Ding raised his saber and caught the vrooshkin in the mouth. It reacted quickly, however, and bit down on the blade before jerking its head to the side, pulling the sword from his hand before throwing it to the side. The three men had taken to placing the barrier talismans in the front of their shirts, so when the vrooshkin lunged forward to bite his arm it did little more than hold it firmly, the piercing of its fangs and most of the pressure of the bite being absorbed by the barrier. Of course, this was putting pressure on the barrier and would soon break it if he did nothing, so he pulled out a second talisman and focused on the vrooshkin. The talisman flew less than a meter before exploding with the force of a fire cracker, causing the demon to yelp in pain and release him. “A little help, please.” Ding yelled as he ran for his sword.
About thirty minutes earlier I had found what looked like a pack of five level one vrooshkin and decided that, with me being at level three, we could easily handle them. The sounds of our battle had alerted several nearby packs, though, and we had been forced by the superior numbers to fall back. That had been thirty seven dead vrooshkin ago, and we still had seven of them circling us, including four level twos.
I ordered Xiao to help Ding and he streaked over before driving his beak into its eye socket at full speed. For some reason that was his favorite way to fight. The flood dragon was wrapped around the throat of one of the level twos that we had already dealt with, slowly choking it to death as it laid on the ground futily trying to breathe. The puppy had even joined the fight and was starting tiny fires near the vrooshkin, forcing them to be careful with where they stepped, lest they burn their feet. He was reabsorbing the fire qi from any fires that started to spread, thus preventing any forest fires this might cause, but this action only brought him out of the action. If only he was old enough to use fire attacks or even wood attacks he would be more useful, but unfortunately he wasn’t.
As the vrooshkin with a flood dragon wrapped around its neck stopped breathing, I jumped backwards and dodged two level two vrooshkin that attacked together. A third had managed to get behind me, however, and grabbed my leg in its mouth. I wasn’t bothering with a barrier, as most level two attacks had trouble breaking through my skin, but this one drew a bit of blood. “Damn it.” I screamed before flipping my sword around and stabbing it through the eye socket, directly into its brain. I supposed that now I was copying Xiao.
The other two saw that I was struggling with the one behind me and lunged, so instead of swinging my sword I merely breathed on them, concentrating enough fire qi into it that they received second degree burns. They started yelping and falling back, and I jerked my sword out of the one that bit me, then lunged at the two injured ones, slitting the throat of the first and stabbing the second in the side. The one remaining level two hesitated, giving me enough time to focus on removing all of the qi from around it. When I released the spell, the qi rushed back into the area and there was a crack of thunder as it was charred by a level three Calling Tribulation attack.
The few remaining level ones fled and the others finished off the ones they were engaging with. Of the forty four Vrooshkin that had attacked us, two level ones got away, thirty one were killed, and eleven level twos were killed by either me or Xiao, as only our weapons and spells could pierce their defenses.
“Report.” I called out, then knelt down to check on my calf. There were seven puncture wounds that bled slightly, but it should be fine with only a level one skin pill.
“One, undamaged.” One called out.
“Two, broken arm.” he said. One of the level twos, the one the flood dragon finished off, had managed to tackle him into a tree before I got to him, and while the barrier had blocked most of the damage, the impact with the mundane tree had still broken it in half and snapped multiple bones in his forearm.
“Ding, undamaged.” he said, then drew his knife to start extracting the nearest vrooshkin’s core.
We had established this method of calling out injuries at Ding’s insistence, as this was a standard method for mercenaries to access damage after a skirmish. It seemed to be a useful way of doing things, so we would keep using it for now.
I went over to Two and grabbed the wrist of his broken arm, using Taking Pulse to access the damage, while being careful not to move the bone and cause him unnecessary pain. Both bones in his right forearm were snapped in two, with the ulna, the outside one, being in several pieces at the point of impact. I grabbed his elbow with my other hand and pulled on his wrist, causing the bones to go back into place with a loud pop. Two groaned a bit in pain, but didn’t call out, apparently having a higher pain tolerance than normal. I then used Taking Pulse to use a small amount of telekinesis on the bone fragments to shift them slightly into place. While it wasn’t meant to be used like that, I found that I could use small amounts of qi inside another person’s body as long as I surrounded everything in neutral qi to prevent his body from reacting.
Once all of the bone fragments were back in place I gave him a level two bone pill and a level one skin pill for the bruising. He swallowed them, then waited for a minute for the pills to finish mending him, concentrating his qi on his stomach just in case they needed any help. The qi in these pills was higher pressure than his own, however, so they didn’t use any of his qi to work. He only needed to help guide the medicinal effect to the damaged area to maximize the effect.
