Ignoring the source of the unnecessary headache, Shadow, I came to the large boar and began expertly cutting off layers of skin and fat. I was shocked to see just the skin was even thicker than my arm, not to mention the pudgy layers underneath.
No wonder it didn’t seem to take any damage from my strikes. Not that I landed many, but still. Its bones were even thicker than that and super strong. And even though the quality of its flesh was a lot weaker than mine, the quantity more than made up for it.
Bones were extremely tough as well. Thicker than my legs, the ribs alone were enough to completely block my punches without breaking. And with the layer of fat and skin on top, I had no chance of killing the beast that way.
Fortunately, the skull, though also quite thick, was the most exposed part of the body, and with the critical brain matter right behind it, it was relatively easy to destroy. The beast clearly had little to no resistance to flames, which, considering it was a forest hog living in a humid environment, wasn’t surprising.
I slowly cut my way through the bones and flesh, exposing the internal organs as well as the shiny golden core. The Dantian. The beast core.
I smiled and grabbed it, releasing it from its fleshy cocoon. Tiny was going to get another upgrade soon.
After storing away the core, I gathered some choice cuts of meat, fatty pieces that would do well as a roast, and the important internal organs, such as the heart and liver. Those contained the most Essence and were worth saving. Everything else I decided to convert into Golden Essence Pills.
I rose a stone seat from the ground, sat on it not far from my kill, and began spreading out my Qi.
“Is he really doing that right now?”
“What…? Oh, you can’t be serious!” I heard Shadow exclaim after Darkness noticed my intention. He poked me in the arm. “Hey! We are on a strict time limit here. Converting that mountain of flesh into Essence is going to take days. Let the beast rot and let’s go!”
[Don’t bother me.] I swatted his annoying poking hand away and continued with what I was doing without missing a beat. I don’t know where he got the idea it would take days, but in my mind, I needed a few hours at best.
“Fine! Do whatever you want… I’m seriously going to lodge a complaint to Master after we get back.”
I ignored him.
“Unbelievable…” Shadow murmured to himself.
I once again ignored him and continued disassembling the pig on a molecular level. Flakes of shining Essence began rising into the air as the mountain of flesh began turning to smoke. Using the techniques I had learned from the old ghost, I even purified the Essence, turning it into genuine Golden Essence Pills.
What’s more, with his knowledge and my abilities, I was able to extract even more impurities than he ever could. And that was without any preparation or tools. There were still impurities left, as they were in everything, but they were dwarfed by the usable Gold Essence.
It took me four hours to convert the pig into small golden marbles, longer than I predicted, but there were so many I had to hold them with both hands. I threw one into my mouth and stored the rest, momentarily enjoying the feeling it gave me as it spread throughout my body.
It, of course, couldn’t compare to Spirit Essence, but it was good as a snack. Since we were out in the wild, I knew I couldn’t eat Spirit Beast meat every day, and I accepted that fact. Still needed a substitute though.
[Alright, I’m done. Everyone ready?]
Vilya nodded and gave an affirmative while the other two stayed silent and just stared. I guess there are only so many times you can be wrong before you learn to shut up.
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We ran through the thicket for a few more hours but we were slower than I would have liked. The forest was dense after the summer growth spurt, with a myriad of bushes and thorny vines. It was like an impassable jungle on the ground, and the air above wasn’t much better either. All filled with low-hanging branches and sticky vines. There were many of those vines that weren’t present around the Sect.
[Alright, let’s stop here. We’ll start again tomorrow at dawn.]
I chose a relatively clean spot in the jungle and then sent out a blast of Qi to push away or destroy any dead wood, underbrush, or prickly grasses. Vilya began preparing the meat I collected, coating it with salt and spices while Shadow and Darkness gathered some dry wood for a fire.
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I didn’t say anything and just watched them work. My plan was to make my own fire with Qi, but I guessed some charcoal flavor wouldn’t be bad, especially since the meat wasn’t the best. The beast had one thing going for it though. It was tough, extremely tough. And I even chose the toughest cut of meat so it would have some texture.
Vilya of course couldn’t eat it, but she wasn’t a big eater either, and I quickly found some weak bird hiding in the tree and killed it with a blazing pulse from my eyes. It was slightly bigger than a chicken and in the early levels of Cultivation. Perfect for her.
As darkness fell on the forest I happily turned the fatty chunks of meat over the fire while sitting on a throne of stone. Vilya sat in my lap, whispering sweet nothings into my ear. My attention was split between the meat on the fire and the one moving slowly up and down my joystick. The place was serene, and I was in heaven.
