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 east side of North Lake where the foothills of the northeastern mountains began.


    This area had a very 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 further north, tall mountains guarded the kingdom’s borders. These different environments allowed them to raise, train, and support a wide variety of beasts.


    The Ouyang complex itself was styled like an open ranch. In front, large pens housed various beasts that appeared to be derivatives of common domestic animals, such as wind horses, horned sheep, stone bulls, and fire chickens. Throughout the area, I could see people of all ages feeding and working with the various animals.


    My appointment was with Ouyang MengYao, a Grandmaster Tamer, but as I approached the main complex entrance, a large group of women caught my attention. In the center of the group, Mei was leaning over a large lizard of some kind, examining it. It was nearly tall enough to come up to my waist and at least three meters long.


    I thought about walking over and talking to her. It seemed strange that she would be here at the same time as my appointment, but everyone looked busy, so I held off. I wouldn’t interrupt professionals while they were working.


    As soon as I approached the main building’s entrance, the doors swung open and a man who didn’t look too much older than myself walked out. “Welcome to my Ouyang family’s primary beast taming compound. I hope you are well, Lord Su.”


    “Grandmaster Ouyang?” 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 replied. “I’m looking to gain a better understanding of how alchemy and taming can be more mutually beneficial. 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.”


    “Lord,” the Grandmaster winced. “Please don’t call them animals. Demon beasts are quite distinct in their nature. As they grow more powerful, many can become even more intelligent than humans, and they can find the term animals 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 he can help you understand things better than I could.”


    He led me to the back side of the manor where there is a large open pasture. It held beasts of various shapes and sizes, and they all mixed with each other. 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 introduced. “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 a match for nearly any Grandmaster cultivator.”


    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 then gave a short bow. “Nice to meet you HuShao.”


    “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,” he said. Without waiting for me to move, he leaped up and mounted one of the horses.


    Neither 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 slightly and hit me with a gust of air, forcing me into a proper seated position.


    Once I was set, MengYao made a signal. The tiger and the two 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?” he asked with a smile.


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    “Of course,” I responded half-heartedly while focused on riding.


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


    My head shot to the side to look him in the eye. Realizing his meaning, I turned to HuShao and studied him closely. His body was filled with dense fire energy. Its structure was markedly different from a Martial Grandmaster. It seemed to flow through his body naturally, without the need for constructed 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 at 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 there are rare beasts, called spirit beasts, that cultivate qi like humans, but demon beasts use a different energy entirely.”


    As I began thinking through the implications, our small group started to speed up. HuShao who was in the lead, had begun chasing something. The only reason I didn’t fall off during the increasingly fast sprint through the forest 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 in its body, but all creatures possessed at least a little. After each bite, energy from the deer meat entered the tiger’s body. The energy in the deer was a complex blend of different types of qi with a slight tendency toward wood. When it entered HuShao’s body, all of it somehow transformed into thin threads of the tiger’s own demonic fire energy.


    “This is how most beasts cultivate,” said the grandmaster. “In the wild, beasts are vicious. They hunt anything with qi, humans especially. They do this to absorb the qi in the bodies they consume and convert it into demonic energy.”


    I watched in awe as I saw the process unfold. I didn’t understand the process at all, but somehow, one energy type was transformed into another. This made me think about when people took pills. The medicinal energy in the pill transformed and blended into a cultivator’s body. This seemed to be somewhat similar.


    “It goes both ways,” said MengYao. “If you take down a demon beast and kill it, you can eat it. Eating the meat of a high-level demon beast does wonders to improve your body. Not only does it integrate with your qi, but it also strengthens your muscles beyond their normal limits.”


    I tried to pay closer attention to exactly what was going on in the tiger’s body. MengYao said that it both enhanced one’s energy and body, but how did that happen? The qi was being converted into the tiger’s demonic energy, but what was strengthening its body? It took me time to notice, but finally, I saw it. What I had considered impurities in the deer corpse were entering the tiger’s muscles and strengthening them, not the qi. These ‘impurities’ seemed to be blends of various other energy types.


    The process was fascinating, and it had clear implications for how alchemy affected the body, but I wasn’t sure exactly what MengYao’s intended lesson was.


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


    I thought about it but answered in a simple way to allow MengYao to expound freely. “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 my answer couldn’t be correct or we wouldn’t be having this discussion, but stating this openly seemed like what was wanted.


    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 body, causing serious blockages and impurities to accumulate. This does a lot of harm in many different ways. None of the effects are good.”


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


    MengYao again 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 for cultivators but were designed specifically for demon beasts? I hadn’t encountered such a thing before, but I didn’t see why it shouldn’t be possible. A big hurdle might be trying to concoct a pill intended for someone with demonic energy while using qi.


    “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 since the energy they absorb enhances their bodies. Second, formations. We have specialized formations for enhancing the growth and development of beasts. Finally, eating raw herbs. While pills are off the table, several herbs do wonders for demon beasts.”


    The last bit surprised me. It was generally a very 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 these toxins?


    On a ride back to the complex, I started to consider again. This entire discussion had led me astray. Right now, I wanted to focus on what beast taming could do for alchemy, but it seemed like everything had been about how alchemy could help beast taming.


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


    MengYao chuckled and nodded. “It’s a common enough request. You can try buying entire beasts, but we have found most of their energies are stored in specific locations within their bodies. For HuShao, his paws and neck are where it’s most concentrated. If you can isolate the body parts you need, 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 hunts from this location. Since you are part of the Pavilion, I would recommend going through them to set up contracts for adventurers to gather supplies for you. I haven’t heard of alchemists doing so 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.