My outstretched right hand pierced through the Claw Ape’s body, my straightened fingers acting as a spear as the Golden Qi shimmered on the tip and destroyed its heart in one swift strike.

I watched as the life drained out of its eyes, and the Claw Ape went limp, its last attack awfully underpowered to take me down in a single strike.

By the time it fully died, the rest of them already dispersed, like looters after a riot, too frightened to continue.

I wiped my bloodied hand in the grass, and then scanned my surroundings. There, in the distance, I could see two shapes, trying to get away. I lowered myself to all fours as I kicked off the ground, and in a short few seconds, I caught up to the first one.

It was the ape whose spine I crushed at the start, trying to crawl away, and I quickly pierced its heart with my right hand still coated in Golden Qi. Its defenses were pathetic in comparison to mine and broke apart like brittle glass.

The last one, the one that I struck in the side with my glaive, was quickly limping along, using its three limbs to walk while the last one it held at its side where blood continued dripping out in regular intervals.

I could see it slowly running away, but I had no intention of letting it go. They were the first to attack, and now it was time for payback.

I stood up and straightened my back. A cold mist started swirling around me, condensing into ice and snow. I lifted my hands up above my head, and between them, an Ice lance started to form. However, this one grew bigger, and bigger, and bigger…

In the end, it was nearly two meters long and almost thicker than my torso, when I finally released it.

The Ice Age Lance. One instant it was above me, the other it already pierced through the escaping ape, freezing it solid in a short few seconds. And if that wasn’t enough, it then violently exploded into countless ice shards a few seconds after that. A bit of an overkill, but I had plenty of Qi to spare.

[Hmm…] I scanned the forest once more, but everything was quiet, and I couldn’t see anyone else. My fast-beating heart gradually slowed down, and I washed the blood off my body, before taking a new pair of pants and putting it on. The Souls were being slowly devoured one after the other, and my mind returned to peace quickly thereafter.

“That was horrible! What kind of monster are you? I thought you were going to escape, not kill nearly the entire troop! And all four leaders too, despite them all having higher Cultivation than you!”

[Hmm? Oh, this? Hah, this was nothing.] I smirked and cleaned out the wounds on my upper body and then threw a healing pill in my mouth. I had experienced harder battles in my previous life. Maybe not in a Cultivation sense, but there were definitely a few that were harder than this. [They didn’t even come close to threatening my life.] Which had happened more than once before.

I cast another healing spell on myself and put on a fresh gray tunic. The main color of the Outer Disciples. I would have to get some clothes that wouldn’t get so easily destroyed in the future, but that was trouble for a later date. I still had all the corpses to collect.

Or was it carcasses? Eh, who cares…

I slowly gathered all the Mountain Apes in one spot, and after taking out their Cores, I tossed them all into one big pile. I skinned one of the leaders and cut it to pieces for later consumption, as for the rest, they would all be turned to Essence and fuel my growth.

“Are you sure you should be consuming so much Essence?” The old ghost suddenly expressed his doubts.

[Why? Are there any bad side effects?] I asked. If there were, I would have to reconsider.

“Well, no… None that you don’t already know about I mean, but still…”

[I have nowhere else to put them.] I replied. [Should I just let them rot here? Or leave it for other wild animals?]

“Fair point…”

Having won the short exchange, I sat on the ground and spread out my consciousness, and began diligently turning the mountain of flesh into Essence Cores. It took me many hours of hard work, but in the end, I was left with three nice Silver Essence Cores, countless Gray Essence Cores, and even a few Black. I just discarded those as I really had no need for them. They were just taking up space.

I could have maybe sold them, but I didn’t deem it worth the risk of exposing my abilities for such little value.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

When everything was done, I stood up and slowly made my way to the clearing with the trees. They had to be something good if they attacked me for just coming close.

“So… That was an interesting move you did there.” The old ghost began chatting as soon as he saw I was done with my work.

[You mean my golden hand?]

“Mhm.”

[It was something I theorized since learning I could manipulate Golden Qi, though I didn’t have a good opportunity to test it out.] I said, taking out the tiny crystal I used. [Though it is quite expensive…]

“No kidding…” We both stared at the drained Spirit Stone Shard in silence.

“You know, the way you used it was quite good… But wasting more than 95% of the energy is just… dumb. I thought you valued money.”

[Oh, give me a break.] I rolled my eyes. I was for sure going to be doing a lot of that in the future. [It was the first time I did it, and under pressure no less.]

“Well, fine, I’ll admit, that was pretty impressive. Using foreign Qi to create a weapon, even if crude, is a viable strategy, even if it is wasteful. Got a name for it?”

