Chapter 32

I wiped the rain from my face and adjusted my grip on the sabre, now hanging loose in my hand. The sky was a dull wash of grey-orange, the last edge of the sun slipping beyond the mountains. The drizzle softened the air, but it couldn’t wash away the stench of death.

Bodies littered the streets.

Human and beast alike.

Steam rose from the fresh corpses where blood still ran hot. There was a hush across the village. A kind of silence that only followed carnage.

Wei Lin approached, boots crunching over rubble. He wiped at his forehead, smearing blood across his temple, and stopped a few feet from me. His robes were torn, soaked through, and spattered with dark patches. One sleeve hung in ribbons, exposing a nasty cut down his bicep.

“What the hell was that, Brother Fang?” he asked, breathing hard. “You just… fought a spirit beast. Alone.”

He shook his head, in disbelief. There was no accusation in his tone. Just confusion and exhaustion.

I let out a breath and sheathed my sabre. My arms ached from the motion, and I had to brace my side with one hand when I shifted my weight. I wasn’t sure if it was a cracked rib or all of them, but Last Stand was still working overtime, trying to keep me upright. My Qi was basically gone. I could feel the soreness in my meridians like a bruising deep inside my soul.

“I got lucky,” I muttered. “If it had hit me one more time, I’d be paste.”

Wei Lin scoffed and reached out to squeeze my shoulder. “Well, I hope you stay lucky. You scared the shit out of me.”

I gave a tired chuckle. It came out hoarse and rough.

He turned away and looked over the battlefield. His smile faded.

“Come on,” he said. “Let’s help with the bodies.”

We started with the villagers.

They were the hardest.

Not physically. The beasts had been heavier. But emotionally, this was worse. Every face was a reminder of my failings. And even though I knew I couldn’t have saved everyone, that I never could, it didn’t make it easier. The guilt didn’t come from their deaths, not exactly. It came from the part of me that wasn’t sure I mourned them the way I should have. Even if I didn’t know them. That maybe I was more focused on getting stronger. And that thought… that thought sickened me.

We carried them to the shrine at the back end of the village and laid them out side by side in long rows.

When we finished with the dead, we turned to the beasts. We dragged them one by one into a growing pile in the square. There were dozens — Mistfangs, Needlebacks, those lizard-things with broken armor plates. And the Spirit Beast. Its massive body still sat where it had fallen.

The villagers who had survived slowly emerged from hiding. Some joined the work in silence. Others stood off to the side, pale-faced, watching. I caught sight of Fi Yan sitting on the steps of the sect building, legs pulled up to her chest, eyes red-rimmed but alert. Someone so young shouldn’t have to see so much death.

The rain began to set in further and in the distance lightning branched across the sky.

Fires were put out or left to smoulder from the down pour. Master Kai walked with a limp, a bandage wrapped tight around his knee but still he tended to the injured. Madam Shen moved along with him, her satchel of herbs on her side, barking quiet orders and handing out small packets of medicine.

As we dragged the last of the beasts into the pile, I dropped to one knee, chest burning, my energy depleted.

“Don’t suppose we can rest,” I muttered.

Wei Lin exhaled and sat down beside me. “Yeah, that feels about all we can do tonight. Rest. The elders will make preparations for the morning.”

I nodded and watched the rain pool on the packed dirt, washing the blood away.

I walked back to the clinic and found my room. I sat cross-legged on the old bed, the wooden frame creaking slightly at my weight. The scent of dried herbs clung to the air but it couldn’t cover the copper tang of blood still staining my sleeves.

The clinic had held. Somehow. It felt like the only structure that had. Outside, the wind whistled low through the gap where the door had been, and voices echoed from the square. Along with sobbing. I felt a deep sadness for the villagers. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to drag the bodies of the people you know and love away to be buried or burned.

I rested my head and tried to sleep. My body was spent, my Qi hollowed out and sore, my limbs pulsing with the lingering damage of the fight. But my mind wouldn’t stop. It kept playing everything back, the mistakes, the fight. All the things I couldn’t fix. Couldn’t undo. Could have done better.

I let out a shaky breath and opened my system to distract my mind.

The glow of golden text shimmered in the air in front of me, sharp against the dark.

