Jintian stalked through the forest, a dark expression on his face.
He had left the town some time ago to continue his march northward to Shan'an. The sun had set, leaving the forest shrouded in darkness with only faint moonlight breaking through the canopy to light it. It was alive with the chirping of insects and nocturnal beasts yowling in the night, but Jintian paid it no mind.
He had been traveling for a few hours now, his steps relentlessly trampling the underbrush beneath him. His heart burned with fury, as the performance Huang Ruifeng had put on played unending in his mind.
"A demon! Ha!" He muttered to himself, the hate filled mask seared into his memory. "Why would I transform into a demon? If anything, I'm doing the world a favor by killing that bastard! Scum like that… trash like that doesn't deserve to live!" He gnashed his teeth, the rage boiling inside of him with nothing to unleash it upon.
Jintian almost wished that a demonic beast would attack him, if only to give his wrath a target. But for once, his journey remained uninterrupted. Perhaps there were no demonic beasts left in the area. He had killed quite a few of them, after all.
Or perhaps they were avoiding him.
Finally he stopped, stomping his foot powerfully into the earth. With a muffled boom, dirt exploded into powdered dust in the air, while Jintian spun around and lashed out with blinding speed. His fist snapped towards one of the towering ginkgo trees, and with the crack of shattering timber, he blew a sizeable chunk out of its bark. He wrenched his hand free from the hole he had created, more wood splintering away, but he was still far from satisfied, the searing hatred inside of him molten in his chest.
He continued to unleash his wrath upon the area around him, reducing sizeable boulders into powder, and shattering timber into dust. Finally, with a snarl he cratered another tree, his fist sinking through its trunk up to his elbow. The rage finally cooled enough for him to let out a breath, and he pulled his arm from the tree, the wood creaking in protest of the abuse he had inflicted upon it.
Jintian looked around at the destruction he had wrought. All of the rocks in the area had been reduced to dust, and many of the trees had large chunks of their trunks blown outward. There were several craters in the ground as well. Everything within twenty meters of himself was marked with the aftermath of his tantrum.
Jintian sighed, looking upwards, not towards the stars but something that laid far, far past them. "I can't let go of it." He whispered. Whether out of defiance or shame he did not know, but he felt the need to confess it. "This hatred I feel, I can't let go. Does that make me a monster as well?"
Only silence answered him, the forest eerily quiet in the wake of his destruction. Jintian closed his eyes, and then sat down upon the forest floor, sinking into meditation. He calmed his wildly beating heart, grimacing as it pounded agonizingly in his chest. It was the eternal reminder of the blood debt owed to him by Wu Mingjie, but he forced that thought from his mind.
Instead, he focused on the spiritual energy around him. It cradled him in its bosom, and rushed to him eagerly as he meditated, as if it had been waiting for him to call upon it.
Soon, his mood settled, peace finding him once again. He buried the fury in his heart, until finally, he could almost pretend like it wasn't there, as he did most days. Exhaling slowly, he opened his eyes, once more looking up to that place beyond the stars.
"I know it isn't the path you wanted for me." He murmured, his gaze cool and determined. "But it is now the only path I know. But don't worry for me, mother, father, Chengcheng. I will not let the hatred overtake me."
He waved his hand, his tent rising from his bag and constructing itself in accordance with his will. He crawled into it, closing his eyes and allowing sleep to take him.
But despite his promise, Jintian's nightmares that night for once were not of Wu Mingjie.
They were of a demon, cackling madly as it stood atop a mountain of bones.
And the demon bore a frightening resemblance to himself.
-
The next several days of Jintian's travels fell into a steady routine. He would wake in the morning, eat breakfast and cultivate for two hours or so, and begin his trek northward. Strangely, the weather in the wider world did not reflect the weather in the mortal realm. Despite the fact that he was undoubtedly further north compared to Jianling, the air was pleasantly warm and a fair bit humid, what he might have expected it to have been in his village, which lay further south.