Appearing fully clothed from the outside perspective, it took the other two quite some time to figure out what we were doing.
Shadow appeared irate as he realized it and looked like he wanted to strangle me. But in the end, he just walked away and watched the forest, seemingly trying to distract himself with guard duty.
Darkness became similarly red in the face, but more from embarrassment than anything else, and covered her ears and turned the other way while lying on the ground, pretending to sleep.
What can I say? I was a serious man. Training Passionate Spirit Siphon daily was a must.
After the dinner was ready we ate with few words exchanged between us, and then went to sleep. And by sleep I mean Cultivation. After Reaching the golden Core Realm, the Soul did not require rest. Just feed it a bit of Soul Essence and it would be good to go. The body was a bit different, but if even some Mortals could go by with just a few hours of rest, that was even more so the case with powerful Cultivators.
Vilya was the only one who still needed to sleep for real, but she also decided to stay awake. The main reason was that after I fed it the last pieces of Soul Essence I got from the rat, she felt ready to advance. A breakthrough to Spirit Accumulation Realm VIII. Good for her! I was glad it happened. That should help her remove the curse much faster and help her catch up with her peers.
I watched over her through the night, making sure everything went well. Even though she couldn’t Cultivate on her own, by directly feeding her Essence I could boost her higher. Some might even consider it cheating. Well, sucks to be them, haha.
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As it was usually the property of time to pass, it has, and as the morning light came, we stood up and prepared for a new adventure. We heated up some leftovers and soon made our way towards the north. The border village was at the extreme north-western corner of the Myriad Beast Sect territory, and we were about a third way there. If everything went well, we would reach them the following morning.
I examined the map and furrowed my brow. There weren’t many landmarks in the Ancient Ironbark Timberland to orient ourselves by, so the position of the sun was about the only thing I had to go by. Thank god I knew math. At least I knew our general position. At the end, I would check our position from the sky. From a few hundred meters in the air, I should have enough of a vantage point to see the village.
I stored the map away. Everything was ready and off we went.
During our travel, I detected many small and large beasts, but I made sure to avoid them. Though I was tempted to fight them all, there just wasn’t enough time. We were on a tight schedule, and it wasn’t like they would go anywhere. The wilderness was massive, with thousands of beasts. There wasn’t any fear of losing the opportunity to hunt if I waited a few days.
Towards the evening we stopped again and set up camp. We were about three hours away from our target, but I preferred to meet possible enemies in the daylight. Not that darkness would be an issue for me, but seeing was better than not.
At least I would know nobody was sneaking up on us. Unless they were invisible, but that’s what the two ninja spies were for. They were trained to detect each other while cloaked, but they didn’t like to share how they did so. They were stingy like that.
Anyway, we set up camp, lit a fire, cooked some meat, and overall repeated the same we did the night prior. Yes, even the naughty things. It was fun.
I actually fell asleep and was out for the entire night. Not that I needed it, but if you had the option for a time skip, why not take it? And so daylight came once more, and we were back on the road.
I mean… we found a road. Or a dirt path. I noticed it after doing the early scouting, and according to the map, that was one of the paths to the village. We just had to follow it west, and we would find it. The good thing was that by traveling along the dirt road we could speed up massively. We had a clear line to follow, and it was absent of any thorny obstacles.
[We should be there soon.] I said as we stopped momentarily. I didn’t want us to suddenly burst into the village unprepared. We didn’t know how many bandits there were, or if anyone was hiding. I especially didn’t want Vilya to get killed by a stray spell. So, preparation was vital.
I gave her the core of the Silver Swine Emperor and instructed her how to use it in case she was in danger. I quickly carved a simple shielding array into it just in case. It was completely powered by the core, so she only had to activate it.
A barrier of Golden Qi would form, blocking most spells of the same Realm with ease. It of course wasn’t meant to take on a barrage of attacks but even if that happened, I would be close.
[Alright! If everyone’s ready, let’s go!]
We slowly marched down the path, and after turning a bend, we saw it. The border village. What was left of it anyway.
“Seems like we were late.” Shadow stated the obvious.
I silently cursed. We went faster than I had originally planned yet still came too late. And no, the battle with the pig wasn’t to blame. The destruction looked at least a day old, and the burned-down buildings had long since stopped smoking.
Only a few houses were left from what must have been a community of around 500 people. And as soon as we showed ourselves, figures started walking out of those remaining houses. And no, they weren’t the villagers.
“That’s quite a few bandits…”
“They look mean.” Vilya said and hid partially behind me.
[Yeah… And they look just about ready to die.]