The second [Spirit Wolf] bounced from the nearby stalks of bamboo with a grace that made its movements a blur. Currents of [Air Qi] twisted and bent at its command, and at the command of the others in the pack of three. Sopping bile spilled in globules from the first’s jaw however, and it took a vastly higher precedent as its teeth snapped only a finger length from Fu’s throat.

Without entering the forest proper, Fu had been surrounded.

A screen of taught, impassable stalks blocked the path to his rear, cutting off any hope of singling these beasts out and dispatching them one by one. No, he was in the open, and he could no more hide behind the individual trees across this grassy slope than he could escape.

A desperate pull brought his chain back to him, and with a stumble he wrapped it taught around his right arm. Hushi hung from his back, lashing out with little effect at those that were coming up on their rear, an intensity of warning flooding their bond.

Fu could barely match these creatures’ speed, and the Qi they employed to bolster their movements had rid him of any advantage a weapon might bring. A series of quick steps and swerves took him from another set of snapping jaws, and he panted as the three wolves slowed into a procession, herding him closer to the stalks.

In a gust of air, two launched forwards at once. Malicious claws upon their forelegs glinted in the moonlight above, attempting to land on his chest so their teeth might find purchase.

He twisted to the side, and one set caught him across the shoulder to tear thin gashes into his flesh. Backpedalling only found more stalks, denying further passage. Their snarls were maddened things, setting his skin to prickle with fear.

Yet this did not dissuade his coming strike.

Fu met the next leap with an extended wrist, a bar formed that thrust his chain-wrapped arm into the gaping maw. Cruel surprise entered the first wolf’s eyes, and it spluttered in asphyxiation, teeth still baring down.

They lowered into flesh, Fu’s counter an imprecise defence, and he grunted from the pain as Hushi rolled from nape to chest, slithering around their first foe’s neck.

Those same teeth dragged most foul where the chain could not block, their position refreshed as Fu ripped his wrist clean to face the other two. The sight of their kin’s sudden plight roiled them into further rage, and they moved as a tandem force of glowing, green fur.

In a sidewards slash, Fu unspooled the chain, arcing it through the air to block their advance on the octopus-wrapped wolf.

I must hold them at bay until Hushi has killed this beast. Then we may proceed with the next.

Whistling accompanied the chain, passing overhead as Fu whipped it to and fro, the segments ever rolling over his bloodied wrist. Something akin to a gasp, yet guttural and longer came from the strangled wolf, and in a few heartbeats his Bond was back at his side.

The wolves fanned out their formation, near hugging the bamboo as they split to approach from Fu’s north and south.

Coiling the chain around his wrist would not work now. [Spirit Beasts] were no mere animals, subject to mild trickery, and with such speed they would pounce the moment his guard was exposed.

“Hushi, we will split their attention,” he called, receiving affirmation through their link. Fu lashed in two directions then, rotating to thrust his chain forwards and back, his body turning as he did.

The octopus mounted the bamboo as he kept both wolves at bay, [Air Qi] coating each arm to wrench Hushi up and over the far side.

Then both turned, facing their own foe with undivided attention. He placed much faith in his Bond, and trusted that no jaws would clamp around his neck from the rear.

Fu jerked his chain vertically, catching the slack to have it crash into the space where his wolf had just occupied. A lunge created space with those behind, and his lashing advance furthered this distance. On the backfoot, his foe pounced to the side in a gust of Qi, only to be greeted with the metallic head of his chain.

What followed was a sickening crunch, a meeting of momentum where the wolf’s own speed only hastened the breaking of its ribs. Fu wasted no time in powering forwards, seeing the thing crumple and whimper.

It teetered to one side, snarling, defiant of the approaching human. All sense of the formidable creature faded as it fell in on itself, whimpering louder with each step stolen. Fu pitied it as his chain looped around its neck, wrenching it so that it could cry no longer.

Hushi was at many arm’s length of the wolf he was fighting, constricting his legs so that it could only jostle and snap. The beast’s range could not find the octopus, frantic throws of a neck and snapping teeth closing only on what air it could reach.

He met Fu’s eye, a film of teal blood running from two severed tentacles.

Quick steps brought Fu to the wolf’s front, the head of his chain gripped short as it swung down. Once, twice, and on the third, it broke through. Splatters of blood sprayed up his new hanfu, though he was uncaring of this horrid warmth.

