by Gore, A. P.
A few minutes passed, and the system came back. He felt it in his mind. The connection had been reestablished. It was like seeing an old friend after a long time.
System:
Blue Snake Fang Herb
Grade: High-tier Earth Grade
Rarity: Medium
Used as an antidote for most Earth Grade poisons. Contains earth essence energy in abundance. Used in many alchemy pills that require earth-based catalyst.
Recipes used in: Lack of information. Indexing is not completed.
Approximate age of the sample: 3 years.
Minimum age required to use as ingredient: 10 years.
Wei rubbed his jaw. Since the day he had first encountered the system, it had been improving. At first it only displayed basic information, and now it was showing connected recipes and other information like rarity.
Well, if it was lacking age, he could fix it. Easily.
He was about to use his Yin Yang Liquid when a gut feeling warned him of danger. Like someone stared at him from the darkness.
He quickly dropped the herb and Yin Yang Liquid inside his storage ring and checked his surroundings. Without his divine sense, he felt like a limb was missing from his body. With his current cultivation, he only had marginally better eyes than a mortal, and that wouldn’t solve his issues.
“Someone is watching us.” The little fox got on all fours and looked around with wary eyes. “I sense Black Foxes. Many of them. I wonder who is insolent enough to come near their queen’s hideout.”
Hideout?
A large silhouette appeared ahead of them, two red-black eyes shining like tiny candlelight of hatred. Following them, eight other pairs of eyes resolved out of the finger-thick darkness.
Wei arched his brows. These were the same foxes that had attacked Sun Nuan and played with them. They must have tracked him.
The little fox growled and said something in fox language.
The large silhouette replied in the same language, but a threatening expression lingered on its large mouth.
“Did you kill their friend?” The little fox cleaned her paw on his robe.
“I did,” Wei said calmly. “They attacked my friend, so I had to retaliate.”
The little fox growled at them again, but the large fox growled back. Their conversation went back and forth, but it didn’t seem like the two parties were coming to an agreement. But one thing was clear, the little fox was shouting at them, and the other eight foxes were scared shitless. The Mother Fox must have spoiled this kid, so he would have been surprised if she’d been a softie. After all, she was the only daughter of their Mother Fox. She would probably rule them in the future.
“They want to fight you to the death because you killed their friend for sport.” She pressed on the words killed and for sport. “He insists that you hid that information from Mother Fox intentionally and you must be handed over to them to carry out their judgement.”
“So, they want to kill me without listening to my side of the story.”
“Why would a Black Fox listen to a human’s story?” The little fox growled. “They want a death match with you, and I can’t disagree with them. After all, you killed one of us, and that’s a grave crime. If Mother knew about it, she would kill you without listening to one word from you. If our pride is involved, there is no excuse.”
“So, you’re going to hand me over to those bullies?” Wei made a puppy face.
She shook her head, but her eyes told a different story. The story of a cunning fox. Rubbing her whiskers with her paws, she continued talking. “Don’t worry. I’m a majestic queen, and I’ll show my gratitude for you giving me a juicy fruit. If you hand over that bottle, I’ll tell them to scram. I’m their future queen, you know, so they can’t disobey my orders.”
Wei chuckled. This little fox was craftier than he’d thought. After all that shit about fox’s pride, she came straight to the point.
“Be quick. Give me that bottle and I shall help you. If you waste my time, you might not walk again.”
Wei smirked. “No need. In fact, I want to fight with him.” He glanced into the cave, and his eyes shone with a strange light. This was good. Fighting to the death while absorbing a potent herb to advance was good. After reaching layer nine of a cultivation realm, the next step would always be difficult to cross, and one would need a catalyst to break through. What could be better than a death match?
The Mother Fox had promised him a Dantian Strengthening Fruit, and that fruit had an immense amount of pure qi that would help him break through.
“Tell them to wait ten minutes, and I shall fight with them one by one.” Smiling, Wei turned back to enter the cave. It was time to heal the Mother Fox.
