“Leaving the Sect? At this time?” Elder Li questioned while slowly drinking fresh tea.

“Gerald wanted to go out and explore a bit. I was also thinking we could go and see the Beast Tide up close. It’s once in a century opportunity after all. Expand our horizons, isn’t that right?” Shao Lin said the last part as a question aimed at me.

[To be honest, I was starting to feel constrained. Constantly underground and in small spaces... A few days in the wild to refresh my mind would be great.]

Elder Li swirled the tea in his cup. “A few days… Alright, I’ll allow you five days, how does that sound?”

Shao Lin looked at me and nodded. [That’s great! Thank you.]

“Good. Then we’ll begin the real training when you come back.”

[Real training?]

“Make sure to survive, and come back on time, or I’ll whoop your ass. And here, take this.” Elder Li handed a volleyball-sized crystal to Shao Lin, and the latter gasped and took it gently, and stored it in his pouch.

“Thank you, Elder! Your kindness is-”

“Yes, yes! No need for your sweet words. Now go, beat it. Go have fun you two, while you still can.” He then sipped his tea and closed his eyes, clearly done with the conversation.

----------------------------------------

[What was that?] I asked as we left the mountain, running east.

“What was what?”

[That thing he gave you.]

“Oh, a seed.” Shao Lin replied as if that meant something.

[A seed?]

“Yes.”

[Okay… What does it do?]

“Secret.”

[Oh, come on, man! I thought we were done with that.]

“Only the Elder can decide when you can learn. I can just tell you it’s for emergencies. And let’s hope we won’t have to use it, because it’s really expensive.”

I grumbled a bit but didn’t say anything else. He clearly wasn’t going to tell me, so why bother? I dropped to all fours, the way of Hunting Tiger. My speed rose higher, and Shao Lin had to finally put in some effort to keep up.

Expecting a fight, I didn’t want to destroy my new fancy clothes so I changed to a simpler attire. Just a cheap cotton robe.

Winter wasn’t good for running. It was all slippery and wet. The deep snow made it difficult to run like a four-legged animal, so I resorted to running over branches high in the trees.

The Ironbarks still had green leaves for some reason, though they were significantly sparser than they were in the summer.

Why was that important to mention? It wasn’t. I was just bored. The land was the same any way you looked. Gray sky, white ground, and brown in the middle. Yes, all the trees were kind of limiting my sight.

I suddenly stopped.

“What’s wrong?”

[Isn’t it supposed to be a Beast Tide? Where are all the beasts?!]

“Ah! We are still too close to the Sect. The front line should be another ten minutes that way.” Shao Lin pointed in the direction we were going.

[What about all the attacks we heard about?]

“Beasts that managed to slip through. Believe me, if the Beast Tide reached the Sect’s doors, not one Outer Disciple would remain alive.

[Aw, shit. So it’s like that, huh?]

I jumped down from the high branch and landed in a heap of snow. I sank in nearly to my chest. Yeah, I really didn’t like winter. The environment was too annoying.

Shao Lin landed beside me, only he stood on top of the snow with the small golden barriers beneath his feet. I frowned deeply at him. What a showoff. That was cheating.

“What?”

He looked at me with such a clueless look that almost made me think he didn’t know what he was doing. As if.

I lowered the gravity over my body to a minimum, so that instead of being compared to a small car, my weight resembled more that of a feather. In a few short steps, I was also standing on top of the snow, leaving barely visible footprints behind.

Such a thing wasn’t the best for combat or speedy travel, but it was much better for a leisurely stroll through the woods.

“Hah, now that’s an interesting trick…”

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

[Hmm...]

“Where are we going, anyway?”

[To look for a fight. A real one.]

“Ah, alright then. I was also kind of sick of fighting you all the time. Usually, creatures remain dead after getting killed, you know? It’s kind of frustrating having you just keep going…”

[Haha! Then you better hope we never become enemies. I would hate to fight you for real. You are annoying enough already.]

“Yeah, no kidding. Feeling’s mutual.”

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We walked slowly through the forest in silence. The place was quiet, really quiet. The thick snowy blanket absorbed all sounds of life, with the constant gentle snowfall covering their tracks.

It would have been a nice place to meditate and relax, but we had places to be. And I was getting peckish.

Damn Elders did their job too well. Not a single beast to be seen anywhere. Well, the strong ones at least. Some common animals were still walking around, but who would care about a Mortal snow fox?

Me! I would! I was getting hungry, and that looked like a snack.

My body sank into the snow once more as my muscles tensed and I prepared for a jump. As soon as my feet touched the frozen ground, the snow around me exploded into a could of white as I dashed at the creature.

The snow fox didn’t even have time to blink when I already crossed the distance of dozens of meters, my hand outstretched to grab it.

Imagine my surprise when my hand, instead of gripping its neck, practically obliterated the front part of its body, sending a shockwave through the rest of it.

I landed in the snow not far away and skidded to a stop just in time to see the pink mist settling down on the frozen land. Looking back at it, I might have used a bit too much force on the poor creature.

Well, at least it didn’t suffer.

“What… are you doing?” Shao Lin came, his gaze disapproving.

[I was hungry.]

