Cruelty is relative, just like everything else in existence. That whole ‘Eternal Dao of Domination’ thingy came to mind as I gazed down at the insignificantly weak little brine shrimp. They swam around frantically, struggling to escape the vicious cannibal that used its mandibles to tear them apart with ease.

It didn’t even eat most of them. I could literally crush that ‘guy’ to death with my fingers, assuming that I could actually catch it. Yet, to the other shrimp, ‘he’ was a true monster. That ‘dude’ didn’t care if ‘his’ siblings were babies or adults. He was a fucking psychotic mass-murderer!

However, in a situation where I was like a God compared to them, I still just casually watched them be killed. Honestly, it made me wonder “Is this how real Immortals and Deities feel when they look down at Mortals?”

The funny thing is that it’s actually a very similar situation. Although he was a monster, the alpha brine shrimp was the only one who had the chance to surpass his limits and evolve beyond being so pathetic.

Mei didn’t understand, or maybe she was just too ‘young’ in a sense. What Cockroach Lady, I mean, Li Xiu Ying said was starting to weigh on my mind a bit. The part about how souls go through a shit-ton of lives before they ever manage to accomplish anything significant. Sometimes they get weaker, occasionally they get stronger and if they’re lucky, they can eventually become overpowered motherfuckers.

Anyway, I decided to call that particularly fearsome shrimp ‘Little Ares’. As I placed my palms against the glass, there were still a thousand of the tiny critters frantically swimming around inside of the bowl.

“Okay, now remember… Let your Qi flow out through your hands, but don’t force it. They’re only-ah, see, you killed them already!” While Mei was scolding me, I noticed that those green tendrils of mana polluted the water and changed its color dramatically. I had barely even released my aura at all and it was already enough to cause every single one of the poor critters to explode.

As she was about to sprinkle another packet into the bowl, I said “Hold on a second, I need to do something first.” Standing up, I glanced over at my original extradimensional pouch, which was placed next to the guns. When I walked over and reached inside, I found what I was looking for rather easily.

A certain alleged ‘Shadow Dragon Egg’, which mostly just looked like a black pebble. I walked back over and dropped the stupid thing into the bowl filled with tons of ‘death’. The temperature of the water rapidly dropped until it was almost freezing and all of the mana was rapidly absorbed by the mysterious rock. Not only that, but even the ghost of Little Ares was sucked inside. Then the carcasses dissolved into a disgusting inky mess.

Mei yelped, asking “Why did you do that?! Eww~, what is that thing? A Frost Squid’s Ink Sack?”

“Didn’t I tell you this before? It’s supposed to be Shadow Dragon Egg… But who the fuck really knows? Hmmm, that’s weird.” All that black shit was getting sucked back into the stone and the water was warming up again. Within a minute, it looked totally clean and purified.

The confused and curious naked girl across from me, decided to pour in another packet of brine shrimp eggs. Even after waiting five minutes, nothing was happening. She pouted, complaining “I don’t have an infinite supply of these things Levi and I only have this one bowl. Take that weird pebble out so you can start practicing again…”

I smirked, watching the thousands of shadowy tendrils squirming out of the rock’s smooth surface. They wiggled around and eventually penetrated into the microscopic eggs. However, Mei didn’t have any sort of reaction, even after I pointed towards them and asked “Can you see that?”

“Levi~, this is supposed to be a Druidry lesson~… Stop doing weird Shaman stuff and let me~ teach~ you~!” Ignoring the adorable temper tantrum, I decided to introduce some of my own mana into the mix. The thick green tentacles swiftly traveled through the glass and were instantly consumed by the stone.

Darkness is usually related to death, while Nature is one of the most famous Elements in regards to life. However, if utilized properly, all Elements had the potential to create and destroy.

As I watched those minuscule eggs start to hatch, I smiled at Mei and told her “Don’t worry, I’ve definitely learned a lot from your lessons Sensei, hehehe~. The main problem is that these critters grow, age and die way too quickly… So as long as we can slow down the process, it should become possible to have a bond of Companionship or whatever. Even if I can’t, well, like you said, it’s all practice anyway.”

She glowered at me for a second, before crawling into her magical luggage and pulling out that fancy cutlass. After she walked over to the middle of the room, she unsheathed the blade and began performing a graceful and extremely erotic dance.

I grumbled “Ugh, now I’m horny again…” while staring at her jiggling breasts and asscheeks. There were actually a few times where I was worried she might accidentally chop her boob off, but she seemed pretty accustomed to her own unruly tits.

Even though I stopped supplying mana to the fishbowl, those black tendrils didn’t seem to be harming the brine shrimp at all. They simply attached themselves and from what I could tell, exerted some sort of influence onto the creatures. From what I remember of the brine shrimp on Earth, they either couldn’t or just didn’t eat each other. Qi tended to make creatures a bit more omnivorous and feral, depending on the circumstances. I couldn’t tell whether that egg was controlling the tiny critters or if it was simply lowering their aggression.

Right when I was about to start masturbating, I noticed a red speck of light that seemed to escape from the obsidian pebble. It swiftly entered inside of an unhatched egg and disappeared. Ten seconds later, a baby brine shrimp emerged. However, instead of being green, it was bright-blue. It also had glowing crimson eyes, rather than the seemingly soulless beady black orbs that its peers possessed.

“Oh ho~, so Little Ares is back, huh? Shit, those bastards are actually ganking him!” I smirked, enthusiastically watching as the swarm of viridian crustaceans swiftly devoured the ‘kid’. Yet, even after he died, that wisp managed to enter another egg and be reborn… or rehatched. Just like the last time, the whole mob frantically lynched him before he had a chance to grow.

On the fifth try, I murmured “Maybe this will keep them occupied?” Then I started sending waves of my green aura from my palms, through the glass and into the water. I didn’t really know why, but my guess was right. The moment that there was another source of mana to choose from, they totally ignored Little Ares. The only problem was that I needed to keep channeling Qi, or they would try to kill him again.

“Fuck, this is why I could never take care of pets… Well, not exactly, but the point is that I can’t take care of these things all day and night. I’ve got other shit to deal with!” I mean, I had to learn how to cast spells… Unfortunately, I didn’t have Water Qi and I couldn’t do any of the magic that Hua Jiang left me, without access to it. Still, I had to work out a lot… But there was no equipment for me to use, so that was also impossible. I couldn’t waste bullets with target practice. Cultivation was as easy as breathing for me… I guess I really didn’t have anything else to do after all, huh?

With my left hand on the glass, I continued feeding the creepy egg my mana, while I stared at Mei’s ass. She was facing away from me and taking up various stances, swinging that black cutlass around nonstop. I’m not totally sure why doing squats would help her swordplay, but it made masturbation much easier for me.

Even after half an hour of intense exercise, the sweaty girl still had plenty of energy left. Without using any sort of magical abilities, it was practically impossible for an Apprentice to run out of stamina. At least not unless they got hungry, sick, or were being parasitized by a Spirit. Of course, she did eventually need to piss.

Instead of leaving the room, she stood on top of the rifle and shotgun cases that were stacked up against the back wall and managed to aim her stream out the porthole. I yelled “Hey, don’t urinate on my stuff!”

However, she immediately retorted “Hmph~! You really look down on your Mama Mei too much, Little Levi! I may be out of practice, but I can still control my own pee!” Apparently, there were a lot of other odd perks to ‘Water’ manipulation training.

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