He had six pulls of Qi remaining, and was falling from a mountain down into hard earth. With a dragon above, very angry.

Not good.

Zhang Cai gazed up and saw rubble flying around the mountain peak. A slender figure flashed by, a roar shook the earth and sky, and the pillar of flame burnt through the clouds covering the night. The dragon came marching forward, flapping its fore wings on the ground, and like him delved right down...towards him.

The golden gaze held unimaginable fury, the iris blazing with black fire.

’’What the fuck did I do to you?’’

Zhang Cai had to think quickly. He could not survive a fall, and he definitely could not take more than a hit from those flames or a headbutt from the Xian. No one on the same cultivation level could pierce their scales by weapon and fist, and their bones were too thick to even shake it up with one or two pulls of Qi. All he could hope was to run away, then.

How?

As he fell faster down, traveling dozens of meters every second, the wind cut through his outer skin and left white marks over his body and clothes. His hair flew up, and he saw several holes dug into the mountain.

’’Can I leap into one? No, he can crush it on me. There is a chance that another one might be sleeping inside. Can I incite them to attack each other? Impossible. I am no hunt worthy enough.’’

If he had some more cultivation, then perhaps he could make another dragon fight for him. He was not.

’’Possibility of any humans going around here? Slim.’’

The dragon leapt in the air towards him, jaw open and fangs sharp. Air whistled, Zhang Cai grit his teeth.

One hand clenched, he used up one pull of Qi. From his knuckles rose something warm, something hot. A small hand of fire, with five claws rising at the tips of its fingers. He willed it, his body responded, and another pull of Qi went inside the rough structure.

The hand expanded, twice his length, and he swung it towards the dragon diving like an arrow.

The claw and the fang collided, flame expelled outwards by sheer kinetic force. Rings of air pushed them apart, and Zhang Cai approached closer to the face of the mountain than he wished to be.

’’Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! I am gonna hit my head!’’

Another pull of Qi he spent on his legs and wind bent to his will. From the heel of his left leg he pushed a gust of wind, and now he flew away from the mountain and the fangs of the dragon that whooshed past his chest.

One brushed the rope tied to him, and his bag came undone.

’’No! You bastard!’’

He had his master’s map in there. He had his teachings, and his cultivation manual. He could not afford to lose any of them!

One more pull, he willed. By now he felt pure anger, and he felt intense chill throughout his body. The warmth of his emotions kept him conscious of what he was doing, but not in control of it. This half-instinctive and half-rational courses of actions were taken by the tempered habits of a cultivator and an orphan beggar together.

So he watched in amazement as he willed another gust of wind to shoot him straight down to the mountain.

His feet creaked, and knees squeaked from pressure, then air whistled around him. One arm shooting, he grabbed the bag from the air, but now he faced the dragon right above, flames in its open maw, and a mountain he would crash face-first.

’’Then let me crash!’’ He prayed to the fortune of his master. ’’Let me crash right through it!’’

Last two pulls of his Qi came in the form of both air and flames. Fire stretched out of his head and took the shape of a round thorn-shield, and the wind came to be as bone wings around his shoulders. The shield rotated, wings flapped, and a pillar of scarlet flames descended on him.

Heavens resounded with explosions.

Immense agony spread to his heels, and Zhang Cai headbutted the face of the cliff.

Earth broke, his neck and shoulders stiffened. The wings of wind flapped forward to slow him down while the shield broke apart earth to cover him of the dangers. Yet pressure built up. The bones of his body, thrice as sturdy of mortal men, quaked again and again. Zhang Cai could feel them crack. His joints shuddered.

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The pillar went past his half-charred feet and disappeared somewhere he did not know. From behind, he heard no more furious roars or explosions. Now, he only heard the sound of his shield breaking earth over and over at haste.

Moments passed until he dug deep into the cliff and came out of a random hole, too slow to pierce the other side. The shield of fire shattered into strands of Qi, and they dispersed like embers on a furnace. Zhang Cai rolled thrice and collapsed. He laid there, hugging his bag tight, clenching his teeth and writhing.

His feet burnt, his joints weakened, and many bones cracked or broken, he did not know what to feel except regret.

’’Am I gonna die here? I will not, right?’’

The pain did not let him think straight. He rolled around some more until he thought of his master’s miracle remedies. He swiped at the bag twice, managing to open it with shaking arms, and took out a box made of steel.

The lid came undone at his touch in a mysterious way. As if the box had eyes and ears, and could sense he had no strength to open it by himself. From inside appeared a single pill, oval in shape and metallic green in color. Zhang Cai swallowed it.

