Chapter 7: Returning to The Manor

A moment of warning was all Wei had to make a move. The panther was advancing at a frightening pace – much faster than he had expected. Well of course, it is a spirit beast. It may even have special abilities. I have to be cautious.

Wei braced himself and prepared to engage the panther. I am slow and easily injured. I can’t let it get even one successful attack on me or I’m dead.

Wei briefly heard his instructor’s words in a disjointed recollection “when you use your sword, use your full strength but remember not to tense yourself too much. Stay strong but relaxed and limber. A stiff sword swing will leave you open and will most likely miss. Then, you are dead.”

Paying careful attention to the panther’s form, he saw that the panther was running much too fast for it to pounce on him. Its going to attack me with its claws, then afterwards it’ll be easy to finish me off. I have to disrupt its plans. Wei stepped forward and without hesitation slashed out with his sword in a sharp gleaming arc. Swish. The sword moved much quicker than he expected and within a second it was about to cut into the panther’s flesh. With a graceful movement, the jaguar lunged to the side and avoided the edge of the sword – its movements casual and practiced.

What agility. This spirit beast has a lot of battle experience! This isn’t the first time its killed a human. I won’t be able to escape or win in a conventional manner. What makes me different? Special? .... It’s my mental qi. Any average hunter or swordsmen would almost certainly die if they met this beast. But I am not a run of the mill hunter. I am Wei and I will be a cultivator. No, an Immortal!

I won’t lose to an overgrown housecat!

I will kill this spirit beast for even daring to attack me! With a start Wei realized that he fully expected to make this spirit beast regret ever having crossed him. It must be that the heavenly treasure contained the partial personality of an extremely ambitious and arrogant individual. Here I am trying to survive and yet I can feel something urging me to kill this spirit beast right this moment.

Shaking of the arrogant thought, Wei paid attention to the spirit beast and saw that it looked much surer of itself. No wonder it seemed its first attack was so halfhearted, it was testing me. 

Not letting himself be affected Wei stayed in a simple, balanced stance. He waited knowing that he couldn’t be the aggressor. He didn’t possess the attack power or the stamina to engage in a straight on battle. I have to make an opening. Just one opening! And I can kill it.

Again, the panther rushed at him. This time it ran towards and then suddenly ran into the woods concealing itself in the trees. Wei didn’t even try to look for it knowing it was useless. Instead he immediately spread out his mental qi in a large area around himself. Just as he did so the panther rushed out again from the trees. This time jumping down from above. In the nighttime, its fur offered it the perfect camouflage. Swinging his sword again Wei saw that this time the sword was nowhere near close to the Spirit Beast.

The momentum quickly shifted in the Spirit Beast’s favor. Very quickly Wei realized that his mental qi detection system was no longer as efficient. As long as he was paying attention to his mental qi he could tell when an object was significant size and lifeforce passed through it.

He had slightly experimented with it and realized that all small insects were nigh undetectable. That was a seemingly glaring weakness, however Wei was put at ease when a small poisonous bug had entered his mental qi’s perimeter and he had felt a strong violent reaction from his mental qi. It seemed to be able to detect life threatening dangers especially well.

He didn’t know if all mental qi worked that way, but he was thankful nonetheless.

At this moment, however it wasn’t enough.

Although his mental qi alerted him from what direction the Spirit Beast would attack it was useless since Wei’s body was much too slow to react. His reaction time was fast able to perceive things quickly, but sadly Wei’s body was slow to move due to pain and stiffness leading to his current predicament.

The fight transformed into a game of cat and mouse, with the Spirit Beast trying its utmost to kill him and Wei trying everything in his power to stay alive.

If it goes on like this I’m a goner.

I’ve just awakened my mental qi so I’ve never had the chance to test out my limits. In this moment, I have to try or it’s over. I can’t maintain this type of physical exertion much longer.

Having made his decision Wei took a massive risk and split his focus.

On one hand, he fought the Spirit Beast and on the other he tried to draw out his refined mental qi.

The fight instantly became more savage. Wei fought in a much crazier manner taking the Spirit Beast by surprise. He slashed, hacked and stabbed with the fastest speed he was able, taking no breaks and using all of his energy without any thought towards conservation.

All of this was in the hope that he could draw out his refined mental qi. Wei was fighting solely to stall. And the panther could tell. Its attacks became even faster and Wei worriedly wondered how much faster it could go. Any more and I won’t be able to keep up.

The tempo of the fight stabilized and Wei adjusted accordingly.

The entire world seemed to blur into a mix of dodging, slashing claws and throwing knives. Wei slowly started noticing a pattern in the Spirit Beasts movements. He ruthlessly exploited it – pretending to leave himself open and sensing the precise moment when the Spirit Beast pounced.

Wei lunged forward with a stab perfectly positioned to skewer it. He could see the precise moment it realized his plans. Its eyes narrowing into slits, it tried to dodge, but being in mid-air it couldn’t bend its body fast enough. Wei exulted. Even if it’s a Spirit Beast being stabbed right through the stomach will injure it severely If not outright kill it.

It was at this moment that the Spirit Beast did a truly shocking move.

Without taking its eyes of the sword the panther bended to the side as far as it could and when it reached the apex of its move it kicked out with shocking force.

*Shlink*

The sword sliced through most of the Spirit Beasts hindleg, but couldn’t cut through the bone, splattering the ground with a deluge of blood. The blood of the panther shimmered with a slight sheen that was entrancing to look at.

