While the Ouyang Clan maintained a residence in the city proper, their main holdings were in the surrounding territory. The complex I needed to visit was located on the eastern side of North Lake, in the foothills of the northeastern mountains.

This area had a diverse ecosystem. There was access to the water resources of the lake, open plains in the south, densely forested foothills to the north, and slightly farther north, tall mountains that guarded the kingdom’s borders. These different environments allowed the people who lived in the area to raise, train, and support a wide variety of demon beasts.

The Ouyang’s complex was an open ranch. In front, large pens housed beasts that appeared to be derivatives of common domestic animals, such as wind horses, horned sheep, stone bulls, and fire chickens. Several small groups of tamers were spread out amongst these pens as people of all ages fed and tended the animals.

As I approached the entrance to the main complex, I noticed a group of women in the middle of an enclosure for sauropod lizards the size of horses. A couple of these women were sitting in saddles on the backs of these lizards and flicking leather reins to encourage their mounts to increase the speed of their lumbering gait.

My attention, however, was drawn to the woman who was lying face-down against the back of a saddle-less lizard while channeling her water qi into the beast. At first, I was simply interested in studying the weave of qi that she was using to try to control the massive beast. But as she soon shifted her position, I saw her face.

It was Mei.

Had she purposefully arranged my visit so that I would appear during one of her lessons? Why? If she needed to talk to me about something, then she could have come to me directly. There was no need for these silly games.

I couldn’t help but sigh. This was the problem. Was Mei being here a coincidence, or was it part of a deeper plot? I couldn’t know. Unless Mei was willing to speak directly to my face, where my blessing would cancel out hers, I had to assume that everything was due to her blessing’s meddling.

While I had chosen to follow Mei to North Lake City, I didn’t want to get caught up in another plot that would end in my assassination, so I put her appearance here out of my mind and turned back to the main entrance of the building complex. Ignoring the situation wouldn’t make it go away, but when confronted with the mystical powers of an omniscient blessing, it was the only option open to me. I still considered Mei to be a friend, after all.

As I approached the entrance to the complex, the gates swung open, and a man who didn’t look much older than myself walked out. “Welcome to my Ouyang Clan’s primary beast taming compound. I hope that you are well, Lord Su.”

“Grandmaster Tamer Ouyang MengYao?” I asked.

He gave a slight bow. “Yes, Lord Su. How may I assist you today?”

This was one of the youngest Grandmasters I had met so far, which suggested he had great potential for future development. If his personality was good, he might be someone worth keeping an eye on.

“Grandmaster Ouyang, I wish to learn more about the beasts you raise here.”

“Is the Lord interested in studying beast taming?” He looked genuinely surprised at the idea.

“Not quite, I’m afraid. I wish to explore how alchemists and beast tamers might better support one another. What sorts of pills would be helpful for beast tamers? How might beast tamers help an alchemist?”

The young man laughed at that suggestion. “Lord Su, how much do you know about demon beasts?”

“Nearly nothing,” I confessed. “I’ve never studied them, and my pursuits have always kept me confined to the cities, so I haven’t had many opportunities to interact with animals.”

This made the Grandmaster wince. “Lord Su, please do not call them animals. Demon beasts are quite distinct in their nature. As they grow more powerful, many can become even more intelligent than humans. They can find the term ‘animal’ to be quite… insulting.”

I gave a short nod of understanding.

Ouyang MengYao thought for a moment, then came to a decision. “Let me introduce you to someone. I think that he can help you understand things better than I could.”

He led me to the back side of the manor where there was a large open pasture that held beasts of various shapes and sizes all mixed together and interacting peacefully with one another. It was strange to see so many different types of animals, some herbivores and some carnivores, casually sharing the same space.

Grandmaster Ouyang walked me through the field until we ran into a large tiger with fur so orange it glowed. “This is HuShao. He has been my companion for several years now. I met him when he was only a Rank 1 cub, and he’s grown up with me. He’s now a Rank 3 wildfire tiger. You will find that, in martial combat, he is easily the match of nearly any Grandmaster.”

