I poured twenty Ki into my spear to refill it and got ready to increase its piercing ability. This snake’s skin looked thick and tough. If it gets its fangs into me, I’m done for. It will wrap me up quicker than I could bling and start squeezing until my bones broke, I died, and there would be no escape.

  I gave Rukia the Wait hand signal as I stepped first to one side then the other. The snake stared at me as its body bunched up into a lot of s-curves close together. It was getting ready to strike. I flexed my knees, prepared to spring to the side at its first twitch. I really should have figured out a movement technique instead of my Ki bullet. But, unfortunately, I didn’t think it has enough oomph to get through this thing’s hide, and now was not the time to try something new.

  I felt the tell-tale surge of Ki in the beast right before it blurred towards me, its whole body elongating and even entirely leaving the ground as it launched itself fully at me. With that brief warning, I leaped to the side and thrust out with my spear. Hopefully, the speed of its lunge would deal extra damage to it.

  My spear tip punched into the snake’s side and cut a long slash down as it passed by me, thick dark red blood pouring out. The snake landed and thrashed about. One of its coils knocked me down, and the snake’s head lashing back towards me as I was falling.

  Rukia chose that time to use two of her abilities, her ice fang, and her charge ability. She blurred forward, mouth wide open. Ice long and thick covering and extending her fangs, a dense white fog billowing from the intense cold of her attack mixing with the damp hot air of the jungle, as she lunged at the snake.

  I felt the Beasts fangs pierce my Leather Vest and just barely pierce my skin as a -1 floated past my vision. It gripped me in its powerful jaws and started to rapidly coil around me, squeezing hard almost immediately. Each second that passed while I was in its grip wrung three health from me; it was bypassing all my armor and my innate defense. Even my reinforced bones were creaking under strain.

  The snake let out a hiss of pain, its mouth still gripping me tightly. Then, as the snake rolled me around to add another coil to the squeeze, I could see Rukia, with her Ice Fangs, sunk deep into the snake’s tail. Ice crystals forming as she clung on for as long as she could before she was swung around and smacked hard onto the ground, stunning her enough to make her let go.

  The damage was done, however. The ice continued to creep up the snake’s body, slowing its movements and making it loosen its grip just a bit. I struggled hard to move. I even tried flooding Ki through my muscles, I felt them burn even as they swelled, my stamina dropping as I managed to increase my strength by eight points, but I knew it wouldn’t last.

  I pushed out with everything I had in me, and the snake was still too strong. Its strength must have been higher than even my temporary twenty points. I could see as Rukia tried to stagger to her feet. Her bell had been rung hard. I had to push harder, pour more Ki into my muscles. I dumped another twenty-four points of Ki into my muscles, my stamina dropping to a mere eight points left. If this didn’t do it, I might still die even if this snake bled out or froze to death.

  With a strength of twenty-six, I heaved; I yelled out with the last dregs of air in my lungs and shoved outwards, the coils of the snake fighting against me every inch of the way. But I managed to gain enough ground to stop the continuous damage. I had already lost close to half of my health in just the ten seconds since it started squeezing me.

  I tried to push further, tried to push harder, but I didn’t have the leverage to make the fucking reptile let go. I was fighting against this thing’s evolutionary specialty. Nothing is supposed to break free once they get their coils wrapped around them.

  I could feel my muscles beginning to deflate as they burned through the Ki I put into them. My head swam from the loss of stamina. I could distantly hear Rukia growling and saw through blurring vision that she had latched on again. She looked like she was burning through her Ki like a wildfire burns up a field.

  The ice in the Python’s coils spread rapidly. I could feel the snake turning cold around me as it shuddered. Finally, its jaws loosened around my shoulder, and we both fell over. The weight of the snake was still crushing me, but hoping it would work, I tried looting the snake.

