Chapter 3

Was it pride that made him ignore the beast? Maybe, but also concern for Lei. He sprinted back to the old man's house, and as he ran, he realized that he was barely tired. The bracer surely made him more enduring. He ran past an expired islander, with a bolt in his belly, his facial expression forever twisted in agony.

He ran into the house and saw a scene that was even worse than the outside. A chair, a small table, the kitchen utensils — everything was all over the place. There were several puddles of blood, and two corpses on the ground: one had shat himself when he died, and another had a huge molten hole in his skull. There was also Lei's arm, severed off and then mangled by an axe.

This whole scene made Xin want to throw up, which he tried to resist. He lasted only three breaths. He emptied his stomach on the floor, revealing much of what he had eaten that day. He tried to ignore the sensations and approached Wu Lei, who was somehow still conscious.

"Hey, man, let me look. It's over. I killed that cunt."

"Muh ahm, my tonque, aaaah..."

Oh. His technique burnt his tongue. Not his biggest concern. How do I stop the bleeding so that he doesn't die, though? This problem made Xin more anxious than fighting, as he was out of his element. He'd rather fight some bandits again than have to deal with this. 

Huh? The arm barely bleeds. What's going on?

"Hey, your arm, what happened to it?"

"Fayah eyhemen, I htob heh bleedy" 

Huh? So he manipulated the fire element to scorch the wound? Brilliant. I need to bandage and medicate him properly, luckily my road supplies have some painkillers and simple vigour pills. 

Lei groaned in pain but took it like a warrior, refusing to faint, cry, or twitch.

"Calm down. The tiger died. You did great. We'll get you a new arm. Just survive, please. Let me bandage you."

After bandaging Lei and applying some medicinal herbs, he gave him a small mixture to drink.

"For the tongue," Xin said, yet it knocked Lei asleep a minute later. For the better. Xin then tended to his own wounds. Nothing too serious, but they needed to be washed or they'd get infected. 

Bandages, though, clearly needed more. Expected a cut or a bruise, not a battle with a yaoguai and needing to tend to two injured men. Should have grabbed more supplies when I left.

Xin put Lei to sleep on the bed, then went to collect the loot, his knife in hand. First, of course, was the yaoguai. He looked at its peaceful expression, as if the creature's mind had reverted to a cub as it died, and was pretty shaken.

The reality of killing a human and a human-like creature had only now caught up with him.

No regrets, he told himself. No regrets. It was self-defense, after all. Stay strong! Now, get to business.

He took his hunting knife, pulled the tiger's pants, and cut off its penis and testicles. That's some good loot, he thought. Yang qi, expensive. He put them into a small jar filled with water, added some vinegar and salt. Then he cut the gums and carefully extracted the fangs. Then the tongue. Whiskers might be useful too, so he plucked them as well. He then cut the tiger's belly and extracted its kidneys. Hope they last long enough before I find a proper alchemist.

What's that? He realized that the dead tiger's stomach was still twitching, but the creature was long dead. He extracted the contents, separating the food and internal liquids, and his hand met something solid and sticky. Huh?

He pulled it out. It was a small figurine made out of wood, covered in bodily fluids, yet not digested at all, that was stuck near the walls of the stomach. It resembled a tiger but looked goofy and somewhat cute, as if it was carved by a child. Still, it emanated a decently strong Yang aura, enough for Xin to feel it with his touch.

No way. Xin was shaken. A totem? So that explains that attack! It wasn't his own strength he wielded, but the totem's! That explains why he was strong enough to destroy the door in seconds but lost in hand-to-hand combat to me, a mere mortal. Now, if only I could wield this power!

Sadly, Xin didn't know much about totems. They were very different from the other cultivation methods, like xiandao and physical cultivation.

Physical cultivation dealt with organs. It interacted with your bloodline; the stronger it was, the stronger your potential. But with rare materials and lots of training, you could break through and achieve phenomenal feats even as a mere mortal.

As a novice master, you just trained hard and absorbed qi, growing stronger, faster, and more durable. But as you progressed, you had to refine your organs into a complex alchemical system, with their own upsides and downsides. 

A highly developed physical cultivator, Xin heard, armed with martial arts and skills of qi control, could rival the fiercest beasts and the strongest masters of other approaches. Yet he'd never seen anyone that strong (In all the tournaments he attended, physical cultivators were somewhat rare and usually lost to xiandao masters).

The Xiandao cultivators used a different approach. They put all their eggs into one basket and created a new organ, called a core, that they tried to refine into a Golden Core. Such an approach allowed them to wield elemental powers, and the use of alchemical materials allowed them to somewhat compensate for the lack of a strong bloodline. A side effect of their cultivation method was their affinity with dao shards, pieces of the Great Dao that gave the user unique powers.

Each Xiandao cultivator also had a small dimension inside of their core that held their internal realm, filled with their elemental nature. The higher the rank, the bigger the realm. And the higher the rank, the higher the user's lifespan. It was no wonder that this was the most popular cultivation method in this world.

Shendao was an art of divine powers, and Xin always found it weird. The bureaucrats wielded it, knowing the secrets of Li, the ritual. They could sanction different effects and edicts directly from the heavens, had some rules they had to adhere to, their own tribulations and training. 

