“You liar!” The young girl sobbed as she marched right next to the Wushi, panting and groaning as she did so, “You said this training wouldn’t be harsh! You promised!”
“What on earth do you mean?” She responded incredulously as the two went past a group of fallen villagers that were sprawled out all over the ground, “This isn’t anything bad, you know? This is something you shouldn’t even be struggling with especially with all your talk about being the heir to a warrior clan.”
“Even then, this is far more than anything me and my family did!” The young girl managed to force out as she staggered forward, “We’ve been circling around the walls for so long!”
“Oh come now, we’ve only done four laps. That’s hardly anything!”
“That’s so much distance we covered! I hope you understand, please! The others haven’t even been able to catch up, they’re back there dying!”
“That’s because their foundation is not as good as ours.” The Wushi frowned as she kept on going, “Not only that, but we have divine powers that grant us more strength and endurance than the others around here. That means we need to train much more than your average person in order for us to have more impact.”
“But even then, this is way too much!” The young girl came to a halt and started wheezing, her hands on her knees as she struggled to even stay standing, “We’ve been going since sunrise! The sun hasn’t even started to dip yet and we’re all so exhausted!”
At that, the Wushi paused. She looked back at the fallen men, before pursing her lips. She had promised to not overdo the training, right? That would mean she would have to lower the intensity even more, especially considering the fact that the rest of the people were completely out.
She hadn’t even gotten to the actual training, all of this was meant to be the warm-up. However, with the way things were, she’d have to simply call this to an end and give them some time to rest before she went with the real exercise.
“Alright.” The Wushi relented. “We’ll take a small break and do some stances to cool down, then we can call it a day.”
“You hear that everyone? We’re done!”
With that cheer from the young girl, the rest of the fallen men all slowly raised their arms into the air and gave out a groan in celebration. However, that didn’t even last long, as they proceeded to collapse once more, having wasted the last remnants of their energy lifting their arms.
“No, I…” The Wushi was going to retort back about how they still needed to do some stances to loosen their body and provide some refreshment to the body, but seeing these people absolutely perish made those words die on her tongue. With that, she sighed, before walking back to the young girl.
“Alright. With that kind of workout, I think we’ve earned ourselves a time to have a hot bath, as well as some drinks and maybe some food. What do you say?”
“Oh, that sounds great!” The young girl cheered as she looked up to the Wushi with sweat pouring down in torrents, “I could really use some time to relax after that long run.”
“That’s good.” The Wushi smiled. “I know now how much I need to limit the upcoming training, but worry not. While the timeline I planned is going to get cut down quite a bit, you’ll still be able to get to an adequate place within a few months, maybe weeks!”
“...Joy.” The young girl managed to barely get out, her face not agreeing with what had come out of her mouth, “I am truly looking forward to having some intense training everyday here on out.”
“There you go! That’s the spirit!” The Wushi grinned as she slapped the young girl in the back. The combination of low energy and the strength of the slapper caused the child to go falling face first into the ground. She laid there for a good while, simply groaning and not bothering to get up after that insane workout and the slap from earlier.
“Oh. Oops!” The Wushi went ahead and picked up the girl, before helping her up. “I’m so sorry! I forgot that you’d be too exhausted to hold up your own body! Sorry!”
“It’s… It’s fine.” The young girl sniffed as she tried to pick herself up, only to fail to do so. The Wushi stared at her trying to get up for a little while, before going ahead and lifting her up herself.
“Alright, take some time to rest, alright? Don’t worry, things should be better with the next meal. We might have some vegetables to go with the meat this time around!”
“Oh. Yay.” The girl groaned as the two proceeded to head towards the cooking stage, where the Wushi couldn’t help but feel a bit excited. After all, with all those finds yesterday and the fact the rest of the villagers had gone out to go search for even more ingredients, that meant there had to be something new for breakfast this time!
She was proven wrong the instant she got there and stared at the creatures being cooked.
Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.
“What?” She blinked as she set the young girl down onto a nearby bench, before turning towards the butcher, “What’s going on? Why is there only meat for our meal today?”
“What are you talking about?” The butcher asked with a raised eyebrow as he put his hands on his hips, “We don’t have anything else to serve as food at all.”
“No, you certainly should have some vegetables!” The Wushi declared as she jabbed a finger at his stomach. “Last night, the people were able to find some possible fruits and plants that were possibly edible. That means there should still be something added on top of the meat dish, no?”