  Chapter 14

  The snake Dissolved around me, and I fell to the ground, breathing properly, and my muscles deflated back to their normal size. My whole body hurt. It felt like every muscle in my body was torn to shreds. My vision was blurry, and I fumbled at my vest to try to extract one of my potions.

  I groaned as I found that three of the five potions had cracked and drained out of the vials. The health, Ki, and one of the stamina potions all wasted. Four hundred credits spilled down my front, my proverbial wallet hurt. I plucked out one of the remaining stamina potions and downed it.

  The stamina had a bitter herbal flavor to it, kind of like drinking a robust herbal tea. Once it was down, I could see my stamina bar visibly ticking up. Over the next minute, it would restore one hundred stamina points, plus my twelve natural regen, I would be almost full in just that minute.

  I was down to about thirty points of Ki and only twelve out of my sixty-five hp. Almost all of it from that damned snake squeezing the life out of me. I pulled a health potion from my storage and downed the thick syrupy potion.

  It tasted like liquid cold medicine, and I nearly gagged at it. But I forced it down with a swig from my water bottle. After that, I just lay there for the next couple minutes, letting the potion repair my damaged muscles and cracked bones and just rest a bit.

  Rukia crept up next to me with a whimper and lay down; I gently stroked her back as I recovered. I would have to check her over once I could move. I checked her stats just in case and saw she still had over half of her health but only a fifth of her usable Ki. She must have really poured on the ice damage in her bites.

  With my stamina pool recovered, I could think clearly again. I recalled from the cultivation guide that it was possible to heal another with your own Ki. Using my Dermal Meridian, I channeled fifteen points of Ki, focusing on how it would suffuse her body and heal her injuries.

  I had only twenty-four points of Ki left, but it would be enough to quickly convert the essence I gained from the Python and the thick essence in the air here. Well, once we were in a secure location anyways. Once I could move freely, I would loot the demon boar, move away from the smells of spilled blood, and set up camp for at least an hour. It was only mid-day and quite early to stop for the day.

  I looked over the prompts as Rukia, and I healed up over the next few minutes.

  Congratulations, your Skill Polearms has ranked up +2% damage, +1% armor penetration

  Polearms rank 4 +8% damage, +4% armor penetration

  Congratulations,

  You have gained 100 moderate Quality Essence from Reticulated Python, body rank 5

  Warning, you have insufficient space to Store 100 moderate Quality Essence

  Moderate Quality Essence being converted to High Quality Essence

  Congratulations, you have gained 33 High Quality Essence.

  You have gained

  24 pieces of Snake hide

  225 pieces of Spirit Snake meat

  4, 12 inch snake fangs

  Spirit beast core: Reticulated Python body rank 5.

  The Essence quality in my Dantian was amazing. It was almost as dense as my own Ki. So if I cultivated in this essence-rich environment with high-quality essence in my core, I could progress quite rapidly.

  I pulled out the python’s core and used Identify.

  Spirit beast Core: minor (Reticulated Python)

  This core came from a Body Rank 5 Spirit Beast

  Ki available: 155

  Essence Available: 20 moderate density

  Element: Wood

  Congratulations, your Skill Identify has ranked up

  Identify Rank 5

  You may now identify the element in a beast Core.

  This beast core had more Ki in it than Rukia had in her maxed capacity. If I gave this to her, would she rank up from all the energy? Would it harm her? The guide didn’t talk about raising spirit beasts. Why didn’t I look up a guide to raising spirit beasts; I could have purchased a couple of fewer stamina potions if it meant that I could help Rukia get stronger faster and safely.

  I put away the core for now. I didn’t know if having a wood element would affect Rukia adversely, but she ate other cores before and had no problem, and I was pretty sure they were not from ice beasts. I needed to learn a lot more. If I could find another settlement, I might purchase another guidebook and maybe some beginner’s guide to all this shit.

  I slowly got up with a groan. My body felt stiff and sore even though I was only missing a couple of hit points. Rukia got to her feet quickly; her health fully recovered. I walked over and looted the Demon boar. I wondered if demon beasts here were like the demon beasts in cultivation novels. With the meat being good to eat, the cores need special preparation to be used by people or other beasts to avoid being tainted.

