Chapter 42: First Encounters

A/N: Hey everyone. So things didn't really go to plan this week, so there's only one chapter coming out. Next week will hopefully be better. I'm planning on trying to get three chapters out next week.

Anyway, hope you enjoy chapter 42. The trial is actually starting now!

Pan Song and I jogged through the entrance into the ruins and left it behind quickly. We didn’t travel at full speed to avoid running headfirst into leftover killing arrays or spirit beasts. But we still move quite swiftly.

Our goal was to hunt down 9 early Rank 1 spirit beasts each as fast as possible. Hopefully, even before Qian Zhi was allowed into the trial ground, as he was a Mid Qi-Gathering and should still be waiting. Which was why I didn't bother trying to scout things out using Earth Wader. It would have only slowed us down.

Once we were done with the spirit beasts, we’d look for an intact building with defensive formations. After that was secured and ours, then we’d make our decisions about what to do about Xing Yaling.

The city—if it could still be called that—looked quite a bit different from what I expected. Given the mostly intact state of the walls, I’d thought there would be a lot of buildings inside. Probably broken buildings, worn down by time, with lots of plant growth and the occasional oddly pristine building intermixed with everything else.

The reality was far worse. The people who came before to explore and plunder the city must have done a very thorough job when it came to cracking the protective arrays. They also probably had done so quite some time in the past. 

After 5 minutes of jogging, we’d yet to see even a single marginally intact building in the former city. Of those that remained, few even had roofs or complete sets of walls. Instead, they had a few severely worn-down stone walls to mark where parts of buildings had been, which were covered in moss and vines. Large trees surrounded and hid many of these, further obscuring the signs of civilization.

The ground itself was little better. In the past, the city must have had stone-brick paved roads. But they’d been overcome by the elements as well, overtaken by dirt and mud in many places, and plant growth in others. It made Stormcaller’s Glory seem more like a walled forest than a city.

Which made all the spirit beasts seeded throughout the ruins feel more natural.

Not long after we left the outer wall behind, we encountered the first of such spirit beasts. It was a pair of large pythons hiding in the trees above. Each was twice as long as I was tall, and they dropped down on us, hoping to catch us off guard.

A week and a half ago, this would have meant my death. After only having just reached Rank 1, this could have at least been painful for me. Now, however, it was an annoyance at best.

Both snakes were only at Early Rank 1. I hadn’t caught sight of them until they were almost on top of me. But that was enough for me to react.

I leaped back and slashed at the one that had gone for me. That earned me a hiss of pain as my blade cut through scales, which grew louder as I made spikes of stone shoot out from the ground to impale the creature. Its scales managed to save it from most of them as it crashed onto the ground, but one managed to stab deep into its side.

I paused for a moment, seeing an opportunity as it writhed in pain. In my sword hand, I created several balls of foxfire in quick succession. I kept them as dim as possible and channeled them up my blade. Even to a cultivator’s or spirit beast’s enhanced senses, they would’ve be barely noticeable, especially since they were partially phased with my blade.

It wasn’t really necessary for me to hide my foxfire here or to deliver it through my sword. But it was good to keep in the practice of obscuring what I was doing. My foxfire is most effective when kept discrete. It makes it harder for enemies to avoid, whether I wanted to drain their Qi or just burn them up.

With 8 balls of foxfire made, I leapt forward and slashed, moving too fast for the injured snake to react. My blade cleanly cut through its body, separating it into two writhing sections. At the same time, my foxfire surged from my blade, latching onto each part of its dying forms.

Leaping back just in case, I started to drain the snake of its Qi. Since it was dying and unable to resist, I didn’t hold back, taking as much as I could through my foxfire. Normally, the spirit beast would’ve been able to stop me once it noticed, but in its current state, it was simply too weak.

That let me not only replenish the cost of all the foxfire, but also store up a nice chunk of Qi in my temporary Qi pool. It wasn’t as much as I would’ve liked, but it was a start. During my training over the last couple of days, I’ve found having half my extra Qi reservoir full at all times to be the most optimal.

It gave me enough free Qi to spend on techniques, but also left me room if I needed to steal a lot of Qi quickly.