“Well, they haven’t verified if any of that is edible.”
“How?” She raised her hands in annoyance. “Wouldn’t it be a matter of simply feeding these plants to the living animals and seeing what kind of reaction would come from that? In that fashion, we would be able to determine whether the vegetation would be edible for us as well. After all, if they don’t die, then that means it must be fine, no?”
“I wouldn’t trust anything those beasts eat.” The butcher snorted as he proceeded to serve one of the cuts to a nearby person, “Besides, trying to feed these creatures is something that can be akin to impossible. Hell, I haven’t even seen these monsters really eat anything or anyone, just rip and tear using their teeth.”
“What?” The Wushi blinked at that new information, “Are you trying to tell me that these things don’t have to eat anything at all?”
“For as long as I’ve known, these creatures haven’t swallowed any kind of sustenance whatsoever.” He nodded, “Honestly, for all the years I’ve been here and been a hunter, there’s one thing I’ve noticed. Not one of these monsters eat, drink, or even sleep. They keep roaming around without any stopping, either taking the time to simply sit down and wait for a while or to charge against any random person that dares to attract their attention.”
That sounded unnatural. No, this sounded wrong on so many levels that she could not believe such a thing could even be possible. After all, did the observations of the monks of time before mention how the yaoguai required sustenance in order to continue living? These were creatures with bodies that needed some kind of substance to keep on going for energy and mass.
But everything she had just learned destroyed every single one of her thoughts. These creatures didn’t eat, they didn’t sleep, they didn’t drink, hell they didn’t stop. So the question came into her head:
Why would they charge and murder humans on sight? Why were there no infighting between themselves and why did they keep on going on attacking without having any kind of problems regarding targeting the enemies?
Now that she thought more about this, she realized something. Throughout every single one of her fights, these monsters were coordinated, albeit poorly. True, they were dumb and their tactics were quite pathetic, but they were more than capable of working together to take down any opponents in their path.
She had seen this in action. Whenever she had to fight them, they never got caught up within each other, they never attacked each other, and more importantly, they never did anything to make the other beasts be put into a disadvantage tactically.
But how? How were these beasts able to synchronize with one another without having any kind of conversations? She hadn’t spotted any of them using signs, gestures, or even voice to talk to each other. Were they using instinct to avoid each other? Or was perhaps the situation that they were able to communicate with one another with a mental link of some sorts?
Either way, she didn’t know. For now, she pushed all these thoughts to the back of her head for the time being. What was more important was going to the leader of the village and getting answers.
So, without further ado, she went ahead and got her food and drink. She waited for everyone else to finish up as she laid on the grass and stared at the sky.
With that, she closed her eyes and went ahead and began to set up her plan for the next few days. Obviously, she would still have to train these villagers, but where was she going to draw the line? Where would she set the standard for these people to be considered decent enough warriors so that she could continue on with her path?
More importantly, what was the plan with the young girl?
She looked over to where the child was, who was still chewing through some of her meal with a grimace on her face. She then swallowed her meal, with disgust forming on her face as she stuck her tongue out of pure hate.
The Wushi couldn’t help but snort at that. Though, in a way, she felt worried at the sight.
The child was going to need a lot more training than she thought. If she was going to survive in this harsh world, then she’d have a lot to be improved upon. Her endurance, her strength, everything. That’d mean that she’d have to either stay in this village to continue growing her power or she’d have to take her along.
Though, now that she did think about that, that wouldn’t be such a bad idea. She could definitely use a companion to keep her back covered.
She nodded to herself at that. Yes, she’d have to talk to the girl after she went ahead and met with the capped man. In fact, the two of them should go meet with him just so the girl could have some exposure to having to deal with people more often.
After all, the best teacher in the world was real life experience. She got up and went over the girl, before smiling at her.
“You finished resting?”
“Gah!” The girl jumped forward, before scrambling to her feet. “Can you not sneak up on me please?”
“Eh? Sorry, sorry! I didn’t realize you were distracted at this time!” She raised her hands in surrender, letting the girl calm down and get her bearings back in order, “I just wanted to ask if you would like to come with me to go talk to the head of the village.”
“Hmm?” The girl seemed to blink at the offer. She seemed to think about it for a while, before shrugging and getting up. “Oh sure, why not?”
“Alright then, let us go!”
The girl nodded, and with that, the two of them went off to meet with the man.