I awoke on a red battlefield. I was bathed in blood, I was in shock, in great pain. I looked down at my hand, it was calloused and tough, but colored a dark red.
I groaned as I stood myself up, throwing off the heavy warrior's armor that had somehow gotten on me. I took a look at my sword, a sharp and clean iron with white streaks along it.
My hair had grown more than thrice my normal length, and after moving it out of my eyes to look around, I saw…bodies…on bodies…on bodies…piles, no, mountains
This…this many people dead? This would number more than the entirety of the current population of the Realm!
My ears were ringing and I turned around, I saw an middle aged man with long, blue hair yelling for me to…to something? I can't-
I turned around to the sight of a celestial being, or so it seemed. A ball of pure, purple Qi hit me straight in the chest and through
I had a hole the size of a shield through my body…I fell
And woke up again, this time on a bed of moss, next to me was Yao Kun and between us was the Crimson Blood Flower.
We..survived? No, wait, what happened before the war? I-…I had a wife?
No, no no no
I was on a wilderness training expedition with my brother Yao Kun from the Gansu Military Academy, right…let's set that nightmare off to the side.
Looking up at the morning sky, it seemed as though we had spent the night, 9 more days to go until winter comes, and signs were showing.
It was chilly, and if my body weren't so trained and hardened over months of work, I would've probably frozen overnight.
A campfire was lit in front of me, but I kicked it out and woke up Yao Kun, "Hey, brother, we got the herb, how's your injury?"
He yawned, rolled over, and took his time sitting up, "I-injury? Ah!" He yelled in pain and quickly fell over again, uncovering his upper robes, he saw layers on layers of bandages, "I should be fine, but I won't be able to go out anymore."
Geuk! That's not good…I need to train and get stronger, and do it fast, I won't be able to leave him but I also can't afford to spend the rest of the nine days looking over him!
Well, to be entirely honest, I'm not doing so well, my bruised and swelled up shoulder-huh? My shoulder's swelling and bruising, it's all gone! It looks completely fine.
Hmm, if it was the instructor who truly saved us the previous day, then chances are he could've fed us medical panacea to heal us! After all, without one, I'm not sure Yao Kun would be entirely alive as of right now...
A stick broke behind us and the bushes rustled, I unsheathed my sword in a single breath's time and turned around quickly, "Reveal yourselves, bandits!"
Who instead walked out of the bushes were two female disciples with black robes, ah, my sisters from the academy, but they eyed me warily, as if waiting for me to attack.
Seeing those stares, I wasn't completely sure they came with decent intentions, so I took a step back and kept my sword still.
"You..." The girl with the long black hair, who had hidden daggers, spoke first, "You're not gonna kill us right?"
HUH?
"Why in the world would you think I would do that?!"
"Well," The beauty who used steel threads spoke next, "We've heard rumors that you were part of the demonic sect."
"...was it Li Baiyu? I thought so, he's just a bit mad because I'm better than him, kek," I gave a cheeky smile, sheathing my sword again.
The ladies, however, didn't seem too impressed, "We were trying to find a safe space for Luo Soso," The black-haired girl motioned to her academy sister, "She was injured in a fight against a giant cavern spider."
"Is that so?...where would this cave be"
"eh?"
I need to get stronger faster! And after the new revelations that were revealed to me, I have no fear against facing a spider that two of my academy sisters escaped without major harm, especially with my flame arts!
"Please, trust me. Here is a safe space, my sect brother Yao Kun is injured as well, you can rest alongside him and wait here, I will go and slay that spider myself!"
"Academy brother, er-"
"Mo"
"Academy brother Mo, you must not let your ego get the best of you, is the risk of death worth the accomplishment of slaying a spider?"
"Will we, as cultivators, not face death every moment of our lives for as long as we live in the Murim? If I were to run away from this danger that could harm Li Baiyu and Guo Yanzhi, how could I still stand and call myself a warrior of the righteous path?"
The beauty named Luo Soso sighed, putting one hand over her forehead, "If you're so eager, it is at the base of that mountain there, you will know it when you see it."
I put one hand over the other and gave a respectful bow, "Thank you, sect sisters!"
Now, do I think this spider could defeat an anger and spite filled Li Baiyu and my Brother Zhi? Of course not, do I fear the possibility he could grow from that fight instead of me? Yes, no matter the conclusion of our spar, he is still a genius and regarded as one.