He also continued to encounter demonic beasts. Thankfully, they all seemed to prove fairly weak, as his master had said they would be in this area. Although he fought the occasional juvenile Crimson Cloud Bear, they did not prove to be as much of a challenge as his first encounter with them. Otherwise, he consistently fought with Viper Panthers, emerald colored boars that according to the scroll he had received were called Mushroom Boars, on account of the fungi that grew atop of their heads, and packs of silver colored wolves that were simply named Direwolves.
The Direwolves and the Mushroom Boars were considerably trickier opponents than the Viper Panthers were. While not as individually powerful as the panthers, they both moved in packs, and whenever he encountered their numbers they immediately rushed to swarm him.
The Mushroom Boars, he'd found, weren't particularly clever. All he needed to do to fight them was to leap upwards into the nearest branch, and swallow the lot of them with three or four casts of the Dancing Flame Serpent. The wolves, though, were clever, and he had on two occasions underestimated that beastly cleverness.
The first pack he encountered, he'd attempted to deal with in the same way as the boars. However, the Direwolves had immediately converged upon him, several of their number leaping towards his branch while the rest made short work of cutting down his tree. He had watched that particular phenomenon with his mouth hung open, and then yelped as he was forced to jump to another tree, the one he'd been sitting on falling to the forest floor with a deafening crash.
Still, he'd found that the wolves could be dealt with by assailing them with a storm of Sword Qi slashes. Unlike the bear, their hides weren't tough enough to shrug off the blows, and their pack soon fell beneath his blade like wheat to a scythe.
The second pack had not gone down quite as easily. They had been led by a particularly large Direwolf, this one carrying a light blue shine to its coat. Their movements had been far more coordinated, and when the first of them fell to his Sword Qi, they had immediately spread apart, attacking him from multiple angles. Even retreating to the branches hadn't helped, as the lead Direwolf could attack him with a strange ice projectile it spat from its mouth at blinding speed.
Once Jintian used the Blooming Frost Lotus on the leader, however, the rest fell shortly after.
After consulting his scroll, Jintian realized that the larger Direwolf was known as an Iceheart Direwolf, which the creatures could become if they ate a cultivator with a particularly strong affinity for ice. There were several other variations reflecting the basic elements, but each could be counted as the bottom tear of a mid-level beast, only barely at the Third Circle.
Kang Shanxi had told him that the reason demonic beasts hunted cultivators was much the same as the reason that cultivators sought locations with dense amounts of spiritual energy. As demonic beasts were separated from the energy of heaven and earth, their only way of growing stronger was to eat cultivators, and absorb the spiritual energy within their victims.
They could also devour each other, but the growth they would obtain from this act was far less than what they could achieve by eating a cultivator.
Regardless, the result of Jintian's efforts was clear, as his bag of holding was filled with the organs of demonic beasts. His scroll thankfully included information on what parts of the demonic beasts were considered valuable, so he did not need to carry around their entire corpse. Consistently, many of the demonic beasts' hearts, livers, and eyes seemed to hold the most value, with the exception of the fangs of the Direwolves or the tendons and claws of the Crimson Cloud Bears.
His collection of beast cores had also increased by a staggering amount, and he spent his nights crushing them between his teeth and cultivating his body. After nearly a full week of hunting demonic beasts, he had absorbed thirty two more beast cores, bringing him to a total of one hundred and forty four.
Jintian sighed as he realized just how long it would take him to reach the Ten Thousand total he would need. He also wept when he thought about how many spirit stones worth of beast cores he was consuming on a daily basis.
Even the lowest beast core sold for at least ten spirit stones, he had learned from the scroll. A mid-rank beast core could be sold for triple that, while anything stronger grew in price exponentially. This meant that he had already consumed over a thousand spirit stones in his bodily cultivation alone.
Though the fact that he could actively feel his power increasing consoled him somewhat, he still cursed his father in his mind when he did the math.
"A million spirit stones just to reach Foundation Establishment, at least! That's how much this cultivation method of yours will cost!" He yelled upwards, but only the forest's canopy rustling in the breeze answered his indignation.