[For the hand? Nah, it’s just something I came up with in the spur of the moment.] Encasing my palm in a blade of Golden Qi was the most simple thing I could have done, but the Spirit Shard contained too much energy for me to contain or work with, so I had to release most of it. It was a shame, but if I had a bit more time, I could maybe use one of them for longer.

“How about calling it Golden Hand?” Old ghost suggested.

[Why? I’m not even sure if I’ll ever use it again. I might as well make a longer blade next time.]

“Golden Blade then? That could work.”

[No, and can you stop with the gold, please? It’s way too extravagant for my tastes. It should be something low-key but easy to remember. Like Hand of God, for example.] I smirked at the name. My genius, it was almost frightening.

Long Dong was stunned into silence for a few seconds. “Hand of God?”

[It’s simple, isn’t it?]

“Really? And is that what you call low-key?”

I just shook my head and didn’t try to argue. If he didn’t get the irony, that was his problem. We nearly arrived at the mysterious trees. They were about three meters tall, getting dwarfed by the Ironbarks all around.

The leaves were… Well, they looked like leaves, I don’t know. I wasn’t a botanist. The fruits appeared like small peaches or apricots. But they didn’t seem quite ripe yet, so I questioned the walking library in my head.

[So? What is this? Any ideas?]

“Ah, yes, the Divine Trees. With the Divine Fruits on them…”

My face remained deadpan as I came closer and rubbed the bark. [Now it’s not time for jokes. Tell me, what it is and what uses it has.]

“You really are something, you know that? … It’s a common Dwarf Peach tree, nothing special. There are a lot of them around the Sect. The fruits can be used in some minor healing pills, fruit wines, and as flavor enhancers. And if you eat them raw they can also help with skin, gut, bone, and blood health, giving some minor improvements.”

[Permanent improvements?]

“You could say that, though nothing is really permanent.” Old ghost said in a bored voice.

[I’m assuming they aren’t quite ripe yet…]

“And you would be correct. Based on the color, they need at least another month.”

I quietly cursed in my mind. I couldn’t wait that long. [And if I took them now?]

“They won't ripen away from the tree if that’s what you wish to know. And if you eat them now, you’ll receive all the effects, only in reverse.”

[It will do some minor damage to my body?]

“And you will shit your brains out, yes.”

I slowly exhaled through my nose. If I left them here unguarded, the apes would for sure come back and eat them when the time was right. But if I took them, I would have nothing good come out of it. It seemed I wasn’t fated to taste these fruits.

“Just forget about it. They would give you a few weeks' worth of Body Cultivation improvements at most.”

[That’s a lot.]

“You could just come back later if you want it that much. Maybe you’ll be faster than the apes. Though I suspect the Beast Tide will be soon in full swing since the migration already began, so that might be difficult.”

He was referring to the unusual fact of Mountain Apes being so far south. The weaker beasts were the first to run away, so clearly, trouble wasn’t far behind. A few weeks at most.

[Yeah, but I don’t even know where I am.] I added. I had no good way of tracking my exact position. I had no watch to measure time, and it was difficult to keep track of the sun on the forest floor.

I flew up just above the forest canopies and looked around. There was a sea of green as far as the eye could see. No notable landmarks anywhere. I returned back to the ground and began shifting the earth beneath me at the edge of the clearing.

A three-meter-wide stone pillar rose from the ground and I lifted it high above the forest. The massive tower was nearly twice as thick at the base and poked a good five meters above the highest trees. It was the only thing I could really do to mark the spot.

Anything more noticeable and other people would come to investigate. Probably.

[I know the general direction, so this should help.]

“Yeah, or it will crumble to dust as soon as we leave…”

[What do you mean?]

“Ever wondered why this place is so flat?” The old ghost said mysteriously.

[No, why?] Was there some great secret I wasn’t aware of?

“Yeah, me neither. But most structures collapse quite rapidly if they are not protected. Nobody really knows why. The wilderness just consumes them.”

Well, damn. [Surely it will keep standing for a month?] I refused to believe that my magnificent tower would just collapse on its own. That just didn’t make sense.

“Maybe, who knows…”

I didn’t have time to be speculating on possible mystic forces working in the Ancient Ironbark Timberland. I went to all four edges of the clearing and made a ditch on each side going away from it for half a kilometer. Just in case the pillar really collapsed. It would make it slightly easier to find if I stumbled upon them.

“Those will probably disappear too…”

[Okay, I get it! Everything gets consumed by nature. Still, it would have been a sin not to at least try.]

After finishing everything I found a nice sunny spot and sat on the ground for a round of Cultivation. Before doing that though, I threw a Silver Essence Core into my mouth and began absorbing it.