Pre Departure

Tap~ Tap~ Tap~

Yao Guai raised one oddly shaped wooden stick and started drumming on a bundle of thick vines laying across a tree stump's surface. Each beat damaged the vines, cracking them through the middle or even cutting some parts off. Undiscouraged, he kept on beating until its collective thickness fell thin enough. Picking up newly created thin plant fibers, he tossed them to his back, a hairy lanky arm caught the bundle and started fiddling with it.

This process repeated for an hour until Sun slapped the transmigrator on the back of his head. Snorting, Yao Guai turned around and a bundle of ropes slapped against his face followed by Sun's laughter. He stretched the ropes and found them strong enough, thick as a pinky finger, they looked like they would be durable enough to secure things.

[Why are you making me make rope again?] Sun tilted his head, he used to make rope, fiddle with things, or create crude tools before he even teamed up with the strange human. Yao Guai smiled, choosing to stay silent followed by his hands snaking towards a set of dried bones and cleaned tiger fur separated into multiple sheathes. With plant fiber ropes, tiger bones and fur, he measured his body and nodded.

Sun crossed his arms, a bit miffed that his teammate ignored him instead of answering. Curiosity nagged at the back of the ape's mind and he took a peek at what Yao Guai was doing. Rearranging bones and setting them near each other. Tying those hard calcium reinforced structures and wrapping the rope around them. Securing those bones together, Yao Guai's hands stopped not and they grabbed a piece of tiger fur, poked holes in it with great difficulty using bone tools and crudely "sewn" them to the bone.

Beads of sweat dripped down the child's forehead. A few dozen minutes later and he smiled at his handy work. A set of barbaric armor was made from a spirit beasts' bones and fur.

Tiger bone fur chest plate, bracers, boots, leggings, and even shoulder plates. After wearing the full set of bone armor, Yao Guai looked like a chieftain character from a cannibal movie who was out to eat human flesh and use their bones to decorate their dwelling.

Gesturing towards Sun, Yao Guai stood up. His face morphed into a cocky grin and shining green eyes.

|Fight me. Don't hold back.|

[Sure!] Sun smiled as well.

The monkey was just an eighty year spirit beast in terms of strength. Just a little below what Yao Guai could barely handle so the match up shouldn't be too much of a wide chasm in terms of advantages and disadvantages. They were both fast, possessing great instinct and senses.

The duo headed out of the cave and separated. Yao Guai raised his fists and Sun cracked his knuckles and a second later, those forearms of sun glowed in brown light. His furs and flesh turned into stone, stopping just beneath the elbows and the finger joints coupled with the wrist were the only parts left unhardened.

[Let's go!]

Bam! Sun shot towards Yao Guai like a cannon ball, throwing a straight jab at the young boy's face. Yao Guai countered, raising his arms to block using his tiger bone bracers.

[ORA!]

BANG! A stone fist met with durable bone. Yao Guai stepped back a little but grinned in return.

'Its effective!' His makeshift armor had blocked off the hit successfully, mitigating the blunt damage his flesh and bones were supposed to suffer from. Yao Guai and Sun were still relatively weak but compared to a normal human, they were far stronger in terms of durability or physical strength. A punch from sun with hardened fists was comparable to being slammed by 1200 pounds of force. Or 600 hundred kilograms.

The process is being hit by that fist feels like being shot by a super powerful shotgun.

Excited by the prospect of no longer holding back in fear of killing Yao Guai, Sun Wukong grinned madly and unleashed a hail of fists at his rival. Yao Guai smiled too in response for he wanted to test the limits of the tiger bone armor.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

[ORA! ORA!]

|MUDA!|

Like two boxers, the two combatants exchanged a flurry of punches all aimed at weak spots such as the head, the side or even the liver. Two bodies moved at superhuman speeds, dodging, attacking, counter attacking and blocking.

Yao Guai blocked a left hook from Sun and set an uppercut at the monkey caught wide open. His fist crushed the air and slammed onto the ape's unprotected chin!

