5 Backlash
Ideas flashed by his head at the new information given to him by this little trial and error. In this world at six years of age, children would be able to awaken martial souls who come in three types, each possessing their own unique abilities.
Tool type martial souls are usually plants, swords or even food stuffs such as sausages. Beast types give a certain beast's constitution to the holder often times resulting to the addition of cat ears, tails and savage strength if the martial soul was one of a feline.
Lastly, body types involve specific parts of the person's body. It could be the eyes, brain or even something as insignificant as a toenail.
Yao Guai's martial soul belonged to the tool category. Manifesting a card that resembles a yugioh design, it is seemingly able to trap spirit beasts inside it. Excited at the prospect of using spirit beasts to fight, he clapped his hands and looked around the birch forest, searching for a boar that could blend in with the current surroundings.
It didn't take long for his gaze to land on a dead birch boar sprawled onto the ground. Eyes dull and lifeless, its body sagged and refused to budge an inch. Surprised, Yao Guai let out a yelp, rushing to touch the boar and check up on it.
"Ah damn it."
A lack of any response to his touch grazing the boar's fur elicited a cuss from the transmigrator. With the boar dead, testing whether or not he could summon it into the real world would obviously be a massive failure. Even if he could summon it, what good would a pig's corpse even do? Feed his enemies and hope they choke to death?
Lost in thoughts, an eerie wind blew through the birch forest. Yao Guai stumbled backwards as he slowly started losing balance. Standing upright was no less of a chore for the ground was shaking.
Right before his eyes, the birch forest started wilting as if fall had already arrived. Leaves fell to the forest floor, the once healthy trunks of birch trees turned dark, their bark flaking off rapidly.
"Ah!" He screamed.
His mind was shaking, thinking about anything in general pained Yao Guai. A skull splliting headache assaulted him, his very core screamed as pain ate away at his nerves.
As the world rapidly died, Yao Guai opened his eyes again, the dark cave ceiling laid bare before his eyes. He wanted to move but he felt suffocated.
And out of nowhere, the child sleeping on fallen leaves started convulsing, body twitching uncontrollably on the ground. A white card floated above Yao Guai glowing dimly in white. Paying closer attention to it, one would be able to see the portrait and description of the birch boar slowly vanish into nothingness.
Light glowed from the cave, in an empty spot appeared a dead boar. Two wooden spear like sticks stabbed into its body, a stream of blood painted the ground a shade of foul smelling crimson.
After convulsing for a few minutes, Yao Guai's body eventually stopped moving, his eyes stared blankly into the ceiling and his mind struggled to steer clear to regain awareness of his situation. A fishy scent started dominating the room and Yao Guai finally regained his senses.
He stood up, feeling warm liquid stain his cheeks along with his nose, he looked down and saw he was having a nosebleed, slightly crying tears of blood. With no further option available, he wiped the blood onto his shirt and proceeded to sit down.
'I... I need to eat.' Yao Guai wanted to question what happened. He wanted to analyze everything he had experienced so far to think of what to do next but his mind cooperated not. Simply staying awake was a struggle, and he could not lay his body to rest yet.
Yao Guai was hungry, if he slept now then the boar carcass would go bad with no method of preservation available. The only thing he could think of was to cook the meat and eat as much as he can.
Yao Guai gingerly assembled a crude fireplace. Banging rocks together, a spark was all it needed to light the dried up fibers and leaves, allowing it to burst into flames.
A businessman may be no physical athlete, that didn't mean he couldn't learn a few tricks such as making a fire for camping.
The night was cold, and thankfully clothes fitted with branches offered a little comfort. Flames danced on the campfire, Yao Guai grabbed a jagged rock and crudely separated the birch boar's hind leg from the body.
Shabbily getting rid of the hide, red flesh illuminated by flames met his eyes and he nodded, sticking the thing onto a stick and roasting it above the flame.
Ssss~
Oils and juices escaped from their fleshly confines and dripped onto the flames. Holding back an urge to just devour the non fully cooked pork right off the bat, Yao Guai endured gruelling psycological torture, saliva flowed down his lips. He gulped.
Once the pork was roasted enough, Yao Guai dug in to his dinner. Oily juices were squeezed out, teeth sunk into cooked flesh disappearing deeper into the man's gullet. Each bite tasted a bit bland, Yao Guai found the meat lacking salt or other spices but it was still delicious.
Savagely wolfing down the meal, he cooked another birch boar hind leg and stuffed his face full until he couldn't eat any longer. Other parts of the birch boar weren't spared from being roasted either. Yao Guai made sure to roast all of the parts that he deemed to be delicious and set the finish products under a separate pile of leaves. Without proper appliances, crude methods and luck were his only choice in trying to preserved food.
Immediately, Yao Guai picked up his bamboo mug full of water and drank from it. Water flushed down discomfort thereby giving peace to hunger and thirst.
By welcoming the tiredness plaguing the body did Yao Guai only fall asleep inside the bed and blanket of leaves. The cave interior was crude and unclassy, the bed he was sleeping in wasn't the best or was it comfortable either.
But a humble smile blossoming on Yao Guai's sleeping face told tales of his comfort. For the first time after so long did the man finally find peace again.
-----
"Ahhh! Ahhh!" Yao Guai's eyes shot open along with his body that sprung up like a spring. His hands traced all over his body, scratching and stripping away cloth until he became fully nude. Hissing, he looked down at his body and red indention marks littered it commonly resembling leaves or sticks.
The man had been so disoriented that he had forgotten to remove the makeshift ghilie suit that had protected him throughout his stay in this beast abundant land. The morning wind chilled him to the bones, Yao Guai headed outside stark naked in order to warm up himself.
A child without clothes would raise a lot of questions, but this forest was not one of those places. Warm sunlight lightly tickled his skin, sitting in a cross legged position, Yao Guai started meditating. Feeling a cooling and relaxing sensation of wind flowing inside his veins.
Despite having a rough start, Yao Guai could be called lucky so far that he possessed the previous body owner's memories. Cultivating his measly lvl6 soul power would be a long process but bit by bit he would advance.
After a round of cultivation, he headed back into the cave and dressed himself in his plain brown rags. A blank card floated out of his palm and he stared at it in awe.
Having the ability to capture spirit beasts was certainly a great ability to have. But it was also a risky venture that needed to be thought over properly.
The stronger the spirit beast he captures, the stronger his combat strength would be. But thrn again there are prices for everything in this world. If Yao Guai wanted to catch a strong spirit beast then he must also face greater danger.
Although armed with a strong martial soul with endless potential, the only problem was that he had no special attacking abilities if you discount his amateurish ways of hunting and trapping.
Yao Guai stared at the sky lost in thought, pressure descended on the land and he felt suffocated. Up in the skies was a majestic eagle looking spirit beast. Wings as black as the night sky blotted out the sun and darkness took over momentarily.
After it had passed, Yao Guai's ambition had been touched.
"I want a strong spirit beast." The thought was dangerous. But he didn't want to settle for a weak spirit beast to have as his minion.
The boy grabbed his gear and vanished into the forest again. He has the desire, the wit and the capability to do what he wanted.
Yao Guai just needed more knowledge before he could set a plan into motion.
