The smell of burning hair and meat faded. As noon passed, the flame’s white outline returned to its normal color.

Debris in the pit fell inwards, leaving only charred bones and ashes behind.

Hao mixed and flipped the ashes in the pit before he left the platform. He pulled the bones into the bag, not wanting to leave them behind. He hoped to take them somewhere nature could benefit from them; an animal could sharpen its teeth, or a tree could take root.

As he held the small bones in his hands, he got a chill; his view on life was changing, a growing desire for strength, an itch for status.

Hao stood, letting those feelings rest aside. He had other things to do before going down to the main part of the Sect.

He moved the rest of the beds back to where they belonged. He put some more wood in the house; grabbing the tools that were in the other rooms or outside like the axe inside as well.

The women were watching Hao. He had nothing else to ask them for today. Hao thought he had asked plenty of them already. They had things to attend to; in their own words. Hao left some of the previous meat and refilled the bucket with berries when he was ready to leave.

“Does the Young Master wish for us to cook for him?”

“Cook for yourselves, if there is any left afterward I will have it,” Hao said, closing the door behind him.

Hao walked down the mountain, humming words in the air. The same winding path he had taken just hours ago. Going back the other way with one goal for the day complete; Only bones remaining.

He absorbed the intense hot world energy as he walked.

Night and day have different effects on World Energy.

There were fewer people to stare at him as he walked, as he tried to focus and maintain a good walking speed at the same time. He was trying to increase his absorption rate with each step. A task that seemed impossible to achieve to a level of perfection. In his current state, if he sat down and focused, he could breathe ten or twenty times more Energy.

His face carried an emptiness as he made his way to the food hall. The abyss in his eyes was getting deeper as his mind became clearer. The color in them returned as the sun got far enough away to see shadows.

The food was more populated than before, with a few more people from the last time he was here. They were staring in Hao’s direction. It was hard not to notice. Hao pushed away the distraction.

As he passed the people in the back rooms, they looked at him with disinterest, pointing him back just as before.

Another beast was in the center of the large room at the back of the building. Senior Li Tuzai was standing at the beast's head. The room was as lit as last time, the sun bending in through the oversized door.

Senior Li Tuzai was standing sideways, looking the beast in the face. He pulled in his cheeks, puffing on the tube in his mouth, its tip growing brighter as it shrunk.

Senior Li Tuzai took the tube out of his mouth and squeezed it in his hands. The tube turned to shreds, dust, and smoke, carrying itself out of the massive door.

He glanced over at Hao, the same way he had when Hao entered the room for the first time. Hao still felt the cold, but this time he moved under it.

“You should be careful doing that. Worst case you enter Qi deviation and I’ll have to be the one that puts you down.” He said, pulling his eyes back on the beast, his face empty of intent.

“Senior?” Hao said, unsure of the man’s meaning.

“One performs techniques in a certain order and in certain ways for a reason. Meditation is meditation. If you wish to meditate while moving, ride a donkey or get a flying treasure.”

Li Tuzai turned and looked at Hao again, walking to the stomach of the gigantic creature.

“Trying to do too much at once; You may freeze for a few minutes. Or a demon in your heart will burst forth rampaging until your soul is nothing but ash.” He said.

“Can Senior tell me more?” Hao asked.

“I could. Come, let me teach you to butcher this creature. The smell of blood and ash on you makes me want to teach you more. Your lack of remorse taunts me even more. But I am curious if you know when to show mercy.” Tuzai said, his voice trembling. Hao thought it was his imagination.

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“Senior is truly observant,” Ha said, assuming that the man had seen everything about him, including his breakthroughs. Senior didn’t comment; he probably wasn’t surprised.

Hao felt no different from the beast in the center of the room.

“If the beast you killed had evolved like this one, you would have died.” Li Tuzai said, ignoring the flattery and starting his lesson.

“It had a clean evolution, its tusk normal size. They would have disemboweled you before you threw your first spear.” Tu continued, unconcerned about how his words would affect Hao. He was only being honest in his assessment.

The creature was similar to the one Hao had fought. The appearance between the two was like night and day. Its body was stout, round, and muscular. It had a fur coat without a single patch missing. The tusks were the largest difference. They were smaller without nodules and pointed forward sharp, and symmetrical.

“It would have eaten you to further its cultivation, though you would not provide much to it.”

“Can I ask who killed it?” Hao asked.

“A group of disciples took the new in-name disciple of the First Elder out on a mission. Hunting a beast is the best option for sect contribution points. But you are stuck here for a while. Unless…” Tu said, his eyes holding a gleam of light.

Tu did not continue the train of thought. He started talking about the creature again. He removed the creature’s skin as he did.

Hao helped him hang the massive hide after it came off in a single piece.