Once his arm was healed he joined the rest of us in extracting cores, with me focusing on the level twos. The three beasts were all eating the dead demons, but I didn’t care for now. They wouldn’t get the demon virus from doing so, as Vrooshkin didn’t carry the virus, so I could allow it. Unfortunately, the lion cub had been left with Five and had been protecting her, so it couldn’t aid us. That reminded me to give them more dried fish for the lion to eat once we returned. What I gave Five yesterday was likely already gone, especially if Five ate many of them.
We slowly made our way through the line of corpses, working our way back towards the path we were on. “Any idea why they swarmed us like that?” asked One, and I shook my head. The sun was close to the horizon and we would need to head back after harvesting the cores.
“They were protecting their tribe, but I don’t know how I could have missed so many. I didn’t see them before we attacked.” When we returned to the site of the initial battle I had Xiao fly around and see if he could see anything. Shortly after we had finished gathering all of the cores I felt my connection to Xiao weaken slightly. “That’s weird.” I said, standing up.
“What is?” asked Ding.
“I lost some of my connection to Xiao, like someone is interfering with it. I know he’s in that direction,” I pointed roughly East, in the general direction of the city, “but can’t get an exact direction. I also can’t share his eyesight, which I should be able to do.” I stored the other two spirit beasts and ran towards that direction. While I didn’t use any techniques to move faster, the body of a level three cultivator, a level three body, is much stronger and more agile than a level zero body like they had, so I quickly lost them.
About three li away I suddenly felt my connection to Xiao return and found myself near a camp site that looked destroyed. There were three human corpses here plus the remnants of a fire and enough fabric that I assumed there were three tents. The area was also covered in what I assumed were vrooshkin droppings and footprints. Apparently they had been using this area as a camp as well for some reason. I called Xiao back over to me and he returned in his larger form, carrying a storage bag. I checked its contents. A book inside of it was titled ‘The Care and Breeding of Poisonous Insects.’ I found two other bags and checked them to find ‘The Path of the Dead’, ‘The Refinement of Humans’, and ‘The Path of Blood’. These people had likely been a group of demonic cultivators that had set up near High River for some nefarious reason.
I did, however, find out how they had stayed hidden despite being so near, as well as what had disrupted my connection to Xaio. The bag which contained the ‘Path of the Dead’ book also contained a small instruction manual for setting up several different concealment formations. Based on the positions of the formation flags which were stuck in various spirit trees, draining the life from them to fuel the formation, I could tell that they were using a level three formation which also disrupted connections to spirit pets, though the formation seemed to be less effective in that area than in concealing the area from the five senses.
I went to the nearest tree and pulled out one of the flags, and the entire concealment barrier collapsed. Suddenly I could tell exactly where Ding and the other two were through our link, about a hundred meters away, so I called them over. “This was the camp site of demonic cultivators. It’s likely they were killed by vrooshkin that then decided to eat them and live in their camp. They had a concealment barrier up to block people from finding them, like a cultivator version of camouflage.” The three nodded to acknowledge that they had heard me and understood. “I want you guys to search the area and bring me anything of value. I have their storage bags, but they might have other valuables.” They nodded again and fanned out to search the area.
I took all of the items that I thought might be useful from the three bags, including the formation flags and book, many spirit stones, and several spirit herbs and materials, and put them in my bag. All of the things I wasn’t sure about went into the insect keeper’s bag, including the other demonic techniques. The other two bags looked like they were made of human leather, and had an aura like they were in constant pain, so after they were empty I burned them to ash in the camp fire. I didn’t want to carry around items made out of people.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Ten minutes later the men returned with many items of interest or value, including several talismans made of a type of leather I could recognize by looking at the bags. I threw them into the fire along with anything else that looked like it had once come from a human. One mentioned that they were worth a lot of money, but Ding explained that, as they were made from humans, the only people that would buy them were demonic cultivators, so they were useless to us and best destroyed. The men also felt strange near them, like when you know someone nearby is hurt and you can do nothing about it, so they willingly gave up these items once the reason for the feeling was explained.
The demonic cultivators had weapons as well, but the two level two and one level three weapons were all made from the bones of dead cultivators, so they were burnt as well. Once we returned to town I may have to visit the local Buddhist temple and ask them to come and cleanse this area. Otherwise we might risk a ghost appearing due to all of the death and pain that was concentrated here.
