Chapter Ninety-Four: Physique

“That’s right, it is a special constitution,” Meiya said. As she spoke, she straightened slightly, and her face lost some of its usual carelessness. In a deeper voice, she went on, “The Continent of Battle Qi is vast beyond measure, and it is full of all manner of profound and wondrous things. A special constitution is one of them. However, such constitutions are exceedingly rare; one could say they are almost impossible to find among billions. On the entire continent, those who possess a special constitution are probably only a tiny handful.”

“According to some ancient records, these special constitutions correspond in some degree to the elemental properties of battle qi. They are divided into the fire constitution, the water constitution, the ice constitution, and so on. Those with a special constitution have an astonishingly strong ability to absorb energy of the corresponding attribute, and their cultivation speed is often terrifyingly fast. In the history of the continent, there once appeared a man with a fire constitution. His talent for cultivation was astonishing. It is said that as long as he consumed any medicinal herb containing fire energy, his strength would increase dramatically. He could even absorb the fire-attributed battle qi of others and turn it into his own power!”

“Relying on that formidable talent, he later became a powerhouse who shook the whole continent... but that, in turn, led to a tragedy afterward...”

Su Yi had already been startled by the strength of such a special constitution, and when he heard this, he could not help asking in surprise, “A tragedy? How could that lead to a tragedy?”

It was only natural that he did not understand. In his eyes, possessing such an unusual constitution would surely make cultivation smooth and effortless. Just the effect of becoming stronger by consuming herbs of the matching attribute was enough to make Su Yi envious, and once one became a true powerhouse of the continent, one would undoubtedly gain considerable prestige and status. How, then, could it possibly end in tragedy?

“Since you have asked that, let me first tell you what kind of people possess these special constitutions in the first place.”

Meiya smiled faintly, idly winding a strand of dark hair around her delicate fingers.

“What kind of people?” Su Yi frowned in confusion. “Don’t tell me they aren’t human?”

He had said it half in jest, but to his surprise, Meiya did not deny it. Instead, she nodded with unusual gravity. “That’s right. Those with special constitutions are already as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns, and there are also innate and acquired types. Naturally, the innate ones are far more powerful. Speaking only of innate constitutions, almost no humans possess them. The vast majority belong to another kind of people. Strictly speaking, they are not human, but rather...”

“Humanoid beings!”

Humanoid beings?! Su Yi was instantly stunned.

He had seen this race mentioned in relevant books before. On this continent, apart from the human camp, the other great force was the magical-beast camp, and the relationship between the two was hardly amicable. Besides constant slaughter of one another, there were also unions between them for various reasons... Well, of course, in the overwhelming majority of cases, it was due to magical beasts forcing themselves upon human women.

Because the races were different, even when children were born, most would die young. Those fortunate enough to survive were often grotesque monstrosities, neither fully human nor fully beast. Yet nothing in this world was absolute. When humans and beasts joined together, there was still a very slim chance of producing powerful descendants. The most famous among them were the serpent people, half human and half serpent, and the legendary sea sirens.

In even rarer cases, there would be beings whose appearance was identical to that of humans, yet whose blood within flowed with magical-beast blood. These were the humanoid beings, and they could be said to be the strongest race on the continent, for they combined nearly all the advantages of humans and magical beasts while discarding the weaknesses of both.

Humans had cultivation talent that was, in a sense, superior to that of magical beasts. Although a human powerhouse of the same rank might be slightly inferior to a magical beast in direct combat, the time required for cultivation was several times, even ten times or more, shorter. To put it conservatively, humans could cultivate to the level of Battle Emperor or Battle Sovereign within a hundred years, whereas a magical beast would need at least several hundred years to reach the same height.

In other words, compared with magical beasts, the human body was far more suitable for cultivation. Yet humans had a weakness of their own: lifespan. Compared with magical beasts, whose lives often stretched for centuries or even millennia, humanity as a whole did seem somewhat fragile.

