It was not quite sundown yet, but the afternoon sun was already painting the sky red. Summer was slowly coming to an end, and the first signs of refreshing fall wind fluttered my clothes. I had to buy a new pair once again after the last adventure.

Actually, my Space Pouch was half full of just spare clothes. They were luckily quite cheap, but that’s also why they were being torn apart like paper in every fight. It was kind of annoying.

I returned back home after a meal, and soon other Disciples came back as well. There were many worried faces, though I could see a few excited ones among them as well. Good for them. I was also feeling both worried and excited at the same time, but you couldn’t tell that from my face. My expression was a mask of calmness.

I took off my shoes as I stepped inside and jumped on the bed. I took a smaller leather pouch out of my Space Pouch and opened it to reveal my collection of Essence Cores. There were many of them, about a handful, with each about the size of a hazelnut, and mostly gray. There were a few Silver ones, but also some Black. I refused to consume those as the lower the grade the less I would get out of them while having to worry about impurities.

Oh, yeah, impurities… Didn’t even know they existed until recently. God bless Senior Sister Lilly, she really opened my eyes.

Apparently, impurities could accumulate in the body if you weren’t careful, so higher grades of Essence were preferred to low ones. But then again, not everyone could afford only the highest grades and the best goods, so they had no choice but to consume Black Essence. Maybe that was the reason my body seemed to be aging extremely fast previously when I was consuming Black Essence every day in the Before. That was probably one of the bad side effects.

It wasn’t too bad though. The body could naturally detoxify itself, that’s what the liver and kidneys were for after all. Only they needed time to work properly. Just like drinking alcohol in moderation wouldn’t hurt you, drinking daily would lead to a slow and painful death.

In theory, all Cultivators were equal in speed of growth, no matter their talent. But, those with wealth could speed up certain aspects of Cultivation with external means. It was the same in every world and every advanced enough civilization it seemed. Wealth meant power.

Heck, here you could straight up buy Soul Essence, though at a really steep price. Purified Souls of strong beasts were up for sale to anyone that could afford it. And while they might be great shortcuts for those with low talent, it was much harder for high-talent individuals to advance like this, unless they had mountains of wealth to spend as they required a lot more Soul Essence to advance.

I didn’t even think about going that route, but not because of the absurd amount of money I would have to spend. No, it was because there was no point. I could absorb Soul Essence directly with no apparent downside or side effects, so why bother?

I placed a Gray Essence Core into my mouth and swallowed. I was consuming them a bit too rapidly, but that was just for a short while. I didn’t have that many anymore anyway, for a week at most.

I felt the skin of my hands. It was rougher than I remembered, but that’s because I was focusing on strengthening it recently. I would have to use some Essence to soften it a bit so it doesn’t become like rough sandpaper. A bit more elasticity also wouldn’t hurt.

I mentally guided the Essence to the desired location and shifted its nature to do my bidding. I needed to be able to take a hit, but in case it was too strong, I had to bend, and not break. Like the branches of a mighty willow tree, I would dance in the storm.

An army was as strong as its weakest link, but I was an army of one. I was the strongest, but also the weakest, therefore my weakest weakness had to be stronger than the greatest power in the world. And for that, I still had a long way to go.

Having finished my task for the day, I got off the bed and went outside. The cool evening wind felt nice and refreshing on my aching body. It was unfortunate that Body Cultivation had to hurt for speedy growth, but I couldn’t complain too much. I was advancing by leaps and bounds, increasing my abilities every single day.

“Ohoho, look who’s here! The sleeping beauty! Finally out of your house?”

I was greeted by a roaring fire and the laughter of my friends. A dirt arena was made not far from my home in the middle of the village. Most of the youngsters were gathered there, watching and cheering as two fighters exchanged sword strikes.

It became something of a custom for our little village. Every evening we would gather and do some mock battles just like the Inner Disciples did in their arenas. There was no magic allowed, and similarly, we didn’t go full power. It was more of an exchange of skill, trying to outmaneuver your opponent and beat him that way.