Sighing, he continued his march northward, his grip firm on his walking stick. Perhaps due to the nourishment that spiritual energy provided the mind, he was now far better at keeping track of his own location and relative position on the mental map in his head.
Well, at least he thought he was. He could just as easily be proven wrong. But he chose not to believe that option.
According to the distance he had been keeping track of in his mind, he figured he was now only three weeks away from his arrival to Shan'an, which left him a full month afterward to continue his own training and preparation for the qualification trial. Which suited him just fine, as he was also honing his skill through his constant encounters with the demonic beasts.
Huang Ruifeng's worried remark played in his mind, about there being an unusual amount of them active in this part of the forest. But even thinking the name left a bad taste in his mouth, so he waved it away.
The trees, he had noticed, had slowly begun to grow bigger the further north he headed. He suspected it was due in part to the growing density of spiritual energy he felt as well. While not as staggering of a difference as compared to the disparity between the mortal realm and the wider world, it was still distinctly noticeable.
Jintian was suddenly pulled from his thoughts as he heard a muffled boom in the distance, and he paused, turning his head slightly towards its direction. Moments later, another boom echoed through the forest, this time just a little louder, perhaps a little closer.
And Jintian swallowed nervously as another boom came, this time unmistakably closer. His brows furrowed as he realized he could hear something else, a low rumbling roar that was growing louder with every moment. His heart began to pound in his ears, his grip tightening around his walking stick as he slowly began to back away.
There was another boom, much closer, and the rumbling grew louder. A cloud of birds erupted into the air, while the force of the shockwave in the distance caused the trees to bend slightly towards him.
Jintian needed no further prompting. He turned and ran.
BOOM! The sound was deafening, still a fair distance away but filled with such violent intensity that it left his ears ringing, while he could hear trees splitting in half from the force. The rumbling, however, was now only just behind him, the earth shaking beneath his feet as he dashed through the forest.
Jintian's legs churned, the trees a fading blur of brown that whipped past him as he ran as fast as his Qi reinforced body would allow. He swerved between them, his heart leaping upwards into his throat as he turned his head to glance over his shoulder.
The rumbling roar he had heard was now deafening, and that was because… there were dozens, hundreds, thousands of demonic beasts stampeding through the forest behind him!
The beasts were shrieking and roaring in a horrendous cacophony of primal terror, a tidal wave of flesh and fur that crashed through the forest in a crazed frenzy. He could hear the splitting of wood and timber as entire trees were exploded through by the horde, and another boom ripped through the air, this time deafening him completely and tearing a scream from his throat as he was blown off of his feet.
The horde of creatures seemed to suffer the same fate as himself, his world spinning around him as he tumbled through the air, screaming wildly. Hundreds of creatures were flung into the air in the same fashion, blood curdling shrieks echoing in the forest as bodies were thrown every which way, some crashing into and exploding against trees, others slamming into the earth in an explosion of dirt, leaving craters where their bodies had impacted.
Jintian himself had only just enough time to see himself hurtling towards a tree at lightning speed. He gritted his teeth and crossed his arms and legs over himself, and with a shattering crack he crashed through it, wood exploding outwards as he was launched straight through its trunk. Jintian felt his own arm crunch beneath him, another scream erupting from his mouth as blinding agony immediately lanced through his mind with white hot intensity.
Gritting his teeth, he flipped himself over in the air, just in time as he was nearly about to slam into another tree. In a feat of pure athleticism, he forced his feet to align with the tree he was rushing towards. He landed with another crack, the bark splintering and caving inward beneath him as a jolt shot through his legs and spine.
He nearly fainted as the jolt caused another wave of agony to ripple outwards from his broken arm, but he instead snatched a hand out to grab a branch, immediately climbing upwards to escape the endless wave of demonic beasts below.
Jintian watched the tide flow around the tree, trembling from the fear of how suddenly his life had nearly come to an end.