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Even its blood is filled with True Qi. How incredible.

While he was observing the blood, Wei made sure to keep an eye out for the panther. Seeing the murderous look in its eye he knew that if he didn’t kill it, it would kill him. With a deep breath, he took his stance again and the panther reacted to his movement testing its paws on the ground gingerly in preparation for its attack.

That was when Wei’s perseverance paid off. With a sharp snap Wei felt a change in his refined mental qi. With a single thought, the refined mental qi gushed out from all points of Wei’s body and coalesced around him like a silver shroud. It worked, I can use my refined mental qi outside my body. Compared to the figurative lake that was his normal mental qi Wei’s refined mental qi was a small pond.

However, although his refined mental qi was much smaller in volume, Wei could feel that it more than made up for it in sheer speed and potency.

With a wide bloodthirsty smile Wei said in a chilling voice “Now you’re the prey.”

The Spirit Beast immediately sensed something was wrong, raising its hackles it growled in an ear-piercing manner.

Seemingly unconcerned Wei send out his refined mental qi in a thin stream towards the Spirit Beast. It seems as if I don’t have enough refined mental qi to both attack and defend. But I’ve been on the defensive all this time. Now I attack!

The Spirit Beast seemed to be able to tell it was in danger- but not what was causing its instincts to go haywire. So, in a very anticlimactic manner the refined energy slammed right into the body of the Spirit Beast, shrouding its entire body in a small sea of silver only Wei could see. However, the refined mental qi had difficulty piercing into its body. Its true qi is blocking my mental qi and preventing me from damaging it at all.

Most beings that could think possessed mental qi. They also possessed natural shields that blocked out foreign mental qi, this was a natural protective measure and the more powerful the creature the stronger the shields against mental qi – this was especially true for beings possessing true qi. If I can’t do any damage I’ll have to run, most likely with its injured hindleg and my mental attack it’ll be too scared to follow me.

Escaping from a powerful Spirit Beast was a victory in its own rights. But Wei didn’t’ want to run.

He had been enjoying the fight, reveling in it even. But Wei was no warrior. He didn’t love the fight for the sake of fighting but for the experience it provided and for learning more about the power the power that intrigued him and made him special.

I’ve always wanted to be special. Superior. Does that make me egotistical? Or is it just human nature?

Perhaps in another time I would have worried more about whether it was right or not. But now at this moment I am above human. I will kill this Spirit Beast.

Fueled by his conviction, he sent the refined mental qi piercing like a sharp lance straight towards the brain of the panther. Once more his mental qi was impaired by what felt like a solid wall, however this time it wasn’t enough. Wei’s mental qi pierced right through the shield of true qi and ran rampant through the mindscape of the Spirit Beast, before he could stop it the mental qi attack had completely destroyed the panther’s mindscape. The Spirit Beast started trembling and shaking fiercely, like it was being tortured. A minute later it was yowling loud enough that Wei wondered whether there was anything in the forest that hadn’t heard it.

The silence of the night forest was broken by the broken cries of a tortured beast. The surrounding wildlife ran away knowing nothing good could come of sticking around the area.

Wei walked towards the Spirit Beasts in measured steps, although he knew the fight was over he didn’t dare let his guard down against the beast that had almost claimed his life.

The night wind tore across the forest and Wei tightened his robes around himself. The robes of nobility were stylish and expensive but warm and cozy they were not. As he came within a few scant feet of the Spirit Beast, Wei stabbed it once more with a sharp burst of mental qi. Sensing no reaction, he crouched down and observed the beast.

It lay on the floor hindleg spurting blood, it was twitching in pain and frothing from the mouth. It looked very pitiful, the ferocity and intelligence in its eyes nowhere to be seen.

It was broken. Its mind in shambles.

It couldn’t think. Its body was alive but its mind was gone. As he looked down at his hated foe, pitiful beyond compare Wei knew what he needed to do.

He thrust his sword right into its heart and saw the life seep out of its eyes.

Now both body and mind were no more.

Wei felt an intense desire to pay his respects but he didn’t know how. Finally, he placed his walking stick next to the Spirit Beasts corpse. While doing this Wei knew it was a risky idea with no visible gains, but it felt right and so he went with it. There was a myriad of reasons why he shouldn’t. But regardless of what thoughts bubbled up he ignored them. I need a new walking stick anyway. Slowly walking away Wei finally exited the city and headed towards the city.

The rest of the night was a blur that Wei barely remembered. Arguing with a random passerby, bargaining with a carriage driver and finally falling asleep after briefly speaking with Lady Seer.

The next morning Wei woke up in his luxury bed feeling better than he had in entire life. Although his body was still weak and filled with pains and aches, his mind was sharp as were his senses. He felt like he was the most intelligent being to walk on the earth.

“Today will be a wonderful day,” Wei spoke aloud while stretching.

Getting up Wei was just about to go brush his teeth when he saw that he was still wearing the same clothes as yesterday. They were filthy and stained with blood emitting a rancid odor.

“Man, I better shower and change. Today Lady Seer said an important customer was coming. I better get ready.” He sighed.

A low voice spoke from behind him. “Before that though maybe we should have a talk.”

Wei looked at the door and saw Lady Seer standing there hunched over and looking at him intently.

I wonder what I told her yesterday? I can’t remember.

Running a hand through his hair, Wei made a come in gesture and welcomed Lady Seer into his room.