Jun spent the entirety of their silent trip home pondering his new abilities. Calming his heart, he breathed in spiritual force and forced it to obey him, which he did with surprising ease. However, the whole process was different from how Chen Hao described it. For Jun, controlling spiritual force involved tensing his entire body, and every time he did so, it drained a portion of his stamina.
So, what could he do with this newfound power? As it turned out—practically nothing. He tried “absorbing” the spiritual force into his body, but it merely phased through his flesh, unwilling to stay in one place for long. The only technique he knew was the Bone Essence Art, which wouldn’t respond without any bones in his mouth
‘Small steps. First of all, I need to continue using the Bone Essence Art. Then, I need to find a magical technique so that I can utilise this power. Finally, I need to find some monstrous genius to modify the wolf art for me. If not, then I have to find a way to awaken my bloodline.’
Jun organised his thoughts, thinking about the near future. The first task looked to be feasible, but his identity as a dog made the following two almost impossible. He couldn’t ask around for information nor look through the sect library for obvious reasons.
To that purpose, he needed someone to carry out his will. Chen Hao was one candidate, but, frankly, the boy lacked experience in pretty much everything.
‘Let him focus on cultivation for now.’
Jun wasn’t keen on revealing his “intelligent dog” identity to anyone anymore. He shelved the thought away for now. Now that he was a magical beast, perhaps he had bought a few more years of life. After all, this was only his second week in the sect.
‘I have a new purpose in life now—to get boned. Wait, that sounds wrong. To get bones!’
Then, the true brainstorming began. Jun had no way of getting spirit stones, and even if he could, they were still being ripped off. Also, without Chen Hao, buying them would prove to be difficult. Killing magical beasts was also out of the question. He wasn’t strong enough yet, and getting to the bones would require processing the meat somehow. For a dog, that usually involved eating raw meat.
‘Not too keen on any diseases, no thank you.’
Quickly, his thoughts turned towards a dangerous direction.
‘I would bet everything I own that the butcher lady simply threw the bones away—she looked too surprised by our request not to. And when she realised they had some value, the woman decided to scam us. Now, putting myself in the shoes of the greatest capitalist known to mankind, I would start a stockpile of bones now.’
‘Unfortunately, if we’re the first to ask her for bones, then she won’t be selling them for shit. In that case, they’re worse than useless for her—after all, they’re taking up precious space. Now, what if I...’
Jun wasn’t a thief. Ignoring the whole “I stole a chocolate bar at five” thing, he was facing a true dilemma here. If she wouldn’t be selling them to anyone, and if she was scamming them anyway, was it so wrong to borrow a few bones? After all, they were practically valueless to anyone but him.
“Once I become an immortal dog, I’ll pay you back tenfold for the gift. It’s just that I desperately need them right now,” he started convincing himself in the safety of his room.
The more he thought about it, the more logical it started to seem.
“In fact, I’m just like Robin Hood. I’m stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. And I’m the poorest dog I know.”
Jun wasn’t indecisive. Once he decided on a plan, he committed to it. He dashed through the streets with such speed that it even amazed him. When he arrived next to the butcher shop, it was like he had just taken a light jog. A few seconds of sticking out his tongue and panting made sure he was in tip-top shape again.
‘Now what?’
He stood in the narrow space between stone buildings, peering out into the street, and for the first time he realised how stupid the building placement actually was. To maintain the eight-trigram formation, stone buildings had to be nearly identical and placed side by side with barely any space between them. The front of the building faced the street—a big gap between one line of buildings and the next, while the back of the building faced an alley, which featured an even shorter gap between the backs of houses. Unborn modern city architects were screaming in horror at this abomination. How would they fit in parks? Or, more importantly, how would they fit the parking lots?
The front door was out of the question—the main street was too busy, and numerous shops and houses would easily catch him in the act if he snuck in. Fortunately, the butcher’s shop had a backdoor facing the alley. Then, he recalled every single crime detective film he had seen and plopped down on the ground. Jun wasn’t about to do anything too stupid without first gathering information.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Over the next few days, he alternated between observing the front and the back door. The meat shop has a steady supply of customers coming in from dawn to dusk. No one too impressive visited her shop beside a couple of fellows carrying black umbrellas—a bizarre fashion statement in these sunny times.
Both the doors were equipped with sturdy locks which held the door barred during the night. Now, Jun had dabbled a bit in locksmithing, but with no tools and no hands, it was impossible to pick the lock. He wasn’t feeling too great about the possibility of smashing through the door itself. Instead, a better plan revealed itself to him during these days.