Chapter 58
Dantian Strengthening Fruit
Li Wei wore a complex expression while going back inside the cave. His mind was in flux, and it was reflected in his cautious walk, his leather shoes not making any sound over the rocky surface.
He wasn’t sure about the thing he was going to do.
He shrugged. First things first, he poured two drops of Yin Yang Liquid on the Blue Snake Fang Herb, pushing it to twenty years of age. Fifty years would have been good, but he didn’t want to go that far. Saying he happened to have the exact herb that could save the Mother Fox was suspicious enough. If he pushed too hard, it might backfire on him.
However, that didn’t trouble him. He wasn’t sure how he should negotiate with the Mother Fox. Giving her the herb as it is might be an issue. What if she killed him and Sun Nuan after recuperating?
He paused along the way, placing his palm on a shiny jade stone growing on the wall. He was about to inspect the stone when he heard a cry from the cave. Dismissing the jade stone from his mind, he dashed forward.
When he reached the inner area of the cave, he saw the Mother Fox lying on Sun Nuan’s lap, her mouth foaming white froth.
Sun Nuan lifted her chin when he stopped in his tracks. “Call for Miss Jiya. Mother Fox is nearing her end.”
“Wait, how can she . . .?”
“Pl-ea-se ca-ll m-y da-ughter.” A weak voice slipped out of the Mother Fox’s mouth.
Wei scanned the Mother Fox’s condition with a conflicted mind. If he didn’t get a vow of heaven and earth from the Mother Fox, he wouldn’t be comfortable saving her. The cultivation world had little kindness. Instead, vicious killers filled it to the brim. In fact, everyone loved backstabbing others for the tiniest of benefit. If the Mother Fox was fine, she might not have made a deal with him.
No, she wasn’t one of those backstabbing cultivators. By not killing them, she had showed kindness, and if someone showed him a little kindness, he would give it back tenfold. He didn’t want to lose someone again after receiving kindness from them. In his previous life, he had lost too many of these people, and he didn’t want to live the same life.
Wei threw the herb to Sun Nuan. “Feed her this.”
Her eyes flashed with greed. “This is Blue Snake Fang Herb! This can save my mo—” She shook herself and lowered her hand to feed the herb to the Mother Fox.
A noisy uproar came from the direction of the cave entrance, followed by the little fox being pushed inside. Once inside, the nine Black Foxes shoved her aside, not giving her any face.
They all passed by Wei, ignoring him, but stopped when they spotted their queen’s head lying on a human woman’s lap. Their gazes turned hostile, and their faces carried disgust that was hard to miss. Growling, they started talking among themselves.
The little fox’s face turned serious, and Wei knew they weren’t talking about casual things, nor they were worried about their queen.
“Don’t.” The little fox shouted. “Don’t you dare go near my mother!” Leaping in front of the party of nine beasts, she grew a couple of feet in size, a fierce expression on her face. But the fluffy fur around her body gave her a cute look instead.
She was a kid indeed.
The leader of the Black Foxes stepped forw
ard and growled at the little fox as if telling her to scram.
Wei frowned. They seemed to be about to attack the little fox, and he wouldn’t let that happen. But with his current condition, he could only think of one thing to do. But would it be sufficient to force a horde of Black Foxes back?
He could only try. What did he have to lose? If these foxes got their way, he would end up dead. Fighting was a better choice.
Drawing his sword, he leaped next to the little fox, ready to attack. “Princess Nuan, see if Mother Fox can talk, and ask her for that Dantian Strengthening Fruit. I need it right now.” This was a bad situation, and he was in no condition to fight them all. “Little fox, can you try setting up a one-on-one battle with me?”
The little fox growled in frustration. “No. You can’t win against Kardash. He’s their pack leader and has already reached layer six of the Foundation Realm.” She growled fiercely at one of the Black Foxes, trying to step forward. “His prowess is equal to a layer seven Foundation Realm human cultivator. You can’t handle him.”