I stood awkwardly. I wasn’t sure how to react to being introduced to a large tiger, but HuShao handled things better than I did. He walked up to my side and forced his head beneath the palm of my hand, making me scratch it.

I obliged him and gave him a short bow. “Nice to meet you, HuShao.”

I looked at MengYao“How did you raise him to be so powerful so quickly? As I understand it, normally, beasts take far longer to grow in strength than humans. Did you use pills and formations?”

The Grandmaster chuckled at my question. “That’s one of the things you need to see.”

MengYao gave a few short whistles, and a pair of wind horses swiftly approached us. “Climb aboard.”

Without waiting for me to react, MengYao leaped up and mounted the horse nearest to him.

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Neither beast had tack or saddle, so I wasn’t sure how to proceed, but I did my best. Thankfully, the horse was well-trained, and its skill made up for my lack. As I jumped to mount it like MengYao had, the horse twisted its body and hit me with a gust of air, forcing me into a proper seated position.

Once I was set, MengYao made a signal, and the tiger and horses began swiftly moving into the forested foothills.

As the trees became denser, the horses needed to slow down. MengYao took this opportunity to approach me as we rode. “As you are an alchemist, you must cultivate fire qi, correct?”

“Of course,” I responded half-heartedly, my attention focused on staying on my horse.

“Have you thought of looking at HuShao in qi vision?”

Struck by the foolishness of such an important oversight, I turned to HuShao and studied him closely. His body was filled with dense fire energy, but its structure was markedly different from a Martial Grandmaster. It seemed to flow through his body naturally, without the need for meridians.

More importantly, I realized something that shook me. The energy in his body wasn’t qi. I had seen a few types of energy by this point: the qi I cultivated, the medicinal energy in plants, and the strange energy in the Twin Mountains Sect’s affinity-boosting pool. This was something else entirely. All of these energies were types of fire energy, but they were each distinct.

I looked at Ouyang MengYao, wanting him to explain.

“HuShao is a demon beast. Demon beasts use a different type of energy. Some people call it demonic qi, but it isn’t qi. It would be more proper to call it demonic energy.”

“Beasts don’t use qi?” I asked, stunned.

“No, that’s going too far. It’s more appropriate to say that demon beasts do not use qi. The energy in mortal animals is usually qi, and, supposedly, there are rare beasts, called spirit beasts, that cultivate qi like humans. Demon beasts, however, use a different energy entirely.”

As I began thinking through the implications, our small group sped up. HuShao, who was in the lead, had begun chasing something, and the only reason I hadn’t already fallen from my saddle was that my wind horse worked hard to keep me in place.

I wasn’t sure how long it took us, but when we entered an open clearing, I saw a large buck running away from us.

HuShao pounced and took down the stag in a single blow. It wasn’t much of a hunt. A mortal deer didn’t have any hope of escaping from a Rank 3 demon beast, but HuShao showed restraint and didn’t use energy beyond what a mortal tiger would be capable of. This was a ritual—or possibly a game—to him.

“Watch closely in qi vision,” said MengYao.

Doing as instructed, I watched as the tiger took one bite after another from the deer’s carcass. The deer, a mortal animal, didn’t possess much energy, but what it did have was a complex blend of qi types with a slight tendency toward wood.

As the deer’s flesh entered HuShao’s stomach, thin tendrils of the tiger’s demonic energy stabbed into the meat, mixed with the deer’s qi, and extracted it. These small scraps of qi then blended into the tiger’s demonic energy, making it look slightly more potent than before.

However, upon closer inspection, I noticed something strange. Aside from just pulling out qi, HuShao also seemed to be pulling out additional demonic fire energy, but I wasn’t sure where it had come from.

“This is how most demon beasts cultivate,” explained MengYao. “In the wild, beasts are vicious. They hunt anything with qi—humans especially. They do this to absorb the qi in our bodies and convert it into demonic energy.”

My brow furrowed in confusion.