  Congratulations,

  You have gained 60 Low Quality Essence from Demon Boar, body rank 3

  Warning

  You have insufficient space to store 60 low quality Essence

  Error, high quality essence detected in Dantian

  Converting Low Quality essence to high quality Essence

  You have gained 8 High Quality Essence.

  You have gained

  2 pieces Demon Boar Hide

  100 pieces Demon Boar meat

  2 Crystalized Boar Tusks

  1 Demon Beast Core: Boar body rank 3

  I pulled up the information on the Demon boar core; I haven’t come across one of these yet.

  Demon beast Core: minor (Boar)

  This core came from a Body Rank 3 Demon Beast

  Ki available: 61

  Essence Available: 30 low density

  Element: Earth

  Congratulations, you have slain your first Demon Beast. Demon Beasts and Spirit Beasts are very similar in their cultivation, with a few key differences. Each Demon Beast was once a Spirit Beast, or its Ancestor was a Spirit Beast. However, at some point, the beast came across some form of toxin, poison, or tainted Essence that caused the Ki in the beast to become tainted.

  This taint causes the beast to become wild and more violent. Furthermore, the taint is contained in the beast’s Core, making it inadvisable to absorb without specialized processing unless you desire to become tainted yourself or to create other Demon beasts.

  This more violent nature often causes the beast to infuse their bodies with Ki more often than Spirit Beasts. This leads to higher concentrations of Ki being found in the skin, bones, muscles, and organs. Therefore, eating Demon Beast meat is considered one of the best ways to improve a cultivator’s body.

  Ok, so either this System completely ripped off every cultivation novel in this world, or somehow, the Asian cultures actually came across this phenomenon in the past, and their legends actually happened. I have no idea which worries me more.

  So Ki rich meat and crafting materials, but dangerous cores if not correctly processed. The cores probably need some kind of Alchemist to make it safe to use. The demon cores are probably not worth as much as Spirit Beast cores. There are probably other uses for Demon Beast cores beyond eating them. They can probably recharge Ki abilities in items, the way I can use a mana core to restore my water bottle and tent.

  Enough pondering over things that can’t help me right now. We need to move away from the spilled blood. Insects are already swarming, and other predators won’t be far behind. So Rukia and I set off down the broken road after collecting my Spear. About half an hour away, I felt it should be safe enough to stop and finish recuperating. I pulled out the blocky package that was my tent, set it on the ground, pressed a geometric symbol on its top, and stepped back. The character lit up, and it started to unfold, becoming a basic triangular two-person tent.

  Quiet Night Camp Tent

  Do you wish to activate Enchantment Unnoticed? This will consume 1 charge per hour until effect is deactivated.

  Y/N

  I selected yes, pulled out the camp chair I got from Snowville, and sat down to cultivate.

  The air was so rich in essence that my Dantian filled the rest of the way with only 1 breath. I spun up my cycling through my Bone Meridian, as usual, the whirlpool of essence forming almost instantly, the essence I drew in converting into the high-quality essence in my pool, and drops of Ki formed quickly before my eyes.

  I could barely keep up with drawing essence at the same rate it converted to Ki, even with how much I was drawing in with each breath. I could feel the essence trying to permeate my whole body, invigorating me, pushing my Ki to move faster through my system, converting to Ki more quickly. It felt like my entire cultivation system was more alive than ever before.

  Before I knew it, my Ki pool was packed to near bursting. So I switched my cycling to that of my Stomach Meridian. As I spun up my Ki to push through the quagmire it held, it seemed to flow out of the Meridian even Faster. The blockage thinned out and cleared almost twice as fast with just half the effort. I didn’t have to squeeze my meridians to generate enough pressure to force my Ki through; it just flowed with the Ki bit by bit.