Wei gritted his teeth. “Don’t worry about me. Just get me the Dantian Strengthening Fruit from your mother.”
“But that . . .”
“Wei Lin, catch!” Sun Nuan threw something at him, and he caught it with his left hand. She had thrown two things, actually. A Blood Berserk Pill and a Dantian Strengthening Fruit. “If we have to die, let’s die together.” She had a determined expression on her face.
“Don’t even think of eating this shit.” He threw the Blood Berserk Pill into his storage ring. “And I’m not done with this world. Until I become a lazy immortal, I can’t die.” His fingers rubbed around the Dantian Strengthening Fruit. Filled with vitality, it exuded the sweet aroma of pure qi.
“Are you going to try breaking through with the help of that fruit in one go? You can’t.” She tried to rise but stopped midway as the Mother Fox on her lap moaned in pain. “You can’t arouse your potential through this fruit. That would be dangerous.”
“Don’t worry. I’m only eating half of it.” Cutting it into two parts, Wei dripped four drops of Yin Yang Liquid on one part, pushing it to fifty years of age, then threw the unenhanced other half at Sun Nuan. “Keep it for yourself.” Chuckling, he shoved the other half in his mouth. One ten-year-old fruit was enough to push him through the Foundation Realm, but he’d just eaten half a fifty-year-old fruit. That should be equal to a twenty-five-year-old fruit’s efficacy.
Rumble!
His dantian vibrated, as if thunder cracked inside him. His dantian shook violently as the pure qi from the Dantian Strengthening Fruit gushed in from all sides like a huge sea tide. The pain was so intense that his body twisted at an odd angle, and he couldn’t stop himself from spitting a mouthful of blood.
It landed on a Black Fox’s face, and the beast charged him in retaliation.
Jiya stepped forward and growled intensely, and the attacker stepped backward.
“Wei Lin, are you nuts? How could you eat half of the fruit in one go?” Sun Nuan whined like a wife, frustrated and helpless. “It should be eaten in ten sittings, slowly absorbing the efficacy.”
Wei wiped blood from the corner of his mouth with his thumb and pushed all the tyrannically pure qi trying to come out of his dantian back inside. Pure qi crashed against his dantian walls, pushing them outwards, but the energy was so fierce that his dantian’s walls trembled under the pressure.
Rumble!
Under the immense pressure of the pure qi, his dantian walls swelled like a heavily beaten eye.
In a moment of pain and clarity, he thought about Sun Nuan’s words. She was right. This fruit was supposed to be eaten in ten sittings. In fact, in normal times he would have done exactly that and honed his martial skills in a fight.
But he had eaten a fifty-year-old fruit in one go, and the pure qi it released was beyond what his body could endure without his body cultivation active.
His dantian walls were already cracking, and if this continued, his dantian would break and turn back into a leaky dantian like the one he was born with.
But that wasn’t the worst thing that could happen. Worst case, his dantian would blow up and leave him a cripple for the rest of his life. There was no healing from an exploded dantian.
Chapter 59
Dragon Fist of Pain
Pain shot through Li Wei’s body, raging like the storm inside his heart after Wang Zia had stabbed him. The pain was tearing him apart, but he held on, squeezing his sword hilt in his fist, letting the firmness of the metal slip inside his shaking body.
Like a man in the middle of a sea, floating on a wooden trunk, the cold metal touch of his sword held him together. His dantian was breaking apart, and blood vessels all over his skin tore, oozing little streams of blood and turning him into a bloody mess.
In just a few breaths after eating the fifty-year-old Dantian Strengthening Fruit, he had turned into a blood demon.
His consciousness slowly faded, and that was bad. He was losing it. Like a song his mother once sung to make him sleep, his consciousness slowly washed away, his eyes closing to the tune.
“Wei Lin.” Sun Nuan’s cry woke him from his hypnosis, and he forced his eyes open.
With all his might, he shook his head and pushed the dizzy feeling away. It was getting worse, but he wasn’t there yet. He wasn’t ready to channel his pain into that divine ability yet.
