Another fact that made no sense was the beast cores he left behind. A veritable treasure, left to rot!
Qian Ling couldn’t make any sense of his actions. For a lesser cultivator, the mystery may have inspired fear, but it made her want to chase him down even more.
After all, if he wanted to avoid them… why leave such an obvious trail?
“He wants us to follow him,” Qian Ling announced.
“Obviously,” Mu Min agreed. “But why?”
“Well, he warned us about the monkeys,” Qian Ling said. “So he doesn’t want us dead. Not to mention the cores he left for us to harvest.”
“You need to stop about the cores.”
“They should provide enough profit that we can buy a couple of Qi Condensing Pills. One step closer to Foundation Establishment, and it was just handed to us!”
A rare smile formed on Mu Min’s lips, and had onlookers been present, they would have been stunned by the jade beauty.
“You’re blowing it out of proportion,” she said. “We don’t even know if he wished for us to take the cores.”
Qian Ling blinked as an uneasy feeling stirred in her chest.
“What do you mean?”
“If he killed the spirit beasts, they’re his cores by right.”
“If he wanted them, he could have taken them.”
Mu Min frowned in thought.
“Perhaps he couldn’t.”
“What are you saying?”
“Remember that roar we heard?”
Qian Ling shuddered. She knew that roar would haunt her nightmares for many years to come. Never had she heard something so terribly… hungry.
“What of it?”
“Perhaps the spirit beast that roared drove away the monkeys and attacked the stranger. He could be out in the forest, fighting that monster and planning to come back here later.”
“So you think that unknown spirit beast killed these monkeys?” Qian Ling.
“It’s my guess.”
“That’s actually kind of a relief. I never would have thought a human could fight like that. But then why do his tracks just look like he strolled away from here?”
Mu Min shrugged.
Qian Ling paced, frowning, as she tried to reconcile what she saw with what she understood of the world. Mu Min’s theory was sound, but what did it change? The longer they waited, the further away the stranger got, and the greater the chance some spirit beasts would find them.
“You forget, Mu Min,” Qian Ling said as she smacked her palm with her fist. “The whole reason we’re out here is for revenge.”
“You mean honor?”
“Semantics,” Qian Ling said with a roll of her eyes.
“If revenge is all you want, take the cores and return to the sect. Ren Feilong’s injury is shameful and grievous, but it doesn’t threaten his cultivation. Those same Qi Condensing Pills will more than make up for the time he loses due to recovery. The heavens will judge the books as balanced, and we can forget all about this place and that man.”
“That’s a really sensible idea.”
Mu Min sighed.
“We’re not heading back, are we?”
Qian Ling tossed over the storage ring containing the cores.
“You’re welcome to return to the sect.”
Mu Min sighed even deeper.
“But why does he want us to follow him?”
Qian Ling wasn’t entirely sure, but curiosity itched inside her, and she’d spent too much time thinking already.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “We are members of the Shining Mountain Sect. We have our duty.”
Her qi flowed from her dantian as she activated a movement technique and leaped into the branches. She cloaked her presence and followed the road from the treetops.
She wasn’t sure if Mu Min would follow or not, but after a minute, her dark-haired friend landed on a branch beside her. The two women nodded to each other mid-leap, and Mu Min handed back the storage ring.
Slipping the ring back onto her finger, Qian Ling continued down the road as Mu Min kept pace like her shadow. Together, they headed deeper into Twisted Pine Valley.
###
Silence floated between the trees, occasionally shattered by the call of a nightbird or some other creature or phenomenon I couldn’t recognise.
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After the intense battle with the monkeys, my willpower wasn’t fractured, but it was strained. The boost I gained from drinking blood had well and truly faded. Even eating the pieces of monkey I’d carried with me hadn’t fully restored my energy. It wasn’t quite sleepiness, and my hunger was mostly sated. The sensation was more like wearing wet and heavy clothes. It reminded me of when I fell from the mountaintop. The damage sustained from the impact led to me being just a lump of fleshy bones as I drifted in the river.
Once I healed enough, I could control my body, but the healing made me hungrier.
When I’d been experimenting in my cell, manipulating blood only became mentally draining when I went beyond my limits. After that, I needed rest. So, it made sense I was tired after the fight with the monkeys since I pushed my blood manipulation further than ever and took significant damage from those damned spirit beasts. Still, I was sure that after walking a while and letting my willpower rest, I would feel completely normal again.
Despite my vague sense of lethargy, Cabbagy and I were in good spirits. We had a win to celebrate, and I smiled as I walked.
Fresh monkey meat filled my stomach with a gentle warmth like bathwater that slowly spread through my body and rapidly healed my injuries.
Beyond the full belly, I had a road to follow through a tranquil forest. Stars above, and a road ahead: that was all I’d ever wanted when I traveled in the caravan, and it brought me the same sense of joy now as it had then.
The lingering aftertaste of monkey was gamey, but there was another quality — the heat — that I figured was the qi. It gave the meat a kind of pine flavor that wasn’t unpleasant. Even though I’d eaten far more, the monkey meat was only lukewarm compared to the burning coals that Ren Feilong’s nose had tasted like. This was curious, since Cabbagy told me they were around equal in strength.