Retracting arms released the wolf, and it slumped much as its brethren had, wholly lifeless by their efforts.

“Are you well, Hushi?” Fu asked, moving to tend to the injuries his Bond had taken. Clean marks where teeth had clamped through were plainly visible, and the missing arms were no doubt unreachable within the wolf’s stomach. For all the good it would do to have them. “We have none of Luo’s tea to restore this. I hope you are not pained.”

The octopus regarded him, slapping the corpse. No worry sent through their link.

“You did well against such large teeth,” he said, but his Bond was occupied, snaking his remaining arms inside the beast.

The bleeding does not seem severe, though it needs tending.

A stillness had returned to the moonlit meadow, with only faint and distant murmurs of [Spirit Beasts] reaching them from the forest’s depths.

We cannot stay here any longer. Such a meal will draw more to us.

Fu moved to the second closest wolf, and dropped to tenderise their meat so he might obtain the [Spirit Core].

Hushi could find them with greater care, but he dared not linger any longer than they had to, and given his occupation, was never one to shy away from bloody work. With a sufficiently mangled pulp beneath him, Fu tore his hands through innards and foulness, grasping at the glowing, Qi filled marble that was found at the base of the creature’s neck.

They moved swiftly onwards once the third core was claimed, and set about hugging the forest’s edge as their guide to the lake below. Night in the [Mystic Realm] was fraught with peril, and shelter from the roaming [Spirit Beasts] was scarce.

A branch trod on in the murky depths of bamboo. A bird cooing in the canopy. The rising susurrus of running water that revealed a nearby stream. These turned ominous with only the moon and stars to guide them.

He wondered if the valuables in his pouch added to this. Knowing now that the total he sought was secure upon his belt. To celebrate now was foolish.

Too many rocks had caught in his net over the moons for an assumption of success. Thus they tread quietly, retaining focus on the multitude of shadows that Fu swore danced in his eyes.

Only tentatively thinking of the relief he would feel upon returning to see his children safe.

One such patch of darkness moved proudly at the meadow’s base, a shape many times larger than he. So they paused, pushing into the refuge that the low grasses provided.

Hushi may not survive if we are to fight again so soon.

Reeds gently tickled at his face, pushed aside with the half-paces he covered in his wriggling. As far as his vision told him, the [Spirit Beast] did not seem to be aware of them.

A rich, tangerine outline glowed dimly from its hide, and if stationary Fu might have placed it as a feature of the landscape. In truth, it was a solid, moving creature, with four limbs to walk upon and a coat of runic-furs, forming sporadic patterns of further orange.

He thought it a bear, for a moment, but the illumination of its hide showed little more than the brutish silhouette.

In a span of several minutes it had lumbered off, indecisively crossing the land in a route that looped back on itself twice, before finally leaving their sight.

“Our best condition could not prepare us for a clash with that beast,” he whispered, lifting from the grasses.

Fu tilted his head to the rear, noticing that Hushi was far more still than usual.

The octopus’ arms twitched in their trailing manner by his own face, less virile since their encounter with the wolves. To look inward, their link told that he slept, yet also impressed a certain pain upon him.

One that betrayed more serious injuries that he had first thought.

Shelter, then.

🀧

At the risk of disrespecting their benefactor, should he return, Fu had taken up residence upon the steps of Master Luo’s home. Without entering, he had placed his back to the walls, keeping a watchful eye on the surrounding forest as the first touch of dawn filtered through.

Hushi was nestled tight in his douli, which in turn was nestled on Fu’s lap, held between the folded knees of the lotus position.

Steady breathing had accompanied the long hours of waiting, and half-attempts at cultivation.

While this could not draw Qi into his [Dantian], Fu had found that the occasional tremors that pained his partner calmed when doing so, and thus he continued despite the heaviness of his eyes.

Luo is an Alchemist, and the tea he brewed was a healing concoction. A combination of ingredients and Qi. I cannot copy it. But the Qi?

Fu’s fingers fumbled in his pouch, drawing out one of the wolves’ [Spirit Cores].

A smooth, clear marble with a miasmic green cloud within. He felt a resonance jolt his [Dantian], and the immediate recognition that the swirling energy was [Air Qi], a perfect match to his affinity.