“What do you say, Gerald? Up for a little spar?” Chity Boru asked with a grin. I know I agreed to fight more often with him, but somehow we barely had any chances to do so.

[Sure! I’ll gladly- Ah, wait… I forgot I lost my glaive.] I completely forgot to buy a new weapon. That was something unacceptable that had to be fixed quickly. How else was I going to train my Martial Art otherwise?

“Ah? You lost it? Well, we can fight unarmed if you want.”

[No, that’s fine. I’ll just get a stick.] I said and looked around the place to see if there were any fresh branches I could use. I managed to find one of the branches of the fallen Ironbark and decided to use that one. It was a sturdy piece of wood, even more so after I imbued it with my Qi. It wouldn’t lose to a simple sword in terms of durability.

“Oh, now I definitely have to win! Trying to beat my enchanted blade with a stick? You wish!” Chity grinned as he stood opposite me with his new fancy sword. “I have spent all my time training, you have no chance!”

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[I wouldn’t be so sure if I were you.] I smiled back and took a defensive stance. I was curious to see how much he improved since the last time. I also wasn’t slacking off, but I definitely didn’t train as much as him. Though I wondered how much my experiences in real combat would carry over in a battle against a trained opponent.

“Begin!” The signal was given and Chity lurched forward, aiming to stab me. I could feel significant strength behind his jab, but all I had to do was gently push it away with my stick and step to the side to avoid it.

Immediately I picked up on a few openings which I could abuse, the most debilitating one being a kick to the overextended knee. One strike and he would be done for, collapsing to the ground. But this was just a friendly spar and I was training in defensive techniques, so I just smiled and blocked his next strike that came overhead.

Enchanted metal struck hardened wood and stopped there, giving me another opening to land a solid kick on his abdomen and send him sprawling on the floor. I held back, obviously, and just pushed back with my weapon, throwing him off balance.

It was scary how little effort I had to use to completely overpower him. In fact, I had to be more careful not to accidentally break him. For all intents and purposes, these guys were all still Mortals. None of them had even reached the first level of the Spirit Accumulation Realm. Their Body Cultivation was basically nonexistent if we ignore the little bit they passively achieved from eating quality meat. But even that only contained a pitiful amount of Essence, and it was Black on top of it.

It was crazy how just knowing the Essence Extraction method put me leaps and bounds above them. But they would all be learning it soon as well, so maybe this Beast Tide was actually a gift in disguise. A very dangerous and deadly gift.

We continued exchanging blows for a while longer, but I realized Chen’s attempts were nothing in comparison to the bloodlust-fueled attacks of the Wendigos.

By the time we ended our battle, he was already gasping for air with sweat pouring from him, while I barely just got my blood flowing.

“Oh, man…! What are you made of?!” He huffed and puffed. “I can’t touch you at all!”

[It was all this quality stick, I had nothing to do with it.] I jokingly said.

“Piss off! Beaten by a stick? How can I show my face around these parts again?!" Chity exclaimed, covering his face in shame, playing his dramatic part perfectly. “It must be a godly weapon in disguise, it has to be!”

[Well, better luck next time I guess. Here, you can even borrow my stick.] I handed the dry branch over with a big grin on my face.

“You know where you can stick it?!” He smacked away the offered wood and kicked me in the shin before I had the chance to jump away. Not that I would get hurt, but...

“Ow! Son of a- What do you have under those clothes, stones?? I think I broke my toe!”

[Oh, dear…] I picked him up in a princess carry and took him away from the arena where a myriad of faces were barely holding back their laughter. We were such a good team at spouting nonsense, even I could barely keep a serious expression.

[It’ll be alright, baby. Daddy is here.]

That was the straw that broke the camel’s back, and people burst out laughing one after the other as we passed by. The contagious epidemic quickly spread, and soon nearly the entire village was rolling on the ground in tears, laughing their asses off. Even those that haven’t witnessed the spectacle were laughing, if for no other reason than they saw their friends laugh.