He steadied his breathing, praying that another explosion would not arrive to destroy him or the tree he was on, and that the demonic beasts below would remain terrified enough to ignore the tasty morsel sitting just a hundred feet above them. He then looked down at his arm, grimacing as he saw it was bent at a sharp angle near the elbow. An entirely wrong angle.
Jintian gingerly pulled his arm into the sleeve of his robe, hissing as pain sliced through the thoughts to remind him of his own frailty. His forehead beaded with sweat, his teeth clenched so hard they felt they might shatter, he managed to reach into his bag of holding and pulled out one of his damaged robes.
He bit down onto its collar, and tore it into two long, jagged halves. He tied one of the halves around his broken arm, pinning it to his chest in a makeshift sling, and he tossed the other half down to the seemingly endless hoard of beasts below.
Finally, Jintian let out a shaky breath, sitting down on the branch he had found safety on and cradling his arm. However, he frowned as he realized he could hear a voice above him. Looking upwards, he hesitated for a time, before gathering his courage and clambering up the tree, reaching the canopy in a few cautious leaps from branch to branch.
When he breached the top of the treeline, Jintian took a few moments to look around, before he nearly fainted from shock. His heart froze in his chest, and he nearly stopped breathing entirely.
Only a few hundred feet away, he could see a gargantuan beast. It looked like a monkey, yet was titanic in size. It towered over the trees, its powerful body a mountain of dark red fur and muscles that rippled like great landslides with every movement. It slammed one of its arms down into the forest below it, and Jintian watched as the entirety of that section exploded into a cloud of dirt and splinters.
It was waving its arms madly in the air, and occasionally one of its fists would strike the earth below it, erasing a portion of the woods with the pure destructive force of the blow. Jintian realized then, that the terrifying explosions he had witnessed were little more than the missed blows of this… monster. He almost felt as though he was gazing upon an angry god, spreading wanton destruction around it with little care for what suffered beneath its wrath. He was little more than an insect, to this almighty being. And yet…
Jintian could see that the monkey's flailing limbs were actually lashing out in an attempt to strike something. Much like Jintian, it looked to be an insect compared to the mind-numbing size of the creature. It flew around the monkey with practiced ease, dodging the demonic creature's strikes without ever seeming to be close to harm. What's more, Jintian realized that this tiny black dot was… laughing.
No, not just laughing. Taunting. It was mocking the monkey.
That black dot was another cultivator! If Jintian squinted, he could just barely make out their features, with long black hair and a vermillion colored robe.
"How truly unfortunate for you, mongrel." The cultivator called, zipping past a punch that caused a visible wave of air to snap against the sky, erasing a cloud in the distance. "If only you had been given another month or so, your evolution into a demon might have been completed. But alas, you were careless. Thankfully we received a report of displaced demonic beasts within the area, and I was sent to investigate."
The monkey snarled with rage, pounding its chest and leaping into the air with a wild cry. Jintian watched in pure awe as it then slammed back downward, dirt and entire sections of trees erupting upwards into a mushroom cloud, while the shockwave from even hundreds of feet away nearly blew him off from his tree as it bent beneath him.
He gritted his teeth, but kept his gaze trained on the exchange before him. Foundation establishment. He thought, overcome by the spectacle before him. This is a clash between Foundation establishment titans!
"And how unfortunate for you that they did not send a Qi Condensation whelp first." The cultivator continued to taunt, flying out from the dust cloud and hovering in midair. The dust settled, revealing the monkey in all of its horrible hatred of the insect that irritated it so. "So close. But alas, your journey ends here. The wheels of karma turn endlessly, and it is my pleasure to crush you beneath their weight."
