“Alright, is everyone ready?”

We stood at the opening of a cave. It was about two meters tall and three wide, with the highest point on the right side. Chity stood at the helm of our little group of spelunkers as he gazed into the darkness.

“Anyone got a light?” He asked.

I summoned a small ball of light, enough to illuminate our path, but not harsh enough to sting the eyes.

“Thank you, Gerald. Now, who’s coming with me?”

We all lifted our hands, except for Pero. “You guys go, I’ll remain here as a lookout. I don’t have a weapon anyway.” He was still pale and sweaty. His voice was also shaking a bit, so we left him be. He was probably suggesting there might be more bears inside the cave and he didn’t want to face them unarmed.

“Alright, just scream loudly if something happens.” Chity turned back to us. “Let’s go!”

“Onward! Yeah!”

We stepped into the darkness. Well, my light illuminated the walls, and the entrance expanded as we stepped inside, so there was plenty of space for all of us. Unfortunately, the tunnel wasn’t straight and we couldn’t see further than a few meters in front.

“I don’t like this place… It gives me the creeps.” Ken complained and rubbed his hands together. The cavern was much colder than the air outside, and we were all wearing light clothing on top of being sweaty.

“I feel the same, but keep your eyes peeled just in case!” Chity said and led the group forward. I walked beside him, providing light.

The air in the cavern was stale, stinky even. Soon we had to cover our noses as the stench increased. We also saw plenty of white bones and broken skulls of various animals, some of them still rotting and full of maggots.

“Disgusting!”

We came to a stop as the cavern already ended. Its entire length couldn’t be more than a hundred meters. Shi covered his nose, and his brother Ban was seemingly ready to puke.

“What… the hell is this place?!” Ken exclaimed.

There was a crude wooden bed with straw for a mattress and a few animal skins for cover. The ground was littered with bones, most likely none of them human, though in all honesty, I couldn’t really tell.

Chity took in a cold breath, and then immediately began coughing because of the stench. After steadying himself for a while, he mouthed a single word. “Shit.”

[This is someone’s home…] I stated the obvious.

“And the Blaze Bear was most likely a tamed beast. Damn it!” Chity cursed. “We messed up.”

“Do you think it’s one of those vagabonds? A Rogue Cultivator?” Blade asked while holding his nose shut. “In our Sect’s territory?”

“Most likely…” Chity answered grimly. The entire situation was messy, and I didn’t like it. And by the looks of it, neither did he. “We need to get out of here, fast!”

“Aaaaaah!”

We suddenly heard a scream, a distant, quiet, and desperate scream.

“Pero!” Ken turned towards the exit, having recognized the voice.

Chity was already running, a small flame on his palm illuminating his path. “He’s in trouble, let's go!” He shouted, and we ran after him as fast as we could.

The blinding light of the sun momentarily stopped us in our tracks, but we could soon see where the loud screams and whimpers were coming from.

Soon Pero stumbled from behind a bush and nearly fell on his face as he made his way toward the cave.

“Pero, what the hell happened?!” Chity shouted and ran towards him. “Were you attacked?”

“Ah? Eh… Err, I- No…” The guy stumbled over his words. “I- I just wanted to take a leak when I saw this huge centipede! It nearly fell on my face!” He gestured with his hands, showing the centipede being nearly a meter long. Surely he was exaggerating.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“What about your clothes? They are torn, and you are bleeding.”

“I… fell…” Pero answered, rubbing the back of his head nervously. He did not want to look us in the eyes.

“Really now? Honestly…” Chity shook his head and sighed. I understood how he felt. Being a leader was a pain in the ass! You always had to take care of everybody and make sure they didn’t accidentally kill themselves. One of the reasons I didn’t like being in charge of other people.

“Woah! Man, you stink! Did you also shit yourself in fear?” Blade suddenly exclaimed after coming closer to Pero and held his nose. “You stink nearly as bad as the cave!”

“Fuck you!” Pero barked back.

Chity pinched his glabella in frustration. “Stop it, you guys! We all need a shower, and now’s not the time for games!”

“I’m not playing, he really stinks!” Blade protested.

“So do you!” Ken laughed from afar, clearly unwilling to come up close and personal with him.

“Stop it!” Chity shouted. “We need to get away from this place before whoever lives here comes back! If you want to be left to the mercy of a Rogue Cultivator, be my guest, but let’s get the loot back to the Sect safely first, alright?!”