It was a damned long hike to the base of the mountain, the sun entering the midday by the time I had gotten there, gotten to the nearly pitch black cave with large...figures...wrapped up in silk and webs. Which made me think twice before entering, but I wasn't going to be deterred yet. If I am to die here, then it is here where I will lay. I gave a quick prayer to the fallen warriors before me and walked forward with an unsheathed sword.
The ground I walked on turned to cold, hard stone, and it had become so dark I could hardly see my own hands. So I was forced to ignite my Qi and use my sword as a torch. After lighting, I swung it around, trying to see my target, but I only saw the brown walls of the cave.
But I did saw a web, and intending to lure out this giant spider, I gave it a quick slash, lighting it aflame, and it spread quickly, rapidly until the entire cave was lit up by this powerful flame and I was met with a burst of hot air.
Wait, brown walls? These stones are grey, does that mean-
"Yeowang Oyeonmu, Hwahwa-Ui Wije, Bultaneun Gyeongnyeom!"
I quickly combined two of my strikes in one, a horizontal slash at the body of the giant spider and then a vertical one. I was correct in my presumptions, it was a spider, and a humongous one at that. It was the size of a 2-storied building, if not bigger!
The main color of it's body was brown, but on the back of it's abdomen was a purple skull. I got a bit of...fear? Not from the spider, but from the purple skull, especially the purple itself. It made me think of my dream earlier, how eery it was. But this is no time for distractions, I had to focus!
My strikes were quick, less than three breaths of time, but using the mobility of it's 8 legs, it moved just barely enough out of the way to avoid my attacks.
It attacked back quickly, trying to spew white, glowing webs at me, but the flames in the environment quickly made it incinerate in the air before hitting me. But I saw an even bigger opportunity to turn the tides in my favor.
"Yeowang Oyeonmu, Fourth Stance"
The flames from around me created a form of fire tornado where I was in the eye of it. Then, after striking the ground with my blade, they all dispersed, sticking to the walls of the cave and lighting it all on fire
.
"Yeongyeong Bultang-ui Jibang! This cave is now my territory, so just die now!"
I leaped towards the spider on the cave walls, deciding to try a new attack. The Path is set for me to start my overtaking! I won't just build my own future, I'll steal it from all those around me! Imitating Baiyu and Yao Kun, I started spinning, the same footwork and same spinning pattern. Though it was much slower as I've never tried it before and I was using a single straight sword compared to two or a large saber.
But I feel a massive lack of contact, is this spider evading my new spinning attack I had just created?! I had never expected for something with 8 legs to move with so much agility and not being so clumsy! What advantage could 8 legs compared to two achieve?
Ah! Being in the air makes you unable to easily move or maneuver if an attack comes to you, making you tenfold easier to hit! With 8 legs, the spider won't only always have contact with the ground or walls, it'll also have multiple points of contact to let it be able to move it any direction.
I can learn from this! I've learned to form and gently control my Qi, I can manifest it to become a simple tendril like shape, letting me imitate the spider! I created my own technique, stealing this own spider's innate features given to it by the Tao!
I started catching up to the new spider, it's strongest weapon being it's Qi-Infused Silk becoming useless in this fiery hellscape I've created! I created even more and more tendrils to not only catch up but be faster than the spider itself, striking it one by one, with every 7 or so hits using my Five Flame Arts to weaken the spider further!
I had been fighting for over a Gak's worth of time before my tendrils suddenly disappeared and the flames on my sword extinguished themselves...Ah sh*t, I had ran out of Qi. That makes this rather awkward.
The spider had cuts and slashes all over it's body and half it's eyes have been stabbed out, 4 of it's legs were also shortened by my very own righteous, flaming blade. At it's current state, this beast was no better than a giant pig. And though not even a season ago I would've ran in fear from a wild pig, I've changed greatly! I rushed forward, using my unempowered blade to cut it's large head off in a single laceration.
I held my bloodied sword to the side of me and walked out of the cave with renew vigor! And a sense of extreme fatigue from the prolonged battle and the total draining of my Qi reserves.
But still, I stood tall, wiping the blood off my sword using my elbow and sheathed it again. Then, that makes my fighting record against beast a tie and a win. Walking back to the camp would take the entire rest of the day, but I had no choice.
Staying out too late in these woods with no reserve Qi would be the end of me...