Chapter 103: Looking Up

A little more than a month prior, Zi Delan and his friends were struggling to find food, often resorting to methods he did not feel comfortable with just to keep himself alive. Mugging innocent people. Robbing stores and homes. He’d hated doing it, but the choice was thieving or dying of starvation.

At least, they’d never had to resort to killing anyone and had tried to limit their victims to those who could most afford the loss. Not that anyone had much to spare, but they did their best.

Things had changed for the better. For the much, much better.

In the last month, he had never wanted for food, and not only had he been taught to cultivate, but he was a respected member of a sect led by a powerful master.

The blunt tip of his opponent’s practice spear poked Zi Delan in the chest. Ouch!

“Pay attention!” Yang Ru said.

Oops.

“Sorry, Senior Brother.”

They exchanged blows again, Senior Brother easily blocking Zi Delan’s. At least that time he kept his concentration on the spar.

It was just so hard to keep his mind from spinning. There were so many things demanding his focus that his attention just kept wandering. Five days ago, he’d never held a real weapon beyond a small knife. He’d never had a ton of information inserted into his mind by a jade slip.

For the simple training session with Senior Brother, Zi Delan was expected to choose the correct basic movements of the spear for attack and defense, to watch what his much more experienced opponent was doing and react accordingly, and, oh yeah, not forget to move qi through his body to enhance just the right muscle at the exact right time, minimizing both the amount of muscle he powered and the amount of time he left it powered.

Simple, no?



No.

It was small wonder that his mind wanted to drift.

The blunt end of Senior Brother’s spear slammed into Zi Delan’s shoulder. Ouch! That was going to leave a bruise.

“I said pay attention!”

“Sorry, Senior Brother.”

In a few more days, he’d hopefully achieve Small Success. After that, he’d switch to learning his secondary weapon, the bow. But after a week or so of that to reach Small Success, he’d be back to the spear until reaching Large Success.


At least, he’d be fighting real spirit beasts, supervised of course, when he picked up the spear again.

The tip of Senior Brother’s spear whacked his leg. Ouch!

“Pay attention!”

Ye Zan was bored. It was his turn to keep watch while the other four guards cultivated.

That aspect of protecting the harvesters in the area the Orange Vigor Spirit Wood grew was the amazing. The qi level in that area of the forest was something like twice as concentrated as anywhere else. All the guards wanted to be assigned there.

Since one of them always had to be fully alert, they’d broken up the shift so that each spent two full hours of the ten on active patrol while the others cultivated.

Master, Senior Brother, and Senior Sister swept the area in the mornings, so there was very little action. In the six prior days they’d been out there, they’d only seen three spirit beasts, two rank twos and a rank one.

Hardly exciting.

Still, Ye Zan had to keep vigilant. His job was to put himself between any threat and the harvesters. He paced around the work area, stopping every few steps to listen for anything coming.

Step. Step. Step. Stop. Listen. Nothing.

Step. Step. Step. Stop. Listen. Nothing.

Step. Step. Step. Stop. Listen. Nothing.

Step. Step. Step. Stop. Listen. Rustle.

Wait. That was definitely a noise. Wishing he had a perception technique, he strained his ears to the height of their mortal potential.

Rustle. Rustle.

Yep. There was definitely something moving out there, and it both sounded big and was headed his way.

“Alert!” he yelled. “Alert!”

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Yang Xiu arrived almost instantly. The rest of the guards took a bit longer.

“I’ll go check,” she said. “Hold back a second.”

Yang Xiu quickly and quietly disappeared into the forest, returning about a quarter hour later. “Antelope. Horned. Over a hundred pounds. Rank three at least for sure.”

“Senior Sister, may I?” Ye Zan said.

His tone was pleading. He wanted it. Badly. Large Success was so, so close. A good fight might put him over.

“You think you’re ready?” she said.

Yes! She didn’t shut him down immediately. He had a shot!

“My spear skill is near the peak of Small Success. I’ve advanced to the first minor realm of Bronze Body Cultivation.” He pointed at the guard nearest him. “Huang Yimun is the same. He and I working together can do this. I swear.”

“If I allow you two to attempt defending against this beast, I will let you get gored if you make a mistake,” she said. “I will kill it before it kills you. Probably. But it will hurt. A lot. Are you sure?”

“Positive, Senior Sister.”



Yang Xiu frowned. “Fine. Everyone has to face a rank three at some point. Don’t make a mistake. Don’t let me down.” She gestured at a tall tree. “I’ll be up there. It will be here in ten to fifteen minutes.”

Ye Zan cupped his hands, a gesture made more complicated by holding his spear. “Gratitude, Senior Sister.”

She nodded and glided toward the tree. It wasn’t that she was in a hurry. That was just how she moved, smooth and fast.

“You ready, Guard Huang?” Ye Zan said.

“I am. Are you ready, Guard Ye?”

Ye Zan smiled. “I am. Let’s do this.”

