Pyeong lunged forward, his claws slashing the air like a wild beast. Radiant energy arced toward Shine's chest. Though the projectiles moved slowly, Pyeong skillfully interspersed them with physical strikes, forcing Shine onto the defensive.
Yet Shine remained unfazed. He ignored the glowing slashes and delivered a powerful punch to Pyeong's liver, indenting his stomach and sending him crashing to the ground. Moments later, Pyeong's body healed itself completely.
"What a disappointment, Most of this guy's martial arts rely on external Qi manipulation which is useless to me. And his trump card only made him a durable punching bag...well at least he still has other uses.
Shine slowly started increased the radiation he emitted, intensifying the pressure on Pyeong.
Pyeong switched to a defensive stance, but Shine seized his arm, crushing the bone. Pyeong screamed in agony. Despite the pain, he continued to attack.
"How admirable, not that it will help him here. His earlier display showed he can't damage my main body, and he lacks the means to reach my core directly from this position.
Releasing Pyeong's arm, Shine observed as it healed rapidly. The regeneration was impressive, but Shine noted that the speed of healing seemed to correlate with the number of the tissues being regrown instead of the complexity given how slow it was compared to his hearts regrowth.
Pyeong attempted to go on the offensive again, but his attacks were desperate and easily countered. Shine shattered his knees and arms, tossing him aside once more. Though Shine knew this was cruel, he needed more information. And he still hadn't determined if he considered cultivators human in the same way he viewed Miss Muun and the humans back home.
As Pyeong's limbs regrew, Shine deduced that the rate of healing was more about the body's restoration to a default state rather than repairing specific damaged areas. And despite being exposed to radiation levels ten times the lethal dose for pre-AI humans, Pyeong showed no signs of distress.
However, Shine noticed a decline in Pyeong's energy output. Initially, Pyeong emitted energy comparable to a Generation Two warform ai; now, he was down to the output of a fleet of pre-AI era jets. If Shine wanted to gain more from this encounter, he needed to act swiftly as his test subject would likely run out of steam soon.
Shine started emitted a continuous 21,000 Hz scream at 200 decibels, causing a constant rumble in the air. Pyeong, still recovering, spat blood and collapsed again. The sound should have been beyond human hearing, and the decibel level sufficient to rupture organs. Yet, Pyeong's resilience suggested that such a sound would only be effective as a surprise attack against cultivators of his level.
"Well, time to end this"
As Pyeong reached for another pill, Shine crushed his arm and placed his ivory palm to his head. A jet of radioactive fire erupted, reducing Pyeong's brain to ash. Shine never discovered the exact amount of radiation needed to kill someone of Pyeong's level, but he now had an estimate: somewhere between 20 and 100 times the lethal dose, thanks to Hak.
Grabbing his spear and returning all his functions to normal levels, Shine swiftly ended Hak's life, completing his first battle against cultivators.
Gathering the bodies, Shine returned to camp to begin the dissections. Thankfully, Rain was unconscious but alive, his heartbeat steady and slowed. It wasn't poison or anything life-threatening.
"Probably for the best, I'm not sure how he'd react to me cutting open his sect mates even if they did attacked first."
"System record audio Log: Dissection Notes, subjects cultivator 1(pyeong) and 2(hak)
Subject 1: Pyeong
Skin: Approximately 523 times harder than normal human skin, about 10 times stronger than steel. Durability decreases by half per minute post-mortem. Likely due to Qi infusion; once Qi is depleted, skin hardness diminishes.
Muscles: less dense muscluature then subject 2 but almost twice as durable likely as a result of greater qi infusion.
Internal Organs: Within the acceptable range of pre-AI human anatomy.
Meridians: No physical evidence found but all prior research confirms there existence, they likely exist in a different dimension or on a plain that I cant interact with.
Core: An orb above the stomach composed of thousands of tiny shards, forming 97.53% of a sphere. Life energy dissipated immediately upon death. Unlike spirit beast cores, this core lost its Qi immediately. The possibility of creating a core artificially is now open, even if the creation of meridians isn't yet. Shards collected for later use, but likely it'll be some time before I figure out how to capture and utilize Qi to fill such a core even if I figure out how to make it.
Subject 2: Hak
Skin: Exactly the same as subject one despite subject one having much more qi, I'm not exactly sure what this subject yet but it could prove as a hard camp to the how durable a cultivators skin could be.
Muscles: More dense then subject 1s despite being less durable, likely a result of less qi.
Internal Organs: Within the acceptable range of pre-AI human anatomy.
Meridians: No physical evidence found; likely exist in a different dimension.
Core: No core detected was found but micro fragments of the same shards were discovered in various parts in the body, however they were to small for me to interact with and as such useless.
"audio log end"