Qi absorbed.
System sync in progress…

Stat Increased
Strength: 11 → 22
Agility: 11 → 22
Constitution: 16 → 32
Spirit: 18 → 36

Progress: Mortal 6/10 → Qi Refinement 1/10
New Title Unlocked: Initiate of the Emberstorm
New Feature Unlocked: Cultivation Manual

Reward Claimed:

[Emberstorm Foundation Scroll – 1/10]
A volatile and aggressive cultivation path focused on explosive output, rapid Qi circulation, and physical reinforcement through self-combustive refinement. Tailored to match the user’s unique spirit signature.

Current Stage: Initiation (1/10)
Effect: Enhances physical power during combat via Qi bursts. 

Status
Name: Ethan Ward 
Cultivation: Qi Refinement – 1/10
Titles:
• Diligence’s Chosen
• Otherworlder
• Initiate of the Emberstorm
Skills:
• Last Stand
Manual:
• Emberstorm Foundation Scroll – 1/10
Stats:
Strength: 22
Agility: 22
Constitution: 32
Spirit: 36

I stared at it.

Everything had doubled.

It wasn’t just numbers on a page. I’d felt it in the fight — the way my body moved, the force behind my blade, the speed. But seeing it now, all laid out, made it real. I was stronger than I had ever been in my life. Not just strong, I was something else now. Something new.

The cultivation stage glowed at the top: Qi Refinement – 1/10.

I had crossed the threshold. I was no longer a mortal.

And the reward… I opened the manual again.

Emberstorm Foundation Scroll – 1/10
Status: Beginner
Stage: Initiation

This technique circulates Qi at an unstable, aggressive frequency. Enhances explosive movement and short bursts of extreme power. Use with caution.

Warning: Overuse may result in internal damage, meridian burnout, and organ rupture.

Stage Progress: 1/10

It explained so much. The pain during the fight. The searing heat through my muscles. That moment when my skin felt like it was about to split from the inside out, that wasn’t a mistake.

That was how it worked.

It sounded like something a masochist would like. Was that what I was now? A smile crept on to my face and I let out a little chuckle. I had to admit, once last stand was activated, it worked extremely well.

I sat back slowly, still staring at the window. I didn’t know where this path would lead, but I knew it granted me power and it was only at stage 1...

My thoughts were broken when the system chimed again.

Quest Generated
Objective: Reach Foundation Establishment Stage
Reward: Meridian Restructure

I exhaled slowly through my nose and nodded to myself, I was half expecting something like that to happen. And it was promising, if the information implanted in my head was accurate, then restructuring my meridians could change everything. A cultivator’s power didn’t just come from Qi alone, how that Qi moved through the body mattered just as much. With better meridian pathways, my cultivation technique could function more efficiently, more explosively, with less internal damage.

Another chime.

I frowned. I wasn’t expecting anything else.

Then the second quest appeared.

And I stopped breathing.

Quest Generated
Objective: Discover the source of the beast wave (Located at: The Severed Step, Heiyun Province)
Reward: Origins of Earth: Volume I

The words sat there, glowing softly in the corner of my vision.

I read them once.
Then again.

My hand dropped slowly to my lap, heart hammering. This was the first real lead I’d had since arriving in this world. The first breadcrumb I’d received. And it could lead anywhere, maybe even to home.

I stared at the prompt for a long time, rain still tapping against the clinic’s roof. That had to mean the cliff face Wei Lin and I passed on our first hunt. The one gouged out by a cultivator’s attack, if what Wei Lin said was true. I remembered standing there, overlooking the sprawling land below.

This wasn’t something I could ignore. Whatever was happening down there had answers.

I lifted my hand into the air and held it there. Flecks of blood still clung to my skin, drying around the knuckles, crusted beneath my nails.

I turned my wrist slowly, then I clenched my fist. Veins bulged beneath the skin. My forearm tightened, muscles rippling against the tension. For the first time since arriving in this world, I could feel the strength beneath my skin.

I could tear through bone. Cut through monsters. Stand against things that would have been able to killed me if I was still back on earth.

“I finally have enough,” I whispered. Despite having come to terms with being weak when I awakened as a D Rank hunter, there was a time in the academy when I thought I could make a difference. Where I could do what I wanted and not have to be scared. And now.. now maybe I could. If I kept gaining power like this, nothing could stop me.

I let my hand fall to my lap, curling it tighter.

Never again would I have to be saved. Never again would I be dragged down by my own helplessness. I didn’t know what came next. I didn’t know what that cliff held, or what “Origins of Earth” meant but I’d face it head-on.

Because now I could.

I knew I wasn’t strong yet. Not really. Not compared to A Rank hunters or even other cultivators. But I had taken the first step to close the gap. And I wouldn’t stop now.

No matter what this world threw at me.