While stalking the cave, I thought back to one of our recent lessons with Lu. He had been rather thrilled over the books and such we had brought back with us from our little adventure to the City. Which therefore invigorated his already blazing teaching desire. At this point I did not really mind too much anymore, most of the knowledge he taught I could actually use for something.

Like Math. Which I still hated, but begrudgingly understood the worth of after dealing with numbers in the thousands. Apparently, that really was common for cultivators and I would just have to suck it up. Anyway, the Lesson he had given us was on beasts, like him and Lu, as well as others. There were two distinct groups of beasts that were different from just normal everyday animals. Spirit-beasts were naturally occurring powerful spirits, that were born due to nature. Like when a volcano erupted it would also give birth to Salamander Spirits, large reptiles that loved to bask in Lava. These beasts could come in a large variety of forms and levels of intelligence, Cultivators often would bound with these Spirit-Beasts and work together with them.

The highest tier of Spirit-Beasts were the ...Grand-Spirits. These were in theory because Lu didn't actually have too much in-depth knowledge about them... In theory, personifications of nature itself, spread around the world. So keeping with the Vulcano from before. While it might give birth to the Salamanders it would also be governed by a powerful spirit of fire. Apparently. Only the weak and not-to-smart creatures were called Spirit-beasts. There were Spirit-Beasts, Lesser Spirits, Greater Spirits, and Grand Spirits.

For example, the Golems would be counted as Spirit-Beasts. They held a core and were made out of an element, in their case rock. Apparently, powerful spirits could even take on a human form, and should not be underestimated

Then there were Demon-beasts. Those were a little more complicated. There were many nuances to demon-beasts and much of it Lu simply did not know. Demon-beasts could form around places holding Spiritual energy, by simply having animals around them to passively absorb it. They could also happen if an animal perchance eats a powerful spiritual plant or other things.

Li was a Demon-beast. I know that now, she was even before we met each other at the hot spring. Apparently, she had eaten something that fell from the sky once. Which made it easier for her to absorb the energy I then set free in that pond.

Lu was much the same. But he was a naturally born Demon-Beast, which apparently also happened sometimes.

Then there were entire races that were demon-beasts, like these bugs, and others. Apparently, according to Lu there were significant differences between different types of Demon-Beasts. Some were more animal-like some had smarts and some did not. It was... entirely random in my own mind. There were some ancient clans of Demon-Beasts that had taken on human-like forms and lived at a place called the Demon Pit. Far far away.

As for me. Apparently, I was Human with Spirit-Blood. That was Lu's best guess. Probably some of my bloodline had an actual Ice Spirit in it. It seems my Spirit-Blood is pretty thick however since I'm so in tune with my Element. According to Lu it was rare for humans and Spirits to be able to produce offspring. Makes it even worse that I am an Orphan, No idea if my parents just didn't want me or died but at least one of them had spirit blood in them, maybe even unknown to them.

That does not explain the ears and the tail, however...

As I was mulling over the consequences of my fluffy appendage I got snapped back out of my mind. "Found one" She eagerly pointed at another bug, this one was different from the first which was kind of beetle-like. This one instead looked a lot like a Grasshopper of sorts, it was hopping around the rocks far from the others, maybe some kind of scout? Neither of us had seen them before but we were eager for the price the creature held.

So we stalked it for a while, following it as it hopped around with its massive legs, it was built like a grasshopper and moved like one too, it also had large spikes on its legs and its mandibles were far bigger than they should be, and on top of its head, it had a pair of large antenna constantly twitching as it moved, making it look rather ferocious. The creature probed around like a prospector quite a bit, every now and then as it moved around it would spit out some weird green goo that stuck to rocks.

The goo stunk.

Like really badly.

Both I and Li exchanged glances for a moment, and Li looked rather jealous as I tore a piece of my sleeves off to bind around my face as a makeshift mask. I found the tiger grumbling about thumbs to be rather amusing, but then tensed.