“You can put me down now!” Chity said, and I dropped him to the floor after we left the crowd. He took off his boot and rubbed his big toe. It was only bruised, luckily.

“Damn, man, how come your body is so hard?”

I threw my hands up in vexation. [What did you expect, kicking my shin? It’s literally just a bone.]

“… Fair enough, my bad.”

“What do you two think about all of this?” Alyx suddenly asked, sitting down beside the campfire in front of my house.

[About what?]

“This… Beast Tide… They said it was going to be dangerous, but what does that mean, really?”

I shrugged my shoulders. [It’s probably not going to be that peaceful anymore. Especially out in the wild. Things will have to drastically change in our village if I had to guess.]

“Meaning?” Chity asked. He also sat down near the campfire and began spewing flames out of his hand to ignite the wood inside.

[I had some conversations with the older crowd, and apparently, only the Core Sect gets protected by a barrier in case of emergency. Inner and Outer Sect have to fend for themselves.]

“So if really strong monsters arrive, it will be up to us to fight them?” Alyx shuddered in realization. Couldn’t blame him, he chose Alchemy for a reason. As he had no talent for battle, he would be basically just throwing your life away in a fight.

“Shit…” Chity quietly cursed, staring into the flames. “We are fucked, aren’t we?”

The mood dampened somewhat, but I didn’t think it was too bad. [Don’t worry. If my guesses are correct, we will actually be pretty safe here.]

“What do you mean?”

[Think about it. We are on the south side of the mountain range, right? And the Beast Tide will be coming from the north, meaning that they will take the brunt of the damage, and with an obstacle in their path, the creatures will spread out east and west, leaving us here, below the mountain, relatively safe.] I explained.

“Right! That actually makes sense! But then… Should we get Blade to join us? His side would be the one to take the hit the most if this is the case.”

I nodded at Chity’s words. [Do that. We will need every fighter we can get. It’s best if we stick close when the time comes. Unless there are any significant changes in the upcoming days.]

“We should consider making a wall around the village. Even if only a few creatures attack us here, we are still too weak to take them down.” Che said with concern. “I saw how strong some of my Senior Brothers were in the quarry, lifting up massive stones with ease. And they were barely in the late stages of the Spirit Accumulation Realm. If a monster in the Nascent Soul realm comes, we’ll suffer.”

Well, fighting some beast in the Nascent Soul I could probably manage, but seriously, anything stronger than that would be difficult. Heck, if a Wendigo in the Nascent Soul Realm comes, I might just consider running away. Those beasts are way too tough to kill.

But I didn’t need to tell them that. Why scare them for no reason?

“You shouldn’t worry about it too much. While it is true that many will die, if you just keep back and hide like a bunch of cowards, I’m sure you’ll all survive.”

The old ghost finally woke back up. Though I just snorted at his words and didn’t reply. Since the hunting was going to be much more successful in the upcoming months, I would expect some of the older Disciples to participate in the hunt. If nothing else, there would be a lot of Essence going around. Most likely its price was going to fall sharply after the start of the Beast Tide. Might be worth considering that.

Also, if I was guiding the Sect, I would organize groups of hunters to take the opportunity to collect as much of it as I could for the lull in the hunting opportunity that was most likely going to occur after the fact. Have the Essence and various materials in storage for later.

“Core Disciples will probably take the opportunity to clear out all the Golden Core beasts nearby. This is an opportunity of a lifetime for them to boost their power, so it is likely that you won't have to worry about those. As for the Nascent Soul beasts, Inner Disciples will take care of them. So, really, you shouldn’t worry too much, unless they miss some and they attack you in your sleep.”

So, were we in danger, or not? The old ghost really knew how to give out mixed signals. It was kind of annoying.

[Let’s hear what the Elders have to say first and then we’ll be able to plan better. You are going to contact Blade?] I turned to Chity.

“Sure. I’ll ask him to join us. He should be of great help.”

“You two do that, and meanwhile, I’ll go to sleep.” Yawned Alyx. And with that, we ended our day.