Chapter 12: Execution.

"I walk a lonely road, the only one that I have ever known." I sang as I walked, my legs running like the wind. Never before had I felt the results of cultivation more than right now, as I kept a pace that would have exhausted me just a few months earlier.

I ran, dodging every three in the way. If I saw wild animals, even those that had been cultivated as I had, I would just take a detour. I hoped I could leave this place and reach civilization before

"Can you stop? Your voice sounds like the hounds of the underworld coming to reap my soul." I heard my so-called master say this as she appeared suddenly by my side.

"I've been told that I'm a great singer!" I replied, outraged at her obvious slander. I then chuckled and continued, "I caught the hearts of many ladies with my voice; I even learned."

I smiled weakly, then the depression came back, but I pushed it to the back of my mind as I saw a small opening in the trees where a small creature was fighting with another just as small. They seemed cute, but the ferocity they were fighting with was anything but.

They were thin and slow, probably fighting to get the only source of meat that they could find. They were fighting for survival—to eat and not be eaten.

This was the cruelty of the wilder world that modern life shielded me from.

But I could no longer hide from this side of nature; what I had envisioned as a serene place—a forest filled with nice animals living in peace—was slowly being replaced by a more realistic idea of what it actually was.

These weren't even the first animals that I saw fighting over food since I woke up here; until now, I had just ignored them, never really looking.

This was a place filled with creatures struggling for survival, and my stomach was rumbling.

In a hushed voice, I asked my only friend in this world, "Do you know whether any of the plants around us are edible?"

"Maybe, but it will never taste as good as those things." She replied with an impassive face, seemingly completely uncaring of my inner turmoil.

"Figures." I replied, sighing.

I was completely lost in a forest, not knowing if I could find a way out in a short time, if I could get back to the city in a short time, or if I was going in the completely wrong direction, only going deeper into the green landscape.

I had to eat something.

"How do I do it?" I asked, my voice weak and resigned.

"Do what?" She asked back, but I was fully aware that she knew what I was talking about; her small grin told me as much.

"How do I kill one of them?" I replied while intently looking at the two small creatures.

"They aren't even at the first level of the Elementary Profound realm, while you could breakthrough to the Nascent Profound realm at any moment. Go there and snap their neck; they won't be able to react, much less fight back." She replied; her answer was merciless but fair.

I wasn't ignorant of how much stronger I had grown thanks to the always denser energy deep into that new set of veins that I still hadn't understood but could somehow manipulate as if they were a second arm.

I had only used it to work faster, more efficiently, and just more in general, but this was the main way that the people of this world used that power: to fight others.

I sprinted to one of the beasts in what must have looked like a flash to both, and I snatched one from the ground, swiftly snapping its neck as I had seen done to chickens back in my world.

It was so easy that I barely felt any resistance at all.

I then looked at the other, who was still standing there petrified, probably in fear, but I just shooed it away.

"Good job." Jasmine said as she patted my shoulder in a brief showing of empathy.

The next few moments were a blur. I had opened the stomach of the creature with a scalpel of energy to let the blood flow out.

I skinned it, cut the little meat that there was into smaller cubes, and set up a fire to cook it.

It was awful, but it was food.

I had never killed anything before—maybe some insects—but never on purpose, not like this.

Never like this.

It was just an animal, but it didn't change much. I had ended a life, and I couldn't help but feel a bit queasy.

It had been so easy.

"Jasmine," I voiced between munches, "this meat is disgusting."

"You have to put seasoning inside your Sky Poison Pearl; maybe then it could be better." She replied after taking a bite, then setting it down with an ugly face.

"Good idea." I mumbled.

Then we stayed in a comfortable silence until I was done with my meal, my hunger quenched, and I set back on the road, hoping that I was going in the right direction.

How did I even get this far?

"Hey Jasmine, do you know any fancy ways to use that energy to go faster?" I asked.

She raised an eyebrow at me and replied, "Finally remembering to ask this princess for advice?"

"Yes, oh mighty master, please enlighten this unworthy student of yours!" I mocked him with a chuckle.

"As far as you know, you never seemed interested in actually growing stronger, but maybe this little adventure will spur you in the right direction and teach you what cultivation is all about." She said.

"What do you mean?" I asked back, unsure of what she was talking about.

"Think back to those two animals, so small and frail," she said before taking a brief pause, continuing after a few seconds with a tone of certainty, "had any of them been in the nascent profound realm, you would have died; in fact, you would have died if they were even just two or three minor realms below you."