Two had noticed the corner of a black box poking out of the ground where a vrooshkin had been digging, so he dug it out. Inside were several valuable items. The first was a level four blue-green ganoderma, the mutant cousin of blue ganoderma that was found in the hidden realm. While the blue one could be used to help refine the immune system, making cultivators even more resistant to poison, venom, and disease, the blue-green ganoderma was a poison which quickly damaged the body. The level three blue-green ganodermas could be made into a weak tea and drunk just before a Rebirth to greatly amplify the benefits of Rebirth. The level four, however, was most often used to make a deadly level four poison. I knew it had actual medicinal uses, but didn’t know what those were. I would need to study the herbology books after Jiang and Five were done with them. I only knew of the others from those in the hidden realm explaining it to me while warning me to not eat any that were blue with green streaks.
Also in the box was a bottle of seven level three regeneration pills, which accelerated healing in all body systems to just above the rate of level two organ-dependent pills, six level three qi recovery pills, and a core formation pill. The last one was used by people who were advancing from level three to level four during their breakthrough to increase the density of their core seed and therefore allow them to store more qi at the same cultivation level. The fact that the demonic cultivator had it either meant that they had defeated someone in late or peak level three and taken it from their corpse, or that the level three of their group had been at that level, making it even less likely that they could have been defeated by a pack of vrooshkin. After all, I had faced a similar pack at initial level three with only three mortals as backup and had barely won. Maybe the early level two Xiao and the two level one spirit beasts tipped the scales in my favor, but even with that we likely weren’t the equal of their group.
There was a scream nearby and I called for Xaio to go there before running over myself. Last night, as I meditated to build cultivation seeds, Xiao had given me several substantial threads of his qi, and I had incorperated the seed within my body, thus I was able to use a bit of the lightning speed boost while running instead of flying, but even with it I only ran at around one hundred kilometers per hour, so Xiao got there first. One was laying on the ground, holding his bleeding leg, the veins rapidly turning purple. Beside him was a large scorpion which reminded me of the ones from a certain post-apocalyptic video game, with its green and red coloration. Judging by the nearby overturned large rock One had likely been looking for more treasures and had uncovered the insect instead.
The scorpion hissed and I threw a level three stun bolt at it. It jumped backwards, only being grazed by the bolt, and hissed louder, three of its legs spasming slightly. “Xaio, draw it away.” I said, and Xaio flew over to draw its attention. While Xaio’s stun bolts could only annoy it due to its natural armor, they were enough to get it to leave the mortals alone.
I knelt down beside One and pulled out my medical kits. The only thing I had to help with this were level one anti-toxin pills. They wouldn’t be enough to deal with the venom of a late level two insect, but it might buy him some time. I gave him the three I had left, then turned to the scorpion. I called down a level three tribulation lightning and it shrieked in pain, bleeding from several cracks in its armor. While I would normally try to heal and capture spirit beasts, this one had seriously injured One, so without thinking I called down two more strikes on it, leaving it a charred lump of flesh. I stored the corpse, just in case I could use it, then stored my medicine.
“I hate to have to do this to you, but I need to get One to a doctor.” I said, then shrunk the three men and put them in the beast bag. It would be cramped in there, but there should be enough room, as Randy said it could hold a cow. I put the flood dragon and puppy in there too, then took off into the sky. I hadn’t asked the Ambassador to teach me Improved Flight or anti-gravity yet, so I wasn’t as fast as I could be, but I was able to reach a speed of around two hundred and fifty kilometers per hour, reaching the city in only a few minutes. I was supposed to wait at the gate and get permission to enter, but I didn’t have time to do that, so instead I just flew over the wall and landed in the courtyard of the Ji Manor, just outside the alchemy workshops. “I need a physician!” I yelled, and an old man came out of one of the rooms.
“Why have you disturbed us?” he demanded. “We are in the middle of making pills! And why didn’t you come in the front gate, rather than landing directly in our courtyard? This is highly inappropriate.”
I pulled out the three men, and pointed to One. “He was stung by a late level two scorpion. Not sure which type.” I dropped the scorpion on the ground to show him. “I gave him three level one anti-toxin pills, but it just slowed the poison.” The purple area had spread from his calf to most of his thigh, but as it only took a few seconds to cover the entire calf that was an improvement.
The doctor looked at the scorpion. “It’s too charred to tell. Were there any distinguishing features?”
