Evil Samurai In Cultivation World

"In a world where strength dictates one's social status, the only way to get rid of that feeling is to become the strongest. And I can only do that if I push myself to my utmost limits in every aspect of my life. The Royal Army can provide the setting as well as the resources required for all that."

"... I see." Senior Beldon nodded his head and Claude asked, "Is that good enough of an answer?"

"It's pretty good, yeah.." Senior Beldon said with a smile. "So what do you plan on doing now?"

Claude looked at Senior Beldon and said bluntly, "What else? Train."

"... *Sigh*.. You really are a workaholic, aren't you, junior brother Claude?" Senior Beldon placed his palm on his face as he let out a heavy sigh. "You should let loose once in a while, you know? Have fun!"

"What are you talking about, Senior Beldon? I do have fun when I'm training." Claude let out a short chuckle and walked towards the exit, and Senior Beldon let out another sigh as he followed him.

"Where do you plan on training? Are you still planning on using the training ground sectors?" Senior Beldon caught up to Claude and asked.

"I am," Claude nodded his head in response and continued walking. "It's the best place right now for training in the academy."

"But didn't you say before that you weren't making any decent progress while training on those grounds?" Senior Beldon asked, his eyes shining with curiosity.

"I did. But right now that's the best I can do," Claude replied, his gaze shifted towards Senior Beldon. "I guess I have to make compromises."

"Hmmm...." Senior Beldon placed his hand on his chin as he began thinking. Claude stopped moving and looked back to see his senior deep in thought, and looked at him with a confused expression.

"Aha! I have an idea!"

Snap!

All of a sudden, Senior Beldon's eyes twinkled, and he snapped his fingers with delight. 

"You can train in the Gryfino forest!" Senior Beldon walked towards Claude and spoke with delight, and Claude couldn't help but be confused by his words.

Of course, he had considered Gryfino forest. But most of the spiritual beasts inside the forest were easily beatable with the help of Claude's cultivation. And it wasn't just Claude who could defeat the beasts. Almost all of the students who had passed on to the Sky Realm could easily defeat almost all of the spiritual beasts inside the Gryfino forest.

And it wasn't like the terrain was better than the training ground sectors. In fact, he thought that the artificially created training ground sectors were more useful in training than the abnormal and uneven terrain of the Gryfino forest.

So why on earth was his senior recommending him this only now? Honestly, Claude couldn't help but be disappointed.

"Oi, oi, oi! Don't look at me like that. I can tell exactly what you're thinking, you know!" Senior Beldon spoke with an annoyed expression on his face as he scratched his head. "I know what you're thinking… you're thinking why am I recommending Gryfino forest when you're at the Sky Realm, right?"

"I simply don't understand how training there can improve my cultivation in any way," Claude replied and Senior Beldon clicked his tongue.

Tsk!

"That's because you don't know what secrets Gryfino forest holds, junior brother Claude!" Senior Beldon spoke with a smile on his face, which made Claude intrigued.

"What on earth do you mean, Senior Beldon? Is there something I do not know about Gryfino forest?" Claude asked, unable to contain his curiosity, and a huge smirk appeared on his Senior's face.

"Well, it's not like you would've known, considering not many people are aware of this. But you certainly should've expected that I wouldn't simply state something without any reason. I can't believe you didn't trust me, junior brother Claude!" Senior Beldon looked at Claude with a painful expression, and Claude rolled his eyes at his terrible acting skills.

"Just spill it, would you, Senior Beldon?" Claude spoke bluntly, and Senior Beldon clicked his tongue once again. " Tsk, you're no fun, Claude… Fine, I'll tell you!"

He pointed his finger upwards as he opened his mouth to speak, "As everyone knows, Gryfino forest is one of the largest forest areas in all of Argria, and has a variety of animals and spiritual beasts and whatnots residing inside it!"

Claude nodded his head and didn't interrupt Senior Beldon's words, indicating him to continue talking.

Seeing his junior brother so interested, Senior Beldon stopped for a moment before saying, "But what most people don't know is that the Gryfino forest has a lot of secrets that are hidden from the public!"

"What is the reason for not divulging this information to the public?" Claude slowly asked, in a neither humble nor arrogant manner.

"Mostly because of fear of public interference, and for their safety.." Senior Beldon replied.

"But to get back to our topic..." Senior Beldon returned to the earlier topic and continued speaking. "I do not know if you've noticed this before, but if you go deep into the Gryfino forest and look around, you'll be able to find small holes on the ground that seem to stretch towards the core of the earth. Although most people would ignore this weird hole, this hole contains a secret that not many people know."

Senior Beldon took a deep breath and stared fixedly at Claude with a slightly excited mood, and continued. "The hole is dug by a spiritual beast called Callarus."

"What is a Callarus?" Claude had a bewildered expression on his face as he asked.

Senior Beldon looked at Claude as he directly said, "A Callarus is a worm-like creature that bores through the earth in order to hibernate. Now, what's so special about this worm is that as it hibernates, it is essentially building up spiritual energy inside its body. And this little sucker hibernates for thousands of years as well, so that's a lot of spiritual energy that it's using!"

Senior Beldon pondered for a moment before looking at Claude and slowly saying, "Now, although it does cultivate a lot of spiritual energy, it is basically a worm, so it can't actually use all of the energy in combat. We're assuming that the spiritual energy is most likely broken down into food particles for the Callarus worm, so it's not in the form intended for cultivation. And although some have dissected the organism, it was found out that the spiritual energy was released into the atmosphere the moment the creature died."

Snap!

Senior Beldon snapped his fingers as he continued, "But if you defeat the Callarus worm, it's said that the spiritual energy that gets released into the atmosphere is so thick that one can feel your cultivation levels improving if you are in close proximity to its corpse!"

"Why haven't most people figured this out yet? Surely the strange and weird holes on the ground must've intrigued somebody." Claude asked, and Senior Beldon nodded his head. "Oh, because it's not that easy to capture this worm. For one, the holes it bores are literally endless, and it's impossible to pick out the Callarus from the hole. And secondly, even if you somehow found it accidentally, it's speed is so fast that it'll most likely escape before you can even make a decision."

"So how on earth am I supposed to capture it?" Claude asked, impatient. He knew that Senior Beldon wouldn't tell him all of that just to say he wouldn't be able to capture the worm. Surely he must have a plan in mind.

And, as per his suspicions, Senior Beldon did, in fact, have a secret method hidden up his sleeve. 

"Erythrimum and Dioserum!" He said with a smile, and Claude looked at him, confused.

"Are those some kind of drugs?" Claude asked and Senior Beldon nodded his head. "Bingo! These drugs are essential to bring out the Callarus. You only need to mix the two drugs together to form a compound drug, and pour it into the hole. The compound will definitely seep into the earth and reach Callarus in no time, making it irritated and weak, forcing it to come out."

"You're expecting me to buy the drugs?" Claude asked, and Senior Beldon rolled his eyes. "I'm sure you have the ability to find these drugs considering you were able to off the Headmaster, but do remember to check the dosage as the compound might be dangerous for the ground in the long term."

"Is that all?" Claude asked, as Senior Beldon slowly exhaled. 

"Oh, and one more thing..." Senior Beldon said as he cleared his throat. "Do make sure that you catch and kill the Callarus worm as quickly as you can, alright?"

He looked at Claude, and his gaze was serious. "The Callarus might look like an easy target, but if you play around too much and not let it bore a hole for hibernating, it will get angry.. And I'm positive you're not going to like it getting angry!"