The humanoid race, possessing both human bodies and magical-beast blood, had completely eliminated these weaknesses. They enjoyed extraordinary cultivation talent as well as formidable longevity. Though few in number, they were said to produce many strong individuals. However, most of them harbored hatred and hostility toward both magical beasts and humans, and seldom revealed themselves to the world.

Humans, for their part, also kept their distance from humanoid beings. Because magical-beast blood flowed through their veins, their thoughts and values were closer to those of wild beasts: cruel and bloodthirsty, cold and merciless, lacking even much in the way of moral restraint. All of this met with human rejection. Magical beasts did not draw close to them either. Although they possessed magical-beast blood, they lacked the magical core that symbolized true beasts. Even the serpent people and the sea sirens had magical cores within them, and were therefore acknowledged by the magical-beast clans. To be frank, the more powerful and high-ranking magical beasts looked down upon magical beasts without magical cores as well.

“I never would have thought that most of those with special constitutions were humanoid beings...” Su Yi said with a sigh, understanding dawning on him. Then his heart stirred, and he asked, “Could it be that the predecessor with the fire constitution was one of them?”

Perhaps only that could explain why such a tragedy had occurred.

Unexpectedly, Meiya shook her head. “Quite the opposite. That man was a proper human, and more than that, a genius born with a fire constitution. But precisely because he was not a humanoid being, because his blood did not flow with magical-beast blood, he could not fully withstand or control the immense fire energy within his body. As his strength grew stronger and stronger, that phenomenon became increasingly severe, until in the end it was beyond saving.”

“In the end, he could not endure the backlash of the fire energy within him and actually exploded to death! The vast power that had been accumulated over many years burst out all at once, and in an instant it turned the land within a hundred miles into a sea of fire. The flames burned for days and nights without extinguishing. Afterward, that entire region no longer had the slightest trace of life. Everything was reduced to charred ashes, and from then on there was no more vitality there. It became a permanent wasteland...”

So fierce? A hundred miles of land reduced to barrenness?

Su Yi drew in a long, cold breath and exclaimed, “Does that mean all of the truly human people with special constitutions...”

“Mm. There may be some I do not know about,” Meiya said with a sigh of her own. “But throughout the history of the continent, all humans who possessed special constitutions ended in similar tragedy. Most of them even brought great disaster with them. As time has passed to the present, there have been very few rumors of special constitutions. I fear they may have already vanished altogether...”

Su Yi nodded. After reflecting on it for a while, he finally gathered his thoughts and no longer dwelled on these matters, which still felt very distant from him. After all, the most important thing right now was to steadily improve his own strength, step by step, with both feet firmly on the ground.

At that thought, Su Yi could not help wondering whether, now that the martial contest had ended, it was time to leave the city and set out to search for that Blood of Heaven and Earth.

But he did not know how to bring it up to Meiya. And if Meiya asked him why, how should he answer? Should he tell her the truth? Though he did not wish to deceive her, he also did not want to drag her into this matter...

Suddenly thinking of the wicked soul inside his body, Su Yi found himself asking, almost as if under some strange influence, “Sister Meiya, among those special constitutions, is there one called a soul constitution?”

“A soul constitution?” Meiya was slightly startled. Then her elegant brows drew together as she fell into careful thought. “In principle, if there are fire and ice constitutions, there should also be constitutions of other attributes. It is only a matter of how rare they are. Even the fairly uncommon thunder constitution has been recorded in some texts, and it is said that it can absorb the power of lightning to strengthen itself. As for the even rarer soul constitution, it probably exists as well, only there is no record of it.”

Hearing Meiya’s answer, Su Yi could not help but sigh inwardly. It seemed that no matter what it was, once it became connected to the soul, it grew strangely mysterious...

Shaking his head, Su Yi then remembered what had just come up and asked, “By the way, Sister Meiya, then... what exactly is An Xiang?”

Indeed! Ah, and that was the end of the fourteenth chapter! Please support with flowers and bookmarks!