Mary stopped her movements for a moment, wiping her brow with the back of her sleeve, glad to focus on a practical topic to calm her racing heart. "Ah, it’s because of how the Mist Monkey race functions. You see, unlike regular animals, these primates store and refine their ambient spiritual energy directly inside their fangs. It acts almost like a pseudo-core for them."

"A pseudo-core?" Ethan echoed, adjusting his grip on the tool.

"Yes," Mary explained thoroughly, her voice flowing into an experienced hunter’s cadence. "It develops entirely based on their power, not just their physical size. For example, a Mist Monkey could theoretically be small—barely a meter tall—but if its four primary fangs are completely developed and translucent, it would possess the exact same devastating combat strength as this three-meter alpha we just killed. Their fangs are the literal physical manifestation of their status and cultivation power. That’s why the Pavilion elders use them to verify the exact tier of the beast you killed."

Ethan nodded slowly, understanding the biological mechanism. "I see. And what about the rest of the beast? Is the meat or the hide worth anything on the market? It seems like a waste to leave so many carcasses behind."

Mary let out a bitter, amused chuckle, shaking her head. "Not at all. The meat of the Mist Monkey race is incredibly bitter, stringy, and carries a terrible, earthy aftertaste. Only the most desperate, starving beggars in the slums would ever dare to cook it. It holds absolutely zero value in the market. And their hide? While it looks thick and durable, the wire-like fur makes it incredibly difficult and expensive to tan properly. The leather becomes brittle after processing."

She pointed a finger back toward the direction of the town. "Compared to these pests, the Silver-Horned Boar you dragged down the mountain yesterday is a literal treasure chest. The boar’s skin is highly receptive to spiritual arrays, and its meat is a delicacy. The armor and garments a true craftsman can forge from that boar hide are infinitely superior to anything these monkeys could provide. Truly, outside of these fangs, these beasts are worth less than common gravel."

"Fascinating," Ethan murmured, his fingers effortlessly snapping the four massive, silver fangs out of the Troop Leader’s severed head. He held the dense, heavy tokens in his palm, feeling the faint, locked spiritual residue inside them. "Then let’s finish harvesting these teeth quickly. We have a lot of stones to collect today."

It took them nearly half an hour to harvest the required fangs. When they finished, Ethan’s leather pouch was heavily weighed down by a fortune in silver tokens. Satisfied with the haul, they turned their backs on the slaughterhouse and began their trek back down the mountain, navigating the dense, blue-tinted labyrinth of the frontier.

After about ten minutes of walking through the quiet trails, while Mary was still talking about how they should split the earnings at the Pavilion exchange hall, Ethan suddenly came to a halt.

"Wait a moment, Sister Mary," Ethan said, his voice perfectly smooth as he adjusted his grip on his iron sword. "I just realized I left one of the primary commander fangs back near the clearing’s edge. It must have slipped from my pouch during the final count."

Mary blinked, instantly turning around. "Oh, let me come with you then! Two pairs of eyes will find it faster."

"No, please stay here," Ethan countered firmly, offering a reassuring but unyielding smile. "The scent of all that fresh blood will inevitably draw out the mountain wolves by now. If I go alone, I can move with absolute speed and avoid any engagements. If you come along, I’ll have to split my focus to protect you. Just wait for me by this ridge marker. I’ll be back before you know it."

Mary bit her lip, but she recognized the absolute logic in his words. She didn’t want to become a liability or a burden to him. "Alright," she nodded reluctantly, gripping her bow tightly. "Please be careful, Ethan. If the wolves are already there, just abandon the tooth and come back."

"I will," Ethan nodded.

The moment he stepped into the thick azure fog, his relaxed demeanor completely vanished. His figure blurred, covering the distance back to the clearing in a matter of seconds with absolute, ghostly silence.

Arriving back at the scene of the massacre, the clearing was exactly as they had left it—a horrific, blood-drenched graveyard of mangled flesh and severed limbs. The metallic stench of blood hung heavy in the damp air.

Ethan stood at the center of the carnage, his eyes darkening to a deep, ominous violet. "Crul," he spoke into his mind, his voice echoing through his inner consciousness. "Watch the seals on my core. Make sure they don’t fracture or trigger any resonance with the Pavilion’s monitoring arrays. It’s time to eat."

"Understood, Master," Crul’s response. "Proceed. I will actively manage and redirect the absorption currents so the structural seals remain perfectly intact and completely hidden from the outside world."

Ethan opened his mouth.

From the dark recesses of his throat, a localized, pitch-black vortex emerged. It had been an incredibly long time since he had last unleashed this power—not since the brutal, apocalyptic massacres inside the sealed Dome. The miniature black hole expanded slightly in front of his face, and from its dark event horizon, dozens of shadowy, writhing black tentacles erupted like living whips.

The dark appendages lashed out across the clearing, piercing directly into the flesh of the hundreds of dead primates. With a sickening, rhythmic slurping sound, the black hole began to aggressively drag the oceans of blood, the internal organs, and the entire physical carcasses of the warrior monkeys and commanders straight into the void.

To a cultivator of his true caliber, these lower-tier beasts provided a pathetically minuscule amount of spiritual essence. But food was food. At the end of the day, even the meat of an ant carried sustenance, and the void within him was entirely indifferent to the quality of the prey.

-------------------

From this moment forward, to avoid confusion regarding cultivation ranks, I will include this footer with the current established levels.

Note: These are only the ranks mentioned so far to avoid spoilers.

Body Refinement Realm

Skin Refinement / Bone Refinement / Organ Refinement

Spiritual Gathering Realm

Spiritual Perception / Spiritual Mist / Spiritual Condensation

Spiritual Core Realm

Core Solidification / Core Awakening / Spiritual Collapse (Half-step Spiritual Core)

Spiritual Soul Realm

Spiritual Soul Awakening / Soul Nourishing / Soul-Core Fusion

Golden Core Realm

Prime Fusion / Core Perfection / Core Destruction

Spiritual Sea Realm

Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??

Dao Manifestation Realm

Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??

Spiritual Transcendence 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??