"What?" I replied, but the meaning of her words became clearer and clearer to me the more I thought about them.

"You are naive, too naive; it almost makes me think that you never left your house before." She said, not looking at me but still floating by my side, "Cultivation exists to grow stronger, to reach immortality, and then, for even more power, real cultivators can squash those below them like ants, but if you know how to fight efficiently, you can still challenge those above you.

You, on the other hand, don't know how to fight at all; you are high in realm, but your combat capability is below your peers by far."

"I'm not a fighter, so it doesn't matter." I replied that I didn't exactly have the intention of getting lost in the woods.

"Oh, it does matter; it matters even more for you because of the abilities you have shown." She replied, her voice serious, as if she were instructing a child with no knowledge of the world.

Which she was; she had been in this world far longer than I had, after all.

"What do you mean?" I asked in confusion.

"Your clinic is being watched constantly; the only reason nobody of importance has come for you is because you focus on helping the mortals; the powerful ones don't care about mortals, but it changed since you reattached that man's hand; I keep feeling a powerful presence's gaze fixed on you at almost all times." She explained with that same emotionless voice, the one that I didn't like at all.

It caused a shiver to go down my spine, but I had the presence of mind to ask, "What do they want? I'm just a medic."

"You're not just a medic; how many people do you think there are that can reattach a severed arm? That man was only a minor cultivator, but the entire thing was noticed by someone far above his level."

"Then what are they waiting for?" I questioned.

"For you to reveal your true colors, most probably, they must think that you are some hidden master of old, helping the mortals cultivate their Dao, or maybe they are investigating your background to find out who you are." She answered with a wry smile, finally showing a hint of emotion.

"Great, some powerful person is stalking me; what do I do?" I asked with a sigh of exasperation if they wanted to know how I did what I did. I would be happy to share. I was already of the mind to take in some students to pass on my knowledge.

"That's for you to decide, but if you ask for my suggestion, I would say to explore that runic system of yours more; it has great potential, and obviously, learning the techniques that I will impart to you will make me a great master after all." She replied smugly, a grin on her face.

"What techni…!" But my words were interrupted by her hitting my forehead with two fingers, directly shoving a whole bunch of new information into my head.

I short-circuited for a while, feeling dizzy and exploring the new knowledge, but there was one thing that I wanted even more than the knowledge about the movement technique that she had given me.

"How do I do that? I want to learn that!" I replied.

She looked at me with a confused expression and asked, "That what?"

"That information transfer thingy, that is so useful!" I replied with excitement, "Why hadn't she ever told me she could do that?

"Let me get this right," she replied while massaging the bridge of her nose in exasperation. "I have just given you an invaluable movement technique, peerless even in the divine realms, something that only the Star Gods can cultivate, but you care more about that little trick?"

"Ye," I replied.

She sighed deeply.

She then jammed her fingers into my forehead, this time a bit more forcefully than before, as she passed a far smaller pack of information than the previous.

"Thank you, master!" I replied in happiness: I could far more easily get an apprentice now; this was great.

"Whatever, focus on learning the movement technique; it will be more useful than that trick right now." She replied, seemingly defeated.

"Sure." I replied, still happy about what she called just a trick.

If my professors had this technique back in my world, then I could have learned everything far more easily; this could have brought a revolution to the academic environment, to the entire world even!

Education would be more accessible to everyone, as everyone would be able to learn far more easily.

I decided that I would have to study this trick more and maybe develop something to share knowledge in an easier way, but that would be for later.

I focused on the movement technique that Jasmine had given me, the Star God's Broken Shadow, a name almost as pretentious as the Evil God's Profound Veins, but I was used to the odd naming system by now.

It didn't seem too difficult; once I took out the useless philosophical information about dragons, gods, and Qilins, it was a technique about how to circulate the energy in a specific pattern to cause a speed burst far beyond the person's normal capability.

"Hey Jasmine, this thing says there are eight levels, but you gave me only six." I sat, looking for the reason.

"Not even I know the last two levels, but don't worry, the first six levels are more than enough for anyone in this realm to be unchallenged in speed." She replied.

"Oh, thank you."

I carefully tried to follow the instructions of the technique, but soon enough I realized that the pathways described in the technique were different from my own; it was probably a difference in the individual's disposition of the energy veins, which was weird but not weird enough to warrant more thought.

I couldn't do much about it right now anyway.

Maybe I could draw up a diagram comparing my energy network to the techniques and map out the differences, but that would be a problem for later, as Jasmine grabbed my sleeve to attract my attention.

"Someone is coming in our direction, a human."