I’d need to kill a couple more early Rank 1s to get to that point, and need to top off every once in a while, even if I didn’t use the Qi. But given what we were in this place to do, I didn't think I would have much of a problem with that.

Turning away from the now dead snake, I looked over to see how Pan Song was doing. Unsurprisingly, he was done with his beast as well. I had him beat when it came to pure power, but that didn’t mean Pan Song was a pushover in a fight. 

Pan Song’s master had been rather stingy when it came to giving him supplies for his craft. He’d been made to hunt to afford the needed materials, so he had plenty of experience with battling spirit beasts.

Pan Song had managed to dodge the ambush and catch the other serpent in some kind of fire array. The serpent let out a horrible hissing sound as ropes of flames lashed onto it, binding it to the ground and burning through its scales and flesh. I would have moved to put it out of its misery, but one of the ropes tightened around the thing's neck and decapitated it before I could.

With that taken care of, the two of us moved to quickly extract the cores from the snakes. While we were in a rush, both of us were proficient enough in core extraction that it wouldn’t really slow us down. There were also some things I could do with the cores and my foxfire. 

I couldn’t drain them like I could a spirit stone, but I could burn them. That had limited uses, especially when I couldn’t store any more foxfire in my body at the moment. But it was still a potentially powerful extra option. Which was why I kept both cores on me, just in case. We’d split them afterwards if they ended up unused.

As I got my core out, I noticed how the bronze badge I had to wear at my waist was glowing. A quick look showed that now the number 3 was blazing just in front of the badge in a glowing orange light.

“I guess there’s no way to hide how many points we have,” I said to Pan Song as he straightened and handed me his core.

Pan Song looked at my badge, then back down at his own with a frown. “Yes, it seems so. But I doubt being able to lie about something like that would have helped much. And if our plan works out, it won’t matter.”

“Probably,” I said, nodding before the two of us took off again. We were following what looked to be the remains of a road. There wasn’t much of it left, and a lot of the stone bricks that paved it were gone. But there was still less foliage here than in most of the ruins, so it was easier to travel along them than brave the more overgrown areas.

Not long after the snakes, we encountered another group of spirit beasts. A whole group of deer that I felt a little bad about attacking. Right up until they hissed like demons, bared fangs of all things, and charged us as a group.

It wasn’t a tough fight as I could now deal with most early Rank 1 spirit beasts with ease. Just like the snakes, the fights finished fast, and I ended up with more Qi than I started. Despite that, it had been troubling in other ways.

I’d never realized just how creepy meat-eating deer could be. The numbers didn’t help either, as there were more than a dozen of the damn things. The worst part of that was when we killed them all, we realized that a majority of the creatures had just been Rank 0s on the cusp of Rank 1. Which meant they were worth nothing for the trial.

Very annoying.

There was a pack of wolves after that, which, like the deer, had Rank 0s in their midst. Then, a pair of annoying monkeys tried to steal from us, and quickly swung away when we almost killed them. After that, there were two competing male bears that attacked us with surprising strength, but ended up being probably the least annoying things to fight. And finally, we encountered a single, surprisingly powerful rabbit that saw us, then blurred far away, far faster than either of us could keep up with.

Pan Song and I didn’t bother trying to chase the rabbit. Instead, we just waited to see if it would return for any reason. As we did, a bell rang throughout the trial grounds. That meant that the mid-stage Qi-Gatherers were allowed in. Which also meant that Qian Zhi was able to move freely now. Not great. But at least Xing Yaling was still outside and waiting. 

“So we're more than halfway done,” I said to Pan Song. “So things are looking good. But I think we should focus on finding an ancient formation in case anyone catches up to us.”

“That would be good,” Pan Song said, nodding. “But do you have an idea how? We’ve found some more intact structures, but there were only killing arrays.”

“Yeah, actually I do,” I said, looking up at a nearby tree. It was pretty large, with the lowest branches far out of reach for a normal person. But not for me, I realized. “I’m gonna see if I can’t see anything from up there.”

I pointed at the tree, then moved towards it. I’d never climbed a tree before back on Earth. A jungle gym, sure, but not an actual tree. I’d been rather risk-averse as a child, and also might have had a slight fear of heights. It was probably why I hadn’t considered doing this earlier. But as I was now, I had nothing to fear. 