The creature had turned its head and its antennae were twitching in our direction, suddenly both me and Li felt it, this creature was not as simple as the other one, there was energy swirling around it that had not been there before and we both felt a sense of pressure coming down on us. It was as if the air was suddenly heavy and pushed us down to the ground.

Well, that was how it was for me at the very least, my knees gave and I fell down, Li on the other hand activated one of her own abilities, letting out a loud roar that filled the air with similar pressure, relieving me but weighing the bug down. Some kind of intimidation ability probably? Something that messed with your mind and made everything heavy? No idea... but I was pissed enough about this attack already, so the moment I got free I kicked off the ground, my body low as I ran towards the creature, creating spikes of ice around me and hurling them towards the creature as I did.

Avoiding a kick from the creature I dove underneath it, now behind it. For a moment I saw the rock it had actually hit with that kick and saw it reduced to dust, good thing that was not me... however, I wasn't done with it even if it was scary. Li wasn't either as the creature's front was suddenly bathed in flames as the tiger let out a breath of flame towards it, giving me the perfect distraction to get on its back.

I put both of my hands on a piece of carapace, or rather a segment between two plates of carapace, holding on to the creature that was now jumping away, circling around Li, attacking the Tiger with swift and devasting kicks, that luckily did not hit their marks. Grabbing onto the space between carapace segments I poured as much energy as I could into the creature, flash-freezing its back in the process while my clothes got singed by Li's flame bathing the front of the creature.

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This made it screech in pain.

This cold and hot treatment made its entire armor explode leaving the creature dead on the ground and I smashed into a rock, but happy and only a little bit burned. Peeling myself out of the me-shaped hole in the rock I stumbled, okay maybe a little damaged too, why did it explode? Li jumped over "Why did it explode?!" Was her first breathless question, the Tiger clearly exhausted after using her fire so much. "Also are you okay?" Was the second.

Scoffing first I gave a shrug. "I think I'm alright just a bit shaken... And I have no idea why it exploded." I adjusted my clothes and patted out a few remaining embers before looking around, "ha..." I pocked at Li who was already ripping the creature apart its core in her mouth, a few times, but the Tiger did not react until I yanked her head forward. "Oh.."

At the edge of our battlefield stood a Golem, 7 feet tall with long massive stony arms and a glowing single eyehole that was currently focused on us, its reddish glow seemed piercing and sent a shudder down my spine, this pressure was different from the clear ability the Grasshopper had, this was just power filling the air. We were both shocked and stunned for about half a second as the Golem seemed to survey the area for a moment, and then we both bolted.

I summoned fine ice under my feet, essentially ice skating my way out, while Li erupted into fire that seemed to boost her speed, I really had to figure out how her fire stuff worked if I wanted to continue these little adventurers...Then I felt a loud bam just inches behind me, the Golem had shot one of its arms, like a projectile and it had created a crater in a spot I had just been at.

"Woah.." I managed to get out before starting to zig and zag back and forth as more things shot out like a deathly hail of rock, not managing to touch everything I heard a crunch from my left arm but that wasn't too important right now, the pain was numbed and I could still feel my fingers so It wasn't super bad.

Li on the other Hand had tears in her eyes as she dashed away her tail being in a very weird bend .. clearly having been hit as well. Luckily the Golem seemed to not want to chase us beyond shooting things at us so we quickly left the cavern and arrived back outside, heavily breathing, but alive and .. mostly well.

"MY TAIL...Ohmygod." Li was freaking out next to me, observing her poor mangled tail while I finally had time to check my arm, seriously why was it always the left side? Luckily it wasn't super bad, the rock didn't hit me properly and just flew by striking my arm, probably some kind of fracture. No idea. It was a dull pulsing pain that I could simply ignore.

"We should go home and lick our wounds, at-least we came out with some earings, no?" A grin appeared on my face as I pulled up the bag holding the cores, having put Li's in the moment she spat it out to complain about her tail. Li sniffled lightly her adorable cat ears looking to me with her ears tilted against her head. "My tail.. my glorious tail."

