was not amused. “A stupid cell phone doesn’t cost much, why are you so stingy?”

The System quipped, “Are you an idiot? Did you forget that it’s a Pond-level powerhouse? Even if you blast at it with tenfold the phone’s explosive power, it wouldn’t have lost even one of its feathers. It wouldn’t have triggered the Thousand-mile Assistance anyway.”

It was only then that Fang Ning realized. “Damn, whenever we talk about power levels and combat, you’ll become super intelligent. No one should ever provoke you unprepared.”

***************

Vigilante A returned to the walled city and informed them of the situation, but the three elders were still not looking optimistic.

Soon after, Elder Xu said, “Venerable One, some of the other demons have approached us regarding this, but we managed to avoid the requests. It’s not that we were being a pinchpenny about the contribution of Faith, but we are currently focusing on manifesting the Celestial Dragon. If the Faith was scattered and caused the manifestation of the Celestial Dragon to fail, we would’ve been sinners. I don’t think anyone of us could bear that consequence.”

Fang Ning expressed his understanding. There might be other ways to circumvent this issue, but they would have thought about it before and considered the pros and cons.

Vigilante A said, “If that’s the case, you should be prepared. I will look for Sky Eagle again and try to hunt the king cobra down.”

Elder Xu was a little hesitant and looked at Elder Hai, who nodded.

Elder Xu proposed, “Venerable One, please stay for a little longer. We couldn’t bear seeing you running about like this for us. We were thinking of this — after killing the king cobra, we will reopen the pathway toward the real world. We will ask Elder Feng, the Hallmaster of Lores, to see if there are any techniques that focus on the Cultivation of the Heart so we could teach some of the demonic geniuses. Hopefully, that’ll prevent them from picking fights with us in the future after being persuaded by the king cobra.”

Fang Ning nodded, great minds do think alike.

The System said, “Host, you look proud. Was it because Elder Xu thought of the same solution that you did?”

Fang Ning said, “Yeah, this Elder Xu doesn’t look as clever as I thought he would be…”

The System said, “That’s right. Host, looks like your intelligence is at least on par with these old foxes. I’m relieved, now that I don’t need to worry about being played.”

Fang Ning said, “Don’t worry. With my brainpower, no one would be able to play you.”