“Okay…? Couldn’t you just order it to die? Why the bloody mess?”

[Oh, yeah… Soul Smite, forgot about that one.] I shrugged my shoulders. Soul attacks were useful against weaker creatures, but they were no fun. And I completely forgot it existed since I haven’t used it in forever.

“Ah, whatever… But seriously, a fox? Are you sure you want to eat that? I’m pretty sure that’s a Mortal creature.”

I just rolled my eyes.

Who cares if it’s Mortal? Meat is meat!

I took the fox, what was left of it at least, and skinned it and then washed it in the snow. I then created a flame on my hand and held the fox with Telekinesis above it while we walked. No sense in wasting any more time as I prepared my snack.

Quickly the smell of roasted meat entered my nose, and despite not having any spices to boost the flavor, I started salivating.

Soon the meal was complete, and I expectantly put into the juicy thigh-

[Bleagh!]

-and spat it back out just as fast. It tasted like cardboard, and the texture was all wrong! It was all mushy and soft, and a wet sock would have been an improvement.

[What the hell man?! That’s awful!]

“Well, what did you expect?! You ate Spirit Beast meat for months! How could Mortal flesh even compare?”

[Yeah, but… The texture, it’s disgusting!]

Meat was meat, but this didn’t even feel like meat anymore. More like a rotting pile of vegetables. The stuff literally fell apart in my mouth, and not in a good way.

“It’s probably because you changed so quickly that you didn’t notice it…”

[Notice what?]

Shao Lin smiled in a very weird way, which didn’t give me much confidence. “Your senses changed. You’ve been fighting me for so long, you forgot how weak the Mortal beings are. Like that fox for example… I’d bet you didn’t purposely blow its head off, did you?”

[No, I didn’t… Fuck.] Of course, I realized what he was saying. My subconscious minimum power output rose too sharply and now…

I looked around and my sight landed on the old Ironbark trees. I came close and grabbed the bark and pulled. Amid a loud crunch, a chunk came out. It felt… soft, like rotten wood. Just to make sure, I found an exposed rock and smacked it with the chunk of wood.

It blew apart. The stone I mean. Meanwhile, the piece of wood was mostly fine.

[Oh… my god.]

“You realize it now? It’s not that things changed, but you did, and fast. Comparing common items and flesh with barriers of Golden Qi and Spirit Beast meat is… There’s no comparison!”

[Damn it! So I can’t enjoy the cheap stuff anymore? Am I cursed to break everything I touch from now on? Unless it’s super expensive and enchanted or something?]

I wasn’t as desperate as I sounded, but being like that would really suck. I was around reinforced structures for far too long. Both Shao Lin and the Elder’s home were so sturdy that I didn’t notice any changes.

“Not really. You just need some time to acclimate to your power and learn how to control it. At least the strength part of it, you need to tune that waaaaay down.”

What a headache. Never thought I would have a problem being too strong. Shouldn’t it be the other way around? What a joke. I bet if there was a higher power, it would be laughing at me.

[Anyway, what now? The meat tastes like ass. Am I supposed to eat only Spirit Beats' flesh from now on? Unless you are offering, I can’t afford that.]

“It’s going to be difficult, I admit, but you can change your tastes back by fasting for a few days. It’s not going to be perfect, but over time you will acclimate back to normal food. Mostly.”

[… Let’s leave that conversation for another day.] I was lean enough already, so fasting didn’t exactly appeal to me. And apart from that, I was addicted to high-quality food? I didn’t even know that could happen! What a mess!

“Let’s just go. A fight or two will help distract us from these problems.”

[You are right. I really need to punch something right now. Something big, preferably.]

We broke into a run once more, and a few minutes later we crossed an invisible border from which creatures became much more common. And I’m not talking about Mortal Beasts.

We saw some kind of small bear-like creature that attempted an ambush by jumping high off a tree. It couldn’t have been very smart as its Realm was even lower than mine, yet it attacked. It died in one punch as its skull caved in.

The Soul was tasty, but the flesh wasn’t, and it certainly didn’t work as a snack. I needed more.

I sat on a thick tree root for a few moments to absorb the Soul and extract any useful memories it might have had. I gained a little better idea of the area around us from a few days-old memories, but that was about it.

The life of a small bear-like creature was just too different from a human after all.

I opened my eyes and flooded my body with Qi. I was feeling tense whenever it wasn’t there, and its presence soothed my nerves. It was a comfort knowing I was ready for a fight at any moment. It also served well as training to get used to high quantities of Qi constantly moving around my body and it gave me faster reactions when using external magic or boosting my capabilities in an instant.

My Meridians were thicker, thanks to those few weeks of bathing in Golden Qi, but it wasn’t quite enough to be used all the time. I could use them as channels for energy and they were fantastic for that, but they were just too small still. After the next compression, when I would reach the Golden Core Realm, they would finally be able to grow to their full potential, branching off from the main trunk and spreading through my body like a web.

I could hardly wait, also one of the reasons I had to get out of that underground arena. I needed to consume more Souls! I felt this urge inside me, it was quiet at first, but as time passed, it kept becoming louder.

“On your left.” Shao Lin said, and his words disrupted my train of thought.