Jiang Yuan had only just started handling Human Race affairs, and when he saw the reports from his subordinates, he nearly lost his composure.
No one had ever told him that eating large quantities of Fierce Beast meat over a long period could cause sha qi poisoning.
"Indeed. Fierce Beast meat is good. Its flesh contains a great deal of Innate Vitality, and eating it can enhance one's cultivation."
"But, correspondingly, alongside the Innate Vitality, its flesh also contains a little sha qi, so you can't eat too much."
"If you only eat a little, your body won't take in much sha qi, and it can easily digest it."
"If you eat large quantities of Fierce Beast meat, however, the sha qi your body takes in may exceed its ability to digest it, causing sha qi poisoning."
The subordinate explained.
"Troublesome!"
Jiang Yuan said with a headache. Sha qi was a force whose nature was the complete opposite of spiritual energy. It was highly corrosive, and both Heaven and Earth and all living beings kept their distance from it.
To Heaven and Earth, sha qi could damage spiritual ley lines, pollute the environment, and erode Grotto-Heaven Paradises until they became forbidden zones and lands of death.
To living beings, sha qi could foul the body and erode the soul, turning them into Fierce Beasts devoid of reason.
So sha qi poisoning was extremely serious. If left unchecked, the victim would be completely robbed of their senses by sha qi's corrosive power, becoming a humanoid Fierce Beast that knew nothing but slaughter.
But that wasn't even the most troublesome part. The most troublesome part was this: when it came to eating Fierce Beast meat, who could have eaten more than Jiang Yuan? He had to know that the cultivation he possessed now had come almost entirely from eating Fierce Beast meat.
By that logic, had he already been poisoned by sha qi without realizing it?
"How did we deal with this sort of thing before?"
Jiang Yuan took a deep breath, pressing down the doubts in his heart. Now wasn't the time to check his own body; he needed to deal with the problem first.
"Before, our Human Race didn't have the means to do anything like that. We were lucky just to get Fierce Beast meat to eat. How could we have been prosperous enough to eat so much that we got poisoned?"
Hearing Jiang Yuan's question, the man replied helplessly. If he had any experience dealing with this, he could have handled it himself. There'd have been no need to report it.
"Uh..."
Jiang Yuan was stunned. He hadn't expected the Human Race to run into the problem of a suddenly wealthy man who didn't know how to handle his new riches. The great clans all had experience: they knew to eat Fierce Beast meat in moderation, and never enough to cause sha qi poisoning.
The Human Race, however, had suddenly become wealthy and had no experience to draw on. They couldn't judge how much was too much, so they gorged themselves and ended up with sha qi poisoning.
"Go ask around. The powerful races all grew from weak ones. At the beginning, they must have faced the same problem our Human Race is facing now."
"But they made it through, which means they must have a Method to Resolve Sha."
Jiang Yuan gave the order. With his abilities, dispelling sha qi from the poisoned wasn't difficult, but that would treat the symptoms, not the cause. There were too many people; he couldn't possibly treat them all.
What was Fierce Beast meat? It was spirit medicine, spirit stones, an indispensable resource for improving one's cultivation.
If the Human Race wanted to grow strong quickly, they couldn't take their time eating Fierce Beast meat. They had to eat large quantities of it over the long term.
But if they did, many members of the race would inevitably suffer sha qi poisoning. Under these circumstances, the Human Race had to master a Method to Resolve Sha.
Otherwise, were the Human Race's leaders supposed to do nothing but dispel sha qi from poisoned clansmen all day? That was obviously impossible!
"Yes!"
The man realized he was right, nodded excitedly, and hurried out to ask around.
As soon as he left, Jiang Yuan circulated his cultivation art and examined his body over and over, wanting to see whether he, too, had been poisoned by sha qi.
The bad news was that there really was sha qi inside him.
The good news was that he seemed to have refined it. Not only was it harmless to his body, it was gathering together as if it were about to become a Killing Divine Ability.
As expected of the supreme scripture that pointed straight toward the Dao of Hunyuan Realm. The Creation Scripture was truly overbearing; it could even refine sha qi.
Seeing this, Jiang Yuan relaxed. He had underestimated the Creation Scripture. A mere bit of sha qi was nothing. It didn't have a chance to run wild. Once it entered his body, it became a tonic just the same.
Jiang Yuan was fine, but the Human Race's problem remained unsolved. Without a Method to Resolve Sha, the Human Race couldn't make full use of Fierce Beast meat, which would hold back its development.
"Fierce Beasts were formed from the flesh and blood of Chaos Demon Gods, and sha qi is precisely the mark of a Chaos Demon God."
Thinking of the Fierce Beasts' origins, Jiang Yuan began to see a way forward. He knew which direction to pursue in his research into a Method to Resolve Sha.
The Chaos Demon Gods had created Fierce Beasts to take revenge and make them destroy Heaven and Earth in the Primordial World. So when they created the Fierce Beasts, they infused sha qi into their bodies.
They had to. Otherwise, Fierce Beasts with their abundant Innate Vitality would be no calamity to the creatures of the Primordial World—instead, they'd be walking elixirs.
Without sha qi, no matter how strong the Fierce Beasts were, the creatures of the Primordial World could simply eat them until they were extinct.
But with sha qi added, the creatures of the Primordial World would fear that eating too many Fierce Beasts might cause them to be assimilated by the sha qi. They would dread them and hesitate to provoke them, allowing the Fierce Beasts to run rampant.
Good. He had worked out the Chaos Demon Gods' thinking. Next, he needed to work out Great God Pangu's.
Great God Pangu was surely stronger than the Chaos Demon Gods. There was no doubt about that. So, when faced with the Chaos Demon Gods' contingency plan of using Fierce Beasts to destroy Heaven and Earth, Great God Pangu must have left behind a corresponding way to counter it.
And that way to counter them couldn't be hard to find. It ought to be as common as the Fierce Beasts themselves, or perhaps right near them. Only then could the Fierce Beast problem be dealt with effectively.
If it took ages to find a solution, wouldn't that mean Great God Pangu was inferior to the Chaos Demon Gods? That was absolutely impossible.
"Everything in the world has its opposite. There's always an antidote within three steps. The way to counter Fierce Beasts should be the same."
Before the man could find out anything, Jiang Yuan himself had already found a clue to the Method to Resolve Sha. He was about to head to the area near the Fierce Beasts' habitat and see if there was anything unusual there.
But just then, the man who had gone to ask around came back.
"So fast?" Jiang Yuan was startled and hurriedly asked, "Did you find anything out?"
"I did. There are quite a few Methods to Resolve Sha. The simplest is to roast the Fierce Beast meat before eating it. That makes most of the sha qi dissipate, lowering the risk of poisoning."
"If you're already poisoned, you can take a few common types of spirit medicine. They'll slowly dispel the sha qi in your body."
The man said excitedly. He hadn't expected the trip to go so smoothly. Anyone he asked could tell him several ways to resolve sha qi.
"That simple? Looks like my guess was right."
Jiang Yuan understood. He had guessed correctly.
The Methods to Resolve Sha were probably common knowledge, not some secret. That was why the man had found them out without giving anything in return. If they were secret methods, how could outsiders reveal them so easily without the Human Race paying a hefty price?
"What spirit medicines did he mention? Let me see whether there are any near the Human Race."
Coming back to himself, Jiang Yuan asked.
Actually, that was no longer important. Once he'd confirmed his thinking was right, even without knowing what those spirit medicines were, he could test things out quickly.