With a cracking sound, his breastbone broke in two, and his sky-blue robe turned dark red. His body swayed like a tree at the edge of a cliff in a thunderstorm. One push, and he might lose it all.
No, he couldn’t let that happen. Stabbing his sword into rocky ground, he somehow supported himself. A few more breaths, and he should be done with it.
In fact, he’d guessed something like this would happen when he’d pushed his own pure qi through the forbidden martial skill he was about to use. But he didn’t think it would be this bad. His bones were broken, and he would soon turn into a blood zombie.
This wasn’t in any of his calculations.
“Wei Lin, eat this.” Soft fingers brushed against his lips, trying to push something in.
“No.” He gritted his teeth, refusing the herb or pill Sun Nuan was trying to push in his mouth. If he stopped this process, he wouldn’t complete the initiation process of the divine ability, and he didn’t want that.
“Why, why are you resisting?” Sun Nuan cried, but Wei had no answer. He had no energy to explain the crazy thing he was doing here. She wouldn’t understand. To become a lazy immortal, he had to gain power first.
Her soft hands gripped his shoulders, trying to steady him. “Why do you keep ending up in this state? It’s like you don’t want me to thank you for the time you saved my life.”
Even in the throes of soul-squashing pain, Wei’s mind became clear for a moment. He wondered if he had developed a habit of getting into similar situations again and again. Did he like to bleed this much? Like a sick person?
Was he turning into a narcissistic, self-harming blood demon?
No way.
“Ahhhhhhh . . .” His insides churned, and he vomited a ton of black blood. It smelled like someone had kept a house full of food to rot for years and then opened it to the world. Even the Black Foxes glaring at him stepped backward in response to the nasty smell.
This was his cue. He could feel it. Now he could cultivate the Dragon Fist of Pain. It was a special divine art developed by a maniac cultivator he knew: Chang Ziang. He was a madman. He loved pain and research. By researching the Gate of Pain, one of the eight gates of the human body, he had developed a new set of divine arts, and this was the first and easiest one. With the same set of divine arts, he had reached the heights of the cultivation world in no time.
It was called as Eight Gates of Pain and contained eight fist attacks. Dragon fist of Pain and it required him to clear first occupant of his right arm. Then Elephant fist of Pain and so on.
But Chang Ziang was crazy. He used to
stick wooden sticks through his body to feel the pain required for his cultivation. That was worse than burning oneself in a furnace.
Like a raging storm, pure qi rushed out of his dantian, moving through a set of qi channels in his right arm. With every qi channel it broke through, a new wave of pain shot from inside his body, and filth was pushed out his pores. Blood was just the start; he was leaking a black substance thicker than blood now.
One thing was certain, he was going to lose a lot of weight loss after this shit was done. All his chubbiness was already gone, and now he might lose remaining fat from his body. The fat Wei, he loved to be, would be gone.
Damn!
However, he couldn’t continue mourn his fat as his body went through another soul-crushing bout of pain. It was way worse than anything he had ever experienced. Every tiny particle in his body cried in pain, and it hurt like someone practiced a set of sword martial skills inside every tiny particle that made up his body.
The worst part, the sword had a hundred spikes running over its blade. Yes, that’s how he felt when the pure qi moved through his qi channels. Compared to this, the most brutal training he’d performed while practicing the sloppy body cultivation art in his previous life looked like a joke.
“Chang Ziang. Damn it.” His teeth bit through his lip and blood gushed out, mixing with other blood and the black substance he exuded.
Boom!
The first occupant broken through when all the qi channels around it tore apart.
The sword hilt he rested on shifted under his weight, and it stabbed inside the rib cage he had broken earlier. Another bout of pain stormed through his body, but he couldn’t even cough. Before one bout ended, another bout of pain started. More blood gushed out of his mouth, and there was no one around him anymore. No one dared to come near him. A puddle of the black substance mixed with blood had formed around his feet, and he was holding himself up by his sword to keep from falling into the red-black puddle.