His body shook. The limbs of his trembled some time, and his mind went awry. He felt Qi all around him and inside him, but he could not think of anything. His mind was overtaken by a force greater than him, and that force knew where all this pure Qi would need to go.

Little by little, these foreign streams of Qi flowed into his joints and his feet, and his bones that felt like hell at the slightest movement. They washed over them, cleaned them from inside, gave them comfort and warmth that he desperately needed. More time passed before he knew it, and he no longer felt intense pain except from his feet.

Zhang Cai looked over his body and saw it battered and bruised; purple patches donning his legs, and his faint-blue arms, and his feet red like fresh tomatoes. He also smelled flowers from himself.

’’Fuck you, you fucking dragon. Of course I lived, you bastard. How the fuck can you miss me that hard, you...’’

Why was he cursing anyway? He didn’t know. He felt the need to. It was natural for him to curse when no one was around. He gazed around, and saw no one. So he let out another string of curses and was done with it.

Now he laid down and thought of what happened, and what he would need to do; All the while clutching the bag in his bosom.

’’What am I going to do?’’ He wondered aloud. Gazing around the cave he was in, he saw a rather bright exit fifty steps to his right. Light seeped from there, and he saw the walls not far nor wide from him, meaning it would not be possible for Xian to enter or make a lair here. Then who had carved this? A man, or a snake? In his state, he could not contend with both. First, he had to do something about his Qi to worry about any of them.

Though feeling healed, his body did not accept it so easily. These pellets would push the body to its limits and regenerate all wounds but no aliments. So he still spent energy, and Zhang Cai felt the pain quite clearly. One limb at a time, he stood up, and gazed at the exit.

He put the steel box back into the bag and focused outside. The light came too bright, almost brilliant, and it had a tinge of gold to it. Imagining how he fell here, and the angle he fell, this exit would be facing the southern side of the mountain. And he did not know how deep he came or how long he was healed. Was the other side one of the holes at the depth? Was it already morning and day passed?

Learning a lesson from his reckless incursion into the Xian’s lair, Zhang Cai, patient, waited and rested. He took out another piece of bread, this one clean, and bit into it. And he took out water and poured it on himself and his throat, and sated his thirst. Then he slept for hours, uncaring, as he had no means to protect himself for now awake or not.

When he woke up, the light of the hole came as fierce as before. Not a spark of difference.

Intrigued, but more worried for himself, Zhang Cai shut his eyes again to enter his dantian.

Then he snapped them open.

’’What if one of them feels me?’’

Considerably deep inside the mountain, and a suspicious exit, Zhang Cai found himself unwilling to cultivate for a moment. Those Xians of Glassmade and Rocksmote cultivation might not be able to, but this deep inside a mountain at the border surely had some at the Threshold.

Or perhaps a Spirit realm like his master.

Those above Rocksmote could hear from dozens of meters away a whisper and they could sense the flow of Qi all around them. If he cultivated here to absorb, would one not be able to sense him across all the layers of rock and earth?

This went as quick as it came. The fact that he was helpless did not change, be it Glassmade or a Spirit. So why worry? Best case, a Threshold or Spirit cultivation Xian would obliterate him in the span of a second and he would die without any pain.

Delving into his mind, Zhang Cai glanced at his distorted giant image and dove into its stomach. There appeared the lower dantian, still fluctuating and bobbling with its plethora of colors, red and black and yellow and grey and green. But seemed weaker. Much smaller, the size of his palm.

Zhang Cai sighed and willed it: a long rope came to existence in his hands.

He pulled...

*********

Thirty-two pulls later, his body felt full and satisfied. The upper dantian between his eyebrows even tingled: a sign that he was close to Rocksmote. But just Qi was not enough to break the barriers between realms.

Thinking of the cultivation manual, Zhang Cai got up to his feet. The exit was still bright. He tiptoed around to test his feet. He jumped in the air, stretched his arms. His body felt slight pain and weakness, but he would be fine if the need presented itself. But the heels and soles of his feet felt as if they would break. This queer sensation made him shiver.

’’I won’t go right down anyway. I will take a peek, and if it is safe I will rest here for some more until I am better. If it is not...’’

He glanced at the hole he came from. ’’No force can force me through there again.’’

Sneaking with no one in sight Zhang Cai approached the light. One step away from it, the intensity forced his eyelids to narrow, and the last step shot them open.

A silver sun descended into a gigantic garden before him, walled by cliffs and a crystalline red sky. Hanging leaves and gigantic trees adorned the entire terrain, and vines spread like bridges across ancient mansions of gray slab stone. Atop them, below them; hanging, crawling, walking, and flying were dozens of Xian dragons.

’’...what the fuck did I do?’’

’’in my past life!’’, he omitted.