Seph made it to the second garden. There were no trees around, and the ground looked like something had dug some tunnels under it, but none of the tunnels had an opening.

He could see near him some grasshoppers jumping around, some kind of flowers, and some mushrooms in shaded areas.

After moving a little into the area, he started seeing pairs of human hands coming out of the ground. The hands looked to be of a dead person, not bony, but desiccated!

Seph used the eye of the appraiser on the hands only for nothing to come up, so he used the eye of the veteran next, and sure enough, monster details showed.

Name: Tormented Claw Hedgehog

Class: Needle monster.

Cultivation stage: Body Dismantling (III)

Unlike what happened with the tormented scarecrows, the hedgehogs did not attack him. Seph was trying to think: how would a pair of human hands stick out from a hedgehog?

He took out a lump of pestilence and threw it at the hedgehog's hands, which he had just identified.

The lump started doing its work, but the hedgehog finally made its move. It got out from under the ground and started running after Seph with its little feet.

The hedgehog looked like a normal one, except that the needles on its back were far longer than a normal one, and menacingly sharp; the human hands were sticking right out of its back with sharp, long nails that looked dirty, coming out of the desiccated fingers.

Sun climbed down from Seph’s shoulders and took a fighting stance against the oncoming hedgehog. Once it was near him, he landed an overhead strike on its back.

The hedgehog squealed in pain but didn’t stop. It continued running towards him.

Once it was close enough, it let out a bunch of its needles, flying everywhere. The monster wasn’t good at aiming, or so it seemed, since the needles were not all directed at the monkey, but all around it.

Before the needles could reach Sun, Seph had his gourd in front of the monkey, protecting him from the attack.

The hedgehog continued getting closer to them, and once it determined it was close enough, it launched another attack, with the nails of its two hands.

The hedgehog launched them at Seph, with a horrifying scream that came from the hedgehog, a human’s horrifying scream! Like it was in pain from forcefully removing its nails.

Hedgehogs shouldn’t be able to scream like a human. What’s happening?

What had happened surprised Seph. The scream put some fear in his heart. He wondered if it was some skill the hedgehog used to put the fear of the goddess in him!

Seph brought the gourd back to his front side to save him from the attack, and then pushed it forward with the hedgehog so close now, he made the gourd pummel the hedgehog flat to the ground, killing it immediately.

He used the eye of the appraiser on the hedgehog again. Nothing worthwhile showed up, but while the eye was still active, he noticed another item on the ground.

Appraising…

Name: Sinister Nails.

Type: Ingredients.

Quality: Uncommon.

An alchemical ingredient used in making pills for Yin Cultivators. Extracted from a myriad of monsters that are possessed by the tormented. It’s a really dangerous material that has the potential to allow the tormented to possess again.

Location: Found in places where tragedy and misery had the last laugh…

“Yuck! I got to swallow pills that have dead human nails in them now? This is fucking disgusting. Which fucking sick bastard came up with the idea of putting nails during pill making was a good idea, anyway?!”

Sun was laughing his ass off, finding levity in his master’s misery, but then the little monkey remembered something!

The monkey had been holding a book, folded over the base of his staff, this entire time. He let go of his death grip on the book and handed it to Seph.

“What’s this book? Where did you get it from?!” Sun thought for a second, before replying, by acting like he was an arrogant human, making his shoulders wider, and putting his little hands on his sides, and raising his head as if he was looking at Seph from the tip of his nose.

He then acted as himself, sneaking around while they were making the pills, and stealing this book, and placing it around the base of his staff to hide it, since usually he held that part with one hand.

“Oh, you mischievous little monkey, you stole his book! Good thing he didn’t catch you or both of us would be in trouble. Let’s see what this book is about!”

Scars of Fate and other catastrophes

By Zhi Zixin

That was the title on the cover page. The book had threads sewn into it to keep it together, and the title and author's name were written vertically on the cover.

Also, the cover and pages were yellow, but otherwise the book was in good condition, good enough to read anyway.

Seph got lost in the book, browsing through it for a while, seeing the different titles for different chapters, only for Sun’s scream to snap him out of his reverie.

Seph looked up from browsing the book, only to find that the hands sticking out of the ground were much closer to them now. The hedgehogs carrying them were still underground.

Fucking stupid! I shouldn’t have let my guard down. It looks like that these hellish creatures can move underground without making a sound.

“Good job catching them before they caught us unawares, Sun. Let’s get to work.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Sun nodded with a serious look on his face.

Seph could count nine pairs of hands. He started running towards one of them. Before he could reach it, it emerged from underground and launched its needles.

The young cultivator put his gourd in front of him to defend, but some needles shallowly penetrated his leg. His new skin had served him well already, a short time after he had cultivated it.

He groaned in pain and sent a palm strike towards that hedgehog. The strike broke all its fingers, making the hedgehog scream in pain again with a human voice.

Seph didn’t wait to think further on why the screams of the animal were that of a human, and struck it with another overreaching palm strike, killing it immediately.

Meanwhile, Sun was attempting another overhead strike on another hedgehog, only for the hands to catch into his staff!

A tug of war broke out between Sun and the hands on the hedgehog’s back.

None of them were winning this war when Sun seemed to remember his staff’s feature, and made it reduce its length, thus escaping from the death clutches of this hedgehog.

He then made it extend again, hitting the hedgehog right in the face, before jabbing it repeatedly and aggressively, leaving the hedgehog dead with its face a bloody mess.