"SHUT! UP!" A voice louder than thunder cracked through the sky, and Jintian's mouth hung open as he realized it was the monkey that spoke. Kang Shanxi had told him that demonic beasts who had reached Foundation establishment could do so, but to actually hear it for himself was a different matter entirely. "ALL OF YOU FILTHY CONSORTERS OF HEAVEN! ENDLESSLY PRATTLING, ENDLESSLY REVOLTING! DO YOU-"
The monkey's calamitous voice was suddenly silenced, as Jintian saw the cultivator wave a hand. A flash of light sliced through the air, and the monkey's jaw was torn away from its face, a gushing waterfall of blood pouring to the forest floor below while a mountain of flesh and bone crushed the earth beneath it. The monkey howled in agony, holding its now gaping maw as its tongue hung limply out of its gored, torn throat.
"Do not dare to speak the language of humans, you disgusting beast." The cultivator said in a tone so cold Jintian shivered against the tree he held onto. The monkey roared again and lashed out with its fist, but the cultivator simply snorted and flew backwards. The cultivator then lazily raised a hand, and Jintian watched as the sky above them both was torn open, revealing roiling darkness that flashed and crackled with lightning.
"Be grateful, mongrel. You have the honor of being slain by an actual technique of mine." The cultivator called, before slamming his hand downward. Out of the torn hole in the sky, a fist the size of a mountain flashed through, as bright as lightning. The ape screamed for only a second, before Jintian was forced to turn his head away as the brightness of the fist nearly burned his eyes from his skull. There was a deafening CRACK of thunder that left his ears ringing, and he clenched desperately to the tree as it was bowed backwards by the force of the strike.
When he could finally open his eyes, the tree swaying back into place beneath him, he saw that there was a crater nearly the size of a city where the monkey had been. All that remained were swirling ashes that drifted upwards in a large column, disappearing into the breeze. Jintian held his breath, his mind devoid of thought on what he had just witnessed.
The cultivator was floating in midair, hundreds of feet away, patting the ash from his robes. Jintian's breath hitched as in the next moment, the cultivator was floating right in front of him, smiling.
"Well hello! A Third Circle whelp dares to view the splendor of my secret technique?" The man said jovially, though the coldness in his eyes made Jintian's hair stand on end. "How long have you been observing, small fellow?"
Jintian's mind raced, not daring to so much as breathe in the man's presence. He looked to be handsome, and young, no older than himself even. But Jintian knew that was a deceit. The man before him could have just as easily been older than Kang Shanxi, if he'd reached Foundation Establishment fast enough.
If Jintian displeased this person, they could very easily slay him right here. He had no backing, no one who would look for him. He was a field mouse who had caught the attention of a lazy cat. Whether he lived or died depended entirely on just how much of a bother the cat found the mouse to be.
He saw the man's smile widen ever so slightly, but that only caused Jintian's heart to seize with terror. Suddenly, he stabbed his hand into his bag of holding, and withdrew all of his remaining spirit stones.
"Forgive me Senior!" He said, not too loudly but not too softly either. The man seemed taken aback by his sudden action, his smile faltering. "I recently purchased a new bag of holding, so this is all I can offer you for the honor of witnessing your battle. It was a splendid one indeed, and I can only hope that you do not think this paltry sum is equal to the respect that I feel for such a mighty warrior such as yourself, but merely all that I can offer!"
He then lowered his head, screwing his eyes shut. The man remained silent for a few moments, before laughing loudly.
"Well, I see the youth today certainly have learned manners, compared to my own generation!" He said cheerfully, and Jintian breathed a sigh of relief as he raised his head slightly. The man was beaming down at him, the coldness gone from his eyes. "Aiii, such a small amount of spirit stones. What could a respectable Senior like myself use that for?"
Jintian nearly wept as the man said these words, while at the same time opening his bag of holding! You want them! You very clearly want them!
Despite the bitterness he felt in his heart, Jintian plastered a fawning smile on his face. "While I'm sure it is truly a pitiable amount compared to the wealth you have no doubt gathered in your mighty path of cultivation, please take them regardless, as a token of my sincerest gratitude for the lesson I've learned this day!"
The man clicked his tongue, before shaking his head. "Well, though it pains my heart to take what little you have… since you're insisting, then I will do so." He said, scooping them neatly into his own bag of holding. Jintian felt his heart twinge with pain at the sight, but his smile only grew wider. The man cleared his throat, looking down at him.