Something caught in his throat, perhaps a word, or a feeling, he was not sure. All he knew was that his fingers were halfway to Hushi before they hesitated.

I- Why do I pause?

The marble rolled around in his palm as he regarded it, shaking his head to admonish himself.

This reluctance I feel to give away what we need… it is shameful. More cores exist, and Hushi is my stalwart ally.

Immersing his hand beneath the folds of Hushi’s arms, he drew in a breath to begin his cultivation. Heedless of the method of transferring Qi from this [Spirit Core], he tried to relax, hoping that his bond would guide him.

He found his [Dantian] with more ease than his first efforts, and a haze seemed to fall about the external world as the internal became his main focus. Sounds turned muted and far, and the breeze felt as though it were barely tickling his skin.

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A danger this, here of all places.

The longer he focused, the more three separate points pushed into his awareness.

His [Ink], his [Dantian] and what he assumed to be the core. Pulses of presence spoke of its location, an emittance of energy quite peculiar. Not a thing that entered him, nor bestowed anything but that of a signature.

But he felt Hushi tighten around it, distantly, and little by little, the [Air Qi] within started to drain.

Trickles at first, circulating around the [Ink], and fading as the energy was converted into… into… Fu dared not open his eyes to confirm his thoughts for fear of losing concentration, yet a feeling of vitality crossed their link.

The [Spirit Core] felt lighter in his senses, a visualised light of green at the back of his mind that now dimmed significantly.

It circulated and healed, and circulated and healed, and then it suddenly rushed into his [Dantian]. Fu strained as plumes of Qi descended, quantities akin to the trail of smoke that might flee a burning building. This filled him to the brim in short order, and he panicked, directing it to rotate and free more space.

Yet it still came in droves.

Fu felt at the ceiling of his [Dantian], locating the stream that led off from it and the blockages within. He crashed this energy towards what he viewed as sand, and the Qi violently shredded layers upon layers away.

This cyclone churned, and the green glow of the core’s energy somewhere beyond the gusty conflict barely lost its lustre. So he forced more down, feeling the area around the sand narrow significantly, sweeping past the embankment to join the stream proper.

A channel?

The word surfaced in a distant memory, a conversation with Mei. Still entranced, Fu spoke it aloud. “[Channel]”.

[Air Qi] tore down the [Channel], shredding the sand free to leave his inside feeling more raw by the moment.

Until it met nothing, bursting into an open cavity not unlike his [Dantian]. The Qi settled there, fed by the glowing [Spirit Core] to birth a new reaction of sorts, a secondary swirl if only a mite smaller than that by his navel. It washed to another shoreline then, the mouth of another [Channel], stripping off a single layer before petering out.

A violent surge broke Fu’s focus entirely, and bile erupted from his mouth. He fell to the side, broken, and eyelids watering.

Long moments passed until Hushi slapped him back to reason, prying him upright with a full set of arms.

His Bond clung to his chest, hugged around his neck as he wiped free a black, curdled substance from Fu’s lips. “This came from within me?” he exclaimed, shifting from the middling pool by his side. Thankful for Hushi’s aid, he cleared the remaining residue with his wrist, unwilling to soil his hanfu further.

My cultivation has cleared more room for Qi to move. It is slight, and to no longer focus on it shows me how small these containers are.

The [Spirit Core] had faded at the end of Hushi’s tentacles, now inert. Both man and Bond studied the process, a dimming of final light that had it crumble into tatters of insignificant grey, cast aside by the breeze.

Such power. Is this the reason for the Cloudy Serpent Sect’s orders? No. Any of their rank could obtain thousands of cores without so much effort.

Using this core was well worth its expenditure, despite placing his stock below that of what he required to save his family. It also added the secondary benefit of allowing Fu to place any worries of their future after his emergence from the [Paifang], to a later date.

[Spirit Cores] would remain his focus at present, granting him temporary bliss through an easier task.

“[Ink],” he called, sifting through the blossoming parchment to view what effect this second container had, if any. Surprised bloomed as he saw exactly what he wished to see, wafting like smoke before him.

“The total beside each of these has increased,” he told a disinterested Hushi. “My [Body] has increased more so. This [Meridian], if it is not the [Channel], then it must be the container.” Fu scratched at his chin, frustrated even with these revelations to lift his spirits.