Once a day, when there were no customers in line nor was there much traffic in the streets, the woman would leave the shop through the back door for around twenty minutes. Naturally, Jun followed her from a distance. Her destination was a wide, warehouse-like building a few streets over, which smelled distinctly of animals, blood, and fresh meat.
She would emerge with nothing in hand, which was suspicious to say the least. The amount of meat that changed hands was no small amount, and somehow, the shop stayed supplied no matter what. Thus, he came up with a conclusion that was only possible in a cultivation world.
‘She’s got a storage ring. Or maybe it’s a bag of holding. She really is filthy rich.’
The fact caused Jun to almost abandon his plan. He would break into the store and find that she was storing everything in her ring. Then, he would plunder some turkey legs just to feel better.
However, he quickly discarded the idea of retreating. The storage rings given to Qi Refining disciples in novels were usually pretty small. Even if they weren't, she wouldn’t waste precious space just to store some worthless bones. Or so he hoped.
Regardless, that opened a small window of opportunity for Jun to sneak in. She didn’t lock the doors during that time—it would be bad for business. Honestly, Jun didn’t know why she locked them in the first place. There was nothing valuable in the shop. Everything interesting she had would likely be in the storage ring. Regardless, he would have to keep everything under ten minutes just to be safe. Slowly, a plan came together.
And by plan he meant grabbing a sack from Chen Hao’s place, hiding in a crack between the buildings, and waiting until the woman decided to restock her meat. After making sure she was far enough, Jun dashed towards the back door, leaped high in the air and grabbed the door handle with his teeth. With Jun dangling like some sort of sock puppet, the door creaked open, revealing the shadowy interior.
‘Quick. In and out, like a sneaky ninja.’
Employing his sense of smell to the best of his abilities, he observed the room before him. More of the same hooks were coupled with metal instruments that had a place in any horror movie. On a large, wooden table was a half-butchered pig, its innards removed and placed in a pile nearby, stinking to high hell. A large basin collected the dripping blood while the head of the beast stared directly at Jun. Its eyes seemed to be asking him why it was dead.
‘Tough luck. It’s the cycle of life.’ He wasn’t about to start feeling sympathy for a pig.
‘Wait. I’m also an animal. Is that hypocritical? Even worse, am I racist?’
This wasn’t the room he needed. He ruled out the door leading straight and opened a door to his left.
Jackpot!
A slight chill left the small storage room as the door swung open, and there, he beheld numerous trays and boxes of pre-cut meat, labelled based on which animal it was. Stripped animal carcasses were hung from the same butcher hooks he saw everywhere, but all of that was unimportant. His eyes snapped to the corner of the room, where, seemingly discarded, lay a pile of bones nearly twice his size.
‘I’ve won the bone lottery.’ He thought, sticking his tongue out and walking forward.
DANGER!
It was at this moment that Jun fully started to believe in animal instincts. Basing himself off nothing more than gut feeling, he kicked off the floor and leapt, soaring above the various crates. Below him, a slight shimmer of light was all that indicated something had happened. Then, the wall connecting the two rooms crumbled into a thousand pieces, letting out a thunderous crash in the process.
‘She fucking booby-trapped the entrance!’
Adrenaline still pumping through his body, Jun rushed toward the pile of bones, using his entire body to shovel them into the sack. He was done in no time flat. Then, he spent precious seconds wrapping the sack around his paws and tying it into a simple knot using his teeth. He wasn’t about to let his loot spill out!
Carrying it in his mouth, he started to sprint towards the back door, only to hear a guttural roar coming from the front of the shop.
‘How is she back so fast? How did she even find out?’ Jun panicked, slamming into the back door and throwing it wide open. The swamp hag was closing in!
All he needed was to dash through the narrow passage between buildings. No human would be able to squeeze through. If he got through that, he would be out. His little legs carried him far. The world was a blur.
For the second time today, his instinct saved him. He looked back, only to see the hag staring at him with venom in her eyes. She picked up a cleaver, cocked back her arm, and then threw it straight at Jun. He jumped. One moment, the weapon was leaving her hands. The next, a flash of silver passed under him, and Jun could practically see his ragged reflection in the afterimage.
The next crack in the wall proved to be too narrow for the cleaver. It crashed into the stone wall, but instead of collapsing, a web of formations quickly spread across the outer layer, blocking the impact. A bright pillar of light shot towards the sky, likely visible to every cultivator. All of that was mere afterthoughts for Jun as he landed on the ground and immediately turned the corner. He dashed through another crack between buildings, and then another, and another. Jun didn’t rest until he was back in his quarters and dumping out the pile of bones in his private room, still shaking from nerves and adrenaline.