In that time, Seph had taken care of three more hedgehogs, leaving them with only four more.

The four hedgehogs screamed together; a scream that induced absolute horror. Sun’s eyes went wide when he heard it, and he started running away from the fight.

Seph looked alarmed as well. He looked at the running monkey, then at the hedgehogs, and thought, "I'm scared; I've never felt so scared in my life. What just happened? They must be using a skill, but I can’t convince my mind that it’s just a skill, I need to run; I need to escape from them."

He started running away too. He kept running for a while.

But even though he was still afraid, because of the fear skills the hedgehogs used, he pushed it down and ran back to attack the hedgehogs again.

They caught him before he was ready and launched many needles and nails into him.

His chest armor caught some of them, and many struck him in the legs again.

But, he refused to be denied. He pushed down the pain and attacked the hedgehogs with a fury of palm strikes, ending them all in short order.

Seph crashed to the ground, exhausted after the mentally tiring fight. He was panting, but he had solace in that the fight was now over.

He kept repeating the fight in his head, screams that could put fear in the opponent’s heart. This skill could be very useful for him, if he'd got it one day.

The needles the hedgehogs used were also a ranged weapon that was more effective than his lumps of pestilence.

This thought gave him an idea that he might apply to his lumps of pestilence, to create a new, more effective area of effect weapon.

He sat there and started plucking the needles out of his legs and a few that had gotten into his arms.

He looked at the hedgehogs and remembered that it had been a while since he could fight a fleshy opponent that he could feed to his gourd.

The young cultivator got up and started taking one hedgehog after another, and feeding them to the gourd. Eight hedgehogs later, he had eight little bones from the hedgehogs. He used the eye of the appraiser on them.

Appraising…

Name: Phantom Bone (Hedgehog)

Type: Enchanted Bone.

Quality: Rare.

Magical Ability: Summons a Phantom Hedgehog when thrown at an enemy.

Seph ignored the hedgehog that had decomposed because of the lump of pestilence and ate the meat of the last hedgehog to heal his wounds.

Next, he started collecting the nails that were thrown at him. After putting them in his spatial sack, he could sense that there were forty.

He had tried plucking nails from the dead hedgehogs that couldn't throw them at him, but they didn’t register as sinister nails.

He then used the eye of the appraiser on the grasshoppers that were jumping around.

Appraising…

Name: Skittish Grasshopper.

Type: Bug.

Quality: plain.

Hard to catch, with a stinging bite. These bugs are used to make some medicines for mortals. Also, they are used to make pills for cultivators.

Location: Mainly in forests, in short undergrowth, one can also cultivate them by feeding normal grasshoppers cultivator herbs rich in energy.

The grasshoppers looked like normal ones, except that they were white, not the usual green Seph saw while playing around as a kid.

He took out his net and started trying to catch them. He barely caught one after an hour of exhausting himself.

Sun was laughing at him again for his shortcomings. He was truly brutal when he wanted to laugh and have fun.

“You try then. Show me if you can catch these little devils!”

Sun took the net, and within 30 minutes he had caught more grasshoppers.

He strutted over to where Seph was sitting down, looking at him in disbelief, and instead of extending the net, he extended the back of his hand to Seph, wanting him to kiss it in subservience.

Seph smacked the hand away playfully while saying, “You arrogant little demon, one day I’ll gain a lot of dexterity and I’ll show you what’s what!”

Sun kept laughing at him, falling to his back, and rolling from one side to the other.

The young cultivator had a big smile on his face. He was glad that he and Sun had this much fun. Even when they know their life is in danger in these trials, and anything could happen at any moment.

Seph then turned his attention to the flowers. They were white flowers, with a touch of blue on their edges, and when Seph moved one of them, it gave a melodic chime that was pleasant to the ear.

Sun’s eyes went wide, and he ran towards the flowers, and plucked one for himself, and kept moving it around to hear its sound. He was holding it like a lover, pleased with its sound.

His master gave him a sympathetic look. The little monkey knew how to appreciate the better things in life.

He then continued collecting the flowers and got seven, and used the eye of the appraiser on them as well.

Appraising…

Name: Windchime Flower.

Type: Ingredients.

Quality: Uncommon.

An alluring and rare flower, known for its melodic chimes when hit by the wind, thus its unique name. Very popular among rich students, because of its mind-boosting abilities.

Location: Makes up for being easily identifiable because of its beautiful melodies, by growing only very high on mountains rich in Qi energy.

At last, Seph headed for the mushrooms. They were purple mushrooms, with the cap having a globular shape, like a human brain. It also had grooves and ridges exactly like a brain as well.

Seph used the eye on it to check its name.

Appraising…

Name: Mind-Sharpening Mushroom.

Type: Ingredients.

Quality: Uncommon.

A unique-looking mushroom that resembles a human brain, used in making intelligence-boosting pills for cultivators, it’s highly sought after. It probably has uses for mortals as well, but with its high price, mortals can’t get their hands on it.

Location: Grows in dark places under tree stumps, deep in forests, where Qi energy is at its highest concentration, with dangerous cultivating animals lurking around. Which makes getting this mushroom a very dangerous endeavor.

Looks like this one is valuable, which reminds me of that annoying new quest for the Eye of the Appraiser. I’ll need to collect some items to sell and get that many spirit stones in the future.

The young cultivator collected the mushrooms, there were only six of them, and then he went back to the workshop with his monkey.