This made me chuckle, and I started the way back home.

...

So you went to the cave, got yourself hurt, fought some more, and then got yourself hurt some more, while also burning your clothes and getting covered in god knows what that goo is?" Mimi's tirade was.. as was expected harsh, she had repeated this for the 4th time, among other things, and both me and Li were grounded... well not really.

I wouldn't let Mimi take away my time out in the snow and Mimi knew that, but Li ... Li was weaker than Mimi and was no longer allowed to hunt for at least 2 weeks until her tail healed up. Not that our hierarchy was decided entirely on strength, Mimi clearly was the Boss around here.. at least in these circumstances... but some fights neither of us wanted to take. Lu on the other hand was very excited taking in the cores and beast pieces we had brought back, calling it research, or something. He would probably make something good out of them.

"Are you listening, young lady?" Mimi wearing her common clothes was bonking me lightly with a spoon, making me flinch... Mimi's lightly was.. deadly for normal people, probably..."Listen... I'm sorry for going without properly telling you but I'm not sorry for going, I want to get stronger." Mimi scowled but let out a sigh. "Fine..but next time we will all go together so we can be safe, strength is in numbers after all!"

At that I let out a sigh, I was actually planning to go back alone, once I had recovered... but I would certainly not tell her that.

...

A few days later I found myself bored, I had found that cultivating was very nice, but sometimes I simply wanted to move around, and since I got nothing to do aside from resting and reading I took a break and went down to the town by myself, wearing a dark hood over my head, and properly telling Mimi what I was doing, I left.

Mimi trusted me, and that made me rather happy, and I had no intention of breaking that trust directly, I really only wanted to go down to town and stalk around a little, I had done so for years back home, and sometimes I missed it, today being that kind of day.

And so I found myself in the slums surrounding the town, an area similar to where lived until just recently, with shacks made out of questionable materials, brothels, and people being loud busy, and angry. There were also children, many of them, just like me. I found myself watching some of them for a while, before continuing to move around, before I found something odd, next to a shack on the outskirts there was a small field with a fence made out of branches, inside the field was a young boy, maybe around 10 years old, diligently working away at the ground, opening it up for produce. He seemed happy, even while wearing only a brown shirt and short pants, as well as wooden sandals. His hoe was made of a long stick and a rock.

I don't know why but watching him work made me feel oddly calm, and since I had no reason to conseal myself from a normal boy I just stood at the edge of his field watching him. This prompted him to move over, towering over me. While he was clearly not in puberty yet he was tall, and his build was already rather impressive his arms thick with muscles, and his face was a good-natured and normal sort with a strong chin, and deep brown eyes.

"What'cha watching me for?" He asked, while the words seemed confrontational, his tone was soft and simply intrigued. To be honest I didn't know. I could not really tell him It just seemed calming to me, could I? "Uh, just odd seeing a farmer here, the land does not seem very good for that..." And that was true, the city was built next to a mountain range, and the ground here was very rocky and hard to work, that's why the city mostly lived off of fish from the nearby lake and trade routes going through it.

"My Grandad said no Land is bad, you just have to work it and it will shine. Even the worst soil can carry crops. And I got a few seeds for really cheap and want to sow!" He said excitedly. "Always wanted to be a farmer! My name is Heng by the way. Nice to meet you." He just rambled on and I found myself smiling. "I'm Kou...Hello Heng." I still had a bit of trouble speaking with new people like this. But Heng just seemed very calm.

"Is it okay if I watch you a bit more?" My question seemed to confuse him for a bit but he just rubbed the back of his head and laughed "Ah, sure? I don't mind, don't get anyone else here to talk to anyway, and doing something with company is always better, Grandpa said so."

And so I sat down next to his little field and watched him work the ground, trying to figure out what this odd calmness coming from him and his work was.