From what I was seeing, while HuShao was absorbing the deer’s qi, it wasn’t being converted to demonic energy. The qi was just being integrated into what HuShao already possessed. The additional demonic energy was coming from somewhere else.

This made me think about when people took pills. The medicinal energy in pills transformed and blended into a cultivator’s body, but they didn’t give a cultivator qi directly. Instead, they made it easier for a cultivator to absorb qi from the natural environment. Was this similar?

Unaware of my internal musing, MengYao continued his explanation. “This goes both ways. If you take down a demon beast and kill it, you can eat it. Eating the meat of a high-level beast does wonders to improve your body. It integrates with your qi and strengthens your muscles beyond their normal limits.”

I tried to pay closer attention to exactly what was going on in the tiger’s body. The qi was being integrated into the tiger’s demonic energy, but what was strengthening its body? As far as I could tell, nothing had changed about HuShao other than the fact that his body now contained slightly more demonic energy. Maybe that was enough.

After the tiger’s feast was over, we turned around and headed back to the ranch.

“Demon beasts don’t cultivate qi,” restated MengYao. “So, what do you think a Qi Gathering Pill will do to a demon beast?”

There had been discrepancies between MengYao’s explanation and what I had seen, so I chose to give a simple answer that he could freely expound upon. “If a demon beast can absorb qi from a carcass and convert it into its own energy, a Qi Gathering Pill should work the same. It should allow the beast to gather environmental qi and convert it into demonic energy.”

I knew that my answer wasn’t correct, but it seemed to be the one he wanted to hear.

MengYao shook his head. “Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that. Demon beasts cannot gather qi from the environment properly. If you give them a Qi Gathering Pill, it will force qi into their bodies, causing serious blockages and impurities to accumulate.”

“If not Qi Gathering Pills, what about others? Healing pills should be fine, shouldn’t they?”

Again, MengYao just shook his head. “I don’t know how it works, but I can tell you that any pills meant for cultivators will not work properly on demon beasts. Trying will only cause more harm than good.”

One phrase he said stuck out to me: “pills meant for cultivators.” Was it possible to create pills that were not meant for cultivators? Pills that were specifically designed for demon beasts? I hadn’t encountered such a thing before, but I didn’t see why it shouldn’t be possible.

“Demon beasts cannot use pills,” he continued, interrupting my thoughts. “You asked how HuShao grew so quickly. First, hunting. As long as beasts are fed regularly, they can grow faster as the energy they absorb enhances their bodies. Second, formations. We have specialized formations for enhancing the growth and development of our beasts. Finally, eating raw herbs. While pills are off the table, there are several herbs that are known to do wonders for demon beasts.”

This last bit surprised me. It was generally a bad idea to eat raw medicinal herbs, as the toxic energies in them could cause havoc in a person’s body. Only if they were grown to be exceptionally pure should anyone even consider eating them raw. Were beasts immune to such toxins?

As we rode, I realized that everything we had discussed had been about how alchemists could help beast tamers. What about the reverse? Even if there were no pills to help demon beasts, was there a way for beast tamers to help alchemists?

“Grandmaster Ouyang,” I said, coming out of my reverie. “This might be a delicate question, but I am trying to explore new avenues for alchemy. I wanted to know if it would be possible to acquire the… remains of some demon beasts.”

MengYao chuckled and nodded. “It’s a common enough request. If you would like, you can buy a complete carcass, but most of the demonic energy is stored within a few specific locations that differ between each type of beast. For HuShao, his paws and neck are where most of it is concentrated. If you can isolate the body parts you need, then it will make things far easier on your suppliers.”

“Thank you for the advice.”

“We cannot supply you with anything here. Our beasts are raised as companions, and we don’t do any such hunts from this location. Since you are a member of the Pavilion, I would recommend that you go through them to set up contracts for adventurers to gather the supplies you need. I haven’t heard of alchemists doing this before, but they are used by both beast tamers and formation specialists.”

We made a little more small talk on the trip back, but my mind had already left. I was ready to return and get back to work.