That seemed to do the trick, and the boys quieted down and we could finally get back to our kill.

The work was quickly distributed, each of us doing something. We gathered whatever we could, however, the precious blood of the Blaze Bear was already too far gone to be of any use. Everything else was taken, and our pouches were quickly filled up to the brim.

And that was without taking the meat back with us.

I wondered why, of course, but the answer was all too clear for me to see when we started cutting up the beast. The sulfurous burnt smell that came from the meat was so strong it made my eyes water. The meat was clearly inedible, and besides, we had no space for it anyway.

[I’ll dispose of it really quickly.] I offered, noticing the rest were similarly having difficulties breathing while they worked.

“Thank you.” Chity said and continued. “We will be leaving soon, don’t be late.”

[Don’t worry, I’ll be quick.]

I slowly dragged away the pile of meat while the rest of them worked on cleaning the bones and skin.

Doing a good deed? No, not really. I just needed an excuse to get some alone time with this pile of treasures! I was sure they don’t know about Essence Extraction, or they would have never left anything behind.

Oh, and I also needed some time to digest the Blaze Bear’s Soul. The beast was quite strong and had a fiery temper as well as a high Cultivation compared to the rest of the guys. They barely just began on their Path, while the bear had already stepped into the Spirit Accumulation Realm. What level it was didn’t really matter since it was already dead, but it couldn’t have been too high.

Chity said it was still young, about a decade or so, and I decided to take his word for it. Personally, I had no idea. Different beings began their cultivation at different times.

Humans were notorious for maturing slowly, which showed itself in the fact that a Soul of a person with Mortal talent matured at around the age of 15. Each higher talent grade cut that time down by about a year, so someone with the Earth talent could begin cultivating at 14, while a person of Spirit talent could begin at 13.

It wasn’t an exact science, but it was close enough so people could figure out the grades easily. And those with higher talents had to work harder than the rest to fully develop their capabilities, but in return, they became much stronger.

And the differences compounded each subsequent Realm, as far as I was aware, making for some extreme strength differences.

And it wasn’t like the talent was fixed. There existed some ways to improve it, though those were rare and oftentimes required a bit of good luck to succeed. Unlike that one at the beginning of Cultivation.

Soul Condensing Pill was something every Cultivator should use at the start. That’s what Lilly told us back when we first met. It could increase the talent of a person by 1-3%. But was it an absolute increase? Relative increase? Flat percentage increase? I had no idea honestly, just another thing to research.

I slowly digested the Soul and absorbed it into mine while clearing the impurities at the same time. It was quite a good boost for me, and I was closing in on the border to the Nascent Soul Realm. I could already feel it!

Another thing I noticed, was the memories. The memories of the beast were all messed up, scrambled, and confusing to the extreme. I discarded most of it on my own as I didn’t need an animal’s life in my head, with the sole exception of one part.

It was a person. I couldn’t really distinguish his face, almost as if the memory was in low detail, but I could feel the fear the Blaze Bear felt towards it. It was way more afraid of that one person than it was of us all. Even at the moment of its death, the bear didn’t fear us at all compared to that… guy.

And yes, it was a tamed beast, as the guys guessed. Well, tamed might not be the right word, more like an enslaved guardian.

Just another reason to leave quickly. I didn’t wish to meet that person at all. There were always crazy people in the world, and Rogue Cultivators weren’t an exception.

I quickly began channeling the Essence Extraction technique, and the pile of flesh began disintegrating before my eyes.

Dark-gray Essence. It came out like that, which confirmed one of my suspicions.

Black Essence for anything below Spirit Accumulation, Gray Essence for Spirit Accumulation, and Silver Essence for Nascent Soul.

I would guess Golden Essence for Golden Core Realm, but it was just that, a guess. Still, that confirmed that the different grades of Qi had vastly different effects on the body.

As I finished with the extraction, I was left with a fistful of cherry-sized Gray Essence Orbs. A good haul if I say so myself. I immediately threw one into my mouth and stored the rest, and then returned back to the group while slowly absorbing the fresh Essence.

“Ready to go?” Chity asked as I came back.

[Hmm? Oh, yeah, let’s go.]

I spoke, but my mind was already elsewhere, considering the options in Cultivation I had. And I, had many.