  I only had forty percent of the Meridian left to clear when I started, but with this energy-rich environment, I managed to clear the rest of my Meridian without draining my stamina over time.

  Congratulations,

  You have opened your Third Meridian, the Stomach Meridian. Opening this meridian will have several immediate effects on your body and possibly more effects will appear as you progress

  +3 stamina, +3 constitution,-50% to Food and Water Requirements

  Your digestive system has become more efficient, drawing out every bit of nutrients from the food you eat, and leaving less waste for your body to flush out.

  With the ease of finishing my stomach meridian, I immediately began drilling a hole into my next meridian. I remembered my brutal fight with the python, not being strong enough to fight it, and being unable to safely increase my strength when I needed to most. I set to drill through the openings to my Muscle Meridians.

  Drilling through my fourth meridian was no joke. I had to spin up my Ki to its maximum, and I had to squeeze all three of my meridians to generate enough pressure and spin to drill even a tiny hole in each side. It wasn’t even enough to start passing through my Ki yet.

  I had to stop with that minimal progress; I could feel my stamina draining at a prodigious rate. This would be something that I had to do over several stages, even with the environment I was in now.

  When I pulled out of my meditation, I looked around and saw Rukia lying next to me, breathing deeply with her eyes closed. I extended my Spiritual Sense to her and was amazed at what I could feel. She was drawing in the rich essence, not like I usually did.

  I could sense her spirit beast core in the center of her chest. It was drawing in the dense essence and converting it to Ki. The Ki levels were slowly rising in her Core, but what surprised me the most was that most of the Ki being made were going into her body.

  I could practically see how Ki was saturating her muscles, refining them, making them more dense and able to contract harder. It suffused her bones and joints, making her more limber. Basically, every system that I improve through clearing my meridians was being refined all at once.

  The progress wasn’t as rapid in one area as mine, but she improved everything all at once. No wonder it took her so long to fill her Ki pool. Most of what she made naturally went straight into her body. Only a trickle went to letting her use her active abilities.

  I pulled up my Tent’s stats; I needed to know how many charges I burned through in that push to clear my third meridian and the Failure at opening up my fourth.

  Quiet Night Camp Tent

  Type: Enchanted

  Quality: Common

  Rarity: Common

  Durability: 30/30

  Charges: 21/24

  Effect: activate enchantment to cast Unnoticed. Unnoticed causes a 20ft radius from tent to remain unnoticed from bests and monsters as long as they are not driven into the area or resident does not attract notice. Enchantment consumes 1 charge per hour in effect.

  Rechargeable, 50 mana per charge.

  Three hours, I spent three hours cultivating in the middle of the day, burning through the safety I needed to be able to sleep at night if I was still out in the wilds. First, I checked Rukia’s Ki levels before deciding if I would disturb her or not.

  Hp: 60/60

  Hp Regen: 12/day

  Stam: 160/160

  Stam Regen: 16/minute

  Ki: 78/120

  Essence: 42/120

  If I was reading this right, based on what my spiritual sense was telling me, she should be close to breaking through to her third body rank too. She should be able to continue gaining Ki even while moving around. And if the Demon Boar meat does help improve the body, if I give her some now, she might increase in rank that much faster. I should eat some too, but later. I wasn’t really hungry at the moment, probably that half food requirement thing going on.

  “Hey Girl, you hungry? Want to eat?” I asked Rukia. Her ears instantly perked up, and she sat up, staring at me eagerly. I pulled out a piece of Demon Boar meat. It looked like a whole 1 pound boneless pork steak. I handed it over to her, and she immediately started to wolf it down. In just a couple of minutes, the whole thing disappeared like it never existed, with Rukia just sitting there licking her chops.

  “Ok, we should try to get through as much of this jungle as we can. The highway through this valley isn’t more than ten miles long. If we are lucky, we should be able to get through it before nightfall. But, keep an eye out, girl. There be monsters here.”

 

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