When the mortal achieved great recognition from the Heavens, for their skill or accomplishments, they could also be granted Shendao powers, but it worked differently compared to the bureaucrats. How exactly? Xin didn't know. But the folklore was filled with people that cooked, sang or fought so well they invoked divine powers.

Totems were another beast of their own, literally. Amalgamations of experience, or manifestations of the beast's soul, or the manifestation of the bestial aspect of the totem's owner, Xin didn't know how they came to be or how they truly worked, what fed them and what regulated their abilities. All he knew is that totems had to recognize their owners, and the owners learned to wield their powers through spiritual attunement, and had to be spiritually strong to not go crazy.

Need to find out more. But for now, Xin just cleaned his totem and put the thing in the hidden pocket of his clothing, near his heart.

He then raided the backpacks of bandits that they hid in the bushes from which they entered, for supplies and coins, just enough to last him a week or two in the city. But after a day of hunting and brutal fighting, Xin felt exhausted, and went to sleep, ignoring the smell and sight around him.

Lei woke him up, which was unexpected.

"What?" Xin jumped up in surprise but quickly recomposed himself.

"I woke up. Let's go. I can walk. We need to leave. What if the beasts come?"

"Oh, I was so distressed yesterday that I didn't even put the bodies inside the house. Sorry. How's your tongue?"

"Tongue? Hurts, but it's bearable now. How can I care about my tongue when I lost my fucking arm!"

"It's there, in the corner."

"Very funny, fucktard!"

"No, I don't mean it like that. Sorry if it sounded like a joke." It was totally a joke. Dark humour was Xin's way of coping with stress, but this habit also pushed some people away.

"Fuck, I'm pissed! My arm, can you imagine? Fine, whatever. I used my spirit stone yesterday. You?" Lei decided to focus on gauging their situation to make the most out of it.

"Same, when I reloaded. Nice shot, by the way. And with one arm! I think you saved my life."

"Heh, you killed that yaoguai, right? I should be the one complimenting you."

"Alright, just let me keep all the loot and we're even."

"Fuck no, it's fifty-fifty."

"Look, I could give you the bracer, but it's ineffective for you. Not because you only have one arm, hehe, I mean your elemental nature."

"Oh, you didn't have to clarify, you son of two fathers. Remember, I used a crossbow as well as you did, but with one arm."

"Listen, I am a hunter. For now, I should keep it. How about that? I owe you. I'll escort you to the Clay Nest, do everything I can to help you heal your arm back, but I keep the loot. What do you think? Mind you, we already split the spirit stones."

"Help me heal my arm back? It's doable, but expensive for two mortals like us. Doesn't sound too promising."

"Regular mortals would die in this fucking hut, and we're alive. Give yourself some credit, we can do this! Can you go?"

"Give me ten minutes to wake up properly. Let's loot these fuckers and move out."

"Already did. Half is yours."

"I see. Sweet. So, in Clay Nest, what's on your mind?" Lei was confused. What's with that guy? Helping me heal my arm back, seriously? 

"Making money, of course. Then powering up. I've spent too much time training with too little challenge or practice. If I was stronger today, I might have been able to do more in the beast tide."

"In that city, it's more about survival than money and powering up. Still, if we stick together, I think we have a chance. Look, I've trained for two years to control my qi powers. Stole this manual from a drunkard, paid for advice and martial arts training, gathered the materials, studied the basics of Wuxing, burnt my tongue hundreds of times. Still, this tiger just turns human and slices my hand off! Feels unfair."

"This is stupid. Two years is nothing, especially without a master. The worst thing is how you disrespect this yaoguai."

"Huh? What are you talking about, Xin?"

"He was born a tiger, but cultivated for a hundred years. You had it hard in life, but trust me, every wild animal that lives to an old age is already a hero — nature is brutal. This one had to absorb human qi for so long, learn to speak and fight like a human, had to break his old self down to adapt to the new body, and then still lost to two youngsters. 

You see him as someone who had it easy, but in reality, it's us, the talented mortals, who had it easy. We had the martial arts knowledge, the manuals, teachers, and each other. He was alone in this world, his only allies being these bandits, and those are some shit allies, to be frank. Some dumbfuck amnesiac Mistborn, I guess." One of the things Xin enjoyed about Lei's company is an ability to swear without being scolded.

"This fucker tried to kill us and took my arm. Do you propose I respect him?"

"I propose you let go of resentment and look at the situation in a detached manner, so you can grow from it."

"Huh? All I've learned is that you like to talk too much, that trusting you will make me lose an arm, and that one can use their arm as a weapon if it gets sliced off. Oh, and to not give up no matter what, but I knew it all along."

"That's already a big lesson. You should thank your destiny."

"Oh, you wannabe daoist freak, acting all detached and wise. I think you're just trying to run away from the fact everyone you know is dead and you did nothing to prevent it. Can't judge you, though, no idea what I'd do." Lei sighed.

Good one, Wu Lei. Fuck you.

"Hmmm, maybe you have a point. Just be careful not to repeat these words back to me when you have your arm back."

"Don't you dare pretend that I am not a warrior until I get my arm back! I'll surprise you!"

"I see you've rested enough, this shouting and cockiness. Let's go?"

"Fine, let's move out. I'll tell you my plan."