"Tell me, young man, what are you doing this far south? Third Circle, and I can see you are only nineteen years of age… don't tell me you're a rogue cultivator?" He asked, and Jintian heaved a breath at the change in his address. From small fellow to young man… it would seem his spirit stones had bought his life.
Clearing his throat, Jintian once more bowed his head. "I am sad to say that I am indeed as you have gathered. However, I am currently traveling to Shan'an to participate in the Sect Recruitment there." He explained, stealing a glance at the man to judge his expression.
To his surprise, his eyes sparkled with delight, and he laughed loudly. "Hoh hoh! Well, that is a great coincidence! I happen to be one of the judges. I have not introduced myself. I am Xong Wuyi, a Foundation Establishment Elder of the Lofty Cloud Sword Sect!" He said proudly, and then looked at Jintian expectantly.
Jintian blinked in surprise for a few moments, before hurriedly stuttering a response. "O-oh! It is an honor to meet you, Elder Xong Wuyi! I am Shen Jintian… of no sect." He said, bowing his head, and the man gaffawed loudly. Then, he sighed.
"I see that I have not been active enough lately, if you don't recognize me. The younger generation has forgotten my name… or perhaps you're just a bumpkin." He mused, before clapping Jintian on the back. "Well, young man, congratulations on surviving your first encounter with a Foundation Establishment demonic beast. Typically the migrate to the Demonic Plains to undergo their transformation, but…"
He trailed off, looking at Jintian's broken arm. Jintian hurriedly tried to hide it, and the man rolled his eyes. "Aii, what's the use of that. I have taken a liking to you, young man. Take this. I hope you survive your journey so that you attend recruitment. Who knows, you may even become my junior!"
Xong Wuyi pulled out a small pill from his bag of holding and tossed it to him. The older cultivator nodded encouragingly, and Jintian studied the pill for a few moments.
It was no larger than the bud of his finger, and was pure white. Sniffing it, it contained a faintly medicinal aroma, while he could sense the barest hint of spiritual energy wafting out in his spiritual sense. Finding no reason to refuse, he placed it in his mouth and swallowed the pill whole.
A small warmth began to swell through him, before settling in his arm. He felt a tingling sensation begin to slowly transform into a near maddening itch, just underneath his skin. The itch was forgotten temporarily, though, when he watched in grotesque awe as his arm forcefully straightened and cuh-racked back into place.
He felt a stabbing pain shoot up through his arm for just a second, before it once again returned to the faintly tingling sensation. Seeing his open jaw and wide eyes, Xong Wuyi chuckled.
"Bumpkin you are, then. If you're this transfixed over a simple Bone Mending pill, you've a long way to go, young man." He said, and Jintian finally seemed to remember that he was in the presence of another.
He quickly bowed his head. "Many thanks, Senior! Your generosity honors me beyond measure!" He exclaimed, and Xong Wuyi smiled. He then began to float backwards.
"I will remember you, young Shen Jintian. If you do not arrive at the recruitment trials, I will assume you died out here. Ai… such is the fate of you Qi Condensation whelps." He tutted, before turning around fully. In the next breath, he was simply gone, a blast of wind bowing the trees in a straight line away from Jintian the only indication of his passing.
Jintian stared after the wake of Xong Wuyi's departure for a few moments, before finally collapsing back onto the branch beneath him, heaving in air as his heart thundered in his ears.
Died, Jintian thought. I almost died just now.
He didn't know how, but he could sense the man's willingness to kill him like a sword resting on the nape of his neck, ready to swing downward with his death sentence at any moment. It had only lessened once Jintian had produced his spirit stones, but even then, he could sense the man waiting for any reason at all to slay him right then and there, despite his friendly demeanor.
Gathering his breath, Jintian looked at the forest floor far, far beneath him, before laughing hollowly. "I suppose… asking him to have helped me down wouldn't have been a good idea." He muttered, before sighing and beginning to climb down.