I am still a guppy in a puddle, knowing nothing of the sea.

The pair rose in their usual manner, with Hushi crevassing himself beneath the douli for comfort.

Nothing will be discovered if I remain here. We must set off.

🀧

The lakeshore at this time of morning showed a vibrant bustle of both mundane animals and [Spirit Beasts]. Calm, peaceful creatures that, while observant of Fu’s passage, were content to tend to their own needs without intervention.

Three individual fish were arrayed on the smooth stones of the shoreline, not a glow of Qi about them. Hushi lingered nearby, his arms slapping either side of the arrangement with an expectant eye set on his cultivator. “Peace Hushi, you may eat them if you wish,” said Fu, his waist immersed in the water.

He did not turn his head as he spoke, feeling his Bond set about these raw morsels like the true watery predator he was.

Fu’s own stomach was quite empty, and he had lost count of how many days he had gone without a proper meal. Raw fish would be a last resort, for he was content enough to nourish himself on the berries they had come across during their descent on the slope. This meal was for Hushi, with a two-part focus.

With his fingers immersed in the lake, Fu set about honing this increase to his [Might], allowing the movements to return to feeling natural. For it was not a simple, higher strength of arm that an increase to this branch of his path granted, but a holistic one.

Minorly, he felt he could move faster or that the force of his step had become more profound, or any number of small physical details he had yet to come across. An act of fine movement such as he performed now would hopefully allow him to acclimatise to these changes before he was forced to rely on them.

Clarity had returned to the lake after his last bout, and he could see the silvery tail of his prey protruding from beneath a stone. So he lowered, slowly, snaking his fingers towards it.

Then began a rubbing, a fingertip at first that caused the fish to move closer, and Fu continued. Adding another, and another, until the fish was above his open palm. A palm that sprung shut, clamped around its gills, and wrenched it into Hushi’s waiting grasp.

Happy with his results, he returned to the shore, water cascading from his clothes.

Enough, for now. A useful way to do such a thing. Hushi’s favourite, at the very least.

[Summer] was nearing its central period, elongating the days and subjecting the [Mystic Realm] to the rising heatwave that would peak in a handful of nights. A thick air, humid and stifling, clung to the latter parts of the day, and parts of that had seeped into the early morning they found themselves in.

Minutes after his catch, Fu was travelling once more. An almost dry pouch released his hand, and he placed the few berries he had within his mouth. Sour things, swallowed quickly given what they approached.

The earlier tranquillity of the lakeside had shed, and around them, nature continued in its full, savage beauty.

An uproar clashed at the shallow crossing between two shores, two great [Spirit Beasts] , both flaring aggression at the other.

Tongues of flames filled the hood of a smaller serpent, one no greater in length than Fu’s arm, Upright and rigid, this creature painted an image of its upper portion in fire, one that danced a pace above its head. [Intent] carried alongside it, deathly, and Fu felt it across the intervening distance of twenty or so paces.

Its foe did not seem dissuaded. A [Spirit Toad] of mustard tint, it puffed its considerable chest, bellowing a croak.

An affinity of [Fire Qi] for the serpent. The toad is not as simple.

Suddenly, they met. Both [Spirit Beasts] charged the other. Not in a simple, striking, animalistic fashion, but with a force of Qi.

[Fire Qi] struck from the conjured, flaming image of the serpent’s making, moving to open its jaws to sink down upon the toad. Mud met it, a geyser from the soggy ground upon which the croaking foe stood. Such a spray dampened the oncoming flames, and both image and serpent reeled back in the face of it.

The snake moved as its breed was known for, a rapid flow of coiled snaps that saw its image follow suit. It was cautious of the water, and flew from stone to stone to avoid fresh explosions of mud as they came.

Both turned and parried, pouring their elemental Qi at one another in clash after clash. On the toad’s part, it did little moving. A rotation of its sizeable, almost bearish bulk, with its conjurations of mud manoeuvring instead.

Fu might have thanked the Heavens for such an encounter, a fateful opportunity that would see him rewarded with two [Spirit Cores] if he could only defeat the victor of this bout. Might have, if not for the myriad beasts that swarmed the [Mystic Realm].

They were plentiful, and chief among his thanks, if any were to be given, would be the timely manner in which he came upon it.