Sun stumbled backwards, his head looking at the sky. He glanced at Yao Guai and chuckled softly. The chin that had been struck with a powerful blow combined with tiger bone gloves were a dull grey stone color. Having hardened his chin before receiving the blow allowed him to shrug off a strong punch that could've killed or seriously injured a human.

Yao Guai grew increasingly pleased with his armor and with Sun. Sun was proving to be a better fighter than he had thought and his armor showed no signs of faltering. Both of them couldn't damage each other too much.

Yao Guai raised his hand towards Sun who was walking towards him, gesturing him to stop. Battle frenzy clouded the monkey's eyes as his arms sagged and his legs took great strides towards the human, though he was calm and understood.

|From now on we will train and hunt everyday. Once you reach a hundred years in terms of strength and once I reach rank 10 in soul power, we will depart.|

[We're going to leave the forest soon? But I want to head deeper! I want to fight more spirit beasts!]

|That can wait.| Rolling his eyes, Yao Guai charged at Sun.

The fight resumed. Hours passed by in a flash and two exhausted teammates rested, gulping mouthfuls of water from the long, bamboo trunks storing clean water inside the cave. They hunted a handful of ten year spirit beasts and feasted on their roasted flesh.

Yao Guai narrowed his eyes at his monkey pal. He could see the monkey's description and details in the form of a card and he could see word [Spirit Beast] of the top right of Sun Wukong's card where a monster card's element should be shown and a rating in terms of stars was below it. Sun Wukong was a 1 star monster according to the card but he could see his strength in the description.

-----

Sun Wukong (Spirit Beast)

1 Star (80 Years of strength)

[Warrior/Effect]

A stone monkey hailing from a primeval forest possessing the power to petrify. Upon destruction, unleash a final gambit killing the attacker or injuring it.

-----

Yao Guai Blinked. Sun was munching on some meat and turned his attention towards the gobsmacked human.

At a loss for words, Yao Guai sat down to cultivate instead. His mind flashed with thoughts and he mulled over things. Yugioh followed a strict set of rules when it came to dueling, summoning, monster card effects, turns, phases. All of it were fine webs weaved into a basket of complicated beauty.

But this world that he was living in, it was not the Yugioh world. It was a world where soul masters reigned supreme and do you really think the enemy would just wait for him to draw cards while blurting out his commands? Phases? In the world of violence, speed and strength decides life and death. There were no rules here, anything goes as long as it can bring victory.

Falling into a meditative state, his breathing fell into rhythm as soul power circulated within his meridians. Flowing ever so silently and unobstructed with each circulation granting a feeling of relaxation, a euphoric comfort akin to having had a meal and then heading back to sleep in a chilly temperature just after the rain.

Creasing his eyebrows, Yao Guai felt a tug at his mind, a nagging feeling. Hushed voices tickled his ears but they came from the annals of his mind. One vague connection leading to an unknown place kept on teasing. He tried to focus on it, he tried to grab onto that connection then trace it to the source yet his endeavors felt shy of succeeding.

Just before he could reach the origin of those voices and the resonance that he could feel in his heart. They disappear like thin smoke blown away by the raging wind. Focusing again, Yao Guai kept on cultivating but the voices returned not.

The child's eyes opened. 'Maybe if I raise my soul power rank. Then I'll be able to get to the bottom of this.' Fueled with curiosity and hunger for power, Yao Guai redoubled his efforts in cultivating.

The two followed their schedules, eating, hunting, resting, cultivation, and sparring. More months trickled down and Yao Guai reached lvl 10 in terms soul power cultivation and Sun became a hundred year spirit beast. He stared at the monkey happily humming a tune while bashing a wolf spirit beast's head into mincemeat using a long bamboo staff fastened with rough bone portrusions.

The two were on the way home after a successful hunt. A familiar feeling surfaced inside the human, hundreds of voices echoed, Yao Guai surveyed the area with serious eyes. Spotting no spirit beast versed in sound usage or illusions, Yao Guai pinched the bridge of his nose.

A minor headache was starting to form.

"Draw..." One word.