So I crouched slightly and leapt as high as I could go. That launched me high enough that I bypassed the lowered branches and grabbed onto one in the middle. I pulled myself up with superhuman grace, balanced myself, then climbed quickly the rest of the way, reaching the top of the tree in very little time.

That let me have a great view of our surroundings, seeing over most of the trees. Although I did make sure to try and hide myself within the branches as best as I could. After all, it was doubtful that I was the only one to think of this, and being up here also made me quite visible.

It didn’t take me long to find what I was looking for. There was a temple to the north. It was several stories tall and quite wide. Many of the trees surrounding it towered over it, but the formations around it must have returned or were never broken into, as there was a large cleared space around it, and the temple itself looked far better than most of what we’d seen so far.

Perfect.

I quickly rushed down the tree, climbing about halfway down before letting myself fall down the bottom branches. Then I fell the rest of the way to the ground, landing lightly and rushing over to Pan Song. Idly, I noted that he’d set up some formation flags and was moving around swiftly to gather them back up.

“There’s a large temple to the north,” I said quickly. “It’s still intact, so it should be what we are looking for.”

“Good, then let’s go,” Pan Song said, packing away his formation flags.

I nodded and then rushed off in the direction I’d seen the temple, Pan Song right on my heels a moment later. The trip there was relatively quiet but took a bit longer than I thought. We had to defeat several more spirit beasts along the way, but they weren’t much of a challenge. Still, they brought us closer to our goal, so I couldn't complain. I had 21 points while Pan Song had 18 when we caught sight of the temple in the distance.

I grinned when I saw our potential safety and quickened my pace. Once we’d gotten control of the formations there, things would be a lot less worrying. We could just stick to fighting near the temple, and if Qian Zhi attacked us and was too much, we could just retreat into the formations. Heck, if that happens, and they found us before Xing Yaling, perhaps they’d waste all their time on us.

Unlikely, but it would have been ideal.

“How long will it ta—” I started to say as I moved around a particularly dense group of trees. But then I saw movement in the corner of my eye.

Reacting quickly, I turned to face the new danger, sword at the ready. I heard Pan Song stop abruptly behind me, and there was already the familiar sound of his formation flags sinking into the dirt behind us.

The danger turned out to be a group of five people. They wore very familiar robes, and I couldn’t help but curse a bit. It wasn’t Qian Zhi, or anyone from the Qian Clan. But it was still members of one of the three great clans. The Zhu clan, judging by their jade green and silver robes. 

The five people noticed us about the same time we did and turned to face us. Four of them had their weapons drawn, faces neutral and guarded. The last one, however, just had a smile on his face with his hands clasped behind his back. From the way the four others deferred to him, letting him take the lead despite looking younger than me, I couldn’t help but think he was a Young Master type.

And given what clan he was from, I was pretty sure he was on the list of people we would have rathered avoided. 

Just great… 

“Hello, friends!” the one I’d dubbed a Young Master type called out. His back was straight and confident, and his smile remained plastered on his face. Not a mean or nasty smile, either. But a friendly one. “I am Zhu Fu. It’s delightful to finally run into some of our fellow participants. How would you like to do this?”

I frowned as he confirmed my fears about who he was. He was a minor prodigy of the Zhu clan, and was on the list of people we’d rather have avoided. According to Sun Yun, he’d only just reached Mid Qi-Gathering. But considering he also only just became sixteen and his clan, he would be a lot more of a problem than the average cultivator at his level.

That was just my luck. It hadn't been that long since the Mid Qi-Gatherers were allowed in, and somehow I ran into someone like this.

“I’m Li Lan, and this is Pan Song,” I said, giving him a polite nod and lowering my sword just a bit. I hoped we could avoid this turning into a fight. “It’s good to meet you, too. How about we just go our own ways and not do anything unpleasant. There’s probably still plenty of spirit beasts around.”

“Ah, don’t be like that,” Zhu Fu said, shaking his head and crossing his arms. “This is the Starguard entrance trial. Half the fun is pitting our skills and experience against our fellows. Just ignoring this meeting—especially since it's our first of the trial—seems rather inauspicious. Don’t you wish to see just how you stand up against your fellows? If you are worried about numbers or fighting me, do not be. Only two of us will fight at a time to keep it fair, and you can fight my clansmen who are at your cultivation level.”