Given the noise the antelope made, it wasn’t hard to pinpoint its position. They had a few of the harvesters relocate to a different tree, just in case. Not that they had anything to fear with Senior Sister on overwatch, as Master called it.

As the spirit beast grew near, Ye Zan loosened his muscles and dug down through the leaves so that his feet rested on the soil. He wasn’t sure if that helped anything or not, but given his qi aspect, it couldn’t hurt.

Huang Yimun looked at him and stifled a laugh.

Hey, it wasn’t superstitious if it worked.

The antelope emerged from a dense stand of bushes. A buck, just as Senior Sister had said. Not that he had doubted her information. There were few people in the world he trusted more than her and Senior Brother.

There was a something the stories about spirit beasts didn’t say, and that was that they were usually gorgeous specimens. The buck was no exception. Its antlers, its form. The light brown fur on its back and the white underneath. It was spectacular.

Something about it also called to him. The smell of earth. Of soil. He wandered if they shared a similar qi aspect.

None of the other spirit beasts he’d encountered felt like that to him. Of course, the antelope was the first rank three he’d seen up close.

The creature looked around and spotted the two of them. The other guards were further back, between it and the harvesters, and Senior Sister was way up in a tree.

Ye Zan knew exactly what it was thinking as it stared at the two fourth minor realm Qi Gathering cultivators—yum, tasty!

Well, come and get it.

Ye Zan, positioned to its left, stepped forward, drawing its eyes.

The antelope charged, graceful and speedy. It wasn’t far, so they didn’t have long to act.

Ye Zan readied his spear. As the beast neared, Huang Yumin darted forward. The beast altered its course at the distraction.

Almost as if they’d practiced the move a hundred times—oh wait, they had—he dodged out of the way just as Ye Zan moved into position. He channeled qi to select muscles in his right hand and arm. With all his strength combined with the burst from the qi, he stepped forward and thrust.

His spear tip pierced the beast’s skin slightly behind the front shoulder.

When he’d left Sixth Flawless Flowing City, he barely knew which end of a spear to hold. Since, he’d practiced for countless hours with Senior Brother, who had mastered a cultivator technique for the weapon. Ye Zan had hunted with his spear, sparred with his spear, lived with his spear for months.

Knowing exactly where the creature’s heart was, he would not miss.

He did not miss.

After that one strike, it was simply a matter of not letting the spirit beast gore anyone until it bled out. It was severely out of position to catch Huang Yimun, and there was no way Ye Zan was stupid enough to get hit while it was on its last legs.

After a few futile seconds, it collapsed and died.

Ye Zan immediately sank into a lotus position and meditated on the fight, as did Huang Yumin. The antelope hadn’t come close to hurting either of them, much less killing them, but the important thing was that it could have. The blood pumping excitement of facing a truly worthy opponent with life and death stakes spurred growth.

Each minute movement. The timing and location of the channeled qi. The feel of the spear’s wood haft. The weight of the spear’s metal tip.

Ye Zan was the first to feel it. Like something clicked in his mind. He felt more attuned to the spear.

He’d done it. Large Success.

Several minutes later, Huang Yumin opened his eyes and grinned.

They’d done it.

Hao Cheng barely looked up as Ye Zan slayed the spirit beast. Not that he wasn’t interested. It was just that he knew Guang Yin or one of the other old harvesters would figuratively tan his hide if he got distracted.



Felling trees was dangerous work. Orange Vigor Spirit Wood was much denser than other timber, and it grew tall. Even with enhancements in speed and toughness provided by his cultivation, trees fell deceptively fast, and they were heavy enough to crush a person to paste. Not keeping one’s mind on one’s work was a recipe for injury or even death.

In fact, one of the logs falling on you was much more hazardous than being cut by an ax or saw. Those other accidents, after all, were incredibly unlikely to be lethal right away, and Master wouldn’t let anyone die if he could save them.

Still, the risk was there. Guang Yin knew someone who had died in just such a way, and another harvester had gotten a leg crushed. And that happened back in the days of the Righteous Rain Sect, who wouldn’t even spare a mortal grade healing pill for the man.

In a way, Hao Cheng’s job was every bit as dangerous as the guards and just as important, too. Perhaps more so. The trees he was cutting down would one day be part of the wall for the sect. He was protecting the sect just like the guards were.

To think that an orphan like him from a failing town would end up a cultivator with such an important job.

Things certainly were looking up.

Things certainly were looking up.

Benton reviewed his gains for the day. Yang Ru had advanced to minor realm nine and Xun Wu to minor realm two. Ye Zan and one of his guards had hit Large Success with their spear techniques. Five of the guards had finished their third baths to reach Bronze minor level one for Body Cultivation.

Yep. Nine Sect Points. What once would have been an event to remember for yielding such a high quantity was now just an average day.

Sweet.

The gain also pushed him high enough to trigger another allocation of points to use for personal use—just two, though. He used it to increase Pause Time to Large Success.

At that rate, he’d be at Golden Core before the beast tide hit.