One word kept on repeating inside the man's head, suffocating him in a cacophony of voices coming from multiple unknown places. Some sounded feminine, other valiant and a select few sounded like the howls of a dragon.

[You alright bub?] Sun noticed Yao Guai lost in a headache. This was a common occurrence for the past few months now, at first he was so worried but overtime, he came to accept it as normal. But even still, that did not lessen his fright every time this headache terrorizes his friend's peace.

|I'm fine, just dizzy| Yao Guai reassured Sun. The monkey was reliable and trustworthy. Both had saved each other's skin time and time again and their relationship could now be related to two close friends who had each other's back.

Croak!

With the world spinning around him, Yao Guai accidentally stepped on something he shouldn't had stepped on. Sun's eyes widened and he looked down at Yao Guai's foot, there was a brownish yellow frog with orange spots covered in dried grasses that had its lower regions crushed by the child's foot. Its eyes were bulging out, it looked dead yet the monkey knew wiser. A strange scent wrapped around the two and the frog slipped away.

[Not good!] Sun panicked. He picked up Yao Guai who had closed his eyes and was about to collapse and made a mad dash for it. Behind them, an ungodly wail awoke the inhabitants of the forest from their slumber or from their feasts.

REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!

An explosion of sound shocked a local area of the outer region of the Star Dou Forest. This wail pissed off even the most calm of spirit beasts.

Rumble! The land quaked.

Sun jumped into the tree tops and started running and hopping from Tree branch to tree branch with an unconscious seven year old strapped on his back. His eyes glanced at what was behind them and his heart nearly stopped from surprise.

Dong! Dong! Heavy stomps declared itself to the nearby spirit beasts.

Standing at seven meters high, sporting one gleaming golden sharp horn on it's long nose, a rhinoceros looking Spirit beast possessing black hide stomped on the ground and gave chase to the fleeing Sun Wukong and co. The duo had been trespassing multiple areas due to needing more high quality meat to sate their stomachs. It was a dangerous act to undertake but it was an action that gave high rewards.

Usually, the two would not be caught. Today, it was a different story.

The behemoth of a black rhinoceros pursued them. The trees barring its path were run down and stomped into twigs by its hulking frame. It was slow, slow and powerful, just slow enough to barely catch up to Sun.

[This is your fault Yao! Wake up!] Sending a mental message, Sun screamed at his friend.

No response.

Sun wanted to fight the rhinoceros but he wasn't an idiot. Even he knew his limits and would only fight those just a little above his strength. This larger rhinoceros however, was a thousand year spirit beast at the minimum.

As the chase continued, the greenery around them grew increasingly familiar and Sun saw traps. Stealthy potholes lined with an array of bamboo spikes underneath. Ropes tied tree to tree and he lead the rhino to them.

Snap! snap! Snap!

Crash!

Sun didn't even had to look back this time, he knew well that the traps did nothing to harm the thousand year monster. Only serving to slow it down just a little.

Sun arrived at the cave entrance and frantically turned around. The monster still chased them, intent on crushing and destroying the two being coated in that annoying scent. That frog was a special spirit beast, famed for its ear shattering shrieks and annoying scent. Spirit beasts wanted it dead no matter what.

Sun looked around, prepared to book it.

DONG!

The Rhinoceros plated in black armor stomped, halting its charge and stared at the two with eyes flickering in uncertainty. Sun retreated into the cave, he too was a spirit beast. And he understood the emotions clouding the rhinoceros.

It did not want to fight anymore.

Unlike how it charged in, shaking all of heaven and earth. The Rhinoceros quietly departed.

Sun on the other hand, felt even more uneasy. A spirit beast won't just leave without a fight, especially something as strong as a thousand year when there was nothing in the vicinity that could stop it.

The monkey gently placed Yao Guai on a bed of thick furs. He looked around the cave, but there was nothing that he could link to the behemoth's departure.

His eyes caught sight of a glossy sheet in a corner of the cave. Picking it up, he walked outside and examined it.

"Shed scales..." Sun scratched his chin.

It was a good thing they were leaving soon.