I thought about what the scorpion looked like before I roasted it, trying to remember the details despite the stress of the situation. “Um, it had a few green streaks on the sided of its shell, and the tip of its stinger was red.”
“Red tailed wood scorpion.” the doctor said. “Maybe a half blood with the low number of stripes. A standard level two anti-toxin would fix it eventually, but he will probably lose the leg.” he said, and removed a bottle from his bag.
“Can you save the leg?” I asked. He looked like he was about to say no, so I continued. “I don’t care about the price.”
He paused. “Wood is yang attribute, so a yin type anti-toxin will work better. This toxin has spread too far, though, so I will need to use a level three pill. That will cost fifty stones, as it is specialized.”
I pulled out the money and threw it on the ground. The doctor nodded and pulled out a special pill from his pouch which glowed with a subtle metallic aura. “Metal defeats wood.” I said, and the doctor nodded as he placed the pill in One’s mouth. One weakly swallowed, then a few seconds later the glow moved from his stomach to the leg. The purple area stopped spreading and quickly reversed. In less than a minute the purple area had shrunk to just the sight of the sting, and a green substance mixed with thick black blood started leaking from the wound. When it was done the doctor wrapped a cloth around the wound.
“You should give him a skin pill, and maybe a blood pill to deal with the damage to his blood tubes.” he said, and I nodded.
“I’m currently out of level one blood pills, but I’ll go buy some more of them right away.”
The doctor stored the money in his bag. “I’m surprised that you would spend so much on a slave, especially one that isn’t a cultivator.” he said, then stood up. “But your personal life isn’t my concern. See that he gets a good meal and some rest tonight, so that he can recover from the injury and the pills can fix everything.” He probably thought I was sleeping with my slave like many men did, but I didn’t care. As long as he didn’t start a rumor it was fine, and easier than explaining why I would care about my slave enough to spend more than he could earn in his lifetime. At least One was seventeen, and thus an adult by their standards. If I had brought Five in for similar treatment who knew how he would react. The fact that she was a cultivator might mean he assumed I was willing to pay because she could earn it back, but I couldn’t be sure.
As he was too weak to walk at the moment, I picked One up and was about to take him home when a group of family guards ran inside followed by city guards. They pointed weapons at me. “Halt.” the level three guard in front demanded. “You bypassed the city gate to land here directly! Explain yourself!”
“It was an emergency.” I said. “My friend was stung by a late level two red tailed wood scorpion and I needed to get him treated before he died from the poison.” I pointed to the charred remains that I had forgotten to pick up.
“I treated him, and can confirm that the man was indeed stung by that scorpion.” the doctor said.
I handed One to Ding and bowed to the guard. “I apologize for any trouble I might have caused you.” I said. “But it was an emergency, and if I had gone through the gate he might be dead now.”
The Guard looked at One and smirked. “I don’t care if your lover is dying. We have doctors at the gate houses for that reason. Next time follow the law or you’ll be going before a magistrate.” He turned around. “Let’s go men.” he said, and they left.
I bowed. “Yes, sir.” I said. “Next time I will do things properly.” With the city guards leaving, the family guards also dispersed.
“You know.” said a voice from behind me, “I assumed you bought the family for the mother, maybe even Three. I didn’t know it was for one of the sons.”
I turned to see Xo standing there, having been drawn away from his cauldron by the noise, as were many others that stood around. “He’s not my lover, and I didn’t buy the family for any of those reasons.” I said.
“The Father?” he questioned.
“No!” I protested. “I bought them because the mother and daughter are cultivators and I think they have talent, which I will prove tomorrow at the test. I saved One’s life because he is useful to me.”
“He’s worth fifty stones? Doesn’t look like he’s useful enough to earn or save you fifty stones.”
“Well, he is. I just can’t explain it yet, because I haven’t worked out all the details yet.” There were plenty of mundane jobs that could earn that kind of money over a lifetime, they just cost too much to train people for, which is why supply was so much lower than demand. When it cost twenty stone to train someone for a job that might earn sixty if you got lucky, the investment rarely proved worthwhile.
“Right.” said Xo, then looked at the scorpion. “It’s badly damaged, but I should be able to get some useful things from it. How much you want for it?”
“Honestly, I don’t know how much its worth. How about you take everything you can from it and give me half of the market value for them tomorrow?”
Xo nodded. “Fine. I can do that.” he said, and stored the dead insect. “See you in an hour or so.” he said, then returned to his shop, the others in the area doing the same.
I bowed to the doctor, who nodded in return, then took One back from his father and headed to the Qin’s house.