Not a drop of blood spilled until Li Tuzai willed it so. He drained the blood in a swift action. He used a ring in his hand to collect the blood. A similar object Hao had seen on the finger of every Elder.

Once the blood was nearly gone, he started taking the rest of the beast apart. Tuzai was teaching Hao everything he knew about the beast. He cut the meat from the bone by blade and tore apart flesh with fingers until only white bones remained. Joints popped like shells and fruit, and the bones came apart.

Even having already killed two people, the scene was quite disturbing to Hao.

Tu got all the flesh off the bone and bones into an organized pile, storing them in the ring too.

Finally done, the dissection was almost ritualistic; there was a disturbing perfection to it. The way the beast was treated like a simple puzzle made Hao’s concerns about life and death seem vain.

The beast was gone; that was all that could be said. The only shadow that the creature ever existed was its hide, hanging in the air against a wall.

They took a break as the hide dried. The sun made quick work of the skin drying. It was the perfect chance for Hao to ask questions.

What would be better to ask? It has to be something that does not give any clues.

Hao wanted to keep the information he gave the Senior Li to a minimum. The man was strange enough as things went.

Hao first took out a jar of blood, the one that had its moisture sucked away by the Drinking-Stone.

“Can Senior explain… the state of this to me?” Hao said. The bloody smell filled the already iron-scented room.

Li Tuzai turned on a dime, walking over to the jar, looming over it as he stared down into Hao’s hands.

“Inert beast blood, its vitality was sucked out; drying is normal in time, but losing its vitality is uncommon unless refined. But the beast's blood you got was not fresh, it was also contaminated… You… You have a secret, you should have kept it that way,” Tu said. He was quick in his response. Only stumbling over a few words, rapidly blinking his thin eyelids.

Hao shivered under the eyes of the man with no expression.

“Do you have more? I suppose you have something worth striking a deal with. Hmhmhm.” Tu said. He stepped even closer to the jar, lifting it from Hao’s hands. “Some without all the filth in it, I hope.” He started moving, tapping his foot.

The man turned from Hao, lifting the jar to the ceiling. Even with Senior Li Tuzai turned away, Hao felt like a giant eye was staring down at him. It was half open and Hao could not see where it was looking from.

Hao felt he would die if his answer was not the one Li Tuzai wanted to hear.

But Hao was not sure how the dried blood was created. Most blood, including his own, seemed to be eaten away. Only that specific jar of beast’s blood had such an effect.

“I only have an idea, Senior. It requires more knowledge, I am not sure.”

Hao was not sure he wanted whatever deal the senior would offer, either. The man seemed more than a little mad. He already had one with Senior Taoyi and the Wu women.

These deals will be the death of me, Hao thought. He also knew these deals were his opportunities, whether he could handle them was another question.

Tu stuck his finger into the jar, rolling it up from the bottom. As his finger passed over the blood, it flaked away, catching in his fingernail.

“Very well… the blood will be the second part of our deal. First then…”

Tuzai slowly put down the jar, struggling to let go of it. As he straightened his back, he reached for the edgeless twisted blade on his back.

He faced the hide that was drying on the wall as he pulled out the blade. It was out of its scabbard for only a moment. Senior Tuzai, in just a blink, carved an exquisite painting on skin that slowly revealed itself. A pattern appeared on the hide as the fur fell away. Then a second and third appeared, more, another. They were people placing their feet, diagrams of a technique. A footwork technique.

Hao looked at each one in the order the carvings appeared. Staring as time passed, the image was being imprinted into his mind involuntarily.

The sensation of a dozen pens drawing on the inside of his skull. When the image was finished imprinting, Hao leaned forward, again in this hall, falling to his knees. The last image made the drawing whole, but Hao failed to understand it.

The artwork was exquisite but painful to look at. Pointed blades carve images through Hao’s eyes, into the back of his head.

“Learn this movement technique, and I will vouch for your ability to go on other missions. If you hunt beasts, you can claim their blood as your own. You will lose a piece of your points, but it is a fair trade. Find a way to get more of this inert blood.” Li Tuzai said.

Hao folded forward, holding his head.

The voice of the Senior was muffled but he could hear the words. His mind passed over the technique over and over, repeating the steps, and remembering the image.

The point of the Tuzai’s blade carried the intent to carve, and that intent was carried into Hao.

After a few minutes of drooling in pain, Hao let out a laugh. What a week. Hao felt relieved with the pain dissipating. The world seemed a lot more beautiful now that the pain was gone.

“Take this. No one cares for the blood of normal animals. But this is just a little old,” Tuzai said, holding out a few vials of red liquid, dark and thick. “You can leave. If you plan to come again, make sure it’s every day, not just when you feel like it,” Tu said.

He shooed Hao away as he stared at the jar he received from Hao.