Was this my body telling me to eat more cultivators?
Though my memories were scattered, none of them showed me eating people — not even the rather strange and pitiful meals I’d eaten as a streetrat. My body ignored those memories and simply reminded me of the delicious flavor and the power I could gain. Not to mention how eating the alternative led to far too much time fishing out fur from between my teeth.
It was food for thought, and since I wasn’t sure, I triple checked my plans:
- Collect the Azure Tiger Blossom so I can apologize to Tan Lu.
- Figure out where I am on a map.
- Go to my closest known previous location.
- Figure out what I am.
“Hmm,” I said to myself.
Eating cultivators wasn’t anywhere on the list…
“What is it, kid?”
Cabbagy’s advice had been good so far… well, some of it was good… it was certainly advice…
“Do you think I should eat people?” I asked him.
“What people? We’re all alone right now. You’re not going crazy on me, are you? Quick, how many fingers am I holding up?”
“What? You don’t have fingers.”
“Good, kid, good. You’re not crazy, but there’s still nobody around for you to eat, so I don’t understand why you’re —”
“No… that’s not what I meant.”
“Then say what you mean!”
I frowned.
“I’m just trying to decide whether or not I should eat cultivators… or not. My body says one thing, but my mind says another.”
“You want some advice, kid?” Cabbagy said after a moment of silence.
“Obviously.”
“A real man doesn’t let other people make up his mind for him.”
I tried not to let my frustration show.
“Thanks, Cabbagy.”
“Don’t mention it.”
We kept walking. Or, rather, I kept walking, and Cabbagy rested in my arms.
“Do you think the monkeys are still out there?” I asked Cabbagy.
“Of course they are, kid.”
“Do you think they’re a problem?”
“Of course they are… for someone else!”
We both had a good guffaw, and after I wiped away the tears, I started whistling a tune. As a street rat, I’d picked up the ability to whistle. Sometimes, it was a means of busking enough coins for a meal.
As a farmer, I’d whistled to call in the dogs before suppertime.
I’d never whistled as a merchant’s son, but that life was far more indolent compared to my other two if I was being honest.
Still, I found myself quite happy with my skill, and the soft music floated out into the trees. It was a pleasant way to walk through the night and into the early hours of the morning. Dawn lit the tops of the pines, and the early birds joined in with my whistling.
“You carry a decent tune, kid.”
“Thanks.”
“You some kind of musician?”
“No, nothing like —”
“Of course not, you’re a warrior! A weapon! A being destined to strike fear into the hearts of cowards and curs across these vast lands!”
I stopped and looked down at the cabbage. His leaves were getting a little frayed and disorganised, giving him a wild, unkempt appearance. If he were a human, I would have asked when he last slept, but since he was a cabbage…
“Are you alright?” I asked.
“Me? Fine. You? I don’t know.”
I shook my head. Another one of his mood swings. Was it just him, or did all cabbages suffer some form of brain damage? Cabbagy mentioned that they were all decapitated, and certainly that couldn’t be good for you.
“I’m fine,” I said. “Just eager to get on with my —”
“Training! Hah, I knew you were a warrior.”
“Sure, Cabbagy,” I said as I resumed walking. “I’m a warrior.”
“Will you fight evil?”
“What?” I said with a frown. “That wasn’t really a part of my plans.”
“Wow, so you’d side with evil? The way you gnawed at that monkey’s bone, I should have known you were a dog!”
“Hey! Of course, I wouldn’t side with evil.”
“You want to say that again?”
“Fine,” I said with a chuckle. “I’m a warrior and I’ll fight evil.”
Cabbagy wasn’t impressed.
“Say it louder, kid.”
“I’m a warrior,” I said, slightly louder to keep him amused.
“Louder! Shout it from the bottom of your lungs to the top of the mountains!”
I pinched the bridge of my nose and swore to ignore the next vegetable that started talking to me. Even if I was lying on the ground and beaten bloody, no more vegetables.
Still, Cabbagy was my friend, and we’d already come this far together. I could do this much. With a deep breath, I felt the air expand my lungs with that strange new inner sense of mine.
“I’m a warrior and I’ll fight evil!”
My shout echoed through the trees, sending birds into the sky. Even if it was Cabbagy’s benefit, I had to admit it felt good to shout something so positive about myself.
Another, higher-pitched voice quickly replied.
“A warrior?” shouted the stranger — a young woman, if I had to guess. “Come quickly! We need help!”
I couldn’t see anyone around, but the voice definitely came from further up the road. I frowned at Cabbagy. Did he set me up?
“Please!” the woman continued. “Help us!”
“What do you think?” I asked Cabbagy, feeling suspicious.
“Better check it out, kid. It always pays to help out a woman in trouble.”
“Oh?”
“You never know how they’ll pay you back.”
Even without looking, I knew he was winking at me.
“You’re disgusting,” I said.
“I’m a cabbage.”
A frightened scream came from down the road and sent a chill through me.
“No…”
This wasn’t a prank. The sound was too familiar, and the fear was too real. Knowing exactly what I ran towards, I clutched Cabbagy tight, pumped blood into my muscles, and flung myself down the road.