I did my best not to grimace. While not having to fight them all at once was nice, nor having to fight a Mid-stage Qi-Gatherer, I wasn’t sure if he really meant that or not. He seemed genuine enough, but that could just mean he was a good actor. And in the end, I still would rather avoid the fight altogether, given the rush we were in.

“I would not presume to be fellows with one of the illustrious Zhu Clan,” I said, falling back on formal language and deference. “I don’t think either I or my companion would be able to give you a satisfying test of your clansmen's strength.”

Zhu Fu sighed and shook his head. “Now, now, there’s no need for that. A warrior should not put down their own skills like that. And even should you lose, it can be a learning opportunity for all. There is a reason the Starguard trial allows us to fight amongst ourselves. It would be a disservice to us all not to compete against each other. Now, let us put aside words and get into something with more substance.“

After saying that, Zhu Fu turned around, showing us his back. He pointed at two of his subordinates: a thin, scholarly-looking young man with a pinched face and a bulky young man with a bit of a baby face.

“Zhu Wei and Zhu Ling,” Zhu Fu said before gesturing over towards us. “Test yourselves against your brave fellows. We will watch.”

Zhu Ling, the large man with a baby face, grinned at that and cracked his knuckles as he stepped forward. “Of course, Big Bro.”

Zhu Wei was a lot less enthusiastic. He sighed as he walked forward as well, sword unsheathing from his hip. “Very well, Zhu Fu.”

It seemed that we weren’t getting out of this fight with words. Damn. At least it would be a fair fight in terms of numbers. For now anyway.

“I will set up a defense,” Pan Song said from behind me as the two stopped just within the range of my earth sense. I was pretty sure before, but now I could confirm the two were Early Stage Qi-Gatherers. Though they felt on the upper end of that. Should be manageable. “I’ll focus on whichever one I can to distract them.”

“Alright,” I said, as I took a step forward with a sigh. Then I spoke louder to try to end things before they began one more time. While I was confident about our chances, I still wasn’t eager to do this. “Are you sure there’s nothing I can say for us to just peacefully go our separate ways?”

Zhu Wei just shook his head while Zhu Ling grinned.

“I guess not,” I said, moving a step forward, my sword at the ready. I half expected them to attack suddenly to surprise me, but neither did. Instead, we just watched each other for a moment as if for a signal.

I decided then to be the first one to act to gain the initiative. I still needed to end this as fast as I could. But I didn’t want to be reckless either, or reveal too many of my abilities at once, or use up my excess Qi without reason. I wasn’t sure if these battle-eager people would consider things settled if we defeated just two of them. So, without using any Skills, I rushed forward to probe them.

I aimed for the big guy without a weapon first. He probably had a way of dealing with that, but it seemed like a better idea than testing my swordsmanship against another swordsman. I’d practiced a lot, and my Swordsmanship Skill made me way better than I had any right to be. But Jianfeng had shown me I still had a long way to go against those truly gifted with the sword. Even if I was stronger or faster.

I aimed for a quick stabbing strike at the trial token at Zhu Ling’s waist. This was, after all, not a life or death battle, and the winning condition was the destruction of our tokens.

Zhu Ling’s eyes seemed to widen at my speed, but he redirected my stab with a palm. It hit the side of my blade, and I quickly retreated as he tried to grab it. But as I did, I couldn’t help but notice the sound his palm had made against my sword, nor the grey stone color that now covered his hands.

Right… The Zhu Clan were primarily Earth and Metal cultivators. It seemed Zhu Ling was at least an earth Qi user. Which wasn’t great for me. 

Zhu Wei, however, seemed to be a metal qi cultivator as his sword gleamed with a familiar metallic light. Though something about his seemed sharper than what I was used to.

I backed away further, expecting him to lunge at me. But he ignored me and instead dashed for Pan Song, who had a protective formation setup. I kept an eye on him, just in case he turned around to strike me from behind, but aside from that left him alone. Pan Song could handle himself.

That was made clear as ropes of burning flame appeared and tried to wrap around Zhu Wei before he reached the barrier.

But that was all I could see before Zhu Ling decided he had had enough of waiting around and charged me. And then the battle began in earnest.