Guessing at the affinity, Fu watched further explosions of [Earth Qi] draw lethal stones into the air, immersed in the mud. Great tearing projectiles that ate holes in the flaming image. Flames that did not return to the form any semblance of its hooded shape.

Amidst the flows of mud and stone, the toad’s tongue appeared. A true serpent to quash the lesser.

It lashed out with surprising speed, even with the blackened and singed bite marks that obviously took a toll on its body, engulfing the snake. A snap pulled it back in, frighteningly audible, and the serpent was swallowed whole. Gasps of red smoke trailed from the gaps, subsiding shortly after.

Peeling back his chain, Fu let the head dangle, the rest coiled around his wrist. “As-” He stopped, stunned by the rejection that Hushi impressed upon him. The emotions were unclear, a muddy of reticent greed and wariness, and it pulled back any steps that they might have taken.

Ahead the [Spirit Toad] belched out a plume of red smoke, and its eyes bulged to the extreme. A moment of madness overcame it, and it wobbled from side to side, billowing smoke flowing from more and more gaps.

Fu took measured steps back, seeing that it had spied him. Given its size, the hop it took induced no small amount of panic. He leapt to the side, as in several moments, the beast was barrelling through the air above him. Behind, he felt the earth quake with its landing, and the [Earth Qi} spilled out, muddied, in concert with smoke.

Pounding steps rotated it, and more Qi conjured the mud to surge in vertical waves. Fu had some pelt atop him, a spray that…

All the air within his lungs seized.

His next breath came as a choke, a splutter that recovered on the next draw.

What?

The hesitation saw another wave, and this time he forced a leap he was not ready for. Fu scraped against the ground, his neck scoring against rock. It drew a superficial cut, but positioning was his main concern here. Pushing caused the loose stones on the shore to shift, and he was caught beneath another spray of Qi-birthed mud.

It drenched him wholly, and suffocation followed.

The ground welcomed him in embrace, seeming to sap him of all strength. Upon his skin, the sheet of mud soon hardened, an unnatural speed amplifying this process. Seconds passed as he clawed through, or tried to, what [Might] he could conjure having vanished.

Even Hushi’s presence felt distant and limited, and he could scarcely feel the power needed to supply him with Qi to begin any attempt at a counter. Roaring, and with his muscles in full protest, Fu managed a half roll to the side.

Spiderweb cracks ran through the mud, weakening its hold. He tried again, and this time he was brought to face the sky.

The warty, yellow sky above.

Both his arms inched higher in their encasement. He felt cocooned, with little space to draw any momentum behind a blow. His wrists hit a ceiling of mud, the layer upon him, and further cracks refused to come.

Undone by a toad. It cannot be.

The great [Spirit Beast] glowered down at him, and a savage intelligence shone as it croaked once in some form of glee. Noticeable, even inverted as it was.

It toys with me.

He recognized this stifling sensation, the toxic emittance of the [Earth Qi] as he saw its body rumble slowly forwards. A greater shadow darkening his sight. The same effect has surfaced upon imbibing the moss. A suffocating poison to him, and to Hushi. No doubt the reason for his previous feelings.

If only he had realised sooner.

Fu then cursed not the Heavens, but this creature above. From the imposing frame to the widening mouth. And then to the eruption of [Fire Qi] that burst from its centre.

A wash of flame detonated the toad, travelling out to scorch across Fu’s face, though primarily through the creature’s flesh. The mud upon it hardened and cracked, and those sections of bumpy, yellow flesh that were free of filth were torn and blown out in chunks. Fountains of foul blood pelted him for a quick gathering of heartbeats, a rapid count given the state of his panic.

Instead of moistening the muddied bonds, it served to thicken them. A final dunt of earthen rejuvenation that further entombed him.

The suffocation returned, though less powerful, and Fu was subject to it all. Through bleary eyes he saw the serpent’s outline, rigid as it was before.

The glowing scales upon it undulated as it climbed free of the toad’s fleshy crater, dropping unceremoniously to the hardened mud where Fu mimed at his breathing. It hissed. Quietly.

Slithering to the mud above his neck, it reared back, and promptly sagged into a final, unmoving form.

Could he at that moment, Fu might cry out in disbelief. The beasts had fallen without any contact on his behalf. Thus he found himself greatly unsure, once his breath had recovered, whether to laugh or to cry at such a blessing.